Purpose: Posterior shoulder dislocations (PSDs) comprise a small subset of shoulder dislocations, and there are few evidence-based treatment protocols and no actual algorithm for the treatment of PSDs available in the literature. This article provides a systematic review of the literature, as well as an overview of clinical and radiologic diagnostic techniques, and presents an algorithm for treatment of PSDs, including minimally invasive treatment options. Methods: For a systematic review of current literature, a systematic search was performed in the Medline and Cochrane databases. Journal articles published between January 1940 and June 2010 were taken into account. Studies that only existed as abstracts were not included in the analysis. Broad exclusion criteria consisted of radiologic reports, review articles, case reports, and technical notes. Refined exclusion criteria consisted of a minimum of 4 patients with PSDs operated on by the same surgical technique and clinical outcome documented by a functional shoulder score. Results: The final set of articles for evaluating closed or open techniques included 5 prospective case series and 6 retrospective studies. Within this group, there was no study with a level of evidence higher than Level IV. We present a descriptive comparison of these studies because of the heterogeneity and/or number of patients and the level of evidence. Case reports illustrate the different surgical approaches according to the literature. Conclusions: PSDs are still a challenge for the treating physician. There are few articles available about PSDs in evidence-based literature, with a limited number of cases. Our algorithm provides guidelines for decision making including minimally invasive treatment options according to the available literature. Level of Evidence: Level IV, systematic review of Level IV studies.


This article analyzes the impact of global financial crisis to Indonesian banking condition, a comparison between shari'ah and conventional bank. It starts with description about the root of financial crisis and its impact to Indonesian financial sector. Both shari'ah and conventional bank face the effects of the crisis and react to Bank Indonesia policy. As Bank Indonesia raises BI rate, conventional bank increases its interest as response to policy which mean businessmen have to pay higher for money they borrow from bank. Such a condition makes businessmen move to shari'ah bank in which its profit and losing share financing system make them pay the same amount as they borrow. The article concludes that sharia banking is stronger than conventional bank in facing financial crisis.


Singapore's television media, notwithstanding the island's economic successes, is widely considered to be tightly controlled and regulated by the government. The role of Singapore's television news in enabling or curtailing democratic processes, however, remains largely unnoticed and under-theorised. This article reports on recent research which secures added empirical purchase on Singapore's TV journalism today and does so by identifying, mapping and pursuing into the production domain the repertoire of communicative frames that differentially characterise contemporary TV news in Singapore. Our findings document that there is considerably more complexity in the ecology and communicative frames of TV news than has so far been acknowledged or explored and these complexities have direct bearing on debates about the mediation of conflict and consent in Singapore's brand of 'democracy'.


Abstract Chlamydia trachomatis (Ctr) is an obligate intracellular bacterium that undergoes a complex developmental cycle in which the bacterium differentiates between two functionally and morphologically distinct forms, each of which expresses its own specialized repertoire of proteins. The transitions between the infectious, non-dividing elementary body (EB) and the non-infectious, replicative reticulate body (RB) are not mediated by division events that re-distribute intracellular proteins. Rather, both primary (EB to RB) and secondary (RB to EB) differentiation require protein turnover. The Clp protease system is well conserved in bacteria and, minimally, relies on a serine protease subunit, ClpP, and a AAA+ ATPase, such as ClpX, that recognizes and unfolds substrates for ClpP degradation. In Chlamydia, clpX is encoded within an operon adjacent to clpP2. We present evidence that the chlamydial ClpX ortholog, and the co-transcribed ClpP2, play a key role in organism viability and development. We demonstrate here that chlamydial ClpX is a functional ATPase and forms the expected homohexamer in vitro. Overexpression of a ClpX mutant lacking ATPase activity had a limited impact on DNA replication or secondary differentiation but, nonetheless, reduced EB viability. Conversely, the overexpression of an inactive ClpP2 mutant significantly impacted later developmental cycle progression by reducing the overall number of organisms. Blocking clpP2X transcription using CRISPR interference led to a decrease in bacterial growth, which did not occur when the non-essential gene incA was targeted. Taken together, our data indicate that ClpX and the associated ClpP2 play a critical role in developmental cycle progression and differentiation. Importance Chlamydia trachomatis is the leading cause of infectious blindness globally and the most reported bacterial sexually transmitted infection both domestically and internationally. Given the economic burden, the lack of an approved vaccine, and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics for treatment of infections, a further understanding of chlamydial growth and development is critical for the advancement of novel, targeted antibiotics. The Clp proteins comprise an important and conserved protease system in bacteria. Our work highlights the importance of the chlamydial Clp proteins to this clinically important bacterium. Additionally, our study implicates the Clp system playing an integral role in chlamydial developmental cycle progression, which may help establish models of how Chlamydia spp. and other bacteria progress through their respective developmental cycles. Our work also contributes to a growing body of Clp-specific research that underscores the importance and versatility of this system throughout bacterial evolution and further validates Clp-proteins as drug targets.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for utilizing Six Sigma (SS) principles and Big Data analytics at a US public university for the improvement of student success. This research utilizes findings from the Gallup index to identify performance factors of higher education. The goal is to offer a reimagined SS DMAIC methodology that incorporates Big Data principles.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors utilize a conceptual research design methodology based upon theory building consisting of discovery, description, explanation of the disciplines of SS and Big Data.

Findings

The authors have found that the interdisciplinary approach to SS and Big Data may be grounded in a framework that reimagines the define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) methodology that incorporates Big Data principles. The authors offer propositions of SS DMAIC to be theory tested in subsequent study and offer the practitioner managing the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) indicators and examples for managing the student success mission of the organization.

Research limitations/implications

The study is limited to conceptual research design with regard to the SS and Big Data interdisciplinary research. For performance management, this study is limited to HEIs and non-FERPA student data. Implications of this study include a detailed framework for conducting SS Big Data projects.

Practical implications

Devising a more effective management approach for higher education needs to be based upon student success and performance indicators that accurately measure and support the higher education mission. A proactive approach should utilize the data rich environment being generated. The individual that is most successful in engaging and managing this effort will have the knowledge and skills that are found in both SS and Big Data.

Social implications

HEIs have historically been significant contributors to the development of meritocracy in democratic societies. Due to a variety of factors, HEIs, especially publicly funded institutions, have been under stress due to a reduction of public funding, resulting in more limited access to the public in which they serve.

Originality/value

This paper examines Big Data and SS in interdisciplinary effort, an important contribution to SS but lacking a conceptual foundation in the literature. Higher education, as an industry, lacks penetration and adoption of continuous improvement efforts, despite being under tremendous cost pressures and ripe for disruption.


To explore the theory that some men experience antigay bias because of a defensive reaction to uncertainties surrounding their own sexuality (cf. Herek, 1987), we conducted a study (n = 132 men) in which we physiologically measured the affective underpinnings of antigay bias while individuals with different levels of self-reported bias viewed sexually explicit material. Those higher in antigay bias exhibited less positive affect than did others, but did not appear to experience a defensive reaction. Given these results, combined with those of our previous studies, we conclude that evidence for the existence of a group of men who exhibit antigay bias because of a hidden or unconscious attraction toward men is difficult to demonstrate using current methodology. jasp_700


Objectives: Two prominent and well-characterized representatives of adenosine triphosphate–binding cassette (ABC) transporter — Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP or ABCG2) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp or ABCB1) — Are known to be membrane transporters associated with multidrug resistance. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between ABC transporter expression and the clinicopathologic characteristics, proliferative index, and apoptotic index and their prognostic value in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Methods: Paraffin sections of 98 human LSCC specimens were investigated with immunohistochemical techniques. The relationship between ABCG2 and ABCB1 expression and clinicopathologic parameters, proliferative activities, and apoptotic activities and their prognostic value in patients' overall survival rate were subsequently analyzed. Results: Immunohistochemical analysis revealed positive expression of ABCG2 and ABCB1 in 52.0% and 41.8% of patients, respectively. There was a positive correlation between ABCG2 expression and ABCB1 expression. The presence of these two proteins was significantly related to clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, and overall survival in LSCC. Interestingly, up-regulation of ABCG2 expression was found to be associated with increased proliferation, but that of ABCB1 was not. Up-regulation of both ABCG2 expression and ABCB1 expression was associated with decreased apoptosis. Conclusions: The results of this study revealed that the presence of ABCG2 and/or ABCB1 is predictive for malignant progression and is an independent prognostic factor in LSCC. The mechanism of ABC transporters may contribute to chemotherapy resistance by promoting proliferation and/or suppressing apoptosis.


The effect of experimental conditions on the formation of structural intermediates and pathway of bovine insulin fibril formation was studied at pH 0.5 and 60°C. The relative amount of oligomeric intermediates observed during fibril formation was found to depend on both ionic strength and protein concentration. At a protein concentration of 1mg/mL, significant amounts of oligomeric intermediates including spherical assemblies and protofibrils were detected by AFM under the condition of 0.35 ionic strength. The oligomeric intermediates dissociated upon cooling for 10 days at 25°C. At 0.15 ionic strength, fibril formation proceeded without generation of oligomeric intermediates. Amorphous aggregates were observed prior to detection of well-defined fibrils under this condition. Increasing protein concentration from 1 to 2 mg/mL at 0.15 ionic strength or decreasing the protein concentration from 1 to 0.5 mg/mL at 0.35 ionic strength resulted in generation of similar low amounts of oligomeric intermediates. Fibril formation at 0.35 ionic strength and 1mg/mL of insulin was consistent with a nucleated conformational conversion mechanism, while fibril formation at 0.15 ionic strength and at the same protein concentration followed a nucleated polymerization mechanism. The results from this study show that ionic strength and protein concentration determined the relative quantities of structural intermediates formed during the early stages of fibril formation and the pathway of fibril assembly.


