Medication administration recording and supply management are complex and interrelated processes. The integration of bar codes and radio frequency identification tags are viewed as critical in achieving effective and safe patient care. However, these systems are complex; all parts need to be aligned, and the systems must work together to produce the desired outcomes. In healthcare, automation using bar coding and RFID capabilities is of growing importance because of the Institutes of Medicine study and the integrated electronic medical record. Healthcare systems today are increasingly complex, and while bar codes and RFID technologies provide opportunities for enhanced patient care, systems using these capabilities must be carefully planned to achieve optimal outcomes.


In this paper, we present an update to the NISQA speech quality prediction model that is focused on distortions that occur in communication networks. In contrast to the previous version, the model is trained end-to-end and the time-dependency modelling and time-pooling is achieved through a Self-Attention mechanism. Besides overall speech quality, the model also predicts the four speech quality dimensions Noisiness, Coloration, Discontinuity, and Loudness, and in this way gives more insight into the cause of a quality degradation. Furthermore, new datasets with over 13,000 speech files were created for training and validation of the model. The model was finally tested on a new, live-talking test dataset that contains recordings of real telephone calls. Overall, NISQA was trained and evaluated on 81 datasets from different sources and showed to provide reliable predictions also for unknown speech samples. The code, model weights, and datasets are open-sourced.


Child laborer tend to have high hazards and risks especially when they grind and glue a sole to the upper part of the shoe. Shoemaking remains to be a hazardous work for children and adults as long as chemical-based solvents are used. To overcome these problems, the government of the Republic of Indonesia launched a program by giving some aids to the parents of the child laborer to run their small business so that their children can stop working at the shoemaking industry. This research aims at analyzing the economic empowerment of parents who employed their children in the online business industry at Cibaduyut footwear industry and use a qualitative approach with a triangulation of data collected. The research informants were the child laborer, parents who employed their children, footwear craftsmen, and the Head of Industry and Trade Agency. The results of this research showed that economic empowerment in child laborer's parents was still in low level and they could not market their shoes properly as a product of their small business. In this context, they need both training and workshop in social entrepreneurship and online business method in order to promote their product.


This article examines an under-explored reason to have contract law: conflict minimization. An important function of contract law, the article contends, is to diminish the wasted time, effort, and resources spent on disputes over economic exchange, and to reduce the incidence of harm resulting from these disputes. Minimizing conflict typically serves the parties' own interests, and it also serves the public interest in social peace. These insights have implications not just for contract law as a whole but also for its doctrinal details. The article thus discusses how several doctrines of substantive contract law help to minimize conflict, without claiming that currently prevailing contract law regimes are perfectly adapted to this aim. Finally, it defends the normative claim that conflict minimization should be considered one of contract law's goals.


Pyemotes zhonghuajia is an ectoparasitoid natural enemy of a wide range of pests such as Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller) (PTM) is a worldwide potato pest with serious damage of potato production. Our study showed that one P. zhonghuajia female could kill 1st to 4th instar larvae of PTM, and the lethal time of one P. zhonghuajia female on first to fourth PTM instar larvae were 5.48, 11.33, 23.47 and 2076 min, respectively. The parasitism of 1, 3, 5, 10, and 20 P. zhonghuajia mites could significantly affect the mortality rate of PTM 4th instar larvae and pupae. The parasitism durations (30 and 60 mins) of one P. zhonghuajia female on one PTM fourth instar larva could influence the life history of PTM parental generation but did not influence the life table of PTM offspring generation. Releasing 60, 80, and 100 mites or opisthosoma with mites could reduce the occurrence and consumption of PTM on potatoes the weight loss of the potato tuber. The number of insect dung piles in one potato tuber was significantly decreased by releasing 60, 80, and 100 P. zhonghuajia mites, and releasing 100 mites resulted in the lowest number of insect dung piles. Our results indicate that P. zhonghuajia can significantly affect the population growth of PTM. Future studies should explore the lethal mechanism of P. zhonghuajia and its performance in practical application in the warehouse and field condition.


This article discusses recent work by the Franco-Algerian artist, Kader Attia, in which the artist explores the (unevenly) intertwined modernities of France and Algeria. It demonstrates how, particularly in his treatment of the French banlieues, the artist highlights the continuities between colonial modernity and the reality of contemporary relations (political, economic and cultural) between the global North and South, France and Algeria. Secondly, with reference to Attia's work on the vernacular and modernist architectures of Algiers and the Algerian Sahara, it examines his critique of dominant (Western) historiographies of modernity and his attention to its occluded genealogies. Finally, it discusses how the practice of re-appropriation and the use of the installation format are identified by the artist as means of opening up a creative hermeneutic space in which to imagine and produce alternative histories and futures, thereby derailing the apparently inexorable march of Western modernity and its contemporary avatars.


The reflection power ratio Pn/Po, transmission power ratio Pr/Po and absorption power ratio PA/Po for a mosaic crystal plate under asymmetric Bragg and Laue geometry are obtained by solving power transfer equations employing three dimensionless parameters: an asymmetry factor b, the ratio ( of the absorption to the scattering cross section, and the reduced thickness A k of the crystal. Expressions are given for the optimum monochromator thickness for asymmetric Laue geometry, and the angular dependence of Pu/Po, PT/Po for Bragg geometry in the crystals having different (0 and Ak~. As a demonstration of the feasibility of this method, the integrated reflection power ratio experiment by Mathieson [Acta Cryst. (1975), A31, 769-774] is reanalyzed and good agreement is obtained. The standard formulae for integrated reflection by a mosaic crystal given in International Tables for X-ray Crystallography [(1972). Birmingham: Kynoch Press] based on the kinematic approximation are shown to be only the limiting case of the exact solution for (0 >> 1.


AIMS
In GALACTIC-HF, the cardiac myosin activator omecamtiv mecarbil compared with placebo reduced the risk of heart failure events or cardiovascular death in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. We explored the influence of atrial fibrillation or flutter (AFF) on the effectiveness of omecamtiv mecarbil.

METHODS AND RESULTS
GALACTIC-HF enrolled patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class II-IV heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction ≤35%, and elevated natriuretic peptides. We assessed whether the presence or absence of AFF, a pre-specified subgroup, modified the treatment effect for the primary and secondary outcomes, and additionally explored effect modification in patients who were or were not receiving digoxin. Patients with AFF (n = 2245, 27%) were older, more likely to be randomized as an inpatient, less likely to have a history of ischaemic aetiology or myocardial infarction, had a worse NYHA class, worse quality of life, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate, and higher N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. The treatment effect of omecamtiv mecarbil was modified by baseline AFF (interaction P = 0.012), with patients without AFF at baseline deriving greater benefit. The worsening of the treatment effect by baseline AFF was significantly more pronounced in digoxin users than in non-users (interaction P = 0.007); there was minimal evidence of effect modification in those patients not using digoxin (P = 0.47) or in digoxin users not in AFF.

CONCLUSION
Patients in AFF at baseline were less likely to benefit from omecamtiv mecarbil than patients without AFF, although the attenuation of the treatment effect was disproportionally concentrated in patients with AFF who were also receiving digoxin.Clinical Trial Registration: NCT02929329.


This study investigates the runoff-sediment relationship (RSR) of the Weihe River, a sandy waterway originating from the Loess Plateau, and considers the potential variations in RSR under an evolving environment. The double mass curve method was used to investigate RSR inflection points at six hydrologic stations located in the Weihe River basin (WRB) spanning the period from 1956 to 2010. Because of its ability to accurately define nonlinear and asymmetric correlations between variables, the Copula function provided the joint probability distributions and revealed the joint probabilities of annual runoff and sediment yield through different periods. The results indicated: (1) The sediment yield and runoff exhibit decreasing trends, which was principally related to human activity such as soil and water conservation measures, water projects and industrial and domestic water use, (2) the RSR inflection points principally occurred around 1983 at the Weijiabu, Xianyang, Huaxian and Zhuangtou stations, whereas they were non-significant at the Linjiacun and Zhangjiashan stations. Changes in RSR are attributed to the irregular effect of human activity reducing the runoff and sediment output; and (3) the joint probability distributions of annual runoff and sediment yield varied under an evolving environment and were characterized by spatial variability, which is more evident in the mainstream areas of the Weihe River than in the tributary regions.


Although buckwheat protein has high biological value, its digestibility is relatively low. We have found that this low digestibility is closely associated with its hypocholesterolemic activity in cholesterol-fed rats. This prompted us to investigate the possibility that buckwheat protein has dietary fiber-like effects, including anti-constipation, anti-obesity, and anti-tumor effects. The results we obtained supported this possibility. The silk protein, sericin, is also resistant to several proteases, and has a number of physiological functions such as strong water-holding capacity and antioxidant activity. These properties suggest that it would exert protective effects against constipation and colon carcinogenesis. In view of these facts, we postulated that low digestibility of dietary protein might improve the functions of the intestine and be beneficial for human health. By drawing an analogy with resistant starch, we propose that buckwheat protein and sericin might be "resistant proteins", and discuss their physiological significance.


