AIM
To classify changes over time in causes of lower gastrointestinal bleeding (LGIB) and to identify factors associated with changes in the incidence and characteristics of diverticular hemorrhage (DH).

METHODS
A total of 1803 patients underwent colonoscopy for overt LGIB at our hospital from 1995 to 2013. Patients were divided into an early group (EG, 1995-2006, n = 828) and a late group (LG, 2007-2013, n = 975), and specific diseases were compared between groups. In addition, antithrombotic drug (ATD) use and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use were compared between patients with and without DH.

RESULTS
Older patients (≥ 70 years old) and those with colonic DH were more frequent in LG than in EG (P < 0.01). Patients using ATDs as well as NSAIDs, male sex, obesity (body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m(2)), smoking, alcohol drinking, and arteriosclerotic diseases were more frequent in patients with DH than in those without.

CONCLUSION
Incidence of colonic DH seems to increase with aging of the population, and factors involved include use of ATDs and NSAIDs, male sex, obesity, smoking, alcohol drinking, and arteriosclerotic disease. These factors are of value in handling DH patients.


We present a survey on the developments related to Gröbner bases, and show explicit examples in CoCoA. The CoCoA project dates back to 1987: its aim was to create a " mathematician "-friendly computational laboratory for studying Commutative Algebra, most especially Gröbner bases. Always maintaining this " friendly " tradition, the project has grown and evolved, and the software has been completely rewritten. CoCoA offers Gröbner bases for all levels of interest: from the basic, explicit call in the interactive system CoCoA-5 [5], to problem-specific optimized implementations, to the computer–computer communication with the open source C++ software library, Co-CoALib [4], or the prototype OpenMath-based server. The openness and clean design of CoCoALib and CoCoA-5 are intended to offer different levels of usage, and to encourage external contributions.


In order to ensure more realistic design of nonlinear periodic structures, the collective dynamics of a coupled pendulums system is investigated under parametric uncertainties. A generic discrete analytical model combining the multiple scales method, the perturbation theory and a standing-wave decomposition is proposed and adapted to the presence of uncertainties. These uncertainties are taken into account through a probabilistic modeling implying that the stochastic parameters vary according to random variables of chosen probability density functions. The proposed model leads to a set of coupled complex algebraic equations written according to the number and positions of the uncertainties in the structure and numerically solved using the time integration Runge-Kutta method. The uncertainty propagation through the established model is finally ensured using the Latin Hypercube Sampling method. The analysis of the dispersion, in term of variability of the frequency and amplitude intervals of the multistability domain shows the effects of uncertainties on the stability and nonlinearity of a three coupled pendulums structure. The nonlinear aspect is strengthened, the multistability domain is wider, more stable branches are obtained and thus the multimode solutions are enhanced.Copyright © 2016 by ASME


Case: We present the case of a six-year-old boy who was referred to the pediatric orthopaedics division of our academic medical center by his primary care physician for a concern regarding possible fractured clavicles. He was diagnosed with cleidocranial dysplasia, a genetic condition characterized by skeletal and dental anomalies, primarily delayed ossification of midline osseous structures. On radiographs, cleidocranial dysplasia has been linked to both coxa vara and a characteristic "chef's hat" appearance of the femoral head. Conclusion: Cleidocranial dysplasia has multiple potential orthopaedic complications, and an awareness of this condition, its presentations, and its diagnosis is useful for all physicians.


Merck KGaA and PolyOne are joining to develop smooth, molded plastics that appear to have three-dimensional surfaces. The Merck technology, called in-mold 3-D, creates the effect with the help of pearlescent pigments. It can be implemented in a single step during the injection molding process, Merck says. PolyOne, a polymer service firm, sees applications in consumer product packaging and electronics.


The purpose of this investigation was to describe the behavior of effective teachers working within the context of an effective school. The study focused on both the content and techniques of instruction utilized by the teachers. In addition, the research examined teacher behaviors that were external to the classroom setting, including teacher-to-teacher relationships, teacher-to-parent relationships, and teacher-to-principal relationships.
A qualitative research design was selected for this study. The site was an inner city elementary campus. Data were collected from eleven K-3 teachers using participant observation and interviews over a seven-month period. Documents were also used as a source of data. The analysis of data was ongoing and cyclical based on the constant comparative method.
The final analysis of data resulted in nine themes based on recurring patterns of teacher behavior. The findings suggest that a caring school culture plays an important role in a school's success and the effectiveness of its teachers. Furthermore, there does not appear to be a universal description that fits all effective teachers. Instead, effective teachers in an effective school function as autonomous decision makers in their classrooms, choosing the curriculum and techniques that work best for them and their students. They tend to focus on basic skills, especially reading and mathematics, using explicit direct instruction methods. However, these teachers frequently digress from their planned lessons to teach life skills and test-taking strategies.
Findings for this study also support the creation of structured school and classroom environments for low-income inner city students. Student self-esteem and parental support are not negatively impacted when firm discipline is administered fairly in a caring, supportive school climate.
The conclusions of this investigation have implications for teacher staff development and campus administrator training. The findings also suggest further research in the areas of school culture, direct instruction, student discipline, and classroom management.


Research in Progress (RIP) is a UNU/WIDER in-house publication series, which is distributed free-of-charge in limited numbers. The studies issued in the series are complete drafts prepared as part of the Institute's research programme and are circulated among project networkers and other scholars to elicit feedback and comments. In several cases, the studies will be published at a later stage in a revised form in the Institute's official publication series or in edited volumes published by academic publishers. RIP studies should not be quoted without the author's permission. (UNU/WIDER) was established by the United Nations University as its first research and training centre and started work in Helsinki, Finland in 1985. The purpose of the Institute is to undertake applied research and policy analysis on structural changes affecting the developing and transitional economies, to provide a forum for the advocacy of policies leading to robust, equitable and environmentally sustainable growth, and to promote capacity strengthening and training in the field of economic and social policy making. Its work is carried out by staff researchers and visiting scholars in Helsinki and through networks of collaborating scholars and institutions around the world. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s). Publication does not imply endorsement by the Institute or the United Nations University of any of the views expressed.


Using laser confocal microscopical techniques, we observed the anatomical structure of mature root, bulb, and leaf of Lycoris aurea Herb., and also did some research on the localization of galanthamine in the above-mentioned vegetative organ. The results are as follows: In the mature root, the galanthamine distributes mainly in cell wall, especially in cell wall of exodermis and endodermis and vessel wall. In the mature leaf, galanthamine exist in cell wall of vascular bundle, mesophyll cell between vascular bundles and epidermis cells. The scale leaf is the essential accumulational organ. Plenty of galanthamine distribute in the adaxial parenchyma cell, epidermis cell wall, and also in the clingy cell of abaxial epidermis cell.


For the past thirty years, artist Lynne Cohen has presented a unique and consistent vision of the world through her photographs. Based in Ottawa since 1973, the American-born Cohen has established an international reputation for her large-format photographs of public and institutional interiors: halls, offices, classrooms, laboratories, meeting rooms, spas, military installations — utilitarian spaces we occupy in daily life without a second thought. Cohen directs her clear-eyed gaze on these banal environments and exposes them as being loaded with unexpected meaning.

Organized by the National Gallery of Canada in collaboration with the Musee de L'Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland, No Man's Land: The Photography of Lynne Cohen has been thoughtfully mounted by curator Ann Thomas with much input from the artist. The meticulous attention to the arrangement of the sixty-nine photographs on display evokes the care with which they have been executed. The result is an impressive show with a great deal of integrity. The entire NGC Prints, Drawings and Photography gallery is devoted to this comprehensive retrospective of Cohen's work until May 12, 2002.

Cohen's art, like that of her predecessor, Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) originates in a fascination with ready-made art in everyday environments. Initially working as a sculptor, Cohen first attempted to reproduce samples of found art in the studio. However, she felt this practice resulted in too much artistic imposition on the work. Experimenting with an 8 х 10 view camera, which has the capacity to capture texture and volume in extraordinary detail, she discovered she could communicate her observations about the spaces we inhabit with the necessary degree of precision. Photography's authority as a medium of documentation has allowed Cohen to present her view of the world as empirical evidence.

Yet Cohen's photographs are not documentary records; they are not about the specific details of an identifiable place, even though they are presented as such. The impact of Cohen's work derives from her ability to persuade us, her audience, to accept her images as truthful documents while convincing us that what we are looking at cannot possibly be so. Model Living Room (1976), an early piece, already exhibits the characteristic elements of Cohen's work. The scene appears to be a photographic record of some sort of showroom advertisement, or of a sculpture installation, maybe even one created by the artist herself. But nothing is what it appears to be: a man and woman sitting across from each other, reading in the living room, are merely silhouettes cut from Plexiglass, supported not by upholstered chairs, but by chains anchored to the ceiling. On the wall behind them is a framed collection of claw-like branches, which variously could be a window, a mirror or a piece of art. Its purpose is unclear. The ambiguous mirror/window motif is repeated in a reflection on the male figure's "newspaper." Adding to the confusion, instead of a coffee table, a massive, dark potted fern is incongruously placed between the couple in the centre of the image, conjuring up notions of an alien invader, maybe one that feeds on plastic coffee tables — such is the power of suggestion in a Lynne Cohen photograph. Even while we question its authenticity and wonder about the fate of the couple's "model-living-room" furniture we accept this simulated domestic scene because of Cohen's skill at persuasion.

