The AC susceptibility () of YBCO with and without intergrain coupling was measured in AC fields within 0.13 and 3.72 mT and frequencies from 20 Hz to 12.8 kHz. Intergrain coupling was eliminated by dispersing the powder in insulating varnish. For the coupled and uncoupled grains, the transition near TC is field independent, indicating that the fields used do not drive the sample into the mixed state. Thus, the and curves cannot be associated with vortex motion. In , a peak near TC due to the intragrain response increases with applied AC field for both coupled and uncoupled grains. For the sample with sufficient grain coupling, a peak below TC shifts to low temperatures with increase in field. We attribute to eddy currents and explain its behaviour by taking into account the effect of the temperature dependence of the penetration depth and the electrical resistance on the eddy currents.


Dissenting in United States v. Alexander nearly 45 years ago, Judge David Bazelon famously asserted that, as a matter of basic morality, evidence that a criminal defendant had suffered a life of severe economic deprivation &a "Rotten Social "ackground$" or "RS""% ought to be factored into the assessment of that defendant's guilt. "ut though the moral arguments for a poverty defense are strong, no court or legislature has ever recognized RSB. Certainly, political and utilitarian considerations have played a role in obstructing RS"'s recognition$ but the most significant obstacles are likely epistemic: a criminal justice system organized around individualized conceptions of agency and responsibility lacks reliable tools for evaluating the degree to which socioeconomic conditions are responsible for any given crime. The emerging theory of "scarcity$" a hybrid *ith roots in both cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, reveals a direct causal relationship between urgent financial need and the sorts of cognitive impairment that the Anglo-American criminal law has traditionally recognized as excusing. This Article argues that, in light of these new social-scientific insights, the moral goals of RS"'s proponents might be substantially advanced by means of a relatively minor expansion of traditional excuse doctrine, which would permit triers of fact to factor evidence of socioeconomic disadvantage into the assessment of guilt using epistemic techniques and language familiar to the criminal law. The Article frames out the practical mechanics of such a scarcity defense, and further shows how the logic of scarcity might yield new approaches to the political and utilitarian objections that dogged classic RSB.


Microfluidic devices are useful tools for healthcare, biological and chemical analysis and materials synthesis amongst fields that can benefit from the unique physics of these systems. In this paper we studied inertial focusing as a tool for hydrodynamic sorting of particles by size. Theory and experimental results are provided as a background for a discussion on how to extend the technology to submicron particles. Different geometries and dimensions of microchannels were designed and simulation data was compared to the experimental results.


Keeping a pace with Quorum sensing, analyzing communication shows the close co-evolution of fungi with organisms present in their environment giving insights into multispecies communication. Subsequently, many examples of cell density dependent regulation by extracellular factors have been found in diverse microorganisms. The widespread incidence of diverse quorum-sensing systems strongly suggests that regulation in accordance with cell density is important for the success of microbes in many environments. The paper includes the basic autoregulatory quorum sensing molecules that has been perceived. Although fungal quorum sensing research is still in its infancy, its discovery has changed our views about the fungal kingdom and could eventually lead to the development of new antifungal therapeutics.


ABSTRACT Customer co-creation feeds from customer engagement, value recognition and experience appreciation. Tourists participation in the image communication of a destination in adversity is well documented along literature addressing their motivations and their reliability as information intelligence. What remains still vague is an exploration of the above dynamics in the case of destinations in sustained crisis hence the customer predispositions for destinations under an extended duration yet reduced intensity turbulent destination image. Using Lesvos (Greece) as a case study of a destination affected by refugee and immigrant mobilities since 2012, this paper explores those constructs affecting tourists' response and engagement in the formulation, promotion and hence co-creation of an affected destinations' cognitive and affective image. The theoretical contribution of the paper lies in the exploration of the conscious and unconscious tourist triggers that could promote the co-repair and co-restoration of a long-affected destination' image, with direct managerial implications both for destination and crisis management.


The SuperWASP project is an ultra wide angle search for extra solar planetary transits. However SuperWASP can also be used extensively for monitoring variable stars. Most white dwarfs are thought to be stable photometrically and are often used as calibration standards for optical and ultra-violet observations. However, a few white dwarfs are intrinsically variable. For example, the ZZ Ceti stars are non-radial pulsators with variability time scales of a few hundred seconds. White dwarfs in close, detached binaries, often display optical variability such as eclipses, from which radii can be determined, or the effects of reflection and irradiation on a low mass companion. Rare magnetic white dwarfs often display star-spots which rotate in and out of view, revealing the spin period of the star. SuperWASP will monitor several hundred white dwarfs brighter than ˜14th magnitude on time scales from 10 minutes to months. The majority of these stars have never previously been tested for photometric variability. These observations will reveal new close binary systems, particularly those with optically undetectable very low mass (brown dwarf) companions, and enable us to determine spin periods in magnetic degenerates, some of which are thought to have periods of months--years.


The electrochemical behaviour of phosphorus-doped cadmium telluride (phosphorus concentration, 8*1019 atoms/cm3) is investigated in the dark at pH 14. A comparison with results obtained with typical n-type and p-type CdTe shows the existence in the same wafer of grains presenting either n- or p-type conductivity. Using an appropriate potential range for the cyclic voltammetry (-2; +1 V) the difference in the electrochemical behaviour of the two types of grains is evidenced. N-type areas are smooth whereas p-type areas are rough and dull.


C57BL/6 inbred strain mice were instilled intranasally with
150 μg/day of the actinomycete Faeni rectivirgula three days a week as a model of farmer's lung disease.
Instilled mice developed a strong alveolitis manifested by a large increase in the number of cells in the
bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) (4.1 x 104 cells in saline controls versus 5.28x 105 cells in F rectivirgula-instilled
mice). This influx was associated with a substantial release of pro-inflanm1atory cytokine in the BAL; 170
U/mL of interleukin (IL)-1 in instilled mice whereas saline instilled mice had undetectable levels of cytokines
in the BAL. In addition, pulmonary fibrosis was evident in challenged mice at three weeks (twofold increase
in lung hydroxyproline levels). Infusion of a rabbit antimouse tumour necrosis factor-alpha was associated
with an almost complete abrogation of all markers of the disease. Also, administration of cyclosporine A
(50 mg/kg/day) partially prevented the alveolitis (P<0.01) and totally prevented cytokine release and lung
fibrosis in challenged mice. These findings underscore the tmmunological basis of hypersensitivity
pneumonitis, and suggest that antagonism of inflammatory cytokines may hold promise in the treatment
of this pathology.


OBJECTIVE
Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide (FENO) is a recently introduced non invasive marker to measure inflammation and oxidative stress in the lung. This study aimed to measure FENO in Saudi asthmatic adult patients who had mild to moderate persistent asthma, on inhaled short-acting? 2 agonists and compared them to healthy individuals matched for body composition without any evidence of obstructive airway disease.

METHODS
As per selection criteria 61 subjects were selected. 30 subjects were known asthmatic and 31 were healthy individuals matched for age, height, weight, BMI and body composition. Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), FVC, FEV1/ FVC, PEF, FEF25, FEF50 and FEF75 were measured by standard methods. FENO measurements were performed according to the ATS (American Thoracic Society) recommendations.

RESULTS
Ventillatory function parameters FEV1 (p = 0.0020), FVC (p = 0.0030), PEF (p = 0.0121), FEF25 (p = 0.0241), FEF50 (p = 0.0240) and FEF75 (p = 0.1824) were significantly lower in asthmatic subjects compared to matched healthy control group. FENO was significantly higher (82.51 +/- 39.26) in asthmatic subjects compared to control group (23.03 +/- 8.56) p < 0.0000)

CONCLUSION
FENO levels are increased in patients with bronchial asthma with mild to moderate symptoms taking bronchodilators on demand only. It may be suggestive of the need for more accurate evaluation and early intervention with anti inflammatory drugs in a significant proportion of these patients.


The printed wide band monopole antenna having characteristics of dipole by modified coplanar wave guide(CPW) ground plane is presented. We are called a slot-arm printed monopole antenna and investigated the effect of the surface currents of the radiator on ground plane. The proposed antenna is treated as two asymmetric dipoles with the included angle of 90° degrees which lie along Z-direction symmetrically. It is observed that the effect of the surface currents on the radiation patterns is similar to that of the corresponding dipole. The length and width of the ground plane correspond the radius and length of the dipole respectively. This approach is also valid to general printed monopole antennas. The simulation impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna the range of 2.4 to 4.6 [㎓] for a voltage stand wave ratio (VSWR)≤2 and got pick gain of 6 [㏈i]. So the proposed antenna is satisfied the requirement of the industry science medical (ISM) band operation.


Recent crystallographic studies of phi29 DNA polymerase have provided structural insights into its strand displacement and processivity. A specific insertion named terminal protein region 2 (TPR2), present only in protein-primed DNA polymerases, together with the exonuclease, thumb, and palm subdomains, forms two tori capable of interacting with DNA. To analyze the functional role of this insertion, we constructed a phi29 DNA polymerase deletion mutant lacking TPR2 amino acid residues Asp-398 to Glu-420. Biochemical analysis of the mutant DNA polymerase indicates that its DNA-binding capacity is diminished, drastically decreasing its processivity. In addition, removal of the TPR2 insertion abolishes the intrinsic capacity of phi29 DNA polymerase to perform strand displacement coupled to DNA synthesis. Therefore, the biochemical results described here directly demonstrate that TPR2 plays a critical role in strand displacement and processivity.


