We have developed a novel relative-story displacement sensor for structural health monitoring which is capable of measuring the 5-DOF movement of building layers. Three pairs of infrared-light emitting diode arrays and position sensitive detector units were used for simultaneously measuring the relative displacement, the local inclination angle, and the torsion angle between two adjacent layers. For verification, laboratory tests were carried out using a shaking table, a motorized micrometer, and a rotation stage. In the static experiment, it is verified that the local inclination angle and the torsion angle can be measured as well as the relative-story displacement using the sensor system. The resolution of the sensor system in the displacement measurement, that in the inclination angle measurement, and that in the torsion angle measurement were evaluated to be 0.10 mm, 34.4 μrad, and 14.6 μrad, respectively. In the dynamic response experiment, the accuracy of the sensor system was experimentally evaluated to be 0.20 mm in the relative-displacement measurement, 110 μrad in the inclination angle measurement, and 90 μrad in the torsion angle measurement, respectively. These results indicate that the developed sensor system has a sufficient accuracy for structural health monitoring.


Youth are infrequently included in planning the health promotion projects designed to benefit them as many of the factors infringing upon youth's health and well-being also limit their engagement in community-based public health promotion projects. This article explores youth engagement in 13 coalitions implementing structural changes meant to reduce HIV transmission among adolescents. There was wide variation of youth membership and involvement across coalitions. Using analytic induction, the authors show that youth engagement was associated with the successful completion of structural change efforts. The authors also describe how youth engagement indirectly facilitated coalitions' success. The authors suggest that youth engagement in planning and conducting structural interventions is itself a valuable structural change.


Vulnerability and risk assessment of neighborhoods is essential for effective disaster preparedness. Existing traditional systems, due to dependency on time-consuming and cost-intensive field surveying, do not provide a scalable way to decipher warnings and assess the precise extent of the risk at a hyper-local level. In this work, machine learning was used to automate the process of identifying dwellings and their type to build a potentially more effective disaster vulnerability assessment system. First, satellite imageries of low-income settlements and vulnerable areas in India were used to identify 7 different dwelling types. Specifically, we formulated the dwelling type classification as a semantic segmentation task and trained a U-net based neural network model, namely TernausNet, with the data we collected. Then a risk score assessment model was employed, using the determined dwelling type along with an inundation model of the regions. The entire pipeline was deployed to multiple locations prior to natural hazards in India in 2020. Post hoc ground-truth data from those regions was collected to validate the efficacy of this model which showed promising performance. This work can aid disaster response organizations and communities at risk by providing household-level risk information that can inform preemptive actions.


Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance of companies, by looking at the magnitude to which publicly listed companies across Southern African countries have implemented corporate governance "best" practices.
Design/methodology/approach – Corporate governance index was created by collecting both corporate governance related data and financial data from annual reports of companies from 2013- 2019. Panel data was used with a set of 504 company-year observations. The corporate governance index and sub-indexes were used as independent variables in order to test their effect on company's financial performance measured by Return on Asset (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). The data was analyzed using Panel data Ordinary Least Squared (POLS) regression and dynamic GMM.
Findings – The findings show that companies in Southern African countries generally comply with the recommended corporate governance "best" practices that are included in the index. The results from both the POLS and the dynamic GMM show that; the corporate governance index has a positive and significant relationship with the companies' financial performance measures (ROA and ROE) . The results also shows that board committees' sub-index, Shareholders right sub-index and Disclosure sub-index are positively and significantly related to financial performance as measured by ROA and ROE.
Discussion – Regulators and companies in Southern Africa should put more emphasis on issues regarding Shareholders rights, Board committees and disclosure requirements.


ABSTRACT In this article, we analyse tensions in Sámi local communities meeting new industrial development. Indigenous communities experience outmigration and are in need of new business development and employment. Global extractive companies may offer new jobs, but the type and scale of these jobs put pressure on traditional indigenous livelihoods. The study underlines the importance of two core ideal type Sámi positions – traditionalist and modernist – on future industrial development in rural Sámi areas in Norway. These positions are playing themselves out in different ways by the most important Sámi institutions; The Sámi Parliament (Sámediggi), The Finnmark Estate (FeFo) and Sámi-populated municipalities. The result is a deep-going institutional conflict around industrial development, making it very difficult to find compromises. To shed light on these conflicts and their implications, we analyse how different positions are institutionally visible in the ongoing battle concerning the Nussir mining case in the Sámi municipality Kvalsund in Northern Norway.


Incoherent broadband light sources are used in interferometric fibre optic gyroscopes (IFOGs) to mitigate the deleterious effects of Kerr and polarisation nonreciprocity, and backscattering effects in gyroscopes. However, incoherent broadband sources suffer from excess noise or relative intensity noise (RIN), caused by the beating of different spectral components on the photodetector. Unless RIN noise is suppressed, IFOG performance cannot be improved once light on the photodetector exceeds one photon per coherence time (∼μW's). Demonstrated is a low RIN light source capable of significantly improving angle random walk of an IFOG by 12 dB.


Stakeholders in education and researchers have variously stated that existing buildings in public secondary schools in Nigeria lack adequate maintenance attention resulting generally in deplorable conditions of infrastructural disrepair. The apparent solution would therefore be to assess and establish the responsible factors to reverse the perceived deterioration in the system in ensuring effective maintenance practices in Nigeria. This paper therefore, focuses on establishment of factors influencing building maintenance practices in the public secondary schools using Onitsha, Nigeria as a case study. The study reviewed related literature on building maintenance. Data was obtained from personal observations, interviews and a structured questionnaire, which was administered on the school managers and the academic staff of the seven selected schools in the study area. The analysis revealed that common factors which are fundamental to building maintenance practices in those schools included: unavailability of maintenance manual and skilled labour to undertake maintenance operations, non-periodic inspection of buildings to ascertain level of maintenance needs, inadequate maintenance funding by responsible authorities, misuse of facilities after completion, neglect of maintenance issues on buildings, age of buildings and building defects. In conclusion, the study recommended that adequate measures should be taken to ensure corrective action for the deficiencies noted in this report. The government and the various stakeholders in education should make more effort in the areas of advocacy, policy formulation and creating awareness on the essence of maintenance in the public secondary schools in the study area and of the dangers associated with neglected it.


A recently developed radar system using a c.w. microwave noise spectrum from an impatt oscillator as the transmitted signal has shown useful performance. The application of a digital correlator to measure, essentially in real time, the autocorrelation function of the noise spectrum and provide a radar display of targets at ranges of up to at least 1 km is now described.


PA is the process algebra allowing non-determinism, sequential and parallel compositions, and recursion. We suggest a view of PA-processes as tree languages. Our main result is that the set of iterated predecessors of a regular set of PA-processes is a regular tree language, and similarly for iterated successors. Furthermore, the corresponding tree-automata can be built eeectively in polynomial-time. This has many immediate applications to veriication problems for PA-processes, among which a simple and general model-checking algorithm.


contents New introduction by the author Foreword by William T. R. Fox Preface PART ONE: ON SYSTEMS OF ACTION Chapter one: The analysis of systems of action Chapter two: The international system Chapter three: The international actors PART TWO: ON PROCESSES Chapter four: The regulatory process Chapter five: The integrative and the disintegrative processes Chapter six: Processes and the international system PART THREE: ON VALUES Chapter seven: The realm of values Chapter eight: The national interest and other interests PART FOUR: ON STRATEGY Chapter nine: The theory of games Chapter ten: Some problems in game theory Chapter eleven: Strategy and statecraft CONCLUSION: Unified theory APPENDICES Appendix one: The mechanisms of regulation Appendix two: The realm of values Index


Summary A novel protocol for the synthesis of 3-nitro-N-aryl/alkylthiophen-2-amines in good yields from the reaction of α-nitroketene N,S-aryl/alkylaminoacetals and 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol in the presence of K2CO3 in refluxing ethanol is described. This transformation generates two C–C bonds in a single operation and presumably proceeds through a reaction sequence comprising 2-mercaptoacetaldehyde generation, nucleophilic carbonyl addition, annelation and elimination steps.


The performance of the diversity and equalization techniques in an indoor radio environment is analyzed. Four and 16 QAM have been considered. Based on experimental results, it is concluded that a system without protection has very limited performance. When the channel introduces a low level of distortion the diversity technique produces better performance than the equalizer technique, but if the channel introduces a high degree of intersymbol interference, then the equalizer techniques are slightly better than the diversity techniques. On the other hand, joint equalization and diversity techniques are an effective tool to combat the degrading effect introduced by the indoor channel. Improvements in system performance, with respect to a system without any protection, ranging from 10 to 100 have been obtained.<<ETX>>


Water management within vulnerable ecosystems managed by multiple jurisdictions can be very complex. This study compares regulatory environments and deconstructs the approaches used for watershed governance and environmental management inside two UNESCO's Biosphere Reserves to identify possible transferability between the two management entities. Three methodological approaches were applied: participatory observation, in-depth interviews of key informants, and document research. We concluded that while there are differences between the regulatory frameworks and localized practices, at a foundational level the goals and desired outcomes relating to environmental protection are not dependent on location, but mainly on the integration and the establishment of common objectives among the diverse social actors involved in the management and from the interaction between different organisms of social control. Additionally, there are elements in the application of regulations and practices in both locales that could be transferred to other jurisdictions interested in addressing watershed protection in vulnerable ecosystems governed by multiple jurisdictions.