Through the continual use of both contextual and visual self-contradictions, Cohen conjures up, seemingly without effort, a sense of disequilibrium in the viewer. In more recent images such as Spa (1994) and Laboratory (1999), she also reduces her content to a minimum, thereby heightening the sense of mystery and dislocation characteristic of her work. This approach serves to further the impression that we are all collectively hovering increasingly closer to some irrational central core of being.

In the end, Cohen, like a magician, asks us to suspend our disbelief as we view her photographs. That we willingly accept this proposition, even though we are unsettled by it, is a testament to her mastery of sleight of hand and, by extension, to our own vulnerability to the power of suggestion.

It is at this point that No Man's Land becomes a cautionary tale about unquestioningly accepting the concept of neutral territory. After all, the wrong turn into no man's land will lead you to a mine. A truncated, hand-lettered sign in War Game (1987) hung behind a simultaneously nondescript and ominous pile of sandbags warns both player and viewer to "Play at your own — ". The last word is obscured. Lynne Cohen challenges us to fill in that blank space, jolting us into that moment of awareness in which we realize there may be more than one way to complete that unfinished phrase.

Vivian Tors Ottawa, Ont.


Nonbinary LDPC codes are effective in combating burst errors. This paper presents an efficient architecture for implementing nonbinary LDPC decoders. The Galois field power representation is used to organize the a priori, a posteriori, and extrinsic messages involved in decoding. The power representation in conjunction with the barrel shifter and multithreaded pipelining yields an efficient implementation. The proposed decoder is configurable, in the sense that a single decoder can be used to decode any code of a given field size. The decoder supports both regular and irregular nonbinary QC-LDPC codes. Using a practical metric of throughput per unit area, the proposed implementation outperforms the best implementations published in research literature to date.


book which impinges on our experience of the real world. The book ends with a limited discussion of 2 x 2 transformation matrices, concentrating largely on rotations. The reader is kept commendably busy and on his toes throughout: in fact the book is one gigantic exercise—and all the better for it. Some of the answers are given, but not all. Self-instruction should not be too difficult from a text such as this. There are, however, a few disconcerting questions posed out of the blue which assume knowledge the reader may not possess; for example, "Which of the following form a group ... ? Which groups if any are abelian ?". One or two misprints are in evidence. For example, the notation for an inverse transformation is introduced with the unfortunate error X\0 for the inverse of X10. The unsuspecting reader would probably find the subsequent section, using the correct notation, somewhat baffling! The layout and format are attractive, and the cover looks durable—though it was not properly glued on to the innards of my copy. The index is incomplete and inaccurate.


Background: Despite the recognized benefits of physical activity (PA), the extent of its recognition and applications as a medical disability (MD) prevention program by practitioners working in Ethiopian health-care settings is unknown. Objective: The objective of the study was to explore health-care professionals' knowledge base and characteristics on the utilization of the frequency, intensity, time (duration), and type principle (FITT) of PA as an MD prevention program in the Ethiopian public health-care system.Methods: A mixed-method research design was used with data collected from 13 public referral hospitals in Ethiopia. In Phase I, quantitative data were collected from 312 health professionals (99 physicians and 213 nurses) using a survey. In Phase II, qualitative data were collected by interviewing health officers (n = 13 physician–hospital managers) and conducting one focus group discussion (n = 6 national health bureau officers). Results: A quarter (28%) of practitioners working in referral hospitals are using PA as an MD prevention program. Higher specialization (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 20.203, P < 0.001), many service years (AOR = 0.041, P = 0.014), young age (AOR = 19.871, P < 0.001), and being male (AOR = 0.269, P < 0.001) were associated with using PA as a MDs prevention program. Conclusion: Applying the FITT principle of PA for the prevention of MD among practitioners was very poor. Training of health-care professionals to use PA as a program for MDs prevention is required at the undergraduate level as well as specialized courses on qualification.


Equivalent class formation through verbal rules was analyzed. A matching-to-sample procedure for training and probing of conditional discriminations in a "paper and pencil" format was used. Participants were 36 voluntary students, divided in two groups. The baseline training for the experimental group was carried out via verbal rules. This group also received maintenance probes and equivalence probes during the baseline period. The control group was only given the probes. The instrument used proved to be effective. The majority of participants in the experimental group formed two equivalent classes, unlike the control group in which none of the participants showed class formation. The development of effective procedures using "paper and pencil" and verbal rules format, could support the teaching of basic reading skills in large populations with a resulting economy of time and money.


Recent increases in air temperature have affected species phenology, resulting in the earlier onset of spring life-cycle events. Trends in the first appearance of adult dragonflies across Japan were analysed using a dataset consisting of observations from 1953 to 2005. Dynamic factor analysis was used to evaluate underlying common trends in a set of 48 time series. The appearance of the first adult dragonfly has significantly shifted to later in the spring in the past five decades. Generalized linear mixing models suggested that this is probably the result of increased air temperatures. Increased summer and autumn temperatures may provide longer bivoltine periods and a faster growth rate; thus, the second generation, which previously hatched in summer, can emerge in the autumn causing the size of the population of dragonflies that emerge in spring to decrease. It is also possible that reduced dragonfly populations along with human development are responsible for a delay in the first observed dragonflies in the spring. However, human population density did not appear to strongly affect the appearance date. This study provides the first evidence of a delay in insect phenological events over recent decades.


A program of in situ and laboratory studies was conducted in the Southwestern Region of Virginia, U.S.A. to determine the role of the deposited sediments of the Niagara Reservoir in affecting the quality of the flow of the Roanoke River above the headwaters of Smith Mountain Lake. Agronomic analysis techniques were adapted and applied to provide quantitative analysis capability for the sediments. The surficial sediments were observed to constitute a considerable reservoir of phosphorus, which, during the anoxic bottom conditions occurring during the summer months, caused an enhancement of concentrations in the water column. Conversely, during the winter months, the surficial sediments acted as a phosphorus sink, removing it from the water column. Laboratory microcosm studies made it possible to quantify the release and removal of phosphorus under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and to observe the factors upon which the exchanges depended. The phosphorus interactions were found to be governed principally by sediment iron and organic matter content.

The deposited sediments of Niagara Impoundment showed a capacity to redistribute the impoundment influent nutrient load, causing an enhancement of the quantities released during the summer months, thus magnifying the impact on the waters of Smith Mountain Lake. The maintenance of aerobic benthic conditions could prevent the sediment releases from occurring. In the long term, sediment nutrients deposited in the past, without proper control, could provide a continuing source of phosphorus to the waters of Smith Mountain Lake, thereby reducing the effectiveness of upstream control of point and diffuse sources.


MDL 72974A ((E)-4-fluoro-beta-fluoromethylene benzene butanamine HCl salt, CAS 120635-25-8) is a new irreversible inhibitor of the B form of monoamine oxidase (MAO-B). MDL 72974A's pharmacokinetic parameters were evaluated after administration of a single oral dose and after multiple oral doses. The concentration of parent drug was determined in plasma using a solid-liquid extraction method and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis. MDL 72974A produced significant inhibition of platelet MAO-B activity at all of the doses > or = 0.5 mg (> 95% after 1 h). The pharmacokinetic parameters showed a short plasma half-life (1 h) and a high total body clearance (Cltot) both probably due to extensive and rapid metabolism as suggested by the low urinary excretion of unchanged drug (< 1% of the administered dose). After the administration of multiple doses of MDL 72974A, a decrease in Cltot and a concomitant increase in the AUC and t1/2, was observed, probably due to a change in the elimination rate of MDL 72974A. Due to the once-a-day dosing schedule and the short plasma t1/2, no drug accumulation occurred.


We classify standby redundancy design space in process-control programs into the following three categories: cold standby, warm standby, and hot standby. Design parameters of warm standby are identified and the reliability of a system using warm standby is evaluated and compared with that of hot standby. Our analysis indicates that the warm standby scheme is particularly suitable for long-lived unmaintainable systems, especially those operating in harsh environments where burst hardware failures are possible. The feasibility of warm standby is demonstrated with a simulated chemical batch reactor system. >


The aim of this paper is to analyze the trade specialization in the leather products between some selected Asian economies, with particular focus on Pakistan. For which, a measure of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA Balassa Index) is used. The analysis shows that Pakistan has a high comparative advantage in leather products over all the selected economies during the period of study. The paper highlights the problems faced by the leather industry and identifies some immediate policy action to be taken to improve the performance of the leather industry in the light of evidence. Keywords: Revealed Comparative advantage; Balassa Index; Exports; Skill Specialization JEL Classifications: F10; F11; F12; F19


In the present study Paracetamol and Tizanidine were considered as the model drugs for development of bilayer tablets. Paracetamol with the dose 600mg/tablet was considered under the matrix layer and Tizanidine with the dose 2mg/tablet was considered under immediate release layer. The polymers like HPMC (Hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose) K100 & K4 grades, guar gum are used for development of matrix layer. The calibration curve for Paracetamol was plotted by using UV spectroscope at an absorbance of 280 nm as per the method developed by glenmak pharmaceutical ltd. The calibration curve for Tizanidine was plotted by using HPLC at an absorbance of 230nm. The physicochemical parameters of both the matrix tablets of Paracetamol as well as bilayer tablets were carried out. The formulation of sustained release layer was optimized with respect to their dissolution parameters. The dissolution of the bilayer tablets were carried out in 0.1N HCl. The optimized batches showing a release rate more than 90% were considered for development of bilayer tablets. The pharmacokinetic parameters for both the matrix layer formulations of Paracetamol as well as bilayer tablets were conducted with zero order, first order, higuchi and korsemeyer patterns. The optimized formulations were found to be following zero order release kinetics. The accelerated stability study of the optimized formulations (matrix layer and bilayer tablets) were conducted for three months at the conditions of 40oc/75%RH and found to be stable. The FTIR study was conducted for determining drug polymer interaction.


