In pharmacy education, we are experiencing the "new normal" after an "inflection point" along with a host of other overused phrases. Yet, without doubt, there is pressing need to reconsider what was once standard operating procedure. When an inflection point is viewed as opportunity, it sparks a strategic boom. Indeed, the confluence of threats and opportunities caused—or revealed—by the COVID‐19 pandemic is setting the stage for an acceleration of change in professional education. In this paper, we investigate the motivations and approaches to accelerate needed change in pharmacy education. Though prompted by the demand for rapid restructuring in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, these ideas transcend any one driver. We argue that now is the time to disrupt current practices through innovation leading to new educational models and present sample solutions. We consider academic, social, technological, economic, and political (ASTEP) forces driving the imperative to educational change.


Different aspects of bilingualism have been studied all over the world, and the studies have looked at a wide range of topics in spoken- language bilinguals such as patterns of code switching, the role of code switching in community life, the success or failure of bilingual education, second-language learning and gender, as well as many other issues focusing on single-modality bilinguals. These studies are often not applicable to studies of bimodal bilingualism, in which the subjects know a sign language from birth and the spoken language of the larger, hearing society. The study of bilingualism in hearing people from deaf families offers an opportunity to analyze the way that native users of both a signed and a spoken language combine aspects of both languages simultaneously (code blending). The lower status of American Sign Language (ASL) in relation to English may also contribute to how bimodal bilinguals view and use their languages. Unlike spoken-language bilinguals, who must stop one language before beginning another, a bimodal bilingual is able to speak and sign at the same time. This linguistic capability informs and expands the field of bilingualism as well as areas such as discourse analysis and the role of code blending as a cultural identifier. This preliminary research focuses on emails taken from a forum on the Internet for hearing people with deaf parents. Two hundred and seventy five lines from one hundred emails were collected and analyzed. The study shows evidence of strong grammatical influence from ASL in these emails (an absence of overt subjects, overt objects, determiners, copulas, and prepositions) as well as unique structures (nonstandard verb inflections, overgeneralization of the letters, and syntactic calquing). There is also a strong tendency to use English to "describe" an ASL sign (i.e., "My father fork-in-throat"). The meaning of the sign fork-in-throat is "stuck," but the bilingual chooses to use the visual description of the sign instead of the lexical equivalent in English (note the absence of the copula). The overall results of this analysis are compared to Internet Relay Chat and TDD writings.


The 60th number of the Cuadernos de   Administración journal is the first one of 2018, a year in which we are consolidating this means of scientific dissemination, with the entry into several databases, the consolidation of our Editorial and Scientific committees and the process of internationalization of this publishing effort, which has promoted the dissemination of knowledge in Administration sciences throughout 42 years.
On this occasion, the first paper entitled "Citizen participation through ICTs in the design of public policy in Colombia", presents the research results of a completed project, using data from 2013 and 2014, collected through surveys and interviews, to actors from different sectors in the department of Tolima, to assess the digitization strategy of the public sector.
Opportunity strategies related to business competitiveness in restaurants in Mexico. Case: microenterprises in the municipality of Othón Payo. Blanco, Quintana Roo", is the second paper in this volume, wherein Mexican researchers analyze the relationship between organizational management and the business competitiveness of microenterprises in the restaurant sector in the municipality of Othón Payo Blanco, Quintana Roo. Among their main findings, they obtain that the business competitiveness in this region of Mexico is oriented towards technology and organizational culture, where strategic alliances are one of the strategies for achieving competitiveness within the sector.
The third article is entitled "Quality Analysis of hotels service in Medellín through perceptual maps", is the result of a research wherefrom the perception of national and international guests staying in different hotels in Medellín, registered in the platform TripAdvisor, 57 hotels between 2005 and 2010 show that the factors most valued by guests are cleanliness, quality of rest and service above the location, price and comfort of the rooms, among others.
"Sectorial adjustment costs induced by the Colombian pattern of international trade, 1991-2015", is the title of the fourth paper, wherein the authors analyze the adjustment costs induced by the Colombian international trade pattern for the 1991-2015 period; they calculate marginal intra-industrial trade indexes, adjustment costs and the use of the International Adjustment Cost Space and present different types of results.
The fifth article, entitled "Craftsmanship and champeta: cultural industries and local development in the municipalities of Clemencia and María la Baja in the department of Bolívar", seeks to highlight the production process of cultural goods and services within the champeta manifestations and handicrafts in the municipalities of Clemencia and María la Baja in the department of Bolívar, where they are able to demonstrate local capacities for the creative production of goods.
Finally, "Multi-business companies: The Leonisa case" is the name of the sixth paper in this volume, which presents the study of the joint management of multi-business companies, in an exploratory manner in the case study of the company Leonisa, a Colombian multi-business company in the textile sector. Among the relevant findings are the company not having a corporate center (CC) with a formal structure, but a multi-divisional structure from which to manage the business as a whole.
It is important to remember that the content of each of these six papers is their authors' absolute liability and does not compromise the Universidad del Valle, nor the Faculty of Administration Sciences, and their dissemination is carried out for academic purposes, as a contribution to the scientific development of the area and to encourage debate on each of these issues.
We thank each of the authors, the professional work of the referees who accompanied us in this issue, and especially you, our readers, for thinking of this means of dissemination as an option for consultation in the academic work you do. We hope to have publications from all members of this extended scientific community that we are trying to build and consolidate.


The relationship between long-term cholinergic dysfunction and risk of developing dementia is poorly understood. Here we used mice with deletion of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) in the forebrain to model cholinergic abnormalities observed in dementia. Whole-genome RNA sequencing of hippocampal samples revealed that cholinergic failure causes changes in RNA metabolism. Remarkably, key transcripts related to Alzheimer's disease are affected. BACE1, for instance, shows abnormal splicing caused by decreased expression of the splicing regulator hnRNPA2/B1. Resulting BACE1 overexpression leads to increased APP processing and accumulation of soluble Aβ1-42. This is accompanied by age-related increases in GSK3 activation, tau hyperphosphorylation, caspase-3 activation, decreased synaptic markers, increased neuronal death, and deteriorating cognition. Pharmacological inhibition of GSK3 hyperactivation reversed deficits in synaptic markers and tau hyperphosphorylation induced by cholinergic dysfunction, indicating a key role for GSK3 in some of these pathological changes. Interestingly, in human brains there was a high correlation between decreased levels of VAChT and hnRNPA2/B1 levels with increased tau hyperphosphorylation. These results suggest that changes in RNA processing caused by cholinergic loss can facilitate Alzheimer's-like pathology in mice, providing a mechanism by which decreased cholinergic tone may increase risk of dementia.


Discoveries in cancer research are impacting patients through development of new therapeutics and better diagnostic tools. However, there is still a lack of understanding about heterogeneity in patient response to these therapeutics, optimizing therapeutic dosing schedules, or predicting complex metastatic patterns due to the complexity of the disease. Heterogeneity of patient response to treatment stems from the intricate interactions with the microenvironment, and distant organs and other environmental pressures including low oxygen, high acidity, and toxic drugs. To deconvolute some of this complexity physical scientists are using intricate tools to improve cancer diagnosis and predict drug resistance. Also to predict tumor growth and response to therapeutics, computational scientists are developing mathematical tools that link physical sciences or evolutionary sciences approaches with experimental and clinical data. These models yield predictions based on initial parameters obtained from patient clinical data, such as noninvasive imaging. This session will highlight the utilization of these mathematical and physical tools to predict patient response to treatment options, predict the optimal drug dosing schedule, and improve cancer diagnosis. This approach could be further enhanced by developing tools and models to chart the progress of stressed, aging tissue towards the progression to uncontrolled cell growth and mutational meltdown even before the diagnosis.
Learning Objectives:
1.
To learn about treatment response heterogeneity
2.
To learn about tumor evolutionary capabilities
3.
To learn about mathematical tools that link physical sciences with experimental and clinical data


Cullin RING ubiquitin ligases (CRULs) are found in all eukaryotes and play an essential role in targeting proteins for ubiquitin-mediated destruction, thus regulating a plethora of cellular processes. Viruses manipulate CRULs by redirecting this destruction machinery to eliminate unwanted host cell proteins, thus allowing viruses to slip past host immune barriers. Depending on the host organism, virus-modified CRULs can perform an amazing range of tasks, including the elimination of crucial signal transduction molecules in the human interferon pathway and suppression of virus-induced gene silencing in plants. This Perspective summarizes recent advances in our understanding of how viral proteins manipulate the function of CRULs.


The evolution of apes between 23 and 5 million years ago set the scene for the emergence of the first hominins in Africa. The detailed description of Ardipithecus ramidus (1) more than lived up to the buzz of anticipation that preceded it in the paleoanthropological community. A. ramidus is a purported hominin (the group comprising humans and their extinct relatives after they diverged from our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees) from the Middle Awash region of Ethiopia. The focus of attention has been on how A. ramidus may relate to later fossil hominins and to living apes and humans (see the first figure), but to appreciate the place of A. ramidus in human origins, we must also view it from the perspective of the hominoids (apes) that lived in the Miocene, 23 to 5 million years ago (see the second figure).


Description: Broad in scope, involving theory, the application of that theory, and programming technology, compiler construction is a moving target, with constant advances in compiler technology taking place. Today, a renewed focus on do-it-yourself programming makes a quality textbook on compilers, that both students and instructors will enjoy using, of even more vital importance. This book covers every topic essential to learning compilers from the ground up and is accompanied by a powerful and flexible software package for evaluating projects, as well as several tutorials, well-defined projects, and test cases.


