ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that mobility and the ability to leave the home are among the essential aspects of older people's quality of life. However, surveys of older people's access to transport resources and the impact of mobility on welfare and wellbeing are few. Many previous studies are based on small samples or qualitative data. The questions addressed in this paper are how transport resources are distributed among different groups of older people, to which degree the transport needs of these groups are met and how this is related to their wellbeing. The empirical analysis is based on a Norwegian nationwide survey among 4,723 respondents 65 years and older. The respondents were asked about their access to transport resources, both private and public, health problems connected to use of transport modes, their daily activities and mobility, their uncovered transport needs and the importance of different activities for their life quality. The analysis reveals great differences between groups; especially between men and women, but also between different age groups and by different place of living. The special transport offered by the local authorities is seen as insufficient, and with increasing age a great deal of older people have low mobility and an uncovered transport need that reduces their life quality.


A 2-year greenhouse experiment was carried out at the East Azerbaijan Agronomy and Natural Resources Research Center, Tabriz, Iran, during the two seasons of 2009 to 2010 and 2010 to 2011.The experimental design aimed to study the response of canola to different nitrogen and zinc fertilizer levels under two doses of salinity stress. The experimental design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The obtained results from two years showed that nitrogen increased seed yield, but there was no significant differences between two nitrogen levels. Zinc application had no significant effect on seed yield. Conversely, salinity decreased seed yield and yield components dramatically. Moreover, plant height increased due to nitrogen and zinc application. Nitrogen fertilizer application improved seed number per silique and 1000-seed weight over two years. Among yield components, only number of seed per silique was affected by zinc and increased in the first year. Oil percentage decreased due to nitrogen, zinc and salinity in the first year but zinc had no significant effect on oil in the second year. Salinity stress increased glucosinolate and protein content. Other treatments, however, had no significant effect on these traits. Salt stress induction decreased N, P, K, Ca and Mg content, but increased Na, Cl and Na/K ratio. Key words: Canola, nitrogen, salinity, yield and yield components, zinc.


Thin films of MnO2 are well suited for Electrochromic Photo-Voltaic (ECPV) effect and superconducting phenomenon (such as solar cells) due to its electrical, optical and electrochromic properties. MnO2 thin films were prepared on glass substrate using a simple and low-cost chemical spray pyrolysis technique at different substrate temperature. The MnO2 films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmittance, ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) optical spectroscopy and colouration efficiency. The XRD pattern reveals that MnO2 films possess cubic structure. Transmittance activity of the sample was carried out by optical absorption studies. The indirect band gap of the material increases with increase in temperature. The dynamic of ion exchange was studied with CV, CA and CC. The maximum colouration efficiency observed is 17 cm/C.


The Hawaiian honeycreepers are thought to be limited primarily to middle- and high-altitude wet forests due to anthropogenic factors at lower altitudes, especially introduced mosquitotransmitted avian malaria. However, recent research has demonstrated that at least one native species, the Hawai'i 'Amakihi (Hemignathus virens virens), is common in areas of active malaria transmission. We examined the current distribution and abundance of native and exotic forest birds within approximately 640 km2 of low-altitude (0–326 m) habitat on south-eastern Hawai'i Island, using roadside variable circular plot (VCP) at 174 stations along eight survey transects. We also re-surveyed 90 stations near sea level that were last surveyed in 1994–1995. Overall, introduced species were more abundant than natives; 11 exotic species made up 87% of the total individuals detected. The most common exotic passerines were Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus), House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) and Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Two native species, Hawai'i 'Amakihi and 'Apapane (Himatione sanguina), comprised 13% of the bird community at low altitudes. Hawai'i 'Amakihi were the most common and widespread native species, being found at 47% of stations at a density of 4.98 birds/ha (95% CI 3.52–7.03). 'Amakihi were significantly associated with 'ohi'a (Metrosideros polymorpha)-dominated forest. 'Apapane were more locally distributed, being found at only 10% of stations. Re-surveys of 1994–1995 transects demonstrated a significant increase in 'Amakihi abundance over the past decade. This work demonstrates a widespread recovery of Hawai'i 'Amakihi at low altitude in southeastern Hawai'i. The changing composition of the forest bird community at low-altitudes in Hawai'i has important implications for the dynamics of avian malaria in low-altitude Hawai'i, and for conservation of Hawai'i's lowland forests.


The thyroid uptake and scan is a radiologic diagnostic tool used to determine the thyroid function and pathologies. This diagnostic procedure works on the principle of the unstable nuclide of the atom, which tries to attain stability by releasing an alpha, beta, and gamma rays. Clinicians use these rays for diagnostic and treatment purposes.The test uses a radioactive tracer, which is a protein or a molecule attached to radioactive material. The radioactive tracer is administered into the patient, and a probe measures the amount of iodine uptake by the thyroid gland. The thyroid scan checks for the even spread of the tracer in the gland. More than 20 radioactive tracers exist, of which two isotopes of iodine I-123 and I-131 and 99m-technetium pertechnetate, are the usual agents used in this test. I-131 has a longer half-life than I-123, so I-123 is used more frequently than I-131 due to less radiation exposure to the body. 99m-Technetium pertechnetate is an analog of iodine, so it gets transported to the thyroid gland similarly to iodine. 111In-pentoxide, thallium-201 (201T1), 99mTc-sestamibi, 99mTc-tetrofosmin are some of the less commonly used radioactive tracers in this test. This test is different than radioactive iodine therapy, which treats thyroid cancers.


Anginex, a synthetic 33mer β‐sheet‐forming peptide, is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo . Previous studies demonstrate that Anginex, through binding to one of the hydrophobic faces of human galectin‐1 (hGal‐1), prevents endothelial cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix, induces apoptosis in angiogenically‐activated endothelial cells (ECs), and suppresses tumor growth in animal models. Since small molecules have several pharmacologic advantages over therapeutic peptides, we sought to design a small molecule peptidomimetic of anginex. Calix[4]arene was chosen as the basic scaffold to mimic the approximate molecular dimensions, amphipathicity, and cationic topology of Anginex. Chemical modification of the hydrophobic (upper rim) and hydrophilic (lower rim) faces of calix[4]arene resulted in the discovery of a lead compound, 0118, possessing in vitro and in vivo activities similar to that of anginex. These studies reveal that small hydrophobic groups on the upper rim and dimethylaminoethylacetamide (DMAEA) moieties on the lower rim of 0118 are important for its biologic activity. Until now, structure‐activity relationship (SAR) development of calixarene has focused on modifications of its hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. Since the hGal‐1‐Anginex binding site is a hydrophobic surface, we hypothesize that a larger hydrophobic calixarene surface area will translate into enhanced bioactivity. We have chosen calix[6]arene and tetrathiacalix[4]arene as tools to explore the core‐expanded SAR of our lead compound. A calix[6]arene analog of 0118 not only has a larger hydrophobic footprint, but also a greater intra‐annular topoisomerization rate which should allow for greater conformational space sampling and, therefore, better inducible fit within its molecular receptor. The tetrathiacalix[4]arene derivative, with its longer C‐S bonds (relative to the methylene bonds of calix[4]arene and calix[6]arene), should allow for a hydrophobic footprint larger than the parent 0118 but smaller than that of the calix[6]arene analog. The current studies focus on the synthesis and biologic activity of these 0118 core‐expanded derivatives. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):A141.


T study aimed to analyze and compare the stability of two dental posts cemented with four different luting agents by examining their shear stress transfer through the FEM. 83-dimensional finite element models of a maxillary central incisor restored with glass fiber and Ni-Cr alloy caste dental posts. Each dental post was luted with zinc phosphate, panavia resin, super bond C&B resin and glass ionomer materials. Finite element models were constructed and oblique loading of 100N was applied. The distribution of shear stress was investigated at posts and cement/dentine interfaces using ABAQUS/CAE software. The peak shear stress for glass fiber post models minimized approximately three to four times of those for Ni-Cr alloy cast post models. There was negligible difference in peak of shear stress when various cements were compared irrespective of post materials. The shear stress had same trend for all cement materials. This study found that the glass fiber dental post reduced the shear stress concentration at interfacial of post and cement/dentine compared to Ni-Cr alloy cast dental post.


An object-based approach was proposed for the path planning of the intelligent robot to avoid obstacles in the complex environment to shorten the computation time. This approach combines the artificial potential field method and grid method. The object-based approach can enhance the robots navigation and obstacle avoidance ability. In the approach, grid model is used to describe the obstacles, while the artificial potential field is used to navigation. This approach can avoid local minimum, reduce the search volume, shorten the search path and improve the robot's navigation strategy and the capacity of obstacle avoidance.


Abstract:
Quality teacher education programs recognize the importance of field experiences in preparing preservice teachers for the beginning of a new school year. Some teacher education programs find it challenging to implement this field experience since the starting dates for the K-12 school year and the university classes often differ. School of Education faculty at The University of Mississippi took on this challenge in the spring of 2006 and report very encouraging results. The information provided in this article explains the steps involved in implementing the plan. Results from narratives completed by the participants provided specific information as to the types of duties the participants were engaged in during the field experience. In fall 2007, follow-up surveys were completed by first year teachers that participated in the field experience. Their responses provided helpful information that will be used to strengthen the first days of school field experience for future preservice teachers.


