Biochar is known as a multifunctional carbonaceous material mainly used in agrosystems. Little information is available on possible antagonistic, toxicological and negative effects of biochar on soil microorganisms. This work explored the effects of different doses of biochar produced from sugarcane bagasse and corn cob husk in the growth and development of plant growth promoting bacteria (Leocobacter sp. and Bacillus aryabhattai). Two types of low-dose solid culture media of biochar (0.4% w w) were tested: biochar directly inserted into the medium and another one elaborated with the biochars extractable water compounds. The growth results indicated a deleterious effect on the survival of the colonies when in direct contact with the extractable compounds in water of the biochars. On the other hand, the strains grown in solid medium supplemented with biochar (high and low-dose) had some outbreaks with colonies of bacteria, where there was also the formation of exopolysaccharide films. The production of exopolysaccharides by Bacillus sp. was characterized by infrared chemical mapping at the nanoscale (AFM NANO-IR). The information obtained indicated that the dosage and the type of biochar modified the morphology and topography of the biofilms, as well as the presence of chemical groups such as Amide I and II, lipids and proteins. This fact suggests that adaptation and survival of the bacterial species depend on their interaction path with the molecular structure of the biochar surface. Thus, the binding force, or even biochar colonization, can be influenced by the type of dominant molecule readily available on the surface of the biochar, where hydrophobic components, covalent bonds, van der Waals forces, anionic or cation exchange or even substitution of ion can act as chemical signals that induce specific responses in bacteria.


ABSTRACT Research question The societal impact of elite sports attracts increasing attention in academia and sport policy. In this paper, we show how public value management theory enhances the understanding of the way social impacts can be created and supported. We answer the research question: how do policy makers in the Northern Netherlands develop a public value proposition in order to legitimise investments in the elite sports management environment? Research methods Data for this article were gathered from January 2019 to February 2020 using a qualitative fieldwork approach and from the study of policy documents. The first fieldwork phase entailed an exploratory study using focus groups and one-to-one meetings (n = 24). In the second research phase, the focus shifted towards an action-based design, employing four focus group sessions (n = 22). For the final phase, a group of civil servants and decision makers convened in four working sessions. Results and Findings We show that (1) the funding of elite sport in the Northern Netherlands incorporated within broader talent development opportunities legitimises investments, (2) these investments need to go hand in hand with active stakeholder management and (3) these investments hold particular significance in regions with peripheral characteristics. Implications This study provides public sector sports managers with a framework in which they can increase the societal impact of elite sports by developing public value propositions. This article contributes to the concretisation of public value theory by detailing how public value propositions are drafted and re-drafted to engage a coalition of supporters in the authorising environment.


The Improvement Science in Education series, initiated in 2019 by Robert Crow, Brandi Nicole Hinnant-Crawford, and Dean T. Spaulding, seeks to broaden and strengthen the understanding and use of improvement science in education. Interest in improvement science in education has sharply risen in recent years, positioning this series to support the field and those interested in improvement science. This review of the Improvement Science in Education series is organized by brief summaries and discussions of the six currently available books in a suggested order based on their content (not necessarily publication date), followed by a conclusion considering t he books' significance, relevance, and target audience.


This article focuses upon the impact of using participant-created visual imagery and poetry to encourage a more comprehensive dialogue of the psychosocial and mental health elements of the experience of chronic pain. It explores six participants' semi-structured interview dialogues, following two workshops and two weeks of journaling at home using the arts-based methods. Findings of this study suggest that these methods can enhance the awareness of pain-related factors and strengthen the understanding of the connection between influencing and affecting pain factors in daily life. Therapeutically, this process has encouraged positive pain behaviours, such as hope, purpose and appreciation of self, and created a more personal narrative of the reality of daily pain experience. It strengthens the argument for using combinations of arts-based outcomes to create more informative, personal and accessible methods of pain communication.


Around 2009, China's economy has become the largest greenhouse-gas emitter. Climate protection policies have gradually entered the 'high politics' sphere in China particularly when climate and environmental protection have proved to be effective tools in achieving other political goals. When Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has entered into the "new normal" with a more comprehensive economic strategy that includes or even elevates a wide range of climate and environmental protection policies. China's economic development is now shifting the balance of growth away from heavy-industrial investment and toward a more sustainable growth. Why – and how – did China change its tune? The key driver of change on the political importance of climate and environmental protection is China's effort to recentralize governance. At the same time, while acknowledging that centralization is itself not the end but also a means to other political goals, this paper focuses on how the securitization of climate change and environmental protection has effectively served multiple purposes. It serves as a guiding principle on socioeconomic development and it serves as legitimacy to reestablish control by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Xi at the helm. With the linkage of climate and environmental protection to these political goals, China's experience becomes distinct from the usual securitization process. Also, China shows that while most political processes do not formally include democratic deliberation or the direct approval of an audience, climate and environmental protection does encourage more latent forms of participation not only of citizens, but of experts. Therefore, the process of securitization is also feasible in non-democratic societies


Thymic crosstalk, a set of reciprocal regulations between thymocytes and thymic environment, is relevant for orchestrating the appropriate development of thymocytes as well as the recovery of the thymus from various exogenous insults. Nevertheless, the dynamic and regulatory aspects of the thymic crosstalk have not yet been clarified. In this work, we inferred the interactions shaping the thymic crosstalk and its resultant dynamics between the thymocytes and the thymic epithelial cells (TECs) by quantitative analysis and modelling of the recovery dynamics induced by irradiation. The analysis identified regulatory interactions consistent with the known molecular evidence and revealed their dynamic roles in the recovery process. Moreover, the analysis also predicted, and a subsequent experiment verified a new regulation of CD4+CD8+ double positive (DP) thymocytes, which temporarily increases their proliferation rate upon the decrease in their population size. Our model established the pivotal step towards a dynamic understanding of the thymic crosstalk as a regulatory network system.


This paper presents a novel method of favorite music classification using EEG-based optimal audio features. To select audio features related to user's music preference, our method utilizes a relationship between EEG features obtained from the user's EEG signals during listening to music and their corresponding audio features since EEG signals of human reflect his/her music preference. Specifically, cross-loadings, whose components denote the degree of the relationship, are calculated based on Kernel Discriminative Locality Preserving Canonical Correlation Analysis (KDLPCCA) which is newly derived in the proposed method. In contrast with standard CCA, KDLPCCA can consider (1) non-linear correlation, (2) class information and (3) local structures of input EEG and audio features, simultaneously. Therefore, KDLPCCA-based cross-loadings can reflect best correlation between the user's EEG and corresponding audio signals. Then an optimal set of audio features related to his/her music preference can be obtained by employing the cross-loadings as novel criteria for feature selection. Consequently, our method realizes favorite music classification successfully by using the EEG-based optimal audio features.


Effects of Parent-Implemented Interventions on Outcomes for Children With Autism: A Meta-Analysis Wai Man Cheng Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, BYU Master of Science Parent-implemented interventions (PIIs) can be useful in promoting parents' knowledge of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in transferring necessary skills to children with ASD. Individuals with ASD can directly and indirectly benefit from PIIs in terms of academics, ASD symptom severity, behavior improvement, cognition, communication, and social skills. Many studies have explored the efficacy of PIIs; however, they have tended to report mixed effects. Previous meta-analyses and systematic reviews have been characterized by limited search terms and literature search procedures, emphases on published manuscripts, dependency on parent reports, dated findings, and comparisons across of different types of control groups. This study attempts to improve on the methodology of prior meta-analyses and to update findings of the effectiveness of PIIs for children and youth with ASD. We located 1925 studies at initial manuscript search in 9 databases. After additional search from other sources, 43 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies with same participants were merged that yield 40 records for final data coding. Eligible studies coded in Dyches et al.'s meta-analysis (2018) combined with current data resulted in 53 randomized controlled trials for data analysis. The random effects model meta-analysis found a moderate and statistically significant effect (g = 0.55, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.65, p < 0.00001) on overall weighted effect size across 53 studies included. PIIs can improve child outcomes in positive behavior/social skill (g = 0.603), maladaptive behavior (g = 0.519), adaptive behavior/life skills (g = 0.239), and language/communication (g = 0.545). These findings are inconclusive and should be interpreted with caution, especially adaptive behavior/life skill because only six studies reported outcomes on that variable. No moderating variables were identified in post hoc random effects weighted analyses. Implications for future research are discussed.


This presentation will summarize a two-week curriculum designed for an introductory High School Biology Class. This unit meets Vermont Standards for the Human Body (7.14, bbb), The Problem Solving Process (2.2), and Relationships (3.10). This unit also meets Grade Expectations for Human Health and Disease and the Immune system.
 Students first learned about different kinds of diseases and the structure and function of viruses and bacteria. Next they read an article and answered questions on Typhoid Mary. They were then given two weeks to solve a case study involving Lyme disease, after which they learned more about Lyme disease and performed an ELISA lab for Lyme.
 Students received background information from a textbook and a power point presentation. They also roll played how the immune system responds to a first infection of Borrelia burgdorferi. For a culminating activity students built functional models that simulated either humoral or cell mediated immunity. The basic premise of designing these models was the Mouse Trap Game or Rube Goldberg design using whatever materials they could rustle up. We also used RASMOL so that the student s could view a 3-D model of the Lyme antibody and antigen.


