Requirement to insert strategies that make possible a grater emphasis in the comprehensive view of the patients and their families within a residence program in clinical pediatrics, in a third reseral level hospital, compelled us to improve the quality of the pediatric interviews.In a previous investigation, it was proved that residents appropiately identified the patients problems but there were mistakes in the interview technique and in the medical indications given to the parents.Twenty residents were evaluated. Thirteen first year residents attended children interviews performed by an senior phiscian; seven through a Gessell chamber and six by video. Seven residents did not received any special instruction but their own experiences in supervised outpatiens care.To evaluate the result of this tesching strategy, every one underwent an interview with specially trained simulated mothers.The interview's quality was submitted to a previously standardized score.Medical records, written medical indications given to the mother to satisfy family and patient requirements, and the score given by the simulated mother were registered.Results showed better management among the residents that received training. Residents exposed to Gessell chamber had better scores than those who watched the video.Simulated mothers is a usefull evaluation instrument, specially when the tutor's pesence may disturb the medical interview.


At the 1987 annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery in Chicago, Randal S. Weber, MD, and colleagues, Houston, presented a discussion of the management of squamous cell carcinoma of the soft palate, uvula, and anterior faucial pillar. A series of 188 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the palatine complex were studied retrospectively. Prognosis was related to T stage, N stage, or extension to the tongue. Midline or bilateral tumors are also associated with a worse prognosis. Incidence of occult neck metastasis was estimated to be 25% to 30%. The authors advocate external beam radiation therapy for treatment of the primary and occult cervical metastases. Radiation plus radical neck dissection was favored for patients with palpable metastatic disease.


Antimalarial agents, particularly hydroxychloroquine, are frequently used drugs in rheumatology, particularly in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A growing awareness of increased malignancies in these autoimmune rheumatic conditions has raised suspicions that drugs may alter cancer risk in such patients. In vitro, antimalarial agents have been invoked as potentially increasing1 or decreasing2 neoplastic processes in breast cancer cells. It has also been suggested that these drugs may decrease the in vitro activity of lymphocytic leukaemia cells.3 However, there exists no definitive literature to show any explicit effect of antimalarial agents on cancer risk in clinical populations.

We have examined malignancy risk after antimalarial drug exposures, using a case–control design nested within a population-based …


The diagnosis of central adrenal insufficiency relies heavily on laboratory testing of cortisol levels in the systemic circulation. The lack of cortisol assay standardization challenges the reliability of dynamic tests of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis. Although the insulin-induced hypoglycemia or metyrapone tests remain the accepted standards for evaluating central adrenal insufficiency in children their associated risks and inconvenience make them unattractive for routine use. Corticotropin testing is an effective first step to evaluate for chronic central adrenal insufficiency for children older than 2 years who are ambulatory, have normal sleep-wake cycle and normal serum protein levels. The low-dose (1 microg) corticotropin test may be superior to standard-dose (250 mcg) for patients with suspected hypothalamic-pituitary disease.


ABSTRACT This point of departure offers several provocations for languages education in the higher education sector. From our standpoint as world language educators working in Australia and New Zealand, we trace universalising claims about languages through coloniality and the attendant ideology of monolingualism. We then consider the emancipatory potential that translanguaging, as theory and practice, may present to guide the reconceptualisation of language practices and hierarchies. We conclude, however, with a note of caution regarding the assertion of new universals.


The preservation of the posterior bony canal in cholesteatoma surgery produces a rate of new cholesteatoma formation which constitutes a risk for the patients. The rate of recurrent cholesteatoma could be diminished from 19% to 4% by the consistent reconstruction of the lateral attic wall by endogenous conchal cartilage, even if the defects are very small. The rate of residual cholesteatoma could be reduced from 29% to 3% by improvement of the surgical technique (= wide exposition of the attic) and by an adaptation of the rate of radicals to the results of each individual operator. Each individual operator has to increase the rate of radicals as far as the rate of residual cholesteatoma diminished to a level which can be accepted. A strict long-term follow-up is necessary if the bony canal is to be preserved in cholesteatoma surgery.


Terrestrial and satellite communication networks often rely on two-hop wireless architectures with an access channel followed by backhaul links. Examples include cloud-radio access networks (C-RAN) and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems. Furthermore, communication services characterized by the coexistence of heterogeneous requirements are emerging as key use cases. This article studies the performance of critical service (CS) and non-CS (NCS) for Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems sharing a grant-free channel consisting of radio access and backhaul segments. On the radio access segment, IoT devices send packets to a set of noncooperative access points (APs) using slotted ALOHA (SA). The APs then forward correctly received messages to a base station over a shared wireless backhaul segment adopting SA. We study first a simplified erasure channel model, which is well suited for satellite applications. Then, in order to account for terrestrial scenarios, the impact of fading is considered. Among the main conclusions, we show that orthogonal interservice resource allocation is generally preferred for NCS devices, while nonorthogonal protocols can improve the throughput and packet success rate of CS devices for both terrestrial and satellite scenarios.


We demonstrate a cost effective, linearly tunable fiber optical parametric oscillator based on a home-made photonic crystal fiber pumped with a mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser, providing linely tuning ranges from 1018 nm to 1038 nm for the idler wavelength and from 1097 nm to 1117 nm for the signal wavelength by tuning the pump wavelength and the cavity length. In order to obtain the desired fiber with a zero dispersion wavelength around 1060 nm, eight samples of photonic crystal fibers with gradually changed structural parameters are fabricated for the reason that it is difficult to accurately customize the structural dimensions during fabrication. We verify the usability of the fabricated fiber experimentally via optical parametric generation and conclude a successful procedure of design, fabirication, and verification. A seed source of home-made all-normal-dispersion mode-locked ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 38.57 ps pulsewidth around the 1064 nm wavelength is used to pump the fiber optical parametric oscillator. The wide picosecond pulse pump laser enables a larger walk-off tolerance between the pump light and the oscillating light as well as a longer photonic crystal fiber of 20 m superior to the femtosecond pulse lasers, resulting in a larger parametric amplification and a lower threshold pump power of 15.8 dBm of the fiber optical parametric oscillator.


(1823-1833): The Reviews of the Philharmonic Society Concerts I. The Harmonicon The Harmonicon (1823-1833)1 was the most important and influential English musical periodical in the early part of the nineteenth century.2 The Harmonicon and its contemporary The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review were the only two long-running English periodicals at a time when most musical periodicals appeared and disappeared within the span of a few years. The periodical consisted of two parts. Part I was the literary portion and contained, as indicated on the title page of its first volume of 1823, "Essays, Criticism, Biography, and Miscellanies" (see Illustration no. 1). These included articles on theory, history, aesthetics; reviews of music, operas, concerts, festivals and musical literature; musical news; correspondence from abroad; translations from foreign publications, and letters from readers. Part II contained instrumental and vocal scores "selected from the production of great masters" and also one work per issue commissioned by an eminent composer. The breadth and quality of the contents made The Harmonicon the outstanding English music journal of its time. From its inception to its demise, the editor of The Harmonicon was William Ayrton (1777-1858), a prominent figure on the British musical scene. Though not a practicing musician, he was a good organizer and a talented journalist, and in these capacities made an important contribution to musical life in London. Among his many activities special mention should be made of his musical criticism for The Morning Chronicle, The Examiner, and The Musical Library, among others. He was a founder and director of the Philharmonic Society, which gave him intimate knowledge of the Society's affairs and afforded him access to the concert rehearsals. He was also a member of the Royal Institution and the Athenaeum Club. At different times he served as Director of the Italian Opera at the King's Theater where, to his everlasting credit, he premiered Mozart's Don Giovanni. At The Harmonicon he served not only as its editor but also wrote many articles and reviews, including almost all the reviews of the Philharmonic concerts. His articles and reviews, knowledgeable, intelligent and impartial, resulted in The Harmonicon's high standing among the professional musicians and enlightened amateurs who were its readers. The first four years of The Harmonicon's publication overlapped with the last four years of Beethoven's life. England had a special relationship with Beethoven. The Philharmonic Society concerts during this period included almost without exception a Beethoven opus. Through its editor, The Harmonicon reviewed these concerts and helped shape public opinion about Beethoven. Articles concerning Beethoven included news items, a biographical "Memoir" (November 1823), news about Beethoven's final illness and death (including letters by Beethoven and Anton Schindler to Ignaz Moscheies, and by Johann Andreas Streicher to Johann Andreas Stumpff), as well as a detailed report of his funeral (1827). In 1828 the sale of Beethoven's manuscripts and musical library was also reported and the Heiligenstadt Testament of October 6, 1802 was published. It is the purpose of this article to investigate the opinions expressed in The Harmonicon about Beethoven's works through its reviews of the Philharmonic concerts. II. The Philharmonic Society The history of the Philharmonic Society has been treated by several authors: George Hogarth (1862), Myles Birket Foster (1912), and Robert Elkin (1947). The latest and the most comprehensive book is by Cyril Ehrlich.3 Here I can only give a concise description of the Society's beginnings, from 1813 through Beethoven's death, including The Harmonicon publication years. The Philharmonic Society was launched in London on January 24, 1813 by a group of professional musicians. According to their manifesto, their purpose was to promote the performance "in the most perfect manner possible, of the best and most approved instrumental music, consisting of Full Pieces, Concertantes, for not less than three principle instruments, Sestetts, Quintetts and Trios, excluding Concertos, Solos and Duets; and requiring that vocal music, when introduced, shall have full orchestral accompaniments, and shall be subjected to the same restrictions. …


The aim of this study was to compare the behaviour and the production and slaughter traits of growing rabbits reared in different alternative rearing systems and in conventional fattening cages. The experiment was carried out with 312 Pannon White growing rabbits between 5 and 11 weeks of age. According to the pen size, floor type and stocking density 8 experimental groups were created. For analyzing the different behavioural patterns 24 h video recordings were performed weekly by using infrared cameras. The body weight and the feed consumption of the rabbits were also measured weekly. At 11 weeks of age all of the animals were slaughtered and dissected. For the comparison of the behaviour and production of the experimental and control animals the Dunnett-test was used. It was established that the different alternative rearing methods have a significant effect only on the social and stereotype behaviour of the rabbits. The daily weight gain was highest in the control animals, while lowest in the rabbits reared on deep litter. The feed consumption, the feed conversion ratio and the slaughter characteristics were not affected by the rearing method. It was concluded that from the ethological point of view housing rabbits in pens – particularly on deep litter – has a favourable effect on both of the social and stereotype behaviours' frequency. However, when rabbits are reared on deep litter, some consumption of the litter material should be calculated, but it does not decrease the pellet consumption and the final liveweight of the animals significantly.


