As a typical multielectron cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, iron fluoride (FeF3) and its analogues suffer from poor electronic conductivity and low actual specific capacity. Herein, we introduce Ag nanoparticles by silver mirror reaction into the FeF3·0.33H2O cathode to build the electronic bridge between the solid (active materials) and liquid (electrolyte) interface. The crystal structures of as-prepared samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement. Moreover, the density of states of FeF3·0.33H2O and FeF3·0.33H2O/Ag (Ag-decorated FeF3·0.33H2O) samples are calculated using the first principle density functional theory. The FeF3·0.33H2O/Ag cathodes exhibit significant enhancements on the electrochemical performance in terms of the cycle performance and rate capability, especially for the Ag-decorated amount of 5%. It achieves an initial capacity of 168.2 mA h g-1 and retains a discharge capacity of 128.4 mA h g-1 after 50 cycles in the voltage range of 2.0-4.5 V. It demonstrates that Ag decoration can reduce the band gap, improve electronic conductivity, and elevate intercalation/deintercalation kinetics.


The goal of this study is to determine the perceptions that the teaching staff of the Faculty of Education at University of Al-Yarmouk (Jordan) have of the implementation of distance learning in virtual environments, more specifically, the professors' opinion of the potential and limitations of this educational strategy. To fulfil this goal, we developed a survey study. The main findings indicate that, overall, distance education in virtual environments has earned a good opinion among the professors who participated in the study, although the potential benefits of distance education are the most highly valued dimension. The professors rank the dimensions of goals and difficulties in implementing this educational strategy second, and planning the third and lowest dimension. Further, some identifying variables (e.g., department, gender) show statistically significant differences relative to the dimensions of the scale used.


The effects of cocaine on benzodiazepine (BZD) receptor binding in the rat brain were investigated using homogenate receptor binding and quantitative autoradiography. Although acute cocaine injections produced little or no effect on BZD binding sites, chronic administration resulted in differential effects in brain regions associated with the mesocorticolimbic and nigro-striatal dopaminergic neuronal system, respectively. BZD receptor binding was increased significantly in the caudate nucleus and decreased in the substantia nigra for up to 2 days after the final injection, whereas binding was decreased in the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex and increased in the ventral tegmental area after daily injections of cocaine for 15 days. Binding was altered significantly only in the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area 2 weeks after the final cocaine injection. Intraventricular injections of 6-hydroxydopamine attenuated or reversed the cocaine-induced changes in BZD receptor binding, suggesting that these effects were mediated, in part, through the effects of the drug on dopaminergic neuronal activity. Dopamine may be involved in the regulation of BZD receptors because 6-hydroxydopamine administration produced changes in BZD receptor binding in saline-treated rats that were generally in the opposite direction to those observed in cocaine-treated rats following sham treatment.


Structural and optical properties of Si-doped GaN thin films grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition have been studied by means of high resolution x-ray diffraction ~XRD!, atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence, photothermal deflection spectroscopy, and optical transmission measurements. The incorporation of silicon in the GaN films leads to pronounced tensile stress. The energy position of the neutral donor bound excitonic emission correlates with the measured stress. The stress induced near band gap luminescence shift is estimated to 19 62 meV/GPa. An increasing concentration of dopant impurities in the films leads to asymmetries of the XRD and photoluminescence spectra, which are probably related to a stress induced inhomogeneous distribution of dopants. Atomic force microscopy observations of surface modulation with increasing silicon doping support this latter statement. Transmission and photothermal deflection spectroscopy measurements are used to determine the band gap energy and Urbach energy of highly doped samples.


In the early-twentieth century, moves to prevent infection from tuberculosis became an integral part of local government public health schemes. While the scale of action was dependent on individual authorities and ratepayers, interest was not limited to the pulmonary form of the disease. Effort was also directed at tackling bovine tuberculosis, which by the 1890s had become "the most important disease of cows" and, with its zoonotic properties accepted, "a substantial risk to the … consumer". With meat and milk identified as the main vectors, moves to detect infected livestock and limit the spread of the disease became part of a wider preventive strategy. Measures were introduced to control the sale of tuberculous meat and milk. Eradication schemes were promoted, as concern merged with a growing interest in food safety and agriculture, and became caught up with debates on national efficiency, farming and child health.


In this paper we present the design and implementation of a space service that gives pervasive computing applications both a hierarchical and coordinate-based view of physical space. The space service supports both indoor and outdoor campus environments and, besides relational and coordinate space information, it also gives information on how spaces are connected and relevant properties of spaces. We also evaluate the effectiveness of our design using a set of diverse applications, including finding the best "walking" path between two locations, giving walking directions to people, WiFi-based localization, and drawing and annotating maps. We have found that all of our applications depend on both the hierarchical and coordinate views offered by the service, suggesting that the hybrid space model is a very powerful paradigm.


In this work, we describe a new method of using long-term evolution (LTE) telecommunication infrastructure to sense environmental changes. We call it LTE communication-based sensing (Com-mSense). It can be used in various environment-sensing tasks, e.g., sea level monitoring, security of large unmanned landscapes, snow avalanche monitoring, and activity detection inside forests. The main concept of this technology is to focus on the known signal embedded in the data frames. It compares the received signal with the expected reference signal to estimate the change in the environment. LTE telecommunication infrastructure is used for this environment-sensing task because of its wide coverage. In addition, LTE uses a two-dimensional (2D) frame structure of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple input and multiple output (MIMO), which may yield better performance compared to previous communication standards. This procedure of extracting channel characteristics using commensal radar principles does not affect the existing telecommunication system, because it is a receive-only system. After the channel characteristics are estimated, they can be used to obtain phenomenological knowledge of the environment using an application-specific instrumentation (ASIN) framework. The capability analysis of this scheme is presented in this article, first in simulation and then using field-collected data captured with the help of a software-defined radio (SDR) platform.


Background: The optimal monoclonal antibody against calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) for adult patients with migraine has yet to be determined. Therefore, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of different monoclonal antibodies against CGRP or its receptor for adult patients with migraine through a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Methods: We systematically searched the MEDILNE, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Cochrane Library databases for relevant publications from inception until October 30, 2020. Only randomized clinical trials of adults with migraine that assessed any calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibody and reported clinical outcomes were included. The primary outcomes were changes in monthly migraine days and treatment-emergent adverse events Results: We initially retrieved 2,070 publications, and ultimately, 18 randomized clinical trials totaling 8,926 patients were included. In terms of efficacy, eptinezumab (MD −1.43, 95% CrI −2.59 to −0.36), erenumab (MD −1.61, 95% CrI −2.40 to −0.84), fremanezumab (MD −2.19, 95% CrI −3.15 to −1.25), and galcanezumab (MD −2.10, 95% CrI −2.76 to −1.45) significantly reduced MMDs compared with placebo. In terms of safety, only galcanezumab increased the incidences of TEAEs (RR 1.11, 95% CrI 1.01–1.22) and serious adverse events (RR 2.95, 95% CrI 1.41–6.87) compared with placebo. Conclusion: Most drugs performed similarly and were superior to placebo in most of our analyses. Further head-to-head research on different types of CGRP monoclonal antibodies is necessary to validate the present findings.


This paper presents the design, simulation, and measurement of a detachable chip-to-chip interconnect operating from 140 to 220 GHz (the WR5.1 band). The design uses a 15-μm thick silicon substrate and is based on a self-holding interference taper which provides a self-aligned mechanical contact with sufficient force to ensure a low contact resistance. The measured results show good return loss across the WR5.1 band and better than 10 dB from 165 to 220 GHz. The measured insertion loss of the prototype chip (including 28 mm of WR5.1 waveguide and 4 mm of rectangular coax) is better than 2 dB across the band.


The recent rise of online communities significantly transforms the ways of social interactions and information exchange. Individuals' voluntary community involvement contributes to growth and success of these online communities by creating economic and social values to individuals and to the community. Motivated by this phenomenon, this research investigates how community involvement impacts a member's peer$recognition and task performance with in an online crowdsourcing community. We collected secondary data from the discussion forums of a crowdsourcing platform that focuses on data analytics projects. Our results reveal several important findings. First, community involvement improves both peer$recognition and performance ranking of a member in the community. Second, as a symbol of social status, peer$recognition is found to be nega tively associated with performance ranking in the competitive setting. Our findings offer strategic implications to solvers, seekers, and designers of online crowdsourcing communities, as well as other professional online communities.


The article addresses an actual problem of using horizontal methods in university management in Russia. Two organizational processes are analyzed, which are relatively new for Russian universities, which came, in many respects, from the Western education system: postgraduate training (Master's programs) and training of foreign citizens in the preparatory departments (programs in Russian). These two processes, in the opinion of the author, over the past few years could become a platform for approbation of new modern approaches to management in Russian universities and institutes. The sample study included three federal universities located in one of the regions of Russia (classical university, university for humanities and pedagogy, and institute of culture and arts). It is shown that large educational organizations, as a rule, try to integrate new processes in the traditional (vertical) management structure. The basic prerequisites for implementing horizontal ma- nagement in the institutes of culture, were mainly economic, not organizational or innovative. At the same time, the practical experience of using mixed (horizontal-vertical) management structures in the Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture and Arts showed positive results both in terms of economic and educational-organizational indicators.