Roger de Piles (1635-1709) was a French art critic who decomposed the style and ability of each artist into areas of composition, drawing, color and expression, rating each on a 20 point scale. Based on evidence from two datasets that together span from 1740 to the present, this paper shows that de Piles' four characteristics are each both currently and historically correlated with prices achieved at auction. The effect of de Piles' drawing characteristic on price has steadily decreased over the period 1736-1960 while the effect of de Piles' color characteristic appears to have increased over the same period. De Piles' overall ratings have also withstood the test of a very long period of time, with estimates indicating that the works of his higher-rated artists achieved a greater return than his lower rated artists. The annual returns of all artists that he rated achieved comparable returns to other art indices.


Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded from a 63 year old male who had sustained severe right sided cortical damage including infarction of the primary sensory hand area. When SEPs were recorded following right median nerve stimulation, both cervical and cortical waveforms were of normal configuration. When SEPs were recorded following left median nerve stimulation, the cervical potential was intact but the cortical waveform was absent and replaced with a positive-negative complex which was probably a far field reflection of thalamic activity. These findings suggest that the first negative component of the cortical SEP (N20) is not generated in the diencephalon but represents the initial response of the somatosensory cortex.


Collaborative vocabulary development in the context of data integration is the process of finding consensus between experts with different backgrounds, system understanding and domain knowledge. The complexity of this process increases with the number of people involved, the variety of the systems to be integrated and the dynamics of their domain. In this paper, we advocate that the usage of a powerful version control system is one of the keys to address this problem. Driven by this idea and the success of the version control system Git in the context of software development, we investigate the applicability of Git for collaborative vocabulary development. Even though vocabulary development and software development have much more similarities than differences, there are still important challenges. These need to be considered in the development of a successful versioning and collaboration system for vocabulary development. Therefore, this paper starts by presenting the challenges we are faced with during the collaborative creation of vocabularies and discusses its distinction to software development. Drawing from these findings, we present Git4Voc which comprises guidelines on how Git can be adopted to vocabulary development. Finally, we demonstrate how Git hooks can be implemented to go beyond the plain functionality of Git by realizing vocabulary-specific features like syntactic validation and semantic diffs.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this split-mouth, examiner-blind study was to compare the dental plaque removal and incidence of gingival abrasion associated with the use of hard- and soft-filament toothbrushes.

METHODOLOGY
The test group consisted of 20 non-dental students, mean age 25 years. After a three-day period of plaque accumulation following the use of a disclosing solution, the Quigley-Hein Plaque Index was recorded, while the presence of gingival abrasion was measured from photographs. Pairs of quadrants 1-3 and 2-4 were allocated to supervised brushing with hard- or soft-filament toothbrushes for 30 seconds, limited to the buccal aspects of the teeth. Plaque levels and gingival abrasion were again assessed. Initial and final values of the plaque index and the mean number of abrasions were compared with the Friedman and Wilcoxon tests (p < or = 0.05).

RESULTS
Plaque indices were reduced significantly from a baseline of 4.12 in both groups to 1.21 after the use of hard-filament toothbrushes, and to 1.67 after the use of soft-filament toothbrushes. The use of hard-filament toothbrushes resulted in a significantly higher mean number of lesions when compared to the soft-filament toothbrushes; 11.6 and 7.9, respectively (p = 0.018).

CONCLUSION
Hard-filament toothbrushes remove more plaque than soft filament brushes, but also cause a higher number of gingival abrasions.


We describe a novel, potent and selective orexin-2 (OX2)/hypocretin-2 receptor antagonist with in vivo activity in an animal model predictive of antidepressant-like efficacy. N-biphenyl-2-yl-4-fluoro-N-(1H-imidazol-2-ylmethyl) benzenesulfonamide HCl (LSN2424100) binds with high affinity to recombinant human OX2 receptors (Ki = 4.5 nM), and selectivity over OX1 receptors (Ki = 393 nM). LSN2424100 inhibited OXA-stimulated intracellular calcium release in HEK293 cells expressing human and rat OX2 receptors (Kb = 0.44 and 0.83 nM, respectively) preferentially over cells expressing human and rat OX1 (Kb = 90 and 175 nM, respectively). LSN2424100 exhibits good exposure in Sprague–Dawley rats after IP, but not PO, administration of a 30 mg/kg dose (AUC0–6 h = 1300 and 269 ng*h/mL, respectively). After IP administration in rats and mice, LSN2424100 produces dose-dependent antidepressant-like activity in the delayed-reinforcement of low-rate (DRL) assay, a model predictive of antidepressant-like efficacy. Efficacy in the DRL model was lost in mice lacking OX2, but not OX1 receptors, confirming OX2-specific activity. Importantly, antidepressant-like efficacy of the tricyclic antidepressant, imipramine, was maintained in both OX1 and OX2 receptor knock-out mice. In conclusion, the novel OX2 receptor antagonist, LSN2424100, is a valuable tool compound that can be used to explore the role of OX2 receptor-mediated signaling in mood disorders.


A two-dimensional finite cluster model is proposed to describe the coupling of low energy charge transfer and Frenkel states of an anthracene-like molecular crystal. The results confirm most of the qualitative conclusions of the extensively used linear crystal model, but suggest the necessity to review some of its quantitative results. Potential usefulness of the cluster model for the description of doped crystals is pointed out.


OBJECTIVE
To analyse correlations between quality of life measures, aspiration and extent of surgical resection in patients who have undergone free-flap tongue reconstruction.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Nine consecutive patients (seven men and two women; average age 51 years) who had been diagnosed with T4a carcinoma of the mobile tongue and/or tongue base and treated by glossectomy, free-flap reconstruction, and either radiation therapy or chemoradiation responded to the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Head and Neck-35 questionnaire, the performance status scale questionnaire and the hospital anxiety-depression scale questionnaire, an average of 43 months after treatment (range 18-83 months). Aspiration was evaluated by fibre-optic laryngoscopy. Correlations between quality of life domain scores, extent of surgery and the presence of aspiration were evaluated using non-parametric statistical analysis.

RESULTS
Scores for the swallowing and aspiration domains of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Head and Neck-35 questionnaire were significantly correlated with the extent of tongue base resection (Spearman's correlation, p = 0.037 and 0.042, respectively). Despite a strong correlation between the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Head and Neck-35 questionnaire results and the performance status scale global scores (correlation coefficient = 0.89, p = 0.048), the performance status scale domain scores were not correlated with the extent of tongue resection. Clinically apparent aspiration was not correlated with the extent of tongue resection, nor were the anxiety or depression scores. However, clinically apparent aspiration was significantly related to the swallowing and aspiration domain scores of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Head and Neck-35 questionnaire (p = 0.017 in both cases).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results imply that the volume of tongue base resection is a major factor in swallowing- and aspiration-related quality of life following tongue resection and free-flap reconstruction. Free-flap reconstruction does not seem to palliate the effect of the loss of functional tongue base volume, as regards swallowing-related quality of life.


One data-independent and one data-dependent algorithm for the computation of image histograms on parallel computers are presented, analysed and implemented on the Connection Machine system CM-2. The data-dependent algorithm has a lower requirement on communication bandwidth by only transferring bins with a non-zero count. Both algorithms perform all-to-all reduction, which is implemented through a sequence of exchanges as defined by a butterfly network. The two algorithms are compared based on predicted and actual performance on the Connection Machine CM-2. With few pixels per processor the data-dependent algorithm requires in the order of √B data transfers for B bins compared to B data transfers for the data-independent algorithm. As the number of pixels per processor grows the advantage of the data-dependent algorithm decreases. The advantage of the data-dependent algorithm increases with the number of bins of the histogram.


Running is a kind of simple and effective exercise, but it's boring for us running in a traditional treadmill for a long time. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-media treadmill platform, which is based on virtual reality technology, sensor technology, motor control technique and the virtual human technique. This platform presents two main topics: a) a convenient method to generate large scale 3D Scenes, b) the technique to render 3D Scenes by OSG (Open Scene Graph). Especially, it emphasizes the motion algorithm of the virtual humans. In the end, the platform integrating virtual humans into the 3D -environments, makes the users immerse in the scenes.


This paper discusses memory neuron networks as models for identification and adaptive control of nonlinear dynamical systems. These are a class of recurrent networks obtained by adding trainable temporal elements to feedforward networks that makes the output history-sensitive. By virtue of this capability, these networks can identify dynamical systems without having to be explicitly fed with past inputs and outputs. Thus, they can identify systems whose order is unknown or systems with unknown delay. It is argued that for satisfactory modeling of dynamical systems, neural networks should be endowed with such internal memory. The paper presents a preliminary analysis of the learning algorithm, providing theoretical justification for the identification method. Methods for adaptive control of nonlinear systems using these networks are presented. Through extensive simulations, these models are shown to be effective both for identification and model reference adaptive control of nonlinear systems.


Named Entity Recognition (NER) frequently suffers from the problem of insufficient labeled data, particularly in fine-grained NER scenarios. Although $K$-shot learning techniques can be applied, their performance tends to saturate when the number of annotations exceeds several tens of labels. To overcome this problem, we utilize existing coarse-grained datasets that offer a large number of annotations. A straightforward approach to address this problem is pre-finetuning, which employs coarse-grained data for representation learning. However, it cannot directly utilize the relationships between fine-grained and coarse-grained entities, although a fine-grained entity type is likely to be a subcategory of a coarse-grained entity type. We propose a fine-grained NER model with a Fine-to-Coarse(F2C) mapping matrix to leverage the hierarchical structure explicitly. In addition, we present an inconsistency filtering method to eliminate coarse-grained entities that are inconsistent with fine-grained entity types to avoid performance degradation. Our experimental results show that our method outperforms both $K$-shot learning and supervised learning methods when dealing with a small number of fine-grained annotations.