Skilfully applied, interactivity is an ingredient that may boost engagement and enhance the performance experience of a young audience. However, it can also lead to confusion, banalization and even embarrassment. What are the parameters for interactivity to be experienced as meaningful, and when is it unproductive?
In this article I shall address how conceptions of artistic quality is challenged by contemporary practices of interactivity and audience participation in theatre for young audiences. The question will be discussed in relation to three performing arts productions presented in The Cultural Schoolbag (TCS): One participatory theatre performance and two interactive digital productions. The latter two were developed as part of Kulturtanken – Arts for Young Audiences Norway's 3-year development project in digital mediation, FoNT (Formidling og Ny Teknologi/Mediation and New Technology). Equipped with theories of games and play, I shall discuss how the three projects succeed in presenting the kids with opportunities for meaningful interaction. I conclude by pointing out some of the parameters that are vital in order to provide meaningful interaction in performing arts aimed at a young audience – interactions that matter.


We calculate the entropy produced in the decoherence of a classical field configuration and compare it with the entropy of a fully thermalized state with the same energy. We find that decoherence alone accounts for a large fraction of the equilibrium entropy when each field mode is only moderately occupied. We apply this to theories of relativistic heavy ion collisions, which describe the initial state as a collection of coherent color fields. Our results suggest that decoherence may partly explain the rapid formation of a high entropy state in these collisions.


The method for the existing complex pneumatic systems efficiency increase has been developed, including the survey steps, mathematical technological process modeling, optimizing the pneumatic system configuration, its operation modes, selection of optimal compressor units and additional equipment. Practical application of the methodology is considered by the example of the existing pneumatic systems underground depot reconstruction. The first stage of the methodology is the survey of acting pneumatic system. The second stage of technique is multivariable mathematical modeling of the pneumatic system operation. The developed methodology is applicable to complex pneumatic systems.


The large conducting arteries in vertebrates are composed of a specialized extracellular matrix designed to provide pulse dampening and reduce the work performed by the heart. The mix of matrix proteins determines the passive mechanical properties of the arterial wall(1). When the matrix proteins are altered in development, aging, disease or injury, the arterial wall remodels, changing the mechanical properties and leading to subsequent cardiac adaptation(2). In normal development, the remodeling leads to a functional cardiac and cardiovascular system optimized for the needs of the adult organism. In disease, the remodeling often leads to a negative feedback cycle that can cause cardiac failure and death. By quantifying passive arterial mechanical properties in development and disease, we can begin to understand the normal remodeling process to recreate it in tissue engineering and the pathological remodeling process to test disease treatments. Mice are useful models for studying passive arterial mechanics in development and disease. They have a relatively short lifespan (mature adults by 3 months and aged adults by 2 years), so developmental(3) and aging studies(4) can be carried out over a limited time course. The advances in mouse genetics provide numerous genotypes and phenotypes to study changes in arterial mechanics with disease progression(5) and disease treatment(6). Mice can also be manipulated experimentally to study the effects of changes in hemodynamic parameters on the arterial remodeling process(7). One drawback of the mouse model, especially for examining young ages, is the size of the arteries. We describe a method for passive mechanical testing of carotid arteries from mice aged 3 days to adult (approximately 90 days). We adapt a commercial myograph system to mount the arteries and perform multiple pressure or axial stretch protocols on each specimen. We discuss suitable protocols for each age, the necessary measurements and provide example data. We also include data analysis strategies for rigorous mechanical characterization of the arteries.


The techniques of sampling play a vital role in extracting communities from graphs. Most of sampling algoritms mainly take the advantage of the degree distribution or the weight of edge. However, it may lead to huge consumption of memory usage and computation time because of the complicated structure of graphs and the noise inherent of algorithm. We propose a novel randomized sampling algorithm, which is a trianglebased sampling algorithm. A random value Rv colors each node uniformly. The edge eij = (vi, vj) is a monochromatic edge if node vi and vj receive the same random value Rv . The third edge of triangle ∆T will be sampled if two edges of the triangle ∆T are sampled. The triangle ∆T that formed by three monochromatic edges is considered as the smallest sampling unit in graph G. An extracted community contains at least one triangle. Overviewing, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm extracts sufficiently dense subgraphs and significantly reduces computation time compared to the reservior sampling algorithm and graph priority sampling algorithm. Keywords–Triangle; Monocchromatic edge; Dense subgraph; Pattern extraction; Randomized sampling.


INTRODUCTION
In 1974 Pena and Shokeir described an early lethal disorder (OMIM 208150) that was characterised by neurogenic arthrogryposis, facial abnormalities and pulmonary hypoplasia. It has recently been suggested that it is secondary to the reduction of movements in the uterus due to an intrinsic pathology regardless of the cause (FADS, foetal akinesia deformation sequence). Klippel-Feil (K-F) syndrome (OMIM 118100) is defined by the congenital fusion of one or two cervical vertebrae, and clinically manifests as a shortened neck, with limited head movements, and may also be associated to other malformations.

CASE REPORTS
We report the case of a family diagnosed with K-F syndrome type II. It was observed in the father and one daughter; another child presented Pena-Shokeir type I and died during the neonatal period. Both siblings presented anomalies in the central nervous system.

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of FADS syndrome is 1/10,000 deliveries and that of K-F syndrome is between 1/35,000 and 1/42,000 births. We reviewed the literature on FADS syndrome and no familiar association with K-F syndrome was found among its causes. Our aim is to report that an association between the two conditions is possible, which is very important for establishing suitable genetic counselling.


A two-month-old baby had acholic stool, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and congenital heart disease. Atresia of the hepatic duct was confirmed by open cholangiography, which showed a non-opacified intrahepatic bile duct. Liver biopsy and the Kasai operation were performed. Because the liver biopsy pathology revealed a paucity of intrahepatic bile ducts, the patient was diagnosed with the Alagille syndrome. We report the case of an infant diagnosed with the Alagille syndrome with atresia of the hepatic duct. (Korean J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2008; 11: 65∼69)


The advent of cloud computing, data owners are motivated to outsource their complex data management systems from local sites to commercial public cloud for great flexibility and economic savings. But for protecting data privacy, sensitive data has to be encrypted before outsourcing.Considering the large number of data users and documents in cloud, it is crucial for the search service to allow multi-keyword query and provide result similarity ranking to meet the effective data retrieval need. Related works on searchable encryption focus on single keyword search or Boolean keyword search, and rarely differentiate the search results. We first propose a basic MRSE scheme using secure inner product computation, and then significantly improve it to meet different privacy requirements in two levels of threat models. The Incremental High Utility Pattern Transaction Frequency Tree (IHUPTF-Tree) is designed according to the transaction frequency (descending order) of items to obtain a compact tree. By using high utility pattern the items can be arranged in an efficient manner. Tree structure is used to sort the items. Thus the items are sorted and frequent pattern is obtained. The frequent pattern items are retrieved from the database by using hybrid tree (H-Tree) structure. So the execution time becomes faster. Finally, the frequent pattern item that satisfies the threshold value is displayed.


We report 35 radial velocity measurements of HD 149026 taken with the Keck Telescope. Of these measurements, 15 were made during the transit of the companion planet HD 149026b, which occurred on 2005 June 25. These velocities provide a high-cadence observation of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, the shifting of photospheric line profiles that occurs when a planet occults a portion of the rotating stellar surface. We combine these radial velocities with previously published radial velocity and photometric data sets and derive a composite best-fit model for the star-planet system. This model confirms and improves previously published orbital parameters, including the remarkably small planetary radius, the planetary mass, and the orbital inclination, found to be Rp/RJup = 0.718 ± 0.065, Mp/MJup = 0.352 ± 0.025, and I = 86.1° ± 1.4°, respectively. Together the planetary mass and radius determinations imply a mean planetary density of 1.18 g cm-3. The new data also allow for the determination of the angle between the apparent stellar equator and the orbital plane, which we constrain to be λ = -12° ± 15°.


ABSTRACT Very little is known about the developmental stages of Aspergillus fumigatus during invasive aspergillosis. We performed real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis on lung samples from mice with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis to determine the expression of A. fumigatus genes that are expressed at specific stages of development. In established infection, A. fumigatus exhibited mRNA expression of genes specific to developmentally competent hyphae, such as stuA. In contrast, mRNA of genes expressed by conidia and precompetent hyphae was not detected. Many genes required for mycotoxin synthesis, including aspHS, gliP, mitF, and metAP, are known to be expressed by developmentally competent hyphae in vitro. Interestingly, each of these genes was expressed at significantly higher levels during invasive infection than in vitro. The expression of gliP mRNA in vitro was found to be highly dependent on culture conditions. Furthermore, gliP expression was found to be dependent on the transcription factor StuA both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, developmentally competent hyphae predominate during established invasive infection, and many mycotoxin genes are expressed at high levels in vivo. These results highlight the importance of the evaluation of putative virulence factors expressed by competent hyphae and analysis of gene expression levels during invasive infection rather than in vitro alone.


BACKGROUND
The calcium channel blocker, verapamil stimulates procollagenase synthesis in keloids and hypertrophic scars.

AIM
To study the effect of verapamil in the treatment of hypertrophic scars and keloids and to evaluate the effect of verapamil on the rate of reduction of hypertrophic scars and keloids in comparison with triamcinolone.

METHODS
The study was a randomized, single blind, parallel group study in which 54 patients were allocated to to receive either verapamil or triamcinolone. Drugs were administered intralesionally in both groups. Improvement of the scar was measured using modified Vancouver scale and by using a centimeter scale serially till the scar flattened.

