The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between participation in physical activity and subjective class identity of people in urban and rural areas of China. The effect of social class identity on residents' physical activity was tested using the Monte Carlo method. There is a positive correlation between physical activity and the subjective class identity of urban and rural residents (r = 0.351, p < 0.01). It has been also seen that subjective class identity can significantly improve residents' physical activity. The path coefficient of subjective class identity to residents' physical activity was 0.12 (p < 0.003). Therefore, national and local governments should promote the equalization of physical activities by providing public services and government transfer payments in urban and rural areas, improve the physical activity by improving subjective class identity and promote social progress.


Background

Projection of future cancer incidence is of high importance for epidemiological and biomedical research. Age-Period-Cohort (APC) models are established for such projections, usually based on long-term cancer registry data (>20yrs). In many countries (including Germany), however, nationwide long-term data are not yet available. It is unclear which statistical approach should be recommended for projections using rather short-term data.

Methods

An R package (incAnalysis) for the comparative analysis of projection methods was developed, supporting in particular Bayesian models fitted by Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations (INLA). It was used to assess operating characteristics (bias, coverage, precision) of various statistical approaches to cancer incidence projection based on artificially shortened long-term data from three cancer registries (SEER-9, NORDCAN, Saarland). Additionally, a novel age-period INLA z-model with multivariate tensor product smoothers is described.

Results

Coverage was high (mostly >90%) for Bayesian APC models (BAPC), whereas less complex models showed differences in coverage dependent on projection-period. Intercept-only models yielded values below 20% for coverage. Bias increased and precision decreased for longer projection periods for all except intercept-only models. Precision was lowest for BAPC, multivariate smoother and Age-Period GLMs with interaction effect.

Conclusion

The incAnalysis R package allows for straightforward comparison of (cancer incidence) rate projection approaches. Of the evaluated model classes, more complex models showed an increase in coverage at the cost of precision; bias increased for longer projection intervals, mostly irrespective of the level of complexity.


Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder that affects communication and behaviour. Children with ASD are 4 times more likely to experience gastrointestinal symptoms as compared to children without ASD due to less diversity of bacteria in their gut. The gastrointestinal dysbiosis has been considered as the most important contributing factor of increasing GIT symptoms among children with ASD. Evidence suggested that alteration in the intestinal micro flora is connected with the severity of ASD symptoms. Probiotic therapy has been proposed as a therapeutic tool for augmented gastrointestinal symptom severity among children with ASD. This narrative review systematically searched the literature to provide an update to Teachers and Nutritionist about the therapeutic role of probiotics to manage the children with ASD by reducing gastrointestinal symptoms. A total of 200 articles were screened and 5 articles met the inclusion criteria. There is promising evidence to suggest that probiotic therapy may improve gastrointestinal dysbiosis and reduce the severity of the ASD symptoms among children with ASD. Further research is needed in this context, to recommend about dosage and duration of treatment.


Background: Rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) continue to affect millions of people around the world, including Bangladesh. Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to this disease. Classical risk factors, i.e. poverty, overcrowding, ignorance and insufficient health care services are responsible for the high incidence and prevalence of these diseases. To assess the prevalence of RF and RHD among children, a school survey was conducted in Bharateswari Homes, in the district of Tangail, Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 947 students were examined. Revised Jones' criteria (1992), and clinical examination were used for the diagnosis of RF and RHD. Results: Four cases of RF/RHD were found giving the prevalence of 4.22/1000. This is lower than the prevalence reported in eighties, but is consistent with those found in nineties. Conclusion: Among the school children, there is a declining trend in the prevalence of RF/RHD. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/cardio.v6i2.18348 Cardiovasc. j. 2014; 6(2): 103-106


