The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content of the Physical Education (PE) teacher's school book of the E and F grades of primary school, by the PE teachers themselves. The tool of collecting the data was a specially designed questionnaire, which was anonymous and distributed by post. The sample consisted of 322 PE teachers from 322 schools of all over the country. 137 of those sent back the filled questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used along with, Pearson's correlation coefficient, t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukey Post-Hoc Test, by p<.05 in order to analyze the data. The results showed a positive evaluation of the content of the teacher's school book from PE teachers (mean = 3.06) with statistically significant differences at: a) PE teachers with second degree studies (score = 3.56) or postgraduate studies (score = 3.52) than PE teachers with basic degree studies (score = 2.98) at p = 0.001, b) the geographical area of the school with PE teachers in rural areas having a higher value (score = 3.33) than PE teachers in suburban areas (score = 2.9) at p = 0.029 and c) men PE teachers (score = 3.16) than women (score = 2.91) at p = 0.032, while there were no differences on age, experience and in - service training of PE teachers. In conclusion, PE teacher's evaluated positively the content of the Physical Education (PE) teacher's school book of E and F grades. More positive assessment was given by: a) PE teachers with second degree or postgraduate studies, b) PE teachers in rural areas and c) men PE teachers.


The CMS silicon strip tracker is the largest silicon detector ever built with almost 10 million readout channels and an active area of close to 200 m2. With more than 15,000 individual microstrip silicon modules are powered by almost 1000 power supply modules and produce more than 60 kW of power while operating at low temperatures. Results from the successful operation of the tracker at the first LHC collisions at 0.9, 2.4, and 7 TeV, including environmental control, calibration, detector performance, and monitoring, are discussed. The detector performance is excellent manifested in a nearly 100 % functional tracker with high single hit efficiency, good S/N performance, and high quality track resolution. This is made possible by a fine-grained calibration process and a monitoring of all important quantities for the detector performance during different stages of the operation.


There is a growing concern around the health and wellbeing of community nurses due to the high complexities of and demand on district nursing services. It is well recognised that district nursing services have no limits to their capacity, and they have been dealing with an increasing caseload, with no increases in resources or staff. Consequently, this has left community nurses feeling exhausted and experiencing burnout, which, in the long term, can lead to compassion fatigue, which can in turn compromise patient safety. Specialist practitioner qualified district nurses (SPQDN) require the skills and knowledge to promote health and wellbeing, in order to provide a positive work environment and limit work-related stress and burnout despite the challenges encountered. This article explores possible strategies to promote health and wellbeing among community nurses and the barriers that SPQDNs encounter in doing so.


Abstract. A stationary, computationally efficient scheme ChAP-1.0 (Chemical and Aerosol Processes, version 1.0) for the sulphur cycle in the troposphere is developed. This scheme is designed for Earth system models of intermediate complexity (EMICs). The scheme accounts for sulphur dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, its deposition to the surface, oxidation to sulphates, and dry and wet deposition of sulphates on the surface. The calculations with the scheme are performed forced by anthropogenic emissions of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere for 1850–2000 adopted from the CMIP5 dataset and by the ERA-Interim meteorology assuming that natural sources of sulphur into the atmosphere remain unchanged during this period. The ChAP output is compared to changes of the tropospheric sulphur cycle simulations: with the CMIP5 data, with the IPCC TAR ensemble, and with the ACCMIP phase II simulations. In addition, in regions of strong anthropogenic sulphur pollution, ChAP results are compared to other data, such as the CAMS reanalysis, EMEP MSC-W, and with individual model simulations. Our model reasonably reproduces characteristics of the tropospheric sulphur cycle known from these information sources. In our scheme, about half of the emitted sulphur dioxide is deposited to the surface and the rest in oxidised into sulphates. In turn, sulphates are mostly removed from the atmosphere by wet deposition. The lifetime of the sulphur dioxide and sulphates in the atmosphere is close to 1 day and 5 days, respectively. The limitation of the scheme are acknowledged and the prospects for future development are figured out. Despite its simplicity, ChAP may be successfully used to simulate anthropogenic sulphur pollution in the atmosphere at coarse spatial and time scales.


In the Flora of Turkey, the taxonomic concept of Muscari massayanum sensu Davis & Stuart was given based on five herbarium specimens and a photograph. In the original study, type location of the species was not specified, but its photograph and brief morphological features were included. In current study, herbarium samples given by Davis & Stuart under the description of the species in the Flora of Turkey were examined, and as a result of field studies conducted at the locations where these samples were collected, it was determined that the aforementioned description included M. massayanum, as well as the later published M. erdalii, and a new taxon yet to be named. As a result of comparative and detailed morphological studies to solve this confusion, a new species, Muscari erzincanicum (Asparagaceae) from Turkey, is described and illustrated. The new species is morphologically similar to M. massayanum and M. erdalii, but differs from both by the flower, fruit and seed characteristics.


The paper provides the results of studying the functional interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain in junior schoolchildren and gymnasia pupils, the specific features of which have been studied by variational chronoreflexometry. The findings indicate the specific features of the interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain, which are likely to be associated with ontogenetic processes on the one hand, and determined by the academic load and the educational program in pupils on the other. About a half the primary pupils had an equal-hemispheric type of cerebral functional asymmetry. By age of 10 years, the changes of the leading modality asymmetry associated with the type of interhenispheric asymmetry suggested the significant actualization of the left hemisphere in the gymnasia pupils.


Introduction. Two-thirds of primary care patients with depression also have somatic symptoms present, making detection of depression more difficult. Primary health care is the first level of screening for depression, and early detection is key to treatment success. Anxiety also has a high comorbidity rate with chronic pain conditions. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is common among patients with "medically unexplained" chronic pain and chronic physical illness and is also a predictor of chronic musculoskeletal pain after trauma. Belonging to different ethnic groups and ignorance of these differences by primary care physicians can be an obstacle to good health care, especially early recognition of depressive symptoms.
Aim. The aim of this proposed, systematic work was to draw conclusions from empirical research dealing with the processes involved in the examination of depression, anxiety, and chronic non malignant pain. The research question for this review paper was to examine the correlation of depression and anxiety with chronic non-malignant pain. The aim was to examine the role of primary health care in recognizing, preventing, and treating depression and anxiety in patients with chronic non-malignant pain, and whether there is a difference in the correlation between depression, anxiety, and chronic non-malignant pain according to ethnicity.
Methods. Methods for identifying the study were derived from the Medline database (via PubMed). The analysis included all scientific papers in English, regardless of methodology, published since 2011. The papers dealt with the correlation between depression, anxiety, and chronic non-malignant pain, and included the population of primary care patients over 18 years of age who suffer from chronic nonmalignant pain and at the same time have symptoms of depression and anxiety present or are members of ethnic groups. 403 articles were found, original and review papers, of which, after a detailed reading, 10 were selected that meet the inclusion criteria for the purposes of this review.
Results. Depression and anxiety are significantly more present in people with chronic pain (23%), compared to those who do not have chronic pain (12%). The most common is chronic musculoskeletal pain, with one-third of patients having depression. Depression and anxiety are significantly associated with the intensity and duration of pain. Chronic pain and depression also differ according to ethnic groups, with cultural differences and language barriers being a barrier to early detection of depression.
 Conclusion. Depression is the most common mental health disorder associated with chronic pain. It is extremely important to treat both depression and pain, in order to prevent the development of severe depression and chronic pain at an early stage. The integrated program at the level of primary health care is expected to have positive effects on both the physical and mental condition of patients. Cultural differences and ethnicity, which can significantly reduce the detection of depressive symptoms at the primary health care level, should certainly be taken into account.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the effectiveness of mobile health applications (mHealth apps) containing a physical training component on physical function and physical activity in stroke rehabilitation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A systematic literature search was conducted in three databases for studies published from inception to 12 July 2022. Clinical trials including mHealth apps with a physical training component were included using outcomes of physical function and physical activity. Quality of life was extracted as a secondary outcome.

RESULTS
Five RCTs, two non-RCTs, and four uncontrolled clinical trials were included with a total of 264 stroke survivors. Eleven apps were identified with a physical training component using features of gamification (six apps), exercise prescription (three apps), and physical activity (two apps). Six out of seven studies reported statistically significant improvements in physical function in favor of the experimental group, with the most robust findings for upper extremity function. For physical activity, statistically significant improvements were seen in the experimental groups. Only one study showed significant improvement in quality of life. Overall study quality was fair.

CONCLUSIONS
mHealth apps containing a physical training component are promising for physical function and physical activity in stroke rehabilitation. Further research is warranted to confirm these conclusions.Implications for rehabilitationDesign content of mobile apps with a physical training component were focused on gamification, exercise prescription, and physical activityUsing mobile app-delivered therapy seem promising for improving upper extremity function in stroke rehabilitationUsing mobile apps also supported an increase of physical activity in people with strokeStudies using mobile apps should report more specifically the dosage of physical training and adherenceUsing mobile apps seems promising as an additional tool for clinical work, however, more studies are required to understand their effectiveness in stroke rehabilitation.


Minimal access liver surgery (MALS), is now routinely performed worldwide, and procedures like limited resections of antero-inferior segments and left lateral sectionectomy could be retained as standard once performed laparoscopically (1). It is a common believe that MALS procedures mean shorter and better postoperative outcome, and essentially more safety compared to the open approach. Furthermore, MALS procedures facing with complex disease presentations are increasingly proposed (2).