Web search heavily relies on click-through behavior as an essential feedback signal for performance improvement and evaluation. Traditionally, click is usually treated as a positive implicit feedback signal of relevance or usefulness, while non-click (especially non-click after examination) is regarded as a signal of irrelevance or uselessness. However, there are many cases where users do not click on any search results but still satisfy their information need with the contents of the results shown on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). This raises the problem of measuring result usefulness and modeling user satisfaction in"Zero-click"search scenarios. Previous works have solved this issue by (1) detecting user satisfaction for abandoned SERP with context information and (2) considering result-level click necessity with external assessors' annotations. However, few works have investigated the reason behind non-click behavior and estimated the usefulness of non-click results. A challenge for this research question is how to collect valuable feedback for non-click results. With neuroimaging technologies, we design a lab-based user study and reveal differences in brain signals while examining non-click search results with different usefulness levels. The findings in significant brain regions and electroencephalogram~(EEG) spectrum also suggest that the process of usefulness judgment might involve similar cognitive functions of relevance perception and satisfaction decoding. Inspired by these findings, we conduct supervised learning tasks to estimate the usefulness of non-click results with brain signals and conventional information (i.e., content and context factors). Results show that it is feasible to utilize brain signals to improve usefulness estimation performance and enhancing human-computer interactions in"Zero-click"search scenarios.


Background: To investigate the effect of physical activity and sports on the academic performance of higher education students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during the academic years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. Methods: A 15-item internetbased survey was distributed among students both members and non-members of Jeddah Runners Club (JRC) studying in public and private universities in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The survey collected participants' information such as demographic details, important habits, sport and physical activities, and GPA scores. Responses reached a total of (N=425) male %87.3 (N= 371) and female %12.7 (N=54) and the data was analyzed using IBM SPSS. Results: Results show that there is a significant negative linear relationship between the time students spend doing no physical activity and their GPA scores (β = -0.28, P<0.05). However, there is a statistically significant positive linear relationship between GPA scores and the time spent in sports or physical activity (β = 0.12, P<0.05). Similarly, the time students spend in sports or physical activity in their colleges also positively affects their academic performance (β = 0.10, P<0.05). Ultimately, the more time spent in doing sports or physical activity in or outside their colleges, the better they achieve in their academic performance. Conclusion: The more time spent in physical activity or sports in or outside colleges, the better academic performance will be. Public physical activities and sports are highly welcomed by the Saudi community. Saudi women have shown an increasing interest in doing public physical activities and sports.


LB-354 Introduction: Preclinical data from rats and monkeys indicate that sunitinib malate (an oral, multitargeted receptor tyrosine kinase [RTK] inhibitor of VEGFRs, PDGFRs and other RTKs with direct antitumor and antiangiogenic activity) and its metabolites are mainly excreted in feces, with urinary excretion as a minor route of elimination. An open-label, mass-balance study was conducted in healthy male subjects to characterize: the primary routes of elimination of sunitinib and drug-related materials; the pharmacokinetics of total radioactivity, and plasma sunitinib and SU12662 (its primary desethylated active metabolite); and to identify the metabolites of sunitinib in plasma, urine, and/or feces if possible. Methods: On day 1, 8 subjects (>18 years) received a single, oral 50-mg sunitinib capsule containing approximately 100 µCi of [14C]-sunitinib. Serial blood samples and urine and feces were collected at specified times over 21 days. Results: Six subjects were evaluable for pharmacokinetics and 8 for safety. The mean cumulative recovery in feces (61%) and urine (16%) accounted for approximately 77% of the radioactive dose over the 21 days, with the majority of recovery in the first 7 days. Fecal excretion was the major route of elimination of sunitinib and drug-related materials being 4-fold greater than the urinary route. Sunitinib and SU12662 were the primary components identified in plasma, feces, and urine. The only other identifiable component in urine was the N-oxide SU12487; however, its levels were too low to be detected in metabolite profiling evaluations. As determined by metabolite profiling, sunitinib and SU12662 represented 71% and 20.5%, respectively, of radioactivity in the pooled plasma samples (total, 91.5%) and 44.9% and 41.5%, respectively, of radioactivity in the pooled urine samples (total, 86.4%). Two other minor metabolites were radiochemically quantifiable in feces only. The mean (%CV) AUCinf and Cmax as measured by LC-MS-MS for sunitinib were 1063 (25) ng*hr/mL and 24.4 (16) ng/mL, respectively; for SU12662, these were 593 (15) ng*hr/mL and 6.2 (29) ng/mL, respectively. There were no clinically significant (grade 3 or 4) adverse events, deaths, serious adverse events, or withdrawals due to adverse events reported in this study. All treatment- and non-treatment-related adverse events were grade 1 and resolved. Conclusions: Data from this phase I mass-balance study of healthy human subjects are consistent with preclinical models. Sunitinib and SU12662 were the only measurable components in plasma; other minor metabolites were identified only in feces. Plasma pharmacokinetics of sunitinib and SU12662 in the study subjects were consistent with the results observed in previous single-dose studies with non-radiolabeled drug. These results further establish fecal excretion as the major route of elimination of sunitinib.


Derivative cutting is a texture-edge cutting of chip bottom side, which happens all the time in machining with textured tools. Two new types of textured tools are developed and fabricated: a micro-textured tool with chamfered texture edge (CTE) tool and a multiscale textured (MSTT) tool with the texture surface below the rake face. The effectiveness of the tools on inhibiting derivative cutting is investigated at different cutting velocities. For the CTE tool, the inhibiting effect is more pronounced with the increase in the chamfer angle, but the severe rake face wear eventually leads to the occurrence of derivative cutting. Compared with the CTE tool, the multiscale textures of the MSTT tool provide more sustainable effectiveness in inhibiting derivative cutting. The inhibition mechanisms of the two types of textured tools are discussed.


Drawing upon evidence from the UK unit trust industry, this paper evaluates the extent and nature of financial globalisation. It finds that despite this rapidly growing and prominent form of fund-manager capitalism operating with increasingly mobile capital in a more inter-connected de-regulated world, this does not signal the advent of homeless capital and the end of geography.


This paper presents two novel ultra-wideband (UWB) true-time-delay beam-forming receiver architectures to reduce the size of the receiver compared to the reported beam-forming receivers. Size reduction is due to lowering the total amount of delay by half and employing a negative feedback loop in the receiver. The proposed systems are analyzed to investigate their response, Inter-symbol-Interference (ISI) rejection, stability, beam width, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the effect of non-idealities. The simulation results prove that the first proposed system has lower area for the same number of antennas and half the delay compared to the existing receivers at the cost of lower SNR and wider beam width. The second system results in a smaller size and better SNR for half the delay compared to the existing receivers at the cost of higher complexity.


Objective: Thyroid carcinomas are rare in childhood and adolescence. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical features and outcomes in children and adolescents with thyroid carcinoma at our center. Material and Methods: Twelve children and adolescents treated for thyroid carcinoma in our departments from 2004 to 2014 were included in the study. Results: Papillary carcinoma was found in 9 patients and follicular carcinoma in 3 patients. Neck swelling was the most common chief complaint. At the time of surgery, one patient (8%) had cervical lymph node metastasis, and one (8%) had angioinvasion. No patients had lung metastasis. Total thyroidectomy was performed in 4 patients, ipsilateral total and contralateral subtotal thyroidectomy in 5 patients, partial thyroidectomy in 2 patients and thyroglossal duct cyst excision in one patient. Eight patients (66%) required 131I ablation for residual or metastatic disease after thyroidectomy. At the time of this report, all patients were alive without recurrence. Conclusion: According to our data, children and adolescents with thyroid carcinoma have a good prognosis and benefit from total or near-total thyroidectomy followed by radioiodine therapy. Future prospective studies are required to clarify the short- and long-term side effects of treatment approaches.


Density of woody plants is thought to have increased in many ecosystems in Australia since European colonisation. Globally, there has been much debate as to whether this phenomenon is driven by the process of post-disturbance recovery – whereby historical logging resulted in the replacement of large, mature trees with smaller, younger trees – or by the process of encroachment – whereby cessation of disturbance events reduced the mortality of seedlings and saplings. We examined the extent to which historical changes in forest structure are compatible with each of these models. The study was conducted in river red gum Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. floodplain forest on the River Murray at Millewa Forest, southern New South Wales. We compared 'historical' (~1860s) stand structure to 'current' structure in 45 one-hectare quadrants randomly stratified between three forest productivity classes. Historical trees were determined by stumps or stags likely to have been cut during the late 1800s. Size and position of each historical and current tree was recorded, and used to calculate stem density, basal area, canopy cover and the area of the 'zone of influence' (the peripheral extent of the root zone). Current stand structure was vastly different from historical structure. Stem density has increased 9-fold, from a mean of 17 (historical) to 147 (current) trees ha–1. However, basal area increased only slightly, from 13.0 to 15.3 m2 ha–1. Canopy cover increased substantially from 22.1 to 33.5% cover, as did zone of influence, from 55 to 81% cover. Evidence for both the post-disturbance recovery and encroachment hypotheses was found. The 9-fold increase in stem density between historical and current stands was attributable largely to the replacement of large trees with small trees, because basal area had increased only slightly (by 18%). However, the increase in basal area was associated with a substantial increase in canopy cover and area of the zone of influence, supporting the encroachment hypothesis. Regardless, the post-disturbance recovery hypothesis accounts for the bulk of changes in this river red gum forest.