This paper presents a method of reconstructing magnetic resonance (MR) images from partial k-space using a so-called singularity function model. To estimate the parameters of the model, we propose a new technique based on equation system solving. The proposed reconstruction method is evaluated on both simulated and real brain MR data. It is also compared with existing techniques. The results show that this new strategy exhibits a great simplicity while offering a good reconstruction quality.


The quality of Forest Inventory and Analysis inventory data can be documented by having quality assurance crews remeasure plots originally measured by field crews within 2 to 3 weeks of the initial measurement, and assessing the difference between the original and remeasured data. Estimates of measurement uncertainty for the data are generated using paired data statistical analyses. Because plot remeasurements are taken at different, but similar, times by different crews, it can be difficult to match the remeasured trees with the original tree measurements. In the past, this process required a laborious exercise of manual review and assignment of matching codes for the paired tree measurements. An automated process for matching tree data was developed and tested using a previously hand-matched data set. Results of the two matching processes were compared. More than 95 percent of the individual trees could be reliably matched using the automated matching program. The effects of unmatched data being excluded from the uncertainty analysis was minimal.


At present, China's aerospace product
development mission are characterized by mammoth task and high responsibility,
in which situation, the role of knowledge in business process is particularly
prominent. Although we have realized the importance of the problem, and
embarked on the accumulation job, the problem faced is that we lack the
criteria to judge our harvest, which spontaneously caused that we cannot
define the quality and practical value of accumulated knowledge. Focusing of
above problems, the paper puts forward a knowledge maturity model for aerospace
product development, which divides knowledge maturity into 6 levels according
to development process. Criteria of each level as well as translation condition
to next grade is elaborated, assessment note is specially stated, aiming at
offering enterprises a potent method for knowledge system construction and
evaluation.


This volume investigates the recent institutional and substantive developments in EU external relations law and practice in this context of multiple crises for the EU. The economic and financial crisis has a major impact on EU external ...


We report a laboratory-confirmed pediatric case of congenital myotonic dystrophy (CMD) in Taiwan. A 5-year-old girl presented in our neurological clinic with the chief complaints of developmental delay and slowness in learning. Clinical examination, intelligence tests, and developmental examinations revealed myopathic facial weakness, passivity and delayed cognitive development. Past history review showed neonatal hypotonia, feeding difficulty with cyanosis, and poor activity. Neonatal studies only revealed subgaleal hematoma and subarachnoid hemorrhage with mild degree right side intraventricular hemorrhage. Current neurological examination disclosed percussion myotonia and myotonia as poor muscle relaxation after forceful handgrip. CMD was confirmed by electromyography study and DNA analysis. The patient's mother, though minimally affected, had similar laboratory results. CMD affects children in both motor and cognitive function; the diagnosis should be entertained in developmentally delayed children with subtle neurological signs, even without strong family history.


Abstract. Surface roughness influences the release of avalanches and the dynamics of rockfall, avalanches and debris flow, but is often not objectively implemented in natural hazard modelling. For two study areas, a treeline ecotone and a windthrow disturbed forest landscape of the European Alps, we tested seven roughness algorithms using a digital surface models (DSM) with different resolutions (0.1, 0.5 and 1 m) and different moving window areas (9 m−2, 25 m−2 and 49 m−2). The vector ruggedness measure roughness algorithm performed best overall in distinguishing between roughness categories relevant for natural hazard modelling (including shrub forest, high forest, windthrow, snow and rocky land-cover). The results with 1 m resolution were found to be suitable to distinguish between the roughness categories of interest, and the performance did not increase with higher resolution. In order to improve the roughness calculation along the hazard flow direction, we tested a directional roughness approach that improved the reliability of the surface roughness computation in channelized paths. We simulated avalanches on a different elevation models to observe a potential influence of a DSM and a digital terrain model (DTM). Accounting for surface roughness based on a DSM instead of a DTM resulted not only in clearly higher roughness values of forest and shrub vegetation, but also in longer simulated avalanche runouts by 16–27 % in the two study areas. We conclude that directional roughness is promising for achieving better assessments of terrain topography in alpine landscapes and that applying an approach using DSM-based surface roughness could improve natural hazard modelling.


Despite recent advances in culture techniques for undifferentiated human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs), further improvements are required to facilitate research and translation of these cells in clinical settings. We have previously derived hESC lines that can be cultured in their undifferentiated state on regular plastic culture dishes, without the need for feeder cells or other coating supports, denoted Matrix-Free Growth hESCs (MFG-hESCs).

 In this study, we further characterize and compare MFG-hESCs to hESCs in order to understand the molecular differences responsible for the unique ability of MFG-hESCs.

 Microarray analysis demonstrated that MFG-hESCs highly resemble feeder-cultured hESCs in global gene expression profile. Two identified groups of genes with differential expression were those encoding for ribosomal proteins and attachment proteins, such as the RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp)-associated proteins. Real-time PCR and flow cytometry corroborated the microarray results. Culture of MFG-hESCs in the presence of RGD peptides resulted in decreased attachment ability compared to cells cultured in the presence of RGES (Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser) peptides.

 This study demonstrates that MFG-hESC lines overexpress cell attachment proteins but retain the typical characteristics of undifferentiated feeder-cultured hESCs. The ability to culture high-quality pluripotent stem cells in feeder- and matrix-free conditions creates a new opportunities for their large-scale manufacturing for experimental research and translational applications.


The spermatozoon has classically been seen only as a paternal DNA transporter into the oocyte, thus underestimating the entire contribution of the male gamete to the embryo development. The advancement of the research supports that not only the sperm genome, but the entire sperm transcriptome and proteome carry crucial information for fertilization and embryo development. Altogether, 6871 proteins have been reported in spermatozoa so far. Their functional analysis has recently addressed to the sperm proteome a role in fertilization, preimplantation embryo development and paternal epigenetic inheritance. Targeted analysis of human spermatozoa is warranted to compile an evidence-based list of sperm-carried molecular targets in infertile patients.


Six of 21 children with blast cell leultaemia were found a t post‐mortem to have a hypoplastic or aplastic bone marrow. Leukaemic infiltrations were found in the organs of all the cases with a hyperplastic marrow, but were present in only one of the cases in the aplastic group and are limited to the meninges. The cause of aplasia of the bone marrow in leukaemis is discussed, particularly with regard to the possible influence of the folic acid antagonists. In two of the cases the bone marrow biopsies were indicative of an aplastic course from the start. The treatment in these cases seems to have reduced the activity of the bone marrow still further. In one case the aplasia developed during prolonged treatment with folic acid antagonists; a causal relationship is, however, uncertain. In the remaining three cases there was a haematological response after treatment with folic acid antagonists. At autopsy changes that could have been due to lack of folic acid were found in the organs.


This article analyses the conception of history or 'regime of historicity' structuring the ideology of the Norwegian fascist party, Nasjonal Samling (1933–1945). It highlights the value of the theory of palingenetic ultranationalism to the understanding of fascist temporality generically and specifically. Generically, because the findings show how Nasjonal Samling's regime of historicity followed the same structure of revolution and eternity, decay and rebirth, as other fascist movements did. Specifically, because it also shows how Nasjonal Samling drew heavily on Norwegian national myths. The ideologues of ns recoded these myths, and integrated them into their own palingenetic, apocalyptic, and – after 1935 – antisemitic grand narratives. These crystallized in a triadic scheme, forming a fascist regime of historicity, structured around the myth of past greatness, followed by decadence, combined with a fantasy of a future revolutionary rebirth of the nation.


Digital TV broadcast systems allow delivery of data and application programs to receivers, thus enabling interactive and data broadcast services. Such services must be delivered to consumers irrespective of the hardware and software platform of the receiver in the consumer's home. We discuss a software architecture for a DTV receiver that allows platform-independent content to be broadcast for service provision.


This paper presents a new distributed state estimation method for multiarea power systems. Each area performs its own state estimation, using local measurements, and exchanges border information (estimated boundary states and measurements) at a coordination state estimator, which computes the system-wide state. Furthermore, observability and bad data analysis are accomplished in a distributed manner. The proposed method is illustrated with the IEEE 14-bus system. Test results with the IEEE 118-bus system are given.


We have computed the spectroscopic constants we, wexe, αe, and Be of the ground state of H2 using two methods. In the first method, a highly accurate potential energy surface was generated using explicitly correlated wave functions and variational Monte Carlo techniques. We calculated the vibrational-rotational energies from this surface and then obtained the spectroscopic constants by fitting these energies to a simple equation. In the second method, the spectroscopic constants were determined from local derivatives of the energy with respect to the internuclear distance. These derivatives have also been calculated using variational Monte Carlo techniques. For this system we find that the first method yields spectroscopic constants that are in excellent agreement with experiment. We also find that the second method, although slightly less accurate, is extremely well suited to Monte Carlo calculations. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004


Although Robert Schumann's late style has been the subject of several probing studies in
recent years, few scholars have concentrated their attention on the chamber works composed in
the autumn of 1851. Perhaps most intriguing are the opp. 105 and 121 violin sonatas, whose first
movements suggest a dialogue with the eighteenth-century sonata form by preserving many of the
same rhetorical and structural elements. Throughout both movements, however, Schumann uses
an intricate web of tonal ambiguities, metrical dissonances, and unusual key relationships to
recast the internal workings of these outwardly conventional sonata forms. As he uses these
techniques to undermine important structural moments of each movement, Schumann
significantly changes the overall plot of the eighteenth-century sonata form, while also
demonstrating his sensitivity to the dramatic possibilities of this historical form in the middle of the nineteenth century. By discussing Schumann's dialogue with the eighteenth-century sonata form throughout the opp. 105 and 121 violin sonatas, this study attempts to situate these works within both their historical and contemporary musical contexts, and thus considers a previously unexplored avenue toward rehabilitating the reception of Schumann's late chamber works.


