Topological insulators are a novel materials platform with high applications potential in fields ranging from spintronics to quantum computation. In the ongoing scientific effort to demonstrate controlled manipulation of their electronic structure by external means, i.e., the provision of knobs with which to tune properties, stoichiometric variation and surface decoration are two effective approaches that have been followed. In angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments, both approaches are seen to lead to electronic band-structure changes. Most importantly, such approaches result in variations of the energy position of bulk and surface-related features and the creation of two-dimensional electron gases. The data presented here demonstrate that a third manipulation handle is accessible by utilizing the amount of super-band-gap light a topological insulator surface has been exposed to under typical ARPES experimental conditions. Our results show that this third knob acts on an equal footing with stoichiometry and surface decoration as a modifier of the electronic band structure, and that it is in continuous and direct competition with the latter. The data clearly point towards surface photovoltage and photoinduced desorption as the physical phenomena behind modifications of the electronic band structure under exposure to high-flux photons. We show that the interplay of these phenomena can minimize and even eliminate the adsorbate-related surface band bending on typical binary, ternary, and quaternary Bi-based topological insulators. Including the influence of the sample temperature, these data set up a detailed framework for the external control of the electronic band structure in topological insulator compounds in an ARPES setting. Four external knobs are available: bulk stoichiometry, surface decoration, temperature, and photon exposure. These knobs can be used in conjunction to fine tune the band energies near the surface and consequently influence the topological properties of the relevant electronic states.


A thermodynamic approach was used to interpret the experimental adsorption and desorption isotherm data for potato starch gel. Calculation of the thermodynamic properties (diffierential enthalpy, integral enthalpy, differential entropy and integral entropy) provides an understanding of the properties of water and energy requirements associated with the sorption behavior. Isosteric heats (differential enthalpies) were calculated through direct use of moisture isotherms by applying the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. The differential enthalpy and entropy decreased with increasing moisture content and were adequately characterized by an exponential model. A plot of differential heat versus entropy satisfied the enthalpy-entropy compensation theory. The spreading pressure increased with increasing water activity, and decreased with increasing temperature. The net integral enthalpy increased with moisture content to a maximum value (around the monolayer moisture content) and then decreased. In a reverse manner, the net integral entropy decreased with moisture content to a minimum value and then increased.


Wireless sensor node platforms are very diversified and very constrained, particularly in power consumption. When choosing or sizing a platform for a given application, it is necessary to be able to evaluate in an early design stage the impact of those choices. Applied to the computing platform implemented on the sensor node, it requires a good understanding of the workload it must perform. Nevertheless, this workload is highly application-dependent. It depends on the data sampling frequency together with application-specific data processing and management. It is thus necessary to have a model that can represent the workload of applications with various needs and characteristics. In this paper, we propose a workload model for wireless sensor node computing platforms. This model is based on a synthetic application that models the different computational tasks that the computing platform will perform to process sensor data. It allows to model the workload of various different applications by tuning data sampling rate and processing. A case study is performed by modeling different applications and by showing how it can be used for workload characterization.


The article presents crystallization process of silicon molybdenum ductile cast iron (SiMo). The alloy with 5% silicon content and with variable amounts of Mo in a range of 0-1% was chosen for the research. The carbon content in the analysed alloys did not exceed 3,1%. The studies of crystallization process were based on thermal – derivative analysis (TDA). Chemical composition of all examined samples was analysed with the use of LECO spectrometer. Additionally, the carbon and the sulphur content was determined basing on carbon and sulphur LECO analyser. For metallographic examination, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDS analyser was used. Disclosed phases have been also tested with the use of X-ray diffraction. The results allowed the description of crystallization processes of silicon molybdenum ductile cast iron using thermal – derivative analysis (TDA). Conducted studies did not allow for the clear identification of all complex phases containing molybdenum, occurring at the grain boundaries. Therefore, the further stages of the research could include the use of a transmission electron microscope to specify the description of complex compounds present in the alloy.


Cloud computing, which is a relatively new approach to distributed computing, uses cloud infrastructures that automatically scale to support an application's hardware requirements, and therefore, must have high reliability in order to meet user expectations. To achieve a high level of quality and reliability, cloud platforms and infrastructures must be tested thoroughly. Typically, cloud providers have individual approaches to infrastructure testing, and there are no widely accepted methods of infrastructure testing that are currently available. An important theoretical and practical problem in this area is the development of such methods, including testing application programming interfaces (APIs), which are direct links between the client code and the infrastructure it runs upon. In this paper, an approach for testing cloud platforms and infrastructures is suggested. An intelligent framework is presented, which accelerates testing and provides for parallel development of test cases. This framework is a cloud application, which contains plugins for testing APIs of cloud platforms. A prototype framework for testing Google App Engine has been created to show demonstrated applicability of the suggested approach.


The association between heterozygosity and fitness is positive but weak on average and varies between studies. Inbreeding has been invoked as the driving force between the positive heterozygosity-fitness associations, yet in spatio-temporally stable environments a negative correlation is expected. Furthermore, different patterns can arise because of the effects of natural selection on different loci and variation can be expected among groups of individuals that experience different levels of stress. In this paper we report on fitness-heterozygosity associations in the winter moth for six allozyme loci. The relationship is estimated for males and females separately, in four areas differing in their degree of fragmentation, and variation among loci is modelled. We introduce a linear mixed model framework to achieve this analysis. This approach differs from more traditional (multiple) regres- sion analyses and allows testing specific interactions. We show that fitness, as estimated by body size, is negatively correlated with heterozygosity, but only so in females. This association does not vary significantly among loci and the four areas. We speculate that a trade-off between fitness-consequences of inbreeding and outbreeding at different stages of the winter moth life cycle could explain the observed patterns.


Background/aims Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key factor in the pathogenesis of neovascular retinal diseases including age-related macular degeneration. VEGF inhibitors including ranibizumab, pegaptanib or bevacizumab improve retinal morphology and vision in many patients. The recently approved drug aflibercept (VEGF Trap-Eye/Eyelea, Regeneron, Tarrytown, New York, USA) offers a new therapy modality. We therefore tested for toxic and anti-proliferating effects of aflibercept. Methods The effects of aflibercept (0.125, 0.5, 2 mg), ranibizumab (0.125 mg) and bevacizumab (0.3125 mg) after 1, 24, 48 and 72 h on cell morphology via phase contrast pictures, cell viability via MTS assay, total cell amount via crystal violet staining, apoptosis induction via caspase 3/7 assay and proliferation via BrdU assay were investigated. Three ocular cell lines were chosen for toxicology testing: ARPE19 cells, RGC-5 cells and 661W cells. Results Aflibercept did not cause changes in cell morphology, induce apoptosis or cause permanent decrease in cell viability, cell density or proliferation in any cell line or concentration investigated. In general, aflibercept had fewer effects (upregulation or downregulation) compared with controls than bevacizumab or ranibizumab. Conclusions In our experiments, aflibercept did not lead to any negative effects on retinal cell lines and might therefore be used safely in clinical applications.


Purpose: This work focuses on the study of the impact of the Self-Efficacy (SE) of the leader on Innovative Work Behavior (IWB), establishing the influence of contributing factors, such as the Organization Learning Capability (OLC) and Team Member Exchange (TMX). Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling is used as a statistical test method. This technique enabled the quantitative validation of the qualitative hypotheses raised in the study. Findings: The results suggest empirical evidence supporting a positive relationship among the constructs considered in the research. Originality/value: This work develops a new relational model and contributes to the establishment of the mechanisms of the relationship among the variables of positive psychology, making an academic contribution within the broad field of resources and dynamic capabilities theory. It also makes a real social contribution in terms of its immediate application and the knowledge of how factors of selection (the self-efficacy of the leader) or handling (OLC) can influence variables on an individual level (TMX and IWB).


Objective: In patients with dysthymic disorder (DD), sleep problems are assessed as a part of their depressive state, and different treatable conditions, such as other primary sleep disorders, are often skipped. We aimed to determine symptoms related to daytime sleepiness and polysomnographic findings in dysthymic women with chronic insomnia and to find out whether or not there is an accompanying sleep disorder. We suggest that pathologies that can lead to sleep problems in dysthymic patients should be searched, and to this end, application of the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) and polysomnography examination should be used much more frequently. Patients and Methods: We included 20 female dysthymic patients with complaints of chronic sleep problems who had been under follow-up at Uludag University Hospital Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic for at least the last two years. Twenty healthy female volunteers, aged 18-65 years, were included in the study as the control group. ESS and polysomnography examination were applied in all patients. Results: When patients with DD and healthy controls were compared, significant differences in ESS scores and ratios of sleep phases were determined between groups. DD patients had higher ESS scores and higher ratios of rapid eye movements (REM), non-REM1 (Stage 1), non-REM-2 (Stage 2) phases and lower ratios of slow wave sleep (Stage 3 + Stage 4). Conclusion: The findings of our study suggest that there are structural sleep changes in dysthymic patients, but no direct connection between sleep variables and depressive states is evident.


BACKGROUND
This study investigated the effect of different ω-6/ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratios on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced changes to small intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) γδT-cell expression.