This paper reviews the serviceability of hydrous ethanol as a clean, cheap and green renewable substitute fuel for spark ignition engines and discusses the comparative chemical and physical properties of hydrous ethanol and gasoline fuels. The significant differences in the properties of hydrous ethanol and gasoline fuels are sufficient to create a significant change during the combustion phase of engine operation and consequently affect the performance of spark-ignition (SI) engines. The stability of ethanol-gasoline-water blends is also discussed. Furthermore, the effects of hydrous ethanol, and its blends with gasoline fuel on SI engine combustion characteristics, cycle-to-cycle variations, engine performance parameters, and emission characteristics have been highlighted. Higher water solubility in ethanol‑gasoline blends may be obviously useful and suitable; nevertheless, the continuous ability of water to remain soluble in the blend is significantly affected by temperature. Nearly all published engine experimental results showed a significant improvement in combustion characteristics and enhanced engine performance for the use of hydrous ethanol as fuel. Moreover, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions were also significantly decreased. It is also worth pointing out that unburned hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide emissions were also reduced for the use of hydrous ethanol. However, unregulated emissions such as acetaldehyde and formaldehyde were significantly increased.


OBJECTIVE To describe trends and geographical distribution of breast cancer mortality in Andalusian women between 1976 and 1995. DESIGN Descriptive study. SETTING Andalusia. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS Deaths from breast cancer during the period 1976 to 1995 were obtained. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The following were calculated: crude mortality rates; age-adjusted rates by the direct method, using the European population as standard; rates broken down for 15-44, 45-64 and over 65 age-groups; accumulated rates for 0 to 74 years; age-adjusted rates of potential years of life lost (PYLL); specific rates for five-year age groups for each of the five-year periods studied. Between 1976 and 1995 breast cancer mortality in Andalusian women almost doubled in absolute terms. Age-adjusted rates went up by 40.31%; the rates broken down increased, especially those for over-65s, while the 15 to 44 and 45 to 64 groups also went up, as did the PYLL rates. CONCLUSIONS Breast cancer in Andalusia is a growing health problem, concentrated in very concrete geographical areas. It needs a determined health intervention in order to detect it early and avoid the deaths it is causing.


Background: Liraglutide 3 mg was approved in the UAE for the treatment of obesity in residents with BMI >30 kg/m2 or BMI >27 kg/m2 with obesity-related complications and clinical use started in January 2017 at the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre (ICLDC). The proportions of participants achieving weight loss of ≥5%, ≥10% and ≥15% at 16 weeks were 60%, 23% and 6%. Methods: Retrospective review of clinical data from a cohort of patients treated at ICLDC in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, UAE. Inclusion criteria were treatment with Liraglutide 3 mg for weight loss and follow-up of ≥ 56 weeks (4 weeks dose escalation plus 52 weeks treatment). 93% of participants were Emirati. Results: 322 individuals were included. Median follow-up was 485 (433-551) days and treatment was stopped in 75 individuals before end of follow-up. 91 received treatment ≥ 365 days, and 27 had no gaps in treatment > 30 days during follow-up, with a median of 265 (151-381) days of treatment. Eight participants had T2DM and 190 had IFG or IGT. 28 had prior history of bariatric surgery (18 sleeve, 8 RYGB, 2 other). Intentional to treat analysis suggested that after a year, ≥ 5% weight loss was achieved in 51%, ≥ 10% in 25% and ≥ 15% in 9%. Per protocol analysis suggested completing 1 year of treatment resulted in ≥ 5% in 83.5%, ≥ 10% in 52.7% and ≥ 15% in 22.2% of patients. Conclusion: Weight loss continued between 16 and 56 weeks, but gaps in treatment may have impaired effectiveness. Disclosure A.J. Buckley: None. M. Suliman: None. A. Al Tikriti: None. N. Lessan: None. C. le Roux: Advisory Panel; Self; GI Dynamics, Inc., Herbalife International of America, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk A/S. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. T.M. Tan: Other Relationship; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. M.T. Barakat: None.


