Aims: To assess the performance of ALLEVYN Gentle Border in the management of a range of wounds including pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, diabetic ulcers, burns, donor sites, fungating/malignant wounds and surgically dehisced wounds in a variety of clinical settings. The primary objective was to assess the overall clinical acceptability for the indications treated. Secondary objectives included assessing dressing performance characteristics, determining changes in wound outcomes over the course of treatment, and clinicians' level of satisfaction with product characteristics. Methods: A multi-centre clinical evaluation conducted in 2008. Results: 153 adult patients were recruited from six countries. A total of 45% of patients (69/153) completed the study period (4–6 dressing change assessments) and 33% (51/153) of patients' wounds had healed before the end of the study period. Clinicians found the dressing to be suitable for the wound type treated in 95% (145/152) of patients. There was significant evidence of a reduction in wound area and depth by the final assessment (p<0.001); the median reduction in wound area and depth was 69% and 63%, respectively. There was significant evidence of a reduction in the level of exudate by the final assessment (p<0.001) although 87% of the study group had lightly or moderately exuding wounds at the beginning of the study. No pain at dressing removal was reported for 93% of removals. Conclusions: The new silicone adhesive hydrocellular foam dressing was effective in improving wound outcomes in conjunction with routine clinical practice. Conflict of interest: This study was carried out by Smith & Nephew as part of an in-market evaluation.


This book examines why workplaces around the world have become involved in childcare and the nature of the programs that have been implemented. It provides an overview of diverse workplace initiatives beyond traditional preschool care. Partnership is a key theme, and the authors highlight the fruitfulness of collaborations that combine the resources and capabilities of different actors. Ten industrialized and developing countries are examined through a national overview on policies and facilities for childcare and the implications for working parents, followed by case studies of specific workplaces. The studies provide considerable detail on why the childcare support was started, how it is funded and managed, how various partners are involved, and the perspectives of workers and employers on the support provided. This book shows how support for childcare has been organized and funded in a variety of workplaces and the diversity of the partnerships that have evolved in both developing and industrialized countries. It will be a useful resource for policymakers and workplace partners looking for practical ways to help working parents with their childcare needs.


Using survey data collected in 2002 and 2003 in California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Texas on workers injured 3 to 3.5 years earlier, coupled with information on the associated workers' compensation claims from the Workers Compensation Research Institute, the authors examine how provider choice in workers' compensation is related to costs and to workers' outcomes. They find that employee choice of the provider, by comparison with employer choice, was associated with higher costs and worse return-to-work outcomes. Although the same rate of physical recovery was found for both groups, workers who chose their providers reported higher satisfaction with medical care. The higher costs and worse return-to-work outcomes associated with employee choice arose largely when employees selected a new provider, rather than a provider with whom they had a pre-existing relationship. The findings lend some support to recent policy changes limiting workers' ability to choose a provider with whom they do not have a prior relationship.


Recurrent neural networks such as the GRU and LSTM found wide adoption in natural language processing and achieve state-of-the-art results for many tasks. These models are characterized by a memory state that can be written to and read from by applying gated composition operations to the current input and the previous state. However, they only cover a small subset of potentially useful compositions. We propose Multi-Function Recurrent Units (MuFuRUs) that allow for arbitrary differentiable functions as composition operations. Furthermore, MuFuRUs allow for an input- and state-dependent choice of these composition operations that is learned. Our experiments demonstrate that the additional functionality helps in different sequence modeling tasks, including the evaluation of propositional logic formulae, language modeling and sentiment analysis.


We review and compare two alternative spatial regression methods used in dendroclimatology to reconstruct climate from tree rings. These methods are orthogonal spatial regression (OSR) and canonical regression (CR). Both the OSR and CR methods have a common foundation in least-squares theory and converge to the same solution when all p candidate tree-ring predictors of climate are forced into the model. However, the perfomance of OSR and CR may differ when only subsets p' < p predictors are used. Theory cannot predict how either method is likely to perform when best-subset selection is applied, especially with regards to reconstruction accuracy. Consequently, empirical comparisons of OSR and CR are made using three tree-ring and climate networks from western Europe and eastern North America that have been used in previous dendroclimatic studies. These comparisons rely on a suite of regression model verification statistics to validate the accuracy of the climatic reconstructions produced by the best-subset models. The results indicate little real difference between OSR and CR, with each performing equally good or bad depending on the amount of recoverable climatic information in the tree rings. Canonical regression may perform slightly better in high signal-to-noise cases; conversely, OSR may perform slightly better when the signal-to-noise ratio is low. None of these apparent differences are large enough to select one method in preference to the other, however, and many more comparisons would be needed to determine if such indications are generally valid.


Background Situation awareness (SA)—the perception of data elements, comprehension of their meaning and projection of their status in the near future—has been associated with human performance in high-risk environments, including aviation and the operating room. The influences on SA in inpatient medicine are unknown. Methods We conducted seven focus groups with nurses, respiratory therapists and resident physicians using a standardised semistructured focus group guide to promote discussion. Recordings of the focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and transcripts were qualitatively analysed by two independent reviewers to identify convergent and divergent themes. Results Three themes emerged: (1) team-based care, (2) availability of standardised data and (3) standardised processes and procedures. We categorised these into social, technological and organisational influences on SA. Subthemes that emerged from each focus group were shared language to describe at-risk patients, provider experience in critical care/deterioration and interdisciplinary huddles to identify and plan for at-risk patients. An objective early warning score, proactive assessment and planning, adequate clinician staffing and tools for entering, displaying and monitoring data trends were identified by six of seven groups. Our data better reflected the concepts of team SA and shared SA than individual SA. Conclusions Team-based care and standardisation support SA and the identification and treatment of patient risk in the complex environment of inpatient care. These findings can be used to guide the development and implementation of targeted interventions such as huddles to proactively scan for risk and electronic health record displays of data trends.


This focus writing in this paper is contribution of Syu'bah Asa in the practice of Quranic tafseer in  Indonesia via hisbook of Dalam Cahaya Al Qur'an. There three things studies in this article. First  , themes has been discussed address to dialectical messages of God and reality of social politic.  Second, communication strategy in writing this topic . Third, some driving forces. In this article,  author will use discourse analysis Theo Van Leewen who concentrate in the process of Exclusion  and inclusion of discourse subject. From th result of analysis, syu'abah strongly makes dialectical  between text and social politic reality when interpretation written. He also did some critics of  reality social politic, mentioned the subject , and case context openly. Paradigmatically, Syu'bah  contributed an unique tradition in the dynamic of writing interpretation (tafseer) in Indonesia  where interpretation as space for making social political critics.


Under the Stability and Growth Pact, countries are committed to achieving medium-term budget positions of "close to balance or in surplus". The rationale for this commitment is that such budgetary positions would allow for the full working of the built-in stabilizers without triggering the sanction procedures of the Pact. The paper sets out to show how quantifications of the medium-term ('structural') requirement can accommodate the desired aim and suggests how fiscal measurement and forecasting errors as well as the budgetary effects of ageing may be allowed for. All in all, broadly balanced budgets in the medium term appear to be 'roughly right' for most euro-area countries. Of course, as the cyclical behaviour of the euro-area economy adapts to the new EMU environment, the medium-term targets will need to be re-addressed.


British Columbia has the greatest biological diversity of any province or territory in Canada. Yet increasing numbers of species in British Columbia are threatened with extinction. The current patchwork of provincial laws and regulations has not effectively prevented species declines. Recently, the Provincial Government has committed to enacting an endangered species law. Drawing upon our scientific and legal expertise, we offer recommendations for key features of endangered species legislation that build upon strengths and avoid weaknesses observed elsewhere. We recommend striking an independent Oversight Committee to provide recommendations about listing species, organize Recovery Teams, and monitor the efficacy of actions taken. Recovery Teams would evaluate and prioritize potential actions for individual species or groups of species that face common threats or live in a common area, based on best available evidence (including natural and social science and Indigenous Knowledge). Our recommendations focus on implementing an adaptive approach, with ongoing and transparent monitoring and reporting, to reduce delays between determining when a species is at risk and taking effective actions to save it. We urge lawmakers to include this strong evidentiary basis for species recovery as they tackle the scientific and socioeconomic challenges of building an effective species at risk Act.


