The purpose of the study was to look critically at the creation of inservice education settings for the teacher in the school society. The premise for the study was based on Seymour Sarason's thesis: "In the case of the problem of the creation of settings (and why so many of them misfire) we do not possess adequate case histories, less because of faulty conceptions than because it has hardly been conceptualized as a problem" (Sarason, 1976, p. 165). Inservice education leaders of three public school systems in Piedmont North Carolina were interviewed. Reports, survey data, standard forms, program offerings, and other mimeographed materials were studied in order to obtain a mental profile of the inservice programs.


The fastest growing population of children in foster care today is quite young, and many of these children have significant health care needs. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that children in foster care "are among the most vulnerable individuals in the welfare population" (GAO, 1995, p. 1). Poverty, increased homelessness, substance abuse, and a rise in the incidence of persons with HIV all contribute to the problems faced by these children. The Caring Communities for Children in Foster Care Project, funded by the Maternal Child Health Bureau Integrated Services Medical Home Initiative with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), investigated the availability of comprehensive health care services for children in foster care. The AAP recommends that pediatricians serve as the primary health care provider for children in foster care and also as consultants to child welfare agencies. Pediatric nurses play a crucial role in providing health care services to children in foster care. With an increased understanding of the potential physical and mental health care needs of children in foster care and the important role of foster parents, pediatric nurses can increase the likelihood of positive health outcomes for children in foster care.


. [Purpose] Electromyography (EMG) is a random signal recording process that fully depends on proper electrode placement on the active muscle. The present study investigated and analyzed the electrical (amplitude) responses from three different locations of an adolescent's biceps brachii muscle during four contractions (con-centric, eccentric, isometric and isokinetic) using a wireless EMG sensor. [Subjects and Methods] One healthy male subject (age: 17 years, weight: 60 kg, height: 171 cm, BMI: 20.7, right arm biceps muscle) volunteered for the study. A Shimmer TM wireless EMG sensor (non-invasive technique) was used in this experiment and MVC% was set to 0% and 100% with a 6-kg load. Electrode placement locations on the biceps were, i) between the endplate region and distal tendon insertion ii) in the midst of the muscle belly, and iii) above the medial belly of both head parallel to muscle fibers (long and short head biceps tendon). Statistical analyses were performed to examine the significant differences among the three electrode placements were determined by ANOVA (analysis of variances). [Results] The muscle belly gave significantly higher EMG activity than the other two locations. The medial belly muscle (long and short head biceps tendon) gave a considerably higher signal than the lower part muscle (near the endplate and tendon region). [Conclusion] The overall outcomes demonstrate that, EMG signals varied among the three electrode placements of an adolescent biceps brachii muscle. Generated results will be useful for adolescent's biceps rehabilitation and any other physiological measurement that concern the upper arm muscles.


Hypertension is the world's leading cause of mortality and morbidity. One of the phenomena that commonly occur in hypertensive as well as normotensive patients, is morning hypertension. Blood pressure (BP) follows a diurnal rhythm, reaching its highest level during the morning hours and dropping to the lowest level at midnight. Transient increases in BP in morning hypertension plus persistent stressors within 24 hours are thought to increase target organ damage and trigger cardiovascular events. Therefore, ambulatory BP monitoring or morning home BP monitoring is recommended as a strong predictor of cardiovascular events. There are two types of morning hypertension according to its underlying mechanisms; the first one is called nocturnal hypertensive morning hypertension, and the other one is morning-surge hypertension. Numerous studies have proved that this phenomenon often leads to several acute cardiovascular events, such as stroke, coronary artery disease, and peripheral artery disease. To prevent these complications, cost-effective management is needed, especially for identifying accurate diagnostic tools, as well as creating specific regimens. Therefore, to achieve appropriate management of hypertension, including morning hypertension, long-acting antihypertensive drugs should be used, at full doses and in the form of combination therapy. The clinical usefulness of antihypertensive drugs with specific mechanisms for morning BP or split or timed dosing of long-acting drugs in controlling morning BP remains under investigation. More studies are needed, especially looking for other clinical evidence of the benefits of lowering BP in the morning. Home BP monitoring is recommended as a good choice for BP measurements, especially in the primary care setting.


Based on the data from Taiwan's Elderly Health and Living Status Survey (Bureau of Health Promotion, 2003), in this paper an analysis was carried out of the sources and levels of income of Taiwan elderly and their correlation with sex, age, education, marital status, and number of children. We found that elderly men tended to have higher levels of income and more institutional income sources than women did, and that elderly women relied more on personal sources of income. Elderly people who had been married and who had many children were found to have lower income than did those with few children. Reduced work and spouse's death were identified as the 2 events most likely to cause income change for the elderly between 1989 and 2000.


Commercial intelligence is proceed t wise (intelligence) and exact new approach and architecture that of course containing set of analytic and application programs, that on the strength of analytic and operation data bases it is help to decision making for commercial intelligence and business activities statistical population of this study including 500 (N=500) individual of the Tehran Samen credit institution personnel. In this study, the tool (device) for data collection is standard questionnaire of commercial intelligence and decision making in banking services area. The results show that, the organizational, has a meaningful and positive effect on decision making in banking services area. In other side, information quality on decision making in banking services area has a meaningful and positive effect, because the significant level was smaller than the error value %5, and the absolute value of statistic ((t)) was bigger than the table value 1/96.


Most of the best performing PSPMT tubes from Hamamatsu and Burle are designed with a pad-matrix anode layout. However, for obtaining a high resolution, a small-sized anode photomultiplier tubes are preferable; these tubes may have 64, 256 or 1024 anodes per tube. If the tubes are used in array to get a larger area detector, the number of analog channels may range from hundreds to thousands. Multichannel analog readout requires special electronics ICs, ASICs etc., which are attached to multichannel DAQ system. As a result, the data file and data processing time will be increased. Therefore, this readout could not be performed in a small project. Usually, most of radiation imaging applications allow the use of analog data processing in front-end electronics, significantly reducing the number of the detector's output lines to data acquisition without reducing the image quality. The idea of pad-matrix decoupling circuit with gain correction was invented and intensively tested in JLab. Several versions of PSPMT readout electronics were produced and studied. All developments were done and optimized specifically for radiation imaging projects. They covered high resolution SPECT, high speed PET, fast neutron imaging, and single tube and multi tube array systems. This paper presents and discusses the summary of the observed results in readout electronics evaluation with different PSPMTs and radiation imaging systems, as well as the advantages and limitations of the developed approach to radiation imaging detectors readout.


Based upon an analysis of about 3 400 roentgenologic pelvimetries pelvic measurements likely to provide information regarding constriction of the inlet and of the distal par t of the pelvis are examined. T h e value of a knowledge of the morphologic appearance of the pelvis is also discussed. After an analysis of the indications for roentgenologic mensuration of the pelvis the authors argue that if these were m a d e stricter fewer pregnant women would be submitted to roentgenologic examination. In another section of the book, the incidence of pelvic constric tion is investigated. Constriction of the inlet has become a rare occurrence during the past decade, while constriction of the outlet has not changed, with the result that the latter type now seems to be commoner than the former. From their results the authors present a new method of making pelvic measurements which provides exact information on the length of the diameters of significance for diagnosis. In working out this method great importance was placed on the roentgen doses, which the authors have been able to reduce considerably. Autoreview


The Texas Panhandle has a significant concentration of corn under center pivot irrigation with various application methods (e.g., low energy precision applicator, or LEPA, mid- or lowelevation spray, etc.). Producers in this area, however, are showing interest in cotton, which has a similar revenue potential with a reduced irrigation requirement. Although this area is adjacent to one of the largest cotton producing areas in the United States (centered around Lubbock), the limited growing season (length and lower cumulative growing degree days) and undeveloped industry infrastructure (gins, custom harvesters, etc.) have limited the northward expansion of cotton. We hypothesized that subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), which has been successfully adopted by cotton producers elsewhere, would result in less evaporative cooling following an irrigation event compared with sprinkler methods. This would increase heat unit accumulation and promote earlier maturity. We evaluated lint yield, water use efficiency, and fiber quality for several irrigation methods (SDI, LEPA, and spray) and several irrigation capacities (dryland, 25%, 50%, 75%, and full irrigation) during the 2003 season. We did not observe any clear differences in growth and maturity rates among irrigation methods. However, final lint yield and water use efficiency were greater with SDI under low irrigation capacities (25% and 50% of full irrigation), and increased with LEPA and spray under full irrigation. Fiber quality, as indicated by total discount, was greater with SDI for all capacities except full irrigation. We are continuing this experiment for two more seasons.


Abstract Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic cancer worldwide, and the therapeutic options are limited. PARP inhibitor (PARPi) represents an effective therapeutic strategy and has been approved for maintenance therapy. However, the intrinsic or acquired resistance to PARPi becomes a big challenge. To investigate the mechanisms for PARPi resistance, we analysed public databases and established Olaparib‐resistant ovarian cancer cells for exploration. Our results showed that the inflammatory pathway and adenosine receptor A2b (Adora2b/A2B) expression were significantly increased in Olaparib‐resistant cells. A2B was highly expressed in recurrent ovarian tumours and negatively correlated with the clinical outcomes in cancer patients. Olaparib treatment enhanced A2B expression through NF‐κB activation. The elevated A2B contributed to Olaparib resistance by sensing adenosine signal and promoting tumour cell survival, growth and migration via IL‐6‐STAT3 signalling. Therefore, inhibition of A2B‐IL‐6‐STAT3 axis could overcome Olaparib resistance and synergize with Olaparib to reduce cancer cell growth and lead to cell death. Our findings reveal a critical role of A2B signalling in mediating PARPi resistance independent of DNA damage repair, providing insights into developing novel therapies in ovarian cancers.


