Problem learners in Ghanaian schools are often marginalized and/or ignored during the teaching and learning processes in the classroom. The study was carried out using the convergent parallel mixed method design with questionnaire, focus group discussion, and one-on-one interviews as the data collection instruments. The purposive, convenient, and stratified random sampling techniques were used in selecting a total sample size of 112 participants consisting of identified problem learners, teachers, parents, heads of institutions, and experts in childhood learning and development. The quantitative data set were analyzed using the descriptive statistics while the qualitative data set were analyzed using the data analysis spiral. The findings revealed that the main causes of the learning and retention challenges among problem learners are more of environmental factors than the perceived hereditary and spiritual factors. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education should organize sensitization education workshops and seminars for teachers, heads of institutions, and the student body in the elementary schools in Ghana aimed at fostering an understanding of the conditions of problem learners. This would help eradicate the stigmatization against problem learners while equipping the teachers with the pragmatic strategies to improve their learning outcomes.


A B S T R A C T Introduction: The decline of visual function with increasing age is a significant concern in elderly. Despite previous work on prevalence of specific ophthalmic pathologies, there has not been enough valid data about overall eye disorders in Tehran yet, and it is poorly defined and not underpinned by strong evidence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the common eye disorders in the elderly population of Tehran. Methods: A total of 392 elderly community residents aged 60 to 96 were enrolled. The 278 older adults referred to Tehran's Polyclinic of 6th Region of municipality and 114 older adults referred to the health centers of 9th Region of municipality between 2013 and 2014 were examined. All participants underwent an extensive ophthalmologic screening examination including cataract, diabetic retinopathy of optic nerve, macular degeneration, and glaucoma. The prevalence of various eye disorders was calculated as percentages of the total study population and categorized by age and sex. Results: Of the 392 participants, 152 subjects (38.8%) had no eye disease. Common visual impairments in elderly were cataract (39.3%), macular degeneration (11.5%), diabetic retinopathy of optic nerve (5.6%) and glaucoma (4.8%). It has also showed cataract prevalence increased with age from (6.3%) in the 60-64 age group to (47.6%) for the patients 85years of age and older. Conclusion: Cataract is the most frequent eye disease in community dwelling older adults that should be considered at a younger age by health officials to provide preventive programs. Improving accessibility to surgery for the treatment of cataract among the old people will help diminish of untreated cataract that lead to visual impairment.


Lightweight structures such as membrane structures, shells, space-grid, lightweight trussed and suspended structures have become an integral part of the international building scene. While a wide range of constructed examples exists, the general quality of architectural integration with the building complex and environment is, with few exceptions, arguable. To improve architectural design quality, accessability to the vast repertoire of lightweight structures must be improved and a methodology be developed that architects and designers can employ during the conceptual stage of the design process. Current research at LSRU focusses on the hypothesis that there is a logical grammar which rules the relationships between design application, building form, structural type and building envelope and that can be used as a predictive design tool. Based on a morphology of structures developed by the author [Sedlak, 1987], a typological method has been established and its validity has been checked by systematic examination of a database containing 200 Australian projects constructed over the last 100 years. Statistical evaluation of this database shows the interrelationship that exists between the three main aspects of lightweight structures design: shape, structure and architectural application.


This practice-led research aims to contribute to contemporary theatre by focusing upon the decentralisation of authorship and language through: critical reading of Artaud, research into practice, and research through practice. Whilst contemporary theatre already benefits from research into authorship and language, this project applies Derrida's (1973) 'deconstruction theory', Goffman's (1956) concept of 'agency', and Barthes' (1977) concept of 'text'. These theories expound critical reading of Artaud's circa 1938 vision. Artaud challenged the centrality of language and the passivity of the audience by envisioning theatre as sensate encounter. Critical reading of Artaud's vision informs comparison of Forced Entertainment's and Pantheatre's praxes. Within their practice some aspects of decentralisation are realised through techniques that embody some of the visceral qualities Artaud sought, engaging the audience in emotive, if predominantly intellectual experiences. Techniques including disassociation, working with subgroups, voice distortion, and recontextualisation, foreground symbolic rather than referential language and enhance the depth of performer engagement. Comparative study of Forced Entertainment and Pantheatre is yet to be published. This research incorporates the unique dissemination of primary research with both of the companies' directors, citations from their archives, and observations of their practices. Techniques for decentralisation are then applied within my research through practice which is informed by but remains distinct from Artaud's vision and the praxes of Forced Entertainment and Pantheatre. Within my research through practice I find that when authorship and language are radically decentralised enablement may be necessary for audience-participants to actively engage - however, enablement lessens the decentralisation of authorship. Through this research I expose the tendency for audience-participants to maintain a social-cultural etiquette of passivity unless explicitly instructed. I identify concerns about a rational interpretation becoming more significant than the audiences sensate encounter. The significance of how a performance is framed is discussed in relation to the audience- participants' agency. I rationalise that bespoke usage of referential language may be desirable to enable greater audience engagement with contemporary performance which utilises decentralisation.


The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the high-energy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a three-dimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and complementary field of view, including the galactic plane. One building block will be densely configured to precisely measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations.


Peptidoglycan is a fundamental structure for most bacteria. It contributes to the cell morphology and provides cell wall integrity against environmental insults. While several studies have reported a significant degree of variability in the chemical composition and organization of peptidoglycan in the domain Bacteria, the real diversity of this polymer is far from fully explored. This work exploits rapid ultraperformance liquid chromatography and multivariate data analysis to uncover peptidoglycan chemical diversity in the Class Alphaproteobacteria, a group of Gram negative bacteria that are highly heterogeneous in terms of metabolism, morphology and life-styles. Indeed, chemometric analyses revealed novel peptidoglycan structures conserved in Acetobacteria: amidation at the α-(l)-carboxyl of meso-diaminopimelic acid and the presence of muropeptides cross-linked by (1-3) l-Ala-d-(meso)-diaminopimelate cross-links. Both structures are growth-controlled modifications that influence sensitivity to Type VI secretion system peptidoglycan endopeptidases and recognition by the Drosophila innate immune system, suggesting relevant roles in the environmental adaptability of these bacteria. Collectively our findings demonstrate the discriminative power of chemometric tools on large cell wall-chromatographic data sets to discover novel peptidoglycan structural properties in bacteria.


Galaxy clusters are the most recent of cosmological structures to have formed by the present time in the currently favoured hierarchical scenario of structure formation and are widely regarded as powerful probes of cosmology and galaxy formation physics alike. Over the past few years, it became increasingly clear that precision cluster cosmology requires the development of detailed, realistic theoretical models of galaxy clusters and the confrontation of synthetic surveys generated using these models with observations. This motivates a campaign of large cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, with plausible 'sub-grid' prescriptions for the relevant galaxy formation physics.This thesis presents a new suite of large-volume cosmological hydrodynamical simulations called cosmo-OWLS. They form an extension to the Overwhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS) project, and have been designed to help improve our understanding of cluster astrophysics and the non-linear structure formation, which are now the limiting systematic errors when using clusters as cosmological probes. Starting from identical initial conditions in either the Planck or WMAP7 cosmologies, the most important 'sub-grid' physics, including feedback from supernovae and active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been systematically varied. Via the production of synthetic surveys of the simulations and comparisons with observations, the realism of these state-of-the-art models was explored. At the same time, the simulations were shown to providea valuable tool for interpreting the observational data, as well as powerful means for testing commonly-employed methods for estimating, for example, cluster masses and determining survey selection functions, which are crucial for cluster cosmology. The properties of the simulated galaxy groups and clusters were first compared to a wide range of observational data,such as x-ray luminosity and temperature, gas mass fractions, entropy and density profiles, Sunyaev-Zel'dovich flux, I-band mass-to-light ratio, dominance of the brightest cluster galaxy, and central massive black hole (BH) masses, by producing synthetic observations and mimicking observational analysis techniques. These comparisons demonstrated that some AGN feedback models can produce a realistic population of galaxy groups and clusters, broadly reproducing both the median trend and, for the first time, the scatter in physical properties over approximately two decades in mass


Excited-state intramolecular hydrogen transfer (ESIHT) is a fundamental reaction relevant to chemistry and biology. Malonaldehyde is the simplest example of ESIHT, yet only little is known experimentally about its excited-state dynamics. Several competing relaxation pathways have been proposed, including internal conversion mediated by ESIHT and C
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.0" width="13.200000pt" height="16.000000pt" viewBox="0 0 13.200000 16.000000" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet"><metadata>
Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019
</metadata><g transform="translate(1.000000,15.000000) scale(0.017500,-0.017500)" fill="currentColor" stroke="none"><path d="M0 440 l0 -40 320 0 320 0 0 40 0 40 -320 0 -320 0 0 -40z M0 280 l0 -40 320 0 320 0 0 40 0 40 -320 0 -320 0 0 -40z"/></g></svg>
 C torsional motion as well as intersystem crossing. We perform an in silico transient X-ray absorption spectroscopy (TRXAS) experiment at the oxygen K-edge to investigate its potential to monitor the proposed ultrafast decay pathways in malonaldehyde upon photoexcitation to its bright S2(ππ*) state. We employ both restricted active space perturbation theory and algebraic-diagrammatic construction for the polarization propagator along interpolated reaction coordinates as well as representative trajectories from ab initio multiple spawning simulations to compute the TRXAS signals from the lowest valence states. Our study suggests that oxygen K-edge TRXAS can distinctly fingerprint the passage through the H-transfer intersection and the concomitant population transfer to the S1(nπ*) state. Potential intersystem crossing to T1(ππ*) is detectable from reappearance of the double pre-edge signature and reversed intensities. Moreover, the torsional deactivation pathway induces transient charge redistribution from the enol side towards the central C-atom and manifests itself as substantial shifts of the pre-edge features. Given the continuous advances in X-ray light sources, our study proposes an experimental route to disentangle ultrafast excited-state decay channels in this prototypical ESIHT system and provides a pathway-specific mapping of the TRXAS signal to facilitate the interpretation of future experiments.