1. Abstract Assessing the resistance, determining the nature of the resistance of the rice plant through the activity of three enzymes in rice: Catalase, Peroxydase and Phosphatase in the leaves of rice plants (the most active leaves of rice) rice plants [2]. In addition, consider the role of Phosphatase in the fluctuations and the ability to accumulate P2O5 in soil and plants to see its role in rice's poison resistance in acid sulphate soil [4]. In other hand, Results shows thathigh concentrations of toxins in the soil environment strongly inhibited the activity of Phosphatase enzymes in the roots, in the indicator leaves, and especially for rice, especially for plants that are less resistant to poisoning. But, Phosphatase enzyme in leaves has the effect on the providing energy for the plants to recover from poisoning. The activity of this enzyme is inversely correlated with the content of Al3+ in soil and Al3+ in plants. This proves that the antagonism between enzymes and toxins is evident, especially with Al3+ toxins. In other side, has highly toxic in the acid sulphate soil environment inhibits enzyme activity Peroxydase in rice roots. Under these conditions, peroxydase in the root plays a small role in helping the plant recover. We have sufficient basis to confirm that the enzyme Peroxydase in leaves plays an important role, against the harmful effects of toxins. When the toxin in the soil, in plants increased activity of this enzyme also increased higher than the control variant. Especially, when the toxicity increases, the Peroxydase enzyme in the rice leaves will also increase to resistant to toxicity (+280% (compared to the control); while the toxictynon -resistant variety plants did not increase (compared to the control). When the toxicity decreased, Peroxydase activity in toxic-resistant plants was also higher than toxic non-resistant: This increased at +643% for toxic-resistant rice compared to the control. While, in the weeklyresistant toxicvariety only increased +314% (compared to the control). 2. Introduce Research of Le Huy Ba et al carry-out by [1-3] a series of experiments including: Step 1, Group testing of rice varieties including 15 varieties; In step 2, experiment comparing varieties to select alum tolerant varieties. Step 3, after identifying alum-tolerant varieties: Ca Dung variety (local) strong resistance to toxicity. Oppositely, IR38 variety is weakly to toxicity resistant. On other hand, they have found that, the toxic ions in acid sulphate soil environment (ex: Al3, Fe2+ Fe3+and SO4 2-) there are coplicatly dynamics [1-4] At this point, the new question that needs to be answered is the effect of toxins on the enzymes in plants and vice versa, the role of the enzyme has no role to resist poison (how effect on this activity of enzymes in rice leaves). That means what role of this enzyme to help rice plant to resistant influence of the toxicity. So that, we carry out some experiences (in vitro, in green house, and in the yield experiment together with the practical survei).


Gal11 and Sin4 proteins are yeast global transcription factors that regulate transcription of a variety of genes, both positively and negatively. Gal11, in a major part, functions in the activation of transcription, whereas Sin4 has an opposite role, yet they are reported to be present as a complex in the so‐called RNA polymerase II holoenzyme. To reveal howthese auxiliary factors participate in switching transcription on and off, a complex formation between Gal11 and Sin4 and its effect on the negative regulation of transcription were studied. Using an artificial promoter that is negatively regulated by Gal11, it was shown that the presence of Sin4 or Pgd1/Hrs1/Med3 was required for Gal11 to repress both basal and activated transcription. Genetic and biochemical studies using a temperature‐sensitive Gal11 mutant showed that the amino acid region 866–910 essential for Gal11 function was also important for repression of transcription and a complex formation with Sin4. Analysis with dam methylase accessibility to the promoter region suggested that nucleosome structure may be involved in negative regulation. Based on these results, possible mechanisms by which a mediator subcomplex regulates transcription is discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


&NA; This study compares the functional gains of CVA patients treated with the traditional nursing approach (N = 38) and CVA patients treated with a therapeutic nursing approach based on Bobath neurodevelopmental principles. The therapeutic nursing approach was developed to update nursing care of CVA patients at a large rehabilitation center. This approach focused care on bilateral activity—stimulation, involvement, and sensory input on the affected side; and integration of nursing—physical therapy, and occupational therapy. Functional abilities were measured using the modified Barthel Index administered on admission and discharge. The CVA patients treated with the therapeutic nursing approach demonstrated a significantly higher level of functional gain than CVA patients treated with the traditional nursing approach (p = ◂.05) with right CVA patients (left hemiplegics) making the most improvement. In this situation, the therapeutic nursing approach appeared to be the treatment of choice for the care of CVA patients.


O-22 Human liver chimeric mice as a novel model for the study of hepatitis E virus infections IM Sayed, L Verhoye, Y Debing, F Abbravanel, A Farhoudi, G Leroux-Roels, J Neyts, J Izopet, R Purcell, S Emerson and P Meuleman Center for Vaccinology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, Rega Institute, KUL, Leuven, Belgium, INSERM U1043, IFR-BMT, CHU Purpan, Toulouse, France; Universit e Paul-Sabatier, Laboratory of Virology, CHU Purpan, Toulouse, France, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA


This study aimed at assessing risk perception and precautionary behaviour against COVID-19 pandemic among health workers. Through descriptive cross-sectional survey, 400 respondents were conveniently sampled to elicit data using respondent's self-administered questionnaire designed by the researchers. Data collection which spanned through two months were collected, cleaned, sorted, coded, inputted and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. Association between risk perception and precautionary behaviour was tested using Chi-square statistics significant at 95% confidence level. Results were presented in descriptive and inferential statistics. Risk perception and the feeling of being very susceptible to contracting COVID-19 was high 382 (95.5%). This created a spike in improved and positive precautionary behaviour 398 (99.5%) by strict adherence to consistent use of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. To majority 339 (84.8%), the frequently use of PPEs was to prevent COVID-19 and other hospital-related diseases while for some 312 (78.0%), the consistent use of PPEs has been habitual. The study found a significant association between risk perception and precautionary behaviour of healthcare workers against COVID-19 pandemic (P < 0.001; df = 1; Chi-square = 11.280). There is need for healthcare workers to continue in the habit of always being conscious in the use of their PPEs even after the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because, there are still and may still be re-emerging diseases that needs to be prevented. Therefore, there is need for healthcare workers to always be proactive and be at alert at all times because the healthcare setting is like a war front for all manner of diseases where the first attack or target is the healthcare worker.


Background: DBA is a rare genetic disorder characterized by faulty ribosome biogenesis, leading to pro-apoptotic erythropoiesis and red cell failure. The Diamond Blackfan Anemia Registry (DBAR) was established in 1993 to provide a robust database for investigating the biology and epidemiology of DBA. The DBAR defines remission in DBA as independence from red cell transfusion or corticosteroid therapy for greater than 6 months. An understanding of factors influencing DBA remission may provide insights into the pathophysiology of DBA and ultimately can lead to improved treatment options. Method: Patients were enrolled in the DBAR with informed consent. Patients who met the remission criteria for this study were evaluated. Patients who reported a remission were contacted and completed a "remission questionnaire"; further information was obtained from the patients' physicians and verified, where possible, from medical records. Results: Of 555 patients enrolled in the DBAR, 67 patients have experienced a remission (actuarial likelihood approximately 20%). The male: female ratio for remission patients vs. the total DBAR population is 1:0.97 vs. 1:1.03, respectively. Sixty-four percent of patients have congenital anomalies, compared to 47% in the total population; the difference is not statistically significant. All categories of congenital anomalies (e.g. orofacial, cardiac, renal, skeletal, etc.) are represented in the remission population. The median age at diagnosis is 2.9 months (range, 0 to 14.9 years). The majority of patients were started on 2mg/kg/day of prednisone or methylprednisolone at a median age of 3.6 months (range, 4 days to 15.2 years). Sixty-six percent entered remission while on steroid therapy. The median total duration on steroids was 36 months (range, 1 month to 37.6 years) and the median duration from start of steroids to beginning of taper was 3.6 months (range, 1 month to 4.6 years). Seventeen percent of patients went into remission with less than one year of steroids and 55% were in remission within 5 years of start of steroids. Fifteen percent remitted while receiving chronic transfusion therapy. Six percent never received steroids prior to remission and 7.5% of remitters initially responded to steroids but became steroid refractory prior to remission. Median duration of treatment to remission and duration of remission were 16 months (range, 6 months to 38.2 years) and 14 years (range, 1 to 46.8 years) respectively. The median age of remission was 6.4 years (range, 0.8 to 39 years); males 6.5 years (range, 0.8 to 39 years) and females 6.3 years (range, 1.1 to 26 years). Of note, remissions were observed in DBA patients or in affected family members of probands with mutations in 4 of the 6 genes (RPS 19, RPS 24, RPL35a, and RPS11) known to be mutated in DBA as well as in those with no known mutation, suggesting that remission is not restricted to a particular genotype. Additional patients are being genotyped. Conclusion: Remission in patients with DBA is not an uncommon event. Steroid responsiveness is not a prerequisite for remission. There is no obvious phenotypic or genotypic difference between remission and non-remission patients. The expression of a remission phenotype within multiplex families is quite variable. We conclude that remission is not restricted to a particular phenotype or genotype and that the likelihood of remission is influenced by unknown modifier genes and/or epigenetic factors.


It has been well established that economic growth is stimulated by technology innovation. Most technology innovation is made by engineers. Despite the importance of engineering to the economic growth of the U.S., as the U.S. economy has become increasingly driven by global competition, U.S. citizens are exhibiting decreased interest in a career in engineering. This declining interest is evidenced by a major decrease of U.S. citizen enrollment in U.S. undergraduate engineering programs and an even larger decrease of U.S. citizens in engineering graduate programs. In response to declining enrollment, despite the increase in complexity of engineering, colleges of engineering have decreased degree requirements - typically about 20 credit hours over a generation; yet, declining enrollment continues. Because of the importance of engineering to economic growth and the constraints of the global economy on the salary growth of engineers, (1) it is time for the U.S. government to declare engineering a public good and (2) it is time for U.S. corporations to fill a major role in engineering education. Therefore, we recommend that companies willing to employ cooperative engineering students and direct their on-the-job education be permitted to pay the undergraduate and graduate school tuition of students and deduct their education costs as a tax credit. (Note that Medicare pays hospital for the coop education of medical students and physician residents.) The practical work experience would be a major element of the students' engineering education and the certainty of immediate, secure employment would be a draw to new engineering students.


