A new glyco‐derivative compound (OCTAM) was developed and labelled with isotope to form 188Re‐OCTAM as a candidate nuclear medicine imaging agent for testing the liver function. We evaluated the potential of isotope‐labelled OCTAM for estimating the remnant liver function in vitro and in vivo schistosoma‐infected mice. The affinity of OCTAM to liver asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGPR) was assessed by competitive inhibition assay in vitro. In vivo assessments were performed to score the remnant liver function in mice at different schistosomal infection stages. OCTAM binds specifically to ASGPR and showed competitive inhibition of anti‐ASGPR antibody binding to hepatocytes, and was higher than that of other galactosyl ligands. Micro‐SPECT/CT images of uninfected mice revealed strong liver uptake. Quantified serial images of mice infected for 9, 12 and 18 weeks showed delayed liver uptake, and the retention of uptake was inversely correlated with stage and grade of schistosoma infection. Pathological and biochemical analysis demonstrated that gradually accumulating liver injury caused by infection significantly influenced uptake of 188Re‐OCTAM. Hepatic ASGPR expression diminished only in the chronic infection stage. This study demonstrated that the isotope‐labelled OCTAM could accumulate in the liver, might have potential as an imaging agent for in vivo hepatic function evaluation of schistosomiasis.


AIMS
This project intended to enhance the compliance rate of nurses (registered nurses and enrolled nurses) in a polyclinic to the five moments of hand hygiene. It proposed to conduct a preliminary baseline audit on the standard of hand hygiene practice, educate nurses on the five moments of hand hygiene in the polyclinic and conduct a post-implementation audit to capture the compliance rate of nurses on practising the five moments of hand hygiene.

METHODS
The team conducted a pre- and post-implementation audit using the Joanna Briggs Institute Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System and Getting Research into Practice programme, from July 2011 through November 2011, over a period of 5 months. The pre-implementation audit, which involved 23 nurses from a polyclinic in Singapore, also adopted five out of the seven criteria suggested by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The intervention composed of educating the nurses on the five moments of hand hygiene, providing guidance to nurses in a non-intimidating manner, adopting an open communication approach and the appropriate placement of alcohol-based hand rub at the point of care in the service rooms.

RESULTS
The post-implementation audit results showed significant improvement in four of the five criteria, with the greatest improvement observed for criterion 2: 'Hands are decontaminated immediately before each and every episode of direct patient contact or care, and/or all inanimate objects, including equipment'.

CONCLUSION
This study has proven that by conducting the pre- and post-implementation audit using the five criteria gathered from the Joanna Briggs Institute Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System, nurses' hand hygiene compliance can be enhanced. From this study, we could also conclude that nurses' knowledge and accessibility/suitability of alcohol-based hand rubs play an important role in achieving better hand hygiene practices. Positive results were seen even though the project was conducted within a short period. Contributing factors could be attributed to efforts by researchers in identifying barriers for compliance from the ground and addressing them in the intervention phase. In addition, the relentless enthusiasm and commitment of stakeholders, team members and nurses had also contributed to the success of this study. This project was the first to report an improvement in the hand hygiene compliance of primary healthcare nurses in Singapore.


Introduction: Family/friend caregivers play an essential role in promoting the physical and mental health of older adults in need of care – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and especially in assisted living (AL) homes, where resident care needs are similarly complex as in long-term care homes but fewer staffing resources and services are available. However, little research is available on caregiver involvement and concerns with care of AL residents prior to and during waves 1 and 2 of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study addressed this important knowledge gap. Methods: This prospective cohort study used baseline and follow-up online surveys with primary caregivers to AL residents in Western Canada who were 65 years or older and had lived in the AL home for at least 3 months before Mar 1, 2020. Surveys assessed the following outcomes in the 3 months prior to and during waves 1 and 2 of the pandemic: sociodemographics, 5 ways of visiting or communicating with residents, involvement in 16 care tasks, concerns with 9 resident physical/mental health conditions, perceived lack of resident access to 7 care services, and whether caregivers felt well informed and involved with resident care. Results: Based on 386 caregiver responses, in-person visits dropped significantly in wave 1 of the pandemic and so did caregiver involvement in nearly all care tasks. While these rates increased in wave 2, most did not return to pre-pandemic levels. Correspondingly, caregiver concerns (already high before the pandemic) substantially increased in wave 1 and stayed high in wave 2. These were particularly elevated among caregivers who did not feel well informed/involved with resident care. Conclusions: Restricted in-person visiting disrupted resident care and was associated with worse perceptions of resident health and well-being. Continued caregiver involvement in resident care and communication with caregivers even during lockdowns is key to mitigating these issues.


operations in the arithmetic. Multipliers based on Wallace reduction tree provide an area-efficient strategy for high speed multiplication. In the previous years the Booth encoding is widely used in the tree multipliers to increase the speed of the multiplier. However, the efficiency of the Booth encoders decreases with the technology scale down. In this paper we showed that the use of Booth encoders in fact increases the delay and power of the Wallace multiplier in the deep submicron technology. The radix-4 Booth-Wallace and the Wallace multipliers are implemented for various sizes and synthesized using Synopsys Design Compiler in 90nm process technology. The synthesis results show that the Wallace multiplier has up to 17% less delay and 70% less power consumption as compared to the radix-4 Booth-Wallace multipliers. The Power-Delay Product (PDP) of the Wallace multiplier is up to 68% lower than the Booth-Wallace multiplier. Index Terms-Wallace multiplier, Booth encoder, Booth Wallace, high speed, low power, radix-4


This study examined the influence of exposure on post-traumatic stress symptomatology in children following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Over 2,000 children were surveyed 7 weeks after the bombing. Initial reaction and emotional exposure were important predictors of post-traumatic stress symptomatology in the full sample. Children who reported no physical or emotional exposure had significantly lower scores than exposed children on television viewing, initial reaction, and post-traumatic stress symptomatology. Within the nonexposed group, those with high television exposure had significantly more post-traumatic stress symptoms. Children with strong initial reactions should be followed over time, and disaster-related television viewing should be carefully monitored.


The article is devoted to the problem of counteraction of the ideology of terrorism and extremism in the youth environment. The role of Russian educational institutions (including universities) in organizing this opposition is shown. The new opportunities that modern information and education space creates for educational and preventive work among the students are discussed. The necessity not only to develop and creatively use these opportunities within individual educational institutions are affirmed, but also to share positive experiences as widely as possible promoting successful practices. In this connection it is said about the experiments of the Moscow Technological Institute in the use of modern information and educational technologies – the establishment and operation of a virtual "Club of political scientists" on the basis of the distance education system at MTI. The question about the prospects of these initiatives is set, that have already demonstrated their worth as educational, and as a pedagogic tool.


With the development of body sensor networks and the pervasiveness of smart phones, different types of personal data can be collected in real time by body sensors, and the potential value of massive personal data has attracted considerable interest recently. However, the privacy issues of sensitive personal data are still challenging today. Aiming at these challenges, in this paper, we focus on the threats from telemetry interface and present a secure and privacy-preserving body sensor data collection and query scheme, named SPCQ, for outsourced computing. In the proposed SPCQ scheme, users' personal information is collected by body sensors in different types and converted into multi-dimension data, and each dimension is converted into the form of a number and uploaded to the cloud server, which provides a secure, efficient and accurate data query service, while the privacy of sensitive personal information and users' query data is guaranteed. Specifically, based on an improved homomorphic encryption technology over composite order group, we propose a special weighted Euclidean distance contrast algorithm (WEDC) for multi-dimension vectors over encrypted data. With the SPCQ scheme, the confidentiality of sensitive personal data, the privacy of data users' queries and accurate query service can be achieved in the cloud server. Detailed analysis shows that SPCQ can resist various security threats from telemetry interface. In addition, we also implement SPCQ on an embedded device, smart phone and laptop with a real medical database, and extensive simulation results demonstrate that our proposed SPCQ scheme is highly efficient in terms of computation and communication costs.


Individuals who ruminate (i.e., a tendency to respond to negative life events with negative self-reflection) have consistently been found to be associated with maladaptive functioning (i.e., anxious and depressive symptoms). Happy individuals, on the other hand, have been found to have minimized anxious and depressive symptoms. Not surprisingly, rumination is negatively correlated with happiness. However, ethnic variations in the associations between these variables have not been studied previously. Thus, an integrative model involving rumination and happiness as predictors of psychological maladjustment (viz., depressive and anxious symptoms) was proposed and tested in 184 Asian Americans and 238 European Americans. For European Americans and not Asian Americans, results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated a significant Rumination Happiness interaction in predicting each of the maladjustment measures after accounting for the influences of both rumination and happiness. These findings are taken to offer support for a more interactive regression model of psychological maladjustment involving rumination and happiness.


Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) is a type of bone metabolism disease-related to estrogen deficiency with an increasing incidence. Traditional Chinese (TCM) has always been used and showed effectiveness in treating PMOP. In the current study, Bu-Yang herbs were considered to be the most frequently used and efficient TCM herbs in PMOP treatment. However, chemical and pharmacological profiles were not elucidated. Network pharmacology was conducted on representative Bu-Yang herbs (Yin-Yang-Huo. Du-Zhong, Bu-Gu-Zhi, Tu-Si-Zi) to investigate the mechanism of Bu-Yang herbs on PMOP. Chemical compounds, potential targets, and disease related genes were available from the corresponding database. Results showed that Bu-Yang herbs could interact with ESR1 and estrogen signaling pathways. For further validation, the Bu-Yang decoction (BYD), formula consisted of the above-mentioned 4 Bu-Yang herbs was presented for experimental validation. In vivo, BYD significantly reversed ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis progress in a dose-dependent manner by up-regulation of bone mineral density and amelioration of bone microarchitecture. In vitro, BYD dramatically improved the proliferation and mineral nodules formation of osteoblasts. Both in vitro and in vivo results illustrated that the phenotype change induced by BYD is correlated with up-regulated of ESR1 and activation of the β-catenin pathway. Meanwhile, inhibition of ESR1 by ICI182, 780 blocked the osteogenic phenotype and β-catenin pathway activation induced by BYD. In conclusion, the current study suggested that Bu-Yang herbs are the most useful TCM herbs in treating PMOP. Furthermore, the integrated strategy of network pharmacology prediction with experimental validation suggested that BYD exerted its anti-PMOP via ESR1 and the downstream mechanism might be activation of the β-catenin signaling pathway.


The staging behaviour of jet screech in an elliptical nozzle with with an aspect ratio AR = 2.0 is examined across a range of pressure ratios. Acoustic measurements and high resolution imaging are used to assess the staging behaviour. Based on the frequency of the dominant screech tone, the jet staging behaviour can be separated into five distinct modes over the range of pressures studied. A statistical analysis of the schlieren images suggests that the first mode is varicose, the next three modes are flapping instabilities, and the final mode is helical in nature. A comparison of characteristic length scales in the jet is undertaken to explain the mode switches. A shift from the classical "weakest link" feedback model to an acoustic waveguide model, associated with a shift in characteristic length scale of the jet, is used to explain the discontinuous jumps in screech tone frequency. The results indicate that the different acoustic feedback mechanisms need not necessarily be associated with a particular instability mode shape.


English walnut (Juglans regia) has become an important crop in Chile, representing 11.5% of the total area of fruit trees, surpassed only by grapevine. As the Chilean walnut industry rapidly expands, young orchards are at risk from the emergence of new fungal diseases. Botryosphaeriaceae and Diaporthaceae fungi have been recognized as main causes of wood diseases in walnut, with symptoms of dieback, canker, and blight. In winter 2017, samples were collected from different orchards in Valparaíso and Maule regions. Fungal isolates recovered were cultured, characterized morphologically, and identified using DNA sequence analyses. Three species (Neofusicoccum parvum, Diplodia mutila, Diplodia seriata) were characterized in Botryosphaeriaceae and two (Diaporthe cynaroidis, Diaporthe australafricana) in Diaporthaceae. Pathogenicity tests showed that N. parvum was the most aggressive species to walnut. This study confirmed the presence of pathogenic Botryosphaeriaceae and Diaporthaceae in J. regia that should be considered an increasing risk for the growing Chilean walnut industry.


Trade negotiators are frequently concerned about the possible negative effects of trade liberalisation on employment in specific sectors. The agricultural sector in developing countries has characteristics that make it different from industrial or service sectors. These characteristics are an informal labour force, low productivity, absence of regulations and a tie to land. These features affect adjustment costs. A global computable general equilibrium model, GTAP, is used to analyse employment and wage effects of trade liberalization in three developing countries — Indonesia, Bangladesh and Guatemala. The ability to fully utilize all resources, including labour, is important. The results highlight the advantage of a functioning and flexible labour market that can readily adjust to trade shocks.


Background Both inflammatory factors and immune response play important roles in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). However, a comprehensive analysis of interaction between inflammatory response-associated genes (IRGs) and immune microenvironment in patients with IDD remains lacking. Hence, the current research is aimed at investigating the correlations between IRG signatures and immune cells in the progression of IDD. Methods The expression profiles (GSE27494 and GSE41883) and IRGs were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and Molecular Signature Database (MSigDB), respectively. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) and differential expression analysis were used to identify the pivotal modules and common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with IDD. Subsequently, we retrieved differentially expressed IRGs (DE-IRGs) by intersecting IRGs and DEGs for enrichment analysis. Next, LASSO regression analyses were performed to screen optimal marker genes for IDD prediction. Additionally, we validated differences DE-IRGs between IDD patients and controls in GSE150408. Finally, the infiltration alteration of immune cells was evaluated by the CIBERSORT, and the correlation between diagnostic markers and infiltrating immune cells was analyzed. Results A total of 10 upregulated differentially expressed inflammatory genes were identified that were obviously related to progression of IDD. Functional analysis results revealed that DE-IRGs were mainly enriched in signaling pathways TNF, IL-17, NOD-like receptor, and NF-kappa B pathway. A five-gene signature that consisted of IL-1β, LIF, LYN, NAMPT, and SLC7A2 was constructed by the LASSO Cox regression. IL1B, LYN, and NAMPT were further validated as optimal candidate genes in the pathophysiology of IDD. In addition, there was a remarkable immune cell infiltration difference between the healthy and IDD groups. The proportions for dendritic cells activated, mast cells activated, and neutrophils in the IDD group were significantly higher than those in the normal group, while the proportion of some cells was lower than that of the normal group, such as T cell CD4 memory resting, NK cells activated, and macrophage M0. Furthermore, correlation analysis indicated IL-1β, LYN, and NAMPT were closely implicated with immune cell infiltration in IDD development. Conclusions We explored an association between inflammatory response-associated signature and immune infiltration in IDD and validated that IL-1β, LYN, and NAMPT might serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for IDD in the future.


The physics of metal forming and metal removing is normally expressed using non-linear partial differential equations which can be solved using the finite element method (FEM). However, when the process parameters are uncertain and/or the physics of the process is not well understood, soft computing techniques can be used with FEM or alone to model the process. Using FEM, fuzzy set theory and neural networks as modeling tools; Modeling of Metal Forming and Machining Processes provides a complete treatment of metal forming and machining, and includes: an explanation of FEM and its application to the modeling of manufacturing processes; a discussion of the numerical difficulties of FEM; chapters on the application of soft computing techniques in this modeling process. The algorithms and solved examples included make Modeling of Metal Forming and Machining Processes of value to postgraduates, senior undergraduates, lecturers and researchers in these fields. R&D engineers and consultants for the ma nufacturing industry will also find it of use.


Morpho-anatomy of species in Tribe Pachycereeae seedlings is described and compared with the aim to find differences between the initial growth and establishment stages and to determine the point in time of the change from seedling to young plant. The morpho-anatomical traits were observed from sampling more than 500 seedlings of six species belonging to five genera of this tribe. Seedlings were collected weekly the first three-months after germination and afterwards they were collected monthly to complete 24-months of growth. Statistical differences (P < 0.05) were observed for seedling height, root length, and stem width and height between the species at different ages. A delay in stem and root development was found in Escontria chiotilla and Myr- tillocactus geometrizans, species with the smallest seeds. Moreover, the studied species share dermal, fundamental, and vascular tissue traits, however the protein bodies distinguish Pachycereus grandis and the prismatic crystals in epidermis-hypodermis characterize species of Neobuxbaumia. At the onset of vascular cambium, only vessel elements and wide band tracheids become differentiated, whereas fibers appeared in some species after they had one-year of age. We concluded that disappearance of cotyle- dons, differentiation of ribs, establishment of vascular cambium, a greater accumulation wood, and differentiation of medullary bundles allow us to determine the limits between the seedling stage and the young plant stage.


Hydrocarbons in the frontal and central Ouachitas are in three distinct forms: crude oil, asphaltite, and as organic matter disseminated in potential source rocks. Each of these types has been examined geochemically, in an attempt to correlate oil to asphaltite and oil to source rock. In addition, the general source rock potential of the central Ouachitas has been evaluated. Results show that the crude oil produced to date is chemically mature and largely undergraded, although production is as shallow as 148 ft (45 m) in one field. The asphaltite is predominantly grahamite throughout the Ouachitas, and correlates geochemically to the crude oil, as indicated by similar stable carbon isotope ratios. An examination of the Ouachita section for source potential indicates that everal formations are high enough in organic carbon to have produced oil, although some may be ruled out on the basis of the type of organic matter present. Association of oil and asphaltite along the strike of the Windingstair fault indicates that this listric reverse fault may have served as a migration conduit. Geochemical similarities between analyses of asphaltite from the Upper Ordovician Bigfork and that from the Mississippian Stanley group further indicate the possibility of vertical migration. Finally, migration along a listric fault, with subsequent near-surface degradation of the oil, would provide a concise explanation for the close association of near-surface solid asphaltite with sightly deeper liquid oil. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1497------------