Internet of Things: Principles and Paradigms captures the state-of-the-art research in Internet of Things, its applications, architectures, and technologies. The book identifies potential future directions and technologies that facilitate insight into numerous scientific, business, and consumer applications. The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm promises to make any electronic devices part of the Internet environment. This new paradigm opens the doors to new innovations and interactions between people and things that will enhance the quality of life and utilization of scarce resources. To help realize the full potential of IoT, the book addresses its numerous challenges and develops the conceptual and technological solutions for tackling them. These challenges include the development of scalable architecture, moving from closed systems to open systems, designing interaction protocols, autonomic management, and the privacy and ethical issues around data sensing, storage, and processing. Addresses the main concepts and features of the IoT paradigm Describes different architectures for managing IoT platforms Provides insight on trust, security, and privacy in IoT environments Describes data management techniques applied to the IoT environment Examines the key enablers and solutions to enable practical IoT systems Looks at the key developments that support next generation IoT platforms Includes input from expert contributors from both academia and industry on building and deploying IoT platforms and applications


Cationic interactions in flame photometry were investigated to study some of the factors that cause enhancements of spectral lines. Interactions of the alkali and alkaline earth metals in an oxygen-acetylene flame have indicated that several mechanisms may be responsible for enhancement Where conditions are proper, enhancements of emissions of cations may be a combination of at least three factors a) the effect of electron concentration from an easily ionized extraneous element on the ground state population of the test element, b) the effect of transfer of energy by radiation and c) the effect of transfer of energy due to collisions with excited atoms The effect of the electron concentration on the suppression of the ionization of the test element was the predominant mechanism by which enhancement occurred in most systems studied. However, in the study of the effect of potassium on rubidium direct evidence was obtained of excitation by transfer of radiant energy Indirect evidence of enhancement due to transfer of energy by collision also was observed in the same system.


In literature, science fiction and Appalachia seem to exist in two separate—even opposing—worlds. Science fiction is a genre typically devoted to technology and an imaginary future. The Appalachian region, on the other hand, is often celebrated for its roots in tradition and history. Yet there are a number of literary works where science fiction and Appalachia not only cross paths, but converge. Using an ecocritical approach, this study focuses on two recent science fiction texts set in southern Appalachia—Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel The Road and Suzanne Collins's 2008 novel The Hunger Games—their treatment of place, otherness, and the impact of human modernization and technology on the post-apocalyptic futures envisioned in the works. The emotional power of these novels, similar to other science fiction works set in Appalachia, lies in the startling and often uneasy convergence of tradition and innovation, of past and future—of what was, is, and may be—and all that can be lost along the way.


The arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) description in non-linear solid mechanics is nowadays standard for hypoelastic–plastic models. An extension to hyperelastic–plastic models is presented here. A fractional-step method—a common choice in ALE analysis—is employed for time-marching: every time-step is split into a Lagrangian phase, which accounts for material e>ects, and a convection phase, where the relative motion between the material and the ?nite element mesh is considered. In contrast to previous ALE formulations of hyperelasticity or hyperelastoplasticity, the deformed con?guration at the beginning of the time-step, not the initial undeformed con?guration, is chosen as the reference con?guration. As a consequence, convecting variables are required in the description of the elastic response. This is not the case in previous formulations, where only the plastic response contains convection terms. In exchange for the extra convective terms, however, the proposed ALE approach has a major advantage: only the quality of the mesh in the spatial domain must be ensured by the ALE remeshing strategy; in previous formulations, it is also necessary to keep the distortion of the mesh in the material domain under control. Thus, the full potential of the ALE description as an adaptive technique can be exploited here. These aspects are illustrated in detail by means of three numerical examples: a necking test, a coining test and a powder compaction test.


Abstract Demand for organic milk is partially driven by consumer perceptions that it is more nutritious. However, there is still considerable uncertainty over whether the use of organic production standards affects milk quality. Here we report results of meta-analyses based on 170 published studies comparing the nutrient content of organic and conventional bovine milk. There were no significant differences in total SFA and MUFA concentrations between organic and conventional milk. However, concentrations of total PUFA and n-3 PUFA were significantly higher in organic milk, by an estimated 7 (95 % CI −1, 15) % and 56 (95 % CI 38, 74) %, respectively. Concentrations of α-linolenic acid (ALA), very long-chain n-3 fatty acids (EPA+DPA+DHA) and conjugated linoleic acid were also significantly higher in organic milk, by an 69 (95 % CI 53, 84) %, 57 (95 % CI 27, 87) % and 41 (95 % CI 14, 68) %, respectively. As there were no significant differences in total n-6 PUFA and linoleic acid (LA) concentrations, the n-6:n-3 and LA:ALA ratios were lower in organic milk, by an estimated 71 (95 % CI −122, −20) % and 93 (95 % CI −116, −70) %. It is concluded that organic bovine milk has a more desirable fatty acid composition than conventional milk. Meta-analyses also showed that organic milk has significantly higher α-tocopherol and Fe, but lower I and Se concentrations. Redundancy analysis of data from a large cross-European milk quality survey indicates that the higher grazing/conserved forage intakes in organic systems were the main reason for milk composition differences.


Hyperosmotic stress triggers a complex adaptive response that is dominantly regulated by the Hog1 MAP kinase in yeast. Here we characterize a novel physiological determinant of osmostress tolerance, which involves the Hog1‐dependent transcriptional downregulation of ergosterol biosynthesis genes (ERG). Yeast cells considerably lower their sterol content in response to high osmolarity. The transcriptional repressors Mot3 and Rox1 are essential for this response. Both factors together with Hog1 are required to rapidly and transiently shut down transcription of ERG2 and ERG11 upon osmoshock. Mot3 abundance and its binding to the ERG2 promoter is stimulated by osmostress in a Hog1‐dependent manner. As an additional layer of control, the expression of the main transcriptional activator of ERG gene expression, Ecm22, is negatively regulated by Hog1 and Mot3/Rox1 upon salt shock. Oxidative stress also triggers repression of ERG2, 11 transcription and a profound decrease in total sterol levels. However, this response was only partially dependent on Mot3/Rox1 and Hog1. Finally, we show that the upc2‐1 mutation confers stress insensitive hyperaccumulation of ergosterol, overexpression of ERG2, 11 and severe sensitivity to salt and oxidative stress. Our results indicate that transcriptional control of ergosterol biosynthesis is an important physiological target of stress signalling.


Abstract
Background: Between 2006-2015, there were reported at least 6270 disasters affecting 5 continents. Of the total disasters, there were at least 8,197.66 people died, 70,597 survival nd damage to the economic sector was around 1,989,866,263 dollars. The safety of the victims are very dependent on various factors, therefore collaboration of the whole community is needed in providing first aid at the scene before getting help from the health setting. The purpose for this study is to describe the understanding of prehospital emergency management algorithms for the community as the first respondent in Surakarta. Methods: This study uses an pre experimental research design with the Pre-Test-Post Test Group design without control group with the subject of people of Surakarta City after recruited using consecutive sampling techniques and 222 respondent were finally recruited. After following pretest, respondents received training about the implementation of the firtst aid algorythm and post-test was delivered at the end. The variable in this study is the community's ability in providing first aid during emergency in the community. Result: A questionner was used to meassure knowledge before and after following training. Wilcoxon Match Pair test was used to compare the data from pre-test and post-test. The majority of subjects have good knowledge and increased knowledge after following training pertaining to be first responders. Conclusion: Training and simulation are essential in order to increase and maintain first responders capacity in providing aid before referring to health care setting. In addition, community needs to continue to be given socialization and understanding of the existence of PSC 119 so that the first aid that has been given optimally will get maximum further assistance.


Biological organisms are open, adaptive systems that can respond to changes in environment in specific ways. Adaptation and response can be posed as an optimization problem, with a tradeoff between the benefit obtained from a response and the cost of producing environment-specific responses. Using recent results in stochastic thermodynamics, we formulate the cost as the mutual information between the environment and the stochastic response. The problem of designing an optimally performing network now reduces to a problem in rate distortion theory—a branch of information theory that deals with lossy data compression. We find that as the cost of unit information goes down, the system undergoes a sequence of transitions, corresponding to the recruitment of an increasing number of responses, thus improving response specificity as well as the net payoff. We derive formal equations for the transition points and exactly solve them for special cases. The first transition point, also called the coding transition, demarcates the boundary between a passive response and an active decision-making by the system. We study this transition point in detail, and derive three classes of asymptotic behavior, corresponding to the three limiting distributions of the statistics of extreme values. Our work points to the necessity of a union between information theory and the theory of adaptive biomolecular networks, in particular metabolic networks.


CONTEXT
The dramatic increase in use of cellular telephones has generated concern about possible negative effects of radiofrequency signals delivered to the brain. However, whether acute cell phone exposure affects the human brain is unclear.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate if acute cell phone exposure affects brain glucose metabolism, a marker of brain activity.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Randomized crossover study conducted between January 1 and December 31, 2009, at a single US laboratory among 47 healthy participants recruited from the community. Cell phones were placed on the left and right ears and positron emission tomography with ((18)F)fluorodeoxyglucose injection was used to measure brain glucose metabolism twice, once with the right cell phone activated (sound muted) for 50 minutes ("on" condition) and once with both cell phones deactivated ("off" condition). Statistical parametric mapping was used to compare metabolism between on and off conditions using paired t tests, and Pearson linear correlations were used to verify the association of metabolism and estimated amplitude of radiofrequency-modulated electromagnetic waves emitted by the cell phone. Clusters with at least 1000 voxels (volume >8 cm(3)) and P < .05 (corrected for multiple comparisons) were considered significant.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Brain glucose metabolism computed as absolute metabolism (μmol/100 g per minute) and as normalized metabolism (region/whole brain).