The authors propose that television, while entertaining children, also socializes them. To support this conclusion they review the literature regarding effects of television content on aggressive and prosocial behavior and social attitudes. The structure of the television industry is examined and economic factors are found to outweigh concern for the public in the choice of programming. To increase the beneficial role of television, the authors argue there must be greater diversity of broadcast content and more parental direction of children's exposure to it.


Evolutionary theory predicts that very young mothers would be more likely to kill an infant than older women, given that the younger mother has a much greater ability to "replace" the dead child through subsequent pregnancies and thus to produce offspring for the next generation. Evolutionary theory also predicts that a woman would be more likely to kill a child if the child was obviously defective, the pregnancy was the result of incest or rape, or if the mother's means of supporting the child were severely compromised. The authors hypothesized that mentally ill mothers would behave in a way that differed significantly from evolutionary expectations, i.e., that they would be more likely to kill children who were older than those killed by mothers in the general population and that the mothers themselves would be likely to be older than mothers in the general population when the murders occurred. To test this hypothesis, the authors compared infanticides (both filicides and neonaticides) committed by mentally ill mothers with those committed by mothers in the general population. They examined two samples: 1) all cases of maternal infanticide from the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Hospital from 1978 (when the hospital began admitting female patients) through the year 2000 and 2) a general population sample from a 10-year Canadian study reported by Daly and Wilson in 1998. The authors focused on the following variables: ages of the mothers, ages of the child-victims, whether the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, whether the child had significant behavioral or physical problems, and whether there were problems supporting the child (e.g., having no partner, poverty, mother's lack of education). The results of the analyses supported the authors' hypothesis about ages of mothers and children. The mentally ill mothers in the Mid-Hudson sample were generally older when they killed their children and the children who were killed were generally older than in the Daly and Wilson general population sample (where the majority of the cases involved neonaticide and the mothers were generally younger than 25 years of age). The three factors, poverty, low education level (or low intellectual capacity), and lack of a spouse were common in both samples. Findings concerning cultural factors, motives, and methods used will be presented in separate publications.


This textbook aims to provide a balanced introduction to research methods for today's undergraduate business students. It does this by synthesising rigorous coverage of methodologies with an accessible 'real-world' approach. The text follows course learning objectives for undergraduates in business and provides examples drawn from the full range of business subjects from marketing and strategy to human resource management. The text has unique features: for example, it introduces the four frameworks approach to the research project. The four frameworks approach provides beginner researchers, as well as more advanced researchers, with a simple model that will guide them in the development of their research projects. It facilitates researchers in the task of developing properly focused, fully integrated research projects. The textbook is very sympathetic to the challenges facing a student engaging with the subject for the first time and provides an integrated and balanced approach to quantitative and qualitative research. The writing is simple and direct and the examples and case studies presented were selected particularly with an undergraduate readership in mind. In summary, the text provides a unique and simple yet comprehensive introduction to research methods for business students. Business Research Methods is a valuable resource for all undergraduate business students, particularly for secondand third-year students on business research methods courses. It provides an excellent introduction to the work of undertaking research in an academic environment. This text is essential reading for all business students required to undertake research projects. Postgraduate students, and indeed students from other nonbusiness disciplines, will also find the text very helpful. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2086/16559 ISBN: 9781473760356 Peer Reviewed: Yes Date: 2019 Creative Commons Licence: N/A Show attachments and full item record This item appears in the following Collection(s) School of Applied Social Sciences [1729] © 2011 De Montfort University Connect with DORA: Business research methods


Instructors have limited time and resources to help struggling students, and these resources should be directed to the students who most need them. To address this, researchers have constructed models that can predict students' final course performance early in a semester. However, many predictive models are limited to static and generic student features (e.g. demographics, GPA), rather than computing-specific evidence that assesses a student's progress in class. Many programming environments now capture complete time-stamped records of students' actions during programming. In this work, we leverage this rich, fine-grained log data to build a model to predict student course outcomes. From the log data, we extract patterns of behaviors that are predictive of students' success using an approach called differential sequence mining. We evaluate our approach on a dataset from 106 students in a block-based, introductory programming course. The patterns extracted from our approach can predict final programming performance with 79% accuracy using only the first programming assignment, outperforming two baseline methods. In addition, we show that the patterns are interpretable and correspond to concrete, effective -- and ineffective -- novice programming behaviors. We also discuss these patterns and their implications for classroom instruction.


The 3D adaptive EFG method using conventional moving least-square approximation or fast transformation method [1] has been successfully applied to metal forging and extrusion analysis thanks to its high accuracy in dealing with large material deformation [2] in LS-DYNA. Recently, a meshfree convex approximation [3-5] was developed to be an alternative in the large deformation analysis. However, its application to the adaptive method has not been investigated. In this paper, an improved version of 3D adaptive EFG method with emphasizing on the modified maximum entropy approximation, whose approximation is non-negative and owns Korncker-Delta propriety at the boundary, is presented. The thermal effect in forging and extrusion problem is considered, and a scheme to interpolate the thermal state variables during the adaptive procedure is proposed.


In recent years, multi-label classification problem has become a controversial issue. In this kind of classification, each sample is associated with a set of class labels. Ensemble approaches are supervised learning algorithms in which an operator takes a number of learning algorithms, namely base-level algorithms and combines their outcomes to make an estimation. The simplest form of ensemble learning is to train the base-level algorithms on random subsets of data and then let them vote for the most popular classifications or average the predictions of the base-level algorithms. In this study, an ensemble learning method is proposed for improving multi-label classification evaluation criteria. We have compared our method with well-known base-level algorithms on some data sets. Experiment results show the proposed approach outperforms the base well-known classifiers for the multi-label classification problem.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: In the formation of cancer, DNA alterations known as "driver mutations" promote carcinogenesis, giving cells an invasive and malignant phenotype. One of the most common mutations clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients is located in either mTOR or PTEN genes. These alterations have led to targeted therapies and FDA approved medications in the metastatic setting. However, these treatments are never curative and further sub-classification may provide additional diagnostic and or therapeutic assistance. The aim of this study is to identify subset populations in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma based on mTOR or PTEN mutational status to determine additional diagnostic criteria. METHODS: We used cBio Portal, an open genomic database compiled from the NIH-funded Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to determine survival, number of patients with alteration, and mRNA expression. Statistical analysis and graph creation was performed using R v3.4.2 injunction with R studio. RESULTS: As previously described we also found a substantial percentage of patients had PTEN or mTOR mutations, yet this did not affect overall survival (p=0.1). However in subset analysis, we identified that decreased expression in the nNOS Signaling pathway worsened overall survival in all patients and substantially pronounced in patients without an mTOR/PTEN mutations in specific nNOS pathway genes. This was confirmed as we found with ccRCC, had greatly decreased expression in NOS1, a key player of the nNOS Pathway (Figure 1). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with nNOS signaling pathway and wild type PTEN/mTOR have significantly worse survival than other kidney cancer patients. These mutations may be helpful biomarkers in the future for determining the risk of disease progression unique to mTOR or PTEN mutations. Moving forward, we plan to perform miRNA array, Western blot, and proliferation analysis to further understand the underlying causes. Figure. No caption available. Source of Funding: none


This special issue focuses attention on physical and mental health disparities within the Asian American community and the work done by researchers and affiliates of the Asian American Center for Disparities Research (AACDR) to understand and alleviate these disparities. The collection of articles in this special issue covers a range of topics related to health disparities, such as psychotropic medication adherence, quality of life, occupational health, and inpatient psychiatric care, and to sociocultural factors that may influence disparities, such as cultural competency, face concerns, and the model minority myth. A variety of methods and samples are used or suggested to answer questions related to Asian American health disparities, such as examining medical records, surveying service providers, using analogue and community samples, and involving community in research as equal partners.


OBJECTIVES
This study examined the 12-month cost of the array of services used by women with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders and a history of violence and trauma who participated in the Women, Co-occurring Disorders, and Violence Study (WCDVS). The study compared costs of the intervention and external services for women in the WCDVS intervention in outpatient and residential settings-which provided comprehensive, integrated, and trauma-informed services-with the costs for women in the usual-care comparison group. The study also compared costs with recorded clinical outcomes.

METHODS
Costs of service use were examined for 2,026 women who participated in the WCDVS (N=1,018) and in the comparison group (N=1,008). Women were interviewed three, six, nine, and 12 months after baseline about any service use in the past three months. Costs for these services, along with indirect costs (participants' time and transportation) were estimated by using a variety of sources. A number of cost estimates were analyzed by using either ordinary least squares regression or two-part models.

RESULTS
The average participant had almost 43,000 dollars in costs related to their service use during the 12 months after baseline. Women in the intervention group had lower service costs and higher overall costs than those in the comparison group, but the null hypotheses of no difference in any cost measure between groups was not rejected. Also, the null hypothesis of no difference in the probability of accessing services external to the study intervention was not rejected.

CONCLUSIONS
Because no differences were detected in costs but improvements were seen in clinical outcomes, the interventions offered in the WCDVS may be more efficient than usual care.