Objective: Over 40 million Americans provide informal caregiving to adults, which can negatively impact their personal life and their physical and mental health. The purpose of this study was to describe social support and coping strategies among prostate cancer family caregivers and to assess for racial/ethnic differences. Methods: Secondary data analysis of baseline data from the Managing Uncertainty in Stage B Prostate Cancer Study was conducted. This longitudinal randomized experimental intervention study enrolled Caucasian and African‐American men with localized prostate cancer and their primary family caregivers residing in North Carolina from 1993–1998. 120 Caucasian and 49 African‐American female family caregivers of prostate cancer patients were included in the analysis. We compared means of social support amount and satisfaction and utilization of coping strategies by race/ethnicity group. Results: Racial/ethnic differences exist in the amount of social support received and some coping methods. However, there was no variation in satisfaction with social support by race or ethnicity. Conclusions: Results suggest that though Caucasian and African‐American female family caregivers differ in the amount of social support received, the level of satisfaction with the support tends to be consistent across race/ethnic groups. Racial/ethnic differences in coping methods need to be elucidated since the way of coping may reflect important sociocultural factors. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):B11.


The experiments on rats showed that of 16 studied imidazo [1,2-a]benzimidazole derivatives only the compounds with phenyl at the second carbon atom and nitrogen-containing radical of the ninth nitrogen atom inhibit the gastric acid secretion. The binding of oxymethyl group to phenyl, its substitution through adamantyl, displacement of nitrogen-containing substitute to the first nitrogen atom or its substitution were found to decrease or stop the inhibiting action of these substances on the gastric parietal cells. Dihydrochloride 2-phenyl-9 (beta-diethyl-aminoethyl)imidazo [1,2-a]denzimidazole was more potent than cimetidine and omeprazole in inhibiting the gastric acid secretion, pepsin output and antiulcer action.


Grove Mountains (GRV) 99018 is a new eucrite (0.23 g), consisting mainly of pyroxene (50.5 vol%) and plagioclase (37.2 vol%) with minor silica minerals (7.0 vol%) and opaque minerals (5.2 vol%). It was intensely shocked,leading to partial melting, formation of abundant tiny inclusions in pyroxenes and plagioclase, and heavy brecciation.Exsolution of most pyroxenes (1-3 μm in width of the lamellae), recrystallization of the shock-induced melt pockets and veins (5-20 μm in size), and homogeneous compositions of pyroxenes of various occurrences suggest the intense thermal metamorphism of GRV 99018 in the asteroidal body Vesta. This new eucrite will bring additional constraints on the chemical composition and multi-stage thermal and shock history of Vesta.


Background: Women with diabetes in pregnancy (type 1, type 2 and gestational) are at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes which also include infant development of congenital heart disease and even fetal death. Adequate glycemic control before and during pregnancy is crucial to improve outcome. Aim of the study: to observe the significance of the cardiac complication seen in new born of diabetic mother and its relation to glycemic control. Patients and methods: This prospective study was conducted in the nursery care unit in children welfare teaching hospital from the period 1st of July 2014 till 30th of June 2015 where one hundred newborns of diabetic mother were collected and screened by echocardiography for congenital heart disease. Those mothers were classified according to White classification, and the babies were classified according to their maturity to (full term, pre term and post term), in reference to their mode of delivery (Spontaneous vaginal delivery or caesarian section) and to their body weight. Results: One hundred newborns where collected, 61 male and 39 female. Male to female ratio was 1.5:1; 60% were normal with no cardiac complication, 40% had congenital heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy  23%, atrial septal defect 7 %, patent ductus arteriosus 3% and ventricular septal defect 2%, 1% Transposition of great arteries, 1% Trancus arteriosus, 1% Double outlet right ventricle, 1% Tricuspid atrasia and 1% coartication of aorta, it was found that there is a significant relationship between the type of diabetes of the mother and the development of congenital heart disease in infants (p value 0.02); the degree of glycemic control according to HBA1c of the mother  and development of congenital heart disease in infants (p value 0.005); birth weight of the infants and the congenital heart disease (p value 0.023), death was reported in only 2%. Conclusions: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was the most common type of congenital heart disease in infants of diabetic mothers. Most of infants of diabetic mothers were full term, delivered by caesarian section and their birth weights were more than 4 kg; Congenital heart disease in infants were more common in mothers with uncontrolled diabetes during pregnancy. Pregestational diabetes mellitus mothers are more liable to deliver babies with congenital heart disease than those with gestational diabetes mellitus. Keywords: Congenital heart disease, Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, Gestational diabetes.


The finite-difference method is widely used in the formulation of a mathematical representation of the solidification process in metal/mold systems. When complex geometries have to be analyzed, precision of simulations will depend on a multigrid computational scheme covering the spatial domain, which can represent a significant increase in computational time. The present work proposes an approach that modifies the finite-difference network from thermal to electrical elements, permitting a flexible and versatile representation and connection between grid patterns, and consequently an easier transmittal of information at these boundaries. Results of simulations have shown that the proposed approach provides good numerical accuracy and substantial savings in computational time and computer storage requirements, due mainly to the significant reduction of number of elements within the computational domain.


By taking advantage of readily available industrial devices, used in conjunction with a simple auxiliary circuit, an efficient inexpensive blood-flow measuring system can be obtained. As a further advantage, the preamplifier and demodulator-recorder may be detached and used for other purposes. Flow recordings obtained with this system appear to equal or better recordings obtained with commercial integrated electromagnetic blood-flow measuring systems in regard to both frequency response and noise level. The system also exhibits high reliability and ease of operation as well as portability.


Resveratrol (RES) suffers from poor water solubility and extensive metabolism, which lead to low bioavailability. A phospholipid complex (PC) containing RES and a UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) inhibitor was prepared to address these two limiting factors, thereby improving RES bioavailability. First, 11 natural active ingredients metabolized by similar enzyme subtypes to RES were screened in a glucuronidation assay in liver microsomes. Then, glycyrrhetinic acid (GA), the strongest inhibitor, was prepared with RES in a PC. RES-PC was prepared as a control. As expected, the water solubility and the cumulative dissolution of RES were significantly enhanced by RES-PC and RES/GA-PC. Compared with the RES group, the AUC0-10 of RES and resveratrol-3-glucuronide (R-3-G) in the RES/GA-PC group showed increases of 2.49- and 1.70-fold, respectively, with the proportion of RES absorption to total absorption increasing 1.45 times. These results demonstrated that RES/GA-PC could improve the bioavailability of RES by increasing its water solubility and inhibiting its glucuronidation.


Nondeterministic finite-state machines (NFSM's) are a powerful tool for specifying the desired behavior of a sequential system along with its degrees of freedom. Moreover, nondeterministic machines arise naturally when considering the optimization problem of interacting synchronous circuits or deterministic finite-state machines. Yet, NFSM's have been considered only recently in the literature. In this paper, we present algorithms for synthesizing a minimum state implementation of a specification NFSM. The algorithm is a generalization of the classical method for incompletely specified machines, with several modifications. We also introduce the notion of equivalence between compatibility classes and a novel formulation of the closure problem to eliminate unnecessary classes and implications, so as to speed up substantially the search of the optimum solution. A novel BDD-based implementation technique is also presented, which avoids the explicit representation of the transition relation of the original NFSM.


The J14 social protest movement in Israel (2011) began as a protest against the high cost of living, and most prominently, the inflated cost of housing. However, it quickly became the site of an emerging public discourse regarding the relationship between power and one's home, whether material dwelling or the universe of meanings associated with home, homeland, citizenship, nationality and ethnicity. This article explores the ways in which expressive culture—musical, visual and discursive—provided the engine for envisioning and contesting new imaginaries of home and contextualizing political action within the protest. A focus on Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Palestinian city, highlights the ways in which expressive culture negotiated inherent tensions surrounding the meanings of 'home' that were brought into the open in Israel's marginalized peripheries.


The study covered a drug driver system that can be used for continuous glucose monitoring system intended to drive a pump that will administer insulin for the purpose of combating diabetes. The system begins with a microcontroller unit having an analog voltage input that is derived from a calibrated linearity curve relative to that of glucose concentration, the microcontroller algorithm processes the data and determines whether an output of insulin or glucagon is needed. The output of the microcontroller unit is a time variable pulse which is dependent on the glucose concentration reading. Separately, a full custom IC design is conducted for an actual drug driver circuit for the purpose of miniaturization to make the system viable for implantation. The hardware test for the microcontroller unit indicates that the algorithm can be used to properly read glucose concentrations and provide an output accordingly. However, there are delays within the microcontroller which affect the response of the output. For the full custom IC design of the drug driver circuit, it is observed that the parasitic capacitances and resistances affect the propagation delay and power dissipation of the circuit but can still be used in a drug driver system.


Enaminones were efficiently prepared via modification for Gupton method, which depends on carrying out the latter procedure in one step reaction, avoiding the isolation of (3-(dimethylamino)-2-azaprop-2-en-l- ylidene)dimethylammonium chloride (Gold's reagent) (5) which is prepared in situ from cyanuric chloride (4) then it reacts successfully with ketone la-j to produce the enaminones 3a-j in suitable yields. The modified method overcomes the drawbacks of the known methods for preparation of enaminones.