RESULTS
There was a reduction in vascularity, pliability, height and width of the scar with both the drugs after 3 weeks of treatment. These changes were present at one year of follow-up after stopping treatment. Scar pigmentation was not changed desirably by either drug. Length of the scars was also not altered significantly by either drug. The rate of reduction in vascularity, pliability, height and width of the scar with triamcinolone was faster than with verapamil. Adverse drug reactions were more with triamcinolone than with verapamil.

CONCLUSION
Intralesional verapamil may be a suitable alternative to triamcinolone in the treatment of hypertrophic scars and keloids.


When the spinal cord has been injured or its function gravely impaired by pressure as from a tumor, the first consideration of the medical attendant beyond actual support of life and the protection from further immediate injury and disease should be directed to the function of the bladder. An early if not an immediate problem is concerned with the emptying of the victim's bladder, and since catheterization is a simple procedure it is chosen as an easy solution. I believe that the greatest remote danger, and, indeed, one not always remote, lies in this practice, for renal infection has probably always followed and those patients who might recover from the cord injury or disease either succumb or are seriously impaired in health by renal damage. It is likely that those instances which seem to prove a relative safety in this catheter method of early treatment, if carefully investigated at late


This essay interrogates early modern notions of female beardedness in its various literal and metaphoric permutations. If early modern English male facial beards signaled privilege in both economic and erotic registers, then how did bearded women figure for that same culture? By considering representations of the female beard in a variety of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts, including the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, personal accounts, illustrations, and paintings, this paper argues that bearded women presented early modern English culture with a profound contradiction that symbolically threatened patriarchal ideology with the specter of both economic and sexual castration. The female beard's subversive power, then, could be mitigated only one of two ways: either through reinscription of the female body or through annihilation.


Grave chambers allow bodies to decompose independent of hydrogeological circumstances. We examined the degree of body decomposition in 11 grave chambers after burial times between 12.1 and 15.3 years (mean 13.0 years). In 8 of the examined 11 bodies, bones were separated due to complete loss of tissue continuity. In 3 cases, the graves were partly not properly constructed and tissue continuity was at least partially preserved. Biochemical estimation of the age at the time of death on the basis of six teeth gathered during the inspection of the grave chambers showed only one result that could not be explained by the standard deviation of the method used.


When solving verbal problems, right-handed people usually turn head and eyes to the right, whereas with numerical and spatial problems, these people look up and left. Left-handed people differ in all these respects. The results suggest that the direction in which people look while thinking reflects the lateralization of the underlying cerebral activity.


Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the effect of scenario-based learning (SBL) compared to traditional demonstration method on the development of patient safety behavior in first year nursing students. During the 2016–2017 academic year, the Fundamentals of Nursing course curriculum contained the teaching of demonstration method (n=168). In the academic year 2017–2018 was performed with SBL method in the same context (n=183). Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) that assesses the same three skills was implemented in both academic terms to provide standardization so that students could evaluated in terms of patient safety competency. It was found that students' performance of some of the steps assessed were not consistently between the demonstration and SBL methods across the three skills. There was a statistically significant difference between demonstration method and SBL method for students' performing the skill steps related to patient safety in intramuscular injection (p<0.05) Our results suggest that the integration of SBL into the nursing skills training may be used as a method of teaching in order to the development of patient safety skills.


Two-dimensional liquid chromatography saw significant developments in handling the need to separate a rising number of highly complex samples. 2D-LC is the coupling of the separation of a complex sample by a first LC method to a second different LC method. This chapter details the different ways to perform such coupling 2D-LC methods: heart-cutting method; offline, online, and stop-flow methods, and comprehensive LC × LC. The critical parameter is peak capacity that is defined and calculated in classical LC and 2D-LC methods. It is linked to the orthogonality of the separation power of the two coupled LC methods. From a practical point of view, the effective peak capacity is compared with the theoretical one. Analysis time and dilution are also two critical parameters in 2D-LC that need to be considered. All parameters are presented describing a practical method development.

Keywords:

analysis time;
comprehensive LC × LC;
dilution;
peak capacity;
orthogonality;
2D-LC


Background By 2000, the global track record on universal salt iodization (USI) indicated 26% access to adequately iodized salt in the Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/ CIS) Region. Objective Aimed at extracting lessons learned, this study examined experiences, achievements, and outcomes of USI strategies in CEE/CIS countries during the subsequent decade. Methods Information from the design, timing, execution, outputs, multi-sector management and results of actions by national stakeholders yielded 20 country summaries. Analysis across countries used a LogFrame Analysis typical for public nutrition development. Results By 2009, USI strategies had reached the target and population iodine nutrition shown adequate levels in 9 countries, while in 6 others, USI was close and/or population iodine status showed only minor imperfection. True USI, i.e., iodization of salt destined both for the food industry and the household, had been made mandatory in 13 of these 15 countries. In the Balkan area, USI and iodine nutrition advanced more than in CIS. Of the 20 sample countries, 17 (85%) had exceeded the mark of 50% adequate access, while the overall regional score reached 55% by 2010. Conclusions Experience from this region suggests that strong partnership collaboration, a new concept in post-Soviet societies, was a major success factor. Voluntary iodization or focusing on household salt alone was less likely conducive for success. Achieving optimum iodine nutrition required the setting of proper iodine standards. Weak political leadership insistence in the Russian Federation and Ukraine to embrace USI is the main factor why the region remains behind in the global progress.


There are two commonly used measures of boredom: the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS) and the Boredom Susceptibility Scale (ZBS). Although both were designed to measure the propensity to experience boredom (i.e., trait boredom), there are reasons to think they may not measure the same construct. The present research sought to evaluate this proposition in several stages. Specifically, relationships between the BPS, ZBS, and important causal (Study 1, N = 837), correlational (Study 2, N = 233), and outcome variables (Study 3, N = 137) were examined in university students. Taken together, results support the notion that the BPS and ZBS do not measure the same construct. Specifically, higher BPS scores were associated with higher levels of neuroticism, experiential avoidance, attentional and nonplanning impulsivity, anxiety, depression, dysphoria, and emotional eating. Conversely, higher ZBS scores were associated with higher levels of motor impulsivity, sensitivity to reward, gambling, and alcohol use and lower levels of neuroticism, experiential avoidance, and sensitivity to punishment.


This paper describes the consequences that the non-pharmacological interventions (NPI) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic had on the data collection of the panel study ReGES and the solution adopted to continue the field work. The NPI were introduced during the 7th wave of the ReGES study and led to a disruption of the field work. In order to continue the field and to keep the data collected after the NPI comparable to the one collected before the NPI, we decided to switch the face-to-face mode to a telephone interview. The switch made content-related as well as technical and methodological adjustments to the instruments necessary. We also discuss methodological issues that must be taken into account when preparing and analysing the data.


Hemoglobin disorders such as thalassemias and sickle cell anemias can be avoided by detecting carriers, ensuring genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis. Nowadays Chorionic villus sampling (CVS amniocentesis, and cordocentesis are still the most widely used invasive sampling methods for prenatal diagnosis of the fetus. These traditional methods are associated with a risk of fetal loss. The revelation of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal plasma and serum provides the opportunity of noninvasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD). Different encouraging clinical applications have arose such as noninvasive identification of fetal sexing, fetal Rhesus D, and the determination of the paternal alleles in maternal plasma. The determination of the presence or absence of paternally inherited alleles in maternal plasma of sickle cell disease (SCD) and β-thalassemia would allow the diagnosis of autosomal dominant diseases or the exclusion of autosomal recessive diseases of the fetuses, respectively. prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases. Analysis of cffDNA in maternal plasma for NIPD has the advantage of being safer versus the invasive methods. Different technologies were used since the discovery of cffDNA for NIPD—especially high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis is one of those methods. Genotyping can be done with HRM without using labeled probes and more complex regions can be analyzed with unlabeled hybridization probes. High-resolution melting is a rapid and useful method to detect paternal alleles for the NIPD of SCD and thalassemias when the fetus has a risk for double heterozygote.


The unsupervised approach to change detection via synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images becomes more and more popular. The three-step procedure is the most widely used procedure, but it does not work well with the Yellow River Estuary dataset obtained by two synthetic aperture radars. The difference of the two radars in imaging techniques causes severe noise, which seriously affects the difference images generated by a single change detector in step two, producing the difference image. To deal with problem, we propose a change detector to fuse the log-ratio (LR) and the mean-ratio (MR) images by a context independent variable behavior (CIVB) operator and can utilize the complement information in two ratio images. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed change detector, the change detector will be compared with three other change detectors, namely, the log-ratio (LR), mean-ratio (MR), and the wavelet-fusion (WR) operator, to deal with three datasets with different characteristics. The four operators are applied not only in a widely used three-step procedure but also in a new approach. The experiments show that the false alarms and overall errors of change detection are greatly reduced, and the kappa and KCC are improved a lot. And its superiority can also be observed visually.


On 1 April 2007 a great, tsunamigenic earthquake (moment magnitude 8.1) ruptured the Solomon Islands subduction zone at the triple junction where the Australia and Solomon Sea–Woodlark Basin plates simultaneously underthrust the Pacific plate with different slip directions. The associated abrupt change in slip direction during the great earthquake drove convergent anelastic deformation of the upper Pacific plate, which generated localized uplift in the forearc above the subducting Simbo fault, potentially amplifying local tsunami amplitude. Elastic deformation during the seismic cycle appears to be primarily accommodated by the overriding Pacific forearc. This earthquake demonstrates the seismogenic potential of extremely young subducting oceanic lithosphere, the ability of ruptures to traverse substantial geologic boundaries, and the consequences of complex coseismic slip for uplift and tsunamigenesis.


