We present a prospective case series of 3 premature neonates with abnormal vitamin A, vitamin E, and selenium levels after being managed on prolonged parenteral nutrition (PN). All 3 patients experienced gastrointestinal complications including spontaneous intestinal perforation, necrotizing enterocolitis, and/or short bowel syndrome. Additionally, all 3 patients developed PN-associated liver disease, which required the use of a mixed lipid emulsion and a fish oil-based lipid emulsion for a short period of time. We evaluated the micronutrient levels of these patients after they had been receiving PN for 1 to 2 months. After the early identification of these abnormalities, we promptly attempted to correct the levels through supplementation and restriction, as appropriate. One barrier we experienced in the treatment of these patients was the conflicting guidance of daily micronutrient dosing in PN and when to evaluate levels in premature infants from the European and American pediatric nutrition organizations, the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Additionally, after we assessed micronutrient levels, we experienced a lack of guidance on how to adjust dosing and when to monitor subsequent levels.


We consider some specific features of creation of the database according to the results of drifter experiments carried out in the Black Sea in 2001-2006. The general statistical information on all buoy studies in the sea is presented. The criteria used to filter the primary data are suggested. The principles of formation and structuring of the drifter database are presented. As an example, we describe the procedure and the results of comparison of model estimates with the data of con- tact measurements of the sea-surface temperature by drifting buoys. The variations of climate and the closely related problem of reliable weather forecasting explain the neces- sity of systematic monitoring of the processes running in the upper layer of the ocean and surface layers of the atmosphere. Drifter technologies represent an integral part of the contemporary system of operative observations in the ocean. The autonomous drifting platforms for data collection (drifters) with equipment for satellite com- munications prove to be one of the most efficient tools for the investigation of the upper layer of the ocean and the surface layer of the atmosphere. In the Black-Sea region, the drifter experiments carried out the last decade became one of the main sources of systematic contact operative information on the state of the upper layer of the open sea and the surface layer of the atmosphere. By 2007, the total duration of operation of the drifters was larger than 90,000 h. For this pe- riod of time, the researchers obtained representative data arrays of the sea-surface temperature, temperature pro- files in the upper layer of the sea, atmospheric pressure, and surface currents with a resolution of 1 h. However, despite obvious advantages of the drifter monitoring, the application of its results for the comprehensive subse- quent analysis with adequate response to the variations of the ambient medium remains inefficient. This is ex- plained by the absence of formalized, according to the contemporary requirements, drifter data arrays and, hence, by the restricted access of users to the accumulated data. In the present work, we describe the main results ob- tained in the course of systematization of the data of drifter monitoring of the Black Sea and development of the procedures of processing the drifter data with an aim of creation of the drifter database and its export to the oce- anological database. As an example, we consider the application of the drifter data for the evaluation of the re- sults of model diagnostics of the sea-surface temperature (SST).


While electrification of the transportation system will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our dependency on imported oil, the growing number of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can also impose a significant new load on electric grids. In this paper, we develop an agent-based behavioral transportation model of PHEVs for the purpose of electric load forecasting in large urban areas. This model is intended to simulate the temporospatial dynamics of PHEVs' behavior due to the changes in a multitude of internal PHEV-related transportation attributes. The results from simulations highlighted the inverse correlation between PHEVs' charging time and peak electric load consumption. The proposed model did not attempt to fully explain the very complex behavior of PHEV agents within the transportation infrastructure, but was rather developed to provide a theoretical foundation to investigate any emergent temporospatial outcomes. The developed model is capable of incorporating external attributes such as collisions, and weather conditions for any future research.


staff and patients, breaking down initial hostility and lack of understanding and the division between "them" and "us." There was a remarkable absence of disturbances and of demand for sedatives. Of interest was the request by discharged prisoners to be allowed to visit the unit after discharge and the marked change in attitude of the disciplinary officers. Clearly such an inpatient unit, whether in prison or in hospital, can be no more than an initiation programme; its success must stand or fall with a planned comprehensive aftercare and comxnunity service. The planning of such an aftercare programmne, involving also the unit staff, was in progress when unfortunately, owing to administrative problems-namely, the current shortage of prison officers-the therapeutic programme had to be curtailed, one hopes only temporarily. In the view of staff and patients, who all bitterly regretted the interruption of the work, the "experiment" has undoubtedly been successful, largely owing to the enthusiasm and dedication of the prison officers. It has indicated the feasibility of setting up a therapeutic community with a therapeutic atmosphere even within the confines of a prison. For those addicts who land in prison (and one may hope that their numbers will gradually decrease) the therapeutic commnunity approach certainly seems to be much more promising than other approaches in current use, and in my own view deserves further trials in other selected prisons under the supervision of interested staff.


Hygiene checks were applied to 97 young bulls of dairy breeds and 300 of beef breeds on a bull raising centre, between 1972 and 1975. Their normal blood serum levels of organic phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium were compared to the levels of the same minerals in feed rations. Blood serum values were compared also between animals with pathological changes in the supporting, locomotor, and genital systems as well as in sperma and pellet, on the one hand, and those without such changes, on the other. Also compared were sons of different fathers of the beef breed, with the view of elucidating certain peculiarities specific of blood lines.


This study investigated students' plagiarism practices in Tanzania higher learning institutions by involving two universities-one public and one private university as a case study. The universities involved have honour code and policies for plagiarism detection however they do not employ software for checking students' plagiarism. The study employed qualitative research approach within the interpretive paradigm. The participants for the case study were purposively selected. Data were collected using focus group discussions and documents analysis (assignments, dissertations and proposal suspected for plagiarism). The findings indicated that plagiarism is a critical problem for the students in sampled universities as assignment submitted during the course of study contains a substantial text that was copied from other sources without acknowledging the original authors. Moreover, study findings also shows that most students had understanding that plagiarism is the academic dishonest, however, this has not stopped them plagiarizing. Factors such as the access of internet, shortage of books, student's laziness and poor academic writing skills played a key role in students' plagiarism at the two universities. Based on these results, the study recommends universities to have adequate resources in particular software for detecting plagiarism. In addition, lecturers/instructors to play their role effectively in educating students about the effects of plagiarism in academic works which to some extent will minimize the problem of direct copying and pasting other peoples' works without acknowledgment.


Given the popularity of YouTube and other video dissemination websites, it is reasonable to assume that the digital natives of today might prefer video-based instruction, especially for a computer lab activity in an Information Systems course. Consider the specificity of a video that shows students exactly what to click versus the potential ambiguity of text instructions. At first look, video appears to offer a significantly superior instruction format compared to text, especially for the digital native generation. However, after two years of experimenting with video instructions, we no longer make this assumption. We present an experiment that examines the differences between online video and online text instructions with respect to concept learning, task completion time, retention, and student impression. Our results indicate that video and text perform similarly, which is surprising since we are investigating a type of task and an audience that appear, on the surface, to be well-suited for video instructions. Our experiments are supported by an innovative web-based lab delivery system that provides a framework for evaluating different forms of instruction and user interface designs by collecting students' responses, impressions of the experience, and timing data.


During the last ten years considerable progress in the theory of classical Painleve equations has been achieved. This progress is based on the so-called Isomonodromy Method which makes the Painleve transcendents as effective in modern nonlinear analysis as the usual special functions are in linear analysis. In this paper, the problem of the rigorous justification of the global asymptotic results which are obtained via Isomonodromy Method, is considered. Taking the pure imaginary solutions of the second Painleve equation as an example, we discuss in detail three different rigorous methodologies of their asymptotic analysis including derivation of the corresponding connection formulae.


During the past decades we have been observing a permanent increase in image data, leading to huge repositories. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) methods have tried to improve the access to image data. To date, numerous feature extraction methods have been proposed to improve the quality of CBIR and image classification systems. In this paper, we are analyzing the technique of relevance feedback for the purpose of image retrieval system. The survey is used to study all the methods used for image retrieval system. The structure-based features its task as broad as texture image retrieval and/or classification. To develop a structure based feature extraction, we have to investigate CBIR and classification problems. Digital image libraries are becoming more common and widely used as visual information is produced at a rapidly growing rate. Creating and storing digital images is nowadays easy and getting more affordable. As a result, the amount of data in visual form is increasing and there is a strong need for effective ways to manage and process it. We have studied support vector machines to learn the feature space distribution of our structure-based features for several images classes. CBIR contains three levels namely retrieval by primitive features, retrieval by logical features and retrieval by abstract attributes. It contains the problem of finding images relevant to the users' information needs from image databases, based principally on low-level visual features for which automatic extraction methods are available. Due to the inherently weak connection between the high-level semantic concepts and the low-level visual features the task of developing this kind of systems is very challenging. A popular method to improve image retrieval performance is to shift from single-round queries to navigational queries. This kind of operation is commonly referred to as relevance feedback and can be considered as supervised learning to adjust the subsequent retrieval process by using information gathered from the user's feedback. Here we also studied an image indexing method based on SelfOrganizing Maps (SOM). The SOM was interpreted as a combination of clustering and dimensionality reduction. It has the advantage of providing a natural ordering for the clusters due to the preserved topology. This way, the relevance information obtained from the user can be spread to neighboring image clusters. The dimensionality reduction aspect of the algorithm alleviates computational requirements of the algorithm. It definitely contains the feature of novel relevance feedback technique. The relevance feedback technique is based on spreading the user responses to local self organizing maps neighborhoods. With some experiments, it will be confirmed that the efficiency of semantic image retrieval can be substantially increased by using these features in parallel with the standard low-level visual features. The measurements like precision and recall were used to evaluate the performance. Precision-recall graph for the 1.000 and 10,000 images data-set and robustness analysis of the 1.000 image database for different brightness have taken.