The feasibility of four TDMA based radio interfaces for UMTS to provide up to a 2 Mbit/s service is studied. GSM compatible multicarrier and single carrier solutions with binary and multilevel offset QAM modulation are shown to be feasible for micro-cells and indoor cells. Instead, in a macro-cell environment, relatively poor capacity (2 users/cell/24 MHz operator band) for 2 Mbit/s users can be achieved with the limited cell size (<2 km). In a micro-cell (dense urban linear street), and in an indoor cell environment with good isolation between cells, the system with quaternary offset QAM modulation provides a larger capacity than the system with binary offset QAM modulation and reasonable cell range. Interference cancellation seems to have great potential especially in a micro-cellular network.


Abstract Clear empirical evidence has been found on how significant changes to a person's environment can alter their behaviour. This is important when considering investments made on the stock exchange as the variations that occur in stock market prices are frequent and continuous. This study analyses the role instability has on individual investors' behaviour when investing in the stock market. The results suggest that instability in investment situations plays a significant role in individual investors' behaviour, probably due to the emotional effect provoked by the possibility of suddenly losing savings. This would modify the perception investors have about investing as well as their intentions, attitudes and feelings of control in regards to investment in financial markets, thus hindering the capacity to predict their behaviour.


This paper presents the basic elements of a computational theory of discourse structure that simplifies and expands upon previous work. By specifying the basic units a discourse comprises and the ways in which they can relate, an account of discourse structure provides the basis for an account of discourse meaning. The paper distinguishes three components of discourse structure: one linguistic, one intentional, and one attentional. The theory, although still incomplete, provides a basis for investigating the structure and meaning of discourse, as well as for constructing "discourse processing systems."


A decrease of electrophoretic mobility of the blood red cell under the influence of the microwave and thermal field is determined by the mechanism based on two effects--change of the ionic conductivity and visco-elastic properties of the membrane.


This paper uses a representative sample of French companies to investigate how employee ownership influences business performance. A key focus is to determine whether the impact is linear and whether it varies with the proxy used for company outcomes. Empirical results unanimously point to a significant non-linear influence by employee shareholding on company performance, which declines when employee ownership is low or high, but rises when it is in the mid range. Accordingly, companies should consider implementing plans that promote employee shareholding as a way to enhance motivation and commitment and so improve performance, while bearing in mind that ownership should not exceed a certain threshold to avoid potential drawbacks. Investors should target companies with medium levels of employee ownership as they are likely to be more profitable. The paper's findings are consistent with Herzberg's two-factor theory of hygiene and motivator factors, suggesting that share ownership plans alone are not sufficient to promote employee satisfaction, commitment and motivation, but should be combined with other factors to build success. Companies and investors alike can draw useful insights from this research.


This paper presents the experimental set-up and the measurement procedures of the photovoltage technique and reports a photovoltage spectroscopy study of the subband structures and the optical transitions in AlAs/GaAs superlattices at different temperatures ranging from 18 to 300 K. Below 100 K, the photovoltage spectra reflect the step-like distribution of the two-dimensional state density, and a sequence of distinct exciton transition peaks have been observed. The peaks are identified according to the selection rule of optical transitions and the calculated results. The experiments show that the photovoltage changes considerably with temperature. The mechanisms for the photovoltaic effect of superlattice and quantum well structures are given and the changes in photovoltage with temperature are discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to investigate the differences between the foods, energy and nutrient intakes of normal weight and overweight/obese adolescents.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
To this end, a survey was made of the food, energy and nutrient intake of 60 adolescents. The subjects kept a 5-day dietary record, including one Sunday. Adolescents were divided into two study groups:overweight and obese subjects (S; with a body mass index-BMI > or = 23 Kg/m2, 75th percentile) and subjects of normal weight (PN; BMI < 23 Kg/m2).

RESULTS
We found no differences in the energy intake between obese and normal adolescents. Imbalances in the contribution of macronutrients to the total energy intake appear greater in overweight/obese adolescents with a greater proportion of their energy from fats and a lower percentage of their energy from carbohydrates. In addition, S subjects take-in significantly larger amounts of cholesterol. The situation was worse in S women who took 50% of their calories derived from fat, 21.9% from proteins and only 27.5% of their calories were derived from carbohydrates.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that the most significant finding of this survey is that the diet composition, rather than energy consumption, was the main factor responsible for obesity in both young men and women. Our results suggest that a diet higher in fat and lower in carbohydrates, independent of total energy intake, may contribute to obesity in adolescents.


Using tropical cyclone (TC) best track and intensity of the western North Pacific data from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) of the United States and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data for the period of 1992-2002, the effects of vertical wind shear on TC intensity are examined. The samples were limited to the westward or northwestward moving TCs between 5°N and 20°N in order to minimize thermodynamic effects. It is found that the effect of vertical wind shear between 200 and 500 hPa on TC intensity change is larger than that of the shear between 500 and 850 hPa, while similar to that of the shear between 200 and 850 hPa. Vertical wind shear may have a threshold value, which tends to decrease as TC intensifies. As the intensifying rate of TC weakens, the average shear increases. The large shear has the obvious trend of inhibiting TC development. The average shear of TC which can develop into typhoon (tropical depression or tropical storm) is below 7 m s-1 (above 8 m s-1).


In the present study 20 old genotypes of maize from Hungary, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic were evaluated for the total seed storage proteins using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) through vertical slab unit. The number of total scorable protein bands was twentythree as a result of SDS-PAGE technique but those that were not cosistent in reproducibility and showed occasional variation in sharpness and density were not considered. Out of twenty three polypeptide bands, 6 (31%) were commonly present in all accessions and considered as monomorphic, while 17 (65%) showed variations and considered as polymorphic. On the basis of banding profiles of proteins of different kDa, gel was divided into zones A, B and C. The major protein bands were lied in zones A and B, while minor bands were present in zones C. In zone A out of 10 protein bands, 1 were monomorphic and 9 were polymorphic. In zone B out of 8 protein bands, 3 was monomorphic and 5 was polymorphic and in zone C out of 5 protein bands, 2 were monomorphic whereas 3 polymorphic. The dendrogram tree demonstrated the relationship among the twenty registered old maize genotypes according to the similarity index, using UPGMA cluster analysis. The dendrogram was divided into three main clusters. The first one contained one genotype from maize, the second cluster contained one genotype of maize and third cluster contained 18 genotypes of maize. Similarly the present study of genetic variability in the seed storage polypeptide determined by SDS-PAGE technique proved that it is fruitful to identify genetic diversity among accessions of maize.


The ultrastructures and cytochemistry of pollen grains with different longevities of three grass species, rice (Oryza sativa L.), maize (Zea mays L.) and pennisetum (Pennisetum alopecuroides Spreng.), were studied by transmission electron microscopy. The pollen wall of rice is the thinnest and that of pennisetum the thickest. The exine of rice pollen grains is loose and porous with communication channels, or microchannels, and thick columellae, but that of pennisetum pollen grains is very dense and nearly without microchannels and columellae. The tectum of pennisetum pollen wall is also the thickest of the three species. In the pollen walls of rice and maize, the microchannels traverse the tectum and foot layer. The exinous microchannels are slightly more abundant in rice pollen wall than in pennisetum pollen wall and the intines of the pollen walls of rice and pennisetum have higher electron densities than that of maize. In rice pollen wall glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) are located in the exine, mainly on the surface, along the microchannels and in the spaces between columellae, and in the intine. However, they occur mainly in the intine of maize pollen wall and on the surface of pennisetum pollen wall. Under natural conditions, rice's thinnest pollen wall with richer exinous microchannels, G6PD and SDH, appears to be related to the short life of the pollen grains, while the opposite characteristics of pennisetum pollen grains are associated with greater longevity.


This bibliography supplements the articles in this volume of the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (J. ALWD) by setting out a list of other works that have been written in the growing area of legal writing scholarship that relates classical and contemporary rhetoric theory to the practice of professional legal writing. The scope of this bibliography is limited in two ways. First, the works listed here focus primarily on how rhetoric theory applies to the discipline of legal writing. While rhetoric is a discipline unto itself, only a few works on general rhetoric theory have been listed here. The first limitation implies the second. This bibliography lists works that focus on rhetoric theory and legal writing; it does not list more generally works that focus on rhetoric theory and "the law." The works listed are broken into two main groups which correspond with the two main schools of rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric and Contemporary Rhetoric.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Virtual Science Laboratory (ViSLab) on signaling principles towards science laboratory safety training. It is because students' laboratory practices and attitudes were lacking when traditional approaches to safety training seem like ineffective. Therefore, the design and develop of VR tools with signaling representation in 3D and constructivist learning environment would increase the potential of the way people acquire new knowledge by physical manipulation of objects and concepts, which in turn, allows the learner to physically see causal relationships between action and result. The lesson of the science laboratory safety is developed in two different modes, Virtual Reality with Signaling (VRS) and Virtual Reality Non Signaling (VRNS). A 22 × quasi experimental factorial design is adopted in this research. The independent variables were the two modes of courseware. The moderator variable is the spatial ability. The dependant variable is the post test score. The study sample consisted of 31 students. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were carried out to examine the main effects as well as the interaction effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The pre-test scores are used as the covariate variable. The findings of this study showed that the use of Virtual Reality with Signaling (VRS) treatment mode helped pupils perform significantly better than Virtual Reality Non Signaling (VRNS) in learning science laboratory safety. Overall, Virtual Reality with Signaling (VRS) needs to be considered in the design and development of Virtual Science Laboratory (ViSLab) to promote more effective learning. Keyword: Virtual Reality, Science Laboratory Safety; Signaling Principles.