What are the processes through which researchers understand context and its value in the qualitative research process? This is an important question for researchers to consider and is especially pertinent in non-Western environments where Western research precepts have traditionally been followed. This article proposes that continually addressing ethics in practice (ethical reflexivity) and maintaining methodological reflexivity keeps the researcher on the path to a deeper and broader perspective of the contextual salience of emerging data. The combination of the latter, which is referred to as 'contextual reflexivity,' produces an iterative-reflective-generative process, consistent with an Afrocentric view on research. This process includes ethical reflection on research activity beyond institutional requirements, as well as inter-relational reflexivity. Field material and reflective research journal extracts from a study on HIV/AIDS home-based care and support volunteers' (HBCVs) identity provide illustration of this process in practice.


Background: Percentage reduction of inpatient admissions by acute general psychiatric day care in individual facilities (i.e. feasibility rate of acute day care) seems to be an important parameter for service planning. Previously reported feasibility rates showed significant variation, however, and were based on eligibility criteria defined for randomized controlled trials. This paper aims to perform an in-depth exploration of the calculation method of these feasibility rates, to propose different calculation methods expanding research definitions to the reality of service provision, and to analyze the association between the availability of residential services in regional mental health service systems and these rates. Methods: Data from the randomization process of the European Day Hospital Evaluation (EDEN) study in which a total of 1117 patients were included in five sites provided the basis to calculate site-specific and overall rates of patients for whom this mode of treatment might be adequate. Sensitivity analyses were carried out by varying the selection of patients' eligibility criteria and thus calculating different feasibility estimates. Data on the regional mental health care systems were collected by use of the European Service Mapping Schedule. Results: The use of four different calculation methods showed that site-specific feasibility rates of acute day care for general psychiatric patients varied from 13.8% to 25.7% up to 44.1% to 79.0%. Overall rates varied from 17.3% up to 67.7%, respectively. The high values were calculated under a scenario where the current acute day care model of care is enhanced to manage more complicated patients than currently treated under existing acute day care models. In three out of the four calculation methods higher rates were calculated for sites which demonstrated higher figures of residential services, and thus were less advanced in their process of deinstitutionalization. Conclusions: In order to determine the capacity of day hospitals as an alternative to acute psychiatric hospital care, mental health care planning must clearly decide on the eligibility criteria of patients to be treated in these facilities. Guided by such definitions, treatment concepts and professional qualifications of the staff in these facilities need to be adapted. The finding that less de-institutionalized regions may benefit most from a transition to acute day care as a means for promoting the transition to a community model of care for otherwise institutionalized patients must be assessed in more detail. Comprehensive research exploring the impact of all regional mental health service configuration characteristics on the concept of acute day care is needed.


[1] A new magnetic map of the Moon, based on Lunar Prospector magnetometer observations, sheds light on the origin of the South Pole-Aitken basin (SPA), the largest and oldest of the recognized lunar basins. A set of WNW-trending linear to arcuate magnetic features, evident in both the radial and scalar observations, covers much of a 1000 km wide region centered on the NW portion of SPA. The source bodies are not at the surface because the magnetic features show no first-order correspondence to any surface topographic or structural feature. Patchy mare basalts of possible late Imbrian-age are emplaced within SPA and are inferred to have been emplaced through dikes, directly from mantle sources. We infer that the magnetic features represent dike swarms that served as feeders for these mare basalts, as evident from the location of the Thomson/Mare Ingenii, Van de Graaff, and Leeuwenhoek mare basalts on the two largest magnetic features in the region. Modeling suggests that the dike zone is between 25 and 50 km wide at the surface, and dike magnetization contrasts are in the range of 0.2 A/m. We theorize that the basaltic dikes were emplaced in the lunar crust when a long-lived dynamo was active. Based on pressure, temperature, and stress conditions prevalent in the lunar crust, dikes are expected to be a dominantly subsurface phenomenon, consistent with the observations reported here.


Research has highlighted that adolescent girls are insufficiently active which has serious implications for their current and future health. Walking is recognised as an effective way of implementing regular, health enhancing physical activity (PA) into the daily routine of the general population and in an adolescent population walking is a convenient alternative to active play and sports participation. However it is currently difficult to promote walking and walking initiatives with adolescent girls due to lack of well-established evidence regarding both the quantity and quality of walking that might be advocated to promote PA and health. Therefore the aim of this thesis was to provide step based guidelines with regard to both the quantity and quality of walking required for health and thus inform walking interventions in adolescent girls. In order to achieve this aim four studies were undertaken. Study one explored the most appropriate way to assess walking activity, specifically whether walking on a treadmill accurately replicates walking overground in adolescent girls. Treadmill walking was found to overestimate the metabolic cost of walking in this population. This indicated that studies with the aim of exploring or promoting moderate intensity walking should focus on overground walking. Study 2 explored the quality of walking (steps·min 1) required to achieve moderate intensity physical activity (MPA) overground. The influence of different anthropometric measures on step rate (steps·min 1) equating to MVPA were also compared. Results suggest that a generic step rate of 120 steps·min 1 and 7200 steps in 60 minutes may be advocated to achieve MPA in adolescent girls. However inter-individual variation in step rate associated intensity was observed and it was suggested that a step rate range based on the girl's body mass may be beneficial for use with adolescent girls. Study 3 considered the most appropriate step measurement instrument to assess freeliving walking. Five commercially available instruments (activPALTM and pedometers; Omron HJ-720-ITC, Omron HJ-304-E, New Lifestyles NL-1000, Yamax CW-701) were compared to direct observation handtally step counts, during continuous (study 3a) and incidental (study 3b) walking overground. The New lifestyles NL-1000 was most consistently accurate in quantifying steps and 'activity time' during continuous walking, but not during incidental walking. However due to the ease of use and additional youth friendly design features, the New Lifestyles NL1000 was utilised in study 4. Study 4 explored the quantity of walking (steps·day 1) required for health in adolescent girls. The results indicated that in terms of walking activity, 'healthy' adolescent girls do not walk significantly more in term of steps∙day−1 or time spent in activity than girls classified as at 'health risk'. Therefore specific thresholds for quantity and quality of walking required for health could not be defined for this population. Overall findings of this thesis highlight, that walking should be assessed overground with an appropriate measurement instrument. A step rate of 120 steps·min 1 and 7200 steps in 60 minutes may be advocated to achieve MPA in adolescent girls. However further research is required to explore the relationship between walking and health in this population before we can promote an appropriate threshold of walking that is conducive to good health in adolescent girls.


Abstract Polymerase chain reaction screening revealed that Armigeres subalbatus (Coquillett), a vector of filariasis, was infected with the intracellular bacteria Wolbachia. Laboratory crosses between infected males and uninfected females resulted in less than half the number of offspring than control crosses between uninfected individuals when young (2- to 3-d-old) males were used in the cross. However, incompatibility was lost when old (14- to 17-d-old) males were used. Field-collected females did not show detectable cytoplasmic incompatibility, and this may be because of the age at which males mate in the field. We used head pigment fluorescence levels to age field males collected from mating swarms, and found that 25–63% of swarming males were older than 13 d. Male age may be one factor influencing the observed low levels of cytoplasmic incompatibility detected in the field.


Numerous studies appear to support the link between a species9 group size and neocortex size, especially among primates. And recently, a number of brain-scanning studies in humans and monkeys have found correlations between the size of social networks and that of specific brain areas linked to sociality. One study of people, for example, found a positive relationship between gray matter density and the number of Facebook friends an individual has. Yet there are competing explanations for our big brains, and some researchers are concerned that the social brain hypothesis may be too simplistic to account for the complex course of human brain evolution. (Read about more "Mysteries of the Brain.")


Despite its economic and cultural potential, the Kenya Coast finds itself in a marginal position. This collective volume traces the causes behind this situation and analyses it from different angles: political, economic and social. Most of the papers included in this volume were first presented at a workshop in Mombasa in August 1996. Contributions: The Kenya Coast: a regional study, by Dick Foeken, Jan Hoorweg and R.A. Obudho; The Kenya Coast in national perspective, by Henk Meilink; Physical resources and infrastructure, by Dick Foeken; Marine resources, by Peninah Aloo; Current environmental problems, by Mwakio P. Tole; Population dynamics, by John Obwa Wakajummah; Urbanization, by R.A. Obudho; The peoples, by John Middleton; Colonial history, by Frederick Cooper; Contemporary politics, by Thomas P. Wolf; Religion and society, by David C. Sperling; Agriculture, by Henk Waaijenberg; Food marketing, by Tjalling Dijkstra; Industrialization, by Wafula S. Masai; Tourism, by Isaac Sindiga; Employment, by Gerrishon K. Ikiara; The educational marginalisation of coastal Kenya, by Thomas Owen Eisemon; Health and illness, by J. Ties Boerma and F. John Bennett; Food consumption and nutrition, by Wijnand Klaver and Robert Mwadime; Gender issues, by Winnie V. Mitullah; The experience with land settlement, by Jan Hoorweg; Housing, by G.C. Macoloo; Water resources, by George O. Krhoda; Dairy development, by Piet Leegwater and Jan Hoorweg; Port development: growth, competition and revitalization, by Brian Hoyle; Conclusion: culture, resources and development in the Kenya Coast, by Jan Hoorweg, Dick Foeken and R.A. Obudho


This study investigated the relationship between organization justice dimensions namely; procedural justice, distributive justice, informational justice, and interpersonal justice and selected organizational outcomes. Based on the review of the previous literature and studies the research objectives and hypotheses were posed. Organization justice in relation to organizational outcomes was not fully understood particularly in the Eastern countries with a specific focus on Egypt. A questionnaire was constructed, tested and administered to teachers in the International schools in Cairo, Egypt. Results indicate the presence of a relationship between organization justice dimensions and the selected organizational outcomes. Future research should extend to other study sectors within the Egyptian environment as well as expanding the research to include several other organizational outcomes.


