Possible formation of exotic matter-antimatter molecular structure is considered as one of the most challenging problems at International Laboratories of Particle Physics. In the present work, elaborate computer codes built for investigating four-body systems are employed for calculating the binding energies of exotic molecules composed of electrons, protons, muons, pions and their antiparticles. The results confirm the stability of these molecules against dissociation to their lowest possible channels. Based on these results, it is argued that possible creation of two universes immediately after the Big Bang should be considered. Particularly, it is proposed that an overlapping area might exist between the universe and antiuniverse in which continuous creation and annihilation of simple and complicated particle-antiparticle structures might occur. Antiparticles escaping from this area are considered as the origin of the minimal traces of antiparticles appearing in our universe. Recent interpretations of cosmic-rays and gamma-radiations observed at the edge of our universe could be thought of as evidences for supporting this argument. Furthermore, it is argued that possible formation of matter-antimatter molecular structures could open the gate in front of a new field of chemistry to be referred to as Antimatter Chemistry.


We report a case of Candida glabrata sepsis associated with chorioamnionitis in an in vitro fertilization-assisted pregnancy. There is a strong association between C. glabrata chorioamnionitis and assisted fertility techniques. Candida glabrata chorioamnionitis presents unique management challenges.


This article examines the performance of remembered experience within sharing in-the-moment carried out by young women on Instagram. I propose that the small stories analytical framework provides a way to examine at a micro level sharing of 'memories' online by addressing practices of selecting the past, showing and telling the past and interacting with the past in digital traces. For digital memory studies, this moves beyond a focus on affordances and infrastructure transformed memory and the examination of how people engage with memories that have been predefined. The analysis demonstrates how the performance of remembered experience is displayed and positioned across the interplay of past, present and future. Young women's sharing in-the-moment reconfigures the function and meanings of 'memories' beyond the platform's mobilisation of the term. It is part of how they express feelings and experiences about their unfolding lives.


Cyclic nucleotide signalling is a key component of anti-viral defence in all domains of life, from bacteria to humans. Viral detection activates a nucleotide cyclase to generate a second messenger, resulting in activation of effector proteins. This is exemplified by the metazoan cGAS-STING innate immunity pathway 1, which originated in bacteria 2. These defence systems require a sensor domain such as STING or SAVED to bind the cyclic nucleotide, coupled with an effector domain that causes cell death when activated by destroying essential biomolecules 3. One example is the TIR (Toll/interleukin-1 receptor) domain, which degrades the essential cofactor NAD+ when activated in response to pathogen invasion in plants and bacteria 2,4,5 or during nerve cell programmed death 6. Here, we show that a bacterial anti-viral defence system generates a cyclic tri-adenylate (cA3) signal which binds to a TIR-SAVED effector, acting as the "glue" to allow assembly of an extended superhelical solenoid structure. Adjacent TIR subunits interact to organise and complete a composite active site, allowing NAD+ degradation. Our study illuminates a striking example of large-scale molecular assembly controlled by cyclic nucleotides and reveals key details of the mechanism of TIR enzyme activation.


The properties of progesterone-binding proteins in plasma of pregnant Cape porcupines were investigated using radiolabelled progesterone and either progesterone or cortisol as competing ligands as well as native plasma and heated (60 degrees C for 30 min) plasma. The results demonstrated that plasma from pregnant porcupines contains corticosteroid-binding globulin, but that it constitutes a significant portion of plasma progesterone-binding proteins only during the early stages of pregnancy. Corticosteroid-binding globulin of porcupines appears to be as heat labile as that of guinea-pigs. Concentrations of progesterone-binding proteins in plasma increased during pregnancy to reach concentrations at the eleventh week that were 25 times higher than those of progesterone; concentrations increased significantly (r2 = 0.88) with the increase in progesterone concentration. The results indicate that plasma progesterone-binding proteins in Cape porcupines (Old World hystricomorph) are similar in composition to those in guinea-pigs (New World hystricomorph).


The power spectral density of the optical intensity in RF modulated optical links is investigated theoretically and experimentally in interferometric systems with a good agreement. The influence of the Henry factor /spl alpha/ of directly modulated distributed feedback laser diodes is shown on the conversion of phase noise into intensity noise for the first time.


The separation of speech from two simultaneous talkers is a problem of some practical and theoretical importance. We describe a prototype separation system based on harmonic selection using comb filters. Hermes' subharmonic spectrum method is used to produce a number of (weighted) pitch estimates, with pitch tracks for the two talkers then found by constrained dynamic programming. The system has successfully separated composite male/female /t/ tokens but per— formance is currently rather variable.


We, in 1956 the Department of Architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, decided to start an extensive color harmony experiment. The experimental work, the collation, and processing of the collected data, lasting 50 years, was completed in 2006. The experiments described in this article are based on earlier experimental results obtained from investigation into the harmony content of hue pairs. We then decided to search for a third hue, which in association with an existing pair, with high-color harmony, forms a hue triad with high-harmony content too. The compositions prepared for the experiment were composed in each case of three hues of four identical saturation but different brightness, forming a group of 12 colors. The color content of the compositions covered the color space uniformly. That was the first stage in the experiment, carried out with 60 compositions. In the second stage, we investigated the effect of the saturation content of the colors used in the composition, on the harmony content of the hue triads. For this experiment, we prepared 48 compositions. In these experiments, we applied the method of grading. We concluded that the level of the harmony content of the hue triads depends on the inclination between the hue planes in the Coloroid color space. We also concluded that to every hue, selected for starting point, six well-definable groups of hues can be ordered from the Coloroid color space, from which color triads with high harmony content, can be selected. It showed conclusively that the saturation level of the individual members of the triads has a significant influence on their harmony content. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2011


BACKGROUND
During infancy, preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic efforts for Helicobacter pylori infection should be made.

AIM
To evaluate non-invasive diagnostic methods such as stool antigen test (HpSA) and serum anti-H pylori antibody detection (IgG e IgA), compared to endoscopy-based invasive methods (histology and urease test) for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Thirty nine children (aged 3 to 14 years, 20 males) referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, were studied. The gold standard to diagnose Helicobacter pylori infection was defined as a positive invasive diagnostic test (histology and/or urease test). Sensitivity (S), specificity (E) and positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values were obtained for HpSA and serum antibodies.

RESULTS
Ten children (26%) were infected with H pylori. S, E, PPV and NPV for HpSA were 90, 100, 100 and 97%, respectively. The figures for serum IgG were 81, 97, 89 and 93%, respectively and for IgA, 90, 76, 36 and 96%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
HpSA was sensitive and specific as a clinical and epidemiological tool to evaluate H pylori infection in children. Serology was not as accurate, but IgG had a better performance than IgA.


Objective: To find out various Echocardiographic findings in patients with HOCM. Methodology: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study performed in Cardiology department Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Data collected from the database computer section of echocardiography department from February 2009 to November 2011.The data was analyzed using SPSS version 14. Results: Total study population was 28. Male were 14 (50%). Mean age was 52.5± 15.9 years. Mean left ventricular end diastolic dimension was 3.84cm; inter-ventricular septal thickness 2cm (1.1-3.1) and posterior wall thickness was 1.17cm (0.6-1.6). Mean Left atrial (LA) diameter was 3.86cm (0.8-5.6). Mean peak gradient across LVOT was 48.43 mmHg. Mitral regurgitation (MR) was found in 19 (67.9%) patients. MR was mild in 57.1%, moderate in 7.1% and severe in 3.6% of patients. Aortic regurgitation (AR) was found in 13 (46.4 %) patients. AR was mild in 35.7%, moderate in 10.7% of patients. Left atrial size was increased in 14 (50%) patients. Mean LA diameter was 4.6cm, 5cm and 5.6cm in patients with mild, moderate, and severe MR respectively. So there was direct relation between severity of MR and LA diameter. The respective mean gradient across LVOT in patients mild, moderate and severe MR was 31mmHg, 43.5mmHg and 140mmHg. So higher the gradient across LVOT, more will be the MR and hence the LA size and the patient will be more symptomatic. Conclusion: HOCM is significantly associated with both MR and AR and there is direct relation between severity of MR with LA diameter and LVOT gradient.


This paper strives to provide evidence of the effect of working capital policies on corporate profitability in a new and different setting, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. As the corporate private sector receives lavish subsidies from local oil-rich governments, both the theoretical propositions and the worldwide accepted evidence are glitched. Employing a set of pooled regression models, this paper documents a trivial, if any, association between the efficiency of working capital management and the corporate profitability for a set of nonfinancial firms in all the GCC countries. The results are robust to the econometric model, the profitability measure, and the country.


NIH3T3 cells transformed by mouse Int-2/Fgf-3 cDNA express a series of Int-2-related products representing discrete stages of processing and glycosylation. We confirm that in at least two highly transformed clonal lines, Int-2 products acquire further modifications and are efficiently secreted into the culture medium. Secreted proteins become associated with the cell surface and extracellular matrix and can be displaced by addition of soluble glycosaminoglycans, specifically heparin, heparan sulfate, and dermatan sulfate. Increasing concentrations of heparin not only compete for Int-2 binding in a dose-dependent manner but also inhibit the growth of these cells and revert the transformed phenotype. These findings reaffirm the notion that extracellular or surface-bound Int-2 protein is instrumental in the morphological transformation of these cells.