The paper is dedicated to the description of principles, mechanisms and models of communikemes construction with «evaluative» meaning. The research is fulfilled on the basis of the English language. The results correlate with those that were obtained while studying this type of units on the basis of the Russian language. At that, the integral and differential characteristics are identified, which makes the research results significant not only in the aspect of special (Germanic) linguistics but the general linguistics as well. Communikemes are the separate class of syntactic phraseological units. They function in many languages including English. Communikemes are extremely active in the oral-colloquial communication form due to their anthropocentricity, expressivity and economy. The majority of communikemes are derivative. Many of their specific features are determined by the peculiarities of the productive base. That is why the communikemes research in the etymological aspect provides insight into the essence of their linguistic nature and the rules of speech realization. In the sphere of evaluative communikemes two basic models of their construction are established: the first one is based on the actual division of the sentence (it prevails), and the second one is logical-semantic one. In whole, the amount of evaluative communikemes in the English language is more than the communikemes with the positive/negative meaning. The evaluative communikemes in both languages are more «indifferent» to the character of the grammatical meaning of their productive base (in comparison with other semantic groups units). The evaluative communikemes study in the cognitive and psycholinguistic aspects (as well as other groups) is rather perspective.


Collection recommender systems suggest groups of items that work well as a whole. The interaction effects between items is an important consideration, but the vast space of possible collections makes it difficult to analyze. In this paper, we present a class of games with a purpose for building collections where users create collections and, using an output agreement model, they are awarded points based on the collections that match. The data from these games will help researchers develop guidelines for collection recommender systems among other applications. We conducted a pilot study of the game prototype which indicated that it was fun and challenging for users, and that the data obtained had the characteristics necessary to gain insights into the interaction effects among items. We present the game and these results followed by a discussion of the next steps necessary to bring games to bear on the problem of creating harmonious groups.


The composer Philip Heseltine (1894-1930), better known by his pseudonym 'Peter Warlock', is one of the most fascinating characters in twentieth-century English music. Educated at Eton and Oxford, yet musically largely self-taught, he is considered by many to be one of the great English song-writers. But besides being a composer, he was also an important pioneer editor of early music as well as the author of a number of books and numerous articles for newspapers and journals. His eccentric life-style, his outspoken comments and writings about music, as well as the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, have all ensured that the 'Warlock legend' has not lost its fascination over the years. During his short life he was a prolific and highly articulate letter writer and some thousand of his letters have survived. These the Warlock scholar and authority Barry Smith has edited with copious annotations and footnotes as well as generous background material.


Title of Dissertation: ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LUMINESCENCE IN VIBRIO CHOLERAE: OCCURRENCE, STRUCTURE, EXPRESSION, AND FUNCTION Christopher J. Grim, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Rita R. Colwell Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences University of Maryland, College Park Several Vibrio species are bioluminescent, including Vibrio cholerae. Analysis of 224 non-pathogenic V. cholerae isolates collected from the Chesapeake Bay, MD, revealed that 52% were luminescent, and 58% of the isolates harbor the luxA gene. A significant association of luxA to the gene stn (r = 0.40) was observed and luminescent strains were found to have a significant association with sample fraction and time of sampling, especially from the observed interaction of these two traits. In contrast, 334 non-pathogenic V. cholerae strains isolated from two rural provinces in Bangladesh, yielded 21 luminescent (6.3%) and 35 luxA (10.5%) isolates. None (0%) of 48 laboratory reference pathogenic strains from various geographic locations or 222 environmental and clinical isolated strains of V. cholerae O1 or O139 from Bangladesh were luminescent or harbored the lux operon. To improve success of isolation of V. cholerae from environmental samples, two colony blot hybridization methods were developed. Specificity of two probes was confirmed, using laboratory reference strains, in addition to environmental and clinical isolates, and sensitivity of the probes was confirmed using water samples into which V. cholerae had been inoculated. The lux operon of V. cholerae was sequenced and its chromosomal location determined. The operon organization is most similar to that of Shewanella hanedai and the non-luxF Photobacterium leiognathi. Sequence analysis revealed that the V. cholerae lux operon is most similar in its genomic sequence to V. harveyi and Photorhadbus luminescens and it most likely originated from a common Vibrionaceae ancestor. Using a new bioassay method that measures expression level, several classes of defective luminescent V. cholerae were identified and characterized, including one class previously termed dark, or K variants, in V. harveyi. Multiple causes of the defects were identified, indicating several levels of luminescence control in V. cholerae, in addition to autoinduction and lux repression. Using luxA mutants, luminescence was implicated in conveying competitive advantage in growth under microaerophilic conditions, DNA repair by photoreactivation, and neutralization of reactive oxidative species. These results demonstrate that bioluminescence is a frequently occurring trait in non-pathogenic V. cholerae, the expression of which gives a selective advantage in specific habitats. ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LUMINESCENCE IN VIBRIO CHOLERAE: OCCURRENCE, STRUCTURE, EXPRESSION, AND FUNCTION


A key topic in classical control theory is the Internal Model Principle (IMP). A particular case of the IMP for tracking periodic references or attenuating periodic disturbances in closed-loop control systems is a technique called repetitive control. This work proposes and describes an educational laboratory plant to show the students the advantages of repetitive controllers in systems with periodic references or disturbances. The plant has been designed to be low cost, easy to build, and subject to periodic disturbances with a clear physical explanation. More specifically, it consists of a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) electronic amplifier, a small dc motor, and a magnetic setup that generates a periodic load torque under constant mechanical speed operation. The control objective for the closed-loop control system is to regulate the mechanical speed to a constant value in spite of the periodic load torque disturbance. In order to accomplish this performance specification, a detailed design of a digital repetitive controller is presented, and some basic experimental results are provided to prove its good behavior. The paper also includes some repetitive control concepts and facts that teaching experience shows as essential to understand the design process.


We give an existence and uniqueness theorem for solutions of inhomogeneous
impulsive boundary value problem (BVP) for planar Hamiltonian systems. Green's
function that is needed for representing the solutions is obtained and its properties are listed.
The uniqueness of solutions is connected to a Lyapunov type inequality for the corresponding
homogeneous BVP.


In this technical note we present the design, installation, and evaluation of a field monitoring system to directly measure water fluxes through a vadose zone. The system is based on use of relatively new measurement technology—automated equilibrium tension lysimeters (AETLs). An AETL uses a porous sintered stainless‐steel plate to provide a comparatively large sampling area (0.20 m2) with a continuously controlled vacuum applied under the plate. This vacuum is in "equilibrium" with the surrounding vadose zone tension to ensure measured fluxes represent those under undisturbed conditions. Fifteen of these AETLs have been installed at five depths through a layered volcanic vadose zone to study the impact of land use changes on water quality in Lake Taupo, New Zealand. We describe the development and testing of the AETLs, the methods used for installing these devices, a condensed data set of the measured physical properties of the vadose zone, and the initial results from the in situ operation of the AETLs, including the preliminary results from a bromide tracer test. For an AETL installed at the 0.4‐m depth, where soil pressure heads are most dynamic, the average deviation between the target reference pressure head, as measured in the undisturbed vadose zone and the pressure head measured above the sampling plate was only 5.4 hPa over a 180‐d period. The bromide recovered in an AETL at the same depth was equivalent to 96% of the bromide pulse applied onto the surface area directly above the AETL. We conclude that this measurement technique provides an accurate and robust method of measuring vadose zone fluxes. These measurements can ultimately contribute to better understanding of the water transport and contaminant transformation processes through vadose zones.


Adam Smith claims that humans naturally sympathize with others and seek their approval. The process of matching our sentiments with others' sentiments forms the basis of our moral judgment. But what do we do when sentiments conflict? Smith saw that we need to move beyond literal impartial spectators to reach some ideal by which we can judge others' sentiments and our own. That ideal is a category that we develop inductively. The category then allows us to construct imaginary representations of a perfect impartial spectator to arbitrate conflicts between the views of literal impartial spectators and our own.


