According to the travel time estimation problems in the urban road traffic flow, two travel time estimation models are presented in this paper. The velocity model is based on the average velocity of vehicles at the adjacent monitoring points, and the retention time model is based on the free driving time and the residence time used in road between two adjacent monitoring points. The models are validated by the traffic data collected on an urban road in San Antonio, USA. With the further analysis on the results of the two models, the applicable conditions and influencing factors are given for the two models respectively.


: A new technique of continent tracheo-oesophageal fistula, aimed at facilitating vocal (and therefore global) rehabilitation of patients with total laryngectomy, is described. The fistula method is not new: it carries the expired air from the trachea into the pharynx when the tracheostomy is obstructed, thereby providing possibilities of phonation. What is new in this technique is that it avoids the insertion of prosthesis in the fistula to prevent aspirations. Voice and deglutition were satisfactory in the 3 patients operated upon with this technique.


Our challenge as biology educators is to design assessment practices which support high quality student learning and result in knowledgeable, critically thinking students who can self-regulate their own learning. A review of the last decade of literature was conducted with the aim of quantifying the type and content of articles written about assessment in biology, identifying the problems currently being investigated by biology educators and discussing some of the solutions being offered and evaluated. The quantitative review found that exams/tests were the most frequently discussed assessment practice and the theme of guidance and feedback provision dominated the research. The major problems addressed in the literature were designing exam questions to better assess higher level cognitive skills, creating opportunities for formative assessment of content, developing critical thinking skills and developing the capacity of students to self-regulate their learning. The review revealed that biology educators have been rigorously reflecting on and evaluating assessment practices, and have implemented curriculum reforms to address these problems. The challenge for the future will be to encourage broader adoption of these assessment practices by academics so that biology students everywhere will graduate well-equipped for the workforce.


We consider a family of cubic Liénard oscillators with linear damping. Particular cases of this family of equations are abundant in various applications, including physics and biology. There are several approaches for studying integrability of the considered family of equations such as Lie point symmetries, algebraic integrability, linearizability conditions via various transformations and so on. Here we study integrability of these oscillators from two different points of view, namely, linearizability via nonlocal transformations and the Darboux theory of integrability. With the help of these approaches we find two completely integrable cases of the studied equation. Moreover, we demonstrate that the equations under consideration have a generalized Darboux first integral of a certain form if and only if they are linearizable.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate sex-related differences in outcome, defined as amputation rate and survival in patients treated for lower limb ischemia.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Age, sex, and type of procedure for all patients undergoing vascular interventions for lower limb ischemia in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1970 to 1994, were obtained from the National Board of Health and Welfare. All patients who underwent amputation after treatment were analyzed separately. Data on deceased patients were extracted from the cause-of-death register.

RESULTS
Women had lower survival rates than men at 30 days and 1 and 5 years after operation (89% vs 92%, 75% vs 80%, and 50% vs 55%; P <.001). In the multivariate analysis of risk factors for death during the whole study period, increasing age, calendar year (1980 to 1989), and male sex were significant risk factors (P <.001). The percentage of women who underwent amputation after treatment was comparable with the percentage of men who underwent amputation (11.4% vs 10.2%, P =.075). The multivariate analysis identified increased age and calendar year (1985 to 1994) as important risk factors for amputation (P <.001). Female sex was not found to increase the risk for amputation. Patients who underwent amputation were older than patients with intact limbs (73 vs 68 years, P <.001). The highest percentage of patients who underwent amputation was found among those treated with femorodistal bypass (20%, P =.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Female sex is not an important risk factor for poor outcome after treatment for lower limb ischemia, when their increased age has been accounted for. These results imply that we should continue to consider age and type of procedure when estimating outcome, and women should not be refused an intervention on a sex-related basis. We should possibly be more selective toward men considering their higher mortality rates.


In this paper, we study the effect of imperfect channel estimation (ICE) on the performance of M-level quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) with maximum ratio combining (MRC) and pilot-symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) in generalized Rician fading channels. By expressing the bit error rate (BER) of MRC diversity M-QAM in terms of the distribution of new decision variables, we derive novel, exact, and easy-to-evaluate BER expressions for diversity M-QAM with channel estimation errors. Our results include versatile system and fading channel parameters (e.g., arbitrary spatial and temporal correlation patterns among the diversity branches), and are valid for arbitrary linear channel estimators and square and rectangular M -QAM with different constellation sizes. In addition, we evaluate the performance of minimum mean-squared error (MMSE)- and sinc-interpolator-based channel estimators with PSAM, and provide some new insights into the performance of M-QAM with PSAM in generalized fading channels


Background Whilst qPCR provides an extremely powerful tool for genetic analysis, some applications such as multiplexing variant alleles (eg SNPs, point mutations or deletions), remain challenging using current primer/probe systems. The novel design features of PlexPrimers allow sensitive, multiplexed analysis of variant alleles even when these are tightly clustered. Method PlexPrimers were combined with PlexZymes in qPCR assays for the detection of SNPs in human absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) genes; clustered mutations in the 23S rRNA gene which confer antibiotic resistance to Mycoplasma genitalium; and deletions within the human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene. Results The combination of PlexPrimers and PlexZymes allowed robust multiplexing of targets which resulted in 100% concordance with results obtained using hydrolysis probe kits for 14 SNPs in the ADME genes. A 7-plex qPCR assay targeting M. genitalium, 5 clustered mutations associated with macrolide resistance and an internal control, allowed efficient amplification of all targets, with all 5 mutations detected in a single channel. Finally, the strategy was employed to analyse common EGFR mutants with high sensitivity, detecting deletions present at only 0.01%. Conclusion PlexPrime is a novel technology for the detection of genetic variants. Unlike previous strategies, the combination of PlexPrimers with PlexZymes enables both allele-specific detection and allele-specific amplification in qPCR. The study demonstrated highly sensitive and specific detection of mutations and SNPs, and superior multiplexing capacity. The ability to multiplex clustered genetic variants reduces the time to result providing more actionable information.


Improvements in computational resources over the last decade are enabling a new era of computational prediction and design of novel materials. The resulting resources are databases such as the Materials Project (www.materialsproject.org), which is harnessing the power of supercomputing together with state-of-the-art quantum mechanical theory to compute the properties of all known inorganic materials, to design novel materials, and to make the data available for free to the community, together with online analysis and design algorithms. The current release contains data derived from quantum mechanical calculations for more than 70,000 materials and millions of associated materials properties. The software infrastructure carries out thousands of calculations per week, enabling screening and predictions for both novel solids as well as molecular species with targeted properties. As the rapid growth of accessible computed materials properties continues, the next frontier is harnessing that information for automated learning and accelerated discovery. In this article, we highlight some of the emerging and exciting efforts, and successes, as well as current challenges using descriptor-based and machine-learning methods for data-accelerated materials design.


AIMS
Although a substantial role for 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has been established in regulating cardiac metabolism, a less studied action of AMPK is its ability to prevent cardiac cell death. Using established AMPK activators like dexamethasone (DEX) or metformin (MET), the objective of the present study was to determine whether AMPK activation prevents tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) induced apoptosis in adult rat ventricular cardiomyocytes.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Cardiomyocytes were incubated with DEX, MET, or TNF-alpha for varying durations (0-12 h). TNF-alpha-induced cell damage was evaluated by measuring caspase-3 activity and Hoechst staining. Protein and gene estimation techniques were employed to determine the mechanisms mediating the effects of AMPK activators on TNF-alpha-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Incubation of myocytes with TNF-alpha for 8 h has increased caspase-3 activation and apoptotic cell death, an effect that was abrogated by DEX and MET. The beneficial effect of DEX and MET was associated with stimulation of AMPK, which led to a rapid and sustained increase in Bad phosphorylation. This event reduced the interaction between Bad and Bcl-xL, limiting cytochrome c release and caspase-3 activation. Addition of Compound C to inhibit AMPK reduced Bad phosphorylation and prevented the beneficial effects of AMPK against TNF-alpha-induced cytotoxicity.

CONCLUSION
Our data demonstrate that although DEX and MET are used as anti-inflammatory agents or insulin sensitizers, respectively, their common property to phosphorylate AMPK promotes cardiomyocyte cell survival through its regulation of Bad and the mitochondrial apoptotic mechanism.