There is a paucity of information on the mortality of fishes and the capture and mortality of non-target by-catch organisms during scientific fish research surveys.
To investigate the extent of by-catch and reporting by biologists during fish surveys, a questionnaire survey of active field biologists in southern Africa was undertaken together with two case studies of field surveys from nine river systems in southern Africa.
The majority of researchers questioned record non-target organisms only occasionally (40%), and very few collect additional biological information (15%) with some not recording any information at all (20%). The vast majority of researchers do not, however, present or publish by-catch or mortality data despite this information having been collected. The case studies using fish field surveys show that while by-catch is often low, non-fish vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles and mammals) and invertebrates such as large crustaceans are often present. Fish surveys also resulted in unwanted mortality of both target and by-catch organisms.
It is proposed that reporting by-catch during field surveys of fishes can provide important information on distribution, abundance and population structures of certain non-target fauna and that in addition to by-catch considerations, indirect mortality associated with gear use should also be reported and recorded. Such information will aid in the assessment of risk of deploying certain gear types in certain environments.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper describes the methods for collecting, characterizing, and analyzing RMS voltage variation measurements during a distribution system power quality monitoring program. The measurements were collected from the primary distribution systems of 24 utilities in different geographic regions of the United States. The objectives for the site selection process are offered. The techniques for measurement triggering are explained. Novel techniques regarding the characterization of RMS voltage variation quantities by resolution into measurement components are described. The measurement, temporal and spatial aggregation of the components from a database at analysis time is presented. Key final results of RMS variation magnitude statistics are submitted.


An electrically small antenna is evaluated for use as the principle radiating element in a mobile ionospheric heating array. Consisting of a small loop antenna inductively coupled to a capacitively loaded loop, the electrically small antenna provides high efficiency with the capability of being tuned within the range of ionospheric heating. At a factor 60 smaller in area than a High‐Frequency Active Auroral Research Program element, this antenna provides a compact, efficient radiating element for mobile ionospheric heating. A prototype antenna at 10 MHz was built to study large‐scale feasibility and possible use with photoconductive semiconductor switch‐based drivers. Based on the experimental study, the design has been extrapolated to a small 6 × 4 array of antennas. At a total power input of 16.1 MW this array is predicted to provide 3.6‐GW effective radiated power typically required for ionospheric heating. Array cross talk is addressed, including effects upon individual antenna port parameters. Tuning within the range of ionospheric heating, 3–10 MHz, is made possible without the use of lossy dielectrics through a large capacitive area suited to tune the antenna. Considerations for high power operation across the band are provided including a method of driving the antenna with a simple switcher requiring no radio frequency cabling. Source matching may be improved via adjustment of the coupling between small loop antenna and capacitively loaded loop improving |S11| from −1 to −21 dB at 3 MHz.


This study examines the relationship model of the physical environment, service quality, satisfaction, and consumer emotions at a coffee shop in Jakarta. A quasi-experimental design was applied, with a sample of 60 respondents who were divided into two groups (treatment and control). The analysis results conclude that all identified variables have positive internal correlations. The results of the different tests showed significant differences in the rating of the physical environment, service quality, satisfaction, and emotion between the treatment and control groups, indicating that using unique designs and services in the room affected visitor attitudes. Finally, the physical environment and service quality have been shown to positively affect visitor satisfaction and emotions, and satisfaction also affects visitors' emotions.


The asymptotic behaviour (for large values of time) of the solutions of the first mixed boundary-value problem for the wave equation in domains with non-compact, non-star-shaped boundaries is considered. Estimates with respect to the spectral parameter of the solutions of the first boundary-value problem for the Helmholtz equation are obtained.


There have been several reports on alterations of platelet function and raised plasma heparin levels in symptom‐free atopic subjects. Either of these can affect formation of thrombin in vivo. In 25 symptom‐free atopic patients and 32 healthy volunteers we studied the generation of thrombin in blood emerging from a standardized skin microvasculature injury, which also served to determine bleeding time. Generation of thrombin was delayed in atopies. They produced significantly less thrombin (P<0.01) during the early and central phase of haemostasis. The amount of thrombin generated was inversely correlated to bleeding time, which in atopies was on average 50 sec longer than in controls (P= 0.055). Two hours after ingestion of 500 mg aspirin, this difference increased up to 150 sec, although the individual responses varied markedly (P= 0.08), while the generation of thrombin became strongly depressed in both groups. The possible clinical relevance of the delayed formation of thrombin in atopy awaits further studies.


Background The exact number of hip fractures occurring in Norway is unknown. Estimates vary from 7000 to 9000 per year, constituting great human costs and expenditure of health resources. An injury registry (IR) was July 1. 1985 established in Harstad, Norway and contains by now 25 years of prospectively collected data on injuries with upstream variables useful for preventive purposes. Data from the IR have extensively been used for analysis of the injury panorama, finding target groups for preventive action and evaluation of the effect of these. Several intervention studies have been published, mainly on traffic injuries, burns in children and fall-fractures in the aged (65+ years). From 2008 the IR is owned and administered by the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN) in Tromsø. Materials and Methods During the period 1994–2008, the IR registered 582 hip fractures in persons living in Harstad (23 000). By searching through medical records (paper or electronic) for every person in the IR, a validation of the IR was made possible. Inclusion criterias were IDC codes S720 (neck), S721 (pertrochanteric) og S722 (subtrochanteric). Correct ICD coding was validated by checking x-ray descriptions from primary admittance. Exclusion criterias were (1) double registry because of readmission, for example, from osteosynthesis failure, necrosis of the caput (2) other fractures, for example, pelvic/femoral shaft (3) pathological fractures (metastasis), (4) admission for other complications, for example, infection, trombosis and bleeding. Results 541 hip fractures were verified. Of 42 non-verified (7.2 %) 10 were osteosynthesis failure or caput necosis, falls without verified fracture 10, shaft fractures 9, pelvic fractures 4, pathological fractures 5, double entry 3 and other address 1. For the years 2002–2007 the patient journal was electronic. Validated IR data on hip fractures for these 6 years could thus be compared with data from the National Patient Registry (NPR). This central registry is a main source for national estimates of hip fractures. The NPR data contained 3.3% fewer hip fractures compared with the validated Harstad injury registry. Mean ages were as follows: for both genders 81.8 years, for women (74%) 82.4 years and for men (26%) 80.0 years. Mean survival after fracture was investigated for 354 patients: For both genders 3.2 years, for women (73%) 3.4 yrs and for men (27%) 2.6 years. Conclusions Hip fractures occur predominantly at the age of 80–82 years and in women in three out of four cases. Mean survival after the fracture is 3.2 years. The Harstad Injury Registry shows during 15 years (1994–2008) a 7.2 % over-reporting of hip fractures while data from the National Patient Registry show a 3.3% under-reporting.


Documented fetal inactivity is strongly suggestive of fetal jeopardy, but the significance of excessive activity over a prolonged period has not been reported. Using data gathered from fetal movement charts recorded by 931 patients, fetal hyperactivity was defined statistically as 40 or more movements perceived per hour for at least 14 days shortly before delivery. No association between excessive fetal activity and premature labor or umbilical cord complications was found. All 47 (5%) fetuses found to be hyperactive remained vigorous during any trial of labor and with appropriate nursery care did well after delivery. Follow-up examination of 24 infants between 3 and 18 months of age has revealed no unusual growth, developmental, or temperamental patterns. Although the reason for excessive fetal activity remains unclear, this finding does not appear to be a worrisome prognostic sign.


Developing standard and accessible atmospheric turbulence mitigation is of paramount importance to enable laser communication network deployment. Multi-Plane Light Conversion (MPLC) [1]–[3] is proving to be an effective technique to improve coupling efficiency of a perturbated wave-front profile towards a single-mode fiber [4]–[6]. However, to date, experimental studies are restricted to a fixed number of modes. In this work, we numerically and experimentally study performance improvement of the MPLC technique and mode collection compared to direct single mode fiber coupling for several D/r0 ratio, D being the receiver aperture diameter and r0 the Fried parameter.

We calculate the coupling efficiency, represented in Fig 1. Collection for SMF only is shown in Fig 1-a while the summation of the 15 first Hermite-Gaussian modes is represented in Fig 1-b. Collection for each mode for D/r0=4 is displayed in Fig 1-c. We demonstrate that 15 modes MPLC appears to be a good compromise between number of modes and complexity of the device. This configuration typically improves the collection efficiency by >7 dB in the case of strong turbulence when D/r0 >4. More important, the minimum collection efficiency that would correspond to a link failure is dramatically increased compared to SMF fiber alone. MPLC thus shows high robustness to turbulence fluctuation.


In compressed sensing it is generally assumed that the dictionary matrix constitutes a (possibly overcomplete) basis of the signal space. In this paper we consider dictionaries that do not span the signal space, i.e. rank deficient dictionaries. We show that in this case the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the compressed samples can be increased by selecting the rows of the measurement matrix from the column space of the dictionary. As an example application of compressed sensing with a rank deficient dictionary, we present a case study of compressed sensing applied to the Coarse Acquisition (C/A) step in a GPS receiver. Simulations show that for this application the proposed choice of measurement matrix yields an increase in SNR performance of up to 5 – 10 dB, compared to the conventional choice of a fully random measurement matrix. Furthermore, the compressed sensing based C/A step is compared to a conventional method for GPS C/A.


