DOI: 10.7764/RDLC.18.3.579 Many types of computer software are currently available for the numerical modeling of monolithic RC structures; however, the accuracy of the numerical models created with the programs can only be acceptable by using a well-developed modeling method. We present the behavior of monolithic RC frame corners and beam to column joints for quasi-static and cyclic lateral loads, using numerical models created by our modeling method. Several laboratory experiments have already been carried out to investigate the failure of the joints and the behavior of these unique connections. In this paper, we made three-dimensional nonlinear FE body models with different reinforcement shapes, based on actual laboratory tests. We present the behavior of the joints in case of monotonic increasing quasi-static and cyclic changing loads. The results of laboratory experiments found in the literature and finite element calculations are compared and the conclusions that can be drawn from them are summarized within this article.


It is not often that we witness the birth of a new discipline; the academy is slow to open its doors to "newcomers". Yet, within the last few decades, we have seen the introduction of the "new" discipline of Spirituality into the revered corridors of higher education, not without some raised eye-brows from those within the established disciplines, in particular that of theology and religion. Spirituality is difficult to define and its inter-disciplinary nature does not allow for easy classification. There are diverse spiritualities, each one culture-specific, expressing its own historical, sociological, theological, linguistic and philosophical orientation. Post-patriarchal and telluric, contemporary spirituality affects all areas of society, and is a force for personal and societal transformation. The important role of the academy in this endeavour is increasingly coming to the fore. Spirituality can no longer be considered a "Cinderella" discipline; on the contrary, it has returned to its rightful place and is exerting considerable influence both within and outside the walls of the university.


A large body of literature has sought to examine how job loss a↵ects those who have been displaced following an economic downturn. However, far less e↵ort has been dedicated to investigate the fear-of-unemployment e↵ect which may arise. This thesis contributes to existing literature by investigating how employees respond to reduced job security. Research on the matter tends to be inconclusive in regards to establishing a clear link between job insecurity and health. We exploit the sudden and substantial drop in oil prices that hit the Norwegian petroleum industry in the autumn of 2014, allowing us to identify the e↵ect of reduced job security on sickness absence. In order to address this issue, we take usage of data retrieved from the Norwegian Labour Force Survey. Existing literature suggests that exposure to job insecurity could lead to opposing e↵ects when it comes to health. For instance, it is argued that a tougher labour market represents a health hazard, whereas some believe that job insecurity works as a disciplinary device. We find no evidence suggesting that job insecurity has a causal e↵ect on sickness absence. This result is consistent when subject to a number of heterogeneity tests and is robust to several specification checks. Nonetheless, there may be rational explanations as to why we obtain a null e↵ect, such as the two opposing, non-mutually exclusive e↵ects cancelling each other out.


Network coding allows a network node to code the information flows before forwarding them. While it has been theoretically proved that network coding can achieve maximum network throughput, the theoretical results usually do not consider the burstiness of data traffic, delays, and the stochastic nature in information processing and transmission. There is currently no theory to systematically model and evaluate the performance of network coding, especially when node's capacity (i.e., coding and transmission) becomes stochastic. Without such a theory, the performance of network coding under various system settings is far from clear. To fill the vacancy, we develop an analytical approach by extending the stochastic network calculus theory to tackle the special difficulties in the evaluation of network coding. We prove the new properties of the stochastic network calculus and design an algorithm to obtain the performance bounds for acyclic stochastic networks with network coding. The tightness of theoretical bounds is validated with simulation.


In this paper we examine how subjective perception of government's policy performance affects satisfaction with how democracy works in Iceland. This we base on the argument that the public is aware of and evaluating the governments' performance when the political system is faced with a major crisis that has been extensively publicly debated and triggered widespread protests. The financial and political crisis in Iceland 2008-09 provides an opportunity to examine if government performance can be seen as a causal factor explaining satisfaction with the democratic process. We take into account two alternative explanations; that satisfaction with how democracy works depends on citizens' belief in how well the representative system works; and if they are more satisfied when their party is represented in government. Our principal conclusion is that subjective policy performance is the main explanation for citizens' increased dissatisfaction with democracy during a severe crisis.


Advances in wind energy technology and continued expansion of wind energy into the United States and global electricity grids will depend upon an educated and skilled workforce. While wind energy technician programs at community colleges or vocational schools have prospered in the United States over the past decade, partially due to the high demand for wind technicians, university programs that prepare graduates pursuing baccalaureate and advanced graduate degrees have lagged behind. At the same time, European university programs in wind energy have flourished, providing experts with advanced degrees who are then employed worldwide by the global wind energy industry. According to a projection of wind industry jobs needed in the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Vision report1 and estimates of education level requirements for jobs, as provided in this article, the United States may need more than 50,000 university-educated professionals with advanced degrees to support wind energy development by 2030. To provide these professionals, the number of wind energy academic programs must increase significantly beyond those available today—a task that will require collaboration among universities and external support from both industry and government. This article provides a review of the growing need for a university graduate-level-educated wind energy workforce, an overview of the current domestic wind energy workforce picture, existing global and domestic university wind energy programs, and recommendations for university-level wind energy education programs in the United States.


PseudoDiversity is a method of recovering the wavefront in a sparse- or segmented- aperture optical system typified by an interferometer or a telescope equipped with an adaptive primary mirror consisting of controllably slightly moveable segments. (PseudoDiversity should not be confused with a radio-antenna-arraying method called pseudodiversity.) As in the cases of other wavefront- recovery methods, the streams of wavefront data generated by means of PseudoDiversity are used as feedback signals for controlling electromechanical actuators of the various segments so as to correct wavefront errors and thereby, for example, obtain a clearer, steadier image of a distant object in the presence of atmospheric turbulence. There are numerous potential applications in astronomy, remote sensing from aircraft and spacecraft, targeting missiles, sighting military targets, and medical imaging (including microscopy) through such intervening media as cells or water. In comparison with prior wavefront-recovery methods used in adaptive optics, PseudoDiversity involves considerably simpler equipment and procedures and less computation. For PseudoDiversity, there is no need to install separate metrological equipment or to use any optomechanical components beyond those that are already parts of the optical system to which the method is applied. In Pseudo- Diversity, the actuators of a subset of the segments or subapertures are driven to make the segments dither in the piston, tilt, and tip degrees of freedom. Each aperture is dithered at a unique frequency at an amplitude of a half wavelength of light. During the dithering, images on the focal plane are detected and digitized at a rate of at least four samples per dither period. In the processing of the image samples, the use of different dither frequencies makes it possible to determine the separate effects of the various dithered segments or apertures. The digitized image-detector outputs are processed in the spatial-frequency (Fourier-transform) domain to obtain measures of the piston, tip, and tilt errors over each segment or subaperture. Once these measures are known, they are fed back to the actuators to correct the errors. In addition, measures of errors that remain after correction by use of the actuators are further utilized in an algorithm in which the image is phase-corrected in the spatial-frequency domain and then transformed back to the spatial domain at each time step and summed with the images from all previous time steps to obtain a final image having a greater signal-to-noise ratio (and, hence, a visual quality) higher than would otherwise be attainable.


The title compound, {[Nd2(C2O4)3(H2O)4]·2H2O}n, was synthesized hydrothermally in the presence of bis(carboxyethylgermanium) sesquioxide. It is isostructural with the corresponding Pr compound [Yang et al. (2009). Acta Cryst. E65, m1152–m1153]. The Nd3+ cation is nine-coordinated and its coordination polyhedron can be described as a distorted tricapped trigonal prism. Two Nd3+ ions are connected by two O atoms from two oxalate ions to give a dinuclear Nd2 unit. The unit is further linked to four others via four oxalate ions yielding a layerparallel to (0-11). The linkages between the layers by neighbouring oxalate anions lead to a three-dimensional framework with channels along the c axis. The coordinating and free water molecules are located in the channels and make contact with each other and the host framework by weak O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.


We develop an algorithm for the minimum Lp-norm solution to the two-dimensional phase unwrapping problem. Rather than its being a mathematically intractable problem, we show that the governing equations are equivalent to those that describe weighted least-squares phase unwrapping. The only exception is that the weights are data dependent. In addition, we show that the minimum Lp-norm solution is obtained by embedding the transform-based methods for unweighted and weighted least squares within a simple iterative structure. The data-dependent weights are generated within the algorithm and need not be supplied explicitly by the user. Interesting and useful solutions to many phase unwrapping problems can be obtained when p< 2. Specifically, the minimum L0-norm solution requires the solution phase gradients to equal the input data phase gradients in as many places as possible. This concept provides an interesting link to branch-cut unwrapping methods, where none existed previously.