Abstract The measurement of cardiac troponins has emerged as the biochemical "gold standard" for the diagnosis and management of patients with acute chest pain. However, earlier markers should support investigation strategies, as several patients with acute coronary syndrome might present with non-diagnostic concentrations. Ischemia-modified albumin (IMA), measured by the albumin cobalt binding (ACB) assay, was recently proposed for early detection of myocardial ischemia. To establish the potential influence of endurance training on the diagnostic approach to patients with suspected myocardial injury, cardiac troponin T (cTnT), creatine kinase isoenzyme MB (CK-MB), myoglobin and IMA were evaluated in healthy individuals subjected to different aerobic workloads. The concentrations of both IMA and CK-MB were significantly increased in athletes subjected to high-workload endurance training, whereas the concentration of cTnT and myoglobin was not influenced by physical exercise in the medium term. Taken together, our results demonstrate that demanding aerobic physical activity might influence the generation of IMA, which might be increased in the medium term following high-workload endurance training, while the concentration of other conventional markers of myocardial injury remains non-diagnostic.


Epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs) are the most lethal of all female reproductive-associated cancers. The immune system plays a significant role in the progression of EOC, thus therapies that can re-activate the anti-tumour immune response are promising; however, improved animal models are required in order to accurately assess new therapies effectively. We developed a new ovarian cancer mouse model that permits tracking of ovarian cancer progression non-invasively in real time. We used this model to show that a type 2 diabetes drug can restore the immune response and delay ovarian cancer progression, both alone and in combination with chemotherapy. This exciting work will hopefully lead to a new treatment for ovarian cancer.


We review recent developments in the pathogenesis of the major immunodeficiencies, the pathogens involved, and new diagnostic and treatment options. Early diagnosis and prophylaxis are the mainstays in the current management of these immunological disorders. New advances, including the use of cytokines and growth factors, molecular diagnosis and a better understanding of the immunopathogenesis of infections, are discussed.


ABSTRACT In this study a sensitive analytical method based on liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous analysis of bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol AF (BPAF), bisphenol B (BPB), bisphenol E (BPE), bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol S in different paper and board products, including virgin fibre samples and recycled samples. Analytes were extracted from the paper matrix using a simple solvent extraction and chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 core-shell (100 mm x 2.1 mm i.d.; 1.7 µm particle size) column. The developed method showed good linearity (R2 > 0.9921) for all analytes. Absolute recoveries ranged from 71 to 115% and precision in terms of reproducibility and repeatability (intra- and inter-day) yielded in relative standard deviations (RSDs) of less than 15.0% and 17.4%, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for the different analytes ranged from 0.29 to 0.40 µg kg−1 paper and from 1.09 to 1.32 µg kg−1 paper, being in the same range for all analytes. Quantitation of the analytes was performed using the internal standard procedure, with concentrations of < LOQ to 9599 µg kg−1 for the different analytes. Furthermore, a calculation of the maximum migration, assuming the 'worst case' scenario of 100% migration was performed.


Background: In the last few decades, different coma scoring scales have been proposed. The purpose of this study is to compare two coma scales, the GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale) and the FOUR score (Full Outline of UnResponsiveness score), aiming to examine which scale is better for predicting outcome in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients in the prehospital setting.Methods: We evaluated the GCS and FOUR scores in the prehospital setting at three different prehospital timepoints, and we reassessed the scores in surviving patients 24 hours, one month and three months after the injury. Then, we compared the outcomes.We used the χ² method, and based on the analysis with the best cut-off point for each model, we calculated the sensitivity, specificity and correct prediction of outcomes with four severity scores. The Youden index, Z score, McNemar's test and ROC curve were also assessed. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Both scales were ranked with gain ratios.Results: We included 200 TBI patients who were treated in a prehospital setting by a prehospital specialized medical unit. In terms of the predictions of positive outcomes, our study showed the following:1. Twenty-four hours after the injury, the best cut-off points obtained were from the FOUR 1 and GCS 1 models.2. One month after the injury, the best cut-off points obtained were from the following models: FOUR 2 and GCS 3 as well as FOUR 3 and GCS 3.3. Three months after the injury, the best cut-off points obtained were from the following models: FOUR 2 and GCS 1, FOUR 3 and GCS 1, and GCS 1 and GCS 2.Conclusions: In our study, the results of our research confirm that there are no practical or clinical differences between the GCS and FOUR scores in terms of predicting morality outcomes 24 hours, one month, and three months after injury. No statistically significant differences were found in the Youden index or the area under the ROC curve 24 hours, one month or three months after the injury.


This study reports on teacher evaluation and professional development practices in Tasmanian
high schools. It was conducted within a context of increasing regulation of teachers through
legislated registration and directed standards. The thesis in this study is that there is insufficient
linkage between teacher evaluation and professional development. The study investigates
whether Tasmanian high schools monitor teaching, and verify whether teacher learning leads to
explicit pedagogical outcomes.
By considering factors such as organisational theory, teacher competence, evaluation objectives
and approaches, and the impact of change, a list of ideal objectives and characteristics for the
evaluation of teachers is established. By examining organisational support of new pedagogies,
the application of stage theory to determine individual needs, and validation of training to
ensure that learning has been applied, a similar list of ideal objectives and characteristics is
obtained for professional development.
A sample of 193 high school teachers was surveyed to determine the extent of teacher
evaluation by supervisors, and independent reflective pedagogical practices. It also examined
professional development participation, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Teacher perceptions of
their ability to affect their performance management were analysed. The state wide survey is
complemented by case studies of four high schools to reveal extant evaluation and professional
development practices and attitudes. Surveys of documentation and teacher attitudes are
supported by student focus group discussions to yield an insight into classroom realities.
The state wide survey revealed that formal evaluation and classroom observation were
uncommon, and that one third of the sample rarely engaged in scheduled discussions about
pedagogy. Teacher attitudes to professional development were positive, but one in four
teachers were dissatisfied with its management and outcomes. Surveyed teachers felt
collectively strong and individually weak to influence extant evaluation and professional
development practices. Only one case study school used evaluation as other than an
intermittent selection tool, but half of the teachers in this school felt no ownership of, and
lacked trust, in the process. Professional development choices in all case study schools were
often based on enjoyment, and outcomes for teaching and learning were rarely validated.
The research suggests that the establishment of evaluation or external implementation of
teacher standards may be undermined by current professional development practices that are
neither based on classroom needs, nor validated to ensure pedagogical outcomes. Collective
independent utilisation of established standards methodologies by teachers themselves to
establish reflective pedagogy could be the most effective way of enhancing teaching quality.


Background: HIV remains a major public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. More than half (54.5%) of all people living with HIV live in Eastern and Southern Africa where 700,000 new infections were reported in 2019. There is no HIV vaccine or cure available yet despite ongoing research to develop one. Uptake of vaccines, when these become available, is critical for its successful introduction in the global society. It is imperative to describe the knowledge, expectations, perceptions and experiences of the vaccines trial participants, as these may be indicative of future vaccine uptake, and may give lessons for COVID-19 vaccine development. Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted to describe the experiences of volunteers who participated in the first HIV vaccine trial in Mbeya, Tanzania. A purposive sample of 20 of the 60 trial participants was interviewed. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, translated, and subjected to thematic-content analysis.Results: The study showed that trial participation was driven by positive expectations related to health and the realization of the need for an effective vaccine to combat HIV. However fear, concerns and worries about the safety of the trial vaccine were the frequently reported challenges to participation. Not only participants but also the significant others and community play an important role in the trial participation.Conclusions: The success of a trial depends on direct and indirect participation in trials. Future trials, COVID-19 vaccine trials included, must promote positive expectations for trial participation and address fears and concerns related to vaccine safety.


The fashion industry is in a moment of change and innovation due to the growth of e-commerce and many companies have to adapt their physical stores to online stores. This is a great opportunity for the growth of female entrepreneurship as it highlights their ability in the sector. The present research work was carried out with the objective of determining the influence of experiential marketing in the online purchase decision in the field of fashion in people between 18 and 35 years of age in Metropolitan Lima. Throughout the study, information about experiential marketing is known, as well as the current situation of e-commerce in Peru and relevant information about the fashion industry in the country. This study was conducted with a quantitative approach and a non-experimental design of correlational scope. The study instrument was applied to a sample of people who met the established criteria. A probabilistic sampling was applied, the sample size was 384 people between the ages of 18 and 35 years, residents of Metropolitan Lima (capital of Peru), men and women, who are online buyers of fashion items; the collection of information was done through the Google Forms platform. The descriptive statistical analysis of the data was performed in the SPSS statistical program, in terms of inferential statistics, Spearman's Rho was applied to determine the relationship between both variables. The results show that the factors most valued by the respondents in relation to the experiential marketing variable are: tangibility, purchase experience and exclusivity of the product; and in terms of the purchase decision, the following stand out: available information, ease of use, trust and ease of exchange or returns. Finally, we conclude on the relationship between both variables knowing that experiential marketing is positively related to the online purchase decision. Thus, this research can contribute to those companies that do not apply experiential marketing by explaining the importance of creating strategies to influence the purchase decision in online sales channels.