The ultimate aim of any meaningful educational activity is palpable value addition to the quality of life of the beneficiaries and the society and not the acquisition of a certificate per se. There is an apparent and bothersome tendency for stakeholders in the education system to lay disproportionate emphasis on 'passing examinations' and obtaining certificates to the detriment of acquisition of useful skills that are necessary for enhancement living standards of inhabitants of developing countries. This paper examines agricultural education in relation to the need to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development in Nigeria. Nigeria currently has the largest agricultural education system in Africa. Specifically, the paper presents an overview of contemporary agricultural education in Nigeria, the current problems and prospects of agricultural production, and the connection between agriculture, poverty, and sustainable development in Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper argues for a far-reaching revision of higher agricultural education core curriculum and concludes that a more virile and realistic agricultural education system (incorporating formal and non-formal sub-systems) is imperative for the attainment of significant poverty reduction and sustainable development in Nigeria. Finally, a robust use of information and communication technology was recommended to enhance the relevance of the agricultural education system.


The contribution of some amino acids (i.e., arginine, proline, serine, alanine, threonine) to the buffering capacity of wine using model solutions is established. Although amino acids have no buffering capacities at the pH of wine (2.9 to 4.0), they increase the buffering capacity of a 40 mM tartaric acid solution, even at concentrations found in champagne wines. In contrast, when they are added to a 40 mM malic acid solution, they induce no changes in the buffering capacity. It appears that the changes in the buffering capacity depend on the nature of the amino acid used, its concentration, and the medium used. For a 40-mM tartaric acid solution, additions of 400 mg/L of each amino acid increase the buffering capacity from 21% in water to 36.8% in an hydroalcoholic medium (11%, v/v).


In our study buffalo kidney cystatin (BKC) is transformed from native conformation to amyloid fibrils when incubated with 20 mM glyoxal for a prolonged time period. These amyloid fibrils are at the heart of a number of pathological disorders. In the presence of 10 mM glyoxal, BKC retained native‐like secondary structure, decreased intrinsic and increased ANS fluorescence was observed, characteristics of molten globule state (MG), thus suggesting the occurrence of MG state at this concentration. At 20 mM glyoxal, BKC aggregates were characterized by a further decrease in ANS fluorescence attributable to internalization of hydrophobic clusters owing to protein‐protein interaction. Circular dichroism and FTIR spectroscopy further revealed the existence of β sheet structure and there was an increase in Thioflavin T fluorescence, Rayleigh light scattering, turbidity as well as red shift in congo red absorbance thus confirming the existence of aggregates. We have also studied the anti‐aggregation effect of polyol, quinic acid making use of various above mentioned biophysical assays. Our proposed work strongly favors the formation of BKC aggregates in the presence of glyoxal, which is present in higher amounts in pathological conditions owing to defective glycolysis pathway and also use of polyol as an antifibrillating agent. © 2016 IUBMB Life, 68(2):156–166, 2016


Adhesions (A) can form within the peritoneal cavity after abdominal surgery, especially if there is an underlying inflammatory condition such as appendicitis (B) or inflammatory bowel disease. The incidence of adhesive intestinal obstruction following a laparotomy is approximately 2%. Most adhesive obstructions occur within 3 months of the laparotomy, and 80% occur within 2 years. Adhesive obstructions tend to be more common in children than in adults.


A model to predict Septoria tritici blotch (STB) and leaf rust effects on wheat growth was constructed and evaluated in two steps. At the leaf scale, Bastiaans' approach that predicts the relative photosynthesis of a wheat leaf infected with a single disease, was extended to the case of two diseases, one biotrophic and one necrotrophic by considering the leaf rust-STB complex. A glasshouse experiment with flag leaves inoculated either singly with one disease or with two diseases combined was performed to check the leaf damage model. No interaction of the two diseases on photosynthesis loss was observed when they occurred simultaneously on the same leaf. In a second step, the single-leaf model was extended to the canopy scale to model the effects of the leaf rust-STB complex on the growth of a wheat crop. The model predicts the effects of disease on the growth of an affected crop relative to the growth of a healthy crop. The canopy model accounted for different contributions to photosynthetic activity of leaf layers, derived from their position in the canopy and their natural leaf senescence. Treatments differing in nitrogen fertilization, microclimatic conditions, and wheat cultivars were implemented in a field experiment to evaluate the model. The model accurately estimated the effect of disease on crop growth for each cultivar, with differences from experimental values lower than 10%, which suggests that this model is well suited to aid an understanding of disease effects on plant growth. A reduction in green leaf area was the main effect of disease in these field experiments and STB accounted for more than 70% of the reduction in plant growth. Simulations suggested that the production of rust spores may result in a loss of biomass from diseased crops and that stem photosynthesis may need to be considered in modelling diseased crop growth.


A pleuro pulmonary blastoma (PPB) is a very rare and aggressive malignant tumour of lung in infants and children. Varying clinical and radiological presentation of pleuro pulmonary blastoma has been described. In this report, we are reporting an infant who presented with respiratory distress due to large bullae of the left lung and diagnosed to have pleuro pulmonary blastoma of the lung. bleeding. However follow-up is required to ensure complete resolution of the haemorrhage and to rule out a true adrenal mass. We report a case of unilateral adrenal haemorrhage secondary to motor vehicle accident.


The Presapiens theory, suggesting completely separate lineages leading to Neandertals and to Homo sapiens, has recently received a number of setbacks. However, the discovery of two hominids at Vertesszollos could be corroborating evidence. The teeth of the first individual were described as those of Homo erectus, as were most features of the second, represented by an occipital. The two main characteristics used to support the Homo sapiens classification of the second individual are the long lambda-opisthion chord and the high cranial capacity, based on a regression using the lambda-opisthion chord. However, the real position of lambda is obscured by the presence of wormian bones, and the regression used to predict capacity was derived from a sample with more Neandertals than Homo erectus specimens. A comparative treatment of the morphological features and recalculation of the regression suggests that separating the occipital from Homo erectus is not justified. Other evidence indicates Homo erectus specimens as big as Vertesszollos 2. It is unlikely that two hominid lineages occur in the Mid-Pleistocene.


Between 1999 and 2004, 160 badger carcasses (mainly road casualties and culled animals) were collected in a 600-km2 rural area of Western Switzerland (Broye region). Body and fur inspections indicated that 88.4% of the animals were infested with at least one of the following ectoparasite categories: lice (76.0%), ticks (57.5%) and fleas (19.7%). Nevertheless, the number of parasites was low, in average 2.6 fleas, 4.8 ticks and/or 17.1 lice per infested animal. No significant intersexual and age-related differences (adults vs subadults, adults vs young) were found as concerns prevalence and abundance of ectoparasites. The lower, and more constant infection by fleas in the course of the year, is concordant with the hypothesis which proposes that badgers frequently switch sleeping places in order to avoid a build up of ectoparasites in the nest material. It remains unclear whether the low loads of ticks and lice recorded in both low and high density badger populations are due to the efficiency of auto- and allo-grooming in this species, to frequent replacement or aeration of the bedding material by individual badgers, or to another, yet to be discovered mechanism. Further studies are needed to clarify whether these results are therefore indicative of a limited role of Eurasian badgers as a potential reservoir of diseases transmitted by ectoparasites.


Background: The emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis tuberculosis (MDR-TB) poses a significant danger to Nigeria's TB control efforts. Nigeria records 570000 new TB cases each year, and it is one of the world's greatest TB-burden countries as well as one of the top ten countries with MDR-TB. This study aimed to determine the MDR prevalence, phylogenetic analysis, and molecular mapping as well as the link between MDR prevalence and demographic data. Methods: The study comprised 100 TB patients recruited consecutively. The proportion method on Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium was used for drug susceptibility testing. Conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used, and the rrs genes were amplified and sequenced. Multiple sequence alignment techniques were used to compare the PCR product sequences to reference sequences retrieved from GenBank. Results: Rifampicin (RIF) resistance was found in 29% (22.75), ethambutol resistance was found in 20% (15.75), and isoniazid (INH) resistance was found in 28% (21.75). Further, RIF and INH resistance were found in 20% (15.75) of the samples. At nucleotide position 892, four isolates (31%) contained a G-A transition, and the most prevalent mutation found in the rrs gene was S531L (80%, 12.15). The phylogenetic analysis indicated that three of the Sokoto isolates are closely linked to reference isolates from Iran, Germany, China, and Sudan in terms of geographical relatedness. Conclusions: The obtained data revealed that acquired resistance is a major factor in the establishment of MDR-TB in Sokoto, which could be owing to poor adherence to medication or poor treatment of TB patients.


Introduction During the summer of 2004, the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries commenced a two-year project to create a resource-based research and educational web site titled Green 'N' Growing: The History of Home Demonstration and 4-H Youth Development in North Carolina. This was undertaken in three stages. The first was to digitize more than 21,000 unique images and pages of text held by the NCSU Libraries' Special Collections Research Center and the North Carolina State Archives and to make these available via the Internet. The second was to provide "added value" by enhancing intellectual access to the digital objects through subject lists, geographic headings, and brief narrative essays. The third was to design a web site to guide research and classroom use of the digitized resources.