Bacillary angiomatosis (BA) is a systemic infectious disease characterized by cutaneous and visceral involvement occurring mostly in patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).1We describe a patient with HIV in whom an insidious ulcer developed as the marker for BA. Report of a Case. A 41-year-old white heterosexual promiscuous man was admitted to the hospital because of rectal bleeding and secondary anemia. His medical history included a serum sample positive for HIV antibodies and a 3-month history of a suppurative enlarging deep ulcer on his right ankle. Physical examination was significant for an ill-defined ulcer with a vegetative and fibrinopurulent 10×5-cm base over the right malleolus (Figure). Abnormal laboratory data included the following: leukocytes, 1.7×109/L (0.8 neutrophils, 0.5 lymphocytes, 0.9 monocytes, 1.3 erythrocytes, and 0.2 basophils); T4:T8 ratio, 20: 170; hemoglobin, 69 g/L; and hematocrit, 0.17. Because of the digestive bleeding, a gastrointestinal study, including fibrogastroscopy, colonoscopy, intestinal


HIV protease has served as a model protein for understanding protein structure, enzyme kinetics, structure‐based drug design, and protein evolution. Inhibitors of HIV protease are also an essential part of effective HIV/AIDS treatment and have provided great societal benefits. The broad applications for HIV protease and its inhibitors make it a perfect framework for integrating foundational topics in biochemistry around a big picture scientific and societal issue. Herein, I describe a series of classroom exercises that integrate foundational topics in biochemistry around the structure, biology, and therapeutic inhibition of HIV protease. These exercises center on foundational topics in biochemistry including thermodynamics, acid/base properties, protein structure, ligand binding, and enzymatic catalysis. The exercises also incorporate regular student practice of scientific skills including analysis of primary literature, evaluation of scientific data, and presentation of technical scientific arguments. Through the exercises, students also gain experience accessing computational biochemical resources such as the protein data bank, Proteopedia, and protein visualization software. As these HIV centered exercises cover foundational topics common to all first semester biochemistry courses, these exercises should appeal to a broad audience of undergraduate students and should be readily integrated into a variety of teaching styles and classroom sizes. © 2014 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 42(4):299–304, 2014.


By utilizing the tight-binding method, the electronic spectrum and states distribution of square Janus monolayer black arsenic phosphorus (b-AsP) quantum dots (QDs) in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field are explored. Strong in-gap states of b-AsP QDs, whose probability densities are distributed on the armchair boundary (armchair edge states) appear in the energy gap of host perfect two-dimensional b-AsP. The corresponding energy levels of the armchair edge states can degenerate to the Landu energy levels upon applying a perpendicular magnetic field. When an in-plane polarized light is introduced, due to the presence of armchair edge states, the edge-to-edge transitions are mainly induced from the armchair edge (hole) states to zigzag edge (electron) states. The optical absorption undergoes blue shift as a function of the magnetic field. Our work suggests tunable optical properties via modulating the armchair edge states of a b-AsP QD and provides a theoretical basis for the design of b-AsP-based optoelectronic devices.


In this work a DSF system (Double Skin Facade) is used to improve the thermal
 comfort level that the occupants are subjected in an experimental chamber. The DSF
 system, build with three unities, is equipped in a south facade of the experimental
 chamber. The study, made in winter conditions, uses the solar radiation to heated the
 air, injected in the occupied space with 6 people, to improve the thermal comfort
 conditions. The experimental chamber is build with wood and isolating material. The DSF
 system is build with two glass façades, equipped with 15 lamellas. This system,
 subjected to solar radiation, is connected to the interior with a duct system connected
 with two ventilators. The numerical study consider a software that simulates the
 building and the DSF thermal response. The numerical model, that considers buildings
 with complexes topologies, uses energy and mass balance integral equations for the
 opaque surfaces, transparent surfaces and internal air. The software also considers the
 solar radiation simulator, the radiative and convective coefficients evaluation, the
 glass radiative properties and the thermal comfort and internal air quality simulator.
 In accordance with the obtained results the thermal comfort level, using the PMV
 (Predicted Mean Vote), during the occupation time, in general, is in accordance with the
 international standards.


Gray, Jane&Boucot, ArthurJ. 197901 15: The Devonian land plant Protosalvinia. Lethaia. Vol. 12, pp. 57–63. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164.

Protosalvinia (=Foerstia) shows a number of morphological features which suggest that it was a land plant, possibly an emergent aquatic. Certain kinds of biochemical data, as presently interpreted, also support the morphological evidence. The weight of evidence supports neither a fucoid nor even an algal attribution for this enigmatic plant. Protosalvinia should be treated as the representative of a separate group of land plants, as previously advocated. Tracheid-like tubes with internal spiral thickenings appear on the basis of direct comparison to be morphologically identical to those of nematophytalean origin. They may have functioned in a capacity similar to the tracheids of vascular plants. The Nematophytales are non-marine plants of uncertain taxonomic position.


Mathematical models of powder material balling in drums and disks based on the balance method are developed. The models describe relation of polydisperse mixture fractions contents and fractions mass transfer rate. Development of the models answers the challenge of precise process control organizing since it creates theoretical foundation of the units work control algorithms. Structure schemes of granulators control systems with usage of the models proposed are designed. The systems use unit angle declination and spin rate as control effects and stabilize moisture flow rate on the level answering technological demands of the firing and sintering processes. This control method allows affecting only material granulometric composition and not changing its physical and chemical features. The systems proposed work simulation is done. Its results show that usage of the systems will provide material granulometric composition stabilizing.  It will lead to fuel consumption reduction for sintering process and good agglomerate producing increase. These results are interesting in terms of energy and resources economy that is actual for present-day state of Ukrainian metallurgy.


This paper proposes a method which generates a set of weights to synthesize sum or difference pattern with precisely controlled sidelobe level (SLL), null, and dynamic range ratio (DRR) for arbitrary arrays. Our pattern synthesis approach reduces mutual coupling between the neighboring elements and complexity of the feeding network design. However, the formulated optimization problem is nonconvex due to the nonconvex objective function and fractional DRR constraint. To tackle it, we firstly introduce two sets of auxiliary variables: one for DRR constraint and the other for sidelobe and null constraints. By doing so, we then decompose the original optimization problem into three sets of subproblems characterized by the auxiliary variables and weight variables. To facilitate the subproblem with weight variables reaching its optimum values, we derive an appropriate range of step size. Finally, we iteratively solve these subproblems to obtain the solution to the original problem. Extensive experiments employing non-equispaced linear and rectangular arrays, concentric ring array, and cylinder array, are implemented to demonstrate that the developed approach can accurately control SLLs, null and DRR for arbitrary arrays.


Viral marketing campaigns target primarily those individuals who are central in social networks and hence have social influence. Marketing events, however, may attract diverse audience. Despite the importance of event marketing, the influence of heterogeneous target groups is not well understood yet. In this paper, we define the Spreading Potential (SP) problem of target group selection given the mixture of influential and ordinary agents in groups. The SP problem is different from the well-known Influence Maximization (IM) problem that aims to find the most influential individual agents but does not consider mixture of influential and ordinary agents in target groups. We provide a systemic test for ranking influence measures in the SP problem based on node sampling and on a novel statistical method, the Sum of Ranking Differences. Using a Linear Threshold diffusion model on an online social network, we evaluate seven network measures of social influence. We demonstrate that the statistical assessment of these influence measures is remarkably different in the SP problem, when low-ranked individuals are present, from the IM problem, when we focus on the algorithm's top choices exclusively. 1 ar X iv :2 10 6. 02 70 7v 1 [ cs .S I] 4 J un 2 02 1


We analyse the properties of a new learning algorithm for binary perceptrons based on the minimization of a temperature-dependent differentiable cost function. We show that learning at finite temperature increases the stabilities of learned patterns, endowing the perceptron with robustness, at the price of accepting a small fraction of errors in the learning set. If the temperature is appropriately chosen, our algorithm approaches the optimal generalization performance for linearly separable functions. Therefore, by controlling the learning temperature, this algorithm solves the main practical problem of perceptron learning, i.e. that of finding the best weights, independently of the nature of the learning set.


The stability of viscous flow between concentric cylinders with the inner cylinder rotating and with an axial flow due to an axial pressure gradient is considered. The analysis is motivated, in part, by recent papers by Hasoon & Martin (1977) and Chung & Astill (1977). Results are given for radius ratios ɳ = R 1/R2 = 1 (the small-gap limit), 0.95, and 0.9, and for values of the axial Reynolds number R up to 100. Here R1 and R2 are the radii of the inner and outer cylinders, respectively. For the small-gap problem, the results are compared with those obtained by approximating the angular velocity and/or the axial velocity by average values. Two of the conclusions of the paper are that the small-gap problem is a valid approximation to the ɳ ≠ 1 problem for ɳ near 1, and that the approximation of the axial velocity by its average value leads to qualitatively and quantitatively incorrect results. In addition, we find that for axial Reynolds numbers of about ninety a second mode of instability arises and there is a discontinuity in the axial wavenumber of the critical disturbance as a function of the Reynolds number.


This paper describes a distributed sensor platform for a new breed of artificial pancreas devices. In recent work, a multi-variable adaptive algorithm has been proposed which incorporates physical activity of the patients for accurate prediction and control of glucose levels. In order to facilitate this algorithm, we integrate a smartphone and multiple sensors including activity trackers and a glucose monitor into a distributed system. The proposed sensor platform provides realtime data access for the artificial pancreas control algorithm hosted on a remote device.