METHODS
Mice were assigned to 3 control and 3 DSS-treated groups and were maintained on a low-fat semipurified diet. One of the control (S) groups and a DSS (DS) group were provided with soybean oil; the other 2 control (Hω-3 and Lω-3) groups and 2 other DSS (DHω-3 and DLω-3) groups were fed either a soybean and fish oil mixture with a ω-6/ω-3 ratio of 2:1 or 4:1. After feeding the respective diets for 2 weeks, the DSS groups were given distilled water containing 2% DSS, and the control groups were given distilled water for 5 days. All groups were further provided distilled water 5 days for recovery, and the small intestinal IEL γδT-cell subset was isolated for analysis.

RESULTS
DSS treatment resulted in a lower small intestinal IEL γδT-cell percentage and higher messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions of Reg IIIγ, keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), and complement 5a receptor (C5aR) by IEL γδT cells. Fish oil administration enhanced the proportion of small intestinal IEL γδT cells. Compared with the DLω-3 group, the DHω-3 group had lower Reg IIIγ, KGF, and C5aR mRNA expressions and higher expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ gene by small intestinal IEL γδT cells.

CONCLUSIONS
Fish oil diets with a ω-6/ω-3 PUFA ratio of 2:1 were more effective than those with a ratio of 4:1 in improving DSS-induced small intestinal injury, and activation of PPAR-γ in IEL γδT cells may be associated with resolution of small intestinal inflammation.


Theoretical developments of emotional intelligence (EI) are jeopardized by the inability of empirical studies to keep pace with its intense surge to the forefront of both lay and academic communities. Due to the paucity of empirical evidence, claims of the contributions of EI are met with speculation in the scientific community. Furthermore, EI is conceptualized and measured in a variety and often, diverging ways.
Subsequent to indications from previous literature that EI shows promise to be linked to the field of health and psychological well-being (Austin, Saklofske, & Egan, 2005), the primary aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent criterion validity of a mixed model conceptualization of EI with self-reported exercise attitudes by comparing two subsamples of university students, (Mean Age = 22 years; 72% Female, 28% Male; NonKinesiology n1 = 271, Kinesiology n2 = 127).
The finding of a weak overall correlation fails to provide concurrent criterion validity to the BarOn (2002) conceptualization of EI with exercise attitudes as measured by HBQ (Austin, unpublished), r(398) = .13, p = .013. This finding is further substantiated by the lack of significant findings in an ANOVA and a lack of practical significance in a MANOVA. While the criterion group had significantly stronger beliefs of the benefits of exercise, F(1, 394) = 47.54, p < .001, ƒA2 = .11; no significant difference between the means of the Composite EI was found between the subsamples for the main effect (field of study) or for the interaction effect (field of study ~ sex): F(1, 394) = 0.08, p = .78; F(1, 394) = 1.82, p = .18, respectively. Additionally, the MANOVA findings determined that only 1.6% of the overall variance could be attributed to the model effect of self-reported activity level and exercise attitude with EI.
The secondary purpose of this study was to examine the sex differences in the relationship of EI and exercise attitudes. The scales for the female subsample were not significantly correlated, r(287) = .07, p = .25; whereas, a low and significant correlation was found in the male subsample, r(111) = .37, p = .001. The finding is noteworthy and appears to suggest that the contributing factor to the significant, but weak overall correlation, was obtained from the male sector.
Although, the study does find the BarOn EQ-i:S instrument to be a good measure with strong internal consistency reliability and large intercorrelations with its components, the findings point to concerns as to what is being measured and the degree to which the measure overlaps with the personality domain.


The circuitries within the spinal cord are remarkably robust and plastic. Even in the absence of supraspinal control, such circuitries are capable of generating functional movements and changing their level of excitability based on a specific combination of properceptive inputs going into the spinal cord. This has led to an increase in locomotor training, such as Body Weight Support Treadmill training (BWST) for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients. However, today, little is known about the underlying physiological mechanisms responsible for the locomotor recovery achieved with this type of rehabilitative training, and the optimal rehabilitative strategy is still unknown.

This thesis describes a mouse model to study the effect of rehabilitative training on SCI. Using this model, the effects of locomotor recovery on adult spinal mice following complete spinal cord transaction is examined. Results that indicate adult spinal mice can be robotically trained to step, and when combined with the administration of quipazine (a broad serotonin agonist), there is an interaction and retention effect. Results also demonstrate that the training paradigm can be optimized in using "Assisted-as-Needed" (AAN) training. To find the optimal AAN training parameters, a learning model is developed to test the effect of various parameters of the AAN training algorithm. Simulation results from our model show that learning is training-dependent. In addition, the model predicts that improved motor learning can improve post-SCI by making the AAN training more adaptable.

The primary contributions of this thesis are twofold, in biology and engineering. We develop a mouse model using novel robotic devices and controls that can be used to study SCI and other locomotor disorders in the future by taking advantage of the many different strains of transgenic mice that are commercially available. We also further confirm that sensory integration responsible for motor control is distributed throughout the hierarchy of the neuromuscular system and can be achieved within the isolated spinal cord. Lastly, by developing a learning model, we can start looking into how variability plays a role in motor learning, the understanding of which will have profound implications in neurophysiology, machine learning and adaptive optimal controls research.


Against the background of increased demands for health care and quality in a resources constrained environment, nurses and midwives have the responsibility to practice in an evidence-based manner. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is crucial in promoting excellence in nursing and midwifery and provides a systematic approach to decision-making that supports best practice and accountability. When the best available evidence is considered critically, the chances of doing the right thing at the right time for the right patient improves. EBP entails the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. EBP further requires integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external evidence from systematic research, available resources and patient preferences. The crux of EBP is to continuously consider the link between patient care and outcomes (mortality, morbidity, clinical, functional and economic) and best evidence to improve the quality of health care and the care individual patients receive. To convince the community that nurses and midwives care with their hearts and minds, each one of us continuously needs to reflect on our practice: To what extent is my practice evidence-based? How can I improve the evidence-based quality of my practice? The aim of this paper is to clarify the concept of EBP. The 5-step process of evidence-based practice is illustrated using a scenario. Finally, the implementation of EBP is described and some sources nurses and midwives can use are given.


CONTEXT
Prothymosin-α (ProT) is involved in oxidative stress, inflammation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. Increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation participate in the pathogenesis of diabetes. A recent study found that ProT is a ligand of toll-like receptor 4, which plays an important role in the development of insulin resistance. However, its physiological role remains poorly understood.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to investigate whether ProT contributes to the development of insulin resistance.

DESIGN, SETTINGS, AND PATIENTS
A total of 185 subjects were recruited and classified into nondiabetes (n = 95) and newly diagnosed diabetes (n = 90) groups. Transgenic mice overexpressing ProT were used to investigate the role of ProT in the development of insulin resistance. Lentiviral vectors carrying short hairpin RNA specific for ProT were delivered via the portal vein to silence hepatic ProT expression in mice with high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance. Glucose uptake was determined in L6 myotubes.

RESULTS
We show that the serum ProT levels of patients with type 2 diabetes were significantly higher than those of normal individuals (mean ± SEM, 419.8 ± 46.47 vs 246.4 ± 27.89 pg/mL; P < .001). Furthermore, ProT transgenic mice exhibited an insulin-resistant phenotype, whereas the silencing of hepatic ProT expression ameliorated high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance in C57BL/6 mice. In vitro studies reveal that ProT induced insulin resistance through a toll-like receptor 4-nuclear factor-κB-dependent pathway.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the role for ProT in the development of insulin resistance. Therefore, ProT is a potential novel therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes.


A crucial gap in the trafficking literature from India is the dearth of primary data and micro studies that could be used for vulnerability mapping of the source areas and addressing the identified risk factors. The present paper is a small attempt to contribute to plugging the gap in the context of Andhra Pradesh, identified as a hot spot in the trafficking literature. This paper is based on case studies of 78 women who had been trafficked from their places of origin in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh to metropolitan cities across India and who have since returned to their homes. The paper attempted to identify the individual and family circumstances that contribute to the causes of trafficking, to highlight in particular the gendered vulnerabilities that set these women up for trafficking, and to capture the process of the trafficking experience. The findings of the study are located in the dynamic interplay of the social structural context and specificities of the district that contribute to causes of trafficking and the individual circumstances and agency of the women. The case studies reported in this paper are a pointer to the compelling urgency of interventions that will go beyond the forced / voluntary divide in trafficking and sex work.


Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in aggression. Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met (COMT), a common, functional polymorphism, has been implicated in aggression and aggression traits, as have childhood experiences of adversity. It is unknown whether these effects are additive or interactional and, in the case of interaction, whether they conform to a diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility model. We examined Gene × Environment interactions between COMT and serious life events on measures of childhood aggression and contrasted these 2 models. The sample was composed of community children (N = 704); 355 were boys, and the mean age was 54.8 months (SD = 3.0). The children were genotyped for COMT rs4680 and assessed for serious life events and by teacher-rated aggression. Regression analysis showed no main effects of COMT and serious life events on aggression. However, a significant interactive effect of childhood serious life events and COMT genotype was observed: Children who had faced many serious life events and were Val homozygotes exhibited more aggression (p = .02) than did their Met-carrying counterparts. Notably, in the absence of serious life events, Val homozygotes displayed significantly lower aggression scores than did Met carriers (p = .03). When tested, this constellation of findings conformed to the differential susceptibility hypothesis: In this case, Val homozygotes are more malleable to the effect of serious life events on aggression and not simply more vulnerable to the negative effect of having experienced many serious life events.