RESULTS
Whole-brain metabolism did not differ between on and off conditions. In contrast, metabolism in the region closest to the antenna (orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole) was significantly higher for on than off conditions (35.7 vs 33.3 μmol/100 g per minute; mean difference, 2.4 [95% confidence interval, 0.67-4.2]; P = .004). The increases were significantly correlated with the estimated electromagnetic field amplitudes both for absolute metabolism (R = 0.95, P < .001) and normalized metabolism (R = 0.89; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
In healthy participants and compared with no exposure, 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the antenna. This finding is of unknown clinical significance.


The thesis is concerned with the estimation of the sampled
impulse-response of time-varying voiceband channels, and in particular
with the proposed synchronous serial transmission of 16-level quadrature
amplitude modulated digital data signals at 9600 bit/s over HF
radio links. With such a system, the optimum detector at the receiver
is a maximum likelihood detector implemented, for example, using the
Viterbi algorithm. In this case, the detector requires knowledge of
the sampled impulse-response of the channel. Channel estimators can
also be used for estimating the response of any time-varying linear
bandpass channel and need not be restricted in use only with a
maximum likelihood detector. They may be employed in any such
application where a time-varying channel must be tracked to ensure
the correct operation of the detector.
The thesis includes a description of the ionospheric propagation
medium, with particular emphasis on the nature of the impairments that
are likely to be encountered by the data signal. An appropriate model
of the HF channel is simulated for subsequent use in testing the
channel estimators. A summary is also given of the more important
forms of channel estimators that are used for time-invariant or
slowly time-varying channels.
The characteristics of the HF radio medium may vary rapidly
with time, so an estimator based on the Kalman filter is investigated
in order to exploit the fast tracking capability of the filter. It is shown that inadequate modelling of the channel by the Kalman
filter results in suboptimum performance (in the minimum mean square
error sense) of the estimator, however, this can be improved by
including a suitable predictor. The performance of the Kalman
filter estimator, with and without the predictor, is then compared
with the corresponding estimator which uses a feedforward transversal
filter.
The recently developed HF channel estimator based on the
feedforward transversal-filter estimator is also investigated, but
it is tested here over the simulated HF radio links with three
independent Rayleigh fading sky waves, which represent typical
poor conditions over actual links. Various degrees of prediction
are also studied and based on the results, a change in the degree
of prediction from that previously proposed is suggested as a
better arrangement for use with the estimator when there are three
sky waves. Finally, it is shown that a considerable reduction in
the equipment complexity can be achieved by exploiting a selfcorrecting
property of the estimator that has been discovered.


The Motor-Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT) was administered to 15 chronic schizophrenic patients and 15 normal controls, ages 10 to 60, to see whether, perceptual deficits would be found on nonmotor tasks. Groups significantly affected performance on the MVPT, as did occupational status. In the schizophrenic group only, efficiency of intellectual functioning was positively related to how well they performed on the MVPT. Age, educationallevel, and lQ had no significant impact on functioning on this test in either group. The schizophrenic patients made more errors on the more complex operations of the MVPT, and the only significant group differences in percentage of subjects' own errors was in figureground. The MVPT may be useful in screening for visual-perceptual deficits in adult schizophrenic patients.


Since the founding of the United States of America, coinciding with the height of the Atlantic slave trade, U.S. officials have based their relations with West Africa primarily on economic interests. Initially, these interests were established on the backs of slaves, as the Southern plantation economy quickly vaulted the United States to prominence in the Atlantic world. After the U.S. abolition of the slave trade in 1808, however, American relations with West Africa focused on the establishment of the American colony of Liberia as a place of "return" for formerly enslaved persons. Following the turn to "legitimate commerce" in the Atlantic and the U.S. Civil War, the United States largely withdrew from large-scale interaction with West Africa. Liberia remained the notable exception, where prominent Pan-African leaders like Edward Blyden, W. E. B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey helped foster cultural and intellectual ties between West Africa and the Diaspora in the early 1900s. These ties to Liberia were deepened in the 1920s when Firestone Rubber Corporation of Akron, Ohio established a long-term lease to harvest rubber. World War II marked a significant increase in American presence and influence in West Africa. Still focused on Liberia, the war years saw the construction of infrastructure that would prove essential to Allied war efforts and to American security interests during the Cold War. After 1945, the United States competed with the Soviet Union in West Africa for influence and access to important economic and national security resources as African nations ejected colonial regimes across most of the continent. West African independence quickly demonstrated a turn from nationalism to ethnic nationalism, as civil wars engulfed several countries in the postcolonial, and particularly the post-Cold War, era. After a decade of withdrawal, American interest in West Africa revived with the need for alternative sources of petroleum and concerns about transnational terrorism following the attacks of September 11, 2001.


The economic importance of public procurement within the EU is undeniable, given its pre-eminent role in the overall economic performance of the Union. Its regulation is thus conceived as a priority. Further, the creation of an EU-wide level playing field for economic operators is submitted as indispensable to combat Member States' preferential treatment towards their domestic firms. In this scenario, the achievement of a Single Public Procurement Market, working under conditions of vigorous competition, is menaced by the immunity from competition constraints of some public behaviours. In this research we are going to analyse the different public activities that may distort the competitive dynamics of the market. First we are going to evaluate the adequacy of not submitting certain public activities to the EU Competition law. Then, some clarifications will be made and the material scope of the EU Competition law will be expanded as to cover public non-regulatory economic activities. Finally, with regard to public regulatory activities and public non-regulatory non-economic activities, it will be argued, with a view of achieving the Single Public Procurement Market, the imperative necessity of observing competition constraints and, consequently, of submitting such activities to EU Competition policy considerations.


Whilst, in separation, the gendered nature of tourism work and the increased significance of migrant workers have, to some extent, been explored by tourism labour scholars (Adkins, 1995; Guerrier & Adib, 2004; Janta, 2011; Veijola, 2009; Wright & Pollert, 2006), rarely are these often interconnected aspects considered in conjunction. Indeed, the experiences of female migrant workers have been largely marginalised in tourism labour research.

Presenting findings from a participatory study, which through its empowerment agenda actively engaged women in the research process, this paper examines the trajectories of Central and Eastern European migrant women working in UK tourism. Following the accession to the EU of the eight Central and Eastern European countries in 2004, and the subsequent mass mobility of these new EU citizens, the landscape of UK tourism workplaces transformed significantly. Large numbers of predominantly young, female and educated migrant women entered the industry through mostly bottom end customer facing roles. To date, however, little is known about their experiences, trajectories and the impact of tourism work on the identities of these migrant women.

This paper explores the (dis)empowering nature of tourism work, and the impact of employment, migration and media discourses on migrant women's negotiations of work and personal identities as well as the coping strategies they adopt post-migration. In addition, the paper argues that more studies engaging with empowering, emancipatory and transformative research methodologies are needed in order to bring change to individuals and give voice to disempowered groups.


The paper is devoted to the development of approaches for the improvement of quality of hotel services on innovative basis. It has been established that in the market of hotel services, innovations are being introduced successfully for the purpose of attracting as many customers as possible.All this ensures development of new technologies of constructing hotels, appearance of new market segments satisfying a diverse demand of visitors. It has been proved that to improve the quality of hotel services, it is necessary to develop a strategy and tactics of development of hotel business on innovative basis.It has been determined that introduction of innovations must be realised both at the level of the state and at the level of separate hotels. Further innovative growth will allow improving the quality of hotel services in the world market of hotel real estate.However, this is possible in case of normalization of the economic and political situation in the country and creation of conditions for investment attractiveness in hotel business.


One might well argue that 'historical singing' presents a fundamentally different case to that of instrumental playing, because of the fact that, unlike, say, the piano or the oboe, the human voice box itself is an unchanged and unchanging instrument. This position was unequivocally stated a few years ago by the early opera conductor and erstwhile singer, Rene Jacobs, in an interview with Le Monde: 'There are no Baroque voices: unlike instruments, which become outmoded and develop, the voice does not evolve. The only thing of which we can be sure is that voices today are identical to those of the past'. But if there are no 'baroque' voices (and, by implication, no 'medieval', 'renaissance', or for that matter, 'romantic' or even 'modern' voices), then Jacobs's logic would suggest that although you might make more or less historically-informed gestures towards stylistic differences between repertoires (such as in ornamentation or, perhaps, language), at the level of vocal sound production itself, you should simply stick confidently and faithfully to the apparent 'certainties' of some universally agreed notion of 'proper singing'.
Seen in the context of all the other premises of the historically informed performance movement, this looks like a seriously irrational side-stepping of a whole range of issues, including not only questions of historical evidence and the possible fruits of experimentation, but also fundamental ideological implications for how we construct our notions of what might constitute this 'proper singing'. It is, however, the position that has by and large been accepted, adopted, and promoted both in the profession, and — particularly significantly for most of today's professional singers — in the conservatoire, right up to the present time.
So, could we even begin to reconstruct 'historical' singing'? And could we try to do it effectively within the context of the world of 'historically-informed performance' whose myriad contingencies I briefly sketch in this essay? And if we could reconstruct, say, aspects of early Baroque Italian vocal technique, what would it be like? Would we like it? Would it be worth the effort? Would we want to sing Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach, Handel or Mozart with a wide range of very different techniques and vocal productions, which would, in turn, quite possibly entail new vocal timbres that could well go right against our desire to sing as beautifully as possible and also upset the expectations of our audiences?