Purpose. To summarize our knowledge of the economic impact of smoking on health-related outcomes and to discuss the quality of this evidence. The potential effect of smoking-related health promotion programs on reducing costs is discussed. Data Sources. Studies reviewed were cited in recently published reviews, identified through database searches of MEDLINE/HealthSTAR, PsychINFO, and ABI/Inform or obtained from reference lists of other studies. Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria. Included are studies of the health care and other costs of smoking published in English in peer-reviewed journals during the last 20 years. Studies of annual and lifetime costs are included as are studies of employer costs. Forty-nine studies were reviewed. Data Extraction Methods. Data extracted were total costs, medical care and other direct costs, lost productivity, and mortality costs. Underlying methodologies were described and compared. Data Synthesis. The annual cost of smoking is between 6 and 14% of personal health expenditures. Estimates have increased over time, reflecting better and more comprehensive methodologies. Smoking appears to result in increased lifetime costs, although some studies have found contrary results. In the workplace, smokers incur greater medical costs and more lost productivity than nonsmokers. They also impose costs on their nonsmoking coworkers. Major Conclusions. The overwhelming body of evidence in the literature asserts that smoking imposes costs on an annual basis, that it leads to increased medical costs over the life span, and that many of these costs are borne by employers. Although the methods for studying this issue have evolved over time and are presently quite comprehensive, future research is needed to further substantiate the findings and develop further refinements.


Aim: To study and analyse the socio-demographic profile and basic risk factors of tuberculosis(TB) patients and their relationwith the current epidemiological status of TB registered under the RNTEP program in the study area.
Subjects and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 1743 newly registered tuberculosis patients at TB-DOT centerof South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India from 2011-2014. Socio-demographic variables and baseline characteristics of theparticipants were noted by a semi-structured questionnaire.
Results: Our study results indicate that more than 95% of the TB patients were from lower socioeconomic class, and hadpoor literacy status and tuberculosis was observed highest in non-agricultural labour and cultivators. Among the young adult'smajority of the affected population were females from the lower/upper-lower socioeconomic class. Our analysis revealed that,in successful tuberculosis therapy, men were more defaulters than women.
Conclusion: Our study provides a socioeconomic profile and the risk factors of tuberculosis in patients such as the status oftherapeutic intervention, involvement of other chronic diseases, age, sex and malnutrition. The findings of this study can beused to plan future studies with specific risk factors of the region and also for implementing the intervention and evaluating itseffectiveness.Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; socio-demographic factors; multi-drug resistance; pulmonary tuberculosis; extra-pulmonarytuberculosis.


. Detailed theoretical study of the mean square radius of extensive air shower electrons has been made in connection with further development of scaling formalism for electron lateral distribution function. A very simple approximation formula, which allows joint description of all our results obtained in wide primary energy range and for different observation depths is presented. The sensitivity of the mean square radius to variations of basic parameters of hadronic interaction model is discussed.


Many clinical studies have shown that the arm movement of patients with neurological injury is often slow. In this paper, the speed analysis of arm movement is presented, with the aim of evaluating arm movement automatically using a Kinect camera. The consideration of arm movement appears trivial at first glance, but in reality it is very complex neural and biomechanical process that can potentially be used for detecting a neurological disorder. This is a preliminary study, on healthy subjects, which investigates three different arm-movement speeds: fast, medium and slow. With a sample size of 27 subjects, our developed algorithm is able to classify the three different speed classes (slow, normal, and fast) with overall error of 5.43% for interclass speed classification and 0.49% for interaclass classification. This is the first step towards enabling future studies that investigate abnormality in arm movement, via use of a Kinect camera.


High damping rubber bearings show highly nonlinear stress-strain behaviour. Deformation-history integral (DHI) model which can estimate small strain stiffness degradation and nonlinear plasticity via a relatively simple innovative formulation is implemented in this study to model HDRB as the rehabilitation method for a seismically vulnerable building. Considered structure in this study is a three-dimensional, four-story steel frame residential building with a concentrically braced system. Nonlinear direct integration time history analysis and plastic hinges approach were implemented to evaluate structural behaviour of considered structure. It was observed that structural responses enhanced significantly after rehabilitation. Absolute maximum base shear values decreased 61.8% and 92.2% in the worst and best cases, respectively. Most of structural elements remained elastic after rehabilitation and required performance level was satisfied.


summary We conducted two experiments to investigate the expression of shade avoidance in response to low ratios of red to far-red irradiation (R:FR) in the C % perennial grass Schizachyrium scoparium at two levels of above-ground (photosynthetic photon flux density (PFD) 400‐700 nm) and below-ground (soil volume) resource availability and in plants of two ages. Young plants showed greater sheath and ramet height in response to low R:FR and old plants showed reduced ramet initiation in experiments one and two, respectively, but both responses were not expressed simultaneously in either group. Growth of all ramet variables, including ramet initiation, was suppressed in small as opposed to large soil volumes. By contrast, architectural variables, but not ramet initiation, were greater for plants grown in low as opposed to ambient PFD. However, expression of shade avoidance to low R:FR was not significantly aected by either level of PFD or soil volume. We must conclude that the levels of resource availability provided do not modulate shade avoidance in this perennial grass. These results demonstrate that S. scoparium is capable of expressing shade avoidance in response to low R:FR, but inconsistent juvenile ramet initiation and architectural responses in plants of dierent ages and phenological stages of development indicate that the shade avoidance response might not be expressed consistently throughout the life of plants.


Insect pests still cause substantial quantitative and qualitative grain loss ranging from 20 to 100% in small holder farming systems in tropical countries. Synthetic pesticides are recommended as stop gap measures for the management of stored product insect pests. However, their application has not been fully exploited in small scale farming due to environmental, health, and economic concerns. As a result, new researches have shifted focus to exploiting pesticidal plants as alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Therefore, the current study evaluated mixtures of plant powders and reduced amount of Actellic superTM (pirimiphos-methyl + permethrin) as alternative insecticide formulation against Callosobruchus chinensis and Sitophilus zeamais. Green grams and wheat grains were mixed with a mixture of plant powders in the ratios of 1:1, 1:3 and 1:9 to obtain four rates (0.0, 2.0, 6.0 and 10%w/w). Grains and plant powders were also mixed with reduced amount (10, 25, and 50 %) of recommended rate of Actellic SuperTM to obtain dosages as above. Twenty unsexed adults, 1-5 day old S. zeamais and C. chinensis were introduced into treated grains. The mixture of C. lusitanica: T. vogelii powders in the ratios of 1:1, 1:3 and 1:9 caused mortality in C. chinensis of 55, 95 and 85%, respectively. At the same ratio, E. saligna: L. camara mixture produced mortality in S. zeamais of 77, 82, and 85% respectively. In mixture of C. lusitanica and T. vogelii and reduced amount of Actellic SuperTM by 50% the mortality of C. chinensis was 85 and 80 % respectively. Similarly, E. saligna and L. camara and reduced amount of Actellic SuperTM by 50% caused a mortality of S. zeamais of 48 and 97% respectively. The application of plant powders and reduced amounts of synthetic insecticide has the potential to be applied in stored product pest control


The aim of this research was to analyze the insertion and management of people with disabilities in a Brazilian enterprise with more than one thousand of these kinds of workers already hired, verifying the possible relations among the ways in which managers face the disability, the adequacy in practices and work conditions, and the satisfaction of disabled people towards the relevant aspects to maintain the Quality of Working Life. The theoretical references were conceptions of disability, actions of adequacy in practices and work conditions, and quality of working life. The presentation and analysis of data used Descriptive Statistics and Spearman correlation in a quantitative perspective and content analysis of interviews in a qualitative approach. The results confirmed significant relations between conceptions of disability and actions of adequacy in practices and work conditions. Moreover, implications of conceptions of disability and actions of adequacy in practices and work conditions were verified, mainly, concerning the satisfaction of people with disabilities related to the opportunity of personal growth in the job. Finally, the potential of the heuristic method proposed was proved.


Data has evolved immensely in recent years, in type, volume and velocity. There are several frameworks to handle the big data applications. The project focuses on the Lambda Architecture proposed by Marz and its application to obtain real-time data processing. The architecture is a solution that unites the benefits of the batch and stream processing techniques. Data can be historically processed with high precision and involved algorithms without loss of short-term information, alerts and insights. Lambda Architecture has an ability to serve a wide range of use cases and workloads that withstands hardware and human mistakes. The layered architecture enhances loose coupling and flexibility in the system. This a huge benefit that allows understanding the trade-offs and application of various tools and technologies across the layers. There has been an advancement in the approach of building the LA due to improvements in the underlying tools. The project demonstrates a simplified architecture for the LA that is maintainable. Index terms – Lambda Architecture (LA), Batch Processing, Stream Processing, Real-time Data Processing


It is my purpose in this communication to report the effects of faradic stimulation of certain areas of the anterior portion of the hypothalamus and the motor cortex in cats and the modifications of these reactions under the influence of the systemic or the intrahypothalamic injection of sodium amytal or other drugs. Sixty-four cats were prepared in several series of experiments, according to the following technics: METHODS Acute Experiments.— Series A 1. —Hypothalamic Preparations: The cat was lightly anesthetized in an ether jar and the anesthesia continued by the use of an intratracheal cannula connected to a valved ether bottle. Both carotid arteries were isolated and encircled with separate loops of catgut for later approach. The Horsley-Clarke stereotaxic apparatus was then mounted, the skull trephined and an insulated nichrome electrode inserted into the hypothlamus, usually at the coordinate settings of anterior plane 14, right or left sagittal plane 2.5 and


Sediments were collected from Dumba and KwataYobe of Lake Chad, Nigerian Sector.The aim was to assess the pollution statusof the sediments of the lake. The concentration of heavy metals, Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), Z (Zn) and Arsenic (As) were analysed using energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). The mean concentration of heavy metals varies between 0.01 to 80877.06 ±10.12mg/kg, were compared with standard average shale to assess the pollution status of the pollution in Dumba and KwataYobe sediments for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn and As was assessed using geo-accumulation index (Igeo). The results indicated that the sediments have been polluted with Cd, Cr, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn and As.The Igeo values for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn at KwataYobevaries between 0.007 to 0.630, indicating unpolluted sediments, while Igeo values for Cd at Dumba and Pb in both sites varies between 1.002 + 01.550 indicating moderately polluted sediments.Igeo values for As varies between 10. 411 to 13.20 in both sites indicating very highly polluted sediments. The Igeo values for Cd at Dumba, Pb and As in both sites indicated that the sediments were polluted. Keywords: Assessment,Average shale, Geo-accumulation index, Heavy metal pollution, Sediments.