The GPSPI algorithm uses a phase shift that is a high-frequency approximation to the exact solution: the square-root Helmholtz operator symbol. The square-root Helmholtz operator symbol dramatically changes character between high- and low-frequency limits, while the GPSPI phase shift does not. A frequency-dependent smoothing of the velocity model (and therefore the phase shift) is used to approximate the character change of the square-root Helmholtz symbol, and is implemented via the spatial resampling within the FOCI algorithm. This results in heavy smoothing of the phase shift at low frequencies, and virtually no smoothing at higher frequencies. The frequency-dependent smoothing results in an image of much higher quality than the image generated using the usual GPSPI phase shift.


The past decade has witnessed remarkable development in tissue engineering technologies and stem cells. Our lab has developed a novel technology - "cell sheet technology" for tissue engineering. After the confluent cells are cultured on an innovative temperature-responsive culture dish, the cells can be harvested as an intact sheet by lowering temperature. We have successfully created multiple cell sheet-based tissues for therapies of a vast variety of diseases, in particular, myocardial diseases. On the other side, the discovery of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) enables stable production of defined tissue-specific cell types and thus makes it possible to regenerate tissues or even organs for clinical application and in vitro drug screening/disease modeling. Recently, we have combined cell sheet technology and hiPSC-derived cardiac cells for fabrication of functional human cardiac tissues. This review summarizes ongoing challenges in this field and our progresses in solving issues, such as large scale culture of hiPSC-derived cardiac cells, elimination of undifferentiated iPSCs to decrease the risk of tumor formation as well as myocardial tissue fabrication technologies.


The challenge of the mass production of optoelectronic devices is to develop new technological process in order to reduce the number of steps and to improve the process yield. In particular, for the realisation of integrated photonic devices, the etching and the following (eventually selective) regrowth represent the most crucial technological steps. This paper overviews the recent technological advances in obtaining vertical and oblique sidewalls in both InP and GaInAsP/InP MQW laser structures partially masked with SiN into the MOCVD deposition chamber, by using chlorinated compounds. The optimized experimental conditions were applied to etch mesa stripes in a SCH-MQW laser structure, followed by lateral InP.Fe regrowth in the same step. Threshold current as low as 6 mA and differential quantum efficiency higher than 25% for SI-BH MQW laser have been achieved.


The purpose of this thesis is to analyse consumer decision-making processes on mobile service channels from both behavioural and perceptive perspectives on time dimension. With mobile channel becoming one of the major service channels, electronic retailers must ensure that their mobile retail application design is able to create usage value to their customers. The investigation of the impacts from the value co-creation on this channel to consumers' actual behaviours is based on the understanding of both cognitive and emotional perspective of consumer decision-making processes. The research aim is to therefore compare the results from survival analysis on behavioural data, and the results from structural equation modelling on questionnaire data, to explore the relationships between the usage of mobile application functions, the time consumption of a decision-making process and the probability of reaching a decision, and to provide insights on designing mobile retail application.

This thesis, on one hand, employs Prospect Theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Minkowski Spacetime as its theoretical foundations, and uses customer perceived value as a research lens to develop the research design. On the other hand, it develops survival analysis to investigate the actual practical value of using mobile retail applications in the context of a major health and beauty retailer, Boots' website, and uses structural equation modelling to test a conceptual model representing the prediction of customer perceived value on mobile service channels. The comparison and contrast between the results from these two separate studies offer a better understanding of consumer behaviours in this context.

This study is one of the first to apply survival analysis to investigate consumer decision-making process on mobile service channels. It is also one of the first research that analyses consumer behaviours and perceptions from a temporal perspective. This work offers original insights and important findings for both marketing academics and practitioners.


St. John Hankin wrote reviews, essays, prose and verse parodies, short stories, a manuscript of a novel, and three one-act plays. Because his plays stress incisive, commonsensical protagonists, the emphasis in Hankin's drama and in the book's analyses is on characterizations and themes. This book includes a detailed primary and secondary bibliography on Hankin, a lengthy listing of productions of Hankin's plays, and an index.


This book highlights the role of entrepreneurship, social capital and governance for regional economic development. In recent decades, many researchers have claimed that entrepreneurship is the most critical factor in sustaining regional economic growth. However, most entrepreneurship research is undertaken without considering the fundamental importance of the regional context. Other research has emphasized the role of social capital but there are substantial problems in empirically relating measures of social capital to regional economic development.


Recently
the problem of infertility has become more acute. About 3% - 7% of couples
suffer a lasting infertility problem and there is a tendency of constant
increasing of this number. Existing data reveal that in many of the infertility
cases, the cause of sterility is the disabled sperm as a result of the
oxidative stress (OS). There are several sources of reactive oxygen species
(ROS) in the sperm. Both enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants act as a
counteraction against ROS production in seminal plasma. However due to the
limited cytoplasm, the spermatozoa are more susceptible to oxidative damage
because of the lack of protective cytoplasmic antioxidant enzymes. Currently,
many couples suffering fertility problems resort to assisted reproductive
technology (ART). Unfortunately, the success rate of ART is relatively low—about
30%. Sperm processing incl. centrifugation, freezing and thawing is associated
with the generation of ROS. A range of strategies for sperm prevention of OS
are developed. Many studies concern antioxidants and their impact on sperm
function, but there are a lot of contradictions in terms of doses and types of
combinations that can be used in ART. Future studies should aim the creation of
standard and reliable operating procedures for increasing the successfulness of
these techniques. This
paper offers an overview of the impact of OS on the reproduction, pointing out
the sources of ROS in the sperm, the antioxidant defense systems, and the
strategies for prevention and improvement of the sperm reproductive
functions, incl. those applied in ART.


Since their discovery, essential oils are known as a hugely valuable resource to treat a variety of infections due to their multiple biological functions, especially their antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities. Unfortunately, these volatile compounds have also certain limits such as the processes for extracting of these oils, the purification of their bioactive molecules and their minimal amount. For that reason several scientists have been oriented their research towards synthetic molecules as a new tool to overcome the progression of many chronic diseases (cancer, fibrosis, cirrhosis, arthritis). The prime focus of this work was the synthesis and characterization of four α-aminophosphonate derivatives 4(a-d). Then we evaluated their antioxidant activity against oxidative and nitrosative stress. The in vivo experiments are conducted using Tetrahymena protozoan treated with IC50 of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or sodium nitroprusside (SNP); finally we checked their antioxidant behavior in vitro through DPPH and DC assay. The results of this paper confirmed that under the both conditions: in vivo and in vitro, two derivatives among the four synthesized possess an antioxidant activity; it is the 4a and 4c products. This project is an attempt to obtain new organic compounds that have the potential to be developed as new therapeutic agents.


We intuitively believe that when we attend to an attribute (e.g., color or identity) of a highly visible stimulus, we will be able to report it immediately afterwards. Conventional theories of cognition also suggest attention as a gateway to working memory (e.g., Awh, Vogel, & Oh, 2006), or regard working memory as an interface in which attention can operate in the absence of visual input (Chun, 2011). Despite extensive evidence showing the crucial contribution of attention in the storage and maintenance of information, recent experiments have revealed striking demonstrations that a more important determinant of robust memory storage is the expectation of the observer that the attended information needs to be remembered (Chen & Wyble, in press at Psychological Science; Eitam et al., 2013). In our experiments, participants were asked to locate a target among distractors by using one particular attribute (e.g., letter identity) for several repetitions and were then surprisingly asked to report that attribute. The results showed that participants could not report the attribute of the target, even though that attribute had been attended and used by participants to perform the primary task (e.g., localized a target letter among digits) just prior to the surprise question. Followup control trials ensure that this effect is not a failure of perception. We term this effect attribute amnesia. In an extension, participants counted passes of a colored ball in a video recorded from a real-world context. In a surprise trial, 35% of participants could not report the color of the ball they had just been tracking for 40 seconds. These results change our understanding of the link between attention and memory. Instead of memory being a record of attended information, we must view memory storage as a resource that is used sparingly in strict accordance with the goals of the observer. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Abstract. Although wetland soils represent a relatively small
portion of the terrestrial landscape, they account for an estimated
20 %–30 % of the global soil carbon (C) reservoir. C stored in wetland soils
that experience seasonal flooding is likely the most vulnerable to increased
severity and duration of droughts in response to climate change. Redox
conditions, plant root dynamics, and the abundance of protective mineral
phases are well-established controls on soil C persistence, but their
relative influence in seasonally flooded mineral soils is largely unknown.
To address this knowledge gap, we assessed the relative importance of
environmental (temperature, soil moisture, and redox potential) and
biogeochemical (mineral composition and root biomass) factors in controlling
CO2 efflux, C quantity, and organic matter composition along replicated
upland–lowland transitions in seasonally flooded mineral soils.
Specifically, we contrasted mineral soils under temperature deciduous
forests in lowland positions that undergo seasonal flooding with adjacent
upland soils that do not, considering both surface (A) and subsurface (B and C)
horizons. We found the lowland soils had lower total annual CO2 efflux
than the upland soils, with monthly CO2 efflux in lowlands most
strongly correlated with redox potential (Eh). Lower CO2 efflux as
compared to the uplands corresponded to greater C content and abundance of
lignin-rich, higher-molecular-weight, chemically reduced organic compounds
in the lowland surface soils (A horizons). In contrast, subsurface soils in
the lowland position (Cg horizons) showed lower C content than the upland positions (C horizons), coinciding with lower abundance of root
biomass and oxalate-extractable Fe (Feo, a proxy for protective Fe phases). Our linear mixed-effects model showed that Feo served as the strongest measured predictor of C content in upland soils, yet Feo had
no predictive power in lowland soils. Instead, our model showed that Eh and oxalate-extractable Al (Alo, a proxy of protective Al phases) became significantly stronger predictors in the lowland soils. Combined, our results suggest that low redox potentials are the primary cause for C
accumulation in seasonally flooded surface soils, likely due to selective
preservation of organic compounds under anaerobic conditions. In seasonally
flooded subsurface soils, however, C accumulation is limited due to lower C
inputs through root biomass and the removal of reactive Fe phases under
reducing conditions. Our findings demonstrate that C accrual in seasonally
flooded mineral soil is primarily due to low redox potential in the surface
soil and that the lack of protective metal phases leaves these C stocks
highly vulnerable to climate change.