Obesity genes working together The biological causes of obesity are not well understood. Sobreira et al. examined the chromatin interactions between key genes in a locus known for its associations with obesity in human patients. In addition to directly interrogating the connections between these genes and examining the mechanisms that regulate their activity, the authors used mouse models to study the target genes' effects on both adipose tissue and brain cells that play a role in regulating dietary preferences. Science, abf1008, this issue p. 1085 Enhancer interactions regulate the activity of obesity-associated genes IRX3 and IRX5 in both adipose and brain tissue. Whereas coding variants often have pleiotropic effects across multiple tissues, noncoding variants are thought to mediate their phenotypic effects by specific tissue and temporal regulation of gene expression. Here, we investigated the genetic and functional architecture of a genomic region within the FTO gene that is strongly associated with obesity risk. We show that multiple variants on a common haplotype modify the regulatory properties of several enhancers targeting IRX3 and IRX5 from megabase distances. We demonstrate that these enhancers affect gene expression in multiple tissues, including adipose and brain, and impart regulatory effects during a restricted temporal window. Our data indicate that the genetic architecture of disease-associated loci may involve extensive pleiotropy, allelic heterogeneity, shared allelic effects across tissues, and temporally restricted effects.


The subtropical convective boundary layer (CBL) plays a critical role in climate by regulating the vertical exchange of moisture, energy, trace gases, and pollutants between the ocean surface and free troposphere. Yet bulk features of this exchange are poorly constrained in climate models. To improve our understanding of moisture transport between the boundary layer and free troposphere, paired measurements of water vapor mixing ratio and the stable isotope ratio 18O/16O are used to evaluate moist convective mixing and entrainment processes near the Big Island of Hawaii. Profile data from the island's east side are consistent with moist adiabatic processes below the trade wind temperature inversion. In contrast, profiles on the west side follow moist adiabatic lapse rates within discrete stable layers, suggesting moist convection sets the humidity structure of even the unsaturated regions around the island. Above the trade wind inversion, the transition from well‐mixed boundary layer to free troposphere is characterized by a simple mixing line analysis, so long as the thermodynamic properties of the air mass at CBL top are known. Deviations from the mixing line identify thermodynamic boundaries in the atmospheric profile, which can persist from one day to the next. These findings indicate residual layers form during strong mixing events and regulate vertical moisture transport for multiple days at a time. Basic assumptions that synoptic‐scale transport controls isotope ratios at CBL top are therefore not sufficient for describing moisture exchange between the boundary layer and free troposphere in the subtropics.


We analyze auctions of unsecured money market deposits of firms to banks via a FinTech platform. In each auction, only the firm observes the banks and their interest rate bids and decides where to deposit its funds. We observe that deposit interest rate bids increase monotonically with bank risk and that firms in general prefer higher deposit interest rates. However, our results show that firms' selection of banks in which to deposit is concave in the bid interest rate in line with the general notion of credit rationing. We find this confirmed on the intensive as well as on the extensive margin. Risky banks eventually exit the market, and re-enter when their risk decreases again. Risky banks exit when the bid-interest rate increases above central bank policy rates suggesting that central bank funding crowds out deposits thereby reducing monitoring by short-term creditors. This has important implications for banks' access to unsecured corporate funding, financial stability and the understanding of deposit markets more broadly.


The immunological experience is treating osteomyelitis chronic forms at the Istituto Putti in Cortina starts in 1963 by introducing immunotherapy, applied by the progressive administration in growing doses of a staphylococci pool, that had been collected from some patients with bone infections by the same germ and then inactivated in an aqueous solution suspension. This therapy is coadjutant of antibiotics, surgical and hyperbaric therapy and not substitutive of these. This study ascertained indeed a reduction of the phagocytic activity as a whole, and especially the opsonisation activity It has been thought therefore that in immunotherapy more factors are involved; their principal property is to reduce the allergising effect and therefore to desensitise vs. the germ proteins and to increase the phagocytic activity. This condition, neither whose entity nor its lasting may be defined, does not appear to be unlimited. Obviously this desensitisation can be obtained also by the right antibiotic choice that, as already said mainly in acute forms, may develop their bactericidal properties and sterilise the focus. In the chronic forms it is possible to provoke this mechanism by carrying out a surgical toilette that restores the vascularization and stimulation conditions needed for a correct antibiotic action. Checks upon immuno-stimulation treatment termination clearly showed corresponding results between laboratory deficit corrected and clinical conditions bettering. The casuistry is based on 50 patients with hematogenic osteomyelitis, all under the age of 16, age at which the growth plate is still active, and 117 post-traumatic septic non-union, where this term was adopted for cases that showed a lack of non-solidification at 6 months after trauma. We have expressly made a distinction between hematogenic and post-traumatic forms, since the relationships between bacterial counts vs. host response do differ.


Regulatory selection flexibility—the ability to flexibly choose emotion regulation strategies that are appropriate to dynamic contextual demands—has been theorized as a critical component of adaptive emotional functioning. Despite this, little research has investigated whether individual differences in regulatory selection flexibility influence real-time emotional experiences. The current study aimed to test the effectiveness of regulatory selection flexibility in reducing negative affect while exposed to emotion-eliciting stimuli. Using a behavioral regulatory selection task, participants viewed negative images that differed in emotional intensity and selected between engagement cognitive change (reappraisal) or attentional disengagement (distraction) strategies to manage their emotional responses. Negative affect was rated immediately before and after the regulatory period, to index emotional experience. Greater regulatory selection flexibility was associated with greater reductions in negative affect. Our findings offer preliminary evidence for the immediate psychological benefit of regulatory selection flexibility and highlight some promising avenues for future research.


We here in report the anti-cancer and kinases inhibitor activities of some substituted indole derivatives 1-10. which were synthesized and evaluated as analgesic and anticonvulsant agents before. Ten compounds were conveniently screened for their in vitro cytoyoxicity against a wide rannge of cell lines; these compounds showed potent activities against ovarian and breast cancer cell lines. The in vivo antiovrian cancer and anti-breast cancer of the most active in vitro compounds were estimated and founded highly potent. In search for the mechanism of action of anticancer activities it was found that these compounds exert their action via Topoisomerase II inhibition and inhibition of BRAF600E.


Cancer is a chronic disorder that involves several elements of both the tumor and the host stromal cells. At present, the complex relationship between the various factors presents in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and tumor cells, as well as immune cells located within the TME, is still poorly known. Within the TME, the crosstalk of these factors and immune cells essentially determines how a tumor reacts to the treatment and how the tumor can ultimately be destroyed, remain dormant, or develop and metastasize. Also, in TME, reciprocal crosstalk between cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), extracellular matrix (ECM), hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) intensifies the proliferation capacity of cancer stem cells (CSCs). CSCs are subpopulation of cells that reside within the tumor bulk and have the capacity to self-renew, differentiate, and repair DNA damage. These characteristics make CSCs develop resistance to a variety of treatments, such as radiotherapy (RT). RT is a frequent and often curative treatment for local cancer which mediates tumor elimination by cytotoxic actions. Also, cytokines and growth factors that are released into TME, have been involved in the activation of tumor radioresistance and the induction of different immune cells, altering local immune responses. In this review, we discuss the pivotal role of TME in resistance of CSCs to RT.


While there are several studies which discuss travel behaviour of senior travellers, there is limited discussion of the travel habits of generation Y. The objective of this paper is to profile Generation Y based on their travel attitudes and behaviour in order to better understand this segment. This research utilizes data provided by the Roy Morgan Research Centre in Australia (RMRC). The data were collected in 2006 and 2007 from a large sample of 46,000 Australian respondents. Generation Y is compared to other Generations on travel motivation, holiday activities, booking methods used, media habits and destination preferences. Generation Y has distinctive travel attitudes and destination preferences. Directions for future research are outlined.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the characteristics of pneumococcal meningitis in children ≤ 14 years old following the market introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in our community.

METHODS
Retrospective study of pneumococcal meningitis cases with a two-period analysis: pre-13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) (2001-2010) and post-PCV13 (2010-2015). Patient demographic and clinical data, and microbiological data were collected.

RESULTS
Eighteen cases were diagnosed. The mean incidence in the pre-PCV13 period was 2.3/100 000, which reduced to 0.5/100 000 after the PCV13 introduction. The most commonly identified serotypes were 6A and 10A (pre-PCV13); 6B and 15B (post-PCV13, only 2 cases). Out of 18 patients, 13 were admitted to the intensive care unit. All cases were treated with cefotaxime, and 14/18 received dexamethasone. Six patients survived with sequelae, and 1 died.

CONCLUSION
A major reduction has been observed in the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis since the introduction of the PCV13 to the market, so an even greater reduction is expected following its systematic introduction.


Image acquisition devices which can get infrared image of solar modules is designed by using the principles of the semiconductor's electroluminescence, andimage processing is applied to the detection system which can detect the defects automatically including black pieces, fragmentation , broken grid ,crack and so on. At first the defects of the infrared image are classified and then the defects' types and locations are marked out after filtering, single-chip division, gray-scale transformation, binary, feature description and extraction,finally the results are feeded back to the database. This method increases the defects' types (such as invisible crack) which the manual testing is difficult to identify, it also can eliminate human errors which manual testing may produce possibly and can reduce labor costs, defects' rates , futher it can improve the detection's efficiency and productivity of production line.