A sensitive device for recording of mechanical activity in isolated small blood vessels with calibres down to 100 microns is described. This equipment was used to examine the mechanical properties of rat cerebral arteries. The ultrastructure of the preparations was investigated by light-, transmission, and scanning electron-microscopy. In general the walls of the middle cerebral and basilar arteries consisted of 3 layers of smooth muscle cells, which occupied approximately 80% of the total wall thickness. The present technique preserved the integrity of the vessel wall and caused no observable damage to the smooth muscle or endothelial cells. Neither the basilar nor the middle cerebral arteries developed spontaneous phasic contractions under standard conditions. Potassium excess (124 mM) induced a biphasic contractile response characterized by a fast and partly transient increase in tension (phase A), followed by a slowly developing sustained contraction (phase B). The responses to K+ were strong, highly reproducible and not influenced by pH changes in the range 6.9-7.8, making K+-stimulation suitable for testing of vascular contractility. Length-tension measurements were performed on relaxed and K+-activated basilar arteries. The mechanical behaviour of the vessels conformed to a sliding-filament model of muscular contraction. Using the "Maxwell model" of a muscle, the length at which the contractile element produced maximum active tension was established. The passive wall tension at this length (approximately 1 mN/mm) averaged only about 20% of the total wall tension the arteries were capable of producing when activated by K+. Under isometric conditions the K+-contracted basilar artery developed a maximum active wall stress of approximately 240 mN/mm2. In the light of the mechanical data obtained from the length-tension measurements, the optimum resting wall tension for registration of vascular responses is discussed. It appears that the present in vitro system can be of great value in investigations of the smooth muscle function in small blood vessels.


Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is defined as the intermittent administration of full treatment courses of an antimalarial drug to children during the peak of malaria transmission season with the aim of preventing malaria-associated mortality and morbidity. SMC using sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine (SP) combined with amodiaquine (AQ) is a promising strategy to control malaria morbidity in areas of highly seasonal malaria transmission. However, a concern is whether SMC can delay the natural acquisition of immunity toward malaria parasites in areas with intense SMC delivery. To investigate this, total IgG antibody (Ab) responses to Plasmodium falciparum antigens glutamate-rich protein R0 (GLURP-R0) and apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA-1) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in Senegalese children under the age of 10 years in 2010 living in Saraya and Velingara districts (with SMC using SP+AQ [SMC+] since 2007) and Tambacounda district (without SMC (SMC−)). For both P. falciparum antigens, total IgG response were significantly higher in the SMC− compared with the SMC+ group (for GLURP-R0, P < 0.001 and for AMA-1, P = 0.001). There was as well a nonsignificant tendency for higher percentage of positive responders in the SMC− compared with the SMC+ group (for GLURP-R0: 22.2% versus 14.4%, respectively [P = 0.06]; for AMA-1: 45.6% versus 40.0%, respectively [P = 0.24]). Results suggest that long-term malaria chemoprevention by SMC/SP+AQ have limited impact on the development of acquired immunity, as tested using the P. falciparum antigens GLURP-R0 and AMA-1. However, other factors, not measured in this study, may interfere as well.


Marginalization issue of green open space (ruang terbuka hijau/RTH) with a high level of land conversion to built space in urban area shows that there is no commitment of regional government on a sustainable urban development. Political commitment on the regional government is indicated among others by the weak support of green regional budgeting (APBD) related to RTH. The research was conducted in Bekasi City. The purpose of this research was to determine a model of environmentally sound regional budgeting policy strategy related to allocation of public RTH by using a hard systems and a soft stems approaches. The former was conducted by landuse changes analysis with the factors influencing them, by designing a regional budgeting based on RTH  allocating model structure by using a dynamic system approach and to formulate the direction policy using focus group discussion (FGD) and  analytical  hierarchy process (AHP). The results of landuse change analysis showed that there was an increase in built land area from 5,5% (1.157,77 ha) in 1989 to 70,7% (14.879,85 ha) in 2009. The determinants of landuse changes in RTH were population, educational facilities, markets, supermarkets, ettlements, industries, restaurants, hotels, and inns (R2 = 99,8%). The dynamic model also designed three scenarios of RTH  allocating  policy strategy  (pessimism,  moderate, and optimism) with a early simulation in 2010. The  optimism  scenario was considered as  being capable of accommodating the fulfillment of city  RTH need  really on an assumption of considerable long multiyears budgeting so that in 2030 the target of 20% public RTH would  be achieved. The  results of analysis by AHP and FGD approaches  showed that alternatives were on 2 main policies, namely: agriculture/RTH infrastructure development and RTH land acquiremen.


State-of-the-art video action classifiers often suffer from overfitting. They tend to be biased towards specific objects and scene cues, rather than the foreground action content, leading to sub-optimal generalization performances. Recent data augmentation strategies have been reported to address the overfitting problems in static image classifiers. Despite the effectiveness on the static image classifiers, data augmentation has rarely been studied for videos. For the first time in the field, we systematically analyze the efficacy of various data augmentation strategies on the video classification task. We then propose a powerful augmentation strategy VideoMix. VideoMix creates a new training video by inserting a video cuboid into another video. The ground truth labels are mixed proportionally to the number of voxels from each video. We show that VideoMix lets a model learn beyond the object and scene biases and extract more robust cues for action recognition. VideoMix consistently outperforms other augmentation baselines on Kinetics and the challenging Something-Something-V2 benchmarks. It also improves the weakly-supervised action localization performance on THUMOS'14. VideoMix pretrained models exhibit improved accuracies on the video detection task (AVA).


This book analyzes various business exit strategies for both family-owned businesses as well as other businesses, both in the United States and throughout the world. Approximately 80% to 90% of all businesses in the world are family-owned. The book discusses, among other things, 12 common mistakes in attempting to sell a business to third parties, methods of marketing the business, negotiation of key sale terms, negotiating employment and consulting agreements, avoiding traps in sale agreements, creating a professional advisory team, and alternatives to a sale to an unrelated third party, such as ESOPs, leverage recapitalizations, selling to other family members or key employees, and going public transactions.


This study concerns some aspects of the electrochemical design and characterization of zinc porphyries and anthraquinone-based polymers. The electro-formation of the films on the electrode surface has been achieved by cyclic voltammetry in organic solvents such as dichloromethane and acetonitrile. It is based on the electrochemical oxidative polymerization of the pyrrole or hydroxy-substituted phenyl groups attached to the porphyrin or anthraquinone molecules. The redox characteristics of the polymer films as well as their stability were studied by cyclic voltammetry and spectrophotometry and are compared to those of the starting monomers. The conditions of the electropolymerization of stable and reproducible multicomponent films are also discussed.


The linking of amino haptens to carboxymethyldextran (CMD) requires carboxyl activation, for example, via carbodiimdes. We have discovered that substantial N-acylurea, derived from these carbodiimides, can be trapped on the CMD backbone. As an alternative, CMD can be conveniently lactonized by heating in inert solvents, and this carboxymethyldextran lactone (CLD) can be employed directly for amine conjugation.


Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is found in patients following cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). It may contribute to microvascular injury by activating neutrophils. We examined IL-8 mRNA expression in leucocytes in bypass. IL-8 mRNA levels were measured by Northern analysis and densitometry of isolated mononuclear leucocytes and neutrophils from blood samples taken before, during, and 2 and 48 h after CPB. Plasma IL-8 was measured at each time-point by immunoassay. A strong signal for IL-8 mRNA was detected in neutrophils in five of five and, more weakly, in mononuclear leucocytes of three of five patients studied. The signal peaked consistently during, and fell following bypass, usually to undetectable levels by 48 h. There was always a detectable signal in neutrophils preoperatively. Plasma IL-8 increased from undetectable prebypass levels and peaked later (2 h postbypass) in four of five patients. In the other patient, the cytokine remained detectable throughout. These data demonstrate that IL-8 transcription occurs in leucocytes before and during CPB, but suggest that much of the IL-8 detectable in plasma following bypass may derive, not from these leucocytes, but from other cell types. The release of some IL-8 by neutrophils could lead to local positive feedback in neutrophil recruitment and associated endothelial injury.


In today's society, an increasing number of people geographically apart need to communicate to each other in a secure manner. We have discovered that very few existing systems provide this. Therefore, we have developed an easy-to-use Internet chat system with secure communications. This system is described in this report. The entire system is written in Java, which makes it platform independent. The report describes how the security is obtained and how the well the system scales when the number of users increases. It also describes how the usability of the system is affected by the security and the measurements done to evaluate this. The report further more describes the measurements taken to make the system easy to use and portable.


When official representatives of more than 170 countries adopted the principle of the responsibility to protect (RP) at the September 2005 World Summit, Darfur was quickly identified as the test case for this new doctrine. The general verdict is that the international community has failed the test due to lack of political will. This article argues that the failure is real but that it is more fundamentally located within the doctrine of RP itself. Fulfilling the aspiration of RP demands an international protection capability that does not exist now and cannot be realistically expected. The critical weakness in RP is that the responsibility to react has been framed as coercive protection, which attempts to be a middle way between classic peacekeeping and outright military intervention that can be undertaken without the consent of the host government. Thus far, theoretical and practical attempts to create this intermediate space for coercive protection have failed to resolve basic strategic and operational issues. In addition, the very act of raising the prospect of external military intervention for human protection purposes changes and distorts the political process and can in fact make a resolution more difficult. Following an introductory section that provides background to the war in Darfur and international engagement, this article examines the debates over the RP that swirled around the Darfur crisis and operational concepts developed for the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and its hybrid successor, the UN African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), especially during the Abuja peace negotiations. Three operational concepts are examined: ceasefire, disarmament and civilian protection. Unfortunately, the international policy priority o bringing UN troops to Darfur had an adverse impact on the Darfur peace talks without grappling with the central question of what international forces would do to resolve the crisis. Advocacy for the RP set an unrealistic ideal which became the enemy of achievable goals.