Hitherto, there has been little research on the consumption of mobile technologies in Malaysia. A clear definition allows telcos to focus on the most crucial part of their business and prevent them from repeating the costly mistakes of the recent past by entering and subsequently exiting, non-core businesses and markets.This paper seeks
to address the current state of telcos in Malaysia by presenting constructive evidence as recent as second quarter of 2004.This paper offers a compilation of mobile services consumption in a number of leading countries in order to map possible future scenarios on the use of mobile
technologies locally. It is only recently that industry has begun to broaden its views of the mobile consumers to include deeper understanding of users' behaviour.Predictions of increasing revenue from mobile services in the future depend ultimately on the successful development and the satisfaction of an end-user market rather than
technical development.This paper serves as foundation for further studies concerning the factors influencing the adoption of mobile entertainment services.


This article explores authorship in the Sufi poetry of Egypt. How do we explain apparent paradoxes: attribution of new poetry to an old saint, to more than one person, or to a performer? The Sufi's world includes a close-knit spiritual-social network, spanning entities (both living and dead), across which text and inspiration flow. Poetic production (primarily the recombination of pre-fabricated units), occurs as much in social performance as in "private" composition. Since the Sufi author is always network-connected, every poetic practice is always collaborative. Conversely, every Sufi ("poet," performer, or listener) acquires authorial attributes. The article terms the social network of authors the "interauthor," and claims that it is precisely the social analog to the symbolic "intertext" emphasized through textual repetition. Paradoxes result from coercing the Sufi interauthor into an alien modernist frame of autonomous authorship. Ironically, in practice this sacred "tradition" exhibits more postmodern features of authorship than contemporary secular Arab poetry. ********** The celebrated Sudanese Shaykh Muhammad 'Uthman 'Abdu al-Burhani, founder of a now-global Sufi order (tariqa), (1) passed away on April 4th, 1983; several years later, the tariqa published his collection (diwan) of sacred poetry, Sharab al-wasl [The Drink of Union] (al-Burhani). Each poem in this diwan carries the date of its composition, and poems are presented in chronological order. All of this seems perfectly ordinary. Somewhat less ordinary is the date of the first poem, April 13th, 1983, a full week after the death of its putative author. How can we understand such an enigma? What is the meaning of authorship for the Sufis? I. Problems of Authorship, and Sufi Poetry This article is an exploration of authorship, and related concepts of textuality and meaning, in Sufi poetry, based on more than five years' participant-observation research among Sufis, Sufi singers, and Sufi poets in Egypt. What I intend to do is to interpret the concept of authorship of Sufi poetry as Sufis themselves appear to understand it, without attempting to bracket their beliefs within the confines of a "higher" theory. Rather, I seek to trace the relation between their "emic" (insider) view, and the "etic" (outsider) theories propounded by Western literary philosophers and critics. An analysis of Sufi authorship may help in developing a theory of authorship for sacred literatures, and perhaps even contribute towards theories of authorship in general. Conventional assumptions about authorship were most famously challenged by Roland Barthes in a highly influential article (Barthes, "The Death of the Author"), in which he melodramatically declared the "death of the author." But I rather follow Foucault ("What is an Author?") in problematizing the contours of authorship (the "author-function"), freeing "authorship" from necessary attachment to a singular concept of individualized creative genius. Spurred by such problematization, ethnographic investigation of Sufi poetic practice can proceed to supply a radically contrastive sociological concept of generalized author. This "interauthor," as I call it, is precisely the social and emic counterpart to the symbolic and etic intertext (formulated by Kristeva and many others). Where the insider (Sufi) sees a network of spiritual-social relations, transcending the individual author, as a distributed source of textual production, the outsider (critic) sees a network of symbolic-textual relations, transcending the individual text. Both concepts correspond to the relative backgrounding of the individualized author and text, within a broader network of Sufi social and symbolic relations, as compared to the secular Arabic literary tradition. Although (or, as we shall see, because) they are grounded in a traditional (pre-modern) mystical theology, such networks ensure a fluidity and superfluity of meaning, such that every "reading" can be different. …


Despite a recent revival of interest in pragmatist philosophy, most work in the analytic philosophy of language ignores insights offered by classical pragmatists and contemporary neopragmatists. In Pragmatism and Reference, David Boersema argues that a pragmatist perspective on reference presents a distinct alternative--and corrective--to the prevailing analytic views on the topic. Boersema finds that the pragmatist approach to reference, with alternative understandings of the nature of language, the nature of conceptualization and categorization, and the nature of inquiry, is suggested in the work of Wittgenstein and more thoroughly developed in the works of such classical and contemporary pragmatists as Charles Peirce and Hilary Putnam. Boersema first discusses the descriptivist and causal theories of reference--the received views on the topic in analytic philosophy. Then, after considering Wittgenstein's approach to reference, Boersema details the pragmatist approach to reference by nine philosophers: the "Big Three," of classical pragmatism, Peirce, William James, and John Dewey; three contemporary American philosophers, Putnam, Catherine Elgin, and Richard Rorty; and three important continental philosophers, Umberto Eco, Karl-Otto Apel, and Jurgen Habermas. Finally, Boersema shows explicitly how pragmatism offers a genuinely alternative account of reference, presenting several case studies on the nature and function of names. Here, he focuses on conceptions of individuation, similarity, essences, and sociality of language. Pragmatism and Reference will serve as a bridge between analytic and pragmatist approaches to such topics of shared concern as the nature and function of language.


Objective The utilisation of a multi-factorial approach to evaluating relevant neuro-cognitive and motor function is a critical element in effective and comprehensive concussion management. In this project, normative data were gathered utilising the Cleveland Clinic Concussion (C3) iPad Application in youth, high school and college athletes. Design Prospective normative study. Setting Field-based. Participants Pre-season C3 data were collected in more the 6,500 youth (N=607), high school (N=5415) and college (N=744) athletes; approximately 32% females. Data were collected between Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. Interventions NA. Outcome measures Neurocognitive assessment modules of C3 include information processing (simple and choice reaction time), attention and working memory (Trail Making Test) and postural stability. Balance is quantified through biomechanical processing of accelerometer and gyroscope data gathered from the iPad during performance of the BESS. Main results No gender effects were present for performance on the neurocognitive modules; however, postural stability was significantly worse for youth males compared to female peers (P<0.01). Youth were significantly slower in performance of neurocognitive modules (simple and choice reaction time and Trails; (P<0.0001)). Neurocognitive and postural stability measures were similar across high school and college athletes. Conclusions Slower neurocognitive performance in youth relative to older athletes underscores the need to utilise age appropriate normative data in the management of concussion, particularly if no baseline is acquired. The control of postural stability develops at different rates as a function of age and gender, therefore balance assessment across the injury spectrum must utilise specific age-gender normative values. Competing interests JLA, SML and SBO have authored intellectual property associated with the mobile application presented in this study.


This article provides a detailed examination of the structure, sources, and ultimate content of the Islamic law of distressed debt. With specific illustrations from the Qur'an, sunna, and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), it orients non-specialists on the path to understanding where Islamic law comes from, how it is structured, and what its most salient provisions say about the proper treatment of insolvent debtors. Tracing the various divisions within Islam on the proper identification of shari'a, this article reveals a rich tapestry of contrasting views among and within the shi'a and sunni doctrinal schools of thought. Both the original sources and the secondary juristic analyses of these sources struggle with a delicate balance between forcing debtors to pay their debts while enjoining creditors to be patient and forgiving with respect to distressed debtors. It is hoped that this detailed and sensitive discussion will enhance the increasingly frequent insolvency law reform conversations between Westerners and those in Muslim nations by encouraging the former to respectfully engage with classical Islamic sources and methods, as opposed to advancing arguments based merely on Western views of economic expediency, efficiency, and experience.


Many people believe that mysterious phenomenon of consciousness may be connected with quantum features of our world. The present author proposed so-called Extended Everett's Concept (EEC) that allowed to explain consciousness and super-consciousness (intuitive knowledge). Brain, according to EEC, is an interface between consciousness and super-consciousness on the one part and body on the other part. Relations between all these components of the human cognitive system are analyzed in the framework of EEC. It is concluded that technical devices improving usage of super-consciousness (intuition) may exist.


Halogen bonding is a recently rediscovered secondary interaction that shows potential to become a complementary molecular tool to hydrogen bonding in rational drug design and in material sciences. Whereas hydrogen bond symmetry has been the subject of systematic studies for decades, the understanding of the analogous three-center halogen bonds is yet in its infancy. The isotopic perturbation of equilibrium (IPE) technique with (13)C NMR detection was applied to regioselectively deuterated pyridine complexes to investigate the symmetry of [N-I-N](+) and [N-Br-N](+) halogen bonding in solution. Preference for a symmetric arrangement was observed for both a freely adjustable and for a conformationally restricted [N-X-N](+) model system, as also confirmed by computation on the DFT level. A closely attached counterion is shown to be compatible with the preferred symmetric arrangement. The experimental observations and computational predictions reveal a high energetic gain upon formation of symmetric, three-center four-electron halogen bonding. Whereas hydrogen bonds are generally asymmetric in solution and symmetric in the crystalline state, the analogous bromine and iodine centered halogen bonds prefer symmetric arrangement in solution.