Sterilising instruments using a primus stove and a fish kettle, and performing surgery by the light of a hurricane lamp, were among the memories shared at a recent meeting of the RCN History of Nursing Group.


Persons with quadriceps muscle weakness are often prescribed a knee-ankle-foot orthosis that locks the knee in full extension during both stance and swing phases of gait. Locking the knee results in abnormal gait patterns characterized by hip hiking and leg circumduction during swing. The stance-control knee-ankle-foot orthosis (SCKAFO), a new type of orthosis, has emerged that permits free knee motion during swing while resisting knee flexion during stance, thereby supporting the limb during weight-bearing. This article examines various SCKAFO designs, discuss the existing design limitations, and identify remaining design challenges. Several commercial SCKAFOs have been released that incorporate different locking mechanisms. Preliminary gait studies have shown some devices to be promising; however, an important functional limitation in some SCKAFOs is dependence on specific joint angles to switch between stance and swing modes. Important design factors such as size, weight, and noise must be considered in new orthosis designs to ensure wide consumer acceptance.


Security is an important issue in digital library design. Security weaknesses in digital libraries, coupled with attacks or other types of failures, can lead to confidential information being inappropriately accessed, or loss of integrity of the data stored. These in turn can have a damaging effect on the trust of publishers or other content providers, can cause embarrassment or even economic loss to digital library owners, and can even lead to pain and suffering or other serious problems if urgently needed information is unavailable (Tyrväinen, 2005). There are many security requirements to consider because of the variety of different actors working with a digital library. Each of these actors has different security needs (Chowdhury & Chowdhury, 2003). Thus, a digital library content provider might be concerned with protecting intellectual property rights and the terms of use of content, while a digital library user might be concerned with reliable access to content stored in the digital library. Requirements based on these needs sometimes are in conflict, which can make the security architecture of a digital library even more complex. The design of the security architecture of a digital library must go beyond simply adding one or a few modules to a previously designed system. This is because there may be security holes in pre-existing modules, and because difficulties can arise when attempting to integrate the modules. The security architecture of a digital library must be designed so that security concerns are handled holistically. A security system designer must view the whole architecture and consider all of the applicable security factors when designing a secure digital library. The nature of a security attack may differ according to the architecture of the digital library; a distributed digital library has more security weaknesses than a centralized digital library. Security attacks can be categorized as physical attacks and logical attacks (Stallings, 2006). A physical attack involves hardware security where keys, locks, cards, and visitor monitoring is used. A logical attack involves an attack on the content or digital library system. We focus on the logical attacks and software security of digital libraries.


Objectives: Hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) provides reliable pain relief and functional improvement in the majority of patients. Although a small percentage of patients will go on to subsequent revision hip arthroscopy or conversion to arthroplasty, some patients will also have inferior clinical outcome without revision surgery. The purpose of this study is to identify clinical and radiographic characteristics predictive of inferior outcomes 2-years following hip arthroscopy for FAI. Methods: A clinical repository containing patients undergoing primary hip arthroscopy for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) between 1/1/2012-1/1/2014 with a minimum follow up of two years was queried to include patients in this study. Operative procedures generally included labral debridement and repair, acetabular rim trimming, femoral osteochondroplasty and capsular plication. The primary outcome measure was the Hip Outcome Score Activities of Daily Living (HOS-ADL) questionnaire. Secondary outcome measures included the Hip Outcome Score Sports Subscale (HOS-SS) and modified Harris Hip Score (MHHS). Patients requiring revision hip arthroscopy or hip arthroplasty were excluded from this study. Patients were organized into superior and inferior outcome groups based on the top and bottom quartiles of the postoperative HOS-ADL score. Demographic, preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative variables between these groups were compared to identify predictors for inferior outcomes using bivariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Of 482 patients undergoing hip arthroscopy for FAI there was two year outcome data for 392 patients (81.5%) with an average follow up of 2.3 ± 0.6 years. The superior group contained 98 patients with an HOS-ADL score of 97.06 or higher while the inferior group contained 98 patients with an HOS-ADL score of 80.5 or lower. Patients in the superior outcome group were younger (30.7 ± 12.8 vs 38.0 ± 11.8 p<0.001) with a lower BMI (24.1 ± 4.1 vs. 26.5 ± 5.1 p=0.005) and higher preoperative average joint space width (4.2 ± 0.5 mm vs. 3.7 ± 0.4 mm; p=0.009) and lower Tonnis grade (p<0.001; Table 1). Patients in the inferior outcome group also had a higher incidence of smoking (p=0.005), workers compensation claims (p=0.04) and prior psychiatric history (p=0.007). A stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that older age (p=0.00674), higher BMI (p=0.02629), and smoking (p=0.01863) were independent predictive factors of inferior outcome (Table 1). Both groups demonstrated significant improvements in HOS-ADL, and MHHS scores, however the inferior outcome group did not have significantly improved HOS-SS scores (p=0.06). Table 1: Demographic and radiographic differences between superior and inferior outcome groups following hip arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement Inferior Outcome Superior Outcome p Age 38.0 ± 11.8 30.7 ± 12.8 <0.0001 Tonnis Grade > 0 19 (22%) 1 (1.1%) <0.0001 Postoperative Alpha Angle 42.3 ± 4.4 38.4 ± 3.7 0.001 BMI 26.5 ± 5.1 24.1 ± 4.1 0.005 Smoking 14(14%) 3 (3%) 0.005 Preoperative Joint Space (mm) 4.2 ± 0.54 3.75 ± 0.41 0.009 Psychiatric History 27 (28%) 12(12%) 0.02 Workers Compensation 8(8.4%) 2 (2.0%) 0.04 Spine History 18 (19%) 11(11%) 0.16 Gender (%F) 60(61%) 55 (56%) 0.47 Postoperative LCEA 29.4 ± 4.5 30.1 ± 4.0 0.56 Preoperative LCEA 32.54 ± 5.7 32.16 ± 0.53 0.62 Preoperative Alpha Angle 61.5 ± 10.3 61.2 ± 9.3 0.83 Conclusion: Older age, higher BMI, and smoking were independent predictors of inferior clinical outcomes at 2-years following hip arthroscopy for FAI, although both superior and inferior outcome groups experienced significantly improved clinical outcome scores. In addition, lower preoperative joint space, workers compensation status, and psychiatric history were significant factors for inferior outcomes on bivariate analysis. These factors can be considered in preoperative patient counseling about the expected outcome of hip arthroscopy for FAI.


Due to the lack of insufficient data, existing multi-hop open domain question answering systems require to effectively find out relevant supporting facts according to each question. To alleviate the challenges of semantic factual sentences retrieval and multi-hop context expansion, we present a semantic sentence composition reasoning approach for a multi-hop question answering task, which consists of two key modules: a multi-stage semantic matching module (MSSM) and a factual sentence composition module (FSC). With the combination of factual sentences and multi-stage semantic retrieval, our approach can provide more comprehensive contextual information for model training and reasoning. Experimental results demonstrate our model is able to incorporate existing pre-trained language models and outperform the existing SOTA method on the QASC task with an improvement of about 9%.


This guide was developed to help you discover information, in both print and online formats, for obtaining both financial aid and scholarships here at WCC


Background: Oral contraceptive (OCP) use might increase the risk of stroke in women. We examined a possible dose–response relation between OCP use and the risk of stroke in young and middle-aged women. Methods: A retrieval of PubMed and EMBASE databases was performed. We selected observational studies that reported odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of stroke in OCP users. A two-stage dose–response analysis was conducted using the random-effects model and the restricted spline model. Results: A total of 6 cohort studies and 12 case–control studies were included, which involved 2,143,174 participants and 11,661 cases of stroke including ischemic stroke (IS), hemorrhagic stroke (HS), and stroke of unknown origin. The pooled ORs of total stroke were 1.19 (95% CI, 1.16–1.23) for every 10-μg increment in estrogen dosage, 1.20 (95% CI, 1.05–1.37) for every 5-years increment in duration of OCP use, and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.68–0.98) for every 5-years increment in duration of OCP cessation. The ORs of IS were 1.20 (95% CI, 1.17–1.22) in estrogen dosage, 1.24 (95% CI, 1.04–1.49) in duration of OCP use, and 0.78 (95% CI, 0.67–0.92) in duration of OCP cessation. The ORs of HS were 1.10 (95% CI, 1.04–1.16) in estrogen dosage, 1.13 (95% CI, 0.93–1.36) in duration of OCPs, and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.55–0.92) in duration of OCP cessation. The pooled ORs of total stroke from prospective studies (1.12; 95% CI, 1.01–1.24) were lower than those from retrospective studies (1.30; 95% CI, 1.01–1.67). Conclusions: The higher estrogen dosage significantly increased the risks of total stroke, IS, and HS, respectively. The longer duration of OCP use significantly increased the risks of total stroke and IS, but its effects on HS risk were marginal. The longer duration of OCP cessation significantly decreased the risks of total stroke, IS, and HS, respectively. These findings affirm the contribution of estrogen dose and duration of OCP use to the increased risk of stroke, which may be critical for the instruction of OCP use and the prevention and management of cerebrovascular diseases.