Using fixed effects ordered logit estimation, we investigate the relationship between part-time work and working hours satisfaction; job satisfaction; and life satisfaction. We account for interdependence within the family using data on partnered men and women from the British Household Panel Survey. We find that men have the highest hours-of-work satisfaction if they work full-time without overtime hours but neither their job satisfaction nor their life satisfaction are affected by how many hours they work. Life satisfaction is influenced only by whether or not they have a job. For women we are confronted with a puzzle. Hours satisfaction and job satisfaction indicate that women prefer part-time jobs irrespective of whether these are small or large. In contrast, female life satisfaction is virtually unaffected by hours of work. Women without children do not care about their hours of work at all, while women with children are significantly happier if they have a job regardless of how many hours it entails.


Leaf Area Index (LAI) is a key variable that bridges remote sensing observations to the quantification of agroecosystem processes. In this study, we assessed the universality of the relationships between crop LAI and remotely sensed Vegetation Indices (VIs). We first compiled a global dataset of 1459 in situ quality-controlled crop LAI measurements and collected Landsat satellite images to derive five different VIs including Simple Ratio (SR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), two versions of the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI and EVI2), and Green Chlorophyll Index (CIGreen). Based on this dataset, we developed global LAI-VI relationships for each crop type and VI using symbolic regression and Theil-Sen (TS) robust estimator. Results suggest that the global LAI-VI relationships are statistically significant, crop-specific, and mostly non-linear. These relationships explain more than half of the total variance in ground LAI observations (R2 >0.5), and provide LAI estimates with RMSE below 1.2 m2/m2. Among the five VIs, EVI/EVI2 are the most effective, and the crop-specific LAI-EVI and LAI-EVI2 relationships constructed by TS, are robust when tested by three independent validation datasets of varied spatial scales. While the heterogeneity of agricultural landscapes leads to a diverse set of local LAI-VI relationships, the relationships provided here represent global universality on an average basis, allowing the generation of large-scale spatial-explicit LAI maps. This study contributes to the operationalization of large-area crop modeling and, by extension, has relevance to both fundamental and applied agroecosystem research.


Purkinje cells (PC), the sole output neurons of the cerebellar cortex, encode sensorimotor information, but how they do it remains a matter of debate. Here we show that PCs use a multiplexed spike code. Synchrony/spike time and firing rate encode different information in behaving monkeys during saccadic eye motion tasks. Using the local field potential (LFP) as a probe of local network activity, we found that infrequent pause spikes, which initiated or terminated intermittent pauses in simple spike trains, provide a temporally reliable signal for eye motion onset, with strong phase-coupling to the β/γ band LFP. Concurrently, regularly firing, non-pause spikes were weakly correlated with the LFP, but were crucial to linear encoding of eye movement kinematics by firing rate. Therefore, PC spike trains can simultaneously convey information necessary to achieve precision in both timing and continuous control of motion. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13810.001


Federal lawmakers increasingly have taken actions that contradict, interfere with, or preempt state regulation of lawyers. Most of the commentary regarding the recent federal actions has focused on whether individual regulations are substantively justified. It is, however, worth considering more broadly whether and how the phenomenon of increasing federal regulation is symptomatic of changing views of appropriate professional regulation. This article considers a series of theoretical analyses of the increasing federal regulation - themes and trends that the increasing regulation might represent or epitomize. Whenever the bar or other commentators criticize developments in professional regulation, it is important to place their criticisms in context. Only by placing the federal reforms in the context of the broader analytic themes can we begin to evaluate their actual and potential significance. The article concludes that no single explanation for the reforms is possible. They do not neatly fit a uniform pattern that reflects an overarching change in regulatory approaches or in society's attitudes towards the relative merits of state and federal regulation. They do, however, suggest a series of questions about traditional regulation that the federal actors have opened for discussion. The best view of recent events is that they have begun a process of negotiation with respect to particular substantive issues, potential new approaches, and the relative competence of different institutions to regulate different aspects of legal practice.


Background Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs), PCV10 and PCV13, are currently used in different countries. We have previously reported the effectiveness of PCV7, following its introduction in Israel and before PCVs were introduced in Palestine. Here, we extended the study and compared the initial impact of PCV10 to that of PCV7/13. Methods Four cross-sectional surveys of S. pneumoniae carriage among children <5y through 2009–2014 were preformed among two proximate populations, living under two distinct health authorities, with different vaccination policies. In East-Jerusalem (EJ), PCV7 was implemented in 2009 and replaced by PCV13 in late 2010, while in Palestine (PA), PCV10 was implemented in 2011. Results A total of 1267 and 2414 children from EJ and PA were screened. In 2014, S. pneumoniae was detected in 30.7% and 28.6% of the children in EJ and PA respectively Implementation of both PCV7 (in EJ) and PCV10 (in PA) did not affect overall S. pneumoniae carriage, but resulted in a significant decrease in the prevalence of vaccine-type strains. In the pre-vaccine era, VT7/VT13 strains consisted 47.0%/62.0% and 41.2%/54.8% of pneumococci in EJ and PA, respectively. A 48.6% and 53.9% decrease in VT7 strains was observed within 3 years of PCV7 implementation in EJ (p = 0.001) and PCV10 in PA (p<0.0001), respectively. These vaccination policies also resulted in ~50% reduction in VT13-added serotypes especially 6A (from 11.0% to 0.0% (EJ) and 9.5% to 4.9% (PA)). Three years after PCV13 implementation in EJ, an additional 67% decrease in VT13 strains was observed, yet an increase in serotype 3 was observed (0.0% to 3.4%, p = 0.056). While the prevalence of VT13 strains decreased significantly during the study period, the overall carriage rate didn't change significantly due to replacement with non-VT13 strains which comprised 89.8% and 70.7% of all pneumococci, in EJ and in PA respectively in the last study year. Conclusions Within the first three years following PCV implementation, we observed similar reductions in carriage of VT10 and VT13 strains with either vaccination policies, with no effect on overall carriage. Further follow-up is needed to compare the long-term effects.


in the building industry in Nigeria in the last decade show the important role the private sector played in housing finance. With the advent of the public-private partnership concept in almost every sector of the socio-economic spheres of the nation, the role of the private sector in housing finance cannot be over-emphasized. This paper clearly states that the low-income public servants do not easily have access to housing finance. The responsibility of generating housing finance at a relatively low interest rate repayable over a maximum period of twenty five years rests on whoever seeks for a housing loan through the Federal Mortgage Bank or the Primary Mortgage Institutions. This paper seeks mediatory role of the private sector between this class of the society and the mortgage banks to source for funds to enable them to own their houses. The research method employed in this paper is the survey research in which questionnaires were administered on members of three housing estates, two housing estates in Lagos and one in Abuja. This paper examines the role of the private sector in the public-private partnership in housing delivery to low-income earners in Nigeria through housing finance. The findings showed that majority of the respondents had access to either mortgage or commercial banks to source for funding or the purchase of the houses.


Surface deposition of dense aerosol particles is of major concern in the nuclear industry for safety assessment. This study presents theoretical investigations and computer simulations of single gas-born U3O8 particles impacting with the in-reactor surface and the fragmentation of small agglomerates. A theoretical model for elasto-plastic spheres has been developed and used to analyse the force-displacement and force-time relationships. The impulse equations, based on Newton's second law, are applied to govern the tangential bouncing behaviour. The theoretical model is then incorporated into the Distinct Element Method code TRUBAL in order to perform computer simulated tests of particle collisions. A comparison of simulated results with both theoretical predictions and experimental measurements is provided. For oblique impacts, the results in terms of the force-displacement relationship, coefficients of restitution, trajectory of the impacting particle, and distribution of kinetic energy and work done during the process of impact are presented. The effects of Poisson's ratio, friction, plastic deformation and initial particle rotation on the bouncing behaviour are also discussed. In the presence of adhesion an elasto-plastic collision model, which is an extension to the JKR theory, is developed. Based on an energy balance equation the critical sticking velocity is obtained. For oblique collisions computer simulated results are used to establish a set of criteria determining whether or not the particle bounces off the target plate. For impact velocities above the critical sticking value, computer simulated results for the coefficients of restitution and rebound angles of the particle are presented. Computer simulations of fracture/fragmentation resulting from agglomerate-wall impact have also been performed, where two randomly generated agglomerates (one monodisperse, the other polydisperse), each consisting of 50 primary particles are used. The effects of impact angle, local structural arrangements close to the impact point, and plastic deformation at the contacts on agglomerate damage are examined. The simulated results show a significant difference in agglomerate strength between the two assemblies. The computer data also shows that agglomerate damage resulting from an oblique impact is determined by the normal velocity component rather than the impact speed.