Many citizen science projects ask people to create an account before they participate - some require it. What effect does the registration process have on the number and quality of contributions? We present a controlled study comparing the effects of mandatory registration with an interface that enables people to participate without registering, but allows them to sign up to 'claim' contributions. We demonstrate that removing the requirement to register increases the number of visitors to the site contributing to the project by 62%, without reducing data quality. We also discover that contribution rates are the same for people who choose to register, and those who remain anonymous, indicating that the interface should cater for differences in participant motivation. The study provides evidence that to maximize contribution rates, projects should offer the option to create an account, but the process should not be a barrier to immediate contribution, nor should it be required.


The aim of the work was to collect data about beta 2-microglobulin (beta 2M), retinol-binding protein (RBP) and albumin (Alb) levels in subjects not exposed to nephrotoxic agents in Poland. The data are necessary to interpret determination results in persons occupationally exposed to these chemicals. Concentrations of beta 2-microglobulin, retinol-binding protein and albumin in urine were determined using latex-immunological method. Examination of levels of low molecular proteins and albumin was made on population from agricultural regions of Poland (the Suwałki region) and on textile plant workers from Lódź not exposed to nephrotoxic agents. It was found that upper normal level of low molecular proteins in urine was 300 micrograms/l and of albumin 60 mg/l. The data obtained indicate that sex and age play an important role in beta 2-M and RBP excretion. In the workers of an alkaline accumulator plant who were occupationally exposed to cadmium, a statistically increased excretion of low molecular proteins in urine was observed compared to the controls from Lódź. In 20% of the subjects beta 2-M and RBP concentration in urine were higher than the accepted upper normal levels. Collected data make one aware of necessity to study the above determinations which lead to an early detection of renal function disorders.


SummaryTwo important determinants of bone density should be considered when establishing strategies for preventing osteoporosis: peak bone mass and subsequent rate of bone loss. Peak bone mass is both genetically determined and influenced by environmental factors such as exercise and dietary calcium. The benefit of exercise is mitigated if it is not weight-bearing, or if it reduces oestrogen production by delaying the menarche or disturbing menstrual function.Oestrogen deficiency is the major determinant of bone loss in perimenopausal women. However, weight-bearing exercise and high dietary calcium appear to limit bone loss during the first 5 to 10 years after the menopause. Prescribing for the prevention of osteoporosis should include individual advice concerning the patient's lifestyle.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the use of polyester resin in preserving anatomical specimens for the study of human anatomy.

METHODS
We used 150 anatomical specimens, comprised of unfixed (fresh), fixed in 10% formalin and vascular casts of organs injected with vinyl acetate and polyester resin. The solution used consisted of polyester resin with the diluent styrene monomer and catalyst (peroxol). After embedding in this solution, models in transparent resin were obtained, allowing full observation of structures and conservation of the specimens used.

RESULTS
upon evaluation of the specimens, we observed a high degree of transparency, which promoted a complete visualization of structures with perfect preservation of the anatomy. The average time for the completion of the embedding was 48 hours. Only 14 specimens (9.3%) were lost during the preparation.

CONCLUSION
Polyester resin can be used for preserving anatomical specimens for teaching human anatomy in a practical, aesthetic and durable way.


We test what explains family control of firms and industries and find that the explanation is largely contingent on the identity of families and individual blockholders. Founders and their families are more likely to retain control when doing so gives the firm a competitive advantage, thereby benefiting all shareholders. In contrast, nonfounding families and individual blockholders are more likely to retain control when they can appropriate private benefits of control. Families are more likely to maintain control when the efficient scale is small, the need to monitor employees is high, investment horizons are long, and the firm has dual-class stock.


Abstract Many data sets follow certain distribution patterns, such as uniform distribution, normal distribution, and so on. Some algorithms for database operations make use of this distribution knowledge, and they usually perform much better than other algorithms, particularly in parallel computers. However, the distribution characteristics of certain data sets can change from time to time in real-life situations and affect the performance of these algorithms. It is thus important to know the behaviour of these algorithms under imperfect situations. This article presents the sensitivity analysis of a statistical algorithm for database operations when data sets do not follow the assumed distribution pattern. A parallel sorting algorithm designed by the author is used as a case study. This algorithm is for parallel computers with multiple instruction streams, multiple data streams architecture with shared memory.


A novel beam steering mechanism for a phased array antenna receiver system is introduced. The core of the system is a ring resonator-based integrated optical beam forming network chip. Its principles are explained and demonstrated by presenting some measurement results. The system architecture around the chip is based on a combination of frequency down conversion, filter-based optical single sideband modulation and balanced coherent detection. It is proven that such an architecture has significant advantages with respect to a straightforward architecture using double sideband modulation and direct detection, namely relaxed bandwidth requirements on the optical modulators and detectors, reduced complexity and optical losses of the beam forming chip, and enhanced dynamic range


Uridine is postulated to participate in the development of insulin resistance. Since exercise is an effective tool in the treatment of insulin resistance it appeared justified to assess the impact of maximal exercise on plasma uridine and insulin sensitivity indices (e.g. insulin and HOMA-IR) in healthy subjects. The study included forty-four healthy males (18.5+/-2.92 years, VO₂max 50.2+/-6.26 ml kg⁻¹ min⁻¹). Subjects performed a single maximal exercise on a bicycle ergometer. Blood samples were taken three times: immediately before exercise, immediately after exercise and at the 30(th) min of rest. Uridine concentrations were determined in the whole blood using high-performance liquid chromatography. Serum insulin levels were measured by a specific ELISA method. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by homeostasis model assessment method (HOMA-IR). A maximal exercise-induced increase in the concentration of uridine correlated with post-exercise increases in insulin levels and HOMA-IR. Our results indicate a relationship between the concentration of uridine in the blood and indicators of insulin sensitivity in healthy subjects. We are the first to demonstrate that a maximal exercise-induced increase in the concentration of uridine is correlated with post-exercise increases in insulin levels and HOMA-IR in healthy subjects. It appears that uridine may be an indicator of insulin resistance.


This research was conducted in 2015 year in Kahramanmaras province (37°32'09.5"N 36°55'01.2"E) with 3 lentil genotypes (CAGIL, FIRAT-87, and FLIP 2005-20 L).  In the research, direct and indirect effects of yield components on seed yield were examined by correlation and path coefficient analysis. The correlation coefficients between the investigated features were found to be insignificant. According to the path coefficients, the highest positive direct effect on seed yield was determined as pod number per plant (p=4.015). On the other hand, the highest negative direct effect on seed yield was obtained from plant height (p=-3.606). The indirect effect of the seed number per plant over number of days until maturity on the seed yield was determined as the highest positive indirect effect (p=55.546%). The indirect negative highest effect on seed yield was determined in the pod number per plant over thousand seed weight (p=51.488%). As a result, the number of pods per plant should be taken into consideration by the breeders due to direct effect of it was positive and high


The recent emergence of new applications in the area of wireless video sensor network and ultra-low-power biomedical applications (such as the wireless camera pill) have created new design challenges and frontiers requiring extensive research work. In such applications, it is often required to capture a large amount of data and process them in real time while the hardware is constrained to take very little physical space and to consume very little power. This is only possible using custom single-chip solutions integrating image sensor and hardware-friendly image compression algorithms. This paper proposes an adaptive quantization scheme based on boundary adaptation procedure followed by an online quadrant tree decomposition processing enabling low power and yet robust and compact image compression processor integrated together with a digital CMOS image sensor. The image sensor chip has been implemented using 0.35-mum CMOS technology and operates at 3.3 V. Simulation and experimental results show compression figures corresponding to 0.6-0.8 bit per pixel, while maintaining reasonable peak signal-to-noise ratio levels and very low operating power consumption. In addition, the proposed compression processor is expected to benefit significantly from higher resolution and Megapixels CMOS imaging technology


Study Design. An established rabbit intervertebral disc (IVD)/endplate explant fracture model was extended with physiologic post-traumatic dynamic loading (PTDL) and coculturing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Objective. The aim of this study was to quantify the effects of PTDL and of cocultured PBMCs on post-traumatic disc degeneration (DD) and to determine whether PTDL facilitates homing of PBMC to fractured IVD/endplates. Summary of Background Data. DD is associated with endplate fracture. In vivo studies suggest a key role of immune cells in the pathogenesis of DD. However, the complexity of in vivo systems impedes the investigation of single factors governing the pathogenesis. Methods. Seventy-two IVD/endplate specimens were divided into 4 groups. In group A, endplate fractures were induced with a high-velocity axial load and exposed to PTDL in coculture with PBMCs for 14 days. Group A was compared with 3 control groups, with single-factor removal, in order to assess the relative contribution of PTDL (group B), PBMCs (group C), and endplate fracture (group D) to the biological response of the IVD. Disc gene transcription and serum nitric oxide (NO) serum concentration were measured to investigate differences in anabolism, catabolism, and inflammatory response between the groups. Changes in matrix composition and disc structure were assessed histologically. Results. PBMCs did not home to fractured IVDs, with or without PTDL. Group A compared with group D showed an enhanced transcription of anabolic, catabolic, and pro-inflammatory genes during the entire experiment, and an increased NO concentration for the first 3 days. Changes typical for DD were also found in histological sections. Group A compared with group C showed significant increases in catabolic and pro-inflammatory gene transcription after at least 7 days. No differences were found between groups A and B. Conclusion. Trauma induces degenerative changes; PTDL neither aggravates nor ameliorates this response. Although PBMCs do not infiltrate the disc, they aggravate the degenerative changes. Level of Evidence: N/A


This paper presents an algorithm for computing a feedback law which guarantees that any initial state of the closed loop of a linear time-invariant discrete system will be driven to the origin in minimum finite time. The feedback law is constructed by solving a sequence of algebraic linear equations. The designer has considerable freedom in choosing the generalized eigenvectors which would allow the shaping of the transient response of the system. The algorithm offers, as a byproduct, a new and easy method for computing the so-called "generalized control form" of any controllable pair. Several examples are worked out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.