Microcontrollers are widely used in the area of portable control systems, though they are only beginning to be used for portable, unobtrusive Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) systems. This paper describes the initial prototyping of such a portable system. This has the intended use of detecting time variant gait anomalies in patients with hemiplegia, and correcting for them. The system is described in two parts. Firstly, the portable hardware implementing two independent communicating microcontrollers for low powered parallel processing and secondly the simplified low power software. Both are designed specifically for long term, stable use and also to communicate with PC based visual software for testing and evaluation. The system operates by using bend sensors to defect the angles of the hip, knee and ankle of both legs. It computes an error signal with which to produce a stimulation wave cycle, that is synchronised and timed for the new gait cycle from that in which the error was observed. This system uses a PID controller to correct for the instability inherent with such a large time delay between observation and correction.


Supervisory Committee Dr. Terry Pearson, Supervisor (Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology) Dr. Caroline Cameron, Departmental Member (Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology) Dr. Juan Ausio, Departmental Member (Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology) Dr. Francis Choy, Outside Member (Department of Biology) Biomarker validation remains one of the most important constraints to development of new clinical diagnostic assays. To address this challenge, an immunomass spectrometric assay known as SISCAPA has been developed for quantitation of protein biomarkers in human blood. The SISCAPA assay overcomes the sensitivity barrier facing most mass spectrometric approaches by utilizing high affinity antibodies for enrichment of specific surrogate peptide analytes from complex mixtures such as trypsin-digested human plasma. However, several technological barriers remain before the SISCAPA technology gains widespread use for biomarker validation. Improvements are required in areas such as selection of high affinity anti-peptide antibodies, peptide detection sensitivity and increasing sample throughput to allow biomarker validation on large sample sets. The work presented in this dissertation describes the development of new methods for antibody selection and for high-throughput application of SISCAPA technology to biomarker measurement in human plasma. Specifically, two technological developments are described: 1) an assay called MiSCREEN was developed, which iv allows high-throughput screening of anti-peptide antibodies, enabling selection of high affinity reagents for de novo SISCAPA assays and 2) a liquid chromatography (LC)-free SISCAPA assay was developed that enables quantitation of surrogate peptides using both MALDI-TOF and RapidFire/MS platforms. Taken together, these technological advances provide a meaningful solution to the biomarker validation dilemma and allow a unified system for biomarker qualification, verification, validation and development of clinical assays for diagnosis and monitoring of a variety of diseases. To demonstrate the utility of the unified SISCAPA system for biomarker measurement, an assay was developed for protein C inhibitor (PCI) as a marker for prediction of biochemical recurrence in prostate cancer patients. The PCI-specific analyte was shown to predict biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer after radiation/hormone treatment. Early stage detection of recurrence was achieved, when compared to the 'gold standard' marker for prostate cancer, prostate specific antigen (PSA). Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis studies on PCI, revealed unique protein spots in a serum sample from a biochemically recurrent patient. Studying such alterations at the protein level may enable understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which PCI is involved in prostate cancer progression.


This modern classic of biblical scholarship explains what the apostles meant when they used such words as "redeem," "covenant," "propitiate," "reconcile," and "justify." Leon Morris carefully explores these themes against the backgrounds of both Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity a rewarding task that results in a more complete understanding of these key Christian terms."


Object localization and segmentation are tasks that have been growing in relevance in the last years. The automatic detection and extraction of possible objects of interest is a important step for a higher level reasoning, like the detection of tumors or other pathologies in medical imaging or the detection of the region of interest in fingerprints or faces for biometrics.

There are many different ways of facing this problem in the literature, but in this Phd thesis we selected a particular deformable model called Topological Active Model. This model was especially designed for 2D and 3D image segmentation. It integrates features of region-based and boundary-based segmentation methods in order to perform a correct segmentation and, this way, fit the contours of the objects and model their inner topology. The main problem is the optimization of the structure to obtain the best possible segmentation. Previous works proposed a greedy local search method that presented different drawbacks, especially with noisy images, situation quite often in image segmentation.

This Phd thesis proposes optimization approaches based on global search methods like evolutionary algorithms, with the aim of overcoming the main drawbacks of the previous local search method, especially with noisy images or rough contours. Moreover, hybrid approaches between the evolutionary methods and the greedy local search were developed to integrate the advantages of both approaches. Additionally, the hybrid combination allows the possibility of topological changes in the segmentation model, providing flexibility to the mesh to perform better adjustments in complex surfaces or also to detect several objects in the scene.

The suitability and accuracy of the proposed model and segmentation methodologies were tested in both synthetic and real images with different levels of complexity. Finally, the proposed evolutionary approaches were applied to a specific task in a real domain: The localization and extraction of the optic disc in retinal images.


BACKGROUND
The rates and risk factors for developing recurrent pneumonia following hospitalization with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are poorly understood.

METHODS
We examined a population-based cohort of patients with CAP who survived hospital admission and who were free of pneumonia for at least 3 months. We collected clinical, functional, and medication-related information and pneumonia severity index (PSI). Using linked databases we followed patients for 5 years and captured any clinical episode of pneumonia 90 days or more post-discharge. We used Cox proportional hazards models (adjusted for age, sex, PSI, functional status, medications) to determine rates and independent correlates of recurrent pneumonia.

RESULTS
The final cohort included 2709 inpatients; 43% were 75 years or older, 34% were not fully independent, and 56% had severe pneumonia. Over 5 years of follow-up, 245 (9%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8%-10%) patients developed recurrent pneumonia, and 156 (64%) of these episodes required hospitalization. Rate of recurrence was 3.0/100 person-years and median time to recurrence was 317 days (interquartile range, 177-569); 32 (13%) patients had 2 or more recurrences. In multivariable analyses only age >75 years (adjusted P = .047) and less than fully independent functional status (12% recurrence rate with impaired functional status vs 7% for fully independent; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3-2.2; P < .001) were significantly associated with recurrent pneumonia.

CONCLUSIONS
One of 11 patients who survived CAP hospitalization had recurrent pneumonia over 5 years and those with impaired functional status were at particularly high risk. Recurrent pneumonia is common and more attention to preventive strategies at discharge and closer follow-up over the long-term seem warranted.


This article proposes a two-stage risk-constrained energy scheduling approach for an energy hub (EH) model that can trade electricity and thermal energies, in the day-ahead and real-time markets. The scheduling problem of the EH is considered to maximize the expected profit and minimize the risk level or maximum relative regret level at a preferable level of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{CO}_2$</tex-math></inline-formula> emission, considering various uncertainties. In the proposed approach, the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\varepsilon$</tex-math></inline-formula>-constraint method is used to model the economic and environmental factors at the same time, and the stochastic <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math></inline-formula>-robust approach is used to manage the relative regret or risk level in the studied EH model. Furthermore, the techniques for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution method is employed to prioritize the Pareto optimal curve composed of the expected profit, risk level or maximum relative regret level, and the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{CO}_2$</tex-math></inline-formula> emission. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed risk-constrained scheduling approach and the comparison with downside risk constraint, conditional value at risk, and robust optimization approaches are provided. The results indicate remarkable improvements in the robustness of the studied model with a slight reduction in the expected profit at the preferable level of the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{CO}_2$</tex-math></inline-formula> emission.


The Internet of Things (IoT) can be described as the ever-growing global network of objects with built-in sensing and communication interfaces such as sensors, Global Positioning devices (GPS) and Local Area Network (LAN) interfaces. Security is by far one of the biggest challenges in IoT networks. This includes secure routing which involves the secure creation of traffic routes and secure transmission of routed packets from a source to a destination. The Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy network (RPL) is one of the popular IoT's routing protocol that supports IPv6 communication. However, it suffers from having a basic system for supporting secure routing procedure which makes the RPL vulnerable to many attacks. This includes rank attack manipulation. Objective Function (OF) is one of the extreme importance features of RPL which influences an IoT network in terms of routing strategies as well as network topology. However, current literature lacks study of vulnerability analysis of OFs. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the vulnerability assessment of OF of RPL protocol. For this, we focus on the rank attack manipulation and two popular OFs: Objective Function Zero (OF0) and the Minimum Rank with Hysteresis Objective Function (MRHOF).


Depth distributions were analyzed from a study of 19 Cuvier's beaked whales Ziphius cavirostris that were tagged with satellite transmitting instruments off southern California, USA. Over 113000 depth measurements were made over the equivalent of ~200 sampling days. The mean foraging depth was 1182 m (SD = 305 m), and the mean of the maximum depth of all foraging dives was 1427 m (SD = 298 m). Mean foraging depths increased with seafloor depths up to a maximum of ~1300 m at a seafloor depth of 1900 m, but decreased slightly to a mean of ~1200 m at seafloor depths of 2000-4000 m. Near-bottom habitat appears to be important for foraging; whales spent ~30% of their foraging time within 200 m of the bottom at seafloor depths of 1000-2000 m. However, little foraging time was spent near the bottom at seafloor depths greater than 2000 m. The percentage of time spent at near-surface depths (<50 m) was more than twice as high at night (25%) than during the day (12%). Lunar light also appears to affect diving, with 28% of dark nights and only 17% of brightly moonlit nights spent at these near-surface depths. The apparent avoidance of surface waters during daytime and on brightly moonlit nights is consistent with avoidance of visual predators. A considerably greater fraction of time was spent foraging at night (24.8%) than during the day (15.7%), possibly due to energetic constraints imposed by predator avoidance during the day.