The effects of minimum stress on cumulative damage and fatigue lifetime were assessed for an angle-plied nylon-cord-reinforced elastomer composite that represents the bias aircraft tire carcass. The S-N curves were established under constant minimum stress rather than constant R-ratio. The trends of longer fatigue life at a given stress range and higher fatigue endurance limit of the composite were clearly observed with a higher level of minimum stress. These trends stem from the fact that the stress and strain are not linearly related to each other. The stress-strain curve of the elastomer matrix composite exhibits strain stiffening. As a result, in a stress-controlled fatigue test, a shorter strain range or a smaller amount of strain energy is experienced for the same stress range when the level of minimum stress is raised. However, it should be noted that the levels of minimum stress used in the study happened to be safely below a critical level for the initiation of fiber-matrix debonding under static tension. As in other structural materials, the increase of applied stress level in elastomers can be regarded as an increase of the damage potential. Therefore, when the minimum stress exceeds a critical level, the damage potential effect may become dominant and a shorter fatigue life at a given stress range could be observed with a higher level of minimum stress in S-N curves. In the stress-controlled fatigue tests, the role of damage potential could be assessed more clearly when the fatigue life data were plotted directly against the damage parameters, such as strain range, dynamic creep rate, dissipated strain energy, and stored strain energy. The fatigue life curves based on the damage parameters at midlife showed a clear trend of a shorter fatigue life with a higher level of minimum stress. This trend could be established at a given strain range, dynamic creep rate, or dissipated strain energy. The results are in striking contrast to the trend of the S-N curves. The trend of a shorter fatigue life with a higher level of minimum stress was less obvious at a given stored strain energy. The values of dynamic creep rate, dissipated strain energy, and stored strain energy at midlife were found to have a power law relationship with the fatigue life of aircraft tire carcass composite.


Ellipse fitting is widely applied in the fields of computer vision and automatic manufacture. However, the introduced edge point errors (especially outliers) from image edge detection will cause severe performance degradation of the subsequent ellipse fitting procedure. To alleviate the influence of outliers, we develop a robust ellipse fitting method in this paper. The main contributions of this paper are as follows. First, to be robust against the outliers, we introduce the maximum correntropy criterion into the constrained least-square (CLS) ellipse fitting method, and apply the half-quadratic optimization algorithm to solve the nonlinear and nonconvex problem in an alternate manner. Second, to ensure that the obtained solution is related to an ellipse, we introduce a special quadratic equality constraint into the aforementioned CLS model, which results in the nonconvex quadratically constrained quadratic programming problem. Finally, we derive the semidefinite relaxation version of the aforementioned problem in terms of the trace operator and thus determine the ellipse parameters using semidefinite programming. Some simulated and experimental examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed ellipse fitting approach.


BACKGROUND
Hemorrhagic shock followed by resuscitation stimulates an inflammatory response. This study tests the hypothesis that prefeeding with fish oil rich in ω-3 fatty acids (FAs) will attenuate that response.

METHODS
Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 60; 350 ± 30 g) were randomly but unequally assigned to 3 groups: sham (n = 12), control (n = 24), and fish oil (n = 24). In the fish oil group, rat chow was supplemented with fish oil (600 mg/kg/d, 25% ω-3 FA). Control and sham group diets were supplemented with corn oil. Under fluothane, hemorrhagic shock was induced, and arterial pressure was maintained at 25 to 30 mm Hg for 30 minutes. Resuscitation was carried out by giving 21 mL/kg lactated Ringer's solution and returning shed blood to the animal. Half of each group was killed at 30 minutes and at 4 hours postresuscitation. Liver samples were assayed for indicators of inflammation and heat shock protein 25 (Hsp25). Lung edema was measured.

RESULTS
All animals survived. At 30 minutes postresuscitation, expression of mRNA for inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was significantly elevated in the control group but normal in the fish oil group. At 4 hours, expression of mRNA for Hsp25 was significantly increased in the fish oil group. Lung edema index was significantly lower in the fish oil group than in either sham or control groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Fish oil prefeeding in a rodent model of hemorrhagic shock was associated with increased liver mRNA expression of Hsp25, reduced liver mRNA expression of iNOS, and decreased lung edema. These findings support the validity of the study hypothesis.


This paper introduces two-dimensional axis mapping, which estimates axis maps (AMs) based on LiDAR measurements. An AM describes the dominant orientations of surfaces in an environment and is void of positional information. As a consequence of the directional nature of the map, there are significant differences compared with traditional mapping algorithms. Experimental results are presented from simulated, indoor, outdoor, and underground environments. One major application of AMs is for heading estimation. An example of this application is shown to effectively bound the growth of heading error in both an indoor and an outdoor environment.


1. The forced expiratory volume (FEV0·75) was measured at increasing mouth pressures in twenty-seven patients with obstructive airways disease. Attempts were made to divide the patients on clinical grounds into emphysematous, bronchitic or asthmatic categories; there was no evidence from the (FEV/mouth pressure) plots that their airways functioned differently during forced expiration.

2. Static elastic recoil was measured in twelve patients. There was no evidence that this factor alone caused the loss of FEV in any patient.

3. It is suggested that the use of the FEV as a test of respiratory function during the natural history of obstructive airways disease should be considered in three stages. There is an initial phase when peripheral airways disease develops with little or no alteration of the FEV. In the second phase the FEV decreases from normal values to below 1·0 litre, and at this stage is considered a sensitive indicator of peripheral airways resistance. In stage 3 the FEV is low and further changes can only be small. But airways resistance continues to increase and could be a more sensitive measurement of further airways disease.


We discuss a numerical approach for identifying the surface excitation that is necessary to maximize the response of a targeted subsurface formation. The motivation stems from observations in the aftermath of earthquakes, and from limited field experiments, whereby increased oil production rates were recorded and were solely attributable to the induced reservoir shaking. The observations suggest that focusing wave energy to the reservoir could serve as an effective low-cost enhanced oil recovery method. In this paper, we report on a general method that allows the determination of the source excitation, when provided with a desired maximization outcome at the targeted formation. We discuss, for example, how to construct the excitation that will maximize the kinetic energy in the target zone, while keeping silent the neighbouring zones. To this end, we cast the problem as an inverse-source problem, and use a partial-differential-equation-constrained optimization approach to arrive at an optimized source signal. We seek to satisfy stationarity of an augmented functional, which formally leads to a triplet of state, adjoint and control problems. We use finite elements to resolve the state and adjoint problems, and an iterative scheme to satisfy the control problem to converge to the sought source signal. We report on one-dimensional numerical experiments in the time domain involving a layered medium of semi-infinite extent. The numerical results show that the targeted formation's kinetic energy resulting from an optimized wave source could be several times greater than the one resulting from a blind source choice, and could overcome the mobility threshold of entrapped reservoir oil.


IMPORTANCE
Based on older analyses, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that cesarean delivery rates should not exceed 10 to 15 per 100 live births to optimize maternal and neonatal outcomes.

OBJECTIVES
To estimate the contemporary relationship between national levels of cesarean delivery and maternal and neonatal mortality.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Cross-sectional, ecological study estimating annual cesarean delivery rates from data collected during 2005 to 2012 for all 194 WHO member states. The year of analysis was 2012. Cesarean delivery rates were available for 54 countries for 2012. For the 118 countries for which 2012 data were not available, the 2012 cesarean delivery rate was imputed from other years. For the 22 countries for which no cesarean rate data were available, the rate was imputed from total health expenditure per capita, fertility rate, life expectancy, percent of urban population, and geographic region.

EXPOSURES
Cesarean delivery rate.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The relationship between population-level cesarean delivery rate and maternal mortality ratios (maternal death from pregnancy related causes during pregnancy or up to 42 days postpartum per 100,000 live births) or neonatal mortality rates (neonatal mortality before age 28 days per 1000 live births).

RESULTS
The estimated number of cesarean deliveries in 2012 was 22.9 million (95% CI, 22.5 million to 23.2 million). At a country-level, cesarean delivery rate estimates up to 19.1 per 100 live births (95% CI, 16.3 to 21.9) and 19.4 per 100 live births (95% CI, 18.6 to 20.3) were inversely correlated with maternal mortality ratio (adjusted slope coefficient, -10.1; 95% CI, -16.8 to -3.4; P = .003) and neonatal mortality rate (adjusted slope coefficient, -0.8; 95% CI, -1.1 to -0.5; P < .001), respectively (adjusted for total health expenditure per capita, population, percent of urban population, fertility rate, and region). Higher cesarean delivery rates were not correlated with maternal or neonatal mortality at a country level. A sensitivity analysis including only 76 countries with the highest-quality cesarean delivery rate information had a similar result: cesarean delivery rates greater than 6.9 to 20.1 per 100 live births were inversely correlated with the maternal mortality ratio (slope coefficient, -21.3; 95% CI, -32.2 to -10.5, P < .001). Cesarean delivery rates of 12.6 to 24.0 per 100 live births were inversely correlated with neonatal mortality (slope coefficient, -1.4; 95% CI, -2.3 to -0.4; P = .004).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
National cesarean delivery rates of up to approximately 19 per 100 live births were associated with lower maternal or neonatal mortality among WHO member states. Previously recommended national target rates for cesarean deliveries may be too low.