Summary The effect of Graciano (GRA, Spanish valuable variety of limited production in Mediterranean countries) vs. Cabernet Sauvignon (CS, world-wide known French variety) on the phenolic content [total polyphenols (TP), total anthocyanins (TA), catechins (CAT) and proanthocyanidins (PRO)] of Tempranillo wines (TEM-BASE, a largely cultivated Spanish variety) was studied in blends prepared with 25 and 10 % of each variety after 4, 6, 9, 16.5 and 23 months of bottle ageing. Significant differences among wines (blends and base wine) according to the »blend« factor were observed for CAT and TA. Besides, although the evolution trend during wine ageing of different families of phenolic compounds studied was similar in the blends and base wine, different blends presented a faster anthocyanin disappearance kinetics than the base wine, probably due to their higher CAT content, which may favour the progress of certain anthocyanin condensation reactions during ageing in the bottle. This effect was slightly more pronounced in the TEM-GRA blends than in the TEM-CS ones. A further study of the phenolic composition of the monovarietal wines used for blending, as well as of the grapes (skins and seeds) from which these wines were elaborated, revealed that the blending effect on CAT could be associated with higher concentration of these compounds in Graciano and Cabernet Sauvignon grape seeds in comparison with Tempranillo. Finally, the findings of this work scientifically confirm that, in terms of the phenolic content, Graciano wines possess properties similar to Cabernet Sauvignon for blending with Tempranillo.


Intravenous digital subtraction angiography (ivDSA) is a method whereby arterial images are produced following a peripheral or central venous injection of contrast medium. It is a safe and relatively simple procedure to undertake and is becoming more widely available. The purpose of this article is to review its clinical applications, its advantages and limitations.


Summary This paper analyzes the Spanish appropriation of one of the great French eighteenth-century best-sellers, the Spectacle de la Nature (1732--1750) by the abbé Antoine Nöel Pluche. In eight volumes, the abbé discussed current issues in natural philosophy, such as Newtonianism, the origin of fossils, artisan techniques, natural history, machines, gardening or insect-collection in a polite-conversation format. It was translated into English (1735), Dutch (1737), Italian (1737), German (1746) and Spanish (1753). But the four Spanish editions were very different from their European counterparts. In Spain, it was delivered in 16 carefully printed and extensively commented volumes. In Pluche's original, there was a concern for the young gentleman's education, new pedagogical methods and an enthusiastic defence of experimental knowledge. However, Le Spectacle in Spain was conceived as a useful tool for modernizing the country, it served political and propagandist goals, defended Spanish culture and science (in particular with respect to American flora, fauna and geography) and the Jesuit contribution to science and aimed to harmonize experimental knowledge and scholastic tradition. The analysis of the more than 1500 footnotes, prefaces, some readers' comments and other questions related to the format gives insight on how it was appropriated.


SUMMARY AIDS associated cancers are an emerging challenge in cancer epidemiology. Immune compromised people with AIDS have higher risks of developing cancer. Studies in Africa have demonstrated that following HIV+ diagnosis, the majority of hormonal contraceptive (HC) users continued on them while a quarter of nonusers began using HCs. There are contradicting findings on the role of HCs on cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) development. A number of studies have however positively correlated HC use to CIN development. This paper seeks to discuss the need for an integrative approach in reproductive health delivery system in line with HC provision concurrently with HIV/AIDS screening. We envisage a plausible approach that would support clients to make informed decisions on contraceptive use against the risks of HIV infection and development of CIN. This paper will critically appraise reproductive health provision in Zimbabwe in line with current global trends on HIV and oral contraceptive related neoplasm. The implications of the observed trends will be discussed in line with professionalisation of service delivery for the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) and partner organisations.


In this paper, an efficient fragile blind quad watermarking scheme for image tamper detection and recovery based on lifting wavelet transform and genetic algorithm is proposed. TRLG generates four compact digests with super quality based on lifting wavelet transform and halftoning technique by distinguishing the types of image blocks. In other words, for each 2*2 non-overlap blocks, four chances for recovering destroyed blocks are considered. A special parameter estimation technique based on genetic algorithm is performed to improve and optimize the quality of digests and watermarked image. Furthermore, CCS map is used to determine the mapping block for embedding information, encrypting and confusing the embedded information. In order to improve the recovery rate, Mirror-aside and Partner-block are proposed. The experiments that have been conducted to evaluate the performance of TRLG proved the superiority in terms of quality of the watermarked and recovered image, tamper localization and security compared with state-of-the-art methods. The results indicate that the PSNR and SSIM of the watermarked image are about 46 dB and approximately one, respectively. Also, the mean of PSNR and SSIM of several recovered images which has been destroyed about 90% is reached to 24 dB and 0.86, respectively.


Abstract:This article discusses the positioning of wh words in Modern Laos Sign Language. Research indicates that there are two common patterns for the position of wh words in spoken languages: the initial position and in situ (Dryer 2013). However, in some sign languages, it seems that wh word positioning is sentence-final, as shown in recent research (Woodward 2018) on Southeast Asian sign languages. This article discusses the positioning of wh words; some Southeast Asian sign languages have final wh word positioning, which differs from the majority of spoken languages (Dryer 2013). For instance, in the data that I have collected and analyzed from Modern Laos Sign Language, wh words always occurred at the end of the sentence. Moreover, the consultants that I interviewed rejected sentences with wh words in situ and at the beginning of sentences. This is true not only of simple subject and direct object wh questions, but also of several other grammatical structures.


Background: Catheter-related infections (CRI), thrombosis, and stenosis are among the most frequent complications associated with catheters which are inserted in vessels as vascular access. These problems are usually related to the handling of the staff, the catheter materials, and the surface properties of the catheter. To mitigate such complications surface treatment process of the outer surface, such as ion beam assisted deposition is investigated in a retrospective study from 1992 to 2007, to prove if the surface treatment of the catheters is a sufficient solution. Methods: This study (1992-2007) evaluated silver coated and non-coated implanted large-bore catheters used for extracorporeal detoxification. In 159 patients, 54 patients received a silver coated catheter (Spi-Argent, Spire Corporation, Bedford, MA, USA) and 105 patients, an untreated catheter served as controls. The catheters were inserted into the internal jugular or subclavian veins. After removal, the catheters were cultured for bacterial colonization using standard microbiologic assays. They were also examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Results: The silver coated catheters showed a tendency towards longer in situ time. The microbiologic examinations of the catheter tips were in both catheter types high positive, but not significant. Conclusion: The silver coated catheters showed no significant reduction in infection rate by evaluation of all collected data in this retrospective study. There was no association between both catheters in significantly reducing patient discomfort. Other surface treatments which include the outer and inner surface are necessary. New developed catheter materials such as the microdomain structured inner and outer surface, as an example, are considered more biocompatible because they mimic the structure of natural biological surface.


The main objective of this study was to identify the library resources available for persons with special needs in the libraries of public and private sector universities of Lahore, Punjab province. The sample of the study included 23 librarians working in the libraries of different departments which were selected through simple random sampling technique. A selfdeveloped and validated instrument "Adaptation in Library Resources Questionnaire (ALRQ)" having four components; building access and environment, library staff, library services and adaptive technology for computer was used. The reliability index (Cronbach Alpha) was .79. The responses of the subjects were rated on three-point criteria i.e. yes, no, to some extent. Data were analyzed on SPSS. The findings revealed that ramps and elevators were available, directional signs in large print, book call numbers converted into Braille for blind students and telecommunication devices had not been provided to the deaf persons in the libraries. On the basis of major findings, it was recommended that academic libraries must follow universal design of learning that require the formulation of policy about provision of library services to people with special needs, allotting adequate budgets for constructing disability friendly buildings and installation of assistive technology for persons with special needs.


Adenosine deaminase (ADA; adenosine aminohydrolase, E.C. 220.127.116.11), a purine catabolic enzyme, was studied in Candida albicans, an opportunistic yeast that causes diseases ranging from superficial infections to the deep systemic disease, candidiasis, in immunosuppressed humans. The fungus was grown as a yeast form in Lee's synthetic medium, pH 4.5, at room temperature for various growth periods. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity was determined from the cell free extract by measuring the change in absorbance 265 nm resulting from the deamination of adenosine. In yeast form, maximum growth and ADA activity were found at 72 and 24 hours, respectively, whereas in the mycelial form both the growth and ADA activity were maximum after 48 hours. Among the three media tested, tryptic soy broth supported maximum growth and enzyme production, compared to Lee synthetic medium or Sabouraud dextrose broth. The enzyme was active over the pH range 4–8 and the optimum temperature for ADA activity was found to be 37 °C.