The detection of plant leaf is an very important factor to prevent serious outbreak. Automatic detection of plant disease is essential research topic. Most plant diseases are caused by fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Fungi are identified primarily from their morphology, with emphasis placed on their reproductive structures. Bacteria are considered more primitive than fungi and generally have simpler life cycles. With few exceptions, bacteria exist as single cells and increase in numbersby dividing into two cells during a process called binary fission Viruses are extremely tiny particles consisting of protein and genetic material with no associated protein. The term disease is usually used only for the destruction of live plants. The developed processing scheme consists of four main steps, first a color transformation structure for the input RGB image is created, this RGB is converted to HSI because RGB is for color generation and his for color descriptor. Then green pixels are masked and removed using specific threshold value, then the image is segmented and the useful segments are extracted, finally the texture statistics is computed. from SGDM matrices. Finally the presence of diseases on the plant leaf is evaluated.


Venous thromboembolism is an important complication in patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery. Without prophylaxis, there is a 50% to 60% incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a 10% to 30% incidence of proximal vein thrombosis, and a 1% to 2% rate of fatal pulmonary embolism after total hip replacement. The incidence of DVT after knee arthroplasty is even higher, ranging from 55% to 70% and, although there are no accurate figures on the incidence of fatal pulmonary embolism, it is likely to be similar to that following hip arthroplasty. Low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) have been shown to be effective and safe in the prevention of venous thromboembolism in patients undergoing major orthopedic procedures. In comparative studies, LMWHs are more effective than adjusted dose heparin or warfarin without increased risk of bleeding.


If we want to better understand how the microtubules can translate and input the information carried by the electrophysiologic impulses that enter the brain cortex, a detailed investigation of the local electromagnetic field structure is needed. In this paper are assessed the electric and the magnetic field strengths in different neuronal compartments. The calculated results are verified via experimental data comparison. It is shown that the magnetic field is too weak to input information to microtubules and no Hall effect, respectively QHE is realistic. Local magnetic flux density is less than 1/300 of the Earth's magnetic field that's why any magnetic signal will be suffocated by the surrounding noise. In contrast the electric field carries biologically important information and acts upon voltage-gated transmembrane ion channels that control the neuronal action potential. If mind is linked to subneuronal processing of information in the brain microtubules then microtubule interaction with the local electric field, as input source of information is crucial. The intensity of the electric field is estimated to be 10V/m inside the neuronal cytoplasm however the details of the tubulin-electric field interaction are still unknown. A novel hypothesis stressing on the tubulin C-termini intraneuronal function is presented replacing the current flawed models (Tuszynski 2003, Mershin 2003, Hameroff 2003, Porter 2003) presented at the Quantum Mind II Conference held at Tucson, Arizona, 15-19 March 2003, that are shown in this presentation to be biologically and physically inconsistent.


Microprocessor performance has improved rapidly these years. In contrast, memory latencies and bandwidths have improved little. The result is that the memory access time has been a bottleneck which limits the system performance. Memory controller (MC) is designed and built to attacking this problem. The memory controller is the part of the system that, well, controls the memory. The memory controller is normally integrated into the system chipset. This paper shows how to build an Advanced Micro controller Bus Architecture (AMBA) compliant MC as an Advanced High-performance Bus (AHB) slave. The MC is designed for system memory control with the main memory consisting of SRAM and ROM. Additionally, the problems met in the design process are discussed and the solutions are given in the paper.


Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are attracting increasing interest as constituents of composite materials for a wide range of applications. MWNT (multi-walled CNT)ceramics composites are in the beginning of research. The mechanical properties of MWNTs-SiO2 composites were studied in our previous work. The aim of recent work is to develop new systems of composites and extend the potential application of advanced engineering ceramics. In this paper, MWNTs-mullite composites were firstly fabricated with HP (hot-pressing) and SPS (Spark plasma sintering). The microstructures of the composites were observed by FESEM (Field emission scanning electronic microscopy), furthermore, the mechanical and electrical properties of the composites were tested. The work is in progress to prepare new composites that could benefit from the properties of the nanotubes, paving the way for further research in the MWNTs-ceramics composites.


Extracting the relations that exist between two entities is an important step in numerous Web-related tasks such as information extraction. A supervised relation extraction system that is trained to extract a particular relation type might not accurately extract a new type of a relation for which it has not been trained. However, it is costly to create training data manually for every new relation type that one might want to extract. We propose a method to adapt an existing relation extraction system to extract new relation types with minimum supervision. Our proposed method comprises two stages: learning a lower-dimensional projection between different relations, and learning a relational classifier for the target relation type with instance sampling. We evaluate the proposed method using a dataset that contains 2000 instances for 20 different relation types. Our experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a statistically significant macro-average F-score of 62.77. Moreover, the proposed method outperforms numerous baselines and a previously proposed weakly-supervised relation extraction method.


A study was conducted to assess the status of ecological condition and potential human-health risks in subtidal estuarine waters throughout the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) (Currituck Sound, Rachel Carson, Masonboro Island, and Zeke's Island). Field work was conducted in September 2006 and incorporated multiple indicators of ecosystem condition including measures of water quality (dissolved oxygen, salinity,
temperature, pH, nutrients and chlorophyll, suspended solids), sediment quality (granulometry, organic matter content, chemical contaminant concentrations), biological condition (diversity and abundances of benthic fauna, fish contaminant levels and pathologies), and human dimensions (fish-tissue contaminant levels relative to human-health consumption limits, various aesthetic properties). A probabilistic sampling design permitted statistical estimation of the spatial extent of degraded versus non-degraded condition across these estuaries relative to
specified threshold levels of the various indicators (where possible). With some exceptions, the status of these reserves appeared to be in relatively good to fair ecological condition overall, with the majority of the area (about 54%) having various water quality, sediment quality, and biological (benthic) condition indicators rated in the healthy to intermediate range of corresponding guideline thresholds. Only three stations, representing 10.5% of the area, had one or more of these indicators rated as poor/degraded in all three categories. While such a
conclusion is encouraging from a coastal management perspective, it should be viewed with some caution. For example, although co-occurrences of adverse biological and abiotic environmental conditions were limited, at least one indicator of ecological condition rated in the poor/degraded range was observed over a broader area (35.5%) represented by 11 of the 30 stations sampled. In addition, the fish-tissue contaminant data were not included in these overall spatial estimates; however, the majority of samples (77% of fish that were analyzed, from 79%, of stations where fish were caught) contained inorganic arsenic above the consumption limits for human cancer risks, though most likely derived from natural sources. Similarly, aesthetic indicators are not reflected in these spatial estimates of ecological condition, though there was evidence of noxious odors in sediments at many of the stations. Such symptoms reflect a growing realization that North Carolina estuaries are under multiple pressures from a variety of natural and human influences. These data also suggest that, while the current status of overall
ecological condition appears to be good to fair, long-term monitoring is warranted to track potential changes in the future. This study establishes an important baseline of overall ecological condition within NC NERRS that can be used to evaluate any such future changes and to trigger
appropriate management actions in this rapidly evolving coastal environment. (PDF contains 76 pages)


This letter proposes a novel way to assimilate synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to L-band Microwave Emission of the Biosphere (L-MEB) model to enhance model performance over forested areas. L- and C-band satellite SAR data are used in order to characterize the forest transmissivity within the emission model, instead of the optical satellite imagery-based leaf area index (LAI) parameter. Examination of several combinations of satellite SAR data as a substitute for LAI within the L-MEB model showed that when ALOS PALSAR (L-band) and multitemporal composite Sentinel-1 (C-band) data are applied, an improved agreement was achieved between the measured and simulated brightness temperatures (TBs) over forests. The root mean squared difference between modeled and measured TBs was reduced from 6.1 to 4.7 K with single PALSAR scene-based transmissivity correction and down to 4.1 K with multitemporal Sentinel-1 composite-based transmissivity correction. Suitability of single Sentinel-1 scenes varied based on seasonal and weather conditions. Overall, this indicates the potential of an SAR-based estimation of forest volume transmissivity and opens a possible way of fruitful active-passive microwave satellite data integration.


This study compares public perceptions of shale gas extraction and hydraulic fracturing in two of the most populous states with significant shale gas reserves but with vastly different approaches to developing this resource. Drawing on data from a comparative survey administered to two statewide samples in Pennsylvania (n = 411) and New York (n = 404), the study examines the correlates of support for hydraulic fracturing, as well as general levels of public awareness, and perceptions of effects of hydraulic fracturing within the Marcellus shale play. Though the level of awareness of the fracking issue among residents of Pennsylvania and New York is found to be similarly high, levels of support for fracking differ, mirroring distinctive policy approaches found in these neighboring states. The correlates of support for fracking include being Republican, having a conservative ideology, and being male. The study also finds that residents of New York are more aware of fracking policy and debate in Pennsylvania than vice versa, with many New York residents perceiving negative effects on their home state as a result of fracking in neighboring Pennsylvania. This asymmetric level of awareness and concern raises new questions on the role of cross-border perceptions in shaping opinion toward hydraulic fracturing in adjacent states.


The discrete-ordinates finite-element radiation transport code twotran is applied to describe the multiple scattering of a laser beam from a reflecting target. For a model scenario involving a 99% relative humidity rural aerosol we compute the average intensity of the scattered radiation and correction factors to the Beer-Lambert law arising from multiple scattering. As our results indicate, 2-D x-y and r-z geometry modeling can reliably describe a realistic 3-D scenario. Specific results are presented for the two visual ranges of 1.52 and 0.76 km which show that, for sufficiently high aerosol concentrations (e.g., equivalent to V = 0.76 km), the target signature in a distant detector becomes dominated by multiply scattered radiation from interactions of the laser light with the aerosol environment. The merits of the scaling group and the delta-M approximation for the transfer equation are also explored.