Foxp3 is a master gene of Treg cells, a novel subset of CD4+ T cells primarily expressing CD25. We describe here different features in Foxp3 expression profile between normal and leukemic CD4+CD25+ T cells, using peripheral blood samples from healthy controls (HCs), human T‐cell leukemia virus type‐1 (HTLV‐1)‐infected asymptomatic carriers (ACs), patients with adult T‐cell leukemia (ATL), and various hematopoietic cell lines. The majority of CD4+CD25+ T cells in HCs were positive for Foxp3, but not all CD4+CD25+ T cells in ACs were positive, indicating that Foxp3 expression is not always linked to CD25 expression in normal T cells. Leukemic (ATL) T cells constitutively expressing CD25 were characteristic of heterogeneous Foxp3 expression, such as intra‐ and inter‐case heterogeneity in intensity, inconsistency with CD25 expression, and a discrepancy in the mRNA and its protein expression. Surprisingly, a discernible amount of Foxp3 mRNA was detectable even in most cell lines without CD25 expression, a small fraction of which was positive for the Foxp3 proteins. The subcellular localization of Foxp3 in HTLV‐1‐infected cell lines was mainly cytoplasmic, different from that of primary ATL cells. These findings indicate that Foxp3 has two facets: essential Treg identity and molecular mimicry secondary to tumorigenesis. Conclusively, Foxp3 in normal T cells, but not mRNA, is basically potent at discriminating a subset of Treg cells from CD25+ T‐cell populations, whereas the modulation of Foxp3 expression in leukemic T cells could be implicated in oncogenesis and has a potentially useful clinical role.


Tea [Camellia sinensis(L) O Kuntz] is one of the oldest, most widely consumed and least expensive natural beverages, known to the world over for its heritage brew with various flavor and antioxidant properties. The productivity of tea in world as well as in India has been raised by developing high yielding clones and seed stocks but the genetic base of the existing diversity of the crop is rapidly narrowing down. In present scenario, apart from yield and quality, physiological parameters and abiotic stress tolerance are also raising up to be the most important environmental indicator impacting on sustainability and productivity of tea. In the published research work, an effort was made to characterize and estimate the variation of 20 tea germplasm named as THT1 to THT20, growing in the Experimental Garden for Plantation Crops, AAU, Jorhat on the basis of growth parameters and abiotic stress tolerance capability of tea.
 In the experiment all the germplasm showed highly significant difference amongst them regarding growth parameters, pigment content and on abiotic stress tolerance. THT 1, THT 10, THT 3 contained higher total chlorophyll and THT 4, THT 10, THT 20 showed high carotene content. In case of growth parameters THT 11, THT 7, THT5 showed higher plucking point density whereas THT 11, THT 17, THT 7 showed good abiotic stress tolerance with high value of proline content, relative turgidity, water saturation deficit and epicuticular wax content.
When clustering was done based on abiotic stress tolerance, pigment and growth parameters respectively, THT11 and THT 17 are found to form a discriminated cluster in the dendogram. The parameters taken especially for abiotic stress tolerance study may be subjected to environmental factors for which more elaborated field trial may be required for these clones to assess their yield and quality parameters.


Sputtering yields and thermal evaporation fluxes of lithium and lithiated ATJ graphite are studied. Sputtering yields are measured for the ATJ graphite by lithium ion bombardment at 45° incidence, with 700-2000 eV accelerations. Typically, 4 × 1013 ions/(cm2 · s) flux of Li ion beam is obtained from LiCl powder in a Colutron ion source. Sputtered particles are collected by a quartz crystal microbalance to determine sputtering yields. The experiment is repeated after Li is evaporated onto the ATJ graphite target. Suppressed amounts of sputtered particles are observed after Li treatment. Deuterium (D) saturation treatment for lithiated graphite is also done to simulate actual divertor conditions. The sputtering yield after D saturation does not show distinct difference with nonsaturated samples. In addition, thermal evaporation fluxes of Li on stainless steel (SS) and intercalated Li in the ATJ graphite are measured. An interesting finding is that Li in graphite shows a magnitudeless evaporation flux than Li on SS for surface temperatures ranging from 250°C to 500°C.


Abstract:With the development of modern teaching technology, intelligent writing correction platform has emerged and become an effective way to supplement traditional feedback from teachers under the new situation. The main theoretical basis of this study is dynamic evaluation theory. The experimental group and the controlled group  were assigned three writing tasks. The statistical analysis software SPSS was used to analyze the data results. In the study, literature review, experiment, questionnaire and interview methods were used. The literature summarizes the development status of teacher feedback and intelligent platform correction at home and abroad. The experimental method is to compare the similarities and differences between teacher feedback and intelligent platform correction in specific experiments. Through questionnaires and interviews, we can understand the attitudes of teachers and students towards the intelligent correction platform.

The research results show that the two feedback methods are consistent and have obvious differences. Teacher feedback has more significant advantages in the two dimensions of text structure and content, while the intelligent writing correction platform is too general and procedural in the feedback of these two dimensions. In comparison, the feedback of the intelligent writing correction platform on vocabulary and grammar is more detailed, giving students detailed information. The combination of the two ways of feedback and the application of them to the teaching of English writing in senior high schools will have a more ideal effect, which will have a positive effect on the improvement of senior high school students' English writing level.
Keywords:  Dynamic evaluation theory; Teacher feedback; Feedback from AI writing platform; contrastive study


Objective: We sought to evaluate the impact of liver transplantation (LT) programs on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who underwent liver resection (LR) and noncurative intent treatment. Background: LT programs have an array of resources and services that would positively affect the prognosis of patients with HCC. Methods: Patients who underwent LT, LR, radiotherapy (RT), or chemotherapy (CTx) for HCC between 2004 and 2018 were included in the National Cancer Database. Institutions with LT programs were defined as those that performed 1 or more LT for at least 5 years. Centers were stratified by hospital volume. The impact of LT programs was assessed after propensity score matching to achieve covariate balance. Results: A total of 71,735 patients were identified, of which 7997 received LT (11.1%), 12,683 LR (17.7%), 15,675 RT (21.9%), and 35,380 CTx (49.3%). Among a total of 1267 distinct institutions, 94 (7.4%) were categorized as LT programs. Designation as an LT program was also associated with a high volume of LR and noncurative intent treatment (both P<0.001). After propensity score matching, LT programs were associated with better survival among LR and noncurative intent treatment patients. Although hospital volume was also associated with improved prognosis, LT programs were associated with additional survival benefits in noncurative intent treatment. On the other hand, no such benefit was noted in patients who underwent LR. Conclusions: The presence of an LT program was associated with a higher volume of LR and noncurative intent treatment. Furthermore, designation as an LT program had a "halo effect" on the prognosis of patients undergoing RT/CTx that went beyond the procedure-volume effect.


The forward proton detectors recently installed and operating at the LHC open the possibility to observe photon collisions with high precision, providing a novel window on physics beyond the Standard Model. We review recent simulations and theoretical developments about the measurement of anomalous ${\gamma}{\gamma}{\gamma}{\gamma}$ and $Z{\gamma}{\gamma}{\gamma}$ interactions. The searches for these anomalous gauge interactions are expected to set bounds on a wide range of particles including generic electroweak particles, neutral particles with dimension-5 coupling to gauge bosons, polarizable dark particles, and are typically complementary from new physics searches in other channels.


Dissertação de Mestrado Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS, Brasil LEARNING STRATEGIES IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSES: A SENIOR-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS STUDY Author: Teacher Gisvaldo Bezerra Araújo-Silva Advisor: Professor Désirée Motta-Roth Foreign language (henceforth FL) learning process plays an important role as a knowledge construction facilitator when it aims at developing the learner's ability to communicate through this language. Based on this assumption, researches in Applied Linguistics have investigated FL learning. Among the resources that contribute to language learning, the literature has identified a language learning strategies (henceforth LS) taxonomy – a set of procedures that can help students to develop actions, take attitudes and decisions on what to do to enhance learning in terms of cognition, metacognition, compensation, affectivity and social interaction (Oxford, 1990; Figliolini, 2004). These LS may be used by students or taught them more or less consciously, depending on the teaching approach. This research intends to investigate LS use in a Portuguese/English language studies undergraduate course last two terms. Thus, this research main goals are: a) identifying LS used by students in some moments of communicative activities during different classroom tasks; b) identifying the most used LS in this context; c) identifying which ones seem to be better off to students' communicative competence development or to a given task accomplishment; and d) analyzing the possible relationships among the teacher's approach, peers' interaction and these LS use. In order to do that, first 12 classes from each of the two terms observed were recorded. After that the 6 classes from each of two groups that seemed more representative of these classrooms dynamics were chosen. Then these classes were watched a couple of times and all the moments which LS were identified were transcribed. Later on the transcript was reviewed and all the LS identified were tabulated. Finally the LS use was analyzed in order to find out whether they enhanced learning in terms of communication and grammatical adequacy. At the same time the possible relations between learning context and the appropriateness of those LS used were analyzed. Findings show that although students use a great number of LS, they do not always pay attention to their efficiency or to their adequacy. Therefore, it seems interesting that teachers not only focus on their content area but also on how students respond to their teaching approach and how they deal with their own learning. So teachers should help the student to be self-conscious about his/her own learning. As a result, the learner might be able to develop the ability of selecting, using and evaluating the most appropriate LS for his/her needs and consequently he/she will enhance his/her FL communicative competence.


