This paper reports a review of the literature on the association between critical care nurse staffing levels and patient mortality. Statistically significant inverse associations between levels of nurse staffing and hospital mortality have not been consistently found in the literature. Critical care settings are ideal to address this relationship due to high patient acuity and mortality, high intensity of the nursing care required and availability of individual risk adjustment methods. Major electronic databases were searched, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature. The search terms included critical/intensive care, quality of health care, mortality/hospital mortality, personnel staffing and scheduling, and nursing staff (hospital). Only papers published in English were included. The original search was conducted in 2002 and updated in 2005. Nine studies were selected from 251 references screened. All nine were observational. Six were conducted in the USA, one in Austria, one in Brazil, and one in Scotland. The unadjusted risk ratio of nurse staffing (high versus low) on hospital mortality were combined meta-analytically (five studies). The pooled estimate was 0.65 (95% confidence interval 0.47-0.91). However, after adjusting for various covariates within each study, the individually reported associations between high nurse staffing and low hospital mortality became non-significant in all but one study. The impact of nurse staffing levels on patients' hospital mortality in critical care settings was not evident in the reviewed studies. Methodological challenges that might have impeded correct assessment of the association include measurement problems in exposure status and confounding factors, often uncontrolled. The lack of association also indicates that hospital mortality may not be sensitive enough to detect the consequences of low nurse staffing levels in critical care settings. Abstract reprinted from the Journal of Advanced Nursing volume 55, Numata Y et al., 'Nurse staffing levels and hospital mortality in critical care settings: literature review and meta-analysis.', pages 435-448. (c) 2006, with permission from Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


In the next future radio frequency identiflcation (RFID) systems will be so pervasive that everyone will wear (maybe unawares) a kit of personal tags. However, a major concern that prevents a wide diffusion of this emerging technology is privacy. Several proposed protocols try to solve the privacy issue, but are exposed to many others security flaws, such as denial of service or lack of forward secrecy. One recently proposed solution addressing all these problems is RIPP-FS: an RFID identification protocol that guarantees privacy, authentication and forward secrecy, allowing the reading of many tags at once. While efficient, RIPP-FS requires some extra computations on the tag side when a tag misses several consecutive queries from the reader. In this paper we propose FastRIPP, an efficient protocol that significantly reduces the exposed overhead. This improvement is inspired by an efficient hash traversal amortization technique that uses fractal hash sequence representation. We analyzed the performances of the proposed protocol compared with the original version of RIPP-FS. The results of extensive simulations confirm the gain of performance of the proposed protocol. Finally, note that the proposed solution could be adopted by other RFID identification protocols as well.


The increment minimized recursive predicting model, the generalized predicting control law and the parameter adaptive recursive predicting algorithm are presented for a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems with time delays based on dynamic approximate Hammerstein model. They realize the generalized predicting control for the time-delayed nonlinear systems with larger time delays. The simulation results prove the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for direct generalized predictive control of a class of nonlinear systems.


The subtle interplay among electronic degrees of freedom (charge and orbital orderings), spin and lattice distortion that conspire at the Verwey transition in magnetite (Fe3O4) is still a matter of controversy. Here, we provide compelling evidence that these electronic orderings are manifested as a continuous phase transition at the temperature where a spin reorientation takes place at around 130 K, i.e., well above TV approximately 121 K. The Verwey transition seems to leave the orbital ordering unaffected whereas the charge ordering development appears to be quenched at this temperature and the temperature dependence below TV is controlled by the lattice distortions. Finally, we show that the orbital ordering does not reach true long range (disorder), and the correlation length along the c-direction is limited to 100 angstroms.


Systems that can find correspondences between multiple modalities, such as between speech and images, have great potential to solve different recognition and data analysis tasks in an unsupervised manner. This work studies multimodal learning in the context of visually grounded speech (VGS) models, and focuses on their recently demonstrated capability to extract spatiotemporal alignments between spoken words and the corresponding visual objects without ever been explicitly trained for object localization or word recognition. As the main contributions, we formalize the alignment problem in terms of an audiovisual alignment tensor that is based on earlier VGS work, introduce systematic metrics for evaluating model performance in aligning visual objects and spoken words, and propose a new VGS model variant for the alignment task utilizing cross-modal attention layer. We test our model and a previously proposed model in the alignment task using SPEECH-COCO captions coupled with MSCOCO images. We compare the alignment performance using our proposed evaluation metrics to the semantic retrieval task commonly used to evaluate VGS models. We show that cross-modal attention layer not only helps the model to achieve higher semantic cross-modal retrieval performance, but also leads to substantial improvements in the alignment performance between image object and spoken words.


Influence of weather conditions on working capacity and medical aid appealability of primary school children has been studied. The study was carried out as an experiment in natural conditions of a secondary school during 2008-2009. For the same period, medical aid appealability of the children was studied. The data of children's sensitivity to weather factors (wind velocity, air temperature, atmospheric pressure and other) have been given. There have been proposed preventive measures for reduction of children's meteosensitivity.


Actomyosin contractility is essential for biological force generation, and is well understood in highly organized structures such as striated muscle. Additionally, actomyosin bundles devoid of this organization are known to contract both in vivo and in vitro, which cannot be described by standard muscle models. To narrow down the search for possible contraction mechanisms in these systems, we investigate their microscopic symmetries. We show that contractile behavior requires non-identical motors that generate large-enough forces to probe the nonlinear elastic behavior of F-actin. This suggests a role for filament buckling in the contraction of these bundles, consistent with recent experimental results on reconstituted actomyosin bundles.


A real-world object category can be viewed as a characteristic configuration of its parts, that are themselves simpler, smaller (sub)categories. Recognition of a category can therefore be made easier by detecting its constituent subcategories and combing these detection results. Given a set of training images, each labeled by an object category contained in it, we present an approach to learning: (1) Taxonomy defined by recursive sharing of subcategories by multiple image categories; (2) Subcategory relevance as the degree of evidence a subcategory offers for the presence of its parent; (3) Likelihood that the image contains a subcategory; and (4) Prior that a subcategory occurs. The images are represented as points in a feature space spanned by confidences in the occurrences of the subcategories. The subcategory relevances are estimated as weights, necessary to rescale the corresponding axes of the feature space so that the images with the same label are closer to each other than to those with different labels. When a new image is encountered, the learned taxonomy, relevances, likelihoods, and priors are used by a linear classifier to categorize the image. On the challenging Caltech-256 dataset, the proposed approach significantly outperforms the best categorizations reported. This result is significant in that it not only demonstrates the advantages of exploiting subcategory taxonomy for recognition, but also suggests that a feature space spanned by part properties, instead of direct object properties, allows for linear separation of image classes.


Background: Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus causes a spectrum of diseases ranging from asymptomatic infective state to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The detection and quantification of HBV DNA plays an important role in diagnosing HBV infection as well as monitoring therapeutic responses. Methods: The aim of this study was to detect and quantited HBV DNA by real time PCR and to find out correlation HBeAg with HBV DNA in chronic carriers: The present study carried out among 61 previously diagnosed chronic hepatitis B patients. Results: The mean age of study population was 29.20 years. Among the 61 cases, 13(21.3%) were HBeAg positive and 48(78.7%) were HBeAg negative. By real time PCR, DNA detected in 45(73.8%) patients and 16(26.2%) patients were undetected. Association of HBeAg and HBV DNA was observed in 13 HBeAg positive cases, where 12(92.3%) had detectable DNA and in 48 HBeAg negative patients, 33(68.8%) had detectable DNA while 15(31.2%) were undetected. The present study observed a higher viral load (105copies/ml) among HBeAg positive patients (84.6%) than HBeAg negative patients (12.5%). Conclusion: The present study observed that, there was positive correlation among HBeAg and HBV DNA in chronic HBV carriers. However, there was some discordance observed among HBeAg and HBV DNA. Therefore, in addition to HBeAg, HBV DNA should be assessed for appropriate evaluation of CHB carriers. Chatt Maa Shi Hosp Med Coll J; Vol.15 (2); Jul 2016; Page 33-36


This study examines the Kaulinan Budak Lembur (Sundanesse village children traditional games) preservation model in Sindangkerta District of Cipatujah Tasikmalaya. With qualitative methods and techniques of collecting data through interviews, observation, focus group discussions, and the literature study,thes study aims to identify the type of game, the values contained in the game, and the preservation of the children games in Sindangkerta District of Cipatujah Tasikmalaya. Respondents in this study are managers of Saung Budaya Tatar KarangCipatujah and village community leaders of Sindang k erta. The results of this research show that there are twelve type of games that is preserved by Sindangkerta community. Every game has a life values applied by the mutual love, mutual teaching, and mutual care ( silih asih, silih asah, dan silih asuh ). The values in the game are togetherness, leadership, honesty, tolerance, moderation, etc.


The analysis of indicators of import and consumption of fish products in Russia and its European part has been made. The basic factors determining the level of food security and consumption of fishery products, their impact on changes in the studied parameters have been considered. Some measures aimed at reducing import dependence and increasing the consumption of fish products in the European part of Russia have been proposed


Apparatus previously described has been used to study the angular distribution of the charged particles from nuclear processes initiated by 8 MeV deuterons. The experimental technique and the method of obtaining relative values of the yield at different angles in the centre-of-mass system are described. Results of measurements on the elastic collision of deuterons with protons are given, together with an account of the method for obtaining absolute values of cross-sections from the relative values, using the known cross-section for this process measured by other experimenters. Angular distributions obtained for deuterons elastically scattered by deuterons, and for protons from the reaction 2H (d,p) 3H, are produced, and their interpretation discussed.