Giant cell tumor (GCT) is a primary benign neoplasm of bone accounting for 5% of all skeletal tumors. Although considered benign, it has propensity for local recurrence, distant metastasis as well as malignant transformation. GCTs of bone usually arise in the epiphyseal region of the limbs, and rarely it affects the ribs. We report a case 52-year-old male who presented with left sided rib mass. Total excision of rib mass with thoracic reconstruction with prolene mesh was done. Microscopic examination of the mass showed features of giant cell tumor. Authors consider the rarity location of this entity along with unusual clinical presentation worth to publish.


Lymphoedema is an incurable, progressive chronic condition and unfortunately it is a potential complication of the treatment for malignant melanoma following axillary node dissection and groin dissection. Referrals for this user group is ever-increasing to the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board clinic presenting with established swelling, poor skin condition, and decreased range of movement. The skin cancer lymphoedema prevention and rehabilitation programme was implemented to assess whether it would be advantageous to target this user group both pre- and post-operatively to reduce the risk of lymphoedema and other physical effects associated from treatment. The data obtained via this scheme highlighted that the incidence of related lymphoedema in the melanoma group is under reported and under recognised.


BACKGROUND
Cystic echinococcosis (CE), as a chronic parasitic disease, is a major health problem in many countries. The performance of the currently available serodiagnostic tests for the diagnosis of CE is unsatisfactory.

OBJECTIVE
The current study aimed at sub-cloning a gene, encoding the B8/1 subunit of antigen B (AgB) from Echinococcus granulosus, using gene optimization for the immunodiagnosis of human CE.

METHODS
The coding sequence for AgB8/1 subunit of Echinococcus granulosus was selected from GenBank and was gene-optimized. The sequence was synthesized and inserted into pGEX-4T-1 vector. Purification was performed with GST tag affinity column. Diagnostic performance of the produced recombinant antigen, native antigen B and a commercial ELISA kit were further evaluated in an ELISA system, using a panel of sera from CE patients and controls.

RESULTS
SDS-PAGE demonstrated that the protein of interest had a high expression level and purity after GST tag affinity purification. Western blotting verified the immunoreactivity of the produced recombinant antigen with the sera of CE patients. In an ELISA system, the sensitivity and specificity (for human CE diagnosis) of the recombinant antigen, native antigen B and commercial kit were respectively 93% and 92%, 87% and 90% and 97% and 95%.

CONCLUSION
The produced recombinant antigen showed a high diagnostic value which can be recommended for serodiagnosis of CE in Iran and other CE-endemic areas. Utilizing the combination of other subunits of AgB8 would improve the performance value of the introduced ELISA system.


The advent of 3D printers has been embraced globally within few years of its emergence. The surge in
the acceptability of rapid manufacturing RM strategy can be attributed to the depletion and cost of
natural resources, waste reduction and sustainability criterion of manufactured parts. This rapidly
evolving 3D printing technologies is predicted to grow exponentially especially for the manufacture of
customized and geometrically complex products. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider and optimize
the resource efficiency of 3D printing technologies at this early stage of this technology development.
In this work, the direct electrical energy demand of 3D printing (i.e. fused deposition modeling) was
studied and a generic model proposed. The developed model was further validated with the Stratasys
Dimension SST FDM in order to evaluate and ascertain the generic application of the model. This
work is a further contribution to the existing foundation for electrical energy demand modeling and
optimization for the rapidly expanding 3D printing processes.


In this paper, we consider a class of dynamic vehicle routing problems, in which a number of mobile agents in the plane must visit target points generated over time by a stochastic process. It is desired to design motion coordination strategies in order to minimize the expected time between the appearance of a target point and the time it is visited by one of the agents. We propose control strategies that, while making minimal or no assumptions on communications between agents, provide the same level of steady-state performance achieved by the best known decentralized strategies. In other words, we demonstrate that inter-agent communication does not improve the efficiency of such systems, but merely affects the rate of convergence to the steady state. Furthermore, the proposed strategies do not rely on the knowledge of the details of the underlying stochastic process. Finally, we show that our proposed strategies yield an efficient, pure Nash equilibrium in a game theoretic formulation of the problem, in which each agent's objective is to maximize the expected value of the ldquotime spent alonerdquo at the next target location. Simulation results are presented and discussed.


This investigation assessed the relation of understanding and similarity of spouses to marital satisfaction by use of the MMPI. The satisfactorily married couples predicted significantly more of their spouses' responses than did the unsatisfactorily married couples. This significantly greater accuracy of prediction was not enhanced by the significantly greater similarity exhibited by the satisfactorily married couples. In fact, both groups accurately predicted a significantly greater number of items that were dissimilarly endorsed when compared with those items similarly endorsed. No relation was found for either group between assumed similarity and marital satisfaction.


Some two years ago we looked after a man in his late 40s who had had unremitting pleural pain for several weeks. His chest radiograph revealed marked pleural thickening in the distribution of his pain and he had a history of exposure to asbestos dust. We suspected mesothelioma and told him and his family that this was a possible diagnosis and requested permission to carry out a biopsy.

Neither our patient nor his relatives had heard of mesothelioma, but while he was in hospital and unwell his wife busied herself finding out about the disease. She quickly concluded that the diagnosis of mesothelioma was, unfortunately, likely and that this being the case, she preferred her husband to be spared the knowledge of the worst aspects of the condition. She …


The paper analyzes the rules of Russian and foreign legislation on the observance of medical confidentiality and identifies the specific nature of genetic information in protected medical information. Purpose: to analyze the Russian legislation on medical confidentiality with regard to the protection of genomic information. Methods: the author uses general scientific methods of cognition: analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, system, historical, functional, juxtaposition and comparison. Such special scientific methods are used as formal-dogmatic, historical-legal, legal modeling, comparative-legal, legal interpretation. Results: the conclusions aresubstantiated on the need to separate genetic information within the legal regime of medical confidentiality by means of exceptions and (or) additional legal structures which, on the one hand, enhance security measures, on the other hand, differentiate between exceptional disclosures in order to protect the interests of the patient's relatives or to meet the need for scientific research.


Vocabulary is a core component of languages and the basic for how the learners speak, listen, read and write. Vocabulary mastery is the ability to use the words in conducting the communication and understandable the meaning of the words or phrases in English. 36 students of class XI-MIPA1 of SMA Negeri 3 Gunungsitoli faced problem in learning vocabulary particularly to obtain and absorb the meaning of new words. To solve the problem, the researcher implemented Guessing Game which the main procedure was asked the students to guess the new word from the explanation of the word itself. To achieve the purpose, the researcher conducted CAR Method and it was applied into two cycles. Each cycle consisted of some phases such as planning, action, observation, and reflection. The instruments used by the researcher to collect the data were observation sheet, field notes and evaluation sheet. In Cycle I, it showed that some of the students were still unable to comprehend the text. However, the students' ability in mastering vocabulary was increased in Cycle II where the average of the students' value was 90.33. Therefore, based on the average for the students' value in the two cycles, it can be categorized in very good level. Hence, Guessing Game can increase the students' ability in mastering vocabulary.


Modern CPUs follow multicore designs with multiple threads running in parallel. The dataow of query engine algorithms needs to be adapted to exploit such designs. We identify memory accesses and thread synchronization as the main bottlenecks in a multicore execution environment. We present a uniform framework to mitigate the impact of these bottlenecks in multithreaded versions of the most frequently used query processing algorithms, namely sorting, partitioning, join evaluation, and aggregation. Through an analytical model, we extract the expected behavior and scalability of the proposed algorithms. We conduct an extensive experimental analysis of both the analytical model and the algorithms. Our results show that: (a) the analytical model adequately captures the performance of the algorithms, and (b) the algorithms themselves achieve considerable speedups compared to their single-threaded counterparts.


Formative evaluation as applied to radio and television programs refers to a broad range of systematic investigations caluclated to produce guidelines leading to the program form content and manner of presentation that will most effectively accomplish the defined program purposes. A classification of formative evaluation activities shows the range of concern and indicate the purposes and functions that formative research can be used to serve. Areas include: context analysis needs assessment problems analysis audience characteristics delivery system constraints communication content and strategies input and feedback systems and utilization factors. Some guidelines for formative evaluation activities are as follows: set research priorities; work from a broad base establish commitment to a research approach be ready to reshape the project schedule allow for pilot testing recognize importance of question designs and remember the need to adapt instead of adopt. The role of research in program preparation need not be a matter of full scale use or none at all. Obtaining a research based answer to 1 key question concerning how a program is to be done is using formative evaluation and reducing the guesswork. In a situation where radio and television are comparatively new it would desirable to devote substantial effort to context and needs assessment determination of goals and objectives examination of auidence characteristics and consideration of the media combination to be used. Assessment of educational needs should involve input from a representative range of people who know the real needs and nature of that society as well as the specific target audience. The cooperation of writers and producers is critical if formative evaluation is to do any good. The use of formative evaluation is likely to require a substantial revision of the usual project schedule. Pilot testing determines the extent to which the specific objectives were realized and exactly which material did or did not contribute to those ends. Question design if 1 of the most important skills for those engaged in formative evaluation. Caution is essential in 3rd world use of research techniques and communication models developed in Western countries.