The present article undertakes the theme of social thought of Cardinal Hlond. It presents the questions of social engagement of Catholics, the problems of the family, the theory of the nation as well as the concept of the state.
The problem of the Catholic engagement is the important element of Cardinal Hlond's social teaching.
It appears in the multidimensional perspective. One can find here the political, the socio-economic dimensions as well as the cultural one. The culture is understood here in a very wide sense. All the activities leading to the person's spiritual, intellectual and moral development belong to it.
The second important topic of Cardinal Hlond's social teaching are family issues. The family is understood as the environment of moral and religious development of every person. It transforms, builds and improves family life as well as every human being's dignity.
Another important subject is the concept of nation. For Hlond nation is the natural environment of the individual's development. Two fundamental elements describe the notion of nation: community and culture. They are carriers the moral, religious, intellectual and spiritual values.
The final important point of Cardinal Hlond's social teaching is the concept of state. For the Cardinal the state should be always at the service in the relations to citizens. The role of the state appears in three dimensions. First, to create living conditions for every citizen; second, to guarantee the fundamental and natural law of freedom; third, to create the "space" of self-realization, which manifests itself in public life activity.


Biomedical specimens thicker than the microscope depth-of-field (DOF) produces images of limited quality where a part of the specimen is in focus and others out of focus. Even the best in-focus image always contains objects that are blurred. These blurred contents make the quantitative and accurate analysis of the specimen difficult. The problem can be remedied by extending the DOF of the imaging system. One way to achieve this is to apply digital image fusion, a software technique that combines multiple images into a carefully synthesized image. Another way, albeit more expensive, is to incorporate modification in the optical system. In this paper we describe an extended DOF method that is based on multiscale pointwise product (MPP) image fusion, and compare it with the state-of-the-art wavefront coding technique which involves optical modification. We show competitive performance of our method and contrast its pros and cons with those of the wavefront coding.


The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, used noninvasive surface geophysics in the investigation of the distribution of saline groundwater in the valley-fill aquifer system of the Genesee River Valley near the former Retsof salt mine in western New York. In 1994, the Retsof salt mine, the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere, underwent a catastrophic roof collapse that resulted in groundwater inflow from the valley-fill aquifer system and bedrock fracture zones into the mine through two bedrock-rubble chimneys and the subsequent dissolution and filling of the mine with saturated brine. Since the early 2000s, except for a period of remedial pumping in 2006 to 2013, high-salinity water has migrated upward through the rubble chimneys into the basal part the aquifer system. The extent of saline-water migration within the aquifer system had not been evaluated since the end of remedial pumping when all the monitoring wells were grouted shut and abandoned. Installation of a monitoring-well network would be expensive and difficult given the thickness and heterogeneous character of valley fill. An investigation of the current extent of saline water in the aquifer system was warranted because the basal part of the aquifer is shallow to the north and it is used for water supply. In fall 2016 and fall 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey collected time-domain electromagnetic soundings at 105 sites along 13 cross-valley transects north and south of the minecollapse area, east of Piffard, and on the Fowlerville Moraine. The time-domain electromagnetic soundings were colocated with passive-seismic measurements to estimate the bedrocksurface elevation through use of a regression equation developed from measurements at well sites with reported bedrock depths in the study area. An integrated analysis of the timedomain electromagnetic soundings with the depth-to-bedrock estimates, well logs, and past chloride-monitoring data suggests the presence of a zone of high electrical conductivity associated with saline water in the confined lower part of the valley-fill aquifer system. This high-salinity zone delineated in the lower confined aquifer extends from the mine-collapse area northward for more than 2.5 miles (4.0 kilometers). The chloride concentration in groundwater within this highconductivity zone may be about 20,000 milligrams per liter. Saline water flowing upward through the bedrock-rubble chimneys and mixing with northward groundwater flow in the lower confined aquifer likely is a major source of chlorides for this high-conductivity zone. The northern extent of the zone is unclear because of the presence of highly saline water zones that were delineated by time-domain electromagnetic soundings in the lower confined aquifer and uppermost bedrock and are probably associated with historic salt-solution wells in Piffard or possibly sourced from natural brine pools.


In representative governments, a healthy turnover of power among ruling parties is viewed as a critical sign of democratic principles. In a political environment where voters' opinion is the key political driver, the greatest challenge facing the NGO community is often that environmental concerns only represent secondary aspects of the policy-making process. This article focuses on the transformations (or lack thereof) in Taiwan's environmental governance, under different political parties, particularly during the past few years. I begin with an overview of the key issues that have characterised Taiwan's environmental movement and its battles, starting with the democratic transition of the mid-1980s, before focusing on two developmental projects – Taiwan's eighth petrochemical plant and fourth nuclear power facility – to bring to light the most significant changes and continuities in the environmental-policy realm. I pay special attention to the post-2008 period and the ensuing renaissance experienced by the environmental movement, among others. The final section considers the consequences of the KMT's second electoral victory – in January 2012 – for environmental policies and, in light of the article's findings, summarises what has changed and what has consistently remained the same under different ruling parties.


Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common diagnosis made in the emergency department with 60–70 cases per 100,000. The clinician needs to have up to-date knowledge and potential treatment strategies for management of this common condition. Thrombolysis for PE is one of the options that can be considered in the Emergency Department. The British Thoracic Society (BTS) has formed a set of recommendations for consideration of thrombolysis. We will discuss two clinical cases of differing severity and discuss the rationale behind the treatment strategies. Firstly, we present a lady in her late 40s with acute shortness of breath with pleuritic chest pain. She was brought in by ambulance and the resuscitation suite was pre-alerted that she was due to arrive. She had been recently treated for a lower limb deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and had presented to a local hospital 2/7 previously with some associated pleuritic chest pain. She was noted to be profoundly compromised from a cardiovascular perspective. She was treated with a systemic thrombolytic agent and she was subsequently discharged soon afterwards. The second case we present is that of a 50-year-old previously fit and well gentleman who presented with acute shortness of breath on minimal exertion for the previous 3 days. There was no background history of airway diseases with no smoking. He was noted to be marked hypoxic requiring 5 litres of oxygen to maintain an oxygen saturation of 95%. His blood pressure was noted to be stable throughout his time in the department. There was imaging and electrocardiographic evidence of right ventricular strain. It was also noted to be a marked rise in cardiac enzymes indicating cardiac involvement, based on the findings he subsequently underwent treatment with a systemic thrombolytic agent and made subsequently satisfactory recovery. The presence of raised troponin in the presence of an acute PE classifies as a massive PE. Systemic thrombolysis is the first line treatment for massive PE and should be started on clinical grounds alone if cardiac arrest in imminent with alteplase being the drug of choice. The decision to perform systemic thrombolysis in the haemodynamically stable patient is multifactorial and should be assessed in a case by case manner as highlighted by this article.


To improve mobility, Metropolitan Council has proposed a network of dedicated transitways in the 2030 Transportation Policy Plan. This project studied the profile of transit riders in the Twin Cities and explored environmental factors that influence mode choice of access to transitways, using the 2005 Metropolitan Council Transit Rider Survey. We found the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit (LRT) balances efficiency by serving choice riders and equity through promoting reverse commute and serving captive riders. The LRT has also facilitated the formation of a multi-modal transportation system by promoting mode mixing and encouraging transfers. More importantly, travel shed analysis of several transit routes showed the LRT has a much broader influence on the regional transportation network than local buses and express services. Multinomial Logit models for access mode of the LRT confirmed that riders' demographics, trip characteristics, built environment and social environment factors around LRT stations affect their access modes. Among them, the distance from trip origin to LRT stations is the dominant factor; the impacts of built environment elements were equivalent to those of riders' demographics and trip characteristics, whereas the effects of social environment factors were the weakest. The results suggest if the goal is to maximize the number accessing transitways from existing bus services, we should increase the coverage of feeder services, increase street connectivity and promote mixed-use development. If the goal is to attract choice riders in areas where walking and local transit are not options, more park and ride facilities should be provided. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report is one in a series of reports for the Transitway Impacts Research Program (TIRP) at the University of Minnesota. Launched in 2006, TIRP answers questions about the economic, travel, and community impacts of transitway corridors in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Thanks to members of Technical Advisory Group and Program Management Team for their insightful inputs. Ginger Murphy offered help at the early stage of the study.


Is marketing virtuous? The concept of marketing aims to "facilitate and expedite satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment" (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, and Ferrell 1997, p.3) and "enables consumers to choose a brand which seems to have the best potential for satisfaction" (Enis and Cox 1997, p. 89). As Marketing is driven by a desire to satisfy consumer needs (Pride, and Ferrell 2000), one can easily conclude that marketing is virtuous. The problem, of course, is the ontological simplicity of such argument. Today, arguing that consumers are in control over their life and that they can freely write their own stories appears too simplistic. Society and human beings are indeed too complex and too subtle to simply take a pure agentic approach to marketing. Consumers' motivations for buying goods are multiple and hybrid, made of many fragments of personal roles, of history, and of social experiences. The result is intricate and messy; consumer practices are not unified in the pyramidal order, and are not completely congruent with social, ethnic, or geographical groupings. Along with this position, we offer Baudrillard's structural approach to marketing as a conceptual warning, suggesting the need for more reflection and critique on the virtue of marketing.


A large number of reports have been published in recent years regarding the use of N-carboxymethyl rhodanines as antimicrobial agents. Molecules belonging to this structural class have been reported to exhibit good inhibitory activities towards various Gram-positive bacteria, including several multidrug-resistant strains such as methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus and quinolone-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In this mini-review, we have provided a summary of recent research directed towards the synthesis of N-carboxymethyl rhodanines, and their pharmacological evaluation as antimicrobial agents.