The eight northeastern states of India are very rich in cultural and natural resources. This region is often described as the cultural mosaic of India due to its diverse tribal communities, linguistic, and ethnic identities. This part of land is inhabited by more than 220 large and small ethnic tribes where Arunachal Pradesh alone have more than 25 major tribes followed by 18 in Assam, 16 in Nagaland and so on. It is a unique place in the entire world where so many ethnic groups have been living in harmony yet maintaining their own cultural identity for many centuries. This part of India does have the potential to become the international hotspot for cultural tourism activities. Of late, the Tour Operators operating from these states along with concerned government depatrments are putting some efforts to draw the attention of domestic as well as foreign tourists by means of different promotional and marketing activities which has started yielding results in terms of increase in number of  tourists arrivals to such destinations.
Keywords: Cultural Tourism, North East India, Assam, Tour Operator, Ethnic Tribes.


The ability of companies to respond rapidly to business and environmental changes is crucially important for their development and sustainable growth. In this study, a time-series analysis is used to investigate the relationship between a firm's Capacity to Innovate (CTI) and the Innovation Enhanced Growth (IEG) it experiences. The raw data was gathered from several firms independently using one unified assessment tool over a period of five years. This data is then analyzed using inferential statistics through one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to evaluate and compare the average scores associated with the CTI and IEG variables. Furthermore, the post hoc analysis is applied to assess the extent and direction of variation in scores of the selected variables, and moderated across different years. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between CTI and IEG for Small to Medium Enterprises (SME), and that both the CTI and IEG vary over time. More specifically, their individual behavior and their interdependent relationships, at least partially, are seen to be influenced by both macroeconomic dynamics and globalization. These relationships are discussed and analyzed in the context of local market growth and suitability. The research aims to assist SME stakeholders and governing bodies, in recognizing the changes in the macroeconomic scales on the economic throughput from innovation, growth, and sustainability perspectives.


BACKGROUND
Chinese traditional medicine is widely used in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). Ginsenoside Rk2 is a newly discovered dammarane triterpenoid saponin isolated from ginseng. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of Ginsenoside Rk2 on UC.

METHODS
Human clones of colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells and human intestinal epithelial THP-1 cells were co-cultured to establish a UC model in vitro. Cell viability and apoptosis were analyzed by cell counting kit 8 (CCK-8) and flow cytometry assay, respectively. Inflammatory cytokines' mRNA levels were measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Western blot was applied to examine the protein expression of apoptosis-associated proteins and the activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) pathway. Furthermore, fisetin, an ERK kinase activator, was used to carry out rescue experiment. SRT1720, an activator of SIRT1, was applied to increase the SIRT1 protein levels while SIRT1 inhibitor nicotinamide (NAM) exerted the opposite effect.

RESULTS
Ginsenoside Rk2 promoted cell viability, suppressed cell apoptosis, and reduced the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) of HT-29 cells in UC model in a concentration-dependent manner. Meanwhile, the inhibitory effects of Ginsenoside Rk2 on the ERK/MEK pathway strengthened with the increase of concentration, and was verified by fisetin application. Furthermore, the upregulation of SIRT1 induced by Ginsenoside Rk2 prompted dephosphorylation of ERK and MEK to attenuate ERK/MEK pathway activation and reduced inflammatory progress, which was confirmed by SRT1720 as well as NAM.

CONCLUSIONS
Ginsenoside Rk2 inactivated ERK/MEK pathway by regulating SIRT1 to restore the cellular function of human intestinal epithelial THP-1 cells. Therefore, Ginsenoside Rk2 may be effective in the treatment of UC.


TAKWA tofu is a kind of tofu which is very popular in Java and Kediri is well known as a center of its industries. Such industries provide thousands of work places, and the annual economic transaction related to the industries is estimated not less than 6.3 billions rupiah. This research was focused to study aspects of marketing, particularly demand forecasting by means of an estimation of total demand, a market stucture using a method knowns as the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP), the use of marketing mix to evaluate the competition and marketing strategy.The study was based on the data available from 5 small to medium scales tofu industries in Kediri, from 2003 to 2006. The results showed that the type of the market structure identified was a non-collutive and monopolistic and the competition was based on the ability of producers to vary the types of the products. The demand for the products was still promising and thus the business was feasible. Therefore, based on the average business opportunity, the chance to increase the productivity level as high as 25% up from the existing level is 88.84%. Moreover, based on the four P's (product, promotion, price and place), in order to increase the sales, it is advised that the producers will be able to improve the quality and packaging of the product, to determine a better range of price, to provide a better promotion and more outlets (retailers). Keywords: Marketing analysis, tofu industry, sales


This paper reports on a programmable reconfigurable self-assembly (PRS) process to enable heterogeneous integration of components on nonplanar substrates. The proposed process makes use of solder-based receptors that can be activated electrically. Metal contacts on segmented semiconductor devices bind to liquid-solder-based-receptors on a substrate during the fluidic self-assembly. Programmability is implemented using solder-based receptors that can be switched "ON" and "OFF" using integrated heaters. We have evaluated the feasibility of the proposed PRS concept through computer simulations using ANSYS to estimate: i) the necessary power to heat selected receptors to above the melting point of the solder and ii) the minimal spacing between receptors for preventing thermal crosstalk. A prototype platform has been fabricated to experimentally test the PRS process. The programmable sequential assembly of multiple types of components onto target positions has been demonstrated, including 300-/spl mu/m-sized light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and silicon dies. Three types of defects were identified and eliminated using improved component designs, transient heating, and adequate heat sinks. A prototype color LED display segment that contains a total of 36 red, green, and yellow LED segments and 72 interconnects has been used to test the concept. The outlined process provides a new concept to the parallel integration of microdevices and systems that require electrical interconnects between components.


Introduction: Every day, at least 1.600 women die worldwide from the complication of Pregnancy and child birth, 90% of which occurring in Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. These shows, maternal death in developing country is higher than developed countries. One of the contributing factors for these problems is cultural malpractices practiced during pregnancy, child birth and post natal periods. The actual incidence of cultural malpractices in developing country accounts for about 5-15% of maternal deaths. The objective of the research was to assess prevalence of cultural malpractice and associated factors among women attending MCH clinic at Debretabor Town governmental health institutions South Gondar, Amhara region North Ethiopia 2015 G.C.
Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was employed. Systematic sampling was used to select 355 study participants. A pre tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was entered, cleaned and edited using EPI INFO version 2002 and exported to SPSS version 20 software packages for analysis. Both bivariate and multiple logistic regression were fitted and odds ratio and 95% CI were computed to identify associated factors and determine the strength of association. A p-value of <0.05 was considered as statistical significant.
Results: A total of 355 mothers participated with response rate of 100%. The prevalence of cultural malpractice was found to be 25.6%.Ggrand para (AOR 3.466: 1.926, 6.236) was factors significantly associated with cultural malpractice among mothers attended MCH clinic.
Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of cultural malpractice in the study area was found to be high. Grand shows significant association with cultural malpractice among mothers attended MCH clinic. So, high effort needed to be worked on this target population.


The present study examines the effect of sonication on the structure and on the thermal behaviour of a well ordered kaolinite. XRD data indicated that sonication produces an increase of the translation disorder of kaolinite layers as well as delamination and particle-size reduction along the b-axis. As a consequence of this particle-size reduction the surface area increases sharply with sonication time from 8.5 to 83 m 2 /g, after 20 h of treatment. When sonication time increases, the original dehydroxylation effect shifts to lower temperatures, is narrowing and decreases in intensity at the same time that the exothermic effect, previous to the mullite formation shifts to lower temperatures and notably broadened. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii L.) is one of the most important cut flowers in the world and nutrient solutions are the most important elements that increase quality and quantity of gerbera flowers. In this study, the effect of adding silicon, as an important mineral, from two sources of potassium silicate and nano silica, was investigated on physiological traits of gerbera flower, cv. Yanara. In this experiment, various concentrations of potassium silicate and nano silica were applied in different treatments including spray of nano silica in two concentrations of 12.5 and 25 mg/L (based on SiO2), drench of nano silica in two concentrations of 12.5 and 25 mg/L (based on SiO2), drench of potassium silicate in two concentrations of 25 and 50 mg/L (based on SiO2) and control (with no treatment), in three replications. The results showed that nano silica in both forms and concentrations decreased fresh weight of the flowers, but increased understomatal carbon dioxide. Number of flowers was increased under the 25 mg/L nano silica treatment, compared to control. Although there was no significant difference between treatments in dry weight of flowers and all photosynthetic parameters such as transpiration, photosynthesis, water use efficiency, and stomatal conductance, but in general, nano silica increased number of gerbera flowers; while, potassium silicate could not improve the studied traits.


Abstract Simultaneous night observations with four different sensors for the long-wave atmospheric radiation were obtained with a radiosonde, specially equipped for this purpose. The sensors consisted of (1) a radiometersonde as developed by Sumoi and Kuhn, (2) a disc-type total radiometer, and (3) two spherical total radiometers (i.e., a 'black ball' as developed by Gergen and a blackened silver sphere). The total radiations measured by the disc and the radiometersonde are in fairly good agreement. The total radiations measured with the two spheres showed a difference which may partly be caused by convection and conduction inside the 'black ball'. The total radiation measured with the spherical sensors tends to be less than that of the disc in the upper part of the sounding which may be caused by the transparency of the atmosphere at those heights. The temperature difference between the air temperature and the radiative equilibrium temperature seems to be more or less related to the divergence of the net...


