The objective of this paper is to analyze the monetary and fiscal history of Mexico using a model of the consolidated budget constraint of the Mexican government as the framework. I assume a small open economy in which the government exports oil. I study the period 1960-2016. I evaluate the ability of the model to explain the crises of 1982 and 1994, and while the model can explain the 1982 debt crisis, it cannot explain the 1994 crisis. A constitutional change in the relationship between the federal government and Banco de Mexico, and policy choices made in the aftermath of the 1994 crisis, are consistent with a transition from fiscal dominance to an independent Central Bank. Inflation fell persistently after 1995, reaching values of 3% per year in mid-2016. That number is the target of the Central Bank. After a long transition following the 1982 crisis, Mexico succeeded in controlling inflation. I discuss forces that reduced inflation over time: a long sequence of primary surpluses, the constitutional change that gave independence and a goal to the Central Bank, and the current inflation targeting regime. On the fiscal side, I observe a change in the downward trend of the total debt-to-GDP ratio, as it fell from the 1980s to 2009, the year in which it started growing persistently until 2016.


Background The degree to which children and young people are infected by and transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus is unclear. Clinical series and testing cohorts based upon screening of symptomatic cases provide biased estimates of susceptibility in children. The role of children and young people in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on susceptibility, symptoms, viral load, social contact patterns and behaviour. Methods We undertook a rapid systematic review of contact-tracing studies and population-screening studies to address the question What is the susceptibility to and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and adolescents compared with adults? We searched PubMed and medRxiv on 16 May 2020 and identified 6327 studies, with additional studies identified through handsearching of cited references (2) and professional contacts (4). We assessed quality, summarized findings and undertook a random effects meta-analysis of contact-tracing studies. Results 18 studies met inclusion criteria; 9 contact-tracing, 8 population-screening and 1 systematic-review. Meta-analysis of contact tracing studies showed that the pooled odds ratio of being an infected contact in children compared with adults for all contact tracing studies was 0.44 (0.29, 0.69) with substantial heterogeneity (63%). Findings from a systematic review of household clusters of COVID-19 found 3/31 (10%) were due to a child index case and a population-based school contact tracing study found minimal transmission by child or teacher index cases. Findings from population-screening studies were heterogenous and not suitable for meta-analysis. Large studies from Iceland, the Netherlands and Spain and an Italian municipal study showed markedly lower SARS-CoV-2 prevalence amongst children and young people, however studies from Stockholm, England and municipalities in Switzerland and Germany showed showed no difference in infection prevalence between adults and children. Conclusions There is preliminary evidence that children and young people have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, with a 56% lower odds of being an infected contact. There is weak evidence that children and young people play a lesser role in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a population level. Our study provides no information on the infectivity of children.


Contrary to the currently dominant view, it was not poor governance nor the associated corruption which were the prime causes of the development of poor public sector financial management in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was the economic problems across Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which led to a decline in the quality of public sector financial management and governance. The economic problems primarily arose from external events over which African governments had little or no control. Public sector financial managers across Sub-Saharan Africa, far from being the cause of the decline in the quality of public financial management, could be considered heroes and should be recognised as the key experts on the history, capabilities and short-comings of the systems they manage. As such, they should lead incremental reform programmes to re-build their systems rather than attempts at comprehensive and complex reforms effectively led by foreign consultants and the international financial institutions.


592 Background: Tumor-agnostic approvals of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) include deficient mismatch repair/microsatellite instability high (dMMR/MSI-H) and high tumor mutational burden (TMB) while in cancer like metastatic gastroesophageal cancers, ICI use has been predicated on PD-L1 expression. ICI are increasingly used for metastatic HCC, but without required markers. We aimed to examine the genomic landscape of HCC in context of PD-L1 expression, and to determine clinical responses to ICI in this setting. Methods: Next-generation sequencing of DNA (592 or WES) and RNA (WTS) was tested at Caris Life Sciences (Phoenix, AZ). PD-L1 expression was tested by IHC (SP142) and compared as high (2+,5%), low (1-2,1%) and negative (0). dMMR/MSI-H was tested by IHC/NGS and TMB-High was defined as ³10 mutations/MB. QuantiSEQ was used to estimate the tumor microenvironment. X2/Fisher-Exact were used and significance was determined as P-value adjusted for multiple comparison ( Q < 0.05). Real-world overall survival (rwOS) was obtained from insurance claims and calculated from tissue collection to last contact; time-on-treatment (TOT) was calculated from start to finish of ICI treatments. Results: Overall, 17.7% of HCC expressed PD-L1 by IHC; 79/1306 (6.1%) had high expression. The overall prevalence of dMMR/MSI-H was 0.2%; TMB was high in 5.1%. PD-L1 expression was not associated with MSI-H or high TMB. When comparing tumors that are PD-L1 high vs. negative vs. low, expression of several immuno-oncologic (IO) markers LAG3 (median TPM: 2.4, 0.8, 0.5), CTLA-4 (2.9, 1.2, 0.5), IDO1 (4.2, 1.3, 0.6) and others, as well as T-cell inflamed and IFNg scores all decreased significantly with PD-L1 (all q<0.05), similar trends were seen with B cells, M1 macrophages, CD8+ T cells and T regs while opposite differences seen in NK cells (q<0.05). Additionally, when PDL1-high tumors were compared to PDL1-negative, mutations in CTNNB1 trended lower (21% vs 35%) while amplifications of KRAS (4% vs 0%), PDCD1LG2 (4% vs 0%) and mutations in HNF1A (3% vs 0%), HOXB13 (6% vs 0%), STK11 (5% vs 0%) trended higher; when PDL1-low were compared to PDL1-negative, mutations in TP53 (45% vs 32%), ELF3 (3% vs 0%), TSC2 (6% vs 2%) and PIK3CA (5% vs 1%) and amplifications in BCL9 (2% vs 0%) and CCNE1 (2% vs 0%) trended higher. When investigating clinical outcome of a cohort of 908 HCC tumors, PD-L1 expression had no effect on prognosis, and was not associated with differences in TOT of ICI in HCC. Conclusions: Prevalence of dMMR/MSI-H and TMB-H is very low in HCC. PD-L1 is only expressed in <20%. Even with a finding of strong association of expression of several established IO biomarkers with PD-L1 expression, it's still not predictive of response to ICI. New biomarkers or molecular signatures need to be identified and validated to objectively identify HCC patients most likely to benefit from ICI treatment.


Obesity is associated with decreased circulating testosterone levels, the main male sex hormone. However, there are a number of different male sex hormones whose dynamics remain poorly understood regarding this pathology. In this regard, 17 hydroxyprogesterone (17-OH progesterone), as an important precursor of testosterone synthetized in testes and adrenal glands, could play an essential role in testosterone deficiency in male obesity. Moreover, similarly to testosterone, 17-OH progesterone could be closely associated with visceral fat distribution and metabolic dysfunction. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess serum 17-OH progesterone levels in non-diabetic obese young men and to evaluate their relationship with clinical, analytical, and anthropometric parameters. We conducted a cross-sectional study including 266 non-diabetic men with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) aged 18–49 years; 17-OH progesterone and total testosterone (TT) were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. 17-OH progesterone levels were significantly lower in tertile 3 of body fat percentage in comparison with tertile 1 (0.74 ng/mL vs. 0.94 ng/mL, p < 0.01; Bonferroni correction) and in comparison with tertile 2 (0.74 ng/mL vs. 0.89 ng/mL, p = 0.02; Bonferroni correction). 17-OH progesterone levels correlated negatively with weight, BMI, waist circumference, insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and visceral fat, and positively with TT, free testosterone (FT), luteinizing hormone, and fat-free mass percentage. Multivariate linear-regression analysis showed that body fat percentage and HOMA-IR were inversely associated with 17-OH progesterone levels, while FT and ACTH were positively linked to circulating 17-OH progesterone levels. In conclusion, in a population of non-diabetic obese young men, 17-OH progesterone levels were inversely associated with adiposity. Body fat percentage and insulin resistance were negatively related to 17-OH progesterone levels, whereas FT and ACTH levels were positively associated with 17-OH progesterone levels.


Although urban agriculture plays an important role in economic development, activities that support it are rarely included in programmes for urban development and poverty reduction. The study was undertaken in three communities (Irrigation Development Authority area, Roman down and Afariwa) in the Ashaiman Municipality in the Greater-Accra region. The objective of the study is to determine whether Government/Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) support services increases performance of crop production and improvement in farmers' livelihood and also to identify urban agricultural policies in Accra. Purposive sampling was used to select urban vegetable farmers out of an industry (urban agriculture) that produces, processes and markets food and fuel, to yield a diversity of crops and livestock. Simple random sampling was then used to select 104 out of 200 farmers and 5 members out of 12 Accra Working Group on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (AWGUPA) members using the pick and replace method. The Government support services found were Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and Irrigation Development Authority (IDA). The NGO support services were the Pro Credit Bank, Dangme Rural Bank and the "Mummies". Eighty eight farmers who had access to Government/NGO support services observed an improvement in performance of crop production while 16 farmers who did not have access to assistance did not realize any improvement. Also, there was a significant difference between access to Government/NGO support services and the various livelihoods outcome of urban farmers. Contemporary policies influencing urban and peri-urban agriculture include policy and legislative support for urban agriculture, education and policy awareness on urban agriculture and urban food safety, among others. These draft guidelines for strengthening and supporting urban agriculture has been produced and presented by AWGUPA to Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for consideration. However, it has not yet been approved. Key words : Government/NGO support services, contemporary policies  influencing urban and peri-urban agriculture, livelihood outcomes of urban farmers.