Pedagogical agents are animated life-like characters designed to facilitate learning in computer-mediated learning environments (Johnson, Rickel, & Lester, 2000). As a social human-computer-interface, pedagogical agents have a unique potential to address diverse learning situations and diverse learners. Using two different research designs, we have found that agent image can play a key role in motivating learners. The first study examined how learners' gender and ethnicity influenced their choice of pedagogical agents how they perceived the persona of the chosen agents (see Baylor, Shen, & Huang, 2003). 183 undergraduates from two southeast universities participated in the study and were provided eight agents (see Table 1) to choose from, each differing by gender (male, female), ethnicity (African American, Caucasian), and realism (realistic, cartoon).


Video-image representations of body size were measured on a television monitor that was modified to give a display continuum that ranged from 50% under- to 50% over-estimation of objective size. Sixty-eight females who were undergoing weight reduction counseling were measured before and after treatment. All Ss judged themselves to be significantly more obese than they actually were, with a tendency for errors to be greatest among the more obese Ss. After therapy, more realistic estimates of their physiques ensued. A drop-out rate of 23% was recorded; the drop-outs saw themselves as significantly more obese than those who graduated from the program.


Abstract Originating from philosophy and science, many different ideas have made their way into educational policies. Educational policies often take such ideas completely out of context, and enforce them as general norms to every aspect of education; even opposing ideals make their way into school's curricula, teaching techniques, assignments, and procedures. Meanwhile, inside the actual classrooms, teachers and students are left in limbo, trying to comply with, techniques, evaluation forms and a growing technical educational vocabulary. Here I would like to propose an antidote to this absurdity by reminding us what teachers and students already know. Such an antidote can be found in J. L. Austin's speech act theory. In this paper, I propose we revisit speech act theory and treat it as an educational theory. That might help us dismantle false dichotomies troubling education for decades. The point is not that the discussion over educational policies and priorities should stop, but that it should be kept in appropriate perspective. A modified speech act theory can help us facilitate such a perspective.


Crowdsourcing has emerged as a paradigm for leveraging human intelligence and activity to solve a wide range of tasks. However, strategic workers will find enticement in their self-interest to free-ride and attack in a crowdsourcing contest dilemma game. Hence, incentive mechanisms are of great importance to overcome the inefficiency of the socially undesirable equilibrium. Existing incentive mechanisms are not effective in providing incentives for cooperation in crowdsourcing competitions due to the following features: heterogeneous workers compete against each other in a crowdsourcing platform with imperfect monitoring. In this paper, we take these features into consideration, and develop a novel game-theoretic design of rating protocols, which integrates binary rating labels with differential pricing to maximize the requester's utility, by extorting selfish workers and enforcing cooperation among them. By quantifying necessary and sufficient conditions for the sustainable social norm, we formulate the problem of maximizing the revenue of the requester among all sustainable rating protocols, provide design guidelines for optimal rating protocols, and design a low-complexity algorithm to select optimal design parameters which are related to differential punishments and pricing schemes. Simulation results demonstrate how intrinsic parameters impact on design parameters, as well as the performance gain of the proposed rating protocol.


For the original article see ibid., vol. 41, no. 4, p. 652-7 (1993). In the aforementioned paper by P. Kwan and C. Vittoria, the commenter considers that the three scattering matrices of the novel nonreciprocal coupling structure and the numbers of independent scattering parameters presented are obtained incorrectly. He proposes a method allowing one to find relations between elements of matrices [S], [Y], and IZ] of symmetrical structures with girotropic media. The scattering matrices and the number of their independent parameters of a nonreciprocal 4-port structure are derived. In reply, Vittoria states that certain matrices in his and Kwan's paper represent a concise and compact description of the experimental data. The matrices do not represent their theory or modeling of the data. It is the "raw" data of the experiments. Additionally, the authors take the opportunity to make a number of corrections to their paper. >


Robots are expected to carry out complex plans in real world environments. This requires the robot to track the progress of plan execution and detect failures which may occur. Planners use very abstract world models to generate plans. Additional causal, temporal, categorical knowledge about the execution, which is not included in the planner's model, is often avail- able. Can we use this knowledge to increase robustness of execution and provide early failure detection? We propose to use a dedicated Execution Model to monitor the executed plan based on runtime observations and rich execution knowl- edge. We show that the combined used of causal, temporal and categorical knowledge allows the robot to detect failures even when the effects of actions are not directly observable. A dedicated Execution model also introduces a degree of mod- ularity, since the platform- and execution-specific knowledge does not need to be encoded into the planner.


ABSTRACT This article revisits various ideas from the literature on children's spirituality which have elicited less attention in recent years, notably those of researchers who emphasise the contexts of children's lives and those whose research uses children's narratives. Key aspects meriting further investigation and research are suggested, especially the idea of the spirituality(ies) of societies, rather than only of individuals, and the importance of children's agency and narratives. It is argued that spirituality should be seen as a process rather than a thing, or a set of practices; and that considerations of power, notably factors such as gender, race, class and age, are too rarely addressed. Some cautionary words about the current discourse in children's spirituality and suggestions for how research should be conducted are presented, calling for a less individualised view with more emphasis on context and culture and on how the manifestations of children's spirituality vary at different ages.


Multiple pitch estimation consists of estimating the fundamental frequencies and saliences of pitched sounds over short time frames of an audio signal. This task forms the basis of several applications in the particular context of musical audio. One approach is to decompose the short-term magnitude spectrum of the signal into a sum of basis spectra representing individual pitches scaled by time-varying amplitudes, using algorithms such as nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). Prior training of the basis spectra is often infeasible due to the wide range of possible musical instruments. Appropriate spectra must then be adaptively estimated from the data, which may result in limited performance due to overfitting issues. In this paper, we model each basis spectrum as a weighted sum of narrowband spectra representing a few adjacent harmonic partials, thus enforcing harmonicity and spectral smoothness while adapting the spectral envelope to each instrument. We derive a NMF-like algorithm to estimate the model parameters and evaluate it on a database of piano recordings, considering several choices for the narrowband spectra. The proposed algorithm performs similarly to supervised NMF using pre-trained piano spectra but improves pitch estimation performance by 6% to 10% compared to alternative unsupervised NMF algorithms.


We present an extensive study of symmetric Boolean functions, especially of their cryptographic properties. Our main result establishes the link between the periodicity of the simplified value vector of a symmetric Boolean function and its degree. Besides the reduction of the amount of memory required for representing a symmetric function, this property has some consequences from a cryptographic point of view. For instance, it leads to a new general bound on the order of resiliency of symmetric functions, which improves Siegenthaler's bound. The propagation characteristics of these functions are also addressed and the algebraic normal forms of all their derivatives are given. We finally detail the characteristics of the symmetric functions of degree at most 7, for any number of variables. Most notably, we determine all balanced symmetric functions of degree less than or equal to 7.


Abstract. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), most of the major
glaciated basins of the European Southern Alps had piedmont lobes with large
outwash plains; only a few glaciers remained within the valley. Piedmont
glaciers have left well-preserved terminal moraines, which allow for investigations to be carried out and
inferences to be made regarding their evolution and chronology. Valley glaciers' remnants, on the contrary,
are often scantly preserved, and changes can only be detected through
correlations with glaciofluvial deposits in downstream alluvial basins.
The Brenta glacial system's dynamics in the glacier's terminal tract have been inferred
through a wide range of sediment analysis techniques on an alluvial
stratigraphic record of the Brenta megafan (northeast Italy), and via the mapping of
in-valley glacial/glaciofluvial remnants. Glaciers flowing across narrow
gorges could possibly be slowed/blocked by such morphology, and
glacial/sediment fluxes may then be diverted to lateral valleys. Moreover, narrow
valleys may induce glaciers to bulge and form icefalls at their front,
preventing the formation of terminal moraines. The Brenta Glacier was
probably slowed/blocked by the narrow Valsugana Gorge downstream of
Primolano and was effectively diverted eastwards across a wind gap (Canal La
Menor Valley), joining the Cismon/Piave glaciers near Rocca and ending
∼2 km downstream. The Cismon and Piave catchments started to
contribute to the Brenta system just after 27 ka cal BP until at least
∼19.5 ka cal BP. After the glaciers collapsed, the Piave River once
again flowed into its main valley, whilst the Cismon continued to merge with
the Brenta. This investigation shows that glacial catchments may vary significantly over
time during a single glaciation in rugged Alpine terrains. Sand petrography
and the chemical/mineralogical composition of sediments are powerful proxies
for tracing such variations, as they propagate through the glacial and
glaciofluvial systems and can be recognized in the alluvial stratigraphic
record far downstream from the glacier front.


Waveform analysis of compound muscle action potential (CMAP) is important in the detailed analysis of conduction velocities of each axon as seen in temporal dispersion. This understanding is limited because conduction velocity distribution cannot be easily available from a CMAP waveform. Given the recent advent of artificial intelligence, this study aimed to assess whether conduction velocity (CV) distribution can be inferred from CMAP by the use of deep learning algorithms. Simulated CMAP waveforms were constructed from a single motor unit potential and randomly created CV histograms (n = 12,000). After training the data with various recurrent neural networks (RNNs), CV inference was tested by the network. Among simple RNNs, long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent unit, the best accuracy and loss profiles, were shown by two-layer bidirectional LSTM, with training and validation accuracies of 0.954 and 0.975, respectively. Training with the use of a recurrent neural network can accurately infer conduction velocity distribution in a wide variety of simulated demyelinating neuropathies. Using deep learning techniques, CV distribution can be assessed in a non-invasive manner.