Gait analysis is very significant for early diagnosis of gait diseases and treatment assessment. Gait analysis is used to assess, plan and to treat the individuals with conditions affecting their ability to walk. In recent years, doctors gain more clarity and exact disease assessment by means of machine learning technologies and this has gained much application of gait analysis. The patients suffering from movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) can best be diagnosed by gait analysis. For these reasons, analysis of the above said diseases are taken into consideration. In this paper we propose an effective method for detection of movement disorders using multi SVM technique.


A self-administered questionnaire has been used to measure and compare health status in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 5 other chronic diseases. Subjects with RA, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, cardiac disease, or pulmonary disease were assessed along 11 aspects of health status. Results showed significant differences in health status across the 6 diseases, particularly for physical function and pain. The psychological status measures were similar. A summary estimate indicated that RA and pulmonary diseases produced poorer health status than the others. This study confirms the severe negative health status associated with chronic RA.


Senile plaques in the cerebral neocortex, entorhinal cortex and hippocampus are reactive for Acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The same types of plaques are observed, as with immunostains for beta-protein, including the very simple ones, consisting nearly exclusively of loose deposits of beta-protein. If there are many plaques, the normal network of AChE-positive axons disappears. Explanations for both, the apparent shift of AChE from the axons to the plaques on the one hand and the very early development of AChE positive deposits during the plaque development on the other hand are sought.


During off-peak hours of a day, when incoming and outgoing traffic arrival rate used to be low, a Mobile Terminal (MT) can stay in idle mode for long time. For tracking the idle MTs, a wireless access network invokes them to conduct location update whenever they enter into a new location. This allows the network to route a call successfully. To provide any IP packet based service, Mobile IP (MIP) is very important protocol undeniably. However, Proxy Mobile IP was developed by IETF without considering idle mode condition of MTs. Consequently, an idle MT needs to conduct MIP binding (Layer 3 location update) whenever it moves to a new area of a Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) although it does not have any incoming or outgoing packets during idle periods. This phenomenon unnecessarily increases location update signaling cost. In our previous work, we proposed a mechanism using which only Layer 2 location update is needed when an MT is in idle mode and the Layer 3 location update is conducted after a call arrives for an idle MT in Optical and Wireless Converged Access Networks (OWCAN). This allows saving energy in the mobility management nodes (e.g. MAG, Base Stations) significantly. Based on our previous work, in this paper we propose a novel algorithm for the Optical Network Units (ONUs) of an OWCAN. This algorithm decides when to interrupt modules of a sleeping ONU to wake up and which frames should be forwarded for uplink transmission. We have found that adopting this algorithm an ONU of an OWCAN can save energy significantly. Therefore, our solutions mainly contribute in two-fold to make a green OWCAN. First, it minimizes energy consumption in the mobility management nodes. Second, our solution also reduces energy consumption and improves bandwidth utilization in the optical backhaul.


The unwieldy term 'amount of substance' for the base quantity n has led to conflicting authoritative choices for abbreviations, especially when forming terms for derived quantities. A proposed substitute, the neologism 'chemon', is a derivative from the Greek χηµα (chemistry). A systematic terminology is achieved by forming derivatives and complex terms in the usual way, e.g. 'chemonity' (nB/msolvent), 'chemon concentration' (nB/Vsystem), 'chemonic volume' (V/nB). The harmonization of terms in thirteen European languages is accomplished according to the respective linguistic rules.


This book addresses one of the basic questions in military studies: How can armies cope effectively with technological and doctrinal surprises-ones that leave them vulnerable to new weapons systems and/or combat doctrines? Author Meir Finkel contends that the current paradigm-with its over-dependence on intelligence and an all-out effort to predict the nature of the future battlefield and the enemy's capabilities-generally doesn't work. Based on historical case analysis of successful "under-fire" recovery and failure to recover, he identifies the variables that have determined these outcomes, and he presents an innovative method for military force planning that will enables armies to deal with the uncertainties of future wars "in real time." His proposed method combines conceptual, doctrinal, cognitive, command, organizational, and technological elements to produce optimal battlefield flexibility and adaptability. He then demonstrates that, when properly applied, this method can eliminate most obstacles to overcoming battlefield surprises.


Three statistical methods are described and illustrated with working examples. Using these methods it is possible to include all subjects involved in cross-sectional studies in calculations of results, even if the data are incomplete at the end of the investigation. The use of censored data is taken from survival analysis. It is shown that combination of the Kaplan-Meier estimate, the log-rank test and the proportional hazards model gives more satisfactory results in nutritional and growth studies.


In this paper I focus on a recently discussed phenomenon illustrated by sentences containing predicates of taste: the phenomenon of "perspectival plurality", whereby sentences containing two or more predicates of taste have readings according to which each predicate pertains to a different perspective. This phenomenon has been shown to be problematic for (at least certain versions of) relativism. My main aim is to further the discussion by showing that the phenomenon extends to other perspectival expressions than predicates of taste and by proposing a general solution to the problem raised by it on behalf of the relativist. The core claim of the solution ("multiple indexing") is that utterances of sentences containing perspectival expressions should be evaluated with respect to (possibly infinite) sequences of perspective parameters. While such a move sounds radical, I argue that the departure from the traditional Kaplanian framework is not as dramatic as it sounds.


Cloud computing environment is modernizing the entire IT industries, good-performance computing (GPC), private data storage and managing by providing high privacy. Computing power will be provided to the cloud as a valuable aspect, similar as power resources. Service providers like Amazon Google etc would be preserving, revising and overseeing the resources. For little businesses or the businesses which have financial issues or which don't have particular abilities to handle the radical changes in computing technology. Use of cloud for GPC could mostly minimize the charge of possession by dismissing the requisites to maintain full-size parallel machines and its cooling system and its power sources. From the cost-effectiveness point of view, there are interactions of process in conditions of stipulation of resources for an objective job can be parallelized. We are going to use statistical analysis, that to achieve better performance in a different cloud infrastructures, and also to formulate the node's least response time must not be more than three times that of the node's highest response time.


Background: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent sleep disorder associated with multiple comorbidities. Recent studies show that OSA disrupts the biological clock, which might contribute to or play a causal role in the large spectrum of comorbidities observed. Yet, the interplay between OSA, the clock, and OSA treatment is not fully understood. Aim: We explored the impact of short- (4 months) and long-term (24 months) Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatment on clock-characteristics in OSA patients relative to control subjects. Methods: Plasma melatonin and cortisol, body temperature and the expression levels and rhythmicity of core-clock genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were evaluated, at four time points within 24 h, in 34 adult male OSA patients and 7 sex- and age-matched control subjects. Machine-learning methods were applied for a detailed data analysis. Results: Short- and long-term CPAP promoted distinct alterations in the expression of clock genes in PBMC samples, but none could fully revert OSA-associated alterations. Yet, long-term CPAP re-established the levels and profiles of melatonin, cortisol and body temperature. Clustering approaches based on clock-characteristics could discriminate controls from untreated OSA patients and showed that OSA patients following long-term CPAP better resemble the control than the untreated/short-term treated patients. Conclusion: Long-term CPAP treatment partially ameliorated OSA-associated clock disruptions. A deeper understanding of how OSA and OSA treatment affect the biological clock may open new avenues in the monitoring and treatment of OSA patients.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of uveitis associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

METHODS
A history about low back pain was carefully reviewed in patients with uveitis and X-ray examination was performed if necessary. Forty-four patients were diagnosed as AS from January 1996 to June 2001 in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center according to the modified New York criteria for AS. Data concerning these patients, especially with respect to the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment, were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS
Of 44 patients, 41 were male. The age of the patients at onset of uveitis was (33 +/- 15) years old. All of the 34 patients who had a uveitis history over 40 days showed a recurrent inflammation. In 18 patients (52.9%), the interval between the relapse of uveitis was more than one year. Bilateral ocular involvement was found in 23 out of 34 patients with recurrent uveitis. However, none of them showed a bilateral inflammation at the onset of uveitis. All patients showed acute anterior uveitis with a duration of (27 +/- 12) days. All patients had definitely radiological evidences of bilateral sacroiliitis, although not all of them had typical history of lower back pain. Treatment with corticosteroids eyedrops and cycloplegic agent was used in all patients. Vision equal to or better than 1.0 was achieved in 82.5% of these patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Uveitis associated with AS is characterized by acute nongranulamatous anterior uveitis with recurrent episodes in male. Diagnosis is made according to typical clinical features and radiological evidences of bilateral sacroiliitis. Treatment with corticosteroid eyedrops and cycloplegic is able to resolve the inflammation rapidly and leads to a good prognosis in most patients.