Functional independence in daily life depends largely on performing daily occupations smoothly and efficiently. Thus, intervention is needed as the quality of daily occupational performance declines with age in older adults. Recent experimental studies indicate an interactive relationship between speech and upper extremity motor control. These studies led to the suggestion that speech sounds or vocalization might be used to enhance motor performance. The present study compared the effect of vocalization on a daily motor performance in young and older adults. It included 13 young (mean 22.5 years) and 13 older adults (mean 75.5 years) with no known neurological impairments who performed the task of reaching for a cup and placing it on a shelf during four randomly chosen conditions: no vocalization, synchronized self-vocalization, external (experimenter) vocalization, and imagery vocalization. Arm and jaw movements were recorded using a search coil system. Kinematic data were analyzed using a two-way mixed design analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc contrast analysis. Older adults were consistently slower than young participants for all test conditions (p<.001). Movements in both young and older adults made with either self-vocalization or external vocalization were significantly faster and smoother than movements made without vocalization or using imagery vocalization (p<.001). Vocalization effects on movement performance were significantly more pronounced in older adults than in younger participants (p<.001). The results suggest that vocalization improves motor performance of the daily living task studied, and the study design has clinical potential that may be used for facilitating task-related motor performance in older adults.


To investigate the symptoms of patients with atrial fibrillation, and to explore the types of symptoms and their correlation with quality of life. Provide a basis for the quality of life with atrial fibrillation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2020 to September 2021 on patients recruited from a tertiary hospital in Chengdu. The Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form (MOS SF-36), University of Toronto atrial fibrillation Severity Scale and personal information questionnaires was used as survey measurement. Participants with a physician diagnosis of AF, documented on medical records, were included in this study. Data was collected through a survey that was distributed to all eligible patients through face-to-face way. Results: There were slightly more female (65.1%) than male participants, with a mean (SD) age of 73.65 (11.08) years. Two symptom clusters were evident, including Fatigue symptoms cluster(shortness of breath at rest, shortness of breath with activity, exercise intolerance, fatigue at rest) and cardiac symptoms cluster (palpitations, dizziness,chest pain),There was a negative correlation between quality of life and the two symptom clusters. Multivariate linear analysis showed that fatigue symptoms cluster and cardiac symptoms cluster could significantly predict the quality of life of patients(P<0.01). Conclusion: Two unique atrial fibrillation symptom clusters were identified in this study population,which seriously affect the quality of life of patients. Nurses should timely evaluate patients' symptoms and actively manage patients' symptom clusters, so as to effectively improve the quality of life of patients.


This is a comprehensive study of spatially homogeneous and SO(3)-isotropic exact solutions of the 10-parameter Lagrangian of the 'Poincare gauge theory'. Some sets of new exact solutions are presented. In particular, all solutions following from the so-called modified double quality ansatz are obtained, up to integration of some familiar ordinary differential equations. For certain classes of solutions, the occurrence of torsion singularities is discussed in detail. Furthermore, the authors investigate whether some solutions without metric singularity can provide reasonable cosmological models.


A method for investigating the azimuthal correlations between directed and elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions is described. The transverse anisotropy of particle emission at AGS energies is investigated within the RQMD model. It is found that the azimuthal correlations between directed and elliptic flow are sensitive to the incident energy and impact parameter. The fluctuations in the initial stage and dynamical evolution of heavy ion collisions are not negligible.


2549 Defects in apoptosis are hallmarks of cancer initiation and progression, which is normally believed to be regulated by competing protein-protein interactions between members of three protein families. Overexpression of KLF6-SV1, a zinc-finger null alternative splice form of the tumor suppressor KLF6 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple cancers. While KLF6 mediates growth suppression through its role as a transcription factor, the mechanistic link explaining why KLF6-SV1 is associated with a more aggressive cancer phenotype is unknown. We now demonstrate that systemically delivered siRNA against KLF6-SV1 restores cisplatin sensitivity in vivo, induces spontaneous apoptosis in tumor cells and decreases tumor burden. Most importantly, intraperitoneal delivery of a novel chemically-modified siKLF6-SV1 RNA markedly prolongs median and overall survival in mice implanted with human ovarian carcinoma cells in a dose-dependent manner. Through biochemical studies, we demonstrate that KLF6-SV1 is an important control point in the apoptotic cascade by binding the pro-apoptotic BH3-only protein NOXA resulting in their MDM2-dependent degradation by the proteasome. In turn, this increases the intracellular concentration of NOXA's pro-survival binding partner, Mcl-1, effectively blocking apoptosis. Based on these findings, we propose that KLF6-SV1 is a novel and therapeutically targetable prosurvival/anti-apoptotic protein and thus highlight a new tier of therapeutically targetable interactions in the intrinsic apoptotic cascade.


The article is devoted to the actual problem of the professional deformation of the doctor's personality. In the aggregate of the negative characteristics of the emotional burnout of doctors, one of the most destructive is cynicism, manifested in a disdain for cultural values and generally accepted norms of morality and ethics. The aim of the work was to comprehend the nature of the socio-psychological phenomenon "cynicism", to establish the factors that contribute to its occurrence and overcoming. The materials that have been used for research were the scientific articles for 2003–2021 published in scientific databases such as eLIBRARY.RU. and cyberleninka.ru, and the scientific works of the Russian writer and doctor V.V. Veresaev (1867–1945) and the Russian surgeon N.I. Pirogov (1810–1881). The study found that cynicism, which is a leading and socially significant problem of a doctor's professional activity, is an acquired undesirable personality characteristic. The authors systematized the factors influencing the development of cynicism, considered effective ways of its prevention and correction.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of substitution of soybean meal with canola meal and measure its effects on
rumen anaerobic fungal population in lactation Iranian of Holstein cows. From d 5 to 56 postpartum, cows were fed diets that
were isoenergetic containing soybean meal (SBM; n = 3) or canola meal (CM; n = 3). Cows were housed in tie stalls and fed
TMR two times a day. Competitive PCR technique was used to evaluate quantitative difference of anaerobic fungal
population within the rumen under the dietary groups. Universal primers were used to amplify a specific region of the rRNA
locus from anaerobic rumen fungi. Standard control DNA was constructed for use in the competitive PCR and was shown to
amplify under the same reaction condition and with the same amplification efficiency as the target DNA. The relative
intensities of PCR products were used to compare variety of fungal population under fed treatments. The signal intensity was
quantified by ImageJ 1.29x and expressed in arbitrary units. The data was analyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS for a
completely randomized design. The rumen fungal population was not impacted by diet but numerically was decreased in the
CM compare with the SBM diet (34.79 and 35.12 ± 1.87 arbitrary units, respectively). The results of this study demonstrated
that substituting soybean meal with canola meal in the early lactation cows had no apparent effect on the fungal population..


Cloth masks have been used in healthcare and community settings to protect the wearer from respiratory infections. The use of cloth masks during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is under debate. The filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some protection if well designed and used correctly. Multilayer cloth masks, designed to fit around the face and made of water-resistant fabric with a high number of threads and finer weave, may provide reasonable protection. Until a cloth mask design is proven to be equally effective as a medical or N95 mask, wearing cloth masks should not be mandated for healthcare workers. In community settings, however, cloth masks may be used to prevent community spread of infections by sick or asymptomatically infected persons, and the public should be educated about their correct use.


We show that the Longest Common Prefix Array of a text collection of total size n on alphabet [1, {\sigma}] can be computed from the Burrows-Wheeler transformed collection in O(n log {\sigma}) time using o(n log {\sigma}) bits of working space on top of the input and output. Our result improves (on small alphabets) and generalizes (to string collections) the previous solution from Beller et al., which required O(n) bits of extra working space. We also show how to merge the BWTs of two collections of total size n within the same time and space bounds. The procedure at the core of our algorithms can be used to enumerate suffix tree intervals in succinct space from the BWT, which is of independent interest. An engineered implementation of our first algorithm on DNA alphabet induces the LCP of a large (16 GiB) collection of short (100 bases) reads at a rate of 2.92 megabases per second using in total 1.5 Bytes per base in RAM. Our second algorithm merges the BWTs of two short-reads collections of 8 GiB each at a rate of 1.7 megabases per second and uses 0.625 Bytes per base in RAM. An extension of this algorithm that computes also the LCP array of the merged collection processes the data at a rate of 1.48 megabases per second and uses 1.625 Bytes per base in RAM.


Silver scurf is an important postharvest disease affecting potato tubers worldwide, caused by Helminthosporium solani. In the present study, key steps of infection of potato tubers (cv. 'Dark Red Norland') by H. solani were described using transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The fungus entered potato tubers mainly via hyphae, although germ tubes were also able to directly penetrate the tubers. An extracellular sheath was observed around hyphae growing over the surface of tubers and the host cell wall appeared lyzed at the point of penetration. Observations suggested that both mechanical and enzymatic processes are involved in periderm penetration. Hyphae of H. solani, 9 h after tuber inoculation, were present intracellularly mostly in the periderm and in some cortical cells. Two days after inoculation, host cells were invaded and both infected and neighbouring host cells showed signs of necrosis (disrupted cytoplasm, absence of typical organelles or endomembrane systems, collapsed peridermal cells) that were not observed in healthy control tubers. Four days after inoculation, completing the infection cycle, conidiophores emerged from peridermal cells directly by erupting through the host cell walls.


Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) biofilm carrier is used as a carrier for bacterial adsorption in wastewater treatment. The hydrophilicity and electrophilicity of its surface play an important role in the adsorption of bacteria. The PVC biofilm carrier was prepared by extruder, and its surface properties were investigated. In order to improve the hydrophilicity and electrophilic properties of the PVC biofilm carrier, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and cationic polyacrylamide (cPAM) were incorporated into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by blending. Besides, the surface area of the PVC biofilm carrier was increased by azodicarbonamide modified with 10% by weight of zinc oxide (mAC). The surface contact angle of PVC applied by PVA and cPAM at 5 wt %, 15 wt % was 81.6°, which was 18.0% lower than pure PVC. It shows the significant improvement of the hydrophilicity of PVC. The zeta potential of pure PVC was −9.59 mV, while the modified PVC was 14.6 mV, which proves that the surface charge of PVC changed from negative to positive. Positive charge is more conducive to the adsorption of bacteria. It is obvious from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images that holes appeared on the surface of the PVC biofilm carrier after adding mAC, which indicates the increase of PVC surface area.