: Lifting lugs are frequently used in shipyards to transport and turn over the blocks of ships and offshore structures. With the development of shipbuilding technology, blocks have increased in size, and block management technology has assumed a more important role in shipbuilding to enhance the productivity. For the sake of economics, as well as the safe design of a lug structure, a more rational design procedure based on a rigorous structural analysis is needed. This study investigated the strength characteristics of T-type lugs, considering the influence of blocks on which lugs are attached, by varying the in-plane and out-of-plane load direction. In this paper, the ultimate strength is also addressed for cases that include or do not include blocks in the strength analysis. In the present results, when there was a load acting in the normal direction to the block surface, the strength characteristics became poor, and the ultimate strength decreased. This paper ends by describing the need for further study to develop a more rational design for a lug structure.


Processing tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) are grown on ≈6000 ha in southwestern Ontario. Field experiments were conducted in 1998 and 1999 at two locations to explore the potential of alternative tillage practices (conventional, disked, zone-till, and no-till) on growth, development, yield and quality of tomatoes. Growth measurements of leaf number, plant height, stem diameter, total aboveground dry weight, and LAI did not differ with tillage system. Rye ( Secale cereale L.) used as a cover crop did not influence tomato growth or development. Yield differences (P < 0.05) were not observed for red and green tomato fruit harvested in the conventional, disked or zone-tillage treatments. Yield reductions (P < 0.05) were observed however, for both red and green fruit with no-tillage. The delay in crop maturity associated with no-till reduced the potential for the application of this tillage practice for tomato production. Tomato postharvest quality did not differ among tillage systems. Zone-tillage was found to be a viable alternative to the moldboard plow as a primary tillage practice for the production of processing tomatoes.


Fusion physics poses an extremely challenging, practically complex problem that does not yield readily to simple paradigms. Nevertheless, various of the theoretical tools and conceptual advances emphasized at the KaufmanFest 2007 have motivated and/or found application to the development of fusion-related plasma turbulence theory. A brief historical commentary is given on some aspects of that specialty, with emphasis on the role (and limitations) of Hamiltonian/symplectic approaches, variational methods, oscillation-center theory, and nonlinear dynamics. It is shown how to extract a renormalized ponderomotive force from the statistical equations of plasma turbulence, and the possibility of a renormalized K–χ theorem is discussed. An unusual application of quasilinear theory to the problem of plasma equilibria in the presence of stochastic magnetic fields is described. The modern problem of zonal-flow dynamics illustrates a confluence of several techniques, including (i) the application of nonlinear-dynamics methods, especially center-manifold theory, to the problem of the transition to plasma turbulence in the face of self-generated zonal flows; and (ii) the use of Hamiltonian formalism to determine the appropriate (Casimir) invariant to be used in a novel wave-kinetic analysis of systems of interacting zonal flows and drift waves. Recent progress in the theory of intermittent chaotic statistics and the generation of coherent structures from turbulence is mentioned, and an appeal is made for some new tools to cope with these interesting and difficult problems in nonlinear plasma physics. Finally, the important influence of the intellectually stimulating research environment fostered by Prof. Allan Kaufman on the author's thinking and teaching methodology is described.


The fast Hankel transform (FHT) algorithm and complex image method (CIM) are employed to evaluate the spatial-domain Green's function for a multilayered microstrip structure. The results are compared with those obtained by exact numerical integration. It is found that both techniques have high efficiency and the FHT has better accuracy than the CIM.


The multi-hop, ad-hoc wireless networks of ODMA can be shown to reduce overall transmission power compared with single hop transmission, however, for simple receivers and low user density, the actual capacity of UTRA TDD may be marginally reduced from the maximum non-relaying capacity. This paper analyses the capacity of ODMA in relation to the coverage of a cell. It is shown that after the coverage limit of non-ODMA UTRA TDD has been reached, ODMA will provide enhanced coverage. As the number of calls and/or quality of service is decreased the cell coverage can be increased beyond conventional coverage-capacity trade-offs, allowing operators a far greater degree of flexibility.


The Internet has become an important resource for mankind. Explicitly information security is an interminable domain to the present world. Hence a more potent Intrusion Detection System (IDS) should be built. Machine Learning techniques are used in developing proficient models for IDS. Imbalanced Learning is a crucial task for many classification processes. Resampling training data towards a more balanced distribution is an effective way to combat this issue. There are most prevalent techniques like under sampling and oversampling.In this paper, the issues of imbalanced data distribution and high dimensionality are addressed using a novel oversampling technique and an innovative feature selection method respectively. Our work suggests a novel hybrid algorithm, HOK-SMOTE which considers an ordered weighted averaging (OWA) approach for choosing the best features from the KDD cup 99 data set and K-Means SMOTE for imbalanced learning. Here an ensemble model is compared against the hybrid algorithm. This ensemble integrates Support Vector Machine (SVM), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB) and Decision Tree (DT). Then weighted average voting is applied for prediction of outputs. In this work, much Experimentationwas conducted on various oversampling techniques and traditional classifiers. The results indicate that the proposed work is the most accurate one among other ML techniques. The precision, recall, F-measure, and ROC curve show notable outcomes. Hence K-Means SMOTE in parallel with ensemble learning has given satisfactory results and a precise solution to the imbalanced learning in IDS. It is ascertained whether ensemble modeling or oversampling techniques are dominating for Intrusion data set.


RAS genes encode a family of 21 kDa proteins that are an essential hub for a number of survival, proliferation, differentiation and senescence pathways. Signaling of the RAS-GTPases through the RAF-MEK-ERK pathway, the first identified mitogen-associated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade is essential in development. A group of genetic syndromes, named "RASopathies", had been identified which are caused by heterozygosity for germline mutations in genes that encode protein components of the RAS/MAPK pathway. Several of these clinically overlapping disorders, including Noonan syndrome, Noonan-like CBL syndrome, Costello syndrome, cardio-facio-cutaneous (CFC) syndrome, neurofibromatosis type I, and Legius syndrome, predispose to cancer and abnormal myelopoiesis in infancy. This review focuses on juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), a malignancy of early childhood characterized by initiating germline and/or somatic mutations in five genes of the RAS/MAPK pathway: PTPN11, CBL, NF-1, KRAS and NRAS. Natural courses of these five subtypes differ, although hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only curative therapy option for most children with JMML. With whole-exome sequencing studies revealing few secondary lesions it will be crucial to better understand the RAS/MAPK signaling network with its crosstalks and feed-back loops to carefully design early clinical trials with novel pharmacological agents in this still puzzling leukemia.


Introduction: Tissue Doppler imaging techniques (pulsed-wave TDI (pwTDI) and color-coded TDI (cTDI)) allow for the assessment of myocardial performance during the cardiac cycle. The application of such techniques in neonatology is sporadic and poorly studied. Objective: The objective of the present study was to determine average values of pwTDI indicators of left ventricular performance (maximum systolic velocity of the mitral annulus (s'), maximum velocity in early diastole (e') and maximum velocity in late diastole (a')) and to examine their dynamics in prematurely born newborns in the first week of life. Methods: Prematurely born newborns of postnatal age up to 7 days were divided by gestational age into Group1 (<28 weeks) and Group 2 (≥28 weeks). Standard pwTDI parameters (s', e' and a') were measured, compared between the groups and correlated with gestational and postnatal age, as well as application of respiratory support. Results: Fifty subjects were included (Group 1: 24; Group 2: 26). Average values of parameters s', e' and a' were: Group 1: 4.06 ± 0.78 cm/s, 3.71 ± 0.40 cm/s and 3.98 ± 1.06 cm/s, respectively; Group 2: 4.18 ± 1.22 cm/s, 4.68 ± 1.04 cm/s and 4.12 ± 0.94 cm/s, respectively. Values of parameter e' differed significantly between groups (p = 0.001) and strongly correlated with gestational age (p = 0, Pearson's R = 0.88). There was no significant difference between groups for parameters s' and a' (p = 0.42 and 0.31, respectively). The values of s', e' and a' did not differ between patients with an without respiratory support. Conclusion: Parameter e' depends on gestational age, whereas parameters s' and a' are independent of gestational age. pwTDI indicators do not change during the first week of life, nor are all robust to hemodynamic circumstances caused by invasive/non-invasive respiratory support.


40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology reveals that turbidite-hosted gold deposits in the southern Alaska accretionary prism are the same age as nearby near-trench plutons. These early Tertiary plutons and gold lodes formed above a slab window during subduction of an oceanic spreading center. Ridge subduction is a previously unrecognized tectonic process for the generation of lode gold.


In mammals, selection of the appropriate food types from the available ones in the environment, is one of the main problems which offspring have to solve at weaning. Investigation of the mother's mouth by the offspring could be the best strategy for getting this information. Under laboratory conditions we studied the role played by the mother in the transmission of food selectivity to offspring in Akodon azarae. Offspring spent more time smelling the mother's mouth when she had eaten unfamiliar food (squash or potato) than when mothers had eaten familiar food (sunflower seeds). After a period of interaction between the mother and the offspring, pups ate larger quantities of being the food type that had been the most selected by their mothers, independently of preference ranking (squash and potato the less preferred type of food). We concluded that mothers in A. azarae play an active role in the transmission of food selectivity to their offspring.