Two digital spectroscopy systems have been developed to handle high rate events in active interrogation applications. In the first system, signal from a PMT is directly digitized by a digitizer and then processed on a PC offline, using deconvolution method. By bypassing the preamplifier, this system can handle extremely high count rate without sacrificing energy resolution very much. To reduce the amount of data needed to be transferred between the DAQ system and the PC, another system is developed based on fast ADC and FPGA. In addition to the merits of the first system, real-time DSP is implemented on the FPGA chip and energy spectrum is generated simultaneously during the measurement. Systems are used in photofission experiments utilizing a 6 MeV pulse mode radiation therapy LINAC and nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) experiments utilizing a 3 MeV Van de Graff accelerator. Delayed gamma rays from photofission products are measured in between interrogation pulses. Resonant peaks from NRF reaction are observed in various samples.


This paper focuses on an essential action present in every current
architecture practise, which is looking. Instead of reflecting from a global
point of view, this mechanism is situated by taking my own situation as a
researcher and architect as a starting point. Four themes are looked at:
environment, multitude, fragmentation and perspective.


Written by Sakinah Ramli, this book can be a useful guide to the wives and prospective wives in the face of married life with her husband and children loved. Beauty is something that is desired by every human being. Similarly, a husband, he also desire a beautiful wife or at least be able to build up and look like beautiful women. Despite the varied beauty of the husband, it must be maintained because the best of beauty is a pretty manners and courtesy. Beauty has a wide interpretation and it depends on the individual. In his book entitled "Action For Success", Helen Gurley Brown reveals beauty as "Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork - reading, writing, thinking -can."


In vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) of renal excretory clearance (CLR) using the physiologically based kidney models can provide mechanistic insight into the interplay of multiple processes occurring in the renal tubule; however, the ability of these models to capture quantitatively the impact of perturbed conditions (e.g., urine flow, urine pH changes) on CLR has not been fully evaluated. In this work, we aimed to assess the predictability of the effect of urine flow and urine pH on CLR and tubular drug concentrations (selected examples). Passive diffusion clearance across the nephron tubule membrane was scaled from in vitro human epithelial cell line Caco-2 permeability data by nephron tubular surface area to predict the fraction reabsorbed and the CLR of caffeine, chloramphenicol, creatinine, dextroamphetamine, nicotine, sulfamethoxazole, and theophylline. CLR values predicted using mechanistic kidney model at a urinary pH of 6.2 and 7.4 resulted in prediction bias of 2.87- and 3.62-fold, respectively. Model simulations captured urine flow–dependent CLR, albeit with minor underprediction of the observed magnitude of change. The relationship between drug solubility, urine flow, and urine pH, illustrated in simulated intratubular concentrations of acyclovir and sulfamethoxazole, agreed with clinical data on tubular precipitation and crystal-induced acute kidney injury. This study represents the first systematic evaluation of the ability of the mechanistic kidney model to capture the impact of urine flow and urine pH on CLR and drug tubular concentrations with the aim of facilitating refinement of IVIVE-based mechanistic prediction of renal excretion.


Background The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, developed by the National Institutes of Health in the USA, has been shown in both observational and experimental studies to reduce blood pressure, prevent chronic disease and reduce body weight. Despite its effectiveness it has not been promoted in the UK, although previous work has shown its cultural appropriateness and effectiveness in reducing blood pressure in a UK sample. In this study we characterised accordance with the DASH diet in a representative UK sample for the first time. Methods We analysed the four-day dietary intakes of 1491 adults (650 men, 841 women) included in years 1–3 of the rolling programme of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). We assessed DASH accordance using a score that has been shown to be strongly associated with disease incidence. To derive this accordance score we ranked NDNS participants by intake of eight foods and nutrients, adjusted for energy, and assigned between one and five points for each food/nutrient group based on their consumption quintile. These points were summed to create the final score with a range between eight (least accordant) to 40 (most accordant). We used survey-weighted linear regression to estimate mean age-adjusted accordance scores for men and women and estimated sex-adjusted scores for a range of age-groups. Age- and sex-adjusted accordance scores were estimated for three different indicators of individual-level socio-economic status: household income, occupational class and qualification level. Results The mean DASH accordance score for the population was 24.9 (standard deviation 5.6), and was significantly higher in women (mean 25.8, 95% CI 25.5–26.2) than men (mean 23.6, 95% CI 23.2–23.9). DASH accordance varied by age group, with those aged 19–34 years the least DASH accordant (mean 22.4, 95% CI 21.9–22.9) and those aged 55–64 the most (mean 26.6, 95% CI 25.9–27.2). DASH accordance was significantly higher in higher socio-economic status (SES) groups and lower in lower SES groups across all three measures of SES. The greatest difference between the highest and lowest categories was in occupational class (27.4 vs. 21.5 in the highest versus lowest groups, respectively) and the least in household income (26.5 vs. 23.1). Conclusion Accordance with the DASH diet varies by demographic and socio-economic characteristics in the UK population, revealing a social gradient in diet quality. Promoting the adoption of DASH diets could be part of a broader, population-based approach to prevent chronic disease but the observed gradient indicates that barriers may exist to the adoption of DASH diets.


Avian species are extremely diverse in their lifetime reproductive patterns and strategies. Because of this diversity, it is often difficult to ascertain the environmental triggers that regulate reproduction. This becomes a critical issue for captive birds that become reproductive at sporadic intervals or develop pathologic conditions associated with inappropriate hypothalamic pituitary gonadal axis (HPG) activation. The HPG axis affects all stages in the life cycle: organization of the axis during embryonic and perinatal periods, activation during sexual maturation, peak reproductive function in the adult, and declining reproductive function during aging. At each of these stages, the HPG axis responds in an age- and species-specific manner. This article reviews some of these differences in the HPG axis associated with age and stage of the life cycle. The focus is the neuroendocrine regulation of reproduction at the level of the hypothalamus, since this region of the brain modulates both endocrine and behavioral components of reproduction in many birds. Further, neuroendocrine modulation of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) system is similar in birds and mammals. As such, clinical applications in mammals that modulate the GnRH system to resolve reproductive dysfunctions also provide useful information for bird reproductive disorders. Some of this literature on the use of GnRH agonists and antagonists in mammals is discussed in light of clinical applications in birds.


The light and electron microscopic appearance of venom glands from two Siamese cobra snakes with a history of production of poor-quality venom was determined. Light microscopy revealed degeneration and necrosis of patches of columnar epithelial cells of glands and infiltration of the subepithelium by inflammatory cells. The lumina contained debris, venom, and necrotic cells. Electron microscopy revealed a deficiency of microvilli on the luminal surfaces of both degenerated and necrotic epithelial cells. The lumina contained fragmented microvilli, coated vesicles containing venom, and degenerated and necrotic cells. Naked and enveloped herpesvirus-like particles were seen in necrotic and ruptured cells. Occasionally, naked herpesvirus-like particles were seen in the nuclei of attached epithelial cells. It was concluded that herpesvirus-like infection of the venom gland was the probable cause of the production of poor-quality venom.


Diabetic Nephropathy (DN) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and its prevalence is continuously increasing in industrialized nations. Hyperglycemias,hyperlipidaemia and hypertension are underline factors that are addressed in the progression of diabetic nephropathy. Glomerular injury is linked to an increase in lipoprotein synthesis and a decrease in peripheral lipoprotein catabolism. These abnormalities often lead to marked increases in total plasma cholesterol concentrations, particularly very low-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) fractions. The extracellular mesangial matrix is capable of binding considerable amounts of LDL or modified LDL. Cross linking of mesangial matrix with LDL, mimicking the progression of glomerular lesion in DN. At present, no promising therapy is available to treat patients with DN due to lack of understanding of mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of nephropathy. Through this review we are trying to explore the, use of cholesterol lowering therapies, which will provide potential therapeutic benefit to diabetic nephropathy.


This paper focuses on intervention effects obtained by embedding a topic constituent (either a displaced topic or a clitic left-dislocated topic) within the domain of wh-movement. We present the results of two acceptability judgment tests carried out in European Portuguese (EP), which indicate that only a subset of the constructions in which a topic intervenes in the path of wh-movement is judged acceptable by native speakers. The pattern that emerges can be described by the following generalization: (1) A wh-movement dependency may contain a topicalized or clitic left-dislocated constituent in its scope iff the full topic-(cl)-gap dependency is contained within the path of wh-movement. This generalization indicates that a version of the no crossing constraint (e.g., Fodor 1978; Pesetsky 1982) holds in these configurations. We discuss the challenges faced by a purely syntactic account of (1) and suggest that a more promising line of an approach is one that attempts to derive (1) from processing constraints.


Infection of bone tissue, or osteomyelitis, has become a growing concern in modern healthcare due in no small part to a rise in antibiotic resistance among bacteria, notably Staphylococcus aureus. The current standard of care involves aggressive, prolonged antibiotic therapy combined with surgical debridement of infected tissues. While this treatment may be sufficient for resolving a portion of cases, recurrences of the infection and associated risks including toxicity with long‐term antibiotic usage have been reported. Therefore, there exists a need to produce safer, more efficacious options of treatment for osteomyelitis. In order to test treatment regimens, animal models that closely mimic the clinical condition and allow for accurate evaluation of therapeutics are necessary. Establishing a model that replicates features of osteomyelitis in humans continues to be a challenge to scientists, as there are many variables involved, including choosing an appropriate species and method to establish infection. This review addresses the refinement of animal models of osteomyelitis to reflect the clinical disease and test prospective therapeutics. The aim of this review is to explore studies regarding the use of animals for osteomyelitis therapeutics research and encourage further development of such animal models for the translation of results from the animal experiment to human medicine.