We study the generalized diffusion-limited aggregates, grown from two proximal nucleation seeds placed at distance d lattice units and investigate the probability p(d) that these aggregates get connected. We vary the sticking probability to get a range of aggregate geometry from fractal to compact one. For fractal aggregates, p(d) decays rapidly with d , while for compact ones, the decay is so slow that p(d) approximately 1 for all practical distances. We experimentally demonstrate similar behavior for viscous fingering patterns with two injection points and electrochemical deposits grown on two cathodes. Our observations along with previous results on competitive growth suggest a common underlying principle.


This paper is concerned with application of evolutionary programming to optimal reactive power dispatch and voltage control of power systems. Several techniques have been developed to make the EP suitable to the practical optimal problems of large scale systems. Simulation results, compared with those obtained by using a conventional gradient-based optimization method, are presented to show the potential for applications of the proposed method to power system economical and secure operations.<<ETX>>


research include STEM student outcomes and the exploration of student pathways through institutional research. Abstract School-to-career pathways not only represent a student's journey, but they also represent the educational program context; to understand the pathway, one must understand the geographic, political, and social conditions that led to the program's creation. To determine the kinds of pathways advanced manufacturing (AM) programs in rural Northwest Florida community and state colleges enabled for their students, we interviewed faculty and administrators about their AM programs' historical emergence. In this paper, we present five detailed AM program "origin stories," using a multiple case study methodology. These origin stories allowed us to explore how rural AM postsecondary programs have evolved in organizational structure, curriculum content, employer relations, and student pathways facilitation. We gathered data to discern 1) commonalities and unique features in AM programs' initiation impetus; 2) current AM program, faculty, and student profiles; and 3) significant AM program challenges and priorities in rural settings, such as institutional commitment to long-term economic health. In our findings, we highlight how active participation in diverse community and industry collaborations serves to establish and grow AM educational pathways tailored explicitly for the immediate community. For example, participants share innovative partnership programming and certificate development that enabled seminal two-year engineering technology and engineering technician education opportunities. We also identified that the ability of rural programs to offer instruction in advanced physical spaces requires an ongoing commitment to appropriate resources, support that is variously obtained from the institution, local employers, or some combination of stakeholders. Through our methodology and findings, we aim to contribute to a holistic understanding of how to study school-to-career pathways to inform how rural AM programs can advance to achieve competitive growth.


This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To determine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of interventions (non-selective, selective or stepwise carious tissue removal, sealing of carious lesions using sealant materials or preformed metal crowns, or NRCC) to treat carious lesions conventionally considered to require restorations (cavitated or micro-cavitated lesions, or occlusal lesions that are clinically non-cavitated but clinically/radiographically extend into dentine) in primary or permanent teeth with vital (sensitive) pulps.


As a result of the huge performance potential of multi-core microprocessors, HPC infrastructures are rapidly integrating them into their architectures in order to expedite the performance growth of the next generation HPC systems. However, as the number of cores per processor increase to 100 or 1000s of core s, they are posing revolutionary challenges to the various asp ects of the software stack. In our research, we endeavor to invest igate novel solutions to the problem of extracting high-performance. In this paper, we advocate for the use of virtualization as an alternative approach to the traditional operating systems for the next generation multicore-based HPC systems. In partic ular, we investigate an efficient mechanism for shared-memory com munication between HPC applications executing within virtual machine (VM) instances that areco-located on the same hardware platform. This system, called Vshmem, implements low latency IPC communication mechanism that allows the programmer to selectively share memory regions between user-space proce ss s residing in collocated virtual machines. Our contributions addressed


Energy harvesting enables products to become more self-sufficient of power and offers the possibility to avoid battery exchange and power cables. The performance and applicability of the most promising or popular small scale energy harvesting technologies are investigated in this thesis. The focus lies on the amount of potential energy that can be harvested and how limited the technology is to a specific environment. Different power management and energy storage methods are also examined.
Two prototypes demonstrating different energy harvesting phenomena are presented. The first prototype is able to harvest an average of 152 μW at 302-346 lux using 4 AM-1417 photovoltaic cells with an area of 19.46 cm2. The 302-346 lux span is measured in indoor fluorescent office lighting. The second prototype uses a DC motor to harvest the energy from the motion of opening a door. It is possible to harvest more than 470 μJ from a single door opening with the prototype. This requires a minimum average revolving speed of 7.5 rpm during the door opening.
The thesis concludes that photovoltaic cells are relatively easy to use in practice and that an environment with sufficient energy is not difficult to find. Piezoelectricity and vibration based electromagnetism has a low applicability due to the fact that the transducers only gain a useful power output at their resonance frequency. However, electromagnetic pushbuttons or rotation generators are proven to be useful. Thermoelectric elements are highly dependent on specific thermal conditions, making them applicable in some cases but hard to use as an all-round energy harvesting device. Radiofrequency energy harvesting is also investigated but it is concluded that this technology is not yet developed for practical use.


The fabrication of self-catalyzed InP nanowires (NWs) is investigated under different growth conditions. Indium droplets induced by surface reconstruction act as nucleation sites for NW growth. Vertical standing NWs with uniform cross sections are obtained under optimized conditions. It is confirmed that the growth rate of NWs is strongly affected by the surface diffusion adatoms while contributions from the direct impingement of vapor species onto the In droplets can be negligible. The results indicate that the droplet acts as an adatom collector rather than a catalyst. Moreover, the diffusion flow rate of adatoms increases with time at the beginning of growth and stabilizes as the growth proceeds.


This paper presents a generation scheduling of thermal units considering startup and shutdown ramp limits by using Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm. The Startup and shutdown ramp limits are does not consider in the conventional method of unit commitment (UC). Without considering the ramp limits in generation scheduling problem, solution for large power system does not give practical value. The objective of proposed work is to determine the optimal committed of thermal generating units at minimum operating cost while considering load demand, spinning reserve and other equality and inequality constraints at each hour time interval. The solution obtained from the proposed Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA) for four unit system is compared with other conventional methods.


Introduction: The ability to share EHR's (Electronic Health Record) underlying knowledge both internally and externally within healthcare organizations has been accepted as a method to improve the quality and delivery of care but has also raised important questions related to legal and privacy issues. This paper aims to explore the critical factors that impact knowledge sharing in the French healthcare sector. Our main research focus is to answer the question of how to improve Knowledge sharing in the healthcare sector? Methodology: An exploratory qualitative study was handled to investigate EHR's underlying Knowledge sharing. We conducted non-directive, face-to-face interviews with physicians working in different healthcare institutions. Results: Three major issues were identified, namely the need for: a common healthcare terminology, the interoperability among healthcare information systems and the patient's informed consents before sharing his sensitive data. Conclusions : This paper proposes an ontological framework that extends the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms with privacy dimension, to secure access to sensitive patient's data. This study has limitations that could be addressed by future studies. First, the size of the sample is limited. Further explorations of knowledge sharing among other kinds of workers (e.g. nurse) and other countries would add richness to the phenomena and associations described in this paper.


Symptomatic vitreomacular adhesion (sVMA) is defined as visual loss secondary to foveal damage from vitreomacular traction (VMT) and includes isolated VMT, impending macular hole (MH), and full‐thickness MH with persisting vitreous attachment. Management options include pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), intravitreal ocriplasmin, intravitreal gas injection or observation. This synthesis of the literature aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of intravitreal gas for sVMA. Articles describing patients with VMT or MH treated with intravitreal expansile gas were selected by systematic literature review using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) up to September 2016. The main outcomes at 1 month and final review were logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) visual acuity (VA), anatomical success (absence of both VMT and MH, without PPV) and adverse events (AEs). The intended comparator was observation. Nine of 106 identified articles were eligible, and none were randomized controlled trials. The mean VA of 91 eyes improved from 0.55 (Snellen equivalent 6/21) to 0.48 (6/18) logMAR at 1 month and to 0.35 (6/13) logMAR at final review. The mean VA at final review, prior to a vitrectomy, was 0.42 (6/16). Anatomic success was 48% at 1 month and 57% at final review. The reported AEs comprised retinal detachment in two highly myopic eyes. Intravitreal gas injection can relieve sVMA. Larger controlled studies are needed to determine safety and efficacy relative to observation, ocriplasmin, or vitrectomy.


During the snowmelt season, surface runoff into northern Canadian Shield lakes are governed by the distribution of snow and its ablation, storage in catchment slopes and valleys, and flow delivery from uplands, bottomlands and from upper lakes. For the lake studied, time lags exist between the commencement of snowmelt and the arrival of runoff to the lake, with evaporation from the uplands and bottomlands consuming some of the meltwater produced. Inflow from an upper lake is delayed. With all these inputs, the lake becomes flooded, first forming a moat, followed by an expansion of the open water areas which are subject to evaporation loss. Lake outflow begins when water level rises above the outlet threshold. For the snowmelt season, outflow constitutes 40 percent of total melt and rainfall. The lake itself is a major storage that continues to maintain outflow until the lake level drops below the threshold in early summer, after which flow ceases. Snowmelt is the main period when runoff is generated from the headwater catchment to replenish storage depleted in the previous summer, and to produce flow along the Shield valley that contains a chain of lakes.