Document publication service over such a large network as the Internet challenges us to harness available server and network resources to meet fast growing demand. We show that large scale dynamic caching can be employed to globally minimize server idle time, and hence maximize the aggregate server throughput of the whole service. To be efficient, scalable and robust, a successful caching mechanism must have three properties: (1) maximize the global throughput of the system; (2) find cache copies without recourse to a directory service, or to a discovery protocol; and (3) be completely distributed in the sense of operating only on the basis of local information. We develop a precise definition, which we call tree load balance (TLB), of what it means for a mechanism to satisfy these three goals. We present an algorithm that computes TLB offline, and a distributed protocol that induces a load distribution that converges quickly to a TLB one. Both algorithms place cache copies of immutable documents on the routing tree that connects the cached document's home server to its clients, thus enabling requests to stumble on cache copies en route to the home server.


The Aspromonte National Park, which is set entirely in the province of Reggio Calabria, is a protected area of 70,000 hectares. It has been the subject of a preliminary study aimed at detecting and investigating the most important issues in the field of energy, with the purpose of supporting a sustainable energy plan. This paper presents a summary of the main results obtained from the analysis of the energy flows, which are spread over the territory of the protected area itself and parts of the small towns whose territory belongs only partially in the area of the Aspromonte Park. The analysis has been carried out in three different steps: collecting the required territorial data, analysing the consumption of energy, and evaluating the potential of the renewable resources already existent in the aforementioned territory of the Park. Through the creation of suitable maps, it has been possible to discern the areas having the highest potentiality with regards to the use of renewable sources of energy. The representation of the results is thus a useful tool which can be used in the process of planning and management of the area itself and which is also, along with other cultural, social and environmental information, the first step towards the definition of a Sustainable Energy Plan for the area of the Aspromonte National Park.


Patients treated with Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitor-based acute myeloid leukemia therapies nearly always develop resistance. In this issue, Alotaibi and colleagues describe the patterns of mutations that emerge upon relapse after FLT3 inhibitor therapy after initial response, as well as in treatment-refractory disease in a single-institution study; the findings offer insights for sequential therapies targeting the dominant clone at the time of relapse.See related article by Alotaibi et al., p. 125.


Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair were both accused of taking British politics into a 'presidential' direction, with highly visible and 'strong' leaders seen as the defining political force. But this trend is not unique to the UK, with Italy also moving in this direction under first Silvio Berlusconi, and secondly the incumbent Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The trends that have shaped this change are not unique to either of these countries as Fortunato Musella argues, with developments in Italy likely to repeat across the continent and influence the shape of European politics to come.


In the application of subtractive hybridization methods to identify differentially expressed genes, It is no doubt that would increase the efficiency of subtractive hybridization method by simplifying experimental procedures and reducing experimental time-consuming.
In this study, we reported a modified method, called transcriptome subtractive hybridization (abbr. TSH). In order to cover different types of RNA as much as possible and reduce the experimental procedure, TSH in the protocol neither uses restriction endonuclease for adopter ligation, nor use oligo-d (T) for the reverse transcription reaction. Instead, tester RNA directly hybridizes with driver single strand cDNA, then the hybrid of RNA/cDNA was digested by Hae III, residual targeting tester RNA was enriched by reverse transcription PCR amplification. As a result, the experimental protocol was simplified to reduce experimental time-consuming.
To validate use reliability of the TSH, TSH was employed to identify cell-specific expressing ESTs in both E. coli JM109 with and without a recombinant plasmid. The results showed that the non-target RNA finally eliminated through direct hybridization and digestion of RNA/cDNA hybrids. Six reference genes within the recombinant plasmid were detected as expected in the tester library constructed from the JM109 RNA with the recombinant plasmid.
Obviously, the verified results showed that the TSH, a modified protocol, would be a reliable and effective method, which can be applied to identify differential gene expression between the two cell types.


After studying finite asymptotic expansions
in real powers, we have developed a general theory for expansions of type (*) ,x → x0 where
the ordered n-tuple forms an asymptotic scale at x0 , i.e. as x → x0, 1 ≤ i ≤ n – 1, and is practically assumed to be an extended
complete Chebyshev system on a one-sided neighborhood of x o. As in previous papers by the author concerning polynomial, real-power
and two-term theory, the locution "factorizational theory" refers to the
special approach based on various types of factorizations of a differential
operator associated to . Moreover, the guiding thread of our theory is the property of formal
differentiation and we aim at characterizing some n-tuples of asymptotic expansions formed by (*) and n -1 expansions obtained
by formal applications of suitable linear differential operators of orders 1,2,…,n-1.
Some considerations lead to restrict the attention to two sets of operators
naturally associated to "canonical factorizations". This gives rise to
conjectures whose proofs build an analytic theory of finite asymptotic
expansions in the real domain which, though not elementary, parallels the
familiar results about Taylor's formula. One of the results states that to each
scale of the type under consideration it remains associated an important class
of functions (namely that of generalized convex functions) enjoying the
property that the expansion(*), if valid, is automatically formally
differentiable n-1 times in two special senses.


Despite quick response (QR) codes' prominence, little is known about their embedding in pull-based communications. This study aims to measure QR code effects in print advertising along five different stages of consumer decision making, using advertisement appeals with moderating effects of product category involvement.,Data were derived from a German market research initiative with 326,212 consumer evaluations for 792 real print advertisements from 26 product categories. Multinomial logit models were used to investigate the effects of QR code presence on consumer reactions.,QR codes steer purchase intention in a low-involvement product category if used alongside an emotional appeal. Advertisements for high-involvement products benefit if QR codes are combined with an overall informational appeal. QR codes do not enhance the persuasive effects of advertisements' informational appeals in a low-involvement product category.,The effects of QR codes on consumers' responses cannot be analysed in isolation but depend on advertisement context. They interact with advertisements' informational and emotional appeals and product category involvement.,Marketers should not use QR codes indiscriminately but should carefully consider advertisement context. QR codes should be used alongside an emotional appeal if the marketer's objective is to induce purchase intention in low-involvement settings. Advertisements for high-involvement products need to combine QR codes with an informational appeal.,This study highlights the interplay of effects in print advertisements, which are typically considered push-based when they are combined with QR codes as pull-based communications in the digital marketing area.


Background Among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), low level of daily physical activity (PA) is the main risk factors for developing cardiovascular, metabolic, and musculoskeletal comorbidities. Increasing PA in people with COPD is complex as PA behavior itself is complex and multifaceted, including personal, physiological, and psychological elements as well as social and environmental factors. Although eHealth solutions such as web-based support or websites have shown positive effects on PA in people with COPD, the results are inconclusive, and it is still unclear how eHealth solutions might be used to support positive changes in PA behavior in people with COPD. Objective This study aimed to explore the perceptions of increasing objective PA when using a web-based eHealth tool among people with COPD. Methods This study was part of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial with in-depth interviews between the 3- and 12-month follow-ups. The methodology used was constructivist grounded theory. All sampling included participants from the randomized controlled trial intervention group, that is, participants who had access to the eHealth tool in question and agreed to be contacted for an in-depth interview. Inclusion of participants continued until data saturation was reached, resulting in an inclusion of 13 (n=7, 54% women) participants aged between 49 and 84 years and living in 8 municipalities in Middle and Northern Sweden. Two interviews were conducted face-to-face, and the remaining interviews were conducted via telephone. All interviews were recorded using a Dictaphone. Results The analysis resulted in 3 main categories: welcoming or not welcoming action, having or lacking resources, and lowering the threshold. The first 2 categories contain barriers and facilitators, whereas the third category contains only facilitators. The categories lead to the more latent theme Perceiving enough control to enable action, meaning that it seems that perceiving the right amount of control is essential to maintain or increase the level of PA when using an eHealth tool among patients with COPD. However, the right amount of control seemed to depend on the individual (and context) in question. Conclusions The core category indicates that a need for a certain sense of control was interpreted as necessary for increasing the PA level as well as for using an eHealth tool to help increase the PA level. The eHealth tool seemed to strengthen or weaken the perception of control by either providing support or by being too demanding on the user. Perceptions varied depending on other environmental factors. The Fogg Behavior Model illustrated how motivational levels, ability levels, and functional triggers interact within our findings. Thus, this study provides further evidence for the importance of empowering the patients to boost their level of agency and their ability to improve PA levels. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030788


Today, many economists guess that the global trend of privatizing social security is not a short-term phenomenon and its influence will increase further in the future. In fact, the privatization wave is so strong, that it leads to discussions in almost every part of the world and not only in the countries implementing these reforms. Almost whole world is watching these developments and carefully analyzing the outcomes of these reforms. But why does the situation look like this and why are so many countries willing to change their old social security systems, which have provided retirement income to the elderly for so many years? There must be some common dissatisfaction with the existing public systems which became apparent in recent years. Without doubt, the readers of World Bank's "Averting the Old Age Crisis" know these problems quite good. However, why are all hopes tied to such a radical change like privatization on the pursuit for the "ideal" pension system? What kind of a cure is privatization expected to bring to retirement income systems? This study aims to answer these questions by presenting experiences from all all around the globe.