Objective Exposing tumor antigens to the immune system is the key to ensuring the efficacy of immunotherapy. SBRT is the main way to reveal the specifical antigens of tumors which can enhance the immune response. We aimed to explore the clinical efficacy and safety of Toripalimab combined with Anlotinib for uHCC after SBRT. Methods This is a prospective, single-arm, explorative clinical study. uHCC patients with an ECOG PS score of 0–1, Child–Pugh class A or B, and BCLC stage B or C were included and treated with SBRT(8Gy*3) followed by 6-cycle combinational therapy with Toripalimab and Anlotinib. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) and the secondary endpoints were objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), and incidence of treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs). Continuous variables were presented as medians and ranges. Survivals were studied with the Kaplan-Meier method. Categorical data were expressed as n (percentage). Results Between June 2020 and October 2022, a total of 20 patients with intermediate-advanced uHCC were enrolled. All cases had multiple intrahepatic metastases, or macrovascular invasion, or both, among whom 5 cases with lymph node or distant metastases. Until September 2022, the median follow-up time was 7.2 months (range, 1.1-27.7 months). Median survival time could not be assessed at the moment, based on iRecist, median PFS was 7.4 months (range, 1.1-27.7 months), ORR 15.0%, and DCR 50.0%. 14 patients experienced treatment-related adverse events with an incidence of 70%. The overall survival rates at 18 months and 24 months were 61.1% and 50.9%, respectively. And the progression-free survival rates were 39.3% and 19.7%. Conclusion Exposure of specific antigens of HCC via SBRT may improve the efficacy of combinational therapy with Toripalimab and Anlotinib for uHCC with manageable adverse effects, which deserves further exploration. Clinical trial registration www.clinicaltrials.gov, identifier ChiCTR2000032533.


We know that there are some disadvantages in dealing with flexible and changeable businesses by traditional database processing. For example, structures in the database are unclearly, store structure on the table is difficulty in the database and etc. This paper puts forward the dynamic data processing technique, which includes dynamic establishing database table structure, dynamic storage data and dynamic statistical analysis and so on. It has been succeed in Teachers' Evaluation at some universities, which improves the flexibility, extendibility and high-efficiency of the Teachers' Evaluation System.


Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable neurological disease characterized by progressive weakness resulting in death 2–5 years after symptom onset in most cases. Collaborative research initiatives have accelerated the search for effective treatments and are essential for the discovery process in a rare, terminal disease such as ALS. We describe the advantages of forming a disease specific network and chronicle the growth of the Canadian ALS Research Network. This includes forming infrastructure to perform clinical trials, building a program to conduct translational studies, partnering in epidemiological and imaging studies, and the development of quality of life and best practice guidelines. ALS research networks will continue to serve a pivotal role in improving the lives of patients with this devastating disease.


The article describes the estimate of potencial output and output gap in the Czech economy on the macroeconomic level for the period 1991 - 1999 and forecasted years 2000 and 2001. Two methods are used. The first is the application of Hodrick - Prescott filter to yearly and quarterly data of real GDP. The second one is Cobb-Douglas production function with technological progress, using yearly data about real GDP, stock of capital and labour. In the case of production function three variants of


Midway through composing his five-poem sequence The Atlas (ca. 1930), the acclaimed Australian poet Kenneth Slessor suddenly wrote "Southerne Sea" in his poetry journal. He'd just chosen John Speed's famous double-hemisphere map, A New and Accurat Map of the World (1651/1676), as the epithet of his fourth poem "Mermaids." Unlike the cartographic epigraphs introducing the other poems, however, this map has little to do with "Mermaids," which is a riotous romp through seas of fantastic creatures, and a paean to the maps that gave such creatures immortality. The map features a vast "Southerne Unknowne Land," but no mythical beasts. And while it names "Southerne Sea" and "Mar del Zur," neither "Mermaids" nor The Atlas mentions Australia or the Southern Sea. Moreover, Slessor's sailors are "staring from maps in sweet and poisoned places," yet what the poem describes are "portulano maps," replete with compass roses and rhumb lines—features notably absent on A New and Accurat Map of the World. My paper, the fifth part of the first full-scale examination of Slessor's ambitious but poorly understood sequence, retraces his creative process to reveal why he chose the so-called Speed map. In the process, it extricates the poem from what Slessor originally called "Lost Lands Mermaids" in his journal, details his debt to the ephemeral map catalogue in which he discovered his epigraph, and, finally, offers alternative cartographic representations for "Mermaids." Among them, Norman Lindsay's delightful frontispiece for Cuckooz Contrey (1932), the collection in which The Atlas debuted as the opening sequence.


Analysis of the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 employee data shows striking differences in levels of overall job satisfaction among occupational groups. The examination is based on the 81 Minor Occupation groupings in UK Standard Occupational Classification 2000 classification. Taking a possible specific occupational effect possibly conditioned by resonance effects, as a theoretical point of departure, multivariate analysis is used to restate apparent occupational effect as occupationally bundled individual-level variables and workplace influencesa process seen as exchanging nominal-level measurement (names of occupations) with theoretical variables. Although 13 minor occupational groups retain statistically significant independent influence after the statistical treatment, these effects are small. Detailed illustration and specification of bundling effects and further examination of their sources take information and communications technology and communication professionals as their point of reference.


This Policy Brief aims to inform policymakers of the potential impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on poverty. It will explore the implications of COVID-19 through various macroeconomic scenarios, ranging from the very optimistic to the pessimistic. The findings suggest that complete eradication of extreme poverty by 2030 looks highly unlikely even in the most optimistic scenario and that the global number of people living in extreme poverty could in fact continue to go up in the more pessimistic scenario. The final section will summarize the findings and discuss policy implications. Policies to reduce inequality and promote a country's social and macroeconomic resilience, such as the strengthening of labour standards, and the expansion of the social protection systems and universal health coverage, are needed now more than ever. As developing countries currently face the prospect of costly debt crises with far-reaching consequences, global action is urgently needed. The window to mitigate the disastrous long-term consequences of COVID-19 on poverty is closing rapidly.


ABSTRACT

 Cognitive science is a multidisciplinary field, comprising cognitivepsychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology. In recent years, cognitive science has become a predominant paradigm in studies of the mind. This paper reviews work at the emerging interface between cognitive science and psychiatry. It is argued that cognitive science has significant potential as an integrative framework for theorizing and researching psychiatric disorders and their treatment.


Mitochondria are paramount to the metabolism and survival of cardiomyocytes. Here we show that Mitochondrial Fission Process 1 (MTFP1) is essential for cardiac structure and function. Constitutive knockout of cardiomyocyte MTFP1 in mice resulted in adult-onset dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) characterized by sterile inflammation and cardiac fibrosis that progressed to heart failure and middle-aged death. Failing hearts from cardiomyocyte-restricted knockout mice displayed a general decline in mitochondrial gene expression and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) activity. Pre-DCM, we observed no defects in mitochondrial morphology, content, gene expression, OXPHOS assembly nor phosphorylation dependent respiration. However, knockout cardiac mitochondria displayed reduced membrane potential and increased non-phosphorylation dependent respiration, which could be rescued by pharmacological inhibition of the adenine nucleotide translocase ANT. Primary cardiomyocytes from pre-symptomatic knockout mice exhibited normal excitation-contraction coupling but increased sensitivity to programmed cell death (PCD), which was accompanied by an opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). Intriguingly, mouse embryonic fibroblasts deleted for Mtfp1 recapitulated PCD sensitivity and mPTP opening, both of which could be rescued by pharmacological or genetic inhibition of the mPTP regulator Cyclophilin D. Collectively, our data demonstrate that contrary to previous in vitro studies, the loss of the MTFP1 promotes mitochondrial uncoupling and increases cell death sensitivity, causally mediating pathogenic cardiac remodeling.


The bridge from complex models to the clinicians' practice

In this issue of the journal, Feinstein has provided great insight and correctly pointed out a number of problem areas in current research on diagnostic tests1: dichotomising a disease state into yes and no, and a test result into positive and negative, do not represent the real clinical situation. Sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios are calculated from patients with known disease status and therefore do not help practising physicians to make a diagnosis. Many research studies on diagnostic tests assume a disease prevalence (prior probability) of 0.5, which is unrealistic. The premise of diagnostic research, that sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic test is constant, is now known to be wrong. Practising physicians often want to avoid the correct and academically recommended methods because of complex computations. Many diagnostic tests can produce additional information, but it is usually disregarded in the assessment of the tests. Tests in combination should be evaluated differently than a single test. Tests used to "rule out" or to "rule in" a disease should be evaluated differently. Tests used to identify the stage of a disease, or to offer reassurance rather than diagnosis, cannot be evaluated with conventional indices of accuracy. Tests based on subjective decisions are difficult to assess. Many research studies fail to comply with appropriate methodological standards and are often …


The application of wellbore strengthening treatment has less effect on shale formations. Several numerical studies were developed to describe the mechanism, which promoted the development of wellbore strengthening theory. Previous studies explored the mechanism mainly by considering the seepage flow. Therefore, multi-field coupled models were established to analyze the solute transmission, thermal convection, and heat conduction on wellbore strengthening by introducing the theory of multi-field coupling into physical model. First, the fracture width distribution and wellbore tangential stress were investigated to research the interaction of thermal and chemical effects with different gradients. Then, the concrete mechanism of temperature and solute concentration gradient was analyzed based on the distribution of pore pressure and stress field. Results show that the prediction of hoop stress and fracture aperture may not be accurate without considering the influence of solute transfer, thermal convection, and heat conduction, because stress state is mainly affected by temperature field and the pore pressure varies greatly under different chemical gradients. Additionally, the lower temperature and larger solute concentration improve the wellbore strengthening effect of drilling fluid.


