Higher educational institutions are encouraged to implement the Outcome-Based Education to prepare instructors to be competitive and produce graduates who are ready to meet the global job needs. To determine the level of implementation of the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) in Central Philippines State University, the researcher employed the sequential explanatory mixed-method design which involves two phases: the quantitative followed by qualitative. The quantitative data were collected through a validated survey instrument, while the qualitative data were gathered from the participants through an in-depth semi-structured interview which culled out their experiences on the implementation of the Outcome-Based Education. The findings of the study revealed that Outcome-Based Education standards were moderately implemented in the university. This means that the learning experiences of students and the teaching methodology could hardly develop their skills to attain the intended learning outcomes. Qualitatively, the results yielded different themes that brought forth an eidetic insight that the OBE implementation is collaborative and value-laden effort: bridging theory and practice of the academic community. The research findings were used as a basis for designing the proposed CPSU-Operational Plan using the Approach, Deployment, Learning, Integration (ADLI) model that can be adopted and implemented by the University.


Studies of birds have made a fundamental contribution to elucidating sperm competition processes, experimentally demonstrating the role of individual mechanisms in competitive fertilization. However, the relative importance of these mechanisms and the way in which they interact under natural conditions remain largely unexplored. Here, we conduct a detailed behavioural study of freely mating replicate groups of red junglefowl, Gallus gallus, to predict the probability that competing males fertilize individual eggs over the course of 10-day trials. Remating frequently with a female and mating last increased a male's probability of fertilization, but only for eggs ovulated in the last days of a trial. Conversely, older males, and those mating with more polyandrous females, had consistently lower fertilization success. Similarly, resistance to a male's mating attempts, particularly by younger females, reduced fertilization probability. After considering these factors, male social status, partner relatedness and the estimated state of male extragonadal sperm reserves did not predict sperm competition outcomes. These results shed new light on sperm competition dynamics in taxa such as birds, with prolonged female sperm storage and staggered fertilizations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Fifty years of sperm competition'.


Despite the wide usage of container-based cloud computing, container auditing for security analysis relies mostly on built-in host audit systems, which often lack the ability to capture high-fidelity container logs. State-of-the-art reference-monitor-based audit techniques greatly improve the quality of audit logs, but their system-wide architecture is too costly to be adapted for individual containers. Moreover, these techniques typically require extensive kernel modifications, making it difficult to deploy in practical settings. In this paper, we present saBPF (secure audit BPF), an extension of the eBPF framework capable of deploying secure system-level audit mechanisms at the container granularity. We demonstrate the practicality of saBPF in Kubernetes by designing an audit framework, an intrusion detection system, and a lightweight access control mechanism. We evaluate saBPF and show that it is comparable in performance and security guarantees to audit systems from the literature that are implemented directly in the kernel.


The findings of a 14-year study of tree reproduction and survival in the Platte River, Nebraska, are presented. The study was initiated in 1985 to determine the causes and remedies of woodland expansion and channel narrowing, which have reduced potential roosting habitat for migratory avifauna such as the whooping crane and sandhill crane.

A total of 296 relocatable sites, constituting some 600 plots with Populus and Salix seedlings, was selected and sampled within two reaches near Shelton and Odessa, Nebraska. The fate of some 37 000 tree seedlings was monitored within the plot network.

Tree recruitment is controlled largely by stream flow in June. Populus and Salix produce large numbers of seedlings in the river bed in most years, indicating the potential for high rates of woodland expansion. On average, in only 1 year in 7 is stream flow in June high enough to preclude Populus and Salix recruitment.

Seedling mortality is dominated by two environmental factors: summer stream flow pulses from thunderstorms, which erode or bury new germinants, and river bed restructuring by moving ice in winter. A third factor, seedling mortality by desiccation during summer droughts, does occur but at a low frequency.

Plots of seedlings had extremely low survival rates over the course of the study. Forty-two per cent of the plots lost all seedlings by the first remeasurement (July to September), 36% by the second measurement (May), and 10% by the third remeasurement (July). Thus nearly 90% of the plots had lost all tree seedlings by the end of the first year.

These results explain why the Platte River has come into dynamic equilibrium with respect to the balance between active channel and woodland area. Low rates of new woodland expansion are counterbalanced by erosion of established woodland.

The demographic approach to studying ecohydrology can be adapted to monitor the effectiveness of prescribed flows as insurance against future narrowing. Flows prescribed at key times to raise seedling mortality rates are recommended to maintain or widen channels, rather than mechanical clearing of established woodland. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper presents the development and implementation of Robee, a novel social behavior controller for robots with a focus on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) studies. Using the homeostatic drive theory, Robee selects the behaviors in order to maintain the needs, mainly psychological and social, within an acceptable range. We propose a hybrid concept for the decision making process, which combines the hierarchical approach and Parallel-rooted, Ordered, Slip-stack Hierarchical (POSH) architecture. Emotions are mapped in a two-dimensional space consisting of valence and arousal. A joint attention HRI experiment with children and NAO robot has been conducted showing the usage of the controller. Robee is expected to be implemented in more robotic platforms.


Purpose: One way to make more profit in different companies is to choose the right method of financing. While the impact of financial structure on the economic structure is so important that today they believe that economic growth cannot be achieved without an efficient financial sector. The method of financing is financial. At first, in this study, the fuzzy Delphi method (Delphi) has been used in order to identify the factors and criteria of supply. Research methodology: The absorption of foreign capital has been identified as a method of financing. For this purpose, in this research, AHP hierarchical analysis method is used. Results: In this article, the application of fuzzy AHP - TOPSIS method for the problem of financing is investigated. The process of managing financial resources is one of the reasons for allocating its technical equipment to various applications in this company. Limitations: However, the results of our studies show that although a set of known values in this company, the financing process may not adhere strongly to these values. Emphasis on evaluation aspects - changes in various areas that indicate local values may also affect the supply trend. Contribution: Multi-criteria decision methods are useful in that they provide a basis for analyzing and transforming complex and complex problems into simpler ones; In that framework, the planner can easily evaluate the options with the help of criteria and sub-criteria. Using these methods can help a lot in choosing the best available solution. Other advantages of these methods include flexibility, simplicity of calculations and the possibility of the final ranking of options.


Autologous mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation therapy for repair of myocardial injury has inherent limitations due to the poor viability of the stem cells after cell transplantation. Adhesion is a prerequisite for cell survival and also a key factor for the differentiation of MSCs. As a novel prosurvival modification strategy, we genetically engineered MSCs to overexpress tissue transglutaminase (tTG), with intention to enhance adhesion and ultimately cell survival after implantation. tTG‐transfected MSCs (tTG‐MSCs) showed a 2.7‐fold and greater than a twofold increase of tTG expression and surface tTG activity, respectively, leading to a 20% increased adhesion of MSCs on fibronectin (Fn). Spreading and migration of tTG‐MSCs were increased 4.75% and 2.52%, respectively. Adhesion of tTG‐MSCs on cardiogel, a cardiac fibroblast‐derived three‐dimensional matrix, showed a 33.1% increase. Downregulation of tTG by transfection of small interfering RNA specific to the tTG resulted in markedly decreased adhesion and spread of MSCs on Fn or cardiogel. tTG‐MSCs on Fn significantly increased phosphorylation of focal adhesion related kinases FAK, Src, and PI3K. tTG‐MSCs showed significant retention in infarcted myocardium by forming a focal adhesion complex and developed into cardiac myocyte‐like cells by the expression of cardiac‐specific proteins. Transplantation of 1 × 106 MSCs transduced with tTG into the ischemic rat myocardium restored normalized systolic and diastolic cardiac function. tTG‐MSCs further restored cardiac function of infarcted myocardium as compared with MSC transplantation alone. These findings suggested that tTG may play an important role in integrin‐mediated adhesion of MSCs in implanted tissues.


The marked decline in positive civic behaviour among young Zimbabweans that was reported by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education of 1999 prompted me to investigate the quality of citizenship education that was implemented in schools through social studies - a subject that I lectured in at the University of Zimbabwe.
The investigation took the form of a case study of three primary schools that comprised a former Group A school, a former Group B school and a Trust school in the city of Harare. I examined the official syllabus document that was intended for use in schools and how it was actually implemented at classroom level with particular reference to content, pedagogy, school ethos and climate. I used an interpretive ethnographic research design that involved a full school year of participant observation, triangulated with detailed document analysis and in-depth interviews with school heads, teachers and pupils. The thesis is based on what I heard from participants, studied in the documents that they used, observed in classrooms and schools and what I, as a participant-observer, synthesised and reflected on.
I found that the intended curriculum as represented by the official social studies syllabus of 1982 had considerable potential for citizenship education. While it required updating to incorporate post-1980 developments, it did not require a complete overhaul for it to promote citizenship education. The evaluation of the primary school social studies curriculum led to the conclusion that the problem was largely at implementation level. Distortion first occurred during textbook writing, official approval and publishing. This was then amplified at school and classroom level because of the dominance of the textbook as a teaching aid and the failure to make significant links to the actual environments and contexts in which pupils lived. An examination-driven curriculum helped perpetuate a low quality implemented citizenship curriculum largely characterised by rote learning and limited practical citizenship-oriented activities. The pupils themselves, when given the opportunity, were very keen on citizenship education. The ethos and climate of the school also had an important input into how young children experienced citizenship education.