Background Degenerative foraminal stenosis (DFS) is one the three anatomically locations of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (1) and more frequently involves the L5 nerve root (L5 – S1 foramen is the one with the smaller foramen / root area ratio) (2). The treatment options are adapted to clinical and functional status, generated by the severity of pressure on the nerve root complex by the degenerative changes (1, 3). Objectives The purpose of our randomized controlled study was to compare outcomes between the conservative therapies (activity modifications, medications and physical treatments) and the pharmacotherapy in patients with moderate symptomatic DFS (L5-S1 foramen). Methods 66 patients with L5 – S1 DFS were randomly assigned to a conservative treatment group – CG (n=36; 23 males, 13 females; mean age [±SD] = 54 ± 8 years) or a pharmacotherapy group – PG (n=28, 15 males, 13 females; mean age [±SD] = 56 ± 7 years). All patients were completely assessed (patient's description of their symptoms - Konno self-administered diagnostic tool, physical and radiological examinations and functional assessment - The Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire). Subjects in the CG received activity modifications, medications (similar to PG) and physical therapy (supervised exercise - twice daily stretching and adapted strengthening for lumbar spine, over a 6-week period; in addition we recommended lumbar bracing and performed ultrasounds, TENS and hot packs for 2 weeks). Measured outcomes were the generic QoL scale SF-MOS (Short Form Medical Outcomes Study) and the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) score. Differences parameter values between groups were tested by ANOVA test. Results Both groups showed clinically and statistically significant improvements in SF-MOS and RMDQ scores at 6 weeks (SF-MOS scores had improved by 43% in the CG and by 21% in the PG; RMDQ scores had improved over 25% in both groups). At 3 months, patients in the CG clinic were more satisfied with the overall outcome of their rehabilitative treatment compared with subjects in the PG. Conclusions Although both groups improved by 6 weeks, subjects in the CG achieved about twice as much improvement in SF-MOS scores than subjects in PG. The results indicate that a conservative treatment in moderate symptomatic DFS patients had not only effect on pain and function lumbar status but also a long term effect on perceived recovery. More randomly studies investigating conservative an surgical treatments in all degenerative spinal stenosis are required. References Genevay S., Atlas S.J., Best Practice and Research Clinical Rheumatology 24 (2010): 253 – 265. Jenis L.G., An H.S., Spine 2000; 25 (3):389 – 394. Konno S., Kikuchi S., tanaka Y., et.al., BMC Musculoskeletal Disord 2007; 8:102 Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Assessing fiscal sustainability – i.e. considering whether or not a country can maintain its current fiscal policies without running into solvency problems and possible default – requires projections on a government's future revenue stream, expenditures and contingent liabilities within a macroeconomic framework. Such an exercise is always subject to uncertainty. In commodity-rich countries dependent upon resource revenues, this is intensified by unpredictable and volatile commodity prices. We apply the Framework for Fiscal Sustainability and Managing Uncertainty to Azerbaijan: we explore the link between non-oil primary deficit and Oil Fund allocation rules and assess their impact on fiscal sustainability in Azerbaijan and allow for explicit analysis of the effects of uncertainty through scenario analysis and full stochastic analysis allowing Value-at-Risk assessments.


Molecular communication (MC) aims to use signaling molecules as information carriers to achieve communication between biological entities. However, MC systems severely suffer from inter symbol interference (ISI) and external noise, making it virtually difficult to obtain accurate mathematical models. Specifically, the mathematically intractable channel state information (CSI) of MC motivates the deep learning (DL) based signal detection methods. In this paper, a modified temporal convolutional network (TCN) is proposed for signal detection for a special MC communication system which uses magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) as information carriers. Results show that the TCN-based detector demonstrates the best overall performance. In particular, it achieves better bit error rate (BER) performance than sub-optimal maximum a posteriori (MAP) and deep neural network (DNN) based detectors. However, it behaves similarly to the bidirectional long short term memory (BiLSTM) based detector that has been previously proposed and performs worse than the optimal MAP detector. When both BER performance and computational complexity are taken into account, the proposed TCN-based detector outperforms BiLSTM-based detectors. Furthermore, in terms of robustness evaluation, the proposed TCN-based detector outperforms all other DL-based detectors.


This paper examines the competitive consequences of inter-firm mobility. Since the loss of key members (defined as top decision-makers) to competing firms may amount to a diffusion of a firm's higher order routines, we investigate the conditions under which inter-firm mobility triggers this event. In particular, we focus on: (1) when inter-firm mobility entails groups rather than single individuals; (2) when outbound members found a new enterprise rather than joining an existing competitor; and (3) when members in the destination firm shares the same context as in their prior firm. To address these questions, we examined membership lists pertinent to the Dutch accounting industry to study key member exits and firm dissolutions over the period 1880–1986. We exploit information on the type of membership migration and the competitive saliency of the destination firm as inferred from the recipient status (incumbent vs. start-up) and its geographic location (same vs. different province). The dissolution risk is highest when collective inter-firm mobility results in a new venture within the same geographical area. The theoretical and normative implications of this study are discussed.


Background: The market of nanotechnology-based consumer products is rapidly expanding, and the lack of scientific evidence describing the accompanying exposure and health risks stalls the discussion regarding its guidance and regulation. Objectives: We investigated the potential for human contact and inhalation exposure to nanomaterials when using nanotechnology-based cosmetic powders and compare them with analogous products not marketed as nanotechnology based. Methods: We characterized the products using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and laser diffraction spectroscopy and found nanoparticles in five of six tested products. TEM photomicrographs showed highly agglomerated states of nanoparticles in the products. We realistically simulated the use of cosmetic powders by applying them to the face of a human mannequin head while simultaneously sampling the released airborne particles through the ports installed in the mannequin's nostrils. Results: We found that a user would be exposed to nanomaterial predominantly through nanoparticle-containing agglomerates larger than the 1–100-nm aerosol fraction. Conclusions: Predominant deposition of nanomaterial(s) will occur in the tracheobronchial and head airways—not in the alveolar region as would be expected based on the size of primary nanoparticles. This could potentially lead to different health effects than expected based on the current understanding of nanoparticle behavior and toxicology studies for the alveolar region.


Objective To evaluate current evidence of the effect of specialised nutritional interventions on nutritional status, survival, quality of life and measures of functionality in patients with incurable cancer. Methods Systematic literature review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines using PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, LILACS and Cochrane Library databases. Clinical studies that evaluated different specialised nutritional interventions, such as nutritional counselling, oral nutritional supplementation (ONS), enteral nutrition (EN) and parenteral nutrition (PN), were eligible. Only studies classified as being of high methodological quality (ie, low or moderate risk of bias) were included. Results A total of 22 studies reporting on 2448 patients were deemed eligible. Five types of specialised nutrition were observed: mixed (multimodal nature, ie, dietary counseling, ONS, physical activity and/or drugs) (n=12), ONS (n=5), PN (n=3), EN (n=1) and multidisciplinary team counselling (n=1). Benefits of any kind from the interventions were reported in 14 (63.6%) studies, mainly resulting from mixed intervention. Nutritional status improved in 12 (60.0%) of 20 studies and quality of life improved in eight (50.0%) of 16 studies. Few studies have evaluated the influence of nutritional interventions on survival and measure of functionality, and have not shown improvement in these outcomes. Conclusion Despite the limited evidence, specialised nutritional interventions can yield positive effects for patients with incurable cancer, mainly in their nutritional status and quality of life.


The longitudinal structure of a gamma -type RF discharge is computed and shown to have much in common with the structure of a direct current glow discharge. In a sufficiently long gap or at rather high pressures, there are regions of cathode fall, negative glow and Faraday dark space near each of the electrodes. A uniform positive column exists between the electrodes. This pattern is obtained when taking into account non-local effects of the electron spectrum and abandoning Townsend's coefficient to describe the ionization, electron diffusion and electron losses as functions of a local field. The reverse field regions obtained numerically agree with experimental values. It is shown that very low magnitude of the field amplitude and mean electron energy in the plasma are not intrinsic properties of the gamma discharge. The low magnitudes are typical only for sufficiently short gaps and low pressures when the plasma is concentrated in the negative glow region and the Faraday dark space and there is no room for the positive column to form. In long gaps and for high pressure the positive column is formed where the field and electron temperature are as high as in an alpha discharge or in the positive column of a glow discharge.