In this paper, we propose to integrate geometrical features, such as the characteristic scales of structures, with spectral features for the classification of hyperspectral images. The spectral features which only describe the material of structures can not distinguish objects made by the same material but with different semantic meanings (such as the roofs of some buildings and the roads). The use of geometrical features is therefore necessary. Moreover, since the dimension of a hyperspectral image is usually very high, we use linear unmixing algorithm to extract the endmemebers and their abundancemaps in order to represent compactly the spectral information. Afterwards, with the help of these abundance maps, we propose a method based on topographic map of images to estimate local scales of structures in hyperspectral images. The experiment shows that the geometrical features can improve the classification results, especially for the classes made by the same material but with different semantic meanings. When compared to the traditional contextual features (such as morphological profiles), the local scale feature provides satisfactory results without considerably increasing the feature dimension.


This paper starts by stating that in science there are no facts independent of theory. In psychoanalysis, the theory of the decisive importance of the unconscious makes it possible to grasp clinical facts. This leads to the centrality of transference in analysis. The latter is understood as a social fact. Transference, perceived as a private experience, can be known in the intimacy of the psychoanalytic relationship, through the communication by means of language, which is public. Psychoanalysis is then considered a science of intimacy. The analyst, in publishing clinical facts, faces the problem of the transposition of a fact from the intimacy sphere, considered as private, to the public sphere, and thus serves a scientific purpose. A treatment report is presented to illustrate the problems of the registering, editing and publishing of clinical facts, based on the parallel between making conscious that which is unconscious and making potentially public what is private. Thus the analyst confronts similar difficulties and anxieties, when publishing clinical facts, as the ones that the analysand must overcome to know, through the social experience of psychic intimacy, his or her private inner world.


Itch is a common sensation and a component of numerous disease states. Itch can be classified according to its origin and may be modulated by both endogenous and exogenous factors. Recent research has led to a better understanding of the mechanisms of itch, but there are still many areas to be explored. The purpose of this article is to classify the common causes of exogenous itch in humans. To facilitate this, a Medline literature review was conducted using the MeSH search term 'pruritus' along with relevant associated subheadings to identify articles dealing with exogenous factors related to itch. Factors relevant to exogenous itch were classified into mechanical, chemical, and environmental components. A better understanding of the various mechanisms of pruritus is critical to effective research into the treatment of itch.


Acyclovir represents a significant advance in the treatment of herpes simplex and varicella zoster virus infections and appears to be safe and well-tolerated. Physicians now have several drugs to choose from in the treatment of these infections. Hopefully there will be other antiviral chemotherapeutic agents that will be effective for therapy of cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus infections. Coincident with the development of antivirals, continued progress in the area of rapid viral diagnosis is critical for early institution of therapy. Direct diagnosis of HSV or VZV from clinical specimens or lesions using monoclonal antibodies, enzyme-linked immunoassays or DNA probes are promising techniques for the future. Investigation into improved rapid diagnosis for neonatal and maternal HSV infections and HSV encephalitis should further improve outcome with antiviral therapy.


Experience with 1,003 mentally ill patients over a three-year period confirmed earlier evaluations of tranquilizing and analeptic drugs. By controlling the overactivity and aggressiveness of some patients and inducing a new interest in life in others, these drugs made it possible practically to eliminate the use of shock, sedation, and seclusion. It has thus been possible to channel the time of the hospital personnel into a more effective program of rehabilitation. Accidents to patients and personnel have been reduced, the life-span of the patients has been extended and their well-being enhanced, and the destruction of furniture, fixtures, and clothing in certain wards has been reduced to a tenth of what it was before. The saving of money in this category alone was more than seven times the amount spent for increased recreational material. It is emphasized that the use of the new neuropharmacological agents is only part of a program in which thoughtful individual care, proper nutrition, and good medical and nursing practices are equally vital.


The advent of corneal refractive surgery has, inevitably, resulted in the occasional need for contact lens fitting after surgery. For each new, developing procedure, new contact lens fitting challenges arise. The literature on contact lens use after radial keratotomy is rich and well known, but reports on the use of contact lenses after photorefractive keratectomy or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis are few and far between. This review summarizes the prevailing clinical opinions on the contact lenses and contact lens fitting methods that are most effective after refractive surgery that results in high refractive error, irregular astigmatism, or anisometropia.


This letter presents a planar omnidirectional antenna structure with wide beam for applications in the 60-GHz band. The antenna was designed using only one metal layer on top of a quartz substrate, which is very cost efficient. The optimal structure, of size 4.5 times 4.3 mm2, exhibits a gain of 1.4 dBi plusmn 0.5 dBi in the omnidirectional plane and a half power beam width of about 75 deg in the perpendicular plane. The bandwidth with return loss at least 10 dB covers the 57-64-GHz license-free band, which is commonly considered for very high data rate communications. The consistency of the simulated results was successfully checked with measurements.


Objectives We describe the prevalence of musculo-skeletal disorders (MSD) among Estonian office workers, nurses and caregivers. Methods A postal survey was carried out in 2008, in course of international study "Cultural and Psychosocial Influences on Disability" (CUPID). The study group, office workers of Tartu University and Estonian University of Life Sciences and nurses of Tartu University Hospital and caregivers from Estonian hospitals and nursing centres, responded to the questions about MSD-s in past 12 months (low back, neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand, knees). Results The response rate for whole study group was 56% (n=643): office workers 59% (n=220), nurses 57% (n=237), caregivers 52% (n=186). Participants were in average age 40±11,5 years, 95% of them were female and 76% worked 40 h per week. Over the 12 months prior to the survey 33% of respondents had at least one MSD lasted 1–6 days and 66% reported an MSD present for at least 7 days. MSD prevalence by regions differed by occupation. The highest low back pain reported caregivers (63%), then nurses (55%) and office workers (42%) (p<0.0001). The highest wrist/hand pain had office workers (p<0.006). Of the MSD-s 1321 reported by 643 respondents, only 139 (10,5%) took time off work and more often caregivers (p<0.0001). Age, gender, ethnicity, working hours and experience didn't influence the prevalence of MSDs. Conclusions The prevalence of low back pain was highest for caregivers and/hand wrist pain for office workers. In most part pain lasted longer than 7 days but time off work was taken rare.


Automatic process modeling has become an effective tool in reducing the lead-time and the cost for designing forming processes. The numerical modeling process is performed on a fully coupled damage constitutive equations and the advanced 3D adaptive remeshing procedure. Based on continuum damage mechanics, an isotropic damage model coupled with the Johnson–Cook flow law is proposed to satisfy the thermodynamic and damage requirements in metals. The Lemaitre damage potential was chosen to control the damage evolution process and the effective configuration. These fully coupled constitutive equations have been implemented into a Dynamic Explicit finite element code Abaqus using user subroutine. On the other hand, an adaptive remeshing scheme in three dimensions is established to constantly update the deformed mesh to enable tracking of the large plastic deformations. The quantitative effects of coupled ductile damage and adaptive remeshing on the sheet metal forming are studied, and qualitative comparison with some available experimental data are given. As illustrated in the presented examples this overall strategy ensures a robust and efficient remeshing scheme for finite element simulation of sheet metal‐forming processes.


Synapse formation requires contact between dendrites and axons. Although this process is often viewed as axon mediated, dendritic filopodia may be actively involved in mediating synaptogenic contact. Although the signaling cues underlying dendritic filopodial motility are mostly unknown, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) increases the density of dendritic filopodia and conditional deletion of tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB) reduces synapse number in vivo. Here, we report that TrkB associates with dendritic growth cones and filopodia, mediates filopodial motility, and does so via the phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K) pathway. We used genetic and pharmacological manipulations of mouse hippocampal neurons to assess signaling downstream of TrkB. Conditional knock-out of two downstream negative regulators of TrkB signaling, Pten (phosphatase with tensin homolog) and Nf1 (neurofibromatosis type 1), enhanced filopodial motility. This effect was PI3K-dependent and correlated with synaptic density. Phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3) was preferentially localized in filopodia and this distribution was enhanced by BDNF application. Thus, intracellular control of filopodial dynamics converged on PI3K activation and PIP3 accumulation, a cellular paradigm conserved for chemotaxis in other cell types. Our results suggest that filopodial movement is not random, but responsive to synaptic guidance molecules.


The main problems of using TNF-alpha in antitumor therapy are its rapid degradation in the bloodstream and the limited selectivity of accumulation in the tumor tissue. The SRC VB «Vector» developed a biodegradable molecular construct that provides protection against proteases and ensures targeted delivery of proteins to the tumor tissue. This construct was used to create an antitumor drug containing recombinant human TNF-alpha (rhTNF-alpha).The aim of the study was to analyse rhTNF-alpha pharmacokinetics in the delivery system after a single administration.Materials and methods: the rhTNF-alpha drug carried by the delivery system was intravenously administered to female outbred ICR (СD-1) mice only once at two effective antitumor doses, 2.55 μg and 5.1 μg / 20 g of body weight. The concentration of TNF-alpha in the serum and supernatants of organ homogenates, obtained at different time points after administration, was analysed by immunoenzyme assay.Results: the obtained curves of TNF-alpha concentration in the blood were satisfactorily described by the equation for the twocompartment model without absorption. The rapid phase of elimination from the blood took 0–4 h, the slow one — 4–24 h. The highest specific content of protein was observed in the skin, spleen, and kidneys tissue. The calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters demonstrated that the highest values of tissue availability fT were obtained for the kidneys and skin; the drug was retained for longer periods of time in the kidneys, liver and skin (according to the MRT data). As a rule, complete elimination of the drug was observed by the end of the first day after administration.Conclusions: rhTNF-alpha carried by the delivery system was quickly eliminated from the blood and distributed in the internal organ tissues after a single intravenous administration to mice in the effective doses range. The main organs in which rhTNF-alpha was distributed were skin, kidneys, and spleen. The elimination of the drug from the blood was a two-phase process which was generally over by the end of the first day.