We critically review the Kyoto Protocol and thirteen alternative policy architectures for addressing the threat of global climate change. We employ six criteria to evaluate the policy proposals: environmental outcome, dynamic efficiency, cost effectiveness, equity, flexibility in the presence of new information, and incentives for participation and compliance. The Kyoto Protocol does not fare well on a number of criteria, but none of the alternative proposals fare well along all six dimensions. We identify several major themes among the alternative proposals: Kyoto is "too little, too fast"; developing countries should play a more substantial role and receive incentives to participate; implementation should focus on market-based approaches, especially those with price mechanisms; and participation and compliance incentives are inadequately addressed by most proposals. Our investigation reveals tensions among several of the evaluative criteria, such as between environmental outcome and efficiency, and between cost-effectiveness and incentives for participation and compliance.


Speeding and inappropriate speed are recognized as major contributory factors in both the number and severity of traffic crashes in most of the countries in the world including China. Working together with the Research Institute of Highway (RIOH) of the Ministry of Transport (MOT), Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) carried out a 4- year speed management project in China during 2008-2011. The project was divided into 2 phases: phase I - speed management situational survey at 6 different road segments in Beijing and Guangxi Province; phase II - implementation and evaluation of speed management Intervention countermeasures at G103 highway in Beijing. The objectives of the project are: a) to better understand the speed related problems on the selected road sections; b) to implement the international good practice on speed management based on the local needs; c) to use low engineering cost countermeasure to reduce speeding rate and improve the safety on the selected road section. The before-after comparison shows that low cost engineering countermeasures make spot speed reduce by 5 km/h for mean speed and 7km/h for V85 (85 percentile speed) approximately on general road section; for pedestrian crossings, the corresponding figure is about 7 km/h and 12km/h.


Free-space optical communication (FSOC) has been promoted for decades as an enabling technology for high-throughput satellite connectivity. However, in order for FSOC to be economically competitive with other technologies (e.g., conventional RF links), the overall manufacturability, including production cost and schedule, needs to be improved. One of the major cost and complexity drivers in FSOC systems tends to be the small-space optical assembly associated with fine pointing and tracking. These assemblies typically employ precision optical elements with sensitive alignment requirements, and they sometimes also rely on time-consuming calibration steps which further increase cost and production schedule. In this paper we present two fine pointing architectures that support high-accuracy pointing, while also featuring simplification of the small-space optical assembly hardware, reduction in the number and complexity of constituent components, full self-calibration capability, and relaxation of otherwise-strict, cost-driving subassembly requirements. One architecture is proposed for short-range applications requiring only limited point-ahead angles, whereas the other architecture supports larger point-ahead angles.


With an unprecedented combination of mechanical and electrical properties, polymer nanocomposites have the potential to be widely used across multiple industries. Tailoring nanocomposites to meet application specific requirements remains a challenging task, owing to the vast, mixed-variable design space that includes composition (i.e. choice of polymer, nanoparticle, and surface modification) and microstructures (i.e. dispersion and geometric arrangement of particles) of the nanocomposite material. Modeling properties of the interphase, the region surrounding a nanoparticle, introduces additional complexity to the design process and requires computationally expensive simulations. As a result, previous attempts at designing polymer nanocomposites have focused on finding the optimal microstructure for only a fixed combination of constituents. In this article, we propose a data centric design framework to concurrently identify optimal composition and microstructure using mixed-variable Bayesian optimization. This framework integrates experimental data with state-of-the-art techniques in interphase modeling, microstructure characterization and reconstructions and machine learning. Latent variable Gaussian processes (LVGPs) quantifies the lack-of-data uncertainty over the mixed-variable design space that consists of qualitative and quantitative material design variables. The design of electrically insulating nanocomposites is cast as a multicriteria optimization problem with the goal of maximizing dielectric breakdown strength while minimizing dielectric permittivity and dielectric loss. Within tens of simulations, our method identifies a diverse set of designs on the Pareto frontier indicating the tradeoff between dielectric properties. These findings project data centric design, effectively integrating experimental data with simulations for Bayesian Optimization, as an effective approach for design of engineered material systems.


Between 1915 and 1923, over one million Armenians died, victims of a genocidal campaign that is still denied by the Turkish government. Thousands of other Armenians suffered torture, brutality, deportation. Yet their story has received scant attention. Through interviews with a hundred elderly Armenians, Donald and Lorna Miller give the "forgotten genocide" the hearing it deserves. Survivors raise important issues about genocide and about how people cope with traumatic experience. Much here is wrenchingly painful, yet it also speaks to the strength of the human spirit.


The rapid and oft en unplanned expansion of cities is exposing more people and economic assets to the risk of disasters and the effects of climate change. For city governments, increased climate variability imposes additional challenges to effective urban management and the delivery of key services, while for residents it increasingly affects their lives and livelihoods due to more frequent floods, landslides, heat waves, droughts, and fires. There is an urgent need for cities to consider disaster and climate change by streamlining assessments of related risks in their planning and management as well as delivery of services. This paper proposes a framework for carrying out urban risk assessment, and seeks to strengthen coherence and consensus in how cities can plan for natural disasters and climate change. The Urban Risk Assessment (URA) was developed by drawing on lessons from existing efforts to assess risk in cities as well as urban planning literature. It was vetted through consultation and collaboration with international development agencies, the public and private sectors, and nongovernmental organizations. It minimizes duplicative efforts, and brings convergence to related work undertaken by the World Bank and other key partners. The target audience for this report includes: (1) decision makers such as city managers, mayors, and those involved in developing national and local policies related to urban development; (2) urban practitioners and technical staff at the municipal, regional, and national levels; and (3) international organizations. The assessment methodology focuses on three reinforcing pillars that collectively contribute to understanding urban risk: a hazard impact assessment, an institutional assessment, and a socioeconomic assessment. The URA allows flexibility in how it is applied, depending on available financial resources, available data relating to hazards and its population, and institutional capacity of a given city. Through the URA's sequencing, which is linked to complexity and required investment, city managers may select subcomponents from each pillar that individually and collectively enhance the understanding of urban risk.


This special issue touches on many significant aspects of multimedia retrieval, including content analysis and understanding, content- and context-based indexing, search and retrieval, HCI technologies, and image and video summarization and visualization. It converges on the nexus of social multimedia and storytelling around real-world experiences, events, and places. Aside from the challenging research problems in this emerging area, its topics are linked to a host of important commercial and creative applications in sectors such as media, entertainment, arts and culture, sports, and music.


Prior investigations concur that the granite plutons in Scotland which are most likely to prove favourable for geothermal exploration are the Ballater, Bennachie, Cairngorm and Mount Battock plutons, all of which have heat production values greater than 5 μW m−3. This heat production arises from the significant concentrations of potassium, uranium and thorium in some granite plutons. A new field-based gamma-ray spectrometric survey targeted plutons that were poorly surveyed in the past or near areas of high heat demand. This survey identifies several other plutons (Ben Rhinnes, Cheviot, Hill of Fare, Lochnagar and Monadhliath) with heat production rates between 3 and 5 μW m−3 that could well have geothermal gradients sufficient for direct heat use rather than higher temperatures required for electricity generation. The Criffel and Cheviot plutons are examples of Scottish granites that have concentric compositional zonation and some zones have significantly higher (up to 20%) heat production rates than others in the same plutons. However, the relatively small surface areas of individual high heat-production zones mean that it is unlikely to be worthwhile specifically targeting them. Supplementary material: The full set of heat production data is available at https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.302


This text is designed for the drug and substance abuse counseling course that prepares future health professionals to work with patients, clients, and families of abusers. It provides perspective on the aspects and problems associated with addiction and discusses the fundamentals of the dynamics of chemical dependency. The new edition improves topic flow for easier understanding and brings the research base into the 21st century


The ant genus Trichomyrmex Mayr, 1865 is revised for the Arabian Peninsula based on the worker caste. Nine species are recognized and descriptions of two new species, T. almosayari sp. nov. and T. shakeri sp. nov. from Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia, are given. For nomenclatural stability, lectotypes for T. abyssinicus (Forel, 1894a), T. lameerei (Forel, 1902) and T. mayri (Forel, 1902) are designated. A key to species and diagnostic characters of the treated species are presented. New country records are presented for T. abyssinicus (Saudi Arabia), T. destructor (Jerdon, 1851) (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and T. mayri (Qatar). New distributional records for T. destructor and T. mayri for Saudi Arabia are also provided. World and regional species distributions are indicated and distributional maps for nine Arabian species are included. Ecological and biological information is given when known.


Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB) is a nonprofit organization that partners student chap ters with communities in fundamental need of potable water, clean air, sanitation, irrigation, energy, basic structures for schools and clinics, roads and bridges, etc. While EWB projects may vary in complexity, they are all realistic, ill-structured and challenging, and so have the potential to provide a unique educational opportunity for problem based learning (PBL). Since the number of EWB student chapters on college campuses is large and growing, this paper explores whether EWB is well aligned with PBL, and the extent to which participation in EWB increased student learning in a cohort of engineering students at the City College of New York. Student learning is assessed for various technical and non-technical learning outcomes (i.e., ABET program outcomes). EWB is found to be well aligned with the PBL approach. For the student cohort studied, participation in EWB appears to reinforce technical concepts learned in the classroom and to provide a forum for developing an appreciation for or ability in particular concepts that are difficult to adequately address in a classroom setting: ethical behavior, global perspectives, sustainable solutions, effective communication, decision-making and leadership.