The diversity in Jordan's flora due to its geographical areas make is well noted in the scientific literature. The challenge of disease and death caused by infectious diseases like viruses and bacteria, and as infectious diseases evolve and pathogens develop resistance to existing pharmaceuticals, the search for new novel leads, possibly with different modes of action, against bacterial and viral diseases has intensified in recent years. The intent of this review is to provide prevalent information on the antibacterial and antiviral potential in medicinal plants in Jordan, mode of action, type of viruses and bacteria, and phytochemical contents. It has been demonstrated by several studies presented in this review that medicinal plants in Jordan are rich in phytochemicals and possess antiviral and antibacterial properties.


Oxaziridines undergo photochemical rearrangement reactions to afford chiral lactams with high levels of enantio- or regio-selectivity. This reaction was applied to the synthesis of targets such as carnitine, the yohimbine alkaloids, and several classes of peptidomimetics. In addition, single-electron transfer reactions can be elicited from oxiziridine using CuI. These reactions afford nitrogen and carbon radicals that add to an appended olefin, with the final products depending on both the substitution and stereochemistry of the starting oxaziridine.


Two integrated polar supply-modulated class E and F power amplifiers (PAs) in 0.18-mum SiGe BiCMOS process are presented. The amplifiers are used to transmit GSM-EDGE signals with an envelope dynamic range of 11 dB and a frequency range of 880-915 MHz. The amplifiers use switch-mode dc-dc buck converters for supply modulation, where sigma-delta (SigmaDeltaM), delta (DeltaM), and pulsewidth modulation are used to modulate the PA amplitude signal. A framework has been developed for comparing the three switching techniques for EDGE implementation. The measurement results show that DeltaM gives the highest efficiency and lowest adjacent channel power, providing class E and F PA efficiencies of 33% and 31%, respectively, at maximum EDGE output power. The corresponding class E and F linearized amplifiers' output spectra at 400-kHz offset are -54 and -57dBc, respectively


Background: Anorectal malformations (ARM) can present in different fashions. Rectovestibular fistula is one of the congenital ARM. There is abnormal connection between the rectum and vulval vestibule. ARM is called as rectovaginal fistula if it is within the hymen. Case presentation: We present a 7-years old female child who reported of passing feces and gas through the vaginal passage. The child was brought late by the parents because of rural background. She was evaluated by abdomen plain Xray, US, MRI and special investigation by injecting contrast from the common opening. The diagnosis was confirmed as that of congenital recto-vestibular fistula (CRF) by these radiological investigations. Conclusion: Radiological modalities are of great importance for the confirmatory diagnosis of rectovestibular fistula. This further helps in appropriate surgical management.


Metallodrugs have been extensively used in modern research to design and synthesize new core drug molecules. In search of new leads in protozoal chemotherapy, novel ferrocene-substituted pyrimidine-based organometallic compounds has been synthesized and thoroughly investigated their ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity) and pharmacokinetic properties. The compounds exhibited excellent solubility potential, with favourable permeability and absorption characteristics. They demonstrated low toxicity, as indicated by clearance values and oral toxicity measurements. Molecular docking studies revealed strong interactions with the target site, surpassing the performance of reference drugs metronidazole and ornidazole. Overall, these organometallic compounds possess desirable ADMET profiles, meet Lipinski's criteria and exhibit promising drug-likeness properties, positioning them as potential leads for the development of effective antiprotozoal agents.


Abstract Black women living with HIV (WLWH) face individual and sociostructural challenges. Despite these challenges, many exemplify remarkable levels of resilience and coping. Yet, research on resilience and coping in this population is limited. Twenty Black WLWH in the Southern United States completed semi-structured interviews that explored challenges facing WLWH. We identified six themes related to resilience and coping: self-acceptance, disclosure, self-compassion, social support, will to live, and service. Of these, social support was a driving protective element and an essential component to building and sustaining resilience and coping. Women who experienced positive support often expressed a will to live as well as a desire to support other WLWH. Resilience and social support were characterized by patterns of reciprocity, in that they were mutually sustaining, stabilizing, and strengthening.