A submanifold M of a Sasakian manifold with structure tensors (φ,G, ξ) is said to be totally real if each tangent space of M is mapped into the normal space by the structure tensor φ. The theory of such a submanifold was studied from two different points of view, namely, one is the case where totally real submanifolds are tangent to the structure vector field ξ , and the other is the case where those are normal to ξ (cf. [10], [12]). Many subjects for totally real submanifolds in a Sasakian manifold were investigated from various points of view [2], [3], [4], [5], [8], [14], etc. One of which done by Ki, Kameda and Yamaguchi [3] asserts the following:


Paleopathology is fundamental in archaeology, as it may provide information concerning the health conditions and the general life quality in a historical context. In order to outline a thorough profile of the subject or the examined population, the comparison with modern clinical literature is essential since it allows one to obtain more details, such as the specific malformations and degree of invalidity due to disease. This study reports a case of left humeroulnar synostosis found in the burial chambers of the ancient hospital of Milan. Clinical literature suggests that the subject may be affected by a congenital synostosis, probably related to a genetic disease such as Pfeiffer and Roberts syndrome. Consequently, the individual suffered from a limitation in movements and possibly from other malformations (alterations of lower limbs and inner viscera) which may have caused invalidity and social disadvantage. The authors report a particular case of a congenital disease in a specific historical context and highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the study of ancient bones.


The 50th Annual Meeting of Representatives from Clinical Laboratories, National University Hospitals, chaired by the University of the Ryukyus, was held in Okinawa from May 29 to 30, 2003. With the common understanding that two environmental changes surrounding clinical laboratories will soon greatly influence laboratory management and activities, the representatives tried to find a workable approach for improving our standpoint and functions. First, reorganization of all the National University Hospitals to agencies will drive clinical laboratories toward having financial management skill based on cost-effect balance. Second, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is currently trying to change the constitution of National University Hospitals. At the meeting, a total of 10 working groups proposed several action plans and the participants exchanged ideas and opinions for the future. However, nobody knows whether the coming years will be fruitful.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Heart failure (HF) is the most common long-term complication of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Understanding plasma proteins associated with post-MI HF and their gene expression may identify new candidates for biomarker and drug target discovery. Methods: We used aptamer-based affinity-capture plasma proteomics to measure 1305 plasma proteins at 1 month post-MI in a New Zealand cohort (CDCS [Coronary Disease Cohort Study]) including 181 patients post-MI who were subsequently hospitalized for HF in comparison with 250 patients post-MI who remained event free over a median follow-up of 4.9 years. We then correlated plasma proteins with left ventricular ejection fraction measured at 4 months post-MI and identified proteins potentially coregulated in post-MI HF using weighted gene co-expression network analysis. A Singapore cohort (IMMACULATE [Improving Outcomes in Myocardial Infarction through Reversal of Cardiac Remodelling]) of 223 patients post-MI, of which 33 patients were hospitalized for HF (median follow-up, 2.0 years), was used for further candidate enrichment of plasma proteins by using Fisher meta-analysis, resampling-based statistical testing, and machine learning. We then cross-referenced differentially expressed proteins with their differentially expressed genes from single-cell transcriptomes of nonmyocyte cardiac cells isolated from a murine MI model, and single-cell and single-nucleus transcriptomes of cardiac myocytes from murine HF models and human patients with HF. Results: In the CDCS cohort, 212 differentially expressed plasma proteins were significantly associated with subsequent HF events. Of these, 96 correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction measured at 4 months post-MI. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis prioritized 63 of the 212 proteins that demonstrated significantly higher correlations among patients who developed post-MI HF in comparison with event-free controls (data set 1). Cross-cohort meta-analysis of the IMMACULATE cohort identified 36 plasma proteins associated with post-MI HF (data set 2), whereas single-cell transcriptomes identified 15 gene-protein candidates (data set 3). The majority of prioritized proteins were of matricellular origin. The 6 most highly enriched proteins that were common to all 3 data sets included well-established biomarkers of post-MI HF: N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide and troponin T, and newly emergent biomarkers, angiopoietin-2, thrombospondin-2, latent transforming growth factor-β binding protein-4, and follistatin-related protein-3, as well. Conclusions: Large-scale human plasma proteomics, cross-referenced to unbiased cardiac transcriptomics at single-cell resolution, prioritized protein candidates associated with post-MI HF for further mechanistic and clinical validation.


When learning content knowledge is not enough in an academic subject, knowledge application becomes the teaching goal. Using the Team-Based Learning approach has proved to be an excellent instructional method for this purpose. The aim of this article is to present a design I have devised for the subject of Pragmatics exploring TBL's pedagogical potential. My research is enriched exploring the insight of Project-Based Learning: choosing challenging taks. I have used a descriptive-comparative methodology for my design's premises, and the qualitative method of supporting my claims with my students' reflective appraisals. Results: the pedagogical values and success of this design.


It is now more than 8 years, since the first cloned pig from nuclear transfer was reported. Success of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in pig is still low compared to that in bovine. Embryonic and neonatal abnormalities of cloned piglets are probably a result of incorrect or incomplete reprogramming of the transferred donor cell nuclei. Recently, technical refinements have resulted in a considerable increase of SCNT efficiency. The current level of efficiency is already sufficient for special purposes with high scientific and commercial impact including xenotransplantation, generation of human disease models and for biomedical studies. In this paper, we review current pig cloning methodologies for the technical and potential applications. Key words : Pig, somatic cell, nuclear transfer, oocyte and embryo.


Abstract The beatific vision is widely perceived as a Roman Catholic doctrine. Many continue to view deification as a distinctively Eastern Orthodox doctrine incompatible with the Western theological tradition, especially its Protestant expressions. This essay will demonstrate that several Reformers of the first and second generation promoted a vision of redemption that culminates with deification and beatific vision. They affirmed these concepts without apology in confessional statements, dogmatic works, biblical commentaries, and polemical treatises. Attention will focus on figures in the Reformed tradition though one could produce similar surveys for the Lutheran and Anglican branches of the Reformation as well. John Calvin will receive extended treatment because some scholars dispute whether he affirmed deification. This essay presents important evidence thus far overlooked which should settle the question.


ABSTRACT Since its publication in 1979, Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases (PPID) has become an essential element of every medical library. Infectious diseases clinicians have well-worn home or office copies to which they repeatedly turn. Other less complete infectious diseases texts have come and gone, but with each revision PPID remains the standard. The latest edition, a beautifully packaged two-volume opus of nearly 3000 pages, raises the measure of excellence to a new level.How does one review a book of this size? Clearly, reading every word (an estimated 2½ million words of text, not counting tens of thousands in the extensive literature citations) in each of the 302 chapters is nearly impossible. Even if one could read technical material at a breakneck and nonstop pace of 300 words per minute, over 140 hours, or more than two weeks of eight-hour days (including weekends), would be required! Lacking the luxury,


Chatbots are software programs that interact with clients using natural languages. The motto of the researchers was to know if chatbots can able to fool the clients that they were real humans. To develop a chatbot that can pass the Turing test, plenty of effort done with the introduction of the ELIZA chatbot in the year 1966. Various approaches for the development of chatbots and different technologies in the creation of chatbots developed because of those efforts. NLTK is a module in python which can able to perform Natural Language Processing. It is used to analyse the input in the form of speech and generate responses that are similar to humans. Nowadays there is a lot of demand for virtual assistants such as Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant and Alexa, and speech-based search engines. Nowadays Chatbots are gaining massive demand mainly in the business sector for automating client service and also for reducing efforts of humans. Chatbots typically used for information acquisition in dialogue systems. To perfectly imitate a human response, a chatbot should examine the query asked by a client correctly and design an appropriate response. In this study we compare and discuss the different technologies used in the chatbots and also address the design and implementation of a chatbot system.


AIMS
As melatonin has been found to play a role in the mechanisms of cardiovascular regulation, we designed the present study to evaluate whether the evening ingestion of the pineal hormone might interfere with the antihypertensive therapy in hypertensive patients well-controlled by nifedipine monotherapy.

METHODS
Forty-seven mild to moderate essential hypertensive outpatients taking nifedipine GITS 30 or 60 mg monotherapy at 08.30 h for at least 3 months, were given placebo or melatonin 5 mg at 22.30 h for 4 weeks according to a double-blind cross-over study. At the end of each treatment period patients underwent a 24 h noninvasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) during usual working days; sleeping period was scheduled to last from 23.00 to 07.00 h.

RESULTS
The evening administration of melatonin induced an increase of blood pressure and heart rate throughout the 24 h period (DeltaSBP = + 6.5 mmHg, P < 0.001; DeltaDBP = + 4.9 mmHg, P < 0.01; DeltaHR = + 3.9 beats min-1, P < 0.01). The DBP as well as the HR increase were particularly evident during the morning and the afternoon hours.

CONCLUSIONS
We hypothesize that competition between melatonin and nifedipine, is able to impair the antihypertensive efficacy of the calcium channel blocker. This suggests caution in uncontrolled use of melatonin in hypertensive patients. As the pineal hormone might interfere with calcium channel blocker therapy, it cannot be considered simply a dietary supplement.


Core communication networks have seen significant traffic increases in recent years, and availability requirements also continue to increase. This fact has led to a wide array of network design improvements, particularly in the area of network survivability. The various survivability mechanisms and accompanying design models that have been developed use diverse strategies to provision spare capacity throughout a network to restore traffic in case of a failure. The break of a fiber line continues to be the most common type of network failure, and this paper addresses at a common protection mechanism called shared backup path protection (SBPP), which is quite efficient at dealing with this type of failure. SBPP is a popular survivability mechanism, and there has been a significant amount of work done with it in recent years. However, the SBPP integer linear program (ILP) design model has proven difficult to solve using reasonable computing and time resources. While many algorithms and heuristics have been developed to design SBPP-based networks, it has been difficult to know how well these designs perform compared to ILP optimized networks. This paper presents a new SBPP-type protection mechanism and accompanying ILP model that solves in a couple orders of magnitude less time than the benchmark approach by allowing multiple working and backup routes (we compare to one representative version of the traditional approach as our benchmark). This new mechanism and accompanying model will allow better benchmarking of SBPP-like network designs, and enhance further study into the performance of SBPP relative to other network survivability approaches.