INTRODUCTIONThis paper aims to assess the current Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure in higher education institutions (HEIs) whether it can support the use of collaborative web technologies (CWTs) in a blended learning (BL) environment. Our review of the literature shows that a good ICT infrastructure is an essential element when considering for the use and adoption of CWT-enabled BL in learning and teaching (Mtebe & Raphael, 2013; Toro & Joshi, 2012; Sife, et al., 2007; and Omidinia, et al., 2012). In the light of BL's potentials for learning and teaching, this study was motivated in one way, by the need to assess the current ICT infrastructure capable of supporting CWT-enabled BL (Lwoga, 2012) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Tanzania. Equally important, the study is attributed by the fact that, the use of CWTs and the BL is increasingly becoming a common instructional model (Graham, et al., 2013) in higher education. Thus, it is timely and relevant, to assess whether the available ICT infrastructure in Tanzania can support the use of Collaborative Web Technologies (CWTs) in a BL environment in HEIs. This paper also reviews briefly the literature in both Mixed Methods approach and CWTs in higher education in order to advance its application in this context. The study findings and the reviewed literature discussed in sections two through six of this paper, provide enough evidence that, the study is a timely contribution to assess the available ICT infrastructure's capability for supporting the use of CWTs in a BL instructional model.In view of the above introductory discussion, in this paper, we adopt a definition used by Graham, et al., (2013) and Lomas, et al., (2008) that BL is a combination of face-to-face and online learning instructional models. Not withstanding the current debate about the definition of BL (Chew (2009), contextually, the current practice of BL in Tanzania is limited to the combination of face-to-face and e-learning technologies such as Moodle and Compact Discs (Mtebe & Raphael, 2013). Consequently, the current practice is yet to consider the use of CWTs such as Wikis, podcasts, blogs, and social networks (Rosbotom & Lecarpentier, 2010). A closer look at the current practice reveals that BL in Tanzania HEIs is at its infancy level (Lwoga, 2012; and Mtebe, 2015). Along similar lines, we are of the view that, one of the main reasons why CWTs have not been widely used in Tanzania for BL is the lack of information about the available ICT infrastructure to support CWTs in learning and teaching. As far as we are aware, there is little research to establish the available ICT infrastructure in HEI in Tanzania capable of supporting BL (Lwoga, 2012; and Dahms & Zakaria, 2015). Scoring from study motivation discussed above, these empirical evidences (Dahms & Zakaria, 2015; Lwoga, 2012; Mtebe & Raphael, 2013; and Hennessy, et al., 2010) insist on the rationale for the study.At the international research level, generally, Omollo (2011); Toro & Joshi (2012); and Dahms & Zakaria (2015) suggest that HEIs in developing countries have good ICT infrastructure to support learning and teaching. However, some challenges exist, such as lack of awareness among ICT users of the available services in HEIs, poor coordination across campuses, demotivated faculties, and lack of top management support (Omollo, 2011). Nevertheless, the challenges facing HEIs have been widely resolved and some efforts are underway to improve the situation (Omollo, 2011). For example, heavy investment in telecommunications, and high rate of electricity penetration in Africa, have reduced the impacts of the challenges faced by HEIs (Hennessy, et al., 2010) and (Wainaina et al., 2014). Additionally, the ICT infrastructural components such as internet connection, availability and affordability of hardware and software, ICT skills among students and the faculty, and national ICT projects such as the national fiber optic backbone in East, Central, and Southern Africa have improved the state-of the art of the ICT infrastructure (Toro & Joshi, 2012; Mtebe, 2015); Lwoga, 2012; and TCRA, 2015). …


Abstract : The long-term goal of this project is to improve the U.S. Navy Meteorology/Oceanography (METOC) community's ability to support the operational Navy (surface ships, submarines, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) air squadrons, SEALS, and amphibious forces) with tactically-relevant oceanographic products derived from data, models, and tactical decision aids (TDAs).


Protecting sensitive information in diagnostic data such as logs, is a critical concern in the industrial software diagnosis and debugging process. While there are many tools developed to automatically redact the logs for identifying and removing sensitive information, they have severe limitations which can cause either over redaction and loss of critical diagnostic information (false positives), or disclosure of sensitive information (false negatives), or both. To address the problem, in this paper, we argue for a source code analysis approach for log redaction. To identify a log message containing sensitive information, our method locates the corresponding log statement in the source code with logger code augmentation, and checks if the log statement outputs data from sensitive sources by using the data flow graph built from the source code. Appropriate redaction rules are further applied depending on the sensitiveness of the data sources to preserve the privacy information in the logs. We conducted experimental evaluation and comparison with other popular baselines. The results demonstrate that our approach can significantly improve the detection precision of the sensitive information and reduce both false positives and negatives.


Abstract The increasing focus on infections in domestic cats (Felis catus) has raised questions about lungworm distribution in wild hosts. To enhance knowledge of the occurrence of lungworms in enzootic regions of central Italy, we examined the carcasses of 16 European wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris). Adult nematodes, feces, respiratory flushings, and pulmonary tissues were collected at necropsy and then microscopically and genetically analyzed. Fourteen wildcats had single or mixed lungworm species. Aelurostrongylus abstrusus was the most common parasite retrieved, followed by Troglostrongylus brevior. In addition, three specimens of Angiostrongylus chabaudi were found in the pulmonary arteries of one wildcat. Histologically, the most common lesions were a mild-to-severe chronic catarrhal bronchitis and a chronic interstitial pneumonia with smooth muscle hypertrophy, associated with T. brevior and A. abstrusus, respectively. These results demonstrate that the European wildcats may harbor several species of lungworms that may impair their health and welfare. Also, F. s. silvestris is a potential reservoir for respiratory nematodes in domestic cats.


This paper proposes a framework for a virtual classroom application based on a virtual collaboration system (VCS), which is being developed under the VISNET II network of excellence (NoE), and discusses adaptation technologies that enable seamless access to classroom sessions while intellectual property and digital rights are managed. The proposed virtual classroom framework enables academic institutions to conduct their collaborative lecture series, to which registered students will be able to attend remotely and interactively over the Internet. Furthermore, the general public may also follow the classroom sessions under certain restrictions imposed by the participating institutions. In order to facilitate seamless access to a heterogeneous audience that is composed of users with various preferences and privileges accessing the classroom sessions over different network infrastructures and using terminal devices with diverse capabilities, context-aware content adaptation is required to meet constraints imposed by the usage context and enhance the quality of the user experience. Thus, this paper describes the concepts and functionalities of a context-aware content adaptation platform that suits the requirements of such multimedia application scenarios. This platform is able to consume low-level contextual information to infer higher-level contexts, and thus decide the need for and type of adaptation operations to be performed upon the content. In this way, it is aimed to meet usage constraints while also satisfying restrictions imposed by the digital rights management (DRM) to govern the use of protected content.


Preference tests have often been performed for collecting information about animals' acceptance of environmental refinement objects. In numerous published studies animals were individually tested during preference experiments, as it is difficult to observe group-housed animals with an automatic system. Thus, videotaping is still the most favoured method for observing preferences of socially-housed animals. To reduce the observation workload and to be able to carry out preference testing of socially-housed animals, an automatic recording system (DoubleCage) was developed for determining the location of group-housed animals in a preference test set-up. This system is able to distinguish the transition of individual animals between two cages and to record up to 16 animals at the same time (four animals per cage). The present study evaluated the reliability of the DoubleCage system. The data recorded by the DoubleCage program and the data obtained by human observation were compared. The measurements of the DoubleCage system and manual observation of the videotapes are comparable and significantly correlated (P < 0.0001) with good agreement. Using the DoubleCage system enables precise and reliable recording of the preferences of group-housed animals and a considerable reduction of animal observation time.


Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of aromatics was studied in dimethylformamide. The solutions were electrolyzed with square-wave voltage at various frequencies. For anthracene, emission from species produced by electrochemical reaction was observed together with anthracene fluorescence. These emissions were quenched when water was added to the solution. For rubrene and perylene, fluorescence from the molecules was observed. For phenanthrene, emission differing from phenanthrene fluorescence was observed at 515 mμ.


Metadata provides important information relevant both to finding and understanding corpus data. Meaningful linguistic data requires both reasonable annotations and documentation of these annotations. This documentation is part of the metadata of a dataset. While corpus documentation has often been provided in the form of accompanying publications, machinereadable metadata, both containing the bibliographic information and documenting the corpus data, has many advantages. Metadata standards allow for the development of common tools and interfaces. In this paper I want to add a new perspective from an archive's point of view and look at the metadata provided for four learner corpora and discuss the suitability of established standards for machine-readable metadata. I am are aware that there is ongoing work towards metadata standards for learner corpora. However, I would like to keep the discussion going and add another point of view: increasing findability and reusability of learner corpora in an archiving context.


Water hyacinth, water lettuce, salvinia, parrot's feather and red water fern are South American aquatic plant species that have become invasive in aquatic ecosystems in South Africa. The lack of indigenous natural enemies and the presence of nutrient rich waters have contributed to their invasiveness. The impacts of dense mats of these weeds include the reduction in quality and quantity of water for urban, agricultural and industrial uses, an increase in siltation of rivers, dams and wetlands, a reduction in water surface area for recreation, clogging of irrigation canals and pumps, drowning of livestock and severe deterioration of aquatic biodiversity. Biological control offers a sustainable management tool for all five species and significant success has been achieved in the control of these weeds. However, the long-term management of alien aquatic vegetation relies on the prevention of other species entering South Africa and, more importantly, the reduction of nutrients entering aquatic ecosystems.


Little is known about the implications of cannabis legalization on adolescent health behaviors. This study sought to examine the relationship between recreational cannabis legalization and adolescent sexual risk behaviors. Data on 371,487 respondents who have ever had sexual intercourse from 41 states in the 2005 to 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey was linked with data on state-level cannabis policies. Difference-in-differences logistic regression models were conducted. Recreational cannabis legalization was associated with a reduced likelihood of respondents having 2+ sexual partners (adjusted OR [aOR] 0.63, 95% CI [0.47, 0.84]), but had no association with condom use (aOR 0.94, 95% CI [0.80, 1.11]). Changing social norms around cannabis is a potential pathway linking cannabis legalization to a reduction in sexual risk behaviors.