Abstract Collecting data through surveys are a vital method in public administration research, but an overseen challenge for the validity of survey research is response bias, which is when response behavior correlates with study outcomes. Response bias can be particularly threatening in motivation research because motivation is an important determinant for behavior and most likely also for survey participation. Specifically, public service motivation (PSM) can increase the willingness to devote time and effort to respond to surveys for the benefit of others, whereas extrinsically motivated individuals may be less inclined to participate in surveys without prospects of economic compensation. This article examines motivation and response bias by use of a preregistered field experiment and two panel datasets. The experimental study shows that a monetary incentive increases the response rate, whereas a PSM-oriented appeal does not. Furthermore, the increased response rate of the incentive is achieved without any detectable response bias on PSM. Likewise, the panel studies offer little and mixed support for response bias related with PSM. This evidence suggests that (1) PSM is not a (strong) driver of response bias, and that (2) extrinsic motivational tools applied to PSM surveys are not necessarily associated with response bias.


Full-field heterodyne time-of-flight range-imagers allow a large number of range measurements to be taken simultaneously across an entire scene; these range measurements may be corrupted due to limited depth of field. We propose a new method for deblurring heterodyne range images by identifying multiple signal returns within each pixel via deconvolution, thus reducing the spatially variant deblurring problem to a sequence of spatially invariant deconvolutions. We have applied this method to simulated data, showing significant improvement in the restored images.


[Objective] To study the effect of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) against cyclophosphamide (CTX) induced gonadotoxicity in female rats. [Methods] Forty SD female rats were divided randomly into four groups : control (received normal saline(NS), CTX, S1P+NS, S1P+CTX respectively. All rats were killed between the first and the second week in the diestrus stage after stopping medicines to compare the number of the primordial follicles,the primary follicles and the growth follicles. The expression of the Bcl-2 and Bax mRNA in the ovaries were examined by the RT-PCR. [Results] The number of primordial follicles, primary follicles and growth follicles in the S1P+CTX group was close to that in the control group and the S1P+NS group(P 0.05).But the number of all kinds of follicles was decreasing in the CTX group, and there were significant differences between that of these groups(P 0.01).The levels of the Bcl-2 mRNA in the two S1P groups were significantly higher than that in the CTX group and the control group, but levels of the Bax mRNA were on the contrary(P 0.01). The level of the Bcl-2 mRNA in the CTX group was significantly lower than that in the S1P groups and the control group, but the level of the Bax mRNA was on the contrary(P 0.01). [Conclusion] S1P could reduce the cyclophosphamide-induced ovarian damage in rats,and the role of its against apoptosis might through regulating the expression of the Bcl-2 and Bax mRNA in the ovary.


Game theory and other approaches have been used to characterize problems involving high-exclusion-cost goods which also have the characteristic that marginal cost of an additional user is zero over some range. These analytical tools have made valuable contributions to understanding voluntary organizations and collective action. Resource systems for which composition or scale of the resource is an important factor do not fit neatly into the types of problems which are typically analyzed. The Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) in Southern Wisconsin is used as an example to illustrate where the existing literature must be modified to take account of particular features of this resource problem. Schelling's multi-person prisoner's dilemma model is modified to incorporate preferences and marginal benefits of deer quality to different types of hunters and to explore issues of resource sustainability. Against the odds, the private QDMA has successfully organized hunters to practice harvesting techniques consistent with improved herd quality.


Local meteorological parameters are key in understanding the frequency of occurrence of extreme weather conditions such as floods, and droughts, among others. In this study, we present a method for simultaneous retrieval of two weather parameters. The method is based on already measured monthly average values of weather parameters from 2011 to 2016, which were used to train a Feed-forward radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) to obtain a fast and accurate method to compute global solar radiation for specified weather parameters pair. In inverse modelling, a multidimensional unconstrained non-linear optimization was employed to retrieve the weather parameters pair. The new approach was validated using weather parameter data measured at the Department of Physics, Makerere University (0.31° N, 32.58° E, 1200 m). Statistical tools were used to evaluate the method's performance. In the Feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN), the correlation coefficient (R), mean bias error (MnB), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean percentage error (MAPE) were in the ranges 0.80-0.95, -0.0011-0.0077, 0.55-1.04 and 2.49%-5.82%, respectively. The pairs (sunshine hours, relative humidity) and (sunshine hours, minimum temperature) had the highest correlation coefficient of 0.95. In the inverse artificial neural network (ANNi), the R, MnB, RMSE and MAPE were in the ranges 0.3-0.9, 0.01-0.08, 0.51-11.14 and 2.1%-14.5%, respectively. The pair (sunshine hours, relative humidity) had the highest correlation coefficients of 0.92 and 0.62, respectively. The method helps in obtaining weather parameter data sets in places where measuring equipment is lacking or during days when measuring equipment malfunctions.


The European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture that will either trigger further integration or reinforce a mode of intergovernmental cooperation. The spread of market pressure to a growing number of states demonstrates that the crisis needs to be dealt with at the European and not just the national level. Up to now the 'politics of extreme austerity' has been the mainstream recipe promoted to and adopted by member states. The measures are tougher in those countries where there has been external financial assistance (i.e. Greece, Portugal and Ireland) but the rest of Europe is following suit (e.g. Italy and the UK). This introduction outlines the key directions of EU reforms to put into context the more specific cases discussed elsewhere in this symposium. The strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical frameworks employed in the articles are discussed to demonstrate the lessons that the crisis offers for our well-established public policy models and to highlight avenues for further research. Two main arguments are advanced: first, the crisis calls for an interdisciplinary approach to comprehend its full extent and deal with it efficiently; and second, the current political trajectory of the EU calls for urgent changes to strengthen its cohesion and long-term viability.


The present invention relates to a cell smearing apparatus comprising: a mixed solution container accommodating part for accommodating a mixed solution container containing a mixed solution of cells and a preservative solution; a suction part for sucking the mixed solution from the mixed solution container accommodated in the mixed solution container accommodating part; a sensing part for sensing a change in the mixture solution sucked by the suction part; and a controlling part for controlling the mixed solution sucking velocity of the suction part using a value sensed by the sensing part. The present invention allows cells to be examined to be smeared as a monolayer on a slide for microscopic examination.


We present a unifying description of localized states observed in systems with coexistence of two spatially periodic states, called bi-pattern systems. Localized states are pinned over an underlying lattice that is either a self-organized pattern spontaneously generated by the system itself, or a periodic grid created by a spatial forcing. We show that localized states are generic and require only the coexistence of two spatially periodic states. Experimentally, these states have been observed in a nonlinear optical system. At the onset of the spatial bifurcation, a forced one-dimensional amplitude equation is derived for the critical modes, which accounts for the appearance of localized states. By numerical simulations, we show that localized structures persist on two-dimensional systems and exhibit different shapes depending on the symmetry of the supporting patterns.


Structural and stratigraphic evidence demonstrates that Paleogene turbidites of the Politses Formation were progressively deformed during sedimentation. The Politses Formation is preserved in internally undeformed thrust sheets that are tectonically intercalated with sheets of severely deformed blocks of the formation. This imbricate stack is interpreted as a fossil accretionary prism. The Politses Formation typically consists of hemipelagic red shales and limestones (basin-plain facies association) followed by thin-bedded terrigenous turbidites (fan fringe, tnterlobe and distal depositional lobe facies associations) which are overlain then by predominantly thick-bedded turbidites (depositional lobe facies association). This "normal" progradational sequence is interrupted by incised channel complexes which he above basin-plain sediments and beneath fan-fringe deposits in some thrust sheets. Atypical facies organization suggests tectonic activity during sedimentation. Small-scale soft sediment deformation in the form of convolute lamination exists in about 20% of turbidite sandstone beds. Assuming that the deformation resulted from seismic activity, sedimentation rates and the distribution of structures indicate that seismic shocks affected the depositional area every 10 to 100 years on the average. The most important evidence for synsedimentary deformation hes in the distribution of marl marker beds among thrust sheets. The stratigraphic distribution of marls corresponds uniquely to individual thrust sheets. This and other sedimentological relations demonstrate that marl and turbidite accumulation was controlled by progressive tectonic removal of thrust sheets from active deposition. The absence of unconformities within thrust sheets suggests that the deep sea fans represented in the PoUtses Formation were deposited in a trench.


CHEMISTRY
Although the global chirality of molecular aggregates is strongly influenced by the individual chirality of the building blocks, it is not generally a simple matter to predict one from the other. In a series of careful experiments, Johnson et al. uncover the subtle environmental factors that determine the helical handedness of rosette nanotubes assembled in solution from small organic heterocycles bearing a chiral side chain. The heterocycles (which are self-complementary toward hydrogen bonding) first form hexameric supermacrocycles, which in turn stack into a helical arrangement. Dissolution of a single enantiomer of this building block in methanol gives rise to one helical isomer, but addition of as little as 1% water to the solvent instead induces opposite helicity in the stacks. The authors show that the water-induced product is thermodynamically favored, but faces a larger kinetic barrier than its counterpart to formation in pure methanol (though aggregation in both senses appears to be accelerated in the absence of water). They further find that chiral inversion of the kinetic isomer in methanol can be catalyzed by the thermodynamic isomer. Inversion is also possible at an early stage by heating, though after 3 days the kinetic isomer becomes stereochemically locked, a result attributed in part to extensive solvation. — MSL

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 , 5735 (2007).