A recently developed theory suggests that imbalances in hormone systems may contribute to psychopathy (van Honk & Schutter, 2006). Researchers have begun to emphasize the interconnectedness of hormone systems, and recommend examining multiple systems simultaneously in order to examine potential interactions. Very few studies have examined the role of hormones in psychopathy and results have been mixed, possibly due to the examination of only one hormone at a time. In a sample of 178 adults from the community demonstrating a wide range of psychopathy scores, I examine the relationship between psychopathy and two hormones and one enzyme that have been theoretically linked to psychopathy – cortisol, testosterone, and alpha-amylase. In Section 1, I focus on cortisol and testosterone – the end products of two hormonal axes that work together to maintain an appropriate balance between withdrawing in the presence of fearful or threatening stimuli, and approaching in the presence of reward – the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. Psychopathy is associated with an apparent imbalance in these processes, as it is characterized by reduced fearfulness, insensitivity to punishment, reward-seeking, and aggression (Hare, 2003). Psychopathy was not associated with cortisol or testosterone measures individually, but was associated with the ratio between baseline testosterone levels and cortisol reactivity to a stressor. In Section 2, I focus on cortisol and alpha-amylase – indicators of the two primary components of the stress response system – the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Researchers have hypothesized that deficits in this system contribute to the fearlessness and insensitivity to punishment observed in psychopathy, but the relative contribution of the two components, or how they may interact, has not been explored. Psychopathy was not associated with cortisol or alpha-amylase measures individually. However, an interaction was observed indicating that at high levels of alpha-amylase, cortisol was negatively associated with psychopathy. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with an altered balance between highly interconnected hormone systems, and emphasize the importance of examining multiple systems simultaneously.


Rapid energy-efficient signaling along vertebrate axons is achieved through intricate subcellular arrangements of voltage-gated ion channels and myelination. One recently appreciated example is the tight colocalization of Kv7 potassium channels and voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels in the axonal initial segment and nodes of Ranvier. The local biophysical properties of these Kv7 channels and the functional impact of colocalization with Nav channels remain poorly understood. Here, we quantitatively examined Kv7 channels in myelinated axons of rat neocortical pyramidal neurons using high-resolution confocal imaging and patch-clamp recording. Kv7.2 and 7.3 immunoreactivity steeply increased within the distal two-thirds of the axon initial segment and was mirrored by the conductance density estimates, which increased from ∼12 (proximal) to 150 pS μm−2 (distal). The axonal initial segment and nodal M-currents were similar in voltage dependence and kinetics, carried by Kv7.2/7.3 heterotetramers, 4% activated at the resting membrane potential and rapidly activated with single-exponential time constants (∼15 ms at 28 mV). Experiments and computational modeling showed that while somatodendritic Kv7 channels are strongly activated by the backpropagating action potential to attenuate the afterdepolarization and repetitive firing, axonal Kv7 channels are minimally recruited by the forward-propagating action potential. Instead, in nodal domains Kv7.2/7.3 channels were found to increase Nav channel availability and action potential amplitude by stabilizing the resting membrane potential. Thus, Kv7 clustering near axonal Nav channels serves specific and context-dependent roles, both restraining initiation and enhancing conduction of the action potential.


: Infectious diseases caused by bacteria has become a global health issue, especially antibacterial drug resistance. The most serious concern with antibacterial resistance is that some bacteria became resistant to almost all antibacterial drugs, which makes them less effective. Archidendron jiringa is one of the most potent medicinal plants to be developed as a new source of antibacterial components. In current study, based on the antibacterial assay-guided approach, the separation of bioactive fractions of A. jiringa stem roots was carried out through several stages including isolation, fractionation, and characterization. The stages of isolation of secondary metabolites were conducted by gradually extraction followed by fractionation using chromatographic methods. The antibacterial potential of extracts was evaluated by the disc diffusion and microdilution methods employing the resazurin assay against one Gram-negative resistant bacteria, Escherichia coli, and one Gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus subtilis. Among three extracts obtained, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts demonstrated to be the most significant antibacterial effects, while no antibacterial activity was shown on the n-hexane extract. The fractionation of ethyl acetate extract led to the isolation of the most bioactive fractions (E 2 8 1 5 and E 2 8 1 6) with the MIC's values ranging of 12.5–25 µg/mL for both resistant bacteria. Due to the low amount, only the fraction E 2 8 1 6 was subjected to analysis by 1 H-NMR spectroscopy. The results exhibited that the bioactive fraction was obtained as a mixture of at least three major constituents. However, the purification of the bioactive fraction is required, to further clarify the antibacterial compound that can be utilized as a new promising antibacterial agent. The bioassay-guided separation approach and the dye resazurin as an indicator of the growth of bacteria are applied for the first time for the phytopharmacological investigation from this plant. The present study represented the most effective method for subsequent finding and isolation of potential novel antibacterial constituents from A. stem roots, in particular against the multi-drug resistant strains.


Every year, the average American spends about $7,300 on medical expenses. The typical Canadian pays $2,700, the Briton only $2,000. And yet, according to the World Health Organization, our healthcare system, in terms of total quality, ranks thirty-eighth in the world, right between Costa Rica and Slovenia. Not only do 40 million Americans lack health insurance, but more than 200,000 die each year because of medical mistakes. Our average life expectancy is lower than Cuba's. In Next Medicine, Dr. Walter Bortz zeroes in on why the American medicine is spiraling toward disaster. A physician with fifty years of experience and a leading authority on aging, Bortz argues that the financial interests of biotech and drug companies have distorted the healthcare system. Thanks to them, medicine today is economically motivated to treat disease rather than to prevent it. Heart disease, for example, is widely treated with drug interventions and invasive surgery-both of which are extravagantly profitable for pharmaceutical giants and hospitals. Daily exercise and a healthy diet, on the other hand, can prevent heart disease, and can be obtained by patients essentially for free-but there's no money in that. The medical-industrial complex has a vested interest in keeping us sick, and until that changes medicine will fail to effectively address the leading cause of disability and mortality today: chronic diseases like diabetes that are largely preventable. Bortz proposes a medical system that emphasizes personal responsibility and provides incentives for healthy lifestyle choices, along with new training for medical professionals. Through a lively narrative full of personal anecdotes and jarring statistics, Bortz makes a powerful case for a radically new medical system-one that is based on rigorous science and loosens the strangle hold of corporate interests on American health.


The pathology of autism dates back to the 1900s, being framed within the broad sphere of neuropsychological conditions. So far, the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has passed through various pathologies, from socio-emotional disorders to schizophrenic disorders. The clear distinction between childhood autism and childhood schizophrenia was only made in the early 1980s. ASD is one of the most common invasive developmental disorders; defined as a neurological condition characterised by a distortion in the overall development of a person, it affects 1 in 150 children and 4 to 5 boys per girl. The autistic triad brings together qualitative anomalies in social interactions (in verbal and nonverbal communication), restricted interests and stereotypes. The 1980s and 1990s highlight the role of behavioural therapy and the use of highly controlled learning environments as a primary treatment for the forms of autism and related conditions. Promising studies on the role of oxytocin or certain amino acids involved in neurotransmission, especially in regulating stress and its emotional consequences, are currently in progress. Until now, the two therapies have remained primordial along with physical therapy and speech therapy. The purpose of this paper is to present some of the means that can contribute to the pre-integration of children in mainstream education, being also a starting point for future applied research. At the same time, the paper is helpful for the parents of children with ASD, who are given the opportunity to work themselves in the absence of a specialist or financial possibilities.


Balinese ancient palm leaf manuscripts record many important knowledges about world civilization histories. They vary from ordinary texts to Bali's most sacred writings. In reality, the majority of Balinese can not read it because of language obstacles as well as tradition which perceived them as a sacrilege. Palm leaf manuscripts attract the historians, philologists, and archaeologists to discover more about the ancient ways of life. But unfortunately, there is only a limited access to the content of these manuscripts, because of the linguistic difficulties. The Balinese palm leaf manuscripts were written in Balinese script in Balinese language, in the ancient literary texts composed in the old Javanese language of Kawi and Sanskrit. Balinese script is considered to be one of the most complex scripts from Southeast Asia. A transliteration engine for transliterating the Balinese script of palm leaf manuscript to the Latin-based script is one of the most demanding systems which has to be developed for the collection of palm leaf manuscript images. In this paper, we present an implementation of knowledge representation and phonological rules for the automatic transliteration of Balinese script on palm leaf manuscript. In this system, a rule-based engine for performing transliterations is proposed. Our model is based on phonetics which is based on traditional linguistic study of Balinese transliteration. This automatic transliteration system is needed to complete the optical character recognition (OCR) process on the palm leaf manuscript images, to make the manuscripts more accessible and readable to a wider audience.