Defining words in a textual context is a useful task both for practical purposes and for gaining insight into distributed word representations. Building on the distributional hypothesis, we argue here that the most natural formalization of definition modeling is to treat it as a sequence-to-sequence task, rather than a word-to-sequence task: given an input sequence with a highlighted word, generate a contextually appropriate definition for it. We implement this approach in a Transformer-based sequence-to-sequence model. Our proposal allows to train contextualization and definition generation in an end-to-end fashion, which is a conceptual improvement over earlier works. We achieve state-of-the-art results both in contextual and non-contextual definition modeling.


This study was conducted to explore stress, anxiety, and depression in dengue patients. The sample of this study consisted of 200 patients with dengue fever admitted to DHQ Shahbaz Sharif Hospital Multan. There were 130 males and 70 females included in the sample. The sample was selected through purposive sampling. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DASS-42) scale was utilized as research instrument to collect the data. The simple Correlation was used to analyze the data. The results revealed a strong positive association between depression (r = .43), anxiety (r = .48) and stress (r = .41) in dengue patients. The overall combined effect of DASS (.45) was found in dengue patients. Depression, anxiety, and stress are all prevalent in dengue patients, which drastically affect their mental health of patients. There is a need to focus on the mental health of individuals suffering from dengue fever.


The tremendous technological advancement in the last few decades has brought many enterprises to collaborate in a better way while making intelligent decisions. The use of Information Technology tools in obtaining data of people's everyday life from various autonomous data sources allowing unrestricted access to user data has emerged as an important practical issue and has given rise to legal implications. Various innovative models for data sharing and management have privacy and centrality issues. To alleviate these limitations, we have incorporated blockchain in user modeling. In this paper, we constructed a decentralized data sharing architecture with MultiChain blockchain in the travel domain, which is also applicable to other similar domains including education, health, and sports. Businesses that operate in the tourism industries including travel and tour agencies, hotels and resorts, shopping malls are connected to the MultiChain and they share their user profile data via stream in the MultiChain. The paper presents the hotel booking service for an imaginary hotel as one of the enterprise nodes, which collects user profile data with proper validation and will allow users to decide which of their data to be shared thus ensuring user control over their data and the preservation of privacy. The data from the repository is converted into an open data format while sharing via stream in the blockchain so that other enterprise nodes, after receiving the data, can easily convert them and store into their own repositories. The paper presents an evaluation of the performance of the model by measuring the latency and memory consumption with three test scenarios that mostly affect the user experience. The node responded quickly in all of these cases.


Abstract In this work, we predict the outcomes of high fidelity multivariate computer simulations from low fidelity counterparts using function-to-function regression. The high fidelity simulation takes place on a high definition mesh, while its low fidelity counterpart takes place on a coarsened and truncated mesh. We showcase our approach by applying it to a complex finite element simulation of an abdominal aortic aneurysm which provides the displacement field of a blood vessel under pressure. In order to link the two multidimensional outcomes we compress them and then fit a function-to-function regression model. The data are high dimensional but of low sample size, meaning that only a few simulations are available, while the output of both low and high fidelity simulations is in the order of several thousands. To match this specific condition our compression method assumes a Gaussian Markov random field that takes the finite element geometry into account and only needs little data. In order to solve the function-to-function regression model we construct an appropriate prior with a shrinkage parameter which follows naturally from a Bayesian view of the Karhunen–Loève decomposition. Our model enables real multivariate predictions on the complete grid instead of resorting to the outcome of specific points.


Objectives Caffeine is a widely consumed pharmacologically active product. In the present study, we focused on characterizing immunomodulatory effects of caffeine on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs). Methods The effect of caffeine on gene expression profiles was initially evaluated using RNA sequencing data. Validation experiments were performed to confirm the results and examine dose-dependent effects of caffeine on PBMCs from healthy subjects. Gene expression levels were measured by real-time quantitative PCR, and cytokine production was determined using a multiplex cytokine assay. Results Caffeine at high doses showed a robust downregulatory effect of immune-related genes in PBMCs. Functional annotation analysis of downregulated genes revealed significant enrichment in cytokine activity and in genes related to several autoimmune diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Dose-dependent validation experiments showed significant downregulation at the mRNA levels of key inflammatory genes including STAT1, TNF, and PPARG. TNF and PPARG were suppressed even with the lowest caffeine dose tested, which corresponds to the serum concentration of caffeine after administration of one cup of coffee. Cytokine levels of IL-8, MIP-1β, IL-6, IFN-γ, GM-CSF, TNF, IL-2, IL-4, MCP-1, and IL-10 were decreased significantly with caffeine treatment. Conclusion Our findings indicate potential downregulatory effects of caffeine on key inflammatory genes and cytokines, which play important role in autoimmunity. Further studies exploring therapeutic or disease-modulating potential of caffeine in autoimmune diseases and exploring the mechanisms involved are warranted.


Solidly mounted resonators (SMRs) with an acoustic Bragg reflector should be more suitable for high power RF filters than a self-standing structure because heat can be transferred to the supporting substrate. Thus, even though the demand for SMRs is expected to increase, the evaluation of the properties of the Bragg reflector that comprise them cannot be separated from the properties of the resonator as a whole. A method to evaluate the mechanical reflection coefficient of the Bragg reflector alone before the piezoelectric layer is grown would, therefore, be attractive, as it would be useful in optimizing the Bragg reflector. In this study, a nondestructive evaluation method of the reflector using a GHz ultrasonic pulse-echo technique is proposed. The Sc0.40Al0.60N film ultrasonic transducers with electromechanical coupling coefficient kt2 of 15.8% and longitudinal wave insertion loss of 7.0 dB with 77% fractional bandwidth were employed for the measurement system. Mo/SiO2 Bragg reflector test samples with various number of pairs were evaluated. The experimental mechanical reflectance of the Bragg reflector agreed well with theoretical results simulated by a mechanical equivalent circuit model.


This paper proposes improved direct torque control (DTC) method to drive an open-end winding interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (OEW-IPMSM). DTC provides fast response properties with simple control algorithm. In conventional DTC, torque and stator magnetic linkage flux are controlled by single bandgap that makes authorizing same magnitude of voltage vector. The single bandgap makes the variance of torque or stator magnetic linkage flux to be fixed, difficult to use in a wide range of speeds. In this paper, to drive wide speed regions, multi-level torque bandgap is applied by using dual inverters that has voltage vectors with three different magnitudes. When the variance of the torque is required to follow the reference, proposed method selects the voltage vector that have appropriate magnitude. The validity of the proposed DTC for OEW-IPMSM is verified by the simulation results.


Imidazolate framework ZIF-8 is modified via postsynthetic method using etheylenediamine to improve its adsorption performance toward CO2. Results show that the BET surface area of the modified ZIF-8 (ED-ZIF-8) increases by 39%, and its adsorption capacity of CO2 per surface area is almost two times of that on ZIF-8 at 298 K and 25 bar. H2O uptake on the ED-ZIF-8 become obviously lower compared to the ZIF-8. The ED-ZIF-8 selectivity for CO2/N2 adsorption gets significantly improved, and is up to 23 and 13.9 separately at 0.1 and 0.5 bar, being almost twice of those of the ZIF-8. The isosteric heat of CO2 adsorption (Qst) on the ED-ZIF-8 becomes higher, while Qst of N2 gets slightly lower compared to those on the ZIF-8 Furthermore, it suggests that the postsynthetic modification of the ZIF-8 not only improves its adsorption capacity of CO2 greatly, but also enhances its adsorption selectivity for CO2/N2/H2O significantly. ©2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 2195–2206, 2013


The present paper develops a model with US cotton exports de- pending on the stock-to-use ratio, trade weighted exchange rates, and the relative cotton prices. The role of inventories in cotton consumption is ex- amined in five textile producing cotton importers, China, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan. Cotton inventory dynamics is diverse among Asian textile producers. Relative prices have negative effect in all markets as ex- pected. Exchange rate elasticities show that effects should be examined for each separate market. Changes in rates of depreciation also have stronger effects than exchange rate. Results reveal that these countries are not all that homogenous.


Mining relationships between treatment(s) and medical problem(s) is vital in the biomedical domain. This helps in various applications, such as decision support system, safety surveillance, and new treatment discovery. We propose a deep learning approach that utilizes both word level and sentence-level representations to extract the relationships between treatment and problem. While deep learning techniques demand a large amount of data for training, we make use of a rule-based system particularly for relationship classes with fewer samples. Our final relations are derived by jointly combining the results from deep learning and rule-based models. Our system achieved a promising performance on the relationship classes of I2b2 2010 relation extraction task.


DJJ services are directed through four separate regional administrative units that differ widely in demographic and geographic makeup. The Anchorage Region (ANC) covers the Anchorage metropolitan area. The Northern Region (NRO) includes Fairbanks and much of rural Alaska from Bethel to Barrow. The South Central Region (SCRO) covers the southern portion of the state from the Aleutians in the west through Prince William Sound in the east. The Southeast Region (SERO) covers the entire Southeast panhandle from Yakutat to Metlakatla.