HMAX ("Hierarchical Model and X") system is among the best machine vision approaches developed today, in many object recognition tasks [1]. HMAX decomposes an image into features which are passed to a classifier. These features each capture information about a small section of the input image but might not have information about the overall structure of the image if there is not a significant number of overlapping features. Therefore it can produce a false-positive if two images from two different classes having sufficiently similar features profile but completely different structures. To demonstrate the problem this thesis aimed to show that the features of a given subject are not unique because they lack geometric information. Genetic algorithm (GA) was used to create an image with a similar feature profile as a subject but which clearly does not belong to the subject. Using GA, random pixel images converged to an image whose feature profile has a small Euclidian distance from a target profile. This generated GA image does not resemble the target image but has a similar profile which successfully fooled the classifier in most cases. This implies that the "binding problem" is a major issue in a HMAX model of the size tested. Furthermore, methods of improving the system were investigated. Thesis Supervisor: Tomaso Poggio, Ph.D Title: Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior, Director of the Center for Biological and Computational Learning, MIT Thesis Supervisor: Victor Chan Title: Corporate Research & Development, Qualcomm Inc.


In this paper a method of summation of double absolutely convergent numerical series was obtained. This method was named the expansion of double numerical series in infinite diagonals. The form of the expansion for symmetric and skew-symmetric general term of double series was established. This expansion was generalized to the case of multiple series. It was called the expansion of multiple numerical series in infinite diagonals for two indices. The expansion of triple series in infinite diagonals for two indices was generalized to the case of three indices.


The thesis surveys the status quo of e-commerce application in Wenzhou small medium enterprises. This survey selects the some-100 prominent small medium enterprises covering chemical engineering, shoes, apparel, machinery, furniture, glasses, lighters, pen and pencil, electric and electronics as the investigating targets and issues the questionnaires to them. The result indicates that, the status quo of e-commerce application in Wenzhou small medium enterprises is worrisome, which is obviously way behind other cities. Based on that, the thesis analyzes the reasons in combination with visiting them. It also proposes the corresponding strategies and predicts its prospect in the end.


OBJECTIVES
Patients with failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) and chronic neuropathic pain experience levels of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) that are considerably lower than those reported in other areas of chronic pain. The aim of this article was to quantify the extent to which reductions in (leg and back) pain and disability over time translate into improvements in generic HRQoL as measured by the EuroQoL-5D and SF-36 instruments.

METHODS
Using data from the multinational Prospective, Randomized, Controlled, Multicenter Study of Patients with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome trial, we explore the relationship between generic HRQoL--assessed using two instruments often used in clinical trials (i.e., the SF-36 and EuroQol-5D)--and disease-specific outcome measures (i.e., Oswestry disability index [ODI], leg and back pain visual analog scale [VAS]) in neuropathic patients with FBSS.

RESULTS
In our sample of 100 FBSS patients, generic HRQoL was moderately associated with ODI (correlation coefficient: -0.462 to -0.638) and mildly associated with leg pain VAS (correlation coefficient: -0.165 to -0.436). The multilevel regression analysis results indicate that functional ability (as measured by the ODI) is significantly associated with HRQoL, regardless of the generic HRQoL instrument used. On the other hand, changes over time in leg pain were significantly associated with changes in the EuroQoL-5D and physical component summary scores, but not with the mental component summary score.

CONCLUSIONS
Reduction in leg pain and functional disability is statistically significantly associated with improvements in generic HRQoL. This is the first study to investigate the longitudinal relationship between generic and disease-specific HRQoL of neuropathic pain patients with FBSS, using multinational data.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study in employed people with FM was to test the hypothesis that embitterment is a function of the joint experience of invalidation from the work environment and helplessness regarding one's illness.

METHODS
Sixty-four full-time (36%) or part-time (64%) employed patients with FM (60 females, mean age 45 years) completed the Illness Invalidation Inventory (3*I) to assess work-related discounting and lack of understanding, the Illness Cognition Questionnaire (ICQ) to assess helplessness and the Bern Embitterment Inventory (BEI) to assess embitterment. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS
Sixteen percent of the participants experienced embitterment levels in the clinical range. The interaction or combination of discounting and helplessness (P = 0.02) and the combination of lack of understanding and helplessness (P = 0.04) were associated with greater embitterment.

CONCLUSIONS
The construct of embitterment has substantial face validity and may result from a combination of invalidation and helplessness. Whereas helplessness is a common target of cognitive-behavioural therapy, evidence-based interventions to redress invalidation and embitterment are needed. It is possible, however, to target invalidation by educating people in the work environment about the consequences of FM and patients' valid needs for work that is manageable, given each patient's specific health-related limitations.


The paper presents results of mgnetooptic effects observed in monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous thin films as applied for integrated optics & fiber waveguide technologies. The reported investigations were carried-out using epitaxial layers of ytrium iron garnet (YIG) doped with Gd and Ga on GGG substrate, polycrystalline layers of MnSb and amorphous FeNi permalloy layers deposited on a glass substrate (BK-4). Since materials under consideration were sufficiently representative for the whole class of magnetooptic thin films, the paper presents comparative study of their use for telecommunication as well as for sensor applications.


We present a novel optical metro node architecture that exploits the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical cross-connect nodes for interconnecting network elements, as well as computing and storage resources. The photonic WDM cross-connect node based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) allows switching data signals in wavelength, space, and time for fully exploiting statistical multiplexing. The advantages of using an SOA to realize the WDM cross-connect switch in terms of transparency, switching speed, photonic integrated amplification for loss-less operation, and gain equalization are verified experimentally. The experimental assessment of a 4 × 4 photonic integrated WDM cross-connect confirmed the capability of the cross-connect chip to switch the WDM signal in space and wavelength. Experimental results show lossless operation, low cross-talk <−30 dB, and dynamically switch within few nanoseconds. Moreover, the operation of the cross-connect switch with multiple WDM channels and diverse modulation formats is also investigated and reported. Error-free operation with less than a 2 dB power penalty for a single channel, as well as WDM input operation, has been measured for multiple 10/20/40 Gb/s NRZ-OOK, 20 Gb/s PAM4, and data-rate adaptive DMT traffic. Compensation of the losses indicates that the modular architecture could scale to a larger number of ports.


According to Aristotle, first philosophy or, as he sometimes calls it, theology, investigates being as being, which is to say the highest principles and causes of all things. In dealing with Maimonides, it is important to see that, unlike Aristotle, he did not write a systematic treatise on the nature of being. The subject matter of the Guide of the Perplexed is identified as natural science (the Account of the Beginning) and metaphysics or divine science (the Account of Ezekiel's Chariot). In Maimonides' view mastery of these subjects is needed for human perfection, and it is impossible to fulfill the commandments without them. Simply put: One cannot love God in ignorance. But instead of making an original contribution to physics and metaphysics, Maimonides claims ( GP 2.2) that his purpose is to explain the meaning of key terms in the Torah. There are two reasons for this hesitation. From a religious perspective, Jewish law forbids one to discuss the Account of the Beginning or the Account of the Chariot in a public setting. Thus all Maimonides can do is offer hints or clues that point readers in the right direction and encourage them to reach their own conclusions. From a philosophic perspective, once we get beyond the existence and unity of God, Maimonides doubts that anyone can achieve more than a few momentary insights about the metaphysical realm so that much of what people take to be certain is really a form of conjecture. Although conjecture can be well founded or ill, Maimonides does not regard human knowledge as a seamless web of causes and principles but rather as a patchwork of established truths, educated guesses, and admissions of ignorance. We will see that, in some cases, the third component is as important as the first two.


In order to evaluate whether the hypoglycaemic action of glibenclamide during chronic treatment of obese subjects with NIDDM is primarily due to changes in the daytime insulin level, in insulin secretion or to changes in tissue sensitivity to insulin, we studied eight NIDD's (age 43 +/- 3 years, body mass index 31.4 +/- 2.6 kg/m2) inappropriately controlled by dietary treatment alone. Before and after three months of glibenclamide treatment, plasma glucose, insulin and C-peptide were measured hourly (0800 to 1600 hours) and in vivo insulin sensitivity was evaluated using the sequential euglycaemic clamp (insulin infusion: 0, 0.8, 3.2 mU/kg/min) in combination with 3-3H-glucose tracer technique. During glibenclamide treatment the mean daytime glucose level was reduced (11.2 +/- 0.5 versus 7.1 +/- 0.4 mmol/l, p less than 0.001) but not to normal (5.2 +/- 0.2 mmol/l, p less than 0.001). Before treatment the mean daytime insulin level was higher than normal (38 +/- 58 versus 24 +/- 2 microU/ml, p less than 0.05) and was increased by 79% (67 +/- 8 microU/ml, p less than 0.001) after three months of treatment. In contrast the mean C-peptide level was unchanged (1.40 +/- 0.13 versus 1.30 +/- 0.17 nmol/l, p = NS), although it was higher than normal on both occasions (0.84 +/- 0.09 nmol/l, p less than 0.05). The basal hepatic glucose production rate was normal before treatment (86 +/- 4 versus 82 +/- 3 mg.m-2.min-1 in normals, p = NS), and unchanged after glibenclamide treatment (80 +/- 3 mg.m-2.min-1, p = NS versus pretreatment level).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


PurposeGreen building information modelling (BIM) has been highlighted as an essential topic owing to its potential benefits. However, both Green Star and BIM are still in their earlier stages in New Zealand. This paper aims to examine and evaluate the benefits, barriers/challenges and solutions for the integration of Green Star and BIM in New Zealand.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, a total of 77 responses collected from construction professionals in New Zealand using questionnaires were analysed through descriptive and statistical tests.FindingsBuilding performance modelling used for Green Star assessment can be implemented using BIM; this was highlighted as the most significant benefit of the integration. Whereas, the most significant barrier preventing the integration of Green Star and BIM was the fact they are two completely separate processes. Regarding the solutions for the integration, showcasing BIM-Green Star benchmark projects was considered as the most effective solution amongst a range of eight provided.Originality/valueThe research provided insights into Green Star–BIM integration in New Zealand. By evaluating the significance of the benefits, barriers/challenges and solutions for the integration, this research could be used as a guideline for Green Star and BIM development by New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC), the Government and construction practitioners in New Zealand. Specifically, the results here could be valuable inputs for Green Star manuals and the New Zealand BIM handbook.