Hyun Jeong Kim, Misuk Ji, Hanah Kim, Hee-Won Moon, Mina Hur, and Yeo-Min Yun Department of Laboratory Medicine, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm that is almost always characterised by the presence of t(9;22)(q34;q11.2). Approximately 5% to 10% of CML patients lack cytogenetic evidence of t(9;22)(q34;q11.2) but have the breakpoint cluster region (BCR)/ABL1 fusion, as revealed by fl uorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) or the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We present a case of Philadelphia-negative CML with a cryptic insertion of BCR at 9q34. A 22-year-old woman incidentally presented with marked leucocytosis and anaemia. Her complete blood count results were as follows: white blood cells, 238.61×10/L; haemoglobin, 9.6 g/dL; platelets, 395×10/L. A peripheral blood smear showed leucocytosis with neutrophilia, basophilia, left-shifted neutrophils, and circulating blasts comprising 2% of the total leucocytes. The bone marrow showed a striking increase in megakaryocytes and granulocytic precursors. Th e myeloid/erythroid ratio was 7.4:1, and blasts comprised up to 1.8% of all nucleated cells. Bone marrow sections revealed active megakaryopoiesis and granulopoiesis with 100% cellularity. Chromosomal analysis revealed a normal karyotype. However, interphase FISH using a dual-colour BCR/ABL1 fusion probe showed an atypical pattern consisting of one red, two green, and one fusion (1R2G1F) signal in 97.5% of the 200 analysed cells. Metaphase FISH revealed a single BCR/ABL1 fusion signal on chromosome 9. RT-PCR was positive for BCR/ABL1 (b3a2). Quantitative PCR revealed a normalised copy number of 15.32. Th e patient started her treatment with imatinib, reached a complete molecular response eight months aft erwards, and has been coping well without any adverse events. (J Lab Med Qual Assur 2015;37:110-114)


A small subset of information visualization and the digital humanities focuses on casual users, that is, users in everyday, non-work contexts. The development of digital cultural heritage collections like Europeana.eu for the general public increases the importance of this user group. This position paper reviews parallel findings from both research fields on casual users, their goals and exploration behavior: Casual users often come without concrete information needs, they rather search for something interesting and engaging. They browse through the information until they find something worth exploring in detail. From these characteristic needs and behavior of casual users we delineate design requirements for public information visualizations in the digital humanities. We discuss how further exchange between these two fields of research can bring forward both fields.


In epilepsy patients, language lateralisation is an important part of the presurgical diagnostic process. Using task-based fMRI, language lateralisation can be determined by visual inspection of activity patterns or by quantifying the difference in left- and right-hemisphere activity using variations of a basic formula [(L-R)/(L+R)]. However, the values of this laterality index (LI) depend on the choice of activity thresholds and regions of interest. The diagnostic utility of the LI also depends on how its continuous values are translated into categorical decisions about a patient's language lateralisation. Here, we analysed fMRI data from 712 epilepsy patients who performed a verbal fluency task. Each fMRI data set was evaluated by a trained human rater as depicting left-sided, right-sided, or bilateral lateralisation or as being inconclusive. We used data-driven methods to define the activity thresholds and regions of interest used for LI computation and to define a classification scheme that allowed us to translate the LI values into categorical decisions. By deconstructing the LI into measures of laterality (L-R) and strength (L+R), we also modelled the relationship between activation strength and conclusiveness of a data set. In a held-out data set, predictions reached 91% correct when using only conclusive data and 82% when inconclusive data were included. Although only trained on human evaluations of fMRIs, the approach generalised to the prediction of language Wada test results, allowing for significant above-chance accuracies. Compared against different existing methods of LI-computation, our approach improved the identification of inconclusive cases and increased the accuracy with which decisions for the remaining data could be made. We discuss how this approach can support clinicians in assessing fMRI data on a single-case level, deciding whether lateralisation can be determined with sufficient certainty or whether additional information is needed.


Backgrounds: Hemodialysis (HD) is the commonest modality of renal replacement therapy (RRT) which needs vascular access. Ideal vascular access should be well functional, durable, stable, and have fewer complications. An arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the preferred form of vascular access and is recommended by Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) guidelines. Most of the AVFs are constructed under local anesthetic infiltration which has a high failure rate which is about 30-40% for radiocephalic arteriovenous fistula (RCAVF). This study aimed to change the anesthetic technique to brachial plexus block (BPB) for RCAVF creation to improve the primary patency rate and reduce early thrombotic complications.
Objectives: The objective was to see the effect of brachial plexus block (BPB) on the outcome of AVF creation by primary patency rate, maturation time, primary functional patency rate, and complications.
Materials and Method: This was a randomized controlled trial conducted in the Department of Urology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka from December 2018 to December 2019. A total of 80 patients were selected from the study population according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then divided into two groups by simple random sampling. In the group, A RCAVF constructed under BPB, and group B RCAVF was constructed under LA. The standard operation technique of AVF construction was followed. Evaluation of AVFs was done at 3rd POD, 2nd week, 6th week, and 12th weeks to see the functional status and any complications. Doppler US was done at the 6th week routinely.
Results: Among these 80 patients 3 patients were lost from the follow-up, two from group A and one from group B. There was no significant difference in age, sex, comorbidities, and HD status between the groups. There was higher primary patency in group A at 3rd POD and 2nd weeks but was not statistically significant. In the 6th week primary patency in group A was 33/38 (86.8%) and in group B 25/39(64.1%), p=0.033. In the 12th week, primary patency and functional primary patency rate were in group A was 33/38 (86.8%) and in group B 25/39(64.1%), p=0.033 and statistically significant. No significant difference in maturation time between the groups. Thrombosis was the most common complication, 14 in group B and 5 in group A. One BPB was failed but there was no significant complication related to BPB.
Conclusion: Radiocephalic arteriovenous fistula constructed under brachial plexus block has better primary patency and functional primary patency than local anesthesia at 6th and 12th week. Early thrombotic complications were higher in AVF creation under local anesthetic infiltration. Anaesthesia with BPB can be used for primary radiocephalic AVF construction surgery to improve the outcome of RCAVF fistula and early complications.
Bangladesh J. Urol. 2021; 24(2): 129-134


This chapter contributes a general overview and discussion of lexical encoding formats for multi-word expressions (MWEs) that can be used in NLP systems, in particular with large-scale grammars. The presentation is kept general in the sense that we will try to elicit basic aspects of lexical encoding and then elaborate on the specific sorts of challenges encountered when dealing with MWEs, especially the "irregular" regularities mentioned in the title. These insights will eventually be used to classify and evaluate different approaches to encoding. Even though this kind of evaluation cannot be conclusive given the diversity of languages and tastes, we will nevertheless argue in favor of fully flexible encoding formats exemplified with PATR-II and XMG, as opposed to the fixed encoding formats of DuELME and Walenty.


In this paper, we present the initial changes and continuing challenges that are faced by teachers and students due to the unexpected transition to online learning from the COVID-19 pandemic at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. For this, the authors applied a phenomenological-case-study design, collecting qualitative data from purposively selected Ph.D. students (n = 10) and teachers (n = 4), examiners (n = 2), as well as the postgraduate coordinator. The results indicate that the teachers experienced some difficulties in effectively using learning technologies. Moreover, the students were overburdened with increased accountability and excessive challenges. However, the institutional capacity to support was relatively minimal. Despite these odds, the study participants showed higher levels of willingness and completed the program successfully. The study participants reported moderate satisfaction with their personal and professional experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to remind universities and colleges about the essential skills that students need in this unpredictable world, for example, informed decision making, creative problem solving, and adaptability.


This paper presents and validates a novel approach to a formal specification of software for dependable systems. The approach incorporates results of statecharts and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) in the development of formal specifications of fail-safe systems. We use the action system formalism as our specification framework. Within the framework we define a general model of a safety-critical fail-safe system. Statecharts facilitate construction of a formal specification by structuring informal functional requirements and formalizing safety requirements resulted from FMEA. The approach is validated by a case study - a derivation of formal specification of a conveyor system.