Youth unemployment in Georgia is severe. In order to bring young people closer to the labour market, the strategy of building vocational education and training (VET) system is actively pursued. However, business engagement in this process is low, impeding the system to provide the skills and knowledge tailored to labour market needs. The purpose of the thesis is to find out the reasons behind the low business engagement. As the study topic is novel and specific to Georgian context, the interviews with VET centres are conducted to explore the subject and give the direction to the research. Consequently, the field of information technology is chosen to base the study on. After analysing the context of Georgia, two hypotheses are derived. In order to test the hypotheses, the method of interviewing enterprises is employed. The research reveals that first, there is a competition from higher education graduates and second, enterprises do not train and therefore, search for workers with relevant work experience. These circumstances discourage business to engage in the VET system in the field of information technologies.


A microwave power beaming system was developed to realize wireless power supply to a Micro Aerial Vehicle. This system consists of transmitting, tracking, and receiving systems. In the transmitting system, a 5.8GHz microwave beam was irradiated from an active phased array antenna. Transmitting power was 4W and the beam divergence angle was 9deg. In the tracking system, a 2.45GHz pilot signal was detected by a two-dimensional tracking antenna and the position was deduced though the software retro-directive function. The maximum tracking error was 1.97deg in the azimuth direction and 1.79deg in the traverse direction. Then, FM/AM wireless camera signal was used the pilot signal for tracking. The maximum error was 3.22deg in the traverse direction and was 4.97deg in azimuth direction that were slightly larger than those without modulation.


Background: Studies of low-energy fusion of light nuclei are important in astrophysical modeling, with small variations in reaction rates having a large impact on nucleosynthesis yields. Due to the lack of experimental data at astrophysical energies, extrapolation and microscopic methods are needed to model fusion probabilities.
Purpose: To investigate deep sub-barrier $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C fusion cross sections and establish trends for the $S$ factor.
Method: Microscopic methods based on static Hartree-Fock (HF) and time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) mean-field theory are used to obtain $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C ion-ion fusion potentials. Fusion cross sections and astrophysical $S$ factors are then calculated using the incoming wave boundary condition (IWBC) method.
Results: Both density-constrained frozen Hartree-Fock (DCFHF) and density-constrained TDHF (DC-TDHF) predict a rising $S$ factor at low energies, with DC-TDHF predicting a slight damping in the deep sub-barrier region ($\approx1$~MeV). Comparison between DC-TDHF calculations and maximum experimental cross-sections in the resonance peaks are good. However the discrepancy in experimental low energy results inhibits interpretation of the trend.
Conclusions: Using the fully microscopic DCFHF and DC-TDHF methods, no $S$ factor maximum is observed in the $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C fusion reaction. In addition, no extreme sub-barrier hindrance is predicted at low energies. The development of a microscopic theory of fusion including resonance effects, as well as further experiments at lower energies must be done before the deep sub-barrier behavior of the reaction can be established.


The intragastric balloon is a common minimally invasive procedure used prior to bariatric surgery for weight reduction. There are complications of this balloon with varying degrees of severity ranging from mild to severe life-threatening complications. Acute pancreatitis due to direct compression or catheter migration of the balloon should be considered in these patients. In the literature, there is little evidence that intragastric balloons could cause acute pancreatitis. We present two cases in which they had a history of IGB insertion complicated by acute pancreatitis. The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis due to the intragastric balloon was made after excluding other possible causes of acute pancreatitis. Both patients were hospitalized and managed conservatively.


Public communication in the process of social interaction during the Covid-19 pandemic must continue. The media need to spread Covid-19 information to the public. This study aims to determine the role of RBT radio as Radio Net in managing the Covid-19 talk show program and create public participation to participate in discussions during the on-air Covid-19 talk show program, increasing public awareness of the Covid-19 virus. This descriptive qualitative research collects data through interviews, observations, and documentation as well as literature study from the website. The results show that the role of RBT radio in conveying information on Covid-19 greatly helps the public understand how to prevent the virus. The strategy is to utilize Facebook social media with the Covid-19 live streaming program packaged in the Talkshow format. RBT radio opens an interactive dialogue path with listeners, but it is not yet optimal. In increasing public awareness, RBT radio as often as possible plays Community Service Advertisements, and every broadcast discusses the Covid-19 news in Belgium itself. The substance of this research is the role of RBT radio as a government public relations radio in conveying Covid-19 information with the Covid-19 Talkshow program using the internet.


The aim of the study is to analyze the possibilities of developing a contactless diagnostics system of the technical state of the valve mechanism, which excludes mounting sensors on the body of the diagnosed equipment, by using a directional microphone as a sensitive element. In order to test the proposed hypothesis, a directional microphone designed to measure the level of acoustic noise, sound pressure level and to obtain amplitude-frequency characteristics in the range of 10-10 kHz has been used. In the work, an experimental determination of the spectrum of the valve mechanism acoustic vibration and its comparison with the spectrum obtained from an accelerometer has been carried out; the principle of building an automated diagnostic system using a directional microphone has been formulated.


In this article, I address theoretical constructions of ritually produced symbolic power in Tamang communities of Nepal. I relate dance-skits deriding dominant classes and violent exorcisms to the social production of this power. This symbolic power is an elementary form of power produced in the activity of ritual itself. The ritual analyzed could be characterized as defiant, and thus I address larger questions of ritual and resistance. [ritual, power, resistance, Tamang, Nepal, South Asia]


Driven by a remarkable number of technological advances in recent years, electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) has played an increasingly important role in deciphering macromolecular structure and function. Today, cryo-EM routinely achieves subnanometer resolutions, with current state-of-the-art reconstructions approaching atomic resolutions. Though achieving high-resolution density maps is still a challenging aspect of cryo-EM, it is possible to isolate individual subunits, identify secondary structures elements and accurately fit atomic models in reconstructions of large macromolecular assemblies. Additionally, computational modelling and feature recognition tools are routinely employed to construct backbone and atomic models of entire assemblies directly from a density map. Together, these tools provide researchers with unprecedented insight into structure and function, revealing everything from subunit arrangements to complex sets of interactions in macromolecular assemblies.

Key Concepts:

Cryo-EM is capable of imaging large macromolecular assemblies in order to understand their structure and function.

Analysing macromolecular assemblies requires a variety of complex computational tools.

In subnanometer resolution cryo-EM density maps, it is possible to see individual protein subunits, as well as higher-resolution structural features.

It is now possible to construct backbone and atomic models directly from cryo-EM density maps at near-atomic resolutions.

Keywords:

cryo-EM;
segmentation;
fitting;
modelling;
macromolecular assemblies


INTRODUCTION
The history of viral hepatitis goes back thousands of years and is a fascinating one. When humans were first infected by such agents, a natural repetitive cycle began, with the capacity to infect billions of humans, thus decimating the population and causing sequelae in thousands of lives.

METHODS
This article reviews the available scientific information on the history of viral hepatitis. All the information was obtained through extensive bibliographic review, including original and review articles and consultations on the internet.

RESULTS
There are reports on outbreaks of jaundice epidemics in China 5,000 years ago and in Babylon more than 2,500 years ago. The catastrophic history of great jaundice epidemics and pandemics is well known and generally associated with major wars. In the American Civil War, 40,000 cases occurred among Union troops. In 1885, an outbreak of catarrhal jaundice affected 191 workers at the Bremen shipyard (Germany) after vaccination against smallpox. In 1942, 28,585 soldiers became infected with hepatitis after inoculation with the yellow fever vaccine. The number of cases of hepatitis during the Second World War was estimated to be 16 million. Only in the twentieth century were the main agents causing viral hepatitis identified. The hepatitis B virus was the first to be discovered.

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, through reviewing the history of major epidemics caused by hepatitis viruses and the history of discovery of these agents, singular peculiarities were revealed. Examples of this include the accidental or chance discovery of the hepatitis B and D viruses.


We studied the effects of a single dose of fenoterol on the relationship between inspiratory effort sensation (IES) and inspiratory muscle fatigue induced by inspiratory threshold loading in healthy subjects. The magnitude of the threshold was 60% of maximal static inspiratory mouth pressure (PI,mmax) at functional residual capacity, and the duty cycle was 0.5. Subjects continued the threshold loaded breathing until the target mouth pressure could no longer be maintained (endurance time). The intensity of the IES was scored with a modified Borg scale. Either fenoterol (5 mg) or a placebo was given orally 2 h before loading in a randomized double-blind crossover protocol. The endurance time with fenoterol (34.4 +/- 8.6 min) was longer than that with the placebo (22.2 +/- 7.1 min; P < 0.05). The ratio of high- to low-frequency power of the diaphragmatic electromyogram (EMGdi) decreased during loading; the decrease was less with fenoterol (P < 0.05). The EMGdi also decreased with loading; the decrease was greater on fenoterol treatment (P < 0.01). The PI,mmax and maximal transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi) were similarly decreased after loading on either treatment. The intensity of the IES rose with time during loading in both groups but was lower with fenoterol than with the placebo (P < 0.05). The ratio of Pdi to integrated activity of the EMGdi increased with fenoterol (P < 0.05). Fenoterol treatment increased both superimposed Pdi twitch and Pdi twitch of relaxed diaphragm and decreased the value of (1-superimposed Pdi twitch/Pdi twitch of relaxed diaphragm). Thus we conclude that in normal subjects fenoterol reduces diaphragmatic fatigue and decreases the motor command to the diaphragm, resulting in a decrease in IES during inspiratory threshold loading and a prolongation of endurance.