Background: Focus on sleep regulation is crucial due to the direct health consequences of insufficient sleep to adolescents' health and education performance. This study aims to develop and validate an instrument to measure sleep behavior self-regulation (SBSR) and its influential factors in a student sample.Methods: A preliminary version of the measurement instrument was developed using a literature review and conceptual framework. Expert analysis of content validity, item analysis, factor analysis and reliability analysis was performed for the psychometric evaluation. This study has a total of 401 students. The data was analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0.Results: The exploratory factor analyses offered a structure with six factors. The model presents a good fit (χ2/df = 1.65, RMSEA = 0.053, CFI = 0.920, and GFI =0.826). General test reliability was good (α = 0.9).Conclusions: SBSRI is a multidimensional instrument and a valid and reliable way of obtaining information about sleep behavior self-regulation. The use of this instrument will make it possible to adjust behavior to subjective goals and real experiences to promote sleep-related behavior change.


Objective To investigate the intention of the Hong Kong general population to take up vaccination against influenza A/H1N1. Setting Cross sectional population based anonymous survey. Participants Random sample of 301 adults interviewed by telephone (response rate 80%). Main outcome measure Intention to take up vaccination against influenza A/H1N1 under five hypothetical scenarios: vaccination is free; vaccination per dosage costs less than $HK100 (£8; €9; $13), $HK101-200, or more than $HK200; and no data are available on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. Results 45% (n=135) of the participants reported that they would be highly likely take up vaccination if it was free. When vaccination incurred a cost, however, the prevalence of uptake decreased: 36% (n=108) would take up vaccination if it cost less than $HK100, 24% (n=72) if it cost $HK101-200, and 15% (n=45) if it cost more than $HK200; and in absence of proved efficacy and safety decreased to 5% (n=14). Moreover, 32% (n=95) considered universal A/H1N1 vaccination unnecessary. Overall, 39% (n=117) of participants believed that A/H1N1 vaccination would prevent the virus being contracted; 63% (n=189) erroneously believed that efficacy of the vaccine had been confirmed by clinical trials, and 16% (n=49) believed that it is necessary for everyone in Hong Kong to take up vaccination against influenza A/H1N1. Conclusions The uptake of vaccination against influenza A/H1N1 by the general population of Hong Kong is unlikely to be high and would be sensitive to personal cost. Evidence about safety and efficacy is critical in determining the prevalence of uptake of vaccination.


In the modern global economy, companies are facing ever-increasing challenges for shortening time-to-market, for entering new market early, for developing market share, and for maximizing returns on their investments. Product lifecycle management (PLM) is recognized as one of the key leading technologies to overcome these challenges. PLM offers companies an integrated way to rapidly plan, organize, manage, measure, and deliver new products or services to their customers. PLM provides customers, developers, manufacturers, and suppliers with the most effective means of collaboratively managing business activities throughout product development. PLM supports the capability of creation, management, share, and use of product data, information, and knowledge in virtual enterprise networks by integrating people, processes, and technology. PLM systems manage a portfolio of products, processes, and services from its initial conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Following this trend, this special issue collects a series of recent achievements on the research, development and application of model, framework, standard, ontology, collaboration, and so on in PLM domain. Ni, Lu, and Yarlagaddaa reported the research result on 'An Extensible Product Structure Model for Product Lifecycle Management in the Make-to-Order Environment', which focuses on the master-variant pattern for building the product structure model to explicitly represent common characteristics and specific features of individual variants in the make-to-order business context. Wang et al. proposed the collaborative project management with supplier involvement in product lifecycle, with a scenario of what and how to collaborate with supplier, the system architecture, and the corresponding function, information, process collaboration methods. Ma, Jiao, andDeng developed the web service oriented electronic catalogs for product customization, in such a way that users can source competitive offers and generate feature-based CAD models from different vendors over the Internet with the key technique of the feature markup descriptions for the requested library elements. Fan and Bermell-Garcia shared the international standard development for knowledge-based engineering services for product lifecycle management, with the aim to facilitate the integration of KBE applications in a PLM environment, to support PLM evolving from the platform to manage engineering data to the repository of complete enterprise knowledge. Kulvatunyou et al. depicted the research on the development life cycle for semantically coherent data exchange specification to support reuse, promotes interoperability, and, consequently, reduces integration costs with an activity model for the creation, test, and maintenance of a shared semantic model. Sun and Jiang represented the research on tracking online workpiece machining procedure in a mobile collaborative environment, with a ubiquitousmachining tracking implementation in the mobile collaborative infrastructure. Users with different roles-playing are able to track the machining quality and progress, and to cooperate with each other, despite of their geographical places. Lee and Suh developed an ontology-based multilayered knowledge framework for PLM, including a systematic lattice structure with three product knowledge types of axioms, knowledge maps, specialized knowledge for a domain; and four layers of a product context model, a product specific model, a product planning model, and a product manufacturing model. *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: email@example.com


Abstract The purpose of this paper was to investigate entrepreneurial intentions among university students in China and Mexico. Findings reveal that students' perceptions of an entrepreneurship major, self-employment, and self-confidence levels influence their entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, we found that external structural support had a significant moderating effect on the self-confidence and entrepreneurial intent relationship. The aforementioned moderating relationship was mitigated by access to and availability of external support.


Purpose: To report an illustrative case demonstrating the efficacy of endovascular treatment for traumatic blunt renal allograft injury. Case Report: A 19-year-old man sustained an injury to his renal allograft after a traffic accident secondary to lap belt compression. Angiography revealed contrast extravasation from 2 disrupted upper pole renal artery branches, which were successfully embolized with microcoils. The creatinine level was transiently elevated to 4.1 mg/dL, but it improved to 2.9 mg/dL at discharge 13 days after admission. After 1 year, the serum creatinine level was 1.9 mg/dL. Conclusion: As in the native kidney, superselective embolization can also be used safely in the management of blunt injury to a renal allograft, avoiding surgery and preserving graft function.


Forest ecosystems have been experiencing fast and abrupt changes in the environmental conditions, that can increase their vulnerability to extreme events such as drought, heat waves, storms, fire. Process-based models can draw inferences about future environmental dynamics, but the reliability and robustness of vegetation models are conditional on their structure and their parametrisation. The main objective of the PhD was to implement and apply modern computational techniques, mainly based on Bayesian statistics, in the context of forest modelling. A variety of case studies was presented, spanning from growth predictions models to soil respiration models and process-based models. The great potential of the Bayesian method for reducing uncertainty in parameters and outputs and model evaluation was shown. Furthermore, a new methodology based on a combination of a Bayesian framework and a global sensitivity analysis was developed, with the aim of identifying strengths and weaknesses of process-based models and to test modifications in model structure. Finally, part of the PhD research focused on reducing the computational load to take full advantage of Bayesian statistics. It was shown how parameter screening impacts model performances and a new methodology for parameter screening, based on canonical correlation analysis, was presented. Key-words: process-based models, Bayesian statistics,carbon and water cycles, uncertainty analysis, global sensitivity analysis.


The focus of this study was to develop additive or synergistic agents to chemosensitize the existing chemotherapeutic drug in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study employing analyses of the NF-κB/ I-κB kinase (IKK) signal cascade in a number of NSCLC cell lines, we report the identification and characterization of parthenolide. Parthenolide is a sesquiterpene lactone that can antagonize paclitaxel-mediated NF-κB nuclear translocation and activation through selectively targeting I-κB kinase (IKK) activity. Our results showed that parthenolide dramatically lowered the effective dose of Paclitaxel needed to induce cytotoxicity of a wide range of NSCLC cell lines. An examination of pathways common to Paclitaxel and parthenolide signaling revealed that this synergy was related to modulation of the NF-κB/ I-κB kinase (IKK) signal cascade through IKKβ. Parthenolide alone induced apoptosis via the mitochondria/caspase pathway. Moreover, in a human orthotopic NSCLC xenograft model, a well-tolerated combination induces tumor regression. These data strengthen the rationale for the use of parthenolide to decrease the apoptotic threshold via a caspase-dependent process and support the use of concurrent low doses of paclitaxel in the treatment of NSCLC with paclitaxel chemoresistance.


Blockchain is a Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) system wherein decentralized nodes execute consensus protocols to drive the agreement process on new blocks added to a distributed ledger. Generally, two-round communications among 3f+1 nodes are required to tolerate up to f faults in BFT-based consensus networks. This communication pattern corresponds to the worse-case scenario of consensus achievement, even under asynchronous network conditions. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for a network to operate under better conditions, where a consensus can be reached with a lower communication cost. Hence, with the addition of a faster optimistic path toward an agreement, the idea of dual-mode consensus has been proposed as a promising approach to enhance the performance of asynchronous BFT protocols. However, this opportunity is not completely exploited by existing dual-mode protocols as the fast path can be followed only in a nonfaulty and synchronous network. This article presents a novel dual-mode protocol consisting of fast and backup subprotocols. To create different consensus committees for fast and backup-mode operations, the network contains both active and passive nodes. A consensus can be expedited through a fast-mode operation when majority of the active nodes can communicate synchronously. Under non-ideal conditions, the backup protocol takes over the agreement process from its fast-mode counterpart without starting over the suspended round. The safety and liveness of the proposed protocol are guaranteed with lower communication costs, which balance the trade-off between protocol efficiency and availability.