Background and Aim: Vaccination is one of the most important primary prevention and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. DTP3 is commonly used as a criteria for the availability of health services. The purpose of this study was determining vaccination coverage of DTP3 and factors influencing it. Materials and Methods: One thounsed and four hundred fiftey eight children (12-24 month old) from 17th district of Tehran were enrolled in this cross sectional study. In this study, vaccination status of the DTP3 vaccination schedule according to the demographic variables was determined. Information was collected by a questionnaire referring to children's vaccination card. Sampling method was cluster sampling and included 146 clusters with 10 children in every cluster. Data collected were analyzed using spssv13 software and chi-square and t tests. Results: In this study, 744 girls and 714 boys participated. 1241 patients, (85.1%) cases received their vaccines at the right time. 190 patients (13%) cases had not received the vaccine at the proper time, and 27 patients (1.9 %) were not vaccinated. Between vaccine status and mother's education (p=0.003), father's education (p=0.012), family income (p=0.003), number of children in the family (p=0.006), birth order (p=0.007), and status of family's medical record in the health center (active inactive)(p=0.002), significant difference was observed. Conclusion: Although vaccination coverage rate of DTP3 was 98%, more than 13% of cases, did not receive the vaccine at the right time and this constitutes to childhood illness. More research is needed to identify factors influencing no vaccination at the right time.


Aim Coastal biodiversity hotspots are globally threatened by sea-level rise. As such it is important to understand how ecosystems resist, respond and adapt to sea-level rise. Using pollen, geochemistry, charcoal and diatom records in conjunction with previously published palaeoclimatic records, we investigated the mechanism, interactions and ecosystem response and resilience of Madagascar's littoral forest to late Holocene sea-level rise. Location Sediment sequences were collected along the south-east coast of Madagascar in two adjacent habitats in Mandena; the highly diverse littoral forest fragment and species-poor Erica -matrix. Methods We used a multi-proxy approach to investigate the relative influence of environmental changes on the littoral ecosystem. We reconstructed past vegetation and fire dynamics over the past 6500 years at two sites in the littoral forest using fossil pollen and macrofossil charcoal contained in sedimentary sequences. Alongside these records we reconstructed past marine transgressions from the same sedimentary sequences using geochemical analyses, and a salinity and drought index through the analysis of fossil diatoms. Results Our findings indicated that it was the synergistic effect of sea-level rise coupled with rainfall deficits that triggered a threshold event with a switch from two types of littoral forest (an open Uapaca forest and a closed littoral forest fragment) to an Erica‐Myrica heath/grassland occurring in approximately less than 100 years. Resilience to sea-level rise differed in the two adjacent habitats, suggesting that the littoral forest fragment was more resilient to the impacts of sea-level change and aridity than the open Uapaca woodland. Conclusions We demonstrated that the littoral ecosystem was influenced by late Holocene sea-level rise and climatic desiccation. While climate change-integrated conservation strategies address the effects of climate change on species distribution and dispersal, our work suggests that more attention should be paid to the impacts of interactive climatic variables that affect ecosystem thresholds.


Transactional Memory (TM) has become an active research area as it promises to simplify the development of highly scalable parallel programs. Scalability is quickly becoming an essential software requirement as successive commodity processors integrate ever larger numbers of cores. Non-trivial TM applications to test TM implementations have only recently begun to emerge, but have been written in different programming languages, using different TM implementations, making analysis difficult.We ported the popular non-trivial TM applications from the STAMP suite (Genome, KMeans, and Vacation), and Lee-TM to DSTM2, a software TM implementation, and built into it a framework to profile their execution. This paper investigates which profiling information is most relevant to understanding the performance of these non-trivial TM applications using up to 8 processors. We report commonly used transactional execution metrics and introduce two new metrics that can be used to profile TM applications.


Racial minorities suffer disproportionately high rates of almost all major diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Few diseases reflect this process as clearly as HIV/AIDS. Since its emergence in the early 1980s, the incidence of HIV has been higher for African Americans than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. Although African Americans only comprise about 13% of the United States population, they account for almost half of the people who get HIV and AIDS each year. The disparity in HIV between African American drug users and white drug users is among the most shocking in the country: African Americans who inject drugs are ten times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than white injectors. This paper considers the disparity in HIV among injecting drug users and what the law has to do with it. It begins by summarizing the evidence on two key points: that criminal laws and law enforcement practices have fueled disparities in HIV among IDUs, and that syringe access programs (SEPs) can prevent HIV among drug users without increasing drug use or other social problems. In the heart of the legal story, this paper focuses on an area where immediate and dramatic change could and should happen within the national HIV prevention strategy and in the legislative agendas of state legislatures. In spite of the evidence and nearly two decades of experience, access to sterile syringes through SEPs and pharmacies remains the undernourished step-child of HIV prevention. Politics and ideology and the overall scarcity of prevention funding explain part of this, but as an immediate barrier to syringe access and SEPs the law stands out both for its force and as an example of how disparities happen. We explain the various federal, state and local restrictions on the implementation of SEPs. If we are serious about reducing racial disparities in HIV, we should make syringes available at pharmacies and syringe exchanges at a level and in the places necessary to reach black IDUs, which means removing legal barriers, scaling up programs and services, and eliminating harassment and other police practices that discourage IDUs from carrying syringes and depress the effectiveness of SEPs.


Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) has a high mortality rate and the incidence is rising worldwide. Despite advances in treatment, the disease lacks specific prognostic markers and treatment modality. The spreading of OTSCC is dependent on the tumor microenvironment and involves tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Although the presence of TAMs is associated with poor prognosis in OTSCC, the specific mechanisms underlying this are still unknown. The aim here was to investigate the effect of macrophages (Mfs) on HSC-3 tongue carcinoma cells and NF-kappaB activity. We polarized THP-1 cells to M1 (inflammatory), M2 (TAM-like) and R848 (imidazoquinoline-treated) type Mfs. We then investigated the effect of Mfs on HSC-3 cell migration and NF-kappaB activity, cytokine production and invasion using several different in vitro migration models, a human 3D tissue invasion model, antibody arrays, confocal microscopy, immunohistochemistry and a mouse invasion model. We found that in co-culture studies all types of Mfs fused with HSC-3 cells, a process which was partially due to efferocytosis. HSC-3 cells induced expression of epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factor-beta in co-cultures with M2 Mfs. Direct cell-cell contact between M2 Mfs and HSC-3 cells induced migration and invasion of HSC-3 cells while M1 Mfs reduced HSC-3 cell invasion. M2 Mfs had an excess of NF-kappaB p50 subunit and a lack of p65 subunits both in the presence and absence of HSC-3 cells, indicating dysregulation and pro-tumorigenic NF-kappaB activation. TAM-like cells were abundantly present in close vicinity to carcinoma cells in OTSCC patient samples. We conclude that M2 Mfs/TAMs have an important role in OTSCC regulating adhesion, migration, invasion and cytokine production of carcinoma cells favouring tumor growth. These results demonstrate that OTSCC patients could benefit from therapies targeting TAMs, polarizing TAM-like M2 Mfs to inflammatory macrophages and modulating NF-kappaB activity.


Adding graphic novels to your library collection is a surefire way to boost circulation and build customer loyalty. But with thousands of graphic novels being published annually and no sign of a slowdown, how do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre. It covers more than 2,400 titles, including series titles, and organizes them according to genre, subgenre, and theme-from super-heroes and adventure to crime, humor, and nonfiction. Reading levels, awards/recognition, and core titles are identified; and tie-ins with gaming, film, anime, and television are noted. Grade 6 through adult. In addition, it will cite resources for learning more about the genre, and provide information on awards. Hundreds of images illustrate the guide.


Human impacts on biogeochemical cycles are evident around the world, from changes to forest structure and function due to atmospheric deposition, to eutrophication of surface waters from agricultural effluent, and increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will contribute to understanding human effects on biogeochemical cycles from local to continental scales. The broad NEON biogeochemistry measurement design focuses on measuring atmospheric deposition of reactive mineral compounds and CO2 fluxes, ecosystem carbon (C) and nutrient stocks, and surface water chemistry across 20 eco-climatic domains within the United States for 30 yr. Herein, we present the rationale and plan for the ground-based measurements of C and nutrients in soils and plants based on overarching or "high-level" requirements agreed upon by the National Science Foundation and NEON. The resulting design incorporates early recommendations by expert review teams, as well as recent input from the larger natural sciences community that went into the formation and interpretation of the requirements, respectively. NEON's efforts will focus on a suite of data streams that will enable end-users to study and predict changes to biogeochemical cycling and transfers within and across air, land, and water systems at regional to continental scales. At each NEON site, there will be an initial, one-time effort to survey soil properties to 1 m (including soil texture, bulk density, pH, baseline chemistry) and vegetation community structure and diversity. A sampling program will follow, focused on capturing long-term trends in soil C, nitrogen (N), and sulfur stocks, isotopic composition (of C and N), soil N transformation rates, phosphorus pools, and plant tissue chemistry and isotopic composition (of C and N). To this end, NEON will conduct extensive measurements of soils and plants within stratified random plots distributed across each site. The resulting data will be a new resource for members of the scientific community interested in addressing questions about long-term changes in continental-scale biogeochemical cycles, and is predicted to inspire further process-based research.