This research contributes to the evolving field of New Media Studies through an empirical examination of social media design in real-time practice at the computer interface. In recent years questions of technology and design have started to figure more prominently in research into Social Network Sites (SNSs) but critical analysis of design in practice, at the interface remains under-researched. The interface is becoming an increasingly important analytical concept in the digital age as it is the space where machine readable code is translated into the cultural codes which are accessible to the everyday users of digital media technology. Furthermore, there have been recent calls for an expansion of the traditional media practice paradigm encouraging practice approaches to media which take seriously the mediating role of technologies in emergent forms of digital media practice. This thesis carries out empirical research into social media/ted practice; it critically examines sites and real-time interactions at the interface, to understand the interrelationships between the specific design of platforms and evolving forms of social media/ted practice. The thesis draws on Media Studies, New Media Studies, Sociology and Social Studies of Technology to explicate an original interdisciplinary analytical framework for studying people's interactions with social media technologies at the interface. This framework is referred to as the triple articulation of social media/ted practice. The triple articulation of social media/ted practice acknowledges the interplay between the materiality of social media technologies, the cultural coding of social media technologies and active practice with social media technologies. The term social media/ted practice has been coined specifically to emphasise the mediating role of technology in social media use. Using SNSs as a case study the thesis combines critical site analysis with interviews at the interface which illuminate the interpretive and constructive elements of the micro-interactions between people and SNSs that underpin related forms of social media/ted practice. Whilst this thesis is focused on SNSs, the analytical framework has wider applicability in New Media Studies and media-orientated Sociology. The central argument of this thesis is that design matters for social media/ted practice. Site-specific 'micro' architectures, affordances and algorithmic processes continue to shape social media/ted practice at the interface. The user-interface works to render aspects of the technology visible, accessible, meaningful and useful. This thesis calls attention to the user-interface as a key site for: (1), mediating social practice (2), understanding emerging social trends (3), site governance and (4), developing critical digital media literacies.


The psychosocial problems and mediators of mental health were investigated in an adult sample of 74 Malawian returnees. A semi-structured interview indicated a number of specific problems facing the returnees, including reclaiming land, discrimination and disappointed expectations. A demographic questionnaire, the Coping Strategy Indicator, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, and the Generalised Self-Efficacy Scale were used to identify potential mediating factors on mental health as measured by the Self Reporting Questionnaire and number of visits to a doctor/healer in the last year. Stepwise Regression analysis revealed that number of trauma events experienced, generalised self-efficacy and gender were significant predictors of mental health. However, there was no significant relationship between the measures of coping strategies and mental health. These results are discussed in relation to theories of stress, learned helplessness, and the possibility of facilitating returnee reintegration. The importance of contextualising the aims and instruments of research is emphasised.


Planar gradiometers can be modelled as two-dimensional spatial filters, taking into account area, baseline and shape of the coils. We associate a spatial frequency response with each configuration studied and show that planar gradiometers behave as band-pass spatial filters. Also, in order to determine a spatial frequency range for typical magnetic field sources, we calculate the two-dimensional Fourier transform of the field due to a current dipole for several liftoffs. Important issues such as gradiometer spatial cutoff frequencies, bandwidth and symmetry are discussed.


1. Young female rats dosed with 1-bromo[1-14C]propane excrete the same metabolites as adult females but in different relative proportions. Propylcysteine was detected as one of the metabolites in rats of all ages studied but represented a higher proportion of the total metabolites excreted in rats aged 5 and 11 days. 2. Hepatic GSH-S-alkytransferase activity was low in females at birth increasing up to the age of about thirty days. No activity was detected in the livers of the males at birth and up to 6 days of age; thereafter the level of activity increased up to 35-40 days. 3. Propylcysteine was excreted as prophylmercapturic acid and propylmercapturic acid sulphoxide by female rats of all ages. The amount of sulphoxide excreted relative to mercapturic acid excreted was higher in rats up to the age of 16 days than in older animals.


Language dissects thought. In language fortified with calculated verbal vituperation and persuasive eloquence, Ayi Kwei Armah takes his audience down memory lane—a retrospect (in the characteristic manner of the Sankofa model) into the original identity of the African. Sankofa dwells on the idyllic past which serves as a model for a restructured future. One hears the evocative voice of Anoa's prophecy of two thousand seasons, wandering along other ways and finding paths of living way. The way is glaringly replete with verbal bullets with which Armah dwells on the Blackman's indulgence. This gives rise to the flagrant losing of "the way" to the "predators" and "destroyers" in Two Thousand Seasons. In his advocacy for a restoration to the forgotten way, Armah's verbal onslaught provokes sharp awakening that propels the people to a positive action to recover the lost way into "understanding the mind beyond despair to healing work". In The Healers therefore, Armah's in-depth philosophies led by the master healer, Damfo and the trainee healer, Densu provide keys to the restoration of black people and racial renewal. The focus of this study is Armah's eloquent intellectual expressions: evocative poetic lamentation, prophecy, symbolism, and studded imagery of brutality, servitude and restoration. The work concludes by demonstrating Armah's achievements with the deployment of linguistic weapons. Has he succeeded in making his reader / audience see clearly the Blackman's annals of misdemeanor and the consequences? How realistic is his redemptive posture into Ebibirman; the liberated community of black people? This is the crux of this paper intertwined with Sankofa. Keywords: Ayi Kwei Armah, cultural activism, memory, post-colonialism.


The problem for measuring and controlling the arc length and the torch height is important as a basis of research in automatic arc welding systems. Improvement of welding quality requires to keep constant optimum values of the length and current of the arc. In this paper, we discuss the stability and adaptability of the arc length in the MIG pulse arc welding system with a constant feeding speed of the electrode wire. Consequently, it is necessary to control the height of welding torch so as to keep the electrode extension constant for controlling both the current and length of the arc. We construct a basic visual robot which measures and controls the arc length and the torch height, using the personal computer, image processing device, and ITV camera as a sensor. Furthermore, we describe how to determine the characteristic of the digital controller, which controls the welding current and the digital servo motor for controlling the arc length and the torch height. We also introduce a basis of the electric techniques which incorporate the personal computer, image processing device, digital-analog converter, programmable current source, and digital servo motor.


A significant change in active similariton characteristics, both numerically and experimentally, is observed as a function of the location of the lumped spectral filter. The closer the spectral filter is to the input of the Yb(3+)-doped fiber, the shorter the de-chirped pulse width. The peak power of the de-chirped pulse has its maximum value at a certain location of the spectral filter. Four different positions of the spectral filter inside the laser cavity have been theoretically studied and two of them have been verified experimentally.


The emerging technology of the Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator (ATMA), a leader-follower style vehicle system, utilizes connected and automated vehicle capabilities to enhance safety during transportation infrastructure maintenance in work zones. However, the speed difference between ATMA vehicles and general vehicles creates a moving bottleneck that reduces capacity and increases queue length, resulting in additional delays. The different routes taken by ATMA cause diverse patterns of time-varying capacity drops, which may affect the user equilibrium traffic assignment and lead to different system costs. This manuscript focuses on optimizing the routing for ATMA vehicles in a network to minimize the system cost associated with the slow-moving operation. To achieve this, a queuing-based traffic assignment approach is proposed to identify the system cost caused by the ATMA system. A queuing-based time-dependent (QBTD) travel time function, considering capacity drop, is introduced and applied in the static user equilibrium traffic assignment problem, with a result of adding dynamic characteristics. Subsequently, we formulate the queuing-based traffic assignment problem and solve it using a modified path-based algorithm. The methodology is validated using a small-size and a large-size network and compared with two benchmark models to analyze the benefit of capacity drop modeling and QBTD travel time function. Furthermore, the approach is applied to quantify the impact of different routes on the traffic system and identify an optimal route for ATMA vehicles performing maintenance work. Finally, sensitivity analysis is conducted to explore how the impact changes with variations in traffic demand and capacity reduction.


John Anderson was born in Sydney on 5 March 1928 and died in Melbourne on 26 February 2007. He was educated at Sydney Boys' High School, Sydney Technical College, the New South Wales University of Technology (now the University of New South Wales) and the University of Cambridge. He was at Queens University Belfast as a Ramsay Memorial Fellow, 1954–5, was a Lecturer in Chemistry at the New South Wales University of Technology, a Reader in Chemistry at the University of Melbourne and Foundation Professor of Chemistry at Flinders University in South Australia. In 1969 he was appointed Chief of the CSIRO Division of Tribophysics and managed the Division's transition to become the Division of Materials Science. He was a Professor of Chemistry at Monash University, Melbourne, from 1987 until his retirement in 1993. He will be remembered for his contributions to the understanding of gas–solid interactions with particular emphasis on fundamental heterogeneous catalysis on metals, but also embracing other adsorption and oxidation processes.


The changes in the business environment may bring a company into a dangerous situation if the company does not react properly to the changes. In order to successfully coping with the change, a number of companies have taken several measures to improve the performance, either by restructuring, or reengineering their organization. Usually there are two areas of changes that take the attention of management. Firstly, the changes in shared vision, business strategy, structure, and system of organization. Secondly, the change in human behavior of organization, which consists of staff, skill, and style. Pascale and A thos (1981) in their se ven S model of chronic organization, called the former as the hard S while the latter they called soft 5. No matter how excellent are the business strategy, structure and system, the changes in an organization would not occur unless there are changes in human behavior.
This paper discusses the effort to change the behavior, with special emphasis on leader behavior. A case study from an oil company, Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) which is in the process of restructuring, would be utilized as an illustration of the effort to change the organization through leadership development program. In CPI a massive leadership development program has been launched to speed up the process of change. The program covers all layers of leaders, starting from the bottom layer up to the top management level. The bottom layer focuses on transformational leadership, the second upper layer stresses on synergistic leadership, and the top layer concentrates on visionary leadership.
Based on qualitative data found from a preliminary study aimed at assessing the impacts of the program in speeding up the change in CPI, it was found that the CLD program has contributed positively to the change process.