It is speculated that endogenous opioid peptides are involved in glucose metabolism and that their homeostasis might be disturbed in obesity. Despite a different response of the pancreatic beta-cells after beta-endorphin and naloxone injections between obese patients and normal weight controls, there is little knowledge concerning the direct influence of a glucose load on beta-endorphin plasma levels, especially with respect to various nutrition states. During exploration of this topic we gained further insight on the difference of basal beta-endorphin plasma levels between normal and overweight persons. We compared beta-endorphin plasma levels during an oral glucose load in 60 obese, non-diabetic patients and in 20 normal weight controls. We also studied 40 of the obese patients after a weight reduction of 2.1 kg/m2. The following results were obtained: (1) Normal weight females have significantly lower (P less than 0.05) basal beta-endorphin levels compared to the male controls. This difference in gender is abolished in obesity where female and male patients do not differ in basal beta-endorphin plasma levels. Therefore, the difference between normal and overweight persons in beta-endorphin plasma levels was restricted to the subgroup of females. We suppose that former neglect of this difference in gender explains most of the so far reported discrepant results. (2) During the oral glucose tolerance test the beta-endorphin plasma values remained constant in the obese group. Despite improved insulin sensitivity after weight reduction there was still no change of beta-endorphin plasma levels both during the OGTT and when compared to the values before weight reduction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Background Autologous fat tissue grafting (AFTG) has been successfully used in the treatment of different sclerotic conditions, including scleroderma. Objectives We evaluated in patients with SSc who complained of a reduced mouth opening, the long-term efficacy of AFTG of the lips in improving mouth opening in comparison with hyaluronic acid (HA) filler. We also investigated whether these procedures may induce some changes in the microvascular architecture and dermal structure of the treated skin area. Methods We studied 30 patients with dcSSc, (median age 37±12 yrs, disease duration 11±8yrs): 15 were treated by topical perioral AFTG according to Coleman technique and 15 by HA filler. The filler was repeated after 3 months. Baseline and after treatment (at months 3, 6, and 12) mouth opening changes were assessed by measuring inter-incisal distance and oral perimeter. Pre- and post-treatment modifications of microvascular architecture were assessed by counting capillaries in the inferior lip videocapillaroscopy (VC) images. Similarly, histological sections of perioral skin biopsy were examined at baseline and 3 months to evaluate dermo-epidermic junction (DEJ), the collagen content (by Masson's Trichrome staining) and microvessel density (MVD) (by anti-CD34/CD31staining). Results 3 months after treatment both the inter-incisal distance and oral perimeter significantly increased (p<0.001). At the same time, a significant skin neovascularization became evident, both considering the VC images (p<0.001) and MVD scores in IH sections (p<0.0001). Finally, some skin histological aspects also improved, as shown by the significant changes in DEJ flattening scores (p<0.0001) and collagen content with less abnormal and denser collagen bundles. At 6 and 12 months, despite the disappearance of filling effect, both the functional improvement in mouth opening and the increased number of capillaries were maintained. No effect either on the mouth opening, VC images and skin histological aspects was observed in SSc patients treated by HA filler. Conclusions The present study shows that, in patients with SSc, AFTG can improve mouth opening, induce a neovascularization, and partially restore the skin structure. All these effects were confirmed in the long-term observation. The lack of functional and biological effects in the control group treated by HA filler, suggests that the observed therapeutic effect of lipostructure may be specifically ascribed to the on site transplantation of fat tissue. Our study may open new perspectives for the local and general therapeutic approach to SSc. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Introduction Starch is major component in the big seeds of Cycas revoluta, however the characteristics of Cycas revoluta remain unknown. Methods In this study, the physicochemical and structural properties of two starch samples extracted from Cycad revoluta seeds were systematically investigated, using various techniques. Results The amylose contents of the two samples were 34.3 % and 35.5%, respectively. The spherical-truncated shaped starch granules possessed A-type crystallinity, and had an average diameter less than 15 μm. Compared to most commonly consumed cereal and potato starch, Cycad revoluta starch showed distinctive characteristics. For physicochemical properties, in the process of gelatinization, the Cycad revoluta starch showed similar viscosity profile to starches of some potato varieties, but Cycad revoluta starch had higher gelatinization temperature. Upon cooling, Cycad revoluta starch formed harder gels than rice starch. For structure, the molecular weight (indexed by Mw, Mn and Rz values), branching degree and the branch chain length distribution were determined. Discussion The results suggested that Cycad revoluta starch were different in structure from the main-stream starches. Notable differences in some starch traits between the two samples were recorded, which could be attributed to environmental factors. In general, this study provides useful information on the utilization of Cycad revoluta starch in both food and non-food industries.


Continuous Video Domain Adaptation (CVDA) is a scenario where a source model is required to adapt to a series of individually available changing target domains continuously without source data or target supervision. It has wide applications, such as robotic vision and autonomous driving. The main underlying challenge of CVDA is to learn helpful information only from the unsupervised target data while avoiding forgetting previously learned knowledge catastrophically, which is out of the capability of previous Video-based Unsupervised Domain Adaptation methods. Therefore, we propose a Confidence-Attentive network with geneRalization enhanced self-knowledge disTillation (CART) to address the challenge in CVDA. Firstly, to learn from unsupervised domains, we propose to learn from pseudo labels. However, in continuous adaptation, prediction errors can accumulate rapidly in pseudo labels, and CART effectively tackles this problem with two key modules. Specifically, The first module generates refined pseudo labels using model predictions and deploys a novel attentive learning strategy. The second module compares the outputs of augmented data from the current model to the outputs of weakly augmented data from the source model, forming a novel consistency regularization on the model to alleviate the accumulation of prediction errors. Extensive experiments suggest that the CVDA performance of CART outperforms existing methods by a considerable margin.


As law schools face more pressure to prepare students for law practice, develop learning outcomes, and assess the extent to which students are meeting those outcomes, the time is ripe to consider the role of law student scholarship in the program of legal education. This article suggests that we should think more intentionally about how law students' engagement in scholarship can promote their professional development. In so doing, we should recognize that legal scholarship plays a different role for law students than it does for law professors. Rather than trying to replicate law professors' relationship with scholarship, the pedagogy of scholarship should focus more intentionally on the value of scholarship for law students—most of whom will not become law professors. This article suggests that much of the value of scholarship for law students lies in process, rather than product. Accordingly, the article suggests that we should focus more on the process of creating scholarship in and of itself, rather than thinking of process largely as a means to the end of students' creation of a traditional scholarly paper. The article offers examples of ways to re-focus attention on the process of scholarship and more deliberately give scholarship a role in students' professional development. In addition, the article suggests taking advantage of the scholarly freedom that law students have to think creatively about the products of the scholarly process, in order to both enable students to devote more time to the process itself and engage students in projects that have more meaning to them.


Transient monocular blindness (TMB) or amaurosis fugax is diagnosed when visual disturbance or loss (blindness, dimming, fogging, blurring) affects one eye for seconds or minutes. TMB may occur alone or in combination with transient hemispheric ischaemia (TIA). The cause of TMB is usually an atheromatous plaque at the carotid bifurcation in the neck liberating emboli or causing a temporary reduction in carotid and retinal blood flow. In most patients no embolus or ischaemic change is visible in the fundus. TMB should be investigated and treated in the same way as neurologic TIAs with emphasis on rapid detection of extracranial arterial disease, cardiac abnormalities and haematological disorders.


The transport of water and ions through carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is crucial in nanotechnology and biotechnology. Previous investigation indicated that the ions can hardly pass through (6,6) CNTs due to their hydrated shells. In the present study, utilizing molecular dynamics simulation, it is shown that the energy barrier mainly originating from the hydrated water molecules could be overcome by applying an electric field large enough in the CNT axis direction. Potential of mean force is calculated to show the reduction of energy barrier when the electric field is present for (Na+, K+, Cl−) ions. Consequently, ionic flux through (6,6) CNTs can be found once the electric field becomes larger than a threshold value. The variation of the coordination numbers of ions at different locations from the bulk to the center of the CNT is also explored to elaborate this dynamic process. The thresholds of the electric field are different for Na+, K+, and Cl− due to their characteristics. This consequence might be potentially applied in ion selectivity in the future.


Keywords: Market liberalisation, rural households, traders, Kenya , market integration, cointegration analysis, difference-in-difference approach, farmer response. Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya , liberalised their agricultural commodity markets in the 1980s and 1990s as a strategy to increase marketing efficiency. In this thesis, we provide an account of the impacts of market liberalisation on households in Northwestern Kenya , a maize surplus producing region. We apply several analytical frameworks including descriptive statistics, structure, conduct and performance modeling, cointegration and error correction modeling approaches, double differencing and multinomial probit regression to both primary and secondary data. A descriptive review of the market liberalisation process indicates that commodity markets are liberalised. This is particularly evidenced by the increased number of traders across the four commodity markets (fertiliser, seed, maize and milk) examined. However, the markets are only partially liberalised since there is still some government active participation in some markets like maize and milk. An analysis of the structure, conduct and performance of the four commodity markets shows that the markets are competitive. This is evidenced by low trader concentration levels and marketing margins. Furthermore, there is no evidence of collusion among traders in terms of pricing or limiting market supply despite financial and structural constraints that limit firm expansion. The ensuing increased private trader participation in commodity markets partly explains the observed marketing integration among maize wholesale markets, and a positive and strong aggregate supply response both in the short- and long-run. By comparing farming activities of maize producing households in 1992 and 2003 by using panel data, we find that on-farm diversification and commercialisation have increased. In particular, fertiliser use increased dramatically in terms of number of households using fertiliser and the rate of use. Furthermore, the number of households participating in maize marketing increased from 40 percent in 1992 to 70 percent in 2003. Area under maize, distance to the market, rate of basal fertiliser use and household size are the major factors that influence household participation/non-participation in maize markets. Overall, the study shows that market liberalisation could be beneficial to households if constraints traders face could be eliminated and that the government has lost revenue because of its reduced role in commodity marketing activities.