In the course of ubiquitous and pervasive computing a variety of smart devices are developed and entering our everyday life. These devices increasingly rely on novel interaction modalities from the field of Natural Interaction, such as gesture control. Common concepts to explain and illustrate devices' interaction possibilities can't be applied to these interaction techniques due to embedding of devices and as a consequence disappearing interfaces as well as distribution of functionalities among device ensembles in terms of IoT, AAL and Smart Home. These emerging and currently existing problems in accessing devices' interaction possibilities present users with new challenges. In addition, current possibilities for device documentation provide only a limited viable option to learn devices. Hence, a general documentation for interconnected devices and thus functionality can not be created manually. In order to counteract these problems we present an approach for in-situ generation of an ambient manual for interconnected smart devices.


Evenus of Parus plays a surprisingly important role in Plato's account of the life and death of Socrates: in both the Apology and the Phaedo he works as a negative foil for the philosopher at two key moments, namely when he converts, respectively, to the practice of elenchus and to the composition of poetry. Evenus' importance in Socrates' life, I argue, reflects Plato's appropriation of a number of his poems, which Plato reshapes so as to adapt the sophist's relativism and values, arguably modelled on Protagoras', to his own truth-oriented agenda. Plato's Phaedrus echoes Gorgias' Encomium of Helen along similar lines, that is by replacing doxa with aletheia . A pattern emerges: Plato appropriates the writings of the sophists by placing them in a markedly truth-oriented context. This helps explain a discussed piece of information, according to which Protagoras' Antilogiai was a major influence on Plato's Republic .


Canopy photosynthesis integrates leaf functional and structural traits in space and time and correlates positively with yield formation. Many models with different levels of architectural details ranging from zero-dimensional (0D) to three-dimensional (3D) have been developed to simulate canopy light interception and photosynthesis. Based on these models, a crop growth model can be used to assess crop yield in response to genetic improvement, optimized practices, and environmental change. However, to what extent do architectural details influence light interception, photosynthetic production, and grain yield remains unknown. Here, we show that a crop growth model with high-resolution upscaling approach in space reduces the departure of predicted yield from actual yield and refines the simulation of canopy photosynthetic production. We found crop yield predictions decreased by 12.0–48.5% with increasing the resolution of light simulation, suggesting that a crop growth model without architectural details may result in a considerable departure from the actual photosynthetic production. A dramatic difference in light interception and photosynthetic production of canopy between cultivars was captured by the proposed 3D model rather than the 0D, 1D, and 2D models. Furthermore, we found that the overestimation of crop yield by the 0D model is caused by the overestimation of canopy photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) interception and the RUE and that by the 1D and 2D model is caused by the overestimated canopy photosynthesis rate that is possibly related to higher predicted PAR and fraction of sunlit leaves. Overall, this study confirms the necessity of taking detailed architecture traits into consideration when evaluating the strategies of genetic improvement and canopy configuration in improving crop yield by crop modeling.


Background: Colloidal silica is the thickener of interest for topical formulations and can therefore be used to optimize the viscosity of both hydrophilic and lipophilic microemulsions (MEs). To the best of our knowledge, no information is available about the effect of topically applied colloidal silica on skin penetration of drugs. So, our aim was to determine its influence on the effectiveness of ME in the simultaneous delivery of vitamins C and E to the skin. Methods: Two different aspects of silica possible function were investigated. Its effects on formulation characteristics were studied by determination of partition coefficient of the vitamins, their solubility and release profile. The direct impact of silica on the skin was further evaluated by transepidermal water loss measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and cell toxicity determination (MTT assay). Results: The addition of colloidal silica to ME was shown to increase significantly the vitamins' solubility and their partition to the phase in which they were less soluble. Its presence also increased the amount of both vitamins in epidermis, which was confirmed by release studies. Furthermore, we demonstrated that colloidal silica interacts with excised skin. It decreased transepidermal water loss, probably by retaining water in the stratum corneum because of its massive accumulation in the upper layers, as revealed by SEM. Conclusion: The results confirmed that addition of colloidal silica in ME simultaneously loaded with vitamins C and E enhanced vitamins' skin bioavailability by its dual influence on delivery characteristics of ME as well as on skin properties.


Herein, the possibility of generating Raney‐Copper catalysts with high geometric complexity is demonstrated. For this, periodic open cellular structures (POCS) composed of a highly brittle Al–Cu alloy containing 29.4 at% copper are fabricated by selective electron beam melting (SEBM) for application in chemical reaction engineering. After selective leaching of aluminum in an NaOH solution, the POCS show a core–shell structure with a nanoporous copper surface layer and a solid core. The fabrication and dealloying processes as well as the microstructure are studied. Moreover, the SEBM‐processed Raney‐type copper catalysts show a high catalytic activity in methanol synthesis.


High performance liquid chromatography with TSK 5000 PW or TSK 6000 PW size exclusion columns combined with a 125I labelled hyaluronic acid binding protein assay was used to study the effects of oxygen derived free radicals on synovial fluid hyaluronate. A continuous flux of free radicals was generated by the xanthine oxidase/hypoxanthine system. When the free radical flux was generated with xanthine oxidase/hypoxanthine in the presence of the iron chelator desferrioxamine and the hydroxyl radical scavenger mannitol a 30-50% decrease in hyaluronate peak was detected, but the molecular weight of synovial fluid hyaluronate remained almost unchanged as a result of reaction with superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide. When trace amounts of iron and EDTA were present in the reaction mixture depolymerisation of synovial fluid hyaluronate occurred, and it reached a final molecular weight of about 13,500 daltons. These results suggest that superoxide and hydroxyl radicals may have a different mode of action on synovial fluid hyaluronate. Superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide do not induce depolymerisation but, rather, change the molecular configuration of synovial fluid hyaluronate.


A case of spontaneous rupture of the oesophagus occurring in the right wall of the midoesophagus is reported. The treatment, conservative in the primary stage of the disease, is described. This consisted of per-oesophageal drainage of the mediastinum, effected endoscopically. In spite of complications—an empyema in the right pleura and an oesophagocutaneous fistula—the treatment was successful, resulting in a complete cure about two years after the accident. The patient has remained in good health since then.


Three dimensional multibody computer models have been recently used to analyze the kinematics of the patellofemoral joint (PFJ) of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) (Cohen, et al., 1998). By employing cartilage specific magnetic resonance images (MRI) to acquire the model geometry, detailed topographies of the cartilage surfaces were obtained to model the contact between the opposing surfaces of the patella and femur. Contact stresses due to compression of the cartilage layers were approximated by a linear function of the compressive strain estimated from the relative change in cartilage thickness within the contact region. In our earlier studies, a uniform cartilage layer thickness was assumed in the analysis of joint contact, and a validation of this model was performed by comparing its kinematic predictions to the measured kinematics of five cadaver joints (Kwak, et al., 1996).


PhoQ/PhoP is a central two-component system involved in magnesium homeostasis, pathogenicity, cell envelope composition, and acid resistance in several bacterial species. The small RNA GcvB is identified here as a novel direct regulator of the synthesis of PhoQ/PhoP in Escherichia coli, and this control relies on a novel pairing region of GcvB. After MicA, this is the second Hfq-dependent small RNA that represses expression of the phoPQ operon. Both MicA and GcvB bind phoPQ mRNA in vivo and in vitro around the translation initiation region of phoP. Binding of either small RNA is sufficient to inhibit ribosome binding and induce mRNA degradation. Surprisingly, however, MicA and GcvB have different effects on the levels of the PhoP protein and therefore on the expression of the PhoP regulon. These results highlight the complex connections between small RNAs and transcriptional regulation networks in bacteria.


We propose a new model-based method to accurately reconstruct human performances captured outdoors in a multi-camera setup. Starting from a template of the actor model, we introduce a new unified implicit representation for both, articulated skeleton tracking and non-rigid surface shape refinement. Our method fits the template to unsegmented video frames in two stages - first, the coarse skeletal pose is estimated, and subsequently non-rigid surface shape and body pose are jointly refined. Particularly for surface shape refinement we propose a new combination of 3D Gaussians designed to align the projected model with likely silhouette contours without explicit segmentation or edge detection. We obtain reconstructions of much higher quality in outdoor settings than existing methods, and show that we are on par with state-of-the-art methods on indoor scenes for which they were designed.


Workforce development partnerships between higher education institutions and employers involve distinctive social and technical dynamics that differ from dominant higher education practices in the UK. The New Labour government encouraged such partnerships in England, including through the use of funding that aimed to stimulate reform to institutional processes and build capacity. In the broader policy context, greater workforce development activity had the objective of supporting national skills policy targets and increasing industrial productivity. In this article, the notion of the productive system is used to identify factors influencing the outcomes of this policy, using three models of the production of higher education provision. Attention is paid both to the structure in which these productive processes are situated, and the stages that result in new higher education programmes. To evaluate the sustainability of the productive systems, the development of mutual interests between participants is examined, in addition to the norms that structure culture and relationships and the distribution of power and influence. The role of the institution in respect of the employer and the student is also addressed, with reference to uncertainty regarding the value of workforce development provision in economic and political contexts of perpetual change.