Abstract Since the 1990s, a number of local and regional governments around the world have started to engage in a real international or 'paradiplomatic' climate agenda. While the multilevel governance approach has advanced the examination of the actors and levels involved in climate governance, there is within this body of literature a limited consideration of the legal capacity of non-state actors to act across scales. This article addresses this gap and examines the potential limitations imposed on subnational diplomacy by international and domestic legal orders. The article draws upon the example of Brazil where, despite constitutional limitations on the involvement of subnational governments in international relations, paradiplomacy has been termed 'federative diplomacy' and institutionalized within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and within the Presidency of the Republic. The article shows that the diplomatic activity of local and regional governments is still constrained by international and domestic legal frameworks. If cities and regions are to help in addressing the inadequacies of the international climate regime, then domestic and international legal frameworks will need to further accommodate subnational diplomatic activities.


Based on findings from research in Ukrainian government-controlled areas, this policy brief explores the role of gender norms, norms of masculinity and femininity, in shaping reintegration experiences of female and male former combatants – professional soldiers, conscripts and volunteers – who fought in Eastern Ukraine between 2014 and 2017. It shows how gender expectations, norms and roles significantly influence reintegration challenges and opportunities for female and male former combatants and those with disabilities. Building on these findings, the brief advocates for inclusive and gender-sensitive analyses, policies and initiatives aimed at facilitating the transition of all female and male former combatants back to civilian life. It specifically highlights three priorities targeted at Ukrainian state institutions working with former combatants as well as international donors and bilateral partners working for stability in Ukraine: factor in individual needs and challenges of female and male veterans, and female and male veterans with disabilities, while developing the new centralised veterans' support system; enhance national capacities and technical expertise necessary to implement and strengthen this system; and recognise and support the complementary role played by NGOs, businesses and broader veterans' networks in providing vital services to veterans.


West Nile virus (WNV) and St. Louis encephalitis (SLEV) virus are enzootically maintained in North America in cycles involving the same mosquito vectors and similar avian hosts. However, these viruses exhibit dissimilar viremia and virulence phenotypes in birds: WNV is associated with high magnitude viremias that can result in mortality in certain species such as American crows (AMCRs, Corvus brachyrhynchos) whereas SLEV infection yields lower viremias that have not been associated with avian mortality. Cross-neutralization of these viruses in avian sera has been proposed to explain the reduced circulation of SLEV since the introduction of WNV in North America; however, in 2015, both viruses were the etiologic agents of concurrent human encephalitis outbreaks in Arizona, indicating the need to re-evaluate host factors and cross-neutralization responses as factors potentially affecting viral co-circulation. Reciprocal chimeric WNV and SLEV viruses were constructed by interchanging the pre-membrane (prM)-envelope (E) genes, and viruses subsequently generated were utilized herein for the inoculation of three different avian species: house sparrows (HOSPs; Passer domesticus), house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) and AMCRs. Cross-protective immunity between parental and chimeric viruses were also assessed in HOSPs. Results indicated that the prM-E genes did not modulate avian replication or virulence differences between WNV and SLEV in any of the three avian species. However, WNV-prME proteins did dictate cross-protective immunity between these antigenically heterologous viruses. Our data provides further evidence of the important role that the WNV / SLEV viral non-structural genetic elements play in viral replication, avian host competence and virulence.


Not only do we need more female leaders at the top, but we need more women at all levels of business, government, and nonprofits to step up—there's no time to waste. The problem, says Helene Lerner, isn't so much that women lack confidence but that they misunderstand what confidence really is. True confidence isn't fearlessness; it's having the courage to jump in even when your knees are shaking. Any woman who waits until she feels 100 percent confident before offering a big idea or asking for a raise or promotion will never get anywhere. Drawing on her own and other female leaders' experiences, as well as on her survey of over 500 working women, Lerner lays out practical strategies for beating this confidence myth and overcoming obstacles like gender bias. The book features dozens of Confidence Sparks, simple but powerful exercises and techniques that can catapult anyone's career to the next level.


Youthful buyers in general, and college students specifically, have been raised in a credit card society; they grow up with debt and use credit freely (Manning and Smith, 2005). In prior generations, credit debt was reserved for only certain types of purchases: cars, houses, vacation trips, etc. Today, everyone enjoys owning multiple items as values are different than in the past. The demand of today"s materialistic, "now," society has changed the usage and application of why consumers make purchases. These days, the mantra of "buy now, pay later," is portrayed in the mass media and popular culture as primary new values of the "Just Do It!" generation. Too often, financial irresponsibility is portrayed as a being a rite of passage as youth make the transition to the personal responsibilities of adulthood. Personal satisfaction has become the driving force in consumer-purchase decisions. In reality, many youth find their personal relationships and professional careers ruined without an informed view of the power of plastic, and control of their wants vs. needs (Manning and Smith, 2005). This research looks at a providing a template for chronicling the changing in the values of society at large and adolescent consumer-behavior in particular, with respect to shopping, saving and spending habits. The focus is on how "got to have it now" may have ruinous effects on the long term picture that includes home ownership and higher education.


Dynamic images, a sequence of static images displayed in rapid succession and perceived as a continuous motion by the human eye, are widely used in medicine. One of the primary objectives of telemedicine is the transmission of such images to a distant location to manage clinical problems remotely. A broad variety of methods is available to acquire, store, transmit and display these images. However, the context of the clinical problem determines which of these methods can be deployed in a telemedicine solution. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies and presents an example of a teleconferencing system for interventional cardiology. This system acquires cardiac angiography and intravascular ultrasound images and transmits them over an existing Internet connection to a distant location. It is specifically optimized for clinical conferencing, where time is limited for each case presentation during the conference, compared to the relatively long time available for the conference preparation. The system takes advantage of this characteristic by transmitting the images well in advance of the clinical conference and displaying them synchronously at both locations during the conference. This allows for the preservation of the original image quality.


For qualitative development of regulatory normatives it is necessary to know historical normative documents and to understand ideological processes of previous periods of state formation with a view to build a modern staging post of fight against crime taking into account social and cultural phenomenons and national peculiarities of Ukrainian people and international achievements.
 The conceptual foundations of the Soviet legal system functioning provided for forceful, punitive and repressive methods of work based on the class approach, nowadays the main task is to deviate from these principles and focus on humanism. In practice, the application of the legislation during the Soviet period had hidden pitfalls. A proper estimation of this reality will help to increase the legal education of citizens significantly, especially when it refers to the real study and acquaintance with the legal acts of that period. The article emphasizes that the epoch of deideologization of all social-political institutions is gradually receding into the past, n a progressive way is receding into the past, and the re-thinking of many modern processes gives grounds to think more deeply about the ideological component and regulations of that period, which is especially relevant today. The government has to work to develop a nation-wide ideology that plays an important role in the fight against crime. Particular attention should be paid to modern ideological processes in Ukraine. In order to better understand thereof, interesting arguments of scientists are offered in this direction, which suggest the author's thoughts in the framework of the researched problem.
At the same time, the consideration of the stated problem in terms of ideological processes is poorly studied, the vast majority of publications are fragmentary. The considerations of V.M. Kolemasov deserve special attention, which, in fact, prompted us to think separately and helped to build this scientific work according to this logical structure and sequence. Of course, it does not claim to be complex, but it deserves the attention of the scientific community in order to continue scientific work in this direction.
In our opinion, gender ideology cannot be a cornerstone of the development of statehood, because, given the available experience, it is experiencing a devastating collapse, and therefore, it is necessary to resort to much higher mental guidelines. In order to take a balanced, comprehensive approach to solve these and other problems


Department of Geography This study attempts to determine the way in which symbols evolved on nautical charts, the identity of originators of these symbols, the spread in their use, and the forces involved in their continuing evolution. A twofold approach is utilized to resolve these questions. First a history of nautical charts prior to 1800 is presented and second, the actual examination of over 4200 nautical charts was carried out to discover and document their symbol content. A graphic summary of the symbols used on these charts is presented along with an analysis of the data gathered in 1 ight of the history of nautical cartography. The evolution of the symbols on nautical charts was found to be closely aligned with one of the three types of symbols described by Dreyfuss (1972): arbitrary, abstract or representational. The arbitrary symbols examined in this study clearly went through an evolutionary process, whereas the abstract and represen-tational symbols remained virtually static throughout the period. The orig-inators of the symbols are given when identifiable and the spread and evolution of the symbols is discussed. From this study it can be concluded that this type of research is most valuable in discovering the evolution of symbols on nautical charts and that the graphic summary could be considered a standard for evaluating the evolution and use of symbols on nautical charts prior to 1800.