With the improvement of energy consumption level in China, environmental pollution and energy shortage are becoming more and more prominent. Hydrogen energy as a clean and efficient new energy has gradually entered the public's field of vision, H2 was developed rapidly. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) is an important development direction of H2 energy application as a net zero carbon emission transportation form. However, the development of H2 energy has been hindered by H2 storage, transportation and other problems in practical applications. H2 is lighter than air and will dissipate rapidly while existing leakage in open environment. But H2 will accumulate and cause incalculable damage while existing accidental leakage in semi-enclosed or enclosed space (i.e., garage or tunnel). The study to leakage of high pressure H2 is the necessary prerequisite for the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In this paper, the effects of atmospheric stability conditions and source term variations on confined space dispersion scenarios were systematically evaluated by using the coupled integral model and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method.An integral model was used to simulate the process of source term formation after 3.5kg high pressure hydrogen was released. This paper also studied the influence of the existence of obstacles and the arrangement of vents on H2 concentration distribution in the leakage process emphatically. Combined with the simulation results at the initial stage of leakage, a feasible method was provided for the risk assessment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle garages.


Wheat seed-borne diseases and options for improving baking quality of wheat, as well as the role of genotypes for breeding to achieve high yield and quality are the key issues discussed in this introductory paper. The importance of wheat for Tajikistan and how to achieve food security goals in the country is also elucidated. Wheat seed-borne diseases are caused mostly by fungi. Loose Smut (Ustilago tritici), Common Bunt (Tilletia laevis and T.caries), Karnal
Bunt (T.indica), Dwarf Bunt (T.controversa) and Black point (Alternaria spp., Bipolaris sorokiniana etc.) are all seed-borne diseases that are economically and regulatory important for Tajikistan, and these are therefore discussed in detail. The peculiarities of Tajik bread and
requirements to the grain quality are also highlighted.


1. A consideration of the basic chromosome numbers present in the legume family indicate that A. hypogaea is a polyploid species.2. The chromosome number of 115 out of 116 plants carefully examined representing 33 species, varieties, lines, F1, F2, and F4 varietal hybrids is reported as 20 (n) or 40 (2n). The exceptional plant contains 41 somatic ehromosomes and a small fragment. The 116 plants examined show the presence of 2 chromosomes morphologically distinguishable from the others because of their smaller size. This pair has been designated "A" One strain of a Spanish type, one of a runner type and 9 F4 plants of a Spanish×runner Cross (the only ones studied up to this time with an improved technique) show the presence of chromosome pair "A" and a second pair, the chromosomes of which possess a subterminal attachment constrietion and a conspicuous secondary constriction, here designated as pair "B" This pair is set apart from all the others by the subterminal rather than approximately median attachment constriction.3. The cultivated peanut, A. hypogaea, is a species in which chromosome association during meiosis in varieties and varietal hybrids is usually seen as 20 normal bivalents. Other configurations such as trivalents, quadrivalents, quinquevalents, sexivalents, and an association of ten chromosomes are occasionally formed. It appears to be a species in which deviations from the 40 somatic number seldom occur.4. No cytological evidence is encountered to oppose the view of Chevalier that the Rasteiro peanut and A. nambyquarae are at most subspecies of A. hypogaea.5. The Problem of the origin of the bunch and runner type forms of the commercial peanut is discussed in the light of the cytological results. In that the chromosome number, morphology, and behavior of the bunch and runner peanuts are essentially similar, and the chromosomes of these two peanut types are seen to be homologous each to each notwithstanding minor changes that may have taken place, it is concluded that they, as well as A. nambyquarae and A. Rasteiro have been derived from a common origin.I wish to thank those who so generously shared seed and Dr. Orland E. White, Director of the Blandy Experimental Farm, who has made this study possible and has kindly contributed helpful advice during the course of the investigation and a final criticism of the manuscript.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the sensitivity of CA-15.3 with cytologic diagnosis and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA-125 content and to determine if elevated CA-15.3 suggests a breast primary.

STUDY DESIGN
A retrospective study of 111 consecutive effusions. CEA was measured by enzyme immunoassay (cutoff > 5 ng/mL), CA-125 by radioimmunoassay (cutoff > 5,000 micron/mL) and CA-15.3 by radioimmunoassay (cutoff > 15 micron/mL). Results were correlated with cytologic diagnosis, histology (when available), clinical and radiologic data, and follow-up.

RESULTS
The results were: benign, 39; malignant, 72; sensitivities and specificities: cytology, 76%/100%; CEA, 80%/97%; CA-125 22%/100%; and CA-15.3, 69%/89%. The sensitivity of CEA and cytology was 97% and of CA-15.3 and cytology, 87%. Neither mean (293.4 micron/mL) nor range of CA-15.3 predicted a breast primary. Falsely elevated CEA and CA-15.3 were noted in ascites with fecal contents from colonic perforation. High CA-125 and low CEA predicted an ovarian/endometrial primary.

CONCLUSION
CA-15.3 assay in effusions is not recommended since it neither enhances the sensitivity of cytologic diagnosis nor predicts a breast primary.


When coupled with additional degrees of freedom, centrifuge-based motion platforms can combine the agility of an hexapod-basedmotion platform with the ability of sustaining higher Glevels and an extended motion space. This combination of motion characteristics is required for realistic simulation of extreme flight scenarios. However, a false and often nauseating sensation of rotation, the so-called Coriolis effect, induced by the central yaw rotation, combined with the simultaneous rotation of the centrifuge cabin (passive Coriolis effect), or pilot's head (active Coriolis effect), is the main disadvantage of any centrifuge-based motion platform. For this reason, the majority of human centrifuges are used solely as passive G-trainers in relatively short sessions. This paper discusses the development of a novel motion filter which aims to minimize the undesired Coriolis effects, by allowing for small mismatches in the alignment of pitch or roll coordination. Numerical studies showed that this Coherent Alignment Method (COHAM), is capable of reducing the angular accelerations, while constrained to operate within a region of coherent alignment, the Coherent Alignment Zone. In order obtain data to construct the CAZ region, i.e., establish body tilt thresholds in pitch and roll, an experiment was carried out in the Desdemona motion simulator. Results show higher thresholds in pitch and also higher ambiguity in pitch perception. A follow-up study is planned to further develop and experimentally validate our novel, predictive motion filter, based on the established CAZ region.


We argue that a task-centered, an agent-centered and a cognitionoriented perspective are all needed for providing intelligent assistance in distributed office environments. We present the architecture for a system called OFFICE that combines these three perspectives. We illustrate this architecture through an example.


For 96 years, the Carquinez Straits crossing supplied power to the San Francisco Bay Area under severe environmental conditions. It was an extremely reliable crossing and stands as a tribute to the engineers and the construction and maintenance workers who designed, installed, and maintained it over the years. PG&E saved and donated a set of the 1914 pyramid-style insulators to the Northwest Lineman College, and they are now on display at the Oroville, California, campus (see Figure 17). Students and visitors to the college are able to view the last tangible reminder of one of the most significant engineering and construction accomplishments in the history of electric power transmission.


Ascites, a common complication in cirrhosis, is prone to the development of acute kidney injury or hepatorenal syndrome and can be complicated by circulatory dysfunction after paracentesis. Terlipressin has not been considered as the mainstay treatment option for ascites in cirrhosis yet. The present work aimed to systematically review the current evidence regarding the use of terlipressin in cirrhosis with ascites and without hepatorenal syndrome. PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for relevant studies. Twelve studies were eligible. In 3 studies (1 randomized controlled trial and 2 single-arm studies without controls) involving 32 patients who received terlipressin for nonrefractory ascites, terlipressin improved hemodynamics by decreasing the heart rate and cardiac output and increasing the mean arterial pressure and systemic vascular resistance. In 5 studies (1 randomized controlled trial, 2 single-arm studies without controls, and 2 comparative studies with controls) involving 67 patients who received terlipressin for refractory ascites, terlipressin improved renal function by increasing the glomerular filtration rate, renal blood flow, urinary sodium, and urine output and decreasing serum creatinine. In 4 studies (4 randomized controlled trials) involving 71 patients who received terlipressin for preventing from paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction, terlipressin prevented from paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction by increasing the mean arterial pressure and systemic vascular resistance and decreasing plasma renin. Terlipressin may improve hemodynamics, severity of ascites, and renal function and prevent from paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction in cirrhosis with ascites and without hepatorenal syndrome. However, no study has evaluated the effect of terlipressin for prevention of acute kidney injury.


Tetrad analysis of translocation heterozygotes was used in cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) to study the co-orientation of centromeres during meiosis 1 and its relationship with the frequency of interstitial chiasma. Pollen tetrads from one reciprocal and three cyclical translocation heterozygotes were analyzed and their frequency distribution, as manifest in pollen stainability, was determined. Pollen tetrads were characterized as having four, two, one or zero stained pollen grains. The occurrence of each type was the result of the type of centromere segregation and the presence of crossing over in the interstitial region(s). Based on this information, the predominance of alternate segregation was found to be correlated with a reduction of the crossing over in the interstitial region. Significant differences were found in the tetrad frequency distribution for pollen stainability between years, and for cultivars carrying the same translocation. This variation was correlated with significant differences in the frequency of crossing over between years and among cultivars, which indicates that the estimation of recombination frequencies was influenced by both environment and genotype. The occurrence of translations in cultivars selected from wild populations indicates the possible advantage of maintaining heterozygosity or a block of genes as a linkat through this chromosome aberration in a self-pollinated crop like cranberry.