Gadget3 is nowadays one of the most frequently used high performing parallel codes for cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Recent analyses have shown t\ hat the Neighbour Search process of Gadget3 is one of the most time-consuming parts. Thus, a considerable speedup can be expected from improvements of the u\ nderlying algorithms. In this work we propose a novel approach for speeding up the Neighbour Search which takes advantage of the space-filling-curve particle ordering. Instead of performing Neighbour Search for all particles individually, nearby active particles can be grouped and one single Neighbour Search can be performed to obta\ in a common superset of neighbours. Thus, with this approach we reduce the number of searches. On the other hand, tree walks are performed within a larger searching radius. There is an optimal size of grouping that maximize the speedup, which we found by numerical experiments. We tested the algorithm within the boxes of the Magneticum project. As a result we obtained a speedup of $1.65$ in the Density and of $1.30$ in the Hydrodynamics computation, respectively, and a total speedup of $1.34.$


ABSTRACT Circular RNA hsa_circ_0088364 (circ_0088364) is a contributory factor in the malignancy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to elaborate its role and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism in HCC cell growth and motility. Expression of circ_0088364, microRNA (miR)-1270 and Collagen type IV alpha 1 chain (COL4A1) was measured by real-time quantitative PCR and Western blotting, and their relationships were determined by dual-luciferase reporter assay, RNA immunoprecipitation, biotinylated RNA pull-down, and Spearman's rank correlation analysis. Cellular programs were measured by cell counting kit-8 assay, flow cytometry and transwell assays, Western blotting, and xenograft experiment. Expression of circ_0088364 and COL4A1 was upregulated, and miR-1270 was downregulated in HCC patients' tumors; moreover, there were linear correlations among circ_0088364, miR-1270, and COL4A1 expression. Essentially, circ_0088364 and COL4A1 were ceRNAs for miR-1270 via target binding. In function, silencing circ_0088364 or upregulating miR-1270 could suppress cell proliferation, cell cycle entrance, transwell migration and invasion in Huh7 and HCCLM3 cells, as well as promote apoptosis rate. Moreover, above-mentioned effects were accompanied with reduced B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2, N-cadherin and Vimentin levels, and elevated Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and E-cadherin levels. Contrarily, exhausting miR-1270 and restoring COL4A1 could severally abrogate the tumor-suppressive roles of circ_0088364 knockdown and miR-1270 overexpression in HCC cells in vitro. In vivo, silencing circ_0088364 retarded xenograft tumor growth in nude mice induced by Huh7 cells by upregulating miR-1270 and downregulating COL4A1. Blocking circ_0088364 suppressed HCC by inhibiting cell growth and motility via targeting miR-1270-COL4A1 axis.


Abstract : The BIGMAC system is a programmable utility for performing textual transformations on ANSI FORTRAN code. BIGMAC was developed for the specific purpose of replacing procedure calls with in-line code. For the purposes of modularity and hierarchical development it is frequently desirable to code simple routines for low level data abstractions such as stacks and lists. However, it is undesirable to pay the runtime costs of parameter passing and routine linkage for such frequently invoked routines. BIGMAC remedies the situation by allowing one to program and develop a prototype of the modular variety and then produce the efficient production code by transforming the prototype with BIGMAC. The degree of speed-up will depend on the machine and compiler in question. In a recent large scale application, BIGMAC speeded up the DAVE system by 47%. BIGMAC can, of course, be used for conventional macro applications. Of greater interest, is that BIGMAC is general enough to enable the programming of limited language extensions. The design of BIGMAC incorporates many of the principles found in typical macro facilities. It is rather unusual in that macros are not templates for textual substitution but are executable routines. This very dynamic approach affords a great deal of flexibility with low developmemt overhead, as an existing language can be used as the basis for the macro language. The base language provides conditional execution and local and global data management. The developer need only concern himself with the macro system interface. However, in the case of a language with weak string capabilities (e.g., FORTRAN), the designer must also bolster the base languages capabilities in this regard. BIGMAC macros are routines written in such an extension of FORTRAN.


As Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and social enterprises become drivers of economic growth, the nexus provides opportunities for new models of business to bring benefits to communities in developing countries. Recognising the complex dynamics and range of actors in this diverse and emerging sector, this study chooses to document the external influences, use and impact of ICT on social enterprises (SEs) -enterprises that have both a business and social development goal. The problem investigated is the potential gag between the rhetoric of the promise of e-business versus the dynamics of enactment and impacts of ICT in practice in the social enterprise sector. The main contribution of the research is to identify the real development impact of ICT use by social enterprises by assessing the role of ICTs in achieving their goals. Its major finding is that SEs social and business missions are inextricably linked .and their use of ICTs and benefits from it can be used as a proxy to assess ICTD. Thus SEs provide a new paradigm in the study of ICTD.


MedXViewer (Medical eXtensible Viewer) has been developed to address the need for workstation-independent, picture archiving and communication system (PACS)-less viewing and interaction with anonymised medical images. The aim of this paper is to describe the design and features of MedXViewer as well as to introduce the new features available in the latest release (version 1.2). MedXViewer currently supports digital mammography and tomosynthesis. The flexible software design used to develop MedXViewer allows it to be easily extended to support other imaging modalities. Regions of interest can be drawn by a user, and any associated information about a mark, an image or a study can be added. The questions and settings can be easily configured depending on the need of the research allowing both ROC and FROC studies to be performed. Complex tree-like questions can be asked where a given answer presents the user to new questions. The hanging protocol can be specified for each study. Panning, windowing, zooming and moving through slices are all available while modality-specific features can be easily enabled, e.g. quadrant zooming in digital mammography and tomosynthesis studies. MedXViewer can integrate with a web-based image database OPTIMAM Medical Image Database allowing results and images to be stored centrally. The software can, alternatively, run without a network connection where the images and results can be encrypted and stored locally on a machine or external drive. MedXViewer has been used for running remote paper-less observer studies and is capable of providing a training infrastructure and coordinating remote collaborative viewing sessions.


The proposed control method uses an adaptive feedforward-based controller to establish a passive input-output mapping for the CDPR that is used alongside a linear time-invariant strictly positive real feedback controller to guarantee robust closed-loop input-output stability and asymptotic pose trajectory tracking via the passivity theorem. A novelty of the proposed controller is its formulation for use with a range of payload attitude parameterizations, including any unconstrained attitude parameterization, the quaternion, or the direction cosine matrix (DCM). The performance and robustness of the proposed controller is demonstrated through numerical simulations of a CDPR with rigid and flexible cables. The results demonstrate the importance of carefully defining the CDPR's pose error, which is performed in multiplicative fashion when using the quaternion and DCM, and in a specific additive fashion when using unconstrained attitude parameters (e.g., an Euler-angle sequence).


OBJECTIVE
Patients with type 2 diabetes are at higher risk for fracture risk because of attenuated bone turnover and impaired bone microarchitecture. The comparative effect of warfarin over non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) on incident fractures among patients with type 2 diabetes comorbid with atrial fibrillation (AF) remains to be elucidated.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
This was a retrospective, propensity score-weighted, population-based cohort study of adults with type 2 diabetes and AF who were started on warfarin or NOAC between 2005 and 2019 identified from an electronic database of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority. The primary outcome was a composite of major osteoporotic fractures (hip, clinical vertebral, proximal humerus, and wrist). Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

RESULTS
A total of 15,770 patients with type 2 diabetes comorbid with AF were included (9,288 on NOAC, 6,482 on warfarin). During a median follow-up of 20 months, 551 patients (3.5%) sustained major osteoporotic fractures (201 [2.2%] in the NOAC group, 350 [5.4%] in the warfarin group). The adjusted cumulative incidence was lower among NOAC users than warfarin users (HR 0.80; 95% CI 0.64, 0.99; P = 0.044). Subgroup analyses showed consistent protective effects against major osteoporotic fractures among NOAC users across sex, age, HbA1c, duration of diabetes, and history of severe hypoglycemia compared with warfarin users.

CONCLUSIONS
NOAC use was associated with a lower risk of major osteoporotic fractures than warfarin use among patients with type 2 diabetes comorbid with AF. NOAC may be the preferred anticoagulant from the perspective of bone health.


Article deals with the problem of the professional orientation as one of the complex integrative phenomenon. The necessity of studying of self-regulation in relation to the professional orientation is grounded. The results of investigation of future psychologists with different levels of self-regulation are presented. It has been shown that psychological content of the professional orientation is closely connected to the level of self-regulation. The high level of the professional orientation correlates with the domination of humanistic and pragmatic orientations. Such respondents display average level (with the tendency to the high level) of self- regulation, flexibility and good planning. Average level of the professional orientation correlates with the domination of humanistic and existential orientations, average level of self-regulation, flexibility and results evaluating. Low level of the professional orientation correlates with the domination of humanistic and egocentric orientations, average level (with the tendency to the low level) of self-regulation, flexibility and planning.


ways known when I've entered their home. I guess it's an oasis for me, a place of refuge against the cold unscrupulous world that is so much a part of our daily lives. It's almost as if I become a child again, swaddled in a protective cocoon of innocence. And that's a feeling I've grown to cherish. Although Mother will never nestle beside the Hope Diamond in the Smithsonian, she is, to me, another precious gem. Like the translucent stone, the opal, Mother is soft, but strong, and she shines with an inner light that comes from her steadfast faith in God.