Nurse education has moved from apprenticeship models to advanced competency-based curricular in higher education. The bachelor's degree is already becoming the entry level into professional practice. Postgraduate programmes have been developed and there is growing autonomous regulation. Nursing in Cameroon has equally been going through its own evolution from the colonial era to present day Cameroon. However, the absence of empirical data makes it difficult to ascertain the nature of this evolution. The aim of this study was to critically analyse the basis of/and ideological positions of key stakeholders in relation to nurse education in Cameroon. Charmaz's (2006) constructivist interpretation of grounded theory was used to analyse data from official texts and in-depth interviews of nurses involved with education policy. Data sources were initially selected using purposive sampling and subsequently through theoretical sampling.
The results showed that nurse education in Cameroon has been influenced by a series of interacting factors. These included categories that occurred at particular points in time though their influence persist: multiple births and formation; reactive growth and development; liberalisation and nurse education expansion; turf wars and intra-professional conflicts. These were found to interact with fluid categories that represent dynamic current movements whose direction are unclear: change mode; moving nursing to higher education; harmonisation of nursing programmes; and professionalizing nursing. A grounded interpretation of these categories and their relationships led to the development of a theory on seizing the opportunity of the moment. The theory proposes a harmonisation project to move nurse education from a scenario where nursing has no control over the education system to one where nursing seizes control of the nurse education process. The argument is made that turf wars and intra-professional conflicts have the potential to pull nursing education from the unanticipated opportunities suddenly generated by government's policy of liberalization. The current conjunction of the desire for change among nurses and the unplanned inclusion of nurse education in higher education provide the unique opportunity for harmonization if harnessed to advance nurse education and professionalise nursing. The study concludes that nurse leaders must create a platform that unites nurses towards the adoption and implementation of the harmonisation project or risk another generation of erratic growth and development.


Background: There is, to our knowledge, no study that has directly compared angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) with angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) in hypertensive patients with overt diabetic nephropathy (DNP). We tried to analyze the outcomes of hypertensive patients with overt type 2 DNP who used only ACEIs or ARBs. Methods: The patients who had an estimated creatinine clearance <90 ml/min and hypertension or had been using antihypertensive drug(s) at presentation were included in the study. The patients were classified as ACEI group and ARB group. Results: A total of 100 patients (55 men and 45 women, mean age 61.8 ± 9.16 years) were included in the study. Mean duration of follow-up was 24.6 ± 14.1 months. Baseline demographics, biochemical analyses and blood pressures were similar. Renal functions and proteinuria of both groups did not show any significant changes during follow-up. Blood pressure courses were also similar. Although the mean doubling time of creatinine in the ARB group was shorter than the ACEI group, it was not statistically significant. During the follow-up period, 4 patients died (2 in the ACEI group, 2 in the ARB group) and 10 patients were started on dialysis (7 in the ACEI group, 3 in the ARB group). Serum creatinine and the amount of proteinuria were the baseline parameters which were related to the initiation of dialysis. Conclusion: ACEIs and ARBs have similar outcomes in overt DNP. Their renoprotective effects can be observed in spite of uncontrolled hypertension.


Although not being the first viral pandemic to affect humankind, we are now for the first time faced with a pandemic caused by a coronavirus. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused more than 4.5 million deaths worldwide. Despite unprecedented efforts, with vaccines being developed in a record time, SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread worldwide with new variants arising in different countries. Such persistent spread is in part enabled by public resistance to vaccination in some countries, and limited access to vaccines in other countries. The limited vaccination coverage, the continued risk for resistant variants, and the existence of natural reservoirs for coronaviruses, highlight the importance of developing additional therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses. At the beginning of the pandemic it was suggested that countries with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination programs could be associated with a reduced number and/or severity of COVID-19 cases. Preliminary studies have provided evidence for this relationship and further investigation is being conducted in ongoing clinical trials. The protection against SARS-CoV-2 induced by BCG vaccination may be mediated by cross-reactive T cell lymphocytes, which recognize peptides displayed by class I Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA-I) on the surface of infected cells. In order to identify potential targets of T cell cross-reactivity, we implemented an in silico strategy combining sequence-based and structure-based methods to screen over 13,5 million possible cross-reactive peptide pairs from BCG and SARS-CoV-2. Our study produced (i) a list of immunogenic BCG-derived peptides that may prime T cell cross-reactivity against SARS-CoV-2, (ii) a large dataset of modeled peptide-HLA structures for the screened targets, and (iii) new computational methods for structure-based screenings that can be used by others in future studies. Our study expands the list of BCG peptides potentially involved in T cell cross-reactivity with SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides, and identifies multiple high-density "neighborhoods" of cross-reactive peptides which could be driving heterologous immunity induced by BCG vaccination, therefore providing insights for future vaccine development efforts.


Methodology is developed for linking the urban metabolism (UM) to global environmental stresses on the carbon (C) cycle, nitrogen (N) cycle, and biodiversity loss. UM variables are systematically mapped to the drivers of carbon, nitrogen, and biodiversity impacts. Change in mean species abundance is used as metric of biodiversity loss, by adopting the dose‐response relationships from the GLOBIO model. The main biodiversity drivers related to UM included here are land‐use change (LUC) and atmospheric N deposition. The methodology is demonstrated by studying the nexus for Shanghai in 2006, based on energy and soybean consumption. Results for Shanghai show a strong nexus between C, N, and biodiversity impact due to electricity consumption and energy used in manufacturing industries and construction. Prioritization of the shift away from coal energy will therefore lead to lowering the urban growth impact on all three dimensions. Road transportation, domestic aviation, and the metal industry impact only the C footprint highly, whereas district energy impacts only biodiversity loss highly, showing a weak nexus. Among the global impacts of soybean consumption in Shanghai on biodiversity loss (due to LUC only), the highest impact occurs in Uruguay (0.52%) followed by Brazil (0.05%) and Argentina (0.02%). The local impact on biodiversity loss (i.e., within China) of soybean consumption in Shanghai is 1.03%. However, the methodology and results are limited due to the partial inclusion of drivers, a carbon footprint based on carbon dioxide emissions only, and limitations of biodiversity loss models. Potential to overcome methodological limitations is discussed.


DNA is an emerging storage medium for digital data but its adoption is hampered by limitations of phosphoramidite chemistry, which was developed for single-base accuracy required for biological functionality. Here, we establish a de novo enzymatic DNA synthesis strategy designed from the bottom-up for information storage. We harness a template-independent DNA polymerase for controlled synthesis of sequences with user-defined information content. We demonstrate retrieval of 144-bits, including addressing, from perfectly synthesized DNA strands using batch-processed Illumina and real-time Oxford Nanopore sequencing. We then develop a codec for data retrieval from populations of diverse but imperfectly synthesized DNA strands, each with a ~30% error tolerance. With this codec, we experimentally validate a kilobyte-scale design which stores 1 bit per nucleotide. Simulations of the codec support reliable and robust storage of information for large-scale systems. This work paves the way for alternative synthesis and sequencing strategies to advance information storage in DNA.


Infant faecal materials from different feeding regimes (breast fed,
breast fed supplemented with mixed diet and bottle fed) were analysed
for their distribution of microbes and isolation of bifidobacteria. The
predominant bacteria in breast-fed infants after 23 weeks were
streptococci and bifidobacteria. The predominant bacteria in breast-fed
supplemented with mixed diet after 24 weeks were clostridia,
streptococci and bifidobacteria. In the bottle fed infant faeces,
bifidobacteria was present in small numbers whereas lactobacilli were
one of the most predominant bacteria. 18 isolates of Bifidobacterium
in/antis and 10 isolates of Bifidobacterium breve were isolated and tested
for their antibacterial activity, survival in low pH conditions, and
adhesion to human colon carcinoma cell lines . Three isolates (B. in/antisC040225, B. breve F0526100 and B. breve G012048) exhibited good
antibacterial activity. These isolates inhibit the growth of Salmonella
enteritidis, Vibrio cholera, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas
aerugmosa and Listeria monocytogenes. The survival rate of
bifidobacteria in low pH condition was variable among isolates. All the
isolates tested showed good survival in control solution (pH 6.5). None
of the isolates tested was able to survive at pH 1.0 after 1 hour
incubation. However, at pH 2.0, five isolates (B. infantis D042022, B.
infantis F042466, B. infantis F0526100 and B. infantis G001204)
survived after 1h incubation but not after 2h incubation at this pH.
Four strains (B. infantis D04 2022, B. infantis F0606117, B. infantis
F041134 and B. infantis Z040845) possessed good survival at pH 3.0
where viable cells could still be detected after 3 hours incubation. One
of the most important criteria of probiotic micro-organism is the ability
to adhere and colonise to human intestinal epithelial cells in order to
prevent them from being flushed out by the peristaltic movement in the
gastrointestinal tract. B. infantis G001204 was found to adhere well to
HT29 cell lines in culture. Not all the bifidobacteria isolates tested
possessed all the characteristics of probiotic.


We propose an information-theoretic approach for predictive modeling with Bayesian networks. Our approach is based on the minimax optimal Normalized Maximum Likelihood (NML) distribution, motivated by the MDL principle. In particular, we present a parameter learning method which, together with a previously introduced NML-based model selection criterion, provides a way to construct highly predictive Bayesian network models from data. The method is parameterfree and robust, unlike the currently popular Bayesian marginal likelihood approach which has been shown to be sensitive to the choice of prior hyperparameters. Empirical tests show that the proposed method compares favorably with the Bayesian approach in predictive tasks.