Intera Engineering has been contracted by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization on behalf of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to implement the Geoscientific Site Characterization Plan (GSCP) for the Bruce site located on Lake Huron, Ontario. The GSCP is described by Intera Engineering Ltd. (Intera, 2006; 2008a). The purpose of the site characterization work is to assess the suitability of the Bruce site to construct a Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) to store low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. This Technical Report (TR) presents the results of porewaters investigations conducted on formations sampled in boreholes DGR-3 and DGR-4. These results are integrated with porewater characterization work conducted on DGR-2 samples (Koroleva et al., 2009), building on the understanding obtained from this earlier research. The work described in this report was completed by the Rock-Water Interaction Group, University of Bern, Switzerland, under contract to Intera Engineering Ltd. In low porosity and permeability formations in the Palaeozoic sedimentary sequence at the Bruce site, direct sampling of porewaters is not feasible. Investigating the chemical composition of porewaters requires application of a suite of indirect techniques, each of which provides partial information. The understanding of porewater composition gained from the application of these techniques can be augmented with geochemical modelling. To determine the isotopic composition of the porewaters, the diffusive exchange technique originally developed and applied by Rubel et al. (2002) has been adapted by RWI over the course of DGR site characterization activities for application to formations containing highly saline porewaters. This method was initially developed for rocks containing pore water with salinities up to seawater. Significant developments were required to adapt the method to high salinity pore waters (e.g. Waber et al., 2007; de Haller et al., 2008; Koroleva et al., 2009). The most recent and complete adaptation of this method was applied to samples from DGR-4. To obtain information on the chemical compositions of the porewaters, results of aqueous extractions were evaluated together with mineralogical and petrophysical data to assess whether the extracted ions are predominantly from porewater or significantly influenced by water-rock reactions during the extractions. Where applicable, apparent porewater compositions were derived. As part of research on samples from DGR-3, ethanol-water extractions were also investigated as a potential technique for extracting porewater while minimizing mineral-water interactions during the extraction. The results of initial testing including extractions on pure mineral phases and on DGR-3 samples are presented in this report. Out-diffusion experiments have been performed on select formations, providing information on the pore diffusion coefficients for Cl-. Estimates of apparent Cl- porewater concentrations from these experiments are compared to those determined for aliquots of the same samples using aqueous extraction. The advective displacement technique (e.g. Mader et al., 2004; Mader, 2005) was also tested as a direct method for the extraction of porewater from a sample of the Cobourg Formation; the results to date are summarized in this report. In the final section of the report, the status of our understanding of the chemical and isotopic composition of porewaters is evaluated and an approach for reconstructing porewater compositions using geochemical equilibrium modelling is presented.


The bottom-up design and construction of functional metalloproteins remains a formidable task in biomolecular design. Although numerous strategies have been used to create new metalloproteins, pre-existing knowledge of the tertiary and quaternary protein structure is often required to generate suitable platforms for robust metal coordination and activity. Here we report an alternative and easily implemented approach (metal active sites by covalent tethering or MASCoT) in which folded protein building blocks are linked by a single disulfide bond to create diverse metal coordination environments within evolutionarily naive protein-protein interfaces. Metalloproteins generated using this strategy uniformly bind a wide array of first-row transition metal ions (MnII, FeII, CoII, NiII, CuII, ZnII and vanadyl) with physiologically relevant thermodynamic affinities (dissociation constants ranging from 700 nM for MnII to 50 fM for CuII). MASCoT readily affords coordinatively unsaturated metal centres-including a penta-His-coordinated non-haem Fe site-and well-defined binding pockets that can accommodate modifications and enable coordination of exogenous ligands such as nitric oxide to the interfacial metal centre.


This study aimed to clarify the pathway mediating hyperthermia-induced alterations in neural drive transmission and determine if heat acclimation protects voluntary muscle activation and cognitive function in hyperthermic humans. Electrically evoked potentials (H reflex and M wave), executive function (special planning and working memory), and maximal voluntary isometric contractions (120 s) were assessed in 14 participants in control conditions [CON, 24°C, 40% relative humidity (RH)] and in a hyperthermic state (HYP, 44-50°C, 50% RH) on consecutive days in a counterbalanced order. Thereafter, participants were passively heat acclimated for 11 days (1 h per day, 48-50°C, 50% RH) before repeating the initial assessments. Heat acclimation decreased rectal temperature in CON (-0.2°C, P < 0.05), but participants were maintained at ~39°C in HYP. Heat acclimation increased the time required to reach 39°C (+9 min), along with sweat rate (+0.7 l/h), and serum extracellular expression of heat shock protein 72 (eHSP72; +20%) in HYP (P < 0.05). M-wave and H-reflex amplitudes were lower in HYP than CON (P < 0.05) and were not protected by heat acclimation. Nerve conduction velocity was faster in HYP than CON (P < 0.05) without being influenced by heat acclimation. These results suggest that peripheral neural drive transmission in the hyperthermic state is primarily affected by axonal conduction velocity rather than synaptic failure. Executive function, voluntary activation, and the ability to sustain torque were impaired in HYP (P < 0.05). However, despite no perceptual changes (P > 0.05), heat acclimation restored executive function, while protecting the ability to sustain voluntary activation and torque production during a prolonged contraction in hyperthermia (P < 0.05). Ultimately, heat acclimation induces beneficial central but not peripheral neural adaptations.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Heat acclimation restores planning accuracy and working memory in hyperthermic humans, together with the supraspinal capacity to sustain motor drive during a sustained maximal voluntary contraction. Electrically evoked potential data (M wave, H reflex) indicate that heat acclimation does not protect against hyperthermia-induced impairments in peripheral neural drive transmission. Heat acclimation induces beneficial central but not peripheral neural adaptations.


Theorizing the roots of feminism in the specific African experience has been a quest by a number of prominent African female writers. They have avidly reflected on it in their various creative and critical outputs. The inherent ideological differences among these writers in their quest for an African variant of feminism, owing to the peculiarities of their respective sociocultural settings, has led to what critics have contentiously regarded as 'voices' in African feminism. Against this backdrop, on the one hand, Charles Nnolim (1994) [2010] argues that feminism in African literature is "a house divided". On the other hand, Chioma Opara (2013), in contention with the former, posits that it is rather "a house integrated". The present study thus establishes the two critical poles as wherein the entire gamut of critical and theoretical points of contentions in African feminism is largely subsumed. Neither of the two paradigms is discredited in favor or defense of the other, noting their huge critical substances. This paper rather attempts to strike a balance in-between, ultimately with a view to delineating its own critical perspective. By drawing instances from three prominent Nigerian female writings, the study moves away from the aforementioned established critical patterns to a novel paradigm which conceives feminism in African literature, with specific reference to the Nigerian context, as rather 'a house of affirmations and denials.'.


This letter presents a novel wideband planar inverted F-antenna, which covers GSM850/DCS1800/DCS1900/ IMT2000/WLAN/DMB services at the same time. The proposed antenna consists of a main patch with a pair of slant slits and L-shaped patch and occupies a total volume of 15times44times8mm3. The triple frequency bands are obtained by changing the length and width of a slant slit 1 on the main patch. A very wide impedance bandwidth characteristic is achieved by optimizing not only the length and height of a L-shaped patch between the main patch and ground plane but also the length and width of a pair of slits on the main patch which is excited by the modified coplanar waveguide-feed. Good broadside radiation patterns are achieved for all six-frequency bands of interest


Abstract We report a case of plaque type of scleroderma with specific clinical features and conventional histopathology, with sclerosis and hipocellularity of fibroblasts and preservation of elastic tissue. We describe polarized light microscopy findings, on conventional stained slides and on picro sirius red stained slides. We appreciate that picro sirius red stain allows a better characterization of collagen fibres composition in papillary and reticular dermis, that is severely disturbed in morphea, with an inverse distribution of collagen fibres type I and III comparative with normal dermis.


It is shown how the intermodulation (IM) distortion performance of a small-signal amplifier can be optimized when the amplifier is designed according to available-gain criteria. In this process the MESFET's output is conjugate-matched and its input is mismatched to obtain a specified gain. This method generally results in a better dynamic range than obtained with other options such as matching the input and mismatching the output or simultaneously matching both the input and output (which, in many cases, is impossible). In available-gain design the value of source impedance that provides the desired gain is not unique and can be selected to optimize IM levels. A numerical formulation of the Volterra series allows a complete equivalent circuit of the FET to be used, and the intermodulation calculations include all feedback effects. The sensitivity of the IM intercept point (IP/sub 3/) to the source-reflection coefficient, Gamma /sub s/, is shown to decrease with increasing frequency and is related to the MESFET's stability. >


The improvement of power capacity would benefit greatly from the analysis of transient characteristics of bulk acoustic wave (BAW) devices. For this purpose, a measurement system was established, which could capture the temperatures and the insertion loss (IL) of the BAW devices simultaneously. Based on the obtained testing data of four different commercial BAW filters, we clarified the time dependence of device temperature and insertion loss. The results showed that the BAW filters would exhibit higher power capacity with higher threshold frequency and lower slop of the characteristic curves. This prompt us to propose an evaluation method for BAW filters under high power levels, which could improve the efficiency of device selection and performance prediction.


Susan Waterworth argues that adopting a research-based model for clinical practice is necessary both to improve standards and to ensure a more informed approach for the delivery of patient care. She outlines the purposes of research in nursing and goes on to describe how clinical practitioners can identify and carry out relevant research topics. A collaborative approach is, she suggests, often the key to addressing problems successfully, and promoting links with a university nursing department may prove beneficial.