In primates, visual object perception and recognition is based on information processing within the ventral visual pathway (Ungerleider and Mishkin, 1982; Felleman and Van Essen, 1991). This multistage, hierarchical network runs from area V1 to V2, V4, and finally to the posterior and anterior subregions of inferotemporal (IT) cortex (Felleman and Van Essen, 1991). In each of these processing stages, visual information is encoded in the patterns of activity across populations of neurons. The neural code reflected in these activity patterns is gradually transformed across the ventral pathway into a representation thought to be optimized for robust object recognition, association, and memory. The nature of the neural code in the lowestlevel stage, V1, is now relatively clear. Research over the last half-century has identified local orientation and spatial frequency as the basis dimensions of V1 form representation (Hubel and Wiesel, 1959, 1965, 1968; Baizer, Robinson, and Dow, 1977; Burkhalter and Van Essen, 1986; Hubel and Livingstone, 1987). Specifically, each small patch of the retinal image is represented by a local population of V1 neurons tuned to different orientations and narrow spatial frequency (scale) bands. The distribution of activity within these local V1 populations encodes the local orientation and scale of image features, and the full retinal image is represented by a tiling of the visual field with thousands of such local populations. Representation in terms of local orientation and spatial frequency first arises in V1, and these representational bases are fundamental to our understanding of what V1 does. The bases of representation in subsequent processing stages are less clear, though past results suggest that activity in higher-level neurons reflects a progressively more nonlinear and complex function of the retinal image. V2 neurons, like their V1 inputs, are tuned for local orientation and spatial frequency, but also show some selectivity for line conjunctions (Ito and Komatsu, 2004, Hegde and Van Essen, 2000), orientation combinations (Anzai, Peng, and Van Essen, 2007), and illusory contours (von der Heydt and Peterhans, 1989). V4 neurons show selectivity for radial or concentric gratings and moderately complex shapes (Gallant, Braun, and Van Essen, 1993, Kobatake and Tanaka 1994). And in IT, many neurons exhibit 7


Rutkowska-Kucharska, A and Szpala, A. Electromyographic muscle activity in curl-up exercises with different positions of upper and lower extremities. J Strength Cond Res 24(11): 3133-3139, 2010-The purpose of the study was to evaluate the electromyographic (EMG) activity of muscles in curl-up exercises depending on the position of the upper and lower extremities. From the perspective of biomechanics, different positions of the extremities result in shifting the center of gravity and changing muscular loads in abdominal strength exercises. The subjects of the research were 3 healthy students (body mass 53-56 kg and height 163-165 cm) with no history of low back pain or abdominal surgery. Subjects completed 18 trials for each of the 9 exercises (static curl-up with 3 positions of the upper and 3 position of the lower extremities). The same experiment with the same subjects was conducted on the next day. The EMG activity of rectus abdominis (RA), erector spinae (ES), and quadriceps femoris-long head (rectus femoris [RF]) was examined during the exercises. The surface electrical activity was recorded for the right and left sides of each muscle. The raw data for each muscle were rectified and integrated. The statistical analysis showed that changing the position of upper extremities in the examined exercises affects the EMG activity of RA and ES but does not significantly affect the EMG activity of RF. Additionally, it was found that curl-up exercises with the upper extremities extended behind the head and the lower extremities flexed at 90° in the hip and knee joints involve RA with the greatest intensity, whereas curl-up exercises with the upper extremities extended along the trunk and the lower extremities flexed at 90° in the hip and knee joints involve RA with the lowest intensity.


Neural network (NN) has been applied as rotor position estimator in switched reluctance motor (SRM) whose characteristic is highly non-linear. However, conventional two inputs back propagate (BP) NN based rotor position estimator is not appropriate for real-time application in high speed operations because of its considerable computational time consumption in its hidden layer. In this study, an improved BP NN with inductance input pretreatment for the rotor position estimator of SRM is proposed. It achieves 75.44% computational burden reduction while staying at the same accuracy as the conventional one. Moreover, with the pretreatment, the NN can output the angle of full electrical period of the SRM operation. Training data includes rotor position, flux-linage which is acquired by finite element analysis (FEA) and phase current Sensorless control algorithm is also described. Simulations and experiments are performed based on a 12%8 SRM. The results are compared with conventional method. The effectiveness of the proposed sensorless estimator and control strategy are testified under low speed, high speed and sudden loading change operations.


We analyze prospects for the Chinese renminbi to become a major international currency, along with the US dollar, in a multiple reserve currency world. Analytical models on switching costs in networks and on currency choice under direct and indirect transaction costs are used to derive variables for empirical analysis. While network size and financial market depth (lower transaction costs) favor incumbents, changes in trade-related bargaining power and in currency volatility could favor newcomers. The models also point to political determinants affecting currency choice. We develop indices to quantify some of these. When the bargaining power index is used in estimation, it shows capital account openness and currency stability have to complement a rise in trade share for an aspiring reserve currency.


The sensitivity of mouse myeloma γG globulins to enzymatic proteolysis has been investigated under several experimental conditions. γG1 was found to be more resistant to papain or tryptic cleavage than γG2d and γG2b. Minor differences were found between the reactivities of the latter two proteins. γG2b showed extremely high sensitivity to the action of pepsin. The addition of cysteine to the incubation mixtures of globulins with papain or trypsin enhanced the degree of fragmentation, but some physical and immunochemical properties of these fragments were found to be different from those of fragments obtained in the absence of cysteine. The possible role of this reducing agent has been discussed.


Researchers often misinterpret and misrepresent statistical outputs. This abuse has led to a large literature on modification or replacement of testing thresholds and P-values with confidence intervals, Bayes factors, and other devices. Because the core problems appear cognitive rather than statistical, we review some simple proposals to aid researchers in interpreting statistical outputs. These proposals emphasize logical and information concepts over probability, and thus may be more robust to common misinterpretations than are traditional descriptions. The latter treat statistics as referring to targeted hypotheses conditional on background assumptions. In contrast, we advise reinterpretation of P-values and interval estimates in unconditional terms, in which they describe compatibility of data with the entire set of analysis assumptions. We use the Shannon transform of the P-value $p$, also known as the surprisal or S-value $s=-log(p)$, to provide a measure of the information supplied by the testing procedure against these assumptions, and to help calibrate intuitions against simple physical experiments like coin tossing. We also advise tabulating or graphing test statistics for alternative hypotheses, and interval estimates for different percentile levels, to thwart fallacies arising from arbitrary dichotomies. We believe these simple reforms are well worth the minor effort they require.


We provide the first evidence on sexual orientation and economic outcomes in Canada using confidential data that ask adults a direct question about their sexual orientation. Gay men have 12% lower personal incomes and lesbians have 15% higher personal incomes than otherwise similar heterosexual men and women, respectively. Different labour force patterns can account for some of the income differentials. We also document large differences in educational attainment, childrearing, and urbanicity that generally mirror patterns found in the US. Finally, we show that applying couples-based approaches common in this literature greatly overstates the magnitudes of gay/straight income gaps.


This paper describes an aspect of the agricultural policy in Nigeria under imperialism. The commodification and underdevelopment of Ishan cotton, an indigenous agricultural product of the Esan people, Edo State in Nigeria is employed as proxy. The paper explains the processes of the transformation of Ishan cotton production from its primary use as feedstock in the precolonial cloth industry towards export orientation or commodification for metropolitan textile production. It argues that the commodification interrelates with the lack of qualitative transformation of the immediate economic environment and cost the historical producers of the cotton a strong comparative advantage. It consequently found that the characteristics of underdevelopment were in character with the distortion of pre-capitalist modes of production. Nevertheless, the post-imperial economic policies in Nigeria perpetuate the colonial patterns of production. The paper concluded that the root cause of Nigeria's post-imperial dependence on imported textile and cotton products is the result of the non-development of cash crops in backwards integration. It recommended the qualitative transformation of indigenous skills and resources to animate the spirit of local enterprise. Keywords : commodification; dependency; Esan; imperialism; Ishan cotton; underdevelopment.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of semantic cues provided at encoding and during retention for older adults' memory. For the California Verbal Learning Test-II, participants received semantic or nonsemantic cues that were varied across groups at encoding and during the retention interval. Provision of a semantic cue at encoding led to greater semantic clustering at learning, but not increased recall performance. Providing a semantic cue during the retention interval led to better delayed free recall and greater semantic clustering. No group differences in recall or semantic clustering were found at delayed cued recall. The current findings suggest that semantic cues can be beneficial for recalling unstructured information when administered during the retention interval.


may still have advanced disease states that radically alter the normal physiological and biochemical mechanisms of the body and it would not be surprising if the induction dose of an agent were altered in these patients. It may well be that the relationship between age and the required induction dose of propofol is a consequence of abnormal haemoglobin, albumin and urea concentrations, which occur more frequently in these patients rather than an effect of age as such. Furthermore, by definition, abnormal concentrations of haemoglobin, urea and albumin do not occur in health and hence patients in this study who have abnormal levels of these variables were 'sick' (and some, but not all, were more elderly). Therefore we feel it inappropriate to differentiate between 'sick' patients and those with abnormal biochemical and haematological results.


Drought is a sustained result of continuous surface and atmospheric heating and moisture deficit. In general, drought assessment is made based on various indices. However, the drought dynamics and associated surface energetics about the corresponding Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM, i.e., June, July, August and September-JJAS) still needs to be better understood. Prolonged surface heating causes reduction of soil moisture, surface/subsurface runoff and atmospheric moisture. Excess surface heating results from positive surface energy budget, which is computed using the term, surface net solar radiation (SNSR), surface net thermal radiation (SNTR), surface sensible heat flux (SSHF), and surface latent heat flux (SLHF). It may also be the possible reason for enhanced convection. Convection also depends on the moisture holding capacity of the atmosphere, which increases with increasing air temperature. These processes lead to moisture content deficit and rainfall suppression due to moisture divergence from the convective sources. India Meteorological Department (IMD) (station and 0.25° gridded) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis (0.25° resolution) datasets are used to study the extreme drought events. Drought indices such as Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Soil Moisture Index (SMI) and Sensible Heat Index (SHI) are used. Results indicate that anomalous lowering of available surface soil moisture and increase of surface sensible heat flux is a possible cause for enhancing extreme drought during the 2009 ISM. The associated Hadley circulation shows anomalous weakening, which led to reduced northward moisture transport from the southern oceans, further acerbating moisture deficit. Most parts of India suffered from anomalous decrement in specific humidity in the lower to upper troposphere and related precipitation scarcity during the drought period. The atmosphere's increased moisture holding capacity sets a weak monsoon due to moisture divergence from ocean/local convection. However, likely, the excessive surface warming (due to SNSR/SNTR trapped into the surface) led to the extreme drought during 2009 ISM.