Older adults with medical conditions that impair function are at the highest risk for driving retirement. This Randomized Controlled Trial investigated the efficacy of an intervention that facilitated planning for a likely driving transition among medicallyimpaired elders – those with vision, cognitive, or psychomotor impairment. A 2-to-1 allocation ratio resulted in comparisons between 26 intervention and 13 attention control (n = 39) group members who were recruited from health care sites. The intervention consisted of two sessions of facilitated planning in which the participant's health, transportation alternatives, attitudes/emotions regarding a change in mobility, and actions to ensure continued safe mobility were discussed. Moreover, all participants received supportive phone calls during the 6 month intervention period. Results showed that when compared to the control group, the intervention group had significantly better subjective health, fewer high-risk driving behaviors, and drove less distance on excursions from home at follow up. Simple repeated measures analyses were not significant. Results suggest that facilitated planning may help ease the transition to driving retirement among some high-risk older adults.


In order to succeed in their industries, decision-makers today need to anticipate the future outcomes not only in their own industry but also in society and technology as well. The better their view of the future, the better their decisions--and the bigger their profits–will be. Future Savvy is a hands-on, how-to book on evaluating the business, social, and technology forecasts that appear in everyday communications such as newspapers and business magazines, as well as in specialized sources like government and think-tank forecasts, consultant reports, and stock-market guides. Futures analyst Adam Gordon has spent his career deciphering changes and trends in a variety of industries. Now, he shows business leaders how to gain a clearer view of the future, as well as: • Recognize potential trends and outcomes more effectively • Discount poor and biased forecasts more confidently • Anticipate relevant opportunities and potential threats earlier


Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) has become an economic technique for the manufacture
of advanced composite lightweight structures in many cases. Meanwhile the
acronym LCM represents more than a dozen of varying process types, which all have
the principle in common that a liquid monomer is firstly injected into a cavity filled with
a reinforcing fibre preform and secondly it forms the part by chemically reacting to a
solid polymer network. A distinctive feature of the LCM process variations is their
applicability to the fabrication of a variety of different part sizes and shapes. Within
this development numerical process simulation has become an important engineering
tool for mould design and process control. Thereby the research focuses on the
simulation of resin flow through a fibrous reinforcement, because this turned out to be
the most critical process within the manufacture of composites by applying LCMTechnologies.
With the software commercially available the mould-filling pattern can
be simulated depending on the locations and number of inlet and outlet gates, resin
rheology, injection rate and pressure, thermal effects and the physics of liquid flow
through fibre preforms. Hereby the standard flow modelling bases on a proportional
relationship between the flow rate and the applied pressure gradient, which is known
as D´Arcy's law. The describing proportional factor is called the permeability. Its
value depends on the considered flow direction because of a non-isotropic structural
arrangement of the fibre reinforcement. It becomes clear that the permeability affects
the injection process crucially and so the knowledge about it is indispensable for the
realistic prediction of a filling pattern by flow simulation.
Due to the complexity of the inner structure of a textile reinforcement the resulting
multiphase flow cannot be described adequately by an analytical model at the current
stage of research, so that the permeabilities of planar textile reinforcements like woven or non-crimped fabrics is usually obtained from flow measurements. A variety
of experimental set-ups were developed, which allow the tracking of the fluid flow
through the textile reinforcement. The permeability is derived from the flow data by
applying D´Arcy´s law. Most of these test-rigs allow the determination of the in-plane
flow characteristics only, because they are dominant in the most classical processing
techniques. But the simulation of these processes produces still significant errors,
which result from neglecting the out-of-plane flow. Since new liquid composite moulding
processes like SCRIMP™ or resin film infusion were developed, the knowledge of
the permeability in thickness direction becomes as important as the in-plane charac teristics so that researchers started to measure flow in thickness direction and developed
flow models which include the principle permeability in thickness direction. The
main arising difficulties are the measuring and the modelling for the calculation of the
permeability from flow front data. The objective of this work is to overcome these
problems by the development of a test-rig for the measure of the flow in thickness
direction and by determining a transformation rule, which addresses the unsolved
geometric boundary condition at the injection port.
After investigating the existing instrumentation for measuring flow in thickness direction
a new sensor concept is developed on the basis of ultrasound transmission,
which enables a steady collection of the actual position of a flow front. The applicability
of this test-rig was tested within the measure of the flow through different woven
and non-crimped fabrics. The permeability values, which were obtained from the flow
data with the aid of the improved analytic model, were validated by two-dimensional
radial flow experiments.


The Sexual Violence Special Interest group (SVIG) was established in July 2010 as a subgroup of the Adolescent Special Interest Group (ASIG) after the identification of a need for a specialist group in this area. The impact of sexual violence on the emotional, sexual, mental and physical well-being of survivors is considerable and sobering statistics show that there is much work yet to be done to redress this. Domestic abuse remains the leading cause of morbidity in women 19–44 years old worldwide, greater than cancer, war and car accidents.1 On average, two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner in the UK.2

Historically, there have been multiple barriers to male survivors disclosing domestic or sexual violence.

The aim of the group is to positively influence the practice of BASHH members and other professionals by providing a trauma informed perspective to BASHH guidelines, ensuring dissemination of best practice through BASHH guidelines (including the disclosure of sexual violence …


Recent studies have established that retinal health depends on the presence of polyunsaturated C28eC36 fatty acids, in addition to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3). Initially characterised 20 years ago, these C28eC36 fatty acids are found as sn-1 acyl components of retinal phosphatidylcholines (PCs), which have DHA in the sn-2 position. This unique PC species is found in both rod-and cone-dominant retinas, mainly in the photoreceptor outer segments where the majority of phototransduction reactions take place. In bovine photoreceptor outer segments, this species is a significant component of lipid membranes. Its C28eC36 fatty acids account for 10 mol % of total PC fatty acids. Polyunsaturated C28eC36 fatty acids are synthesised in the retina, in contrast to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3) and DHA which in humans are predominantly of dietary origin. Synthesis of C28eC36 fatty acids appears to be exclusively catalysed by elongase of very-long-chain fatty acids-4 (Elovl4). Mutations in Elovl4 cause Stargardt disease-3, a juvenile autosomal dominant macular degeneration. A mouse genetic model of the disease carries a human pathogenic 5 bp deletion in the mouse Elovl4 gene. It demonstrates early selective deficiency of retinal C28eC36 acyl PCs, followed later by reduced electroretinographic signals and increased accumulation of toxic N-retinylidene-N-retinylethanolamine (A2E).


Discovery of Inhibitors of Bacterial Histidine Kinases Summary The thesis is on novel antibacterial drug discovery ( http://youtu.be/NRMWOGgeysM ). Using structure-based and fragment-based drug discovery approach, we have identified small-molecule histidine-kinase inhibitors with antibacterial effect against multi-drug resistant strains, including clinical isolates of multi-drug resistant bacteria such as MRSA. Furthermore, we have shown broadening of the antibacterial spectrum and lowering the toxicity of the histidine-kinase inhibitors using nanoparticles. The results open up exciting possibilities for development of novel antibacterial(nano)medicines.


Sex difference in verbal ability was reconsidered in relation to body size. The perceptual-verbal ability (PVA) was assessed using the A s Test. For the raw data, women excelled men, as expected. PVA positively correlated with height and weight of the subjects, but only for women. As a covariate of height, sex difference increased by increasing the women s score; men s score did not change. Tall women had much higher scores than short men. It was concluded that sex difference in PVA is stable despite the smaller body size of females than males, and body height may be predictive for this ability, but only in women.


IZA DP No. 13479 JULY 2020 Air Pollution Quotas and the Dynamics of Internal Skilled Migration in Chinese Cities* This paper examines the role of a sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions quota introduced as part of China's 11th Five-Year Plan on internal movements of high-skilled labour across Chinese prefecture cities. Using data on migration flows calculated through changes in Hukou status, this study suggests that a 1,000 tons increase in the SO2 emissions reduction quota leads on average to approximately a 1.5 percentage points increase in high-skilled net outmigration. Compared to the largest prefectures, this regulation effect is twice as large in the smaller regulated prefectures. A possible mechanism could be that the implementation of SO2 quotas decreases relative labour demand in polluting industries in the regulated cities in the short term, thereby resulting in sectoral transitions from dirty-toclean industries as well as skilled net outmigration flows. However, this net outmigration trend fades in the long term due to stabilisation in air quality. Our findings help contribute to a broader understanding of the effects of environmental policies on internal labour migration and labour force dynamics. JEL Classification: J61, O15, Q53, Q58