The purpose of the study was to assess the attitudes of high school students of the millennial generation towards academic experiences and career exploration in agribusiness using an 1890 land-grant summer residential program as a case study. The objectives were as follow: (1) to evaluate the curriculum for a summer residential food and agribusiness industries program and (2) to assess the attitudes of participants in the residential program and their plans to explore careers in food and agribusiness industries. Data were obtained from surveys issued to participants in the Food and Agribusiness Industries Summer Program during the summers of 2009 to 2011. The Likert method was used and has been widely utilized in evaluating the 'intensity of feelings.' Objective (1) involved the development of a curriculum which focused on five major competency areas [(#1) interpersonal characteristics, (#2) communication skills, (#3) business and economics, (#4) technical skills, and (#5) computer, quantitative, and management information] sought in new hires and future agribusiness leaders as found in Litzenberg & Schneiger (1987) and Boland & Akridge (2004). In objective (2), surveys were conducted to assess the attitudes of participants in the residential program and their plans to explore careers in the food and agribusiness industries. We summarized the findings from the survey as 'lessons learned' in utilizing a residential summer program as a recruitment strategy for prospective millennial students into the food and agribusiness industries. These lessons were as follow: (1) include multiple uses of technology in coursework, (2) train faculty on technological advances for classrooms, (3) convert traditional classroom setting into more virtual settings, (4) increase dialogue between agribusiness firms in person and in video/Internet formats, (5) relate technological innovations with agricultural business, (6) connect salaries with actual job titles/descriptions, (7) recruit through parents and/or trusted high school teachers/counselors, (8) nurture students' interests in agricultural economics (agribusiness) prior to high school, (9) selection of institutions may come first, then majors by prospective students, and (10) selection of major by minority students with higher aptitudes in math, science, and business are more likely to select other traditional fields of study. Although participants' overall satisfaction and understanding of the program were increased, their attitude towards applying to the university and selecting Agribusiness as a major only increased a 'little bit, maybe.'


The one-shot library instruction session has long been a mainstay for many information literacy programs. Identifying realistic learning goals, integrating active learning techniques, and conducting meaningful assessment for a single lesson all present challenges. Librarians and English faculty at one college campus confronted these challenges by participating in a year-long lesson study, a process of collaboratively planning, observing, and assessing a single lesson. By collectively identifying goals and priorities, designing and redesigning the lesson, and assessing outcomes through observation, surveys, and focus groups, librarians and teaching faculty negotiated varying expectations and demands for providing one-shot library instruction.


This Research Project describes an investigation into the application of partnering in the Hong Kong construction industry in order to examine if partnering should bring benefit to employers, engineers and contractors.
Literature review was undertaken to review the contract formation and management process, the fundamentals of project partnering, the contract management process using traditional and partnering approaches and the benefits, costs and issues associated with delivering civil engineering projects using partnering as compared with traditional forms of contract.
After completion of the literature review a research methodology in terms of questionnaire was developed, to collect data and information from practitioners, to research the benefits, drawbacks and problems of partnering, as well as the situation suitable for partnering.
Case studies were also carried out to describe the real case happened in the Hong Kong construction industry. It comprises three partnering projects and three non-partnering projects, to compare and contrast the process and outcome of two categories of project delivery. It reveals that partnering improves performance, reduces disputes and improves relationship.
Based on the findings of data analysis a process was developed for improved project delivery system. This is a straightforward approach and was then tested with principals, superintendents and contractors in the Hong Kong construction industry. Finally, evaluate the use of process developed in the award and management of a particular construction contract. All these supports that successful implementation of partnering could be able to improve the current problems in the contract delivery process.


Introduction: Database design by taking into account the components of user interface, usability and technical issues, is a key indicator of quick access to the required information of the users. Ovid assessment criterion evaluates databases in terms of user interface, usability and technical issues. The purpose of the present paper is to determine the important elements in the design of user interface, usability, and technical issues of databases. Methods: The present study is an applied study that has been conducted through Literature Review method and the required information was collected through the study of resources and by searching for articles on websites and in databases of relevant literature (the components of Ovid assessment criterion). Validity of Ovid assessment criterion was confirmed by 5 experts of Library and Information Sciences. Free Plane software has been used to draw the components of Ovid assessment criterion. Results: Findings showed that in order to evaluate usability, technical issues and databases user interface, the Ovid criterion uses 48 sub-components grouped in six main criteria (including search, services, display, Links, guides or documentations, and performance). In addition, the search criterion consists of 20 sub-components, display criterion have 11 sub-components, services criterion has 6 sub-components, links criterion has 2 sub-components, guiding criterion has 4 sub-components, and performance criterion has 5 sub-components. Conclusion: Designers must pay attention to user interface, usability and technical issues because these components play an important role in facilitating information routing and users can in the shortest time and simply to meet their information needs. In fact, by complying with a standard or criterion in creating databases, rate of access to the required information is considerably increased.


Purpose Most U.S. medical schools and training programs lack sufficient faculty expertise in geriatrics to train future physicians to care for the growing population of older adults. Thus, to reach clinician–educators at institutions and programs that have limited resources for enhancing geriatrics curricula, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation launched the Faculty Development to Advance Geriatrics Education (FD~AGE) program. This consortium of four medical schools disseminates expertise in geriatrics education through support and training of clinician–educators. The authors conducted this study to measure the effects of FD~AGE. Method Program leaders developed a three-pronged strategy to meet program goals: FD~AGE offers (1) advanced fellowships in clinical education for geriatricians who have completed clinical training, (2) mini-fellowships and intensive courses for faculty in geriatrics, teaching skills, and curriculum development, and (3) on-site consultations to assist institutions with reviewing and redesigning geriatrics education programs. FD~AGE evaluators tracked the number and type of participants and conducted interviews and follow-up surveys to gauge effects on learners and institutions. Results Over six years (2004–2010), FD~AGE trained 82 fellows as clinician–educators, hosted 899 faculty scholars in mini-fellowships and intensive courses, and conducted 65 site visits. Participants taught thousands of students, developed innovative curricula, and assumed leadership roles. Participants cited as especially important to program success expanded knowledge, improved teaching skills, mentoring, and advocacy. Conclusions The FD~AGE program represents a unique model for extending concentrated expertise in geriatrics education to a broad group of faculty and institutions to accelerate progress in training future physicians.


With the continuous development in computer and communications technology the use of
computer aided design in design processes is becoming more commonplace. A wide range of
virtual prototyping technologies are currently in development, some of which are commercially
viable for use within a product design process. These virtual prototyping technologies range
from graphics tablets to haptic devices. With the compression of design cycles the feasibility of
using these technologies for product evaluation is becoming an ever more important
consideration.
This thesis begins by presenting the findings of a comprehensive literature review defining
product design with a focus on product evaluation and a discussion of current virtual
prototyping technologies. From the literature review it was clear that user involvement in the
product evaluation process is critical. The literature review was followed by a series of
interconnected studies starting with an investigation into design consultancies' access and
use of prototyping technologies and their evaluation methods. Although design consultancies
are already using photo-realistic renderings, animations and sometimes 3600 view CAD
models for their virtual product evaluations, current virtual prototyping hardware and software
is often unsatisfactory for their needs. Some emergent technologies such as haptic interfaces
are currently not commonly used in industry. This study was followed by an investigation into
users' psychological acceptance and physiological discomfort when using a variety of virtual
prototyping tools for product evaluation compared with using physical prototypes, ranging from
on-screen photo-realistic renderings to 3D 3600 view models developed using a range of
design software. The third study then went on to explore the feasibility of using these virtual
prototyping tools and the effect on product preference when compared to using physical
prototypes. The forth study looked at the designer's requirements for current and future virtual
prototyping tools, design tools and evaluation methods.
In the final chapters of the thesis the relative strengths and weaknesses of these technologies
were re-evaluated and a definitive set of user requirements based on the documentary
evidence of the previous studies was produced. This was followed by the development of a
speculative series of scenarios for the next generation of virtual prototyping technologies
ranging from improvements to existing technologies through to blue sky concepts. These
scenarios were then evaluated by designers and consumers to produce documentary
evidence and recommendations for preferred and suitable combinations of virtual prototyping
technologies. Such hardware and software will require a user interface that is intuitive, simple,
easy to use and suitable for both the designers who create the virtual prototypes and the
consumers who evaluate them.


BACKGROUND
Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty have recently been used to treat painful osteoporotic compression fractures. Early clinical results have been encouraging, but very little is known about the consequences of augmentation with cement for adjacent, unaugmented levels.

OBJECTIVE
This study performed a systemic review of the studies concerning whether the incidence of subsequent vertebral body fracture after vertebral augmentation therapy would be increased long-term.

STUDY DESIGN
A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed comparing the long-term incidence of subsequent vertebral body fracture between vertebral augmentation surgeries like vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty and conventional nonsurgical management.

SETTING
The MEDLINE, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases and abstracts published in annual proceedings were systematically searched for evidence.

METHODS
Relevant reports were reviewed by 2 reviewers independently and the references from these reports were searched for additional trials, using guidelines set by QUOROM statement criteria.

RESULTS
Pooled results from 2 randomized controlled trials showed no significant increase of the secondary fracture rate after vertebral augmentation therapy compared with that of conventional treatment (P = 0.07). Few large-sample randomized controlled trials were specifically performed to investigate new fractures as an outcome of vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty.

LIMITATIONS
There were few data sources from which to extract abstracted data or published studies. There were only 2 randomized controlled trials that met criteria.

CONCLUSIONS
Although vertebral augmentation therapies, such as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, have been widely used in clinics to treat patients' back pain caused by vertebral compression fractures due to osteoporosis, no evidence shows that they can increase the fracture of adjacent vertebral bodies.