Risk analysis in human-machine Systems has to take into account intentional human errors, called violations, in order to improve both the risk analysis and the safety of the design. Predicting this kind of human error is the best way to decrease their number and/or to reduce their consequences. After introducing the concept of barrier removal (BR) and the benefit cost and potential deficit model (BCD model), this article presents an overview of decision-making analysis. It then moves on to describe a BR decision-making model based on the BCD model. This new mathematical model, which takes the perceived utility of Barrier Removal into account and incorporates the weights of the BCD attributes, is the foundation of a new method for predicting barrier removal that relies on the iterative learning control principle to predict human operator behaviour. The results of an experimental study completed on a car driving simulator are presented to illustrate the benefits and the good performance of this new method as well as the influence of the nature of the B, C and D values (i.e. objective or subjective) on the prediction method performance.


Spatial interpolation method of water quality evaluation are frequently used to estimate valuation Kenyir Lake profiling used regression analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) to assess a few of the water quality classification at Kenyir Lake. The purpose is to investigate the relative performance of different interpolation methods in surface waters. The study archived data from the Kenyir Lake using spatial interpolation of inverse distance weighting (IDW), which incorporates output from a process-based regression model.Interpolation were performed on temperature, total suspended solid (TSS) and turbidity (TUR) based on in-situ and ex-situ analyses according to the correlation matrix and linear regression at 14 different depths for the Chomor River and Mahadir Island. The result showed outlet significantly decreased over depth caused the water quality deterioration of Kenyir Lake development.Keywords: lake profiling; inverse distance weighting; total suspended solid (TSS); Interpolation; geographic information system (GIS)


Mycoplasma arthritidis, M. pulmonis, M. neurolyticum, and M. felis strains administered on various immunization schedules induced complement-fixing and agglutinating antibodies in rats, mice, and guinea pigs. Metabolic inhibiting (MI) antibodies against M. felis were produced by guinea pigs, mice, and rats. M. neurolyticum did not induce MI antibody in mice but induced high titers in guinea pigs and rats. M. pulmonis failed to induce MI antibody titers in mice, induced low titers in rats, and induced high titers in guinea pigs. M. arthritidis induced no or very low titers in rats and low titers in mice, but induced high MI titers in guinea pigs. A positive correlation was demonstrated between ability of the mycoplasma to induce disease and lack of MI antibody formation by its natural host. It is suggested that the apparent inability of the various animals to produce MI antibodies against their natural mycoplasmal parasites may enable the mycoplasmas to become established in their hosts. The concept of biological mimicry is brought forward to explain these observations.


An open, comparative, randomized study of orlistat in the combined treatment of obesity in adolescents with metabolic syndrome (IIIb phase) was held. Objective: to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the orlistat in adolescents 12-17 years with high risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The study included 60 adolescents with obesity and metabolic syndrome. The main group (n=30) followed a hypocaloric diet and aerobic exercises and took orlistat 120 mg 3 times daily with meals, the control (n=30) group was only on the non-drug therapy. During the study the anthropometric parameters, lipid, carbohydrate metabolism, blood pressure were evaluated. All comparisons were performed as two-way, with the critical level of significance ≤ 0,05. Results: After 6 months therapy of orlistat 68% of adolescents achieved clinically meaningful weight loss, that led to the improvement of metabolic parameters. On therapy body fat decreased by -6600.00 g [-7912.00, -2350.00] in the control group, respectively -2235.50 g [-4700, 00; 667.00] (p=0.011). Orlistat was well tolerated by patients. Most adverse events (9 of 13 in the intervention group) were mild and can be attributed to the expected adverse reactions. Conclusion: The study demonstrated clinically significant efficacy (compared with the control group), combined with good safety records of its use in adolescents 12-17 years old with obesity and metabolic disorders.


In the article a psychoanalytic and pragmalinguistic oriented interpretation of 'Endgame' by S. Beckett is offered. This method obviously demonstrates the necessity of interpreting 'Endgame' in connection with the communicational situation between author/text and reader/interpreter. The conclusion is that the meaning of 'Endgame' is not offered by the text alone, but lies in the process of irritation of reader and interpreter, induced by specific reactions (transferences and counter-transferences) on the text presented.


Modern retailers use return policy to create customer satisfaction. This paper analyzes the return behavior of consumers in Bangkok metropolis which includes surrounding urbanized provinces. The ordered logit model and questionnaire survey data from 400 samples were used. The analysis reveals that most of the respondents had incorrect understanding of the return policy conditions. Almost three-fourths of the consumers received defective products or were dissatisfied with product quality; these were mostly found in electrical appliances from hypermarkets. The consumers decided to exchange or return the products within 7 days after purchase. The exchange/return procedure usually takes 30 minutes or less but most consumers found the exchange/return process difficult. Most people chose to exchange for new items without making additional purchase. The analysis shows that the following factors had a positive effect on the probability of product exchange/return: 1) travel frequency to modern retailers, 2) knowledge of the return policy, 3) perceived information on the return policy prior to the purchase, 4) frequency of experiencing defective or unsatisfactory products, and 5) travel expenses incurred in exchanging/returning products. The government should regulate retailers to provide correct and clear return policy information. The retailers should procure from reliable suppliers to reduce the incidence of defective products. The retailers should develop a better logistics and improve on the product return database.


The study investigates the impact of sectoral growth on the economic development of Bangladesh. It has been accomplished from the viewpoint of financial intermediaries as well as real estate, renting and business activities sectors. The secondary data, for the period fiscal year (FY) 1995-1996 to the fiscal year (FY) 2018-2019, has been used to perform the analysis. The dependent variable in this study is the gross domestic product (GDP) representing the development status of the economy of Bangladesh. The independent variables- monetary intermediation (banks) sector (MIS), insurance sector (IS), other financial auxiliaries sector (FAS), real estate, renting and business activity sector (RBS) - have been used to show the relationship with GDP. A Multiple regression analysis has been used to develop the relationship. Besides, the coefficient of determination shows 70.2 % of the variance in GDP can be predicted from the independent variables. If other independent variables are incorporated in the model, 63.6% of the variation in the dependent variable (GDP) can be explained by the independent variables, which is observed by adjusted R-square value. In the analysis, it has been found a considerable effect of monetary intermediation (banks) sector (MIS), insurance sector (IS), other financial auxiliaries sector (FAS), real estate renting and business activity sector (RBS) on GDP of Bangladesh. Finally, application of the outcome of this study will be effective only to the economy of Bangladesh. Keywords: GDP, Monetary Intermediation, Correlation, Regression, Financial Auxiliaries sector (FAS), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-14-09 Publication date: July 31 st 2020


The structural, elastic, electronic, and optical properties of zinc-blende MTe (M=Zn/Mg) compounds were studied. The ultrasoft pseudopotential plane wave (PP-PW) method, based on density functional theory (DFT) within generalized gradient approximation (GGA), was used. Hybrid density functionals were applied to correct band gaps. Cubic ZnTe and MgTe are both direct band gap semiconductors, and calculated lattice parameters, elastic constants, and bulk moduli agree with previous results. Debye temperatures deduced from elastic constants for ZnTe and MgTe are 758 and 585 K, respectively. The dielectric function, refraction index, reflectivity and energy loss spectra were obtained and analyzed based on electronic band structures and densities of states.


Objective: Atherosclerosis developed during premenopausal years predicts postmenopausal atherosclerosis burden. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary soy protein isolate (SPI) and social status on atherogenesis and arterial gene expression in a premenopausal monkey model. Design: Socially housed premenopausal cynomolgus macaques (n = 84) were fed an atherogenic diet deriving protein from casein/lactalbumin or SPI (containing 1.88 mg isoflavones/g). After 36 months of diet consumption, iliac artery biopsies were assessed for atherosclerosis and expression of mRNA transcripts related to inflammation, macrophage and T-cell content, and estrogen receptors (ERs). Results: SPI reduced plaque size (P < 0.05), total plasma cholesterol, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc), and the total plasma cholesterol/HDLc ratio (all P < 0.003), while increasing triglycerides (P < 0.006) and HDLc (P < 0.0001). Arterial mRNA for CD68 (P < 0.001), CD3 (P < 0.02), and CD4 (P < 0.001) and inflammatory markers monocyte chemotactic protein-1, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and interleukin-6 (all P < 0.0001) were also lower in the group receiving SPI. For most outcomes, this effect remained even after adjustments for plaque size and plasma lipid concentrations. Arterial ER-&agr; was inversely associated with atherosclerosis (P < 0.02) and increased with SPI (P < 0.001). Subordinate monkeys had lower ER-&bgr; (P < 0.02) and higher interleukin-6 (P < 0.05) transcripts but did not differ from dominant monkeys in extent of atherosclerosis (P > 0.9). Conclusions: Premenopausal consumption of SPI had plasma lipid-independent beneficial effects on the pathobiological processes involved in atherosclerotic plaque development, thus potentially establishing the basis for reduced postmenopausal complications. Dominant social status provided similar, albeit less extensive, benefits in risk markers.


A comparative study of the antibody titer against Francisella tularensis biovar palaearctica in serum and lung extract was made using different immunoassays. Samples were taken from experimentally-infected goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) and European beavers (Castor fiber), and in a held survey of wild beavers. Good accordance between the antibody titer in serum and in lung extract was found in the experimental studies. However, the antibody titer was generally one- to three-fold lower in lung extract than was the titer of serum. Results in the field survey were less reliable. Estimating antibody titer in lung extract is a practical method for surveys for antibody levels, and an alternative to serological surveys, despite lower sensitivity as compared to serum.