Between 1946, when commercial television first gained an initial foothold in the American home, and 1972, when Home Box Office broadcast with a test group of 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, PA, hundreds of thousands of television programs that were never archived are now considered lost, erased or discarded. Many of these original broadcasts richly reflect a quarter of a century of nostalgia, the political and social events of our time, our television heritage and so much more--a huge archival hole representing the dawn of TV commercial broadcasting which will forever be a frustration to old and new generations--never to be replayed again. However, thanks to a small group of television recordists, who literally took the back of their television set off and wired alligator clips to the speaker terminals of their television set, connecting a phone jack to the input of their 1/4" reel to reel tape recorder, thousands of TV audio air checks exist. These sound recordings have become the only surviving TV broadcast record of a specific television program broadcast which no longer exists as video. The author is one of a handful of recordists who audio taped his television set. At the age of fifteen, in 1958,1 began tinkering with a Webcor model 210-10 1/4" reel-to-reel tape recorder, given to me as a hand me down from my Aunt Mildred. This 1950s recorder contained tubes, two motors, single channel sound, 7" reel size, three heads, and recorded and played at speeds of 7 1/2 ips and 3 3/4 ips. I was fascinated, and for my sixteenth birthday my parents bought me a brand new Webcor stereophonic model which recorded and played back monaurally in both directions without reel turnover. It had automatic shut--off! External amplifier output! Receptacle for a second sound system! Tape counter, and a great "green eye" level indicator. The manufacturer's List price was $239.95. Over a half a century later, I look back to that time as the beginning of my love affair with recording my television set ... variety shows, talk shows, music shows, specials, etc. I audio recorded approximately 1000 TV broadcasts, mostly from 1959 thru 1965. and 1968 and 1969. In 1987, I visited the Museum of Broadcasting; its name changed in 1991 to the Museum of Television & Radio, and since 2007, called the Paley Center for Media, in New York City. I quickly realized that most of what I had recorded years ago was not to be found in their museum in any form. I further researched The Library of Congress, The Museum of Broadcast Communications, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Vanderbilt Television News Archive, and other institutions, coming to the realization that what I recorded off the air in the 1950s and 1960s was special and in many cases, peerless television broadcasts representing the history of the media. I collated my own collection of TV audio tapes. I became known by others and soon attracted the attention of newspaper columnists and, subsequently, I was interviewed by a number of them with personal profiles and my archive written up in New York papers. Soon, I was also asked to appear on local television interview shows. Other collections became known to me, and I purchased a number of them (1995 thru 2000). I paid as much as tens of thousands of dollars, and as little as pennies for television audio, some of them about to be thrown away in dumpsters, I also traded and was the recipient of collections from others who also audio recorded their TV. My collection grew to where it exists today at approximately 12.000 broadcasts--15,000 hours of TV audio (1946-1979). In 2002 a website was developed representing and listing the collection. During the same year the archive was accredited into The Guinness World Records for the most money purchased for one television audio air check. The American Theatre Wing purchased from ATA the lost Tony Awards broadcast telecast on local station WOR TV New York (13 June 1965) for four figures. …


This dissertation is concerned with the question of whether nations grieve, whether the behaviour they exhibit in the wake of loss can be said to constitute grief. Initially exploring the concepts of both grief and nation in order to establish the feasibility of national grief as a notion, it goes on to examine the applicability of grief theory, traditionally developed in the context of the individual suffering bereavement, to large-scale national collectives which have undergone significant shared loss. The investigation is conducted with reference to two case studies: the Palestinian people in the aftermath of the loss of their land to the creation of Israel in the nakba of 1948; and Israel itself, as a manifestation of the European Jewish response to the holocaust and the centuries of loss and suffering which led up to it. In both cases, the relevant periods of history are scanned to see to what extent, if any, historical accounts reflect the contours and parameters of the grieving experience as the latter is described and defined in the grief theory literature. In addition, and serving to triangulate the evidence thus gleaned from national history, the contemporary visual arts of both nations, with their observation of and comment on the dominant features and issues of current national identity, are employed as data sources and explored with a view to ascertaining whether they reflect any themes expressive of or pertinent to collective historical loss and grief. The findings from this research into national history and identity within a grief experience framework may serve to open up a new direction for the further development of grief theory. They may also, in revealing the insights afforded by a grief theory perspective on long-term interactions within the global community, offer some contribution to the study of international relations.


The traditional characterization of the quiet zone for a CATR is to perform field probe scans perpendicular to the range axis at one or more depths of the quiet zone, usually front, middle and back. There is usually no attempt to compare the peak signals across the field probe scans. In recent years, users of CATRs have been using these devices at lower and lower frequencies, sometimes below the lowest frequency that provides the specified performance for the CATR. It is recognized that as a CATR is used at lower and lower frequencies compared to its optics, the quiet zone quality will degrade. The purpose of this study was to create a quiet zone depth variation model to characterize the variation, particularly for low frequencies. The model was to treat the CATR as an antenna aperture and apply a power density versus distance model. It is well known that the extreme near field of an aperture is oscillatory at distances up to approximately 10% of the far-field distance, at which point the power density begins to follow the Fraunhofer approximation. The optics of a CATR place the quiet zone well within the oscillatory zone, indicating that the field will vary through the depth of the quiet zone. This variation will decrease with increasing frequency as the far-field distance for the CATR increases with frequency. The model has been compared to a simulation in GRASP and experimental data collected on a CATR.


We have studied blends of polyethylene homopolymer (hydrogenated polybutadiene) with diblock copolymers of polyethylene-poly(ethylene-alt-propylene), E/EP, varying both homopolymer loading and the block copolymer and homopolymer molecular weights. The pure block copolymers form homogeneous melts which are miscible with the homopolymer. The two components readily cocrystallize, even at homopolymer loadings as high as 75 wt % and even for a homopolymer which has nearly three times the molecular weight of the E block in the diblock. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) shows a single domain structure up to at least 50 wt % homopolymer addition, a result confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Surprisingly, the Bragg spacing observed by SAXS, which reflects the sum of E and EP lamellar thicknesses, decreases continuously and substantially as homopolymer is added. The strong chain stretching in the EP block is progressively relaxed as E homopolymer is added; the reduction in Bragg spacing is only weakly opposed by the enthalpic resistance to formation of additional internal interface between E and EP domains, due to the small interaction parameter between the two blocks.


The calcified, though strongly mucosoid gametophytes of Trichogloea (Nemaliales, Liagoraceae) usually appear seasonally for a short period in tropical and subtropical regions. Vegetative and reproductive characteristics of the presently recognized species, Trichogloea requienii (Mont.) Kützing (the generitype), Trichogloea lubrica J. Agardh, and Trichogloea herveyi W. R. Taylor, are described and compared. In addition, the identities of two previously synonymized species, Trichogloea jadinii Børgesen and Trichogloea javensis B0rgesen are clarified. Species of the genus display considerable variation in habit and branching patterns, necessitating an assessment of reproductive structures for accurate identification. Reliable features of Trichogloea include the structure of the medulla and the cortical (assimilatory) filaments, location and structure of carpogonial branches and spermatangia, and the nature of sterile filaments in the vicinity of the cystocarp. Secondary features include both external and internal branching pattern, and the proportion of calcium carbonate to lubricous material, the latter having to be assessed from fresh collections. The present study provides a comparative morphological account of the species of Trichogloea. As a result, T. requienii, T. lubrica, T. herveyi are confirmed as independent species; T. jadinii is removed from synonymy with T. lubrica and placed in that of T. requienii, and T. javensis is confirmed as a synonym of Izziella orientalis (J. Agardh) Huisman et Schils.


Although there are proprietary fleet management systems the information flow to the sender or to the receiver of consignments is limited and complex. The research shows how delivery information can theoretically and practically be made transparent to all related partners of road based transports. With joint appliance of standard smartphone technologies in combination with location based services (LBS) new tracking & tracing technologies become reality. This research proves that real time geo-tracking features of mobile devices can be used not only to track vehicles or trucks, but also to identify and track their individual shipments. Accurate load data can be published in real time to all relevant stakeholders (e.g. sender, forwarder and receiver) through the internet based technology. Accurate forecasts of estimated arriving times can efficiently support the Supply Chain Management (SCM) of all partners and the physical movement of material streams becomes highly transparent. The purpose of the research is to show how current and readily accessible technologies can create transparency through continuous information flow in the delivery process. The findings are demonstrated by a practical prototype in the automotive industry.


Photoacoustics is one of the new branches in biomedical diagnostics that holds lot of new promises and advancements. It is a unique field that deals with the conversion of photons into ultrasound waves. It is only in the recent years has the full potential of photoacoustics been explored in cancer detection and imaging. This dissertation throws light on the process of development and validation of the photoacoustic based sensor and metastatic cell detection in mice. An optical photoacoustic sensor based on the change in refractive index was developed to detect individual melanoma cells. The sensitivity of the optical based detector was high and has the resolution to determine the presence of extremely low number of metastatic and cultured cells (2 cells) in the suspension containing a million white blood cells. A signal to noise ratio of 3:1 was achieved in detection of cultured melanoma cells. Both stationary and flow chambers were developed and integrated to the photoacoustic detection system. Single cell detection of both injected and induced metastatic melanoma cells was successfully obtained by using the probe of the ultrasound machine as the transducer. Dual wavelength study at 532 nm and 622 nm was adopted to rule out the possibility of detection of stray red blood cells in the illuminated volume of the photoacoustic flowsystem. Efforts were also made to detect single non melanotic cancer cells in flow chamber by tagging EGCG gold nanoparticles to PC-3 (human cultured prostate cancer cell line). 10 PC-3 cells tagged to gold nanoparticles were made to flow in 10 mL of the buffer and were detected at different time points of circulation. New flow chambers, based on polymerization of Loctite monomer were fabricated that are more economical, faster to make and also disposable. The new flow chambers added to the user friendly approach towards photoacoustic metastatic cancer cell detection. Finally, research and development of the new two phase flow system to break the cell suspension continuum into uniform slugs or bubbles of cells suspensions of 3 [Mu]L in volume, separated by equal volume air pockets was successfully integrated with the photoacoustic flow system. This new flow system opened up new avenues to capture and isolate the detected metastatic cells that can be further subjected to genetic and pharmacological analysis as an effective drug development tool. Hence, this dissertation explores the role of photoacoustics in a plethora of applications aimed towards isolation and detection of single metastatic cancer cells in blood.