Born in Air Itam, Penang, Malaysia, the late Latifah Merican Cheong who passed away on 22 June 2018 was a beacon of monetary policy in Malaysia. Her early schooling was at Convent Pulau Tikus, Penang until Form 5 and Methodist Boys School where she finished her Form 6 before completing her first degree at the University of Malaya in 1973, and master's degree at Vanderbilt University in 1979. It is while studying at the University of Malaya that she met her husband, Cheong Kwok Yew who was two years her senior at the Faculty of Economics and Administration. Exposed to economics from her undergraduate and graduate studies, and later groomed by the heavyweights of Malaysian monetary economics, six Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governors, including Tun Ismail Ali and Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, and her former superiors, Tan Sri Lin See Yan and Tan Sri Andrew Sheng, Latifah Merican Cheong rose to lead public interventions to correct market failure and establish alternative mechanisms where markets were missing. Her devotion to honesty saw her building transparent and clean institutional structures. Her conviction to society saw her working long hours, often away from the comfort of family and home. Although committed to merit and performance, her works distinctly show her recognition and support for the poor in society by calling for the distribution of needsbased subsidies. Her honesty kept her steering in the direction of evidence. Her intelligence ensured that her critics gave her the respect she deserved. Her experience and outstanding work ethic brought her countless leadership job offers. Her loyalty guaranteed her friendship among thousands of admirers. Latifah Merican Cheong began her career at BNM, having been a recipient of a scholarship from the organization. Over the span of thirty years, her sharp intellect and leadership attributes saw her move up swiftly from a junior officer in 1973 to Assistant Governor in 1998. Among her initiatives, she was strongly involved in BNM's efforts to develop the services sector, especially tertiary education and tourism. She found the need to provide greater access to tertiary education through private sector involvement and in promoting tourism, to achieve the twin objectives of reducing service payments abroad and developing services as an engine of growth. Her tireless efforts as a civil servant earned her Datoships from Malacca and Penang. While still serving as Assistant Governor at BNM, she had a two-year secondment to the Executive Board of Directors of the IMF at Washington, D.C. where she deepened her understanding of the management of major economic disruptions like the asset price boom of 1995–97 and forex debacle of the early 1990s. Upon retirement from BNM in 2004, Latifah Merican Cheong was appointed to a four-year term at the World Bank as Programme Director for financial market integrity. Her responsibility was to ensure that banks have good anti-money laundering policies, "mainly to combat the financing of terrorism" which was then a major concern in advanced countries. However, the broader mandate for the World Bank, of which she was part, was to bring development to developing countries. In doing so, she acknowledged that her greatest challenge was to create products for developing countries that could be sold to donor


MPR (multipoint relays) (A. Qayyum et al., Jan. 2002) provides a localized and optimized way of broadcasting messages in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). Using 2-hop neighborhood information, each node determines a small set of forward neighbors to relay messages. Selected forward nodes form a connected dominating set (CDS) to ensure full coverage. Adjih, Jacquet, and Viennot (2002) later proposed a novel localized algorithm to construct a small CDS based on the original MPR without any broadcast information. Such an approach is called source-independent or broadcast-independent. In this paper, we provide several extensions of the source-independent MPR to generate a smaller CDS using 3-hop neighborhood information to cover each node's 2-hop neighbor set. In addition, we extend the notion of coverage in the original MPR. We show that the extended MPR has a constant local approximation ratio compared with a logarithmic local ratio in the original MPR. The effectiveness of our approach is confirmed through a simulation study.


Digital controllers are often used in interleaved multi-phase dc-dc converters. System identification is desirable for precise frequency-domain characterisations and subsequent stability assessment and/or controller design. The digital nature of the feedback signal facilitates the communication between the converter and a processing unit, which is used here to estimate the system parameters by means of system identification in situ
. The phase loss, zero-order-hold effect and asynchronised sampling of the digital controller are discussed. Design limitations and desired dynamic behaviours complicate the controller design process and necessitate automated tuning of the controller. Therefore a computer-generated auto-tuning framework is set forth that provides the required controller coefficients to meet desired time and frequency performance criteria. This is an offline optimisation-based process that minimises a cost function formulated using appropriate error terms. The identification results for single- and multi-phase dc-dc converters closely match those obtained from conventional network analysers. Also, the auto-tuning performance is verified in time and frequency domains using hardware measurements and numerical simulations.


In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic shift in educational practice, whereby home-schooling and remote working became the norm. Many typical schools outreach projects to encourage uptake of learning cyber security skills therefore were put on hold, due to the inability to physical attend and inspire. In this short paper, we describe a new approach to teaching cyber security with a view of inspiring a new generation of learners to the subject. Traditional Capture-The-Flag exercises are widely used in cyber security education, whereby a series of challenges are completed to gain access and obtain a passphrase from a computer system. We couple this approach with interactive sessions made possible via video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, along with the very nature of being in the home environment, where home IoT devices are now commonplace. We develop an integrated CTF for the home IoT environment, where students can observe the impact of submitting flags via online video, to physical adjust the home environment - ranging from switching off lights, playing music, or controlling an IoT-enabled robot. The result is a highly interactive and engaging experience that benefits from the very nature of remote working, inspiring the notion of "hacking an IoT home".


With regard to the oil leakage from O-ring packing used for a reciplocating rod, so far as the authors aware, it seems that there is any conclusive results neither theoretical nor experimental. In this report they present an experimental result out and the theoretical representations for the above object. As a result, the quantity of oil leakage Q from an O-ring is proportional to the square of the reciplocating velocity of the rod U, the n-th powers of the kinematic viscosity of the oil (m=1.5 experimentally), and more over it is affected by the pressure of the oil supplied, and the harder the material of the O-ring, the more it decreases.


Rock physics modelling in deeply buried tight carbonate reservoirs is more challenging than the clastic reservoir because of its complex pore systems. Therefore, modelling complex pore geometries in carbonates reservoir plays an important role in the geophysical measurements to infer pore‐type distribution and their volume fraction, which control the fluid flow properties governed by their complex geological history. This paper presents the use of a robust and practical integrated and iterative seismic petrophysics, and rock physics modelling workflow for the characterization of a deep tight mixed (carbonate and clastic) sedimentary reservoir of a recently discovered oil field located in the Potwar Basin onshore Pakistan. The case study incorporates a careful assessment of well‐log data quality, workflow used for well data conditioning and consequent improvement in data quality, seismic petrophysics and rock physics modelling results. Rock physics diagnostics identified data quality issues and rectified them using appropriate measures to ensure that the rock physics modelling scheme reliably predicts elastic logs honouring different pore types (reference, soft, stiff and cracks) distribution validating from the well observations. Two inclusion‐based rock physics models (Xu and Payne for carbonate and Keys and Xu for clastic) are used to predict rock elastic (P‐sonic, S‐sonic and density) properties responses. Utmost care is exercised to integrate all available data/information, such as Formation Micro‐Imager, mud‐log, testing data and calibrated pore‐type inversion results from well‐log data with the pore geometry revealed by Formation Micro‐Imager and core information. The rock physics modelling provided consistency between elastic and petrophysical properties by calibrating the estimated properties with the measure logs and improved understanding in terms of lithology and fluid separation in the tight carbonate interval. Finally, rock physics‐modelled elastic logs (P‐sonic, S‐sonic and density) are used along with seismic data (partial stacks) and horizons interpretation model to compute pre‐stack synthetic seismograms to calibrate with the preconditioned seismic data. A significant improvement in the well‐to‐seismic calibration is achieved from rock physics modelled logs compared with the original (measured) elastic logs at well location using pre‐stack seismic data, which, further, can help produce reliable reservoir rock properties of interest from the inversion of seismic data.


The paper's principal purpose is to present the original concept of the project supply chain's entrepreneurial management. Based on the literature on the subject, one defines the entrepreneurial management concept showing the influence of entrepreneurial management on company operation. Moreover, the paper also outlines the most important concepts of the project supply chain and presents the functioning scheme. Theoretical considerations concerning contemporary theories of entrepreneurial management and project supply chain are the prelude to presenting the concept of entrepreneurial management. The presented approach can be found helpful for the effective management of the project supply chain, which has not yet been thoroughly defined. It should be mentioned that the designed model of the entrepreneurial supply chain management is an original proposal for the paradigm of project supply chains. Both in a classical and project supply chain, a significant role is given to the flow of material resources between the individual chain components. It determines that the project supply chain is mainly driven by the need for its members' value increase. It was explained that regarding entrepreneurial competences, knowledge can be transferred to other organizations in the whole supply chain. It was also mentioned that the project supply chain's entrepreneurial management takes into account the flexibility manifesting itself through the establishment of agile project teams, and by focusing on human relationships. It is the basis for the presented concept of the entrepreneurial management model of the project supply chain.
AcknowledgmentThe project is financed within the framework of the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name "Regional Excellence Initiative" in the years 2019–2022; project number 001/RID/2018/19; the amount of financing PLN 10,684,000.00.


OBJECTIVE
To assess how well the COMET system meets the functional goals and usability needs of family physicians (FP) for the management of patients who have comorbid chronic heart failure (CHF) and atrial fibrillation (AF).

DESIGN
Nonexperimental post-interaction Think Aloud Sessions and survey involving Likert scale questionnaires.

PARTICIPANTS
Licensed Family Physicians in Nova Scotia.

INTERVENTION
A clinical decision support tool called "COMET - Co-morbidity Ontological Modeling & ExecuTion". COMET's main purpose is to provide evidence-based recommendations for the management of patients with co-morbid CHF-AF in a family practice setting.

RESULTS
Our study suggested that although the participant family physicians are potential users of the clinical decision support software like COMET, the most common usability problems encountered are related to inadequate information content, navigation, and time and effort for data entry. We recommend that a field usability testing of a CDSS using think aloud protocols in conjunction with surveys is an effective method to uncover usability problems.