Background Approximately 20% of breast cancer (BC) patients (pts) have HER2−positive tumors. While the adjuvant use of the anti-HER2 humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (T) has been shown to improve disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS), not all pts treated with this agent benefit from this therapy. Pertuzumab (P) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits HER2 dimerization and induces ADCC with a complementary mechanism of action to T. In HER2−positiveadvanced BC, T and P is active in pts who have progressed to T. In the neoadjuvant setting, T and P in combination with chemotherapy (CT) nearly doubled the pathological complete response rate compared to either T or P administered in combination with CT (45.8% vs 29% vs 24%, respectively). Therefore, comprehensive HER2 blockade with two anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies warrants further investigation in the adjuvant setting. Trial Design : APHINITY is a prospective, randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in pts with HER2−positive primary BC who have had an excision of their tumor. Pts will be randomized to one of 2 arms (1:1 ratio). The investigational arm will comprise of a course of adjuvant CT (investigators choice) consisting of either an anthracycline-taxane or taxane-platin containing regimens and T and P for 1 year. The comparator arm will consist of the same adjuvant CT backbone with T and placebo for 1 year. Major Eligibility Criteria : 1. Non-metastatic primary BC histologically confirmed and adequately excised 2. Node-positive or node-negative: for patients with node-positive disease (pN ≥1), any pT except T0; for patients with node-negative disease (pN0), tumor size must be >1.0 cm OR for tumor size between >0.5 cm and ≤1.0 cm, at least one of the following features will be required: histologic grade 3 OR negative for ER and PgR OR age 3. The interval between definitive surgery for BC and randomization must be at least 3 weeks but no more than 7 weeks 4. Baseline LVEF ≥55% 5. HER2−positive BC confirmed by a central laboratory and defined as: IHC 3+ in >10% immunoreactive cells OR HER2 gene amplification by in situ hybridization [ISH] (ratio of HER2 gene signals to centromere 17 signals ≥2) Aims : The primary objective is to compare invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) between both treatment arms. Secondary objectives include comparing IDFS including second non-BC, DFS, OS, recurrence-free interval (RFI), distant RFI, cardiac safety, overall safety and health-related quality of life in the two treatment arms. Statistical Methods : Pts will be stratified based on nodal status, type of adjuvant CT regimen, hormone receptor status and geographical region. The study is designed to have an 80% power to test the null hypothesis of no true difference in risk of an IDFS event (HR = 1) versus the alternative hypothesis of a difference (HR = 0.75) in hazard rates with a 5%, 2-sided significance level. Target accrual: 3806; Present accrual: Start Q4 2011 Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr OT1-02-04.


The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of fractures in transfusion-dependent thalassaemic patients in Italy. Examination of the patients' records revealed that 193 of the 977 observed patients had sustained fractures, with prevalence of 19.7%. Many patients showed multiple and recurrent fractures. Children and adolescents sustained fractures more frequently than adults. The majority of observed patients sustained fractures because of moderate or mild trauma. Our results seem to indicate that Hb pretransfusional levels over 9 or 10 gr% and serum ferritin levels under 1,000 ng/ml cannot always prevent the risk of fracture.


The ability to perform attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAPS) is a longstanding goal in ultrafast science. While first pioneering experiments demonstrated the feasibility of APAPS, the low repetition rates (10-120 Hz) and the large footprints of existing setups have so far hindered the widespread exploitation of APAPS. Here we demonstrate two-color APAPS using a commercial laser system at 1 kHz, straightforward post-compression in a hollow-core fiber and a compact high-harmonic generation (HHG) setup. The latter enables the generation of intense extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) pulses by using an out-of-focus HHG geometry and by exploiting a transient blueshift of the driving laser in the HHG medium. Near-isolated attosecond pulses are generated, as demonstrated by one-color and two-color XUV-pump XUV-probe experiments. Our concept allows selective pumping and probing on extremely short timescales and permits investigations of fundamental processes that are not accessible by other pump-probe techniques.


Bridges are an essential component of the transportation system and safety and sustainability of bridges are critical for the efficient operation thereof. Due to scarcity of resources, an economical way should be determined to design and maintain bridges and the transportation system in general. Reliability indexes are widely used in the analysis of these concepts within a semi-probabilistic approach. However, advances in computer technology allow implementing a fully-probabilistic approach. This study represents a simulation-based reliability analysis of steel girder bridges in the railway lines. Statistical parameters of the bridges are determined both analysing the existing body of knowledge available in the literature and conducting specimen tests. The Bayesian approach is used to update the statistical properties of the steel material. Basic Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) is used to simulate the load and resistance of the bridge. The reliability of the bridges is determined according to their ultimate limit states and statistical load distribution. By using simulation, the consistency of the log-normal marginal distribution obtained is analysed herein.


This paper studies spatial price transmission and integration of regional domestic wheat markets in Russia. An innovative approach to threshold estimation is applied to better capture model non-linearities associated with transaction costs and policy measures. The results show critical importance of distance that determines the speed at which price shocks are transmitted between the regional markets. Additionally, it is shown that the export ban for wheat in 2010/11 led to trade activation and faster price transmission inside the country. The effect of export ban was found to be enhanced by transport subsidies introduced to facilitate the distribution of grain in the wake of severe drought in certain production areas.


ABSTRACT The instrumental epicenter of the Alaska earthquake of July 10, 1958, has been located on the hanging-wall side of the Fairweather fault near the surface expression of the fault and at the southeast end of the greatly disturbed area. The fault-plane solution from P waves gives a fault plane which differs by 15° from the strike of the observed surface faulting. The theoretical relative amplitudes computed from the fault-plane solution are interpreted as partly explaining the residuals of P arrivals and inconsistent directions of the first motion of P. The directions of polarization of the S waves are found to conform to the pattern expected for a single couple as the point-source model of the focal mechanism. A method is suggested for using S waves to check fault-plane solutions from P and to select the fault plane from the two nodal planes of P. Observations of S at near stations do not correspond to the pattern expected for a couple. Large transverse motion is observed along the azimuth of the fault. In the western United States, at stations along the same azimuth, the SH motion changes progressively to SV with distance. Large SV components at distances of 25° to 27° indicate that the critical angle for SV may be reached at these distances and that even long S waves are refracted by structure within the crust.


In this paper, we introduced dbcube topology for Network-on Chips(NoC). We predicted the dbcube topology has high power and low latency comparing to other topologies, and in particular mesh topology. By using xmulator simulator,we compared power and latency of this topologyto mesh topology. Finally, it is demonstrated that the network has higher power and lower latency than the mesh topology.


We propose a stochastic search algorithm for solving non-differentiable optimization problems. At each iteration, the algorithm searches the solution space by generating a population of candidate solutions from a parameterized sampling distribution. The basic idea is to convert the original optimization problem into a differentiable problem in terms of the parameters of the sampling distribution, and then use a quasi-Newton-like method on the reformulated problem to find improved sampling distributions. The algorithm combines the strength of stochastic search from considering a population of candidate solutions to explore the solution space with the rapid convergence behavior of gradient methods by exploiting local differentiable structures. We provide numerical examples to illustrate its performance.


The cleaning performance (lifetime of cleaning blades and cleaning ability) of a leading type blade cleaning system for electrophotography is examined theoretically and experimentally from the viewpoint of tribology and rheology. Wear characteristics and cleaning ability of cleaning blades are found to be described well by a model which takes into account stick-slip behavior of the cleaning blade against a photoreceptor surface. A theoretical analysis of fatigue wear which takes into account vibration loss tangent (or rebound resilience), applied load on the cleaning blade on the photoreceptor surface, and friction coefficient between the blade edge and the photoreceptor surface, agrees well with results of accelerated wear experiments and lifetime evaluation tests using copying machines on the market. The cleaning blade edge once stretched by the photoreceptor surface during the stick process returns to its original position gradually with a characteristic relaxation time during the slip process and forces remaining toner particles to move against the rotating direction of photoreceptor drum. Therefore, toner particles have a greater possibility of going through the blade nip during the slip process. The theoretical analysis and the experimental results suggest that cleaning ability is proportional to the reciprocal of the relaxation time.


Commercial sodium caseinate isolate (SCI) was hydrolysed with either protease Subtilisina carlsberg - Alcalase 2.4 FG (purchased from Novo Nordisk), pronase from Streptomyces griseus, and papain EC 126.96.36.199 (both from Sigma) in a two-step process to determine the changes in the immunoreactivity of a-, s- and ?-casein. Enzymatic hydrolysis of SCI was performed by pH-stat method. Hydrolysates were analysed using IEF, SDS-PAGE, 2D electrophoresis, FPLC-gel permeation chromatography. Immunoreactive properties of peptide fractions separated from the hydrolysates by FPLC were determined using dot-immunobinding and ELISA methods. The two-step process was observed to be effective in reduction of casein fractions immunoreactivity, however, allergenic epitopes were still present in all peptide fractions.


In order to meet its 2050 target of 80% carbon reduction, and hence evolve towards a more sustainable
energy future, the UK faces a significant challenge of restructuring its energy system, by demonstrating
more decentralised energy systems based not only on technological but also on more innovative
governance, financial and social approaches. Four exemplar international cases have been compared
and critiqued in order to demonstrate the variety and inter-relationship of the non-technical barriers
involved during their implementation. This study finds that the main non-technical barriers are not
necessarily financial, as is often believed. Governance barriers also play an important role in the success
or failure of a project. Social barriers such as public apathy and misinformation regarding energy
consumption also often affect the operation of a project. The impacts of the non-technical barriers on
the outcome of the four cases are also evaluated and recommendations are provided on overcoming
these barriers with regards replicating similar projects in the UK context. This work also provides
potentially valuable implications and learning for the innovative development and initiation of
renewable energy systems in a variety of countries and settings.