A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation is proposed in this paper to solve the problem of optimal charging coordination of electric vehicle (EVs) in unbalanced electrical distribution system (EDS) considering vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. The imbalance of the system circuits and loads has been taken into account. The developed method defines an optimal charging schedule for the EVs which considers the EVs arrival and departure times and their arrival state of charge; the energy contribution of EVs equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology and distributed generators are considered as well. The classical optimization techniques used to solve the MILP formulation guarantee the optimal solution of the problem. The model was written in the mathematical modeling language AMPL and solved using the commercial solver CPLEX. The presented formulation was tested in a 34-node distribution system and a comparison of the obtained charging schedule on scenarios with V2G and distributed generation was made.


We surveyed the geographical variation in male advertisement calls of the wide-ranging canyon treefrog, Hyla arenicolor, and found large call differences among geographically distant lineages that had been characterized by a recent phylogeographical study. To test whether these call differences were biologically relevant and could allow reproductive isolation of different lineages should they come into secondary contact, we assessed female preference in a lineage occurring in southern Utah and north-western Arizona, USA. These females exhibited a strong preference for their own lineage's call type over the calls of two Mexican lineages, but not over the calls from the geographically nearest lineage. We also identified traits that female frogs probably use to discriminate between lineage-specific advertisement calls. Our behavioural results, together with recent molecular estimates of phylogenetic relationships among lineages, will guide future work addressing the evolutionary forces that have led to this biologically significant variation in male sexual signals. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ••, ••–••.


A general algorithm is presented for the identification of the parameters in the transfer-function matrix of a multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system. The approach adopted is that of expanding the system input and output variables in Laguerre polynomial series. The feasibility of the method lies in the generation of linear algebraic equations in the unknown parameters and initial conditions by means of an elegant operational matrix which relates Laguerre polynomials to their integrals. An example is included to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method.


Support, or lack thereof, is often cited as the main reason for teachers to leave the profession early on (Ingersoll, 2003). Feiman-Nemser (2001) identifies five Central Tasks associated with Learning to Teach (CTLT) that could focus the support novice teachers need during their induction years: learning the teaching context (TC), designing responsive instructional program (IP), creating a classroom learning community (CC), enacting a beginning repertoire (BR) and developing their professional identity (PI). The purpose of the study is to examine the CTLT that novice physical education teachers use in their first and second years of their teaching career. Twenty-one physical education teachers accepted the study parameters to be observed and interviewed during their first year of teaching, and 15 teachers continued the data collection into their second year. Interviews revealed that these teachers focused mainly on BR and TC. Little focus was given to IP, CC, and PI. Results indicate the need for effectiv...


Abstract The Koktokay no. 3 pegmatite, Altai, NW China, is a strongly zoned spodumene-subtype pegmatite. Pollucite is the unique ore mineral exploited for Cs in this pegmatite. It occurs in internal textural zones of the pegmatite in different abundances. Primary pollucite is largely homogeneous, but it displays a broad range of composition between different textural zones with CRK [=100(Cs + Rb + K)/(Na + K + Rb + Cs + Mg + Ca)] = 74.86 and Si/Al = 220.127.116.11. Four principal types of pollucite were distinguished. (1) First is pollucite with blebby mosaic texture consisting of Na-enriched and Cs-enriched phases, which clearly resulted from local exsolution of primary pollucite in the sub-solidus state. (2) The second type is nearly end-member pollucite (CRK > 90) that occurs as an aureole of primary pollucite in contact with lepidolite or feldspar clusters. This is formed by dissolution/ re-precipitation of primary pollucite. (3) Symplectic pollucite is associated with quartz, observed in sub-parallel veinlets penetrating surrounding albite crystals; compositionally, this pollucite attains a CRK ratio of up to 96 and resulted from replacement of albite by Cs-rich fluids. (4) Oscillatoryzoned pollucite is the fourth type, typically restricted to the contact of pollucite with small miarolitic cavities. The zonation compositionally oscillates about the Cs/Na variations, and is simply related to locally changing fluid composition.


The curriculum is a very important document which details how learning and teaching is to be done. Since this document is a guide for learning, it must be properly planned, designed and developed, if it is to achieve success in its implementation stage. Bearing this in mind, this case study centres its attention on the analysis and evaluation of a Spanish course curriculum document from the University of Guyana. The aim of this paper is to highlight those areas that are deficient in the current course curriculum, analyse and revise them, and make recommendations for improvements. Information about the University of Guyana, along with its vision, mission and value statements are presented. Then, a discussion ensues on curriculum planning, designing and development, paying specific attention to what curriculum entails and all those issues that must be addressed if it is to have relevance and significance. A thorough study is conducted of the course curriculum, highlighting both the positives and the negatives. Subsequently, recommendations are made for changes to the course curriculum and conclusions are drawn from the report. The intention is that this new curriculum be used to revolutionise learning and teaching at the University of Guyana, and in all those Universities where learning and teaching is deficient.


After use, discarded plastics can stay in outdoor environment if their conditions of storage are not enough safe. They will be then exposed to climatic factors (UV solar radiations, heat, rain, pollution,…) and will end up in freshwater or in marine water. They are submitted to photo ageing and a consequence a possible size reduction through a fragmentation process which results in micro plastic formation. In parallel the macromolecular polymer undergo a photo chemical oxidation mechanism leading to the formation of degradation by-products. We have studied and examined how chemicals molecules can be transferred from the solid plastic pieces to the aqueous medium along this degradation process.


In order to increase the loading capacity and stiffness of a gas lubricated rotating reference and its anti-disturbance capability, and further improve the rotating precision, this paper puts forward a kind of ultra-precision rotating reference based on a self-acting external pressure complex action principle. First two important parameters were defined, the external pressurized bearing number, and the pressure ratio of the complex action gas bearing. On this basis, the analytical model of this rotating reference was set up completely. This model shows that the loading capacity function of the rotating reference is composed of six items. According to this analytical model, ignoring the self-acting effect, the loading capacity and stiffness increased to 30% higher than the usual in an external pressurized gas lubricated reference.


Novel, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), acetaminophen conjugates 6a–l with amino acid linkers were synthesized utilizing benzotriazole chemistry. Biological data acquired for all the novel bis-conjugates showed (a) some bis-conjugates (6d, 6e, 6h, and 6k) exhibit more potent anti-inflammatory activity than their parent drugs, (b) the potent bis-conjugates show no visible stomach lesions in contrast to parent drugs which are highly ulcerogenic, and (c) that the potent bio-active compounds have no mortality rates or toxic symptoms at 5 fold the applied anti-inflammatory dosage. A statistically significant QSAR model describing the anti-inflammatory properties of 6a–l (N = 15, n = 3, R(2) = 0.891, R(2)cvOO = 0.770, R(2)cvMO = 0.796, F = 29.904, s(2) = 0.011) was obtained employing CODESSA-Pro that validated the observed bio-activity.


Objective Clinical features and outcome of children with infantile spasms. Study Design Interventional and observational study. Place and Duration of Study The Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, from January 2010 to December 2011. Methodology Children aged <2 years presented with history of infantile spasms were assessed. Clinical presentation, EEG findings and response of anti-epileptic drugs was analyzed. Results A total of 51,370 children visited Neurology outpatient department of Children Hospital, Lahore. Out of them, 450 infants had infantile spasms at their first presentation. Mean age at presentation was 6.6 + 2.5 months. Out of 450 children, 76% children presented at age < 6 month, 72% presented due to infantile spasms and 18% because of global developmental delay. Spasm types were mixed (38%), flexors (44%), extensor (16%) and asymmetric (2%). Symptomatic seizures were seen in 72% and cryptogenic in 28%. Hypsarrhythmia (67%) was the predominant EEG finding followed by modified hypsarrhythmia (24%) and other forms of epileptic discharges in 9% children. Majority of children were receiving oral Phenobarbitone, Carbamzaepine or Valproate sodium. We initiate the management with oral Prednisolone followed by Clonazepam or valproate acid. ACTH therapy was administered in only 5 children. Conclusion Infantile spasms are one of the refractory epilepsy in children. Abnormal EEG findings predominantly the hypsarrhythmia or modified hypsarrhythmia are the hallmark. Majority of children received conventional AED with poor response. Oral prednisolone is proved to be the most effective AED. These children should be referred to the tertiary care paediatric neurology centers.


In the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association for the fall of 1988, we find the view that "the power of philosophy lies in its radicalness." The author, Tom Foster Digby, tells us that in our own day "the radical potency of philosophy is particularly well-illustrated by contemporary feminist philosophy" in ways that "could eventually reorder human life." The claim that philosophy is essentially radical has deep historical roots. Aristotle and Plato each created a distinctive style of social philosophy. Following Ernest Barker, I shall call Aristotle's way of doing social philosophy "whiggish," having in mind that the O.E.D. characterizes 'whig' as "a word that says in one syllable what 'conservative liberal' says in seven." Later whigs shared with Aristotle the conviction that traditional arrangements have great moral weight, and that common opinion is a primary source of moral truth. The paradigm example of a whig moral philosopher is Henry Sidgwick, with his constant appeal to Common Sense and to "established morality." On the more liberal side, we have philosophers like David Hume who cautions us to "adjust [political] innovations as much as possible to the ancient fabric," and William James who insists that the liberal philosopher must reject radicalism. In modern times, many social philosophers have followed the more radical example of Plato, who was convinced that common opinion was benighted and in need of much consciousness-raising. Looking on society as a Cave that distorted real values, Plato showed a great readiness to discount traditional arrangements. He was perhaps the first philosopher to construct an ideal of a society that reflected principles of justice, inspiring generations of utopian social philosophers.