What kinds of international conflicts make states more likely to increase repression? I argue that the issues at stake in conflict may have different levels of domestic salience and may alter the domestic political status quo, thus increasing or decreasing a state's or regime's propensity to repress. I argue and find that democracies are most likely to increase repression when they are territorial revisionists, specifically increasing the use of imprisonment and torture. Autocratic states are more likely to increase repression during foreign policy-oriented disputes, as opposed to those fought over territory, which are less likely to escalate to full-scale war, and more likely to be domestically motivated. This project thus opens up the black box of international conflict to better understand how the reasons states fight abroad affects decisions to repress at home.


The present cross-sectional anthropometric study evaluates new approaches in preventing overweight in children. Anthropometric data were obtained in 289 German children (146 boys, 143 girls) aged 6-11 years and 41 20-29 year old German female students for describing the type of body shape by Metric-Index (thoracic breadth, thoracic depth, height). The data were correlated with 15 fat layers measured with a lipometer with Principal Component Analyses and ANOVA. In females the android respectively gynoid type of body shape was significantly associated with the pyknomorphic respectively leptomorphic type. The study demonstrates that this pattern is established by an age of 8 years, when the earliest maturing children start to enter puberty. This pattern can be used to check the individual's risk of overweight and to recommend preventive healthcare interventions.


ABSTRACT The main argument presented here is that in cultural contact zones, such as the Australian settler state, there can emerge violent tendencies in dominant patterns of thought, as both epistemic habits and systems of value. The logic of coloniality is one of war, destruction and inequality, and this is expressed through attempted erasure and actual ambivalence towards Indigenous peoples, their lands, waters, Laws and cultures. This is supported by habits of epistemic violence and axiological retreat. This paper examines such habits, through an ethnographically informed and localised case study of the destruction of an ancestral Dreaming site on Yanyuwa country in the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. In this instance the body of Yulungurri, the ancestral Tiger Shark, manifest in a large cycad palm, was cut down. Read through the lens of axiological retreat, and coloniality's ambivalence towards Indigenous presence, the discussion considers the dispositions which lead to and support violence in such forms and how these might become naturalised or concealed in everyday life.


The objective of this study was to investigate the predictive value of Kruger's criteria for sperm morphology on intrauterine insemination (IUI) outcome. A total of 209 infertile patients underwent 244 IUI treatment cycles. These include 75 couples (80 cycles) with teratozoospermia and 134 couples (164 cycles) with unexplained infertility. The pregnancy rates per IUI cycle were 3.8 (1/26), 18.5 (10/54) and 29.9% (49/164) in patients with sperm morphology with <4, 4-9 and >9% normal forms, respectively, according to Kruger's criteria. A statistical difference in outcome was seen between couples with <4 and >9% normal forms (p = 0.005). Although the difference in pregnancy rates between those with 4-9 and <4% normal forms was not statistically significant, the pregnancy rate for those with 4-9% normal forms was acceptable and still higher than in those with <4% normal forms. Therefore, we suggest that IUI is a reasonable first-line therapy for patients with sperm morphology >4% normal forms, while couples with <4% normal forms should be advised to use in vitro fertilization with intracytoplasmic sperm injection instead of IUI.


Objectives: Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS) is one of the causes of lateral hip pain. We aimed to determine the significance of certain anatomical parameters related to GTPS in imaging tests.
Methods: Data of patients who were treated with glucocorticoid injection for trochanteric bursitis in our clinic between July 2019 and July 2022 for GTPS were analyzed. The control group was constituted of patients without GTPS but with hip and spinal problems who had pelvic computerized tomography (CT) images and undergone robotic-assisted knee arthroplasty. Standard anteroposterior pelvic radiograms, pelvic CTs, or magnetic resonance images were evaluated for anatomical parameters.
Results: Among anatomical parameters, acetabular anteversion, length of trochanter major, and abductor index were significantly different between the patients with and without GTPS. Although mean age was different between the GTPS and control patient groups, age was not found to be correlated with any anatomical parameter. Abductor lever arm length (p = 0.001) and abductor index (p = 0.009) were found to be correlated.
Conclusions: The length of trochanter major and abductor index were shown to be predisposing anatomical parameters for GTPS.


A multimodal deep learning model, DeepNCI, is proposed for improving noncovalent interactions (NCIs) calculated via density functional theory (DFT). DeepNCI is composed of a three-dimensional convolutional neural network (3D CNN) for abstracting critical and comprehensive features from 3D electron density, and a neural network for modeling one-dimensional quantum chemical properties. By merging features from two networks, DeepNCI is able to reduce the root-mean-square error of DFT-calculated NCI from 1.19 kcal/mol to ∼0.2 kcal/mol for a NCI molecular database (>1000 molecules). The representativeness of the joint features can be visualized by t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), where they can distinguish categorized NCI systems quite well. Therefore, the fused model performs better than its component networks. In addition, the 3D CNN takes electron density as inputs that are in the same range, despite the size of molecular systems, so it can promote model applicability and transferability. To clarify the applicability of DeepNCI, an application domain (AD) has been defined with merged features using the K-nearest-neighbor method. The calculations for external test sets are shown that AD can properly monitor the reliability for a prediction. The model transferability is tested with a small database of homolysis bond dissociation energy including only dozens of samples. With NCI database pretrained parameters, the same or better performance than the reported results is achieved by transfer learning. This suggests that the DeepNCI model is transferable and it may transfer to other relative tasks, which possibly can resolve some small sampling problems. The source code of DeepNCI can be freely accessed at https://github.com/wenzelee/DeepNCI.


The ecological richness of the Great Lakes Watershed has attracted human populations since the late Pleistocene Epoch and is now home to over 325,000 American and Canada residents. Anthropologists studying the cultural variability associated with the peopling of this region and the biological effects of shifts in subsistence strategies have focused their attentions on demographic change (Buikstra, 1978; Hart, 1999; Hutterer, 1983; Mayer and Porat, 2008; Price and Yosef, 2011) and the increased instances in pathologies such as pulmonary tuberculosis (Buikstra and Cook, 1978). This study examines the impact that a shift from foraging to small-scale agriculture had on craniofacial growth. Crania from 4 culture areas including biological material from 12 archaeological sites in Wisconsin (A.D. 900-1600) were compared in order to test the notion that craniometric traits associated with a diverse ecosystem would reflect a mixed subsistence strategy as opposed to an overreliance on plant domesticates.


This paper presents a systematic literature review addressing rigorously planned and assessed interventions intended to reduce school bullying. The search for papers was performed in four databases (Lilacs, Psycinfo, Scielo and Web of Science) and guided by the question: What are the interventions used to reduce bullying in schools? Only case-control studies specifically focusing on school bullying without a time frame were included. The methodological quality of investigations was assessed using the SIGN checklist. A total of 18 papers composed the corpus of analysis and all were considered to have high methodological quality. The interventions conducted in the revised studies were divided into four categories: multi-component or whole-school, social skills training, curricular, and computerized. The review synthesizes knowledge that can be used to contemplate practices and intervention programs in the education and health fields with a multidisciplinary nature.


In this paper, scattering of a plane and monochromatic electromagnetic wave from a nano-wire is simulated using surface integral equations. First, integral equationsgoverning unknown fields on the surface is obtained based on Stratton-Cho surface integral equations. Then, the interaction of the wave with a non-plasmonic as well as a palsmonic nano-wire is considered. It is shown that in scattering of the wave from the non-plasmonic nano-wire the simple phenomena of refraction and transmission occur. On the other hand, the interaction of TM polarized light with plasmonic nano- wire excites surface plasmon waves. Simulations show that no surface plasmon is excited in interaction of TE polarized light with plasmonioc nano-wire. It is observed that, while increasing the frequency of incident light, the regime of scattering goes from electrostatic limit to simple geometric limit through diffraction region. In continuation, charge distribution induced by surface plasmon is simulated for different times. The simulation shows that a wave-like surface charge is excited and propagates on the surface.There is a very weak charge distribution within the nano-wire indicating that no light penetrates the wire.


Spectroscopy is a tool that has been used for decades to identify, understand, and quantify solid, liquid, or gaseous materials, especially in the laboratory. In disciplines ranging from astronomy to chemistry, spectroscopic measurements are used to detect absorption and emission features due to specific chemical bonds, and detailed analyses are used to determine the abundance and physical state of the detected absorbing/emitting species. Spectroscopic measurements have a long history in the study of the Earth and planets. Up to the 1990s remote spectroscopic measurements of Earth and planets were dominated by multispectral imaging experiments that collect high-quality images in a few, usually broad, spectral bands or with point spectrometers that obtained good spectral resolution but at only a few spatial positions. However, a new generation of sensors is now available that combines imaging with spectroscopy to create the new discipline of imaging spectroscopy. Imaging spectrometers acquire data with enough spectral range, resolution, and sampling at every pixel in a raster image so that individual absorption features can be identified and spatially mapped (Goetz et al., 1985).