Introduction Canada's colonial policies and practices have led to barriers for Indigenous older adults' access to healthcare and research. As a result, there is a need for Indigenous-led research and culturally safe practices. Morning Star Lodge is developing a training module to assist AgingTech researchers on ethical, culturally safe ways to engage Indigenous communities. This includes exploring Indigenous health research, community-based partnerships, reciprocal learning, and cultural safety; this is presented through a case study on ethically engaged research. Methods Morning Star Lodge developed a research partnership agreement with File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council and established a Community Research Advisory Committee representing the eleven First Nations within the Tribal Council. The work designing the culturally safe training module is in collaboration with the Community Research Advisory Committee. Results Building research partnerships and capacities has changed the way the eleven First Nation communities within File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council view research. As a result, they now disseminate the knowledge within their own networks. Conclusions Indigenous Peoples are resilient in ensuring their sustainability and have far more community engagement and direction. Developing culturally safe approaches to care for Indigenous communities leads to self-determined research. Culturally safe training modules can be applied to marginalized demographics.


Over the past 2 years, the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) has undergone an intentional transformation of its leadership engagement and governance structure. NAPCRG's mission statement states "NAPCRG is committed to a nurturing, informative and inspiring environment for all members." One approach to meeting this commitment is to engage members in organizational activities, and specifically leadership activities. In March 2013, with this priority as a guide, Norman Oliver, MD, MA, chair of NAPCRG's Nominations Committee, set about developing goals to increase membership engagement and leadership capacity.

One recommendation approved by the Board of Directors was a policy modification changing the terms of all members of the board from 3 two-year terms to 2 two-year terms. Limiting the number of terms creates frequent turnover in leadership positions allowing more members to get more involved. The board also approved a change in the term for the president of NAPCRG from a 2-year term to a 3-year term—a year as vice president, president, and immediate past president. The Nominations Committee suggested that one of the best ways for members to get involved is to serve as members of committees. Potential leaders can be identified leaders through several mechanisms including signup sheets for leadership roles and committees at the NAPCRG Annual Meeting.

During the NAPCRG 2013 Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, members expressed concerns about a lack of transparency regarding elections to the NAPCRG Board of Directors. Traditionally, outgoing members nominated their replacements, rather than placing an open call for nominations. Concerns were also expressed about a lack of diversity in board and committee chair positions. The board asked Dr Oliver and the NAPCRG executive director to draft recommendations for a new, fair, and transparent process for soliciting nominations and electing members to the Board of Directors. In February 2014, the board adopted a diversity statement affirming its commitment of a diverse membership, leaders, meetings, programs, research, and employment. In addition, the Nominations Committee proposed a transparent nominations process with job descriptions for every position on the board, and a revamped nominations and elections process. The board sought additional feedback from members on the policy and delayed adoption of the new process until the board met in April of that year. On April 7, 2014, the NAPCRG Board of Directors approved an election process where board job descriptions and open positions are publicized to the membership; the Nominations Committee reviews, screens, and prioritizes nominees based on the relevance of their qualifications; and finally the final slate of nominations are approved by the NAPCRG Board of Directors. NAPCRG is now in its second cycle of the transparent and open nominations and election process, resulting in positive feedback thus far.

Furthermore, in an effort to increase awareness of leadership opportunities within NAPCRG, a special session was held during the NAPCRG Annual Meeting in New York, NY on November 24, 2014. The goal of the session was to inspire and inform NAPCRG members about how to get more involved in the organization. The session provided an overview of NAPCRG's history, culture and personal testimonials from current and past leaders about the importance of the organization. Information was shared on how to get involved in special interest groups, committees, and the Board of Directors. The session was well attended and will be repeated at future Annual Meetings.

The final stage of the expansion of NAPCRG's leadership capacity is improvement to the committee and subcommittee structure. Historically, each committee chair determined who was on their committees, and often members who expressed interest in serving on a committee were never contacted regarding their interest. As a result, the board approved a new policy that will require each committee chair to determine the optimal size of their committee and type of members they need to meet their needs. Chairs will also determine a fair and transparent election or selection process. Members will serve on committees for 2 two-year terms and during the open call for nominations to the board there will now be an open call for nominations for all open seats on committees. Nominations for committee positions will be sent to each committee chair to elect nominees.

The Board of Directors and the Executive Director will regularly evaluate and refine these new processes and procedures for improving NAPCRG's leadership capacity, and every effort will be made to identify opportunities to further the mission of creating an environment for all members that is nurturing, informative and inspiring.


Doryteuthis gahi is a small squid species that has a wide distribution in South America. This species is characterized by coastal and benthic spawning, and its ontogenetic vertical migration is associated with upwelling zones, features that may restrict its dispersal potential. It has also been proposed that populations of these neritic squid are structured by the influence of local processes which act as barriers to gene flow. Based on this background, we evaluate the geographical structure of genetic diversity in D. gahi along its distribution in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean. We used 116 COI mtDNA sequences of squid collected from different sites in Peru and Chile and calculated genetic diversity, the population structure index Fst, and performed analysis of spatial molecular variance and exact tests to detect differences among localities. To infer demographic history we carried out tests of neutrality and Bayesian skyline analysis. Although there was little molecular divergence between Peru and Chile, we detected a significant genetic differentiation of D. gahi along its geographical distribution. Squid from Chile showed higher genetic diversity than those of Peru and the results of the demographic inference analysis suggest that the population of Peru is experiencing or experienced in the recent past demographic expansion, a pattern that was not found in Chile. We think that the current genetic patterns are consequences of northward migrations in the glaciation periods and posterior re-colonization of southern Chile in the deglacial period.


Summary

The vegetation of weeds was sampled in matched pairs of long established organic and contemporary conventional cereal fields in summer 1987, and in spring and summer 1988, with an extended Raunkiaer circle at distances up to 50 m from the field boundary. In spring 1988, the number of plants were also counted. Species density, plant density, a proxy measure of plant density (accumulated Frequency Sum), crop and weed biomass, and occurrence of plants assigned to functional groups, are compared between farming systems. The plants were assigned to functional groups according to: (i) herbivore associations to broad-leaved taxa and (ii) flower location in the canopy, i.e. visibility and availability to flying insects. Furthermore, crop margin and mid-field were compared concerning species density and accumulated Frequency Sum.

All variables that differed among the two farming systems had highest values - often several times higher - in the organic system with four exceptions: total biomass, biomass of crop, proportion of a single broad-leaved taxon and of grasses. The differences between the two systems were largest mid-field due to a pronounced pre-herbicide spraying gradient in species and plant density from crop margin to mid-field in conventional fields. A similar gradient was not found in the organic fields.


Given increasing demands at school, coupled with increasing violence and home and school, more and more students are displaying symptoms of anxiety and depression, and at increasingly earlier ages. In response to these challenges, counseling and clinical psychologists have argued for a paradigm shift away from the traditional educational/school psychology model to providing more comprehensive services focused on school-based family treatments as well as testing students' ability and psychological functioning [1] the goal of this shift is to better meet the academic, emotional, social needs of 21 st century students. This shift is not merely an academic exercise but a critical step in student support services. Although the typical strategy is to refer these students and their families into the community for help, his approach is limited due to because many families do not follow-up on the referral, services provided may not meet individual/family need, and agency clinicians may not be skilled enough to best help families in crisis. As such, there is a need for increased school-based wraparound services that can meet the comprehensive needs of students (and their families) who are struggling [2]. More specifically, there is a need for school-based experienced, seasoned clinicians with advanced level training in evidence-based practices. Psychologists in this role will be skilled enough to work with individual students and their families, gathering information via testing to identify areas of concern or pathology to further inform treatment and individual education plans, even in crisis situations. By providing this type of service, schools are likely to yield improvements across a number of important domains including, but not limited to, individual student adjustment, family functioning, academic performance, disciplinary referrals, out of school placements, and more timely identification of issues. We also believe that a seasoned and highly skilled clinician who is a member of the faculty will help improve follow-through with treatment recommendations, and that it will have subsequent implications for retention, and by extension, academic outcomes.


Understanding of a variety of membranous structures throughout the body,such as the fascia,the serous membrane,is of great importance to surgeons. This is especially valuable in abdominal surgery. With the rise of membrane theory in recent years,membrane anatomy has been widely recognized in the treatment of abdominal tumors,especially of gastrointestinal tumors. In clinical practice. The appropriate choice of intramembranous or extramembranous anatomy is appropriate to achieve precision surgery. Based on the current research results,this article described the application of membrane anatomy in the field of hepatobiliary surgery,pancreatic surgery,and splenic surgery,with the aim of blazed the path from modest beginnings.