: Changes occurred in the visually evoked response (VER) during treatment for amblyopia in a uniocular patient. The VER changed before the visual acuity. After-image treatment was used to teach central fixation and this was maintained with the use of television chequerboards. The patient's visual acuity improved from 4/60 to 6/12 and this was confirmed by the evoked responses.


The study was to determine the utilization of mentoring and scaffolding techniques by lecturers for teaching Vocational Agricultural Education to students in Tertiary Institutions in Taraba State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Four research questions guided the study. The areas of the study were the Tertiary Institutions in Taraba State that offer Vocational Agriculture. The institutions include; College of Education, Zing, Taraba State University Jalingo, College of Agriculture Science and Technology and Federal University Wukari. The population of the study was 200 lecturers of Vocational Agriculture from which a sample of 132 were drawn by stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire named "Mentoring and Scaffolding Utilization Mechanisms Questionnaire" (MSUQ). Five experts in vocational agriculture validated the instrument for data collection and was trial tested. A Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.80 was established after analyzing the trial testing of the instrument. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.80 was high enough and indicates that the MSUQ was reliable to elicit information for the study. One hundred and thirty-two copies (132) of the questionnaire were administered on the respondents with the help of research assistant in each of the institutions. The research assistants were able to retrieve 100% of the questionnaire administered. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and standard deviation to answer the four research questions. The result revealed that the ten mentoring techniques presented were accepted by the lecturers as mechanism for teaching Vocational Agriculture. So also, the seven scaffolding techniques were accepted by them. Furthermore, the result showed that the utilization of mentoring and scaffolding techniques were not impressive as the utilization falls below 30% of the techniques presented to the respondents. Techniques not utilized for mentoring among other include: friendliness to learners, approachable to learners, give feedback to learners while those techniques not utilized for scaffolding among others include; activate prior knowledge, learner participation, provide support as learners learn, pre-teach vocabulary. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that lecturers of Vocational Agriculture should sustain the techniques of mentoring and scaffolding while proprietors of the institutions are to motivate the lecturers to attend seminars, conferences and workshops on utilization of mentoring and scaffolding techniques to bring about the required learning of vocational agriculture by students in the tertiary Institutions in Taraba State.


ABSTRACT Background Healthcare professionals' attitudes toward people with chronic pain influence their clinical practice. Objectives To investigate physiotherapy students' attitudes and beliefs toward people with chronic pain over the course of their Scottish undergraduate program. Methods In this observational study, physiotherapy students from one university were recruited in the first year and followed up to their final year (year 1 n = 62/75, year 2 n = 68/72, year 3 n = 59/69, year 4 n = 74/74) for 4 years. The Health-Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS with scores ranging from 15 to 105) was completed annually Results A one-way ANOVA found that attitudes and beliefs improved significantly (p < .01) from the first to final year (9.2 ± 11.5 (mean±SD)). Participants showed a reduction in scores (signifying improved attitudes) annually with smaller reductions initially followed by a larger reduction in the final 2 years. Conclusions This is the first study to chart changes in the same cohort of physiotherapy students' attitudes and beliefs toward people with chronic pain over time. Future work should explore which aspects of degree courses, if any, impact upon attitudes and beliefs toward people with chronic pain so that courses can be enhanced accordingly.


Abstract This article examines bank lobbying in the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS). While excessive bank lobbying is routinely linked to weakened banking regulations, we still know little about bank mobilization patterns. In particular, when and why do some banks lobby the BCBS while others do not? I argue that the decision to lobby is a function of two factors: banks' organizational characteristics and domestic banking regulations. I test my argument using a unique dataset of over 33,000 banks worldwide during the period in which Basel III was negotiated. My findings confirm a pronounced bias in bank mobilization patterns toward wealthy, internationally active banks. I also find that banks facing more stringent banking regulations at home tend to lobby the BCBS in an effort to level the playing field with international competitors. This effect is particularly salient for stringent regulations on banking activities as well as higher capital adequacy requirements. 1


ABSTRACT Children display fright and worry responses to violent news. Including involved children, non-involved children or experts as sources in children's news is assumed to reduce these negative effects. However, exemplification theory gives reason to question whether particularly the use of involved children indeed has a reassuring effect. To test this, an experiment was conducted among 237 children (8–13 y/o). They were randomly exposed to a news video containing (1) involved children as source, (2) non-involved children, or (3) adult experts. Fright and worry responses were measured both before and after exposure. Results showed that the inclusion of involved children as a source significantly increased worry responses, but did not affect fright responses. Non-involved child sources significantly reduced fright and worry responses. Expert sources reduced children's fright responses, but did not change feelings of worry. These insights can inform news producers on how to alleviate the effects of covering violent events in news. IMPACT SUMMARY a. Prior State of Knowledge: Violent content in news induces negative responses in children. Producers of children's news try to alleviate these effects by using involved children, non-involved children, or adult experts as sources in violent news stories. b. Novel Contributions: This study provides first empirical insights into the effects of involved children, non-involved children, and adult experts as sources in violent news stories on children's fear and worry responses. It shows how to alleviate children's negative emotional responses to news. c. Practical Implications: News producers are encouraged to use non-involved children or adult experts when presenting violent news to children. They should be careful with the inclusion of involved children as sources in news stories.


A three-dimensional parallel Euler flow solver has been developed for the simulation of unsteady rotor-fuselage interaction aerodynamics on unstructured meshes. In order to handle the relative motion between the rotor and the fuselage, the flow field was divided into two zones, a moving zone rotating with the blades and a stationary zone containing the fuselage. A sliding mesh algorithm was developed for the convection of the flow variables across the cutting boundary between the two zones. A quasi-unsteady mesh adaptation technique was adopted to enhance the spatial accuracy of the solution and to better resolve the wake. A low Mach number pre-conditioning method was implemented to relieve the numerical difficulty associated with the low-speed forward flight. Validations were made by simulating the flows around the Georgia Tech configuration and the ROBIN fuselage. It was shown that the present method is efficient and robust for the prediction of complicated unsteady rotor-fuselage aerodynamic interaction phenomena.


The problem of the differentiating action of solvents on the relative strength of acids is examined from the point of view of the modern theory of acid–base equilibrium, according to which hydrocarbons and their derivatives behave under appropriate conditions as acids. Methods are described for determining the strength of such CH acids. The factors on which the differentiating effect of solvents depends are discussed. The most detailed consideration is given to the question — newly posed in the literature — of the possible causes of the change in the relative kinetic acidity of CH acids produced by solvents, which has been established by measuring the rate of the protophilic isotopic exchange of the hydrogen in them with bases. The bibliography contains 110 references.


Dust dose and composition do not appear to account wholly for changes in the prevalence of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in Europe. In certain coal pits high progression evidently occurred with relatively low dust exposure or vice versa, whereas progression in relation to dust levels might be variable. Exceptionally high quartz concentrations occur in coal mine dust when pneumoconiosis may progress with unusual rapidity. Under such circumstances lesions resembling silicotic nodules may be found, but with the customarily lower levels of quartz the pathological features assume the form characteristic of coal workers. Morphological changes in relation to dust content of human and animal lungs, as well as cellular behavior, have not accounted completely for the epidemiological findings. Considering all the pathological evidence helps explain the pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis and vagaries of progression. The origin of progressive massive fibrosis cannot be explained simply in terms of dust burden or immunological features, and the role of an infective factor cannot be dismissed. Moreover, lipid secretion by alveolar epithelium introduces a new element that could affect the development of simple and complicated pneumoconiosis. In vitro, cytotoxicity appeared to be too variable for predictive purposes, though direct assay of fibrogenicity using the macrophage fibrogenic factor suggested that dust dose was more important than dust composition. Assessing individual susceptibility presents serious obstacles.


This paper proposes a snubber circuit for flying capacitor 3-level inverter and converter. The proposed snubber circuit makes use of Undeland snubber as basic snubber unit. It has such an advantage of Undeland snubber used in the two-level inverter. Compared with conventional RLD/RCD snubber for 3-level inverter and converter, the proposed snubber keeps such good features as fewer number of components, reduction of voltage stress of main switching devices due to low overvoltage, and improved efficiency of system due to low snubber loss. In this paper, the proposed snubber is applied to multilevel flying capacitor inverter and its feature is demonstrated by computer simulation and experimental result.


This paper examines the causal relationship between stock prices and exchange rates, using data from 2 April 2001 to 31 March 2011 about India. Macroeconomic variables are of crucial importance for determining the effects on stock prices and investment decisions. There are many empirical studies to disclose the relationship between macroeconomic variables such as interest rate, inflation, exchange rates, money supply etc. and stock indexes. However, the direction of causality still remains unresolved in both theory and empirics. In the present study, national, services, financials, industrials, and technology indices are taken as stock price indices. The results of empirical study indicate that there is bidirectional causal relationship between exchange rate and all stock market indices. While the negative causality exists from national, services, financials and industrials indices to exchange rate, there is a positive causal relationship from technology indices to exchange rate. On the other hand, negative causal relationship from exchange rate to all stock market indices is determined. Keywords: Stock Prices, Exchange Rate, Toda-Yamamoto, India


Understanding Early childhood in general are children aged under 6 years. Children aged 4 – 6 years or Kindergarten age (on the formal education path in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 2003 article 28 concerning Early Childhood Education), is a period of sensitive for children, because this period is a time of maturation physical and psychological functions that are ready to respond to environmental stimulation and internalize it into the person. This period is the beginning physical, cognitive, language, social, emotional development, self-concept, discipline, independence, art, morals, and religious values. Therefore it is needed a condition and stimulation appropriate to the child's needs so that growth and development is achieved optimally. One of the basic attitudes that children must have to become human what is good and right is to have good attitudes and moral values in act as God's people, children, family members and members Public. Age in Early Childhood Education is the most important time good and appropriate to lay the foundations of education values, morals, and religion to children. Although the role of parents is very large in building a moral and religious foundation for their children, the role of educators Early Childhood Education is also not small in laying the moral foundation and religion for a child.