Gully erosion is one of the severe environmental problems facing Gombe metropolis. It threatens urban infrastructure, properties, lives and the physical growth of the town. This article assesses the socio-economic effect of gully erosion in Gombe metropolis. The aim of the study was to assess the socio-economic effect of gully erosion on land use in Gombe metropolis. Data used in this study were derived from field administration of questionnaire and focus group discussion. Three sampled gully profiles cutting across different land use areas were purposively selected for the study. They were referred as Gully A, transect FCE-Arawa-M/Inna-U/Uku Gully site; Gully profile B, transect Fed.lowcost-B/Yero-Idi-Herwagana-Idi-U/Uku Gully site and Gully profile C, transect Old/GRA-Gabukka-Barunde-Madaki-Bogo-Doma. From each gully profiles, 10% of the population around the gully site was used as population sample administering the total of 207 questionnaires in all the three gully sites under different landuse areas. Results obtained through questionnaires and focus group discussions was analysed, using simple percentage presented in different tables and discussed.The results indicated that several buildings, farmlands/plots and other properties worth millions of naira as well as both human and animal lives were lost due to effect of gully erosion in the study area.

 Key words: Socioeconomic, gully erosion, land use, Gombe metropolis.


ABSTRACT This review provides needed perspective on statin efficacy and safety in individuals under 40, 40–75, and > 75 years of age. Starting with the 2013 ACC-AHA cholesterol guidelines extensive evidence base on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) we added references in the past 5 years that discussed statin efficacy and safety over the life span. In those under 40, statins are primarily used for treatment of severe hypercholesterolemia, often familial, and they are well tolerated. In middle-aged adults, statins have strong evidence for benefit in primary and secondary prevention trials; however, in primary prevention, a clinician-patient risk discussion should precede statin prescription in order to determine appropriate treatment. In those over 75, issues of statin intensity and net benefit loom large as associated comorbidity, polypharmacy, and potential for adverse effects impact the decision to use statins with RCT data strongest in support of use in secondary prevention. Statin drugs have been studied by RCTs in a large number of individuals. In those groups shown to benefit, statins have reduced the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with few side effects as compared to controls. This review has detailed considerations that should occur when statins are given to individuals in different age groups.


The major purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between causal attributions and symptomatology in victims of crime. Fifty-one subjects who had not been crime victims and 120 subjects who had been crime victims participated in the study and were assessed for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Subjects also completed two attributional questionnaires. The potential differences in symptomatology among victims of a single crime, multiple crimes, and nonvictims were investigated. Results did not indicate differences in depression and PTSD based on single vs. multiple victimization, although differences between victims and nonvictims were found. Results using the Causal Dimension Scale (CDS; Peterson et al., 1982) indicated significant differences in the causal attributions of victims and nonvictims. On the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Russell, 1982), group comparisons among nonvictims, PTSD victims, depression victims, both depression and PTSD victims, and victims with low symptoms did not yield significant results. However, regression analyses indicated that several subscales of both the CDS and ASQ were found to be moderate predictors of symptomatology. Implications for future research are discussed.


We employ an assortment of n- and p-channel organic semiconductors to fabricate organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) that respond in different ways to dinitrotoluene (DNT) vapor. Different responses are obtained from devices with various semiconductor materials and receptor functionality. Differences are noted in the magnitude and direction of current changes, and also the device parameters (mobility and threshold voltage) affected. The pattern of responses includes sufficient diversity to set it apart from other vapors that might give similar responses to some OFETs in the set, but not all of them. This gives rise to the possibility of distinguishing DNT from other vapors in a manner that could be further developed using mechanistic principles elucidated in this work.


Three studies examined whether potential anchor values that are incidentally present in the environment can affect a person's numerical estimates. In Study 1, estimates of an athlete's performance were influenced by the number on his jersey. In Study 2, estimates of the proportion of sales in the domestic market were influenced by a product's model number. In Study 3, participants' estimates of how much they would spend at a restaurant were influenced by whether the restaurant was named "Studio 17" or "Studio 97." These effects were not qualified by participants' expertise in the relevant domain (Study 1) or by their ability to subsequently recall the anchor value (Study 3). These findings document the existence of a new form of "basic anchoring" and suggest that not all basic anchoring effects are as fragile as the existing anchoring literature suggests. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The authors of this paper investigate experimentally the effects of changes in multiple environmental parameters on the production of phytoplanktonic biomarkers including, PUFAs, sterols, and alkenones in 3 individual species of diatom, cryptophyte, and hap-tyophyte. These parameters included different temperatures, molar ratios of N:P, and pCO2 concentrations. This manuscript provides valuable insights for the impacts of lipid remodeling on food web dynamics and biogeochemical cycling, particularly in sterol production. The discussion however is lacking in the specific potential effects of increased FA production and alkenoates on modern biogeochemical dynamics and could be expanded on.


To the Editor: Individuals living with workers are sometimes known to contract diseases related to the worker's employment as a result of ''take-home'' exposure. The most well-documented of such exposures is asbestos, where numerous reports have documented mesothelioma among people who were not occupationally exposed but whose family member were. To my knowledge, the diagnosis of leukemia from take-home benzene exposure has not been reported. Thus, I report a case of erythroleukemia diagnosed in a woman married to a Pliofilm worker, who previously died from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Benzene exposure to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Pliofilm cohort has been described in previous scientific publications, the popular press, in memoranda from the Ohio Division of Safety and Hygiene and in testimony and a written report provided to OSHA during the OSHA 1977 Benzene Hearings by a hematologist, who treated a majority of the Akron Pliofilm workers who were diagnosed with the rare Di Guglielmo's Erythroleukemia. I discuss some of these cases in an article in this issue.


Whilst Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) possess a variety of promising capabilities, their high energy consumption severely limits applications where flight endurance is of high importance. Reducing energy usage is one of the main challenges in advancing aerial robot utility. To address this bottleneck in the development of unmanned aerial vehicle applications, this work proposes an bioinspired mechanical approach and develops an aerial robotic system for greater endurance enabled by low power station-keeping. The aerial robotic system consists of an multirotor MAV and anchoring modules capable of launching multiple tensile anchors to fixed structures in its operating envelope. The resulting tensile perch is capable of providing a mechanically stabilized mode for high accuracy operation in 3D workspace. We explore generalised geometric and static modelling of the stabilisation concept using screw theory. Following the analytical modelling of the integrated robotic system, the tensile anchoring modules employing high pressure gas actuation are designed, prototyped and then integrated to a quadrotor platform. The presented design is validated with experimental tests, demonstrating the stabilization capability even in a windy environment.


The loss of endothelial integrity which causes leak of fluid and proteins into tissues contributes to the disease and death associated with acute lung injury. Slit2/Robo4 (an endothelium-specific) signaling promotes vascular stability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of enhanced expression of Robo4 on LPS-induced acute lung injury. We constructed a recombinant adenoviral vector expressing murine Robo4 (Ad.mRobo4) which were administered intranasally to BALB/c mice. Forty-eight hours later, all the mice were administered a single dose of LPS via i.p. injection to induce acute lung injury. A second cohort of mice was followed for survival for 7 days. Administration of Ad.m Robo4 increased increased the expression of Robo4 in lung tissue, as determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Enhanced expression of Robo4 in lung suppressed the inflammatory reaction to LPS, attenuated the lung pathological changes, significantly reduced vascular permeability and edema in the lung determined by albumin in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and also improved the survival of mice. Our results demonstrate a novel function manner for slit2/Robo4 signaling. Slit2/Robo4 pathway work formerly mainly considered as ligand-dependently, it has now to be considered as a ligand-independently and thus could be an attractive adjuvant in the treatment of acute lung injury.


Federated learning (FL), as a distributed machine learning approach, has drawn a great amount of attention in recent years. FL shows an inherent advantage in privacy preservation, since users' raw data are processed locally. However, it relies on a centralized server to perform model aggregation. Therefore, FL is vulnerable to server malfunctions and external attacks. In this paper, we propose a novel framework by integrating blockchain into FL, namely, blockchain assisted decentralized federated learning (BLADE-FL), to enhance the security of FL. The proposed BLADE-FL has a good performance in terms of privacy preservation, tamper resistance, and effective cooperation of learning. However, it gives rise to a new problem of training deficiency, caused by lazy clients who plagiarize others' trained models and add artificial noises to conceal their cheating behaviors. To be specific, we first develop a convergence bound of the loss function with the presence of lazy clients and prove that it is convex with respect to the total number of generated blocks $K$. Then, we solve the convex problem by optimizing $K$ to minimize the loss function. Furthermore, we discover the relationship between the optimal $K$, the number of lazy clients, and the power of artificial noises used by lazy clients. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework using the MNIST and Fashion-MNIST datasets. Our analytical results are shown to be consistent with the experimental results. In addition, the derived optimal $K$ achieves the minimum value of loss function, and in turn the optimal accuracy performance.


The deposition flux of cosmogenic 7Be in the industrial city Rostov-on-Don (Russia) from 2001 to 2011 has been measured. The variations of annual 7Be deposition flux appear to be mainly correlated with the number of the meteorological parameters and solar activity. For the first time correlations of the volume activity of cosmogenic 7Be with such meteorological parameters as temperature, precipitation, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity are identified.