Info 2021 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recent global pandemic that has affected many countries around the world, causing serious health problems, especially in the lungs. Although temperature testing is suggested as a first-line test for COVID-19, it was not reliable because many diseases have the same symptoms. Thus, we propose a deep learning method based on X-ray images that used a convolutional neural network (CNN) and transfer learning (TL) for COVID-19 diagnosis, and using gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) technique for producing visual explanations for the COVID-19 infection area in the lung. The low sample size of coronavirus samples was considered a challenge, thus, this issue was overridden using data augmentation techniques. The study found that the proposed (CNN) and the modified pre-trained networks VGG16 and InceptionV3 achieved a promising result for COVID-19 diagnosis by using chest X-ray images. The proposed CNN was able to differentiate 284 patients with COVID-19 or normal with 98.2 percent for training accuracy and 96.66 percent for test accuracy and 100.0 percent sensitivity. The modified VGG16 achieved the best classification result between all with 100.0 percent for training accuracy and 98.33 percent for test accuracy and 100.0 percent sensitivity, but the proposed CNN overcame the others in the side of reducing the computational complexity and training time


In rural South India, the incidence of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis proved by sputum culture among persons with normal photofluorograms was estimated to be 5 per 10,000 persons of each sex; when radiographically proved but culture negative cases were included, the incidence was 16 per 10,000 males and 11 per 10,000 females. the rates were greater among older persons, reactors to tuberculin, and household contacts of persons whose sputum was shown by culture to contain tubercle bacilli. Of the 133 new cases proved by culture, 79 were persons whose initial photofluorograms had some abnormality, but whose sputum initially contained no Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The incidence, prevalence, and case fatality rates differed markedly among different age groups in the 2 sexes. the difference between incidence and case fatality rates seemed to influence the prevalence rates in the 2 sexes.


Cationic glycopolymers stand out as gene delivery nanosystems due to their inherent biocompatibility and high binding affinity to the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR), a target receptor overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. However, their synthesis procedure remains laborious and complex, with problems of solubilization and the need for protection/deprotection steps. Here, a mini-library of well-defined poly(2-aminoethyl methacrylate hydrochloride-co-poly(2-lactobionamidoethyl methacrylate) (PAMA-co-PLAMA) glycopolymers was synthesized by activators regenerated by electron transfer (ARGET) ATRP to develop an efficient gene delivery nanosystem. The glycoplexes generated had suitable physicochemical properties and showed high ASGPR specificity and high transfection efficiency. Moreover, the HSV-TK/GCV suicide gene therapy strategy, mediated by PAMA144-co-PLAMA19-based nanocarriers, resulted in high antitumor activity in 2D and 3D culture models of HCC, which was significantly enhanced by the combination with small amounts of docetaxel. Overall, our results demonstrated the potential of primary-amine polymethacrylate-containing-glycopolymers as HCC-targeted suicide gene delivery nanosystems and highlight the importance of combined strategies for HCC treatment.


This paper explores how to incorporate banks' capital structure and risk-taking into models of production. In doing so, the paper bridges the gulf between (1) the banking literature that studies moral hazard effects of bank regulation without considering the underlying microeconomics of production and (2) the literature that uses dual profit and cost functions to study the microeconomics of bank production without explicitly considering how banks' production decisions influence their riskiness. Various production models that differ in how they account for capital structure and in the objectives they impute to bank managers -- cost minimization versus value maximization -- are estimated using U.S. data on highest-level bank holding companies. Modeling the bank's objective as value maximization conveniently incorporates both market-priced risk and expected cash flow into managers' ranking and choice of production plans. Estimated scale economies are found to depend critically on how banks' capital structure and risk-taking is modeled. In particular, when equity capital, in addition to debt, is included in the production model and cost is computed from the value-maximizing expansion path rather than the cost-minimizing path, banks are found to have large scale economies that increase with size. Moreover, better diversification is associated with larger scale economies while increased risk-taking and inefficient risk-taking are associated with smaller scale economies.


Purpose of review This review will explore the underlying causes of healthcare disparities among trauma patients and offer considerations for reducing inequities to improve trauma care. Recent findings Newly recognized racial disparities exist with respect to triaging trauma patients and in acute pain management. Social Determinants of Health offers a model to understand disparity in trauma care. Summary Race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and access to healthcare drive outcome disparity among trauma patients. These disparities include reduced healthcare services, inadequate pain management, reduced postdischarge care, and increased mortality. Increasing workforce diversity may mitigate implicit bias and improve cultural competency. Social determinants of health impact the disparities in trauma care and offer a framework to address care through creative solutions.


We introduce and implement a method to compute stationary states of nonlinear Schr\''odinger equations on metric graphs. Stationary states are obtained as local minimizers of the nonlinear Schr\''odinger energy at fixed mass. Our method is based on a normalized gradient flow for the energy (i.e. a gradient flow projected on a fixed mass sphere) adapted to the context of nonlinear quantum graphs. We first prove that, at the continuous level, the normalized gradient flow is well-posed, mass-preserving, energy diminishing and converges (at least locally) towards stationary states. We then establish the link between the continuous flow and its discretized version. We conclude by conducting a series of numerical experiments in model situations showing the good performance of the discrete flow to compute stationary states. Further experiments as well as detailed explanation of our numerical algorithm are given in a companion paper.


This paper considers the evolution of the European Union's criminal justice competence using the analytical motif of "confidence". In order to explain why this approach was chosen the first part describes three confidence "vignettes" –situations or senses in which "confidence" forms a key part of the narrative of the Union's criminal justice development. Picking up upon the renaissance of interest among social scientists in the study of emotions, the paper then outlines the account of 'Action and confidence' that was provided by the sociologist Jack Barbalet, in the context of his seminal work, Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure . This is then used to provide a series of reflections on the role of confidence (and emotion more generally) in relation to the Union's emergence as a criminal justice actor and, in turn, also on Barbalet's account.


[A] most impressive achievement by an extraordinarily intelligent, courageous, and--that goes without saying--'well-read' mind. The scope of this work is enormous: it provides no less than a comprehensive, historically grounded theory of 'modern peoplehood, ' which is Lie's felicitous umbrella term for everything that goes under the names 'race, ' 'ethnicity, ' and nationality.' Christian Joppke, American Journal of Sociology Lie's objective is to treat a series of large topics that he sees as related but that are usually treated separately: the social construction of identities, the origins and nature of modern nationalism, the explanation of genocide, and racism. These multiple themes are for him aspects of something he calls 'modern peoplehood.' His mode of demonstration is to review all the alternative explanations for each phenomenon, and to show why each successively is inadequate. His own theses are controversial but he makes a strong case for them. This book should renew debate. Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University and author of The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World


Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, particularly in diabetic people. Because HTN and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) frequently co-exist, HTN is a significant risk factor for chronic problems masked HTN affects around a one third of T2DM patients who have normal Blood Pressure (BP) readings in the clinic. T2DM patients frequently have normal office BP (BP) and no nocturnal BP falling. The non dipping BP pattern raises the risk of cardiovascular events and damage to target organs. Multiple BP recordings can be obtained with Ambulatory BP Monitoring (ABPM). By providing variability of BP, and diurnal variation in BP, it assists the treating physician in the diagnosis and management of HTN. Aim: To elucidate the prevalence of non dipping pattern in T2DM and the characteristics of diabetics who have non dipping pattern using ambulatory monitoring. Materials and Methods: This was an observational study carried out in the Department of Medicine at JIPMER, Pondicherry, India. Between January 2016 and December 2017, 110 patients with T2DM were visited to Medicine Outpatient Department and the Diabetic Clinic. Out of 110, a total of 62 patients, with an average age of 46.67 years, were included in the study. Sun Tech Oscar 2' 24 hourR ABPM system was used for the study of ambulatory BP of patients, at specified times. Results: Sixty-two normotensive T2DM patients, mean age of 46.67 years were analysed in the 24 months. A total of 62 patients, the non dipping pattern was seen in 47 (76%) of the 62 individuals evaluated for ABPM, while the dipping pattern was seen in 15 (24%) of the normotensive T2DM patients. A non dipping pattern was associated with a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) (p-value=0.03). A non dipping habit was also substantially associated with high PPBS values (p-value=0.02). Conclusion: Patients with a history of HTN and smoking had a higher chance of non dipping patterns, which may lead to endorgan damage and future cardiovascular events. ABPM can be used as a screening tool to predict cardiovascular events in T2DM.


The sensitivities of the transfer function of a digital filter with respect to its coefficients are utilized to derive lower bounds on the roundoff noise output in the cases of L_{\infty} and L_{\infty} scaling for fixed-point arithmetic. General bounds are produced which apply to any filter structure if rounding is performed after multiplication and the filter has already been scaled. For the parallel and cascade forms, alternate bounds are derived which apply to rounding after multiplication or summation and which do not require prior scaling. The alternate bounds arethus independent (or nearly so) of pairing, ordering, and transposition. Examples are presented which show that the bounds are reasonably tight.


Adult onset IGE is more common than generally realised

The commonest epileptic syndrome is the so-called idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE), which accounts for at least a third of all cases of epilepsy in the community.1 This proportion is even higher in the paediatric age range. The syndrome is characterised by the presence of generalised tonic clonic, myoclonic, and typical absence seizures on their own or in different combinations. The onset is usually before the age of 16. IGE has a typical electroencephalographic (EEG) pattern with paroxysms of generalised spike and wave and polyspike discharges, which is the hallmark of the syndrome. Age …


Sixteen patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer (colorectal 12/16, gastric 4/16) were treated with a combination of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus 1-(2-chlorethyl)-3(4-methyl–cycloexyl)-1-nitrosourea (Me-CCNU). The therapeutic program consisted of orally administered Me-CCNU (140 mg/m2) and intravenous 5-FU (9.5 mg/kg by bolus injection for 5 days). The cycles were repeated at 6-week intervals. At the beginning of the therapy, 11/16 patients were in performance status (PS) 0-1 and 5 patients in PS 2-3. Eight patients developed early progressive disease between the 1st and 2nd course of therapy. Only a minor tumor response was observed in the remaining 50 % of the patients. However, the patients with stabilized disease lived longer (11.8 months) than non-responders (3.5 months).


Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall's Pentagon office was the nerve center for United States ground and air forces during World War II. This fourth volume of The Papers of George Catlett Marshall covers the nineteen months that constituted the heart of American participation in the war, a period during which Marshall was operating at the peak of his abilities as a politician, strategist, and coordinator. Marshall was undoubtedly disappointed in late 1943 not to be chosen Supreme Allied Commander in Europe-a job that would have been granted to him had he demanded it. But many people, including President Roosevelt, considered him too important to America's war effort and to the alliance to move him out of Washington, D.C. As the documents in this volume demonstrate, Marshall directed great energy at maintaining and strengthening the crucial Anglo-American alliance through his participation in the great wartime decision-making conferences at Quebec, Cairo, and Teheran, and through his perseverance over strategic direction. This volume also reveals Marshall's efforts to maintain the alliances of army and navy services, ground and air forces, regular and reserve components, home front and combat theaters, military and civilian, and Pentagon and Congress. Army personnel increased to eight million by the end of these nineteen months, and Marshall moved vigorously to complete the creation, training, and transportation of combat units. He continually faced problems of logistics and shipping, research and development, finding exceptionally able leaders, and supplying support personnel. All the while, Marshall was planning for the postwar military by advocating Universal Military Training and a unified Department of Defense. "You are doing a grand job," he told General Eisenhower at the end of 1944, "go on and give them hell." The same might have been said of Marshall himself.


ly, it would seem illogical to try to measure the worth of a religion's fruits in merely human terms of value. How CAN you measure their worth without considering whether the God really exists who is supposed to inspire them? If he really exists, then all the conduct instituted by men to meet his wants must Lectures XIV and XV THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS necessarily be a reasonable fruit of his religion—it would be unreasonable only in case he did not exist. If, for instance, you were to condemn a religion of human or animal sacrifices by virtue of your subjective sentiments, and if all the while a deity were really there demanding such sacrifices, you would be making a theoretical mistake by tacitly assuming that the deity must be non-existent; you would be setting up a theology of your own as much as if you were a scholastic philosopher. To this extent, to the extent of disbelieving peremptorily in certain types of deity, I frankly confess that we must be theologians. If disbeliefs can be said to constitute a theology, then the prejudices, instincts, and common sense which I chose as our guides make theological partisans of us whenever they make certain beliefs abhorrent. But such common-sense prejudices and instincts are themselves the fruit of an empirical evolution. Nothing is more striking than the secular alteration that goes on in the moral and religious tone of men, as their insight into nature and their social arrangements progressively develop. After an interval of a few generations the mental climate proves unfavorable to notions of the deity which at an earlier date were perfectly satisfactory: the older gods have fallen below the common secular level, and can no longer be believed in. Today a deity who should require bleeding sacrifices to placate him would be too sanguinary to be taken seriously. Even if powerful historical credentials were put forward in his favor, we would not look at them. Once, on the contrary, his cruel appetites were of themselves credentials. They positively recommended him to men's imaginations in ages when such coarse signs of power were respected and no others could be understood. Such deities then were worshiped because such fruits were relished. Doubtless historic accidents always played some later part, but the original factor in fixing the figure of the gods must always have been psychological. The deity to whom the prophets, seers, and devotees who founded the particular cult bore witness was worth something to them personally. They could use him. He guided their imagination, warranted their hopes, and controlled their will—or else they required him as a safeguard against the demon and a curber of other people's crimes. In any case, they chose him for the value of the fruits he seemed to them to yield. So soon as the fruits began to seem quite worthless; so soon as they conflicted with indispensable human ideals, or thwarted too extensively other values; so soon as they appeared childish, contemptible, or immoral when reflected on, the deity grew discredited, and was erelong neglected and forgotten. It was in this way that the Greek and Roman gods ceased to be believed in by educated pagans; it is thus that we ourselves judge of the Hindu, Buddhist, and Mohammedan theologies; Protestants have so dealt with the Catholic notions of deity, and liberal Protestants with older Protestant notions; it is thus that Chinamen judge of us, and that all of us now living will be judged by our descendants. When we cease to admire or approve what the definition of a deity implies, we Lectures XIV and XV THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS end by deeming that deity incredible. Few historic changes are more curious than these mutations of theological opinion. The monarchical type of sovereignty was, for example, so ineradicably planted in the mind of our own forefathers that a dose of cruelty and arbitrariness in their deity seems positively to have been required by their imagination. They called the cruelty "retributive justice," and a God without it would certainly have struck them as not "sovereign" enough. But today we abhor the very notion of eternal suffering inflicted; and that arbitrary dealing-out of salvation and damnation to selected individuals, of which Jonathan Edwards could persuade himself that he had not only a conviction, but a "delightful conviction," as of a doctrine "exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet," appears to us, if sovereignly anything, sovereignly irrational and mean. Not only the cruelty, but the paltriness of character of the gods believed in by earlier centuries also strikes later centuries with surprise. We shall see examples of it from the annals of Catholic saintship which makes us rub our Protestant eyes. Ritual worship in general appears to the modern transcendentalist, as well as to the ultra-puritanic type of mind, as if addressed to a deity of an almost absurdly childish character, taking delight in toy-shop furniture, tapers and tinsel, costume and mumbling and mummery, and finding his "glory" incomprehensibly enhanced thereby:—just as on the other hand the formless spaciousness of pantheism appears quite empty to ritualistic natures, and the gaunt theism of evangelical sects seems intolerably bald and chalky and bleak. Luther, says Emerson, would have cut off his right hand rather than nail his theses to the door at Wittenberg, if he had supposed that they were destined to lead to the pale negations of Boston Unitarianism. So far, then, although we are compelled, whatever may be our pretensions to empiricism, to employ some sort of a standard of theological probability of our own whenever we assume to estimate the fruits of other men's religion, yet this very standard has been begotten out of the drift of common life. It is the voice of human experience within us, judging and condemning all gods that stand athwart the pathway along which it feels itself to be advancing. Experience, if we take it in the largest sense, is thus the parent of those disbeliefs which, it was charged, were inconsistent with the experiential method. The inconsistency, you see, is immaterial, and the charge may be neglected. If we pass from disbeliefs to positive beliefs, it seems to me that there is not even a formal inconsistency to be laid against our method. The gods we stand by are the gods we need and can use, the gods whose demands on us are reinforcements of our demands on ourselves and on one another. What I then propose to do is, briefly stated, to test saintliness by common sense, to use human standards to help us decide how far the religious life commends itself as an ideal kind of human activity. If it commends itself, then any theological beliefs that may inspire it, in so far forth will stand accredited. If not, then they will be discredited, and all without reference to anything but human working principles. It is but the elimination of the humanly unfit, and the survival of the Lectures XIV and XV THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS humanly fittest, applied to religious beliefs; and if we look at history candidly and without prejudice, we have to admit that no religion has ever in the long run established or proved itself in any other way. Religions have APPROVED themselves; they have ministered to sundry vital needs which they found reigning. When they violated other needs too strongly, or when other faiths came which served the same needs better, the first religions were supplanted. The needs were always many, and the tests were never sharp. So the reproach of vagueness and subjectivity and "on the whole"-ness, which can with perfect legitimacy be addressed to the empirical method as we are forced to use it, is after all a reproach to which the entire life of man in dealing with these matters is obnoxious. No religion has ever yet owed its prevalence to "apodictic certainty." In a later lecture I will ask whether objective certainty can ever be added by theological reasoning to a religion that already empirically prevails. One word, also, about the reproach that in following this sort of an empirical method we are handing ourselves over to systematic skepticism. Since it is impossible to deny secular alterations in our sentiments and needs, it would be absurd to affirm that one's own age of the world can be beyond correction by the next age. Skepticism cannot, therefore, be ruled out by any set of thinkers as a possibility against which their conclusions are secure; and no empiricist ought to claim exemption from this universal liability. But to admit one's liability to correction is one thing, and to embark upon a sea of wanton doubt is another. Of willfully playing into the hands of skepticism we cannot be accused. He who acknowledges the imperfectness of his instrument, and makes allowance <326> for it in discussing his observations, is in a much better position for gaining truth than if he claimed his instrument to be infallible. Or is dogmatic or scholastic theology less doubted in point of fact for claiming, as it does, to be in point of right undoubtable? And if not, what command over truth would this kind of theology really lose if, instead of absolute certainty, she only claimed reasonable probability for her conclusions? If WE claim only reasonable probability, it will be as much as men who love the truth can ever at any given moment hope to have within their grasp. Pretty surely it will be more than we could have had, if we were unconscious of our liability to err. Nevertheless, dogmatism will doubtless continue to condemn us for this confession. The mere outward form of inalterable certainty is so precious to some minds that to renounce it explicitly is for them out of the question. They will claim it even where the facts most patently pronounce its folly. But the safe thing is surely to recognize that all the insights of creatures of a day like ourselves must be provisional. The wisest of critics is an altering being, subject to the better insight of the m


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore whether 2 different dimensions of personality, when assessed at an implicit level with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) will show a theoretically meaningful coherence not demonstrated when 1 is assessed at an implicit level and the other at an explicit level. Gender identity and defense mechanisms were assessed implicitly using the TAT. Gender identity was compared with a self-report measure of gender-related attributes assessed at the explicit level. The results showed a theoretically meaningful coherence when different dispositions were assessed at the same level, but a lack of agreement when similar dispositions were assessed at different levels. The study is based on a secondary analysis of data from 2 previously published papers (Cramer, 1998; Cramer & Westergren, 1999).