Deep learning algorithms have become popular methods for pattern recognition due to their advantages over traditional methods such as providing deep representations of data, high-level semantic features. Deep convolutional neural network is one of the deep learning technique used in computer vision. Deep convolutional neural network consists of alternating convolution and pooling layers, and feedforward layers after them. It has not a fixed structure hence determining the optimal structure such as number of convolution and pooling layers, kernel size of these layers is crucial for faster and high performance implementations. Hence, in this work different convolutional neural network structures were established and tested on recognition of 28x28 MINST handwritten digits. According to the test results, kernels should cover at least 2 neighbor pixels of the current pixel from each side. Moreover, increasing the number of layers provide better results at the same time leads to decreases in the kernel size which may lead to worse performance. Hence, while the number of layers are increased, kernel size must be considered. Keywords— convolutional neural network, deep learning, kernel size, convolutional layer count


This study was conducted to elucidate the time- and dose-response relationships of long-term, low-level 1,4-dichlorobutene-2 (DCB) inhalation exposure to nasal tumor induction in rats. Male Crl:CD®BR rats were exposed 6 hours per day, 5 days week to 0, 0.1, 0.3, or 1.0 ppm DCB for up to 19 months; some rats were sacrificed at various time intervals during the study. After 19 months of exposure, surviving rats were held without treatment for an additional 5 months. Tissues from the respiratory tract, lymph nodes, and brain were evaluated microscopically. Compound-related non-neoplastic lesions were observed in the nasal cavities of rats in the 1.0 ppm group after three months of exposure and in the other two groups after twelve months of exposure. The lesions were progressive in severity and frequency. A statistically significant increase in benign nasal tumors (adenomas) occurred in rats from all three DCB-exposed groups. The adenomas occurred in the respiratory region of the nasal cavity and were first observed in the 1.0 ppm group at study month 10. Malignant nasal tumors occurred in the olfactory region of the nasal cavity and were statistically increased at 1.0 ppm.


Ocean Science
As engineers continue their efforts to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, marine scientists are studying the amount and distribution of radioactive material released into the ocean. Sources include atmospheric fallout, release of contaminated freshwater and seawater used to cool the reactors, and contaminated groundwater discharges, but the overall magnitude of the contamination is not well documented. Buesseler et al. have analyzed ocean data from TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in comparison to data acquired before the accident. Ocean discharges peaked in early April, 1 month after the accident, but levels of cesium-137 remained more than 10,000 times higher than normal through the end of July, indicating continued release from the reactors or other sources. The impact on marine biota and humans through direct exposure is likely to be minimal, but further study is required to understand the full effects of bioaccumulation and associated implications for seafood and seaweed consumption by humans.

Environ. Sci. Technol. 45 , 10.1021/es202816c (2011).


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of the societal problem of the deepening digital divide by establishing and testing an integrated conceptual framework for digital divide research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors established the integrated conceptual framework after synthesizing the literature, and then tested the framework by conducting a secondary analysis of a 2014-2015 data set comprised of 398 survey responses and nine interviews with Chinese migrant workers.

Findings

The results showed that Chinese migrant workers were partially e-included in the digital society. However, they encountered material, cognitive, motivational, and social access limitations due to the lack of financial, material, educational, psychological, interpersonal, and cognitive resources, which caused them to experience a digital divide. Findings support the use of the integrative model as a potential analytical framework to understand and address digital inequalities.

Originality/value

This study first proposed an integrative framework to understand the measurements and causes of the digital divide and then empirically tested its feasibility.


SiCp/Al-Si composites with different CeO2 contents were prepared by a powder metallurgy method. The effect of CeO2 content on mechanical properties, friction and wear properties of the composites was studied. The results show that with the increase in CeO2 content from 0 to 1.8 wt%, the density, hardness, friction coefficient of the composites first increases and then decreases, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and wear rate of the composites first decreases and then increases. When the content of CeO2 was 0.6 wt%, the density and hardness of the composite reached the maximum value of 98.54% and 113.7 HBW, respectively, the CTE of the composite reached the minimum value of 11.1 × 10−6 K−1, the friction coefficient and wear rate of the composite reached the maximum value of 0.32 and the minimum value of 1.02 mg/m, respectively. CeO2 has little effect on the wear mechanism of composites, and the wear mechanism of composites with different CeO2 content is mainly abrasive wear under the load of 550 N. Compared with the content of CeO2, load has a great influence on the wear properties of the composites. The wear mechanism of the composites is mainly oxidation wear and abrasive wear under low load. With the increase in load, the wear degree of abrasive particles is aggravated, and adhesive wear occurs under higher load.


The ParaScope project is developing an integrated collection of tools to help scientiic programmers implement correct and eecient parallel programs. The centerpiece of this collection is the ParaScope Editor, an intelligent interactive editor for parallel Fortran programs. The ParaScope Editor reveals to users potential hazards of a proposed parallelization in a program. It also provides a variety of powerful interactive program transformations that have been shown useful in converting programs to parallel form. In addition, the ParaScope Editor supports general user editing through a hybrid text and structure editing facility that incrementally analyzes the modiied program for potential hazards. The ParaScope Editor is a new kind of program construction tool { one that not only manages text, but also presents the user with information about the correctness of the parallel program under development. As such, it can support an exploratory programming style in which users get immediate feedback on their various strategies for parallelization.


A retrospective glance at the history of humankind discloses that disasters are consubstantial to human existence. From ancient times to our era, no centennial interlude unfolded without dreadful and sad incidents. Despite the improvement of educational sectors to provide humans with adequate training, their perfection remains controversial –their radical and deviationist behaviors keep on bringing about unprecedented tensions, humanitarian and ecological crises. Human relations have turned more tumultuous than ever. No one seems to listen to the other, be in harmony with themselves and their environment. Things occur as if humans were both uneducated and uncivilized. The 21st century suffers from a procession of disastrous events, which unfortunately illustrate humans' loss and disharmony with themselves and other living beings. Unable to resolutely bring palliative response to the drawbacks of their own deeds, they wander, seeking uncertain and utopian landmarks, which unfortunately worsen their living conditions. They enter this century not as conscious subjects, but rather as crispy individuals, for they have lost their rational faculties, educational and civilizational values. The occurrence of abusive exploitation of forest and halieutic resources in Eldorado, illustrates their sinful and cruel actions against nature and non-human animals. With reference to those devastating actions, it is relevant to guide and reorient their attitude in order to help the present and future generations avoid chaotic or dramatic situations. To that end, it is essential to question figurative disconnection(s) in Laurent Gaudé's novel. The use of ecocritic approach will contribute to elucidate a literary project, which advocates awareness, universal humanism and the revision of humans' behavioral habits towards their environment.


Applied Hierarchical Modeling in Ecology: Distribution, Abundance, Species Richness offers a new synthesis of the state-of-the-art of hierarchical models for plant and animal distribution, abundance, and community characteristics such as species richness using data collected in metapopulation designs. These types of data are extremely widespread in ecology and its applications in such areas as biodiversity monitoring and fisheries and wildlife management. This first volume explains static models/procedures in the context of hierarchical models that collectively represent a unified approach to ecological research, taking the reader from design, through data collection, and into analyses using a very powerful class of models. Applied Hierarchical Modeling in Ecology, Volume 1 serves as an indispensable manual for practicing field biologists, and as a graduate-level text for students in ecology, conservation biology, fisheries/wildlife management, and related fields. * Provides a synthesis of important classes of models about distribution, abundance, and species richness while accommodating imperfect detection* Presents models and methods for identifying unmarked individuals and species* Written in a step-by-step approach accessible to non-statisticians and provides fully worked examples that serve as a template for readers' analyses* Includes companion website containing data sets, code, solutions to exercises, and further information


Quality of life is one of the parameters that characterize the success of brain tumor treatments, along with overall survival and a disease-free life. Thus, the main aim of this research was to evaluate the quality of life after the surgical treatment of brain tumors. The research material included 236 patients who were to undergo surgery for brain tumors. The participants completed the quality of life questionnaires EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) and EORTC QLQ-BN20 on the day of admission to the department, on the fifth day after the removal of the brain tumor, and thirty days after the surgical procedure. Descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, the Kruskal–Wallis test, the Shapiro–Wolf test, ANOVA, and Fisher's least significant difference post hoc test were performed. The mean score of the questionnaire before the surgical procedure amounted to 0.706, 5 days after surgery it amounted to 0.614, and 30 days after surgery to 0.707. The greatest reduction in the quality of life immediately after the procedure was observed in patients with low-grade glial tumors (WHO I, II) and extracerebral tumors (meningiomas and neuromas). Thirty days after surgery, an improvement in the quality of life was observed in all included groups. The greatest improvement was recorded in the group of patients operated on for meningioma and neuroblastoma, and the lowest in patients treated for metastatic tumors. Contemporary surgical procedures used in neurosurgery reduce the quality of life in patients with brain tumors only in the early postoperative period. Histopathological diagnoses of these tumors impact the quality of life of patients.


Methanol, used for fixing chlamydia organisms to microscopic slides, was shown to eliminate the antigenic reactivity of Chlamydia pneumoniae elementary bodies with fluorescent antibodies. Acetone fixation had no adverse effect. Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia psittaci were not affected by methanol fixation. The effect of methanol on C. pneumoniae is another characteristic that differentiates this species from the other two chlamydia species.