Key establishment in sensor networks is a challenging problem because of the resource limitations of the sensors. Due to resource constraints as well as vulnerable to physical capture of the sensor nodes, the traditional public-key routines are not feasible to apply in most sensor network architectures. Several symmetric key establishment mechanisms are proposed in the literature to establish symmetric keys between communicating sensor nodes for their secret communications in a sensor network, but most of them are not scalable. In this paper, we propose a deterministic group-based key pre-distribution scheme based on a hierarchical wireless sensor networks using bivariate polynomials over a finite field. This scheme guarantees that a direct key is always established between any two neighbor sensors in any deployment group. Our proposed scheme also guarantees that no matter how many sensor nodes are compromised, the non-compromised nodes can still communicate with 100% secrecy, i.e., our scheme is always unconditionally secure against node capture attacks. Moreover, it provides significantly better trade-off between communication overhead, network connectivity and security against node capture compared to the existing key pre-distribution schemes. Finally, it also supports dynamic node addition after the initial deployment of the nodes in the network.


Objective: Scientific evidence implicates anxiety sensitivity (AS) as a risk factor for poor smoking cessation outcomes. Integrated smoking cessation programs that target AS may lead to improved smoking cessation outcomes, potentially through AS reduction. Yet, little work has evaluated the efficacy of integrated smoking cessation treatment on smoking abstinence. The present study prospectively examined treatment effects of a novel AS reduction-smoking cessation intervention relative to a standard smoking cessation intervention on smoking abstinence. Method: Participants (N = 529; 45.9% male; Mage = 38.23, SD = 13.56) included treatment-seeking smokers who received either a 4-session integrated anxiety-reduction and smoking cessation intervention (Smoking Treatment and Anxiety Management Program; [STAMP]) or a 4-session standard smoking cessation program (SCP). The primary aims focused on examining the effects of STAMP on (a) AS reduction during treatment, (b) early and late smoking point prevalence abstinence, and (c) the mechanistic function of AS reduction on treatment effects across early and late smoking abstinence. Results: Results indicated a significantly greater decline in AS in STAMP relative to SCP (B = −.72, p < .001). Treatment condition did not significantly directly predict early or late abstinence. However, the effect of STAMP on early abstinence was significantly mediated by reductions in AS (indirect = .16, 95% CI [.02, .40]). Conclusions: Findings provide evidence for the efficacy of a novel, integrated anxiety and smoking cessation treatment to reduce AS. Moreover, the meditation pathway from STAMP to early abstinence through reductions in AS suggest that AS is a clinically important mechanism of change for smoking cessation treatment and research.


This paper gives a definition of forensic audit, of the same shape characteristics of both forensic audit as the auditor, the different procedures in the development of the work and the material evidence found in forensic audit is.
Also the definition of fraud and the same way the different types of the same, the fraud risk assessment and the importance of optimal corporate governance is delivered, all to proceed with the analysis presented in Coomeva fraud Prepaid Medical SA, and thus reach conclusions and propose some recommendations at the end of this research.research.

Keywords:

Forensic Auditing: Forensic audit is a science that can collect and present financial, accounting, legal, administrative and tax information in a form that will be accepted by a court of jurisprudence against perpetrators of economic crime.

Auditor: trained and experienced person who is appointed by a competent authority to review, examine and evaluate the results of the administrative and financial management of a department or agency, for the purpose of informing or an opinion about them, making observations and recommendations relevant to improve its effectiveness and efficiency in performance.

Fraud: Economic Deception with the intention of making a profit, and with which someone (individual or company) is impaired.

Evidentiary material: These are things that are about one fact: all those aspects, assets, documents, recordings, among others, engaged in a research permit through financial investigation techniques hypothesis testing and constitute proof of the occurrence of certain events.
Risk: vulnerability to harm or potential harm to the units, individuals, organizations or entities in financial terms would relate to the possibility of occurrence of certain events that can potentially adversely affect the financial position of an entity and that put highlighted the lack of a better internal control or lack thereof.


Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacterium responsible for the development of gastric diseases. The issue of spreading antibiotic resistance of H. pylori and its limited therapeutic options is an important topic in modern gastroenterology. This phenomenon is greatly associated with a very narrow range of antibiotics used in standard therapies and, as a consequence, an alarmingly high detection of multidrug-resistant H. pylori strains. For this reason, scientists are increasingly focused on the search for new substances that will not only exhibit antibacterial effect against H. pylori, but also potentiate the activity of antibiotics. The aim of the current review is to present scientific reports showing newly discovered or repurposed compounds with an ability to enhance the antimicrobial activity of classically used antibiotics against H. pylori. To gain a broader context in their future application in therapies of H. pylori infections, their antimicrobial properties, such as minimal inhibitory concentrations and minimal bactericidal concentrations, dose- and time-dependent mode of action, and, if characterized, anti-biofilm and/or in vivo activity are further described. The authors of this review hope that this article will encourage the scientific community to expand research on the important issue of synergistic therapies in the context of combating H. pylori infections.


Sequence heterogeneity at the ends of mature microRNAs (miRNAs) is well documented, but its effects on miRNA function are largely unexplored. Here we studied the impact of miRNA 5′-heterogeneity, which affects the seed region critical for target recognition. Using the example of miR-142-3p, an emerging regulator of the hematopoietic lineage in vertebrates, we show that naturally coexpressed 5′-variants (5′-isomiRs) can recognize largely distinct sets of binding sites. Despite this, both miR-142-3p isomiRs regulate exclusive and shared targets involved in actin dynamics. Thus, 5′-heterogeneity can substantially broaden and enhance regulation of one pathway. Other 5′-isomiRs, in contrast, recognize largely overlapping sets of binding sites. This is exemplified by two herpesviral 5′-isomiRs that selectively mimic one of the miR-142-3p 5′-isomiRs. We hypothesize that other cellular and viral 5′-isomiRs can similarly be grouped into those with divergent or convergent target repertoires, based on 5′-sequence features. Taken together, our results provide a detailed characterization of target recognition by miR-142-3p and its 5′-isomiR-specific viral mimic. We furthermore demonstrate that miRNA 5′-end variation leads to differential targeting and can thus broaden the target range of miRNAs.


Community service work, volunteerism and mentoring have recently become popular topics of research as effective methods in improving self-esteem and civic responsibility. In the current study we explored the relationship between participation in a community service gardening program and ethnocentrism. We hypothesised that an inverse correlation would emerge where students who participated in a community service-gardening program would increase their perceptions of the importance of community service work and decrease their scores in ethnocentrism. Results of the paired samples t-test strongly support the hypothesis that community service gardening work significantly reduces reports of ethnocentrism: t(10) = -2.52, (p < .03) for community college students. The ramifications of the study and ramifications for future research are offered.


Summary Subcutaneous transplants of Ehrlich ascites tumor stimulated adjacent mammary ducts in adult ovariectomized mice. This stimulation consisted of an increase in cell size and number, resulting in an abnormally high mammary duct lining. Maximal mitotic activity in the duct epithelium occurred on the second day after tumor inoculation and decreased gradually with time. Epithelial thickening continued up to 31 days, when these studies were terminated. Cell enlargement was present on the second day after tumor inoculation, and the cells retained their increased size throughout the experimental period except for occasional duct cells at 31 days after tumor inoculation, which showed a decrease in cell size. Not all ducts, close to or inside the tumor transplants, responded to the stimulatory factor(s).


Several computer vision algorithms rely on detecting a compact but representative set of interest regions and their associated descriptors from input data. When the input is in the form of an unorganized 3D point cloud, current practice is to compute shape descriptors either exhaustively or at randomly chosen locations using one or more preset neighborhood sizes. Such a strategy ignores the relative variation in the spatial extent of geometric structures and also risks introducing redundancy in the representation. This paper pursues multi-scale operators on point clouds that allow detection of interest regions whose locations as well as spatial extent are completely data-driven. The approach distinguishes itself from related work by operating directly in the input 3D space without assuming an available polygon mesh or resorting to an intermediate global 2D parameterization. Results are shown to demonstrate the utility and robustness of the proposed method.


The recent explosion in the speed and connectivity of the Internet has opened up the possibility of millions and possibly billions of devices connected together. Combined with the development of small, low power devices, new paradigms in the field of computing have opened up. Traditional passive electronic devices now have rudimentary computing capabilities. The resulting Internet of Things (IoT), comprised of smart interconnected devices is improving our ability to gather ambient information and make informed decisions that directly benefit humanity. However, the ubiquity of these devices also presents an interesting scenario wherein the devices can perform limited general-purpose computations when they are not performing their primary functions. A computational task divided into a large number of smaller, micro tasks, each of which take only a few CPU cycles to complete. By distributing these tasks over a large number of devices, we can achieve a substantial amount of computation with seemingly modest devices. In this work, we explore a mechanism to enable such massively parallel computations in low powered commodity hardware devices through fine-grained task parallelism.