Taranaki (Mt. Egmont) in the western North Island of New Zealand is a high-K andesite volcano with an eruptive history extending over more than 200 kyr. In general, petrological research has concentrated on the post-10 ka record of the modern edifice. This study focuses on the earlier history, which is recorded in 11 major pre-7 ka debris avalanche deposits. Each of these formed as a result of a catastrophic collapse of the edifice of the time. The clast assemblages of these deposits provide insights into the chemical compositions of magmas erupted during the earlier stages of activity of the volcano and form the basis for a new chemo-stratigraphic analysis of the pre-10 ka volcanic succession. Sample suites from the studied debris avalanche deposits show a progressive enrichment in K2O and large ion lithophile elements (LILE), reflecting a gradual evolution to high-K andesite. The early magmatic system (pre-100 ka) produced a wide range of compositions including relatively primitive basalts and basaltic andesites.These rocks contain phenocryst assemblages that indicate crystallization within the lower crust or mantle, including a broad range of clinopyroxene compositions, high-Al2O3 hornblende, olivine and phlogopite. A higher proportion of high-silica compositions in the younger sample suites and the appearance of late-stage, low-pressure mineral phases, such as high-TiO2 hornblende, biotite and Fe-rich orthopyroxene, reflect a gradual shift to more evolved magmas with time.These new data are interpreted to reflect a multi-stage origin for Taranaki andesites. Parental magmas were generated within a lower crustal 'hot zone', which formed as a result of repeated intrusions of primitive melts into the lower crust. The geochemical and mineralogical evidence indicates that prior to 100 ka this zone was relatively thin and cold, so that primitive magmas were able to rise rapidly through the crust without significant interaction and modification. As the hot zone evolved, larger proportions of intruded and underplated mafic material were partially remelted, and interaction of these melts with fractionating mantle-derived magmas generated progressively more K- and LILE-enriched compositions. A complex and dispersed magma assembly and storage system developed in the upper crust where the hot-zone melts were further modified by fractional crystallization and magma mixing and mingling.


PURPOSE
This phase II study assessed clofarabine monotherapy in older adults (>or= 60 years of age) with untreated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and at least one unfavorable baseline prognostic factor.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Clofarabine was administered intravenously for 5 days at 30 mg/m(2)/d during induction and 20 mg/m(2)/d during reinduction/consolidation (six cycles maximum). The primary end point was overall remission rate (ORR; ie, complete remission [CR] plus CR with incomplete platelet recovery [CRp]).

RESULTS
In 112 evaluable patients who were treated (median age, 71 years; range, 60 to 88 years), the ORR was 46% (38% CR, 8% CRp). ORR by unfavorable prognostic factor was 39% for patients >or= 70 years of age; 32% for Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 2; 51% for antecedent hematologic disorder; 54% for intermediate karyotype; 42% for unfavorable karyotype; and 48%, 51%, and 38% for one, two, and three risk factors, respectively. The median disease-free survival was 37 weeks (95% CI, 26 to 56 weeks). Median duration of remission was 56 weeks (95% CI, 33 to not estimable). The estimated median overall survival was 41 weeks (95% CI, 28 to 53 weeks) for all patients, 59 weeks for patients with CR/CRp, and 72 weeks for patients with CR. The 30-day all-cause mortality was 9.8%. The most common non-laboratory drug-related toxicities (>or= 20% patients) were nausea, febrile neutropenia, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and fatigue.

CONCLUSION
Clofarabine is an active agent with acceptable toxicity in patients age 60 years or older with untreated AML who have at least one unfavorable prognostic factor. ORR did not seem affected by the presence of multiple unfavorable prognostic factors.


Golden Harvest – Emotional History Abstract The author of this text discusses the book Golden Harvest by Jan Tomasz Gross and Irena Grudzinska-Gross and, even though he finds their work valuable, he presents two points of disagreement. Firstly, he criticizes the authors for ignoring the broader context of the war and the German occupation of Poland, which led to anomie. This fact is crucial for an understanding of the situation of the Jews and all the atrocities they endured, including those perpetrated by the "Polish" society. The second objection concerns the subjective way the authors handled the historical sources. According to Machcewicz, both authors chose only those sources which support their thesis. All in all, the review states that since the publication of Neighbors by Jan Tomasz Gross, the topic of the Polish neighbors and their persecution of some of the Jewish population by their Polish neighbors is no longer a taboo subject. What is needed now, though, is substantial, balanced, and unemotional research. ----- Bibliographie: Machcewicz, Pawel: Golden Harvest: Engagierte Geschichte, JB historie, 1-2016, S. 296-308. https://doi.org/10.3224/jbh.v8-9i1.25


This article contributes to the study of climate debates online by examining how the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) played out on YouTube following its release in October 2018. We examined features of 40 videos that ranked the highest in YouTube's search engine over the course of four weeks after the publication of the report. Additionally, this study examines the shifting visibility of the videos, the nature of the channels that published them and the way in which they articulated the issue of climate change. We found that media activity around SR15 was animated by a mix of professional and user-led channels, with the former enjoying higher and more stable visibility in YouTube ranking. We identified four main recurrent themes: disaster and impacts, policy options and solutions, political and ideological struggles around climate change and contested science. The discussion of policy options and solutions was particularly prominent. Critiques of the SR15 report took different forms: as well as denialist videos which downplayed the severity of climate change, there were also several clips which criticized the report for underestimating the extent of warming or overestimating the feasibility of proposed policies.


Few encounters in antiquity have had more profound consequences than that between Greek culture and Republican Rome. Focusing on the ruling elites of the middle and later Republic, for whom Hellenic literature, religion, and visual arts were at once intimidating and appealing, Erich S. Gruen offers a compelling account of the assimilation and adaptation of Greek culture by the Romans. Gruen examines such key cultural developments in the history of Republican Rome as the adaptation of the legend of Troy to create a special place for Rome within Hellenic traditions and Cato's campaign to distinguish Roman cultural achievements by defining them in contrast to those of the Greeks. He describes the diverse purposes-civic, religious, and political-for which the Romans used Greek art, as well as the reshaping of Hellenic models to express a distinctively Roman character in historical reliefs, portraiture, and comic drama. The book treats a variety of means whereby the Greek legacy was molded to suit the living Roman tradition. Gruen shows that this complex process of cultural transformation served to sharpen the Romans' sense of their own values their national character, and their international image. Demonstrating that the Roman response to Hellenism was far more subtle and dynamic than has generally been acknowledged, Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome will be welcomed as an outstanding contribution by readers interested in ancient history, classical literature, and the history of art.


From Ferranti to Faculty tells the story of the foundation of the first faculty dedicated to computing and information technology in Australia. Covering the period from the late 1950s until 1990, when the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology at Monash University was formed, it spans the establishment phase of the discipline of computing. During this time, this field of study was developing and changing at a rapid rate, arguably faster than any new discipline in the past. This created enormous challenges and difficulties, as well as wonderful opportunities.

These opportunities were seized upon by visionary people both at Caulfield Institute of Technology (later Chisholm Institute of Technology) and at Monash University. In many ways From Ferranti to Faculty is about these people - the influence they had on the development of computing in Australia and on the establishment of the faculty.

From Ferranti to Faculty traces the foundation and establishment of Monash University's Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, known today as the Faculty of Information Technology. It explores the emergence of computing and computer science as new, stand-alone disciplines in the tertiary sector. The history of higher education in Australia provides the backdrop to this story, as does the history of Monash University and the various institutions that occupied what is now the Caulfield campus of Monash University.


This paper presents a user-centered design methodology for Decision Support Systems (DSSs), which is specifically built to face the socio-technical gap that often impedes DSS acceptability by end users in real work environments. The methodology has been experimented in two case studies in the field of health-related emergencies, namely earthquake and pandemic flu management. Methodology application and results are described with specific focus on the phases of requirement analysis and system evaluation.


Mixing efficiency defines the features of physicochemical and biological reactions carried out in reactors or digesters. The reason for this influence is because it conditions the heat and mass transfer. That is why the mixing level and intensity become important aspects to study to know the effects they have on the processes. Furthermore, it should be noted that most of the mixing processes are carried out under turbulent conditions. Mixing enhancement evaluation is achieved in two ways, that is, experimentally and perform ing simulations. Simulations are based on numerical methods approximating solutions to results in line with reality. In this context, turbulence models applied in systems have great influence on the final numerical solution and, therefore, on the interpretation of improved mixing in reactors. It is also necessary to consider the influence of rheology in these simulations, since the working fluid does not always have a linear stress-strain relationship. In this way, an analysis of turbulence models and their applications in mix ing characterization and the adequacy of these models to the reactor configuration and operating conditions is carried out. Mention is also made of the experiences around the study of turbulence in mixing tanks.