Treatment of active, moderate-to-severe Graves' orbitopathy (GO) is the administration of intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP). IVMP may be followed by additional therapy with oral prednisone. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of IVMP on adrenal function by evaluation of serum, salivary cortisol and serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S). Fourteen patients received IVMP treatment (cumulative dose of 4.5 g in 12 weekly infusions) followed by oral prednisone (for three months). All patients showed normal adrenal function before the 12th IVMP pulse and one patient was diagnosed with secondary adrenal insufficiency (AI) after prednisone treatment. DHEA-S was significantly lower before the 12th IVMP pulse and after oral prednisone (p = 0.015 and p = 0.00002, respectively) in comparison to evaluation before therapy. DHEA-S levels were below the reference range in one and three patients before the 12th IVMP pulse and after prednisone therapy, respectively. We observed decreased serum (p = 0.05) and salivary (p = 0.011) cortisol levels after oral prednisone therapy in comparison to evaluation before therapy. Treatment with IVMP in a cumulative dose of 4.5 g affects adrenal function, causing more severe impairment of DHEA-S secretion than that of cortisol but does not cause secondary AI. Additional therapy with oral glucocorticoids after IVMP can cause secondary AI.


Heart muscle has to work constantly throughout the life and its energy metabolism is heavily dependent on a continuous supply of oxygen. Energy metabolism must be effectively regulated to meet the demands of changing workloads in different circumstances. If the oxygen supply is interrupted, the function of the heart is easily disturbed and cells injured. Calcium metabolism is of great importance in these pathological conditions. In this thesis respiratory regulation was studied by non-destructive optical methods in mouse heart. The myoglobin-deficient mouse was used as an experimental model to avoid the artefact caused by intracellular myoglobin. Results show that increased consumption of energy and oxygen lead to concomitant reduction of cytochrome aa3 and oxidation of flavoproteins. This finding supports the view that cell respiration in intact myocardium is dominantly regulated at the level of the respiratory chain. The intracellular Ca2+ accumulation during ischemia is one of the major causes of irreversible ischemia-reperfusion injury. Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) has been shown to protect the heart muscle significantly from ischemic damage. In this thesis Ca2+ accumulation during ischemia and reperfusion was studied in perfused rat heart using Fura-2 as a fluorescent Ca2+ indicator. As there is a significant decrease in intracellular pH during prolonged ischemia, the pH-dependency of Fura-2 signal was taken into account. It was found that IPC attenuates Ca2+accumulation during ischemia and this was connected to a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential. Both IPC and the pharmacologically induced preconditioning with the mitoKATP opener diaxozide were shown to be associated with increased production of superoxide monitored by means of lucigenin chemiluminescence. The superoxide production correlated with the oxidation-reduction state of flavoproteins. We also describe here a method for measuring of intracellular free Ca2+ in mouse heart during ischemia by simultaneous monitoring of Fura-2 and the pH probe BCECF fluorescence by means of dual wavelength excitation of both probes. The paradoxical decrease of Fura-2 fluorescence during ischemia indicating decreasing intracellular Ca2+ concentration was due to the pH effect on the dissociation constant of the Fura-2-Ca2+ complex. When the pH-dependency of Fura-2 was compensated, an extensive Ca2+ accumulation during ischemia was detected. Much of the previous literature on this subject must be re-evaluated because the pH-dependency of intracellular Ca2+ probes has been largely overlooked.


Previously, we have demonstrated distinguishing features in the fast Fourier transform (FFT) of signal-averaged electrocardiograms (ECGs) obtained during sinus rhythm in the absence of bundle branch block that differentiate patients with from those without sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT). The ECGs during sinus rhythm from many patients with sustained VT, however, exhibit intraventricular conduction abnormalities. Accordingly, this study was performed to determine whether the presence of bundle branch block during sinus rhythm precluded accurate identification of patients with sustained VT. Studies were performed in 28 normal subjects (group I) and 141 patients with organic heart disease grouped according to clinical characteristics. Group II comprised 40 patients without VT in whom the QRS duration during sinus rhythm was less than 120 msec. Group III included 21 patients without VT in whom the QRS duration during sinus rhythm was 120 msec or greater. Group IV comprised 43 patients with sustained VT having ECGs during sinus rhythm with QRS durations less than 120 msec. Group V included 37 patients with sustained VT in whom the QRS duration during sinus rhythm was 120 msec or greater. FFTs of the terminal QRS and ST segment of signal-averaged X, Y, and Z ECGs were computed. Transformed data were expressed as an FFT magnitude and the relative contribution and peak magnitudes of 20 to 50 Hz frequencies determined after first demonstrating that this FFT method was more appropriate, when compared with the energy spectrum, for analyzing ECG signals having a broad range of ST segment durations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Recently, There has been much discussed about unused space. This space can be used in a variety of ways. Utilizing it as a facility, craft shop, and utilizing renewable energy generation facilities. Especially, in terms of climate change should be supplied renewable energy. Renewable energy needs to be developed in terms of responding to climate change, and the recent Paris agreement is also emphasizing the importance of renewable energy. In particular, renewable energy needs to be widely disseminated. And renewable energy is limited space. In this regard, idle land can provide opportunities for securing new renewable energy generation facilities. The introduction of new and renewable energy facilities in idle space can enhance the self-sufficiency rate of the local community, which is significant in terms of responding to climate. In this study, to investigate the possibility of utilizing a unused space for a photovoltaic power generation facility, we investigated the amount of electricity which could be generated through photovoltaic power generation, and the economic effects, using a RETScreen model. The results showed that 9,738 MWh of power can be generated and that 4,540 tCO2eqcan be saved. Regarding the economic effect, the net present value of the facility was shown to be 2,247,389,020 KRW. As the net present value was shown to be positive, we believe that the installation of a photovoltaic power generation facility in an unused space would have a positive economic effect. We found the net present value following the fluctuation of the SMP price to be positive, though there was some variation. However, as the economic efficiency was shown to be low because the net present value in relation to the maintenance costs was negative, we believe that maintenance costs must be taken fully into account when evaluating economic efficiency. In particular, as subsidies can be used to cover maintenance costs which must be factored into photovoltaic power generation, we believe that photovoltaic power generation can have an economic effect. Because spaces not currently in use can have a positive economic effect as renewable energy power generation facilities, and can also contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, unused spaces are thought to greatly help local governments to cope with climate change as well as reinforcing their related capabilities. We believe our study will help local governments with decisions relating to unused real estate utilization in the future.


This study employs the low temperature UV-glue dispensing and curing processes to bond a bulk block on a suspended CMOS MEMS stage to increase the proof-mass of tilt sensor. Thus, the sensitivity and resolution of CMOS MEMS capacitive-type tilt sensor are significantly improved. Such simple post-CMOS process inherits from the mature technology for packaging. In application, this study successfully demonstrates the bonding of a bulk solder ball with a tilt sensor fabricated using the standard TSMC 0.35µm 2P4M CMOS process. Measurements show the sensitivity is increased for 3.4-fold, and the resolution is improved from 1° to 0.1v, after adding the solder ball. Note that the sensitivity can be further improved by reducing the parasitic capacitance and the mismatch of sensing fingers caused by solder ball.


Leptographium wingfieldii is a well-known fungal associate of the pine shoot beetle, Tomicus piniperda, in Europe. This fungus is pathogenic to pines and is an important cause of blue-stain in the sapwood of infested trees. Tomicus piniperda was first found in a Christmas tree plantation in Ohio, USA, 1992, but isolation of the fungi associated with these intercepted insects was not attempted. Fungal strains resembling L. wingfieldii were recently isolated from pines attacked by T. piniperda, Dendroctonus valens and Ips pini in the northeastern United States. These strains were morphologically similar to the ex-type and other reference strains of L. wingfieldii. Strains were also compared based on sequences of the partial ITS ribosomal DNA operon, beta-tubulin and elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1alpha) genes. Based on these DNA sequence comparisons, reference strains of European L. wingfieldii were conspecific with North American strains from pines attacked by T. piniperda, D. valens and I. pini. A single strain from Canada, collected in 1993 near the Ontario border with the USA, shortly after the discovery of T. piniperda in that area and tentatively identified as L. wingfieldii, was also included in this study. Its identification was confirmed, suggesting that L. wingfieldii has been present in this region and probably over the whole range of the insect's distribution for at least a decade. This represents the first record of L. wingfieldii associated with the introduced and damaging pine shoot beetle T. piniperda in North America. It shows that the fungus is well established and can become associated with other native bark beetles that attack stressed and/or dying trees. The occurrence and spread of this highly pathogenic fungus associated with North American bark beetles should be monitored.


The purpose of this paper is to discuss difficulties with telling the truth in non-fictive narratives (e.g. trauma stories, rape narratives, asylum-seekers' narratives). In order to do that I analyze, among others, various discourse fictionalization strategies, such as emplotment, narrative substances (Nss), vague predicates, and approximate references. I argue that these strategies are conditioned by the very nature of language, and therefore are present in all types of statements – literary as well as scientific. Referring to the concept of alethic pluralism, I also discuss how it is possible that the use of fictionalization techniques in non-fictive stories does not necessarily transform them into fiction.