An emerging class of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) applications involves the acquisition of large amounts of sensory data from battery-powered, low computation and low memory wireless sensor nodes. The accuracy of sensor readings is without a doubt one of the most important measures to evaluate the quality of a sensor and its network. For this case, the task amounts to creating a useful model based on KPCA to recognize data as normal or outliers. Over the last few years, Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) has found several applications in outlier detection. Within this setting, we propose a new outlier detection method based on Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA) using mahalanobis distance to implicitly calculate the mapping of the data points in the feature space so that we can separate outlier points from normal pattern of data distribution. The use of KPCA based mahalanobis kernel on real word data obtained from Intel Berkeley are reported showing that the proposed method performs better in finding outliers in wireless sensor networks.


TO THE EDITOR: Diclofenac, a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug, rarely has been associated with hematologic ad~erse reactions. I v:e describe a case of severe diclofenac-induced autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) with acute renal failure. ., . A 64-year-old womanwasadmitted withseverehemo~ytlc anemia. ~I.ve days before admissionshe experiencedan episodeof backpam an~ a P~yslCIan prescribed diclofenac. Shedeniedtakinganyotherdrugs.Aftertakingdiclofenac the patientbeganto experience nausea. vomiting, abdominal pain,jaundice, anddark urine. The patient had a history of osteoarthritis. Two years before admission,an episode of AIHAoccurred afterseveral daysof ingesting diclofenac. She wasdischargedwith instructions to nevertake diclo~enac thereafter. O~er 1 ye~ of fo.llow-up.her hemoglobin concentration remained normaland direct antiglobulin tests(DA1') werenegative. On physical examination at the time of admission, she appeared pale and jaundiced butherabdomen wasnormal. Herhemoglobin was51 gIL.whiteblood cell count 32 x 109/L. and platelets261 x J09/L. Serumurea nitrogenwas 66.S mmollLof urea(IS7 mg/dL), creatinine 539 umol/l, (6.1 rng/dl.), totalbilirubin 75.S pmol/L (4.43 mg/dl.), lactate dehydrogenase 2000 U/L. and haptoglobin <O.IS gIL«IS mg/dL). DATwas strongly positive. coatedwithimmunoglobulin G and complement C3d.An indirect antiglobulin testand an antibody elution test werepositive. However. antibody specificity against redbloodcellantigens could notbe established. She was treatedwith prednisone60 mg/d,as well as large amountsof fluids and high-dose furosemide. However. her renal functiondeteriorated and the hemoglobin decreased to41 gIL(4.1 g/dL).Hemodialysis was initiated and continued for4 days.After5 unitsof packedredbloodcells were transfused. her renal function beganto improve. The patient'shemoglobin increased to SO gILand laboratoryindices of hemolysis stabilized within a weekof admission; DATbecame negative. One monthfollowing discharge, all laboratory indiceshad returned to normal and DAT was negative. Over6 monthsof follow-up, her hemoglobin and renal function havebeennormal andDAT hasremained negative. AIHA is an uncommon adverse reaction to diclofenac. Only I welldocumented case of AIHA after ingestion ofdiclofenac has been reported in the English literature. This patient's severe AIHA was associated with thrombocytopenia. Our patient had a history of diclofenac-associated AIHA 2 years before the reported abrupt episode, which suggested that prior immunization may have induced a more severe hemolysis with acute renal failure. In contrast to the previous report, our patient's platelet count was normal. There are 3 mechanisms of drug-induced AIHA: (I) drug adsorption on red blood cells, (2) immune-complex formation, and (3) induction of autoimmunity or drug-induced, warm antibody type AIHA.3 In our patient, as with the previous report, serologic test results were consistent with mechanism 3. This type of autoantibody reacts only with red blood cells and has no activity against the offending drug; alpha-methyldopa is the prototype. The serologic findings are indistinguishable from those arising in many cases of spontaneous AIHA. In conclusion, we emphasize the potentially severe nature of diclofenac-induced AIHA, and suggest that autoantibody induction is the mechanism of diclofenac-associated AIHA.


Parametric dynamic experiments on various impact velocities (6.6-11.2 m/s), angles (60 -90 ), directions are performed to obtain the energy characteristics of windshield under headform impact. Dynamic response of headform is systematically analyzed via the acceleration-time curve obtained by acceleration sensor. High-speed camera is employed to capture and analyze the crack propagation process. Macro damage morphology of windshield is discussed, and compared with it in real accident. With the definition of maximum contact force, maximum plastic hollow, head injury criteria, loss of headform kinetic energy and kinetic absorption ratio, the energy absorption characteristics of windshield under above mentioned parametric experiments are investigated. Experiment results may provide fundamental data and theoretical base for future research.


The Belgian coastline is 65 kilometres, has 15 coastal towns and, like many of its North-Sea neighbours, experiences the volatile dynamics of sea level rise and raised demand for effective coastal safety measures. Today, we are seeing the consequences of hard and grey infrastructural solutions which solely address the concerns of coastal safety in a majority technical way. Along the Belgian coast, exists an array of sea walls, dikes, and beaches along a traditional sweeping concrete surface delineating the edge between land and sea. Through the perspective of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) this paper will unpack how NBS has been planned and implemented across three of the Belgian coastal towns Bankenberge, Middelkerke and Ostend. These three Flemish pilots are representative for the typical coastal conditions of a dense urban frontage along concrete boulevards, substantiating the edge condition to the sand and sea. The pilots are a showcase of how NBS can acts as a performative buffer, or interface, between the urban edge and the sea, between the sea and giants.


Thomas Keneally's The Tyrant's Novel (2004) and Inaam Kachachi's The American Granddaughter (2008) both deal with the crisis in Iraq and its ramifications. Recognizing the important ideological and humanistic role played by literature, both writers choose to assume their moral responsibility in the face of injustice, war and violence. The paper attempts to show how each of them follows a humanistic approach that advocates human rights and equality. It also compares how each evades or otherwise succumbs to the pitfalls of Humanism that turns the sign "human' to a universal category representing humanity according to the Western model. In so doing it examines how the fact of their coming from opposite sides of the cultural divide influences the cross-cultural negotiation of publicly disseminated representations of both the self and its other(s).


Precision agriculture is a technology used by farmers to help food sustainability amidst growing population. One of the tools of precision agriculture is yield monitoring, which helps a farmer manage his production. Yield monitoring is usually done during harvest, however it could also be done early in the growing season. Early prediction of yield, specifically for fruit trees, aids the farmer in the marketing of their product and assists in managing production logistics such as labor requirement and storage needs. In this study, a machine vision system is developed to estimate fruit yield early in the season. The machine vision system uses a color camera to capture images of fruit trees during the full bloom period. An image segmentation algorithm based on an artificial neural network was developed to recognize and count the blossoms on the tree. The artificial neural network segmentation algorithm uses color information and position as input. The resulting correlation between the blossom count and the actual number of fruits on the tree shows the potential of this method to be used for early prediction of fruit yield.


Abstract The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was partially due to the challenge of identifying asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers of the virus, and thus highlights a strong motivation for diagnostics with high sensitivity that can be rapidly deployed. On the other hand, several concerning SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron, are required to be identified as soon as the samples are identified as 'positive'. Unfortunately, a traditional PCR test does not allow their specific identification. Herein, for the first time, we have developed MOPCS (Methodologies of Photonic CRISPR Sensing), which combines an optical sensing technology-surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with the 'gene scissors' clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) technique to achieve both high sensitivity and specificity when it comes to measurement of viral variants. MOPCS is a low-cost, CRISPR/Cas12a-system-empowered SPR gene-detecting platform that can analyze viral RNA, without the need for amplification, within 38 min from sample input to results output, and achieve a limit of detection of 15 fM. MOPCS achieves a highly sensitive analysis of SARS-CoV-2, and mutations appear in variants B.1.617.2 (Delta), B.1.1.529 (Omicron) and BA.1 (a subtype of Omicron). This platform was also used to analyze some recently collected patient samples from a local outbreak in China, identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This innovative CRISPR-empowered SPR platform will further contribute to the fast, sensitive and accurate detection of target nucleic acid sequences with single-base mutations.


Universities and colleges continue to face constraints related to classroom space and faculty time, thus increasing the need to consider options such as hybrid courses that can leverage available resources. This article discusses the benefits of a hybrid course, as well as its design and implementation at a large, public university. In addition, for universities that use the introduction to risk and insurance course as a significant course for attracting majors, we identify the benefits for students from the use of hybrid courses, such as the variety of materials and activities utilized, as well as the flexibility in scheduling. This information may be useful in marketing the course so that it will be immediately attractive to students.