We recently reported evidence implicating fatty-acid binding protein (Fabp) in the control of sleep and memory formation. We used Drosophila melanogaster to examine the relationship between sleep and memory through transgenic overexpression of mouse brain-Fabp, Fabp7, or the Drosophila Fabp homologue, (dFabp). The key findings are that, (1) a genetically induced increase in daytime consolidated sleep (naps) correlates with an increase in cognitive performance, and (2) a late "window" of memory consolidation occurs days after the traditionally understood "synaptic" consolidation. Exactly how Fabp-signaling may be involved in converting normal to enhanced long-term memory (LTM) is not known. Here we describe additional data which support relative subcellular compartmental localization of Fabp in regulating stage associations of different forms of memory in Drosophila. Anesthesia resistant memory (ARM) is a longer lasting memory that is produced by massed training, but unlike LTM produced by spaced training, it is insensitive to protein synthesis inhibitors and does not persist as long. We observed that the ratio of ARM to LTM performance index of Fabp7-transgenic flies is proportional to the relative cytoplasmic to nuclear Fabp7 expression level. These data suggest a common lipid-signaling cascade exists between phases of memory formation previously thought to be molecularly distinct.


The study sets out to measure how the taxation of dividend and debt affects firm value. Tax hypothesis predicts that firm value is negatively related to dividends and positively related to debt. The study covered 1197 firm-year observations of manufacturing firms in Nigeria from 1984 to 2000. To achieve the objective, the study estimated the model on the average values for each firm and tested for industry effects using the ordinary least square (OLS) method. We found the opposite of tax hypotheses predictions from the regression results. We hypothesized that the relationship between dividends, debt and firm value will be affected by the size of the firm. We therefore partitioned the firms into two on the basis of size measured as market capitalization. We estimated separate equations for each sub-sample and found positive relationship between dividend and firm value and negative relationship between debt and firm value in both small-sized firms and big firms? sub-sample. The study concludes that dividend and debt convey information about profitability of firms. This information about firms? profitability obscures any tax effect of financing decisions. However, we found that earnings and investment are key determinants of firm value in Nigeria.


This research is motivated by the problem of low social studies learning outcomes for grade 5 students. This is because teachers often use the lecture method, students only listen and record all information from the teacher so they consider social studies material to be difficult. This study aims to determine whether there is an increase in learning outcomes for theme 7, especially the content of social studies lessons through mind maps in grade 5 SD Negeri Ketitang, Godong District, Grobogan Regency. The research was conducted in March-April 2020 in the 5th grade of SD Negeri Ketitang, Godong District, Grobogan Regency as the research subject. The results showed that the social studies learning outcomes in the initial conditions were only 38.1% of students who reached the KKM. There was an increase in the first cycle of learning outcomes to 57.14% of students and in the second cycle increased to 85.71% of students who reached the KKM. In learning, teachers and students should more often apply the Mind Map method so that students can develop their imagination and absorption power of the material being taught.


This article reports the findings of a case study that examines the effect of compressed work scheduling on the overall organizational efficiency of a medium size police department. An efficient scheduling design is one that utilizes a high percentage of employees during busy times and fewer employees during slower times. Efficient scheduling is important because it can mitigate the problems associated with understaffing including tired employees, increased overtime and strained officer and citizen relations. This investigation examined the efficiency of four work scheduling proposals. Two of these were compressed scheduling plans and two were traditional designs. The examination found that a proposed 8-hour plan was the most efficient schedule analyzed. Its staffing patterns closely followed fluctuations in call volume, with more officers working during busy times and fewer during slower times. Statistical analysis establish that this model is significantly better than a 12-hour model currently used by the department, or a 8-hour scheduling plan used by the department in 1999. A proposed 10-hour model was found to be the second most efficient. Although not statistically different from other models, its staffing levels generally followed call volume patterns especially during late night peak times.


Background: Dimerization of G protein-coupled receptors has an impact on their signaling properties. Results: Dimerization with its truncated splice variant blocks ghrelin receptor activation. Conclusion: The dominant effect exerted by the splice variant of the ghrelin receptor on the full-length one is due to allosteric conformational events within dimeric assemblies. Significance: Unraveling the molecular mechanisms responsible for heteromer-directed selectivity is crucial for understanding GPCR-mediated signaling. Heterodimerization of G protein-coupled receptors has an impact on their signaling properties, but the molecular mechanisms underlying heteromer-directed selectivity remain elusive. Using purified monomers and dimers reconstituted into lipid discs, we explored how dimerization impacts the functional and structural behavior of the ghrelin receptor. In particular, we investigated how a naturally occurring truncated splice variant of the ghrelin receptor exerts a dominant negative effect on ghrelin signaling upon dimerization with the full-length receptor. We provide direct evidence that this dominant negative effect is due to the ability of the non-signaling truncated receptor to restrict the conformational landscape of the full-length protein. Indeed, associating both proteins within the same disc blocks all agonist- and signaling protein-induced changes in ghrelin receptor conformation, thus preventing it from activating its cognate G protein and triggering arrestin 2 recruitment. This is an unambiguous demonstration that allosteric conformational events within dimeric assemblies can be directly responsible for modulation of signaling mediated by G protein-coupled receptors.


Two patients with Cushing's syndrome are reported. The syndrome was the consequence of relapse after transphenoidal resection of a pituitary tumor in one and due to occult ACTH secretion in the other. Determination of ACTH after bilateral petrosal sampling in both cases and after systemic venous sampling at different sites in one, allowed localization of the source of hormone secretion which was confined to one side of the hypophysis in one case and to the thorax in the other. Hypophyseal resection in the first case and bilateral adrenal resection in the other were performed successfully. The value of this diagnostic test is analyzed.


Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most influential paradigms in the IT industry in recent years. Since this new computing technology requires users to entrust their valuable data to cloud providers, there have been increasing security and privacy concerns on outsourced data. Several schemes employing Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) have been proposed for access control of outsourced data in cloud computing, however, most of them suffer from inflexibility in implementing complex access control policies. The proposed scheme used is Hierarchical Attribute-Set-based encryption by extending cipher text-policy Attribute-Set-Based Encryption (ASBE) with a hierarchical structure of users. The proposed scheme not only achieves scalability due to its hierarchical structure, but also inherits flexibility and fine-grained access control in supporting compound attributes of ASBE. In addition, ASBE employs multiple value assignments for access expiration time to deal with user revocation more efficiently than existing schemes. We formally prove the security of HASBE based on security of the Cipher text-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) scheme and analyze its performance and computational complexity. We introduced the ASBE scheme for realizing scalable, flexible, and finegrained access control in cloud computing. The ASBE scheme seamlessly incorporates a hierarchical structure of system users by applying a delegation algorithm to ASBE. ASBE not only supports compound attributes due to flexible attribute set combinations, but also achieves efficient user revocation because of multiple value assignments of attributes.


The aqueous phase diagram of monohexadecyl phosphate neutralized by L-arginine (C16MPArg, Figure 1) was studied using analytical techniques including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), small/ wide-angle Xray scattering (SWAXS) measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. We found that the mixture could form an α-gel over wide ranges of concentrations and temperatures (Figure 2). The α-gel was thermodynamically stable at 25°C (below the phase transition temperature for hexagonal or lamellar liquid crystals), and did not transform to coagel for at least one year. This behavior is unique among anionic surfactant systems. Thus, the balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic volumes is a key factor for determining whether a stable α-gel can be obtained. In this system, the relatively large volume of Arg relaxed the alkyl chains of C16MP and prevented their crystallization. We also characterized the behavior of water in the C16MP-Arg α-gel system. An increased water concentration resulted in an increase in the d-spacing of the lamellar bilayers (Figure 3) as well as an increased wavenumber for the O-H stretching vibration peak. In addition, the melting enthalpy increased with increasing water concentration, while freezing was not observed below a water concentration of 20 wt%. These results suggest that the overall properties of water changed as a function of its concentration in the sample. 1H-NMR spin-spin relaxation time (T2) measurements further suggest that the protons of water and C16MP-Arg can be classified into three components (low-, middle-, and high-T2 components) as a function of the temperature and concentration. The low-T2 component mainly arose from the protons of C16MP-Arg alkyl chains, and its mobility increased with increasing temperature. The high-T2 component arose from the protons of water. The water behaved as "bound water" for the C16MP-Arg headgroups at –30°C and a water concentration of 20 wt%, and the mobility increased with increasing temperature and water concentration. These changes suggest that an increased water concentration results in an increased amount of water being incorporated between the C16MPArg lamellar bilayers as well as in spaces surrounded by α-gel domains. We anticipate that the results of this study will be useful in cosmetics and personal care industries.


Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to assist in decreasing road traffic fatalities, particularly among passenger cars. However, until now limited research has been conducted on how they will impact the safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs) (i.e., cyclists and pedestrians). Therefore, there is a clear need to start taking into account the interactions between AVs and VRUs as an integrated element of the transport network, especially in urban areas where they are dominant. The objective of this study is to verify whether the anticipated implementation of AVs can actually improve cyclists' safety. For this purpose, the microscopic traffic flow simulation software PTV Vissim combined with the surrogate safety assessment model (SSAM) were utilized. The road network used for this analysis was generated based on a real study case in a medium-sized city in Belgium, where narrow streets in the city center are shared on many occasions between vehicles and cyclists. The findings of the analysis show a notable reduction in the total number of conflicts between cars, but also between cars and cyclists, compared to the current situation, assuming a 100% market penetration scenario for AVs. Moreover, the severity level of conflicts also decreased as a result of the lack of human-driven vehicles in the traffic streams.


The purpose of this paper is to examine how and when a reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) can deter dysfunctional consumer behaviors (DCBs) such as shoplifting or negative word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to firm failures. The authors predict that congruency of the CSR activities and the basis for the firm failure (e.g. environmental protection, environmental harm) provides protection for firms while incongruency (e.g. environmental protection, social harm) does not. The authors base this prediction on the process of retroactive attribution and sense-making.,Across two studies the research finds support that a reputation for CSR can deter consumer dysfunctional behavior. Study 1 uses an experimental design with a Mturk sample, and a behavioral outcome using an overpayment situation, to examine when consumers will act honestly and recognize overpayment. Study 2 uses secondary data, across three novel data sources (Google trends data, an existing data set of consumer perceptions of CSR and Factiva to uncover press coverage of negative firm events). Study 2 examines how CSR reputation impacts consumers' participation in negative WOM in response to firm failures.,Study 1 finds support for CSR congruency as a protection mechanism against dysfunctional behavior in response to negative events. The authors find that dysfunctional behaviors in conditions of congruency, while incongruent and a control condition do not provide such protections. Study 2 supports these findings using Google trends data in the form of online negative WOM. The authors find that when firms are known for their social performance, negative events in the social domain result in significantly lower levels of negative WOM.,The current paper makes the novel prediction that consumers will use a current negative event (corporate social irresponsibility) to re-evaluate previous CSR. Thus, in contrast with prior research, the authors argue that a negative event is not affected by previous CSR but that previous CSR is affected by a negative event. Furthermore, the authors posit that the congruency between the transgression and previous CSR moderates consumer perceptions, such that incongruent CSR and transgression contexts lead to increased DCBs through consumers' retroactive sense-making process.


The aim of this study is to find out whether pre-school teacher trainees can form, during their practicum, a lesson plan model which they think can be used in real life conditions. In this study, the document analysis method was adopted. Data were collected from examining the lesson plans designed by the teacher trainees during practicum. Furthermore, a questionnaire using open-ended questions was administered. A content analyis technique was used to assess the collected data. The results of the study indicated that the majority of the teacher trainees could not create a lesson plan model which can be used in real life conditions. This article also contains some suggestions for teacher trainees to produce an efficient lesson plan.


The meshless method is applied to the response analysis of a geometrically nonlinear beam. The corresponding nonlinear strain operator matrix and tangent rigidity matrix are given. The computational results agree well with Holden's analytic solution. It is found that the meshless method is more efficient for large displacement.


Illicit drugs form an important sector of the world economy. A recent report of the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) stated that many estimations have been made of the total revenue of the illicit drug industry, most ranging from $300 billion to $500 billion (INCB 1997). According to this UN report 'a growing body of evidence' suggests that the true figure lies around $400 billion. The report further states this turnover would be equivalent to approximately 8% of total international trade. In 1994 this figure would have been larger than the international trade in iron and steel, and motor vehicles, and about the same size as the total international trade in textiles. Of course, the important economic value of drugs can be largely attributed to the simple fact they are illegal.

This article aims to give an overview of some general trends in drug use and drug trafficking in Europe. This overview will not discuss all illicit drugs in detail, but will focus on two drugs, cannabis and heroin. The reasons for this are as follows. Speaking about the use of illicit substances, cannabis is by and large the one that is most used in Europe. Heroin, on the other hand, is used by very few people – in drug use surveys the prevalence of heroin is usually among the lowest – but it is the drug that is most associated with marginalisation and drug addiction. This also explains why the use of this drug is more visible than the use of other drugs. The second reason for concentrating on cannabis and heroin is that the trade in these drugs is most interesting from a geopolitical point of view.


The rising growth of deep neural networks (DNNs) and datasets in size motivates the need for efficient solutions for simultaneous model selection and training. Many methods for hyperparameter optimization (HPO) of iterative learners, including DNNs, attempt to solve this problem by querying and learning a response surface while searching for the optimum of that surface. However, many of these methods make myopic queries, do not consider prior knowledge about the response structure, and/or perform a biased cost-aware search, all of which exacerbate identifying the best-performing model when a total cost budget is specified. This paper proposes a novel approach referred to as {\bf B}udget-{\bf A}ware {\bf P}lanning for {\bf I}terative Learners (BAPI) to solve HPO problems under a constrained cost budget. BAPI is an efficient non-myopic Bayesian optimization solution that accounts for the budget and leverages the prior knowledge about the objective function and cost function to select better configurations and to take more informed decisions during the evaluation (training). Experiments on diverse HPO benchmarks for iterative learners show that BAPI performs better than state-of-the-art baselines in most cases.


This paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at examining the extent to which software engineers follow a software process and the extent to which they improvise during the process. Our subjects tended to classify processes into two groups. In the first group are the processes that are formal, strict, and well-documented. In the second group are the processes that are informal and not well-structured. The classification has similar characteristics to the model proposed by Truex, Baskerville, and Travis [12]. Our first group is similar to their methodical classification, and our second group is similar to their amethodical classification. Interestingly, software engineers using a process in the second group stated that they were not using a process. We believe that software engineers who think that they are not using a process, because they have the prevalent concept of process as something methodical that is strict and structured, actually are using an informal (amethodical) process. We also found that software engineers improvise while using both types of processes in order to overcome shortcomings in the planned path which arose due to unexpected situations. This finding leads us to conclude that amethodical processes are processes too.


Quick detection of motor intentions is critical in order to minimize the time required to activate a neuroprosthesis. We propose a Markov Switching Model (MSM) to achieve quick detection of an event related desynchronization (ERD) elicited by motor imagery (MI) and recorded by electroencephalography (EEG). Conventional brain computer interfaces (BCI) rely on sliding window classifiers in order to perform online continuous classification of the rest vs. MI classes. Based on this approach, the detection of abrupt changes in the sensorimotor power suffers from an intrinsic delay caused by the necessity of computing an estimate of variance across several tenths of a second. Here we propose to avoid explicitly computing the EEG signal variance, and estimate the ERD state directly from the voltage information, in order to reduce the detection latency. This is achieved by using a model suitable in situations characterized by abrupt changes of state, the MSM. In our implementation, the model takes the form of a Gaussian observation model whose variance is governed by two latent discrete states with Markovian dynamics. Its objective is to estimate the brain state (i.e., rest vs. ERD) given the EEG voltage, spatially filtered by common spatial pattern (CSP), as observation. The two variances associated with the two latent states are calibrated using the variance of the CSP projection during rest and MI, respectively. The transition matrix of the latent states is optimized by the "quickest detection" strategy that minimizes a cost function of detection latency and false positive rate. Data collected by a dry EEG system from 50 healthy subjects, was used to assess performance and compare the MSM with several logistic regression classifiers of different sliding window lengths. As a result, the MSM achieves a significantly better tradeoff between latency, false positive and true positive rates. The proposed model could be used to achieve a more reactive and stable control of a neuroprosthesis. This is a desirable property in BCI-based neurorehabilitation, where proprioceptive feedback is provided based on the patient's brain signal. Indeed, it is hypothesized that simultaneous contingent association between brain signals and proprioceptive feedback induces superior associative learning.


Fetal midgut volvulus is quite rare, and most cases are associated with abnormalities of intestinal rotation or fixation. We report a case of midgut volvulus without malrotation, associated with a meconium pellet, during the gestation period. This 2.79 kg, 33-wk infant was born via a spontaneous vaginal delivery caused by preterm labor. Prenatal ultrasound showed dilated bowel loops with the appearance of a 'coffee bean sign'. This patient had an unusual presentation with a distended abdomen showing skin discoloration. An emergency laparotomy revealed a midgut volvulus and a twisted small bowel, caused by complicated meconium ileus. Such nonspecific prenatal radiological signs and a low index of suspicion of a volvulus during gestation might delay appropriate surgical management and result in ischemic necrosis of the bowel. Preterm labor, specific prenatal sonographic findings (for example, the coffee bean sign) and bluish discoloration of the abdominal wall could suggest intrauterine midgut volvulus requiring prompt surgical intervention.


Firms which adapt new manufacturing technologies, such as flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) or computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) and concepts such as just‐in‐time (JIT), can expect to exert a significant influence on various stakeholder groups. Additionally, innovative accounting systems which are currently being developed to monitor and evaluate the performance of manufacturing systems will have a direct impact on certain stakeholder constituencies. Uses stakeholder theory as a basis for explaining the complex relationships among the firm and various constituencies or stakeholders. Major stakeholder groups include educators, auditors, trainers, line managers, human resource managers, suppliers, customers, stockholders, labour unions, the financial community, government, local community organizations, environmentalists, employees, directors, management and bondholders. The needs of the various groups are placed in the context of the new global competitive environment.