Crangonyx islandicus is a groundwater amphipod endemic to Iceland, considered to have survived the Ice Ages in subglacial refugia. Currently the species is found in spring sources in lava fields along the tectonic plate boundary of the country. The discovery of a groundwater species in this inaccessible habitat indicates a hidden ecosystem possibly based on chemoautotrophic microorganisms as primary producers. To explore this spring ecosystem, we assessed its microbial diversity and analysed whether and how the diversity varied between the amphipods and the spring water, and if was dependent on environmental factors and geological settings. Isolated DNA from spring water and from amphipods was analysed using metabarcoding methods, targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Two genera of bacteria, Halomonas and Shewanella were dominating in the amphipod samples in terms of relative abundance, but not in the groundwater samples where Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas and Alkanindiges among others were dominating. The richness of the bacteria taxa in the microbial community of the groundwater spring sources was shaped by pH level and the beta diversity was shaped by geographic locations.


Buchi complementation has been studied for five decades since the formalism was introduced in 1960. Known complementation constructions can be classified into Ramsey-based, determinization-based, rank-based, and slice-based approaches. For the performance of these approaches, there have been several complexity analyses but very few experimental results. What especially lacks is a comparative experiment on all the four approaches to see how they perform in practice. In this paper, we review the state of Buchi complementation, propose several optimization heuristics, and perform comparative experimentation on the four approaches. The experimental results show that the determinizationbased Safra-Piterman construction outperforms the other three and our heuristics substantially improve the Safra-Piterman construction and the slice-based construction.


Silicon nitride with 50 mass zirconia ceramic matrix composites were processed by mechanical milling (MM) followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Two different of Si3N4 particle shapes for create harmonic microstructure were investigated. The microstructure of Si3N4-ZrO2 with initial Si3N4 shape is like coin/flakes after MM for 144 ks was failed to create the harmonic microstructure after SPS. With another sphere shape of Si3N4 after MM for 144 ks, the harmonic microstructure could be formed after SPS. Thus, the initial powders shape of Si3N4 have an effect in the formation of harmonic microstructure could be fully achieved. The highest mechanical properties of Si3N4-ZrO2 are on the powders with mechanical milling time for 144 ks. The Si3N4 ceramic with homogeneous fine grains of ZrO2 dispersed on its surface was obtained, and the mechanical properties were improved. The Vickers hardness obtained on 144 ks is 1031 MPa and the bending strength is 262 MPa. The main factors explaining the improvement in the mechanical properties of Si3N4-ZrO2 are considered to be the porosity decrease caused by the particles shape and appropriate condition of powder processing i.e. MM and SPS.


JEL Classification: L51, L84, G33 DOI: 10.22495/cbsrv1i1art2 When a company is incorporated it becomes a juristic  entity with rights and obligations of its own and is  distinct from its shareholders and directors. Hence,  company liabilities are not those of its shareholders and  directors. However, section 20(9) of the Companies Act  71 of 2008 grants the court the discretion to disregard  the corporate veil where there is an unconscionable abuse  of the juristic personality so as to impose personal  liability upon directors or any other person involved in  that transaction. However, the section fails to define what  constitutes "unconscionable abuse" which is the key to  the application of that provision. This research thus seeks to discover what constitutes unconscionable abuse  of the juristic personality. Simply put, this research aims  to identify the circumstances under which the corporate veil may be pierced. The results from this extensive inquiry  are that the term "unconscionable abuse" is a legislative  derivate from the various terms used by the courts at  common law to justify the disregarding of the separate  legal personality of the corporate entity. Therefore, the  inescapable conclusion reached is that just as those  terms used at common law are confounding, so shall this  rather legislative innovation remain to be confounding  until a specific meaning is assigned to it by the parliament.


Mannosylation of the proteins of microsomal and Golgi membranes was investigated both after incubation in vitro of the isolated subfractions with GDP-[14C]mannose and after injection of [3H]mannose into rats followed by separation of these subfractions. Mannosylation of endogenous and added exogenous dolichol phosphate and also of dolichol pyrophosphate-oligosaccharide occurs in all three fractions. It was essential to inhibit antagonistic enzymes during incubation and to centrifuge after incubation. The presence of detergent in the incubation mixture influences the incorporation pattern of the different fractions in very different ways. In a system in vitro predominantly membrane proteins and not secretory proteins are mannosylated. Trypsin treatment of intact vesicles removes components from the outer surface only; such treatment liberates about one third of the radioactive mannose associated with lipid, releases radioactivity from the protein acceptor to the same extent and causes some inactivation of the transferase activities. It appears that a part of the mannosyl transferase system in rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum and in Golgi membranes is localized at the cytoplasmic side of these membranes. This activity is probably involved in the glycosylation of proteins localized at the cytoplasmic surface of the endoplasmic reticulum.


The article applies Alfred Schutz's sociological phenomenological perspective to explore how people in wheelchairs experience and interpret social interactions with non disabled people. Their personal narratives are based on the qualitative in-depth interviews. Sociological phenomenological analysis of these narratives disclose the a lack of intersubjective (mutual motivational) understanding which exists in social interactions of people with motor disability and other members of society. It arises from differently formed typifications and interpretational schemes, which are followed by members of these groups. The mentioned lack of understanding evidences by unrequested charity of passers-by for people sitting in a wheelchair, open display of compassion or its expression, bored staring at them and similar actions, which are undesirable by disabled. This shows that society is still not familiar with the social reality, lived by disabled persons. Due to this unfamiliarity during social interactions the disabled members of society are imposed with unequal relationships: they are stigmatized and classified as having a lower social status. Social and health care professionals also show their social power in relationship with disabled ones. In the primary health care institutions they are generally classified as "second-class" patients, who lack proper attention from professionals. These experiences, reflected by disabled people, show the existing trend of medical professionals to follow the biomedical and functionalist view towards a disabled person as towards an incurable patient and useless member of society. Although employees, providing social services for people with disability, or supervising professionals should be well aware of living specificity of people with motor disability, should be able to provide a competent support, however, in many cases the disabled ones argue that these professionals do not have the aforementioned characteristics, and the nature of social interaction with them is unacceptable.


Wireless localization plays a key role in enabling location-based services in commercial, healthcare, public safety, and military applications. Thus, an increasing number of localization techniques have been proposed based on motion or location dependent parameter (MLDP) including time-ofarrival (TOA), time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA), received signal strength (RSS), angle-of-arrival (AOA), angle-of-departure (AOD), Doppler-shift (DS), etc. Recently, the expansion, heterogeneity, and coexistence of wireless networks stimulate new research efforts in developing novel hybrid localization techniques, which utilize combinations of two or more MLDP types. However, the accuracy of these localization techniques highly depends on complex electromagnetic spectrum, e.g., multi-user interference, multipath effects, and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation. The latter issue has been known as a major source of localization errors in wireless systems. Therefore, developing robust localizing algorithms for coping with NLOS propagation is of great importance. The aim of this paper is to survey the key characteristics and technical challenges of hybrid wireless localization techniques in NLOS environments, to provide comprehensive performance analysis and finally to identify possible new research directions and further improvements.


The effluents from the anaerobic methane reactor were characterized by the EEM fluorescence spectra. The EEM fluorescence spectra and relative concentration of the main components were acquired by PARAFAC models. Results show that the main components of the effluents from the uninhibited reactor were protein, coenzyme NADH and F420. When the methane-producing reaction was inhibited, the production rate of methane decreased rapidly. Correspondingly, the fluorescence of F420 disappeared and the main components of the reactor were protein and NADH. The fluorescence intensity scores of protein from the diluted sample were remarkably correlated to the protein determination by chemical analysis and the correlation efficient was 0.93. The fluorescence intensity scores of F420 were correlated to the production rate of methane, which implicated that coenzyme F420 could be used to reflect the activity of methane production in a certain bioreactor. This work provides a new method to monitor the operation status of anaerobic methane-producing reactor.


In the Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS), a very low-fat eating pattern decreased breast cancer recurrence. We assessed whether the women's flavonoid intakes varied on the very low fat diet. A total of 550 randomly selected WINS participants who had been treated with conventional therapy (surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation) for primary breast cancer were randomized to either a very low fat diet (15% of calories from fat, N = 218) or their usual diets (30% calories from fat, N = 332). We compared their intakes of total flavonoids and 6 flavonoid classes (isoflavones, flavones, flavanones, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, and anthocyanins) for these 2 groups using the U.S. Department of Agriculture food flavonoid database and a flavonoid dietary supplement database on three 24-h dietary recalls at baseline and 12 mo after randomization. At baseline, neither mean fat intakes (31.7% ± 6.8 SD of calories, n = 332 in the usual diet group and 31.6% ± 6.8 SD of calories, n = 218 in the very low fat diet group; P = NS) nor flavonoid intakes (218 ± 283 SD mg/day, n = 332 in the usual diet group and 236 ± 393 SD mg/day, n = 218 in the very low fat diet group; P = NS) differed. Over half of the women's flavonoid intakes were from the flavan-3-ols. After 12 months of intervention, with 39 participants lost to follow-up, dietary fat intakes were 30.7 ± 8.4 SD calories (n = 316) among those on their usual diets but were significantly lower among those on the very low fat diet intervention: 21.4 ± 8.3 SD calories (n = 195), P = < 0.05. However, flavonoid intakes remained similar in both groups (201 ± 252 SD mg/day, n = 316 in the usual diet group vs. 235 ± 425 SD mg/day, n = 195 in the very low fat group; P = NS). In this random sample of WINS participants, neither total flavonoid intakes nor intakes of subclasses of flavonoids differed between those who had dramatically decreased their fat intakes and those who had not. Flavonoid intakes are therefore unlikely to account for WINS results on differences between the groups in cancer recurrence.


markdownabstract__Abstract__

Estradiol, one of the sex hormones responsible for gender dimorphism and
reproduction, is a pleitropic hormone with widespread biological actions
far beyond human reproduction alone. For example, withdrawal of the effects of
estradiol at menopause from non-reproductive tissues like the skeleton, the cardiovascular
system, and the brain, is a major risk factor for the development of osteoporosis,
coronary artery disease, stroke, and perhaps neurodegenerative diseases
like Alzheimer's disease. On the other hand, continuous exposure of reproductive
tissues to estrogen during the post reproductive part of life is a risk factor for the
development of breast, and uterine cancer.