Tungsten oxide (WO3) is a semiconducting transition metal oxide with interesting electronic, structural, and chemical properties that have been exploited in applications including catalysis, gas sensing, electrochromic displays, and solar energy conversion. Nanocrystalline WO3 can absorb visible light to catalyze heterogeneous photooxidation reactions. Also, the acidity of the WO3 surface makes this oxide a good thermal catalyst in the dehydration of alcohols to various industrially relevant chemicals. This dissertation explores the photocatalytic and thermal catalytic reactivity of nanocrystalline porous WO3 microparticles. Furthermore, investigations into the changes in WO3 reactivity are carried out after modifying the porous WO3 particles with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). On their own, Au NPs are an important class of materials that have had a large impact in many fields such as catalysis, biomedical imaging, and drug delivery. When combined with WO3, however, their influence as part of a composite Au/WO3 catalyst has not been widely studied. Porous WO3 microparticles were first prepared using mesoporous silica (SiO2) spheres as hard templates and the physical properties of these materials were fully characterized. A facile sonochemical method was used to deposit Au NPs on the WO3 surface. Using methylene blue (MB) as a photocatalytic probe, the reaction products and the catalytic activity of WO3 and Au/WO3 catalysts were compared. Composite Au/WO3 photocatalysts exhibited significantly greater rates of MB degradation compared to pure WO3. Interestingly, the observed mechanism of MB degradation was not vastly different between the two types of catalysts. The gas-phase photocatalytic oxidation of methanol (MeOH) was studied to further understand the role of WO3 and Au NPs in these photocatalysts. Porous WO3 showed greater photooxidation rates compared to bulk WO3 because of its increased active surface area. Pure WO3 and Au NPs on porous SiO2 (SiO2-Au) were both active MeOH photooxidation catalysts and were highly selective to formaldehyde (HCHO) and methyl formate (MF), respectively. Two different mechanisms, namely band gap excitation of WO3 and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) on Au NPs, were responsible for this result. Again, the Au/WO3 composite catalysts showed greater photocatalytic activity than WO3, which increased with Au loading. This high activity led to the complete photooxidation of MeOH to carbon dioxide (CO2) over Au/WO3 catalysts. Finally, the thermal catalytic transformation of MeOH under aerobic conditions was carried out to further characterize the acid and redox active sites of WO3 and Au/WO3 catalysts. Pure WO3 was highly selective for MeOH dehydration to dimethyl ether (DME), whereas Au/WO3 showed increased oxidation selectivity to products such as HCHO, FM, and COx. The Au NPs increased the reducibility of the WO3 species, which made surface oxygen atoms more labile and reactive towards MeOH. Also, the WO3 facilitated the formation of cationic Au (Au δ + ) species. This combination of effects created through a strong Au/WO3 interaction increased the activity of WO3 species, but it decreased the activity of the Au NPs.


Background and Hypothesis:
Lead (Pb) was phased out of paint and gasoline over 40 years ago due to neurotoxicity in humans, but has persisted in soils and poses a legacy threat to many.  The Indianapolis 46218 zip code has had >10% children exhibiting Pb poisoning. This zip code has had historically high soil Pb levels, and is undergoing redevelopment. We hypothesize that redevelopment will act to re-expose new populations of people to the legacy Pb present in the area.
Experimental Design or Project Methods:
We sampled 5 parks and 7 playgrounds.  Stratified random sampling based on permit type was used to select properties from 25 issued and 25 closed permits from 527 identified demolition permits.  Nearby residential properties were selected, with permission of residents. Samples were taken near the dripline of the house, front yard, and street, or from each quadrant at sites without houses. Samples were dried, crushed, sieved to 150 microns, and assessed using X-Ray Fluorescence.
Results:
Mean Pb levels from driplines (1026 ppm) were significantly higher than streets (p=0.001), parks (p=0.002), yards (p=0.001), and demolition sites (p=0.000).  Pb concentrations for playgrounds had the lowest median lead levels (42 ppm), while dripline samples had the highest (289 ppm).  The EPA standard for children's play areas is 400 ppm.
Conclusion and Potential Impact:
While all samples from playgrounds were below 400 ppm, children are also likely playing at their homes, where no legislation effectively protects them from potential Pb poisoning and values were found above 400 ppm.  An immediate outcome from this project is the education.  Residents who agreed to testing (n=42) received results of the test and guidelines to prevent Pb poisoning.  More work remains to ensure preventive rather than reactive strategies are employed to protect children's health.


Background Injuries are a major public health problem worldwide, being the leading cause of death in children and adolescents in developed countries. However, knowledge on recent secular trends in injury deaths of adolescents is sparse. Methods Using Official Cause-of-Death Statistics of Finland, we examined the nationwide trends in the age- and sex-specific incidence rates of fatal injuries among 10–14-year-old and 15–19-year-old adolescents in Finland between 1971 and 2013. Results The incidence rate of fatal injuries decreased considerably in both age groups during the 43-year follow-up period. The decline in injury deaths was mainly due to decreased deaths in traffic accidents. The number of drownings reached the ultimate goal—that is, there were no drownings in Finnish 10–19-year-old adolescents in 2013. The rates of intentional injury deaths remained stable in girls, while in 15–19-year-old boys a decreasing trend was evident. During the deep economic depression in 1990, the incidence of suicide in 15–19-year-old boys was as high as 40.1. At that time, boys' suicide risk was 7.4 times higher than that of girls. Since then, boys' risk for suicide has clearly decreased and was 1.6 times higher than the corresponding risk in girls in 2013. Conclusions The incidence rate of fatal injuries decreased considerably in Finnish adolescents during the period 1971–2013. The clearest change occurred in road traffic injuries and drownings. The rates of intentional injury deaths remained unaltered in girls while 15–19-year-old boys showed a decreasing trend.


Background: Prehospital scores are used for determining the prognosis of trauma severity in trauma patients. Objectives: This study aimed at developing a new prehospital score for emergency medical service (EMS) staff to predict hospitalization in trauma patients transferred to the hospital. Patients and Methods: This study was a diagnostic test evaluation conducted on data of 1185 traumatic patients transferred through EMS to Poursina Hospital of Rasht between March 2012 and March 2013. Data were collected using a questionnaire with two parts. The first part included data on demography, injury, and type of interventions performed at the scene of the accident. The second part consisted of initial evaluations (Glasgow coma scale (GCS), oxygen saturation (O2S), pulse rate (PR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), the ability to walk, and outcome (hospitalization, nonhospitalization). The questionnaire was filled out by EMS staff at the scene or during transfer to the hospital with respect to clinical observations. Data were analyzed using the logistic regression model. The Hosmer–Lemeshow test was also used to examine the good fit of model. Results: A total of 1185 patients were evaluated using prehospital data. Of seven variables evaluated by the scoring system, only four variables were identified in the regression analysis as predictors of hospitalization including age, SBP, O2S, and walking ability. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were 0.67, 0.68, 2.09, and 0.48, respectively. Conclusions: The GOMAAPS (GCS, O2S, mechanism of injury, age, ability to walk, PR, and SBP) score serves as a guide for the EMS staff at the scene to be understood of the necessity of transfer and predicting hospitalization.


Efforts to tackle discrimination in access to basic services have shown mixed results in different country settings. This study examines the positive and negative outcomes attributed to anti-discrimination measures adopted in different country contexts and analyses the factors contributing to these outcomes, with a specific focus on anti-discrimination measures in education. An analysis of trends in inequalities in human development is used to identify three countries that have seen positive change in reducing inequalities and three countries that have seen negative change. This is followed by a literature review exploring the factors that have contributed to the changes observed in these six cases. We find that reductions in inequalities have been achieved in those countries where targeted measures have gone alongside universal measures, where the constitution is used to generate an equity-focused political discourse, and where evidence on exclusion from education has been taken up politically.


We study the interaction between monetary policy and household debt dynamics. To this end, we develop a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model where household debt is amortized gradually, and only new loans are constrained by the current value of collateral. Long-term debt implies that swings in leverage do not simply reect shifts in borrowing, and brings model implied debt dynamics closer to their empirical counterparts. The model implies that contractive monetary policy has muted inuence on household debt, increasing debt-to-GDP in the short run, while reducing it only in the medium run. If the interest rate is systematically raised whenever the debt-to-GDP ratio or the real debt level is high, equilibrium indeterminacy and greater volatility of debt itself follows. Responding to debt growth does not cast this destabilizing influence.


Tout has many different adverbial uses. This paper deals with one of them, which is hardly ever taken into account, or even mentioned, in grammar books: tout can be used as a premodifier of the subordinator comme in comparative constructions. Comme is the only qu-word that can be premodified by tout. However, there are heavy constraints on the premodification of comme by tout and the presence of tout, very often, prevents the actualization of meanings (time or cause for instance) which would be possible otherwise. The paper aims to show that, in comparative constructions, it is sometimes compulsory, sometimes optional or sometimes impossible to insert tout. These variations are a consequence of the basic meaning of tout, which is defined, after Franckel 1989, as a sign marking the absence of any form of otherness. The article ends with a few remarks on tout comme (with no constituent after comme).


A content analysis of 2,422 political news stories from national and regional newspapers examines the different ways in which the hard-news paradigm has been adopted in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy between the 1960s and 2000s. The study traces how hard news practices diffused differently across borders, and how they have been combined with elements of interpretation and opinion over time. This process has led to the formation of three distinct news cultures. Conclusions are drawn for a broader understanding of the evolution of news journalism and the appropriate classification of Western media systems.


An international team of renowned scholars give an oversight of the history and theology of Reformed Orthodoxy (± 1550-1750). The renewed interest in this fascinating period in intellectual history is documented in this Companion.


In this paper we address the problem of realizing a service-providing reasoning infrastructure for proactive human assistance in intelligent environments. We propose SAM, an architecture which leverages temporal knowledge represented as relations in Allen's interval algebra and constraint-based temporal planning techniques. SAM seamlessly combines two key capabilities for contextualized service provision, namely human activity recognition and planning for controlling pervasive actuation devices.