Historical data offers a wealth of knowledge to the users. However, often restrictively mammoth that the information cannot be fully extracted, synthesized, and analyzed efficiently for an application such as the forecasting of variable generator outputs. Moreover, the accuracy of the prediction method is vital. Therefore, a trade-off between accuracy and efficacy is required for the data-driven energy forecasting method. It has been identified that the hybrid approach may outperform the individual technique in minimizing the error while challenging to synthesize. A hybrid deep learning-based method is proposed for the output prediction of the solar photovoltaic systems (i.e. proposed PV system) in Australia to obtain the trade-off between accuracy and efficacy. The historical dataset from 1990-2013 in Australian locations (e.g. North Queensland) are used to train the model. The model is developed using the combination of multivariate long and short-term memory (LSTM) and convolutional neural network (CNN). The proposed hybrid deep learning (LSTM-CNN) is compared with the existing neural network ensemble (NNE), random forest, statistical analysis, and artificial neural network (ANN) based techniques to assess the performance. The proposed model could be useful for generation planning and reserve estimation in power systems with high penetration of solar photovoltaics (PVs) or other renewable energy sources (RESs).


The hippocampus is a key brain region for spatial memory and navigation and is needed at all stages of memory, including encoding, consolidation, and recall. Hippocampal place cells selectively discharge at specific locations of the environment to form a cognitive map of the space. During the rest period and sleep following spatial navigation and/or learning, the waking activity of the place cells is reactivated within high synchrony events. This reactivation is thought to be important for memory consolidation and stabilization of the spatial representations. The aim of my thesis was to directly test whether the reactivation content encoded in firing patterns of place cells is important for consolidation of spatial memories. In particular, I aimed to test whether, in cases when multiple spatial memory traces are acquired during learning, the specific disruption of the reactivation of a subset of these memories leads to the selective disruption of the corresponding memory traces or through memory interference the other learned memories are disrupted as well.
 In this thesis, using a modified cheeseboard paradigm and a closed-loop recording setup with feedback optogenetic stimulation, I examined how the disruption of the reactivation of specific spiking patterns affects consolidation of the corresponding memory traces. To obtain multiple distinctive memories, animals had to perform a spatial task in two distinct cheeseboard environments and the reactivation of spiking patterns associated with one of the environments (target) was disrupted after learning during four hours rest period using a real-time decoding method. This real-time decoding method was capable of selectively affecting the firing rates and cofiring correlations of the target environment-encoding cells. The selective disruption led to behavioural impairment in the memory tests after the rest periods in the target environment but not in the other undisrupted control environment. In addition, the map of the target environment was less stable in the impaired memory tests compared to the learning session before than the map of the control environment. However, when the animal relearned the task, the same map recurred in the target environment that was present during learning before the disruption.
 Altogether my work demonstrated that the reactivation content is important: assembly-related disruption of reactivation can lead to a selective memory impairment and deficiency in map stability. These findings indeed suggest that reactivated assembly patterns reflect processes associated with the consolidation of memory traces.


Volume zone plates consisting of a number of Fresnel zone plate layers are designed and fabricated inside a fused silica by the femtosecond laser direct writing method. Light diffracted from different layers of a volume zone plate constructively interfere at the focal spot to increase diffraction efficiency. The technique is experimentally verified to be effective for both low-numerical-aperture (NA) and high-NA zone plates, resulting in a significant increase in overall diffraction efficiency. The spatial resolution of a high NA volume zone plate is 500 nm.


In this paper, we consider the problem of domain generalization in semantic segmentation, which aims to learn a robust model using only labeled synthetic (source) data. The model is expected to perform well on unseen real (target) domains. Our study finds that the image style variation can largely influence the model's performance and the style features can be well represented by the channel-wise mean and standard deviation of images. Inspired by this, we propose a novel adversarial style augmentation (AdvStyle) approach, which can dynamically generate hard stylized images during training and thus can effectively prevent the model from overfitting on the source domain. Specifically, AdvStyle regards the style feature as a learnable parameter and updates it by adversarial training. The learned adversarial style feature is used to construct an adversarial image for robust model training. AdvStyle is easy to implement and can be readily applied to different models. Experiments on two synthetic-to-real semantic segmentation benchmarks demonstrate that AdvStyle can significantly improve the model performance on unseen real domains and show that we can achieve the state of the art. Moreover, AdvStyle can be employed to domain generalized image classification and produces a clear improvement on the considered datasets.


Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices produce massive amounts of data, which are especially valuable when shared between businesses. However, adoption of platforms that facilitate IoT data sharing is still low. Generic literature on interorganizational systems suggests a plethora of adoption factors, but typically focuses on data sharing between pairs of organizations. In a context of ecosystems, data governance becomes important, but its relative importance as an adoption factor is yet unclear. In this article, we examine the perception of IoT data providers regarding the relative importance of ecosystem data governance as an adoption factor, in comparison with generic adoption factors. Our study is situated in the horticulture domain, where data sharing is potentially is highly valuable. We conduct a multicriteria decision-analysis survey using the best-worst method, complemented with interviews for interpreting findings. We find that businesses consider a large variety of factors equally important. Ecosystem data governance is in the middle-range, whereas factors like benefits and readiness are most important. At the same time, out of all adoption factors that platform providers can control directly, ecosystem data governance ranks among the highest. Our findings are important for informing data platform operators on what design issues to consider, in order to attract data owners.


Artistic expression in the Middle East is experiencing something of a renaissance. Domestic patronage is flourishing, and an impressive array of new museums and art fairs across the region is helping to stimulate international interest in an increasingly influential movement. Art of the Middle East is an accessible overview of modern and contemporary art of the Middle East and Arab world from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on artists active today. This new revised and expanded edition features the work of 12 additional artists, as well as a consideration of the impact of the revolutions of the so-called Arab spring, which erupted across the region in 2011. The featured works are divided into seven themed sections - including literature, portraiture and the body, and politics, conflict and war - while extended captions provide an engaging commentary on each artwork and the artist behind its creation. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this landmark publication is an authoritative guide to a challenging and exciting body of work.


This paper describes optimal power flow based on oppositional biogeography-based optimisation (OBBO) in which fuel cost, voltage deviation and power transmission loss functions are individually used as the problem objectives. The feasibility of the proposed method is exhibited for standard IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus systems and the results obtained by using the proposed approach are compared with other optimisation methods. The proposed OBBO provides results better than other heuristic techniques. The results also show that OBBO has the effectiveness and potential to solve both small and large scale OPF problems.


Background: Acne vulgaris is self-limiting, multifactorial disease involving sebaceous glands. Omeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor with in vitro antibacterial effects against staphylococcus aureus and anti-androgen that can be potential treatment of acne vulgaris. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of oral omeprazole and erythromycin 4% compared to doxycycline combination therapy in the treatment of acne vulgaris. Methods: In this clinical trial study, patients with moderate acne were referred to Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Iran, during August 2014 until November 2015 and were randomized into two groups receiving topical erythromycin 4% plus omeprazole (34 patients) or doxycycline (35 patients) for 3 months. Moderate acne, lack of sensitivity to proton pump inhibitors, lack of warfarin, phenytoin, diazepam consumption, lack of active liver or kidney disease, being older than 12 years, were considered as inclusion criteria. Pregnant or lactating patients, patients with drug allergy history, patients taking oral contraceptives, acne topical medi-cations (including retinoids) or systemic treatment within 30 days of study, patients with oligomenorrhea, hirsutism, acne conglobata, acne fulminant or body acne alone were ex-cluded from the study. All patients were tested for Helicobacter pylori test at the begin-ning of the study. Results: Both inflammatory and non-inflammatory lesions decreased in both groups with negative correlation with age (P< 0.05). There was no significant correlation between positive Helicobacter pylori test and inflammatory or non-inflammatory lesion reduction (P= 0.794, P= 0.514). Also, patient satisfaction and rate of total drug side effects was not different between two treatment groups. Rate of skin reactions was 20.58% in omeprazole treated group and 11.42% in doxycycline group. For side effects, other than skin it was 2.94% versus 14.28% respectively. Conclusion: Omeprazole could be suggested as an alternative for doxycycline in the treatment of patients with moderate acne vulgaris especially in non-inflammatory lesions. Abstract