A 59 year old white woman who had been treated with chloroquine phosphate for 25 years presented with signs of congestive heart failure and was diagnosed as having restrictive cardiomyopathy by non-invasive methods. Electron microscopy of a biopsy specimen of skeletal muscle showed lesions compatible with chloroquine myopathy. The patient died five weeks after presentation. Electron microscopy of heart tissue showed similar lesions to those of the skeletal muscle.


We develop a model of a small open economy with credit market frictions to analyze the consequences of capital account liberalization. We show that financial opening facilitates the inflows of cheap foreign funds and improves production efficiency. Reforms increasing labor market flexibility can further improve such efficiency gains. However, capital account liberalization also has important distributional consequences. Specifically, it may be impossible to use public transfers to fully compensate the loss of those negatively affected by capital account liberalization. This explains why financial opening often meets fierce opposition even though it leads to efficiency gains for the economy as a whole. From a practical perspective, capital controls should be lifted gradually for a smooth transition.


AIM
To describe family members' experiences of attending to an old person with diabetes receiving home care services, including their interaction with the formal caregivers.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The study has a qualitative descriptive design. From May to August 2015, eight family members were interviewed. Interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. To describe family members' experiences, the following four themes were identified: Security through patients' self-management skills and diabetes knowledge; Perceived burden due to the old persons' deteriorated health; Security through competent home care services; and Doubt due to personnel's inadequate approach and interaction.

CONCLUSION
It is important for personnel in home care services to consider patients' self-management skills and the family members' diabetes knowledge as key aspects in order to limit experiences of burden when the older person with diabetes has deteriorating health. The findings underscore that interaction with home care personnel skilled in managing diabetes helps family members feel secure.


Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology and their focal role in Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have rekindled a growing interest in the whole-genome sequence assembly (WGSA) problem, thereby, inundating the field with a plethora of new formalizations, algorithms, heuristics and implementations. And yet, scant attention has been paid to comparative assessments of these assemblers' quality and accuracy. No commonly accepted and standardized method for comparison exists yet. Even worse, widely used metrics to compare the assembled sequences emphasize only size, poorly capturing the contig quality and accuracy. This paper addresses these concerns: it highlights common anomalies in assembly accuracy through a rigorous study of several assemblers, compared under both standard metrics (N50, coverage, contig sizes, etc.) as well as a more comprehensive metric (Feature-Response Curves, FRC) that is introduced here; FRC transparently captures the trade-offs between contigs' quality against their sizes. For this purpose, most of the publicly available major sequence assemblers – both for low-coverage long (Sanger) and high-coverage short (Illumina) reads technologies – are compared. These assemblers are applied to microbial (Escherichia coli, Brucella, Wolbachia, Staphylococcus, Helicobacter) and partial human genome sequences (Chr. Y), using sequence reads of various read-lengths, coverages, accuracies, and with and without mate-pairs. It is hoped that, based on these evaluations, computational biologists will identify innovative sequence assembly paradigms, bioinformaticists will determine promising approaches for developing "next-generation" assemblers, and biotechnologists will formulate more meaningful design desiderata for sequencing technology platforms. A new software tool for computing the FRC metric has been developed and is available through the AMOS open-source consortium.


A demonstration plant consisted of ozone/granular activated carbon (GAC) was operated using sand filtered water as an influent to study the feasibility for introduction of an advanced water treatment. In ozonating the sand filtered water, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) slightly increased at an ozone dose of less than 1.0mg O3/mg C, and the largest DOC reduction was exhibited at 1.0mg O3/mg C. As ozone dosage increased from 1.0 to 5.0mg O3/mg C, DOC decreased no more, whereas UV absorbance at 254 nm gradually decreased with increasing ozone dosage. The hydrophobic fraction in natural organic matter (NOM) was considered as a predominant reactant from the result of a rapid decrease in specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA). Since the specific reaction sites in the NOM molecule for haloform reaction were attacked by ozonation, the disinfection by-product (DBP) formation potentials could be reduced. The hydrophobic fraction decreased from 36.3% to 28.7% by ozonation and then decreased to 24.2% through carbon adsorption. The hydrophilic fraction changed only by 1.0% during ozonation, while it decreased by 28.3% through carbon adsorption. Therefore, ozonation followed by carbon adsorption is an acceptable process for the reduction of latent risk through selective oxidation and adsorption of different NOM fractions.


Palynological records from the Western Portuguese and Algarve basins (Portugal) provide new insights on the timing and pattern of the early diversification of angiosperms (flowering plants) and its relationship to global environmental perturbations during the late Early Cretaceous. Angiosperm pollen displays a stepwise increase in both diversity and relative abundance during the late Barremian to middle Albian interval (ca. 124–104 Ma), reflecting the incipient radiation of flowering plants in lower midlatitude floras. Our results provide new evidence for the age interpretation of the previously described angiosperm mesofossil floras and associated in situ pollen assemblages from the Western Portuguese basin, until now interpreted as Barremian or possibly Aptian in age. Biostratigraphic and sedimentologic evidence indicates a post-Aptian age for these assemblages, hence demonstrating a major radiation phase of angiosperms during the early Albian. Correlation of the angiosperm pollen record with data on global paleoenvironmental changes suggests a link between the rapid adaptive radiation of flowering plants and major climatic and oceanographic perturbations during the late Early Cretaceous.


We present a microfluidic nozzle device for the controlled continuous solution blow spinning of ultrafine fibers. The device is fabricated by soft lithography techniques and is based on the principle of a gas dynamic virtual nozzle for precise three-dimensional gas focusing of the spinning solution. Uniform fibers with virtually endless length can be produced in a continuous process while having accurate control over the fiber diameter. The nozzle device is used to produce ultrafine fibers of perfluorinated copolymers and of polycaprolactone, which are collected and drawn on a rotating cylinder. Hydrodynamics and mass balance quantitatively predict the fiber diameter, which is only a function of flow rate and air pressure, with a small correction accounting for viscous dissipation during jet formation, which slightly reduces the jet velocity. Because of the simplicity of the setup, the precise control of the fiber diameter, the positional stability of the exiting ultrafine fiber and the potential to implement arrays of parallel channels for high throughput, this methodology offers significant benefits compared to existing solution-based fiber production methods.


Educational policies that impact second language (L2) learners—a rapidly-growing group—are often enacted without consulting relevant research. This review synthesized research regarding optimal conditions for L2 acquisition, facilitative L2 learner and teacher characteristics, and speed of L2 acquisition, from four bodies of work—foreign language education, child language research, sociocultural studies, and psycholinguistics—often overlooked by educators. Seventy-one peer-reviewed journal articles studying PK-12 L2 learners met inclusion criteria. Findings included: 1) Optimal conditions for L2 learners immersed in a majority-L2 society include strong home literacy practices, opportunities to use the L2 informally, well-implemented specially-designed L2 educational programs, and sufficient time devoted to L2 literacy instruction, whereas L2 learners with little L2 exposure require explicit instruction to master grammar; 2) L2 learners with strong L2 aptitude, motivation, and first language (L1) skills are more successful; 3) Effective L2 teachers demonstrate sufficient L2 proficiency, strong instructional skills, and proficiency in their students' L1; 4) L2 learners require 3-7 years to reach L2 proficiency, with younger learners typically taking longer but more likely to achieve close-to-native results. These findings, even those most relevant to education, are not reflected in current US policy. Additional research is needed on the characteristics of successful or unsuccessful L2 learners and L2 teachers. Such research should attend systematically to the differences between L2 learning in maximal versus minimal input settings; whereas the psycholinguistic challenges of L2 learning might be common across settings, the sociocultural and interactional challenges and opportunities differ in ways that can massively impact outcomes.


We prove that the $\alpha$-expansion algorithm for MAP inference always returns a globally optimal assignment for Markov Random Fields with Potts pairwise potentials, with a catch: the returned assignment is only guaranteed to be optimal for an instance within a small perturbation of the original problem instance. In other words, all local minima with respect to expansion moves are global minima to slightly perturbed versions of the problem. On "real-world" instances, MAP assignments of small perturbations of the problem should be very similar to the MAP assignment(s) of the original problem instance. We design an algorithm that can certify whether this is the case in practice. On several MAP inference problem instances from computer vision, this algorithm certifies that MAP solutions to all of these perturbations are very close to solutions of the original instance. These results taken together give a cohesive explanation for the good performance of "graph cuts" algorithms in practice. Every local expansion minimum is a global minimum in a small perturbation of the problem, and all of these global minima are close to the original solution.


The hydrologic processes by which tide affects river channel and riparian morphology within the tidal freshwater zone are poorly understood yet are fundamental to predicting the fate of coastal rivers and wetlands as sea level rises. We investigated patterns of sediment accretion in riparian wetlands along the nontidal through oligohaline portion of two coastal plain rivers in Maryland, U.S., and how flow velocity, water level, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the channel may have contributed to those patterns. Sediment accretion was measured over a 1 year period using artificial marker horizons, channel hydrology was measured over a 1 month period using acoustic Doppler current profilers, and SSC was predicted from acoustic backscatter. Riparian sediment accretion was lowest at the nontidal sites (mean and standard deviation = 8 ± 8 mm yr−1), highest at the upstream tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) (33 ± 28 mm yr−1), low at the midstream TFFW (12 ± 9 mm yr−1), and high at the oligohaline (fresh‐to‐brackish) marshes (19 ± 8 mm yr−1). Channel maximum flood and ebb velocity was twofold faster at the oligohaline than tidal freshwater zone on both tidal rivers, corresponding with the differences in in‐channel SSC: The oligohaline zone's SSC was more than double the tidal freshwater zone's and was greater than historical SSC at the nontidal gages. The tidal wave characteristics differed between rivers, leading to significantly greater in‐channel SSC during floodplain inundation in the weakly convergent than the strongly convergent tidal river. High sediment accretion at the upstream TFFW was likely due to high river discharge following a hurricane.