Urea is in many ways the most convenient form for fixed nitrogen. It has the highest nitrogen content available in a solid fertilizer (46 %). It is easy to produce as prills or granules and easily transported in bulk or bags with no explosive hazard. It leaves no salt residue after use on crops. Its specific gravity is 1.335, decomposes on boiling and is fairly soluble in water. The principal raw materials required for this purpose are NH3 & CO2.Two reactions are involved in the manufacture of urea. First, ammonium carbamate is formed under pressure by reaction between CO2 & NH3.
CO2 + 2NH3 NH2COONH4 H= -37.4 Kcal
This highly exothermic reaction is followed by an endothermic decomposition of the ammonium carbamate.
NH2COONH4 NH2CONH2 + H2O H= + 6.3 Kcal
Various processes for the manufacture of urea are:
1) Snamprogetti ammonia stripping process
2) Stamicarbon CO2 stripping process
3) Once through urea process
4) Mitsui Toatsu total recycle urea process
We selected the Snamprogetti ammonia stripping process for the manufacture of urea. In this process ammonia & CO2 are compressed & fed to the reactor. The unconverted carbamate is stripped and recovered from the urea synthesis reactor effluent solution at reactor pressure, condensed to an aqueous solution in a steam producing high pressure condenser & recycled back to the reactor by gravity. Part of the liquid NH3 reactor feed, vapourized in a steam heated exchanger, is used as inert gas to decompose & strip ammonium carbamate in the steam heated high pressure stripper. Energy balance & material balance of the plant is done. The selected capacity of the plant is 4,50,000 tons/year of urea producing 62,500 kg/hr of urea with 98 % purity. Urea reactor & vacuum evaporator are designed. The volume of reactor is calculated & found to be 195 m3. The length & diameter of the reactor are 40 m & 2.5 m respectively. The evaporator used is of climbing-film long- tube type. Snamprogetti ammonia-stripping urea process is selected because it involves a high NH3 to CO2 ratio in the reactor, ensuring the high conversion of carbamate to urea. The highly efficient ammonia stripping operation drastically reduces the recycling of carbamate and the size of equipment in the carbamate decomposition . Snamprogetti technology differs from competitors in being based on the use of excess ammonia to avoid corrosion as well as promote the decomposition of unconverted carbamate into urea.
Uses of Urea:
• About 56 % of Urea manufactured is used in solid fertilizer.
• About 31 % of Urea manufactured is used in liquid fertilizer.
• Urea-formaldehyde resins have large use as a plywood adhesive.
• Melamine-formaldehyde resins are used as dinnerware & for making extra hard surfaces.


Trajectory optimization using a learned model of the environment is one of the core elements of model-based reinforcement learning. This procedure often suffers from exploiting inaccuracies of the learned model. We propose to regularize trajectory optimization by means of a denoising autoencoder that is trained on the same trajectories as the model of the environment. We show that the proposed regularization leads to improved planning with both gradient-based and gradient-free optimizers. We also demonstrate that using regularized trajectory optimization leads to rapid initial learning in a set of popular motor control tasks, which suggests that the proposed approach can be a useful tool for improving sample efficiency.


The enigmatic Paleozoic fossil Prototaxites [Dawson 1859][1] consists of tree-like trunks as long as 8 m constructed of interwoven tubes <50 mm in diameter. Prototaxites specimens from five localities differ from contemporaneous vascular plants by exhibiting a carbon isotopic range, within and between localities, of as much as 13‰ δ13C. Pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry highlights compositional differences between Prototaxites and co-occurring plant fossils and supports interpretation of isotopic distinctions as biological rather than diagenetic in origin. Such a large isotopic range is difficult to reconcile with an autotrophic metabolism, suggesting instead that, consistent with anatomy-based interpretation as a fungus, Prototaxites was a heterotroph that lived on isotopically heterogeneous substrates. Light isotopic values of Prototaxites approximate those of vascular plants from the same localities; in contrast, heavy extremes seen in the Lower Devonian appear to reflect consumption of primary producers with carbon-concentrating mechanisms, such as cryptobiotic soil crusts, or possibly bryophytes. Prototaxites biogeochemistry thus suggests that a biologically heterogeneous mosaic of primary producers characterized land surfaces well into the vascular plant era.

 [1]: #ref-10


The structure of family relationships influences economic behavior and attitudes. We define our measure of family ties using individual responses from the World Value Survey regarding the role of the family and the love and respect that children need to have for their parents for over 70 countries. We show that strong family ties imply more reliance on the family as an economic unit which provides goods and services and less on the market and on the government for social insurance. With strong family ties home production is higher, labor force participation of women and youngsters, and geographical mobility, lower. Families are larger (higher fertility and higher family size) with strong family ties, which is consistent with the idea of the family as an important economic unit. We present evidence on cross country regressions. To assess causality we look at the behavior of second generation immigrants in the US and we employ a variable based on the grammatical rule of pronoun drop as an instrument for family ties. Our results overall indicate a significant influence of the strength of family ties on economic outcomes.


BACKGROUND
It is well documented that transient acidosis during reperfusion is protective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cardioprotection of acidic buffer or plus cyclosporine A in isolated rat hearts after cardioplegic arrest.

METHODS
Langendorff-perfused Sprague-Dawley rat hearts were perfused for 20 min with Krebs-Henseleit (K-H) buffer followed by 30 min of crystalloid cardioplegia and 60 min of reperfusion. Control hearts were perfused with Krebs-Henseleit buffer. Acidic buffer post-conditioning hearts were perfused with acidic K-H buffer (pH 6.8) for the first 3 min of reperfusion. Acidic buffer plus cyclosporine A hearts were perfused with K-H acidic buffer (pH 6.8) containing cyclosporine A (0.2 μmol/L) for the first 3 min of reperfusion.

RESULTS
Compared with the control group, acidic buffer or plus cyclosporine A post-conditioning significantly improved myocardial performance, decreased cytochrome C release into the cytosol, increased Bcl-2 expression and decreased Bax expression, decreased sensitivity of mPTP-opening to [Ca2+] and the rate of apoptosis after reperfusion.

CONCLUSION
These findings suggested that acidic buffer or plus cyclosporine A post-conditioning prevented apoptosis-related mitochondrial permeabilization and provided the myocardial protection after cardioplegic arrest.


This article looks at three recent French novels in order to explore key themes in what has become known as the roman d'entreprise: Pierre Mari's Résolution (2005), Nathalie Kuperman's Nous étions des êtres vivants (2010) and Thierry Beinstingel's Retour aux mots sauvages (2010). The figure of the entreprise functions both as a fictional representation of the post-Fordist workplace environment in companies such as France Télécom, and also as a means of tackling wider issues of work and social organisation in an era of neoliberal managerialism. The concepts of capitalist realism, organisational miasma and virtuality are used to analyse the ways in which the three novels convey the distinctive affective landscape of the contemporary entreprise. Fiction is used to consider the prolix and self-referential nature of the managerialist entreprise, which enables it to exert a significant influence on the individual and collective subjectivities of employees. The three novels focus on the capacity of the entreprise to capture language and impose an affect of silence on employees.


Background: Treprostinil is a prostacyclin analog used to treat portopulmonary hypertension (PPHTN) and is one of several drugs shown to increase survival, but results in platelet dysfunction. Little is known about the management of patients on treprostinil who present with an acute subdural hematoma (aSDH). We describe such a case and offer our recommendations on management based on our experience and review of the literature. Case Description: A 63-year-old, right-handed female with a history of PPHTN presented with severe headache and was found to have a large left aSDH with midline shift on imaging. She was admitted to the neurosurgical intensive care unit (ICU) where she developed hemiparesis and subsequently underwent emergent decompression. Postoperatively she improved, but several hours after became obtunded and imaging showed reaccumulation of the aSDH, which required reoperation. At 6 months postoperatively she had only a mild hemiparesis and was being reconsidered for treprostinil therapy as a bridge to liver transplant. Only one paper in the literature thus far has reported a patient with an aSDH managed with treprostinil. The authors achieved adequate intraoperative hemostasis without the use of platelet transfusion and lack of complications intraoperatively. Conclusion: While concerns related to the risk of bleeding in surgery are valid, intraoperative hemostasis does not appear to be profoundly affected. Surgical intervention should not be delayed and prostanoid therapy discontinued, if possible, postoperatively. Patients should be placed in an intensive care setting with assistance from pulmonary specialists and close monitoring of neurological status and blood pressure.


This study seeks to establish the effect of parliamentary specialisation on cosponsorship of parliamentary proposals in parliamentary systems with high levels of party unity. Existing studies on presidential systems suggest that cosponsorship is mainly related to legislators' policy preferences. It is proposed that in parliamentary systems cosponsorship is, in the first place, structured by the division of labour in parliamentary party groups: MPs who do not have overlapping policy portfolios will not cosponsor proposals. Other explanations, such as policy distance and the government–opposition divide, only come into play when MPs are specialised in the same field. This expectation is tested using data from the Netherlands, a parliamentary system with a clear division of labour between MPs. It is found that specialisation has a very large impact on cosponsorship.


'The transformation of television sport: new methods, new rules' examines how developments in technology, broadcasting rights and regulation determine what sport we see on television, where we can see it and what the final output looks and sounds like.

The book provides a missing supply side perspective, including a comparison of the development of sport and television in the US and UK. The growth of global corporate sponsorship through to league and federation controlled television coverage is also mapped. Featuring new case studies, including the NFL and Premier league, three critical pre-production processes are unpacked.