Due to the environmental concerns of solventborne coating systems, environmental directives have recently been promulgated in many countries. Additionally, integrated environmental policies have been pushed in many fields to minimise influences on the environment. Waterborne silicon acrylic finishers have gained much interest to replace the traditional finishing system. To satisfy the requirements, a waterborne finisher with polyamide was previously developed and its performance was determined. For further safety assessment, various tests were conducted, such as gas toxicity, heavy metals tests, chemical resistance test and chloride migration test, followed by equivalent standards. In the cases of gas toxicity and heavy metals evaluations, both results were acceptable considering their corresponding standards, e.g. KS F 2271, KS F 3888-2 and BS EN 71-3. Based on the evaluation, silicon acrylic with 30% mix ratio of polyamide resin (SA+PR30%) could be implemented as an environmentally friendly finisher for various applications. In the chemical resistance and chloride migration test results, the developed finisher showed a barrier effect in the chemical environment. Thus, the developed finisher could be an alternative finisher applicable for slabs in chemical industrial areas.


Context. Type II Cepheids (T2Cs) are radially pulsating variables that trace old stellar populations and provide distance estimates through their period-luminosity (PL) relation.
Aims. We trace the structure of old stellar population in the Galactic bulge using new distance estimates and kinematic properties of T2Cs.
Methods. We present new near-infrared photometry of T2Cs in the bulge from the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea survey (VVV). We provide the largest sample (894 stars) of T2Cs with JHKs observations that have accurate periods from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) catalog. Our analysis makes use of the Ks-band time-series observations to estimate mean magnitudes and individual distances by means of the PL relation. To constrain the kinematic properties of our targets, we complement our analysis with proper motions based on both the VVV and Gaia Data Release 2.
Results. We derive an empirical Ks-band PL relation that depends on Galactic longitude and latitude: Ks0 = (10.66 ± 0.02) − (2.21 ± 0.03)·(log P−1.2)−(0.020±0.003)·l+(0.050±0.008)·|b| mag; individual extinction corrections are based on a 3D reddening map. Our targets display a centrally concentrated distribution, with solid evidence of ellipsoidal symmetry – similar to the RR Lyræ ellipsoid – and a few halo outliers up to ≳100 kpc. We obtain a distance from the Galactic center of R0 = 8.46 ± 0.03(stat.) ± 0.11(syst.) kpc. We also find evidence that the bulge T2Cs belong to a kinematically hot population, as the tangential velocity components (συl∗ = 104.2 ± 3.0kms−1 and συb = 96.8 ± 5.5kms−1) agree within 1.2σ. Moreover, the difference between absolute and relative proper motion is in good agreement with the proper motion of Sgr A✻ from VLBA measures.
Conclusions. We conclude that bulge T2Cs display an ellipsoidal spatial distribution and have kinematics similar to RR Lyræ stars, which are other tracers of the old, low-mass stellar population. T2Cs also provide an estimate of R0 that agrees excellently well with the literature, taking account of the reddening law.


A physical model of the screen printing process is described. Interrupted printing tests provided guiding information on the flow pattern in the paste during the deposition process. The paste flow region ahead of the squeegee was divided into three regions: the pressurization region (region I), the downward screen cross-flow region (region II), and the paste accumulation region (region III). During printing, the squeegee tip becomes deformed and its angle of attack decreases. Region I extends from the leading edge of the deformed squeegee tip to the beginning of the deformation region. As a result of pressure buildup in region I ahead of the squeegee, there is a flow of paste under the squeegee. The paste deposition process depends mainly on the flow process in region I. Analysis of experiments indicates that the squeegees used deform so that their fronts can be approximated by a wedge. The angles of hard squeegees decrease by approximately 20 degrees from the undeformed angle of 45 degrees . The corresponding angle decrease for soft squeegees is on the order of 30-40 degrees . The vertical forces acting on the squeegees were estimated to be between 60 and 47 lbf. The average speed of the paste under the squeegee, caused by the developed hydrodynamic pressure, was found to be between 0.1 and 0.2 of the squeegee speed. >


Abstract Background: The aim of the study was to identify and evaluate potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) in geriatric patients using Beers criteria and also to identify adverse drug events (ADEs) due to PIMs and various drug-drug interactions. Methods: The medications in the prescriptions of patients above 60 years of age, their dosage regimen respective of their diagnosis were analyzed. Each medication was then checked with Beers list tables, and any medication if mentioned in the Beers list, was noted along with its strength of recommendation and quality of evidence. Any adverse drug event (ADE) due to PIM was identified. Causality of the events was assessed by Naranjo's Scale. The number of drug-drug interactions per prescription and the severity of each interaction were also analyzed. The collected data from 200 subjects were subjected to statistical treatments using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 16.0 for WINDOWS. Results: Based on the Beers criteria 2012, 106 out of 200 (53%) prescriptions had at least one PIM prescribed. A sum of 1690 medications was prescribed as a whole for the entire study subjects. Among which, 134 PIMs were identified. Most commonly prescribed PIMs were benzodiazepines (39, 19.5%), followed by sliding scale use of insulin (31, 15.5%), and prazosin at a rate of 11.5% (23). A total of 10 ADEs were identified during the study. The average number of drug interactions observed among total samples was found to be 3.0±6.0 with 0±5.0 serious interactions, 2±4.0 significant interactions requiring close monitoring, and 0±6.0 minor interactions. Conclusions: The study shows high prevalence of prescribing PIMs in hospitalized elderly patients; PIM also caused incidence of ADEs; and serious drug-drug interactions were scarce among the patients.


This paper proposes low-complexity algorithms for finding approximate second-order stationary points (SOSPs) of problems with smooth non-convex objective and linear constraints. While finding (approximate) SOSPs is computationally intractable, we first show that generic instances of the problem can be solved efficiently. More specifically, for a generic problem instance, certain strict complementarity (SC) condition holds for all Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) solutions (with probability one). The SC condition is then used to establish an equivalence relationship between two different notions of SOSPs, one of which is computationally easy to verify. Based on this particular notion of SOSP, we design an algorithm named the Successive Negative-curvature grAdient Projection (SNAP), which successively performs either conventional gradient projection or some negative curvature based projection steps to find SOSPs. SNAP and its first-order extension SNAP$^+$, require $\mathcal{O}(1/\epsilon^{2.5})$ iterations to compute an $(\epsilon, \sqrt{\epsilon})$-SOSP, and their per-iteration computational complexities are polynomial in the number of constraints and problem dimension. To our knowledge, this is the first time that first-order algorithms with polynomial per-iteration complexity and global sublinear rate have been designed to find SOSPs of the important class of non-convex problems with linear constraints.


We present Pactole , a formal framework to design and prove the correctness of protocols (or the impossibility of their existence) that target mobile robotic swarms. Unlike previous approaches, our methodology unifies in a single formalism the execution model, the problem specification, the protocol, and its proof of correctness. The Pactole framework makes use of the Coq proof assistant, and is specially targeted at protocol designers and problem specifiers, so that a common unambiguous language is used from the very early stages of protocol development. We stress the underlying framework design principles to enable high expressivity and modularity, and provide concrete examples about how the Pactole framework can be used to tackle actual problems, some previously addressed by the Distributed Computing community, but also new problems, while being certified correct. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Distributed computing models; Theory of computation → Self-organization


Significance This paper shows that naturally embedding primes within a person's speech and gestures effectively influences people's decision making. Likewise, our results dovetail findings from choice blindness literature, illustrating that people often do not know the real reason for their choice. Magicians' forcing techniques may provide a powerful and reliable way of studying these mental processes, and our paper illustrates how this can be done. Moreover, our results raise the possibility that this form of mind control could be used to effectively manipulate other mental processes. Past research demonstrates that unconscious primes can affect people's decisions. However, these free choice priming paradigms present participants with very few alternatives. Magicians' forcing techniques provide a powerful tool to investigate how natural implicit primes can unconsciously influence decisions with multiple alternatives. We used video and live performances of the mental priming force. This technique uses subtle nonverbal and verbal conversational primes to influence spectators to choose the three of diamonds. Our results show that a large number of participants chose the target card while reporting feeling free and in control of their choice. Even when they were influenced by the primes, participants typically failed to give the reason for their choice. These results show that naturally embedding primes within a person's speech and gestures effectively influenced people's decision making. This raises the possibility that this form of mind control could be used to effectively manipulate other mental processes.


AbstractSevere burn and infection to hands always involves the deep structures, such as tendons, joints, and bones. These wounds cannot be closed immediately and therefore creates a high risk for complication. We presented 9 cases with deep dermal burns to the dorsal of the hand (6 electrical burns and 3 thermal crush injuries) with wound infections in 2 cases. The vacuum-assisted closure system was used continuously until the flap reconstruction was performed. A random pattern and superthin abdominal wall skin flap-like glove was designed. The flap was transferred to the defected portion of the dorsum of the hand and resected from the abdominal wall about 3 weeks later. The flaps in 8 of the patients treated by this technique survived completely and partial necrosis of the distal flap occurred in 1 patient. The defect resolved after operative treatment and the function of the hands and fingers were successfully salvaged. All patients resulted in having a satisfactory aesthetic outcome with no or minor discomfort at the abdominal donor area. Integration of the vacuum-assisted closure system and the superthin abdominal wall glove-like flap reconstruction appeared to be successful and should be considered in patients with severely burned hands.