Aim of present study is the valutation and quantification of chromium in blood and urine. We compared 3 groups of persons formed by building workers, in particular masons, because cement contains potassium chromate that is dangerous for health, and by common people: urban population and outside the town population. In fact, exposure to CrVI risk is high for people who live near chromate industries. We maked a medical examination, blood and instrumental tests, chromium measuring in blood (recent exposure indicator) and urine (recent and previous indicator). Then we used statistical methods to estimate obtained values of blood and urine chromium among professional exposed people and common people. At the end we think that preventive measures in working environment reduced exposure to CrVI but environmental exposure (for example road dust from catalytic converter erosion, from brake lining erosion, cement dust and tobacco smoke), in the last years, has increased. So there are no difference between urban population and outside the town population and there are also no difference with professional exposed people for work prevention according to law in force, that let down professional risk using safe limits.


The photoelectrochemical (PEC) characteristics of thin films of 'Q-state' CdS semiconductor particles in arachidic acid Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) layers have been examined. Initially, 'Q-state' size CdS particles of ca. 2 nm were formed in the film and then progressively grown to ca. 10 nm by a cyclic sequence, which involves exposing the film to H2S(g) following its immersion in a CdCl2(aq) solution. A PEC cell was constructed using a layered glass/ITO–CdS/LB plate as the photoanode and a standard calomel electrode (SCE) as the reference electrode. The photoelectrical response of electrodes coated with LB films containing CdS particles of various sizes was investigated using white light. The reproducibility of current–voltage polarisation curves indicated the relatively good stability of the film to PEC degradation processes over several scanning cycles in the range 0 to –1000 mV vs. SCE. Values for the open-circuit (Voc) and the short-circuit current for the PEC cells were obtained and fill factors in the range 20 to 70–75% were calculated. Voc decreased from ca. –200 to ca. –800 mV vs. SCE with increasing particle size. This effect was attributed to the dielectric properties of the arachidic acid LB film matrix.


The phenology of Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah) was followed at three sites, Churchmans, Karnet and Ross, in the high rainfall zone of the jarrah forest for a minimum of 3 years. On each site, trees growing in an area infested with the soil-borne, pathogenic fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi (dieback area) were compared with trees of similar diameter in the adjacent, uninfested forest (healthy area). Phenology of jarrah on these dieback sites did not follow a consistent pattern. In the dieback area at Churchmans, the cambium was active more often, and trees had young leaves in their crown more frequently than trees in the healthy area, while at Karnet the reverse occurred. This is consistent with growth measurements. At Ross, in the dieback area, the cambium was active less often but young leaves were seen more frequently than in trees in the healthy area. The trees did not flower every year. At Ross flowering started in early October while at Karnet and Churchmans it started at least 1 month later. New leaves were produced intermittently during autumn and winter while the main leaf flush occurred in spring and summer. Data from all years showed that the leaf flush started earlier at Ross than at Karnet and Churchmans. The cambium was intermittently active throughout the year with most trees growing in late autumn, winter and spring. Observations of stem growth following unseasonable summer rainfall suggest that cambial activity is triggered by high, surface soil moisture, but only if soil aeration is adequate. It is unlikely that timing of the main leaf flush and flowering are determined solely by temperature, soil moisture or photoperiod.


We study the problem of measuring the uncertainty of computable general equilibrium (CGE) (or RBC)-type model simulations associated with parameter uncertainty. We describe two approaches for building confidence sets on model endogenous variables. The first uses a standard Wald-type statistic. The second approach assumes that a confidence set (sampling or Baycsian) is available for the free parameters, from which confidence sets are derived by a projection technique. The latter has two advantages: first, confidence set validity is not affected by model nonlinearities; second, we can easily build simultaneous confidence intervals for an unlimited number of variables. We study conditions under which these confidence sets take the form of intervals and show how they can be implemented using standard methods for solving CGE models. We present an application to a CGE model of the Moroccan economy to study the effects of policy-induced increases of transfers from Moroccan expatriates.


Pregnancy-induced osteoporosis is a rare disorder characterized by fragility fracture and low bone mineral density (BMD) during or shortly after pregnancy, and its etiology is still unclear. We experienced a case of a 39-year-old woman who suffered from lumbago 3 months after delivery. Biochemical evidence of increased bone resorption is observed without secondary causes of osteoporosis. Radiologic examination showed multiple compression fractures on her lumbar vertebrae. We report a case of patient with pregnancy-induced osteoporosis improved her clinical symptom, BMD and bone turnover marker after teriparatide therapy.


This paper demonstrates that another class of three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D-ICs) exists, distinct from through silicon via centric and monolithic 3D-ICs. Furthermore, it is possible to create devices that are 3D at the device level (i.e. with active channels oriented in each of the three coordinate axes), by performing standard CMOS fabrication operations at an angle with respect to the wafer surface into high aspect ratio silicon substrates using membrane projection lithography (MPL). MPL requires only minimal fixturing changes to standard CMOS equipment, and no change to current state-of-the-art lithography. Eliminating the constraint of 2D planar device architecture enables a wide range of new interconnect topologies which could help reduce interconnect resistance/capacitance, and potentially improve performance.


We propose a new identity-based authenticated group key agreement protocol that provides both perfect forward secrecy and key integrity, while offering low communication and computational complexity. We prove the security of our protocol under the decisional bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumption in the random oracle model. In addition, we propose efficient auxiliary key agreement protocols that maintain perfect forward secrecy, while allowing members to discard their ephemeral keys in the same session in which they were created.


Diagenetic changes in thermally altered cyanobacterial mats from early Silurian black radiolarian cherts of southwestern Poland (Bardzkie Montains, Sudetes) have been studied. These early diagenetically silicified mats are composed of variously degraded remains of benthic microbes that resemble some modern chroococcalean and pleurocapsalean cyanobacteria. Two modes of degradational processes have been recognized in the studied mats: (i) early postmortem biodegradation and (ii) late diagenetic thermal or thermobaric degradation. The latter led to partial transformation of the fossilized organic remnants of cyanobacterial sheaths and capsules, which resulted in the formation of objects morphologically distant from the original microbiota but preserved features that allow for their identification as bona fide biogenic structures. Some of these thermally generated Silurian fossils are highly similar to the controversial microfossil-like carbonaceous structures described from the Early Archean Apex Chert of Australia. This similarity opens a promising way for credible recognition of remnants of cyanobacteria and similar microbiota in other thermally metamorphosed Archean sedimentary rocks.


An adaptive output-feedback control scheme is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown constant parameters, including the high-frequency gain, and unmodeled dynamics. With priori knowledge of the bounds of the parametric uncertainties, the smooth projection method and the discontinuous projection method are incorporated into the adaptive laws to prevent parameter drifts, respectively. The control schemes do not require a priori knowledge of high-frequency gain sign. It is proved that under the proposed control laws, all the closed loop signals are bounded and the output asymptotically converges to zero.


Bipolar hemiarthroplasty was introduced in the early 1970s. The theoretical advantages of bipolar compared with unipolar components include increased range of motion and stability as well as decreased wear of the acetabulum. Bipolar components have been used extensively for patients who have a fracture of the femoral neck. The indications for the use of a bipolar component have been broadened to include avascular necrosis of the femoral head, degenerative osteoarthrosis, and revision hip arthroplasty.

Polyethylene wear and subsequent osteolysis have been recognized as problems in association with fixed acetabular components. Bipolar implants are also susceptible to failure of the bearing surface and its sequelae. The polyethylene wear associated with a bipolar implant is difficult to measure radiographically because of the design of the implant. The purpose of the current report is to demonstrate that polyethylene wear and subsequent osteolysis also occur with this type of implant. We report the cases of five patients who had failure of the polyethylene after a bipolar hemiarthroplasty of the hip. Four of the five patients had marked osteolysis.

CASE 1. A male patient who had sustained a traumatic dislocation of the hip when he was five years old began to have notable pain in the hip in 1986, when he was thirty-eight years old. He subsequently had a bipolar hemiarthroplasty for the treatment of degenerative joint disease. The implant functioned well for seven years, at which time the patient again began to have pain in the hip. Radiographs revealed cephalad migration of the bipolar component and severe acetabular osteolysis (Fig. 1), and a revision was performed. During the operation, a fifty-seven-millimeter bipolar component and a thirty-two-millimeter fixed-head femoral component with a porous-coated stem were encountered. The head of the femoral component had protruded into but not completely through the polyethylene liner. According to the …