Perceptual audio coders and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems are commonly based on short−time analysis. This paper presents a generalized model for time−varying coefficients based on psychoacoustic properties of the human ear. The proposed model is evaluated in the framework of speaker independent speech recognition using Hidden Markov Models (HMM). The generalized model is compared to the traditional most popular MFCC. The comparison is made with respect to the models baud rate and the total error rate measured in an extensive Speech recognition experiment. The recognition based on the well established speech recognition development environment, the HTK and using the TIDIGIT as the evaluation database. The time varying model achieves better recognition rate in comparison to MFCC, while the proposed model baud rate is about one third of the baud rate that is used in the case of MFCC. In addition, a preliminary evaluation of the model robustness to noise was carried out and is presented.


According to the final consensus of a panel of intense discussions, the health care system should/can not be excluded from the economic laws of efficiency. Appropriate adaptation of various methods and instruments of economics make these tools applicable for use in the health care system. Due to errors in the implementation of economic methods, though, the question arises who is economically responsible in the health care system. The answer is found at three different levels of the health care system. The physician plays a leading role, both personally and professionally, in being primarily responsible for the direct medical treatment of the patient. The physician's dependence, however, on the health care system reduces his independence, which markedly affects his decision-making and treatment. Management of and in health care institutions is largely independent of the profession learned. Managers and physicians acting as managers must be appropriately and duly educated in the necessary specific talents and knowledge. The organisation of a health care system should also be reserved for trained specialists where the physicians as well as other professionals are obliged to acquire the skills necessary.


A so-called Critical Transition occurs when a small change in the input of a system leads to a large and rapid response. One class of Critical Transitions can be related to the phenomenon known in the theory of dynamical systems as a bifurcation, where a small parameter perturbation leads to a change in the set of attractors of the system. Another class of Critical Transitions are those induced by noisy increments, where the system switches randomly between coexisting attractors. In this thesis we study bifurcationand noise-induced Critical Transitions applied to a variety of models in finance and economy. Firstly, we focus on a simple model for the bubbles and crashes observed in stock prices. The bubbles appear for certain values of the sensitivity of the price based on past prices, however, not always as a Critical Transition. Incorporating noise to the system gives rise to additional log-periodic structures which precede a crash. Based on the centre manifold theory we introduce a method for predicting when a bubble in this system can collapse. The second part of this thesis discusses traders' opinion dynamics captured by a recent model which is designed as an extension of a mean-field Ising model. It turns out that for a particular strength of contrarian attitudes, the traders behave chaotically. We present several scenarios of transitions through bifurcation curves giving the scenarios a market interpretation. Lastly, we propose a dynamical model where noise-induced transitions in a double-well potential stand for a company shifting from a healthy state to a defaulted state. The model aims to simulate a simple economy with multiple interconnected companies. We introduce several ways to model the coupling between agents and compare one of the introduced models with an already existing doubly-stochastic model. The main objective is to capture joint defaults of companies in a continuous-time dynamical system and to build a framework for further studies on systemic and individual risk.


Deflationism about truth is the view that truth is not a substantive property, e.g. it does not make for genuine similarity. Two truth-bearers (say, sentences) may be true without being similar or without reflecting any similarity in their subject matter or the world. Such is the case with 'Roses are red' and 'Two succeeds one': there just doesn't seem to be much in common between numbers and the successor relation and roses and redness, nor between whatever natural relations might hold between these two pairs. There is, moreover, a certain equivalence (analytic or otherwise) between asserting, believing, etc. that a sentence is true and asserting, believing, etc. the sentence itself. This equivalence suggests that truth (or the truth predicate) plays a merely expressive role and lends further support to deflationism about truth; for any notion employed for mere expressive purposes seems not to mark out any substantive feature of the world. An interesting question is whether deflationism about truth (and falsity) extends to related properties and relations on truthbearers. Lionel Shapiro ([Shapiro, 2011]) answers affirmatively by arguing that a certain deflationism about truth is as plausible as an analogous version of deflationism about logical consequence. I'll call this the equi-plausibility thesis. If correct, logical consequence does not count as a substantive relation and


The synthesis of 3-phenyl-10-methyl-2,3-dihydropyridazine[4,5-b] [1,4]benzothiazin-1,4(10H)-dione (I) and the 2 phenyl siomer-(II) is described. The compounds were prepared by the reaction of 2-methylaminothiophenol with 1,2-dihydro-20phenyl-4,5-dibromopyridazin-3,6-dione in an alkaline aqueous/alcoholic medium. The structure of the two isomers was demonstrated by transformation of (I) into 3-phenyl-10-methyl-3H-pyridazino[4,5-b] [1,4]benzothiazin-4(10H)-one (IV) reported in the literature.


The sublime as an aesthetic category has an extraordinarily discontinuous history in Western criticism and theory, though the phenomena it points to in art and nature are without historical limit, or virtually so. The sublime as a concept and phenomenon is harder to define than many aesthetic concepts, partly because of its content and partly because of the absence of a definition in the first great surviving text on the subject, Longinus's On the Sublime. The sublime is inflected differently in the major theorists: in Longinus it produces ecstasy or transport in the reader or listener; in Burke its main ingredient is terror (but supplemented by infinity and obscurity); and in Kant's bifurcated system of the mathematical and dynamic sublime, the former entails a cognitive overload, a breakdown of the imagination, and the ability to represent, whereas in the latter, the subject, after first being threatened, virtually, by powerful nature outside her or him, turns inward to discover a power of reason able to think beyond the realm of the senses. Many theorists testify to the effect of transcendence or exaltation of the self on the far side of a disturbing, disorienting experience that at least momentarily suspends or even annihilates the self.
 A great deal in the theoretical-critical texts turns on the force of singularly impressive examples, which may or may not exceed the designs of the theoretical axioms they are meant to exemplify. Examples of sublimity are by no means limited to nature and art but spill over into numerous domains of cultural and social life. The singular force of the individual examples, it is argued, nonetheless tends to work out similarly in certain genres conducive to the sublime (epic, tragedy) but somewhat differently from one genre to another.
 The heyday of the theory and critical engagement with the sublime lasts, in Western Europe and a little beyond, from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. But it does not simply go away, with sublime aesthetic production and critical reflection on the sublime present in the likes of Baudelaire, Nietzsche, and—to Adorno's mind—in the art of modernism generally, in its critical swerve from the canons of what had counted as beauty.
 The sublime flourished as a topic in theory of criticism of the poststructuralist era, in figures such as Lyotard and Paul de Man but also in Fredric Jameson's analysis of the cultural logic of late capitalism. The then current drive to critique the principle and some protocols of representation found an almost tailor-made topic in Enlightenment and Romantic theory of the sublime where, within philosophy, representation had been rendered problematic in robust fashion.


Understanding the role of mental images and embodiment in metaphorical thought is fundamental to the study of metaphor in science in general, and in medicine in particular. And analysing typologies of metaphorical images and their function is a key issue in assessing their success in disseminating knowledge, since knowledge construction depends on the interaction between verbal and visual information (Ketola, 2016). In this article, we describe the premises and methodological steps followed in analysing and describing visual metaphorical information in medical texts for lay audiences. We follow a data-driven approach in which images were extracted from the VariMed database, a multimodal terminographical tool for translation, linguistic research and knowledge dissemination. An experiment was carried out to explore how successfully metaphorical images used as illustrations for specific medical concepts were identified and understood. We conclude that metaphorical images were preferred over non-metaphorical illustrations for medical concepts, which may point to lay audiences' familiarity with metaphorical multimodal references.


Healthy and active aging and age-friendly society frameworks attempt to address the well-documented challenges and opportunities of population aging. To meet the needs of an increasingly older society, there is a demand for professionals with appropriate age-related knowledge and skills. To this end, a master's in active aging is in development. This study reports on the consultation with prospective students, employers, older people and academics on the knowledge areas to be included in the course. An anonymous online survey gathered data from stakeholders in Ireland, Slovenia, Austria, Portugal, Finland, and Greece. Participants ranked the importance of 14 broad knowledge areas and linked topics. The influence of participant characteristics on decisions was examined using multivariate regression modeling. Across all stakeholder groups (total sample N = 757), health promotion was most often deemed very important (80%), followed by psychology (73%), and social inclusion and engagement (71%). Potential students from healthcare backgrounds were more interested than others in aging physiology, social aspects, and the physical environment. More western-located European countries overall showed more enthusiasm for the topics presented, additional to regional variations between topics. This learning needs analysis provides multi-stakeholder insights into priorities regarding learning in healthy and active aging and age-friendly society.