3D Point cloud is becoming a critical data representation in many real-world applications like autonomous driving, robotics, and medical imaging. Although the success of deep learning further accelerates the adoption of 3D point clouds in the physical world, deep learning is notorious for its vulnerability to adversarial attacks. In this work, we first identify that the state-of-the-art empirical defense, adversarial training, has a major limitation in applying to 3D point cloud models due to gradient obfuscation. We further propose PointDP, a purification strategy that leverages diffusion models to defend against 3D adversarial attacks. We extensively evaluate PointDP on six representative 3D point cloud architectures, and leverage 10+ strong and adaptive attacks to demonstrate its lower-bound robustness. Our evaluation shows that PointDP achieves significantly better robustness than state-of-the-art purification methods under strong attacks. Results of certified defenses on randomized smoothing combined with PointDP will be included in the near future.


—How reproductive output changes with age or size is a key life-history trait that can affect which demographic rates most influence population growth. Although many studies have investigated the reproductive ecology of gartersnakes, we know little about reproduction in the threatened Giant Gartersnake, Thamnophis gigas. We used X-radiography to determine reproductive status and estimated fecundity for 73 female T. gigas collected from several regions within the range of this species in the Sacramento Valley of California, USA, and synthesize these data with data from litters born in captivity to improve our understanding of reproduction in this species. Average total litter size determined from X-rays (15.9) and captive-born litters (15.5) are within the ranges reported from other gartersnakes, but captive-born litters had high rates of stillbirth. Only 154 of 202 neonates from captive snakes were born alive, and seven of 13 litters contained at least one stillborn neonate. We found that fecundity was positively related to maternal snout-vent length, and some evidence that larger litters contained smaller neonates. The proportion of X-rayed females that were gravid was 0.50 in 2014, 0.47 in and 2015, and 0.64 in 2016. Central California experienced an exceptional drought from 2012–2015, which may have affected the reproductive output and frequency of T. gigas. Our estimates of reproductive frequency and size-dependent fecundity in T. gigas provide valuable information that can be used in demographic models of this threatened species. Our results demonstrate that X-radiography is a useful, minimally invasive means to study fecundity in wild populations of snakes.


This study was designed to determine the outcomes of the team-based cardiac rehabilitation programs for patients with Ischemic Heart Disease(IHD) on their level of health behavior performance, anxiety, and quality of life.
A total of 19 in-patients with IHD who have had PTCA treatment at G.Hospital in Inchon were selected as subject to data collection from} May 1998 to 30 Oct. 1998.
The experimental group, consisting of 11 patients participated in the Hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program was compared with the non-rehabilitation control group of 8 patients.
The experimental group has been trained on the cardiac rehabliltation programfor 120-150minute during hospitalization by a team consisted of four specialists, those are cardiologist, head nurse, dietian, and the author. Also individual follow-up training and interview were performed for the members of experimental group at their every visit to the Hospital after discharge.
For all subjects, scores on health behavior performance, anxiety, and quality of life were collected two days and 12 weeks after PTCA treatment by questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed with the SPSS.
The results of this study were summarized as follows:
1) The experimental group shows significant increase in health behavior performance score compared to the control group(-2.27, p=.022).
2) There was no significant difference between two group' s anxiety scores (- .24, p= .803) and quality of life scores(-1.86, p=.061).
3) The correlation between health behavior performance and anxiety ( .07, p=.771), and that between health behavior performance and quality of life( .12, p=.621) respectively were not significant statistically. But the correlation between anxiety and quality of life were significant reversely ( .49, p=.032).


This paper presents an analytical approach for structural reliability analysis without requiring the calculation of most probable point of failure. Initially, the primary statistical moments of a multi-dimensional performance function are estimated using the Univariate Dimension-Reduction (UDR) methodology based on additive decomposition of the limit state function. Through moment matching, the UDR-based estimated moments are then used to fit the parameters of Extended Generalised Lambda Distribution (EGLD), and finally the probability of failure is calculated. To evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the UDR + EGLD approach in comparison to the traditional First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) and direct Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS), five example problems involving nonlinear limit state functions are examined. The results show that UDR + EGLD offers nearly the same level of accuracy as MCS with superior efficiency to FORM. However, UDR + EGLD appears to have tail sensitivity, which limits its application to problems with moderate levels of reliability.


The present work aims at the prediction of high frequency combustion instabilities in cryogenic rocket engines using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The sub-scale rocket combustor BKD from DLR has 42 coaxial injectors fed with liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen operating at conditions representative of full-scale engines. The combustor is found to be stable for low hydrogen injection temperatures and unstable for higher ones. The LES solver is first validated on the Mascotte test-bench from ONERA. Two BKD cases are then simulated, corresponding to naturally stable and unstable regimes in the experiment. The recent progresses and results are described and analyzed.


The amplitude modulation following response (AMFR) has been shown to be a promising tool for objective frequency-specific assessment of hearing thresholds in children. AMFR is represented in the frequency domain by a single spectral line. This simplifies the objective statistical detection in comparison to other responses with a more complex waveform. The aim of the present study is to compare the performance of four known tests (phase coherence (PC), new Hotelling T2 (HT2*), modified PC (PC*), magnitude-squared coherence (MSC)) on the basis of a large sample (n = 1484) of AMFR recordings (stimulus level of 30 dB nHL in normally-hearing subjects, and 30 dB SL in hearing-impaired subjects) to find the test best suited for AMFR detection. The decision was made on the basis of the detection rates as well as of the ROC curves. Based on the large data pool, MSC and PC* show equal performance and a small but consistent advantage in objective detection of AMFR over HT2* and PC.


Freebase and tin(IV)-porphyrins are examined for the selective detection of picric acid and their affinity is revealed by spectroscopic titrations and X-ray structures. The sensing is mediated through protonation and axial ligation in 1–5 and 6–9 respectively. Fluorescent lifetime studies show that the quenching is dynamic in the freebase and static in tin(IV)-porphyrins.


Until now, Šventoji in northwest Lithuania was considered the most northern site of the Neolithic Globular Amphora Culture (hereafter GAC; ca. 3400–2500 cal BC) in Europe. Recently, however, ceramics typologically resembling GAC ware were identified among the materials from the multi-period sites of Abora 1 and Iča in Latvia and further to the north from Tamula in southeast Estonia. Here we present the multi-disciplinary analyses of these ceramics, including their morphology, function and chronology, to ascertain whether they could represent sporadic migrations of GAC groups into the region or exchange and increasing social contacts with the indigenous hunter-gatherers during the period from ca. 3000–2600 cal BC. Overall, our results align with previous studies showing that GAC groups in the Eastern Baltic possibly reorientated their economy from animal husbandry towards fishing, as recently evidenced by the composition of zooarchaeological assemblages, and the organic residue analysis of ceramic vessels, which markedly differ from the GAC communities of Central Europe. Indeed, in several coastal and southern regions of Lithuania, it would appear that some GAC migrants replaced the indigenous Subneolithic forager groups, whilst in other areas, they had little to no impact on the local cultural and economic development.


India. While this hardly constitutes a global view, or even a comprehensive view of the British Empire itself, this added dimension defi nitely expands and illuminates the run-up to the Revolutionary War as it is customarily treated in textbook fare. Readers gain a better understanding of a nation stretched thin by her far-fl ung interests, and of the way the economic pressures (and a generous measure of political and fi nancial corruption) of managing affairs in two hemispheres led Parliament to decisions that spurred the colonies toward independence. Aronson enlivens his presentation with a collection of intriguing political cartoons, portraits, and contemporary artwork, supplying detailed captions that aid in their interpretation. Annotated endnotes, a bibliography (with a separate list of websites), and a comparative timeline are included; the bound book will contain an index. Young adults who enjoyed Natalie Bober's pendular account of the movement toward American Independence (Countdown to Independence, BCCB 3/01) will want to fi t some new pieces into the puzzle. EB


Plasma urine, and cerebrospinal fluid etoposide concentrations have been measured in 12 adult patients after administration of high-dose (400 to 800 mg/sq m) etoposide in order to determine the pharmacokinetics of this drug at these elevated dosages. Increasing the drug dosage produced proportionally higher peak plasma etoposide concentrations (27 to 114 micrograms/ml) and total areas under the concentration-time curve (9,200 to 48,000 micrograms/ml X min). The etoposide mean (+/- S.D.) terminal half-life of 8.05 +/- 4.3 hr and plasma clearance of 28.0 +/- 9.7 ml/min/sq m, however, were independent of the dosage given. The mean etoposide renal clearance in 5 patients was 10.0 +/- 4.3 ml/min/sq m, representing from 35 to 40% of the total clearance of this drug from plasma. Cerebrospinal fluid etoposide concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 1.4 micrograms/ml, as measured in 6 patients at 1 to 8 hr after high-dose etoposide therapy, and were 1.8 +/- 1.7% of the simultaneously measured plasma levels. Pleural fluid removed from one patient at 18 hr posttherapy contained etoposide at 1.8 micrograms/ml. Our data, combined with data published previously, indicate that the pharmacokinetics of high-dose etoposide is linear within the dosage range tested and similar to that seen with lower drug doses. They also suggest that etoposide penetrates poorly into the cerebrospinal fluid.


Thyroid hormone serum concentrations, the thyrotropin (TSH) and prolactin (PRL) response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) were evaluated in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) conducted in hypothermia. During CPB a marked decrease of thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) concentration with a concomitant increase of reverse T3 (rT3) were observed similarly to other clinical states associated with the 'low T3 syndrome'. Furthermore, in the present study elevated FT4 and FT3 concentrations were observed. In a group of patients, TRH administered during CPB at 26 degrees C elicited a markedly blunted TSH response. In these patients, PRL concentration was elevated but did not significantly increase after TRH. The increased concentrations of FT4 and FT3 were probably due to the large doses of heparin administered to these patients. Thus, the blunted response of TSH to TRH might be the consequence of the elevation of FT4 and FT3 in serum, however, other factors might play a role since also the PRL response to TRH was blocked.