This paper deals with the cases of 10 patients with different clinical forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis, who were exposed to a single CO2 laser rays. They were evolutively evaluated up to two years after treatment, without relapsing in any case. Total cure of the lesion occurred without side-effects. The method described for the treatment of this disease is recommended, whenever its application should be possible instead of the other methods described in the literature.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the toxicity of 4 types of resin-based dental composites with different compositions and to determine the components released from them using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

METHOD AND MATERIALS
Resin composite disks (Z100, Solitaire 2, Filtek P60, and Synergy) were prepared, and cytotoxicity was tested on Balb/C 3T3 fibroblasts. In the first part of the study, cells were exposed to the composites for 72 hours (direct method), and in the second part to ethanolic extracts of the composites for 24 hours (indirect method), both at 37 degrees C. Cell viability was then determined by the MTT (3[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) method.

RESULTS
The dental composites and their ethanolic extracts had adverse effects on the viability of Balb/C 3T3 fibroblasts. ANOVA revealed highly significant differences in cytotoxicity between the groups (P <.001) for both the direct and indirect methods. Follow-up comparison by Tukey test (alpha = .05) showed that Synergy was significantly less toxic than the other resin composites and Solitaire 2 was significantly more cytotoxic when the materials were tested by the direct method. However, using the indirect method, the extract of Synergy was significantly more toxic than all the other extracts. Bis-GMA, TEGDMA, UDMA, bis-EMA, and bisphenol A were detected by HPLC analysis; however, their presence and concentrations varied from one composite to another.

CONCLUSIONS
The cytotoxicity level of resin-based dental composites depends on their chemical composition, leaching medium, and the amount and type of the components that can be extracted from the materials.


In this minireview we summarize evidence that the association of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) with hsp90 may determine three functional states of the receptor. First, there is a direct correlation between hsp90 binding to the receptor and repression of DNA binding activity. Temperature-dependent dissociation of hsp90 from the cytosolic GR-hsp90 complex is promoted by hormone with simultaneous conversion of the receptor to the DNA binding state. GR that is translated in rabbit reticulocyte lysate binds to hsp90 at or near the termination of receptor translation and is in the non-DNA-binding form. Second, there is a direct correlation between binding of the immunopurified GR to hsp90 and the presence of a high affinity steroid binding conformation of the receptor. GR translated in reticulocyte lysate binds steroid with high affinity, but GR translated in wheat germ extract is not bound to hsp90, does not bind steroid with high affinity, and is in the DNA-binding form. When immunopurified, hsp90-free GR is incubated with rabbit reticulocyte lysate, hsp90 associates with the receptor and high affinity steroid binding capacity is completely reactivated. Third, there is a correlation between binding of hsp90 to steroid receptors and their retention in an inactive "docking" state until the binding of hormone in the intact cell triggers a progression to high affinity nuclear binding sites where the primary events involved in transcriptional activation occur. In contrast to the receptors that are retained in the docking state, the unliganded thyroid hormone receptor proceeds directly to high affinity nuclear binding sites. Consistent with this difference in behavior, the thyroid hormone receptor is translated in reticulocyte lysate in its DNA binding form and is not associated with hsp90.


Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid transition to telehealth across the United States, primarily involving virtual clinic visits. Additionally, the proliferation of consumer technologies related to health reveals that for many people health and care in the contemporary world extends beyond the boundaries of a clinical interaction and includes sensors and devices that facilitate health in personal environments. The ideal connected environment is networked and intelligent, personalized to promote health and prevent disease. The combination of sensors, devices, and intelligence constitutes a connected health system around an individual that is optimized to improve and maintain health, deliver care, and predict and reduce risk of illness. Just as modern medicine uses the pathophysiology of disease as a framework for the basis of pharmacologic therapy, a similar clinically reasoned approach can be taken to organize and architect technological elements into therapeutic systems. In this work, we introduce a systematic methodology for the design of connected health systems grounded in the pathophysiologic basis of disease. As the digital landscape expands with the ubiquity of health devices, it is pivotal to enable technology-agnostic clinical reasoning to guide the integration of technological innovations into systems of health and care delivery that extend beyond the boundaries of a clinical interaction. Applying clinical reasoning in a repeatable and systematic way to organizing technology into therapeutic systems can yield potential benefits including expanding the study of digital therapeutics from individual devices to networked technologies as therapeutic interventions; empowering physicians who are not technological experts to still play a significant role in using clinical reasoning for architecting therapeutic networks of sensors and devices; and developing platforms to catalog and share combinations of technologies that can form therapeutic networks and connected health systems.


Background/Aims: Alopecia areata is a common immune-mediated hair condition with limited treatment options and success rates. There is evidence that statins, which are used for reducing atherogenesis and cardiovascular disease, have immunomodulatory activities and therefore may also be used for treatment of selected dermatologic conditions, including alopecia areata. Among treatments evaluated for alopecia areata, oral simvastatin/ezetimibe therapy is currently under the scrutiny of expert opinion. Methods: Prospective observational study of the efficacy and tolerability of simvastatin/ezetimibe 40/10 mg (Inegy; MSD Merck Sharp & Dohme AG, Lucerne, Switzerland) over a treatment period of 6 months in alopecia totalis, universalis, multipatch involvement of the scalp >30%, ophiasis, or diffuse alopecia areata. Results: Of the 12 patients included in the study, 67% had no hair regrowth, 24% transient diffuse or patchy hair regrowth, and 24% patchy regrowth of pigmented hair which was not considered cosmetically satisfactory. Adverse effects were observed in 24% of patients, who reported myalgia. One patient showed elevation of creatine phosphokinase. Conclusion: Simvastatin/ezetimibe is not effective for treatment of alopecia areata, at least in severe and/or cases refractory to other treatments, either as monotherapy or as adjuvant. Ultimately, in choosing such a treatment with questionable benefit, one must take the risk of serious adverse effects into careful consideration.


The paper uses a unique database covering 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries between 2000 and 2007 to study the determinants of the allocation and composition of flows across countries, as well as channels through which private capital flows could affect growth. In our sample, the degree of financial market development is an important determinant of the distribution of capital flows across countries as opposed to property rights institutions. The fairly consistent positive association between net capital flows and growth for SSA countries contrasts with the more pessimistic results of recent studies, though our data do not allow us to make conclusive inferences about a causality relationship.


fi cantly improved. On the other hand; clinical downgrading occurred in one patient (2.9 %)(the MRI showed grade 3 POP while clinically grade 2) and patient was managed surgically. Regarding the posterior compartment; agreement occurred in 23/34 patients (67.6%), MRI downgrading occurred in 6 cases (17.6 %). MRI missed 1 case (2.9 %) which was only diagnosed clinically. On the other hand; clinical examination downgraded 2 cases (5.8 %) and missed 4 cases (11.76%) which were diagnosed by the MRI. All the patients with clinically missed or downgraded posterior prolapse were asymptomatic, so this did not change the clinical decision. CONCLUSIONS: There is signi fi cant agreement (67-88 %) between dynamic MRI and clinical POP-Q examination in POP grading. Despite the clinically missed POP cases (or downgraded) after retrospectively reading the pre-operative MRI, they were mild and this did not seem to change the clinical decision. topography of the pelvic fl oor enables normal urinary fl ow in the upper urinary tract.


Background: Cancer patients are at increased risk of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) due to malignancy itself, cancer therapy, and frequent antibiotic use and have a lower response rate to standard oral antibiotics. There are limited data on the safety and efficacy of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for treating rCDI in cancer patients. We aim to describe our experience of using FMT to treat rCDI at a tertiary cancer center. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of cancer patients who underwent FMT for rCDI at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from June 2017 through January 2020. Baseline clinical data and risk factors related to rCDI and FMT were evaluated and compared between cancer types and between cases with remission and recurrence. Results: A total of 19 patients were studied: 12 with solid malignancies and 7 with hematologic malignancies. Most patients had stage IV cancer, and 21% of patients were in cancer remission. On average, patients had 2 episodes of CDI and received 3 courses of antibiotics within 1 year before FMT. 84% of patients with rCDI responded to FMT. Compared with patients who had CDI remission following FMT, non-remission cases were more likely to have received antibiotics following FMT. There were no serious adverse events or mortality within 30 days associated with FMT. Conclusions: FMT is safe, well-tolerated, and efficacious in treating rCDI in selected cancer patients. However, additional antibiotic use for complications from chemotherapy or immunosuppression negatively affected the efficacy of FMT in this population with advanced cancer.


Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the level of exposure to and contamination by smoke within a population of firefighter instructors. We performed a prospective observational study from September 17 to September 26, 2018, using environmental samples and urinary biomarker analysis. Occupational exposure limits (OELs) were never exceeded, except for carbon monoxide for the fire attack training chamber and formaldehyde and carbon monoxide for the fire box. As regards to urinary biomarkers, we observed that 1OHP and 1-naphtol did accumulate. The pre-post analysis showed an acute exposure exceeding the BRVs of benzene, 1-hydroxypyrene and naphtol, except for 3-benzo[a]pyrene which was undetectable in half of the cases. Even if values were reassuring, an effort could be made to improve the working conditions and reduce contamination by rethinking the respiratory protection and improving PPE quality.