Background Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors provide effective therapeutic benefit in reducing clinical symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), especially in the amelioration of spinal inflammation. Metrological measures represent a clinically useful outcome for the evaluation of therapeutic response and are associated with changes in radiological index and health-related quality of life. Objectives We sought to investigate the predictors for the improvement of metrological outcome after treatment with TNF inhibitors in patients with AS. Methods A total of 106 AS patients who have been treated with one of three TNF inhibitors, including infliximab, etanercept, or adalimumab, for up to 33 months were included in this study. We analyzed 137 cases, of which 96 patients have used single agent, 19 patients two agents, and 1 patient three agents because of inefficacy or side effects of previous agents. Clinical efficacy measures such as Assessment in SpodyloArthritis international Society 20% improvement (ASAS20), ASAS40, ASAS5/6, Bath AS Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), C-reactive protein (CRP), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were evaluated before treatment and at 3 month and every 6 month after treatment. Bath AS Metrology Index (BASMI) and chest expansion were evaluated as metrological outcome measures at the same time. Results Treatment with three TNF inhibitors including adalimumab (62 patients), etanercept (60 patients), and infliximab (15 patients) revealed a similar clinical efficacy. The rates of ASAS20 were 87.3%, 90.3%, 91.6%, 90%, 82.6%, and 90.7% at 3, 9, 15, 21, 27, and 33 months after treatment. Treatment with TNF inhibitors was associated with significant improvement in metrological measures at 3 months and through 33 months. BASMI significantly correlated with components of ASAS response criteria including Bath AS Functional Index (BASFI), BASDAI-spinal inflammation, patient's global assessment, and pain. Patients who achieved the ASAS20 response at 3 months showed significant improvement in BASMI and chest expansion which were maintained until 27 months, whereas ASAS20 non-responders did not have metrological improvement (Fig. 1A). The differences of BASMI and chest expansion from baseline in ASAS20 responders were most prominent at 3 months and continued to improve until 9 months, which were then followed by sustained improvements at a similar level. The improvement in BASMI at 9 month was significantly associated with changes in BASDAI-spinal inflammation, BASFI, and pain (Fig. 1B). Linear regression analysis revealed that difference in BASFI from baseline at 9 month was a significant predictor of improvement in metrological measures. Figure 1 Conclusions The ASAS20 response at 3 month after treatment with TNF inhibitors is a good predictor for metrological outcome and improvement of BASFI at 9 month predicts reversibility of BASMI in AS. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.4669


The principle of Non-Refoulement is a concept that is very well known in the framework of international protection applicable to refugees and or asylum seekers. Non Refoulement is a concept in which State shall not expel or return ("refouler") a refugee or asylum seeker in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. The principle of Non Refoulement is generally relevant to the protection of human rights, especiaally in relation with the freedom of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In the context of international refugee law, the principle of Non Refoulement is a fundamental concept and considered as the back-bone of the whole frameworks of international protection for refugee and asylum seeker. This article discussed three aspects relevant to the principle of Non Refoulement, namely : the existence of such a principle in the existing international legal system, the character of the principle of Non Refoulement as Jus Cogens, and the condition of which the benefit of such a principle may not be applied . It is obvious that the principle of Non- Refoulement has been accepted by international community as explicitly established in international legal instruments and consistently implemented in the practice of State and the relevant international organisations. Such a principle is accepted by international community and gained ground as Jus Cogens in the international legal system, consequently States individually or collectively shall not derogate in a manner whatsoever , otherwise it is modified by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character. However, should there are reasonable grounds, the benefit of the present principle may not be granted to a refugee.


The study deals with the effect of rehabilitative treatment given at a medium altitude mountain resort on peripheral blood count in 54 children radically treated for cancer. Hemopoiesis was studied versus type of tumor, treatment modality and follow-up period. Disorders of hemopoiesis were identified in 45 out of 54 children examined. Rehabilitative treatment under said conditions was shown to improve blood count. A statistically significant increase in RBC, hemoglobin and platelet, leukocyte and lymphocyte counts (p < 0.05) was observed. In 42 out of 45 patients with anemia, thrombocytopenia, leuko- and lymphopenia, the indexes returned to normal.


Increasing number of filters in deeper layers when feature maps are decreased is a widely adopted pattern in convolutional network design. It can be found in classical CNN architectures and in automatic discovered models. Even CNS methods commonly explore a selection of multipliers derived from this pyramidal pattern. We defy this practice by introducing a small set of templates consisting of easy to implement, intuitive and aggressive variations of the original pyramidal distribution of filters in VGG and ResNet architectures. Experiments on CIFAR, CINIC10 and TinyImagenet datasets show that models produced by our templates, are more efficient in terms of fewer parameters and memory needs.


In the present paper, we introduce the concepts of Pr\"ufer sheaves and adic sheaves over a weighted projective line of genus one, show that Pr\"ufer sheaves and adic sheaves can classify coherent sheaves over a weighted projective line. Moreover, we describe the relationship between Pr\"ufer sheaves and generic sheaves, and provide two methods to construct generic sheaves by using coherent sheaves and Pr\"ufer sheaves.


Modern internet and social networking applications have integrated in most of the cases location-aware services creating data objects consisting of both textual and spatial attributes. The manipulation of large set of such data are crucial to a large number operations like friendship proposals. In this paper, we focus on engineering spatial and spatio-textual self-join operations on top of Apache Hadoop frameworks. Although the aforementioned problems are of high importance, there is limited previous work investigating efficient implementations on top of Apace Hadoop based systems.
The current paper compares a variety of open-source tools implemented on top of Apache Hadoop framework that support self-join operations: MapReduce-HBase, Apache Hive, Pig-HBase and SpatialHadoop. Moreover, we propose a batch spatio-textual technique as the final step in order to extract the experimental results. After thorough experimental evaluation, we provide optimizations and insights that significantly accelerate the spatial and spatio-textual self-join operations and demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of the aforementioned frameworks.


undergoing abdominal surgery. After animal use committee approval, 14 pigs were anaesthetized and the tracheas intubated with appropriately sized Hi-Lo Evac (n1⁄47) or TaperGuard Evac (n1⁄47) tracheal tubes. Saline based-fluid (pH 2.5/0.3 ml kg) stained with Methylene-Blue was instilled into the area below the vocal cords but above the inflated tracheal tube cuff via the Evac port. The cuff pressure was measured every 15 min and maintained between 25 and 30 mm H2O for both tracheal tubes using a Posey cufflator (Posey Health Care Products, Arcadia, CA, USA). The lungs were ventilated to achieve normocarbia and each pig underwent abdominal surgery. At the end of surgery, the pigs were killed by lethal injection and the tracheal tubes were left in place with the cuffs inflated until the autopsy. At autopsy, a gross visual assessment was made of dye distribution into the trachea and lungs. Gross and histological examination of large, intermediate, and small airway mucosa and pulmonary parenchyma was performed to assess for inflammatory changes related to aspiration. However, one pig in the TaperGuard group had to be excluded due to accidental cuff deflation. The incidence of microaspiration was significantly less for TaperGuard in the dye leak and bronchitis groups (Table 1). As a result of the dye leak from the accidental cuff deflation, the difference in the other two categories did not reach statistical significance but may be clinically significant. We suggest further animal and clinical studies to confirm our results and impressions.


In this qualitative and interpretive study, we investigated factors that influenced elementary preservice teachers' self-efficacy in a constructivist, inquiry-based physics class. Bandura's (1977) theory of social learning was used as a basis to examine preservice teacher's self-efficacy. Participants included 70 female EC-4 preservice teachers enrolled in two sections of PHYS 3400. Data collected included individual and focus group interviews, pre and post-concept tests, and participant lesson plans. We present a model showing the impact various factors have on increasing preservice elementary teachers' self efficacy. Results show modeling of (1) grade appropriate science teaching activities, and (2) strategies and participatory experiences in inquiry-based activities were major factors influencing elementary preservice teachers' self-efficacy and outcome expectancy expectations.


The purpose of this volume is to present the basics of our methods used within the Energy Systems Programme and to introduce how we have combined methods in earlier research. A research-oriented le ...


Global warming is considered a major threat to marine ecosystems, which affects bacterioplankton activity, diversity, and community composition. However, few studies focus on the potential effects of warming on bacterioplankton in subtropical coastal waters in different seasons. Here we investigated the influences of warming on growth, grazing and community composition of bacterioplankton in Hong Kong coastal waters during winter and summer via 1-day incubation experiments. Our results revealed that without grazers, bacterioplankton displayed higher growth rate during summer compared to winter, while warming only significantly increased the growth rate of bacterioplankton in winter. Grazers with size <5 μm were major predators of bacterioplankton. Warming had little effect on grazing in summer but significantly enhanced grazing rates of >5 μm grazers in winter. In both seasons, warming had little influence on bacterial diversity and community composition. Nevertheless, in family and OTU levels, bacterioplankton had different responses to grazing and warming which may result from the selective grazing preference of predators and different temperature optima for bacterioplankton. Furthermore, the presence of >5 μm and <5 μm grazers would result in significant increase of some bacterial families under warming condition. Together, our results suggest that warming have direct impacts on bacterioplankton in subtropical coastal waters during winter and may thus affect global biogeochemical cycles.


Tourism is increasingly regarded as a potential catalyst for rural economic development. As it stands, the global economic situation and the progress of youth entrepreneurship in developing economies are leaving a lot to be desired. Cultural diversity, level of education, dire market standards, and grim sociopolitical environments are some of the factors that should be taken into consideration when aiming to create an enabling setting that will open tourism entrepreneurship opportunities for a developing country like South African. This study's objectives are the investigation of the limitations that prevent young people from pursuing tourism entrepreneurial activities in a semi-rural area. This research was conducted in the Umdoni Local Municipal area, a semi-rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A sample size of 126 respondents from the selected semi-rural area was selected to participate in this study. This was achieved using a snowball sampling technique and the results were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study highlights that inability to secure financial support is one of the primary constraints for the setting-up of a new business. The study also found that youth support structures, such as National Youth Development Agency and the Department of Trade and Industry, that should stimulate and develop tourism entrepreneurship for the youth in the Umdoni Local Municipality area, are not accessible. This research recommends that finance for youth entrepreneurship initiatives in the tourism sector be introduced by financial institutions and access should not be tortuous. Government policies should be examined in terms of their effectiveness on entrepreneurship establishment, as well as their regulatory burden on new start-ups.