Milne examines the challenges faced by broadcasters and the consequences for independent television sports production companies and the day-to-day work of sports producers and directors. As the value of broadcasting rights continue to soar, the book provides a timely insight to what has happened to television sport and why it matters.


The present paper deals with two time-shifted density models for wear out failure period of a single unit system. The study, considered the time-shifted Gamma and Normal distributions. Wear out failures occur as a result of deterioration processes or mechanical wear and its probability of occurrence increases with time. A failure rate as a function of time deceases in an early failure period and it increases in wear out period. Failure rates for time shifted distributions and expression for mean time to system are also obtained. Finally, the graphically representation of all the measures of reliability are shown. So we can say from the study that in the wear out period the reliability of the system increases and failure rates of the system decreases.


Comparing narratives of the Soviet occupation in 1940 in current textbooks by two leading Lithuanian publishing houses, I claim that Lithuanian textbooks offer diverging accounts, which mirror to a large extent the opposing mnemonic frames supported by two rival political camps. I also show that the same textbooks tame those differences by transcending the politically charged frames they have chosen in the first place, presenting, for example, the USSR as both villain and victim of the war. Considering the relevance of these findings for our understanding of dynamics of remembering in general and in the Lithuanian culture of memory in particular, I point out that embracing the political inherent in all acts of recalling the past does not necessarily lead to politicized, i.e. narrow-minded memories, and I reflect on what these mnemonic practices mean for reevaluating the traditional role of Eastern Europe as the backward other of Western Europe.


A part of my world was turned upside down. Shortly before the project's start I saw the doc- umentary Myten om modomshinnan1, which was published on UR Play in 2011. Filmmaker Lotta Ekelund reveals that the hymen is a figment for many people during the movie, as it was for me. Ambiguity made me curious to explore the concept more deeply and motivated me to find a graphical solution for showcasing the bizarre falsehood, and to demonstrate the truth.


OBJECTIVE
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFA) family plays important roles in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), while, arachidonic acid (AA) of the ω-6 PUFA family promotes inflammatory and prothrombotic influences. The complexity of coronary lesions represents the vulnerability of patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the plasma EPA/AA ratio and the prevalence of complex coronary lesion morphology.

METHODS
This study consisted of 206 consecutive patients with stable angina pectoris (sAP). Each coronary lesion was determined either as complex or simple based on angiographic findings. To examine the plasma fatty acid level, blood samples were obtained. Patients were divided into three groups according to the obtained plasma EPA/AA ratio: the highest tertile, n=67, the 2nd tertile, n=70, or the lowest tertile, n=69.

RESULTS
A higher incidence of complex coronary lesion was obtained from patients with a lower plasma EPA/AA ratio [43 (62%) vs. 31 (44%) vs. 25 (37%), p=0.011]. High-sensitivity CRP levels and a low plasma EPA/AA ratio could independently predict the prevalence of complex coronary lesions on multivariate logistic regression analysis [odds ratio 1.83 (95%CI 1.03-3.25), p=0.038 and odds ratio 2.10 (95%CI 1.11-3.94), p=0.02)].

CONCLUSION
In patients with sAP, a low plasma EPA/AA ratio was significantly associated with a high prevalence of complex coronary lesions.


This article investigates the extent to which restrictive asylum and visa policies trigger an unintended behavioural response of potential and rejected asylum seekers. Based on our analysis of bilateral asylum and visa policies on migrant flows to 29 European states in the 2000s, we find evidence of a significant deflection into irregularity at work. Our estimates suggest that a 10% increase in asylum rejections raises the number of irregular migrants by on average 2% to 4%, and similarly, a 10% increase in short-stay visa rejections leads to a 4% to 7% increase in irregular border entries. We identify significant nuances in the impact of restrictive asylum and visa policies on the number of apprehensions 'at the border' versus 'on territory'.


This letter describes a new method for blind source separation, adapted to the case of sources having different morphologies. We show that such morphological diversity leads to a new and very efficient separation method, even in the presence of noise. The algorithm, coined multichannel morphological component analysis (MMCA), is an extension of the morphological component analysis (MCA) method. The latter takes advantage of the sparse representation of structured data in large overcomplete dictionaries to separate features in the data based on their morphology. MCA has been shown to be an efficient technique in such problems as separating an image into texture and piecewise smooth parts or for inpainting applications. The proposed extension, MMCA, extends the above for multichannel data, achieving a better source separation in those circumstances. Furthermore, the new algorithm can efficiently achieve good separation in a noisy context where standard independent component analysis methods fail. The efficiency of the proposed scheme is confirmed in numerical experiments


Conventional wisdom suggests that giant cell tumor (GCT) does not occur in the skeletally immature individual; however, we believe that GCTs of bone, though rare, do occur in children. We are reporting the occurrence of GCT of bone in three patients who were skeletally immature at the time of their initial presentation. In our review of the reports since 1954 that document this condition, we were also able to find a total of 318 patients, of whom 130 were skeletally immature at the time of their tumor presentation. From the data compiled, we found a 7.5% incidence of GCT of bone in skeletally immature individuals at a mean age of 10.5 years. Based on our review and the experience with our three patients, we believe the diagnosis of GCT of bone should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a destructive lesion of bone in skeletally immature individuals. Giant cell tumor in the skeletally immature is being reported here to better define its incidence and increase awareness of its occurrence. Management options will also be discussed.


Gas chromatographic-mass spectral analyses of the four stereoisomers of 2-amino-2,3-dimethylpentanoic acid (DL-α-methylisoleucine and DL-α-methylalloisoleucine) obtained from the Murchison meteorite show that the L enantiomer occurs in excess (7.0 and 9.1%, respectively) in both of the enantiomeric pairs. Similar results were obtained for two other α-methyl amino acids, isovaline and α-methylnorvaline, although the α hydrogen analogs of these amino acids, α-amino-n-butyric acid and norvaline, were found to be racemates. With the exception of α-amino-n-butyric acid, these amino acids are either unknown or of limited occurrence in the biosphere. Because carbonaceous chondrites formed 4.5 billion years ago, the results are indicative of an asymmetric influence on organic chemical evolution before the origin of life.


ABSTRACT This study was focused on two species of lichen-forming fungi from Madagascan Region whose taxonomy has been controversial over the years, Cladonia mascarena Nyl. and Heterodea madagascarea Nyl. While some authors considered C. mascarena to belong to Cladonia, others place it in Pycnothelia Dufour. In this study three loci (ITS rDNA, rpb2 and ef1α) were used to determine the phylogenetic placement of C. mascarena. Our results show that it belongs to Pycnothelia and the combination Pycnothelia mascarena (Nyl.) Nyl. is substantiated. In addition, a key to the genus Pycnothelia is provided. The morphological study of new specimens of Gymnoderma coccocarpum Nyl. and H. madagascarea concluded that these taxa belong to a same species, confirming the extension of Gymnoderma Nyl. to Africa. The overlooked genus Baeoderma Vain. is regarded as a synonym of Gymnoderma, and its type species Baeoderma madagascareum (Nyl.) Vain. is referred to G. coccocarpum.


ABSTRACT This article explores the role of statistical modeling in the production of sound epidemiological objects in a context in which data are perceived as fragile and precarious. It analyzes the use of Markov chain modeling in the evaluation of cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccines in Colombia. Markov chain modeling has an important role in producing a "national" cohort of women in which it is possible to test the "virtual" effectiveness of HPV vaccines, transforming information that comes from international literature into national and local data. This modeling device plays a key role in the datafication of cervical cancer and HPV vaccination. The datafication of disease and populations allows connecting the calculative domains of epidemiology and economic valuation. Drawing on studies on data production, statistics and modeling I examine the role of statistics and data dynamics in the making of HPV vaccination as a public health matter. This paper offers a juxtaposition of two analytical domains entangled by the Markov chain. On the one hand, it presents an analysis of a set of technoscientific practices showing where and how a statistical enumerated entity that purports to represent cervical cancer becomes a socio-politically agential entity in the institutional life of the State. On the other, the paper discusses how social difference is left out the model. The exclusion of social difference from data production is coherent with the socio-political workings of Colombian healthcare and vaccination policy.


BACKGROUND/AIMS
Many patients with mucin-producing pancreatic tumor, characterized by dilatation of the pancreatic duct, are diagnosed by conventional ultrasonography in a mass ultrasonographic survey in Japan. It is a necessary and reliable method for making a precise diagnosis and for deciding on the treatment approach. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is appreciated as a useful method for precise diagnosis of pancreatic tumors. Intraductal ultrasonography (IDUS) is expected to be a new modality for the more detailed diagnosis of pancreatic tumors.

METHODOLOGY
Endoscopic ultrasonography and intraductal ultrasonography were performed in 23 patients with mucin-producing pancreatic tumor. The differences in ultrasonographic findings between benign and malignant tumors were studied.

RESULTS
Ultrasonographic findings of mucin-producing pancreatic tumor revealed by EUS and IDUS were: cystic lesion, mural nodule in the cystic lesion, wall thickness of the cyst, mucus echoes, and solid tumor with a mixed echo pattern. Seven out of 11 patients with mural nodule were diagnosed as carcinomas and another 4 patients had adenoma. Seven of 8 patients with mucus echoes were diagnosed as carcinoma. Three of 4 patients with solid tumor were diagnosed as invasive carcinoma. The ultrasonographic findings suggesting malignancy were: mural nodule, irregular wall thickness, mucus echoes, and solid tumor with a mixed pattern. Solid tumor indicated invasive carcinoma exclusively.