Animals likely use a variety of strategies to solve laboratory tasks. Traditionally, combined analysis of behavioral and neural recording data across subjects employing different strategies may obscure important signals and give confusing results. Hence, it is essential to develop techniques that can infer strategy at the single-subject level. We analyzed an experiment in which two monkeys performed a visually cued rule-based task. The analysis of their performance shows no indication that they used a different strategy. However, when we examined the geometry of stimulus representations in the state space of the neural activities recorded in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, we found striking differences between the two monkeys. Our purely neural results induced us to reanalyze the behavior. The new analysis showed that the differences in representational geometry correlate with differences in the reaction times, revealing behavioral differences we were unaware of. All these analyses indicate that the monkeys are using different strategies. Finally, using recurrent neural network models trained to perform the same task, we show that these strategies correlate with the amount of training, suggesting a possible explanation for the observed neural and behavioral differences.


Abstract Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673) is nowadays remembered as one of the most outspoken female writers and playwrights of the mid-seventeenth-century; one who openly promoted women's right to education and public displays of creativity. Thus she paved the way for other female artists, such as her near contemporary, Aphra Behn. Although in her times seen as a harmless curiosity rather than a paragon to emulate, Cavendish managed to publish her plays along with more philosophical texts. Thanks to the re-discovery of female artists by feminist revisionism, her drama is now treated as a valuable source of knowledge on the values and norms of her class, gender, and, more generally, English society in the seventeenth century. Cavendish's two-partite play Bell in Campo (1662) is a fantasy on the world where women can fight united not only against misogyny but also against an actual enemy. While the two plays seem to be focused on the valiant Lady Victoria and her female "Noble Heroicks", Bell in Campo likewise offers an odd subplot featuring two widows and their lives without their beloved husbands. In the secular discourse of the seventeenth century, widowhood has been seen as either liberating – as when the woman became the sole owner of her husband's estate and goods, or regained her own, and thus more independent – or degrading – when she became the not-so-welcomed burden on her children's shoulders and pockets. Other studies on widowhood likewise state its symbolic function, showing women as the bearers of memory, predominantly of the husband and his virtues, and often attending to the spouse's site of memory. While discussing the cultural history of properly performed widowhood, seen as the final (st)age of a woman's life, and taking into account Cavendish's remarkable biography, the present paper offers a close study of her propositions for appropriate widowhood and its positioning in contrast to other states of womankind as presented in Bell in Campo.1 It will likewise take into account the more or less sublimated evidence for gerontophobia, particularly in relation to women, as shown in Cavendish's play and seventeenth-century culture.


In the U.S., the scale and urgency of the climate crisis requires that each level of government — federal, state and local — fully bring their strengths to the table. The possibility of eventual federal reengagement on climate policy puts in question the future roles of state and local governments in carrying out such policies. To take a closer look at which strengths these levels of government can leverage, WRI convened a group of thought leaders among current and former U.S. federal, state and local government officials for a recurring dialogue. Together, they laid out a vision for what climate action could look like at all levels of government and agreed upon a set of "Principles for a New Climate Federalism." This paper sets out the context and findings of the dialogue discussions, and proposes a working federalism framework to delineate roles within a future federal climate policy.


Abstract Many species roost communally but the proximate causes and ultimate functions of this widespread behavior remain poorly understood. We studied the communal roosts of two undescribed species of harvestmen in the genus Prionostemma Pocock 1903 at a Caribbean rainforest site in southeastern Nicaragua. The species are quite similar in gross morphology but differ in body coloration, male genitalia, and roosting behavior. One species roosts primarily on spiny palms while the other species, which is darker in coloration, roosts inside buttress root cavities. In a mark-recapture study, the cavity-roosting species had higher levels of individual site fidelity than found previously in the spiny palm-roosting species, perhaps because suitable cavities are scarcer than spiny palms. The tree cavity aggregations were strongly male-biased, which our review of the literature suggests is unusual for harvestman roosts. The overall sex ratio of the spiny palm aggregations was 1∶1, but some roost sites were strongly male biased while others were strongly female biased. Removing all harvestmen from 10 spiny palm roost sites shifted the overall sex ratio toward males on subsequent days, but the sites with skewed sex ratios remained skewed in the same directions despite complete turnover in roost membership. These results are discussed in relation to mechanisms of roost formation and possible sex differences in vagility, microhabitat preferences and sensitivity to disturbance. Both species also occur at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica but neither forms roosting aggregations in spiny palms or tree cavities there. A possible explanation for the geographic variation is that roosting patterns change over time through cultural drift.


The evolution of antenna technology for man-machine interface has taken quantum leaps in utilizing textile materials as antenna substrates. In future this will allow complete freedom to develop body-worn antenna systems embedded in so- called "smart clothes". Smart clothes will emerge in various sports outfits, emergency workers' outfits, military, medical, space applications and so on. The ability to establish wireless communication link is an essential requirement for smart clothes. In this paper, a circular disk microstrip WLAN antenna for wearable applications has been designed. This wearable antenna meant to meet the Bluetooth specifications has been developed by using copper conducting parts in case I and electro- textile (smart cloth) in case II. In both cases indigo blue jeans cotton fabric is used as the substrate material. Thus the suitability of fabric substrate materials for the development of microstrip patch antennas is also well demonstrated.


A dc power supply in physical vapor deposition (PVD) applications operates as a constant power source during normal operation or as a constant current source during fast micro arcs in the plasma. A two-loop control is usually applied: an external (slower) loop controls the output power, while an internal (fast) loop controls the current. This paper introduces a digital average current mode controller for DC power supplies in PVD applications. The controller provides a current source response to fast disturbances, and enables equal current sharing among buck converter modules operating in parallel. Adaptive adjustments of the compensator gain in the digital current control loop enable operation over wide ranges of output power and voltage. The proposed control strategy is robust and noise insensitive. The current and power control algorithms are implemented on a digital signal processor/field-programmable gate array-based digital control platform using a low-cost 10-bit 500 kS/s analog-to-digital converter. The performance is verified on a 25 kW experimental prototype.


The article presents the results of external analysis of consumer goods sector in Ukraine, one of the largest in Europe which offers a wide range of products: fabrics, garments and knitwear, shoes, hosiery items, natural and artificial fur, leather goods, garment accessories, porcelain, etc. which to a great extent underpins the socioeconomic situation in the society and the state of the national security. However, in recent years the Ukrainian consumer goods industry is facing a large-scale protracted systemic crisis that translates into the ongoing manufacturing decline in major products; the domestic market is almost 90% filled with illegally imported goods and products; at the same time, up to 80% of domestically produced goods are exported onto foreign markets (mainly the European ones). An emphasis is put on critical importance of consumer goods industry in the Ukrainian economy since it contributes to creating new jobs, enhancing the domestic products competitiveness and increasing fiscal inflows to state and local budgets, etc. To assist management entities in their goal setting, the study employs a structured logical framework of a cognitive analysis of the consumer goods market to explore the relationships and interactions within the external and internal environment, as well as identifies the key economic, legal, technological and sociocultural factors of environmental effects on consumer manufacturing performance in Ukraine. Based on the PEST analysis results, weighted estimates to assess the macroeconomic environment factors of consumer goods industry have been provided using a proposed scale with regard to each factor significance indices, since for each of the four groups a different number of these factors have been determined.


A new, self-aligned process technology for AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) has been developed, which is based upon ultrathin (100–200 A) AlGaAs emitter layers. The thin AlGaAs emitter is used as a selective etch stop layer for contacting the p+ base layer and acts as an integral surface passivation layer which eliminates recombination currents in the extrinsic base region. This novel technology yields transistors with emitter dimensions as small as 0.3 × 4.0 µm2 and current gain values independent of emitter area.


Fault tree expert system (FTES) is GUI software based on the local database, which is developed to aid the FT-building work of fluid systems in NPP. The system applies the conception of continuously tracing and standard sub-tree, and uses both synthesis and deduction method of FT building. It has the typical structure of an expert system. By the application of FTES, the quality of level I PSA can be improved.


This article proposes productivity analysis for evaluating the relative efficiency in corporate real estate usage across decision-making units. Using data from the Greek Telecommunications Organization (GTO), we measure the productivity of 127 branches using the number of employees and the total area covered per building as inputs and the number of telephony access lines as outputs. We apply three nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models assuming: Constant Returns to Scale (CRS), Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) and Slacks-Based Measures (SBM), respectively. We discuss how the proposed approach can provide real estate managers and analysts a multi-informational tool that allows the quantification of targets and may serve as a guide tool for the efficient employment of real estate assets.


Abstract The first records of the upper Cambrian agnostoid genera Kormagnostella, E. Romanenko, in Romanenko and Romanenko, 1967, and Biciragnostus F. Ergaliev, in Eraliev and Ergaliev, 2001, in Laurentian North America are from a narrow stratigraphic interval in the Steptoean–Sunwaptan boundary interval (Furongian, Jiangshanian) of Nevada and Utah. In Nevada, both genera occur in a condensed bioclastic lag below a major flooding surface, and Kormagnostella also appears in a transgressive interval in Utah. Immigration of these genera is associated with sea level rise, and also with faunal turnover. Biciragnostus is confined to the latest Elvinia Zone, immediately below the onset of a trilobite and agnostoid extinction event at the base of the Irvingella major Zone (basal Sunwaptan). Kormagnostella is present in the latest Elvinia Zone, and has its highest occurrence in the I. major Zone. Stratigraphic data from the Karatau-Naryn Terrane, Kazakhstan indicate that both genera disappear near the local extinction of Irvingella, suggesting that faunal turnover in that region may have been broadly correlative with the more profound extinction in Laurentia. New species are Kormagnostella advena, K. insolita and Biciragnostus viator.