Abstract The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy, safety and reinfection rates at 6 and 12 months after treatment of schistosomiasis with praziquantel 60 mg/kg single dose, as compared to the standard 40 mg/kg single dose regimen. A school-based randomized, double blind, experimental drug trial was implemented in Bunawan and Trento, in the province of Agusan del Sur, Philippines. The Kato Katz technique was used for quantitative assessment of Schistosoma japonicum infection. Follow-up visits were done 21, 180 and 360 days post-treatment. Efficacy, safety and reinfection rates of the two treatment regimens were compared using Student's t-test, Chi-square/Fisher's exact test and analysis of variance. There were 102 and 101 patients assigned to the 40 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg treatment groups, respectively. On day 21 post-treatment, 95% and 98.0% of the patients were cured, with egg reduction rates were of 99.9% and 99.99%, respectively. Remaining infections were of light intensity. On days 180 and 360, infection rates increased, with re-emergence of moderate and heavy intensity infections. On treatment day, the cumulative prevalence of adverse events in the 60 mg/kg treatment group was significantly higher than in the 40 mg/kg treatment group (P = 0.002). In conclusion, praziquantel 40 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg single dose therapy had comparable efficacy. A significantly higher prevalence of adverse events, mostly mild and transient, was observed in the 60 mg/kg regimen. The 40 mg/kg regimen is recommended for the treatment of schistosomiasis. High reinfection rates suggest the need to re-examine behavioral and environmental factors in the community.


The Bologna Declaration and the implementation of the European Higher Education Area are
promoting the use of active learning methodologies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects
obtained after applying active learning methodologies to the achievement of generic competences as
well as to the academic performance. This study has been carried out at the Universidad Politecnica
de Madrid, where these methodologies have been applied to the Operating Systems I subject of the
degree in Technical Engineering in Computer Systems. The fundamental hypothesis tested was
whether the implementation of active learning methodologies (cooperative learning and problem
based learning) favours the achievement of certain generic competences ('teamwork' and 'planning
and time management') and also whether this fact improved the academic performance of our
students. The original approach of this work consists in using psychometric tests to measure the
degree of acquired student's generic competences instead of using opinion surveys, as usual. Results
indicated that active learning methodologies improve the academic performance when compared to
the traditional lecture/discussion method, according to the success rate obtained. These methods
seem to have as well an effect on the teamwork competence (the perception of the behaviour of the
other members in the group) but not on the perception of each students' behaviour. Active learning
does not produce any significant change in the generic competence 'planning and time management'.


This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the amount of colostrum (two and four liters) and methods of colostrum feeding (direct suckling from the cow, feeding colostrum using nipple bottle, and no feeding colostrum) on different blood traits. Thirty two Holstein calves (four groups of eight animals each) were randomly allotted to four treatments: treatment 1 - calves were hand fed four liters of colostrum; treatment 2 - calves were hand fed two liters of colostrum; treatment 3 - calves were fed colostrum directly from the cow, and treatment 4 - calves were not fed colostrum. Higher values of total serum protein, betaglobulins and gamaglobulins were observed in the calves after 24 hours of colostrum feeding. No differences among animals fed colostrum directly from the cow and hand fed two or four liters of colostrum were observed for total protein and eletrophoretic fractions. However lower values of total and eletrophoretic fractions were observed for calves that were not fed colostrum.


This paper studies worst-case robust optimal tracking using noisy input-output data. We utilize behavioral system theory to represent system trajectories, while avoiding explicit system identification. We assume that the recent output data used in the data-dependent representation are noisy and we provide a non-conservative design procedure for robust control based on optimization with a linear cost and LMI constraints. Our methods rely on the parameterization of noise sequences compatible with the data-dependent system representation and on a suitable reformulation of the performance specification, which further enable the application of the S-lemma to derive an LMI optimization problem. The performance of the new controller is discussed through simulations.


A BSTRACT . One of the important challenges in agricultural machinery research is the ability to effectively determine power requirements of a given field operation. The Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus, also known as ISOBUS, has proven to be an effective digital tool for tractor and implement data collection. This study attempted to determine implement hydraulic power requirements using a combination of existing public tractor CAN messages and minimal added sensors. The sensor signals were published on the CAN bus for ease of simultaneous sensor signal and CAN message data collection. Based upon the available CAN messages, this study attempted to measure hydraulic flow rate distributed by a tractor's directional control valve without the incorporation of a flowmeter. For instances when a valve received its requested flow rate by the operator, the valve's flow rate was predicted as a function of the valve's spool position. The resulting curve of best fit had a coefficient of determination of 0.9993 and a root-mean-square-error of 0.8805 Lmin -1 for the combination of multiple implement loads. When the valve became flow-limited, and the effective flow rate could no longer be determined by spool position, predicting the flow rate from a measured pressure drop across a minor loss in the system was investigated. From data collected on a flow-limited valve caused by reduced engine speed, a piece-wise line of best fit was found, predicting the flow rate based upon the pressure drop. Additional pressure sensors were used to determine the flow-state of the valve.


Given a large photo collection without domain knowledge (e.g., tourism photos, conference photos, event photos, images wrapped from webpages), it is not easy for human beings to organize or only view them within a reasonable time. In this paper, we propose to automatically extract meaningful semantics from a photo collection named "dimensions" to help people view, search and organize photos conveniently and efficiently. However, due to the lack of additional domain knowledge or content information, existing image retrieval techniques are not applicable. To tackle the problem, we first propose a simple strategy to extract all meaningful semantics from original photos/images as candidate dimensions, and then propose an efficient unsupervised feature/dimension selection method to select a sufficient dimension subset to uniquely index each photo within this collection. Our experiments on several real-world photo/image collections validate both the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed method.


Previous research has shown that football fandom for people with a learning disability can positively affect wellbeing, social identity, social interaction and belonging (Southby, 2013a; Southby, 2013b; Southby, 2011). However, whilst such research has been disseminated through 'traditional' academic routes – peer-reviewed journal articles and conferences – it has not been shared with, or had very little impact upon, the public. The 'Being a Bantam' project is a knowledge exchange activity to share learning about the football fandom of people with a learning disability with the 'football community' (i.e. fans, administrators, policy makers) and the public. The project is a co-produced photographic exhibition of images representing the experience of fans with a learning disability supporting their teams. The project aims to critically challenge public understanding of football fandom for people with a learning disability, destigmatise learning disability, and encourage greater cohesion/inclusion within the football community. The exhibition will be on display indefinitely in Bradford City Football Club's stadium from the 9th April 2016 for those attending Bradford City FC matches to view. Upon the projects launch, fans without a learning disability viewing the images will be asked to comment on the fandom of people with a learning disability to a researcher present in the stadium (on 9th April) and via social media. The intention of this paper is to present learning from the 'Being a Bantam' project. It will start by outlining previous research concerning the football fandom of people with a learning disability before critically discussing the process of co-producing a knowledge exchange photography exhibition with people with a learning disability. Outcomes from the project, including areas for future research, will be presented.


Certain nonwords, like maluma and takete, are associated with roundness and sharpness, respectively. However, this has typically been demonstrated using explicit tasks. We investigated whether this association would be detectable using a more implicit measure-a sequential priming task. We began with a replication of the standard Maluma/Takete effect (Experiments 1a and 1b) before examining whether round and sharp nonword primes facilitated the categorization of congruent shapes (Experiment 2). We found modest evidence of a priming effect in response accuracy. We next examined whether nonword primes affected categorization of ambiguous shapes, using visual (Experiment 3) and auditory primes (Experiment 4). We found that ambiguous shapes were categorized as round (sharp) more often following the presentation of a round (sharp) nonword. This suggests that phonemes may activate related shape information which then affects the processing of shapes, and that this association emerges even when participants are not explicitly searching for it.


[1] The Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) mission is a new two-probe lunar mission derived from the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission. On 13 February 2010, one of the two probes, ARTEMIS P1 (formerly THEMIS-B), made the first lunar wake flyby of the mission. We present detailed analysis of the electrostatic waves observed on the outbound side of the flyby that were associated with electron beams. Halekas et al. (2011) derived a net potential across the lunar wake from observations and suggested that the net potential generated the observed electron beams and the electron beams in turn excited the observed electrostatic waves due to kinetic instabilities. The wavelengths and velocities of the electrostatic waves are estimated, using high-resolution electric field instrument data with cross-spectrum analysis and cross-correlation analysis. In general, the estimated wavelengths vary from a few hundred meters to a couple of thousand meters. The estimated phase velocities are on the order of 1000 km s � 1 . In addition, we perform 1-D Vlasov simulations to help identify the mode of the observed electrostatic waves. We conclude that the observed electrostatic waves are likely on the electron beam mode branch.


Cool can be thought about on three levels; the having of cool things, the doing of cool stuff and the being of cool. Whilst there is some understanding of cool products, the concept, of being cool is much more elusive to designers and developers of systems. This study examines this space by using a set of pre-prepared teenage personas as probes with a set of teenagers with the aim of better understanding what is, and isn't cool about teenage behaviours. The study confirmed that teenagers are able to rank personas in order of cool and that the process of using personas can provide valuable insights around the phenomenon of cool. The findings confirm that cool is indeed about having cool things but in terms of behaviours cool can be a little bit, but not too, naughty.


Hemangioma is a benign vascular tumor that affects 3%–10% of the population and usually does not require specific treatment due to spontaneous regression. The purpose of this paper is to present a case report of a child having been born prematurely and diagnosed with hemangioma in the head and neck, emphasizing the dentofacial changes and treatment used to provide care. Severe fibrous scars were found in the perioral region and below the ear that limited the patient's ability to open her mouth. The child exhibited anterior open bite as well as dental caries in the lower jaw, hypomineralization, and enamel hypoplasia. Treatment consisted of dietary and oral hygiene orientations, dental prophylaxis, topical 1:23% acidulated phosphate fluoride gel, removal of the carious tissue, sealing with glass ionomer cement, and extraction. Dentists need to have knowledge on hemangioma for a proper diagnosis and the optimization of dental treatment.