CONCLUSIONS
Intraluminal ultrasonography, EUS and IDUS are very useful in making a differential diagnosis between benign and malignant tumors in mucin-producing pancreatic tumors.


Ultrasonic condition monitoring technologies have been traditionally utilized in industrial and construction environments where structural integrity is of concern. Such techniques include active systems with either single or multiple transmit-receiver combinations used to obtain defect positioning and magnitude. Active sensors are implemented in two ways; in a thickness operation mode, or as an area-mapping tool operating over longer distances. In addition, passive ultrasonic receivers can be employed to detect and record acoustic emission activity. Existing equipment requires cabling for such systems leading to expensive, complicated installations. This work describes the development and operation of a system that combines these existing ultrasonic technologies with modern wireless techniques within a miniaturized, battery-operated design. A completely wireless sensor has been designed that can independently record and analyze ultrasonic signals. Integrated into the sensor are custom ultrasonic transducers, associated analogue drive and receive electronics, and a Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor (DSP) used to both control the system and implement the signal processing routines. BlueTooth wireless communication is used for connection to a central observation station, from where network operation can be controlled. Extending battery life is of prime importance and the device employs several strategies to do this. Low voltage transducer excitation suffers from poor signal-to-noise ratios, which can be enhanced by signal processing routines implemented on the DSP. Routines investigated include averaging, digital filtering and pulse compression.


Hedge funds have also been called "Absolute Return" strategies given their supposed ability to achieve positive returns in a wide range of market environments. In addition, performance is often based on their ability to obtain a return in excess of the risk free rate. However, the ability to obtain alpha (i.e., return above the risk free rate) is not indicative of managerial ability. In fact, any strategy that has volatility should use a benchmark return above the risk free rate. In this article, various forms of alpha determination are discussed. Moreover, the article emphasizes the problem of using Sharpe ratios to compare return/risk performance of two dissimilar strategies, especially when these strategies would be added to a predetermined portfolio.


A hydrothermal breccia zone 6 km long and 2 km wide, crossed by quartz–tourmaline veins, occurs to the south of the Late Cretaceous Kerkenez granite–monzonite massif in the northern part of the Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex, Yozgat, Turkey. This breccia zone is characterized by numerous veins, a few millimeters to 1 meter in width, and display typical micro-tectonic features of multiple brecciation. Trace amounts of albite, K-feldspar, epidote, muscovite and rutile are associated with quartz and tourmaline. Petrographic features indicate three successive stages of tourmaline generation. The first generation is represented by feruvite, and the second and third generations consist of schorl. These distinct generations of tourmaline show successive enrichment in Al and Na, and depletion in Ti and Ca. The Na/(Na + Ca) values vary in the range 0.41–0.49 in the first generation, and 0.53–0.86 and 0.91–0.99 in the second and third generations. The development of the breccia zone and formation of three successive generations of tourmaline are most probably related to fluid-assisted brecciation and infiltration of low- to medium-pH hydrothermal fluids under subsolidus conditions. Successive enrichment in Na and Al in the younger generations is ascribed to late-stage fractionation in the B-rich granitic source.


In the present article, I will concentrate sustainedly on a central strand of Jonathan Quong's critique of Joseph Raz's autonomy-centered liberal perfectionism. Rightly taking Raz to have offered the most elaborate and prominent version of autonomy-centered perfectionism in the contemporary debates over such matters, Quong devotes much of the first half of his book to contesting a number of Raz's positions. This article will defend Raz against one of Quong's chief objections, an allegation of internal inconsistency.


The effect of minority status on managerial survival in Major League Baseball is analyzed using survival time analysis and data envelopment analysis. Efficiency scores based on team performance and player salary data from 1985 to 2006 are computed and included as covariates in a survival time analysis. It is shown that when controlling for performance and personal characteristics minorities are on average 9.6% points more likely to return the following season. Additionally, it is shown that winning percentage has no impact on managerial survival when efficiency is controlled for.


Food allergy is most frequently the result of IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reactions. Here, we describe a chronic model in which some of the intestinal and systemic consequences of continuous egg white solution ingestion by ovalbumin-sensitized eight-week-old BALB/c mice, 6 animals per group, of both sexes, were investigated. There was a 20% loss of body weight that began one week after antigen exposure and persisted throughout the experiment (3 weeks). The sensitization procedure induced the production of anti-ovalbumin IgG1 and IgE, which were enhanced by oral antigen exposure (129% for IgG1 and 164% for IgE, compared to sensitization values). Intestinal changes were determined by jejunum edema at 6 h (45% Evans blue extravasation) and by a significant eosinophil infiltration with a peak at 48 h. By day 21 of continuous antigen exposure, histological findings were mild, with mast cell hyperplasia (100%) and increased mucus production (483%). Altogether, our data clearly demonstrate that, although immune stimulation was persistently occurring in response to continuous oral antigen exposure, regulatory mechanisms were occurring in the intestinal mucosa, preventing overt pathology. The experimental model described here reproduces the clinical and pathological changes of mild chronic food allergy and may be useful for mechanistic studies of this common clinical condition.


Books on audiotape or videotape can be used in schools to provide independent reading experiences to beginning readers with limited preschool exposure to print. In addition, enabling children to hear stories while they look at the book may provide another support for literacy development in children at risk for reading difficulty. The efficacy of providing such prereading experiences to at-risk children was tested with 63 kindergarten and first-grade students ill north-central West Virginia, who were identified as at-risk because of academic need, low income, learning disabilities, or visual or auditory impairments that might affect reading ability. Stuckints were divided into two groups. One group heard audiotape recordings of books while they followed along in their own copies of the book; the other group watched and listened to videotapes of the pages of the book. Pretests and posttests covered listening comprehension, story retelling ability, and concepts about print. Results indicate that the audiotape condition was more beneficial than the videotape condition for developing children's concepts about print. Several children in the audiotape group spontaneously retold the story after the tape was over. The books on videotape seemed to encourage discussion among the children about concepts and vocabulary presented in the stories. The children did not give the videotapes their undivided attention and seemed to watth the videos the same way that they watch television at home, that is, in conjunction with social interaction and other activities. Contains


Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common consequences of chronic stress. Still, there is currently no reliable biomarker to detect individuals at risk to develop the disease. Recently, the retina emerged as an effective way to investigate psychiatric disorders using the electroretinogram (ERG). In this study, cone and rod ERGs were performed in male and female C57BL/6 mice before and after chronic social defeat stress (CSDS). Mice were then divided as susceptible or resilient to stress. Our results suggest that CSDS reduces the amplitude of both oscillatory potentials and a-waves in the rods of resilient but not susceptible males. Similar effects were revealed following the analysis of the cone b-waves, which were faster after CSDS in resilient mice specifically. In females, rod ERGs revealed age-related changes with no change in cone ERGs. Finally, our analysis suggests that baseline ERG can predict with an efficacy up to 71% the expression of susceptibility and resilience before stress exposition in males and females. Overall, our findings suggest that retinal activity is a valid biomarker of stress response that could potentially serve as a tool to predict whether males and females will become susceptible or resilient when facing CSDS.


Data mining is a process to discover useful, possibly unexpected, patterns from the large set of data and widely used in the large information processing applications. Classification is used to classify the data into a set of classes based on some attributes for further processing. Real world application contains very large,imprecise and noisy data. In this case, the knowledge representation need some linguistic term instead of discrete value. In such a scenario fuzzy logic based processing is a natural choice. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for classification using fuzzy approach,which performs class dependent fuzzy discretization.The continuous numeric data is converted in linguistic form which helps in fuzzy classification. The proposed method is compared with standard non-fuzzy discretization techniques where class-attribute relationship is not considered and intervals are predefined. Simulation results show the improved performance of the proposed method.


This paper presents a simulator suitable for both transient and steady state performance prediction of a single phase induction motor (SPIM). The powerful Sim-Power Systems Blockset is used as a simulation platform. The SPIM model includes representation of both main and auxiliary winding in stationary reference frame. The simulator includes a Triac based ac power converter. Both currents and voltage waveforms can be simulated for different firing angles. The simulator allows both current speed and torque-speed characteristics calculation. Direct and soft starting tests were performed on a SPIM driven window type air conditioning unit. The simulated and experimental tests are compared showing close agreement.


Genomewide association studies have shown that a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism in PRKCH is associated with cerebral infarction and atherosclerosis‐related complications. We examined the role of PKCη in lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis using apolipoprotein E‐deficient (Apoe−/−) mice. PKCη expression was augmented in the aortas of mice with atherosclerosis and exclusively detected in MOMA2‐positive macrophages within atherosclerotic lesions. Prkch+/+Apoe−/− and Prkch−/−Apoe−/− mice were fed a high‐fat diet (HFD), and the dyslipidemia observed in Prkch+/+Apoe−/− mice was improved in Prkch−/−Apoe−/− mice, with a particular reduction in serum LDL cholesterol and phospholipids. Liver steatosis, which developed in Prkch+/+Apoe−/− mice, was improved in Prkch−/−Apoe−/− mice, but glucose tolerance, adipose tissue and body weight, and blood pressure were unchanged. Consistent with improvements in LDL cholesterol, atherosclerotic lesions were decreased in HFD‐fed Prkch−/−Apoe−/− mice. Immunoreactivity against 3‐nitrotyrosine in atherosclerotic lesions was dramatically decreased in Prkch−/−Apoe−/− mice, accompanied by decreased necrosis and apoptosis in the lesions. ARG2 mRNA and protein levels were significantly increased in Prkch−/−Apoe−/− macrophages. These data show that PKCη deficiency improves dyslipidemia and reduces susceptibility to atherosclerosis in Apoe−/− mice, showing that PKCη plays a role in atherosclerosis development.