This paper develops a structural model of newspaper markets to analyze the effects of ownership consolidation, taking into account not only firms' price adjustments but also the adjustments in newspaper characteristics. A new dataset on newspaper prices and characteristics is used to estimate the model. The paper then simulates the effect of a merger in the Minneapolis newspaper market and studies how welfare effects of mergers vary with market characteristics. It finds that ignoring adjustments of product characteristics causes substantial differences in estimated effects of mergers.


The problem of the coating of steel has been considered in several Mathematics in Industry study groups. In this process, after passing through a bath of molten alloy, steel sheeting is drawn upward to allow draining under gravity and stripping using an air knife, leaving a coating of desirable thickness. Here we discuss some aspects of the problem and in particular the gravity draining component. The problem is a very nice introduction to industrial modelling for students, but is also relevant for manufacturing.
References

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A separating path system for a graph $G$ is a collection $\mathcal{P}$ of paths in $G$ such that for every two edges $e$ and $f$ in $G$, there is a path in $\mathcal{P}$ that contains $e$ but not $f$. We show that every $n$-vertex graph has a separating path system of size $O(n \log^* n)$. This improves upon the previous best upper bound of $O(n \log n)$, and makes progress towards a conjecture of Falgas-Ravry--Kittipassorn--Kor\'andi--Letzter--Narayanan and Balogh--Csaba--Martin--Pluh\'ar, according to which an $O(n)$ bound should hold.


This paper presents a fully automated object extraction system Omini. A distinct feature of Omini is the suite of algorithms and the automatically learned information extraction rules for discovering and extracting objects from dynamic Web pages or static Web pages that contain multiple object instances. We evaluated the system using more than 2,000 Web pages over 40 sites. It achieves 100% precision (returns only correct objects) and excellent recall (between 99% and 98%, with very few significant objects left out). The object boundary identification algorithms are fast, about 0.1 second per page with a simple optimization.


In this paper, we analyze the performance of code division multiple access (CDMA) systems with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) that employ random spreading sequences in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. We obtain the probability density function (pdf) of the multiple access interference and extend the results to OFDM-CDMA systems to determine the pdf of multiple access and inter-carrier interference in terms of the number of users, the spreading length, the number of sub-carriers, and the frequency offset. We consider the synchronous downlink of cellular multi-carrier CDMA and derive a Gaussian approximation of the multiple access and inter-carrier interference. Overall the effect of frequency offset is shown to vary with the system loading. The analysis in this paper is critical for further development into fading channels and frequency selective multipath channels.


Reconfigurable computing has a recognized potential in processor design. It provides a middle trade-off between speed and flexibility. It provides performance close to application-specific-hardware, yet preserves the general-purpose-processor flexibility. This paper presents the mapping and performance analysis of the implementation of the lookup table for two encryption algorithms, namely Rijndael and Twofish, on a coarse grain dynamic reconfigurable platform, namely MorphoSys. MorphoSys is a dynamic reconfigurable architecture targeted for computer intensive applications with parallel nature. Since the MorphoSys does not support the indirect addressing, we present in this paper a methodology to implement an alternative. We present the details of the mapping of the two lookup tables with thorough analysis. The methodology we used can be utilized in other Memoryless systems. Finally, an instruction set extension was proposed to enhance the performance.


The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) spent $4.7 billion during 2009-2013 to, inter alia , increase broadband adoption in underserved communities. We characterize the BTOP grants and examine the impact of the awards on broadband adoption. Econometric specifications controlling for award endogeneity related to observed and unobserved county-level factors find that spending is apparently associated with increased broadband adoption. Further investigation, however, reveals that the impacts of spending are nonlinear and even nonmonotonic over the range of county-level BTOP spending in the data. Controlling for trends to reduce the potential for spurious correlation between spending and outcomes removes most of the significance of the results. We conclude with three lessons for policymakers derived from the uncertain outcomes of BTOP spending found in our exploration.


The aim of the present paper is to summarize the broad scope of this Discussion and to attempt to draw certain final generalizations about the Antarctic as a biological zone. It is almost impossible to omit all mention of the sea from a discussion of Antarctic biology, and consequently a review of Antarctic oceanography and of food chains and biomasses at the various marine trophic levels will be given first. This leads in turn to a consideration of the interrelationships between sea, land and fresh water, and thence to an assessment of the total ecosystem.


The observations of the present paper, following the footsteps of previous studies, provide researchers with a rich set of data that shed more light on the pottery manufacturing techniques of Late Copper Age potters. The investigated assemblage belongs to the Baden culture, excavated at Hódmezővásárhely-Kopáncs-Olasz-tanya I in 2009. So far, four studies have been published on other sites from the heritage of Baden culture, which have been examined in a similar way, focusing on pottery technology. Therefore, the Baden culture is currently the most researched in this respect because the same macroscopic methods were used. In this state of research, we have an opportunity to compare these five assemblages, which allows us to identify similarities and differences in certain details of the technology of potting tradition of different regions in one extended cultural complex. In order to clarify the terminology and certain procedures of handbuilding techniques and possible tool usage in burnishing I make corrections on earlier statements. In addition to observations of potting technology also documenting the use-traces, the secondarily used sherds and any noticeable phenomena, such as grain imprints on ceramics. For the question of intentional or accidental occurrence of grain imprints on ceramics, I share the potter's viewpoint, to shed more light on this topic. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss a wide range of phenomena that can be used for the chaîne opératoire of pottery production and object-biographical studies.


papers dealing with laboratory experiments or field operations confirm that, in some circumstances, low salinity waterflooding improves oil recovery. However, the basic mechanisms explaining the oil recovery improvement are not clearly established. The literature points out several hypotheses, among them is the role of clay particles detachment and migration. Experiments using an intermediate-wet clayey sandstone were first performed showing an oil recovery increment when the salinity of the injected brine was reduced. Following this trail, in a second set of batch experiments we investigated the role of microparticles on the formation and stability of brine/oil emulsions when the salinity is changed. For that, we used calibrated negatively charged polystyrene latex particles and several oils (mineral, crude and a blend of the two). Emulsion samples were observed using an optical microscope to determine their typical droplet size and the water/oil interface structure. The macroscopic stability of the emulsions was also investigated. The results show that the particle wettability, which is related to its surface charge and brine salinity, plays a central role in formation and stability of water/oil emulsions. Depending on their hydrophobicity, the particles migrate toward the brine/oil interface forming a more or less stable emulsion known as "Pickering emulsion". In a third step, the same latex pa rticles were injected in an artificial consolidated porous medium prior to two phase flow experiments and are deemed to be deposited as a mono layer all over the pore wall surface. The core low salinity waterfloods show no recovery improvement, although colloidal particles are recovered at the outlet. This indicates that the particle mobilization is not a sufficient condition to recover additional oil so that other factors such as oil/water structure are involved.


Hybrid thermoelectric flexible films based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes were prepared by using layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly. The employed PEDOT nanoparticles were synthesized by oxidative miniemulsion polymerization by using iron(III) p-toluenesulfonate hexahydrate (FeTos) as an oxidant and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) as stabilizer. Sodium deoxycholate (DOC) was used as a stabilizer to prepare the aqueous dispersions of the carbon nanotubes. Hybrid thermoelectric films were finally prepared with different monomer/oxidant molar ratios and different types of carbon nanotubes, aiming to maximize the power factor (PF). The use of single-wall (SWCNT), double-wall (DWCNT), and multiwall (MWCNT) carbon nanotubes was compared. The Seebeck coefficient was measured by applying a temperature difference between the ends of the film and the electrical conductivity was measured by the Van der Pauw method. The best hybrid film in this study exhibited a PF of 72 μW m−1K−2. These films are prepared from aqueous dispersions with relatively low-cost materials and, due to lightweight and flexible properties, they are potentially good candidates to recover waste heat in wearable electronic applications.


BACKGROUND
Starvation is associated with a blunted TSH response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) (peak minus baseline < 5 mIU/L), despite basal TSH and thyroid hormone levels within the normal range. In light of the inhibitory effect of somatostatin on TSH secretion, we examined whether this condition is caused by an increased hypothalamic somatostatinergic tone in starving subjects. The possible involvement of endogenous opioids in the mechanism underlying the abnormal TSH response to TRH was also evaluated.

METHODS
The TSH response to TRH (25 micrograms in an intravenous bolus), serum total and free T4 and T3 levels, and 24-hour urinary-free cortisol levels were measured in 28 normal men (age 27-35 years) within 10% of their ideal body weight. They were randomly divided into 4 groups of 7. In 21 subjects (groups 1, 2, and 3), TRH tests were performed after an overnight (8 hours) fast, placebo administrations (control test), and after prolonged (56 hours) starvation. TRH tests after prolonged starvation were performed either after placebos (in all subjects) or the administration of pyridostigmine (180 mg orally) (in 7 subjects, group 1); naloxone (0.8 mg in an i.v. bolus injection) (in 7 subjects, group 2); or the combination of pyridostigmine and naloxone (in 7 subjects, group 3). The remaining 7 subjects (group 4) were tested at weekly intervals with TRH plus placebo, TRH plus naloxone, TRH plus pyridostigmine, and TRH plus naloxone plus pyridostigmine after a fasting period of 8 hours.