The dynamic response of two-dimensional Josephson junction arrays close to, but above the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature is described in terms of the vortex dielectric function e(ω) and the flux noise spectrum S φ (ω). They are calculated by considering both the contributions of free vortices interacting through a screened Coulomb potential and the pair motion of vortices that are closer to each other than the BKT correlation length. This procedure allows us to understand various anomalous features in e(ω) and in S φ (ω) that have been observed both experimentally and in dynamic simulations.


Purpose

This paper aims to explore the human resource (HR) challenges faced by hotel managers in Langkawi due to the implementation of the minimum wage order (MWO).

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected qualitative data from 18 managers and two owners from 19 hotels of various sizes and levels of service, including budget and boutique resorts on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. A semi-structured interview was used to ask the question "What are the challenges faced by hotel managers due to the implementation of an MWO?"

Findings

The challenges faced by the managers are: low employee productivity levels, many employees with a salary below the minimum wage rate, difficulty paying staff because of low revenue and conflicting laws and guidelines relating to the issues related to the service charge.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides an initial qualitative exploration of an important current legal development bearing on hotel managers in Malaysia. It provides some initial findings from Langkawi, but the findings may not represent the attitudes of hotel managers in other parts of Malaysia.

Practical implications

This study contributes to HR management literature by providing an insight into challenges faced by hotel managers in a developing country. To the managers, the MWO guideline is a serious challenge, as some of their employees are not productive enough to be paid at the minimum wage rate. To address the increasing labour cost, some have turned to the employment of foreign workers, whereas others have increased their casual employee numbers. These insights may serve to guide policy-makers and hotel managers in other developing countries that are planning to introduce an MWO.

Social implications

For the MWO to be effective, it is crucial for the government to develop effective guidelines for its implementation and for hotel employees amongst the Langkawi community to increase their level of productivity.

Originality/value

The Malaysian MWO policy was introduced in 2012. The policy affects employees' remuneration and provides a challenge in implementation for the Malaysian hotel industry, especially in Langkawi. Although many studies on MWO implementation have focused on unemployment, this study provides the managers' perspective on the challenges faced due to the implementation of this policy and identifies reasons why the unemployment rate for local workers may increase after the implementation of an MWO.


Abstract  Acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), an axonal subtype of Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS), is characterized by pure motor involvement, frequent antecedent infection by Campylobacter jejuni, association with anti‐GM1 or anti‐GD1a immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, and the electrophysiological features of axonal degeneration and reversible conduction block. Molecular mimicry exists between GM1 and GD1a gangliosides and lipooligosaccharides (LOSs) of C. jejuni isolates from AMAN. Sensitization of rabbits with GM1 or C. jejuni LOS induces anti‐GM1 IgG antibodies and subsequent flaccid paralysis. Pathological changes seen in rabbit model peripheral nerves are identical to those in human AMAN. Immunohistochemistry of AMAN rabbits shows disruption of nodal sodium channel clusters and detachment of paranodal myelin terminal loops, similar to paranodal demyelination, which would significantly reduce the safety factor for impulse transmission and might be responsible for the rapidly reversible conduction block frequently present in human AMAN. C. jejuni sialyltransferase (Cst‐II), which functions in the biosynthesis of ganglioside‐like LOSs, determines the transferase activity. Strains with cst‐II (Thr51) express GM1 and GD1a epitopes, whereas GBS patients infected with cst‐II (Thr51) strains have anti‐GM1 or anti‐GD1a IgG antibodies. The cst‐II gene is responsible for the development of GBS. Immunological, pathological, electrophysiological, and bacteriological studies have provided strong evidence of carbohydrate mimicry being a cause of AMAN and clarified the mechanisms of nerve conduction failure in AMAN.


The authors use a simple model to study the optimal design of unemployment insurance and employment protection. Workers are risk averse and face the possibility of unemployment. Firms are risk neutral and face random shocks to productivity. Workers can participate in a shadow economy, or informal sector. The model yields several lessons. First, countries should encourage formal employment to address the issue of informal employment. In extreme cases, such encouragement translates into high severance payments and negative payroll taxes. Along these same lines, unemployment payments cannot be too large. In fact, when the risk of informality is extreme, the authors find that unemployment benefits should be negative, which is (in effect) a positive tax on the lack of formal employment.


Background Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) (Wegener granulomatosis) frequently presents in the head and neck, and the sinonasal cavity is among the most common areas affected. Although the clinical findings, histologic appearance, and laboratory workup have been described, characteristic findings and the distribution of disease on sinonasal imaging are not well established. The appropriate imaging modality to evaluate for sinonasal involvement is also unclear. Objective To describe the imaging characteristics, distribution, and location of sinonasal pathology in patients with GPA as noted on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging modalities. Methods A systematic review was conducted of English language articles, by using appropriate search terms, which reported the computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings specific to sinonasal disease in adult subjects with GPA. Studies were included only when they focused primarily on specific imaging results in patients with GPA. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed. Results A total of 50 articles were identified on an initial search of medical literature data bases. There were seven articles that comprised 224 patients who met inclusion criteria. All the articles were retrospective case series and descriptive in nature. A high incidence of patients with GPA who were imaged showed evidence of pathologic findings. The prevalence of key radiographic findings in patients with GPA were the following: mucosal thickening (87.7% of patients), bony destruction (59.9%), and septal erosion (59.4%). There were no randomized or prospective studies that compared imaging findings between patients with GPA and the controls, and no studies that correlated imaging findings with prognosis. Conclusion Sinus imaging in GPA revealed a spectrum of nonspecific findings. The constellation of septal erosion, mucosal thickening, and bony changes should raise suspicion for GPA. The current literature was insufficient to make any comments on the time course of sinonasal disease and imaging manifestations. Further comparative studies are needed to determine a role for sinonasal imaging in the diagnosis and prognosis of GPA.


The impurity states introduced by substitutional doping of Mo1−xMxSe2 with group VB (M = V, Nb and Ta), and their effect on the thermoelectric properties were systematically investigated via DFT calculations and experiments. We find that lightly doped Mo1−xMxSe2 (x = 0.01) exhibits a hopping conduction at low temperatures owing to the discrete impurity states near the valence band maximum (VBM) of the host. Increasing the doping level gives rise to an impurity band near the VBM of Mo1−xMxSe2, leading to the metallic characteristics. And, the impurity states increase the carrier effective mass due to the coincidence in energy of the topmost bands at Γ and K. Moreover, the substitution of Mo by M dramatically reduces the lattice thermal conductivity (κL) of Mo1−xMxSe2. As a result of the significantly improved electronic properties and reduced κL, M-doped Mo1−xMxSe2 samples exhibit remarkable enhancements in thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. The Ta-doped Mo0.95Ta0.05Se2 (x = 0.05) sample possesses the ZTmax of 0.12 and 0.14 measured perpendicular and parallel to the pressing direction, respectively. This work provides some insights towards understanding the effect of the impurity states on the thermoelectric properties of MoSe2 and other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).


For the original article see ibid., vol.38, no.7, p.807-10 (1991). It is pointed out that diagonal Lyapunov functions have been used to unify and generalize, to the time-varying case, stability criteria for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems that includes models of digital filters subject to most of the usual nonlinearities of truncation and overflow. Many of these criteria have cropped up several times in the recent literature. The above-titled paper by T. Bose and M.-Q. Chen is one example. A reply by Bose and Chen is included. >


In antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV), Toll-like receptors (TLRs) may be engaged by infection-associated patterns and by endogenous danger signals, linking infection and innate inflammation with this autoimmune disease. This study examined intrarenal TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9 expression and renal injury in AAV, testing the hypothesis that increased TLR expression correlates with renal injury. Patients with AAV exhibited both glomerular and tubulointerstitial expression of TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9, with TLR4 being the most prominent in both compartments. Glomerular TLR4 expression correlated with glomerular segmental necrosis and cellular crescents, with TLR2 expression correlating with glomerular segmental necrosis. The extent and intensity of glomerular and tubulointerstitial TLR4 expression and the intensity of glomerular TLR2 expression inversely correlated with the presenting estimated glomerular filtration rate. Although myeloid cells within the kidney expressed TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9, TLR2 and TLR4 colocalized with endothelial cells and podocytes, whereas TLR9 was expressed predominantly by podocytes. The functional relevance of intrarenal TLR expression was further supported by the colocalization of TLRs with their endogenous ligands high-mobility group box 1 and fibrinogen. Therefore, in AAV, the extent of intrarenal TLR4 and TLR2 expression and their correlation with renal injury indicates that TLR4, and to a lesser degree TLR2, may be potential therapeutic targets in this disease.


This article examines the use of Twitter by Finnish candidates in the European parliamentary election of 2014. It concentrates on two groups of candidates: the 20 most active Twitter users measured by the number of tweets sent and those 20 candidates who aroused the most interest, measured by the number of Twitter replies received. The study takes into consideration contextual variables, such as gender, age, party, position and place of residence of the candidates. The main research question asks for what kind of candidates does Twitter offer a platform to challenge existing political power structures (equalizing hypothesis), and for what kind of candidates does Twitter not offer this platform (normalization hypothesis)
The main finding was that Twitter was mostly used by established, middle-aged, urban, professional politicians of the right-wing National Coalition Party. This party has mostly young, well-educated and urban supporters in Southern Finland. For these people, Twitter was an effective tool to normalize the current power structures.
However, for some other candidates Twitter seemed to have a more equalizing nature: the Green candidates, women and representatives of the parties' youth organisations. The article demonstrates the need for a more nuanced approach to the normalization/equalization hypothesis in future research.