Purpose The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing due to a westernized dietary lifestyle, and improvements in treatment and diagnostic tools have resulted in more patients being confirmed of having multiple primary cancers. However, studies regarding multiple primary cancers are insufficient. In this study, the clinical aspects of patients with primary multiple cancers, including colorectal cancers, were investigated, and the results were compared to those of patients with primary colorectal cancer only. Methods Seven hundred eighteen patients who received surgery for colorectal cancer between March 2003 and September 2012 in CHA Medical Center were enrolled. A retrograde cohort was done for comparison of the two groups: those with and those without multiple primary cancer. The analysis was done according to sex, age, tumor location, tumor size, metastatic regional lymph-node number, vascular/lymphatic microinvasion, staging, tumor markers, microsatellite instability, and C/T subgroup of polymorphism in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. Results Of the 718 subjects, 33 (4.6%) had multiple primary cancers: 12 (36.4%) synchronous and 21 (63.6%) metachronous. The malignancy most frequently accompanying colorectal cancer was gastric cancer, followed by thyroid, prostate, and esophageal malignancies in that order. In the comparison between groups, mean age, tumor location, and microsatellite instability showed statistically significant differences; others parameters did not. Conclusion The incidence of multiple primary cancers, including colorectal cancer, is increasing. Therefore, defining the characteristics of patients with multiple primary cancers is crucial, and those characteristics need to be acknowledged in the follow-up of colorectal cancer patients.


OBJECTIVE
To study the influence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on the permeability of rat brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) and possible molecular mechanism.

METHODS
Monolayers of primary rat BMECs were separated and cultured, and then treated with (LPS group) or without LPS (control group). The barrier integrity was measured by transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) assay. The degrees of RhoA activation were determined by Pull-down assay. The expression levels of p115RhoGEF, zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), occludin and claudin-5 proteins were detected by Western blot analysis.

RESULTS
The average TEER values of rat BMECs in the LPS group were 108.3±4.2 Ω•cm2 and 85.4±2.5 Ω•cm2 respectively 3 and 12 hrs after LPS treatment, which were significantly lower than that in the control group (159.0±8.6 Ω•cm2). Compared with the control group, the activity of RhoA started to increase 5 minutes after LPS treatment, and the expression of p115RhoGEF protein started to increase 1 hr after LPS treatment and the cellular protein levels of ZO-1, occludin and claudin-5 decreased significantly 3 hrs after LPS treatment in the LPS group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
LPS may activate the p115RhoGEF/RhoA pathway and decrease protein expression of ZO-1, occludin and claudin-5, resulting in an increased permeability of rat BMECs.


Researchers have not yet devoted sufficient attention to the effect of prison architecture on inmate misconduct. Using data from the population of male prisoners in Texas, the authors explored the association between two prison architectural design types (as determined by satellite imagery) and inmate misconduct. The results from multilevel statistical analyses suggest that architectural design is associated with nonviolent misconduct but not violent misconduct. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.


We present evidence for the enhancement of light-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency (IPCE) in photonic crystal dye-sensitized solar cells due to an amplified light field at the dielectric band edge. Under angle-resolved monochromatic irradiance along the LU direction, the IPCE enhancement peaks match well with the blue shift in the dielectric band edge. The numerical simulation indicates that the photon localization effect at the dielectric band edge causes the intensification of the light field in the dielectric matrix. Using a Maxwell−Bloch two-level atom model to quantify the dye absorption of light and photocurrent generation, we show that the improvement in IPCE is due to an enhanced light−matter interaction between the dye atom and the amplified field.


Abstract Proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) technology has become a powerful strategy in drug discovery, especially for undruggable targets/proteins. A typical PROTAC degrader consists of three components: a small molecule that binds to a target protein, an E3 ligase ligand (consisting of an E3 ligase and its small molecule recruiter), and a chemical linker that hooks first two components together. In the past 20 years, we have witnessed advancement of multiple PROTAC degraders into the clinical trials for anticancer therapies. However, one of the major challenges of PROTAC technology is that only very limited number of E3 ligase recruiters are currently available as E3 ligand for targeted protein degradation (TPD), although human genome encodes more than 600 E3 ligases. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify additional effective E3 ligase recruiters for TPD applications. In this review, we summarized the existing RING‐type E3 ubiquitin ligase and their small molecule recruiters that act as effective E3 ligands of PROTAC degraders and their application in anticancer drug discovery. We believe that this review could serve as a reference in future development of efficient E3 ligands of PROTAC technology for cancer drug discovery and development.


Objective: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents increased dramatically. Reduced regular physical activity (PA) is considered one of the major factors behind this worldwide epidemic and related health problems. This study aimed to determine the association between PA level and body composition components in 12-14 years old girls and boys living in Altındağ district, Ankara.
 Materials and methods: A total of 234 boys and 224 girls aged 12-14 years participated in this study. PA level was assessed by the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) and body composition was measured by bioelectric impedance. Two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test and Pearson Correlation Coefficient tests were used in data analysis.
 Results: Findings of the study showed that children aged 12 years had higher total PA score than aged 13 and 14 years (p<0.05), showing decreased PA level with age. Boys had significantly higher total PA score in all age groups than girls (p<0.05). Girls with healthy weight and overweight showed significantly higher total PA score than girls with obesity. Girls had higher fat mass and body fat percentage than boys in all age groups (p<0.05). Fat mass was inversely associated with total PA score in all age groups (12 years old r=-0.28; p<0.001, 13 years old r=-0.16; p=0.047, 14 years old r=-0.21; p=0.007).
 Conclusions: PA participation of children declines with age. Reduced PA level is significantly associated with increased fat mass, indicating the importance of PA in maintaining a healthy weight in this age group.


The data obtained for the concentration distributions of the most abundant volatile metabolites in exhaled breath determined in two independent studies are reviewed, the first limited study involving five healthy volunteers providing daily breath samples over a month, and the subsequent study involving 30 healthy volunteers providing breath samples weekly over six months. Both studies were carried out using selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry, SIFT-MS, to obtain on-line, real-time analyses of single breath exhalations, avoiding the complications associated with sample collection. The distributions of the metabolites from the larger more comprehensive study are mostly seen to be log normal with the median values (in parts per billion, ppb) being ammonia (833), acetone (477), methanol (461), ethanol (112), propanol (18), acetaldehyde (22), isoprene (106) with the geometric standard deviation being typically 1.6, except for ethanol which was larger (3.24) due to the obvious increase of breath ethanol following the ingestion of sugar. These were the first well-defined concentration distributions of breath metabolites obtained and they are the essential requirement for recognizing abnormally high levels that are associated with particular diseases. The associations of each metabolite with known diseased states are alluded to. These SIFT-MS studies reveal the promise of breath analysis as a valuable addition to the tools for clinical diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring.


Abstract A tweed-like structure with striated contrast has been observed in an Al62Cu17.5Co17.5Si3 decagonal quasicrystal, for the first time, by using conventional electron diffraction contrast imaging and high-resolution electron microscopy images. The contrast of these striations, as observed under two-beam conditions, is different from that resulting from dislocations, stacking faults and small-angle grain boundaries in quasicrystals, and it can be interpreted as being due to quasilattice distortions introduced by the lattice misfit between the decagonal quasicrystal matrix and the local ordering.


Abstract Forest harvesting with animals is a labor-intensive operation. It is expensive to use machines on smaller woodlots, which require frequent moves if mechanically logged. So, small logging systems using animals may be more cost effective. In this study, work sampling was used for five animal logging operations in Alabama to measure productive and non-productive time elements to determine utilization with respect to operators, functions (felling and processing of trees, skidding, loading, and forwarding of logs), animals, and machines. Cost of log production was calculated from the figures reported by owners and the crew members. Average utilization of crew was 58 percent, animals (horses and mules) were utilized only 22 percent and the machines were utilized from 5 to 74 percent of scheduled time. Average cost of log production per m3 was $11.28. There appears to be an opportunity to reduce cost of log production by coordinating functions, increasing scheduled work hours, utilization of machines and animals, and reducing labor cost.


Study Design: Retrospective matched-pair analysis. Objectives: Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV) have a reported prevalence of 4-36% in the population. The safe zones for screw placement for spinopelvic fusion in adult spinal deformity surgery for patients with LSTV have not been described in the literature. Our study aimed to assess the safety of S1-pedicle screw (S1PS), S2-alar screw (S2AS), S2-alar-iliac screw (S2AIS), and iliac screw (IS) placement in patients with LSTV. Methods: Out of the 819 examined patients, 49 patients with LSTV were included in our retrospective analysis with a matched pair control group. We used the 3-dimensional planning tool mediCAD for screw placement of S1PS, S2AS, S2AIS, IS with different angles, length and diameters. Results: We evaluated a total of 10 192 screw trajectories. No serious complications occurred due to the trajectories used for S1PS. LSTV increased the risk of vessel injury for S2AS trajectories (P = .001) but not for S2AIS (P = .526). Besides the presence of an LSTV, the screw trajectory had a major influence on the frequency of serious complications. Conclusions: Sacral anchoring of long spinal constructions using S1PS, S2AS, S2AIS and IS is also possible in the presence of LSTV. For S2AS the trajectory with 30° lateral and caudal angulation of 10° showed the least vascular injuries and the least sacro-iliac-joint violations in patients with LSTV. S2AIS trajectories with 40° lateral and 0° sagittal angulation reduced the risk of serious complications in our patients collective with LSTV.