Industry and high-tech industries flourish in the current era. In addition to enhancing quality of life, they have caused plentiful harm to human beings and the environment. Some man-made pollution has destroyed the ecological balance. Environmental protection has thus become everybody's social responsibility. Many enterprises are beginning to actively concern themselves with sustainable business models and environmental protection issues. After continuous technological development in recent years, many new products have emerged to make human life more convenient. The smartphone is among the most popular of these products. The main aims of this study are to (1) analyze green smartphone requirements of consumers and designers; and (2) construct an assessment framework and checklist for smartphone green design. This study adopts voting analytic hierarchy process (VAHP) and quality function deployment (QFD) and constructs green design criteria through expert interviews.


Abstract This paper describes the interferometer systems on the Large Helical Device (LHD). LHD is equipped with five interferometer systems, each of which has a different operational purpose and measurable electron density range. A single-channel millimeter-wave interferometer is mainly used for low-density plasmas along a horizontal line of sight on the equatorial plane. Wavelengths of 1 and 2 mm are used for vibration compensation based on two-color interferometry, which has been used since the first operation of LHD. A 13-channel CH3OH laser interferometer (wavelength of 119 μm) covers almost the whole poloidal cross sections of LHD plasmas with a chord separation of 90 mm. It routinely provides temporal behavior and profiles of the electron density. The laser has been developed as a collaboration between the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) and Chubu University. An 80-channel CO2 laser interferometer (10.6 μm) is employed for high-density plasmas such as superdense core plasmas. It adopts an imaging technique with three slablike beams and array detectors to measure the density profile precisely. A phase contrast imaging interferometer, which measures density fluctuations, is combined with the CO2 laser interferometer. Since LHD has strong magnetic shear, a distribution of the density fluctuations is evaluated by using shear technique. A conventional millimeter-wave (4 mm) interferometer is also installed at a divertor region to measure dynamic density responses in a divertor leg. The phase counter used on these interferometers was originally developed at NIFS. The phase resolution of a typical phase counter is 1/100 fringe with a temporal response of 10 μs.


Microlattices make marvelous materials Framework or lattice structures can be remarkably strong despite their very low density. Using a very precise technique known as projection microstereolithography, Zheng et al. fabricated octet microlattices from polymers, metals, and ceramics. The design of the lattices meant that the individual struts making up the materials did not bend under pressure. The materials were therefore exceptionally stiff, strong, and lightweight. Science, this issue p. 1373 Ultralow-density materials that deform through tension or compression rather than bending show much higher stiffness. The mechanical properties of ordinary materials degrade substantially with reduced density because their structural elements bend under applied load. We report a class of microarchitected materials that maintain a nearly constant stiffness per unit mass density, even at ultralow density. This performance derives from a network of nearly isotropic microscale unit cells with high structural connectivity and nanoscale features, whose structural members are designed to carry loads in tension or compression. Production of these microlattices, with polymers, metals, or ceramics as constituent materials, is made possible by projection microstereolithography (an additive micromanufacturing technique) combined with nanoscale coating and postprocessing. We found that these materials exhibit ultrastiff properties across more than three orders of magnitude in density, regardless of the constituent material.


Monte-Carlo-based specialized software has been applied to the statistical modeling of effective emissivity of radiators with concentric grooves of trapezoidal and triangular profile. A specular-diffuse model is used in which the thermal emission from the walls obeys Lambert's cosine law, and reflection may have both specular and diffuse (Lambertian) components. The angular dependences of effective emissivity of a radiator with concentric triangular and trapezoidal grooves are computed for various values of the diffuse component. Grooves with isothermal and non-isothermal walls are modeled. It is shown that a temperature drop towards the peak of a groove might lead to substantially decreased effective emissivity. An example of a modeling result for a grooved radiator with reflector enhancement is presented.


OBJECTIVE Effective perioperative hand antisepsis is crucial for the safety of patients and medical staff in surgical rooms. The antimicrobial effectiveness of different antiseptic methods, including conventional hand scrubs and waterless hand rubs, has not been well evaluated. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A randomized controlled trial was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the 3 antiseptic methods among surgical staff of Taipei Medical University—Shuang Ho Hospital. For each method used, a group of 80 participants was enrolled. INTERVENTION Surgical hand cleansing with conventional 10% povidone–iodine scrub, conventional 4% chlorhexidine scrub, or waterless hand rub (1% chlorhexidine gluconate and 61% ethyl alcohol). RESULTS Colony-forming unit (CFU) counts were collected using the hand imprinting method before and after disinfection and after surgery. After surgical hand disinfection, the mean CFU counts of the conventional chlorhexidine (0.5±0.2, P<0.01) and waterless hand rub groups (1.4±0.7, P<0.05) were significantly lower than that of the conventional povidone group (4.3±1.3). No significant difference was observed in the mean CFU count among the groups after surgery. Similar results were obtained when preexisting differences before disinfection were considered in the analysis of covariance. Furthermore, multivariate regression indicated that the antiseptic method (P=.0036), but not other variables, predicted the mean CFU count. CONCLUSIONS Conventional chlorhexidine scrub and waterless hand rub were superior to a conventional povidone–iodine product in bacterial inhibition. We recommend using conventional chlorhexidine scrub as a standard method for perioperative hand antisepsis. Waterless hand rub may be used if the higher cost is affordable. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:417–422


This research  exploring the potential of antibacterial compounds from herbs to be important to do considering the number of cases of bacterial resistance. Proteus itself is one of the bacteria zoonosis or bacteria that can transfer the disease from animals or products of animal origin to humans. This study aims to ascertain whether guava leaf extract has antimicrobial activity against Proteus mirabilis , zoonotic bacteria from broiler chicken sold in several traditional markets in Makassar. The method used for the identification of Proteus mirabilis with PCR. Positive samples from PCR were then continued for the antimicrobial activity test of Guava Leaf Extract ( Psidium guajava L.) using concentrations of 10%, 20%, and 30% using 10% DMSO solvent. In this research, there were 3 Positive samples (B2, D4 and PT4) as Proteus mirabilis indicated by Band at 532bp. The results of the antimicrobial activity test of Guava Leaf Extract showed antimicrobial activity against ATCC 43071, B2, D4 and PT4 Proteus mirabilis where the largest Inhibition Zone was shown by Concentrations of 30%


Using data from a rich new data source, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the author examines the sensitivity of the estimated earnings penalty faced by sexual minorities to 1) the use of multiple measures of sexual orientation, including both identity/attraction and behaviorally based definitions, and 2) controls for family and individual heterogeneity. Baseline regression results show that gay males and bisexuals earn less than their heterosexual counterparts, a result that persists after controlling for family-level observables. However, after controlling for personality and isolating self-identified sexual minorities who are most likely to be observed as such by employers, the estimated wage penalty for bisexuals falls sharply in absolute magnitude while the wage penalty for gay males persists. Preferred specifications show that relative to heterosexual males, gay males earn wages that are 13.1% lower, a result that is consistent with labor market discrimination. Neither lesbians nor bisexual females earn significantly less than their heterosexual counterparts.


RObust Header Compression (ROHC), RFC 3095, defines a framework for
header compression, along with a number of compression protocols
(profiles). One operating assumption for the profiles defined in RFC
3095 is that the channel between compressor and decompressor is
required to maintain packet ordering. This document discusses aspects
of using ROHC over channels that can reorder packets. It provides
guidelines on how to implement existing profiles over such channels,
as well as suggestions for the design of new profiles. This memo
provides information for the Internet community.


Frequent observations of aerosols from space are essential for studying aerosol effects on climate and air quality applications. We present results of aerosol properties derived from observations made by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) sensor onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite. EPIC's near‐hourly measured radiances at 340 and 388 nm from sun rise to sunset have been used as input to the EPIC near‐UV aerosol algorithm (EPICAERUV) for retrieving aerosol extinction optical depth (AOD), single scattering albedo (SSA), above‐cloud aerosol optical depth (ACAOD), and ultraviolet Aerosol Index. Comparisons of AERONET and EPIC daily mean AOD values at eight selected representative sites yield correlation coefficients in the range from 0.68 to 0.89 and root mean square errors from 0.10 to 0.31. A similar comparison of EPIC‐retrieved SSA against the AERONET inverted SSA product revealed nearly 51% (76%) of matchups in agreement within ±0.03 (±0.05). Furthermore, the retrievals of ACAOD are also found to compare reasonably well, with 50%–70% of matchups falling within expected uncertainty against the direct airborne measurements acquired during the ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS campaign. Using the EPICAERUV aerosol product, we analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of specific smoke events caused by wildfires over North America over the last four years.


This paper summarizes our work adapting a recursive digital resonator for use on sixteen-bit fixed-point hardware. Our modified oscillator is a two-pole filter that maintains frequency precision at a cost of two additional operations per filter sample. The new filter's error properties are expressly matched to use in the range of frequencies relevant to additive synthesis of digital audio and sinusoidal modelling of speech in order to minimize the additional computational overhead. We present the algorithm, an error analysis, a performance analysis, and measurements of an implementation on a fixed-point vector microprocessor system.