RESULTS
In all subjects of groups 1, 2, and 3, TRH-induced TSH rise was significantly lower after prolonged starvation than after overnight fast. Neither pyridostigmine nor naloxone, given alone, changed the basal levels of TSH and the TSH response to TRH after prolonged starvation. In contrast, the concomitant administration of naloxone and pyridostigmine significantly enhanced the TRH-induced TSH rise. After overnight fasting, naloxone administration in group 4 subjects did not change the TSH response to TRH, whereas pyridostigmine significantly enhanced the TSH response to TRH. When naloxone was given together with pyridostigmine and TRH the TSH response was similar to that observed in the TRH plus pyridostigmine test.

CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate that naloxone-sensitive endogenous opioids exert an inhibitory effect on the cholinergic stimulatory control of TSH secretion during prolonged starvation. This suggests that an enhanced hypothalamic somatostatinergic activity is involved in the mechanism underlying the reduced TSH response to TRH.


Partial discharge (PD) detection is one of the most important tests for assessing the quality and viability of an insulating system. The present paper deals with PD detection in 145 kV gas insulated substation (GIS) module by utilizing modern computer aided discharge analyser system (CDA). Laboratory tests have been carried out on a model busbar. With special reference to the simulation of various types of defects and generation of PD patterns to identify different discharge sources. PD test results reveal a good correlation between the discharge patterns and the type of defects.


Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) burden is increasing worldwide. In developing countries like India, limited financial resources and lack of infrastructure put a severe strain on existing health policies in the light of the increasing burden of CKD. The exact prevalence of CKD in India is not known due to lack of adequate data recording systems both in the Government and insurance sectors. Recently with the support of the Indian society of Nephrology, a CKD registry has been formed with the hope of generating adequate information about CKD patients in India. Here we have reviewed various published studies on the magnitude of CKD in India. Three studies which have been carried out in different parts of India have been reviewed to examine the prevalence of CKD, which ranges from 0.79% to 1.4%. The incidence of End Stage Renal Disease was estimated to be 181 per million population in 2005 in central India. Many more such efforts are needed across our country in order to determine the exact burden of CKD.


Background: This paper is part of a larger study with a focus on management within a preschool.The principal was interviewed and three teachers at the preschool responded to a questionnaire, using a case study methodology.There have been few studies in Malaysia that examined the management aspects of principal's work especially in preschool.The study adopted the Social Systems Model to support the notion that preschools cannot strive on its own without sharing and exchanging information between the principal and the teachers.The Australia Quality Improvement and
Accreditation System (QIAS) was used in gauging the level of quality practices at the school. Objective: The aim of this study was to gauge the level of seven quality practices in a preschool. In addition it attempts to uncover the principal's role as manager and in the effort to improve the services at the school, teachers' feedback were
needed to determine to what extent the principal's effort were internalised in the daily operation of the preschool. Results: The findings revealed that the teachers rated the overall quality areas in the kindergarten as being average. Three quality areas were rated high whereas four others were average. According to the interview with the
principal, she had emphasised the importance of the seven quality areas to the teachers. However, the principal's efforts in ensuring quality practices were not reflected in the level of the quality areas reported by the teachers. There seemed to be an inconsistency in the findings from the teachers and principal. Conclusion: The Social Systems Model explained that in order for information to be disseminated and perceived correctly there need to be a clear understanding on sharing and exchanging of the information between the principal and the teachers. Factors such as participatory management style,
employee involvement in decision-making and teachers' autonomy need to be taken into consideration when trying to implement changes in the school.


We apply the approach of verifying entanglement, which is based on the sole knowledge of the dimension of the underlying physical system to the entanglement based version of the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol. We show that the familiar one-way key rate formula holds already if one assumes the assumption that one of the parties is measuring a qubit and no further assumptions about the measurement are needed.


TEPCO and Furukawa have been developing compact 66 kV HTS power cables that can fit into 150 mm ducts. To realize these compact and highly efficient cables, decreasing AC losses in the cables is important. An effective method for reducing the AC losses is to suppress the electromagnetic coupling between layers and between filaments: equalizing the impedance of each layer suppresses the electromagnetic coupling between layers; and using twisted filaments in Bi-2223 tape suppresses the electromagnetic coupling between filaments. An HTS conductor was fabricated using Ag-Mg sheathed tapes that had twisted filaments, and the AC losses in the conductor were measured. The AC losses were lower than that of nontwisted filamentary conductors. Furthermore, the AC losses in an HTS cable were measured at temperatures ranging from 67 K to 77 K, using a device that can cool liquid nitrogen to less than 77 K. As a result of twisting the filaments in the tape and uniform current distribution for the conductor, the AC losses were reduced to the lowest levels ever achieved.


Introduction The BC Centre for Disease Control implemented the Facility Overdose Response Box (FORB) program December 1st, 2016 to train and support non-healthcare service providers who may respond to an overdose in the workplace. The program aims to support staff at non-profit community-based organizations by ensuring policy development, training, practice overdose response exercises, and post-overdose debriefing opportunities are established and implemented. Materials and methods Three data sources were used in this descriptive cross-sectional study: FORB site registration data; naloxone administration forms; and a survey that was distributed to FORB sites in February 2019. FORB program site and naloxone administration data from December 1st, 2016 to December 31st, 2019 were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A Cochran-Armitage test was used to assess trends over time in naloxone administration event characteristics. Site coordinator survey results are reported to supplement findings from administrative data. Results As of December 31st, 2019, FORB was implemented at 613 sites across BC and 1,758 naloxone administration events were reported. The majority (86.3%, n = 1,517) were indicated as overdose reversals. At registration, 43.6% of sites provided housing services, 26.3% offered harm reduction supplies, and 18.6% provided Take Home Naloxone. Refusal to be transported to hospital following overdose events when emergency services were called showed an increasing trend over time. Most respondents (81.3%) reported feeling confident in their ability to respond to the overdose and 59.6% were offered staff debrief. Based on the 89 site survey responses, supports most commonly made available following an overdose were debrief with a fellow staff member (91.0%), debrief with a supervisor (89.9%), and/or counselling services (84.3%). Conclusions The uptake of the FORB program has contributed to hundreds of overdose reversals in community settings in BC. Findings suggest that the FORB program supports developing staff preparedness and confidence in overdose response in community-based settings.


The Fifth Generation (5G) network is expected to support three main service categories namely enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) and massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC), where each service group has a different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements i.e. the eMBB service group has a high throughput requirement, the URLLC service group require very low-latency and highly reliable transmissions and the mMTC service group do not have a strict performance requirement but have massive connection of devices in the network. 5G enables many vertical domains with these three service categories, such as, smart cities. In a smart city environment, there are applications from all three service categories such as massive connectivity of the sensors for waste managements or monitoring environmental conditions, video surveillance along the city streets and many more. This study addresses the problem of managing applications from the three service categories on the same physical network infrastructure at the Radio Access Network (RAN). Two different scenarios, one with and one without an emergency incident, are considered to find the impact of the incident in the network. In 5G networks, many new features are introduced such as, flexible numerology, mini-slot based scheduling, BandWidth Parts (BWPs) and RAN slicing. The key objective of this study is to assess the 5G RAN features in terms of achieving the performance requirements of the considered applications, simultaneously. To do so, different RAN configurations are modelled where, a RAN configuration consists of one or multiple RAN features. The evaluation is done by simulating the different possible RAN configurations. The simulations are performed using an existing 5G system-level simulator which is substantially upgraded with the 5G RAN features and is modified to the considered smart city urban macro-cellular environment and with the considered traffic models for each considered application. To evaluate the performance of each considered application, different performance metrics are defined based on the application requirements. The benefits and/or losses of different RAN features are found and then different RAN configurations are considered with the combinations of RAN features based on the evaluation of each RAN feature. For all different RAN configurations with combination of features, the performance metrics are evaluated and compared with each other to determine the best-performing configurations for the smart city environment, for the scenarios with and without an incident.


In China the entertainment and tourism industry, united to heritage preservation, offers today an unmissable opportunity to increase the living standard of cities. To this end a systematic use of the demolition and reconstruction of vast historical areas became both the keystone of a development policy and the paradigm of a rudimentary culture of conservation at political and technical level. This paper proposes a reflection on the multiple causes of this phenomenon, from the most obvious (the strength of the housing market, the collusion between private and public interests) to the less evident: the opaqueness of land market, the subordination to political power, the conceptualization of heritage in the Chinese tradition. To properly focus on the operational context of the demolition and reconstruction works in historic districts, the text compares some relevant aspects of the political system, the existing legislative framework and the technical tools adopted. Also, with reference to some significant operations the paper highlights how the demolition remains totally controlled by the real estate market and needs to be rethought as a political tool in order to target effective strategies of rehabilitation. In conclusion, the text highlights as in the process of preservation the field of action of the planners is extremely reduced, as operating within public boards strongly affected by a marked oriented policy and scarcely interacting with stakeholders external to the institutional power


Abstract A major challenge for the construction of artificial lipid membranes is the development of simple and robust methods for mimicking natural phospholipid membrane generation. Here we describe a nonenzymatic and chemoselective approach that relies on histidine ligation to form phospholipids de novo from water-soluble amphiphilic precursors. The resulting phospholipids can spontaneously self-assemble into micron-sized vesicles and encapsulate biomacromolecules.