The difficulties of the conventional method of resolution of the physical broadening into broadening components m and n caused by the mosaic size and lattice microdistortion respectively have been discussed. With the aid of an invariable parameter K~*, the invariability of M and N related to parameters r and s respectively was found as function of K~*, thus, the invariable parameter method for calculating the mosaic size and microdistortion was proposed. This method may be not only simplified the calculation by the conventional Rezak method but also overcome the complexity of not yet solved Cauchy square and other five methods. The diagram and formula of M_1 and N_1 given as a function of K~* would ease tc resolve the physical broadening into m and n. It seems to be quite available for on-line or off-line calculation.


Building large solar power plants requires significant long-term investment so understanding impacts from climate change will aid financial planning, technology selection, and energy output projections. In this article we examine how projected changes in temperature and insolation over the 21st century will affect photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) output. Projected climate data was obtained from the coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models HadGEM1 and HadCM3 under the IPCC SRES A1B scenario which describes a future world of rapid economic growth with a balanced use of renewable and fossil fuel power generation. Our calculations indicate that under this scenario PV output from 2010 to 2080 is likely to increase by a few percent in Europe and China, see little change in Algeria and Australia, and decrease by a few percent in western USA and Saudi Arabia. CSP output is likely to increase by more than 10% in Europe, increase by several percent in China and a few percent in Algeria and Australia, and decrease by a few percent in western USA and Saudi Arabia. The results are robust to uncertainty in projected temperature change. A qualitative analysis of uncertainty in projected insolation change suggests strongest confidence in the results for Europe and least confidence in the results for western USA. Changes in PV and CSP output are further studied by calculating fractional contributions from changes in temperature and insolation. For PV there is considerable variation in contribution depending on location. For CSP the contribution from changes in insolation is always dominant.


In South Sudan, WWS is working to strengthen civil society and to facilitate its engagement with those in positions of authority at all levels of governance, using the model of the social contract. The social contract model promotes constructive engagement between citizens and state; encourages both parties to respect each other's rights and fulfil their responsibilities; and promotes mutual accountability. The social contract model is particularly appropriate in a fragile context, where government may be nervous about the role of civil society and where there is little tradition of political engagement or experience of effective governance.


Abstract Introduction: Tuberculum sellae and planum sfenoidale meningiomas represent 5% to 10% of intracranial meningiomas and represent a subgroup of anterior skull base meningiomas. Approximately two thirds of patients complain of failing vision in one eye as the first symptom, and monocular blindness may be present in half of patients before surgery. Due to the constant antomical relationship of these tumors with the optic nerves there is a classic presentation of these tumors represented by the chiasmal syndrome. Material and methods: In this study, we have retrospectively analyzed 18 cases consecutively operated between 2006 and 2012 at the Targu Mures Neurosurgery Department. Considering the length of the visual disturbances we have divided the study group in two categories: early decompression with visual distubances expressed within at most 12 months prior to surgery, and late decompression with visual disturbances of more than 1 year. Surgical technique: Sugical approach has been performed on the side with the most visual deficit, and if visual deterioration was found to be approximative on both sides we chose the right side for surgical approach. In all the patients, we have performed a fronto-pterional craniotomy. In all the cases we chose a subfrontal approach. Tumor has been further resected using standard microsurgical techniques, total tumoral resection being the preoperative goal in all surgical interventions Results: Out of the 18 cases operated, 13 cases were of tuberculum sellae meningiomas, while 5 cases were of planum sphenoidale meningiomas. All patients in the early decompression group (9 cases) have presented visual improvement, whilst of the late decompression group 5 cases (55,5%) presented constant visual deficit, 2 cases (22,25%) presented visual improvement and 2 cases (22,25%) presented a decrease of the visual deficit. The visual disturbances have improved in 11 cases (61.1%), in 5 cases (27,7%) the visual deficit has remained constant, and in 2 cases (11,2%) the visual deficit has worsened postoperatively. Conclusions: We consider that the optimal approach should be based on tumor anatomy and surgeon experience and from this point of view frontolateral and pterional approaches provide remarkable improvement compared to the bifrontal approach. Regardless of the selected surgical approach it is essential to avoid injury to the blood supply of the optic apparatus.Endoscopy will have a role in skull base surgery with


The study sought to establish and quantify the key factors affecting the growth of SMEs in Zimbabwe and also investigate the influence of the characteristics of SME operators and SMEs on small business growth. SMEs in Zimbabwe are credited with providing employment opportunities for more than half of the working population and contribute about 60% of the nation's GDP. A cross sectional survey was carried out on a sample of 272 SMEs drawn from the Province of Harare, Zimbabwe. Data on the socioeconomic factors that were suspected to affect SME growth were collected from the sampled SMEs. Statistical Quantitative data analysis tests were carried out to extract the key factors affecting growth of small businesses. The findings were that access to financial resources, regulatory environment and skills shortages in entrepreneurship and management were the main factors affecting SME growth in Zimbabwe. Pearson's correlation tests results showed a positive relationship between the identified factors and growth while the regulatory environment had the highest influence on small business growth. Linear regression results also confirmed the identified factors as key predictors of SME growth. Based on the findings, the study also provides some recommendations to entrepreneurs, policy makers and development agencies. Policy makers are urged to develop tailor made training programs to capacitate SME operators with appropriate skills for managing small and medium businesses. The regulatory environment should also be improved by implementing targeted policies to stimulate growth of SMEs. Financial assistance programs must also be made available to SMEs to facilitate and accelerate growth.


This paper studies a statistical model for heteroscedastic (i.e., power fluctuating) signals embedded in white Gaussian noise. Using the Riemannian geometry theory, we propose an unified approach to tackle several problems related to this model. The first axis of contribution concerns parameters (signal subspace and power factors) estimation, for which we derive intrinsic Cramér-Rao bounds and propose a flexible Riemannian optimization algorithmic framework in order to compute the maximum likelihood estimator (as well as other cost functions involving the parameters). Interestingly, the obtained bounds are in closed forms and interpretable in terms of problem's dimensions and SNR. The second axis of contribution concerns the problem of clustering data assuming a mixture of heteroscedastic signals model, for which we generalize the Euclidean K-means++ to the considered Riemannian parameter space. We propose an application of the resulting clustering algorithm on the Indian Pines segmentation problem benchmark.


One of the crucial steps when developing models is the selection of appropriate variables. In this research we assessed the impact variable selection on the model performance and model applicability. Regression trees were built to understand the relationship between the ecological water quality and the physical-chemical and hydromorphological variables. Different model parameterizations and three combinations of explanatory variables were used for developing the trees. Once constructed, they were integrated with the water quality model (PEGASE) and used to simulate the future ecological water quality. These simulations were summarized per combination of explanatory variables and compared. Three key messages summarize our conclusions. First, it was confirmed that different parameterizations alter the statistical reliability of the trees produced. Secondly, it was found that statistical reliability of the models remained stable when different combinations of explanatory variables were implemented. The determination coefficient (R2) ranged from 0.68 to 0.86; Kappa statistic (K) ranged from 0.15 and 0.46; and the percentage of Correctly Classified Instances (CCI) from 33 to 59%. Thirdly, when applying the models on an independent dataset consisting of future physical-chemical water quality data, different conclusions may be taken, depending on the combination of variables used.


Business as usual is no longer an option. How can the competitive advantage be given to countries and their companies that wish to pursue sustainable profit? This article presents the core of a legal reform proposal in a Nordic context, introducing planetary boundaries as a company law concept, with a redefined purpose for companies and a corresponding reform of the duties of the board


The literature on distributive politics suggests that politicians have incentives to engage in targeted spending especially in decentralized political systems with weak parties and candidate-centered elections. We argue that in centralized political systems with party-centered elections parties use intergovernmental transfers to advance their electoral fortune via performance spillovers across different levels of government. On the basis of a new data set on partisan composition of local councils in England and grants allocated by the central government during 1992–2012, and using a difference-in-difference approach, we provide evidence that governments allocate up to 17% more money to local councils controlled by their "own" party. Furthermore, we show that the effect is strongest closer to local election years, in local councils where institutions facilitate credit claiming, and in swing councils.


Texts in natural languages are highly repetitive and predictable because of the naturalness of natural languages. Recent research validated that source code in programming languages is also repetitive and predictable, and naturalness is an inherent property of source code. It was also reported that buggy code is significantly less natural than bug-free one, and bug fixing substantially improves the naturalness of the involved source code. In this paper, we revisit the naturalness of buggy code and investigate the effect of bug-fixing on the naturalness of source code. Different from the existing investigation, we leverage two large-scale and high-quality bug repositories where bug-irrelevant changes in bug-fixing commits have been explicitly excluded. Our evaluation results confirm that buggy lines are often less natural than bug-free ones. However, fixing bugs could not significantly improve the naturalness of involved code lines. Fixed lines on average are as unnatural as buggy ones. Consequently, bugs are not the root cause of the unnaturalness of source code, and it could be inaccurate to identify buggy code lines solely by the naturalness of source code. Our evaluation results suggest that the naturalness-based buggy line detection results in extremely low precision (less than one percentage).


Due to their broadcast nature, wireless networks are highly susceptible to jamming attacks resulting in denial of service. Game theory provides powerful tools to model and analyze such attacks. This article discusses a class of such jamming games played at the MAC layer among a set of transmitters and jammers. The equilibrium strategies resulting from these jamming games characterize the expected performance under DoS attacks and motivate robust network protocol design for secure wireless communications. A key characteristic of distributed wireless access networks is that users do not have complete information regarding the other user's identities, the traffic dynamics, the channel characteristics, or the costs and rewards of other users. Bayesian games are shown to be useful for modeling such uncertainties under different models for the MAC layer. Different wireless network scenarios with single-stage and repeated game formulations are described to illustrate the performance loss of jamming attacks with increasing network uncertainty.