Abstract Gavinaspis convergens, a new genus and species of the Phyllolepida (Placodermi: Arthrodira), is described on the basis of skull remains from the Late Lochkovian (Xitun Formation, Early Devonian) of Qujing (Yunnan, South China). This new form displays a mosaic of characters of basal actinolepidoid arthrodires and more derived phyllolepids. A new hypothesis is proposed concerning the origin of the unpaired centronuchal plate of the Phyllolepida by a fusion of the paired central plates into one single dermal element and the loss of the nuchal plate. A phylogenetic analysis suggests the position of Gavinaspis gen. nov. as the sister group of the Phyllolepididae, in a distinct new family (Gavinaspididae fam. nov.). This new form suggests a possible Chinese origin for the Phyllolepida or that the common ancestor to Phyllolepida lived in an area including both South China and Gondwana, and in any case corroborates the palaeogeographic proximity between Australia and South China during the Devonian Period.


Glossopharyngeal neuralgia is an uncommon cause of intense facial pain, and is rarely associated with syncope. We present a patient with malignant syncope precipitated by glossopharyngeal neuralgia (GPN), who sustained lower extremity fractures. A 64-year-old Caucasian female with hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2 and dyslipidemia, presented to the emergency department (ED) after a witnessed syncopal event. Over the preceding 9 months, she experienced multiple syncopal episodes triggered by neck pain, and was diagnosed with GPN by an ENT specialist. She reported a severe, stabbing pain in the right side of her neck prior to the event. Her vital signs and physical examination were unremarkable, except for bilateral leg tenderness. Laboratory data were within normal limits. Electrocardiogram revealed normal sinus rhythm, a rate of 72 beats per minute (BPM), and otherwise normal. Lower extremity X-rays revealed bilateral non-displaced fibular fractures. In the ED, she sustained another syncopal event, and bradycardia with transient heart rates as low as 22 BPM were documented. A temporary transvenous pacemaker was placed. She required pacing repeatedly for repeated bradycardic episodes preceded by right-sided neck pain. She was started on carbamazepine, without complete resolution of her symptoms on escalating doses. Due to recurrent bradycardia with frequent neck pains, requiring temporary pacing, an MRI-compatible permanent pacemaker was placed, to allow for further MRI recommended by neurology service. At 8-week follow-up, she had fully recovered from her neuralgic pain and fractures, without further syncope. This case emphasizes the potentially serious morbidity of GPN-induced syncope and importance of a prompt clinical diagnosis and treatment. J Med Cases. 2014;5(8):459-462 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jmc1875w


Depth-contours are an essential part of any hydrographic chart—a map of a waterbody intended for safe ship navigation. Traditionally these were manually drawn by skilled hydrographers from a limited set of surveyed depth measurements. Nowadays this process of map making is shifted towards the digital domain, not in the last place because of the huge amounts of data resulting from modern surveying techniques. Furthermore, the task of automating the process of cartographic generalization that depends on subjective criteria is challenging. The produced depth-contours should comply with the four hydrographic generalization constraints of safety, legibility (smoothness), topology and waterbody morphology. I show that grid-based approaches to generalize depth contours that are currently used in practice do not always comply with those fundamental generalization constraints. Most notably, the safety constraint, that ensures that a map never indicates an area as being shallower than measured, is often violated. But also the legibility and morphology constraints are not always optimally respected. Furthermore, heterogeneous datasets (that contain a transition of very sparse to very dense data), can lead to unwished interpolation artifacts, when the popular Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) spatial interpolation method is used. Part of this problem is the non-adaptive nature of IDW, that requires the user to re-set the interpolation parameters when the spatial distribution of the input point changes. I present and prototype a novel surface-based approach for the generalization of hydrographic depth-contours that is based on the Voronoi Diagram (VD) and performs generalization on the surface that defines the contours, rather on the contour lines individually. Through the VD, a fully adaptive, automatic and smooth spatial interpolation method known as the Laplace interpolant is coupled with a Delaunay Triangulation (DT) data structure that contains all data points with their exact planimetric coordinates. Using this concept a number of operators is defined that are able to perform the relevant cartographic generalization operations for hydrographic contours: simplification, smoothing, aggregation, omission and enlargement. The significance of the proposed approach lies herein that it honors all four hydrographic generalization constraints, most notably: it is guaranteed to be safe. As opposed to current automated approaches, it does therefore not require any form of manual safety verification. And, because all of the employed algorithms are local, it is also well scalable to big datasets in principle.


Through a phenomenological perspective, we frame the experiences of "hospitality" of racialized immigrant student teachers as they recount their field placements in a number of Canadian schools. This article presents the following themes which emerged from the study, and which also serve as section titles: 1) The classroom door as threshold: Crossing workaday and festive worlds; 2) More foreign than foreign; Stranger than strange; 3) You are who I think you are; Not who you know you are; 4) Actively inviting the threshold; Passively accepting the barrier; 5) Sensing the cold: The hostility in hospitality as hostil/pitality?; 6) The hiddenness of potential: Growing in foreign soil; 7) The strangeness of Canadian students: Hospitality beyond hospitality; 8) Inspiriting the festive: Pedagogy as hospitality. The paper concludes by showing that living hospitably with the foreign-other on the Canadian school landscape is not so much a problem as it is an invitation for teachers to realize the call of their vocation.


Reservoir Geomechanics is playing an increasingly important role in developing and producing hydrocarbon reserves. One of the main challenges in reservoir modeling is accurate and efficient simulation of arbitrary intersecting faults. In this paper, we propose a new formulation to model multiple intersecting cohesive discontinuities (faults) in reservoirs using the XFEM framework. This formulation involves construction of enrichment functions and computation of stiffness sub-matrices for bulk (rock mass), faults and their interaction DOF's. A sub-divisional scheme has been developed, to perform volume and surface integrations. The sub-divisional scheme can efficiently handle most possible configurations of multiple intersecting/non-intersecting faults in 3D finite elements. In order to be able to model cohesive behaviour of intersecting faults, we have performed additional surface integrations which, to the knowledge of the authors, are not reported in the literature. For example, if an element is intersected by two cohesive faults, we compute 16 volumes and 8 surface integrations for stiffness matrices and 4 surface integrations for force vectors, to form elemental equations. The current distributed implementation using C++/MPI can simulate very large meshes. Three-dimensional benchmark cases are presented to validate the accuracy of the approach, and the potential benefits in applications. The present study shows that interaction DOF's and their associated surface stiffness matrices play a significant role in accurate modeling of cohesive faults via XFEM.


Among the 899 species of freshwater fishes reported from Sundaland biodiversity hotspot, nearly 50% are endemics. The functional integrity of aquatic ecosystems is currently jeopardized by human activities, and landscape conversion led to the decline of fish populations in several part of Sundaland, particularly in Java. The inventory of the Javanese ichthyofauna has been discontinuous, and the taxonomic knowledge is scattered in the literature. This study provides a DNA barcode reference library for the inland fishes of Java and Bali with the aim to streamline the inventory of fishes in this part of Sundaland. Owing to the lack of available checklist for estimating the taxonomic coverage of this study, a checklist was compiled based on online catalogues. A total of 95 sites were visited, and a library including 1046 DNA barcodes for 159 species was assembled. Nearest neighbour distance was 28‐fold higher than maximum intraspecific distance on average, and a DNA barcoding gap was observed. The list of species with DNA barcodes displayed large discrepancies with the checklist compiled here as only 36% (i.e. 77 species) and 60% (i.e. 24 species) of the known species were sampled in Java and Bali, respectively. This result was contrasted by a high number of new occurrences and the ceiling of the accumulation curves for both species and genera. These results highlight the poor taxonomic knowledge of this ichthyofauna, and the apparent discrepancy between present and historical occurrence data is to be attributed to species extirpations, synonymy and misidentifications in previous studies.


We have previously described a panel of serially transplantable glioblastoma multiforme xenograft lines established by direct subcutaneous injection of patient tumor tissue in the flanks of nude mice. Here we report the characterization of four of these lines with respect to their histopathologic, genetic, and growth properties following heterotopic-to-orthotopic (flank-to-intracranial) transfer. Cells from short-term cultures, established from excised flank xenografts, were harvested and injected into the brains of nude mice (10(6) cells per injection). The intracranial tumors generated from these injections were all highly mitotic as well as highly invasive, but they lacked necrotic features in most instances and failed to show endothelial cell proliferation in all instances. For mice receiving injections from a common explant culture, tumor intracranial growth rate was consistent, as indicated by relatively narrow ranges in survival time. In contrast to the loss of epidermal growth factor receptor gene (EGFR) amplification in cell culture, high-level amplification and overexpression of EGFR were retained in intracranial tumors established from two EGFR-amplified flank tumors. A third intracranial tumor retained patient tumor amplification and high-level expression of platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha gene. Because the heterotopic-to-orthotopic transfer and propagation of glioblastoma multiforme preserves the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) gene amplification of patient tumors, this approach should facilitate investigations for determining the extent to which RTK amplification status influences tumor response to RTK-directed therapies. The fact that such studies were carried out by using an invasive tumor model in an anatomically appropriate context should ensure a rigorous preclinical assessment of agent efficacy.