In order to utilize durian seeds waste, production of wood adhesive made from them was carried out. Method of dextrinization was applied and characterizations of the adhesive's properties were evaluated, namely specific gravity, viscosity, gel time, pH, clarity, color, and microscopic description including the particle's size of the adhesives. The properties were compared to other starch based adhesives, such as sago and tapioca. For further utilization as wood adhesive, application for particleboard binder was investigated. Parameter of internal bonding of the board then was evaluated. Result of this work showed fundamental properties of dextrin adhesive made of durian seed were similar with sago and tapioca's dextrin excluding the colour. Values of internal bonding of particleboard were varied that indicated many factors affected the quality of particleboard for instance the distribution of the adhesive.


Background: Head and neck tissue defects after ablative head and neck surgery often require complex and composite reconstructions. The superficial circumflex iliac artery perforator (SCIP) flap is an extremely versatile perforator-based flap with minimal donor-site morbidity. The authors present their experience with both simple and chimeric SCIP flap reconstructions for complex defects in various head and neck regions. Methods: Twenty-two patients undergoing ablative head and neck surgery for oncologic abnormalities were treated by means of a SCIP flap reconstruction. Patients' mean age was 62 years; 21 were men and one was a woman. Seventeen flaps were simple and five were chimeric reconstruction patterns. Indocyanine green perfusion imaging was performed in all cases. Results: Twenty-one of 22 patients (95.5 percent) were successfully treated with good aesthetic and functional results. Two patients (9 percent) showed minor donor-site complications that were managed conservatively. The mean follow-up period was 5.3 months (range, 2 to 8 months). Conclusions: This case series demonstrates the reliability and versatility of the SCIP flap for head and neck reconstruction. The chimeric options combined with bone, double-skin paddle, and muscle offer a broad variety of functional reconstructive solutions for complex head and neck surgery. Intraoperative indocyanine green perfusion examinations are a valuable tool to assess and ascertain proper inset, vitality, and postanastomosis vessel patency in these complex microvascular flap reconstructions.  CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.


Glucocorticoid receptors in lines of the P1798 mouse lymphosarcoma either sensitive or resistant to glucocorticoid-induced lysis have been characterized and their functional significance determined. The glucocorticoid receptor from the cortisol-sensitive tumor is an Mr approximately 98,000 protein with a Stokes radius of 7.4 nm in the oligomeric, non-DNA-binding state and 5.6 nm in the transformed, DNA-binding state. This receptor binds glucocorticoid and reacts with the BUGR-2 monoclonal antibody. In contrast, two abnormal receptor species were identified in the cortisol-resistant tumor. One is an Mr approximately 98,000 non-steroid-binding but immunologically reactive protein. The other is an Mr approximately 45,000 species which contains both steroid- and DNA-binding sites but exhibits little or no reactivity with BUGR-2, suggesting that its NH2 terminus is truncated in a region within or adjacent to the BUGR epitope. This species had Stokes radii of 5.8 and 3.5 nm in nontransformed and transformed states, respectively. In both tumor lines, glucocorticoids stimulated the activities of glutamine synthetase and 5'-nucleotidase and the synthesis of glucocortin. However, glucocorticoid-induced tumor regression occurred only in the cortisol-sensitive tumor. Additionally, the glucocorticoid inducibility of a specific protein in the sensitive, but not in the resistant, tumor was demonstrated, as well as the presence of a protein specific to the resistant line. Taken together, these results suggest that the truncated glucocorticoid receptor in the P1798 lymphosarcoma is functional, although possibly in a more restricted gene-specific manner, and that the lysis defect, while possibly resulting from a truncated receptor, may also result from the inability of glucocorticoids to induce a critical protein in the pathway of programmed cell death and/or from the presence of a protein which inhibits the lytic response.


High Performance Computing (HPC) has a long history of software development but relatively little is known about the approaches this community uses to create and maintain software. To close this gap we study the practices of using version control tools in five HPC production projects. We also contrast these practices to practices used in three distinct non-HPC open source projects. We first obtain version history of the projects from SVN, Mercurial, and Git. We then clean and process the data and use published material to construct three measures of code commit quality: the fraction of unique commit comments, their size, and the number of files per commit. Our results indicate relatively high but declining commit quality, and relatively large commits in HPC projects. We expect this work to highlight the differences among different software engineering domains and may lead to ideas suggesting good practices of using software tools in these domains.


The effects on mouse skin of varying doses of light from a high-voltage mercury lamp were compared to the alterations occurring after repeated light applications from a carbon-arc xenon sunlamp. A single dose of UV light at a carcinogenic wavelength caused necrosis and ulceration, followed by scarring, but failed to produce tumors. In the case of repeated small doses, the neoplastic response was predominantly epithelial, resulting in formation of papillomas and squamous cell carcinomas. Increasing the dose caused formation of fibromas and fibrosarcomas of the ear. However, repeated applications of UV light having a spectrum similar to sunlight failed to induce tumors. In these studies, only animals showing initially destructive lesions ultimately presented tumor formation, while the hyperplasia induced by UV irradiation showed no relationship to neoplastic transformation. The results emphasize the significance of dose and wavelength in evaluating effects of UV-light skin carcinogenesis.


Understanding the climatic and historical factors shaping species richness is a major goal of ecology and biogeography. Consensus on how climate affects species richness is still lacking, but four potential and non-exclusive explanations have emerged: water-energy, where diversity is determined by precipitation and/or temperature; seasonality, where diversity is determined by seasonal variation in climate; heterogeneity, where diversity is determined by spatial variability in climate; and historical climatic stability, where diversity is determined by changes in climate through evolutionary time. Climate–richness relationships are also mediated by historical processes such as phylogenetic niche conservatism and lineage diversification across regions. We evaluated the effect of climate on species richness gradients of Anolis lizards and tested the role of phylogenetic niche conservatism (PNC) and regional diversification (RD) in the origin and maintenance of climate-richness relationships. Climate had a strong non-stationary relationship with species richness with strong shared effects among several climate axes. Regional differences in climate–richness relationships suggest different assembly processes between regions. However, we did not find evidence for a role of evolutionary factors such as PNC or RD underlying these relationships. We suggest that evolutionary processes affecting climate-richness relationships in Anolis likely were obscured by high dispersal rates between regions.


Wireless sensor networks are considered an important dimension of the modern information and communication technology-based solutions for greenhouse monitoring. Several sensing and communication technologies are already available and have been used both in pilot and commercial installations. Their attractiveness is based on their deployment flexibility and low cost. In this paper we present the implementation features of a greenhouse monitoring system that is based on a ZigBee wireless sensor network. The system is composed of various sensor nodes that collect environmental conditions' data and transmit them to a remote database. A web application enables the growers to setup electronic cultivation records and monitor the greenhouse conditions as indicated by the collected WSN data. We also present the outcomes of an experimental study in the context of which the implemented system was deployed and operated in a greenhouse complex with hydroponic cultivation of tomato crops. This experimentation intended to explore the level of heterogeneity of the microclimate conditions in the greenhouse environment. The study revealed non negligible differences on the levels of temperature and humidity even across different sectors of compact greenhouse compartments and highlights the importance of dynamic management of the climate conditions on the basis of real time microclimate observations, with an ultimate objective to achieve greenhouse production of high quality and quantity, while using less input resources.


To address the question as to whether managers intending to purchase their company by means of a levered buyout transaction manipulate earnings in order to buy their firm on the cheap, we study the different types of earnings management prior to the transaction: accrual management, real earnings management, and asset reserves revaluation. To identify the management engagement incentives, we contrast earnings management in management buyouts (MBOs) with that in (i) institutional buyouts (IBOs) and (ii) non-buyout firms. We find: (i) strong negative earnings management via both accrual and real earnings activities in MBOs supporting the above management engagement incentive, (ii) modest negative accrual management and insignificant real earnings manipulation in IBOs, and (iii) positive earnings management in non-buyout firms. Asset revaluation in MBOs is not a frequently used channel. We do not find evidence that a high external borrowing need in the levered transactions mitigates the downward earnings manipulation in MBOs. The implementation of the revised UK Corporate Governance Code of 2003 has somewhat reduced the degree of both accrual earnings and real earnings management in MBOs, but increased the relative use of real earnings management as this may be harder to detect.


Wistar rats were fed a diet composed of chow and: 1. water; 2. 10% sacarose; 3. 1% aspartame; 4. 1% sodium cyclamate and 5. 1% saccharin ad libitum, from the age of 15 days. At the adult phase (5.5 months), histologic cuts of these animals did not show anatomo-morphologic alterations. Evolution of body weight was also very close to one another among the five groups. Lower serum triglyceride levels were detected in the Sucrose and Aspartame groups, the same occurring with cholesterol in the Water group. These alterations were apparently indirect and due to a higher or lower ingestion of chow and its composition.