Tendinopathy, a painful condition that develops in response to tendon degeneration, is on the rise in the developed world due to increasing physical activity and longer life expectancy. Despite its increasing prevalence, the underlying pathogenesis still remains unclear, and treatment is generally symptomatic. Recently, numerous therapeutic options, including growth factors, stem cells, and gene therapy, were investigated in hopes of enhancing the healing potency of the degenerative tendon. However, the majority of these research studies were conducted only on animal models or healthy human tenocytes. Despite some studies using pathological tenocytes, to the best of our knowledge there is currently no protocol describing how to obtain human degenerative tenocytes. The aim of this study is to describe a standard protocol for acquiring human degenerative tenocytes. Initially, the tendon tissue was harvested from a patient with lateral epicondylitis during surgery. Then biopsy samples were taken from the extensor carpi radialis brevis tendon corresponding to structural changes observed at the time of surgery. All of the harvested tendons appeared to be dull, gray, friable, and edematous, which made them visually distinct from the healthy ones. Tenocytes were cultured and used for experiments. Meanwhile, half of the harvested tissues were analyzed histologically, and it was shown that they shared the same key features of tendinopathy (angiofibroblastic dysplasia or hyperplasia). A secondary analysis by immunocytochemistry confirmed that the cultured cells were tenocytes with the majority of the cells having positive stains for mohawk and tenomodulin proteins. The qualities of the degenerative nature of tenocytes were then determined by comparing the cells with the healthy control using a proliferation assay or qRT-PCR. The degenerative tenocyte displayed a higher proliferation rate and similar gene expression patterns of tendinopathy that matched previous reports. Overall, this new protocol might provide a useful tool for future studies of tendinopathy.


The anti-oxidant activities for a diverse set of flavonoids as TEAC (Trolox equivalent anti-oxidant capacity), assay were subjected to 3D-QSAR (3 dimensional quantitative structural-activity relationship) studies using CoMFA (comparative molecular field analysis) and CoMSIA (comparative molecular similarity indices analysis). The obtained results indicated superiority of CoMSIA model over CoMFA model. The best CoMSIA model is developed by using hydrogen-bond donor (H-bond donor) and electrostatic field components. This model gave the cross-validated correlation coefficient, Q2 = 0.512, correlation coefficient, R2 = 0.950, standard error of prediction, SE = 0.284, and F = 47.3, for training set, R2 = 0.922 and SE = 0.286, for test set indicating robustness and high prediction power of the developed model. The contour maps of electrostatic and H-bond donor fields of CoMSIA model provide interpretable and fruitful relationship between chemicals structure and their anti-oxidant activities, which give useful insights for designing new compounds with higher activity.


The aim of paper is to design different types of inlet manifolds for direct injection (DI) single cylinder diesel engine in order to create the turbulence by swirl. A good swirl promotes the fast combustion and improves the efficiency. The engine should run at low speeds in order to have low mechanical losses and fast combustion, enabling good combustion efficiency. Therefore to produce high turbulence prior to combustion within the cylinder, swirl induced by the inlet manifold will be helpful. This paper aims at studying the effect of air swirl generated by directing the air flow in intake manifold on engine performance as well as on its exhaust emissions. The turbulence is achieved in the inlet manifold with different types of internal threads of constant pitch. In view this, experimental investigation has been carried out to find the effect of swirl on the performance characteristics of the engine as well as on its exhaust emissions , by inducing swirl in inlet manifolds with three different types of internal threads viz. acme, buttress and knuckle threads of constant pitch. It is inferred that, the inlet manifold with buttress threads gives better performance and yields less exhaust emissions compared to inlet manifolds with acme and knuckle threads. This is because inlet manifold with buttress threads achieved a higher swirl coefficient and swirl ratio compared with inlet manifolds having acme and knuckle threads.


The Coronavirus Disease 2019, named COVID-19 is a global problem. According to the declaration of the World Health Organization (WHO), it is a novel and extreme outbreak, spreading worldwide. Firstly, numerous patients reported exposure in Wuhan City, China at a large animals and seafood market. Accordingly, the first idea is suggesting the animal-to-human transmission of this infection pathogen. Next, since then, numerous patients have decelerated no exposure to animal shops, indicating that human-to-human transmission is occurring. The new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a positive RNA virus with a 29.8 kb genome and S, E, M, N, and Orf1 gene fragments. The most popular method for 2019-nCoV detection is genome-based approaches, like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-based tests that require expensive experimental equipment, a controlled working environment, and high-trained technicians; they are often lacking in massive viral outbreaks. Therefore, another rapid and simple genome-based assay was evaluated for this pathogen. In this review study, the RT-LAMP technique, as the main isothermal amplification assays with less time consumption and without the need for expensive equipment, compared to conventional PCR-based methods to 2019-nCoV identification, was discussed. Accordingly, the advantage or disadvantage of these techniques was compared. The obtained data indicated that this molecular and isothermal method could be used as a successful one-step process for portable screening and the rapid identification of 2019-nCoV.


Half and half nails or Lindsay's nails were first mentioned by Bean (1) in 1964 and later described by Lindsay (2) in 1967 in patients with chronic kidney disease. They can occur in various diseases but also in healthy individuals. A 57-year-old patient with no significant pathological personal history consulted us for discoloration of all his nails on the fingers (Figure 1) and toes (Figure 2). The change in color occurred 17 years ago and had persisted since. The patient had no significant family history and denied a longer period of consumption of drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. On clinical examination, we found whitish discoloration of the proximal half of all nails (50% of the area), whereas the distal half was red-brown with a sharp demarcation line to the proximal half. The difference in color persisted despite nail growth, and did not change when applying vertical pressure on the nail plates. The patient refused nail biopsy. Hematological and biochemical laboratory examinations, urinalysis, thyroid function, and antinuclear antibodies were all in the normal range. Direct mycological examination performed with potassium hydroxide was negative, and Sabouraud cultures were sterile. Half and half nails or Lindsay's nails is a systemic onychopathy, clinically characterized by a white coloring of the proximal half nail and a red-brown coloration of the distal half of all the nails. The two discolorations of the nails are always well-defined, do not disappear under pressure, and there is no tendency to change the configuration with the growth of the nail. The change may affect one or all nails of the fingers and toes. In general, the distal portion of the nail occupies 20-60% of the nail's surface (3). Some authors identify the half and half nail syndrome with Terry syndrome, although in this syndrome the distal band is less than 20% of the total length of the nail. Half and half nails are seen in 20-50% of patients with chronic kidney disease (4), but may also occur in Crohn's disease (5), Behçet's disease (6), pellagra citrullinemia (7), Kawasaki disease, cirrhosis, and even in healthy persons (8). Histologically, the proximal white band is considered to be caused by chronic anemia secondary to increased wall thickness of capillaries or overgrowth of connective tissue between the nail and the bone with the reduction of blood in the subpapillary plexus. The distal brown band is caused by melanin deposits (9). The mechanism of occurrence of half and half nails is unclear; there is no correlation between the percentage of brown coloration of the nail and the severity and duration of chronical renal disease. Hemodialysis does not cause improvement in the nail changes, but they can improve or disappear after kidney transplantation (4). The present patient falls in the group of healthy individuals with half and half nails syndrome affecting all the nails on the hands and toes without finding a triggering cause. The diagnosis was made by clinical examination. The manifestation of half and half nails syndrome in healthy patients raises the possibility of a genetic susceptibility to the disease. Half and half nails is a condition commonly found in patients with chronic kidney disease, but it can also be found in the context of other diseases as well as in healthy individuals.


The purpose of the intellectual endeavor is to make analysis of the strength and power of 13-15-yearold Secondary school youngsters and to make comparison of city and non-city youngsters living in district Mardan. The target population of the intellectual endeavor was chosen from Secondary school youngsters (400) by applying simple random techniques. Three test sit-ups (SUs), a supine support (SU), and a standing broad jump (SBJ) were used to measure youngsters' strength and power. Data were accumulated through observation and made analysis employing SPSS version 20. Quantitative analytical instruments were employed to make analysis of the data. The data analysis reproduces that non-city youngsters had moderately more power and strength than their city colleagues.


The ICT sectors of both South Korea and Japan developed rapidly, especially in developing high-speed, low priced broadband services. These networks can potentially provide both economies with new playgrounds for experimentation and innovation. Existing explanations of how these broadband networks and services were created tend to be confused and contradictory regarding 1) the roles played by the states, 2) the exact mechanisms of interaction between governments policies and programs, regulatory frameworks, and market dynamics, and 3) the politics driving each of the state-market interactions. We find that differences in the institutional configurations of the two countries since the inception of their ICT sectors created a distinct set of political dynamics in each country. The initial telecom policy regimes of the two countries in their initial stages of liberalization were strikingly similar. However, the contrasting political dynamics drove Japan and Korea's policy regimes along different trajectories. Driven by politicized conflicts and a series of negotiated compromises between the former incumbent and lead bureaucracy, Japan's ICT sector underwent a regime shift, from which the market dynamics giving rise to broadband services developed. By contrast, Korea's managed competition policy regime, once established, was stable and hierarchical, with a strong lead bureaucracy managing the sector and former incumbent, without significant political battles. The market dynamics in Korea, from which its broadband services developed, occurred within its existing policy regime without a shift comparable to that in Japan. Differences in the politics, stemming from initial institutional configurations and subsequent political bargains at key junctures drove the two regimes along different trajectories.