Portfolio selection problem deals with how to form a satisfying portfolio, taking into account the uncertainty involved in the behavior of the financial markets. Markowitz (1952) established the relationship between the mean and variance of the investment in the framework of risk-return trade-off. Since then a variety of enlarged and improved models have been developed in several directions. Some models of portfolio management combines probability theory and optimization theory to represent the behavior of the economic agents. These representations of return and risk have permitted to apply different optimization tools to the portfolio management. IBERIAN CONFERENCE IN OPTIMIZATION, Coimbra 2006– p. 2/59 Abstract In this talk we provide some new models for portfolio selection in which the returns on the securities are considered as fuzzy numbers rather than random variables. In order to find the portfolio that minimizes the risk in achieving a given level of return we introduce different approaches. In some of them the expected total return is considered otherwise is the fuzzy total return. The return on each asset and their membership functions are described using historical data and the risk of the investment is approximated by using interval-valued means which evaluate the downside risk for a given portfolio. In order to illustrate the performance of our methods we have used weekly returns corresponding to a selection of assets from the Spanish Stock Market.In this talk we provide some new models for portfolio selection in which the returns on the securities are considered as fuzzy numbers rather than random variables. In order to find the portfolio that minimizes the risk in achieving a given level of return we introduce different approaches. In some of them the expected total return is considered otherwise is the fuzzy total return. The return on each asset and their membership functions are described using historical data and the risk of the investment is approximated by using interval-valued means which evaluate the downside risk for a given portfolio. In order to illustrate the performance of our methods we have used weekly returns corresponding to a selection of assets from the Spanish Stock Market. IBERIAN CONFERENCE IN OPTIMIZATION, Coimbra 2006– p. 3/59


As multimedia Internet applications become pervasive, the characteristics of Internet Protocol (IP) traffic are changing. Workload characterization is crucial in IP traffic engineering to deploy an efficient network. However, traffic characteristics in commercial multiservice IP networks aren't well known because relevant datasets are rarely available. This article presents statistical analysis and modeling results of multimedia workload characteristics in a nationwide commercial IP network in Korea. The authors survey broadband Internet service market trends and the growth of network multimedia services. To investigate workload characteristics, they analyze service log information and session-level traffic models.


Purpose
We aim to investigate how professionals make sense of the culture in the context of PSFs and how they engage in organizational and professional identification.
Methodology
The researchers look into the sensemaking processes professionals attach to organizational culture from a symbolic interactionism tradition, while from a critical perspective challenging the mainstream assumptions about culture and identity by recognizing the influence of power and control in organizational contexts. We performed 12 interviews with professionals in a characteristic PSF, participated in an observation event and analyzed internal documents.
Findings
Our findings propose that professional identity has a strong influence in the context of PSFs, to the extent that we argue culture is a by-product of the profession. Thus, professionals claim identification with the organization, however it is salient they more strongly identify with the profession. This is further supported by the fact that that when certain culture elements do not fit the profession, PSFs fail to deliver on those values.
Contributions
The thesis contributes to the theory of professional service firm management. From this qualitative study, we suggest that when professional identity is so heavily embedded in the organizational culture, this may lead to a deceitful practice of increasing professionals' organizational identification.


This work proposes a numerical simulation of heat conduction in silicon nanowires and nanofilms. Boltzmann equation for phonons is solved in the relaxation time approximation. The equation is integrated in an axisymmetric cylindrical two dimensional geometry. Solid angle integration is done by means of Discrete Ordinate Method. Moreover, in contrast to other models published in literature, spectral dependency of relaxation times and acoustic wave dispersion are taken into account in this numerical resolution. Consequently, thermal profiles are obtained for silicon nanowires and nanofilms in steady state allowing computation of thermal conductivity and/or thermal conductance. Besides, we solve the unsteady Boltzmann equation in order to obtain nanosystems temporal evolution. The results obtained with this code match nanofilms and nanowires already predicted thermal profiles in steady state. In unsteady condition, diffusive state (Fourier) is discussed for nanowires and nanofilms. At low temperatures, ballistic phenomenons are seen in nanofilms, whereas, in nanowires, due to boundary scattering, diffusion regime is observed.


Globally, A leading cause of death is heart disease and a serious public health concern. The anomalies in heart sound appears before the heart disease symptoms. The sounds are type of auscultation, which is a process dealing with sounds in a body that generates due to mechanical vibrations of organs, Auscultation is a potential method in medical science to detect abnormalities in heart sounds and in case of suspicion The patient follows up with a referral for other evaluations, such as an electrocardiogram. In medical sciences early detection of symptoms are of major importance, this research work is a good step toward the detection of abnormalities in heart before symptom appearing by processing the phonocardiogram (PCG) signal. In this paper PCG signals are classified by utilizing the features of Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) through Cartesian Genetic Programming - Artificial Network (CGP-ANN) Classifier. The diagnostic accuracy of proposed methodology is found 99.50% which is more than other classifiers like Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The accuracy of model as compared to other models can prove the performance superiority of the proposed system.


ABSTRACT Twelve children (five boys and seven girls, mean age 4;1) interacted with their mothers in two conversational settings: playing with a favourite toy and helping to prepare lunch or muffins. The percentage of two topic continuation processes – topic incorporation and collaboration – used by mothers and children was analysed. It was hypothesized that the help setting with a predetermined structure would elicit a greater percentage of topic incorporation by the dyads than the play setting. In fact, the play setting elicited a greater percentage of topic incorporation from mothers than the help setting. Children did not differ significantly in the percentage of use of topic incorporation between the two settings, but appeared to be equally proficient in incorporating topics in settings with and without a predetermined structure. The play setting also elicited more topic collaboration from the children than the help setting. While the help setting appeared to support collaborative action, the play setting permitted the dyads to be informative about the toys as well as related topics. Therefore, the two settings provided different opportunities for the dyads to continue topics.


P H o T o g R A P H b y L y n n b A R R y The mouse's days are numbered. Computer interfaces that remove user-system barriers are in the works and are intuitive enough for first-time users to throw away the manual. The iPhone's multitouch interface may have ushered in a wave of easier interfaces for the mass market, but it's just the beginning. Many new and exciting replacements for the familiar point-and-click scheme are on the way. Skinput technology (http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/skinput/) showcased at CHI 2010 (http://cacm.acm.org/news/83935) "appropriates" the human body as an input surface, says Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Chris Harrison, who developed SkinPut with Desney Tan and Dan Morris of Microsoft Research. Gaze-based interfaces are being considered for data input, search, and selection (http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1743666&type=proceeding&coll=GU IDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=86057285&CFTOKEN=34856226), and driving vehicles (http://cacm.acm.org/news/88018-car-steered-with-drivers-eyes/fulltext). Voice controls have boarded Ford cars (http://www.fordvehicles.com/technology/ sync/) and Apple smartphones. Gesture interfaces is another hot area in the interface arena. MIT Media Lab Ph.D. candidate Pravan Mistry's Sixth Sense (http://www.pranavmistry.com/ projects/sixthsense/) gesture interface (http://cacm.acm.org/news/23600) received a standing ovation when it premiered at the TED conference in February 2009 (http://www.ted. com/talks/pattie_maes_ demos_the_sixth_sense. html). Using multitouch gestures like the iPhone, Sixth Sense does not require a dedicated screen, but like many advanced interfaces it does depend on specialized hardware. Microsoft's Project Natal gesture interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Project_Natal) will give gamers hands-free control of the Xbox 360 in time for the holidays season. There are dozens of related YouTube videos at http://www. youtube.com/user/xboxprojectnatal. Its application outside gaming is not clear. Another promising but challenging area is the brain-machine interface (http:// cacm.acm.org/news/73070-building-a-brain-machine-interface/fulltext), which sounds less fact than fiction, but was in fact the focus of DARPA's Augmented Cognition program (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/augcog-continue/). All these interfaces aim to give users a simple, natural way to interact with a system. Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie says natural user interfaces will appear first with gaming and entertainment systems but "will certainly find application...in the communications domain." To read more about the interfaces of the future, check out the newly revamped ACM student magazine XRDS (formerly Crossroads). The print edition is available now; look for magazine's new Web site coming soon. interact naturally DOI:10.1145/1743546.1743552 David Roman ACM Member News


A 60 kDa antifungal amidase was purified from Peltophorum pterocarpum [corrected] seeds using an isolation procedure that entailed ion-exchange chromatography on Q-Sepharose, ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and FPLC-gel filtration on Superdex 75. Unlike most other antifungal proteins isolated previously, it was adsorbed on Q-Sepharose and DEAE-cellulose. The isolated protein, designated as peltopterin, exhibited an N-terminal amino acid sequence closely resembling those of amidases. It exhibited amidase activity and digested iodoacetamide with an optimum pH and temperature at pH 9 and 50 degrees C, respectively. It also hydrolyzed acrylamide and urea. It impeded mycelial growth in Rhizotonia solani with an IC(50) of 0.65 microm. Chitin deposition at hyphal tips in R. solani was observed by staining with Congo red after incubation with peltopterin. Its antifungal activity was stable throughout pH 0-14 and 25-100 degrees C. It potently inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase with an IC(50) of 27 nm.


The reader is possibly familiar by now with the British Colombia Law Institute (BLI)'s "Report on Proposals for Unfair Contracts Relief" ("the Report"). At the heart of the Report is a significant law-reform recommendation in the mould of draft legislation: A proposed Contract Fairness Act for British Columbia (the proposed Act). Much of the proposed Act is designed to "guard against exploitation,"' and its provisions are to be mandatory. The aim of the reforms, however, is not to effectuate a radical overhaul or complete codification of all contract law's general rules dealing with unfairness.


Mutations of the critical and rate-limiting melanogenic enzyme tyrosinase (Tyr) result in hypopigmentation of the hair, skin and eyes. Two other related enzymes, Tyrp1 and Dct, catalyze distinct post-Tyr reactions in melanin biosynthesis. Tyr, Tyrp1 and Dct have been proposed to interact with and stabilize each other in multi-enzyme complexes, and in vitro, Tyr activity is more stable in the presence of Tyrp1 and/or Dct. We recently reported that Tyr is degraded more quickly in mutant Tyrp1 mouse melanocytes than in wild-type Tyrp1 melanocytes, and that decreased stability of Tyr can be partly rescued by infection with wild-type Tyrp1. Although interactions between Tyr and Tyrp1 have been demonstrated in vitro, there is no direct evidence for Tyr interaction with Tyrp1 in vivo. In this study, we use in vivo chemical crosslinking to stabilize the association of Tyr with other cellular proteins. Western blot analysis revealed that Tyrp1, but not Dct, associates with Tyr in murine melanocytes in vivo, and more specifically, in melanosomes. Two-dimensional SDS-PAGE analysis detected heterodimeric species of Tyr and Tyrp1. Taken together, these data demonstrate that Tyrp1 interacts directly with Tyr in vivo, which may regulate the stability and trafficking of melanogenic enzymes and thus pigment synthesis.