In July 2011 a teacher registration reform (TRR) and a probation year for newly qualified teachers (NQTs) came into effect in Sweden (Government Bill, 2010/11).It required newly qualified teachers and pre-school teachers to do a "probationary year" under the guidance of a mentor. Between July 1 2011 and July 1 2014 principals or pre-school managers were responsible for assessing whether the NQT were to be registered or not. The principals were expected to perform this assessment by following the national standards (competence profiles) developed by the Swedish National Agency for Education, the issuing authority. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss (1) sources of support for assessment and (2) to what extent these supported the principals in the assessment of the NQTs. Data is drawn from a questionnaire answered by 248 principals, completed in 2014 within the research project "Head teachers working conditions and the evaluation of newly qualified teachers (the RAOL-project)"The TRR is another example of travelling policies in a globalized world, in this case with origin in Scotland and Canada. Some contextual policy learning adjustments (Lingard, 2010; Waldow, 2009) were made regarding the standards, but almost no adjustments regarding the structure and focus of the reform. As a consequence, parts of the reforms have been adjusted or withdrawn at several occasions. One major policy retreat was made in June 2013 when the Minister of Education, the Presidents of two teacher unions, representatives of The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and The Swedish Association of Independent Schools made a joint statement to withdraw the assessment of NQTs. Hence, the implementation of the Swedish TRR and the assessment of NQTs can be viewed as an example of policy borrowing and the challenges encountered when reforms are implemented prior to a completed policy learning processes. From July2014 the assessment ceased to be part of principals' task.Thus, this paper offers unique data from a specific time period with particular tasks and working conditions for principals. Swedish research on how principals assess and evaluate teachers' skills is largely absent, but similar international research indicates the need to explore how such assessments are performed. For instance, Kimball & Milanowski (2009) found that head teachers vary their evaluations over time and in relation to subjective values, and that their evaluations seem to be based on intuition and instinct rather than carefully formulated and objective criteria.Recent studies show that the working conditions for principals are intense with fragmented working days during which many quick decisions have to be made (Day, 2000; Nihlfors & Johansson, 2013).  Research on school leaders' working conditions (e.g. Swedish Work Environment Authority, 2011; Ludvigsson, 2009; Schools Inspectorate, 2010) raise questions on how working conditions affect the assessment of NQTs, and how the assessment affects working conditions and the principal's role and self-image (Federici, 2013). Principals operate in the intersection of different interests, expectations, tasks and roles (Nihlfors & Johansson, 2013; Tornsen & Arlestig, 2014), which affect the psychosocial work environment. Interestingly, changes in the professional role were being handled differently by the principals depending on their career stage (The Swedish Research Council, 2011).Even though the main data reported here is Swedish, in times of policy travelling the results are of importance in a wider European perspective to help understand principals' working condition and roles.Methods (max 400 ord)In June 2014, 644 principals were invited to answer a questionnaire and 249 responded, yielding a response rate of 38,5%. This may be considered relatively low, however, at this time it was generally known that the assessment would be phased out which probably reduced responsiveness. It should be noted that a similar questionnaire of principals conducted in December 2013 in another Swedish research project had a response rate of 31% (n = 106), wherein our response rate at a later stage can be considered relatively good.Three clusters of principals representing different municipals located in different regions in Sweden were invited, selected to ensure a diverse sample. The web questionnaire was sent to all primary, secondary and upper-secondary schools in three regions: a metropolitan area (1 municipality), major regional centre (8 municipalities) and rural locations (15 municipalities).The survey focused the following areas: school context, working conditions, assessment of the NQTs, support available for the principal, cooperation, the principals' strategies in observation and assessment, issues regarding the reform and reform implementation. A typical type of response alternatives were 5-point likert scale. Some other appropriate scaling was also used as well as open questions.  The analysis of the quantitative data has been performed with the SPSS-software, in a first step through crosstab analysis. The questions analysed in this paper regard sources of support for assessment and principals' use of these sources. FindingsThe analysis focused firstly on internal resources for assessment such as degrees from the national school leadership programme, experience of evaluating work performance from other professions etc.Secondly, outside support included interpersonal resources such as (a)school owner/administrative level, (b)fellow principals, (c)the NQTs appointed mentors, (d)teacher staff; and material resources such as (e)national/local competence profiles.The analysis of support indicated, for instance, that 69% of the principals reported low or no support from owner/administrative level in the assessment of the NQTs, that is, the management of the public or private school. 71% of the principals did not cooperate with other principals regarding the design of the assessment, while 7% say that they did, to a high or very high degree.A slightly higher proportion of support (10%) from fellow principals was reported regarding the actual assessment practice, a higher proportion of support (36%) from school staff and the highest (69%) from experienced mentors.12% of the principals report some form of training in assessment, which can be related to the fact that 40% of principals report that they, to a very high degree, report sufficient knowledge of conducting lesson observations, which is mandated in the assessment.No significant differences appear when data is related to principals' gender or type of school (private or public). In sum, principals receive most support from their employees, which makes them which makes their assessment practice largely free from external control, for good or bad. The issue will be analyzed further.In terms of TRR, the centrally distributed competency profiles seem to be of relatively low use for assessment support in comparison to local collaboration with employees. This is an example of how policy becomes enacted rather than implemented, (cf. Ball et al, 2012) depending on principals' local work conditions and organization.References (max 400 ord)Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How Schools Do Policy: Policy Enactments in Secondary Schools London & New York: Routledge.Day, C. (2000). Leading schools in times of change. Buckingham: Open Univ. Press.Federici, R. A. (2013). Principals' self-efficacy: relations with job autonomy,job satisfaction, and contextual constraints. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 28:73–86Government bill 2010/11:20 Legitimation for larare och forskollarare [Registration for Teachers and Pre-School Teachers]. The Swedish Government.Kimball, S.E. & Milanowski, A. (2009). Examining Teacher Evaluation Validity and Leadership Decision Making Within a Standards-Based Evaluation System. Educational Administration Quarterly. Vol. 45. No. 1. February 2009. 34–70.Lingard, B. (2010). Policy Borrowing, Policy Learning: Testing Times in Australian Schooling, Critical Studies in Education, 51(2), 129-147Nihlfors, E. & Johansson, O. (2013). Rektor - en stark lank i styrningen av skolan. [The Principal – a strong link in the Governance of School]. Stockholm: SNS forlag.Swedish School Inspectorate (2010). Rektors ledarskap. En granskning av hur rektorer leder skolans arbete mot okad maluppfyllelse. [The Principals Leadership. Inspection of how priciplas leads the schools towards increased goal-fullfilment]. Skolinspektionen: Stockholm.SOU. 2008. Legitimation och skarpta behorighetsregler [Swedish Government OfficialReport 2008:52. Registration and stricter qualifying rules]. Stockholm: Ministry ofEducation and Research.Swedish Work Environment Authority (2011). Rektorers arbetsmiljo. En tillsynsinsats genomford av Arbetsmiljoverket (AV), distriktet i Goteborg under 2009 och 2010. [Principals working condition. An inspection by the Swedish Work Environment Authority, Gothenburg region 2009-2010] ISG 2011/100102. Goteborg: Arbetsmiljoverket.Swedish Research Council (2011). Rektor – En forskningsoversikt 2000-2010. [Principals – a Research overview 2000-2010]. Vetenskapsradets rapportserie. 2011:4. Stockholm: Vetenskapsradet.Tornsen, M. & Arlestig, H. (red.) (2014). Ledarskap i centrum: om rektor och forskolechef. [Leadership in the center: about principals and pre-school managers]. Malmo: Gleerup.Waldow, F. (2009). Undeclared imports: silent borrowing in educational policy-making and research in Sweden, Comparative Education Vol. 45, No. 4, November 2009, 477–494.


ABSTRACT This case study will take readers through the planning and publication process of a collaborative departmental library blog at Syracuse University, which is a large private, non-profit research intensive university located in central New York State. It will provide an overview of the history of the project and the mission of the blog. It will describe the technical aspects, developing a publication schedule, and the editorial responsibilities of maintaining the blog. The impact of the blog is documented. The blog has raised awareness of the librarians' expertise and this is explored alongside how posts have contributed to a number of wider conversations in librarianship.


The objective of the research was to determine the relation between nut consumption and dietary patterns described by Healthy Eating Index, Mediterranean Diet Score and principal component analysis. In a cross-sectional study, 1852 military men were contacted by mail. Using food-frequency questionnaires, nut consumption was recorded and stratified in weekly versus less than weekly. Three dietary indices were calculated and stratified in quintiles. For principal component analysis, the healthiest dietary pattern rich in fruits and vegetables was selected as Healthy Dietary Pattern. The highest quintiles of Healthy Eating Index, Mediterranean Diet Score and Healthy Dietary Pattern were systematically associated with the highest weekly consumption of nuts. The highest quintiles were also associated with the lowest intake of saturated fat, i.e. between 10 and 12 energy-percent compared with 17 to 19 energy-percent for the lowest quintiles. The mean daily nut consumption was less than 6 g a day, which is beneath the recommended quantity for cardiovascular protection. Nut consumption was associated with the healthiest dietary pattern, independently of the used method to determine the dietary pattern. Regular nut consumption seems to be a component of a cluster of several healthy behaviors.