Field and laboratory studies suggest that different types of ooids form during quiet and agitated water conditions. Both types have been synthesized in the laboratory. Quiet water types exhibit a radial orientation of carbonate crystals, whereas in those formed in agitated conditions, a tangential orientation is prevalent.

Successful laboratory formation of quiet water ooids was accomplished in supersaturated seawater solutions containing humic acids. Negative results were obtained from strictly inorganic solutions, and from those containing simple amino acids, single proteins, mixtures of proteins or mucopolysaccharides, soil and sediment extracts. Partly successful results were obtained using an organic extract from Bahamian ooids. The organic parameters most important in quiet water ooid formation are molecular weight, the presence of carboxyl groups and an ability to participate in hydrophobic/hydrophilic interactions, all of which are critical to membrane formation. Membranes form concentric shells which act as growth surfaces for carbonate and also induce the periodicity in carbonate precipitation.

Ooids exhibiting a tangential orientation of batten-like crystals have been synthesized under conditions of agitation, supersaturation and without the intervention of organic processes during the precipitation. Complete growth may be divided into agitation, resting and sleeping stages In the agitation stage, quartz nuclei induce an inorganic, heterogeneous nucleation from a supersaturated solution, which finally ceases as a result of Mg2+ and possibly H+ poisoning of the carbonate surfaces. No further precipitation occurs until the crystal surfaces are reactivated by removal of Mg2+ and H+ during the resting stage. Following a series of agitation and resting stages, precipitation is inhibited by a degree of poisoning which is not totally removed during the resting stage. For further growth, a new substrate is required and is provided by the development of organic membranes around the grains. This occurs when the grains are buried in the subsurface, the period of organic growth constituting the sleeping stage. Only 2% of an ooid's life is spent growing in the agitated environment, while 95% of its life is spent accreting organic membranes in the subsurface.

Our experimental work indicates that ooids of Bahamian type are inorganic precipitates. The tangential arrangement of battens is the result of suspension in an environment where the degree of turbulence is sufficient to induce grain to grain contact of sufficient strength and frequency to inhibit any crystal growth other than tangential. The role of organics is to provide a substrate for further growth after precipitation has slowed to a point when no further accretion is occurring.


Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated exciting progress in acquiring diverse new capabilities through in-context learning, ranging from logical reasoning to code-writing. Robotics researchers have also explored using LLMs to advance the capabilities of robotic control. However, since low-level robot actions are hardware-dependent and underrepresented in LLM training corpora, existing efforts in applying LLMs to robotics have largely treated LLMs as semantic planners or relied on human-engineered control primitives to interface with the robot. On the other hand, reward functions are shown to be flexible representations that can be optimized for control policies to achieve diverse tasks, while their semantic richness makes them suitable to be specified by LLMs. In this work, we introduce a new paradigm that harnesses this realization by utilizing LLMs to define reward parameters that can be optimized and accomplish variety of robotic tasks. Using reward as the intermediate interface generated by LLMs, we can effectively bridge the gap between high-level language instructions or corrections to low-level robot actions. Meanwhile, combining this with a real-time optimizer, MuJoCo MPC, empowers an interactive behavior creation experience where users can immediately observe the results and provide feedback to the system. To systematically evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we designed a total of 17 tasks for a simulated quadruped robot and a dexterous manipulator robot. We demonstrate that our proposed method reliably tackles 90% of the designed tasks, while a baseline using primitive skills as the interface with Code-as-policies achieves 50% of the tasks. We further validated our method on a real robot arm where complex manipulation skills such as non-prehensile pushing emerge through our interactive system.


A hybrid intelligent expert system is being developed for the Adaptive Multisensor Integrated Security System (AMISS) to identify threatening patterns of behavior in a nuclear facility 2, 3]. The focus of this paper is the sensor fusion strategy used to create the input to the rule-based and neural network reasoning systems. The sensor fusion components of the AMISS system use a number of data processing techniques to accomplish its mission of combining disparate sensor data types in a noisy and uncertain environment.


Francois-Vincent Raspail (1794–1878) was one of the leading Republican heroes of nineteenth-century France. His political involvement began just after the 1830 Revolution; he played a prominent role in the Societe des amis du peuple, then in the Societe des droits de l'homme. During the 1830s he spent many months in Louis-Philippe's jails. But Raspail was also a chemist and a physiologist who in 1833 published an important New Treatise on Organic Chemistry in which he put forward major advances in cell theory and the development of life. Simultaneously he founded a political newspaper, Le Reformateur, in which, in 1834–1835, he presented his plan for a general social and political reform in weekly installments. He wrote about thirteen articles "On Economic Science." I present in this paper an analysis of this completely unknown set of articles and underline the intellectual and conceptual transfers between chemistry, politics and economics in Raspail's thought around 1830.


SUMMARY Consciousness is an important marker in the progress of general anaesthesia, the Mind's final integrator of various awareness states subject to drug depression. Awareness contributes to, but is not the equivalent of, consciousness; in fact, by preserving certain forms of awareness as others are depressed, unconsciousness is stabilized. While the hallmark of good anaesthesia practice includes absence of physical or psychological injury with no mental recall, not all drugs that induce a loss of consciousness are able to block memory-recording. Disregard of this dichotomy may lead to tragedy. In attempting to unravel the relationship between what distinguishes awareness from consciousness and the Mind, neurobiologists have followed brain response circuits evoked by various physical and mental stimuli. These suggest that thought, personality, emotions and even the Mind must be chemically mediated processes. Nevertheless, over millennia, mankind has experienced events that question a purely electrochemical explanation. Now modern data appears to show that consciousness, unsupported by brain function, is possible: not for the first time has yesterday's supernatural become a new cutting edge for science. New ideas in theories of particle physics concerning the ultimate structure of matter propose extra, unexplored dimensions of existence to provide surprising answers.


Evoked otoacustic emissions recording hold some promise as a fast objective and non-invasive audiological procedure to study the cochlea at the outer hair cell level. This study has been made in 100 voluntary normal hearing adults. We evaluate the auditory system by means of evoked otoacustic emissions with a non-linear click. This report resumes methods and results in these normal grown-up ears.


To the Editor: The article "Changes in Sympathetic Tone Associated with Different Forms of TENS…" by Wong and Jette in the April issue of Physical Therapy has come to my attention. I do not subscribe to your journal, but our chief physical therapist thought that I might review this article.

My background is that of a certified medical specialist with a recently acquired certification in clinical acupuncture. My goals in the medical field are to practice a good brand of specialty medicine and to help all health professionals receive an intelligent grasp of physical therapeutic modalities, including a positive appreciation of acupuncture or meridian therapy as it may be used in our Western medical setting.

I would like to point out that the Wong/Jette article does little to promote the efficacy of TENS combined with principles of acupuncture.…

[ ARTICLE][1]

 [1]: /lookup/volpage/64/478?iss=4


In the past few years, AlphaZero's exceptional capability in mastering intricate board games has garnered considerable interest. Initially designed for the game of Go, this revolutionary algorithm merges deep learning techniques with the Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) to surpass earlier top-tier methods. In our study, we broaden the use of AlphaZero to Gomoku, an age-old tactical board game also referred to as"Five in a Row."Intriguingly, Gomoku has innate challenges due to a bias towards the initial player, who has a theoretical advantage. To add value, we strive for a balanced game-play. Our tests demonstrate AlphaZero's versatility in adapting to games other than Go. MCTS has become a predominant algorithm for decision processes in intricate scenarios, especially board games. MCTS creates a search tree by examining potential future actions and uses random sampling to predict possible results. By leveraging the best of both worlds, the AlphaZero technique fuses deep learning from Reinforcement Learning with the balancing act of MCTS, establishing a fresh standard in game-playing AI. Its triumph is notably evident in board games such as Go, chess, and shogi.


Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are characterized by outstanding molecular heterogeneity that results in severe therapy resistance and poor clinical outcome. Inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was recently revealed as a major parameter of poor clinical outcome. Here, we addressed the expression and function of the therapeutic target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and of the major determinant of epithelial differentiation epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) in clinical samples and in vitro models of HNSCCs. We describe improved survival of EGFRlow/EpCAMhigh HNSCC patients (n = 180) and provide a molecular basis for the observed disparities in clinical outcome. EGF/EGFR have concentration-dependent dual capacities as inducers of proliferation and EMT through differential activation of the central molecular switch phosphorylated extracellular signal–regulated kinase 1/2 (pERK1/2) and EMT transcription factors (EMT-TFs) Snail, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (Zeb1), and Slug. Furthermore, soluble ectodomain of EpCAM (EpEX) was identified as a ligand of EGFR that activates pERK1/2 and phosphorylated AKT (pAKT) and induces EGFR-dependent proliferation but represses EGF-mediated EMT, Snail, Zeb1, and Slug activation and cell migration. EMT repression by EpEX is realized through competitive modulation of pERK1/2 activation strength and inhibition of EMT-TFs, which is reflected in levels of pERK1/2 and its target Slug in clinical samples. Accordingly, high expression of pERK1/2 and/or Slug predicted poor outcome of HNSCCs. Hence, EpEX is a ligand of EGFR that induces proliferation but counteracts EMT mediated by the EGF/EGFR/pERK1/2 axis. Therefore, the emerging EGFR/EpCAM molecular cross talk represents a promising target to improve patient-tailored adjuvant treatment of HNSCCs.