This study explored the satisfaction of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) toward physical education/adapted physical education (PE/APE) teachers using the Parent Perceptions Toward Adapted Physical Education Teachers (PPTAPET) survey (Columna, Cook, Foley, & Bailey, 2014) and examined the influence of related variables. Forty-one parents completed the PPTAPET. Most parents were satisfied or strongly satisfied regarding items associated with communication (n = 23, 56%), qualification (n = 23, 56%), and rapport (n = 25, 61%) subtests. Instructional placement of the child was correlated with communication ( p = .012 ), qualification ( p = .015 ), and rapport ( p = .009 ). In addition, parents reported lower satisfaction in communication ( p = .009 ), qualification ( p = .017 ), and rapport ( p = .011 ) when their child was educated in fully inclusive PE/APE compared to non-fully inclusive PE/APE. These results suggest that teachers should account for parent satisfaction when making decisions for instructional placements for children with ASD. More research is suggested to further analyze the satisfaction of parents of children with ASD. Subscribe to TPE


This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that the copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior consent of the author or the University (as may be appropriate).


Purpose
In recent years, OpenGLAM and the broader open license movement have been gaining momentum in the cultural heritage sector. The purpose of this paper is to examine OpenGLAM from the perspective of end users, identifying barriers for commercial and non-commercial reuse of openly licensed art images.

Design/methodology/approach
Following a review of the literature, the authors scope out how end users can discover institutions participating in OpenGLAM, and use case studies to examine the process they must follow to find, obtain and reuse openly licensed images from three art museums.

Findings
Academic literature has so far focussed on examining the risks and benefits of participation from an institutional perspective, with little done to assess OpenGLAM from the end users' standpoint. The authors reveal that end users have to overcome a series of barriers to find, obtain and reuse open images. The three main barriers relate to image quality, image tracking and the difficulty of distinguishing open images from those that are bound by copyright.

Research limitations/implications
This study focusses solely on the examination of art museums and galleries. Libraries, archives and also other types of OpenGLAM museums (e.g. archaeological) stretch beyond the scope of this paper.

Practical implications
The authors identify practical barriers of commercial and non-commercial reuse of open images, outlining areas of improvement for participant institutions.

Originality/value
The authors contribute to the understudied field of research examining OpenGLAM from the end users' perspective, outlining recommendations for end users, as well as for museums and galleries.


Cuscuta species are interest- ingly behaving plant parasites of very different plant communities all over the world. Under warmer climate conditions they can act as danger- ous pests, while in the northern countries they are considered as threatened species. Moreover these plants have a special strategy to find their host, called foraging. Chemical clues emitted by the host plants attract the parasite shoots to the most proper host. Recent papers investigate the host preference of Cuscuta species. In our research, we examine the appearing spatial patterns with both experimental and modelling tools. Our objective is to reproduce this phenomenon in the virtual space and find the model, which best describes the emerging spatial patterns. For the modelling cellular automata are used, which are commonly used tools in spatial ecology. These are spatially explicit dynamic models, where both time and space are discrete. The graphical representation is a squared lattice. Every square - also called cell - in the lattice has a state (e.g. soil, plant, parasite) represented with an appropriate colour. In this pa- per we present the results of our field observations as well as the mathematical models considered.


BACKGROUND
The quantification of equine left ventricular (LV) function is generally limited to short-axis M-mode measurements. However, LV deformation is 3-dimensional (3D) and consists of longitudinal shortening, circumferential shortening, and radial thickening. In human medicine, longitudinal motion is the best marker of subtle myocardial dysfunction.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the feasibility and reliability of 2-dimensional speckle tracking (2DST) for quantifying equine LV longitudinal function.

ANIMALS
Ten healthy untrained trotter horses; 9.6 ± 4.4 years; 509 ± 58 kg.

METHODS
Prospective study. Repeated echocardiographic examinations were performed by 2 observers from a modified 4-chamber view. Global, segmental, and averaged peak values and timing of longitudinal strain (SL), strain rate (SrL), velocity (VL), and displacement (DL) were measured in 4 LV wall segments. The inter- and intraobserver within- and between-day variability was assessed by calculating the coefficients of variation for repeated measurements.

RESULTS
2DST analysis was feasible in each exam. The variability of peak systolic values and peak timing was low to moderate, whereas peak diastolic values showed a higher variability. Significant segmental differences were demonstrated. DL and VL presented a prominent base-to-midwall gradient. SL and SrL values were similar in all segments except the basal septal segment, which showed a significantly lower peak SL occurring about 60 ms later compared with the other segments.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
2DST is a reliable technique for measuring systolic LV longitudinal motion in healthy horses. This study provides preliminary reference values, which can be used when evaluating the technique in a clinical setting.


The importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is today far beyond any discussion in countries all over the world - in European countries as well as in Asia and in USA, in Africa as well as in Latin America. To meet market demands in present and future global industrial world, manufacturing enterprises of any kind and any size must be flexible and agile enough to respond quickly to product demand changes. With support of artificial intelligence and modern information technology it is possible to realise modern cost-effective customer-driven design and manufacturing taking into account the importance and basic role of quality management and metrology. This will be especially possible on the basis of the innovative concept and model for modern enterprises the so-called "Multi-Functions Integrated Factory - MFIF" that makes possible an agile and optimal industrial production in any kind of industry and especially in up-to-date SMEs.


The linker histone is a protein that binds with the nucleosome, which is generally considered to achieve chromatin condensation in the nucleus. Accumulating evidences suggest that the linker histone is essential in the pathogenesis of several diseases. In this review, we briefly introduce the current knowledge of the linker histone, including its structure, characteristics and functions. Also, we move forward to present the advances of the linker histone's association with certain diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, infection, male infertility and aberrant immunity situations, focusing on the alteration of the linker histone under certain pathological conditions and its role in developing each disease.


Chlamydophila psittaci is widely distributed in a number of birds and humans throughout the world, but little is known of the prevalence of C. psittaci in birds in China. In the present study, sera from 240 chickens, 200 ducks, 200 geese and 200 pigeons in China's southern Guangdong Province were assayed for Chlamydophila antibodies by indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA). The specific antibodies were found in sera of 17.92% of 240 chickens, 6% of 200 ducks, 22% of 200 geese and 17% of 200 pigeons. Statistical analysis showed that the seroprevalence of C. psittaci in ducks was significantly lower than that in chickens, geese and pigeons, respectively (P < 0.05). The seroprevalence in free-range chickens was 10.83%, and it was 25% in caged chickens, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Among different age groups of pigeons, the difference in seroprevalence of C. psittaci between adult pigeons and adolescent pigeons was significant (P < 0.05). This is the first time that the seroprevalence of Chlamydophila infection in domestic birds in Southern China was reported, and the data showed that the prevalence of Chlamydophila infection in domestic birds is high, indicating that the domestic birds may be an important source for human infection by C. psittaci in Southern China.

 Key words: Chlamydophila, seroprevalence, chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, southern China, indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA).


A recent experimental breakthrough identified the last bound neutron-rich nuclei in fluorine and neon isotopes. Based on this finding, we perform a theoretical study of Z = 9, 10, 11, 12 isotopes in the relativistic mean field (RMF) model. The mean field parameters are assumed from the PK1 parameterization, and the pairing correlation is described by the particle number conservation BCS (FBCS) method recently formulated in the RMF model. We show that the FBCS approach plays an essential role in reproducing experimental results of fluorine and neon isotopes. Furthermore, we predict 39Na and 40Mg to be the last bound neutron-rich nuclei in sodium and magnesium isotopes.


When a diverging laser beam passed through a plane parallel glass plate, interference fringes were observed; analysis of these fringes provided accurate estimation of the source wavelength. The fringes had a unique angular range of uniform fringe density. Fourier transform of the fringes in this range directly provided wavelength information. Reference lasers were used to establish a calibration between the fringe density and wavenumber, with which we estimated the wavelength of a test laser. An accuracy of 4.5×10-5 was obtained, which is better than that of conventional grating spectrometers, while providing a much broader free spectral range. Our method has unique features, such as extreme simplicity of the setup, fast analysis, and low cost, which are great advantages in practical wavelength meter applications.