ABSTRACT This inquiry investigates whether effective implementation of pedagogical actions closely associated with strong engagement and greater than expected learning gains in writing by typically developing students apply similarly to engagement and gains in writing by students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (ID). It was undertaken in response to low levels of engagement and achievement in writing by students with ID noted by other researchers. A mixed methods research design, involving a three-month planned and deliberate instructional writing intervention with eight senior secondary students with ID in a Swedish special needs school, was employed. Pedagogical actions, designed to assist students recognise the purposefulness of writing tasks, involve them in constructing tasks and setting goals for successful implementation, observe tasks being demonstrated, reflect on the successful (or otherwise) completion of tasks and learn about writing in differentiated contexts, were considered in relation to learner outputs. A close association between strategic operationalisation of these actions and substantial increases in engagement and gains in writing by students with ID (particularly in relation to productivity, complexity and grammatical fluency) is noted.


Southern Baptist-Related college faculty attitudes and opinions on areas of higher education most important to the professoriate as identified by the Carnegie Foundation in its 1989 National Survey of Faculty are described in this study and compared with the data from the survey reported by the Carnegie Foundation in The Condition of the Professoriate: Attitudes and Trends, 1989 and Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. The data were compared in the eight areas: goals of collegiate education, academic standards, attitudes about student life, teaching, research, and service, status of the profession, views of the institution, participation in decision-making, and general observations of higher education.


Efficient algorithms exist for the square-root probabilistic data association filter (PDAF). The same approach is extended to develop square-root versions of the interacting multiple model (IMM) Kalman filter and the IMMPDAF algorithms. The computational efficiency of the method stems from the fact that the terms needed in the overall covariance updates of PDAF, IMM, and IMMPDAF can be obtained as part of the square-root covariance update of an ordinary Kalman filter. In addition, a new square-root covariance prediction algorithm that is substantially faster than the usual modified weighted Gram-Schmidt (MWG-S) algorithm, whenever the process noise covariance matrix is time invariant, is proposed. >


This research is intended to analyze profitability, debt, tax, investment
opportunity set, and ownership structure to the dividend policy. The sample in this
research is a manufacturing company listed on the Stock Exchange in 2004-2013.
This research used purposive sampling method in determining the number of
samples used. The data that be used is balanced panel and this data has 90
annual finance report.this research use multiple regression model.
The results of this research showed profitability, debt and tax didn't affect
to the dividend policy. Investment opportunity set affected positively and
significantly to the dividend policy. While ownership structure in this research use
managerial ownership structure, affected negatife and significantly to the
dividend policy.


This paper presents a novel technique for efficiently combining genetic algorithms (GA's) with method of moments (MOM) for planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs). MOM is applied to analyze rectangular patches fed by a coaxial probe and shorted with a shorted pin. The impedance matrix of such a mother structure is, then manipulated by a GA optimization procedure in order to detect the optimal patch shape matching the required frequency properties. GA adoption enables optimal shape detection among all possible shapes allowed by the mother structure dimensions. The design example of dual-band antenna is presented, and measurement result is compared to numerical results. Excellent agreement between numerical and measured results is observed.


Congenital heart disease (CHD) and invasive cardiac procedures are risk factors for infective endocarditis (IE) in children. IE with Achromobacter xylosoxidans is a rare case and has a high mortality rate. This case report and literature review aim to understand the risk factors, diagnosis, therapy, and outcome of IE wirh Achromobacter xylosoxidans. We observed a 14-months-old boy with ventricular septal defect (VSD), a history of cardiac catheterization, 9 days fever and febrile convulsion; and tachycardia and pansystolic murmur on the tricuspid valve were found. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed vegetation on the tricuspid valve. Monomicrobial clinical isolates of Achromobacter xylosoxidans were consistently found in three samples of aerobic blood culture bottles. The patient was treated with definitive antibiotic therapy with 200 mg/8 hours of ceftazidime for 21 days. Bacterial growth was not found in the blood culture evaluation which was performed after 48 hours of the therapy. Also, it was found that in the follow up period the patient had no fever on the sixth day, and the vegetation size was reduced. A patient with CHD, especially with VSD as an underlying condition who had a history of cardiac catheterization and accompanied by fever and heart murmur, should be suspected of having IE. Then the definitive antibiotic therapy with ceftazidime contributed to a better clinical outcome.


Simple Summary We studied Q fever in an area of Spain where a significant number of human cases are diagnosed every year. Although animals are the only source of infection for people, this is the first study carried out in the autonomous community of Asturias that addresses in an integrated way the infection in domestic animals, wildlife and the environment as well as people. Our results revealed that a remarkable percentage of domestic ruminants and wild ungulates from all geographic areas of the region had been in contact with the infection's causative agent (Coxiella burnetii). In addition, the bacteria could be detected in the air and/or the dust of livestock farms. Finally, a statistical analysis was carried out to investigate the risk factors (age, sex, geographical area, etc.) for the human population of the region. These findings will help local health authorities to focus on the origin of the problem and facilitate applying preventive measures in the affected livestock farms. Abstract This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of C. burnetii in domestic ruminants, wild ungulates, as well as the current situation of Q fever in humans in a small region in northwestern Spain where a close contact at the wildlife–livestock–human interface exists, and information on C. burnetii infection is scarce. Seroprevalence of C. burnetii was 8.4% in sheep, 18.4% in cattle, and 24.4% in goats. Real-time PCR analysis of environmental samples collected in 25 livestock farms detected Coxiella DNA in dust and/or aerosols collected in 20 of them. Analysis of sera from 327 wild ungulates revealed lower seroprevalence than that found in domestic ruminants, with 8.4% of Iberian red deer, 7.3% chamois, 6.9% fallow deer, 5.5% European wild boar and 3.5% of roe deer harboring antibodies to C. burnetii. Exposure to the pathogen in humans was determined by IFAT analysis of 1312 blood samples collected from patients admitted at healthcare centers with Q fever compatible symptoms, such as fever and/or pneumonia. Results showed that 15.9% of the patients had IFAT titers ≥ 1/128 suggestive of probable acute infection. This study is an example of a One Health approach with medical and veterinary institutions involved in investigating zoonotic diseases.


Management of multi-echelon with transshipments is an effective approach to improve support effectiveness. A common assumption in early papers is that transshipments are allowed between all locations. However, this configuration may not be the best choice in many fields. Focusing on the problem, a system where transshipments are allowed only in one direction is provided. Such policies may be of interest if the locations have very different shortage costs. The technique is solved in a simple and efficient heuristic algorithm, and the simulation shows that the model produces accurate estimation. Numerical studies show that unidirectional transshipments improve various system performance measures such as the fill rate, the average inventory on hand, and the average backorder level. The proposed method gives a good picture of how considered unidirectional lateral transshipments affect the inventory system, which has large significance for completing inventory theory and supplying decision assistance for a reasonable optimization project.


This book addresses a frontier area of research in cosmology relating to the very early history of the universe. It describes the current search for answers to such questions as: Did the universe have a beginning? Is it dominated by matter, rather than antimatter? Why, how, and when did galaxies form? What is the nature of matter that cannot be seen but is believed to exist? Do we have any relics of the early epochs to indicate how the laws of physics operated in those times? Can cosmology supply clues to the riddle of unification of all laws of physics? In simplified form it describes the scientific speculation on the origin of the universe and the nature of the physical laws.


In order for transmission to occur, the mosquito must feed on a person during a 5-day period when large amounts of virus are circulating in the person's blood; this period usually begins before the person develops illness symptoms. Some people will not have significant symptoms but can still infect mosquitoes. Once the virus enters the mosquito, the virus will then require an additional 8-12 days incubation before it can then be transmitted by mosquito bite to another human. The mosquito remains infected for the remainder of its life, which might be days or a few weeks. In rare cases dengue can be transmitted in organ transplants or blood transfusions from infected donors, and there is evidence of transmission from an infected pregnant mother to her fetus. But in the vast majority of infections, a mosquito bite is responsible.


The calorific value and compressive strength properties of composite briquettes from agro waste (palm kernel shell and groundnut shell) using starch as a binder have been investigated. The briquettes were produced with various composition of agro waste (palm kernel shell and groundnut shell) particle size of 100μm and starch binder concentration of 5% of the oven dry weight of agro waste. The briquette producing machine of 10 tonnnes capacity was used to produce various composition of briquette and the composite briquettes produced were evaluated for calorific value, ash content, compressive strength, densi ty and moisture content properties. The results showed that calorific value and compressive strength increased as the palm kernel shell composition in the briquette increased. The optimum briquette calorific value and compressive strength was 16.65 Mj/Kg and of 2587.96 N/m respectively.