The continuity of monitoring operations at national earthquake centers during crisis is an important challenge In 2020, because of the COronaVIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) health emergency, monitoring centers all over the world faced new, unexpected problems In Italy, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) has the duty to perform earthquake and volcano monitoring, seismic surveillance and tsunami alerting, and maintaining effective communication with the National Civil Protection agency and the public During the lockdown, that started on 9 March 2020, INGV set up a series of sanitary and organizational measures and improved the technological infrastructures in the control room in Rome for remote use of software for seismic network monitoring, seismic surveillance, and tsunami alerting Our main goal was to protect the researchers and technicians on duty as much as possible and develop the remote use of software tools necessary to perform service activities when needed to limit the presence in the control room to the essential In the first month of lockdown, we implemented the organizational controls, the health aids, and the tools for remote surveillance and alerting, and gave online training courses for about 100 shift workers At the end of March 2020, most of the technicians, researchers, and tsunami experts on duty were able to access the new monitoring tools from home During these months, the shifts in the control room were done in person and we performed remote seismic surveillance and tsunami alerting only during the weekly disinfections of the control room and at the beginning of each week The tools developed during the COVID health emergency are going to be useful in the future especially in the case of other emergencies including the occurrence of a strong earthquake © Seismological Society of America


THE patient, a man, aged 24, was first seen two months ago, when he was suffering from typical lichen planus of six weeks duration, scattered over the limbs and trunk. He was treated with intramuscular injections of atoxyl with the addition of novocaine. The solution contained 20 per cent. of atoxyl for the first two injections, but later a 10 per cent. solution was found nmore satisfactory. The dose given was 1 c.c. of the stronger solution and 2 c.c. of the weaker, or 20 cg. of atoxyl, twice a week. The papules disappeared rapidly under treatment, and although no local treatiment was used the pruritus was entirely relieved after four injections. At the end of ten injections the lesions were in the condition now seen, namely, level with the surrounding skin, the pigmentation alone showing where the papule had been. The patient then showed some toxic signs, such as irritation of the conjunctiva and dyspepsia, and the injections were accordingly stopped. A fortnight after the cessation of the injections the hair follicles over the extensor surfaces of the forearms becamue inflamned and showed typical lichen spinulosus. There were no signs of arsenical hyperkeratosis.


The development of a novel electromagnetically (EM) actuated stirring method, for use in microbioreactors, is reported. Mixing in microbioreactors is critical to ensure even distribution of nutrients to microorganisms and cells. Magnetically driven stirrer bars or peristaltic mixing are the most commonly utilised mixing methods employed in completely liquid-filled microbioreactors. However the circular reactor shape required for mixing with a stirrer bar and frequently used for peristaltically mixed microbioreactors presents difficulties for bubble-free priming in a microfluidic bioreactor. Moreover the circular shape and the hardware required for both types of mixing reduces the potential packing density of multiplexed reactors. We present a new method of mixing, displaying design flexibility by demonstrating mixing in circular and diamond-shaped reactors and a duplex diamond reactor and fermentation of the gram-positive bacteria S. carnosus in a diamond-shaped microbioreactor system. The results of the optimisation of this mixing method for performing fermentations alongside both batch and continuous culture fermentations are presented.


To compare transformation frequency and to investigate the developmental alterations in transgene expression, two cut-flower chrysanthemums 'Yamabiko' (spray-type) and 'New Summer Yellow' (standard-type) were transformed with three disarmed Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains C58C1, MP90 and LBA4404, all strains having the pBI121 plasmid. No marked difference was observed in transformation efficiency among cultivar/bacterial strain combinations. β-glucuronidase (GUS) activity levels in transformants were fairly low and varied among the different transgenic lines, ranging from 30 to 250pmol min-1 (mg protein)-1. GUS expression was not observed in the transgenic lines transformed with strain LBA4404. The alterations of GUS activity levels were examined for a long term, and it was observed that GUS activities reduced to zero level in most of transgenic lines 12 months after the inoculation of bacteria.


Guidelines concerning the potentially harmful effects of scientific studies have historically focused on ethical considerations for minimizing risk for participants. However, studies can also indirectly inflict harm on individuals and social groups through how they are designed, reported, and disseminated. As evidenced by recent criticisms and retractions of high-profile studies dealing with a wide variety of social issues, there is a scarcity of resources and guidance on how one can conduct research in a socially responsible manner. As such, even motivated researchers might publish work that has negative social impacts due to a lack of awareness. To address this, we propose 10 simple rules for researchers who wish to conduct socially responsible science. These rules, which cover major considerations throughout the life cycle of a study from inception to dissemination, are not aimed as a prescriptive list or a deterministic code of conduct. Rather, they are meant to help motivated scientists to reflect on their social responsibility as researchers and actively engage with the potential social impact of their research.


Abstract This paper presents an instrument, designed using scientific methods, to measure the subjective well-being of teachers in relation to their work and to variables from life experience. Participant teachers work at the basic educational level in private institutions created by the civil society that attend to the needs of the socio-economically vulnerable populations outside the state's system. The Cronbach Alfa index and exploratory factor analysis were used to establish the reliability and validity of the instrument applied to 183 Mexican teachers in the pilot test. Conclusions pint out to possible uses of this validated instrument for the design of strategies that favor the integral well-being of the future generations of teachers and a substantial improvement in the quality of education. Keywords : subjective well-being, instrument, teacher, health, and satisfaction.


A crucial aspect of learning about (linear) functions is being able to change between graph and equation. Common German and Slovak textbooks propose different procedures for these representational changes. Within a sample of 49 German and 56 Slovak teachers, we analyzed if these different procedures can also be observed in the teachers' corresponding knowledge of content and students, i. e. if the teachers expected different student strategies and errors. The results confirm this assumption and emphasize the importance to consider this teacher's knowledge in a country-specific way and being careful when comparing such knowledge of teachers from different countries.


Malignant tumors of the ureteral smooth muscle are rare and the prognosis is not clear. This is a report of a patient with primary leiomyosarcoma of the ureter surviving 9 years and 9 months postoperatively without any evidence of recurrence. Malignancy of the ureter was suspected on the basis of angiography and radical nephro-ureterectomy was performed without positive cytology results.


1. In reviewing the relation of serum-phosphatase activity to the more common diseases of bone, it has been found, in general, that there is an increase in serum-phosphatase activity accompanying the formation of unusual amounts of new or of abnormal bone. There appears to be little or no increase associated with the purely destructive lesion of bone.

2. Determinations of serum phosphatase are an important aid in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of Paget's disease, osteitis fibrosa cystica, and tumors of bone.

3. The level of serum-phosphatase activity cannot be used as an index of healing or of the ability of a fracture to heal.

4. No significant changes in serum-phosphatase activity were noted in cases of bone and joint tuberculosis and of osteomyelitis.

5. Serial phosphatase determinations are suggested as a criterion of effective therapy in Paget's disease, hyperparathyroidism, osteoblastic osteogenic sarcoma, and rickets.


Before the advent of colonialism and its attendant degradation of African culture, Africans have had a concrete knowledge about what conflicts are, what causes conflicts and how conflicts are resolved.  Prior to western education, the Africans have developed a robust knowledge about the dynamics of conflicts and they have had institutionalized means of resolving their conflicts. In the present dispensation, however, the phrase 'Traditional Arbitration Institutions' has been given prejudiced responses by the westerners who dominated the study of peace with their scholarly works and claimed a monopolized knowledge of peace. Premised on this background, this paper focuses attention on exposing the systematic knowledge of Africans about disputes and conflicts resolution, using Nigeria as area of study; the paper discusses the conceptual meaning of Traditional Arbitration Institutions (TAI) and conflict resolution; the study seeks to identify and examine the roles of Traditional Arbitration Institutions in promotion of conflict resolution in Nigeria society. In addition, it examines various Traditional Arbitration Institutions (TAI) conflict resolutions mechanism and approaches put in place in resolving disputes and conflicts in Nigeria. The research methodology employed in the study is mixed methods which involves qualitative and quantitative research technique. This work adopted Traditional Arbitration Theory. The paper observes that there is a need for engaging Traditional Arbitration Institutions in resolving community and industrial based disputes and separatist's agitation in Nigeria. The paper concludes by recommending various Traditional Arbitration strategies that can be adopted to complement existing efforts of promoting peace and stability in Africa.


Background: The terminal branches of the trigeminal nerve in meninges are supposed to be the origin site of migraine pain. The main function of these peripheral sensory axons is the initiation and propagation of spikes in the orthodromic direction to the second order neurons in the brainstem. The stimulation of the trigeminal ganglion induces the release of the neuropeptide CGRP in meninges suggesting the antidromic propagation of excitation in these fibers. However, the direct evidence on antidromic spike traveling in meningeal afferents is missing. Methods: By recording of spikes from peripheral or central parts of the trigeminal nerve in rat meninges, we explored their functional activity and tested the expression of ATP-, serotonin-, and capsaicin-gated receptors in the distal vs. proximal parts of these nerves. Results: We show the significant antidromic propagation of spontaneous spikes in meningeal nerves which was, however, less intense than the orthodromic nociceptive traffic due to higher number of active fibers in the latter. Application of ATP, serotonin and capsaicin induced a high frequency nociceptive firing in peripheral processes while, in central parts, only ATP and capsaicin were effective. Disconnection of nerve from trigeminal ganglion dramatically reduced the tonic antidromic activity and attenuated the excitatory action of ATP. Conclusion: Our data indicate the bidirectional nociceptive traffic and dissimilar expression of P2X, 5-HT and TRPV1 receptors in proximal vs. distal parts of meningeal afferents, which is important for understanding the peripheral mechanisms of migraine pain.