In this paper, we present methods for characterization of 3-D micro-wineglass resonators. Two inter- changeable modes of excitation are demonstrated: (1) Mechanical pinging using a piezo actuated probe assembly and (2) electrostatic excitation using assembled electrode structures. Two interchangeable modes of detection are also presented: optical pick-up using laser Doppler vibrometry and capacitive detection. 3-D micro-glassblown wineglass resonators were used to demonstrate the characterization methods in this paper. Electrostatic excitation was used to obtain the frequency response of micro-glassblown resonators showing a Q-factor of 40.000 at 14.8 kHz, whereas piezo-pinging was used to obtain the time domain response of the resonators.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the preliminary curative effect of arthroscopic reduction and utilization of Suture Bridge tech reconstructing footprint area structure for anterior cruciate ligament avulsion fracture.

METHODS
From March 2010 to September 2012, 6 patients suffered anterior cruciate ligament avulsion fracture were treated with arthroscopic Suture bridge fixation for anterior cruciate ligament tibial side footprint reconstruction. There were 2 males and 4 females, ranging in age from 14 to 52 years old. There were 2 cases of type III and 4 cases of type IV displaced fractures classified by Meyers-McKeever-Zaricznyj. Preoperative ADT and Lachman tests were positive.

RESULTS
All the patients was follow up more than 2 years. Postoperative ADT and Lachman tests were negative without limitation of knee extension. Postoperative X ray and MRI showed that displaced fracture with a good reduction and union, recovered normal shapeness of ACL. The postoperative Lysholm and IKDC scores at different time points(3 months, 1 year, 2 years after operation) improved significantly comparing with preoperative, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Suture Bridge tech reconstructing footprint area structure for ACL avulsion fracture is an effective and safe method, especially for adolescent patients with unclosed epiphysis and comminuted avulsion fracture.


BACKGROUND
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a common hematological malignancy. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are newly discovered endogenous non-coding RNAs that play important roles in regulating gene expression in cancer biology. The aim of this study was to identify novel prognostic and therapeutic targets associated with AML.

METHODS
The expression levels of circRNA Plexin B2 (circPLXNB2), microRNA-654-3p (miR-654-3p) and cyclin D1 protein (CCND1) mRNA were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The stability of circPLXNB2 was determined by RNase R and Actinomycin D assays. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and 5'-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EDU) assays were used to detect cell proliferation. Western blot was used to detect protein content. Cell apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were detected by flow cytometry. The relationship between miR-654-3p and circPLXNB2 or CCND1 was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay.

RESULTS
CircPLXNB2 was highly expressed in AML patients and cells, and circPLXNB2 was more stable than linear PLXNB2. Knockdown of circPLXNB2 affected the proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle distribution of AML cells. CircPLXNB2 acted as a sponge for miR-654-3p and affected the progression of AML cells by targeting miR-654-3p. CCND1 was targeted by miR-654-3p, and miR-654-3p suppressed AML progression by targeting CCND1. CircPLXNB2 regulated CCND1 expression through sponging miR-654-3p.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, circPLXNB2 was highly expressed in AML patients and cells and modulated tumor progression by regulating the circPLXNB2/miR-654-3p/CCND1 axis, suggested that circPLXNB2 might be a new therapeutic target for AML treatment.


This paper deals with the description of four new species of Miridae (Hemiptera) from the neignbourhood of Manaus, State of Amazonas, Brazil, as follows: Ceratocapsus barensis n. sp.; C. batistai n. sp.; C. manauara n. sp. and C. kerri n. sp., all from P. das Laranjeiras. Illustrations of C. batistai n. sp. and male genitalia are included.


Prominent ceramic raw materials and products manufacturers were surveyed to determine the state of the art for alumina ceramic fabrication. This survey emphasized current capabilities and limitations for fabrication of large, high-density, high-purity, complex shapes. Some directions are suggested for future needs and development. Ceramic-to-ceramic sealing has applications for several technologies that require large and/or complex vacuum-tight ceramic shapes. Information is provided concerning the assembly of complex monolithic ceramic shapes by bonding of subassemblies at temperatures ranging from 450 to 1500/sup 0/C. Future applications and fabrication techniques for various materials are presented.


We carry the index theory for manifolds with boundary of B\"ar and Ballmann over to first order differential operators on metric graphs. This results in an elegant proof for the index of such operators. Then the self-adjoint extensions and the spectrum of the Dirac operator on the complex line bundle are studied. We also introduce two types of boundary conditions for the Dirac operator, whose spectrum encodes information of the underlying topology of the graph.


Abstract The southern corn stalk borer [Diatraea crambidoides (Grote)] has become a serious pest to eastern gamagrass [Tripsacum dactyloides (L.) L.]. Managing this insect will be important to the future of this forage crop in the United States. An experiment was conducted to understand the life cycle of the southern corn stalk borer infesting eastern gamagrass. For a two year period, four plant crowns which contained numerous shoots were dug randomly each week from a field plot located in Woodward, OK. All shoots from each crown were dissected and the number of larvae and pupae present was recorded for each shoot type, i.e., reproductive or vegetative shoot. The life stages of the southern corn stalk borer in eastern gamagrass can be described by three distinct populations in northwestern Oklahoma: a) over-wintering, b) first generation, and c) second generation. Over-wintering larvae feed within a cavity near the base of the shoot or within the proaxis. Pupation occurred within the feeding cavity. Larvae occurred in reproductive shoots 2.5 times more often than in the vegetative shoots, which suggested an oviposition preference by adult females for reproductive shoots. The life cycle of the southern corn stalk borer in eastern gamagrass was completed in about 911 cumulated growing degree days. Understanding the life cycle of this insect devastating to eastern gamagrass forage and seed production will help formulate methods of control.


The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) constitute a family of fatal, neurodegenerative diseases, including scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and a range of human disorders, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), kuru and fatal familial insomnia. The archetypal TSE disease is scrapie of sheep and goats, which has been present in the UK flock for over 200 years as a result of both horizontal and vertical transmission. The most prevalent TSE disease of humans is sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (spCJD), which affects 1-3 individuals per million worldwide. A new form of CJD, known as variant CJD (vCJD), was diagnosed in humans in the mid 1990s and it is likely that vCJD was contracted by consumption of contaminated beef, since this disease is indistinguishable from BSE on transmission to a panel of mice (Bruce et al., 1997). To date, there have been 175 cases of vCJD in the UK and a further 49 cases across 11 other countries (www.eurocjd.ed.ac.uk, data correct as of Aug 2011).


[Objective] The aim was to study the causes of abnormal weather in winter in 2009 and 2010 in Jinzhou. [Method] By dint of regular meteorological data and weather theory, the abnormal weather in winter from 2009 to 2010 in Jinzhou was expounded so as to find the reasons for abnormal climate in winter in the region. [Result] The main reason for the consecutive low temperature in winter in Jinzhou from 2009 to 2010 was the abnormal development of the Ural Mountains high-pressure ridge and strong horizontal circulation. The frequent cold air activity was the leading reason for the increase of precipitation in Jinzhou in winter; the high trough and low air torrent were the main weather system for precipitation. Convergence in the low layer was the dynamic condition for the generation of precipitation. [Conclusion] The study provided theoretical basis for the disaster prevention and mitigation work in winter.


Mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a highly conserved serine/threonine kinase that responds to environmental determinants such as growth factor concentration, nutrient availability, energy sufficiency and stress. mTOR forms two different complexes, called mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTORC2, and these complexes have distinct substrate molecules that function in the regulation of protein translation and cellular metabolism. Although mTOR was originally discovered as a target protein of rapamycin, a natural macrolide immunosuppressant, rapamycin mainly inhibits the kinase activity of mTORC1, whereas mTORC2 is affected to a much lesser extent. The inhibitory effects of rapamycin on mTORC1 substrates are complex, and the use of rapamycin to investigate mTORC functions may provide misleading results. In contrast to pharmacological inhibition, studies using genetic approaches to the disruption of mTORC subunits have clearly demonstrated the physiological roles of the distinct mTOR complexes in organogenesis and tumourigenesis. In this review, we provide an overview of current knowledge about the roles of the mTOR complexes in haemato-lymphopoiesis and leukemogenesis.


Background: The calculation of Community Health Development Index (IPKM) of Aru Islands is in rank 352, of all districts/cities in Indonesia. This low in IPKM rank was suspected to be the result of the ineffectivity and ineffi ciency on health budgeting. Various problems can be detected and identifi ed through the implementation of the District Health Accounts (DHA) in the district/city level. The objectives of this research is mapping district health account, which consist of resources, organizer, activity and program. Method: This method applied was cross sectional design, and was conducted in 2012. The analysis unit was health district offi ce and a cross- sector health agencies ho had health funding allocation (Hospital, Department of Population and Family Planning, Regional Development Planning Board, Social Services). Results: The results showed that the largest source of funding comes from the Aru Islands government is 91.95% (81.60% APBD and APBN 9.31%). Most budget management is dominated by the government (94.42%). Most of the archipelagic Aru District budgets are used for activities that 54.67% indirect and direct activities amounted to 45.33%. Besides, fi nancing mapping results also indicate that public health programs Aru district absorb 11.25% of the total budget, 18.36% for individual health program efforts and the remaining 70.39% for program support. Conclusions: Health budget in District Aru largely sourced from the government (central, provincial and district levels). Indirect activities absorb more budget than Important government programs such as HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc. Recomendations: The government should provide more funds to implement important programs of the government. Health District Offi ce should also be able to allocate substantial funds for essential government programs.