Progressive structural scoliosis in growing rabbits has been produced. Tethering the thoracic spine into the form of an asymmetric lordosis produces a slowly progressive structural scoliosis by purely mechanical means. The addition of a contralateral release of the paraspinal muscles leads to a very progressive deformity with early cardiorespiratory failure. This release, however, was performed with an electric soldering iron and subsequent study showed that in those animals with severe progressive deformity there was localised spinal cord damage. We suggest that it is this neural damage and not the muscle release which leads to rapid progression. The clinical implications are important in that neurological dysfunction seems to render the spinal column less able to resist mechanical buckling and may be the crucial factor differentiating severely progressive from more benign curves.


The purpose of making decision support systems in the selection of study programs in Higher Education using differential aptitude test method is to help identify and determine the interests and talents of students. The methodology used in the development of this system is the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and the calculation method for measuring interests and talents of students using the method of psychological tests Differential Aptitude Test (DAT). DAT is a test of verbal, numerical and abstract thinking skills. To making this application uses two tools, XAMPP to run applications offline and to create a database, and Sublime Text to create coding. The programming languages used in this application are PHP and HTML programming languages. Based on the tests conducted, it can be concluded that by using this application time calculation results from Differential Aptitude Test will be far faster and can help teachers to perform computerized student data collection.


209 Abstract: The US government released its first formal recommendations on physical activity, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, in 2008. By issuing the guidelines, the government has established increased physical activity as a major societal health target for the 21st century. The guidelines include recommendations of the types and amounts of physical activity that people should perform to gain important health benefits. Physicians and other health care providers can help people attain and maintain regular physical activity by providing advice on how to be active, appropriate types of activities, and ways to reduce the risk of injuries. Although training for providers on how to counsel patients about physical activity is limited, training of future providers offers an opportunity to improve this area of medical education. Public health practitioners have shifted their efforts to promote physical activity toward an environmental focus, usually incorporating organizational and community-level interventions. As federal health policy moves toward a greater emphasis on prevention of chronic diseases, it is expected that new resources will become available to support physical activity promotion in health care and public health settings. Familiarity with the guidelines should aid professionals in medicine and public health in responding effectively to these new expectations and opportunities.


A cynical attitude toward progress in psychology is that we simply move back and forth between well-defined polarities, on pendulum swings, without really getting anywhere. Personally, I much prefer the model of a helix, in which we can recognize steady progress in one direction while not denying oscillations of perspective on certain other issues. One unmistakable trend that has been sweeping across the behavioral and cognitive sciences is the advancement of genetic explanations over environmental explanations. This is easy to find in such diverse fields as linguistics, intelligence, personality, and mental health, to say nothing of medicine. My grandparents were staunch believers in genetic causation, too, but I like to think we now have better reasons for our attitudes than they did. A different trend back to earlier ideas is becoming evident in the reappearance of faculty psychology in cognition, generally, and in the analysis of memory, in particular. Publication of Fodor's Modularity of Mind (Fodor, 1983) only celebrates this newest cycle. The histories of such topics as localization of function in the brain and the interpretation of intelligence put the trend in perspective. The impulse to subdivide memory into isolated subsystems should be appreciated as a manifestation of Fodor's views, with modularity itself manifesting a historical rhythm that governs our approach to many of the great issues.


Together with colleagues, a group of scientists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University synthesized nanostructures of gold and iron oxides that have improved magnetic and optical properties because of their unique star shape. The particles obtained are safe for healthy human cells and can be used in tumor therapy. The results of the study are published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.


Increasingly tight coupling and heavy connectedness in systems of systems (SoS) presents new problems for systems designers and engineers. While the failure of one system within a SoS may produce little collateral damage beyond a loss in SoS capability, a highly interconnected SoS can experience significant damage when one member system fails in an unanticipated way. It is therefore important to develop systems that are "good neighbors" with the other systems in a SoS by failing in ways that do not further degrade a SoS's ability to complete its mission.
 This paper presents a method to (1) analyze a system for potential spurious emissions and (2) choose mitigation strategies that provide the best return on investment for the SoS. The method is suited for use during the system architecture phase of the system design process. A functional and flow approach to analyzing spurious emissions and developing mitigation strategies is used in the method. Use of the method may result in a system that causes less SoS damage during a failure event.


Emergency departments are the doorstep of any hospital and designed in different plan types due to a multiplicity of factors. As treatment follows a specific medical pattern according to established SOPs, therefore the spatial configuration needs to respond to that pattern. this paper objectively analyzed the three basic plan types of the emergency department for its spatial configuration using space syntax and users' responses. The results of this study demonstrate that the three basic plan types of emergency departments follow a consistence configurational pattern in their syntactic values despite different layout patterns. All three types exhibit not only a very similar space link ratios, integration, and difference factor (DF) but also the internal integration of the order clinical spaces in a consistence way. The results were cross-validated through users' responses for the required spatial pattern through closed-ended structured questionaries. The results of this study may provide a baseline for the objective evaluation of the emergency department in the future.


Recent technical and infrastructural developments posit flipped (or inverted) classroom approaches ripe for exploration. Flipped classroom approaches have students use technology to access the lecture and other instructional resources outside the classroom in order to engage them in active learning during in-class time. Scholars and educators have reported a variety of outcomes of a flipped approach to instruction; however, the lack of a summary from these empirical studies prevents stakeholders from having a clear view of the benefits and challenges of this style of instruction. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the flipped classroom approach in order to summarize the findings, to guide future studies, and to reflect the major achievements in the area of Computer Science (CS) education. 32 peer-reviewed articles were collected from a systematic literature search and analyzed based on a categorization of their main elements. The results of this survey show the direction of flipped classroom research during recent years and summarize the benefits and challenges of adopting a flipped approach in the classroom. Suggestions for future research include: describing in-detail the flipped approach; performing controlled experiments; and triangulating data from diverse sources. These future research efforts will reveal which aspects of a flipped classroom work better and under which circumstances and student groups. The findings will ultimately allow us to form best practices and a unified framework for guiding/assisting educators who want to adopt this teaching style.


An oil spill dispersant testing program was initiated in 1973 to evaluate the toxicity and dispersing effectiveness of dispersants submitted to Fisheries and Environment Canada for approval prior to use in Canadian waters. Screening toxicity tests with rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) were performed initially on 19 dispersants. Thirteen were considered sufficiently nonacutely toxic to justify further evaluation using methods and criteria of the Canadian Guidelines on the use and acceptability of oil spill dispersants. Twelve of the 13 dispersants had 4-day LC 5 0 's to rainbow trout ranging from 50 to 39 360 mg/litre, while the 4-day LC 5 0 's for 12 dispersant/No. 2B fuel oil (1:1) mixtures ranged from 35 to 300 mg/litre. Six dispersants passed the toxicity criteria with 4-day LC 5 0 's greater than 1000 mg/litre for the dispersant and 100 mg/litre for the dispersant-oil mixture. Effectiveness tests were conducted with No. 2B fuel, Lago Medio crude oil, and medium and heavy Bunker oils. Twelve dispersants passed the effectiveness criterion by dispersing greater than 65 percent of one or more types of oil. Effectiveness of dispersants varied with oil type and with temperature and salinity of the water. The dispersants BP1100X, Corexit 8666, Drew Chemical OSE 71, Drew Chemical OSE 72, Oilsperse 43, and Sugee #2 passed both the toxicity and effectiveness criteria and were placed on the Canadian standard list of acceptable oil spill dispersants. Acute lethal toxicity tests with BP1100X and Sugee #2 showed that rainbow trout in fresh water were more sensitive than two marine fish, Fundulus heteroclitus and Menidia menidia, while fourth-stage larval lobsters, Homarus americanus, were the least sensitive.


Addis Ababa has experienced development endeavors under three different ideology phases since its founding. The political economy of the city has gone through imperial, socialist and market-oriented systems of governance. Throughout the time, the city did not stop growing fast as population continued to pour in from other urban and rural areas in addition to the natural population increase for many decades. In the course of expanding, geographically and demographically, basic urban services fell short of serving the population leading to over-crowdedness, insanitary and shanty neighborhoods, inadequate and limited coverage of drinking water, dilapidated buildings and severe shortage of housing, unemployment and deep poverty, and so forth. Eventually, the City Administration of Addis Ababa initiated a comprehensive redevelopment of the city on a massive scale. Among others, the redevelopment/renewal of slum neighborhoods with new housing for the poor was most notable. Old decrepit neighborhoods have been cleared and new developments have been coming in – giving the city a better physical image. Slums have been transformed and some affected residents have moved into newly developed housing delivered under the popularly-known pro-poor condominium scheme. However, there are strong indications that the program is failing in meeting its important goal of housing the poor due to inability to financially access the scheme. Consequentially, those households left-out are losing hope of ever securing a decent shelter in the city. The objective of this article is to identify practical solutions to help affected households shelter themselves in the city they lived for decades, but where opportunities are speedily shrinking. The article looks at the general approaches of the redevelopment/renewal program to reflect on some prior steps to reframe the housing scheme for a better redevelopment of the city whereby its low-income residents can be adequately covered. The article draws from a study of both quantitative and qualitative data comprising primary and secondary data. For the primary data families who were relocated from slum neighborhoods to alternative Kebele [1] (ward) houses were identified and selected for interview. Woreda and sub-city heads and experts were purposively contacted for interview. The results shed light on roles to be played by various development partners to help the poor and left-out families of the society to house themselves under the ongoing development initiatives. Keywords: Slums, Redevelopment/Renewal, housing, left-out families [1] Kebele (ward) houses are government owned houses and with very low rental fee