As managed care evolves in Michigan, one message is clear: physicians are key players and therefore, must get involved. After all, as Allan Dobzyniak, MD, explains in the following article, "Physicians are the people who control utilization, the people who are uniquely in a position to control quality, and the people who are uniquely in a position to give value to the health care dollar." While there are risks, the evolution of managed care provides physicians with a solid opportunity to accomplish something in terms of on-going health care management. The following article provides a status report on managed care in Michigan, plus a comprehensive examination of its inherent risks and opportunities for physicians and patients.


Vacant vascular channels within fiber-reinforced composites offer various functionalities ranging from self-repair and healing, damage detection, to thermal management. However, these channels affect the structure of the composite and can alter the stress distribution when subjected to mechanical loads. This study aims to investigate the bending load on these vascularized channels produced by the removable solid wire technique. The tests were conducted with the samples with and without channel according to ASTM D7264. Interestingly, the vascularized samples showed a higher maximum flexural modulus and stress than the non-vascularized ones. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed to analyze the stresses at the regions close to the channel. The results revealed the effect of the stacking sequence on the stress distribution. Investigation of stresses near the resin-rich region, generated due to the opened channel, showed that this region is not significantly affected by bending in contrast to the transverse loading.


In the wake of increased emigration from the Netherlands over the last several years, the aim of this thesis is to examine the main motivating factors that inform current Dutch migration practices to Canada. In this qualitative, multi-sited research comprised of 34 participants, considerable attention is given to examine the popular notions linking this observed increase in emigration to the growing politicization of issues related to immigration and racialization in the Netherlands itself, including the murder of politician Pirn Fortuyn and filmmaker Theo van Gogh. A transnational framework is used to address aspects related to the role of the media, the family, the maintenance of ties with the country of origin, the contestation of the notion of immigration, and the role of the nation-state in creating differentiated access to immigration. An overview of the motivations that informs the participants' decision to immigrate to Canada reveals that there is a cluster of overlapping reasons, often predicated on the historic notion that Holland is overpopulated. Motivations include a dislike of the current politicization of issues related to immigrants in Holland; a perceived lack of space and nature; frustration with rules and regulations; and, a perceived negative shift in socio-cultural attitude. In addition, current Dutch migration to Canada exemplifies a migration flow where economic motivators are no longer the centre point informing their decision to migrate, and the participants' migration practices also exemplify new considerations for how the concept of transmigrants is used in transnational migration studies.


Recent developments in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) technology have helped simplify the surgical implantation technique of these devices. There has been a marked reduction in the size of these devices making them easier to implant pectorally. In addition ICDs have enhanced longevity and a more facile transvenous lead system. Surgical implantation is almost identical to the procedure used for permanent pacemaker implantation in conjunction with the performance of a short electrophysiologic/arrhythmia induction protocol. In general, the average implant time is approximately one hour and in our series minimal morbidity and no mortality was identified. In conclusion, ICDs can be safely and effectively implanted in the electrophysiology laboratory by electrophysiologists in a timely and cost-effective manner. These implant procedures can help to shorten the length of stay and improve the operating room utilization for more critical procedures.


This study is concerned with the fault estimation problem of discrete-time Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy systems with low-frequency faults. A fault estimation filter is designed to solve this problem. To make the estimation error as small as possible in the presence of high-frequency disturbances, the filter is designed to satisfy two finite-frequency H ∞ performance indices simultaneously. An algorithm is proposed to calculate the parameters of the desired filter. The obtained filter can estimate the faults in low-frequency domain effectively, e.g. stuck faults. For comparison, a full-frequency fault estimation method is also given. An example is given to illustrate advantages of the proposed finite-frequency method.


Down's syndrome (DS) is one of the most common genetic causes of mental and cognitive retardation. In fact, it results in a number of characteristic neuropsychological and physical symptoms, including mental retardation. The aim of this study was to compare the brain structure volumes of children with DS to those of healthy children using MRI Studio in order to investigate whether there exists correlation between the developmental stages of DS and the results of both the Denver II Developmental Screening Test and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quantitative analysis. Five children diagnosed with Down's syndrome (age range = 2–6 years) were matched for gender and age with five healthy comparison subjects. To analyse the overall and regional brain volumes, high-resolution MRI scans were performed and a morphometric analysis was conducted via MRI Studio software. The MRI T1 volumetric images were normalised using a linear transformation, which was followed by large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping. Significant decreases (p<0.05) in the volumes of the right pons, cerebellum and left superior frontal gyrus (prefrontal cortex) were observed in the children with DS when compared with the control group (p<0.05). Although decreases were detected in the regional volumes of other brain locations, they were not significant (p>0.05). It was further found that the developmental retardation observed in the children with DS, as detected using the Denver II test, increased due to decreases in the volumes of certain regions of the brain, although this was also not statistically significant (p>0.05). The results of this study generally confirm the findings of prior studies concerning the overall patterns of the brain volumes in children with DS and also provide new evidence of the abnormal volumes of specific regional tissue components among such a population. These results suggest that the brain volume reduction associated with DS may primarily be due to early developmental differences rather than neurodegenerative changes.


Tradition has long held that the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR) was primarily peasant-oriented. Titles of important studies of the party suggest that the respective authors adhere to-the traditional view.1 Awareness of Socialist Revolutionary. (SR) successes among the peasantry in 1917, culminating in their sweep of provincial Russia in the Constituent Assembly elections in November, has heightened the perception of the SRs as a predominantly peasant party. Whatever the origin of the misapprehension, primary sources indicate that along with their interest in the peasantry (at times intense, at other times surprisingly muted) SRs took a great interest in the urban proletariat and, in return, received strong support from workers. The primary task of this study, then, is to examine the relationship between SRs and urban workers from about 1902 to 1907.2 This of course raises the question of SR and populist revolutionary programs before 1902.


In light of unprecedented increases in the popularity of the internet and social media, comment moderation has never been a more relevant task. Semi-automated comment moderation systems greatly aid human moderators by either automatically classifying the examples or allowing the moderators to prioritize which comments to consider first. However, the concept of inappropriate content is often subjective, and such content can be conveyed in many subtle and indirect ways. In this work, we propose CoRAL -- a language and culturally aware Croatian Abusive dataset covering phenomena of implicitness and reliance on local and global context. We show experimentally that current models degrade when comments are not explicit and further degrade when language skill and context knowledge are required to interpret the comment.


ABSTRACT Bluff body stabilized turbulent premixed flames subject to inlet velocity oscillation over a wide range of forcing frequency and amplitude are simulated using a flamelet-based combustion model. Two sets of detailed chemical kinetic schemes are used to model combustion chemistry. It is observed that the computed dynamics of forced flames agree reasonably well with experimental measurements. The flame elongation and shortening at a frequency of 40 Hz and strong flame-vortex interaction at a higher frequency of 160 Hz are captured well in the computations. The global flame describing function extracted from the computational results shows a linear response at 40 Hz and a nonlinear behavior at 160 Hz as observed in the experiments. The nonlinear response is due to vortex roll-up and its subsequent shedding. The quantitative agreement of the computed flame describing function (FDF) with experimental measurement is uniformly good over a wide range of forcing frequency and amplitude. Some influence of chemical kinetics on the FDFs is observed, which mainly stems from the difference in laminar burning velocity and spatial heat release rate distribution.


Abstract We present information on the nest-searching and parasitic behavior of the European cleptoparasitic bee Biastes emarginatus (Schenck), found attacking nests of Rophites quinquespinosus Spinola in the Czech Republic. Its mature oocyte, first instar, and last larval instar are described and illustrated by SEM micrographs, microphotographs, and diagrams. These stages are compared with those of other members of the Biastini. Because the first instar of the related Neopasites cressoni had not been described before, its description is appended, so that comparisons can be made with B. emarginatus. In most respects, the biology and immature stages of B. emarginatus closely resemble what is known concerning other tribal members, but we note that the mature larva, though agreeing morphologically with those of close relatives, has an anatomy that invites investigation into adaptive function.


For the first time, the interaction between a series of small molecules and the TAR RNA of HIV-1 has been investigated by electric linear dichroism (ELD). The compounds tested include the DNA intercalating drugs proflavine and ethidium bromide and an amsacrine-4-carboxamide DNA-threading intercalator as well as the AT-specific DNA minor groove binders netropsin, Hoechst 33258, berenil and DAPI. In all cases except for netropsin, negative reduced dichroism signals were measured in the drug absorption band. In agreement with previous studies, the results indicate that both classical and threading intercalation can occur with the TAR RNA. The ELD data show that the mode of binding of the drugs Hoechst 33258, berenil and DAPI to the TAR RNA is similar to their binding mode in GC-rich regions of DNA and likely involves intercalation into the A-form TAR RNA helix. The wide and shallow minor groove of the TAR RNA is apparently not accessible to DNA minor groove binding drugs such as netropsin. The ELD technique appears uniquely valuable as a means of investigating the interaction of drugs with the TAR RNA.


The localization of fibronectin was examined in normal human lung using immunoelectron microscopy. Fibronectin staining was present not only in the endothelial, alveolar epithelial and bronchial epithelial basal laminae and associated with interstitial collagen fibrils and elastic fibers, but also in basal laminae of fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. There was a periodicity in the staining of fibronectin on collagen fibrils. Reaction products against fibronectin were present in intracellular organelle including cisternae of smooth endoplasmic reticulum of endothelial cells and those of rough endoplasmic reticulum of fibroblasts. No other cells contained reaction products. The localization of fibronectin was compared with that of ruthenium red staining in normal human lung. The localization of fibronectin was consistent with that of proteoglycan.