Background A significant recent innovation is the development of internet-based psychological treatments for suicidal thinking. However, we know very little about individuals experiencing suicidal ideation who seek help through Web-based services and, in particular, their previous health service use patterns. Objective We aimed to examine service use history and its correlates among adults experiencing suicidal ideation who enrolled in a Web-based suicidal ideation treatment trial. Methods We used baseline data of 418 individuals seeking Web-based treatment for their suicidal ideation recruited into a randomized controlled trial of a 6-week Web-based self-help program. Participants at preintervention reported demographic information, clinical characteristics, and health service use over the previous 6 months. Results Participants had a high rate of service use in the 6 months before enrolling in the treatment trial (404/418, 96.7% of participants had contact with services). The two most common contact points were general practitioners (385/418, 92.1% of participants) and mental health professionals (295/418, 70.6% of participants). Notably, those with a previous single suicide attempt had lower odds of contact with any service than those with no attempt (odds ratio [OR] 0.21, 95% CI 0.05-0.86; P=.03). Those living in rural or remote areas had lower odds of contacting general practitioners (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.13-0.91; P=.03) or mental health professionals (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.23-0.83; P=.01) than those living in metropolitan areas. Conclusions Individuals enrolling in an electronic health intervention trial have often received treatment from general practitioners or mental health professionals. These services can therefore play an important role in preventing the escalation of suicidal thinking. Enrollment in our Web-based treatment trial suggested, though, that face-to-face health services may not be enough. Our study also highlighted the need to improve the provision of coordinated and assertive care after a suicide attempt, as well as health service availability and utilization for those living in rural and remote areas. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12613000410752; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=364016 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6vK5FvQXy); Universal Trial Number U1111-1141-6595


The ability of certain species of bats to store viable spermatozoa in the cauda epididymis, for periods of many months beyond the end of spermatogenesis was first recognized over a century ago. However, information about the bat epididymis is still scarce or absent. Thus, this study aimed to characterize and to compare morphologically and morphometrically the regional histology of the epididymis of Eumops glaucinus and Molossus molossus (Chiroptera: Molossidae). Histologically, the epididymis of both species was subdivided into 4 segments: initial segment, caput, corpus and cauda. In comparing the two species, it was observed that the tubular and luminal diameters and percentage of interstitial tissue showed significant differences in all segments. The epithelial height, in both, is greater in the initial segment with a decrease until the cauda epididymis. In relation to the luminal diameter, both species showed a gradual increase from the initial segment to the cauda. The percentage of epithelium, lumen and interstitial tissue varied between both, sometimes M. molossus showing a significantly higher percentage, and other times, E. glaucinus. In both species, the principal cell was the most abundant (> 77%), followed by basal cells at approximately 13% and apical cells at 4% in all segments. Spermatozoa were observed in greater amounts in corpus and cauda epididymis segments. In summary, ours results show that, despite that the species analyzed belong to different genera and have different breeding cycles, the epididymis exhibits similarities in the two species and morphometric and composition differences compared to the majority of mammals.


Study on chemical characteristics of groundwater and impacts of groundwater quality on human health, plant growth, and industrial sector is essential to control and improve the water quality in every part of the country. The present study was undertaken to assess major ion chemistry of groundwater to understand the groundwater quality for promoting sustainable development and effective management of groundwater resources. A total of 18 water samples were collected from selected parts of the rural area of karangur and the water chemistry of various ions viz. Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, CO3 2−, HCO3 −, Cl−, SO4 2−, F- and NO3 − are carried out. The nitrate appeared as a major problem of safe drinking water in this region. We recorded highest nitrate concentration, i.e., 70 mg/L in four groundwater locations. A comparison of groundwater quality in relation to drinking water quality standards revealed that about major nitrate and fluoride are four groundwater locations are not suitable for drinking.


Diagenetic alterations of sandstone occur in a continuous system. As a result, equilibrium thermodynamics cannot be strictly used to describe the equilibrium composition of the diagenetic system and the resulting course of diagenesis. If a geologist is to predict the course of diagenesis in a meaningful way, he must determine those factors which serve to control the various diagenetic pathways. Geologic evaluation of sandstone fabric and texture is an integral part of most regional studies. These data are often critical in understanding diagenesis as well. Sediment grain size, roundness, sorting, and packing factors determine the ability of a sandstone to transmit fluid during the course of burial and diagenesis. These geologic factors can be used to evaluate the paleohydrology End_Page 411------------------------------ of the sand bodies under investigation, and provide insight to a major control of diagenesis. The fluid flow rate through a sandstone controls the residence time of the various chemical components in solution. When the residence time is sufficiently long with respect to the time scale of the diagenetic reaction, the time invariant condition of a continuous system approaches chemical equilibrium. Thus it is possible to have different diagenetic reactions occurring within a sand body due to local changes in fluid flux (or flow velocity) and the resultant varying degrees of approach to equilibrium. In systems where fluid flow is high and residence time is small with respect to diagenetic reaction rate, the fluid chemistry is largely controlled by the chemistry of external fluid source. This situation results in either introduction of new material (or minerals) into, or removal of existing material or minerals from the sandstone. If the fluid is saturated or nearly saturated with respect to some specific mineral this mineral is added. Conversely, leaching of material occurs when the fluid is undersaturated. In systems where fluid flow is slow and residence time is large with respect to diagenetic reaction rates, the fluid chemistry is largely controlled by the chemistry of the host rock. In this case, chemical equilibrium is approximated and the material originally present in the rock is redistributed by solution/precipitation reactions. Only small amounts of materials are introduced to or removed from the host rock. Understanding this control on sandstone diagenesis is important in delineating trends in diagenetic alteration and projecting those trends into new areas, and in identifying the trends in differential cementation that produces some types of diagenetic traps. End_of_Article - Last_Page 412------------


—Social media are dramatically changing the way we live and make social relationships with others. While students are so immersed in social media in their daily life, social media adoption in classroom has been slow. Educators who wish to experiment with social media for CSCL struggle to find ways to incorporate the expected benefits and advantages of social media to teaching lessons. This paper reports on the experiences of using social media for a business case simulation activity in a higher learning context. Drawing on a qualitative feedback and social media log data of 27 teams of 135 undergraduate students, this paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of social media as a CSCL tool in classroom, especially in the areas of information sharing and social interaction.


Quantum dots have attracted considerable interest because their atom-like properties make them a good venue for studying physics of confined carriers and the ability to lead to novel device applications in fields such as quantum cryptography, quantum computing, optics and optoelectronics. Zero-dimensional semiconductor structures, or quantum dots (QDs), have attracted considerable interest for their atomic-like optical properties. In order to avoid non-radiative recombination defects caused by nano-fabrication processes, tremendous efforts have been focused on a one-step Stranski- Krastanow growth of self-assembled quantum dots, such as In(Ga)As/GaAs, InP/GaInP and GeSi/Si. In contrast, strain- induced quantum dots formed by locally straining a near surface quantum well with self-assembled islands can be modeled accurately. QW width is usually much smaller than the diameter of the stress or, the inhomogeneous broadening of each dot state is dominated by the QW interface fluctuation and is less influenced by the dot size variation. Various efforts are evident in the development of quantum dots of optically active materials such as compound semiconductors. Present review deals with some of the latest developments in the growth of quantum dots and their applications in opto-electronic devices.


This paper presents an overview of intellectual property in the field of digital holography and highlights the possibilities revealed by patent searching and analysis. Over one thousand and five hundred patent documents relevant to digital holography were uncovered by this study. The search was performed using the following databases: U.S. Patent Office, European Patent Office, and Japanese Patent Office, for the time frame of 1971 through April 2014. The patent analysis unveils trends in patent temporal distribution, leading IP portfolios, competition among companies within the digital market, and other interesting insights.


In recent years, port and harbour security has risen up the agenda, as the prospect of attack from underwater intruders or explosives entering ports attached to vessels is considered a genuine threat to homeland security. Employing unique, cost effective, patented technology, Coda Echoscope has been proven in the North Sea oil and gas construction industry and is now in high demand for defence and security applications. Simultaneously producing over 16,000 sonar beams at up to 200 m range and at up to 20 times per second, Echoscope generates real-time 3D images of underwater scenarios that are easy to interpret.


We report a rare situation in which a lipomyelomeningocele and an intramedullary arteriovenous malformation (AVM) occurred together at the T11-L1 level in a 44-year-old man. MR images showed a hypervascular lesion intradurally and a fatty component extradurally. Spinal angiography revealed this lesion to be an intramedullary AVM with multiple feeding arteries from the right T12 and left T10 intercostal artery and the left L1 lumbar artery, drained by tortuous, dilated, perimedullary veins.


A flexible, synchronous, broadband subscriber loop system called the optical shuttle bus is discussed. The emphasis is on the proposed design architecture and performance of a 1.8-Gb/s prototype system. The optical shuttle bus is constructed of multigigabit/second intelligent optical shuttle nodes (OSNs). The software-defined OSNs allow the bus to be configured as a synchronous transmission network with any topology and provides flexible channel allocation by means of a drop/insert/cross-connect function. The OSN can be configured as a highly reliable network by virtue of its self-healing functions such as line switch, bypass, and loop back. The proposed bus architecture has been successfully applied in a 1.8-Gb/s prototype in which three OSNs are connected by one 10-km and two 5-dm single-mode fibers in a ring configuration. Very compact and inexpensive equipment is realized by using high-speed ICs. Experimental results show the proposed architecture to be a powerful one for the realization of synchronous broadband subscriber loop systems. >


This contribution takes a look at diphthongs, which the author calls an oddly trans problem of language. Borrowed from their linguistic function, diphthongs may point to a trans methodology. On a page, diphthongs seem to be the crystallized image of a transition. Yet, as elements of a sentence or a word, they are not necessarily read as a unit. Depending on the context and the function that they serve at the moment they appear, diphthongs take on many different forms. This piece considers the ways in which a diphthong may be viewed as a metaphor for multiplicity within a single body and the implications it may have in the future of trans studies.