In this paper, we present a CMOS-compatible integrated photonics resonant gyroscope incorporating active Si&Ge components with low-loss SiN waveguiding structures for the first time. The gyroscope design is based on a ring-coupled Mach-Zehnder interferometer (19.2 mm ring length). Based on numerical modelling, the estimated resolution is 1.08 deg/s, representing a 1.56-times improvement over a single ring all-pass design with the same footprint. Further improvement afforded by the MZI-based design is expected under Kerr effect limited conditions. Devices were fabricated with the STMicroelectronics DAPHNE (Datacom Advanced Photonics Nanoscale Environment) 300 mm Photonic R&D platform. Experimental measurements under static (non-rotating) conditions confirm the numerical modelling results.


Churchill's techniques of government, as historians have long recognized, were distinctly unconventional. Energetic, self-confident and persuasive, he preferred to act outside official civil service channels when the stakes were high. In terms of foreign policy, summit diplomacy - the cultivation of personal contacts to achieve national objectives - was his preferred "modus operandi". At its best his direct intervention could be heroically successful, resulting, for example, in the entry of the United States into World War II. At its worst it failed utterly. Either way this was international politics at a level of high drama, and high risk. This text explores Churchill's predilection for direct diplomatic action from his first tentative involvement in 1908 until his retirement as Prime Minister in 1955. Its principal focus is the period 1945-1955, during which the full force of Churchill's personal diplomacy was directed at sustaining Britain's great power status - in relation to the Soviet Union and the United States - at a time when its own economic power was declining. In particular, as an elderly prime minister in his final term after October 1951, Churchill sought to revive with US President Eisenhower and with Stalin's successors in Soviet Russia the "Big Three" summitry he saw as the most effective means to forestall a nuclear holocaust and achieve a lasting peace. This study explores Churchill's personal political style. Based on a scrutiny of official documents and private archives in Europe and the United States, it seeks to break vital new ground both in terms of Churchill scholarship and the international history of the Cold War.


A 61-year-old man presented to the ENT emergency clinic with a history of unilateral facial nerve palsy occurring shortly after each dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The first episode developed 5 hours after administration of the first dose and the second 2 days after administration of the second dose. Investigations at initial presentation to the emergency department were unremarkable, and the patient was diagnosed with Bell's palsy on both occasions. We describe the first case of Bell's palsy occurring after each dose of any UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine. Single episodes of unilateral facial nerve palsies have been reported in clinical trials and in subsequent case reports. There has been no evidence, however, of an episode after each dose. We also describe the earliest onset of symptoms from timing of administration of the vaccine, further suggesting the Bell's palsy was associated with the vaccine.


Background: This study was designed to examine the relationship between workplace stress and burnout and the quality of work life. Methods: This was a descriptive-surveying study with a correlational approach. The sample included managers and staff were selected by a census method based on the Morgan table and a total of 300 male and female employees were chosen through a stratified random sampling methodology using Morgan table. We used the Jagdish job stress questionnaire to measure the levels of job stress, while the burnout rate was assessed through Volfar job burnout scale. The Elena's quality of work life inventory was also applied to evaluate the quality of work life of the employees and managers. Results: We studied 352 samples. The mean age of the participants was equal to 32±3 years. There was a positive relationship between workplace stress and job burnout (P 0.05, df=350, t=2.03). Conclusions: The results did not confirm the mediatory role of job burnout in the correlation between job stress and quality of work life; however, a significant mediatory role of the stress was found and confirmed in the relationship between burnout and quality of work life.


Objective: The programmed death-1/programmed death-1 ligands (PD-1/PD-Ls) pathway is critical for attenuating autoimmunity and maintaining T cell homeostasis. It has been suggested that PD-1/PD-Ls plays an important role in tumor evasion from host immunity. Although strong evidence supports the concept of immunosurveillance and immunoediting in colorectal cancer, the immune regulatory role of PD-1/PD-Ls pathway is not clear in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Here we investigated the expression of PD-1 and the soluble ligands (sPD-Ls) in blood plasma of patients with inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and CRC. Methods: Age-matched 107 health controls, 109 patients with colorectal cancer and 109 patients with IBD from West China Hospital (Chengdu, Sichuan, China.) were enrolled in the present study. The levels of PD-1 and sPD-Ls in blood plasma were analyzed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Expression of PD-L1 and PD-L2 were investigated in colorectal tissue by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Results: The level of PD-1 in the plasma of the CRC patients was significantly up-regulated compared with healthy people (P=0.004), but there was no significant difference between IBD patient and healthy people. The levels of PD-1 were higher in CRC patients than in IBD patients. The levels of PD-L1 and soluble PD-L2 in peripheral blood were significantly increased in CRC patients comparing to health patients (P=0.0028 and p=0.0264, respectively). sPD-Ls were correlated with circulatory PD-1 expression in the CRC patients. These results indicated that the PD-1/PD-Ls pathway is activated in the CRC patients. However, we didn9t observe significant differences either between IBD patients and healthy people or between CRC patients and IBD patients. We further confirmed that PD-L1 and PD-L2 were localized in colorectal cancer cells by IHC. In 67 CRC patients, the positive rates of PD-L1 and PD-L2 were 35.3% and 65%, respectively. In addition, expression of PD-1, PD-L1 and PD-L2 were higher in the patients with metastatic CRC compared to the patients with primary CRC. Conclusion: The higher levels of plasma sPD-Ls may be associated with CRC and may predict CRC metastatic progression. The existence of immunosuppressive PD-1 and sPD-Ls in the circulation of CRC patients may indicate that PD-Ls suppress immune responses against CRC not only locally, but also systemically. This information will provide a novel insight into the role of PD-1/PDLs in CRC-mediated immunosuppression. Citation Format: Jipei Du, Yao Cheng, Zhigang Mao, Shiping Liao, Yanjiang Zheng, Ji Zhang, Yufang Wang. Upregulation of soluble programmed death ligands in patients with colorectal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A004.


Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has proved to be a common meta-heuristic algorithm for determining the minimum value among a set of values but it is known to suffer from the local minima problem. In this paper, we propose a novel optimization algorithm called POLARPSO that enhances the behavior of PSO and avoids the local minima problem by using a polar function to search for more points in the search space. The algorithm has been tested on 23 well-known benchmark factions and the results are verified by comparing them with state of the art algorithms: Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA), Multi-Verse Optimizer (MVO) as well as PSO. The paper also considers a solution to the cloud data migration problem where data migrates from highly loaded nodes to less loaded nodes in a process aims at achieving a kind of load balancing. The results prove that the proposed algorithm is applicable to solve this challenging problem in cloud environment and is able to find the best node to migrate to quickly and effectively. Our empirical results show that the proposed algorithm has enhanced the PSO behavior in reaching the best solution and outperformed the other algorithms over the tested benchmarked functions.


Secreted tumor proteins are critical for establishing the requisite tumor-stromal interactions in the process of metastasis and are superior therapeutic targets. Here we present a proteome-scale analysis to identify novel secreted proteins associated with bone metastasis. To characterize the complete set of secreted proteins involved in tissue-specific metastasis, we analyzed the secreted protein fractions from four sublines of the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line which differ in bone metastasis ability. Using LC-MS/MS mass spectrometry technology, we identified 1153 total unique proteins from these fractions and filtered out those proteins predicted to be non-secreted using SignalP 3.0. This analysis yielded 206 unique secretory-predicted proteins, thus providing the first view of the MDA-MB-231 secretome. To determine potential therapeutic targets, we looked at which secreted proteins were found only in the highly bone metastatic cell lines. This 32-protein bone metastasis "secretome signature" contained several proteins already known to play a role in promoting bone metastasis (eg. MMP1, CTGF, and TGF-) as well as many novel proteins with no prior link to metastasis or cancer. GO categories significantly enriched in this signature included "extracellular region," "calcium ion binding," and " IGF-binding," further confirming its biological relevance. Oncomine database analysis indicated that 6 of 32 secretome signature proteins are strongly upregulated in multiple human cancers as compared to matched normal tissue. To narrow the secretome signature biologically, we repeated the LC-MS/MS analysis on two additional sets of matched parental vs. highly bone metastatic derivative cell lines. From the three total secretome analyses, 5 secreted proteins were found to be unique to bone metastatic derivatives in two of three cell types, and one protein was found in every bone metastatic derivative (and in none of the weakly bone metastatic lines). Oncomine analysis indicated that three of these five proteins were also strongly upregulated in multiple human cancers as compared to normal tissue. This analysis of the metastasis secretome and its associated bone metastasis-specific changes has identified multiple novel secreted proteins strongly implicated in clinical malignant progression. Following experimental and clinical validation, any could be considered for therapeutic targeting via monoclonal antibody. Citation Information: Clin Cancer Res 2010;16(7 Suppl):B7


Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of phosphoric acid etched labial enamel surfaces of human permanent incisors and canines showed that the etch pattern, including the depth of the etched relief, may vary significantly from tooth to tooth and between different areas of the same tooth. On the other hand, pairs of contralateral teeth showed a very similar etch pattern symmetrically along the midline. No difference in the pattern could be found in enamel etched with three different orthophosphoric acids: 50% with 7% ZnO, 37%, and 35%. Therefore, when comparing the depth of penetration of different cold-curing restorative resins, composite or non-composite, into the etched enamel relief, it seems appropriate to study these materials two-by-two on pairs of contralateral teeth.