For establishing the best monetary policy it is essential to know if in practice monetary variables determine gross domestic product (GDP) in constant prices. Price stability contributes to the formation of stable environment for the development of commercially sustainable activities and expresses the responsibility of central banks for sustainable industrial development. It contributes to maximizing the GDP, employment, stable interest rates and sustainable economic development which have consequences for households' welfare as well as enterprises' value maximization. For a set of more monetary variables, we identified that in Romania money aggregates M2 and M3 as well as internal credit were strongly correlated with GDP over the time period 1995:Q1-2015:Q4, while in Slovakia only M2 and M3 were strongly correlated with GDP in the same time period. Contrary to expectations, according to a Bayesian linear regression, the internal credit changes had a negative impact on economic growth on the overall period. This conclusion is consistent with other empirical studies. This paper's analysis discovered that the aforementioned negative correlation is due to the crisis period, because the regime-switching Bayesian model indicated that only in times of economic contraction changes in internal credit negatively affected economic growth.


We present results of seismic tomography for a broad region of southern Africa using data from the seismic component of the Kaapvaal Project, a multinational, multidisciplinary experiment conducted in the late 1990s. Seismic images provide clear evidence of mantle structures that mimic the surface geology across the region and provide important constraints on subcrustal structure associated with Archean cratons. Specifically, a thick (~250 to 300km) mantle keel exists beneath the Kaapvaal craton; a slightly thinner (~225 to 250km) keel exists beneath the Zimbabwe craton and parts of the Archean Limpopo mobile belt. Mantle velocities lower than surrounding regions are evident across a broad swath beneath the surface expression of the Bushveld Complex, a ~2.05 Ga layered mafic intrusion. These reduced velocities may be due to mantle refertilization during intrusion of Bushveld magmas, or they may be caused by a thermal perturbation of more recent origin, perhaps related to the ~183 Ma Karoo magmatic event.


Without oxygen, cells in the brain and the heart die, but they do so by an ill-defined mechanism distinct from the well-studied apoptosis (programmed cell death). In this so-called necrotic cell death, DNA damage activates the enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1). Yu et al. (see the Perspective by Chiarugi and Moskowitz) show that in an unexpected parallel to apoptosis, PARP-1 causes translocation of AIF (apoptosis inducing factor) to the nucleus, where it launches the cell on its death spiral by causing chromatin fragmentation. In true apoptosis, the key step is AIF translocation to the mitochondria, where it initiates the release of cytochrome c that in turn activates destructive proteases called caspases. Similar AIF action in mitochondria also occurs in necrosis, but it is a later, nonessential step. S.-W. Yu, H. Wang, M. F. Poitras, C. Coombs, W. J. Bowers, H. J. Federoff, G. G. Poirier, T. M. Dawson, V. L. Dawson, Mediation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1-dependent cell death by apoptosis-inducing factor. Science 297, 259-263 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] A. Chiarugi, M. A. Moskowitz, PARP-1--a perpetrator of apoptotic cell death? Science 297, 200-201 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The development of new soil and plant sensors continues to be an area of emphasis in precision agriculture. Sensing technology can be used in plant breeding to facilitate selection of plant varieties with superior traits and in management to optimize production inputs for crop protection and growth. One example is the use of spectral sensors for site-specific fertility management applications when they are integrated with GPS and rate controllers. In spite of the progress made in sensor development, there is still a need to investigate methods for field deployment of these sensors with the use of ground systems. In this paper, we analyze the benefits and limitations of a ground-based proximal sensing platform retrofitted with plant height, canopy temperature and reflectance sensors. The platform consisted of a high-clearance sprayer modified with a front boom for sensor mounting. Other instrumentation included a GPS-RTK for positioning data and sensor data acquisition system. Machine field capacity, timeliness and other factors are analyzed in the context of field operation, and a general description of the vehicle operational characteristics are given from the mechanical perspective.


Abstract The seed ecology of the federally endangered shrub, Lindera melissifolia was investigated to determine if this aspect of the species life history contributes to the rarity of the species. Lindera melissifolia has the capacity to form a short-lived (two growing seasons) persistent soil seed bank if fruit pulp remains on seeds following dispersal and subsequent winter flooding occurs. Seeds, both with or without pulp (i.e., mesocarp and exocarp), exhibited tolerance to submergence, but were not hydrochorous. Following 6–12 weeks cold stratification (5° or 5/1° C) or submersion in cold water (5/1° C) for 12 weeks, ≥ 63% of seeds germinated when incubated in light and at temperatures of 35/20° and 30/20° C. When incubated in darkness, 100% of seeds germinated following 6 weeks of cold stratification. Giberrelic acid was moderately effective in breaking dormancy. Collectively, our results indicate that seeds of L. melissifolia have nondeep physiological dormancy. Aspects of the seed ecology of L. melissifolia that may contribute to continued rarity of the species include absence of a long-term persistent soil seed bank, no obvious mechanism of long-distance dispersal, and late season germination that prevents seedling growth to a sufficient size for survival prior to cold temperatures and flooding.


Autism spectrum disorder (autism) affects about 1 in every 100, and impacts all aspects of the individual's experience, including how they learn. Children and young people with autism share common education needs with all other children, and are entitled to a high quality education. However, they have specific, special needs resulting from the characteristic difficulties in autism regarding communication, social understanding, inflexibility and sensory processing. Education has been identified as the key area of intervention for those with autism, and meaningful access to effective education is crucial. Teachers need a range of skills and strategies to meet the needs of these learners, and providing effective education has been identified as challenging throughout Europe, and in Central & Eastern Europe and the Balkans in particular. Based on these needs, the partnership of the ASD-EAST project focuses on developing appropriate training to support effective teaching, to ensure the inclusion of learners with autism in Croatia, North Macedonia and Poland. There is a lack of research data on the training needs of teachers in the countries of Eastern Europe, therefore conducting a mapping study was essential before fulfilling further objectives of the project.


The effect on morphological, spectroscopic, and thermal properties of oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers (OPEFB fibers) and oil palm frond fibers (OPF fibers) following treatment and modification with sodium hydroxide and succinic anhydride, respectively, were investigated. The evidence of treatment was observed by weight gain and FT-IR. The effect of the treatment upon the fiber surfaces was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which indicated that succinic anhydride treatment led to smoother surfaces as compared to the sodium hydroxide. The thermal degradation was carried out by thermal gravimetric analysis, which exhibited a different degree of mass loss due to different treatments.


Much of the past research on file migration and file replication has examined these two resource management strategies in isolation or in an environment where they do not work together. We establish through simulation that these two strategies can be utilized simultaneously to potentially provide significant performance benefits over a system without file migration or replication. File replication can be viewed as a natural extension to file migration, and thus, we derive a dynamic file replication policy based on an established file migration heuristic: a file is migrated (or replicated) whenever a reduction in total mean response time of the file requests currently in the affected storage sites can be achieved. Through our performance model, we use simulation to establish the conditions under which our file migrationireplication policies are beneficial in a distributed file system. Index Terms-Distributed file system, file migration, file replication, local-area network, Performance model, queueing theory, resource management strategies, simulation.