As the population ages, policymakers must evaluate the nation's readiness to assist a growing group of people with conditions requiring chronic and long-term care. Based on the 2002 annual meeting of the National Academy of Social Insurance, this new volume offers a variety of viewpoints from policymakers, researchers, and experts who examine how well the needs of the elderly and disabled Americans are being met by today's financing and delivery systems, in light of potential reform options. Particular attention is paid to care coordination issues unamely, the impact of acute-care policies on long-term and chronic care uto draw attention to how the segmentation of healthcare provision can create disruptions in patient care. Authors address the advantages and disadvantages of varying levels of state, federal, and private involvement in long-term care. Clearly, for people to access appropriate long-term care today and tomorrow, a careful balance of financing sources and integrated health care must be achieved. Researchers, analysts, and policymakers, therefore, will find this volume useful to informing thoughtful analysis of important long-term care issues.


BACKGROUND
Research documents the adverse health effects of systemic inflammation. Overall, older Black Americans tend to have higher inflammation than older non-Hispanic white adults. Given that inflammation is related to a range of chronic health problems that disproportionately affect Blacks compared to whites, this racial disparity in inflammation may contribute to racial disparities in particular chronic health problems. Thus, a better understanding of its determinants in the older Black population is of critical importance. This analysis examined the association between neighborhood characteristics and inflammation in a national sample of older non-Hispanic Black Americans. An additional aim of this study was to determine whether hopelessness and pessimism moderates the association between neighborhood characteristics and inflammation.

METHODS
A sample of older non-Hispanic Black Americans aged 60+ were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (N=1,004). Neighborhood characteristics included neighborhood physical disadvantage and neighborhood social cohesion. Inflammation was assessed by C-reactive protein (CRP).

RESULTS
The analyses indicated that neighborhood physical disadvantage and social cohesion were not associated with CRP. Hopelessness and pessimism moderated the association between neighborhood physical disadvantage and CRP.

CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge regarding the role of hopelessness and pessimism as moderator in the neighborhood-inflammation association can inform cognitive-behavioral interventions targeted at changes in cognition patterns.


From the Publisher:
All relevant components of a mobile radio system, from digital modulation techniques over channel coding through to network aspects, are determined by the propagation characteristics of the channel. Therefore, a precise knowledge of mobile radio channels is crucial for the development, evaluation and test of current and future mobile radio communication systems. This volume deals with the modelling, analysis, and simulation of mobile fading channels and provides a fundamental understanding of many issues that are currently being investigated in the area of mobile fading channel modelling. The author strongly emphasises the detailed derivation of the presented channel models and conveys a high degree of mathematical unity to the reader.
Introduces the fundamentals of stochastic and deterministic channel models
Features the modelling and simulation of frequency-nonselective fading channels (Rayleigh channels, Rice channels, generalized Rice channels, Nakagami channels, various types of Suzuki channels, classical and modified Loo model)
Presents the modelling and simulation of frequency-selective fading channels (WSSUS models, DGUS models, channel models according to COST 207)
Discusses the methods used for the design and realization of efficient channel simulators
Examines the design, realization, and analysis of fast channel simulators
Includes MATLAB programs for the evaluation and simulation of mobile fading channels
MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc.
Telecommunication engineers, computer scientists, and physicists will all find this text both informative and instructive. It is also be an indispensable reference for postgraduate and senior undergraduate students of telecommunication and electrical engineering.


Researchers investigated whether a sham device (validated sham acupuncture needle) and an inert pill exerted a similar placebo effect in patients with persistent arm pain. A single blind randomised controlled trial study design was used. The study was created from the placebo run-in periods for two randomised placebo controlled trials nested within a larger study, the aim of which was to investigate the effectiveness of acupuncture and amitriptyline in relieving arm pain. One trial compared acupuncture (twice a week) with a validated acupuncture sham device for six weeks, whereas the other compared amitriptyline (25 mg once a day) with placebo for eight weeks. Both trials had a placebo run-in period of two weeks. The primary investigation in this study was the comparison of the sham device with placebo pill during the placebo run-in periods.1

Participants were 266 adults with arm pain caused by repetitive use, which had lasted at least three months despite treatment, who scored three or more on a 10 point pain scale. Trial participants were randomised to the acupuncture (n=133) or amitriptyline (n=133) trial. The primary outcome measure was arm pain measured on a 10 point pain scale. At …


Visualization techniques are well developed for many problem domains, but these systems break down for datasets which are very large or multidimensional. Techniques for data which is discrete rather than continuous are also less well studied. Astronomy datasets like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are very much in this category. We propose the extension of information visualization techniques to these very large record-oriented datasets. Specifically, we describe the possible adaptation of the ``Visage'' information visualization tool to terabyte astronomy datasets.


Introduction. The inflorescences of Tilia americana var. mexicana are used as an infusion in Mexican traditional medicine due to their tranquilizing effects; however, pharmacological and phytochemical studies of the leaves are lacking. Objective. In this research, the anxiolytic and sedative-like efficacy of the Tilia americana var. mexicana leaves was compared to that obtained with its inflorescences and flavonoids therein identified, as well as the possible mechanism of action. Methods. The sorted and dried inflorescences and leaves were macerated subsequently in hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. The methanol extracts were qualitative- and quantitative-analyzed by HPLC, using commercial flavonoids standards selected on the basis of their previously reported presence in Tilia species. The pharmacological activity was evaluated in CD-1 mice in the tests: open-field, elevated plus-maze, hole-board, and the sodium pentobarbital-induced sleep potentiation test. In regard to the mechanism of action, participation of benzodiazepine and 5-HT1A serotonin receptors was tested with the respective antagonists: flumazenil and WAY100635. Results. The presence of quercetin, rutin and isoquercitrin was confirmed in the extracts of the inflorescences and leaves. The anxiolytic-like effects were the same between the two organs, which were inhibited in the presence of flumazenil and WAY100635. Discussion and conclusion. Our results provide evidence that the extracts of the leaves of T. americana var. mexicana are as efficacious as the inflorescences to produce anxiolytic and sedative-like effects, where flavonoids like quercetin, rutin and isoquercitrin are partially responsible for these activities by the involvement of GABA/BDZ and 5HT1A serotonergic receptors.


We demonstrate an on-chip device capable of wavelength-selective generation of vortex beams, which is realized by a spiral phase plate integrated onto a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) tunable filter. This vortex MEMS filter, being capable of functioning simultaneously in both wavelength and orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) domains at the 1550 nm wavelength regime, is considered as a compact, robust, and cost-effective solution for simultaneous OAM- and wavelength-division multiplexed optical communications. The experimental OAM spectra for azimuthal orders 1, 2, and 3 show an OAM state purity >92% across a wavelength range of more than 30 nm.


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In recent years, the supermarket industry has become increasingly competitive. One outcome has been the proliferation of a variety of pricing formats, and considerable debate among academics and practitioners about how these formats affect consumers' store choice behavior. This paper advances the idea that consumer shopping behavior as defined by average size of the shopping basket and the frequency of store visits is an important determinant of the store choice decision when stores offer different price formats. A recent Wall Street Journal article that summarized the result of Bruno's management switching the chain from EDLP to HILO illustrates the importance of this issue: "The company's price-conscious customers, used to shopping for a fixed basket of goods, stayed away in droves." Thus, the audience for this paper includes practitioners and academics who wish to understand store choices or predict how a change in price format might affect store profitability and the mix of clientele that shop there.

This paper attempts to understand the relationship between grocery shopping behavior, retail price format, and store choice by posing and answering the following questions. First, after controlling for other factors e.g., distance to the store, prior experience in the store, advertised specials, do consumer expectations about prices for a basket of grocery products "expected basket attractiveness" influence the store choice decision? This is a fairly straightforward test of the effect of price expectations on store choice. Second, are different pricing formats EDLP or HILO more or less attractive to different types of shoppers? To adequately answer the second question, we must link consumers' category purchase decisions, which collectively define the market basket, and the store choice decision.

We study the research questions using two complementary approaches. First, we develop a stylized theory of consumer shopping behavior under price uncertainty. The principal features and results from the stylized model can be summarized as follows. Shoppers are defined in a relative sense as either large or small basket shoppers. Thus, we abstract from the vicissitudes of individual shopping trips and focus on meaningful differences across shoppers in terms of the expected basket size per trip. The shoppers make category purchase incidence decisions and can choose to shop in either an EDLP or a HILO store. Large basket shoppers are shoppers who have a relatively high probability of purchase for any given category, and as such they are more captive to prices across many different categories. The first two propositions summarize the price responsiveness of shoppers. In particular, the large basket shoppers are less responsive to price in their individual category purchase incidence decisions; this makes them more responsive to the expected basket price in their store choice decisions. This key structural implication of the model highlights an asymmetry between response at the category level and response at the store level. The result is quite intuitive; a large basket shopper with less ability to respond to prices in individual product categories will be more sensitive to the expected cost of the overall portfolio the market basket when choosing a store. The final proposition derives the price at which a given shopper will be indifferent between an EDLP and a HILO store. The key insight is that as a shopper increases his or her tendency to become a large basket shopper, the EDLP store can increase its constant price closer and closer to the average price in the HILO store. Conversely, as the shopper becomes more of small basket shopper, the EDLP store must lower its price closer to the deal price in the HILO store. Thus, we have the interesting result that small basket shoppers prefer HILO stores, even at higher average prices.