With decreasing costs for DNA synthesis and sequencing, ultra-dense DNA storage is an emerging, viable technology. The original proof of concept [1]–[3] has yielded several experiments of larger scale demonstrating archival storage in DNA molecules [4]–[7]. In particular, a recent collaboration by Harvard and Technicolor announced the storage of 22 MB of data in synthetic DNA [4]. Primarily, existing storage systems utilize high-fidelity synthesizers. For synthesizers which incur non-negligible insertions and deletions, a large fraction of the oligonucleotide segments produced have unequal, variable lengths. This talk overviews methods to correct for synchronization errors in variable-length segments using synchronization codes (e.g., [8], [9]).


Objective: To determine whether there is an association between latitude and annual major depressive episode (MDE) prevalence in Canada. Methods: Data from 2 national survey programs (the National Population Health Survey and the Canadian Community Health Survey) were used, providing 10 data sets collected between 1996 and 2013, together including 922,260 respondents, of whom 495,739 were assessed for MDE using 1 of 2 versions of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, a short-form version (8 studies), and a Canadian adaptation of the World Mental Health version (2 studies). Approximate latitude was determined by linkage to postal code data. Data were analyzed using logistic regression and pooled across surveys using individual-level meta-analytic methods. Results: In models including latitude as a continuous variable, a statistically significant association was observed, with prevalence increasing with increasing latitude. This association persisted after adjustment for a set of known risk factors. The latitude gradient was modest in magnitude, a 1% to 2% increase in the prevalence odds of MDE per degree of latitude was observed. Due to sparse data, this gradient cannot be confidently generalized beyond major population centres, which tend to occur at less than 55° latitude in Canada. Conclusion: A latitude gradient has not previously been reported. If replicated, the gradient may have implications for the planning of services and generation of aetiological hypotheses. However, this cross-sectional analysis cannot confirm aetiology and could not evaluate the potential contributions of variables such as light exposure, weather patterns, or social determinants.


Intercultural communication plays an important role in multicultural organizations. Since the world becomes more globalized and people communicate, travel and work overseas, it has dramatically increased the need for intercultural communication. At present, many organizations consist of multicultural staff coming from different parts of the world. Not only do they have different cultural backgrounds, but also each of them has their own beliefs and norms. In the age of globalization, the workplace is becoming extremely cross-culturally integrated with intercultural communication, which is more crucial for executives, business leaders, workplace managers, and employees. So, intercultural competence is an important key for staff of these organizations to communicate with each other. In this paper, senior Chinese undergraduate students have worked for many workplaces. Some of the workplaces in Chiangrai and nearer provinces varied on the numbers of multicultural employees whose nationalities include Thai, British, Canadian, Kenyan, American, Chinese and other countries around the world. So, working with people who have different cultural backgrounds, different age, gender, education backgrounds and different working experiences has existed in intercultural communication challenges. Furthermore, the numbers of related studies in workplaces are rarely explored in Thailand so that this study aims to identify the use of nonverbal miscommunication e.g. silences, smiles, kinesics and time (chronemics) among senior Chinese undergraduate students with their internship in Chiangrai province, as well as to investigate social, cultural, and linguistic factors influencing the use of nonverbal miscommunication in their internship. In order to solve these intercultural communication difficulties, however, guidelines for the improvements of senior Chinese undergraduate students' effective intercultural communication competence in different cultural workplaces are also presented and discussed.


Purpose: Research predicting degrees of upper limb recovery following stroke can inform rehabilitation practice and convey to the person with stroke what level of function to expect. But how can this deterministic practice be reconciled with an encouraging and empowering approach to stroke self-management - especially when the prediction is unfavourable? We draw on qualitative data from stroke survivors whose upper limb was non-functional 3 months after stroke, and who reflect on their experiences months and years later.
Methods: Thirty-nine stroke survivors (age ranging from 20 to 80+ years, time post-stroke 6 months to 46 years) were purposively recruited to semi-structured interviews (n=15), a focus group (n=6) and an online survey (n=18). Data were analysed through thematic framework analysis using NVivo© software.
Results: A strong theme emerged on the importance of maintaining a positive and hopeful outlook. Importantly, this represented a conscious attitude participants assumed towards their recovery. Also when participants experienced sadness, frustration or anger at the loss of their arm or lack of improvement, this was the mind-set they deliberately adopted and considered most helpful, in order to bolster resilience. Several participants described the negative impact when professionals predicted the arm would never improve, and such predictions were often rejected. Participants gave accounts of often unpredictable ways of managing their arm and unexpected outcomes.
Conclusions: These findings offer a complementary perspective to prediction-based deterministic stroke rehabilitation practice, providing valuable insights of how self-management based on encouragement and empowerment can add value to patient-focused outcomes in the longer term.


Ropinirole hydrochloride is a nonergot dopamine agonist, indicated for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The objective of this study is to develop validated HPLC (Method-I) and first order derivative spectrophotometric method (Method -II) for the estimation of ropinirole hydrochloride. A sharp peak of the drug was obtained at 2.66 min, on a Thermo C 18 column (4.6 mm i.d × 250 mm) utilizing Acetonitrile: 0.02 M KH2PO4 solution in the ratio 72:28 v/v as mobile phase. The flow rate was 1.1 mL/ min with UV detection at 250.0 nm. The methods are validated for specificity, precision, accuracy and robustness. Method –II is a simple, precise and economical first order derivative method for the estimation of ropinirole hydrochloride from its formulation. Ropinirole hydrochloride shows absorption maxima at 249.0 nm and in the first order derivative spectra, zero crossing at 249.0 nm was obtained with a sharp peak at 238.0 nm when n=1. Results of the analysis were validated statistically and were found to be satisfactory.


In this paper a fossil dicotyledonous wood from the Deccan Intertrappean beds of Mahurzari (21°13'N; 79°1'E) near Nagpur, India has been described. It has been assigned to the genus Barringtonioxylon Shallom (1960a) and described as B. eopterocarpum sp. nov. because of its marked similarity with the wood structure of Barringtonia pterocarpa Kurz of Lecythidaceae.


Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by microcephaly, short stature, immunodeficiency, and a high incidence of cancer. Cultured cells from NBS show chromosome instability, an increased sensitivity to radiation-induced cell killing, and an abnormal cell-cycle regulation after irradiation. Hitherto, patients with NBS have been divided into the two complementation groups V1 and V2, on the basis of restoration of radioresistant DNA synthesis, suggesting that each group arises from a different gene. However, the presence of genetic heterogeneity in NBS has been considered to be controversial. To localize the NBS gene, we have performed functional complementation assays using somatic cell fusion between NBS-V1 and NBS-V2 cells, on the basis of hyper-radiosensitivity, and then have performed a genomewide search for the NBS locus, using microcell-mediated chromosome transfer followed by complementation assays based on radiosensitivity. We found that radiation resistance was not restored in the fused NBS-V1 and NBS-V2 cells and that only human chromosome 8 complements the sensitivity to ionizing radiation, in NBS cell lines. In complementation assays performed after the transfer of a reduced chromosome, merely the long arm of chromosome 8 was sufficient for restoring the defect. Our results strongly suggest that NBS is a homogeneous disorder and that the gene for NBS is located at 8q21-24.


In present study, five strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus GK20, Lactobacillus brevis GK55, Lactobacillus paracasei GK74, Lactobacillus plantarum GK81, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides GK104 isolated from the mustard leaf kimchi were investigated for resistance to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant activity. L. acidophilus GK20, L. brevis GK55, L. paracasei GK74, and L. plantarum GK81 were resistant to hydrogen peroxide (0.5 mM), showing a survival rate of 50% or more. In particular, L. acidophilus GK20 and L. paracasei GK74 were the most superoxide anions-resistant and L. paracasei GK74 and L. plantarum GK81 were most likely survive hydroxyl radicals. Meanwhile, the intracellular cell-free extract (ICFE) from L. plantarum GK81 exhibited significantly higher DPPH radical scavenging values (96.4±2.8%) than the intact cells (IC). The ICFE of L. plantarum GK81 showed the highest superoxide radical scavenging ability and chelating activity for Fe²? ions among the 5 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) tested, and IC and ICFE from L. plantarum GK81 demonstrated excellent reducing activity, which was higher than those of BHA and vitamin C as a positive control.


Nowadays, deep learning has achieved remarkable results in many computer vision related tasks, among which the support of big data is essential. In this paper, we propose a full stage data augmentation framework to improve the accuracy of deep convolutional neural networks, which can also play the role of implicit model ensemble without introducing additional model training costs. Simultaneous data augmentation during training and testing stages can ensure network optimization and enhance its generalization ability. Augmentation in two stages needs to be consistent to ensure the accurate transfer of specific domain information. Furthermore, this framework is universal for any network architecture and data augmentation strategy and therefore can be applied to a variety of deep learning based tasks. Finally, experimental results about image classification on the coarsegrained dataset CIFAR-10 (93.41%) and fine-grained dataset CIFAR-100 (70.22%) demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework by comparing with state-of-the-art results.