In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on characterisation and remediation of contaminated waterways. Often a long stretch of river and the associated terminal estuary has been contaminated by industries over a period of decades. The toxic substances released by these industries become progressively buried in the sediments, such that profiles of these substances in the sediment become a record of the contamination process. These water systems may have only a fragmentary history of depth surveys, or none at all. Such water systems require another method to measure sedimentation rates and to determine the calendar dates associated with buried toxic substances.


The purpose of this study was to review the administrators, school counselors, and discipline teachers perception of the actual role of the secondary school counselors of the Kerian, Parit Buntar District Education
Office. Thirteen administrators, thirteen school counselors and thirteen discipline teachers from 13 secondary schools involved in this study. Questionnaires method based on the Counselor Role Assessment Survey
(CRAS) was used to obtained data based on evaluation items for the six aspects of guidance and counseling services provided by the school.
Quantitative analysis method was used to analyses the questionnaires. The dependent variable was the school administrators, student counselors and discipline teachers while individual and group counseling services,
developmental, educational and career guidance services, assessment and appraisal services, consulting services, coordination and management of a developmental and comprehensive program services and professional ethics,
personal growth and development services were independent variables. One Way ANOVA was used to test the difference between variables. The results showed that there were significant differences in perception between the administrators, student counselors and discipline teachers towards the actual role of student counselors in implementing the guidance and counseling services to students in secondary schools in the District of Kerian.
Anyway there is no significant differences in perception between the administrators, student counselors and discipline teachers towards the individual and group counseling services being given by the student counselors in secondary schools in the District of Kerian.


Abstract. The "Little Ice Age" (LIA) is possibly the best-documented climatic anomaly of the past. A wide range of datasets portrays a harsh climate that worsened living conditions, primarily in terms of cooler temperatures, for people across Europe sometime during the last millennium. Regardless of the vast amount of data covering the LIA, there is presently no consensus concerning its spatial manifestation (was it regional or global?), its temporal constraints (when did it start and end?), or the broad-scale dynamics associated with it (what mechanisms did it involve?), although there is no shortage of suggestions. Based on a new compilation of data reflecting atmospheric circulation at both high and low latitudes, we show that the LIA lasted for roughly 400 years (∼1400–1800 AD). During this period at least four major atmospheric circulation systems on Earth co-varied on decadal to centennial timescales: Northern Annular Mode (NAM), Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and West African Monsoon (WAM). This pattern of convergence suggests that a strong coupling between these circulation systems was an important pre-condition for the realisation of the LIA.


We demonstrate efficient resonant energy transfer from excitons confined in silicon nanocrystals to molecular oxygen (MO). Quenching of photoluminescence (PL) of silicon nanocrystals by MO physisorbed on their surface is found to be most efficient when the energy of excitons coincides with triplet-singlet splitting energy of oxygen molecules. The dependence of PL quenching efficiency on nanocrystal surface termination is consistent with short-range resonant electron exchange mechanism of energy transfer. A highly developed surface of silicon nanocrystal assemblies and a long radiative lifetime of excitons are favorable for achieving a high efficiency of this process.


Depression in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a prevalent and invalidating symptom. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) allows for an improvement of PD motor features, but its effects on mood are difficult to predict. Here, we review the evidence regarding mood effects after DBS of either subthalamic nucleus (STN) or globus pallidus pars interna (GPi). Different influences of multiple factors contribute to impact the neuropsychiatric outcome after surgery. Psychosocial presurgical situation, postsurgical coping mechanisms, dopaminergic treatment modifications, and direct effects of the stimulation of either target are all playing a distinct role on the psychological well-being of patients undergoing DBS. No clear advantage of either target (STN vs. GPi) has been consistently found, both being effective and with a favorable profile on depression symptoms. However, specific patients' characteristics or anatomical considerations can guide the neurosurgeon in the target choice. Further research together with technological advances are expected to confine the stimulation area within dysfunctional circuits causing motor symptoms of PD.


The relationship between 18-month mating mass and average lifetime conceptions/mating (Ec/Em), lambs born/conception (Lb/Ec), lambs born/mating(Lb/Em), preweaning mortalities/Iamb born (Ld/Lb) and lambs weaned/mating (Lw/Em) was investigated with data from 1222 Merino ewes available for at least four lambing opportunities in the Tygerhoek flock. The regressions of average lifetime Ec/Em, Lb/Ec, Lb/Em and Lw/Em on 18-month mating mass were linear, positive and statistically significant (P :!( 0,001). Pre-weaning mortalities were independent of 18-month mating mass. An increase of 1 kg in 18-month mating mass was associated with respective increases of 0,007 Ec/Em, 0,018 Lb/Ec, 0,024 Lb/Em and 0,017 Lw/Em. These results were supported by subsequent analyses, where average lifetime Ec/Em, Lb/Em and Lw/Em were used as discrete independent variables, and 18-month mating mass as the dependent variable. Phenotypic correlations obtained between 18-month mating mass and average lifetime Ec/Em, Lb/Ec, Lb/Em and Lw/Em were 0,11, 0,25,0,24 and 0,18 respectively.


This article presents the evaluation methodology used in an NIMH funded continuing education project for mental health professionals. The 96 participants who completed the course in three distinct cycles came both as work teams from agencies and as individuals and had potential impact on 1700 staff and 6913 clients. Forty-eight quantifiable and two qualitative dependent measures were used to assess participants' perceptions of the course, knowledge and attitudes, clinical behaviors as reflected in work environment and ward atmosphere, and impact on client status. A controlled experimental design with pretest, posttest, and follow-up data collection points was planned. Problems encountered and evaluation findings suggest the need for different types of evaluation strategies.


The current study aimed to screen the growth and viability of embryo from Day 21 to Day 56 post-breeding in Egyptian buffaloes. Twenty buffaloes were synchronized and examined serially by means of real-time B-mode ultrasound equipped with 12 MHz endorectal transducer. The developing embryonic sac diameter (ESD), crown rump length (CRL), head diameter (HD), trunk diameter (TD), and eye ball diameter (EBD) were measured. The heart rate and cardiac blood flow were sequentially examined to verify the fetal viability using color Doppler mode. Data showed the feasibility of first detection and measurement of ESD, CRL, HD, TD and EBD from Day 24.33 ± 0.67, 27.00 ± 1.73, 34.67 ± 1.76, 34.67 ± 0.88 and 33.67 ± 0.88, respectively. The fetal heart rate was 232.00 ± 12.35 beat/min at the day of first examination (Day 24.50 ± 1.30) after breeding. The cardiac blood flow was examined from Day 27 onwards. A highly significant (P< 0.0001) correlations were recorded between the ESD (r2=0.55), CRL (r2=0.85), HD (r2=0.85), TD (r2=0.93) and EBD (r2=0.85) and fetal age in buffaloes. It could be concluded that the high-frequency ultrasonography is a valuable diagnostic tool for the detection of early pregnancy from Day 24-26 post-breeding in Egyptian buffaloes. Verification of fetal heart beating (starting from Day 24-26) and cardiac blood flow (starting from Day 26-27) provide a reliable non-invasive promising technique for the fetal viability evaluation. The high correlation between TD and fetal age signified its clinical value, over other estimated fetometric parameters, in determining gestation period in Egyptian buffaloes during early pregnancy.


We consider a probabilistic model for workload input into a telecommunication system. It captures the dynamics of packet generation in data traffic as well as accounting for long-range dependence and self-similarity exhibited by real traces. The workload has stationary increments as observed in high-speed data networks for certain periods. Such periods with peak demand can be studied with this model for further queuing performance analysis. The workload is found by aggregating the number of packets, or their sizes, generated by the arriving sessions. The arrival time, the duration and the packet generation process of a session are all governed by a Poisson random measure. The model has been recently used in a G/M/1 queuing system with priority where the interarrival time distribution has been approximated. We show that it is a good approximation due to good match of the computed performance measures with the simulation results.


Intestinal and hepatic bile acid transporters are important for enterohepatic bile acid circulation and pharmacokinetics. Based on previous literature, we hypothesized that the expression of bile acid transporters and intestinal bile acid absorption are lower in older individuals. Here, we measured active taurocholate absorption across the ileum of male C57BL/6 mice in two different age cohorts – young (age range of 89–224 days) and old (age range of 613–953 days). Also examined in these mice were mRNA expression of the major bile acid transporters – Asbt and Ostα/β in the ileum, and Ntcp, Oatp1b2 and Bsep in the liver. Mean intestinal taurocholate absorption was significantly lower (~50%) in mice in the older cohort compared to those in the younger cohort. In the ileum, the expression of Asbt was significantly lower in the older cohort, but expression of Ostα/β was not affected by age. The lower capacity for intestinal bile acid absorption in the older animals is consistent with their lower expression level of Asbt. Of the hepatic bile acid transporters examined, expression of Ntcp and Oatp1b2 were significantly lower in the older mice. This is the first study to directly measure intestinal bile acid absorption as a function of age. The data suggest a lower capacity for intestinal bile acid absorption in older animals. Also, lower expression of Asbt, Ntcp, and Oatp1b2 in older individuals could influence pharmacokinetics of drug substrates.


CO(J = 2{1) and SiO(J = 5{4) emission has been observed from the molecular envelope around the nearby S star 1 Gru. The CO line proole diiers from the usual parabolic shape seen in uniformly-expanding envelopes ; it has a Voigt-like proole and two horns. A model for line formation in the envelope shows that a tilted, expanding disk reproduces the observations well. The star also has a fast molecular wind, with a projected outtow speed of at least 70 and perhaps as high as 90 km s ?1. The fast wind is presumably ejected from the poles of the disk. These observations show that the complex structure seen in many planetary nebulae, including quadrupolar structure and fast winds, may largely evolve from structure formed while the progenitor star is in the last stages of evolution on the AGB.