Fibrinolytic proteases are a promising alternative in the pharmaceutical industry, they are used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, especially thrombosis. Microorganisms are the most interesting source of fibrinolytic proteases. The aim of this study was the production of fibrinolytic protease from Streptomyces parvulus DPUA 1573, the recovery of the protease by aqueous two-phase system and partial biochemical characterization of the enzyme. The aqueous two-phase system was performed according to a 24-full factorial design using polyethylene glycol molar mass, polyethylene glycol concentration, citrate concentration and pH as independent variables. It was analyzed the effect of different ions, surfactants, inhibitors, pH and temperature on enzyme activity. The best conditions for purifying the enzyme were 17.5% polyethylene glycol 8,000, 15% Phosphate and pH 8.0, it was obtained a partition coefficient of 7.33, a yield of 57.49% and a purification factor of 2.10-fold. There was an increase in enzyme activity in the presence of Fe2+ and a decrease in the presence of $\beta$-Mercaptoethanol, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride and Iodoacetic acid. The optimum pH was 7.0 and the optimum temperature was 40 ºC. The purified protease exhibited a molecular mass of 41 kDa. The fibrinolytic protease from Streptomyces parvulus proved to be a viable option for the development of a possible drug with fibrinolytic action.


This paper deals with a set of algorithms to detect the occurrence of failures in voice communication systems. It's a new approach based on the analysis of data stored in call detail records (CDR), which are tickets that contain data describing information related to the system elements involved, such as time and duration of the call, phone types and numbers, SS7 signaling, etc. The tickets are generated in PSTN switches or over VoIP gateways, for the case of Internet protocol detail record (IPDRs). Their main function is to furnish information for the billing system of telephone companies. Because of this characteristic one can consider the CDR highly reliable, otherwise the phone companies would risk performing serious mistakes in the billing of costumers. These characteristics can be used to detect faults focusing in different aspects related to the call, such as technical, economic, or social. Our main goal is to analyze and classify these algorithms according to their performance and use.


The logistic map is a class of chaotic maps. It is still in use in image cryptography. The logistic map cryptosystem has two stages, namely permutation, and diffusion. These two stages being computationally intensive, the permutation relocates the pixels, whereas the diffusion rescales them. The research on refining the logistic map is progressing to make the encryption more secure. Now there is a need to improve its efficiency to enable such models to fit for high-speed applications. The new invention of accelerators offers efficiency. But the inherent data dependencies hinder the use of accelerators. This paper discusses the novelty of identifying independent data-parallel tasks in a logistic map, handing them over to the accelerators, and improving their efficiency. Among the two accelerator models proposed, the first one achieves peak efficiency using coalesced memory access. The other cryptosystem further improves performance at the cost of more execution resources. In this investigation, it is noteworthy that the parallelly accelerated logistic map achieved a significant speedup to the larger grayscale image used. The objective security estimates proved that the two stages of the proposed systems progressively ensure security.


Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) patterning on gold thin films was performed using 800 nm, 118 fs laser pulses. SAM removal was ablative and was observed at fluences near the multishot ablation threshold for the thin gold film. Line widths six times smaller than the 2 e-folding intensity beam diameter were observed demonstrating sub-diffraction limited patterning with femtosecond lasers. Similar experimental results in air and N2 indicated that the removal process does not involve oxidation of the gold-sulfur bond as was claimed in the literature.


Feminism has reached a critical momentum from which there is no turning back. A truly global movement as dynamic in the developing world as it is in the West, feminism has helped women achieve authority in politics, sports and business, and has mobilized public concern for once-taboo issues like rape, domestic violence and breast cancer. Freedman begins this compelling new history with an analysis of what feminism means and why it took root in western Europe and the U.S. at the end of the 18th century. The rationalist, humanistic philosophy of the Enlightenment, which ignited the American Revolution, also sparked feminist politics, inspiring pioneers like Mary Wollstonecraft and Susan B. Anthony. Freedman also traces the intricate ties between women's rights and abolitionism in the U.S., and the long tradition of radical women of colour. As feminism became more widespread and sophisticated after WWII, its impact began to be felt in every aspect of society from the workplace to government to relations between the sexes. The line between the personal and the political became blurred, and issues once considered 'merely' private - abortion, sexual violence, homosexuality, reproductive health, beauty and body image entered the public arena as subjects of fierce debate. Freedman combines a scholar's meticulous research with a critic's keen eye. Sweeping in its scope, searching in its analysis and global in its perspective, No Turning Back will stand as a defining text of the most important social movement of our time.


Secondary iron overload (SIO) constitutes a growing clinical problem, particularly in haematological diseases in which the improvements of life expectancy give the iron overload enough duration to play its own prognostic role. Iron may accumulate by two ways: transfusion and/(or) digestive hyperabsorption which is proportional to erythroïd plasma iron turnover. To properly evaluate the iron overloading one must be able to appreciate the cumulative red blood cell transfusion volumes. That is to say: weighting and counting red blood cell units. The magnitude of red blood cell precursor mass might be conveniently but indirectly evaluated by the measurement of the plasma transferrin receptor concentration. The group of haematological diseases, complicated by SIO to the contrary of primary haemochromatosis, is very heterogeneous. Some of them like hereditary dyserythropoiesis may not be obviously detectable on standard haematological observation. They can combine or not with hereditary haemochromatosis. A SIO must be treated when it may add a specific prognostic effect. In some cases, regular blood letting are usable without major problems. In all other cases iron chelation therapy is an effective way to reduce SIO, provided long term compliance is obtained.


This paper analyzes the determinants of rural poverty in India, contrasting the situation of scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) households with the non-scheduled population. The incidence of poverty in SC and ST households is much higher than among non-scheduled households. By combining regression estimates for the ratio of per capita expenditure to the poverty line and an Oaxaca-type decomposition analysis, we study how these differences in the incidence of poverty arise. We find that for SC households, differences in characteristics explain the gaps in poverty incidence more than differences in transformed regression coefficients. In contrast, for ST households, differences in the transformed regression coefficients play the more important role.


The centrifugal pump is the most common piece of rotating equipment in the refining and petrochemical industry, accounting for a large percentage of total operational and maintenance costs. This book thoroughly covers all the practical aspects of pump operation and maintenance. It is filled with practical advice on troubleshooting, maintenance tips, installation procedures, operating techniques, and rules-of-thumb that the authors have developed over their 60-plus years of combined experience in the industry. The book features expert guidance on centrifugal pump technology, curves, hydraulic loads, hydraulic bearings, mechanical seals, vertical pumps, alignment techniques, suction performance and anti-friction bearings.


We report the effects of a high power light beam on the performance of a self electro-optic effect device, which employs an extremely shallow quantum well in an asymmetric Fabry-Perot etalon structure. For a continuously incident laser beam having 4 mW power and 7 /spl mu/m diameter, for example, we observed the change of reflectivity difference from 25% to 13% and the change of contrast ratio from 16 to 5, both of which we attribute to the rise of local temperature induced by laser heating. Experimental measurements and a simplified thermal analysis show that the device degradation by ohmic heating at reverse bias of -5 V is more pronounced than that by the exciton absorption saturation at forward bias.<<ETX>>


Splitting of magnetic ripple into domains due to an external magnetic field was observed using the defocused electron microscopy method. The tested film was magnetized perpendicularly or parallel to the easy axis of the uniaxial anisotropy, and both the magnetic field direction and the anisotropy axis lay in the film plane. Splitting of the ripple into 1 μm domains was mainly reversible until the value of ripple amplitude reached 0.5 rad. Movements of the Neel walls and Neel-Bloch-Neel transformation of the domain walls were the main irreversible phenomena which led to hysteresis. Domain splitting of the ripple is properly described only by a Riedel model which includes the interactions between cores and tails of the periodically arranged Neel walls.


. In this work we consider monoids as algebras with an associative binary operation and the nullary operation that fixes the identity element. We found an example of two varieties of monoids with finite subvariety lattices such that their join covers one of them and has a continuum cardinality subvariety lattice that violates the ascending chain condition and the descending chain condition.


BACKGROUND
Cyclospora cayetanensis, a coccidian parasite, has increasingly been recognized as a cause of gastrointestinal tract illness. We describe a group of patients with this infection.

OBJECTIVES
Our aim was to describe the observed clinical course and spectrum of the disease.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective study of 101 patients with diarrhea who attended the same wedding reception.

RESULTS
Mean incubation period was 8 days; commonly reported symptoms included diarrhea (91%), with 10 or more loose stools in a 24-h period. The illness had a characteristic waxing and waning course and in nearly 72% of patients there occurred symptom recurrence. Other reported symptoms in our patient group included vomiting and fever; 72% of patients had received antibiotics, mainly quinolones, without good response. Watercress was probable vehicle of transmission.

CONCLUSIONS
Cyclospora may cause severe diarrhea with a long incubation period and recurring symptoms, which should be considered in evaluation of prolonged gastrointestinal illness. To our knowledge, this is the first outbreak reported in Mexico.


Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains the major barrier to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT). Evidence has accumulated that transforming growth factor beta1-treated dendritic cells (TGFbeta-DC), deficient in surface costimulatory molecules, inhibit alloantigen-specific T-cell responses and induce graft hyporeactivity. To analyze the effect of TGFbeta-DC on GVHD after allo-BMT, 5.0 x 10(6) recipient-derived TGFbeta-DC were injected into C57BL/6 (H-2b) with bone marrow-splenocyte grafts from major histocompatibility complex (MHC) disparate BALB/c mice (H-2d). Survival analysis showed TGFbeta-DC cotransplantation resulted in significant prolongation of allograft survival, namely a mean survival time (MST) of 44.3 +/- 4.5 days, versus the untreated MST of 9.5 +/- 0.6 days (P < .01). However, mature DC aggravated the GVHD with an MST of 6.6 +/- 0.6 days (P < .01). In addition, the third-party C3H-derived TGFbeta-DC did not enhance the survival rate (MST = 9.7 +/- 0.5 days). Furthermore, serum IFN-gamma, IL-12, and IL-18 levels in TGFbeta-DC cotransplanted mice were reduced compared with untreated BMT hosts, while serum IL-10 levels were not changed. These results suggest that TGFbeta-DC cotransplantation may attenuate the severity of GVHD after BMT.


Cardinal temperatures consist of minimum, optimum and maximum of plant growth, and might be able to be determined by assessing effect of temperature on seed germination. An experiment of seed germination was conducted in laboratory, using thermal gradient plate for ten days. To test hypothesis that rapeseed genotypes vary in their response to temperatures. The design of this experiment was a split plot with four replications. The main-treatments were 14 different temperatures: 0.4°C, 3.3°C, 7.8°C, 11.6°C, 13.3°C, 15.0°C, 16.8°C, 18.3°C, 20.9°C, 21.1°C, 25.6°C, 29.0°C, 33.0°C and 36.3°C. Sub-treatments were 6 brassica genotypes: Brassica napus genotypes (Tatyoon and Marnoo); B. campestris (Jumbuck and Chinoli B); B. juncea (No. 81797 and Zero Erusic Mustard (ZEM) 2). Each treatment was using 50 seeds. Germinations were observed daily for ten days and data were analyzed with regression and correlation. Genotypes responded differently to temperatures with Jumbuck the most sensitive to low temperature with minimum temperature (7.90°C), then respectively followed by Chinoli B (6.36°C), ZEM 2 (4.77°C), Tatyoon (4.63°C), No. 81797 (2.59°C), and Marnoo (1.00°C). For high temperature the most sensitive was No. 81797 with maximum temperature 38.61°C. and then respectively followed by Marnoo (39.76°C), Chinoli B (42.93°C), Tatyoon (43.79°C), Jumbuck (44.58°C) and ZEM 2 (45.88°C). Optimum temperatures were for Jumbuck was 24.56°C, ZEM 2 (26.95°C), Tatyoon (27.12°C), No. 81797 (28.12°C), Chinoli B (29.74°C) and Marnoo (30.48°C).


There are many causes of vitamin D deficiency, which determines pathogenesis of many diseases, including periodontal ones. Constant low uptake or deficiency of vitamin D results in progression of periodontal diseases and jaw bone metabolism - leads to change of bone mineral density, causes resorption in alveolar bone, tooth loss, changes of masticatory function and osteoporosis. The clinical studies strive to link vitamin D with gingivitis and periodontitis and prove its therapeutic and preventive role, because of vitamin D immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative effects for periodontal tissues and best treatment outcome. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the importance of vitamin D on the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases, its role on regulation of the immune system and defense mechanism, influence on jawbone quality and on the correlation between vitamin D concentration in plasma and periodontal diseases.


The Missouri River, bordering Nebraska, has previously been reported to be uninhabitable for unionid mollusks. Studies conducted in the Missouri River and its backwaters, primarily during 1981 and 1982. revealed the presence of thirteen species and subspecies of unionid mollusks. The apparent absence of any extensive prior unionid work in the Missouri River may explain the discrepancy between this and previous literature.


The fast urbanization in Chongqing metropolitan has had a great impact on the environment and resources. The water resource has been recognized as one of the key elements to the sustainable development of this region. This paper presents a method of predicting the regional Water Resource Carrying Capacity (WRCC) using the supply-demand balance model. The method predicts that the WRCC of Chongqing metropolitan is from 8.8 million persons to 14 million persons in 2020 and it will not become the bottleneck of the social and economic development of Chongqing Metropolitan in the coming period of time. However the climate change and its impact on the regional ecology will have an effect on it. The results show that the usable capacity of Passing-by water is the most important element of the WRCC of Chongqing metropolitan therefore the protection of the ecological environment in the upstream area is very important. This paper has proposed tangible advice on the sustainable social and economic development in context of water resource.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common human malignant diseases and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The treatment of advanced CRC has improved significantly in recent years. With the emergence of two targeted antibodies, cetuximab (Erbitux), an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody and bevacizumab (Avastin), a vascular endothelial growth factor monoclonal antibody, the treatment of metastatic CRC has entered the era of personalized therapy. Predictive and prognostic biomarkers have, and will continue to, facilitate the selection of suitable patients and the personalization of treatment for metastatic CRC (mCRC). In this review, we will focus primarily on the important progresses made in the personalized treatment of mCRC and discuss the potentially novel predictive and prognostic biomarkers for improved selection of patients for anti-cancer treatment in the future.


Monitoring tools are needed to assess changes in peatland biotic communities and ecosystem functions in response to on-going climate and other environmental changes. Although the responses of soil organisms and plants to ecological gradients and perturbations do not always correlate, peatland monitoring is mainly based on vegetation surveys. Testate amoebae, a group of protists, are important contributors to carbon and nitrogen cycling in organic soils and are useful bioindicators in peatland ecology and paleoecology. There is however little comparative data on the value of testate amoebae, vascular plants and bryophytes as bioindicators of micro-environmental gradients in peatlands. We compared the relationships of testate amoebae, bryophytes, and vascular plants with soil temperature, water table depth, micro-habitats and the carbon and nitrogen content of Sphagnum mosses in four peatlands along a 1300 m altitudinal gradient in Switzerland. We used the full diversity of vascular plants and bryophyte but only a selection of ten easily identifiable testate amoeba morpho-taxa (i.e. species or species-complexes). Indirect and direct gradient ordinations, multiple factor analysis (MFA) and transfer function models for inferring water table depth showed that a selection of ten testate amoeba taxa are more powerful (% variance explained in RDA) and accurate (discrimination among habitats) indicators of local conditions (micro-habitat type, water table depth and Sphagnum C/N ratio) than the vegetation (vascular plants and bryophytes either individually or combined and considering the full diversity). Our study showed that a limited list of ten easily identifiable testate amoeba taxa have higher bioindication value than the full bryophytes and vascular plants. Furthermore, testate amoebae can be analyzed on samples collected at any season (accessibility allowing and if precise sampling sites are well marked) – a clear advantage for biomonitoring and can be used to infer past changes from the peat record at the same taxonomic resolution. This simple approach could therefore be very useful for biomonitoring of peatlands.


In this paper we focus on the design of the power system for off-grid cellular base stations powered by a photovoltaic solar panel and a battery. Several papers already tackled this problem, with different approaches, modeling either the day-to-day behavior, or the hourly dynamics. In addition, the meteorological characteristics were modeled using a variable number of levels. Different approaches produced different results, hardly comparable. In this paper, we discuss the choice of parameter quantization for time, weather, and energy storage, with the objective of deriving guidelines for the development of accurate and credible models that can support the power system design. Our investigation shows that quantization has an important impact on the mathematical model outputs. Hence, quantization must be carefully taken into account, to achieve a correct dimensioning of the power system.


A specific antiserum against bovine heart catalytic subunit was used for the determination of the catalytic subunit in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Under the conditions elaborated the assay has a lower detection limit for catalytic subunit of 0.25 pmol/ml. In crude bovine heart extracts the concentration of catalytic subunit was determined by this method to be 0.18 +/- 0.02 mumol/kg wet wt. The immunochemical comparison of various animal species and cells, including organisms like amoebae and yeast, shows the broad applicability of the assay and provides evidence that the catalytic subunit is a highly conserved molecule.