Inflammation and oxidative stress serve interrelated roles in the development of atherosclerosis and other vascular diseases. Quercetin has been previously reported to exhibit numerous beneficial properties towards several metabolic conditions and cardiovascular disease. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of quercetin on the 5'adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/sirtuin 1 (SIRT1)/NF-κB signaling pathway and inflammatory/oxidative stress response in diabetic-induced atherosclerosis in the carotid artery of rats. Male Wistar rats were used to create a diabetes-induced atherosclerosis model by the administration of high fat diet (HFD) with streptozotocin, which lasted for 8 weeks. Control and diabetic rats received quercetin (30 mg/kg/day; orally) for the last 2 weeks of the diabetic period. Plasma lipid profile and vascular levels of oxidative stress markers, inflammatory cytokines, NF-κB signaling proteins and SIRT1 expression were evaluated using ELISA and western blotting. Quercetin treatment in HFD diabetic rats was reported to improve the lipid profile and reduce the number of atherosclerotic lesions, atherogenic index and malondialdehyde levels, whilst increasing the activity of enzymatic antioxidants in the carotid artery. Additionally, the inflammatory response was suppressed by quercetin administration, as indicated by the reduced NF-κB and IL-1β levels, and increased IL-10 levels. Furthermore, SIRT1 expression was revealed to be significantly increased in response to quercetin treatment compared with non-treated HFD rats. However, these effects of quercetin were abolished or reversed by the administration of compound-C (0.2 mg/kg), a specific AMPK blocker, in HFD rats. Therefore, quercetin may have promising potential in ameliorating atherosclerotic pathophysiology in the rat carotid artery by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammatory responses mechanistically by modulating the AMPK/SIRT1/NF-κB signaling pathway.


We examine a decision-theoretic Bayesian framework for the estimation of Sharpe Style portfolio weights of the MSCI sector returns. Following van Dijk and Kloek (1980) an appropriately defined prior density of style weights can incorporate non-negativity and other constraints. We use factor-mimicking portfolios as proxies to global style factors such as Value, Growth, Debt and Size. Our computational approach is based on Monte Carlo Integration (MCI) of Kloek and van Dijk (1978) for the estimation of the posterior moments and distribution of portfolio weights. MCI provides a number of advantages, such as a flexible choice of prior distributions, improved numerical accuracy of the estimated parameters, the use of inequality restrictions in prior distributions and exact inference procedures. Our empirical findings suggest that, contrary to existing evidence, style factors do explain the MSCI sector portfolio returns for the particular sample period. Further, non-negativity constraints on portfolio weights were found to be binding in all cases.


To assess the effect of each dietary caloric source on the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids, we investigated the rate of leucine oxidation before and after obese volunteers consumed one of the following diets for one week: (a) starvation, (b) 300 or 500 cal of fat/d, (c) 300 or 500 cal of carbohydrate/d, (d) 300 or 500 cal of protein/d, (e) a mixture of carbohydrate (300 cal/d) and fat (200 cal/d), or (f) a mixture of carbohydrate (300 cal/d) and protein (200 cal/d). Starvation significantly increased the rate of leucine oxidation (1.4 +/- 0.11 vs. 1.8 +/- 0.16 mmol/h, P less than 0.01). The same occurred with the fat and protein diets. In sharp contrast, the 500-cal carbohydrate diet significantly decreased the rate of leucine oxidation (1.3 +/- 0.13 vs. 0.6 +/- 0.09 mmol/h, P less than 0.01). The same occurred when a portion of the carbohydrate diet was isocalorically replaced with either fat or protein. The cumulative nitrogen excretion during the fat diet and starvation was not significantly different. As compared with the fat diets, the carbohydrate diets on the average reduced the urinary nitrogen excretion by 12 g/wk. Nitrogen balance was positive during the consumption of the 500-cal protein diet, but negative during the consumption of carbohydrate-protein diet. The fat diets, like the protein diets and starvation, greatly increased plasma leucine (119 +/- 13 vs. 222 +/- 15 microM, P less than 0.01) and beta-hydroxybutyrate (0.12 +/- 0.02 vs. 4.08 +/- 0.43 mM, P less than 0.01) concentrations, and significantly decreased plasma glucose (96 +/- 4 vs. 66 +/- 3 mg/dl, P less than 0.01) and insulin (18 +/- 4 vs. 9 +/- 1 microU/ml, P less than 0.05) concentrations. These changes did not occur, or were greatly attenuated, when subjects consumed carbohydrate alone or in combination with fat or protein. We conclude that during brief caloric restriction, dietary lipid and protein, unlike carbohydrate, do not diminish the catabolism of branched-chain amino acids and the decrease in branched-chain amino acid oxidation is associated with protein sparing.


To obtain high-quality plastic products, an industrial volume-pulsatile injection-molding (VPIM) machine is developed to achieve high screw displacement amplitude. However, it is difficult for engineers to optimize vibration parameters and improve equipment due to lack of a comprehensive understanding of the coupling correlation between amplitude and frequency, which seriously hinders the development of VPIM technology and machine. To address the challenge, this paper investigates the amplitude–frequency characteristics during the volume-pulsatile packing process. According to the working principle of this machine, the dynamics model of injection screw is established and equivalent to a mass-spring-damper system. Based on the dynamics equivalent model, we deduce the forced vibration response of screw displacement, and the vibration responses of screw displacement and oil pressure under the hydraulic system. An oil pressure control model is proposed and numerically solved. Experimental and theoretical results reveal the effects of material properties, machine components, and control system on the amplitude–frequency characteristics during the volume-pulsatile packing process. For injection-molding grade materials, the reductions in oil pressure amplitude and screw displacement amplitude are attributed to the inertial delay of the hydraulic system in this paper, rather than the viscous resistance of materials in the previous perception. The response speed of the servo control system to pressure should be improved to enhance oil pressure amplitude and screw displacement amplitude. This paper enriches the basic theories of polymer vibration processing and points out the direction of equipment improvement.


Objective
To investigate the effectiveness of ulnar shortening osteotomy combined with elastic suspension fixation for ulnar impaction syndrome caused by relatively long ulna.

Methods
Between October 2015 and August 2016, 3 cases of ulnar impaction syndrome were treated. One patient was male and 2 patients were females. The age was 32, 29, and 59 years, respectively. One patient was dislocation and impaction of distal radioulnar joint for more than 1 year after internal fixation due to ulnar and radial open fractures. Other patients had no trauma and surgery, but long-term manual history. The visual analogue scale (VAS) scores were 7, 5, and 5, respectively. Cooney wrist function scores were rated as poor. Preoperative X-ray measurements of the ulnar variance was 12.7, 9.0, and 8.7 mm, respectively. The ulna was transversely osteotomy and fixed with plate and screws. The distal radioulnar joint was elastic suspension fixed with mini plate.

Results
Postoperative X-ray film showed that the matching of the distal radioulnar joint had no significant difference compared with the contralateral side. All the incisions healed by first intention without complication such as neurovascular injury, infection, and dislocation of the distal radioulnar joint. The patients were followed up 27, 17, and 23 months, respectively. At last follow-up, X-ray film showed that all osteotomy segments achieved bony union without internal fixation failure. The VAS scores were 2, 0, and 1, respectively, and the Cooney wrist function scores were rated as excellent.

Conclusion
The ulnar shortening osteotomy combined with elastic suspension fixation can correct the ulna variation, avoid the instability of the distal radioulnar joint caused by the extensive dissection of the tissue around the ulnar, and avoid stiffness of the joints caused by rigid fixation. It is an ideal treatment for ulna impaction syndrome.


Formal education context, architectural education and methods, sometimes inadequate for architectural students who will take part in the architectural community which is rapidly evolving and changing, reveals the necessity of informal education for vocational training of students for the completion of their developments and shortcomings. At present, the traditional education system provides limited educational opportunities for students. In architecture education the primary aim is to broaden students' perspectives and design skills and this is only possible by providing an independent medium of expression. Therefore, during the student's educational process, in order to obtain the necessary skills and development with more innovative and entrepreneurial alternatives, it is necessary for the students to be encouraged and to benefit from the informal education such as workshops, seminars, conferences, contests and excavations. In the architectural educational process "formal-informal integrated education network" that will be formed as a complement to each other enables students to develop personally and professionally by allowing them acquire the necessary skills. The subject of this study is the necessity, importance and impact of the informal education, which plays a complementary role rather than support in the architectural design studios which is a backbone of architectural education. In this context, particularly in informal education, workshops, their contributions, results and student acquisitions will be in focus and evaluated.Keywords: architectural design education; formal-informal architectural education system; workshops; extracurricular education;


In this paper we establish a geometry-based stochastic ultra-wideband channel model for gas stations. We statistically describe the two-dimensional spatial location and power of clustered scatterers, and the shape of their visibility and shadowing regions. We also separately model the diffuse part of the impulse response (i.e., the part that cannot be explained by the scatterers' multipath components), and show that its amplitude fading statistics can be best described by a Weibull distribution with a delay dependent beta-parameter. A step-by-step implementation recipe demonstrates how the model can be built. Finally, we validate our model by comparing simulated and measured channel parameters such as the rms delay spread.