This thesis is concerned with the impact of outsourcing within the airline industry. There are conflicting viewpoints on the impact of outsourcing and a scarcity of empirical studies examining its influence on the airlines' performance. In order to fill in this gap, the research process was divided into three stages: (1) Literature review and an exploratory case study; (2) Analysis of secondary data; and (3) Qualitative analysis of 14 interviews, representing 12 different airlines. Through the study, the determinants of outsourcing and current outsourcing practices within the airline industry were identified. Cost reduction and enhancing the focus on core activities were identified as the main motives for outsourcing. Local authorities' legislation is regarded as the main influential external factor while demand level for a given function, criticality of the activity being considered for outsourcing, and current capability status of performing the activity are identified as the main influential internal factors. Most outsourcing arrangements are being made outside the airlines' home bases. The implications of outsourcing in the performance objectives (cost, delivery, quality, and flexibility) as well as in the airlines' overall operational performance were also evaluated. The evaluation of the airlines' performance was based on the 'passenger load factor' and 'daily aircraft utilisation'. The former captures the airlines' operational efficiency. The latter refers to maximising aircraft utilisation, one of the main tasks for the airline management. Although a positive impact on the cost objective was found, it is strongly correlated with the demand level for the outsourced function. The delivery objective is negatively influenced by outsourcing. The outsourcing influence on quality varies, depending on the nature of the outsourced function. The flexibility objective is positively influenced by outsourcing. The study revealed that there is no direct impact of outsourcing on the airlines' overall operational performance. Two main contributions were provided through the research: theoretical and practical. On a theoretical level, a more in-depth understanding of the outsourcing determinants, current practices, and performance implications in the airline industry was provided. The study also represents practical guidance for new entrants in devising their supply chains and assisting managers in terms of supply chain restructuring by predicting the determinants and impact of outsourcing on the airlines' operational performance.


Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a usually chronic B cell lymphoproliferative disorder. To evaluate the prognostic significance of the various heavy and light chain determinants of the surface immunoglobulins (slg), we analyzed the clinical data and immunologic phenotype of 64 patients with HCL. Sixty-two of the 64 patients showed slg, which was invariably of only one light chain type (kappa 33, lambda 29). The actuarial survival of the cases expressing kappa-light chains was significantly better than those with lambda-light chains (p less than 0.002). This difference persisted when only cases with gamma or alpha gamma heavy chains were considered. No differences between the kappa and lambda-subgroups were discovered with respect to parameters of clinical importance. The various heavy chain classes of slg did not correlate significantly with the survival time. These results suggest that the immunologic phenotype, in particular the light chain type, may be a prognostic factor in patients with HCL.


of the net groundwater recharge is essential for groundwater modeling and water resources management. Due to its simplicity and its minimum stochastic parameter requirements, the CRD model has been widely applied to estimate recharge. Rainfall is the main source of groundwater recharge in the Karvan area in Isfahan (Iran). The area is located in the semi-arid zone and there is no source of recharge other than rainfall. Estimation of groundwater recharge from rainfall is not an easy task since it depends on many uncertain parameters. The cumulative rainfall departure (CRD) model was used in this study to estimate the net groundwater recharge from rainfall. The cumulative rainfall departure (CRD) model is based on the principle of water balance and does not require much data as is the case with other conventional methods of recharge estimation. The CRD model was conducted using the optimization method to minimize the root mean square error (RMSE) between the measured and the simulated groundwater head. The results indicated that the annual amount of groundwater recharge from rainfall in the Karvan Aquifer in Isfahan is about 48.07 million m 3 .


The hypothesis that political violence deters tourism is mainly based on case study evidence and a few quantitative studies confined to a small sample of countries. This is the first comprehensive, general quantitative test of the impact of various forms of political violence on tourist arrivals. We employ two estimation techniques: a fixed-effects panel estimator with contemporaneous effects only and a dynamic generalized method of moments estimator, which allows for lagged effects of political violence on tourism. In both model specifications, we find strong evidence that human rights violations, conflict and other politically motivated violent events negatively impact upon tourist arrivals. In a dynamic model, autocratic regimes, even if they do not resort to violence, have lower numbers of tourist arrivals than more democratic regimes. We also find evidence for intra-regional negative spill-over and cross-regional substitution effects.


We design and implement a field experiment that provides students from less advantaged backgrounds with individualized feedback on academic performance during the transition from middle to high school. The intervention reduces the gap between expected and actual performance, as well as shrinks the variance of the individual belief distributions. Guided by a simple Bayesian model, we empirically document the interplay between variance reductions and mean changes of beliefs about students' own academic ability in shaping curricular choices. The shift in revealed preferences over high school tracks enabled by the intervention affects schooling trajectories, with better performing students being assigned into more academically oriented options.


From the editors: In 2005 Monthly Review Press (New York) published a book entitled China and Socialism: Market Reforms and Class Struggle, written by Martin Hart-Landsberg (a coeditor of Critical Asian Studies) and Paul Burkett. (The content of the book had appeared earlier, in the July-August 2004 issue of Monthly Review [vol. 56, no. 3].) We invited the editors of Critical Asian Studies to participate in a roundtable discussion of the issues that Hart-Landsberg and Burkett have raised. Responses from CAS editors Victor Lippit, Gene Cooper, Alvin So, Mobo C.F. Gao, and Tai-lok Lui appear in the September 2005 issue of the journal (vol. 37, no. 3). A rejoinder by Hart-Landsberg and Burkett is presented here.


Copyright © 2016, MEJDS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background and objective: Multiple sclerosis is a common chronic neurological disease, which is associated with psychological challenges including low resiliency and rumination. Therefore it is necessary to provide suffers with psychological treatment. The current research is aimed at examining the effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the resilience and obsessive rumination among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Methods: This is a pretestposttest control group quasi-experimental research. The population of the study was all MS patients in Urmia-Iran under auspices of Iranian MS Association. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 30 participants. The participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The research instruments were the Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and Obsessive Rumination Scale (RRS). Then experimental groups participated in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for 13 sessions of 1.30 hours. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed significant posttest differences between the control group and experimental group with respect to resilience and rumination (p<0.001). Conclusion: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is an effective method to increase the resilience and reduce obsessive rumination among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.


Algae are a diverse group of organisms generally categorised as either macroalgae (i.e. seaweed), or microalgae, which are typically unicellular. Algae are the bottom of the food chain in all aquatic ecosystems and there are an estimated 25,000 microalgae species, with only around 15 in current commercial use. This primarily untapped resource produces an estimated 5000 tonnes of commercial biomass each year, which is valued at almost USD1.5 billion annually. Commercial algae systems to date produce human food, non-human food, neutraceuticals, biomass, biofertiliser, and also environmental remediation and monitoring applications.

Algae can also produce other valuable substances in either fresh or saltwater cultures, including proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and pigments. Most commercially produced algae today is marketed as health food, although integrated industrial algal production offers multiple economic development opportunities. Algae technology can provide the biological platform to integrate carbon sequestration, bioenergy, biomass production, and water nutrient removal technologies.

While algal biotechnology is still in its infancy, this emerging industry has the potential to revolutionise nutrition, agriculture, aquaculture, pharmaceutical and biofuel biotechnology. However, there is much research and development investment required before algae production systems to reliably and efficiently realise such benefits. This discussion paper explores algal biological capacity, in addition to technological developments in relation to species and strain selection, production, harvesting and extraction, refining, and commercial consumption.


Cognitive graded course offers a change from the traditional teaching routines through which many learners have previously failed to communicate. It encourages the learners to communicate without fear by confidence-building and cognitive motivation tasks. The courses give importance to emotional intelligence by practicing value-added tasks. All the tasks are based on real life-like situations which develop curiosity to involve. Also the course includes virtual contexts that extend the wide innovative way for learning and using English. It gives much importance to cognitive skills that ease acquisition and use of communicative competence effectively. Based on the effectiveness of these cognitive graded courses, it is understood that these can be practiced wherever the condition and the environment are similar to that of the researcher. Cognitive graded course provides much exposure to enhance communicative competence of the students in English. This course has created social and virtual contexts with interesting learning tasks to the students. Students acquired communicative competence along with cognitive strategies that enabled them to complete the tasks successfully by reasoning, analyzing and problem-solving skills. Cognitive grading is meant for identifying the cognitive skills of thinking, analyzing, problem solving, memorizing capacities of the students and mainly for identifying their need, likes and dislikes over English language learning. Based on the needs, if the course is developed, it will be successful.


Multi-criteria Analysis for Planning Renewable Energy (MapRE) is a study approach developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with the support of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The approach combines geospatial, statistical, energy engineering, and economic methods to comprehensively identify and value high-quality wind, solar PV, and solar CSP resources for grid integration based on techno-economic criteria, generation profiles (for wind), and socio-environmental impacts. The Renewable Energy Zones for the Africa Clean Energy Corridor study sought to identify and comprehensively value high-quality wind, solar photovoltaic (PV), and concentrating solar power (CSP) resources in 21 countries in the East and Southern Africa Power Pools to support the prioritization of areas for development through a multi-criteria planning process. These countries include Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The study includes the methodology and the key results including renewable energy potential for each region.


Abstract The present study explored the relationship between (a) intellectual humility toward religious beliefs and values and (b) religious tolerance. Pastors who identified as Christian (N = 196) completed measures of conservatism, religious commitment, intellectual humility toward religious beliefs and values, and religious tolerance. Intellectual humility was a positive predictor of religious tolerance, even when controlling for conservatism and religious commitment. An interaction was found between exposure to religious diversity and intellectual humility, such that exposure to religious diversity was positively related to religious tolerance only for participants who reported high levels of intellectual humility. We conclude by discussing limitations, areas for future research, and implications for interfaith dialog and engagement.