The impact of rapid change in technology infrastructure expedites our global economy. Today, most people in the big cities are inseparable from digital technology. Meanwhile, those who are unable to adapt are at real disadvantages. With the surging population growth of an aging society, these disadvantaged people are mainly elderly. Widespread dependency can become a catastrophic problem if not addressed immediately. Therefore, developing user interface (UI) designs specifically tailored to the needs and capabilities of elderly users are crucial. By using a descriptive qualitative approach by collecting various previous studies, the result of this paper suggesting that colourful interface, minimum icon usage, grid menu and bigger font size are the features that able to help the elders to operate digital devices. Moreover, the government's role is needed to enhance the willingness and confidence of older adults by setting up the pieces trainings of digital devices throughout regions especially in rural areas.


This paper investigates an approach to multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problems, in which the individual assessments are in the form of triangle interval type-2 fuzzy numbers (TIT2FNs). Firstly, some Frank operation laws of triangle interval type-2 fuzzy set (TIT2FS) are defined. Secondly, some Frank aggregation operators such as the triangle interval type-2 fuzzy Frank weighted averaging (TIT2FFWA) operator and the triangle interval type-2 fuzzy Frank weighted geometric (TIT2FFWG) operator are developed for aggregation TIT2FNs. Furthermore, some desirable properties of the two aggregation operators are analyzed in detail. Finally, an approach based on TIT2FFWA (or TIT2FFWG) operator to solve MAGDM is developed. An illustrative example about supplier selection is provided to illustrate the developed procedures. The results demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of our new method.


A visual multiple criteria approach is presented with displacing limitations as well, as the features of the applied software system of MADMML, which is implementing it. That system has been applied in the field of material science to determine the technological modes providing the preset requirements to the values examined. It is investigated that non-dominated (effective) decisions are determined by applying various filters of the system


A country has an incentive to unilaterally commit to a non-preferential taxation regime even though the competitor adopts a preferential taxation regime. We show that a mixed taxation regime arises in a dynamic two-period model of tax competition between two symmetric countries where an investor has home-bias for the country where he/she invests in the initial period. A scenario where competing countries jointly adopt non-preferential taxation regimes is also a subgame-perfect equilibrium. The tax revenue of the country which adopts a preferential taxation regime in a mixed taxation regime is equal to the tax revenue a country receives when competing countries jointly adopt a non-preferential taxation regime.JEL classification: F21; H21; H25; H87


CCM/CCMP is a two-cycle authenticate and encrypt AE mode. One cycle is used to perform confidentiality computations, and the second cycle is used to compute authenticity and integrity. CCM/CCMP is also a generic composition. CCM/CCMP is actually made up of two separate modes, CBC-MAC and AES counter mode amalgamated together. Although CCM/CCMP is an AE mode, it is not an authenticated encryption with associated data AEAD mode. Previous research has suggested that it is a major deficiency for an AE mode not to be an AEAD. Previous critiques of the CCM/CCMP have shown that CBC-MAC and AES counter mode were poorly amalgamated to create the CCM/CCMP. They also showed that CCMP, which was ratified by the IEEE 802.11i workgroup in 2003 and implemented in WPA2, has some security issues. It also has some major efficiency and complexity issues. This research work reviewed the current major AE and AEAD modes such as the Galois counter mode, and the encryption system with keyed integrity and managed oracle and used critical analysis and statistical analysis approaches to identify more deficiencies in the CCM/CCMP. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Perceived support and conflict between adolescents and young adults with cancer and their primary caregivers, other family, close friends, and medical staff were examined in relation to adolescents and young adults' psychological health. Adolescents and young adults (n = 115, 51% male, ages 12–24 years, M (standard deviation) = 16.07 (2.29)) in outpatient cancer treatment perceived more support and conflict within familial relationships than other relationships. Among familial relationships, perceived support and conflict were associated with psychological health; within other relationships, only support was associated with psychological health. Interactions among family were most strongly correlated with psychological distress; interactions with friends were stronger correlates of posttraumatic stress symptoms, positive affect, and posttraumatic growth.


With decreasing interest in pursuing pure science programs, the onus is on Primary and Secondary schools to attract and maintain interest of students to pursue science subjects. Misunderstanding fundamental concepts leads to misconceptions about how processes work in nature. Many decades of teaching science to children without recourse to practical and hands on activities has led to disillusionment among learners that science is difficult to comprehend. It is discussed in this paper that this phenomenon is not restricted to the East African region but has also been documented and tackled in developed countries. It is proposed that introducing astronomy as a subject at all levels of education can revive interest in science and provide hands on experiences that can assist to remove fundamental misconceptions about processes in nature. Keywords: – Astronomy, Education, Science, Concepts, Misconceptions


The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect aerobic exercise training on fat pad mass, adipocyte size, leptin release and insulin sensitivity in rats fed with high fat-palatable diet. Twenty-four male Wistar rats (250-260g) were divided into four groups: sedentary control (CTR/SD), trained control (CTR/TR), obese sedentary (OB/SD) and obese trained (OB/TR). Obese groups were fed with high fat-palatable diet (27% of fat) and control groups fed with AIN-93. Our results showed that aerobic exercise training was effective to reduce body weight and epididymal fat mass in CTR/TR and OB/TR. Insulin and glucose levels were increased in OB/TR compared with OB/SD. Aerobic exercise training reduced the average area of adipocytes in CTR/TR and OB/TR and it was associated with reduced plasma insulin and leptin. In conclusion, 7-week aerobic exercise training reduces adipocyte area and improves insulin sensitivity and leptin levels in high fat-palatable diet-fed Wistar rats.


In our research we used the extract from dietary supplement of elderberry (EE) and its dominant anthocyanin—cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (Cy 3-gluc). By interacting with a model membrane that reflects the main lipid composition of tumor membranes, the extract components, including Cy 3-gluc, caused an increase in packing order, mainly in the hydrophilic region of the membrane. It can thus be stated that EE caused a rigidifying effect, which is fundamental for understanding its anticancer and antioxidant activity. This study represents the first attempt to unravel the mechanism of interaction of elderberry extract with membranes. The results of the interaction with human serum albumin (HSA) proved that the studied substance quenches the fluorescence of HSA through a static mechanism in which the main interaction forces are Van der Waals and hydrogen bonding. The antioxidant activity of EE and Cy 3-gluc on liposomal membranes, antiradical properties and ability to inhibited the activity of the enzymes cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2 were also demonstrated. Moreover, the anticancer activity of EE and Cy 3-gluc on human breast adenocarcinoma cell line were investigated. In addition, EE also exhibited the ability to form lipid aggregates in the form of liposomal capsules that can be applied as carriers of active biological substances, and the highest efficacy of EE encapsulation was obtained for multilayered liposome formulations.


Background: Despite substantial mention in the popular press, there is little in the plastic surgery or dermatology literature regarding the safety, efficacy, longevity, or complications of barbed suture suspension procedures. The authors review the literature to estimate several clinical parameters pertaining to barbed thread suspensions. Methods: The authors performed a MEDLINE search using the keywords "barbed and suture," "thread and suspension," "Aptos," "Featherlift," and "Contour Thread." Results: The authors identified six studies that met their criteria of addressing midface elevation with barbed thread suspension. These detected some adverse events, but most of these were minor, self-limited, and of short duration. Less clear are the data on the extent of the peak correction and the longevity of effect. Objective outcome measures and long-term follow-up data were not provided in a systematic manner in the few available studies. Conclusions: Suspension of the aging face with barbed sutures offers the promise of a minimally invasive technique with diminished adverse events. The technique is in its infancy, but it has potential to be a useful and effective clinical tool as further innovations are made in the clinic and laboratory.


We undertook two studies to determine the validity and reliability of the revised Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCSQ-2). In Study 1, 201 female athletes (mean age 16.4 years) were administered the initial version of the PMCSQ-2 and a measure of reported tension and pressure experienced in sport. Exploratory principal component analysis suggested that the PMCSQ-2 contained two higher-order scales (Task-Involving and Ego-Involving climates), each with three subscales (Task: Cooperative Learning, Effort/Improvement, Important Role; Ego: Intra-Team Member Rivalry, Unequal Recognition, Punishment for Mistakes). In Study 2, 385 female volleyball players (mean age 15.2 years) completed the PMCSQ-2, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory and a measure of Team Satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to six competing models. The oblique six-factor model and oblique hierarchical model provided comparable fit to the data. Acceptable fit was reached based on model respecification. Across Studies 1 and 2, internal consistency was found to be acceptable for the higher-order scales and subscales (with the exception of the Intra-Team Member Rivalry subscale). We found evidence for the concurrent validity of the instrument.


A new criterion, together with its frequency-domain interpretation for the global asymptotic stability of zero-input one-dimensional (1-D) state-space digital filters under various combinations of overflow and quantization nonlinearities and for the situation where quantization occurs after summation only, is presented. A condition in closed form involving solely the parameters of the state transition matrix for the nonexistence of limit cycles in second-order digital filters is derived. Improved versions of some of the stability results due to Leclerc and Bauer (1994) are established. Finally, the approach is extended to two-dimensional (2-D) digital filters described by the Roesser and the Fornasini-Marchesini second local state-space models.