This paper presents a setup of turbulence mechanics for averaged description of turbulence, founded on laws of momentum, moment of momentum, and energy, complemented by common rheological principles for formulating constitutive relations between generalized forces and generalized velocities of the description. A kinematical-geometrical principle is adopted to determine internal rotating degrees of freedom of turbulent media generated by the eddy structure of turbulent flow fields. The connection between the formulated mechanics and some models (as K-epsilon model), widely used in practical engineering flow calculations, is established. As an example, the formulated mechanics is applied to describe some classical flow patterns.


The present investigation captioned "Potentials of Verbesina encelioides (Cav.) Benth. & Hook. Fil ex Gray as a Source of New Drugs" has been presented in different sections. The Aims and Objectives, Literature in Retrospect and Medico-ethnobotanical Background of the Verbesina encelioides has been given in the beginning whereas the Summary and Conclusions, and Bibliography have been given in the end. The Experimental part has been divided into four sections in the text. The Photographs of cultured tissues of different morphogenetic stages, tables, graphs and figures have been incorporated appropriately in the Results and Discussion. In the present study, Verbesina encelioides (Cav.) Benth. & Hook. Fil. ex Gray has been selected for its germination, tissue culture and phytochemical evaluation along with the selected biological activities, both in vivo and in vitro . The present research work is based on important medicinal plant (also known as unwanted weed) of the herbal remedies, its botanical, pharmacological, phytochemical and in vitro aspects anticipating its possible value in medicinal system.


Background and objectives The conservation and management of threatened and endangered species is a tremendous challenge that must be addressed to achieve the goal of halting the loss of plant biodiversity. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Cyperus esculentus lies in the least concern category. This means that it has been evaluated against the Red List criteria and does not qualify for critically endangered, vulnerable, or near threatened. In Egypt, the people depend mainly on the wild growing tubers, whereas the area of land cultivated with tiger nut is becoming very small. This is highly affecting the population of the plant and explains the need to introduce its cultivation in different phytogeographical regions of Egypt.
Materials and methods Tubers of C. esculentus were obtained from Wady Elsheh Farm, Assuit Governorate, Egypt, and were cultivated in four different locations during two planting periods. Physical and chemical properties of the soils were determined. In addition, water used for irrigation was analyzed. Moreover, growth and yield parameters were recorded. The 80% methanol extract of powdered tubers was prepared using the ultrasound-assisted extraction, and the antioxidant activity was determined using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging assay.
Results and conclusion The obtained results showed that soil type and water used for irrigation had a significant effect on plant growth, that is, plant height and fresh and dry weight of herb during the two seasons. Moreover, the four extracts of samples obtained from the four locations exerted remarkable antioxidant activity (83.4, 92.4, 90.7, and 65.1%, respectively), which could be attributed to high flavonoids content of the tubers. The soil and water for irrigation at Wadi Elsaeida, Aswan Governorate, and El-Bahrya Oasis are more suitable for the production of C. esculentus tubers.


We statistically investigated the ion bulk speeds in the equatorial region of the Saturn's inner magnetosphere using the Langmuir Probe (LP) onboard the Cassini spacecraft. The LP observations showed that the ion speeds are about 60% of the ideal co-rotation speed at 5 RS and the ions have between co-rotation and Keplerian speed. Beyond 7 RS the ion speeds are spread to be a larger speed and become close to the ideal co-rotation speed. It is suggested that the sub-micron sized negatively charged E ring dust contributes to the plasma dynamics in the plasma disk. We also calculated the ion speeds using the three components MHD equations, which include the interaction with dusts to investigate the effect of the ion-dust coulomb collision and the massloadings, and the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. Our model shows that the ion speeds can be significantly reduced by the magnetospheric electric fields generated by the collisions between ions and dusts. It is also indicated that the coulomb and/or direct collisions between ions and dusts can be effective around Enceladus.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a vast burden on public health and socioeconomics in West Africa, but the epidemic situation is unclear. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the positive rate, death rate, and diversity of SARS-CoV-2. As of March 31, 2022, a total of 894,813 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded, with 12,028 deaths, both of which were distributed in all 16 countries. There were four waves of COVID-19 during this period. Most cases were recorded in the second wave, accounting for 34.50% of total cases. These data suggest that although West Africa seems to have experienced a low and relatively slow spread of COVID-19, the epidemic was ongoing, evolving with each COVID-19 global pandemic wave. Most cases and most deaths were both recorded in Nigeria. In contrast, the fewest cases and fewest deaths were reported, respectively, in Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, high death rates were found in countries with low incidence rates. These data suggest that the pandemic in West Africa has so far been heterogeneous, which is closely related to the infrastructure of public health and socioeconomic development (e.g., extreme poverty, GDP per capita, and human development index). At least eight SARS-CoV-2 variants were found, namely, Delta, Omicron, Eta, Alpha, Beta, Kappa, Iota, and Gamma, which showed high diversity, implicating that multiple-lineages from different origins were introduced. Moreover, the Eta variant was initially identified in Nigeria and distributed widely. These data reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic in the continent was co-driven by both multiple introduced lineages and a single native lineage. We suggest enhancing the quarantine measures upon entry at the borders and implementing a genome surveillance strategy to better understand the transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic in West Africa.


Emre Selvi is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Muskingum University, New Concord. He received his academic degrees in Mechanical Engineering; B.S. and M.S. from Middle East Technical University and PhD from Texas Tech University. Prior to starting his PhD in 2004, he worked as a Design and Production Engineer for Aselsan Inc. over four years. His research interests are high pressure material science and engineering design, especially as it relate to educational environments.


Thermal stability of silver ions in silicate glasses in dry and wet (0.5 - 50% of water content) atmosphere under elevated (160–230 °C) temperature is studied. The glass is doped with silver using silver-to-sodium ion exchange procedure conventionally used for the formation of optical waveguides. It is found that the isothermal annealing of glasses doped with Ag+ ions in a wet argon atmosphere leads to the reduction of silver to metallic state and to the formation of silver nanoclusters in the glass body. The clustering in the course of water diffusion into the glass was studied by optical spectrometry. The clusters were not formed during annealing in a dry atmosphere at the same temperatures.


As the complexity of highway engineering increases, information related to pavement condition, vehicle operating cost, ride quality, driving safety, passenger comfort, and newly-constructed road acceptance needs to be effectively and safely collected and evaluated by instrumentation. For such purposes, comprehensive or multi-function measurement of pavement conditions is providing a more efficient and economical way to complete the measurement process. In 1985, the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation (SDHPT) purchased a multi-functional road quality surveying system, called the Automatic Road Analyzer (ARAN), which measures several roadway conditions simultaneously, including pavement roughness, pavement transverse profile (rutting), and roadway geometrical characteristics. This report evaluates the orientation subsystem and rut depth subsystem of the ARAN unit using field tests and the resulting data. In this evaluation, the principal activities involved the evaluation of the static, dynamic, and operational performance. Static performance tests were conducted separately to test the stability, measurement specifications, and measuring accuracy of the orientation subsystem and rut depth subsystem. The dynamic performance tests of the orientation and nit depth subsystems (conducted with the ARAN unit operating under normal conditions) compare responses of the two subsystems with chosen references. The operational performance tests were conducted to check whether the subsystems are reliable under different operating conditions. A procedure characterizing the transverse profile and rutting was developed in this study. The final output of this procedure is a rutting index.


We extend the results and methods of [6] to prove the existence of constant positive scalar curvature metrics g which are complete and conformal to the standard metric on S \ Λ, where Λ is a disjoint union of submanifolds of dimensions between 0 and (N − 2)/2. The existence of solutions with isolated singularities occupies the majority of the paper; their existence was previously established by Schoen [12], but the proof we give here, based on the techniques of [6], is more direct, and provides more information about their geometry. When Λ is discrete we also establish that these solutions are smooth points in the moduli spaces of all such solutions introduced and studied in [7] and [8]


Nowadays, the use of recycled waste construction materials instead of aggregates is becoming popular in construction owing to its environmental benefits. This paper presents an experimental and analytical campaign to study the behavior of axially loaded columns constructed from recycled aggregates. The latter was used instead of natural aggregates, and they were collected from the waste of previous concrete constructions. Different concrete mixtures made from varying amounts of recycled aggregates ranged from 0 to 50% of the total coarse aggregate were conducted to achieve 28 MPa. The effect of steel fibers is another investigated variable with volumes ranged from 0 to 2% concerning concrete's mixture. The experimental results showed that the concrete strength is dependent on the amount of recycled aggregates. When the recycled aggregates were less than 30% of the total aggregates, they had a negligible effect on concrete strength and the load carrying capacity of the column models were improved. Also, the presence of steel fibers enhanced the load carrying capacity of the columns constructed from concrete with recycled aggregates of more than 30%. Finite element analysis (using ANSYS 16.1 software program) was conducted to simulate the experimental investigations, and they achieved good agreements with the test results.