In order to evaluate the accuracy and regional significance of salt-marsh reconstructions of former sea level based on foraminiferal transfer functions, we have calibrated the foraminiferal assemblages of a saltmarsh core from the Urdaibai estuary using the regional transfer function constructed previously for the southern Bay of Biscay. The foraminifera-based reconstructions were placed into a temporal framework
using Pb-210, heavy metal concentrations, and Cs-137-derived sediment accumulation rates. The resulting relative sea-level curve has been compared with the nearest tide-gauge data (Santander) and with other geological records from regional salt-marshes. Relative sea-level trends from core sediments support in all
cases the idea of accelerating sea levels over the last century when compared to previous centuries, providing a regional relative sea-level rise of 2.0 mm yr-1 for the 20th century.


This paper assumes that there is room for an additional measuring device that, on the one hand, will serve mainly as an in situ device not requiring complicated back-calculation procedures and, on the other hand, will not involve large volumes of in situ materials as presently required by the falling weight deflectometer (FWD). Such a device is the new portable FWD (PFWD). Comparative tests with this device show no significant correlation between the central deflection measurements taken on the asphalt surface and the corresponding Benkelman-beam-measured deflections. This is due to the fact that the PFWD device "senses" only the upper layers of the pavement, down to no more than a small thickness, whereas the two other devices "sense" all pavement layers down to the subgrade medium, as well. A composite-pavement modulus of elasticity (Ep) can still be derived from the PFWD measurements, but only with the performance of additional measurements on the asphalt surface, followed by coring of the asphalt layers down to their far bottom. In this way, the above Ep value is calculated for the full structural thickness and for the standard radius of the contact area obtained from the PFWD testing, i.e., the modulus of elasticity (EA) of the asphalt layers and the modulus of elasticity (EG) of the granular layers. A comparison of the above Ep values calculated from the PFWD outputs, with the values derived from the conventional FWD measurements, led to the introduction of a correction factor that varies with the ratio of the thickness of the asphalt layers to their elastic modulus. The lower the ratio, the closer the correction factor approaches the value of 1.0.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between presenteeism and absenteeism during the previous year and the current levels of exhaustion and impaired work performance in a Swedish university setting.

METHODS
In a study of 3525 employees, an ordinal logistic regression and general linear model was used to examine the association between presenteeism and absenteeism during the previous year and the current exhaustion and impaired work performance, respectively.

RESULTS
Presenteeism, but not absenteeism, during the previous year independently increased the risk of having moderate or severe exhaustion. Presenteeism, absenteeism, and exhaustion remained positively associated with impaired work performance when health status and other confounders had been adjusted for.

CONCLUSIONS
Presenteeism, but not absenteeism, was associated with exhaustion. Both presenteeism and absenteeism were the salient correlates of impaired work performance.


South African patent practitioners and patent applicants alike will appreciate the fact that the US patent system has some peculiarities in respect of patent systems compared with most other countries. The recently enacted Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the AIA), however, heralds a significant change in the patent system of the United States, bringing it into closer alignment with more common international practices in patent law. The AIA was signed into law by US Pres. Barack Obama on September 16 last year and most of its provisions will come into force during 2012.


This paper interrogates the breadth, necessity, and collateral effects of Canada's child pornography law, as contained in the Criminal Code. The author argues that the inclusion of "fantasy" images in the definition of child pornography is over-inclusive, and considers that this may make the law illegitimate and discriminatory. She proposes that this over-inclusive definition arises from the conflation of a particular type of sexual desire with harm to children. The author draws loosely on deliberative democratic theory to structure her analysis of the law's legitimacy, and uses Charter analysis to both critique the current law and suggest means of addressing the law's potentially discriminatory character. The author does not support or promote sexual abuse or exploitation of children, nor does she suggest that child pornography should be wholly de-regulated or de-criminalized. Note: This paper was completed in April 2015. Due to current employment restrictions on updating the research, the case law and legislation cited herein are current to that date only.


The present study explored the relationship of neurocognitive performance and symptoms to coping responses at 3 and 8 days postconcussion. A total of 104 concussed athletes (M = 16.41, SD = 2.19 years) completed the Immediate Post Concussion Assessment Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) at baseline and the ImPACT and Brief Cope inventory at 3 and 8 days postconcussion. Concussed athletes reported more frequent use of selfdistraction, behavioral disengagement, religion, and self-blame 3 days postconcussion compared with 8 days. Concussed athletes reported more use of avoidance coping at 3 days than 8 days (Wilks's Lambda =.95, F [1, 100] =4.71, p = .032, η 2 =.046) post-injury. Total symptoms were also a significant (p = .001) predictor of avoidance coping 3 days postconcussion and decreased visual memory was associated with increased avoidance coping (p = .03) 8 days post-injury. Time since injury likely impacts neurocognitive performance, symptomology, and coping. Clinicians should be aware of higher reported symptoms early and lingering visual memory deficits 1-week post-injury.


In the paper, the authors deal with the victim"s position in the criminal procedure, on the one hand side, and the possibilities of implementing restorative justice and its importance for the improvement of victim"s position in Serbia, on the other one. In the first part of the paper, the authors point out victim"s position within the criminal procedure and the noticed gaps, which are particularly reflected in insufficient paying attention to the victim and neglecting of his/her rights and needs. This is opposite to the strengthening of the rights of the accused party that characterizes societies, which are, as our society, on the way of democratization and improvement of human rights. In the second part of the paper, the authors analyze some solutions that introduce elements of restorative justice into our system of criminal response to crime, but from the victim"s point of view. Finally, the authors also point out some further steps that should be undertaken in order to improve the victim"s position, particularly emphasizing the place and role of victim support service, witness service and special facilities in the courts for victims/witnesses, possibilities of using victim-offender mediation before reporting the crime, or staring the prosecution, or as a part of the treatment in the prison etc.


Technical papers in this series are preliminary and are circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. These papers are not subject to CBO's formal review and editing processes. The analysis and conclusions expressed in them are those of the author and should not be interpreted as those of the Congressional Budget Office. References in publications should be cleared with the author. Papers in this series can be obtained by sending an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.


Connecticut is the Constitution State and borders Rhode Island on the east, Massachusetts on the north and New York to the west. Hartford, its capital is the insurance capital of the world, home to Aetna, Travelers, The Hartford and others to numerous to mention. This story is about Connecticut's other precious commodity - its high school basketball and its contribution to the National Basketball Association. This article covers more than basketball, it also emphasizes the values that can be gleaned by participation, such as leadership qualities and how to win and more importantly, how to lose. Moreover, the writer has personal experience participating, in Connecticut high school basketball and is thankful for the opportunity. The reader will see the writer's passion and love of basketball in this extremely well written tribute.


Although interleukin-4 (IL-4) expression has been implicated in vaccine-enhanced respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease, its role in mediating the immune response to primary RSV infection remains unclear. To assess the effect of IL-4 production on typical RSV infection, transgenic mice which either overexpress or fail to express IL-4 were challenged intranasally with RSV and their responses were compared to those of the parent strains. IL-4-deficient mice eliminated virus from the lung as quickly as did C57BL/6 controls. In contrast, mice which constitutively overexpress IL-4 showed delayed virus clearance compared with mice of the FVB/N control strain, although peak viral titers did not differ. IL-4 overexpression increased the magnitude of the subsequent antibody response. Lung lymphocytes harvested from IL-4-overexpressing mice post-RSV challenge showed diminished RSV-specific cytolytic activity compared with controls. Both IL-4-deficient and IL-4-overexpressing strains resisted rechallenge. These data imply that constitutive IL-4 expression delays or suppresses the development of a virus-specific cytotoxic lymphocyte population important in clearing primary RSV infection.


This study proposes a data-driven methodology for modeling power and hydrogen generation of a sustainable energy converter. The wave and hydrogen production at different wave heights and wind speeds are predicted. Furthermore, this research emphasizes and encourages the possibility of extracting hydrogen from ocean waves. By using the extracted data from the FLOW-3D software simulation and the experimental data from the special test in the ocean, the comparison analysis of two data-driven learning methods is conducted. The results show that the amount of hydrogen production is proportional to the amount of generated electrical power. The reliability of the proposed renewable energy converter is further discussed as a sustainable smart grid application.


Summary Arginine in the medium was essential for the replication of herpes simplex virus in RK13 cells. Virus adsorption, penetration and eclipse were not affected. When the medium of arginine-deficient infected cultures was exchanged for complete medium, virus growth resumed with the appearance of a near-synchronous infection. Resumption of virus growth was immediate if the exchange was made in the first 7 days, but if it was later a delay resulted which increased as the duration of deprivation increased. A threshold concentration of arginine was found for herpes virus growth. Virus yield was increased when the arginine concentration was raised over a limited range, but further addition of arginine did not continue to improve the yield. Undialysed calf serum could not be substituted successfully for arginine in herpes virus replication, although it supported cell growth and the replication of vaccinia and coxsackie B3 viruses.