THE international controversy which formerly raged concerning the origins of the Amadis de Gaula, frankly put forth at Saragossa in 1508 by the Spaniard Garcl Rodrlguez' de Montalvo as a redaction of 'antiguos origmnales,' has long since subsided. As regards the rival claims of Spaniards and Portuguese to original authorship of this famous novel of chivalry, the contest may be deemed indecisive.2 However, Grace S. Williams made the important demonstration that much of the action and many of the situations are a mosaic of motifs and descriptions in all likelihood deriving from various French Arthurian prose romances of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and from certain other works, principally non-Arthurian French romances of the same period.3 But, to make her demonstration, Miss Williams had to invoke so many isolated passages from so many different works, including the Spanish Gran conquista de Ultramar (based on French originals), that her study simply shows the extreme familiarity of the original author and perhaps of Montalvo as well with the French courtly and crusade material, and the author's great skill in uniting disparate themes in the aforementioned mosaic pattern. Miss Williams undertook, also, a tabulated comparison of Amadis proper names with allegedly similar Arthurian names. Here she is on shakier ground because of her failure to deal scientifically with many names (i.e., failure to take into account the frequent mutation of 1 to r and vice versa, especially when initial); even so, her demonstration is impressive. More recently, another British scholar, A. K. Jameson, pointed out the narrow scope of the inquiries hitherto made, and indicated the desirability of striving to establish some connection between the action of the Amadis and western European political events of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.4 Mr Jameson believes that the Amadis he does not differentiate between the first hree books and the rest of the work may be deemed originally a nationallistic gesture on the part of a Frenchman to exalt France and here Jameson would appear to be referring to the royal domain, and not to the dwindling English possessions in Gascony by setting up an Amadis of Gaul (i.e., France) in contrast to King Arthur, legendary sovereign of Great Britain. Unfortunately, Mr Jameson does not attempt to follow through with this hypothesis by relating it systematically tothe main events of the Amadis. Furthermore, he puts his dates for political events rather too late to square with the presumptive period of earliest peninsular knowledge of the work; for evidently the Briolanja episode was reworked in Portugal before 1325 at very least, and therefore the original work (especially if of French origin) must go back to the late thirteenth century, if not earlier.5 Yet Jameson talks of French political events of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century as possible motivations for the romance. However, Jameson's statements give point to the need for more research on a possible historical raison d'etre for the Amadis. Furthermore, let us not forget he well-known fact that in the Middle Ages romances were frequently composed to


Integrin α4β1 belongs to the leukocyte integrin family and represents a therapeutic target of relevant interest given its primary role in mediating inflammation, autoimmune pathologies and cancer-related diseases. The focus of the present work is the design, synthesis and characterization of new peptidomimetic compounds that are potentially able to recognize α4β1 integrin and interfere with its function. To this aim, a collection of seven new cyclic peptidomimetics possessing both a 4-aminoproline (Amp) core scaffold grafted onto key α4β1-recognizing sequences and the (2-methylphenyl)ureido-phenylacetyl (MPUPA) appendage, was designed, with the support of molecular modeling studies. The new compounds were synthesized through SPPS procedures followed by in-solution cyclization maneuvers. The biological evaluation of the new cyclic ligands in cell adhesion assays on Jurkat cells revealed promising submicromolar agonist activity in one compound, namely, the c[Amp(MPUPA)Val-Asp-Leu] cyclopeptide. Further investigations will be necessary to complete the characterization of this class of compounds.


Sensor networks are becoming popular for applications in private environments such as home monitoring, baby and child monitoring or ambient assisted living. What is often overlooked is the fact that data collected in this context can be very privacy sensitive. This is especially true if images or videos are captured and streamed into the cloud. This work presents a visual sensor network device along with a secure data delivery and archiving solution using untrusted public cloud storage services. This is achieved by extending the sensing device with a local communication interface for establishing a secure link between data producer and consumer. Our custom-designed TrustEYE.M4 prototype implements secure data delivery and uses Near Field Communication (NFC) for the initialization of the communication link. The presented solution is not limited to visual sensing applications but can be applied to a wide range of pervasive sensing and data delivery scenarios.


This paper explores literary uses of mobile media, with a particular emphasis on poetics. Its primary examples include SMS poetry contests sponsored by entities such as The Guardian, RMIT, and Onesixty and SMS-enabled public performances such as City Speak, TXTual Healing, and SimpleTEXT. The paper articulates some of the paradigmatic qualities of mobile media poetics, with a particular emphasis on liveness and ephemerality and commentary on mobility and location as signifying elements. It also suggests that some of the literary and socio-political potential of mobile media poetics can be seen in the shift from the single desktop to the mobile screens of large-scale public interaction. This investigation of mobile media poetics is situated as a partial redress to the seemingly ubiquitous worries over the decline of reading.


Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) based medication is now widely employed in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Like other gut hormones, GLP-1 is released from eneteroendocrine cells after a meal and in this review, based on the Dorothy Hodgkin lecture delivered during the annual meeting of Diabetes UK in 2023, I argue that there is sufficient spare capacity of GLP-1 and other gut hormone expressing cells that could be recruited therapeutically. Years of research has revealed several receptors expressed in enteroendocrine cells that could be targeted to stimulate hormone release: although from this research it seems unlikely to find agents that selectively boost GLP-1, release of a mixture of hormones might be the more desirable outcome anyway, given the recent promising results of new peptides combining GLP1-receptor with other gut hormone receptor activation. Alternatively, the fact that GLP-1 and PeptideYY (PYY) expressing cells are found in greater density in the ileum might be exploited by increasing the delivery of chyme to the distal small intestine.


The conventional approach to reserve capacity assessment in small isolated electric power generating systems is to use a deterministic procedure which recognises the possible loss of the largest generating unit and also some variation in the forecast load. These approaches do not normally include any explicit recognition of system risk and do not provide comparable risks for systems of different size or composition. The concept of system risk is presented in this article and illustrated by comparison with two basic deterministic procedures. A probabilistic framework for describing the well being of the generating capacity in a small isolated system is proposed and illustrated. The well being of the system is quantified in terms of system health and margin states, which incorporate the agreed deterministic criteria, in addition to a system risk index which describes the system inadequacy.


Although the use of cover crops and intercrops has been increasing, little information exists on effects these plant residues may have on soil microbial processes. Our objectives were to determine effects of several crop residues representing a range of C/N ratios (11.3-65.5) on mineralization, immobilization, denitrification, and dissimilatory NO 3 - reduction in Brookston clay loam with limiting and nonlimiting NO 3 - concentrations. Residues were obtained from two legumes, hairy vetch (HV; Vicia villosa L.) and red clover (RC; Trifolium pratense L.); two grasses, annual ryegrass (ARG; Lolium temulentum L.,) and reed canarygrass (RCG; Phalaris arundinacea L.); and corn (Zea mays L.). Nitrate consumption and NH 4 + , NO 2 - , NO, and N 2 O production were measured in soil with 10 g residue kg -1 in a gas flow system. In soil without added NO 3 - , during a 5-d aerobic incubation, 86% of the existing NO 3 - was immobilized with RC, 66% with corn, 44% with HV and ARG, and 41% with RCG. Intense immobilization in the RC and corn treatments limited the amount of NO 3 - available for denitrification, whereas during the subsequent anaerobic phase, only HV, ARG, and RCG stimulated denitrification. The enhanced net immobilization with RC was surprising because the C/N ratio for this residue was relatively low (15:1). Ammonium production was greatest with the HV residue. Nitrate addition to HV-amended soil further increased NH 4 + production with 91 mg N kg -1 being produced during a 5-d aerobic, 6-d anaerobic incubation. The nature of the residue-derived organic material is more important than simply the C/N ratio in regulating these microbial processes in these short-term incubations


Calcitriol, the most active metabolite of vitamin D, controls parathyroid gland growth and suppresses the synthesis and secretion of parathyroid hormone (PTH). However, because of its potent effects on intestinal calcium absorption and bone mobilization, calcitriol treatment can induce hypercalcemia, often precluding its use at therapeutic doses. Hyperphosphatemia is also a persistent problem among patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis and can be aggravated by therapeutic doses of calcitriol. Several pharmaceutical companies were able to modify the side-chain of the 1,25(OH)2D3, allowing some of these new analogs to retain the action on the parathyroid glands while decreasing their hypercalcemic and hyperphosphatemic effects. The structure-activity relationship for ligand-mediated transcriptional regulation has been studied in detail. In some analogs the serum binding protein (DBP) plays a key role in determining the pharmacokinetics of the vitamin D compound. The affinity to DBP for 22-oxacalcitriol (OCT), an analog of calcitriol for the treatment of secondary hyperparathryoidism, is approximately 300-400 times lower than that of calcitriol and the analog is rapidly cleared from the circulation. The mechanisms for the selectivity of 19-nor-1,25(OH)2D2 (paricalcitol) (Zemplar) another analog of calcitriol, is clearly different from OCT. Although the mechanisms of action is not completely known, it does appear that paricalcitol down-regulates the VDR in the intestine. It is likely that the unique biological profiles of vitamin D analogs in vivo are due to multiple mechanisms. Understanding the molecular basis of the analog selectivity will not only provide an explanation for their unique actions but allow intelligent design of more effective analogs in the future.


In the 19th century scrofula or scrofulous adenitis was a frequent condition estimated by the findingof swollen cervical lymph nodes or scars, occurring in both sexes at all epochs of life, mainly in children. It was thought that it principally affectedpeople with an inherited phlegmatic constitution that involved a scrofulous disposition or "diathesis". The disease would be triggered by environmental agents, bad habits or excesses in style of life. Besides injuring cervical lymph nodes, in some cases scrofula could compromise other groups of lymph nodes, bones, joints, lungs or other viscera. In some of its clinical presentations the disease could be healed while others were often  lethal disorders. The findingof multiorgan compromise, caseation and "tuberculization" of the lesions originated discussion whether scrofula and tuberculosis were one or two differentdiseases and if they affectedsubjects with a common diathesis or people with a distinct scrofulous or tuberculous diathesis. Along the 19th century, before the discovery of Koch's bacillus, the notion of contagion as a cause of scrofula and tuberculosis was not predominant in Europe


To the Editor:— The letter by Roy E. Christian, MD, entitled "Occlusion of the Dorsalis Pedis Artery in Two Young Women" (209:1366, 1969) suggested that the absence of a palpable dorsalis pedis pulse should be interpreted as indicating the presence of acquired occlusion of that artery. However, arterial occlusion is only one of the causes of an absent dorsalis pedis pulse. It should be emphasized that congenital absence of pedal pulses is a common and clinically insignificant findings. Surveys of 1,000 children hospitalized for noncardiovascular disorders1and of 1,014 apparently normal soldiers2revealed one or both dorsalis pedis pulses to be absent in 12% and 17% of the individuals, respectively. On the other hand, congenital absence of a posterior tibial pulse appears to be uncommon in the white race,1,2but one study2indicates a congenital absence of one or both posterior tibial pulses in 9%


Abstract The absolute configuration of the conformationally flexible (4R,6S,7S)-serricornin, a non natural isomer of the female-produced sex pheromone of the cigarette beetle (Lasioderma serricorne), was determined by comparison of measured and calculated circular dichroism spectra. The rotational strengths were calculated by means of the semiempirical CNDO/2S-method. The total synthesis was accomplished by the SAMP/RAMP-hydrazone method.