Background Genital tract infections with ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) and chlamydia trachomatis (CT) are the most frequent sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The aim of this study is to understand the prevalence of UU and CT among general internal married migrants and to explore some possible influencing factors, so as to provide some evidences for STIs prevention in China. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in three cities of China from March 2016 to February 2017. A total of 3180 internal-married migrants were included. The structured questionnaire survey, gynecological or andrology examination and laboratory detection were conducted by the trained research fellow s. The prevalence of UU and CT was laboratory-confirmed in this study. Results The prevalence of laboratory-confirmed UU and CT were 45.41%, 5.75%, respectively. The co-infection rate was 4.09%. The rates of UU and CT of Shanghai participants (54.01%, 7.35%) were the highest, and the lowest were that of Yinchuan (37.74%, 4.52%). In Urumqi, the prevalence of UU and CT were 44.77%, 5.42%, respectively, but it has the highest co-infection rate. The multiple stepwise logistic regressions found that the prevalence of UU among three cities were different, and the male's UU infection was lower than that of women (OR=0.71, 95%CI:0.61-0.83), and the 20-34 age group participants had lower UU and CT risk, compared with that of 45-49 age group. Moreover, the white-collar workers had lower risk of UU infection (OR=0.64, 95%CI: 0.49-0.83), compared with laborer, and using condom could reduce the UU infection (OR=0.74, 95%CI: 0.63-0.87). Compared with urban migrants, the rural participants had higher risk of CT infection (OR=1.68, 95%CI: 1.12-2.52), and sex behavior during menstruation could increase the prevalence of CT (OR=1.49, 95%CI: 1.05-2.11). Conclusion The prevalence of UU and CT were high and the co-infection was also serious among general internal married migrants. More health promotion measures about UU and CT should be taken to help general migrants of China, especially women and those with lower social-economic status (laborers from rural area), risky sexual behaviors such as having sex during menstruation should be warned of and condom-use should be promoted.


A chemical approach to modify the electronic transport of graphene is investigated by detailed transport and Raman spectroscopy measurements on Hall bar shaped samples. The functionalization of graphene with nitrobenzene diazonium ions results in a strong p-doping of the graphene samples and only slightly lower mobilities. Comparing Raman and transport data taken after each functionalization step allowed the conclusion that two preferential reactions take place on the graphene surface. In the beginning a few nitrobenzene molecules are directly attached to the graphene atoms creating defects. Afterwards these act as seeds for a polymer like growth not directly connected to the graphene atoms. The effects of solvents were excluded by thorough control measurements.


This paper addresses how Whiteness circulates in various forms in the past, present, and future of art education. Through a literature review, document analysis and narrative interpretation, I show myriad ways that Whiteness circulates in art education in an usually unchecked fashion. This unexamined centering of Whiteness harms all of our students, particularly pre-service teachers who will enter diverse settings without a deep and nuanced understanding of race. Through adopting some principles of critical race methodology and augmenting the existing resources in art education, we may be able to start breaking down the specific systems of structural racism within Art Education.


Ideas and techniques from the social sciences can improve the theory and practice of the software engineering discipline. To illustrate the contributions this cross-pollination has made, the authors focus on the nature of paradigms and software quality management systems. Their studies underscore the importance of community in how new technical ideas become accepted, how despite software engineers too often prefer polemic to evidence, and the primacy given to the local guru that transcends formal organizational structures.


Modern high-performance computing system design is becoming increasingly aware of the energy proportional computing to lower the operational costs and raise reliability. At the same time, high-performance application developers are taking pro-active steps towards less energy consumption without a significant performance loss. One way to accomplish this is to change the processor frequency dynamically during application execution. In this paper, a representative computationally-intensive HPC application GAMESS is considered with the aim to investigate the energy saving potential of its various stages. GAMESS is a quantum chemistry software package used worldwide to perform {em ab initio} electronic structure calculations. This paper presents energy consumption characteristics of two Self-Consistent Field method implementations in GAMESS, which radically differ in their computer resource usages. The dynamic frequency scaling optimization is applied to these implementations and serves as verification for the proposed general energy savings model. The developed model provides the minimum of on the compute node energy consumption under a given performance loss tolerance for various processor frequencies.


Flight delays cause various inconveniences for airlines, airports, and passengers. According to data provided by the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), between 2009 and 2015, about 22% of domestic flights made in Brazil were delayed by more than 15 minutes. The prediction of these delays is fundamental to mitigate their occurrence and optimize the decision-making process of an air transport system. Particularly, airlines, airports, and users may be more interested in when delays are likely to occur than the accurate prediction of the absence of delays. This paper focuses on the unbalanced distribution of the classes of delay (presence and absence) by performing an experimental evaluation of several preprocessing methods for the development of machine-learning flight delay classification models. Those models were built from a dataset that integrates national flight operations with meteorological conditions of airports. Our results indicate the models that applied the balancing techniques performed much better in predicting the occurrence of delays, getting about 60% of hits.


A new formulation for detection of false data injection attacks in the smart grid is introduced. The attack detection problem is posed as a statistical learning problem in which the observed measurements are classified as being either attacked or secure. The proposed approach provides an attack detection framework that surmounts over the constraints arising due to the sparse structure of the problem and implicitly exploits any available prior knowledge about the system. Specifically, three supervised learning algorithms are presented. These procedures operate by first observing the power system in order to construct a training dataset which is later used to detect the attacks in new observations. In order to assess the validity of the proposed techniques, the behavior of the proposed algorithms is examined on IEEE test systems.


Includes descriptive metadata provided by producer in M4A file: "Keeping Up with Emergency Medicine - Keeping Up Week 18, 1 May 2009."


To the Editor:

The two cases of women in their mid-40s who experienced Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) in the setting of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), reported by Yu et al. [1] in the January issue of Clinical Endoscopy, are interesting because the patients were premenopausal, had midventricular TTS, were under conscious sedation, and did not appear to be under stress during the procedure. The first patient initially had hypertension and tachycardia, which was followed by hypotension and bradycardia, suggesting vagotonia, a feature characteristic of the later presentation of TTS [2,3]. The other patient developed hypotension and tachycardia "1 minute after the insertion of the EGD scope [1]." One wonders whether TTS in the setting of EGD is mediated by intense vagotonia, characterized by hypotension and/or bradycardia [2,3]. with tachycardia and/or hypertension being mediated by a reflex counterbalancing intense activation of the autonomic sympathetic nervous system, and the effects of the drugs administered to manage the hypotension and/or bradycardia.

The authors refer to five cases that have been reported worldwide to be associated with gastrointestinal endoscopy [1], and state that "previous reports indicated one case of EGD in a postmenopausal woman with sedation, three cases of colonoscopy (COL), and one case of simultaneous EGD and COL in a postmenopausal woman [1,4-6]." I was able to access the paper describing the patient with both EGD and COL, who had TTS complicated by ventricular fibrillation, but I could not access the other two papers the authors are referring to [5,6]. I would appreciate comments by the authors on the remaining four patients with TTS, including the circumstances under which they experienced TTS, their ages and sex, whether they were postmenopausal, had hypotension and/or bradycardia, and the type of TTS they developed (apical, midventricular, basal, or segmental).


Extracellular Matrix (ECM) interactions play an essential role in all phases of tumorigenesis and metastasis. Here, we report a novel ECM microarray platform for investigating the combinatorial effects of ECM adhesion on cancer metastasis. This platform is composed of micropatterned spots of nearly 800 unique ECM combinations, and can be used to measure cellular adhesion, proliferation, marker expression, or any other phenotypic responses that can be queried by microscopy. Using a genetic model of lung adenocarcinoma (KrasLSL-G12D/+;p53flox/flox), we tested the adhesion of cell lines derived from tumors throughout the stages of tumor progression. We found that the adhesion profiles of primary tumors and their metastases could be distinguished by Euclidian clustering whereas gene expression profiles of the same cells could not. In particular, we identified combinations of ECM molecules that exhibited preferential adhesion to either the metastatic or primary tumor cell lines. Histological examination of tissues from mice bearing the autochthonous tumors confirmed that the primary tumor-associated molecules are present in the lungs but not the sites of metastases. Conversely, metastasis-associated ECM molecules were not present in the primary tumors, but were expressed at the metastatic sites. From the known integrin-ECM interactions, we then identified several integrins as playing a functional role in ECM interactions during lung cancer metastasis. Flow cytometry confirmed higher expression of these candidates on the cell surface of the metastatic lines than the primary lines. Knockdown of integrin expression in the metastatic cells by shRNAs reduced the adhesion of the cells to the cognate ECM molecules in vitro, confirming a functional role in our phenotypic assay. Additionally, abrogation of cell-ECM interactions through inhibition of contact between the metastasis-associated molecules and the receptors on the metastatic cells prevented metastases from seeding in vivo. Thus, ECM microarrays offer a novel platform for the phenotypic characterization of tumor cells from different stages of tumor progression, identification of key ECM interactions, and the identification of potential therapeutic targets in cancer metastasis. In the future, we will apply the ECM Microarrays for the stratification of patients to assist in diagnostics and treatment guidance. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2973. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2973


In this article, I examine a previously unexplored avenue for information transfer: similarities in firms' strategies. This examination is based on the idea that information transfer is likely to be positively related to similarity in business activities. Drawing on the concept of generic strategies found in the strategy literature, I develop a measure of strategic distance between firms. Using this measure, I provide evidence that information transfer is positively related to the similarity of firms' strategies. In addition, I find that this information transfer is strongest when the announcing firm is large or has persistent earnings.


To use machine learning in high stakes applications (e.g. medicine), we need tools for building confidence in the system and evaluating whether it is reliable. Methods to improve model reliability often require new learning algorithms (e.g. using Bayesian inference to obtain uncertainty estimates). An alternative is to audit a model after it is trained. In this paper, we describe resampling uncertainty estimation (RUE), an algorithm to audit the pointwise reliability of predictions. Intuitively, RUE estimates the amount that a prediction would change if the model had been fit on different training data. The algorithm uses the gradient and Hessian of the model's loss function to create an ensemble of predictions. Experimentally, we show that RUE more effectively detects inaccurate predictions than existing tools for auditing reliability subsequent to training. We also show that RUE can create predictive distributions that are competitive with state-of-the-art methods like Monte Carlo dropout, probabilistic backpropagation, and deep ensembles, but does not depend on specific algorithms at train-time like these methods do.