A combination of laboratory and numerical models are used to examine the mantle flow beneath a segmented ridge generated by the interaction of a linear, buoyant upwelling source with plate-driven flow. In the absence of plate spreading, the linear buoyant source creates a very narrow (across-axis), two-dimensional upwelling pattern. The plate-driven flow consists of a quasi-linear sheet-like upwelling that cuts beneath ridge-transform inside corners and is not centered beneath the spreading segments. When buoyant and plate-driven flows are combined, material rises beneath the inside corners and flows away from the axis asymmetrically. Near the ends of segments, this results in a geometrical misfit between the center of mantle upwelling and the ridge axis. If a similar pattern of mantle flow occurs beneath a segmented mid-ocean ridge, the result will be a thinner crust toward segment ends and possibly a negative correlation between extent of mantle melting and average depth of melting. These results indicate that even with an essentially two-dimensional source, in cases where it is oblique to the actual spreading segments, the upwelling beneath a segmented ridge will appear to be three-dimensional along axis. Since slow spreading ridges are generally more segmented than fast spreading ridges, this effect is likely to be more important at slow spreading ridges.


i-vectors have been successfully applied over the last years in speaker recognition tasks. This work aims at assessing the suitability of i-vector modeling within the frame of speaker diarization task. In such context, a weighted cosine-distance between two different sets of i-vectors is proposed for speaker clustering. Speech clusters generated by Viterbi segmentation are first modeled by two different i-vectors. Whilst the first i-vector represents the distribution of the commonly used short-term Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients, the second one depicts a selection of voice quality and prosodic features. In order to combine both short- and long-term speech statistics, the cosine-distance scores of those two i-vectors are linearly weighted to obtain a unique similarity score. The final fused score is then used as speaker clustering distance. Our experimental results on two different evaluation sets of the Augmented Multi-party Interaction corpus show the suitability of combining both sources of information within the i-vector space. Our experimental results show that the use of i-vector based clustering technique provide a significant improvement, in terms of diarization error rate, than those based on Gaussian Mixture Modeling technique. Furthermore, this work also reports a significant speaker error reduction by augmenting short-term based i-vector clustering with a second i-vector estimated from voice quality and prosody related speech features.


The aim of this paper is to analyse introductory sections in Italian, British/Irish and American city audio guides
 from a contrastive perspective, in order to identify possible differences in the type and distribution of content. Three main
 content types and their corresponding subtypes were identified in the introductions of fifty professional city audio guides and
 were both quantitatively and qualitatively compared across the three groups. Differences between audio guides in Italian and in
 English are identified and discussed in reference to Hall's 'contexting' theory (1983,
 1990), and the findings are then compared to existing guidelines for audio guides
 production provided by scholars and professionals in the field. Finally, on the basis of the results, translation issues are
 addressed by providing a list of aspects that could be taken into account when producing English versions of Italian audio
 guides.


This study was set up to examine claims made for the ability of cultural projects to promote social inclusion (cultural projects are here taken to include those incorporating sport, the arts, media, heritage and outdoor adventure). This was to be achieved primarily by collecting evidence from a sample of 14 projects selected from some 200 that had volunteered their services. The report to the government's Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) from the Policy Action Team (PAT10) (1999) noted the potential. In his foreword, Chris Smith (then Secretary of State for the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS)) wrote: "… art and sport can not only make a valuable contribution to delivering key outcomes of lower long term unemployment, less crime, better health and better qualifications, but can also help to develop the individual pride, community spirit and capacity for responsibility that enable communities to run regeneration programmes themselves". Similar statements have followed from other politicians, particularly in the recent Commons debate on sport and social exclusion (22/11/01), and again in the public health debate (13/12/01). However, the PAT 10 report also came to the same conclusion as previous commentators (e.g. Glyptis, 19893; Allison & Coalter, 19964; Long & Sanderson, 1998) that there is little 'hard' evidence of the social benefits that accrue.


This thesis deals with hypergeometric functions in several complex variables and systems of partial differential equations of hypergeometric type. One of the main objects of study in the thesis is the so-called Horn system of equations: xiPi(θ)y(x) = Qi(θ)y(x), i = 1, ..., n.Here x ∈ℂn, θ = (θ1, ..., θn),θi = xi ∂/∂xi , Pi and Qi are nonzero polynomials. By definition hypergeometric functions are (multi-valued) analytic solutions to this system of equations. The main purpose of the thesis is to systematically investigate the Horn system of equations and properties of its solutions.To construct solutions to the Horn system we use one of the variants of the Laplace transform which leads to a system of linear difference equations with polynomial coefficients. Solving this system we represent a solution to the Horn system in the form of an iterated Puiseux series.We give an explicit formula for the dimension of the space of analytic solutions to the Horn system at a generic point under some assumptions on its parameters. The proof is based on the study of the module over the Weyl algebra of linear differential operators with polynomial coefficients associated with the Horn system. Combining this formula with the theorem which allows one to represent a solution to the Horn system in the form of an iterated Puiseux series, we obtain a basis in the space of analytic solutions to this system of equations.Another object of study in the thesis is the singular set of a nonconuent hypergeometric function in several variables. Typically such a function is a multi-valued analytic function with singularities along an algebraic hypersurface. We give a description of such hypersurfaces in terms of the Newton polytopes of their defining polynomials. In particular we obtain a geometric description of the zero set of the discriminant of a general algebraic equation.In the case of two variables one can say much more about singularities of nonconuent hypergeometric functions. We give a complete description of the Newton polytope of the polynomial whose zero set naturally contains the singular locus of a nonconuent double hypergeometric series. We show in particular that the Hadamard multiplication of such series corresponds to the Minkowski sum of the Newton polytopes of polynomials whose zero loci contain the singularities of the factors.


Abstract. Extensive infrastructure collapse resulted from the cataclysmic earthquake that struck off the eastern coast of Japan on 11 March 2011 and from its consequent gigantic tsunami, affecting not only the Tohoku region but also the Kanto region. Among the geological and geotechnical processes observed, land subsidence occurring in both coastal and inland areas and from Tohoku to Kanto is an extremely important issue that must be examined carefully. This land subsidence is classifiable into three categories: (i) land sinking along the coastal areas because of tectonic movements, (ii) settlement of sandy deposits followed by liquefaction, and (iii) long-term post-earthquake recompression settlement in soft clay caused by dissipation of excess pore pressure. This paper describes two case histories of post-earthquake settlement of clay deposits from among the three categories of ground sinking and land subsidence because such settlement has been frequently overlooked in numerous earlier earthquakes. Particularly, an attempt is made to propose a methodology for predicting such settlement and for formulating remedial or responsive measures to mitigate damage from such settlement.


This article explores the potential of Urban Political Ecology analyses to reveal the nuanced relationships produced by nature and social relations in urban forests. A critique of the Urban Political Ecology forest literature, it focuses on the assumption in much of the literature that people in urban spaces perceive themselves to be advantaged by the presence of trees and disadvantaged by their absence. This critique leads to a call for an increased emphasis on the importance of different urban forest contexts and on the differential insights produced. The article constructs a narrative of the complex relationships, both historic and current, between communities, forest and the regulatory authorities in the governance of the urban forest of the valleys of south Wales. It then draws on recent research to reveal tensions in capitalist production and consumption relations, and identifies specific issues. Analysing these relationships and comparing the south Wales valleys case with other examples in Urban Political Ecology literature, the article seeks to promote the utility of Urban Political Ecology as a concept and to advance theoretically both Urban Political Ecology and, by extension, environmental justice.


The restaurant industry is a highly customer-driven field. Therefore, it is imperative that restaurateurs consider customer expectations with regard to restaurant menus. The purpose of this experimental study is to examine the effects of menu format (i.e., paper or digital) and amount of nutritional information (i.e., extensive, brief, or none) on customer perceptions of the effectiveness, perceived ease of use, and information quality of the menu. Furthermore, this research intends to test the effect of these three menu attributes on the outcomes of value and satisfaction in order to assess the competitive advantage of one format over the other. The Cognitive Appraisal and Information Processing Theories provide structure to the proposed conceptual framework and give credence to the findings. This study also fills gaps in the present research by not only ameliorating weaknesses of extant studies, but also by examining several different aspects of restaurant menus simultaneously within a single study.


Real-world data often exhibit imbalanced distributions, where certain target values have significantly fewer observations. Existing techniques for dealing with imbalanced data focus on targets with categorical indices, i.e., different classes. However, many tasks involve continuous targets, where hard boundaries between classes do not exist. We define Deep Imbalanced Regression (DIR) as learning from such imbalanced data with continuous targets, dealing with potential missing data for certain target values, and generalizing to the entire target range. Motivated by the intrinsic difference between categorical and continuous label space, we propose distribution smoothing for both labels and features, which explicitly acknowledges the effects of nearby targets, and calibrates both label and learned feature distributions. We curate and benchmark large-scale DIR datasets from common real-world tasks in computer vision, natural language processing, and healthcare domains. Extensive experiments verify the superior performance of our strategies. Our work fills the gap in benchmarks and techniques for practical imbalanced regression problems. Code and data are available at https://github.com/YyzHarry/imbalanced-regression.