Introduction: Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional disorders worldwide. Regarding that fact, the aim of this study was to study the effectiveness of education-based intervention using small group discussions in empowering adolescent girls to prevent Iron deficiency anemia. Materials and Methods:The present semi-experimental practical research was performed by choosing 60 female high-schoolers through random cluster sampling (n=30 test group and n=30 control group). The research tools included one questionnaire of demographic information & an assessment questionnaire for subjects' empowerment in preventing iron deficiency anemia. After collecting pre-test data, the educational intervention was implemented for adolescent girls in the test group & the post-test was carried out one week after the intervention ended. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and applying appropriate statistical tests. Results: At baseline, independent T-test showed no significant difference between the two groups in the perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and self efficacy, all of which could be regarded as empowerment process components (P>0.05). However, significant differences were observed after intervention. Also, the paired T-test showed a significant difference before and after the intervention in the test group in means of the perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, self efficacy and, in the grand scheme, adolescent girls' empowerment (P<0.05). No significant differences were evident in the control group. Conclusion: Our findings showed that the education-based intervention using small groupdiscussions was effective in empowering adolescent girls to prevent Iron deficiency anemia.


PURPOSE
Little is known about how perceived social standing versus traditional socioeconomic characteristics influence medication adherence and blood pressure (BP) among African American and white patients with hypertension in the rural southeastern United States.

METHODS
Perceived social standing, socioeconomic characteristics, self-reported antihypertensive medication adherence, and BP were measured at baseline in a cohort of rural African American and white patients (n = 495) with uncontrolled hypertension attending primary care practices. Multivariate models examined the relationship of perceived social standing and socioeconomic indicators with medication adherence and systolic BP.

FINDINGS
Medication nonadherence was reported by 40% of patients. Younger age [β = 0.20; P = .001], African American race [β = -0.30; P = .03], and lower perceived social standing [β = 0.08; P = .002] but not sex or traditional socioeconomic characteristics including education and household income, were significantly associated with lower medication adherence. Race-specific analyses revealed that this pattern was limited to African Americans and not observed in whites. In stepwise modeling, older age [β = 0.57, P = .001], African American race [β = 4.4; P = .03], and lower medication adherence [β = -1.7, P = .01] but not gender, education, or household income, were significantly associated with higher systolic BP.

CONCLUSIONS
Lower perceived social standing and age, but not traditional socioeconomic characteristics, were significantly associated with lower medication adherence in African Americans. Lower medication adherence was associated with higher systolic BP. These findings suggest the need for tailored, culturally relevant medication adherence interventions in rural communities.


PURPOSE
Physical activity (PA) is associated with several health benefits in children, and PA habits developed in childhood tend to persist into adulthood. PA may be the foundation of a healthy lifestyle, and motor performance has been shown to be positively associated with PA in cross-sectional studies. The purpose of this study was to explore the longitudinal relation between motor performance and PA in a 3-yr follow-up study.

METHODS
Longitudinal analyses were performed using data from 673 participants (44% boys, 6-12 yr old) who had been included in the Childhood Health Activity and Motor Performance School study-DK. Baseline motor performance tests consisted of vertical jump, shuttle run, hand grip strength, backward balance, precision throw, and cardiovascular fitness. Composite z-scores were generated to express health-related fitness and performance-related fitness. PA was measured by accelerometer at baseline and at 3-yr follow-up and was expressed as a percentage of time in moderate-to-vigorous PA.

RESULTS
Cardiovascular fitness, vertical jump, health-related fitness, and performance-related fitness showed significant positive associations with 3-yr follow-up measures of PA in both sexes. Furthermore, shuttle run showed significant inverse associations with follow-up measures of PA for both sexes.

CONCLUSIONS
Cardiorespiratory fitness, shuttle run, vertical jump, health-related fitness, and performance-related fitness were significantly associated with time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA at 3-yr follow-up. The clinical relevance of the results indicates that cardiorespiratory fitness and shuttle run in childhood may be important determinants of PA in adolescence.


Realism has become a dirty word in some social sciences, yet, despite fashionable new approaches involving multiple ontologies and the like, when anthropologists actually produce ethnographic accounts they are, still, indulging in realism in some form. Perhaps this is why ethnography, too, is unfashionable. Given the authors' background as anthropologists committed to fieldwork, this book provides a theoretical grounding to justify and explain the sorts of accounts that anthropologists produce as the result of ethnographic research. The book's approach starts from an acceptance that understanding is always incomplete, always improvable. This sort of partiality is viewed throughout the book as a strength. The challenge of anthropology is that it involves forms of translation: often across languages, but always between the unstated and the explicit. Accepting provisionality and incompleteness in the resulting translations provides ways of finding a middle ground between extreme versions of positivism and relativism. As such, this book argues for moderate realisms in a dappled world.


Speakers' stories about language shift in Bergamo, a Northern Italian town, are reflective of larger sociocultural changes and negotiations over tradition. The article examines how Bergamasco residents conceptualize time to construct a past of poverty in contrast to a prosperous contemporary world, taking up various affective stances toward these socioeconomic and linguistic shifts. Nostalgia plays a central role in speakers' focus on certain socioeconomic shifts. Analyzing temporality in and through linguistic ideology, the article contributes to debates on language shift, cultural change, and socioeconomic transformation.


The effect of gamma-ray (γ-ray) irradiation on the material characteristics of nanometre scale films of molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) has been investigated. 3.2, 4.5, and 5.2 nm thick MoS2 films (measured by atomic force microscopy) were grown on Si by using a two-step synthesis method (sputtering of Mo, followed by sulphurisation). The samples were subsequently exposed to γ-ray irradiation (dose of 120 MRad). Dramatic chemical changes in the MoS2 films after irradiation were characterised by micro-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and optical microscopy. Micro-Raman spectroscopy showed the disappearance of the E 2g 1 and A 1g modes after irradiation. XPS revealed that the MoS2 crystal structure was converted to molybdenum oxide (MoO x ). It is hypothesised that S vacancies are formed due to the γ-ray irradiation, which subsequently transforms MoS2 to MoO x .


The term "speciesism" has become in common use, both in current language and in the literature for the protection of animals. However, with a careful analysis of the variety of definitions offered in many dictionaries and encyclopedias of the sector, it emerges that its meaning is not always univocal. This neologism thus appears to be both indispensable and ambiguous. To make it clearer, I propose to study its genesis and historical development. The word speciesism was invented by the psychologist Thomas Ryder in the early Seventies of the last century, in the context of the Oxford Group and was later philosophically accredited by Peter Singer. Its value varies from being a psychological expedient useful to ask questions about the opportunity to protect animals, to indicate a prejudice or discrimination towards animals that have to be overcome, to propose an animalistic ethics of utilitarian matrix and consequentialist based on a questionable interpretation of Bentham that insists on the evaluation of pain at the expense of the role of compassion. I will conclude by showing how speciesism has had a determining historical role, but today it is no longer the only strategy to protect animals, nor the most convincing, also in light the of recent legislation.


Background: The CAROLINA, landmark cardiovascular outcome trial (CVOT) , has demonstrated cardiovascular safety of glimepiride against DPP-IV inhibitor linagliptin. Considering the absence of CVOT for Gliclazide, we decided to conduct a systematic review of the literature to assess the cardiovascular (CV) safety and hypoglycemia risk of gliclazide versus linagliptin in patients with T2DM.
 Method: A systematic literature search of MEDLINE and Google Scholar was conducted to include all linagliptin ± metformin and gliclazide ± metformin trials from 20onwards that assessed the adverse events: hypoglycemia, myocardial infarction/ischemia, transient ischemic attack, cardiovascular death, and stroke. Two independent reviewers conducted a literature search and study selection according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Only randomized trials, considered the highest quality of evidence by the Oxford Center for Evidence-based Medicine, were included. We excluded placebo-controlled studies and studies comparing gliclazide or linagliptin with metformin.
 Results: No trials compared gliclazide ± metformin with linagliptin ± metformin. Hence, it was impossible to directly compare their hypoglycemia and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) outcomes. Eight clinical trials were included in the narrative descriptive synthesis (gliclazide 5 and linagliptin 3) . Both drugs effectively achieved the desired glycaemic control and had low MACE and hypoglycemia risk in adults with T2DM. Studies comparing gliclazide with another DPP4 inhibitor, vildagliptin, did not report a significant difference in CV safety and/or hypoglycemia incidence.
 Conclusion: Gliclazide can be used safely in patients with T2D in resource-limited settings as it has low MACE and hypoglycemia risk.

 V.Mohan: None. S.Wangnoo: None. S.Das: n/a. R.Dhediya: None. K.Gaurav: Employee; Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd.


Optical scatterometry is a method to measure the size and shape of periodic micro- or nanostructures on surfaces. For this purpose the geometry parameters of the structures are obtained by reproducing experimental measurement results through numerical simulations. We compare the performance of Bayesian optimization to different local minimization algorithms for this numerical optimization problem. Bayesian optimization uses Gaussian-process regression to find promising parameter values. We examine how pre-computed simulation results can be used to train the Gaussian process and to accelerate the optimization.


The Islamic banks are considered modern institutions in the banking industry, it made noticeable steps in the banking area. Working Human resources had the distinguished impact in that development. Under the human resources, all essential activities of the institution are included such as planning resources, recruitment, training and development, performance evaluation, compensation, safety and health, and work relations. These involve the conventional bases for the human resources management which includes the management of change, culture, labour and organizational designing and human resources activities, internally and externally. The human resources represent the main element for work. It is considered to be the capital for any producing nation, in reality. Also, human resources come at the top of elements list of the administrative process which cannot do without it.