Mass spectrometry (MS) hyphenated to liquid chromatography (LC)-MS offers unrivalled sensitivity for metabolite profiling of complex biological matrices encountered in natural products (NP) research. With advanced platforms LC, MS/MS spectra are acquired in an untargeted manner on most detected features. This generates massive and complex sets of spectral data that provide valuable structural information on most analytes. To interpret such datasets, computational methods are mandatory. To this extent, computerized annotation of metabolites links spectral data to candidate structures. When profiling complex extracts spectra are often organized in clusters by similarity via Molecular Networking (MN). A spectral matching score is usually established between the acquired data and experimental or theoretical spectral databases (DB). The process leads to various candidate structures for each MS features. At this stage, obtaining high annotation confidence level remains a challenge notably due to the high chemodiversity of specialized metabolomes. The integration of additional information in a meta-score is a way to capture complementary experimental attributes and improve the annotation process. Here we show that integrating unambiguous taxonomic position of analyzed samples and candidate structures enhances confidence in metabolite annotation. A script is proposed to automatically input such information at various granularity levels (species, genus, and family) and weight the score obtained between experimental spectral data and output of available computational metabolite annotation tools (ISDB-DNP, MS-Finder, Sirius). In all cases, the consideration of the taxonomic distance allowed an efficient re-ranking of the candidate structures leading to a systematic enhancement of the recall and precision rates of the tools (1.5 to 7-fold increase in the F1 score). Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of considering taxonomic information in the process of specialized metabolites' annotation. This requires to access structural data systematically documented with biological origin, both for new and previously reported NPs. In this respect, the establishment of an open structural DB of specialized metabolites and their associated metadata (particularly biological sources) is timely and critical for the NP research community.


The particular set of stressors faced by barristers (as reported during counselling) often results in a private fear that they will unravel in some way. Typically the fear is experienced within the professional sphere and is accompanied, and exacerbated, by a hyper-vigilant stance towards their environment in a way not dissimilar to sufferers of post-traumatic stress. Barrister clients tend to be extremely self-critical. The threat of judgment is also of course a very real part of their professional life as is intense conflict. The combination of this professional reality with an over-utilized (at least in the personal domain) critical facility is detrimental to their wellbeing and psychological health. Unchecked, the continual interaction of these two factors can lead to levels of extreme stress. One of the contributors to this stress seems to be the experience of an impoverished ability to connect both to the self and to others. It is suggested that this impact on the relational domain may be connected to the over-use of a number of strategies originally adopted as protective in the face of inherently conflicting personal and professional demands. It has become increasingly clear that the relational domain is an area of particular need in the work with barristers who attend counselling and one of potential importance in the area of preventative health and wellbeing generally. The consideration of balance, both internal and external, is a critical factor in both the creation and management of these difficult issues.


VIRUS-LIKE PARTICLES GENERAGED BY EXPRESSING PROTEINS OF PORCINE REPRODUCTIVE AND RESPIRATORY SYNDROME VIRUS (PRRSV) USING THE RECOMBINANT BACULOVIRUS EXPRESSION SYSTEM APRIL ANNE NELSEN 2015 Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an enveloped, single stranded, positive sense RNA virus and a member of Arteriviridae. Its genome encodes 10 open reading frames for at least 7 structural proteins and 14 non-structural proteins. Membrane (M), Nuclepcapsid (N), and Glycoprotein-5 (GP5) are the major structural proteins of PRRSV, while Envelope (E), Glycoprotein-2 (GP2), Glycoprotein-3 (GP3), and Glycoprotein-4 (GP4) are the minor structural proteins of PRRSV. GP5 induces neutralizing antibodies and forms heterodimers with M, while N is the most immunogenic protein of PRRSV. Previous studies have shown viral structural proteins are able to form virus-like particles (VLPs) that can induce an immune response in respective hosts by use of the recombinant baculovirus expression system in insect cells. We sought to find if structural proteins, M, N, GP5, GP4, and E, could be expressed using the recombinant baculovirus expression system and produce VLPs. After purifying and amplifying PRRSV GP4, GP5, and E genes from PRRSV viral RNA, we inserted those genes into the pCAGEN plasmid, and expressed them in mammalian cells (cos-1). Protein expression of E and GP5 in both the supernatant and cell lysate was verified through western blot, while GP4 was not. We inserted the expressed genes into the pOET-1 plasmid for production of recombinant baculoviruses


History has known many different types of polity, to use the neutral term that Ferguson and Mansbach (1996) employ to avoid the loaded connotations of 'state'. These have evolved and changed according to changing international and domestic circumstances. Over much of European space and history the dominant mode of rule has been the empire, from the Roman and Byzantine, through the Holy Roman, to the Habsburg, Ottoman, Romanov and Hohenzollern empires, the last three enduring until the First World War. Empires are characterized by a concentration of military power at the centre but diverse means for ruling the periphery, including direct control and the use of intermediaries. There is no need for a homogeneous culture, national identity or unified institutions. In the western part of the continent, the end of the Roman Empire saw a fragmentation of political authority, followed by the rise of states (Rokkan 1999). During the fifteenth century, large polities consolidated, while several smaller projects failed (Burgundy, Catalonia, the Lordship of the Isles). Other polities survived at the interface between the powers. Scotland played England against France for centuries and survived despite the weakness of its monarchy. The Netherlands emerged in the context of war between England and Spain. Stein Rokkan (1999) drew attention to the 'shatterbelt' of territories that maintained their identities. The Netherlands, born from a religious revolt in a group of varied provinces in the sixteenth century, developed into a strong and unitary state. Belgium split away in 1830, only itself to experience territorial tensions in the late twentieth century. Finland emerged from successive Swedish and Russian overlordship, while the Baltic states emerged twice during the twentieth century. During the eighteenth century, there was some consolidation of the state system, continued into the nineteenth century with the 'unification' of Germany and Italy and the integration of France. Nationalism served


A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of honey and thyme solutions in extending the shelf life and enhancing the nutritional and sensory qualities of Wara, the West African soft cheese. The control treatment (A) was cheese kept in the whey, while Treatments B and C were cheese samples kept in Thyme and Honey solutions respectively. The experiment lasted for 11days. The results, analyzed using completely randomized design model revealed a numerically higher value for aroma and texture for cheese treated with thyme solution, followed closely by cheese samples treated with Honey solution, while the least was the control (Treatment A).There was no significant difference in the dry matter content among all the Treatments (p>0.05).The crude protein was significantly higher (p<0.05) for Treatment B, then treatment A and least for treatment C. The ether extract followed the same trend as crude protein. The Microbial assay showed treatment C having lowest bacterial count, followed by the control (A), then B. It could be concluded that Treatment of West African soft cheese with Honey solution is more promising for enhancing the nutritional quality and extending the shelf life of soft cheese. Key words : Cheese, thyme, honey, proximate composition, microbial assay, sensory quality.


In this study, the researcher aimed to identify students' level of understanding of the Periodic Table of Elements before and after using the crossword puzzles called Chem-PTE crossword puzzles. The quantitative approach was used as the methodology of this research and a pre-experimental base was applied to one group as the research design. 25 students were purposely selected as the respondents. The study started with a pre-test, followed by the implementation of Chem-PTE crossword puzzles for 3 lessons and subsequently ended with a post-test. Then, students' achievement scores in both, pre-test and post-tests, were analysed with descriptive analysis and paired samples t-test by using SPSS software version 24.0. The analyses were conducted to obtain the mean values for both the pre-test and post-test and next to test whether there was a statistically significant difference before (pre-test) and after (post-test) using the Chem-PTE crossword puzzles. Furthermore, this research also examined students' perspectives on the effectiveness of Chem-PTE crossword puzzles by using questionnaires. Overall, the findings showed that the use of Chem-PTE crossword puzzles had improved students' level of understanding as there was an increase in students' achievement scores in the post-test compared with students' achievement scores in the pre-test. Subsequently, the paired sample t-test analysis also revealed statistically significant differences before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the use of Chem-PTE crossword puzzles. Lastly, almost all of the students provided positive feedback on the effectiveness of the Chem-PTE crossword puzzles in enhancing students' understanding of the topic Periodic Table of Elements.


The effect of macrophage depletion on growth and neovascularization of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced hamster buccal pouch carcinomas (HBPC) was evaluated by quantitating tritiated thymidine (3[H]TdR) incorporation by tumor cells and microvascular endothelium in light microscopic autoradiographs. Tumors that were depleted of macrophages with systemic hydrocortisone acetate (HA) and intratumor injections of antimacrophage serum (AMS) were examined 7 days after treatment. In control animals 30% of infiltrating host cells were esterase-positive tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and 28.14% of tumor cells and 14.45% of endothelial cells were 3[H]TdR labelled. Hamsters treated with HA or HA and control serum showed no significant reduction in either the number of TAM or proportion of [3H]TdR labelled tumor of endothelial cells. AMS administered alone had no effect on either the content of TAM or 3[H]TdR labelling. In contrast hamsters treated with HA and AMS showed a 54% decrease in TAM and a 50% and 63% reduction in tumor and endothelial cell labelling respectively. These results suggest that growth and neovascularization of these tumors is mediated in part by macrophages.