IZA DP No. 14052 JANUARY 2021 Heterogeneity in Migration Responses to Climate Shocks: Evidence from Madagascar* We analyze the impact of climate events on migration among a cohort of young adults residing in rural Madagascar. We find a strong negative impact of drought on the decision of youth to migrate in the year after the adverse weather shock. Household assets and access to savings institutions attenuate this impact, consistent with the notion that wealth and savings cushion the blow of the shock on the resources required to finance migration. We also find that households that report more social connections outside their villages are more likely to have their young adult members migrate. Our findings suggest that the liquidity constraints from climate shocks that prevent youth migration are more binding for young women who migrate largely for reasons of marriage and education. Males, in contrast, are more likely to migrate in search of employment, which often has higher economic returns than migration motivated by marriage and education. These factors likely explain why drought deters migration of young women, but not so for young men who still choose to migrate in search of a job. JEL Classification: O15, J13, N3, N57


This chapter summarizes what we know so far about the development of online processing skill in young bilingual children, with a focus on the relation between individual differences in language exposure and processing skill. We discuss evidence from studies with Spanish-English bilingual children in California, showing clear contingencies between language exposure and both vocabulary size and online processing efficiency as measured in the looking-while-listening (LWL) procedure. However, the strength of these contingencies is critically affected by whether the constructs are operationalized in relative or absolute terms. While relative amount of language exposure is only weakly related to absolute processing speed, we find a more solid association when both exposure and outcome are cast in relative terms. Finally, we consider the advantages, as well as the challenges, of using absolute measures for both language exposure and outcome measures. Our ongoing studies explore ways to capture variation in the absolute amount of talk that young bilinguals hear from their caregivers, presenting preliminary evidence that variation in caregiver engagement is critical for language outcomes in bilingual children, as many earlier studies have shown for monolinguals.


In this Article, I extol the virtues of the short, nonprecedential opinions (NPOs) that make up more than 80 percent of the output of the federal courts of appeals. The recent amendment to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1(a), requiring that all circuits allow citation to NPOs, has provoked considerable debate about how, and whether, to issue written dispositions in the class of cases currently resolved by NPOs. I defend the issuance of NPOs not as a necessary concession to judicial overwork, but rather as a valuable decisional form that plays a useful if not vital role in inculcating in practitioners the perceptual faculties required to classify, analyze, and innovate within the cultural tradition of the common law. I identify certain features of NPOs that particularly foster this situation sense, and examine current circuit practices to develop a model of a pedagogically and aesthetically successful NPO.


WHILE THE PHRASE "paradigm shift" has become so overused as to lose virtually all meaning, perhaps no phrase can better describe the dramatic changes that have occurred in the interpretation of the French Revolution in the last two decades. Unfortunately these transformations have been missed by non-specialists who do not have the time to keep up with the latest changes in every field of interest; yet understanding this paradigm shift is crucial to understanding the immediate and long-range impact of the events of the French Revolution. Prior to the 1960s, historians were positive they knew exactly what had happened in 1789: it was a classic playing-out of a Marxist bourgeois revolution, the victory of a repressed bourgeoisie over an entrenched aristocracy. So widespread was this belief that many historians saw their role as merely rounding out the established picture of the Revolution. In 1964, however, English historian Alfred Cobban launched a devastating frontal assault on this orthodox interpretation. In his The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution, Cobban argues that even the preeminent Marxist historians, such as Georges Lefebvre and Albert Soboul, tended to overlook "facts" that did not support their thesis, raising serious questions of the validity of the Marxist paradigm. This debate was quickly joined by such historians as Elizabeth Eisenstein and George V. Taylor who attacked the very heart of the Marxist argument: the role of class conflict in France during the ancien regime. Eisenstein, for example, specifically challenged Lefebvre's notion of a bourgeois revolt in 1788 primarily by turning Lefebvre's thesis against him, while Taylor's work showed that far from the existence of a class during the last years before the Revolution, the "bourgeoisie" and the nobility were in reality part of the same moneyed, elite class. Over the next three decades additional assaults witnessed the further erosion of the Marxist edifice, worn down argument by argument. Perhaps Charles Tilly best summarized the impact of this anti-Marxist assault: "The pamphleteering Marxist account of the French Revolution, with its transfer of power grounded in a straightforward succession of ruling classes and modes of production, lies in tatters after a generation of critical flailing" (169). Although new research had demonstrated the increasing untenability of the Marxist paradigm, the Revisionists (as they came to be called) proved unable to put something in its place. As Lynn Hunt noted: "The primary defect of the revisionist accounts has been their failure to offer a plausible alternative to the Marxist version. In their concern to combat the Marxist interpretation, many critics argue against the thesis of `bourgeois' revolution without offering anything convincing in its place" (Hunt, 178). Without an overall interpretation, the Revolution remained a great event in history, but it had become a purposeless event. Even Taylor himself recognized the serious problem posed by the lack of an effective paradigm: "Who will give us the clear, simple, self-activating, systematic, inexorable explanation we so desperately need[?]" (qtd. in Censer, 296). This plea for a new interpretation can be seen repeatedly throughout the field's literature. A partial answer to these pleas came in 1978 with Francois Furet's Interpreting the French Revolution. While not based on any new historical "discoveries," the work draws its inspiration from the "re-discovery" of two often overlooked nineteenth-century historians, Alexis de Tocqueville and Augustin Cochin. In his study of Tocqueville, for example, Furet found that the "origins" of the Revolution offered a key to understanding what occurred later: "The year 1789 is the key to what lies both upstream and downstream. It separates those periods, and thereby defines and `explains' them" (Interpreting, 3). This statement is indeed the key. Instead of a radical break with the past, Tocqueville found that the Revolution was in reality a continuation of the ideologies and trends of the ancien regime: "It [the Revolution] has completed the work of the monarchy. …


This paper aims at assessing the impact on citizens' well-being of fiscal discipline imposed by Central Government to sub-national governments. Since health care policies involve strategic interactions between different layers of governments in many different countries, we focus on a particular dimension of well-being, namely citizens' health. We model fiscal discipline by considering sub-national governments expectations of future deficit bailouts from the Central Government. We then study how these bailout expectations affect the expenditure for health care policies carried out by decentralized governments. To investigate this issue, we separate efficient health spending from inefficiencies by estimating an input requirement frontier. This allow us to assess the effects of bailout expectations on both the structural component of health expenditure and its deviations from the 'best practice'. The evidence from the 15 Italian Ordinary Statute Regions (observed from 1993 to 2006) points out that bailout expectations do not significantly influence the position of the frontier, thus do not affect citizens' health. However, they appear to exert a remarkable impact on excess spending.


The objective of this study was to determine the undegradable dietary protein requirements of veal calves. Two experiments were carried out with Holstein bull calves from 3-10 days of age until slaughter at 20 weeks of age. Both experiments were divided into starter and finishing periods. Calves were offered starter pellets on an ad lib. basis from seven days of age. Diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric, and differed in undegradable dietary protein content. In Experiment 1 calves were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments containing low (LD), medium (MD) or high (HD) levels of rumen degradable protein. In Experiment 2 calves received a starter diet containing either a high or a low level of rumen degradable protein. At the end of the starter period animals from both treatment groups were re-assigned at random to finisher diets containing either low or high rumen degradable protein levels, resulting in four treatment combinations, viz. LL, LH, HL and HH. There were no treatment differences for feed intake, body weight gain or feed efficiency during the starter period of either experiment. During the finishing period (weeks 12-20) of Experiment 1, calves receiving the LD diet had higher average daily gains than calves receiving the HD treatment. Feed conversion ratio for the LD treatment was also better than for the other two treatments. During the finishing period (weeks 11-20) of Experiment 2 the feed conversion ratio tended (P < 0.10) to differ between treatments: feed conversion ratio for the LL and HL treatments was more favourable than that for the LH treatment. Feed conversion ratio for the HH treatment was intermediate, and did not differ from that of the LL, HL or LH treatments. The level of crude protein degradability appears to have no effect on calf performance during the starter period, but it may, however, be beneficial to feed finisher diets with a lower crude protein degradability during the finisher period.


Caesarean section is an effort to give birth to a fetus through surgery due to the condition of the mother or fetus that requires this action to minimize maternal and fetal morbidity. The problem that arises after surgery is the disruption of pain, so it is necessary to take nursing action. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Benson relaxation on the intensity of post-cesarean section maternal pain at Muhammadiyah Metro Hospital in 2018. This type of experimental research, quasi-experimental design using the form Nonequivalent control group design / non-randomized control group pretest-posttest design. The population in this study were 127 mothers of postoperative cesarean section at Muhammadiyah Metro Hospital, with a sample of 32 people divided into the experimental and control groups 16 each. The analysis used the independent sample T-test. The average post-cesarean section pain before treatment (pretest) in the intervention group was 6.131.784, and after treatment (posttest) 2.81-1.559 with a difference in pain score of 3.131 ± 1.078. The mean postoperative pain in the control group pretest cesarean section was difference in the average pain intensity after treatment between the intervention group and the control group was -1.125 with a significance value of 0.039 (p <0.05), which means that there is a significant difference in the intensity of post-cesarean maternal pain between the intervention and control groups. The result of the t value of 1.125 is more significant / smaller than the t table so that there is a difference in the average pain in patients before giving Benson relaxation. Benson relaxation has been proven effective in reducing the pain intensity of post-cesarean women. It is hoped that Benson relaxation can be used as a companion therapy in pain management in post-cesarean section patients.