A mechanically-tunable random laser based on a waveguide-plasmonic scheme has been investigated. This laser can be constructed by spin coating a solution of polydimethylsiloxane doped with the rhodamine 6G organic dye and silver nanowires onto a silicone rubber slab. The excellent overlap of the plasmon resonance peak of the silver nanowires with both the pump wavelength and the photoluminescence spectrum provides the low threshold and tuning properties of the random laser. The random laser wavelength can be tuned from 558 to 565 nm by stretching the soft substrate, which causes reorientation and breakage of the silver nanowires. The polarization state of the random laser can also be changed from random polarization to partial polarization by stretching. The laser performance remains unchanged after the stretching and restoration experiments. These results not only enable easy realization of an ultrathin flexible plasmonic random laser but also provide insights into the mechanisms of three-dimensional plasmonic feedback random lasers.


The rate of export growth of China's high-tech products is much higher than that of the world in the period of 1995-2010,which is not only due to the rise of competitiveness in each individual market,but also to the changes of export structure(product structure and geographical structure).The CMSA(Constant Market Share Analysis) formulation used in this work takes the elements above into account,and the assessment of CMSA shows that the main contribution to changes of market share is the competitiveness effect,however,the structure effect is marginal.In addition,a further breakdown of structure effect shows that product effects are almost negative in the studied period.It indicates that China's products structure of export is not rational in the long term,or that the export is concentrated on the products whose demands grow slower,Therefore,updating the structures of export products is the important way to expand exports.


Urban Solid Waste Management (USWM) is one of the components that influences in the sustainable cities. It is a fundamental factor in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2030 agenda. This paper work aims to validate a mathematical model for solid waste generation and to estimate the economic loss due lack of recycling in the city of Campo Grande, State of Mato Grosso do Sul/Brazil. The model adopted was developed by Dias et. al. (2012), which allows projecting the mass of waste to be generated by the inhabitants from socioeconomic indicators, such as per capita income, social classes and size of population in a specific urban territory. Besides, waste composition was analyzed to determinate the value and share of the gravimetric characterization, in order to estimate the economic loss in areas, which there are no selective collection of Household Solid Waste (HSW). The model showed strong adherence, when compared to the real mass of HSW collected. The economic loss due to selective collection approaches nearly 9.6 million US$, or about 11 US$ per person per year. The study can provide support for economic evaluation of project sand public policies related to USWM executed in any other city with similar characteristics.


We report 2 patients with chondrosarcoma of the chest wall. They were a 67-year-old woman (case 1) with an anterior chest wall tumor and a 68-year-old woman (case 2) with a painful rib tumor. Their computed tomography (CT) both revealed calcified tumors. Case 1 underwent a wide resection by partial sternectomy, with free surgical margins. Case 2 underwent tumor resection with the posterior part of the 3rd rib, with positive surgical margin in the vertebral site, and received adjuvant radiotherapy. Both patients were pathologically diagnosed as having grade II chondrosarcoma. In their postoperative courses, they are free from recurrence. Wide resection is likely to be the key to successful management of chest wall chondrosarcoma.


Today, there is an explosion of discoveries related to a growing understanding of the role of microbial communities, key species of bacteria, products or metabolites derived from commensals, and in particular the relationship between some of these components and painful conditions in humans. Microbiota plays a fundamental role in the induction, training and functioning of the host's immune system. In turn, the immune system has evolved significantly as a means of maintaining the host's symbiotic relations with these very diverse and developing microbes. At optimal performance, this alliance of the immune system and microbiota allows to induce protective reactions to pathogens and maintain regulatory pathways involved in maintaining tolerance to harmless antigens. In this review, we outline the role of the intestinal microbiota in the immune system, starting with initial information supporting further insights into the effects of intestinal microbiota dysbacteriosis on the host's susceptibility to infection. Probiotics are considered a good form of therapy to control harmful intestinal microorganisms, improve digestion and the absorption of nutrients. The beneficial effects of probiotics have been demonstrated in many diseases. One of the main mechanisms of probiotics is the regulation of the immune response of the host. The article reviews and discusses the regulatory role of probiotics in the "intestine-lungs" system and the immune system of mucous membranes for potential antiviral mechanisms. The unique role of probiotics in modulation of intestinal microbes and establishment of intestinal homeostasis and production of interferon as antiviral mechanism is described. In addition, the regulatory role of probiotics in the system «intestine-lungs» and the immune system of the mucous membranes for potential antiviral mechanisms, including in COVID-19 is considered and discussed. Symbiotic products Bac-Set® Forte and Bac-Set® Cold/Flu are described.


Two studies were performed during Ramadan, one in the UK (N=31) and the other in Libya (N=33). The aims were to assess some changes to lifestyle that are produced by fasting as well as effects due to culture. Subjects were studied on eight separate occasions: four control days (two before and two after Ramadan) and four days during the four weeks of Ramadan itself. A questionnaire was answered that asked about naps and fluid and food intake. The questions elicited if an individual had slept, drank, or eaten, plus the reasons for doing or not doing so. Also, subjects were asked to describe their physical, mental, and social activities, their fatigue, and their perceived abilities to perform physical or mental work. The questionnaire was answered five times per day: at sunrise, at 10:00 h, at 14:00 h, at sunset, and on retiring to sleep at night. Urine samples were collected at sunset and measured for osmolality. Differences between control and Ramadan days, as well as between subjects studied in UK and Libya, were assessed by analysis of variance. Correlations between fatigue and physical, mental, and social activities were also assessed, as were differences in urine osmolality. Fasting during Ramadan resulted in fewer activities and increased fatigue and frequency of napping during daytime. Changes in fluid and food intake indicated some degree of preparation for fasting before sunrise and a marked "recuperation" from fasting after sunset. The reasons given for napping in the daytime, for drinking or not drinking, and for eating or not eating, changed during Ramadan compared with control days; as a result, links between fatigue and activities, and fatigue and fluid and food intake, were all altered during Ramadan, particularly after sunset. Subjects become dehydrated during the daytime, but this was not reduced when females who were menstruating drank during this time. Several differences between the two studies were found. There was a greater frequency of napping during the daytime in the Libya study, and evidence for the conservation of energy during the daytime and reduced physical, mental, and social activities. Subjects' preparations for fasting and recovering from it—their fluid and food intakes and associated reasons for these—also differed. Possible explanations of these differences are discussed. (Author correspondence: email@example.com)


Voting Deliberatively: FDR and the 1936 Presidential Election Campaign. By Mary E. Stuckey. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015. 154 pp. When considering Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential campaigns, the first one likely to come to mind is his trouncing of Herbert Hoover in 1932, an election that took place in the midst of the Great Depression and one in which Roosevelt defeated a highly unpopular Hoover by more than 17 percentage points in the popular vote and won the Electoral College by a margin of 413 votes. Roosevelt's famed First Hundred Days and myriad legislative accomplishments in his first term set up his even more lopsided defeat of Kansas governor Alf Landon in the election of 1936. This time, Roosevelt received over 60 percent of the popular vote while winning all but two states. FDR's triumph in 1936 is often seen as simply the second of four decisive campaigns, as well as an affirmation that he was one of the most popular presidents of the modern era. But Mary E. Stuckey's Voting Deliberatively suggests that the 1936 election was more than a mere stepping stone in Roosevelt's storied political career. Stuckey argues that the election of 1936 was, in fact, fraught with uncertainty, as criticism of Roosevelt from both the Left and the Right was unceasing, and continued economic uncertainty, high unemployment, and political upheaval left the election as anything but a foregone conclusion. More importantly, though, Stuckey argues that it was also a watershed moment in American politics, one that ushered in several new elements of political campaigning that are still with us today. To Stuckey, the election of 1936 is an under-examined, yet important moment in American history. Dissecting Roosevelt's campaign into its various features, Voting Deliberatively identifies four pioneering and intentional strategies that Roosevelt and his aides employed: new ways of assessing public opinion; the mobilization of voters through what we now refer to as a "ground game"; identifying and segmenting blocks of voters by group affiliation (women, blue collar, Protestant, etc.); and employing persuasive appeals that signaled a new kind of presidential rhetoric, one that was both authoritative and deeply personal. According to Stuckey, Roosevelt's 1936 campaign was the first to use both anecdotal and nominally scientific means of understanding the concerns and attitudes of the American public. Stuckey describes the various ways in which Roosevelt's team members embarked on an unprecedented data collection program that allowed them to quantitatively assess both the electorate as a whole and individual demographic slices of the American populace--advances that Stuckey argues had both positive and negative ramifications for American democracy. …


This paper explores teachers' representations about a psychopedagogical intervention in a school environment. The descriptive study was conducted through ad hoc surveys. Sixty five teachers from five Argentinean elementary and secondary public schools participated. Schools were chosen because they had services of psycho-pedagogy as from three years ago, at least. The results showed that teachers represented the psycho-pedagogical interventions as a rehabilitation of the learning disabilities supported by individual therapeutic mechanisms and curricular adaptations. The collaborative practices between teachers and psychopedagogists were few. However, most teachers showed strong expectations about this relationship. The importance to change the classic approach about scholarly psychopedagogy and promotion of scholarly strategies based on educational and psychosocial models is discussed.