Background Musculoskeletal diseases (MD) cause in Spain 24% of temporary work disability (TD) and 50% of permanent (PD). A study of early intervention (assessment and immediate treatment by a rheumatologist) reduced TD days (39%) and evolution to PD (50%) (1). Using the "Fit for Work" European coalition, led by the Abbvie Foundation, the program is implemented nationwide. Objectives Describe and evaluate the effectiveness of MD-TD (1) program in various public health areas. Methods Non-randomized intervention study, patients initiating MD-TD. Intervention group (IG): MD-TD program (1); Control group (CG): usual care (primary care). Primary endpoint: mean and median TD duration. Secondary: program duration, age, sex, diagnosis, date of rheumatologist's first visit, rheumatologist discharge date proposal. Statistical analysis: descriptive. Program relative effectiveness (RE) compared with usual care = (average duration CG- average duration IG)/average duration CG * 100. Results The program has been implemented in seven autonomous communities. In 6 centres (924 patients), the program median duration was 13 months (8-23). The most frequent causes of TD were tendinitis (23.5%), sciatica (20.68%), back pain (20.27%) and cervical pain (8%). TD median days since the rheumatologist's first visit until the proposed discharge is similar in all centres (19 days, 8-47). The delay from the start of TD to the rheumatologist's first visit varies considerably between centres from 7 days (4-11) in the best case, to 32 (18-50) at worst. There are also differences in the time since the rheumatologist indicates discharge until it occurs, from 0 days in the centre where the own rheumatologist emits discharge, to 17 (4-80) in the worst case. Alicante Hospital is the only with data of control population given by inspection. 261 episodes were analyzed. The TD average was 46.8 days in IG, and 92 days in CG, which is a program RE of 49%. Delay to rheumatologist's first visit was 7 days (4-11), and to discharge 0 days (rheumatologist himself gives discharge). Days off work according to diagnosis were: low back pain IG 30.68 days, CG 53 days, RE 42%; joint disorders IG 19.55 days, CG 75.4 days, RE 74%; neck pain GIG 46.15 days, CG 62.2 days, 25.8% RE; tendinitis IG 51.2 days, CG 84.5 days, 39.4% RE; sciatica IG 58.25 days, GC 136.59 days, RE 57.3%; osteoarthritis IG 66.72 days, CG 141.6 days, 52.8% RE. Conclusions Early intervention in musculoskeletal pathology reduces days off work significantly. The most benefited conditions were tendon and joint disorders, and sciatica. Success depends on the rapid referral of the patient, centralizing medical and administrative responsibilities in the Rheumatologist. References Abásolo L et al. A health system program to reduce work disability related to musculoskeletal disorders. Ann Intern Med. 2005 Sep 20;143 (6):404-14. Acknowledgements This study was funded by the Abbvie Foundation, which was not involved in the analysis or in drafting the manuscript. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Inflammation is the physiologic reaction to cellular and tissue damage caused by pathologic processes including trauma, infection, and ischemia. Effective inflammatory responses integrate molecular and cellular functions to prevent further tissue damage, initiate repair, and restore homeostasis, while futile or dysfunctional responses allow escalating injury, delay recovery, and may hasten death. Elevation of white blood cell count (WBC) and altered levels of other acute phase reactants are cardinal signs of inflammation, but the dynamics of these changes and their resolution are not established. Patient responses appear to vary dramatically with no clearly defined signs of good prognosis, leaving physicians reliant on qualitative interpretations of laboratory trends. We studied the human acute inflammatory response to trauma, ischemia, and infection by tracking the longitudinal dynamics of cellular and serum markers in hospitalized patients. Unexpectedly, we identified a conserved pattern of recovery defined by co-regulation of WBC and platelet (PLT) populations. Across all inflammatory conditions studied, recovering patients followed a consistent WBC-PLT trajectory shape that is well-approximated by exponential WBC decay and delayed linear PLT growth. This recovery trajectory shape may represent a fundamental archetype of human physiologic response at the cellular population scale, and provides a generic approach for identifying high-risk patients: 32x relative risk of adverse outcomes for cardiac surgery patients, 9x relative risk of death for COVID-19, and 5x relative risk of death for myocardial infarction.


The article presents results from the Syringe Access, Use, and Discard: Context in AIDS Risk research project comparing two neighborhoods by (1) socioeconomic and demographic characteristics; (2) patterns of syringe access, use, and discard; and (3) encounters with a local human immunodeficiency viruslacquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) outreach project targeted to injection drug users (IDUs). The results show that IDUs in more economically advantaged neighborhoods were more likely to acquire syringes from a single source (rather than multiple sources), more likely to inject alone in their own residence (rather than public injection locales), and more likely to dispose of syringes in private garbage cans rather alleys or dumpsters. These results are further associated with the likelihood of encountering street outreach workers, with IDUs in more affluent neighborboods much less likely to have any such contacts. Based on the different patterns of access, use, and discard evident in each neighborhood, the results indicate that different and more carefully tailored local outreach and prevention strategies are urgently needed.


This paper reveals the valuable perspectives of Malaysian academics in assessing the Malaysian Philosophy of Education (MPE) in terms of how successful its implementation is on Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Malaysia. This research is also about productivity achievement. The researcher draws eight major conclusions in answering the main research questions. Firstly, the research argues that about 35%, 30% and 12% of the respondents have fair, good and very good knowledge about MPE respectively. All MPE elements are considered well implemented, where each of them has an average rating of more than 3 in an increasing scale of 1-5 (least to most). The most frequent constraint among the academics for MPE to be implemented in HEI is the significant burdens that are time consuming faced by them. Then, the most productive role among the academics is teaching, compared to research and administration. It is also argued that different factors give significant effect to different academic roles. An interesting figure of approximately 59% of the professors were thought to have been appointed on merit (deserve their appointment). There is a significant relationship between implementation success of MPE and administration productivity. Lastly, there is a significant relationship between the perspective of academics concerning professorial appointments and the successful implementation of MPE in HEI. However, the last two have modest correlation values in general. In conclusion, the study highlights the impacts of MPE in HEI alongside the possible constraints, and the outcomes of academics' productivity by looking at their roles and the factors which affect their productivity. These two approaches could bring valuable positive indicators of the performance of current HEI in Malaysia as a whole.


Sea surface roughness is affected by surface current gradients, which provides a means of monitoring from satellite sharp oceanic fronts. This paper is the second report of an experiment designed to compare observations of sea surface roughness and surface currents at an unprecedented accuracy, owing to the conjunction of numerous deployed drifters and roughness instruments. About 200 drifters sampled a thin 10km elongated submesoscale front, also monitored by a high density of roughness instruments: satellite synthetic aperture radar, satellite, and airborne multiangle sunglint radiometers. The first paper focused on the retrieval of the current gradient direction (convergence and cyclonic vorticity) at the front, using roughness observations at multiple angle from airplane. This second paper focuses on the retrieval of the current gradient magnitude and scale, using roughness observations at different scales, from airplane and from satellite. Two main results are obtained: (i) Trajectories of selected drifters show that the front is only 50m wide and unambiguously exhibits convergence and cyclonic vorticity up to 100f (with f the Coriolis frequency). This far exceeds previously documented values for submesoscale deep ocean fronts. (ii) Correct estimation of such extreme current gradients using surface roughness hinges on instruments with sufficiently high spatial resolution. Lower‐resolution roughness sensors can still detect the front, as demonstrated from observations and a simplified model, but cannot properly estimate the current gradient magnitude and the frontal width. Those results provide guidelines for monitoring intense current gradients from space using sea surface roughness. Plain Language Summary Ocean surface currents are not uniform horizontally but involve structures of many different sizes. After focusing on large‐scale currents (about 1,000km) and eddies (about 100km), attention is nowadays turning toward fine‐scale (about 1km) fronts and filaments. Those fine structures are indeed particularly important for the exchanges between ocean surface and deeper ocean, for the accumulation of drifting pollution, and for the concentration of biological production and marine predators. Fishermen well know that oceanic fronts can be revealed by visual inspection of the ocean surface roughness. Exploring this idea, this paper investigates how oceanic fronts can be monitored using images of sea surface roughness. Images from satellites and airplanes were taken during an experiment where hundreds of surface drifters were released and got caught within an intense front. Two new lessons are learned from those observations: (1) The front was only 50m wide, which is much sharper than commonly assumed for fronts of this type. (2) The front is thus associated with extreme current shear, which can only be detected by roughness sensors with sufficiently high spatial resolution. Those are important findings to improve monitoring of intense oceanic fronts from satellite.


Speech and natural language remain our most natural form of interaction; yet the HCI community have been very timid about focusing their attention on designing and developing spoken language interaction techniques. This may be due to a widespread perception that perfect domain-independent speech recognition is an unattainable goal. Progress is continuously being made in the engineering and science of speech and natural language processing, however, and there is also recent research that suggests that many applications of speech require far less than 100% accuracy to be useful in many contexts. Engaging the CHI community now is timely -- many recent commercial applications, especially in the mobile space, are already tapping the increased interest in and need for natural user interfaces (NUIs) by enabling speech interaction in their products. As such, the goal of this panel is to bring together interaction designers, usability researchers, and general HCI practitioners to discuss the opportunities and directions to take in designing more natural interactions based on spoken language, and to look at how we can leverage recent advances in speech processing in order to gain widespread acceptance of speech and natural language interaction.


We report a case of a 43 year old man who was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome after propafenone administration for chemical cardioversion of new onset atrial fibrillation. Brugada syndrome has been described in the medical literature and is thought to be responsible for the majority of sudden cardiac deaths in patients without ischaemic heart disease. This syndrome has not yet been extensively discussed in the emergency medicine literature despite its importance. Emergency physicians should consider Brugada syndrome in patients who present to the emergency department with right bundle branch block and ST segment elevation in the right precordial leads, which is the classic electrocardiographic pattern of this syndrome.


Depletion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is used therapeutically in many malignant and non-malignant blood disorders in the setting of a hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) to eradicate diseased HSC allowing donor HSC to engraft. Current treatments to achieve HSC elimination rely on modalities that cause DNA strand breakage (i.e., alkylators, radiation) resulting in multiple short-term and long-term toxicities, and sometimes even death. These risks have severely limited HCT utilization to patients with few to no co-morbidities, and excluded many others with diseases curable by HCT. 5-Azacytidine (AZA) is a widely used hypomethylating agent that is thought to preferentially target leukemic cells in myeloid malignancies. Here, we reveal a previously unknown effect of AZA on HSC. We show that AZA induces early HSC proliferation in vivo and exerts a direct cytotoxic effect on proliferating HSC in vitro. When used to pretreat recipient mice for transplant, AZA permitted low level donor HSC engraftment. Moreover, by combining AZA with a monoclonal antibody (mAb), targeting CD117 (c-Kit), a molecule expressed on HSC, more robust HSC-depletion and substantially higher levels of multilineage donor cell engraftment was achieved in immunocompetent mice. The enhanced effectiveness of this combined regimen correlated with increased apoptotic cell death in HSPC. Together, these findings highlight a previously unknown therapeutic mechanism for AZA which may broaden its utilization in clinical practice. Moreover, the synergy we show between AZA and anti-CD117 mAb is a novel strategy to eradicate abnormal HSC which can be rapidly tested in the clinical setting.