After peak bone mass has been reached, the bone remodeling process results in a decrease in bone mass and strength. The formation deficit, the deficit of bone formation compared with previous resorption, results in bone loss. Moreover, trabeculae disconnected by resorption cavities probably are not repaired. The contributions of these mechanisms to the total bone loss are unclear. To investigate these contributions and the concomitant changes in trabecular architecture and mechanical properties, we made a computer simulation model of bone remodeling using microcomputed tomography (micro‐CT) scans of human vertebral trabecular bone specimens. Up to 50 years of physiological remodeling were simulated. Resorption cavities were created and refilled 3 months later. These cavities were not refilled completely, to simulate the formation deficit. Disconnected trabeculae were not repaired; loose fragments generated during the simulation were removed. Resorption depth, formation deficit, and remodeling space were based on biological data. The rate of bone loss varied between 0.3% and 1.1% per year. Stiffness anisotropy increased, and morphological anisotropy (mean intercept length [MIL]) was almost unaffected. Connectivity density increased or decreased, depending on the remodeling parameters. The formation deficit accounted for 69–95%, disconnected trabeculae for 1–21%, and loose fragments for 1–17% of the bone loss. Increasing formation deficit from 1.8% to 5.4% tripled bone loss but only doubled the decrease in stiffness. Increasing resorption depth from 28 to 56 μm slightly increased bone loss but drastically decreased stiffness. Decreasing the formation deficit helps to prevent bone loss, but reducing resorption depth is more effective in preventing loss of mechanical stiffness.


During atherosclerosis monocyte-derived macrophages accumulate cholesteryl esters from low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) via lectin-like oxidised LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1) and class AI and AII (SR-AI, SR-AII) and class B (SR-BI, CD36) scavenger receptors. Here we examined the hypothesis that hyperglycaemia may modulate receptor expression and hence lipid accumulation in macrophages. Human monocytes were matured into macrophages in 30 versus 5mM glucose and receptor expression and lipid accumulation quantified. High glucose elevated LOX1 mRNA, but decreased SR-AI, SR-BI, LDLR, and CD36 mRNA. SR-BI and CD36 protein levels were decreased. Normo- and hyperglycaemic cells accumulated cholesteryl esters from modified LDL to a greater extent than control LDL, but total and individual cholesteryl ester accumulation was not affected by glucose levels. It is concluded that, whilst macrophage scavenger receptor mRNA and protein levels can be modulated by high glucose, these are not key factors in lipid accumulation by human macrophages under the conditions examined.


Halide perovskite/crystalline silicon (c-Si) tandem solar cells promise power conversion efficiencies beyond the limits of single-junction cells. However, the local light-matter interactions of the perovskite material embedded in this pyramidal multijunction configuration, and the effect on device performance, are not well understood. Here, we characterize the microscale optoelectronic properties of the perovskite semiconductor deposited on different c-Si texturing schemes. We find a strong spatial and spectral dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) on the geometrical surface constructs, which dominates the underlying grain-to-grain PL variation found in halide perovskite films. The PL response is dependent upon the texturing design, with larger pyramids inducing distinct PL spectra for valleys and pyramids, an effect which is mitigated with small pyramids. Further, optimized quasi-Fermi level splittings and PL quantum efficiencies occur when the c-Si large pyramids have had a secondary smoothing etch. Our results suggest that a holistic optimization of the texturing is required to maximize light in- and out-coupling of both absorber layers and there is a fine balance between the optimal geometrical configuration and optoelectronic performance that will guide future device designs.


Delivering effective global governance is amongst the five priorities of the European Union Global Strategy (EUGS). After its modest success in promoting its 'effective multilateralism' doctrine and rendering the world like itself, the European Union (EU)'s approach to global governance has now been somewhat overhauled. The Union remains idealist in promoting universal regimes with binding rules to be endorsed by the United Nations, but much more pragmatic in achieving this outcome. Effective multilateralism is now the end, not the means.


Determining the handling characteristics of tracked vehicles is significantly more complex than wheeled vehicles. This is because of the non-linear behaviour of the interaction between the tracks and ground during turning. In many cases a full dynamics model of the steering of a tracked vehicle is too complex and time consuming to generate and gives little or no insight into the mechanics of skid steer. This is especially true during the initial design phase, or the examination of a modification, when the designer needs a method, which allows the trade offs to be examined quickly. The work presented here is based on the method used at the Royal Military College of Science (RMCS) to teach the fundamentals of tracked vehicle steering and is suitable for low speed predictions only. Comparison of the method with experimental data shows that the radius of turn is determined with reasonable accuracy but only an upper bound is put on the sprocket torque. Modifications of this technique to include side force generation have been used successfully elsewhere to determine the behaviour of half-tracks and articulated track vehicles.


Background Rugby union ("rugby") players have an above-average risk of injury compared to participants of other popular team sports. The BokSmart programme attempts to reduce injury risk in players through education of injury prevention practices. Objective To investigate whether correct knowledge, positive perceptions and education were associated with best-practice injury prevention behaviours in rugby players. Design A questionnaire was completed annually by tournament rugby players between 2008–2012. Chi-squared analyses and a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) map investigated associations between 18 behaviours and their corresponding knowledge, perception and education components. Setting Junior (under-18) and senior (adult) annual rugby tournaments players. Participants Of the 112 junior and 84 senior teams at the tournaments, 111 (99%, n=2279 players) and 81 (96%, n=1642 players) teams opted to complete the questionnaire. Assessment of risk Factors Relationship between knowledge, education and perceptions, and injury prevention behaviours for rugby. Main outcome measurements The assessed injury prevention behaviours were injury management (ice, compression, etc.) mouthguard use, warming-up/cooling down, practicing techniques (scrumming, tackling, rucking) and physical conditioning. Results The average age of players completing the questionnaire was 21±4 years. There was a significant (P<.05) positive relationship between knowledge/education for all 18 behaviours. In contrast, players' perceptions of the efficacy of injury prevention behaviour did not correspond with their self-reported behaviour. These findings were confirmed visually with an MCA map. Conclusions The findings above imply that the BokSmart intervention may have been effective in changing behaviour through knowledge and education, but not through perceptions. To improve injury prevention behaviour, BokSmart should focus on improving knowledge and education of players. Future 'true' prospective studies should investigate the above relationships, in particular how much influence BokSmart has on player's education/knowledge.


Background: Opiate substitution therapy (OST) in the Ukraine was not provided until 2004. As part of the introduction of OST, the first feasibility study was conducted in 2007. Six clinics in 6 cities were involved in providing OST and collecting data. Methods: A total of 151 opiate-dependent patients were given buprenorphine as a substitute, and a survey of substance use, HIV transmission risks, and legal and social status was conducted at baseline and at 6 and 12-month follow-up. Results: Illegal substance use and illegal activities and incomes were highly reduced, whereas employment rates and psychiatric problems improved. Retention was comparatively high (79.5%) after 12 months. No significant adverse events were reported. Conclusion: A successful implementation of OST in the Ukraine is feasible.


Background : Diarrheal disease is widely recognized as a major cause of child morbidity and mortality in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia. There exist variations in explanatory variables of diarrhea depending on the context of the study. Objective : To examine the effects of selected environmental, socio-economic and behavioral factors on childhood diarrhea in Mecha District, West Gojjam, Ethiopia. Methods : A community based cross-sectional study was carried out in February 2009. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select 768 households that had at least one under-five child. Data was collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire by trained data collectors. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were undertaken to identify predictors of childhood diarrhea. Results : The prevalence of diarrhea among mothers and under-five children was 8.2% and 18.0%, respectively. Maternal education (AOR=5.6, 95% CI: 1.5 - 19.4), maternal history of recent diarrhea (AOR, 5.5; 95% CI, 2.9 - 9.8), availability of latrine facility (AOR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1-3.4), duration of breast feeding (AOR=2.7, 95% CI: 1.1- 7.3), and age of the child (AOR=2.8; 95% CI: 1.3 - 5.9) had a significant association. Conclusion: From this study, variation in the level of diarrheal morbidity is well explained by maternal factors and presence of latrine facility. Educating mothers focusing on sustained behavioral changes in the use of latrine integrated with personal hygiene is an important intervention for the prevention and control of diarrhea among children. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2011;25;(3):192-200]


This paper analyzes 'innovation' as a discursive, narrative and dramatized construction with a strong tendency towards reification. I review examples, arguing for an understanding of innovation that moves away from new physical or epistemic things, to advocate instead a discourse-critical, practice-centered and contextualized understanding of innovations. Two cases from ancient Mesopotamia illustrate my argument. The first is found in every treatise on world historical changes: the introduction of writing. The second is a previously underappreciated and unperceived innovation for which there is even no clear expression: the emergence of a 'documentary gaze' . I elucidate its original context with pictorial evidence and describe the political dimensions surrounding this innovation.