Abstract. A recent molecular phylogenetic study on Glaucus, a genus of neustonic aeolid nudibranchs, revealed undescribed cryptic diversity. Glaucus atlanticus is sister to the traditional species Glaucus marginatus, which is a complex of four genetically distinct cryptic species (Informal clade 'Marginatus'). The present paper revises the systematics of Glaucus and provides formal descriptions for three new species in the informal clade 'Marginatus' substantiated by species delimitation analyses. Molecular and morphological evidence confirms that the type species of Glaucus, Glaucus atlanticus, has a cosmopolitan subtropical distribution and is characterised by having a uniseriate ceratal arrangement, a penial spine and a longitudinal, medial silver stripe on the sole of the foot. Examination of type material indicates that the name G. marginatus should be retained for the most widespread of these species, found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This species is characterised by molecular diagnostic characters as well as the presence of a bursa copulatrix. Glaucus marginatus is sister to the undescribed species Glaucus bennettae, sp. nov., which is found in the South Pacific Ocean and lacks a bursa copulatrix. The other two undescribed species, Glaucus thompsoni, sp. nov. and Glaucus mcfarlanei, sp. nov. are only known from the North Pacific Ocean, and are characterised by molecular diagnostic characters as well as possessing and lacking a bursa copulatrix, respectively. Because sister species of Glaucus differ in their reproductive anatomy, we hypothesise that mating behaviour has played a role in cladogenesis in this group. ZooBank Publication code: http://zoobank.org/References/E352E264-A440-4AF1-8565-B57B7EEE25BC


This thesis has been devoted to deposition process, structures, magnetic properties and time-dependence effect of CoCrTa magnetic thin films for recording media. The experimental study began by investigating properties of single layer CoCrTa thin films, produced under different sputtering conditions. Structure of Cr single layer has been studied separately, in order to find a key to control the crystallography of this layer. After that, the CoCrTa layer was deposited onto the Cr underlayer, to form a configuration of typical longitudinal recording media. The dependence of various properties of CoCrTa/Cr media samples on thickness of each constituent layer has been investigated. In the second half of the thesis we concentrated on the timedependence effect in CoCrTa media samples, as both longitudinal (in-plane) and perpendicular media. The field dependence of viscosity, which belongs to the time-dependence effect, was the main subject of this study. In addition to CoCrTa media, we also studied perpendicular alumite media because this type of media is considered a good model to study various magnetic behaviors of recording media.


Background— Cardiotoxicity is a leading cause for drug attrition during pharmaceutical development and has resulted in numerous preventable patient deaths. Incidents of adverse cardiac drug reactions are more common in patients with preexisting heart disease than the general population. Here we generated a library of human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) from patients with various hereditary cardiac disorders to model differences in cardiac drug toxicity susceptibility for patients of different genetic backgrounds. Methods and Results— Action potential duration and drug-induced arrhythmia were measured at the single cell level in hiPSC-CMs derived from healthy subjects and patients with hereditary long QT syndrome, familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and familial dilated cardiomyopathy. Disease phenotypes were verified in long QT syndrome, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and dilated cardiomyopathy hiPSC-CMs by immunostaining and single cell patch clamp. Human embryonic stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) and the human ether-a-go-go–related gene expressing human embryonic kidney cells were used as controls. Single cell PCR confirmed expression of all cardiac ion channels in patient-specific hiPSC-CMs as well as hESC-CMs, but not in human embryonic kidney cells. Disease-specific hiPSC-CMs demonstrated increased susceptibility to known cardiotoxic drugs as measured by action potential duration and quantification of drug-induced arrhythmias such as early afterdepolarizations and delayed afterdepolarizations. Conclusions— We have recapitulated drug-induced cardiotoxicity profiles for healthy subjects, long QT syndrome, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and dilated cardiomyopathy patients at the single cell level for the first time. Our data indicate that healthy and diseased individuals exhibit different susceptibilities to cardiotoxic drugs and that use of disease-specific hiPSC-CMs may predict adverse drug responses more accurately than the standard human ether-a-go-go–related gene test or healthy control hiPSC-CM/hESC-CM screening assays.


Abstract We introduce a novel methodology to study peer effects. Using virtual reality technology, we create a naturalistic work setting in an immersive virtual environment where we embed a computer-generated virtual human as the co-worker of a human subject, both performing a sorting task at a conveyor belt. In our setup, subjects observe the virtual peer, while the virtual human is not observing them. In two treatments, human subjects observe either a low productive or a highly productive virtual peer. We find that human subjects rate their presence feeling of "being there" in the immersive virtual environment as natural. Subjects also recognize that virtual peers in our two treatments showed different productivities. We do not find a general treatment effect on productivity. However, we find that competitive subjects display higher performance when they are in the presence of a highly productive peer - compared to when they observe a low productive peer. We use tracking data to learn about the subjects' body movements. Analyzing hand and head data, we show that competitive subjects are more careful in the sorting task than non-competitive subjects. We also discuss some VR related methodological issues.


This project examines the various drivers that led to the U.S. shale oil revolution in order to predict its place in the energy industry going forward and to analyze its effects on Alaska. The shale boom flooded the market with oil causing a dramatic decrease in crude oil prices in late 2014. With this price drop threatening to send Alaska into an economic recession, the future of shale should be of primary concern to all Alaskans as well as other entities that rely heavily on oil revenue. The primary driver leading to the shale revolution is technology. Advances in hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and 3D seismic mapping made producing shale oil and gas possible for the first time. New technologies like rotary steerable systems and measurements while drilling continue to make shale production more efficient, and technology will likely continue to improve. Infrastructure helps to explain why the shale revolution was mostly an American phenomenon. Many countries with shale formations have political infrastructure too unstable to risk shale investment. Capital infrastructure is a primary strength of the U.S. and also helps to explain why shale development didn't find its way up to Alaska despite having political stability. Financial infrastructure allowed oil companies to receive the funding necessary to quickly bring shale to the market. The final driver explored is crude oil prices. High oil prices helped spark the shale revolution, but with the recent price crash, there is uncertainty about its future. With production costs continually falling due to technology improvements and analysts predicting crude oil prices to stabilize above most project breakeven points, the future of


BACKGROUND
Cellulitis and erysipelas are now usually considered manifestations of the same condition, a skin infection associated with severe pain and systemic symptoms. A range of antibiotic treatments are suggested in guidelines.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the efficacy and safety of interventions for non-surgically-acquired cellulitis.

SEARCH STRATEGY
In May 2010 we searched for randomised controlled trials in the Cochrane Skin Group Specialised Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials in The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the ongoing trials databases.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We selected randomised controlled trials comparing two or more different interventions for cellulitis.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 25 studies with a total of 2488 participants. Our primary outcome 'symptoms rated by participant or medical practitioner or proportion symptom-free' was commonly reported. No two trials examined the same drugs, therefore we grouped similar types of drugs together.Macrolides/streptogramins were found to be more effective than penicillin antibiotics (Risk ratio (RR) 0.84, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.97). In 3 trials involving 419 people, 2 of these studies used oral macrolide against intravenous (iv) penicillin demonstrating that oral therapies can be more effective than iv therapies (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.98).Three studies with a total of 88 people comparing a penicillin with a cephalosporin showed no difference in treatment effect (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.68 to 1.43).Six trials which included 538 people that compared different generations of cephalosporin, showed no difference in treatment effect (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.94 to1.06).We found only small single studies for duration of antibiotic treatment, intramuscular versus intravenous route, the addition of corticosteroid to antibiotic treatment compared with antibiotic alone, and vibration therapy, so there was insufficient evidence to form conclusions. Only two studies investigated treatments for severe cellulitis and these selected different antibiotics for their comparisons, so we cannot make firm conclusions.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
We cannot define the best treatment for cellulitis and most recommendations are made on single trials. There is a need for trials to evaluate the efficacy of oral antibiotics against intravenous antibiotics in the community setting as there are service implications for cost and comfort.


Business intelligence (BI) combined with business analytics (BA) is an increasingly prominent strategic objective for many organizations. As a pedagogical subject, BI/BA is still in its infancy, and, in order for this to mature, we need to develop an undergraduate model BI/BA curriculum. BI/BA as an academic domain is emerging as a hybrid of disciplines, including information systems, statistics, management science, artificial intelligence, computer science, and business practice/theory. Based on IS 2010's model curriculum constructs (Topi et al., 2010), we explore two curricular options: a BI/BA concentration in a typical IS major and a comprehensive, integrated BI/BA undergraduate major. In support, we present evidence of industry need for BI/BA, review the current state of BI/BA education, and compare anticipated requirements for BI/BA curricula with the IS 2010 model curriculum. For this initial phase of curricular design, we postulate a preliminary set of knowledge areas relevant for BI/BA pedagogy in a multidisciplinary framework. Then we discuss avenues for integrating these knowledge areas to develop professionally prepared BI/BA specializations at the undergraduate level. We also examine implications for both AACSB and ABET accreditation and describe the next phase of applying the IS 2010 concept structure to BI/BA curriculum development.


Both interdisciplinarity and care are in their own way central concerns for green economics. Green economics has on its agenda a more integrated approach of the economy, the environment and the social. As such, its approach is inherently interdisciplinary. And the concern with the environment calls on a way of relating to the latter in which care, as an orientation, a task and way of acting all play a crucial part. This paper examines the theorising of care in economics, and undertakes to demonstrate that the question addresses categories underpinned by strict economic as well as 'non-economic' presuppositions about the world we live in. By taking care of labour as our category of analysis, and taking as our vantage point the two way relationship between material and non-material well-being, the paper proceeds to show how the various disciplines come together in a fully fledged theory of care in economics.