The empirical testing mirrors the development of the consumer theory. We test the implications of the propositions using a market basket scanner panel database. The database includes two years of shopping data for 1,042 households in two separate market areas. We first use household-level grocery expenditures to model the probability that a household is a large or small basket shopper. Subsequently, we estimate purchase incidence and store choice models. We find that after controlling for important factors such as household distance to the store, previous experience in the store, and advertised specials, price expectations for the basket influence store choice. Furthermore, EDLP stores get a greater than expected share of business from large basket shoppers; HILO stores get a greater than expected share from small basket shoppers. Consistent with the implications of the propositions, large basket shoppers are relatively price inelastic in their category purchase incidence decisions and price elastic in their store choice decisions.


The cellular Internet of Things (C-IoT) with edge computing (EC) is one of the most promising technologies in fifth-generation (5G) cellular systems, which enables connecting everything to the Internet. C-IoT devices are low powered and support a longer transmission range, and they are developed to enable IoT in both dense and remote areas. Machine-type communication (MTC)/C-IoT devices need a ubiquitous connectivity, which is provided by the cellular infrastructure. As the density of these devices increases, it becomes more challenging to connect them to the cellular network within the stipulated amount of time. In this article, we look at two typical deployment scenarios of C-IoT with EC, identify the crucial challenges, and provide solutions. One solution is the RACH procedure, which enables a million devices to access the cellular network. Our emphasis is on a fast RACH procedure that allows C-IoT devices to perform a successful RACH with fewer attempts, which saves power.


Recent improvements in data analysis and receiver techniques have allowed us to produce maps of the 100 GHz emission from the compact cores of active galactic nuclei with the unsurpassed resolution of 50-mu-as (microarcseconds). We present here hybrid maps of a set of compact radio sources observed at two epochs with a global VLBI array. The high resolution enables us to show details of active galactic nuclei on size scales of 10(16)-10(17) cm. Jets are shown to be more curved in these inner parts than further out in the areas mapped with VLBI at lower frequencies. Our maps of the quasar 3C345 show that the curvature seen with lower resolution instruments continues very close to the core. New components are seen separating from the cores of 3C84 and BL Lac. We observe a component in 3C84 separating from the core with an apparent speed approximately 21000 km sec-1. The radio source OJ287 is still unresolved with our array, having a core size of less-than-or-similar-to 10(17) cm. There is no indication of any compact component in 3C279 which would be associated with the outburst in integrated flux density which happened some months before our observation. The flux density of the most compact component we observe in 3C279 agrees well with that of the quiet core as extrapolated from its radio spectrum at lower frequencies. The inner part of the radio jet of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 also shows a continuation of the structure on a larger size scale, with a structure we interpret as parts of a helical pattern. No fringes were found for 4C39.25 or Sgr A.


Introduction:  Malignant renal tumours (MRTs) pose significant morbidity and mortality.  In adults, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) constitutes about 90% of these tumours whereas in children, the majority are nephroblastomas. Males are generally more affected than females. Nuclear grade, tumour stage, size and histopathological subtype are prognostic factors. In our environment, patients with MRTs commonly present late. Methods:  Clinical and demographic details of patients who had malignant tumours diagnosed on renal biopsy tissue between 2002 and 2013 at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, were extracted from pathology request forms. Slides were retrieved from the archives and reviewed. The tumours were classified according to WHO and ISUP criteria. Results:  Kidney biopsies constituted 0.8% of the biopsy specimens processed within the period; 60% of these were malignant lesions. Half (51%) of the patients with MRTs were males and 81% were children (the majority aged 0–4 years).  Among children, the incidence decreased steadily with age. Seventy-three percent were nephroblastomas, exclusively occurring in children. Renal cell carcinoma constituted 19.4%, with papillary carcinoma being the commonest subtype, whereas non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and rhabdomyosarcoma constituted 6% and 1.5%, respectively. The mean gross weight of the tumour masses was 1.3 kg and the average duration of symptoms prior to presentation was 18.3 months. The majority presented with abdominal masses. Conclusion:  Although the renal biopsy rate is generally low in our environment, we found that the most common renal malignancy was nephroblastoma in children. In adults, renal cell carcinoma, mainly of the papillary type, was predominant. Most cases present late.


We know that people with learning disabilities are more prone to a number of medical conditions including epilepsy, dental problems, hypertension and respiratory problems (FPLD 2006). Conversely we also recognise that people with learning disabilities have significantly poorer health outcomes (WHO 2001). Valuing People (DOH 2001) set out to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities by, among other things, reducing health inequalities and improving access to healthcare. The strategy introduced Health Action Plans (HAPs); documents prepared by / with a person with learning disabilities covering information about their health and health choices. It intended that HAPs would have been integrated into health service culture by now but the task of completing one with every person with learning disabilities is proving to be quite challenging. This project involved the development and implementation of patient held hospital passports in an acute hospital. The project team included staff working in an acute hospital and community learning disability teams; extensive involvement from service users, carers and organisations supporting people with learning disabilities underpinned the project. A passport, like an HAP is completed by / with a person with disabilities; it contains information considered necessary for a hospital appointment / admission. Ultimately it is intended that the passports will form part of the patient's HAP once that has been completed (possibly as an appendix) but it is also designed as a stand alone document.
Evidence appears sparse regarding the assessment or evaluation of awareness levels of staff in acute healthcare settings regarding the needs of people with learning disabilities. This project looked at whether the use of hospital passports would support this. Staff awareness was measured using the nominal group technique to establish consensus regarding the challenges that healthcare staff face when working with patients with learning disabilities. In a six month period, twenty patients with planned (elective) admissions used passports during their stay in hospital. The implementation of the passports was supported by training sessions to inform staff how to use them. Nominal groups were then conducted with staff who had worked with patients using passports. Consensus of opinion showed that the passports had made a difference to staff when working with patients with learning disabilities. An increase in staff awareness of learning disabilities was also identified. The patients' perspectives were also considered; evaluation forms were completed after discharge with sixteen patients who had used passports during their admission. Patients reported that they felt their passports had supported communication during their admission and improved their overall care experience. The effectiveness and limitations of the project design are addressed and the ethical implications of working with patients with learning disabilities are discussed. Recommendations for disseminating the use of passports throughout the hospital and with other local healthcare organisations are also outlined.


The mention of Buddhism in Indonesia calls to mind for many people the Central Javanese monument of Borobudur, one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the world and the subject of extensive scholarly scrutiny. The neglect of scholarship on Buddhist art from later periods might lead one to assume that after the tenth century Buddhism had been completely eclipsed by the predominantly Hindu Eastern Javanese dynasties. Yet, as the works discussed here illustrate, extraordinary Buddhist images were still being produced as late as the fourteenth century. "Violence and Serenity" offers a close examination of some of the impressive works from East Java and Sumatra and explores their political and religious roles. The number of clearly identifiable Buddhist works from the Singasari and Majapahit dynasties (1222-ca. 1520) is limited, yet existing examples are impressive. They demonstrate a remarkable level of craftsmanship and are exceptionally expressive, exhibiting a range of emotions from the ferocious to the serene. Following a brief discussion of the early history of Buddhism in Indonesia, Natasha Reichle focuses each chapter on a specific statue or group of statues and considers the larger issues evoked by the images. Through a rarely examined depiction of the last Singasari king, she explores the nature of religion in Java in the late thirteenth century and what we know about tantric practices and the syncretism of Hinduism and Buddhism. She reassesses the question of portraiture in ancient Javanese art while contemplating the famous Prajnaparamita from Singasari. Notions of kingship are discussed in light of a number of statues depicting the Buddhist deity Amoghapasa and his attendants and the meanings of the Amoghapasa mandala. The final chapter examines the origins and significance of one of Indonesia's most spectacular sculptures, a four-meter-high Buddhist bhairava (demon) discovered in West Sumatra.


Natural killer (NK) cells are effector cells of the innate immune system that exert direct cytotoxic functions. Ubiquitously-expressed toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been recognized as one of the major components promoting dendritic cell (DC) maturation, which may induce polarized immune responses beneficial to cancer immunotherapy. TLR-activated NK cells and DCs are prerequisite for robust activation of the innate immune system against tumors. Recently, some medical research and clinical trials have proposed NK cells as a new therapy and potential strategy in both children and adults with those cancers which cannot be cured with the usual treatment modalities. As an example, the importance of DC/NK antitumor immunity in the outcome of breast and other cancers is recently recognized. Therefore, considering strategies which exploit TLR-mediated immunity in concordance with DC/NK system holds strong potential for cancer therapy. This review addresses the current knowledge about the potential role of TLR in tumor immunotherapy.


Although smartwatches are gaining popularity among mainstream consumers, the input space is limited due to their small form factor. The goal of this work is to explore how to design non-touchscreen gestures to extend the input space of smartwatches. We conducted an elicitation study eliciting gestures for 31 smartwatch tasks. From this study, we demonstrate that a consensus exists among the participants on the mapping of gesture to command and use this consensus to specify a user-defined gesture set. Using gestures collected during our study, we define a taxonomy describing the mapping and physical characteristics of the gestures. Lastly, we provide insights to inform the design of non-touchscreen gestures for smartwatch interaction.