The diverse community of scientists involved in Deep Inelastic Scattering includes about 2000 experimental and theoretical physicists worldwide and envisages projects such as the EIC, LHeC, FCC-eh and VHEeP as future lepton-hadron scattering facilities. The proposed facilities will address fundamental questions in strong interaction / QCD physics, including a first-ever tomographic mapping of the hadrons' internal structure, a solution to the proton mass and spin problems, understanding of the high-energy structure of hadronic matter and insight into connections between gravity and the strong interactions. They also extend and enhance the CERN programme of searches for new physics at the energy frontier, through a standalone precision Higgs and top programme, considerable sensitivity to the direct production of new particles and the most precise determinations of proton and nuclear structure in the kinematic range that is relevant to the LHC. In particular, we highlight the complementary aspects of the different lepton-hadron projects, and underscore how all are required to provide a complete characterization of the physics across the full kinematic reach. This review of the proposed facilities and their vast potential for particle physics was inspired by the discussions in the 2018 "DIS and Related Subjects" Workshop.


This study applied reaction-time based methods to assess the workload capacity of binaural integration by comparing reaction time (RT) distributions for monaural and binaural tone-in-noise detection tasks. In the diotic contexts, an identical tone + noise stimulus was presented to each ear. In the dichotic contexts, an identical noise was presented to each ear, but the tone was presented to one of the ears 180° out of phase with respect to the other ear. Accuracy-based measurements have demonstrated a much lower signal detection threshold for the dichotic vs. the diotic conditions, but accuracy-based techniques do not allow for assessment of system dynamics or resource allocation across time. Further, RTs allow comparisons between these conditions at the same signal-to-noise ratio. Here, we apply a reaction-time based capacity coefficient, which provides an index of workload efficiency and quantifies the resource allocations for single ear vs. two ear presentations. We demonstrate that the release from masking generated by the addition of an identical stimulus to one ear is limited-to-unlimited capacity (efficiency typically less than 1), consistent with less gain than would be expected by probability summation. However, the dichotic presentation leads to a significant increase in workload capacity (increased efficiency)—most specifically at lower signal-to-noise ratios. These experimental results provide further evidence that configural processing plays a critical role in binaural masking release, and that these mechanisms may operate more strongly when the signal stimulus is difficult to detect, albeit still with nearly 100% accuracy.


Nitric oxide (NO) at high concentration (approx. 33 microM) produced a marked excitation: increase of tension development or increase in amplitude of spontaneous contraction, in 7 out of 8 rabbit nonpregnant myometrial strips. One case produced an inhibition: disappearance of spontaneous contraction. A latent period of several sec usually preceded the excitation. The response of the myometrium to NO approx. 33 microM associated with remarkable increase in tissue cyclic GMP levels. NO approx. 33 microM reduced an inhibition, in 1 out of 3 myometrial strips taken from ovariectomized rabbits. Two cases produced an excitatory. A precursor of NO, L-Arginine 100 microM or an inhibitor of NO synthase, NG-nitro-L-arginine 100 microM also produced a transient weak excitatory response. On the contrary, 8-bromo-cyclic GMP 100 microM produced an inhibition. The excitatory response to NO 33 microM was almost unaffected by pretreatment with indomethacin 10 microM, whereas the spontaneous motility was remarkably depressed. The contractile response of the isolated rabbit myometrium to electrical field stimulation was almost unaffected by the pretreatment with L-arginine 100 microM or NG-nitro-L-arginine 100 microM. The present findings may indicate that NO has inhibitory and excitatory components on the mechanical activity of the rabbit isolated myometrium.


Note From the Writing Group: Throughout this article, the reader will notice combinations of superscripted letters and numbers (eg, "Peripartum SuctioningNRP-011A, NRP-012A"). These callouts are hyperlinked to evidence-basedworksheets, whichwere used in the development of this article. An appendix of worksheets, applicable to this article, is located at the end of the text. The worksheets are available in PDF format and are open access.


In order to better understand the Phytophthora infestans population structure in South Korea, 172 isolates were collected between 2009 and 2016 from four major potato cultivation areas. Fungicide (metalaxyl and dimethomorph) response, mating type, and microsatellite (SSR) genetic fingerprints were analysed to characterize these isolates. Ten isolates collected in Gyeongnam Province, which specializes in protected winter cultivation in polytunnels, were A2 mating type. All other isolates were A1 mating type. Overall, 42% of the isolates were resistant to metalaxyl, and 43% were sensitive. All isolates were sensitive to dimethomorph. From the SSR fingerprints, 45 distinct genotypes were identified, which could be clustered into four clonal lineages: KR_1_A1, KR_2_A2, SIB-1, and US-11. KR_1_A1 was the predominant P. infestans genotype in South Korea. KR_2_A2 was only found in Gyeongnam Province; all isolates were A2 mating type and resistant to metalaxyl. SIB-1 was dominant until 2013 but its frequency has gradually decreased in more recent years. US-11 was first found in 2014, after which its frequency has increased to become codominant with KR_1_A1. The calculated standardized index of association (IA) suggests that the South Korean P. infestans population is undergoing clonal reproduction. When compared with populations of P. infestans from the Netherlands, it has less genetic diversity and the dominant Netherlands P. infestans genotype, EU_13_A2 (Blue_13), was not found in South Korea. Such monitoring of the pathogen population contributes to a more efficient integrated pest management-based control strategy for potato late blight control in South Korea.


We derive the most up-to-date Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) blazar luminosity function in the 14–195 keV range, making use of a clean sample of 118 blazars detected in the BAT 105 month survey catalog, with newly obtained redshifts from the BAT Active Galatic Nucleus Spectroscopic Survey. We determine the best-fit X-ray luminosity function for the whole blazar population, as well as for flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) alone. The main results are: (1) at any redshift, BAT detects the most luminous blazars, above any possible break in their luminosity distribution, which means we cannot differentiate between density and luminosity evolution; (2) the whole blazar population, dominated by FSRQs, evolves positively up to redshift z ∼ 4.3, confirming earlier results and implying lower number densities of blazars at higher redshifts than previously estimated. The contribution of this source class to the cosmic X-ray background at 14–195 keV can range from 5%–18%, while possibly accounting for 100% of the MeV background. We also derived the average 14 keV–10 GeV spectral energy distribution for BAT blazars, which allows us to predict the number counts of sources in the MeV range, as well as the expected number of high-energy (>100 TeV) neutrinos. A mission like COSI will detect 40 MeV blazars, of which two may have coincident neutrino detections. Finally, taking into account beaming selection effects, the distribution and properties of the parent population of these extragalactic jets are derived. We find that the distribution of viewing angles is quite narrow, with most sources aligned within <5° of the line of sight. Moreover, the average Lorentz factor, 〈Γ〉 = 8–12, is lower than previously suggested for these powerful sources.


Pair wise comparison (PC) is a well-established method to assist decision makers in estimating their preferences. This paper presents an open-source priority estimation tool (PriEsT) that has been developed to offer new features related to the PC method. PriEsT is able to assist decision makers (DMs) in revising their judgments based on different consistency measures and graphical aids. When inconsistency cannot be improved due to practical limitations, PriEsT offers a wide range of Pareto-optimal solutions based on multi-objective optimization, unlike other tools which offer only a single solution. DMs have the flexibility to select any of these non-dominated solutions according to their requirements. Using PriEsT, DMs can also perform Sensitivity Analysis to analyze how sensitive the solution is to changes in input data. The features of PriEsT have been demonstrated and evaluated via a real-world case study: an application to select the most appropriate Telecom infrastructure for rural areas. In the case study, the use of PriEsT has highlighted the presence of intransitive judgments in the acquired data. It has been found that correcting these judgments leads to a different ranking of the available alternatives. The generated solutions have also been tested for their sensitivity against small changes in the judgments.


The analysis of 19 operations of the replacement of the ureter with an intestine performed from 1965 to 1977 permitted to draw the conclusion on the advantages of the ileum for the replacement of the ureter. The other advantages of this operation are the following: one-stage performance of the operation, laparotomy approach, intra-abdominal and isoperistaltic localization of the graft, preservation of the natural ureter together with the new intestine-formed one, postoperative drainage-free management.


Some commentators have responded to the rapidly developing world of telecommunications, and particularly the Internet, by arguing that the government should act proactively ? before a harm has arisen, so that the government can push developments along the appropriate path. Such regulations will often affect speech interests and thus should, and will, be subject to rigorous First Amendment scrutiny. Commentators have thus far largely ignored, however, the question of how First Amendment scrutiny should apply to such proactive legislation. This article addresses that issue, finding that First Amendment principles dictate a presumption against legislation that is based on predictive harms. After discussing the basis for this presumption, I consider when the presumption might be overcome, concluding that a likelihood of irreparable harm would defeat it. The article then examines whether courts should defer to legislative predictions of such harm. I find that a principle of redundancy is appropriate, such that courts should not defer to legislative findings of a likelihood of irreparable harm and instead should make independent determinations.