Recent achievements in experimental and computational methods have opened up the possibility of measuring and inverting the diffraction pattern from a single-crystalline particle on the nanometre scale. In this paper, a theoretical approach to the scattering of purely coherent and partially coherent x-ray radiation by such particles is discussed in detail. Test calculations based on the iterative algorithms proposed initially by Gerchberg and Saxton and generalized by Fienup are applied to reconstruct the shape of the scattering crystals. It is demonstrated that partially coherent radiation produces a small area of high intensity in the reconstructed image of the particle.


We have fabricated 1.3 µm InGaAsP–InP strained-layer multi-quantum-well (MQW) lasers with an AlInAs electron stopper layer (ESL). The ESL was inserted between the MQW active layer and the p-side separate confinement heterostructure (SCH) layer to suppress electron leakage in the conduction band from the active region to the p-cladding layer. Lasers with an ESL exhibited much improved temperature characteristics of threshold current and external slope efficiency. As a result, a lower power penalty of 2.2 dB from 25 °C to 85 °C was achieved at an injected current of 60 mA. The insertion of an AlInAs ESL into the SCH layer is a successful way to realize the uncooled operation of 1.3 µm InGaAsP–InP lasers at high temperatures.


The thesis focuses upon three universities in Sweden during its 'Age of Greatness', Uppsala, Dorpat and Abo, with a special emphasis upon the universities academic jurisdiction. On the whole the universities saw State intervention as a useful tool in local conflicts with the surrounding town community but opposed that very same form of intervention when it tried to interfere in internal university matters. Only minor reforms however, in the face of often fierce State criticism as to the lack of discipline among the students, were instituted but left the universities' prerogatives untouched.Relations with the local authorities were at times quite stormy and characterised by intense if brief disputes. The main areas of dispute between the universities and the local city authorities was the public peace and the rights to titles and ranking in Church during Mass. The results of the study show a marked difference between the three case studies in both areas which had important consequences for the relative success of social controls in general.The thesis has also investigated the internal relationship between the three universities themselves and the conclusion is that there was considerable difference between formal statures and actual practical jurisdiction. The relationship between professors and students were mutually dependent and beneficial. There were surprisingly few cases of them either verbally or physically abusing their lecturers. As for the students themselves the thesis looks at two vital aspects namely age and geographic distribution of origins. This illustrates the problem that some students were picked upon and punished or degraded because of their age or origins. Hardly any students responsible for these activities were however charged or punished for their actions.


3C proteases (3Cpros) of picornaviruses and 3C-like proteases (3CLpros) of coronaviruses and caliciviruses represent a group of structurally and functionally related viral proteases that play pleiotropic roles in supporting the viral life cycle and subverting host antiviral responses. The design and screening for 3C/3CLpro inhibitors may contribute to the development broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics against viral diseases related to these three families. However, current screening strategies cannot simultaneously assess a compound's cytotoxicity and its impact on enzymatic activity and protease-mediated physiological processes. The viral induction of stress granules (SGs) in host cells acts as an important antiviral stress response by blocking viral translation and stimulating the host immune response. Most of these viruses have evolved 3C/3CLpro-mediated cleavage of SG core protein G3BP1 to counteract SG formation and disrupt the host defense. Yet, there are no SG-based strategies screening for 3C/3CLpro inhibitors. Here, we developed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and SG dual-based system to screen for 3C/3CLpro inhibitors in living cells. We took advantage of FRET to evaluate the protease activity of poliovirus (PV) 3Cpro and live-monitor cellular SG dynamics to cross-verify its effect on the host antiviral response. Our drug screen uncovered a novel role of Telaprevir and Trifluridine as inhibitors of PV 3Cpro. Moreover, Telaprevir and Trifluridine also modulated 3Cpro-mediated physiological processes, including the cleavage of host proteins, inhibition of the innate immune response, and consequent facilitation of viral replication. Taken together, the FRET and SG dual-based system exhibits a promising potential in the screening for inhibitors of viral proteases that cleave G3BP1.


Four bound-state resonances have been observed using He scattering from a Pd (110) surface. The bound-state energies can be fitted with good accuracy to a Morse potential with depth D=-8.05 meV and range parameter sigma =0.85 AA-1. The shape of the potential shows that the repulsive part is appreciably 'softer' for metals than for alkali halides and graphite. The effective corrugation amplitude perpendicular to the close-packed metal rows z(01)=0.22-0.24 AA is similar to Ag (110) and appreciably larger than for Ni (110) and Cu (110).


Simulation scientists are continually improving simulation technology with the goal of more closely replicating the physical environment of the real world. The presentation or display of visual information is one area in which recent technical improvements have been made that are fundamental to conducting simulated operations close to the terrain. Detailed and appropriate visual information is especially critical for nap-of-the-earth helicopter flight simulation where the pilot maintains an 'eyes-out' orientation to avoid obstructions and terrain. This paper describes visually coupled wide field of view helmet-mounted display (WFOVHMD) system technology as a viable visual presentation system for helicopter simulation. Tradeoffs associated with this mode of presentation as well as research and training applications are discussed.


The objective of this thesis outlines an attempt to evaluate the productive & financial efficiency, of 30 Greek and International shipping companies, listed in the New York Stock Exchange (NASDAQ) with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the period 2014-2016.
The sample that has been used in our analysis, contains the aggregate of the Greek shipping companies that are listed in NASDAQ, as well as the most international ones, which offer international seaborne transportation services in multiple industry sectors such as dry bulk, liquid bulk and container. For the assessment of the efficiency of the shipping companies, numerous inputs and outputs has been used, whereas the data has been derived from Clarkson's database, the companies' websites and their annual reports for the aforementioned period of time.
In the analysis there has been used multiple DEA model of CCR & BCC, oriented either on inputs or outputs. In addition there has been checked if there is a correlation between the size of the shipping companies and the model results and how the results is being affected by this parameter. This hypothesis has been checked by dividing the sample into two smaller groups, of small-medium and large shipping companies.
The evaluation of the results of our analysis came to the conclusion that large sized shipping companies are more efficient, with the year 2014 being the most efficient year for all the shipping companies of the sample. Finally, an important observation that has emerged and deserves to be highlighted is that, large-scale shipping companies with high profitability does not necessarily suggest high efficiency.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is considered the main cause of dementia in Western countries. Consequently, there is a need for an accurate, universal, specific and cost-effective biomarker for early AD diagnosis, to follow disease progression and therapy response. This article describes a new diagnostic approach to quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG) diagnosis of mild and moderate AD. The data set used in this study was composed of EEG signals recorded from 2 groups: (S1) 74 normal subjects, 33 females and 41 males (mean age 67 years, standard deviation = 8) and (S2) 88 probable AD patients (NINCDS-ADRDA criteria), 55 females and 33 males (mean age 74.7 years, standard deviation = 7.8) with mild to moderate symptoms (DSM-IV-TR). Attention is given to sample size and the use of state of the art open source tools (LetsWave and WEKA) to process the EEG data. This innovative technique consists in associating Morlet wavelet filter with a support vector machine technique. A total of 111 EEG features (attributes) were obtained for 162 probands. The results were accuracy of 92.72% and area under the curve of 0.92 (percentage split test). Most important, comparing a single patient versus the total data set resulted in accuracy of 84.56% (leave-one-patient-out test). Particular emphasis was on clinical diagnosis and feasibility of implementation of this low-cost procedure, because programming knowledge is not required. Consequently, this new method can be useful to support AD diagnosis in resource-limited settings.


As the Prison Code came into effect on 1 January 2015, it is now possible to evaluate its accomplishments. Some might say that this brief timespan is simply insufficient for obtaining the practical experience required to make universal claims or point out trends. As one year in the life of an act is indeed a short period, this statement is by no means beyond reason. Nevertheless, the novelty and the importance of the changes introduced by the Prison Code still allow for a brief summary. The author provides an overview of the theoretical and ethical foundations of prison law.


Seasonal climate outlooks provide one tool to help decision-makers allocate resources in anticipation of poor, fair or good seasons. The aim of the 'Climate Outlooks and Agent-Based Simulation of Adaptation in South Africa' project has been to investigate whether individuals, who adapt gradually to annual climate variability, are better equipped to respond to longer-term climate variability and change in a sustainable manner. Seasonal climate outlooks provide information on expected annual rainfall and thus can be used to adjust seasonal agricultural strategies to respond to expected climate conditions. A case study of smallholder farmers in a village in Vhembe district, Limpopo Province, South Africa has been used to examine how such climate outlooks might influence agricultural strategies and how this climate information can be improved to be more useful to farmers. Empirical field data has been collected using surveys, participatory approaches and computer-based knowledge elicitation tools to investigate the drivers of decision-making with a focus on the role of climate, market and livelihood needs. This data is used in an agent-based social simulation which incorporates household agents with varying adaptation options which result in differing impacts on crop yields and thus food security, as a result of using or ignoring the seasonal outlook. Key variables are the skill of the forecast, the social communication of the forecast and the range of available household and community-based risk coping strategies. This research provides a novel approach for exploring adaptation within the context of climate change.