Soil erosion is recognized as a global threat against the sustainability of the natural ecosystem and the environment because of its severe effects in agricultural productivity, damage to infrastructure and pollution of water bodies. Adverse impacts due to human activities resulting in accelerated soil erosion process have been well documented. Much more attention has been given to study the mechanisms associated with the process of soil erosion in the second half of the 20 th century. Different mathematical models have been developed to simulate soil erosion processes and incorporate the result in different options of erosion controls. Modelling soil erosion is a complex process that involves numerous parameters. It is for this reason that even highly sophisticated and advanced erosion prediction models like Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) do not incorporate all mechanisms of the soil erosion process. An obvious gap is the satisfactory explanation and incorporation of soil erosion mechanism associated with the initial portion of microchannels where both inter-rill and rill erosion exist. This study attempts to fill this gap through extension of knowledge in the area of soil erosion mechanism, specifically within the initial portions of rill where both splash erosion and erosion due to shear stress exist. Detachment of soil particles from the soil surface depends on the kinetic energy imparted by raindrops. Therefore, it is essential to estimate kinetic energy as accurately as possible to enable study of soil erosion and infiltration mechanisms. Rainfall simulation is widely used to generate rainfall of desired intensities and durations to study soil erosion, infiltration and other dynamic behaviours of soil. Kinetic energy of a rainfall event is often estimated from its intensity. The actual kinetic energy imparted on a soil surface is generally less than the total value of kinetic energy of a rainfall event. This is because of the cushioning effect of the overland flow. Therefore, there is a potential risk of over prediction of splash erosion by an erosion prediction model that does not account for this cushioning effect. In this study, experiments were carried out to estimate the kinetic energy of three different simulated rainfall events produced by three different combinations of pressures and nozzle sizes. The equipment consisted of a multipurpose hydraulic flume, 2m long and 1.4m wide. Five highly sensitive force transducers were mounted on the surface of the flume to measure the impact of raindrops. Different slopes were represented in the experiment by tilting the flume in four different angles from 0 to 15 degrees. Two tipping bucket rain gauges were used to measure rainfall intensity. The nozzles were placed at a height sufficient to produce terminal velocity by the falling rain drops before they hit the flume surface. Overland flow was generated by continuously supplying water to the inlet tank constructed at the upstream of the hydraulic flume. Responses received from the transducers (in the form of voltage) and from the tipping bucket (in the form of pulses) were recorded at regular intervals. Based on this experimental study, a logarithmic energy loss model that accounts for the depth of shallow overland flow, rainfall intensity and bed slope to estimate potential loss of kinetic energy is proposed. Analysis of the results from the study indicated a significant reduction in kinetic energy when the surface flow starts to build up. The analysis also indicated that a significant portion of the energy is lost even though the flow depth is small. This implies that while splash erosion initially contributes to the total amount of soil erosion, most of the erosion after the initial phase is due to the flow induced shear stress. Another important conclusion of this study is that steeper the slope, the lesser the expected overland flow depth and hence more potential for splash erosion and sheet erosion. The Nash Sutcliffe model efficiency statistic of 90% obtained from this study signifies that the model could be used as a useful predictive tool to estimate rainfall kinetic energy loss. The energy loss model developed as a result of this study can be incorporated in process-based soil erosion models to accurately estimate splash erosion and improve the predictive power of these models. In Addition, the model can be used to estimate the critical depth of overland flow when the kinetic energy approaching the soil surface is practically nil. This critical depth can be used to define the transition zone and explicitly define the term "Rill". The multipurpose hydraulic flume designed and developed for this study can be used for further studies in area of hydraulic and soil erosion research. The methodology developed in this research will be helpful in carrying out further experiments and improve the proposed energy loss model. The potential Future improvements to the model include the followings: i) incorporating the effect of sediment concentration, ii) using wider ranges of intensities, and iii) using an actual soil bed. Rainfall Energy Loss Model in Soil Erosion Process Table of


Introduction: Age-related brain changes are one of the most important world health problems due to the rising lifespan and size of the elderly populations. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of ageing in women on coordinated brain activity between eight resting-state networks. Material and Methods: The study group comprised 60 healthy female volunteers who were divided into two age groups: younger women (aged 20–30 n = 30) and older women (aged 55–80 n = 30). Resting-state data were collected during a 15 min scan in the eyes-closed condition using a 3T MR scanner. Data were preprocessed and analysed using the CONN toolbox version 19.c. The large-scale network analysis included a priori selected regions of interest of the default mode, the sensorimotor, the visual, the salience, the dorsal attention, the fronto-parietal, the language, and the cerebellar network. Results: Within the visual, the default mode, the salience, and the sensorimotor network, the intra-network resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) was significantly higher with increasing age. There was also a significant increase in the inter-network RSFC in older females compared to young females found in the following networks: sensorimotor lateral and salience, salience and language, salience and fronto-parietal, cerebellar anterior and default mode, cerebellar posterior and default mode, visual and sensorimotor lateral, visual and sensorimotor, visual lateral and default mode, language and cerebellar anterior, language and cerebellar posterior, fronto-parietal and cerebellar anterior, dorsal attention and sensorimotor, dorsal attention and default mode, sensorimotor superior, and salience. Compared to young females, elderly women presented bilaterally significantly lower inter-network RSFC of the salience supramarginal gyrus and cerebellar posterior, sensorimotor lateral, and cerebellar anterior network, and sensorimotor lateral and cerebellar posterior as well as sensorimotor superior and cerebellar posterior network. Conclusion: Increased RSFC between some brain networks including the visual, the default mode, the salience, the sensorimotor, the language, the fronto-parietal, the dorsal attention, and the cerebellar networks in elderly females may function as a compensation mechanism during the ageing process of the brain. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report the importance of increase of cerebellar networks RSFC during healthy female ageing.


OBJECTIVE To evaluate the new adult Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ventilator-associated event (VAE) module in critically ill children and compare with the traditionally used CDC definition for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). DESIGN Retrospective observational study of mechanically ventilated children in a pediatric intensive care unit in Greece January 1-December 31, 2011. METHODS Assessment of new adult CDC VAE module including 3 definition tiers: ventilator-associated condition (VAC), infection-related VAC, and possible/probable ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAE-VAP); comparison with traditional CDC criteria for clinically defined pneumonia in mechanically ventilated children (PNEU-VAP). We recorded Pediatric Risk of Mortality score at admission (PRISM III), number of ventilator-days, and outcome. RESULTS Among 119 patients with mechanical ventilation (median [range] number of ventilator-days, 7 [1–183]), 19 patients experienced VAC. Criteria for VAE-VAP were fulfilled in 12 of 19 patients with VAC (63%). Children with either VAC or VAE-VAP were on ventilation more days than patients without these conditions (16.5 vs 5 d, P=.0006 and 18 vs 5 d, P<.001, respectively), whereas PRISM-III score was similar between them. Mortality was significant higher in patients with new VAE-VAP definition (50%), but not in patients with VAC (31.6%), than the patients without new VAE-VAP (14%, P=.007) or VAC (15%, P=.1), respectively. No significant association was found between PNEU-VAP and death. Incidences of PNEU-VAP and VAE-VAP were similar, but the agreement was poor. CONCLUSIONS VAE-VAP and PNEU-VAP found similar prevalence in critically ill children but with poor agreement. However, excess of death was significantly associated only with VAE-VAP. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016:1–5


Functional gradient tool (FGM) is an important developing direction of modern precision mould, it can effectively improve the performance and reduce the cost of die mould. On the base of the previous experiments, using electroforming and arc spray characteristics, through interactive experiment and analysis methods, to optimize the combination of two processes, complete the Ni-Zn metal alloy system structure / function gradient mold coating preparation, and complete analysis of coating micro structure. Experimental results and analysis show that, by melting casting and machining technology of arc spraying rapid manufacturing function gradient material mould is feasible, and can greatly improve the performance, reduce the cost of gradient mould precision, which will provide new ideas and methods to provide good for the preparation of functional gradient die precision.


The government of Turkey recently announced that it will henceforth appoint the president of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) and also, directly or indirectly, appoint the majority of academy members. In response, TÜBA's members have threatened to resign and establish a new academy that is independent of the government. What happens next could dramatically affect Turkey's future, both because strong merit-based research in science and technology is a critical driver of modern economies, and because Turkey—like all other nations—will need to support and retain its native talent in order to prosper in the highly competitive world of the 21st century.


Effects of forging and mechanical properties of 6061 aluminum alloy wheel for automobiles were investigated in the present study. Microstructural and tensile characteristics of automobile wheel after hot forging process using dynamic screw press were analyzed to evaluate effect of metal flow on mechanical properties. The results showed advanced mechanical properties of 6061 alloy wheel because of precipitation by T6, elongated grain by forging, and work hardening by dense metal flow, etc. Hot compression tests were conducted in order to characterize high temperature compression deformation behaviors and microstructural variation in the range of , in the strain rate range of . As strain rate increased, maximum compression stress increased but it was shown the reverse linear relation between temperature and maximum stress irrelevant to strain rate variation. On the other hand, temperature and yield stress didn`t have any linear relation and its relation showed big deviation by a function of strain rate and test temperature.


This article studies the determinants of loans to the private sector in the euro area. Using the Johansen methodology, the study identifies one cointegrating relationship linking real loans, GDP and interest rates. This relationship implies that in the long-run real loans are positively related to real GDP and negatively to real short-term and long-term interest rates. Both the signs and the magnitude of the coefficients suggest that the cointegrating vector describes a long-run demand equation. The short-run dynamics of the demand for euro area real loans is subsequently modelled by means of a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). A number of specification tests performed on the VECM produce satisfactory results, with tests of stability of the model parameters showing no signs of structural breaks during the sample period (1980: 1–1999: 2). All of this suggests that developments in real loans to the private sector in the euro area can be reasonably explained by the model.