22070 Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and lethal cancer with an average incidence of 0.7 in 1 million. Response to current standard therapy including mitotane is approximately ...


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Introduction: Efatutazone is a potent, highly selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonist active in preclinical cancer models, including NSCLC. In phase 1 studies, efatutazone showed anticancer activity and a manageable safety profile. An in vitro study combining a PPARγ agonist and an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI), similar to erlotinib, showed an increase in the antiproliferative effects of the EGFR-TKI in NSCLC cells (Lee et al. Lung Cancer. 2006). This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of efatutazone added to erlotinib as second- or third-line NSCLC therapy.

Methods: Patients from Germany, India, Korea, and the United States with NSCLC that progressed after first-line platinum therapy and no more than 1 additional therapy were stratified by Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status (0/1 vs 2) and randomized 1:1 to efatutazone + erlotinib (E+E) or erlotinib alone (E). Efatutazone (0.5 mg) was administered orally, twice daily; erlotinib (150 mg) was administered orally, once daily. Treatment was given continuously in the absence of disease progression, withdrawal of consent, or unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS) assessed according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) v1.1.

Results: Characteristics of the 90 randomized patients for E+E and E treatment groups, respectively, were: median age, 60 vs 61 years; male sex, 75.6% vs 55.6%; never smoker, 31.1% vs 46.7%; ECOG status 0/1, 91.1% vs 91.1%; and partial response (PR) as best response to prior therapy, 15.6% vs 26.7%. PFS was not different between treatments (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93; P = 0.79) with median PFS of 4.1 vs 2.8 months in the E+E vs E arms, respectively. The objective response rate was also similar at 20.5% vs 20.0% for E+E and E, respectively. Overall survival was not statistically different between the E+E vs E arms (median, 7.6 vs 11.4 months; HR, 1.20; P = 0.46). The most frequent adverse events (≥ 25%) or those of special interest for E+E and E, respectively, were anemia (36.4% vs 6.7%), diarrhea (40.9% vs 40.0%), peripheral edema (38.6% vs 2.2%), decreased appetite (40.9% vs 22.2%), dermatitis acneiform (34.1% vs 20.0%), rash (25.0% vs 31.1%), and pleural effusion (22.7% vs 0%).Conclusions: Efatutazone did not improve the efficacy of erlotinib as second- or third-line therapy for NSCLC. Adverse events associated with efatutazone in combination with erlotinib were related to anemia and fluid retention as expected with this drug class.

Citation Format: Ana B. Oton, Byoung Chul Cho, Myung-Ju Ahn, Sang-We Kim, Kirushnakumar Subramanian, Chirag Desai, Dale Shuster, Terri Goldberg, Hamim Zahir, Dipen Dutta, Shuquan Chen, Richard Von Roemeling, Joachim von Pawel. A randomized, open-label phase 2 study of efatutazone and erlotinib as second- or third-line therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr CT311. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-CT311


Four genetically diverse parents were selected and crossed in a full diallel mating design involving the parents, direct F1s and reciprocal F1s. These parents were evaluated alongside with their 6 direct F1s and 6 reciprocal F1s in a randomized complete block design in 3 replications. Combining ability showed the dominance of additive gene action for all the traits under study. The result showed significant differences among the parents for all the characters except for number of days to emergence. The relative magnitude of GCA / SCA variance ratio was greater than unity suggesting the preponderance of additive gene action for all the characters under investigation. Based on an overall evaluation of GCA effects and per se performance, the parents Cu 100 and Cu 999 emerged as good general combiners. Among the crosses, Cu 100 x Cu 999 was considered best because it recorded highest per se performance for fruit yield.


Describes a new method for the architectural synthesis of timed asynchronous systems. Due to the variable delays associated with asynchronous resources, implicit schedules are created by the addition of supplementary constraints between resources. Since the number of schedules grows exponentially with respect to the size of the given data flow graph, pruning techniques are introduced which dramatically improve the run-time without significantly affecting the quality of the results. Using a combination of data and resource constraints, as well as an analysis of bounded delay information, our method determines the minimum number of resources and registers needed to implement a given schedule. Results are demonstrated using some high-level synthesis benchmark circuits and an industrial example.


Using different data sources from local labour markets (LLMs) in Italy between 1971 and 2011, we document a number of stylized facts: a) local differences in the ratios of private employment to population are highly persistent; b) the population has a limited reaction to labour demand shocks, consistent with the high rigidity of nominal wages and pro-cyclical variations in rents, which absorb the gains (losses) from higher (lower) employment rates; c) labour demand shocks are fairly persistent and unevenly distributed, to the detriment of those areas that were already lagging behind and boosting the more advanced ones; d) shocks are amplified by the non-linear employment adjustment, which reacts more to negative shocks than to positive ones. The estimated reactions to shocks are then used to perform policy-motivated simulations. We find that allowing greater population reactions is a superior policy option. Had Italy experienced the population reactivity of the US, local disparities would have been significantly less, to the same extent as with a sizeable public intervention in areas lagging behind.


This research aims to identify factors correlated significantly to the motivation of farmers in perseving traditional rainfed farming systems , such as using local seeds and planting once a year .  The population of this study is farmer who still perform the traditional paddy farming system in the Village of North Tapanuli Parbaju Julu County North Sumatra Province. As much as 48 respondents randomly selected from 160 farmers . A descriptive analyse and Spearman rank correlation are applied in this study.   The study showed that formal education, farmers' perception of the traditional system of rice farming are correlated significantly to farmer motivation in preserving tradional farming system while non-formal education, the traditional system of farming experience, farm size, number of family members a re not .  Factors that correlated significantly to farmer motivation in maintain ing local seed is non-formal education, farming experience, while the traditional system of formal education, farmers' perception of traditional rice farming system , farm size, number of family members are not correlated significantly .  Furthermore, the number of family members is merely factor that correlated significantly to the farmers motivation in maintain ing once a year plantings while others factors are not correlated. Key words: farmer motivation, preserving, traditional farming


How can we better understand the puzzle of low-skilled migrants who have acquired citizenship in a European Union country, often with generous social security provision, choosing to relocate to the United Kingdom? Drawing on Elias's figurational theory as a lens, we explore how relational interdependencies foster the mobility of low-skilled African European Citizens from European Union states to the United Kingdom. We found that African European Citizens rely on 'piblings networks', loose affiliations of putative relatives, to compensate for deficits in their situated social capital, facilitating relocation. The temporary stability afforded by impermanent bonds and transient associations, in constant flux in migrant communities, does not preclude integration but paradoxically promotes it by enabling an ease of connection and disconnection. Our study elucidates how these relational networks offer African European Citizens opportunities to achieve labour market integration, exercise self-efficacy, and realize desired futures; anchoring individuals in existing communities even when they are perpetually transforming.


We propose a method suitable for the fast calculation and evaluation of aberration-induced intensity distribution in partially coherent imaging systems, such as projection lithographic tools. The method is based on transmission cross coefficient (TCC) decomposition by a general operator, namely cross triple correlation (CTC). By expanding the aberrated pupil function into a Taylor series, the TCC is decomposed into different terms. Each term is further represented as a weighted sum of several CTCs. By exploring the properties of CTC, the aerial image intensity induced by wavefront aberration is calculated quickly and separated clearly from that without aberration. Simulation results and discussion are presented.


A numerical calculation scheme for stress and its consistent tangent moduli with hyper-dual numbers(HDN) for Ogdentype hyperelastic material model was proposed. The main advantage of this scheme is that once the framework is coded, any Ogden-type hyperelastic material model can be implemented by only re-coding the strain energy density function. In this scheme, the new differentiation method for eigenvalue and eigenvector of the symmetric matrices with HDN were proposed. The proposed method can calculate the eigenvalue and eigenvector in non-real part analytically by using the eigenvalue and eigenvector in real part, in case that all eigenvalues in real part are not multiple root. We implemented the Neo-Hookean model and the Ogden model with the proposed scheme, to confirm the effectiveness and robustness of this method, and applied it to some examples. As the results, it was confirmed that the numerical results of the proposed method showed good agreement with analytical ones.


Low energy electron diffraction patterns show that the W(001) surface reconstructs at room temperature when exposed to hydrogen with a (..sqrt..2x..sqrt..2)R45/sup 0/ structure having a c2mm symmetry. Vibrational EELS data indicate that the tungsten atoms move together to form dimers which must be aligned in directions to satisfy the symmetry requirements. The two possible dimer orientations define two orthogonal, degenerate domains. It has been shown that steps on a surface may limit the growth of the reconstruction domains and may also influence the relative abundance of the domain orientations. We report here an extension of previous work on step effects involving the relationship of step orientation to domain growth and selection. 7 refs., 2 figs.


It is proved that the language family generated by Boolean grammars is effectively closed under injective gsm mappings and inverse gsm mappings (where gsm stands for a generalized sequential machine). The same results hold for conjunctive grammars, unambiguous Boolean grammars and unambiguous conjunctive grammars.