The general issues of equity and efficiency are placed at the center of the analysis of resource allocation problems in health care. We examine them using axiomatic bargaining theory. We study different solutions that have been proposed and relate them to previous literature on health care allocation. In particular, we focus on the solutions based on axiomatic bargaining with claims and suggest that they may be particularly appealing as distributive criteria in health policy. Finally, we present the results of a survey that tries to elicit moral intuitions of people about resource allocation problems and their different solutions.


To enhance consumer brand experience, marketers are increasing engagement in brand communities by using social media technology enabling them to interact directly with customers. Past studies reported that perceived social presence contributes to positive consumer attitudes towards websites selling physical products, but there has been limited research about how this works for social media corporate webpages. This pilot study examines the effects of social presence on customer engagement with the brand in a corporate Facebook environment. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 corporate and 4 marketing communications manager Facebook users. Results show that brand engagement results from viewing information, followed by clicking the like button, comments, and sharing. Motivations include informational, entertainment, economic, self-expression and socializing benefits. Social presence is important for engagement with products and people in the online brand community, which makes consumers more informed and positive about the brand, thus enhancing the brand experience.


OceanWorks International will be exhibiting at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston Texas May 5 th to 8 th, at Booth # 1620 located in Halls C/D/E. Reliant Park in Houston, will host OTC, and is expected to attract over 90,000 professionals from over 120 countries within the Oil and Gas Industry. OceanWorks International is a worldwide recognized subsea technology company specializing in the engineering, design and fabrication of specialized equipment for the oil and gas, military, and scientific markets. Serving the marine industry for over 20 years, OceanWorks International has been at the cutting edge of deep submergence and diving technology. For more information on OceanWorks International products and services please visit our website at http://www.oceanworks.com/


Background: Malnutrition is a serious and frequent condition among older adults. However, older adults are poorly assessed for malnutrition although it is not an uncommon problem in this population. Age related decline in food intake, is associated with various psychological, physiological, and social problems. Aims: The study was aimed to conduct more comprehensive nutritional assessment tests among malnourished and among normal elders to assess other geriatric syndromes and to investigate the association of geriatric syndromes with malnutrition. Methods and Material: An earlier community survey was conducted at the urban field practice area of PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore on 154 households and 190 elders aged 60 years and above were interviewed. Malnutrition was assessed using mini nutritional assessment test (MNA) in which 37 were found to be malnourished, 47 were found to be at risk of malnutrition and 106 were found to be normal. The present cross sectional study included 30 malnourished elders and 30 normal elders randomly selected from this population. The geriatric syndromes were assessed and compared between malnourished and normal. Results: It was observed that, the presence of visual disturbances (86.71% vs. 53.3% x2=7.937, P<0.01), dizziness, (60.0% vs. 16.7% x2=7.937, P<0.01), hearing loss (40.0% vs. 10.0% x2=7.200, P<0.01), dementia, (30.01% vs. 3.3% x2=7.680, P<0.01) and depression (60.0% vs.13.8% x2=13.464, P<0.01) were significantly higher in malnourished compared to normal elderly. The functional dependence mean + standard deviation (for GUGT (2.16+0.83 vs. 1.36+0.49 t=4.530 P<0.001 and Barthel index (83.50+12.18 vs. 90.66+6.91 t=2.801 P<0.01) were also significantly different between malnourished and normal elderly. Conclusion: The presence of various geriatric syndromes was significantly higher in malnourished elderly compared to normal. Thus, the interventional programs for malnutrition among elderly should also identify and address their geriatric syndromes.


Microenterprise development can be a valuable societal component not only in terms of filling important niche markets, but also by enhancing a society's wellbeing through creating opportunities available to people who are marginalized by the labor force for one reason or another. Forest microenterprises, in particular, can enhance rural community development efforts, as well as forest conservation goals, by empowering local people to successfully manage their resources as well as offer the possibility of income enhancement (Salafsky, Cordes, Leighton, Henderson, Watt, & Cherry, 1997; Lupo, 2012). This paper explores the adoption of portable-sawmill-based forest microenterprises. Key findings include common factors motivating portable sawmill adoption, as well as a bimodal adoption pattern, supporting previously postulated arguments regarding the importance of creating multiple adoption theories.


Odd-order diffraction of zone plates (ZPs) is already used for x-ray microscopy but the potential offered by even-order diffraction must still be fully exploited. Width differences between lines and interline spaces transfer intensity from odd-order to even-order diffractions. Here we show that the resulting intense second-order diffraction provides a reasonable tradeoff between spatial resolution and intensity—and constitutes a viable strategy for x-ray microscopy to reach sub-20 nm resolution, in spite of the imperfections of high-aspect-ratio ZPs and of other difficulties.


The Weibel Palade body (WPB) is the major regulated secretory organelle of endothelial cells. The WPB is used here as a model system to investigate the formation and acquisition of membrane identity of regulated secretory organelles. Heterologous expression of von Willebrand (VWF), the main secretory cargo of WPBs, in cells lacking endogenous VWF, is able to induce the formation of structures that are not only morphologically indistinguishable from WPBs but also recruit the appropriate membrane components resulting in the correct membrane identity. The question arises as to how VWF acts within the lumen of the secretory pathway to do this.

The working hypothesis is that VWF drives the formation of WPB and the acquisition of membrane identity by direct interaction with specific lipids on the lumenal face of the lipid bilayer.

This thesis describes attempts to test this hypothesis both directly, by looking for putative interactions of VWF with membrane lipids and indirectly, by studying the role of glycosphingolipids in WPB formation.

To look for direct interaction of VWF with membrane lipids, attempts were made to produce recombinant, enzymatically tagged VWF probes and develop an overlay assay. Glycoarrays were also probed with VWF to identify potential glycan binding partners. VWF was found to bind to a class of fucosylated glycans on the array.

In order to look for the influence of glycosphingolipids on WPB formation two distinct approaches were taken The effect of drug-mediated inhibition of membrane glycosphingolipid synthesis on WPB formation in cultured human endothelial cells was investigated. Inhibition of glucosylceramide synthesis, and hence complex glycosphingolipids, by N-butyldeoxygalactonojirimycin had no apparent effect on VWF trafficking.

Trafficking of heterologously expressed VWF was studied in two epithelial cell lines, known to have distinct glycosphingolipid compositions. The two cell lines were shown to differ in VWF trafficking both morphologically and biochemically. VWF was also shown to be differentially glycosylated between the two cell lines, suggesting a link between VWF glycosylation and trafficking.


A Comparison of Plasmon-induced and Photoexcited Hot Carriers in Metallic Nanostructures by Hangqi Zhao The incompressible oscillations of electrons in metallic nanostructures, known as surface plasmons, have provided a promising route to increasing lightmatter coupling and boosting the efficiency of solar energy conversion in photovoltaic devices. When plasmons decay, energetic electron-hole pairs are created through a non-radiative channel. These hot electrons have found applications in photodetection and photocatalysis but remain poorly understood in terms of mechanisms. In this work1, we made a comprehensive comparison between plasmon-induced hot carrier generation and direct excitations of hot carriers by photon absorption. Using a gold nanowire based hot carrier device, which either forms a Schottky barrier or an Ohmic barrier between nanostructures and a widebandgap semiconductor substrate, we are able to distinguish between these two mechanisms of hot carrier generation. We show that plasmon-induced hot electrons have higher energies than directly excited carriers, and can be characterized by the integration of electrical field enhancement within the nanostructures, while photoexcited carriers are correlated with material absorption. Our work paves the way for increasing the energy conversion efficiency by decreasing the Schottky barrier and collecting both the plasmonic and interband photocurrent, which may find wide applications in future photovoltaic devices.


This study was aimed at exploring and describing factors discouraging students from schooling at a secondary school in Cambodia. The study examined and analyzed the factors involved in the students' schooling such as the classroom
and school contexts, the individual student context, the family context, and the community context.
Descriptive qualitative approach was used, and the ramework of the research study was formulated around the aspects of school and classroom climate, principal's management process, teachers' teaching organization and performance, parents' involvement and perception, and community's involvement and perception. The data were collected through observation, document analysis, and interview from 20 students, 10 teachers, 1 principal, 2 vice principals at Triel High School, and 10 parents whose children were studying at this school.
The finding shows that among the factors involved in the student schooling at secondary school, several factors have been discouraging the students from schooling. The principal's management process was not considered good.
The teacher's performances were not perfect yet. Some students' competency was not qualified enough. The students' parents were not highly committed and
involved in their children schooling. The community had little trust in schooling since they perceived that schooling costs lots of money. To improve these
discouraging factors, several actions should be taken into consideration. The principal should ask all the teachers to communicate the vision and missions to the students, or the vision and mission should be published in the school campus. The observations on teachers' teaching should be done by both the principal and the senior teachers. The yearly evaluations of the teachers should be done more
authentically and more transparently. The monthly technical meetings should be conducted on Thursdays. More information should be communicated to the students. The merit certificates given to the top-three students of each class should be done on the opening ceremony day. The principal should make more contacts with the students' parents. On the first day of the teaching, the teachers should
introduce the school vision and missions to the students, provide the students with syllabus, and set up the rules and procedures for the teaching and learning process.
All teachers should be either well-prepared or punctual for their teachings and come to teach the students regularly. The weak students' competency should be more focused. The parents should monitor their children's learning process
regularly, regard their children schooling as the first priority, and have the close relationship with the school. The community should involve more in the students'
schooling, and the trust in the students' schooling should be taken into account.