Circular RNA (circRNA) abnormal expression and regulation are involved in the occurrence and development of a variety of tumors. However, the role of circRNAs still remains unknown in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). In the present study, the differential circRNA expression profile of GISTs was screened by human circRNAs chip and verified by qRT-PCR. The circRNA–miRNA–mRNA regulatory network was constructed using the cytoHubba plugin based on the Cytoscape software. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed to explore circRNA functions. Six significantly differential circRNAs were also verified in 20 pairs of GISTs and adjacent tissues by qRT-PCR. The result showed that a total of 543 differentially expressed circRNAs were identified in GISTs, of which 242 were up-regulated and 301 were down-regulated. Additionally, the circRNA–miRNA–mRNA network contained six circRNAs, 30 miRNAs, and 308 mRNAs, and the targeted mRNAs were associated with "regulation of biological process," "intracellular organelle," "protein binding," and enriched in Wnt signaling pathway. Furthermore, qRT-PCR demonstrated that hsa_circRNA_061346, hsa_circRNA_103114, and hsa_circRNA_103870 were significantly up-regulated in GISTs (n = 20), and hsa_ circRNA_405324, hsa_circRNA_406821, and hsa_circRNA_000361 were dramatically down-regulated in GISTs (n = 20). In addition, all of these circRNAs were shown to have high diagnostic values, and most of them were significantly associated with tumor size, mitotic figure, and malignant degrees in GISTs (P < 0.05). Therefore, we concluded that circRNAs were abnormally expressed in GISTs, and the circRNA–miRNA–mRNA regulatory network plays an important role in the occurrence and development of GISTs. Also, the identified six candidate circRNAs might be critical circRNAs and may present as potential diagnostic biomarkers for GISTs.


Standard growth models predict that consumption and GNP growth rates should not differ among countries when international capital markets are considered. This paper introduces a generational structure which implies that the return on human capital exceeds the return on physical capital in equilibrium. Thus, when the return on human capital differs internationally, the growth rates of consumption and GNP vary across countries even when there is free capital mobility. Furthermore, GNP and GDP grow at the same rate within a country, there is positive investment in every country, and poverty traps persist in spite of international capital markets.


Newspapers offer good chances of reading practice for ESL learners of
different proficiency levels.Since newspaper articles are authentic in terms of language
they use,experiences they report,and culture they reflect they may attract ESL learners'
attention with their headlines,content areas,and pictures.On the other hand, they are
difficult to handle for exactly the same reasons. To start with, we had beter take a close
look into the nature of reading comprehension.
Traditionally, in the study of second language comprehension, it has been the text
(language to be comprehended)to blame for failures to comprehend not the reader or
listener.Failures to comprehend a well-formed text passage have been attributed to some
unknown language elements like words and gramatical rules.But today it is believed that
it is not the text but the previously acquired knowledge that makes the comprehension
possible.Immenual Kant claimed as long ago as 1781 that 'new information,new
concepts,new ideas can have meaning only when they can be related to something the
individual already knows'(Rumelhart:1980).
One of the obvious reasons why a reader fails to understand a text is that the schema
involved is culturally specific and does not exist for the reader.If the implicit culture
content knowledge presupposed by a text interacts with the reader's own background
knowledge of content, that text is easier to read and understand than rhetorically and
syntactically equivalent text based on a less familiar and more distant culture (Anderson:
1979).


This chapter takes up the provisions of the Convention that deem some persons who face the real chance of being persecuted nonetheless to be undeserving of international protection. Inspired by the prohibition in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the granting of asylum "in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations" and following the precedent of the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization, persons seeking to evade legitimate prosecution or punishment for serious domestic crimes, those who have committed serious international crimes, and anyone who is guilty of actions contrary to the principles and purposes of the UN must be denied refugee status. The decision to exclude these three limited categories of persons from refugee status – even assuming they face the real chance of being persecuted – followed in part from concern to ensure that serious criminals not be able to evade prosecution and punishment for their crimes by claiming asylum. But most fundamentally, the drafters were persuaded that if state parties were expected to admit serious criminals as refugees, they would simply not be willing to be bound to the Convention. France, the most ardent advocate of this view, insisted that the right to exclude limited categories of serious criminals from refugee status was "a prime factor in determining France's attitude towards the Convention as a whole." The Yugoslav drafter feared that without a rule on exclusion "there would be a good chance that [his government] would be unable to sign the Convention." Even the British and Belgian representatives, despite their initial opposition to such a provision, ultimately conceded that the exclusion of serious criminals from refugee status was necessary "to promote maximum adherence to the Convention" and "to make the Convention acceptable to as large a number of governments as possible." Thus, as the Court of Justice of the European Union determined, the fundamental purpose of Art. 1(F) is essentially instrumentalist, to "maintain the credibility of the protection system."


In this study we investigate how external interventions shape process-based trust development in cross-border alliances. Specifically, we exploit a unique opportunity to observe the magnitude of external intervention through publicly available amounts of money given by the foreign, developed country partners ' government to support alliances with local, developing country partners. Applying motivation crowding theory to trust processes, w e develop theoretical logic explaining how and under what conditions such third-party financial support negatively affects the local partner 's t ust. Our assertions were tested using archival and survey data on 105 international strategic alliances. We find that amount of support is detrimental to local partner trust but that the negative relationship can be dampened via interaction between partners and agreement throughout these interactions. This shows a need for partners to think through trust development consequences of external interventions during the setting up of their alliances, in order to be able to act in a manner which promotes trust.


BACKGROUND
Protein intake in hemodialysis patients can be estimated indirectly from the protein equivalent of total nitrogen appearance (PNA) during the interdialytic period. A reliable estimate of the patient's urea distribution volume (UDV) is required to assess protein intake from PNA values. UDV values are derived frequently from simple anthropometric equations.

METHODS
UDV values based on anthropometric methods were compared with UDV values determined by direct dialysate quantitation (DDQ) in 54 stable chronic hemodialysis patients. The anthropometric methods included the following: the Watson equations (WAT), a fixed proportion of postdialysis body weight, 58% for males and 55% for females (% body wt), and skinfold thickness measurements (SFT). Postdialysis blood samples were drawn at 15-minutes postdialysis.

RESULTS
UDV(WAT) and UDV(SFT) overestimated UDV(DDQ) by about 8 L [limits of agreement (LOA): 2.6 to 14.2 L] in males and about 6 L (LOA: -0.8 to 12.4 L) in females. The overestimation by UDV(%BW) was even larger: 10.5 L (LOA: 2.0 to 19.0 L) in males and 11.1 L (LOA: 2.1 to 20.1 L) in females. The difference between UDV(%BW) and UDV(DDQ) correlated with the percentage of body fat (r = 0.57) and body mass index (r = 0.48). In a subgroup of seven patients, UDV was also determined by dilution (DIL) of the stable isotope [(13)C]urea. UDV(WAT) and UDV(%BW) overestimated UDV(DIL) significantly. In contrast, UDV(DDQ) was significantly smaller than UDV(DIL), even after correction for incomplete postdialysis equilibration. PNA values calculated using the various UDV estimates were compared with dietary protein intake (DPI) assessed from food records. PNA(DDQ) (61 +/- 10 g/day) did not differ significantly from DPI (63 +/- 13 g/day), but the agreement in individual patients varied considerably (LOA, -24 to 20 g/day). Anthropometric-based PNA values overestimated DPI by 8 to 16 g/day.

CONCLUSIONS
Anthropometry-based equations overestimate UDV values in hemodialysis patients, leading to an overestimation of PNA values. Although PNA measurements by DDQ appear to be more reliable for assessing protein intake, PNA(DDQ) values should be interpreted with caution in individual hemodialysis patients.


Through a field study computer science practices, we observed that students not only rely on the computer but also the programming textbook. To get overall comprehension, students organize their effort in understanding the abstract concept in the textbook and tracing the program execution constantly. The observations motivated us design an interactive textbook that integrates paper books with interactive multimedia supports for learning computer programming. Students could understand how program works from browsing multiple perspectives of program execution. We also facilitate the on-line query, enabling students to construct their own links with digital information. An evaluation with 11 students found this system can offer efficient access to the digital information while remain concentrating their attention on paper textbook, in a manner felicitous with their current reading practice.


The large scale expansion of oil palm plantations nowadays bring huge negative impact on habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity, especially at Pasoh, Negeri Sembilan, Peninsular Malaysia. The monoculture system that was developed since the 1970s has suppressed biodiversity levels because of the lack of suitable microhabitats. In order to assess ecological remediation of plantation, a green corridor was established along Sg. Petekah at Felda Pasoh 2. The assessment was conducted from March to May 2012 at Sg. Petekah green corridor (SPGC) at Felda Pasoh 2 and Felda Pasoh 3 with no green corridor (FP3). Amphibians were sampled for species richness by using fenced pit fall traps and visual encounter surveys. Microhabitat selection of amphibians was identified to come up with recommendations for improvement. The low Shannon-Wiener diversity value, H' at SPGC (1.82 ± 0.126) was obtained indicating that the remediation is yet to be achieved, but the H' value was much lower at PF3 (0.62±0.2) indicating a positive projection of remediation. Microhabitat selection study indicated that each amphibian species tend to avoid overlapping of microhabitat based on specific guilds. Based on the results, the green corridor should be widened to allow space for foraging and territorial defence, planted not only with trees but also shrubs and herbs to improve the ground cover for the amphibians and also to include other animal groups, such as birds and mammals.