Radar has been successfully used for over twenty years to study the flight behaviour of a variety of migrant insects. However, the complexity of the equipment and the time-consuming nature of data analysis procedures have precluded use of the technique for routine, long-term monitoring. We report here the development of a technique specifically intended to make such routine monitoring a practical proposition. The 3 cm radar transmits a vertical-looking beam which nutates about a vertical axis, and in which the plane of linear polarization is rotated. Overflying insects modulate the radar signal in a way which is related to their speed and direction of movement, their orientation, size, and shape. We have shown that all these parameters can be extracted from the complex Fourier transform of the returned radar signal, by using appropriate algorithms on a modern desk-top computer. The success of this development means that economic, automatic, and long-term monitoring of the density, direction of movement, orientation and composition of insect aerial faunas should now be possible.


We present the unusual event of strut fracture of a Greenfield filter. This being an extremely rare complication, we postulate a possible cause of fracture and present a review of literature.


From rat bone marrow in which erythropoiesis has been depressed (by suppression of erythropoietin production), liquid culture has yielded a predominantly synchronous amplification of erythroblast development. Groups of 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 erythrolbasts are observed at 9-15 hour intervals in successive stages of maturation, similar (by their staining characteristics and nuclear size) to that seen in vivo.


Lophelia pertusa is the dominant reef-building organism of cold-water coral reefs, and is known to produce significant amounts of mucus, which could involve an important metabolic cost. Mucus is involved in particle removal and feeding processes, yet the triggers and dynamics of mucus production are currently still poorly described because the existing tools to study these processes are not appropriate. Using a novel microscopic technique—digital holographic microscopy (DHM)–we studied the mucus release of L. pertusa under various experimental conditions. DHM technology permits μm-scale observations and allows the visualization of transparent mucoid substances in real time without staining. Fragments of L. pertusa were first maintained in flow-through chambers without stressors and imaged with DHM, then exposed to various stressors (suspended particles, particulate food and air exposure) and re-imaged. Under non-stressed conditions no release of mucus was observed, whilst mucus strings and sheaths were produced in response to suspended particles (activated charcoal and drill cuttings sediment) i.e. in a stressed condition. Mucus strings and so-called 'string balls' were also observed in response to exposure to particulate food (brine shrimp Artemia salina). Upon air-exposure, mucus production was clearly visible once the fragments were returned to the flow chamber. Distinct optical properties such as optical path length difference (OPD) were measured with DHM in response to the various stimuli suggesting that different mucus types are produced by L. pertusa. Mucus produced to reject particles is similar in refractive index to the surrounding seawater, suggesting that the energy content of this mucus is low. In contrast, mucus produced in response to either food particle addition or air exposure had a higher refractive index, suggesting a higher metabolic investment in the production of these mucoid substances. This paper shows for the first time the potential of DHM technology for the detection, characterization and quantification of mucus production through OPD measurements in L. pertusa.


Abstract Intercostal nerves (ICN) are often utilized as donors for various neurotization procedures in brachial plexus injuries. ICN to musculocutaneous nerve (MCN) transfer is usually a standard in pan brachial plexus injuries, in order to restore flexion at the elbow. A tensionless co-aptation of the donor-recipient nerves often necessitates either a distal dissection of the ICNs where the number of fascicles is rather low or a proximal dissection, often at the cost of dissection of the serratus anterior digitation with a risk of later fibrosis and adhesion. We report two cases of pan brachial plexus injuries where ICN-MCN transfer was performed to restore elbow function. These patients underwent clinical and electrodiagnostic evaluation before surgery. We used the standard technique of harvesting ICNs 3-5, with our technical modification of "undercutting of rib" for increasing the donor length. The procedure was applied in two patients with pan brachial plexus injury (mean age = 23). Mean duration since the injury to surgery was ten months. Both patients underwent tensionless anastomosis with a combination of suture and fibrin glue co-aptation. While one patient had some improvement in elbow flexion, another one was under active rehabilitation protocol during follow-up. We found that undercutting of the ribs near serratus digitations can allow mobilization of the ICN from its groove, which in turn lengthens the donor nerve length without violating the serratus anterior digitations and without too anterior dissection of the nerve. It can be a viable option when a tensionless co-aptation at the axilla is otherwise not feasible intraoperatively.


The research literature presents two different perspectives on the centrality of textbooks in teachers' work. On the one hand, the literature discusses notions of constraint and control over knowledge and is critical of a system of education that does not encourage teachers to develop their own curriculum. On the other hand, the use of textbooks in professional development has been associated with the potential for teachers to develop curriculum autonomy.
While there has been a long tradition of using textbooks in Hong Kong government schools, there is very little, if any research available relating to teachers' perceptions and their use of textbooks. This paper sets out to use two alternative foci in the literature to discuss and analyse findings from interviews with teachers about their use of text books in their professional work.


Ichino and Moretti (2009) find that menstruation may contribute to gender gaps in absenteeism and earnings, based on evidence that absences of young female Italian bank employees follow a 28-day cycle. We find this evidence is not robust to the correction of coding errors or small changes in specification, and we find no evidence of increased female absenteeism on 28-day cycles in data on school teachers. We show that five day work weeks can cause misleading group differences in absence hazards at multiples of seven, including 28 days, and illustrate this problem by comparing absence patterns of younger males to older males.


A conjugated alternating polymer based on fluorene and triphenylamine, namely poly[(9,9-dioctyl)-2,7-fluorene-co-triphenylamine] (PF–TPA), in which triphenylamine (TPA) as electron donor and hole transporting group was devised and synthesized on the basis of the Suzuki coupling method. The structural properties of the copolymer can be verified by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, hydrogen and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR). Nonvolatile memory devices with bistable electrical switching behavior were observed based on active layers of both fluorene–triphenylamine copolymer (PF–TPA) and PF–TPA:carbon nanotubes (CNTs) hybrid composite materials. Typical formed composite-based device with sandwich configuration, indium tin oxide (ITO)/PF–TPA:CNTs/Al, was demonstrated superior rewritable flash memory property compare to the ITO/PF–TPA/Al device with a greater ON/OFF state current ratio. In addition, the optimal storage characteristics occurs when the doping concentration of CNTs was at a certain value (CNTs = 0.3 mg mL−1), which leading to the ON/OFF state current ratio added up to 2 orders of magnitude and the switching threshold voltage reduced prominently. The conductance switching mechanism of devices was also further discussed. After testing, the devices have good stability and durability, which have a potential application value in data storage.


ABSTRACT Opaline sponge spicules are being preferentially removed from reef as opposed to back-reef sediments from North Jamaica. In contrast to presumed chemical solution of silica in the deep sea, rapid removal of opal from reef sediments may be taking place as a result of biologic agents.


In this paper, it is demonstrated that two influenza vaccines, differing in the H1N1 component (virus strain A/USSR/90/77 or virus strain A/Brazil/11/78) did not show significant differences with respect to the induction of H1N1 antibodies (as measured in the haemagglutination inhibition test) in the vaccination of 25 and 26 young female adults, whose age ranged from 17 to 25 years. It can be concluded that vaccines which differ in the H1N1 portion in this manner do not produce different immunological (i.e. also protective) reactions in vaccinated individuals. Both H1N1 virus strains could be considered to be practically of equal value for the influenza immunoprophylaxis against the H1N1 type.


ABSTRACT This study proposes a classification framework for conflict journalism with respect to its potential for conflict escalation and de-escalation in Pakistan—a country marred by a number of deadly conflicts. While building on the existing literature, the study proposes the varying levels of intensity of a conflict and the resulting escalatory and de-escalatory coverage as important factors in the process. Through content analysis and focus group discussion, it was found that de-escalatory coverage is inversely proportional to the intensity of a conflict in terms of its perceived threats to national security. Secondly it was found that the coverage was spread across a range of thematic frames though certain perspectives got more prominence as compared to others. Noting the variations in the presence of peace journalism, the study concludes that critical pragmatic approach to peace journalism is better suited to address queries relating to its theory and practice than other approaches because it accommodates the retention of peace as a value and at the same is pragmatic and hence honors the requirements of journalistic profession.


We investigated the effects of stress over the final stages of sexual maturation on the reproductive performance of female rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. Stress was administered over the period of early vitellogenesis (1.5 mo), late vitellogenesis-final maturation (1.5 mo), or during both periods (3 mo). Each stress treatment and control was triplicated, with eight females in each replicate (n = 24 fish per treatment). The eggs and progeny of each female were kept separate, and observations were made for 4 mo after transfer to rearing tanks. Fish that experienced stress during final maturation and those that were under stress during the whole experiment ovulated on average 2 wk earlier than the control group. In contrast, fish stressed during the period of early vitellogenesis ovulated at the same time as controls. Absolute fecundity and fertilization were not significantly affected in any treatment group, but significant differences in relative fecundity were found. Stress applied early in vitellogenesis resulted in smaller eggs and swim-up fry. No significant differences were found in juvenile weight 8 wk after hatching. Furthermore, we found no differences in survival of the progeny or resistance to the fish pathogen Vibrio anguillarum. Thus, mild acute stresses applied to rainbow trout females may affect certain reproductive performance parameters such as timing of ovulation and relative fecundity; however, the progeny of such stressed females perform as well as controls with regard to juvenile growth and disease resistance.