Pellet-clad interaction (PCI) is one of the major issues in fuel rod design and reactor core operation in water cooled reactors. The prediction of fuel rod failure by PCI is studied in this paper by the method of radial basis function neural network (RBFNN). The neural network is built through the analysis of the existing experimental data. It is concluded that it is a suitable way to reduce the calculation complexity. A self-organized RBFNN is used in our study, which can vary its structure dynamically in order to maintain the prediction accuracy. For the purpose of the appropriate network complexity and overall computational efficiency, the hidden neurons in the RBFNN can be changed online based on the neuron activity and mutual information. The presented method is tested by the experimental data from the reference, and the results demonstrate its effectiveness.


The natural passive flight of a falling leaf is a captivating fluid–solid interaction problem. To resolve their perplexing trajectories, falling leaves have been traditionally modeled as rigid plates. However, the falling of such flat bodies are accompanied by some deformation, which plays an important role in their flight dynamics. This study simulates the flight patterns of freely falling flexible plates in a two-dimensional viscous fluid using direct numerical simulations. Plates of different bending rigidity are analyzed. Results show that flexibility alters the flight state of a falling plate. The changes in flight states with respect to bending stiffness are mapped. This is in addition to the flight states established within ranges of moment of inertia and Reynolds numbers. The coupling effect between the plate deformation and its generated wake is analyzed via flow field and surface pressure relationships. The analysis reveals that the predominate effects are the recirculation of wakes and surface pressure distribution. From those effects, the plates have generated unique flight patterns that have not been previously observed for rigid plates, such as periodic "chaotic" flights and interesting twirling motions.


H2 production through water electrolysis is a promising strategy for storing sunlight energy. For the oxygen evolution reaction, iridium oxide containing materials are state-of-the-art due to their stability in acidic conditions. Moreover, precious metal content can be reduced by using small nanoparticles that show high catalytic activities. We performed DFT calculations on a 1.2 nm large IrO2 Wulff-like stoichiometric nanoparticle model (IrO2) with the aim of determining the factors controlling the catalytic activity of IrO2 nanoparticles. Results show that at reaction conditions tetra- and tricoordinated iridium centers are not fully oxidized, the major species being IrO(OH) and IrO(OH)2, respectively. Moreover, the computed overpotentials show that low coordinated iridium centers are more active than the pentacoordinates sites of the well-defined facets. These low coordination sites are likely more abundant on amorphous nanoparticles, which could be one of the factors explaining the higher catalytic activity observed for non-crystalline materials.


OBJECTIVES
To study patient satisfaction and complications appeared in a series of patients with erectile dysfunction undergoing implant of penile prosthesis.

METHODS
Retrospective study of all patients undergoing surgical treatment for erectile dysfunction by penile prosthesis implant between 1993 and 2003. Collected data included patient age at the time of surgery, previous treatment, and significant medical history. We reviewed the models of prosthesis employed, incisions, and complications appeared. Finally, a questionnaire was elaborated to establish the level of patient satisfaction.

RESULTS
24 prostheses were implanted between 1993 and 2003. Mean patient age was 56.6 +/- 7.56 years (36-63), median 59.5 yr. Penile-scrotal incision was employed in 13 (54.16%) patients, suprapubic incision in 6 (25%) and subcoronal incision in 1 (4.16%). Type of prosthesis: semirrigid AMS 600 9 (37.5%), semirrigid AMS 650 10 (41.66%); the two component hydraulic prosthesis AMS Ambicor was used only in one case. Six (25%) patients presented complications. 16.66% were minor, cavernositis, pain, hematoma or prosthesis extrusion. Prosthesis extraction was necessary in 2 (8.33%) cases. 13 (54.16%) patients responded to the telephone survey 85% of them use their prosthesis. 54% percent refer adequate self-satisfaction and partner satisfaction (well satisfied/much satisfaction). 23% not too bad, and the remainder 23% bad or very bad.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the highest rate of postoperative complications, penile prosthesis is adequately accepted by patients with erectile dysfunction, even malleable models. Patient satisfaction is high, being higher in partners. Most patients would desire to undergo surgery again if they were in the same situation.


In a questionnaire sent to alumnae of Swiss schools for dental assistants the choice of the profession, the schools themselves, working conditions for the pupils and the causes for changing the profession or giving it up were examined. Answers and evaluation occurred still during and under the influence of the economic boom, when assistants were able to find employment easily. Questions of salary therefore stood in the foreground, next were working conditions. It is positive to note that the formation of dental assistants in completely privately organized schools shows good results. The changed circumstances in the economy call for a reevaluation of the concept of schooling.


Multimedia recommendation systems analyze user preferences and recommend items(multimedia contents) to a user by predicting the user's preference for those items. Among various kinds of recommendation methods, collaborative filtering(CF) has been widely used and successfully applied to practical applications. However, collaborative filtering has two inherent problems: data sparseness and the cold-start problems. If there are few known preferences for a user, it is difficult to find many similar users, and therefore the performance of recommendation is degraded. This problem is more serious when a new user is first using the system. In this paper, we propose a method of generating additional feature of users and items into CF to overcome the difficulties caused by sparseness and improve the accuracy of recommendation. In our method, we first generate additional features by using the probability distribution of feature values, then recommend items by applying collaborative filtering on the modified data to include additional features. Several experimental results that show the effectiveness of the proposed method are also presented.


This paper analyses the motion control of two magnetic microrobots in the microfluidic channel for future drug targeting applications. To transport the drugs, it is necessary to inject and control the motion of multiple therapeutic magnetic microrobots using magnetic gradients. The main difficulty is to control a group of different therapeutic microrobots at desired states, despite the presence of interaction forces between microrobots. To overcome this issue, the solution is to consider two rather spaced microrobots which are controlled along the x-axis using magnetic gradients and an oscillatory magnetic field. This magnetic interaction force is expressed based on a dipoledipole interaction model and dynamic modeling of two magnetic microrobots. The oscillatory magnetic field is used to overcome the surface forces between microrobots and microfluidic walls. Finally, an experimental investigation is carried out in a simple channel under the presence of the magnetic field and magnetic gradient forces in order to analyze the motion control of two magnetic microrobots using the combination of magnetic gradient and oscillatory magnetic fields. Also, we will assess the prevalence of the magnetic interaction forces between two microrobots.


Alcohol has been identified as one of the major causes of traffic accident as those driving under the influence of alcohol barely comply with road safety rules and regulations. This study investigated the influence of alcohol use on compliance with road safety rules among commercial motorcyclists in Southwest Nigeria. Cross sectional descriptive research of the survey type was used to conduct the study. The sample size comprised 660 registered commercial motorcyclists selected through multi stage sampling techniques. A self-developed and validated questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The reliability of the instrument was determined through Cronbach's alpha with a reliability coefficient of 0.82. The data analysis was done using SPSS software version 19.0. The research questions were answered using descriptive analysis and correlation matrix was used to determine the association between alcohol use and factors influencing alcohol use at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that majority of the motorcyclists 236 (39.4%) were regular users of alcohol and a significant negative correlation (r = -0.174, p<0.05) was found between alcohol use and compliance with road safety rules and regulations. It was recommended that government under the auspices of Federal Road Safety Corps should organize sensitization through on dangers of alcohol use on safe driving to commercial drivers through motorcycle parks rallies, workshops and regular health talks.

 Key words: Alcohol, commercial, motorcyclists, rules, compliance.


The purpose of this paper is to report on the resilience of the faculty academics of the Open University of Sri Lanka who embarked on the online journey to support the isolated learners during the Covid-19 lockdown. A total of 225 academics responded to the questionnaire administered immediately after the lockdown, resulting in a 66% response rate. Findings revealed that 10% of academics had already completed their activities, 53% had engaged in online teaching before and during the pandemic while 17% had commenced only during the pandemic. In contrast, 20% had not gone online. This study focuses on the 17% who responded promptly to support learners during this unexpected situation. The challenges were categorized as learner-centric; teacher-centric and institutional-centric. Learner-centric challenges were focused on learner issues such as access issues related to devices, internet connections, data, etc., and how to design alternative strategies to increase learner engagement. Teacher-centric challenges were upskilling knowledge and skills associated with online learning, balancing official workload with personal commitments, etc. Institutional-centric challenges were related to obtaining essential support services remotely. These tenacious academics demonstrated how they build their resilience to face unexpected situations through self-regulatory mechanisms. This study provides some insights into building resilience for future educational endeavours.


Purpose: We investigated whether the diagnostic performance of SPECT scintimammography (SMM) can be improved by adding computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of ultrasonography (US). Materials and methods: We reviewed breast SPECT SMM images and corresponding US images from 40 patients with breast masses (21 malignant and 19 benign tumors). The quantitative data of SPECT SMM were obtained as the uptake ratio of lesion to contralateral normal breast. The morphologic features of the breast lesions on US were extracted and quantitated using the automated CAD software program. The diagnostic performance of SPECT SMM and CAD of US alone was determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The best discriminating parameter (D-value) combining SPECT SMM and the CAD of US was created. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of combined two diagnostic modalities were compared to those of a single one. Results: Both SPECT SMM and CAD of US showed a relatively good diagnostic performance (area under curve = 0.846 and 0.831, respectively). Combining the results of SPECT SMM and CAD of US resulted in improved diagnostic performance (area under curve =0.860), but there was no statistical differerence in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy between the combined method and a single modality. Conclusion: It seems that combining the results of SPECT SMM and CAD of breast US do not significantly improve the diagnostic performance for diagnosis of breast cancer, compared with that of SPECT SMM alone. However, SPECT SMM and CAD of US may complement each other in differential diagnosis of breast cancer.