"The food price crisis of 2007–08 had several causes—rising demand for food, the change in the food equation through biofuels, climate change, high oil prices—but there is substantial evidence that the crisis was made worse by the malfunctioning of world grain markets. Dozens of countries imposed restrictions on grain exports that resulted in significant price increases, given the thinness of markets for major cereals. A number of countries adopted retail price controls, creating perverse incentives for producers. Speculative price spikes built up, and the gap between spot and futures prices widened, stimulating overregulation and trader policing in some countries and causing some commodity exchanges in Africa and Asia to halt grain futures trading. Some food aid donors defaulted on food aid contracts. The World Food Programme (WFP) had difficulty getting access to enough grain quickly for its humanitarian operations. Developing countries began urgently rebuilding their national stocks and reexamining the "merits" of self-sufficiency policies for food security. These reactions began as consequences, not causes, of the price crisis, but they exacerbated the crisis and increased the risks posed by high prices. By creating a positive feedback loop with high food prices, they took on a life of their own, increasing price levels and price volatility even more, with adverse consequences for the poor and for long-term incentives for agricultural production. Because they impeded the free flow of food to where it is most needed and the free flow of price signals to farmers, these market failures imposed enormous efficiency losses on the global food system, hitting the poorest countries hardest. Changes in supply and demand fundamentals cannot fully explain the recent drastic increase in food prices. Rising expectations, speculation, hoarding, and hysteria also played a role in the increasing level and volatility of food prices. The flow of speculative capital from financial investors into agricultural commodity markets has been drastic, and the number of future traded contracts is increasing over time. From May 2007 to May 2008, the volume of globally traded grain futures and options rose significantly. Excessive speculation in the commodity futures market could, in principle, push up futures prices and— through arbitrage opportunities—spot prices above levels justified by supply and demand fundamentals. The supposed impact of speculation is sometimes confused, however, with the impact of hedging, which reflects consumers' genuine concerns about future fundamentals and desire to hedge against risks. This brief analyzes the role of financial speculation in the behavior of agricultural prices in recent years." from text


The purpose of the paper was to analyze the current state of development of cluster activity in the agro-industrial complex (AIC) of Russia, to identify the main constraints and to develop proposals for enhancing the formation of clusters. In preparing the article, there were used information from the Ministries of Economic Development and Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Russian and European cluster observatories, scientific works of domestic scientists on the topic. The following methods of scientific research were used: statistical-economic, monographic, abstract-logical, design-constructive. At present, the active processes of developing cluster activities are underway in the Russian agro-industrial complex. But not all of the initial set of registered projects for creating clusters in thelogical, design-constructive. At present, the active processes of developing cluster activities are underway in the Russian agro-industrial complex. But not all of the initial set of registered projects for creating clusters in the agro-industrial complex were implemented. It is revealed that the main constraints on the wide spreading of clusters are: methodological flaws, non-optimal segregation of duties at the public and private levels, underdevelopment of the regulatory framework, the lack of a common mechanism of formation and a model of cluster functioning at the regional level. In order to compensate for these shortcomings, a mechanism of formation (order) and a model (organizational structure) of the functioning of agro-industrial clusters are proposed. The introduction of the mechanism of cluster formation, due to the savings from optimization of costs and processes of commodity circulation, will allow to reduce the cost of production and increase the efficiency of economic interactions of


[About the book]

The name of Hippocrates has been invoked as an inspiration of medicine since antiquity, and medical practitioners have turned to Hippocrates for ethical and social standards. While most modern commentators accept that medicine has sometimes fallen short of Hippocratic ideals, these ideals are usually portrayed as having a timeless appeal, departure from which is viewed as an aberration that only a return to Hippocratic values will correct.

Recent historical work has begun to question such an image of Hippocrates and his medicine. Instead of examining Hippocratic ideals and values as an unchanging legacy passed to us from antiquity, historians have increasingly come to explore the many different ways in which Hippocrates and his medicine have been constructed and reconstructed over time. Thus scholars have tended to abandon attempts to extract a real Hippocrates from the mass of conflicting opinions about him. Rather, they tend to ask why he was portrayed in particular ways, by particular groups, at particular times.

This volume explores the multiple uses, constructions, and meanings of Hippocrates and Hippocratic medicine since the Renaissance, and elucidates the cultural and social circumstances that shaped their development. Recent research has suggested that whilst the process of constructing and reconstructing Hippocrates began during antiquity, it was during the sixteenth century that the modern picture emerged. Many scholastic endeavours today, it is claimed, are attempts to answer Hippocratic questions first posed in the sixteenth century. This book provides an opportunity to begin to evaluate such claims, and to explore their relevance in areas beyond those of classical scholarship.


Abstract Introduction Education and training are key elements of disaster management. Despite national and international educational programs in disaster management, there is no standardized curriculum available to guide the European Union (EU) member states. European- based Disaster Training Curriculum (DITAC), a multiple university-based project financially supported by the EU, is charged with developing a holistic and highly-structured curriculum and courses for responders and crisis managers at a strategic and tactical level. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively assess the prevailing preferences and characteristics of disaster management educational and training initiatives (ETIs) at a postgraduate level that currently exist in the EU countries. Methods An Internet-based qualitative search was conducted in 2012 to identify and analyze the current training programs in disaster management. The course characteristics were evaluated for curriculum, teaching methods, modality of delivery, target groups, and funding. Results The literature search identified 140 ETIs, the majority (78%) located in United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Master level degrees were the primary certificates granted to graduates. Face-to-face education was the most common teaching method (84%). Approximately 80% of the training initiatives offered multi- and cross-disciplinary disaster management content. A competency-based approach to curriculum content was present in 61% of the programs. Emergency responders at the tactical level were the main target group. Almost all programs were self-funded. Conclusion Although ETIs currently exist, they are not broadly available in all 27 EU countries. Also, the curricula do not cover all key elements of disaster management in a standardized and competency-based structure. This study has identified the need to develop a standardized competency-based educational and training program for all European countries that will ensure the practice and policies that meet both the standards of care and the broader expectations for professionalization of the disaster and crisis workforce. IngrassiaPL, FolettiM, DjalaliA, ScaroneP, RagazzoniL, DellaCorte F, KaptanK, LupescuO, ArculeoC, von ArnimG, FriedlT, AshkenaziM, HeselmannD, HreckovskiB, Khorrram-ManeshA, KomadinaR, LechnerK, PatruC, BurkleFMJr., FisherP. Education and training initiatives for crisis management in the European Union: a web-based analysis of available programs. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2014;29(2):1-12 .


In April 2016, Professor Orly Lobel delivered the 12th Annual Pemberton Lecture at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lobel asks, what is the future of employment and labor law protections when reality is rapidly transforming the ways we work? What is the status of gig work and what are the rights as well as duties of gig workers? She proposes four paths for systematic reform, where each path is complementary rather than mutually exclusive to the others. The first path is to clarify and simplify the notoriously malleable classification doctrine; the second is to expand certain employment protections to all workers, regardless of classification, or in other words to altogether reject classification; the third is to create special rules for intermediate categories; and the fourth is to disassociate certain social protections from the work.


Parking vouchers are now used in many areas of the United Kingdom. Monitoring exercises mounted by TRL on the introduction of some voucher schemes have highlighted difficulties experienced by motorists in the use of vouchers. New designs of voucher should attempt to facilitate use and increase compliance with instructions for the validation and display of vouchers. A number of different styles of voucher are now in use. All must be approved by the Secretary of State for Transport prior to use by the public. Where more than one type of voucher is used in the same scheme, the instructions and conditions are more or less the same, whichever style of voucher is used. The main variation is in the layout of the scratch-off panels. The European Parking Solutions' (EPS) voucher was introduced in three small areas in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in January 1994, replacing the Telpark voucher which had been in use since October 1991. A comparative study of the two voucher types has been carried out in East Twickenham, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. A questionnaire survey of motorists parking at the roadside in East Twickenham, carried out six months after the changeover, found few respondents who were aware that a change had occurred. This report presents the results of the study. (A)


The paper presents a dynamic subchannel assignment algorithm based on orthogonal frequency division multiple access technology operating in the time division duplexing and a new cross-layer design based on a proposed routing protocol jointed with the MAC protocol. The proposed dynamic sub-channel assignment algorithm provides a new interference avoidance mechanism which solves several drawbacks of existing radio resource allocation techniques in wireless networks using OFDMA/TDD, such as the hidden node and exposed node problems, mobility, and cochannels interference in frequency (CCI). Besides, in wireless networks, when a route is established, the radio resource allocation problems may decrease the end to end performance proportionally with the length of each route. The contention at MAC layer may cause the routing protocol at network layer to respond by finding new routes and routing table updates. The proposed routing protocol is jointed with the MAC protocol based on dynamic sub-channel assignment to ensure that the quality of service in multihop ad hoc networks is significantly improved.