Techniques for the age determination of highveld eland in Natal were investigated. Tooth eruption and replacement sequence, and growth in horn length, were suitable criteria for the age determination of young eland with deciduous dentition. The most accurate technique for the age determination of post mortem adult eland was based on counts of cementum annuli from molar teeth. Animals without distinctive cementum annuli may be assigned ages from measurements of M3 crown height. The ages of live restrained eland could be derived from measurements of I1 occlusal width or I1, crown height. Horn morphology was adequate for age and sex classification of free-ranging eland up to adult status.


This work presents a novel hybrid control approach based on null space and consensus algorithms to solve the scalability problems of mobile robot formation and improve leader control through multiple control objectives. In previous works, the training of robots based on the null space requires a rigid training structure based on a geometric shape, which increases the number of agents in the formation. The scheme of the control algorithm, which does not make formation scalability possible, must be changed; therefore, seeking the scalability of training based on null space is a challenge that could be solved with the inclusion of consensus algorithms, which allow the control structure to be maintained despite increasing or decreasing the number of robot followers. Another advantage of this proposal is that the formation of the followers does not depend on any geometric figure compared to previous works based on the null space; this new proposal does not present singularities as if the structure is based on geometric shape, the latter one is crucial since the formation of agents can take forms that cannot be achieved with a geometric structure, such as collinear locations, that can occur in many environments. The proposed hybrid control approach presents three tasks: i) leader position task, ii) leader shape task, and iii) follower formation task. The proposed algorithm is validated through simulations, performing tests that use the kinematic model of non-holonomic mobile robots. In addition, linear algebra and Lyapunov theory are used to analyze the stability of the method. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-03-01 Full Text: PDF


The radiation at absorbed more than at when aerosols is loaded in the atmosphere, whereas it will be the other way around when cloud is present. The difference of the two channels provides an opportunity to detect aerosols such as Yellow Sand even with the presence of clouds and at night. However problems associated with this approach arise because the difference can be affected by various atmospheric and surface conditions. In this paper, we has analyzed how the threshold and sensitivity of the brightness temperature difference between two channel (BTD) vary with respect to the conditions in detail. The important finding is that the threshold value for the BTD distinguishing between aerosols and cloud is with the US standard atmosphere, which is greater than the typical value of . The threshold and sensitivity studies for the BTD show that solar zenith angle, aerosols altitude, surface reflectivity, and atmospheric temperature profile marginally affect the BTD. However, satellite zenith angle, surface temperature along with emissivity, and vertical profile of water vapor are strongly influencing on the BTD, which is as much as of about 50%. These results strongly suggest that the aerosol retrieval with the BTD method must be cautious and the outcomes must be carefully calibrated with respect to the sources of the error.


The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus provided a new global dynamic, reflecting on the lives of health professionals, people affected by the disease and interpersonal relationships. The main strategy adopted to curb contagion was social distance, with implications in several spheres: in family organization, in the closing of schools and public places and in work routines. This situation gave rise to feelings of helplessness, loneliness and disorders such as anxiety and depression, which directly or indirectly influence the morbidity and mortality of the disease. Health professionals are faced with a new routine, which requires countless hours of work in an exhaustive manner, concern with their patients and the unknown disease, in addition to the vulnerability of their family members. The general population is faced with difficulties in sustaining themselves, in treating chronic conditions and in the constant presence of fear and mourning. In this context, the need for investment and implementation of public policies aimed at mental health is concluded.


The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of a method to measure the following upper airway dimensions: total volume (TV), the nasopharyngeal narrowest areas (NNA), and the oropharyngeal narrowest areas (ONA). The sample consisted of 60 cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, evaluated by two observers twice, using the Dolphin 3D software (Dolphin Imaging & Management solutions, Chatsworth, California, USA), which afforded image reconstruction, and measurement of the aforementioned dimensions. The data was submitted to reliability tests, by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and the Bland & Altman agreement tests, with their respective confidence intervals (CI) set at 95%. Excellent intra- and interobserver reliability values were found for all variables assessed (TV, NNA and ONA), with ICC values ranging from 0.88 to 0.99. The data demonstrated an agreement between the two assessments of each observer and between the first evaluations of both observers, thus confirming the reliability of this methodology. The results suggest that this methodology can be used in further studies to investigate upper airway dimensions (TV, NNA, and ONA), thereby contributing to the diagnosis of upper airway obstructions.


Measurements of explosion limits for fuel/air/diluent mixtures compressed by an expanding laminar flame have been made in a constant volume spherical bomb. The fuels studied to date range from butane to octane at fuel/air equivalence ratios from 0.8 to 1.3. The explosion pressures and temperatures range from 10 to 100 atm and 650 to 850 K. The pressure versus time curves show the behavior typical of the two-stage ignition process observed in rapid compression machines. A branched chain kinetic model has been developed to correlate the data. The model has been used to predict both the explosion limits measured in the current bomb experiments and ignition delays measured in prior rapid compression machine experiments. Good agreement between experiment and theory can be achieved with minor adjustment in published rate constants.


This volume concludes the taxonomy and classification of the family Cerambycidae of America north of Mexico. This part includes the remainder of the subfamily Lamiinae, tribes Acanthocinini, Cyrtinini, Saperdini, Phytoeciini, Tetraspini, and Hemilophini. The 32 genera and 138 species are all fully described with keys included to separate all taxa. Complete synonymical bibliographies are presented along with 54 illustrations.


Some researchers have found an acceleration in the growth of agricultural production in West Bengal from the beginning of the 1980s, while other researchers have criticised the methodologies and findings of these studies and concluded that no significant acceleration in the production of foodgrains have occurred in West Bengal in the 1980s. In the present study, using modern time series techniques allowing for endogenous structural breaks in the growth path of the series under considerations, we have found the evidence of a statistically significant acceleration in the growth rate of productions of foodgrains, rice and aman rice in the 1980s, which was caused by a significant increase in the growth rate of yield of aman rice from 1980-81. However, this increase in the agricultural growth in West Bengal was rather short lived as the growth rate of yield of aman rice declined significantly in the state from 1986-87, which leads to a subsequent decline in the growth rate of production of foodgrains in the state from 1987-88.


Angiokeratoma circumscriptum is rare cutaneous disorder. It usually presents as multiple,red, blue or black asymptomatic papules on lower extremities. Oral involvement, common in systemic form, is rare in localized forms. We report a case of angiokeratoma circumscriptum of tongue, involving both dorsal and ventral aspects.


Color centers in solids, such as the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, offer well-protected and well-controlled localized electron spins that can be employed in various quantum technologies. Moreover, the long coherence time of the surrounding spinful nuclei can enable a robust quantum register controlled through the color center. We design pulse sequence protocols that drive the electron spin to generate robust entangling gates with these nuclear memory qubits. We find that compared to using Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) alone, Uhrig decoupling sequence and hybrid protocols composed of CPMG and Uhrig sequences improve these entangling gates in terms of fidelity, spin control range, and spin selectivity. We provide analytical expressions for the sequence protocols and also show numerically the efficacy of our method on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Our results are broadly applicable to color centers weakly coupled to a small number of nuclear spin qubits.


Work-the-Walk (WTW) is a teaching and learning approach that uses a type of blended learning model, which is flipped classroom, as its basis. The philosophy lies in the absence of lectures during face-to-face sessions, and the approach relies heavily on Socratic Dialogues and classroom activities to enhance the understanding of lessons of the day. With the outbreak of COVID-19, education at all levels must continue. Often, the challenge is on ensuring that students, who must attend remote learning are able to own their learning process, and that they are also able to relate to their environment. The objective of this paper is to discuss how to humanize students' learning experience and environment by observing how digitization of WTW promotes the sense of ownership through active learning. This paper addresses two questions, including the implementation of WTW during remote learning (Digital WTW or D-WTW), and students' understanding on the lessons of the day when D-WTW is used. The methodology adopted for this research was qualitative by means of observations of students' participation during online synchronous activities. Two important findings are evident when D-WTW is used. The first one is that students become more confident in their articulation of ideas, and second, they become more engaged during the remote learning sessions. These could be contributed to the concept of humanizing online activities and the learning environment that allow them to explore and tap into their potential, and ultimately, these strengthen their learning experience.


The efforts of development and expansion ofprimary education have gained a new dimension with the extension of compulsory education duration to 8 years. In this paper, firstly, the articles related to "education right" as a basic human right in international documents (UN Declaration of Human Rights-1948, UN Declaration of Child Rights, UN Declaration of Child Rights-1989 etc.) are reminded, then, levels of development achieved in compulsory education are presented. A few indicators in universal compulsory education are as follows: • Compulsory education durations change between 4 and 12 years, and compulsory education ages changebetween 4 and 18. • While compulsory education in many countries is limited to primary education, in some countries itincludes the first or second stages of secondary education. • Schooling has not yet been providedfor the whole body of children at age of compulsory education in manycountries, mainly in Africa, Asia and Arabic countries. For example, although compulsory education duration is 8 years in Brazil and Chile, net schooling rate is respectively 86% and 83%. Compulsory education duration in Turkey which had been 5 years since 1960s was extended to 8 years from the beginning of 1997-98 teaching year with the Act no. 4306 and dated 16.8.1997. Schooling rate in eight year-primary education is estimated at the level of80s%. It is predicted that additional capacity of two million is needed to provide primary education for all age groups.