The aim of the present thesis is directed towards the comprehension of the mechanisms involved in the regulation of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in relevant species in European aquaculture. Special attention has been placed on adipose tissue due to its key role in the control of the overall energy homeostasis and its endocrine functions. Six diets were formulated to determine the feasibility of replacing dietary lipids (from 23 to 17%) by starch (from 12 to 28%) and subsequent replacements in starch by fibre up to levels of 18% in gilthead sea bream. The dietary treatments did not affect fish growth nor feed utilization efficiency and triggered only moderate changes in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Gilthead sea bream adipose tissue exhibited an activation of the lipogenic pathway and a transcriptional regulation of relevant transcription factors directed to modulate the preferential use of lipids or carbohydrates according to availability. Despite of a lack of hepatic regulation of gluconeogenesis, an efficient metabolic hepatic adaptation to dietary starch was found through the modulation of enzymes directed to increase glucose metabolization and balance fatty acid uptake and lipolysis. These metabolic adaptations encourage the formulation of diets with a relatively high content of starch or fibre. In addition, the capacity of Atlantic salmon adipocytes to synthesise fatty acids from glucose has been demonstrated for the first time. However, the capacity of the pathway is relatively low, which might be contributing to the previously reported glucose intolerance in salmonids. Atlantic salmon adipocytes mainly transformed glucose to glycerol and Krebs-cycle intermediates. The effect of glucose on the transcriptional regulation of enzymes involved in glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway and glyceroneogenesis, highlights the relevance of carbohydrate metabolism in fish adipocytes as well as the metabolic adaptation of these cells to ensure the availability of necessary factors and other substrates for lipid synthesis and storage. The implication of adiponectin and TNF? in the regulation of glucose uptake in rainbow trout adipocytes has been explored, showing that both adipokines stimulated glucose uptake without modifying AKT or TOR phosphorylation. However, adiponectin failed to stimulate glucose uptake in insulin-treated adipocytes. Insulin regulated the transcription of the adiponectin system enhancing the mRNA levels of the peptide and reducing those of adiponectin receptors, following the mammalian model. However, neither adiponectin nor TNF? mRNA levels were affected by each other, concluding that the reciprocal suppressive effects reported in mammals are not conserved in fish. TNF? supressed PPAR? at a protein level, corroborating its anti-adipogenic role. However, TNF? enhanced glucose uptake in insulin-stimulated adipocytes, suggesting that the interactions between this cytokine and insulin are not so well defined in fish. Finally, the transcriptomic profile along primary culture of rainbow trout preadipocytes has been characterized revealing that adipogenesis is a complex process involving the coordinated activation or repression of genes associated to the different stages of cell development. It presented high similarities to the mammalian model, being characterized by two main phases: proliferation and differentiation. Proliferation phase was enriched with genes involved in cellular remodelling, autophagy and angiogenesis. In addition, the implication of the eicosanoid signalling pathway was highlighted during this phase. Differentiation phase was enriched with genes involved in energy production, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. During this phase, the activation of the TR/RXR and the PPAR signalling pathways were revealed. The whole process was driven by a coordinated activation of transcription factors and epigenetic modulators. Overall, these studies have contributed to better understand the mechanisms regulating lipid and carbohydrate metabolisms in teleost fish, as well as adipose tissue growth and development. All this information might be applied to modulate and optimize farming practices.


In the last 15 years, significant progress in the management of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been achieved with several new agents licensed extending median overall survival for stage IV disease to about 2 years. Treatment of CRC is stage-specific, multidisciplinary, and based on patient and tumor characteristics. Although especially early stages (0–III, according to Union for International Cancer Control) are treated with curative intent, patients with limited stage IV disease (liver and/or lung or localized peritoneal metastases) might still be curable in a multimodality approach including surgery, perioperative chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Despite the broad variety of prognostic factors, treatment decisions and selection of drugs are mainly based on clinicopathologic variables for early stage CRC, extent of disease, potential resectability, patients' eligibility to receive aggressive treatments including chemotherapy, surgery, and very few molecular markers such as KRAS mutational status for advanced disease. However, a tailored approach for the treatment of CRC taking into account all mentioned factors is currently recommended by national and international guidelines and will be discussed in this review.


omega-Methacryloyloxyalkyl phosphorylcholine (MA-PC) polymers which have been synthesized with attention to the surface structure of a biomembrane show excellent blood compatibility, i.e., resistance to protein adsorption and blood cell adhesion. To clarify the stability of platelets in contact with the MAPC polymer surfaces, cytoplasmic free calcium concentration ([Ca2+],) in the platelets was measured. A platelet suspension was passed through a column packed with various polymer beads after treatment with plasma, and the [Ca2+]i in the platelets eluted from the column was measured. The [Ca2+]i in contact with the MAPC polymers, i.e., poly[2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine-co-nbutyl methacrylate (BMA)] (PMEB) and poly(6-methacryloyloxyhexyl phosphorylcholine-co-BMA) (PMHB), was less than that in contact with poly(BMA). However, poly(10-methacryloyloxydecyl phosphorylcholine-co-BMA) (PMDB) was not effective in suppressing the increase in [Ca2+]i, and thus was at the same level as in the poly(BMA). This result indicated that platelets in contact with PMEB or PMHB were less activated compared with those in contact with PMDB and poly(BMA). Moreover, the state of the platelets adhered to these polymer surfaces, both morphologically and immunologically, was examined. Scanning electron microscopic observation of the polymer surface after contact with a platelet suspension revealed that many platelets adhered and changed their shape on the poly(BMA). The numbers of adhetent platelets were reduced on all MAPC polymer surface. The relative amount of alpha-granule membrane glycoprotein (GMP-140) which appears on the cell membrane by activation of platelets on the PMEB surfaces was less than that on poly(BMA) and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate). These results suggest that PMEB and PMHB suppressed not only platelet adhesion but also activation of the platelets in contact with these surface.


In 1863, Sarah Josepha Hale rejoiced that after a decades-long campaign, Thanksgiving had become a national holiday. Hale was not alone in her desire to unite patriotism with spiritual devotion. In her personal correspondence with the president, Eliza Gurney also spoke of the blessings God had bestowed on the nation. Gurney, a devoted Quaker, had met with Lincoln in 1861 to give him spiritual comfort and had continued writing with him ever since. After his public proclamation of Thanksgiving, Gurney wrote to him to demonstrate her "cordial approval of thy late excellent proclamation appointing a day of thanksgiving" despite the fact that as a Quaker she did "not set apart especial seasons for returning thanks." Gurney saw the holiday as an effective means of making less devout Americans conscious of their God-given blessings and thus supported the federal holiday even while she refused to celebrate it.


Three cases of suicide by single bullet injury to head by home-made guns with immediate incapacitation are reported in following article. Zip gun (home-made gun) is a improvised firearm, usually a handgun. Home-made guns are almost always single-shot, as the improvised construction sometimes makes them weak enough to be destroyed by the act of firing. Zip guns are mostly smoothbore. Zip gun injuries, although unique today, represent a special category of missile injury with atypical low velocity terminal ballistics.


Genetic variability studies and molecular level understanding of Fe translocation and homeostasis paved the way for combining the desirable grain characters of improved varieties with high iron content in grains. The objectives of the experiment were to ev concentration and candidate gene markers associated with this trait among 160 recombinant inbred lines population derived from a cross between IRRI 38 and Jeerige sanna, of rice and validate the putative markers in another biparental RILs mapping population. Grain iron concentration in RILs ranged from 7.20 ppm to 24.00 ppm with an average of 11.30 ppm. Out of 41 candidate gene markers, 11 showed polymorphism between parents. It included 8 putative candidate gene markers, 2 candidate gene ba and one SSR marker. Single marker analysis of 11 polymorphic markers on RILs mapping population showed that four gene specific markers viz.OsNRAMP5g, OsMTP1a, OsYSL4e and OsZIP8a and one candidate gene based SSR primer; iRMm9-1 is associated with grain Fe concentration. Validation of these markers on 69 segregants of another mapping population showed that only two markers OsYSL4e and OsZIP8a are significantly associated with grain Fe concentration with phenotypic variance of 11.9% and 9.2% respectively. Thus the high priority candidate genes for high Fe in grains identified in this study are located on 5 and 7 chromosomes respectively.


"'Reading Emotional Bodies' utilizes the history of emotions, phenomenology, and gender theory to argue for a culturally specific performance of love in medieval English literature. Texts such as Sir Launfal' and 'Ywain and Gawain' reveal an English performance of love and its ties to performances of masculinity that differ from their Old French sources. The selections of John Gower's 'Confessio Amantis' found in Cambridge University Library MS Ff.1.6 offer further support for an English performance of love as an emotion. Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde' presents a critique of late medieval feminine embodiment and the bodily expressions of love and the 'Legend of Good Women' not only supports Chaucer's critique found in the 'Troilus,' but also subverts the culturally acceptable and expected literary presentation of women."


This policy analysis identifies and critiques dominant narratives in the school-based mental health (SBMH) movement in Canada, with an eye to the ideas and resources being mobilized. The policy narratives were identified as SBMH problems and solutions, represented by the websites and links to other resources of the ministries and departments of education in Canada. There are three areas under-represented in the policy narratives that deserve more nuanced attention in SBMH initiatives; these are (a) to work with educators to develop communities of practice on school mental health around the notion of resiliency, (b) to consider the structural and material factors that affect people's ability to be resilient at school, and (c) to extend the current focus on promoting student wellness to include teacher wellness. We ground these recommendations by contrasting the policy narratives with the story of our work with educators on a website about resiliency through the lenses of positive psychological health and a sociomaterial perspective on resources. We suggest that a sociomaterial approach to SBMH initiatives, using conceptual tools from implementation science and workplace psychological health, may help both students and teachers develop resiliency.


The issue of program comprehension is addressed from the software reuse perspective. In particular the identification of abstract data types in existing program code is explored. A candidature criterion is presented and a prototype implementing it is described. The criterion is applied in an experiment that analyses five very different programs and the resulting output is discussed. The work described forms part of the RE/sup 2/ project that addresses the wider issues of software reuse through the exploration of reverse engineering and re-engineering techniques to identify and extract reusable assets from existing systems.<<ETX>>


There are two major types of financial innovations: one which is profit-seeking and supply-driven; another which is mostly demand-driven, outward-looking and socially oriented. We illustrate this twofold perspective analyzing the behavior of the banking industry during the period of the subprime mortgage crisis. More precisely, we examine how the financial statements of different types of banks are linked to innovation theories. From this analysis it emerges that, unlike mainstream banking, only the so-called ethical banks can be said to be putting into effect a demand-driven type of financial innovation in their banking practice. It is also argued that this involves a distinct business model. The last part of the paper explores briefly to what extent this demand-driven innovation approach to banking makes sense in the context of the post-financial crisis.JEL Codes: G21, L19, L2, G32