The main advantage of using local invariant features is their local character which yields robustness to occlusion and varying background. Therefore, local features have proved to be a powerful tool for finding correspondences between images, and have been employed in many applications. However, the local character limits the descriptive capability of features descriptors, and local features fail to resolve ambiguities that can occur when an image shows multiple similar regions. Considering some global information will clearly help to achieve better performances. The question is which information to use and how to use it. Context can be used to enrich the description of the features, or used in the matching step to filter out mismatches. In this paper, we compare different recent methods which use context for matching and show that better results are obtained if contextual information is used during the matching process. We evaluate the methods in two applications: wide baseline matching and object recognition, and it appears that a relaxation based approach gives the best results.


The volume of primary source material touching seventeenth century insolvency law and practice and adjunct commercial areas is not insubstantial. The material also includes bankruptcy documents. There are also documents extant on the education of practitioners in relation to the law of bankruptcy in the Inns of Court. As the practice of insolvency law is incontrovertibly linked to the attendant areas of trade, credit, and debt it is interesting to mull on the preparation that intending practitioners went through before practice and whilst in practice. In this regard we may consider the training of sergeants, barristers, attorneys, solicitors and so forth. The seventeenth century saw a particular burst of activity in this legal educational discourse. Handwritten, generally by students, the Readings provide an intriguing insight into the practical application of seventeenth century insolvency laws and allow a glimpse into the education of seventeenth century practitioners and their professional development in the field of insolvency law. The nineteen readings discussed in this article were delivered in Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Middle Temple between 1601 and 1695. John Barkesdale's reading of 1628 is transcribed and critically analysed.


This paper presents findings of a study about how to extend the use of Takt-time planning in construction projects. The study is based on analysis of two construction projects involving non-repetitive work that, after failing to use Takt-time planning, had to return to ordinary methods of production. To uncover causes to the problems, the research method Theory-building process tracing is used. Results show that extended use of Takt-time planning presupposes effective coordination in the projecting process and a proactive and well organised production control in the construction phase. It also presupposes high involvement of the craftsmen and crew-leaders in the Takt-time planning and production. The method of theory-building process tracing is transferred from political science and historical studies to construction projects. The research method offers a unit of hypothesis testing and cumulative practical theory development, which can be of general value for construction research. Although the validation of the present empirical results is thorough, based on interviews and workshops, the researchers own observations of the processes studied could have been more extensive.


The advancement of global engagement opportunities will promote pharmacy students' cultural awareness and sensitivity, expose students to treatment of diseases not commonly seen in modern Western medicine, and cultivate future leadership for the growth of global pharmacy practice. At Purdue University College of Pharmacy (PUCOP), limited opportunities exist for student pharmacists. As a result, identifying the needs and expanding student pharmacist access to global engagement experiences are critical to meet the changing needs of the US population. A survey was developed and distributed to 460 students at PUCOP, and 148 of them participated. Of those students, 89.2% were interested in global health and/or international clinical rotations or an elective course coupled with an experience abroad. The majority of students were interested in going to London, UK (56.3%), whereas 24.4% were interested in traveling to Eldoret, Kenya, 13.1% to Colombia, and 6.9% to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. The top three reasons for participation were "to explore differences in medical care outside of the US" (13.0%), "challenge myself" (12.5%), and "work in an interdisciplinary team including attending physicians, residents, and medical students" (11.5%). For students who were not interested, top reasons were "time away from family and friends" (40.0%), "scheduling confl icts" (20.0%), "safety" (20.0%), and "fi nancial constraints" (20.0%). This article demonstrates PUCOP student pharmacists' desire for participation in global engagement opportunities and describes the potential impact on various members of the community through innovative implementations.


Principles of Realist Evaluation (Pawson & Tilley, 1997) were used alongside a framework based on Realist Social Theory (Archer, 1995; De Souza, 2013) in order to explore and explain the nature of the local parenting context in which the Holding Hands Parenting Programme (HHPP) was both embedded and functioned. The research identified particular mechanisms that were pre-existing in the local context in its structural, cultural, agential and relational aspects which were activated by the introduction of a parenting programme. It was carried out in a large shire county where the researcher worked as a Trainee Educational Psychologist. Stakeholders in the HHPP from various system levels, ranging from those with service and commissioning responsibilities to recipients of parenting support, participated in the study, providing a rich insight into the multi-layered local context.
Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used as a grounding framework for the analysis of data which followed a realist analytical process culminating in retroduction (Crinson, 2001) and six overarching themes were developed: (i) forward thinking; (ii) one size fits; (iii) collaboration; (iv) involvement; (v) barriers and (vi) perceptions and expectations. Network patterns (or configurations) were created which mapped out the relationship between aspects of the context, pre-existing mechanisms and the outcomes potentially generated as a result of a parenting programme.

Existing literature was explored and findings formed a key part of the theorisation and retroductive phases of data analysis. Two overarching theories were constructed in order to summarise the concluding thoughts in this study on the relationship between the HHPP and its context. These were presented and can form the basis of future realist evaluation research.

This research contributes to the further development of the HHPP as it seeks to use innovative and creative ways to support a wider range of parents within a complex and changing local context. Implications for future research and links to the practice of educational psychologists are discussed and the potential value principles of realist evaluation may have for an educational psychology service is outlined.


The spice turmeric, derived from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L, has been used for centuries in food preparation and in traditional medicines to treat numerous diseases and conditions. The primary biologically active constituent of turmeric is the polyphenol, curcumin, an orange-yellow powder that has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which, in part, may contribute to curcumin's potential to prevent such conditions as cancer, Alzheimer disease, heart disease, and arthritis, to name a few. Clinical confirmation of these putative benefits is limited, however, and progress in establishing the in vivo efficacy in humans especially at typical dietary intakes is constrained by the poor bioavailability of this hydrophobic molecule. Strategies to improve absorption and distribution of curcumin in foods and findings from ongoing clinical studies should improve our understanding of how curcumin can best be used to improve human health. Nutr Today. 2010;45(5):216–225


W e live in a time when the "Left" is defined by the media, scholars, and liberals as a faction of the Democratic Party that still holds the New Deal as a standard of popular aspiration. The official Left is held together by hope for a return to happier days and despair that anything else is possible. The retrenchment of the Left's declining aspirations is fueled by the patho logical fear of the Right that pervades the liberal center. Indeed, we have had no significant social reform that was not mandated by the Supreme Court since the enactment of Medicare in 1966. The liberals have, in general, submitted to neoliberal degradations of health care, jobs, public housing, and income guarantees for the long-term unemployed (let alone the rest of us). They have not even updated Richard Nixon's proposal for guaranteed income or fought for a serious program for combating global warming (recall it was the Nixon administration that created the Environmental Protection Administration and supported the Clean Air Act of 1970). Most recently, the idea of a national single-payer health program was abandoned when President Obama proposed a plan that would require the uninsured to buy health coverage from private insurers (who are licking their chops in preparation for the windfall). This was a surrender of the long-held perspective that health, like public education, is a right that should be paid for through public funds. "Obamacare," the conservative alternative, has become the new banner of the official Left, even as the Right denounces its own health program. Thus, against its own principles, the official Left became the fervent advocate of privatization. Meanwhile, the actual jobless rate continues to hover around 15 percent of the labor force, the poor grow by the minute to more than 15 percent of the population (and 32 percent of children), and the White House and Congress have no proposals to alleviate the suffering or address the issue of chronic economic stagnation. The civil rights establishment, the remnants of the labor movement, and mainstream feminist organizations dare not challenge the White House and big business for their wholesale theft of the public interest. As the Obama administration defends universal surveillance, shreds the constitutional guarantee of privacy, persecutes whistleblowers, and authorizes police actions against strikes and demonstrations, members of the liberal center stand silently on the sidelines, trembling in their belief that to criticize the national administration is to invite disaster from the Right. The Right is bold, while the fragmented liberal center, mistakenly coded as the Left, has lost its voice and trails behind the center-right president, showering his campaigns with millions of dollars. In return, the administration dispenses a few favors, but no real concessions to the more progressive base. Certainly, the United States needs a Left, but it must be anti-capitalist and independent of the Democrats. It would devote itself to three distinct tasks: reviving the radical imagination, launching a comprehensive education program, and opening a conversation about the creation of a new Left political formation.