During the past few years, Americans have experienced a wide variety of stressors, including political tensions, racial/civil unrest, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. All of these have led to uncertainty within society. Chronic feelings of helplessness can lead to depression or feelings of hopelessness in those who perceive their situation as unchanging. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impacts of gardening and outdoor activities during the COVID-19 pandemic on perceptions of hope, hopelessness, and levels of depression, stress, and anxiety. Participants of this study were recruited through online social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram; 458 participants completed the 21-item Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale inventory as well as the Hope Scale. Our data indicated that individuals who self-reported themselves as gardeners had significantly more positive scores related to levels of stress, anxiety, and depression and a sense of hope. Furthermore, gardeners had lower levels of self-reported depression, anxiety, and stress when compared with those who did not identify themselves as gardeners. The gardeners also had a more positive outlook regarding hope for the future. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between the number of hours spent participating in gardening and a sense of hope, and a negative correlation was found between the number of hours gardening and stress levels. Similarly, there was a significant negative correlation between the number of hours spent participating in any outdoor activity and self-reported levels of stress, anxiety, or depression; however, there was a positive correlation between the number of hours spent participating in any outdoor activity and a sense of hope. Our data suggested that more hours spent outside gardening or participating in recreational activities led to less perceived stress, anxiety, and depression and greater levels of hope for the future.


In order to provide context-aware services, context modeling is one of the most important tasks. Ontology has been widely accepted for the context modeling but it brings some overheads in the process of reasoning large-scale and dynamic information. In mobile networks, especially, ontology should be verified to be applicable for Context-aware Services since real-time responsiveness for large scale moving users is highly required to be guaranteed. This paper proposes an efficient context model to overcome the limitation of ontology. For the purpose, we design a conceptual context model and compare the processing time of the context-aware mobile service system implying the three different context modeling approaches - ontology, database, and proposed hybrid modeling. As the result of performance evaluations, the proposed hybrid model shows faster processing time among them and lesser affected by the major metrics of mobile services - changeability and number of users - than the two existing models. Based on the experimental results, we expect that the proposed hybrid model is very useful and efficient for fast responsiveness to support Context-aware Services for large scale users in mobile networks.


: Rotodynamic multiphase pump can transport crude gas-liquid mixture produced from oil well, and is regarded as the good choice of oil-gas multiphase transportation in offshore product system, for its advantages that compact structure, large flow rate, not sensitive to solid particles in the fluid. However, it is prone to bring about gas-liquid separation within the impeller under high gas void fraction. To solve the problem, this paper presents several measures to break gas packet and inhibit gas-liquid separation, such as, depositing the short blades, opening holes at the blades where gas packets gather, using T-shaped blades, etc. Then, CFD software was used to simulate the flow fields which were added measures to inhibit gas-liquid separation. The results show that streamlines in three new impellers distribute more evenly than in original impeller, the gas-liquid two phases mixed degree was improved, and the gas-liquid separation was inhibited to some extent. However, adding the short blades and using T-blade impeller failed to improve the differential pressure of impellers. So the placement and the geometrical parameters of the measures inhibiting gas-liquid separation should be further optimized.


This article focuses on the international news flow regarding the execution of Maximilian, the Emperor of Mexico. The execution occurred in June 1867, but it received global attention only at the beginning of July when the news started to spread over the borders, via telegraph, and rapidly through the network of newspapers. The article concentrates on international news on Maximilian's execution between 5 and 20 July 1867. The aim of the study is both empirical and methodological. It explores the sentiments underlying the news about the execution and the regional differences in these sentiments on an empirical level. On a methodological level, the article investigates the strategies to analyze sentiments via newspaper corpora in a multilingual research setting. The study is based on optically recognized historical newspapers in three languages (German, Spanish and English), and four regions (Austria, Germany, Mexico, and the United States). Our analysis shows content variations in the corpora, mainly that news was framed differently in each studied region, indicating that the local perception of the event and political interests shaped the news. In our corpus, the Mexican press –published in the middle of a political crisis– tended towards a neutral stance, the Austrian and German papers mainly were negative, and the United States showed mixed sentiments on the incident.


Mental health disorders are still one of the most prominent health problems in the world, including in Indonesia. There is still a misguided stigma and discrimination on people with mental disorders, so more than 56,000 of them experience restraint. This study aims to determine the efforts and review the implementation of Law no. 18/2014 about Mental Health until 2017. This is a policy study using literature review. Descriptive exploration is done using a policy analysis framework in the implementation phase based on Edwards III model. The unit of analysis is mental health policy in Indonesia. The results show that only a few local governments initiate special mental health regulations as well as more operational programs. Activities are still focused on curative and rehabilitative efforts. There has been prevention of deprivation through the 'Indonesia Free Restraint' program since 1977 but this has not gone well. The communication process encountered problems of unclear and inconsistent information. Moreover, not all local governments use the authority to regulate the mental health policy to mobilize resources. Law no. 18/2014 has not been implemented optimally. Not all implementers and policy targets are dedicated to direction of the Law. Neither not all aspects of mental health efforts have programs, Standard Operating Procedure and coordination governance. Conversely, optimal implementation can be done by introducing it as an element of primary health in basic health service.


One of the major goals of neutrino astronomy is to explore the otherwise unknown fluxes and interactions of ultrahigh energy neutrinos. The existing neutrino telescopes look at three types of events: particle showers, muons, and taus. In this paper we discuss the dependence of the event rates on the neutrino nucleon cross-sections as we scale the cross sections, with energy, in different scenarios beyond the standard model. Our focus will be on the IceCube detector.


Sublimation energy is the latent heat of phase transition from solid state directly to gas state, but it is difficult to measure experimentally. We propose a new method to determine the sublimation energy of materials by using the experimental data of blow-off impulse induced by electron beam and the computer program DRAM. With this new method, the sublimation energy of polyester is finally determined to be about 1.1 kJ/g.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the use of environmental media as a learning resource on the learning outcomes of class III science subjects at MI Al-Amalul Khair Palembang. This type of research is quantitative research with experimental methods and a one group pretest-posttest design research design. The data collection techniques used in this study were tests and documentation. While the data analysis technique used is validity test, reliability test, linearity test, normality test and hypothesis test. Based on the results of data analysis, it shows that the sig value of 0.000 is more than <0.05 and the t count is 10.617, which is greater than the t table at the 5% level, namely 1.699. The results of this data analysis indicate that Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted, which means that there is an influence between the pretest and posttest. So it can be concluded that there is an effect of the use of environmental media as a learning resource on the learning outcomes of class III science subjects at MI Al-Amalul Khair Palembang.


The master equation for the cluster-size distribution function is solved numerically to investigate the electron-hole droplet formation claimed to be discovered in the direct-gap CuCl excited by picosecond laser pulses [Nagai et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 (2001) 5795; J. Lumin. 100 (2002) 233]. Our result shows that for the excitation in the experiment, the average number of pairs per cluster (ANPC) is only around 5.2, much smaller than that (106 typically for Ge) of the well studied electron-hole droplet in indirect-gap semiconductors such as Ge and Si. These results indicate that what measured in CuCl by Nagai et al. may not come from the EHD formed from exciton gas, instead possibly come from some bubbles of excitons in metallic liquid.


AIM
To explore and compare the views of both staff and residents about barriers to sexual expression in residential aged care facilities.

BACKGROUND
Although remaining sexually active in older age helps to preserve and promote well-being, the percentage of sexually active persons living in residential aged care facilities is low. Previous research has identified several barriers to sexual expression in such settings. Most of this research has focused on staff perceptions, neglecting the residents' perspective.

DESIGN
A qualitative descriptive study.

METHODS
Fifty-three staff members and 47 older people living in five residential aged care facilities were interviewed. They were asked about barriers to sexual expression in residential settings. Data were analysed using content analysis, aimed at identifying common ideas in the responses. Data were collected over 7 months in 2012.

RESULTS
About 40% of the residents subsample did not identify any barrier to sexual expression, although all other participants identified at least one. The most oft-cited barriers were lack of privacy, residents' attitudes and lack of communication about sexuality.

CONCLUSION
A substantial number of residents were unable to identify or mention barriers to sexual expression. Generational factors and group pressure could affect residents' attitudes towards sexuality.


This paper presents an analytical approach for the vibration characteristics of a piezoelectric disc for torsional vibration transducers. The characteristic equation of the piezoelectric annular disc has been derived from Gibbs` free energy equations and mechanical and electrical equilibrium. With an anisotropic material properties of the disc, the characteristic equation has yielded resonance frequencies. Numerically-calculated results have been compared with the results obtained by the finite element analysis and experiments and have confirmed the validity of the theoretical analysis.


[reaction: see text] A metalative 5-endo-dig cyclization reaction of 2-ynylphenoles or anilines effected by BuLi and ZnCl(2) produces 3-zinciobenzoheteroles in excellent yield. These intermediates have been transmetalated to the corresponding cuprates and allowed to react with electrophiles to produce a variety of 2,3-disubstituted benzofurans and indoles.