O Thou that dost Flow from the One Living God... By Peter Balslev-Clausen When Grundtvig produced his Song-Work for the Danish Church (1836-37), he based his choice of hymns for translation on the theory of the Seven Churches of Christendom, which he supported from the letters to the Churches in Revelation 2-3. Grundtvig identified the fourth Church in Thyatira with the Anglo- Saxon/English Church and altogether included 40 translations from Anglo-Saxon and English. Most of the English hymns that Grundtvig translated for inclusion were from his own time, including James Montgomery's evangelical hymn 'O Spirit of the Living God' from 1823. Grundtvig translated this hymn as Du, som gaaer ud fra den levende Gud (O Thou that dost Flow from the One Living God), and placed it as number 360 in the section on Whitsun hymns. A comparison between Montgomery's hymn and Grundtvig's translation shows that Grundtvig has been both loyal to and free with his adaptation. He changes both the metre and the structure of the hymn: the metre is now dactyls for iambics, and the structure is altered from parallels in which the halves complement one another to a V-structure. These changes make the hymn more living and more dynamic. As regards language and content Grundtvig's translation accords on a number of points with the translations placed immediately before this hymn, not least in the thematic distinctions between light and dark, life and death, God and the Devil. Montgomery's hymn takes the form of a prayer and is kept in the imperative, whereas Grundtvig's translation offers a number of interpolations in the indicative to delineate the divine and the human background for the prayer. An analysis of Grundtvig's translation reveals that is interwoven to a much greater degree than Montgomery's original with biblical references, partly general, partly taken from Easter and Whitsun sermon texts. There are a number of similarities between Grundtvig's translations and his sermons, especially from Ascension Day to the First Sunday after Trinity, and in particular with regard to his thoughts on the Holy Spirit and rebirth. Finally on the basis of Grundtvig's remarks to Nugent Wade, the English rector of Elsinore at the time, Grundtvig's final words in verse 6 on 'the heirs of damnation', are compared with parallel declarations in the sermon from the early summer of 1837. 'O Thou that dost Flow from the One Living God' is a good example of how Grundtvig's hymns come into being in relation to everything else he is thinking and speaking about while he is writing them. At the same time we see how it is in the hymns, as in the rest of his poetry, that Grundtvig's ideas and feelings find their clarified form. In the hymns he experienced the dramatic and liturgical unity with God and man and thus with himself, a unity to which his ecclesiastical and theoretical prose and his biblical reading led towards but could not in themselves attain. It is of no consequence in this connection whether the hymn is Grundtvig's own or, as is the case with 'O Thou that dost Flow from the One Living God', an adaptation from a foreign original. Through his reworking of the hymn Grundtvig makes it his own, and a comparison with the original proves only how very independent he was in his hymn writing.


Background : The diagnosis and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) have become mandatory to reduce the burden of tuberculosis worldwide. Then close contacts of active TB patients are at high risk of both active and LTBI.

The aims of this study are to identify the predominant risk factors of LTBI in close contacts with active TB patients and to compare the efficacy of the tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON®-TB GOLD (QFT-G) to diagnose LTBI.

Mehtods : Close contacts of active pulmonary TB patients visiting a hospital in South Korea were diagnosed for LTBI using TST and/or QFT-G. The association of positive TST and/or QFT-G with the following factors was estimated: age, gender, history of Bacillius Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination, history of pulmonary TB, cohabitation status, the acid-fast bacilli smear status, and presence of cough in source cases.

Results : Of 308 subjects, 38.0% (164/305) were TST positive and 28.6% (59/206) were QFT-G positive. TST positivity was significantly associated with male gender (OR: 1.734; 95% CI: 1.001-3.003, p = 0.049), history of pulmonary TB (OR: 4.130; 95% CI: 1.441-11.835, p = 0.008) and household contact (OR: 2.130; 95% CI: 1.198-3.786, p = 0.01) after adjustment for confounding variables. The degree of concordance between TST and QFT-G was fair (70.4%, κ = 0.392).

Conclusion : A prevalence of LTBI among close contacts of active pulmonary TB patients was high, and prior TB history and being a household contact were risk factors of LTBI in the study population.


The Medtronic MiniMed™ 670G hybrid closed-loop system was designed to automatically adjust basal insulin delivery every 5 minutes based on sensor glucose (SG) values. Its safety and effectiveness have been recently investigated in a multi-center pivotal trial conducted in 1T1D children aged 7-13 years. During the 2 week run-in phase, participants used the system in Manual Mode. This was followed by a 3-month at-home study phase in which the Auto Mode feature was enabled. The SG data and the amount of insulin delivered were analyzed during the overnight period (11:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.). Figure-1 (top panel) shows overnight SG tracings from the run-in phase and study phase, and that the median [IQR] reduced significantly from run-in (142 [71]mg/dL) to study phase (126 [34]mg/dL), by 7:00 a.m. This was mainly achieved by the system transferring variability from SG to insulin infusion rate (bottom panel). During the nighttime period, the system suspended insulin for an average 1.3 hours and delivered insulin at the maximum allowable limit for an average 3.6 hours. The remainder of the time, it delivered insulin between 1-99% of the maximum allowable limit. These data suggest that greater variability of basal insulin delivery, such as that achieved with MiniMed™ 670G system automation, compared to fixed pre-set basal rates, improves nighttime glucose control in children. Disclosure A. Roy: Employee; Self; Medtronic MiniMed, Inc. B. Grosman: Employee; Self; Medtronic. N. Parikh: Employee; Self; Medtronic. D. Wu: None. S.W. Lee: Employee; Self; Medtronic. F.R. Kaufman: Employee; Self; Medtronic.


This paper deals with the wear and mechanical (tensile, compressive, and microhardness) properties of Mg/TiC composites over magnesium alloy (AZ91D). Magnesium based metal matrix (AZ91D) composites were synthesized by using TiC particles varying wt % from 0% to 20% with a step of 5% by stir casting. The mechanical properties shows there is significant improvement of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) & % elongation, compressive strength, and microhardness with % increase of TiC content in Mg alloy. The fracture mechanism of the tensile and compressive specimen was investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). A Pin-on-Disk (POD) tribotester was used to determine the wear rate (WR) and specific wear rate (SWR) of the composites. The test was carried out in a dry sliding condition of varying load of 10N, 30N and 50 N corresponding to a constant sliding distance & sliding speed of 1000 m and 1 m/s respectively and the worn surface of the pin is examined by SEM after the test.


In response to a growing awareness of the consumers across Europe, efforts towards improvements of food marketing have been intensifying during the last decades. Targeted actions to tackle these challenges have been undertaken by rural communities, public and private sector, including large multi-national companies. This paper looks at the various approaches fostered within the EU Rural Development Programmes. We review different types of marketing schemes relevant for EU rural areas, affected by both market and public sector mechanisms. Social components have been frequently added to these, based on voluntary, bottom-up processes and quality control, and embedded in local community and economic development. We claim that social marketing can be effectively combined with the public support available under the EU rural development policy and help food producers to gain better access to markets. The value that social networking and bottomup rural development represent in the marketing of local products is essential for food-driven innovation in rural areas. Our paper presents an analysis of projects from the database of the European Network for Rural Development, clustered around different social marketing components.


In recent years, building information modeling (BIM) has been widely used to create animated simulations for engineering demonstrations. On-site engineers often employ animations generated using a BIM system to explain the current project status to their managers, so that the managers can grasp the actual project status. However, the fidelity of the terrain models built using BIM is relatively low, and the modeling process is labor-intensive. These factors negate the advantages of BIM. To overcome these problems, in this study, images of an engineering site are captured using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and are subsequently used to generate a landscape terrain model of the area surrounding the engineering site by means of image comparison and GPS positioning techniques. The terrain model and the BIM main simulation model are integrated to present the actual site condition. In addition, to further enhance the realism of the integrated model, this study introduces the integrated model into the virtual reality (VR) environment to present the construction site. The manager can check the construction progress of the project easily without having to visit the project site. To test the feasibility of the proposed method, it is applied to a bridge construction project. The results indicate that the aerial photos captured using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can be converted into point cloud models and mesh segmentation models. Both types of models can be imported and integrated into BIM software. However, if other renderings (such as Lumion) or VR software (such as Fuzor) are to be used for further animation production, the photos captured using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle can only be converted into mesh segmentation models before importing them for use in subsequent applications.


Background Replacing sedentary behaviors during leisure time with active video gaming has been shown to be an enjoyable option for increasing physical activity. However, most off-the-shelf active video gaming controllers are not accessible or usable for individuals with mobility impairments. To address this requirement, a universal video game controller (called the GAIMplank) was designed and developed. Objective This study aimed to assess the usability of the GAIMplank video game controller for playing PC video games among individuals with mobility impairments. Measures of enjoyment, perceived exertion, and qualitative data on the user experience were also examined. Methods Adults (aged 18-75 years) with a mobility impairment were recruited to participate in a single testing session in the laboratory. Before testing began, basic demographic information, along with minutes of weekday and weekend physical activity, minutes of weekday and weekend video game play, and video game play experience were collected. The GAIMplank was mapped to operate as a typical joystick controller. Depending on their comfort and functional ability, participants chose to play seated in a chair, standing, or in their own manual wheelchair. Leaning movements of the trunk created corresponding action in the game (ie, lean right to move right). The participants played a total of 5 preselected video games for approximately 5 minutes each. Data were collected to assess the usability of the GAIMplank, along with self-efficacy regarding execution of game play actions, rating of perceived exertion and enjoyment for each game, and overall qualitative feedback. Results A total of 21 adults (n=15, 71% men; n=6, 29% women) completed the usability testing, with a mean age of 48.8 (SD 13.8; range 21-73) years. Overall, 38% (8/21) of adults played while standing, 33% (7/21) of adults played while seated in a chair, and 29% (6/21) played in their own manual wheelchair. Scores from the System Usability Scale indicated above average (74.8, SD 14.5) usability, with scores best for those who played seated in a chair, followed by those standing, and then individuals who played seated in their own wheelchairs. Inconsistencies in the responsiveness of the controller and general feedback for minor improvements were documented. Rating of perceived exertion scores ranged from light to moderate intensity, with the highest scores for those who played seated in a chair. Participants rated their experience with playing each game from above average to very enjoyable. Conclusions The GAIMplank video game controller was found to be usable and accessible, providing an enjoyable option for light-to-moderate intensity exercise among adults with mobility impairments. Minor issues with inconsistencies in controller responsiveness were also recorded. Following further development and refinement, the next phase will include a pilot exercise intervention using the GAIMplank system.