"Professions, Work and Careers" addresses some of the central themes that preoccupied the eminent sociologist Anselm Strauss. This collection is directed at sociologists concerned with the development of theory and graduate and undergraduate students in the sociology of work and the sociology of medicine. His approach is both thematic and topical. Straus examines organization, profession, career, and work, in addition to related matters such as socialization, occupational identity, social mobility, and professional relationships, all in a social psychological context. Because medicine is considered by many to be the prototype profession, Strauss effectively illustrates many of the points by allusion to nurses, chemists, hospitals, wards, and terminal care. The progression of ideas in these essays are a befitting source for the study of structure, interaction and process, other themes that occupied Strauss in his other research enterprises. As Irving Louis Horowitz noted at the time of Anselm Strauss's death in 1996: "Anselm was and remained a social psychologist of a special sort. He appreciated that what takes place in the privacy of our minds translates into public consequences for the social fabric. His statements on personal problems are invariably followed in quick succession by intensely sociological essays on close awareness, face-to-face interaction, and structured interactions. The subtext distinguishes sociological from psychiatric conventions, seeing everything from daydreams to visions in interactionist frames rather than as pathology. The implications of his explorations into the medical profession are stated gently, but carry deep ramifications, for the act of people treating each other compassionately, not less than professionally, is also an act of awareness. Treating the human person as a creature of dignity, when generalized, becomes the basis for constructing human society." The late Anselm Strauss was a pioneer in bridging the gap between theory and data in sociology. This collection of his works, available in paperback for the first time, will be a valuable resource for professionals and students interested in grounded social theory. Anselm L. Strauss was professor of sociology and chairman of the graduate program in sociology, University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of numerous books including "Creating Sociological Awareness" and editor of "Where Medicine Fails," both published by Transaction.


We investigate rocky coastline evolution over millennial time scales using exploratory analytical and numerical models based on interactions between beaches and sea cliffs. In the models, wave-driven sea-cliff retreat is a nonlinear function of beach width, where cliff retreat is maximized by sediment abrasion and minimized by either a lack of beach sediment or too much sediment (which prevents waves from reaching the sea cliff). As sea cliffs retreat, beach sediment is produced and distributed alongshore by wave-driven sediment transport, and local beach widths determine future cliff retreat rates. Numerical experiments indicate that through such interactions, rocky coastlines can reach an equilibrium configuration where headlands and embayments remain stable through time, even in the absence of alongshore variations in sea-cliff lithology. Furthermore, the equilibrium coastline configuration, or the alongshore proportion of rocky headland to cliff-backed pocket beach, can be predicted analytically. Initial tests suggest that predictions match well qualitatively with actual landscapes.


Abstract. We study the carbon monoxide (CO) variability in the last decade measured by NASA's Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) on the Earth Observing System (EOS)/Aqua satellite. The focus of this study is to analyze CO variability and short-term trends separately for background CO and fresh CO emissions based on a new statistical approach. The AIRS Level 2 (L2) retrieval algorithm utilizes cloud clearing to treat cloud contaminations in the signals, and this increases the data coverage significantly to a yield of more than 50% of the total measurements. We first study if the cloud clearing affects CO retrievals and the subsequent trend studies by using the collocated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud mask to identify AIRS clear sky scenes. We then carry out a science analysis using AIRS CO data individually for the clear and cloud-cleared scenes to identify any potential effects due to cloud clearing. We also introduce a new technique to separate background and recently emitted CO observations, which aims to constrain emissions using only satellite CO data. We validate the CO variability of the recent emissions estimated from AIRS against other emission inventory databases (i.e., Global Fire Emissions Database – GFED3 and the MACC/CityZEN UE – MACCity) and calculate that the correlation coefficients between the AIRS CO recently emitted and the emission inventory databases are 0.726 for the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and 0.915 for the Southern Hemisphere (SH). The high degree of agreement between emissions identified using only AIRS CO and independent inventory sources demonstrates the validity of this approach to separate recent emissions from the background CO using one satellite data set.


Artificial atoms made from superconducting circuits can be coupled both to light and to sound. Of special interest is when this is done in the quantum regime such that the modes that the atom couples to are free from excitations, i.e. the atom couples to the quantum vacuum of the modes. Both the electromagnetic quantum vacuum and the phononic quantum vacuum can be studied. Here we will describe two different experiments carried out at mK-temperatures and at microwave frequencies. An atom in front of a mirror


This paper presents a research design to develop a general theory of agile project management to describe and explain the effects of adopting agile methodologies in a comprehensive and integrative way. The theory is to contain the key constructs and their relations responsible for the effects and success of agile methodologies in current practice. This theory's scope is grander than existing theoretical lenses, which constitute partial perspectives to explain selected phenomena, or the success of agile methodologies. First, the existing partial perspectives are captured by an extensive literature review and integrated into an initial comprehensive theoretical model. Afterwards, experienced practitioners' perspectives on concepts responsible for the effectiveness of agile methodologies are captured through a Delphi panel and integrated into the comprehensive theoretical model. The resulting general theory of agile project management is independent of the domain of software development and is in keeping with the intention to facilitate the transfer of agile principles to general project management. Other researchers can employ and adapt the overall research design to develop comprehensive theories about existing practice phenomena which integrate existing theoretical lenses as well as practitioners' perspectives.


Abstract. Ozone concentrations in the Po Valley of northern Italy often exceed international regulations. As both a source of radicals and an intermediate in the oxidation of most volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde (HCHO) is a useful tracer for the oxidative processing of hydrocarbons that leads to ozone production. We investigate the sources of HCHO in the Po Valley using vertical profile measurements acquired from the airship Zeppelin NT over an agricultural region during the PEGASOS 2012 campaign. Using a 1-D model, the total VOC oxidation rate is examined and discussed in the context of formaldehyde and ozone production in the early morning. While model and measurement discrepancies in OH reactivity are small (on average 3.4 ± 13%), HCHO concentrations are underestimated by as much as 1.5 ppb (45%) in the convective mixed layer. A similar underestimate in HCHO was seen in the 2002–2003 FORMAT Po Valley measurements, though the additional source of HCHO was not identified. Oxidation of unmeasured VOC precursors cannot explain the missing HCHO source, as measured OH reactivity is explained by measured VOCs and their calculated oxidation products. We conclude that local direct emissions from agricultural land are the most likely source of missing HCHO. Model calculations demonstrate that radicals from degradation of this non-photochemical HCHO source increase model ozone production rates by as much as 0.6 ppb h−1 (12%) before noon.


Abstract Objectives. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence, magnitude, and direction of the associations among disability, pain intensity, number of pain sites, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients reporting low back pain (LBP) as their primary pain. Methods. In January 2009, an Internet survey was performed for randomly selected adults aged 20–79 years who were registered as Internet research volunteers. Of 20 044 respondents, individuals with LBP as the primary pain were analyzed for associations among disability, number of pain sites, and HRQoL. Factors associated with low HRQoL were examined using multiple logistic regression modeling. Results. Of the 20 044 respondents, 25.2 % (n = 5060) reported LBP and 13.5 % (n = 2696) reported LBP as their primary pain. Among those with LBP as the primary pain, HRQoL decreased with increase in disability and number of pain sites. In multivariate analyses, disability [adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 2.93–4.58], number of pain sites (aOR, 1.42–6.12), pain intensity ≥7 (aOR, 1.88), and age ≥60 years (aOR, 1.55) were associated with low HRQoL. Conclusions. Approximately 13.5 % of patients reported LBP as their primary pain. Disability with absence from social activity and ≥7 pain sites were strongly associated with low HRQoL.


Introduction: There is a gradual increasing trend in childhood cancers in India and pediatric palliative care in India is an emerging specialty. Prescribing pain and symptom control drugs in children with cancer requires knowledge of palliative care formulary, dosing schedules, and prescription guidelines. This study is a retrospective audit of prescribing practices of a specialist palliative care service situated in a tertiary cancer center. Methods: A total of 1135 medication records of children receiving specialist pediatric palliative care services were audited for 5 years (2010-2014) to evaluate prescribing practices in children with advanced cancer. Results: A total of 51 types of drugs were prescribed with an average of 4.2 drugs per prescription. 66.9% of the prescriptions had paracetamol, and 33.9% of the prescriptions had morphine. Most common nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs prescribed was ibuprofen (23.9%), and more than 50% of the prescriptions had aperients. The most commonly prescribed aperient was a combination of liquid paraffin and sodium-picosulfate. Dexamethasone was prescribed in 51.9% of patients and in most cases this was part of oral chemotherapy regimen. Generic names in prescription were used only in 33% of cases, and adverse effects of the drugs were documented in only 9% of cases. In 25% of cases, noncompliance to the WHO prescription guidelines was seen, and patient compliance to prescription was seen in 40% of cases. Conclusions: Audit of the prescribing practices in specialist pediatric palliative care service shows that knowledge of pediatric palliative care formulary, rational drug use, dosing, and prescribing guidelines is essential for symptom control in children with advanced life-limiting illness. Noncompliance to WHO prescribing guidelines in one fourth of cases and using nongeneric names in two-thirds of prescription indicates poor prescribing practices and warrants prescriber education. Prescription noncompliance by almost two-thirds of patients is alarming and necessitates intense patient, family, and caregiver education and empowerment.


ABSTRACT There is a substantial body of quantitative evidence about the benefits of higher education. However there is little qualitative evidence about the extent to which these benefits accrue to graduates from non-traditional backgrounds. This paper contributes to this gap in knowledge by exploring the experiences of a group of 15 graduates 10 years after they had started at university. The cohort was unusual because they had all completed a college-level qualification before going on to study at an elite university. We draw attention to the impact of higher education on their positions in the labour market, as well as to their development of learning identities that supported them to make changes in their personal and professional lives. Although higher education brought real benefits to the cohort, including better employment prospects and the development of confidence in themselves, we show that they were clustered in various caring and public sector professions at the lower end of the graduate labour market.