Abstract. To explore the effects of vertical mixing on the primary production in a northern reservoir, a Lagrangian particle dispersion model was coupled to a 1-D reservoir model where the vertical mixing was calculated using a k-e model together with an empirically-based deep-water eddy viscosity. The primary production of each phytoplankton cell is assumed to be a function of the ambient light and not to be nutrient limited. The photoadaption follows first-order kinetics where the photoadaptive variables, a, b, and Pm, describe the coefficients of the photosynthesis-irradiance curve. The model is applied to the northern reservoir Akkajaure, which is strongly regulated with a mean and maximum depth of 30 m and 100 m respectively. Based on the release of 1000 particles (plankton), the model calculated the mean primary production of each plankton, during four different growing seasons. Vertical mixing has a substantial effect on the vertical distribution of phytoplankton and, thus, on the primary production in a reservoir. It was found that primary production was greater in a cold summer with weak stratification than in a warm summer when the reservoir was more stratified.


Back in the closing years of the 12th century, in 1173 to be precise, the good citizens of the Tuscan town of Pisa had a whip-round to come up with enough cash to build a new cathedral. This being a particularly prosperous part of Italy, the lire flowed freely and soon there was enough money in the bank not only for the proposed cathedral, but also to cover the cost of a freestanding bell-tower alongside. Designs were finalised, contracts awarded, and so it was that a few weeks later, the first site meeting for the construction of the great tower of Pisa was under way. Crouched over the plans, the head quantity surveyor whispered conspiratorially to his foreman, "I've saved a couple of bucks on the foundations. No-one will ever know."


Latent human herpes virus 8 (HHV8) infection has been implicated in malignancies occurring predominantly in HIV+ patients, including Kaposi sarcoma (KS), primary effusion lymphoma  (PEL), plasmablastic lymphoma and multicentric Castleman disease (MCD).1 However, the oncogenic mechanisms remain enigmatic. Whether different serotypes of HHV8 have the same oncogenic potential, and in patients with concurrent HHV8-related malignancies whether intrapatient genotype variability exists remains to be studied. Such knowledge will be important in understanding the pathogenesis of HHV8-associated neoplasms. We report a case of an HIV+ male with disseminated KS and PEL who subsequently developed recurrent extracavitary relapse of PEL. HHV8 subtyping revealed that both the KS and extracavitary PEL were caused by HHV8 serotype C.

A Chinese man aged 26 years who had sex with men presented with a non-healing left foot lesion, suspected to be a callus. The lesion did not respond to local therapies and progressed to multiple violaceous papules over both his shins. Skin biopsy confirmed HHV8-positive KS. Blood work revealed HIV positivity with a CD4 of 57/μL and viral load of 1.4 x 105 copies/mL. He was started on combination antiretroviral therapy comprising Kaletra, Saquinavir and Truvada. Three months later, an increase in CD4 to 318/μL and drop in viral load to 270 copies/mL heralded progression of KS, consistent with immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. While awaiting chemotherapy, the patient was admitted with progressive shortness of breath, increasing bilateral leg oedema, fatigue and night sweats. His performance status declined and he remained bedbound. On examination, extensive mucosal and skin lesions of KS were noted. Bilateral enlarged inguinal lymph nodes were palpable. Bilateral breath sounds were diminished in the middle and lower zones of the lungs. Whole body CT showed multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, mediastinum, axillae and inguinal regions with a conglomerate nodal soft tissue mass along …


The Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), unlike their counterparts in many other parts of the Middle East, have never taken power in a coup. The military has no direct role in governance, but its shadow looms large in Jordanian politics, especially as the kingdom has been challenged by regional wars, internal conflicts, and (after 2010) by the domestic and regional effects of the Arab Spring (Arab uprisings). The only time Jordan came close to a military coup was in 1957, in an era marked by heightened pan-Arab nationalism and politicization of armed forces across the Arab world. But that coup was foiled almost as soon as it began, leaving the armed forces thereafter to cast themselves as the protectors not only of the country but also of the Hashemite monarchy. Jordan's armed forces fought in multiple wars with Israel, including in 1948 and 1967, with a more limited role in the 1973 Arab–Israeli war. The military was also involved intensely in internal conflict, especially in 1970–1971, when King Hussein's armed forces clashed with the guerilla forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
 Although they never overthrew the state nor established a military government in Jordan, the Jordanian Armed Forces nonetheless played a large role in Jordanian politics, society, and even in the economy. The military was also part of a broader array of security institutions, including the intelligence services, the police, and the gendarmerie. An aid-dependent country with limited resources, Jordan faced countless fiscal crises over the years, but its military and security budgets continued to grow. Hashemite kings have tended to dote on the armed forces, ensuring large budgets and the latest in arms and equipment. Even the regime's attempt to cultivate a strong Jordanian national identity was deeply rooted in the images of the military, the monarchy itself, and the other key security institutions. But while the military's influence loomed large in public life, it did not necessarily reflect a broad range of Jordanian society, being drawn heavily from Jordan's tribal, rural, and East Jordanian communities, rather than from more urban, largely Palestinian-Jordanian communities. But in the era of the Arab uprisings across the Middle East (especially after 2010), military veterans—especially those with tribal and East Jordanian roots—played ever more vocal roles in Jordanian politics, remaining loyal to the monarchy, but also feeling empowered to lecture the monarchy about perceived flaws in social and economic policies. The personnel in Jordan's military and security institutions, in short, were drawn from the same tribes, regions, and communities that were most fervently challenging the regime and its policies in the Arab Spring era, changing the nature of Jordanian politics itself.


As neural methods are increasingly used to support and automate software development tasks, code review is a natural next target. Yet, training models to imitate developers based on past code reviews is far from straightforward: reviews found in open-source projects vary greatly in quality, phrasing, and depth depending on the reviewer. In addition, changesets are often large, stretching the capacity of current neural models. Recent work reported modest success at predicting review resolutions, but largely side-stepped the above issues by focusing on small inputs where comments were already known to occur. This work examines the vision and challenges of automating code review at realistic scale. We collect hundreds of thousands of changesets across hundreds of projects that routinely conduct code review, many of which change thousands of tokens. We focus on predicting just the locations of comments, which are quite rare. By analyzing model performance and dataset statistics, we show that even this task is already challenging, in no small part because of tremendous variation and (apparent) randomness in code reviews. Our findings give rise to a research agenda for realistically and impactfully automating code review.


Proficient in learners' first languages (L1), language coaches are believed to be instrumental in supporting adults in ESL literacy contexts (CCLB, 2015). However, researchers have yet to explore the potential benefit of such a support in L2 classrooms. The goal of this study was twofold: (1) to explore the beliefs surrounding the role of a language coach in the L2 classroom and (2) to determine whether the assistance they provide is supportive of student interactions and L2 language use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two L2 literacy teachers and one language coach at an ESL school in Ontario. In addition, two classroom observations of an L2 literacy class were performed: one with the presence of the language coach and one without. The interview and observational results suggest that having a language coach in the L2 classroom may be of positive support depending on how teachers perceive their role.


Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription medications and healthcare facilities has generated much debate over the potential benefits and adverse consequences for the public at large, patients, clinicianpatient relationships, and the overall healthcare system. This dissertation is aimed at contributing to this debate through studying the impact of DTCA in the context of cancer treatment. Study 1 assessed the reliability and validity of three candidate measures of patient-reported exposure to cancer-related DTCA across seven criteria. The study found that all three measures performed well in terms of convergent, nomological, discriminant, and face validity. Findings from this study offer support for utilizing these survey measures in future studies targeting cancer patients. Next, Study 2 examined the prevalence and correlates of cancer-related DTCA exposure in a sample of patients in Pennsylvania diagnosed with breast, prostate, or colorectal cancers. On average, patients reported modest exposure to such DTCA (median exposure was once per week). Significant correlates of exposure included cancer type, age, stage of disease, and ethnicity. Study 3 investigated the relationships between DTCA exposure and subsequent information seeking behaviors. The analyses detected a significant association between DTCA exposure and cancer patients' subsequent information engagement with their clinicians at one-year follow-up. Exposure to DTCA was marginally significant in predicting information seeking from non-clinician (lay media and interpersonal) sources. Based on the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction, a focused analysis showed a significant indirect path between DTCA exposure and subsequent information seeking from non-clinician sources, mediated through attitudes and intention to seek from these sources. Study 4 was guided by the Structural Influence Model of Communication to explore disparities in health information seeking behaviors arising from DTCA exposure. The study found that the associations between DTCA exposure and active information seeking behaviors were not moderated by patients' age, educational level, race/ethnicity, or cancer type. To conclude, these studies would likely inform the ongoing debate and future research regarding the impact of cancer-related DTCA exposure on communication outcomes and disparities. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Communication First Advisor Robert C. Hornik This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/706


Grafting experiments previously have established that the notochord affects dorsoventral polarity of the neural tube by inducing the formation of ventral structures such as motor neurons and the floor plate. Here, we examine if the notochord inhibits formation of dorsal structures by grafting a notochord within or adjacent to the dorsal neural tube prior to or shortly after tube closure. In all cases, neural crest cells emigrated from the neural tube adjacent to the ectopic notochord. When analyzed at stages after ganglion formation, the dorsal root ganglia appeared reduced in size and shifted in position in embryos receiving grafts. Another dorsal cell type, commissural neurons, identified by CRABP and neurofilament immunoreactivity, differentiated in the vicinity of the ectopic notochord. Numerous neuronal cell bodies and axonal processes were observed within the induced, but not endogenous, floor plate 1 to 2 days after implantation but appeared to be cleared with time. These results suggest that dorsally implanted notochords cannot prevent the formation of neural crest cells or commissural neurons, but can alter the size and position of neural crest-derived dorsal root ganglia.


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