Restraint stress induces permeability changes in the small intestine, but little is known about the role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in the defects of the TJ function. In the present study, we used tumor necrosis factor-R1 knockout mice (TNF-alpha-R1KO) to understand the roles of TNF-alpha on ileum altered permeability function in models of immobilization stress. The genetic TNF-alpha inhibition significantly reduced the degree of 1) TNF-alpha production in ileum tissues; 2) the alteration of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), claudin-2, claudin-4, claudin-5, and beta-catenin (immunohistochemistry); and 3) apoptosis (TUNEL staining, Bax, Bcl-2 expression). Taken together, our results demonstrate that inhibition of TNF-alpha reduces the tight junction permeability in the ileum tissues associated with immobilization stress, suggesting a possible role of TNF-alpha on ileum barrier dysfunction.


The incidence of cervical metastases after surgery for Stages I/II carcinoma of the tongue is 30‐40%. Postoperative cervical metastases are an adverse prognostic factor for patients with this malignancy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinicopathologic factors associated with late cervical metastases in patients with carcinoma of the tongue.


This paper develops a foundation of methodology and theory for nonparametric regression with Lie group-valued predictors contaminated by measurement errors. Our methodology and theory are based on harmonic analysis on Lie groups, which is largely unknown in statistics. We establish a novel deconvolution regression estimator, and study its rate of convergence and asymptotic distribution. We also provide asymptotic confidence intervals based on the asymptotic distribution of the estimator and on the empirical likelihood technique. Several theoretical properties are also studied for a deconvolution density estimator, which is necessary to construct our regression estimator. The case of unknown measurement error distribution is also cov-ered. We present practical details on implementation as well as the results of simulation studies for several Lie groups. A real data example is also provided.


For AML patients with positive pre-transplant minimal residual disease (MRD), determined by multicolor flow cytometry (MFC), haploidentical stem cell transplantation (haplo-SCT) could achieve lower CIR rates than human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling donor transplantation (MSDT) (J Hematol Oncol. 2017;10(1):134).However, these data only provide indirect evidence supporting the idea that haplo-SCT might have a strong graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect compared with MSDT. Therefore, direct evidence is needed to determine whether treating AML with haplo-SCT has a stronger GVL effect.
 The real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) has greater sensitivity and specificity than MFC for detecting leukemia-specific genes, such as RUNX1/RUNX1T1, and provides a better estimation of the leukemia burden. Based on the levels of RUNX1/RUNX1T1 transcripts determined by RT-PCR, our group found that treating high risk cases with t(8;21) AML, who did not achieve major molecular remission (MMR, defined as a >3-log reduction in RUNX1/RUNX1T1 transcripts), with allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) could reduce the CIR compared with chemotherapy alone (22.1% vs 78.9%, P < 0.0001). These findings suggest that allo-SCT is necessary for high-risk t(8;21) AML patients, which provides an opportunity to investigate whether haplo-SCT has a superior GVL effect compared with MSDT in treating AML. Therefore, we focused on t(8;21) AML cases with positive MRD pre-transplant who underwent allogeneic SCT. The purpose of this study was to investigate and provide direct evidence that a haploidentical allograft has superior anti-leukemia effects compared with a HLA-matched sibling allograft.
 In the present study, One hundred and thirty-five t(8;21) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with positive pre-transplantation minimal residual disease who underwent a haplo-SCT or MSDT were enrolled in this study. The levels of RUNX1/RUNX1T1 transcripts were monitored and quantified by real-time quantitative PCR. The 3-year cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR), non-relapse mortality (NRM), leukemia-free survival (LFS), and overall survival (OS) were 19%, 21%, 60%, and 61%, respectively. The levels of RUNX1/RUNX1T1 were significantly lower in Haplo-SCT patients compared with MSDT patients at 60 (P=0.039) and 90 (P=0.004) days after transplant (Figure 1). Compared with pre-transplant, the leukemia burden in the haplo-SCT group was significantly more reduced than in the MSDT group at 30 (P=0.068), 60 (P=0.005), 90 (P<0.0001), and 180 (P=0.032) days after transplant. The 3-year CIR rates for the haplo-SCT and MSDT patients were 14% and 28%, respectively (P=0.036). The 3-year LFS (68% vs. 47%, P=0.025) and OS (71% vs. 48%, P=0.040) after haplo-SCT were significantly higher than the rates after MSDT. In multivariate analysis, haplo-SCT was associated with a lower incidence of relapse (HR: 0.141; P=0.001) and a better LFS (HR: 0.187; P<0.0001) and OS (HR: 0.215; P=0.001). Our results provide direct evidence that a haplo-SCT has stronger graft-versus-leukemia effects than MSDT in patients with t (8;21) AML by significantly reducing the leukemia burden.
 Figure 1. Kinetics of log-transformed leukemia burden reduction (evaluated by RT-PCR for RUNX1/RUNX1T1) in all patients and subgroup cases who either received haplo-SCT or MSDT, using a repeated measures ANOVA.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The main aim of this review is to provide an overview of the garlic crop productivity and its production management requirements like soil, climate and fertilization in general and specifically in Ethiopia, comparing them with current research trends and to indicate future benefits of soil nutrient management investigations. The application of balanced nutrients under optimum moisture availability in different soil types is an important crop management strategy, which may help maximizing crop yield and quality. Also, lack of optimum nutrients and moisture in the soil has been the major bottlenecks of garlic production and productivity; since the crop has a very shallow root system that requires frequent irrigation and fertilization with different types of fertilizers under various soil types. Low soil fertility is one of the principal and pervasive constraints to garlic production in Ethiopia; thus, there are differences among soil types in yielding ability under different nutrients and soil characteristics. Most smallholder farmers in Ethiopia appreciate the value of fertilizers, but they seldom apply them at the recommended rates and at the appropriate time according to the soil characteristics. These are because of high cost, lack of credit, delivery delays, and low and variable returns. In addition, the traditional organic inputs, like crop residues and animal manures, it cannot meet crop nutrient demand over large areas because of the limited quantities available, the low nutrient content of the materials, and the high labor demands for processing and application. However, it is possible to increase garlic crop yields through identification/selection of soil type and balanced nutrients application or searching for other nutrients sources beyond Urea and Diammonium phosphate especially in Ethiopian condition. Therefore, the integrated use of both the organic and inorganic fertilizers was felt as the best option to increase both yield potential and quality of garlic crop.


Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) play crucial roles in determining the extent of susceptibility to various diseases as well as actions of proteins involved in drug metabolism and transport. Statins are the first-line drugs for lowering cholesterol level and one of the commonly prescribed classes of drugs to patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). CVDs are the most prevalent cause of co-morbidity and mortality among patients with diabetes. Multiple studies have reported the diabetogenic effect of statins. rs1135840 and rs776746 are two SNPs that affect statin metabolism and consequently increase their concentration in the blood. We have developed a simple, reliable and cost-effective allele specific PCR (AS-PCR) based method to determine the genotypes at rs1135840 and rs776746 loci and applied to calculate the allele and genotypic frequencies in Bangladeshi population. Both rs1135840 and rs776746 variant alleles are present at high frequencies (0.43 and 0.36, respectively) in Bangladeshi population. Although the percentage of homozygous rs776746 variant genotype is relatively low (7.0%) in Bangladeshi population, homozygous rs1135840 variant frequency is quite high (22.0%). On the other hand, 21.94% and 2.55% of the Bangladeshi individuals are heterozygous and homozygous, respectively, for both variant alleles. The AS-PCR method described here may be used to optimize the dose of statin guided by an individual's genotype and, therefore, increase the efficacy of statin treatment.


PURPOSE
To investigate the in vitro dehydration process of conventional hydrogel and silicone-hydrogel contact lens materials.

METHODS
Eight conventional hydrogel and five silicone-hydrogel contact lenses were dehydrated under controlled environmental conditions on an analytical balance. Data were taken at 1-min intervals and dehydration curves of cumulative dehydration (CD), valid dehydration (VD), and dehydration rate (DR) were obtained. Several quantitative descriptors of the dehydration process were obtained by further processing of the information.

RESULTS
Duration of phase I (r(2) = 0.921), CD at end of phase I (r(2) = 0.971), time to achieve a DR of -1%/min (r(2) = 0.946) were strongly correlated with equilibrium water content (EWC) of the materials. For each individual sample, the VD at different time intervals can be accurately determined using a 2nd order regression equation (r(2) > 0.99 for all samples). The first 5 min of the dehydration process show a relatively uniform average CD of about -1.5%/min. After that, there was a trend towards higher average CD for the following 15 min as the EWC of the material increases (r(2) = 0.701). As a consequence, average VD for the first 5 min displayed a negative correlation with EWC (r(2) = 0.835), and a trend towards uniformization among CL materials for the following periods (r(2) = 0.014). Overall, silicone-hydrogel materials display a lower dehydration, but this seems to be primarily due to their lower EWC.

CONCLUSIONS
DR curves under the conditions of the present study can be described as a three-phase process. Phase I consists of a relatively uniform DR with a duration that ranges from 10 to almost 60 min and is strongly correlated with the EWC of the polymer as it is the CD during this phase. Overall, HEMA-based hydrogels dehydrate to a greater extent and faster than silicone-hydrogel materials. There are differences in water retention between lenses of similar water content and thickness that should be further investigated.