Individual multi-walled carbon nanotube pullout experiments were used to measure the adhesion strength at a nanotube-epoxy polymer interface. The interfacial strength was found, as expected, to increase when the nanotubes were chemically treated to induce strong bonding with the polymer matrix. At long nanotube embedment lengths within the polymer, the nanotubes were seen to fracture in preference to failure at their interface with the polymer. Interfacial mechanics models are applied to the data to describe interfacial adhesion at the nano-level.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Cystic fibrosis (CF) outcomes and survival have improved over the last century primarily due to advancements in antibiotics, nutritional, and pulmonary therapies. Reviewed here are the significant unmet needs that exist for individuals with CF. Areas covered: With the recent development of medications that address the underlying defect in the CF protein, there is hope that there will be continued improvement in CF outcomes. However, there remains a need to prevent or stop progression of CF-related complications, as the CF protein is important to several body systems. As end stage lung disease is the primary cause of mortality in CF, a need exists for advancements in pulmonary therapies to reduce time burden, identification of best practices for the treatment of pulmonary exacerbations, further development of anti-infective and anti-inflammatory therapies, and appropriately timed referral for lung transplantation at end-stage lung disease. Extra-pulmonary complications are increasingly recognized and better understanding of such problems as CF related liver disease is needed. Expert commentary: While CFTR modulators are available for the majority of CF patients, there remains a need for effective therapies to address infection, inflammation, irreversible lung disease, and extrapulmonary complications of CF.


ABSTRACT Ratites differ distinctively in the anatomy of their digestive tracts. For example, Common Ostriches (Struthio camelus, hereafter Ostriches) have a particularly long, voluminous colon and long, paired caeca; Rheas (Rhea spp.) are characterized by a short colon with particularly prominent paired caeca; and Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) have neither prominent caeca nor a prominent colon. We tested whether digesta excretion patterns corresponded to these differences in anatomy, expecting Ostriches to have the longest and Emus the shortest digesta retention times, and Rheas possibly showing a selective retention of fluids observed in other birds and mammals with prominent caeca. We used 6 Ostriches (97–123 kg), 5 Greater Rheas (R. americana, 22–27 kg), and 2 Emus (32–34 kg) fed a common diet of alfalfa pellets ad libitum in captivity. Intake per unit of metabolic body mass did not differ between Ostriches and Greater Rheas but was significantly higher in Emus, which also displayed higher defecation frequencies and lower fiber digestibility. Mean digesta retention time for small fiber particles (2 mm) differed significantly among species (Ostrich: 30–36 h; Greater Rhea: 7–19 h; Emu: 1.3–1.8 h), but there were no differences between the retention of 2 mm or 8 mm particles or a solute marker within species. The shape of the marker excretion curves corresponded to digesta mixing in the digestive tract of Ostriches and Greater Rheas but not Emus. The calculated dry matter gut fill (% of body mass) was significantly higher in Ostriches (1.6–1.8) than Greater Rheas (0.3–1.0) and Emus (0.2). Ostriches had the highest and Emus the lowest fecal dry matter concentration. These physiological findings match the differences in digestive anatomy and support the concept that in ratites, herbivory—and hence flightlessness—evolved repeatedly in different ways.


Reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS) is used to study anisotropic polymer thin films. The measured spectra are interpreted in terms of molecular orientation at the polymer surface. It is shown that RAS spectra of thin transparent films resemble the logarithmic derivative of the corresponding polarization-averaged reflection spectra. The amplitudes of the spectra are found to be highly sensitive to the optical retardation in the anisotropic layer.


Many studies have attempted to shed light on the ability of non-human animals to understand physical causality by investigating their tool-use behavior. This study aimed to develop a tool-manipulation task for rodents in which the subjects could not manipulate the tool in the direction of the reward by simple patterned behavior. Eight rats had to use a rake-shaped tool to obtain a food reward placed beyond their reach. During the training, the rats never moved the rakes laterally to obtain the reward. However, in the positional discrimination test, the rake was placed at the center of the experimental apparatus, and the reward was positioned on either the left or right side of the rake. Interestingly, this test indicated that some rats were able to manipulate the rake toward the reward without relying on a patterned behavior acquired during the training. These results suggested that rats have the primitive ability to understand causal relationships in the physical environment. The findings indicate that rats can potentially serve as an animal model to investigate the mechanisms of evolution and development of the understanding of physical causality in humans.


Massive small bowel resection (SBR) results in villus angiogenesis and intestinal adaptation. The exact mechanism that causes intestinal villus angiogenesis remains unknown. We hypothesize that hemodynamic changes within the remnant bowel after SBR will trigger intestinal angiogenesis. To validate this, we used photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) to image the microvascular system of the intestine in C57B6 mice and to measure blood flow and oxygen saturation (sO2) of a supplying artery and vein. Baseline measurements were made 6 cm proximal to the ileal-cecal junction (ICJ) prior to resection. A 50% proximal bowel resection was then performed, and measurements were again recorded at the same location immediately, 1, 3 and 7 days following resection. The results show that arterial and venous sO2 were similar prior to SBR. Immediately following SBR, the arterial and venous sO2 decreased by 14.3 ± 2.7% and 32.7 ± 6.6%, respectively, while the arterial and venous flow speed decreased by 62.9 ± 17.3% and 60.0 ± 20.1%, respectively. Such significant decreases in sO2 and blood flow indicate a hypoxic state after SBR. Within one week after SBR, both sO2 and blood flow speed had gradually recovered. By 7 days after SBR, arterial and venous sO2 had increased to 101.0 ± 2.9% and 82.7 ± 7.3% of the baseline values, respectively, while arterial and venous flow speed had increased to 106.0 ± 21.4% and 150.0 ± 29.6% of the baseline values, respectively. Such increases in sO2 and blood flow may result from angiogenesis following SBR.


Until now, support for schizophrenia has meant medication management or coping with symptoms. There are few studies on children whose mothers are affected by a psychiatric disease. However, such children have many problems. The author's mother was a schizophrenic. The mother of Yuki Nakamura who is a cartoonist and the author of "My mother is BYOKI (sick)" was also a schizophrenic. Both the author and Yuki experienced onsets of their mothers' schizophrenia in their childhood. For a child, having a mother affected with a psychiatric disease has an adverse effect from various aspects. In fact, both the author and Yuki spent their adolescence with chronic suicidal thoughts. The purposes of this study were to retrospectively examine the resilience and recovery processes of the author and Yuki, and to examine what kind of approaches are necessary in the future from a forward-looking viewpoint. The author hopes that this study will provide clues to assist in similar cases in the future. Also, the author considers that disclosing the real name of Yuki Nakamura and that the author has a family member with schizophrenia carries significance.


The large volumes of Sentinel-1 data produced over Europe are being used to develop pan-national ground motion services. However, simple analysis techniques like thresholding cannot detect and classify complex deformation signals reliably making providing usable information to a broad range of non-expert stakeholders a challenge. Here we explore the applicability of deep learning approaches by adapting a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect deformation in a national-scale velocity field. For our proof-of-concept, we focus on the UK where previously identified deformation is associated with coal-mining, ground water withdrawal, landslides and tunnelling. The sparsity of measurement points and the presence of spike noise make this a challenging application for deep learning networks, which involve calculations of the spatial convolution between images. Moreover, insufficient ground truth data exists to construct a balanced training data set, and the deformation signals are slower and more localised than in previous applications. We propose three enhancement methods to tackle these problems: i) spatial interpolation with modified matrix completion, ii) a synthetic training dataset based on the characteristics of real UK velocity map, and iii) enhanced over-wrapping techniques. Using velocity maps spanning 2015-2019, our framework detects several areas of coal mining subsidence, uplift due to dewatering, slate quarries, landslides and tunnel engineering works. The results demonstrate the potential applicability of the proposed framework to the development of automated ground motion analysis systems.


As is known to all, e-customers and e-shopping are very popular European and American, while they are very little in China. China, however, has a large number of potential e-customers because of so many people. In addition, it is shown that the number of Chinese e-customers is rising rapidly. Therefore, this paper conducted for markets to survey the on-line customers to complete the research. In order to adapt to the e-commerce and tourism which is developing rapidly in China and to understanding of Chinese Internet travelers, the survey of on-line customers is required. This paper investigates features of the outcome of this on-line segment which attracted 851 responses, by which this paper tried to establish segmental information and identify influential factors of e-customers and e-shopping. By the survey, it shows that the on-line customers who are in the age group of 31-40 and those who live in the Siming of Xiamen are most likely to book travel on-line. Furthermore, type of travel website most visited, length of time using the Internet, domain-specific innovativeness and perception of the internet are key factors of becoming potential bookers.


Drug abuse in competitive sport continues to be pervasive. Numerous explanations have been given for this and the reasons range from performance enhancement (anabolic steroids) to relieving stress and boredom (so-called recreational drugs). Drug testing, strict policies and enforcement, and educational programs have continued to be the main responses to the problem. However, relatively little attention has been given to preventive rather than punitive and curative strategies, particularly with respect to the coach's input. This article offers several cognitive and behavioral approaches for coaches and sport psychology consultants in dealing with drug abuse among athletes. The recommendations are based on personal interactions with hundreds of intercollegiate athletes conducted over a 6-year period and from the extant professional literature.