Using robots for exploration of extreme and hazardous environments has the potential to significantly improve human safety. For example, robotic solutions can be deployed to find the source of a chemical leakage and clean the contaminated area. This paper demonstrates a proof-of-concept bio-inspired exploration method using a swarm robotic system, which is based on a combination of two bio-inspired behaviours: aggregation, and pheromone tracking. The main idea of the work presented is to follow pheromone trails to find the source of a chemical leakage and then carry out a decontamination task by aggregating at the critical zone. Using experiments conducted by a simulated model of a Mona robot, we evaluate the effects of population size and robot speed on the ability of the swarm in a decontamination task. The results indicate the feasibility of deploying robotic swarms in an exploration and cleaning task in an extreme environment.


Abstract Laboratory rats are often used in experimental research of concern to human and veterinary medicine. There are several advantages of using rats as a scientific medium. In this study rats will be used as the scientific model as, previously discussed, they have proven their effectiveness in cardiovascular studies. The aim is to give a description of the cranial region, the head and neck of the rat as well as imaging of the vasculature of these regions to support the planning of surgical therapeutic methods to be applied to human and veterinary medical research. The research of the blood vessels morphology in anatomical studies is key to the prevention of ischemia during organ surgery. In recent times the laboratory rat has become one of the most popular models for experiments in medical research. Corrosion casts were prepared on the cranial arteries of the body of 20 adult Wistar rats using Duracryl Dental® and PUR SP as the casting medium. We found the absence of the brachiocephalic trunk in some cases. Thyroid arteries originated independently or by the short common trunk from the right and left common carotid artery. The facial artery originated by the short trunk with the maxillary artery, or by the linguofacial trunk with the lingual artery from the common carotid artery. The results of this study revealed that, the functional anatomical relationship between the rat neck and head structures are important for the development of medical research of concern to human and veterinary experimental medicine.


Sign languages are complex languages. Research into them is ongoing, supported by large video corpora of which only small parts are annotated. Sign language recognition can be used to speed up the annotation process of these corpora, in order to aid research into sign languages and sign language recognition. Previous research has approached sign language recognition in various ways, using feature extraction techniques or end-to-end deep learning. In this work, we apply a combination of feature extraction using OpenPose for human keypoint estimation and end-to-end feature learning with Convolutional Neural Networks. The proven multi-head attention mechanism used in transformers is applied to recognize isolated signs in the Flemish Sign Language corpus. Our proposed method significantly outperforms the previous state of the art of sign language recognition on the Flemish Sign Language corpus: we obtain an accuracy of 74.7% on a vocabulary of 100 classes. Our results will be implemented as a suggestion system for sign language corpus annotation.


In this paper, a joint complexity-distortion optimization approach is proposed for real-time H.264 video encoding under the power-constrained environment. The power consumption is first translated to the encoding computation costs measured by the number of scaled computation units consumed by basic operations. The solved problem is then specified to be the allocation and utilization of the computational resources. A computation allocation model (CAM) with virtual computation buffers is proposed to optimally allocate the computational resources to each video frame. In particular, the proposed CAM and the traditional hypothetical reference decoder model have the same temporal phase in operations. Further, to fully utilize the allocated computational resources, complexity-configurable motion estimation (CAME) and complexity-configurable mode decision (CAMD) algorithms are proposed for H.264 video encoding. In particular, the CAME is performed to select the path of motion search at the frame level, and the CAMD is performed to select the order of mode search at the macroblock level. Based on the hierarchical adjusting approach, the adaptive allocation of computational resources and the fine scalability of complexity control can be achieved.


We present novel theory for testing for reduction of GARCH-X type models with an exogenous (X) covariate to standard GARCH type models. To deal with the problems of potential nuisance parameters on the boundary of the parameter space as well as lack of identification under the null, we exploit a noticeable property of specific zero-entries in the inverse information of the GARCH-X type models. Specifically, we consider sequential testing based on two likelihood ratio tests and as demonstrated the structure of the inverse information implies that the proposed test neither depends on whether the nuisance parameters lie on the boundary of the parameter space, nor on lack of identification. Asymptotic theory is derived essentially under stationarity and ergodicity, coupled with a regularity assumption on the exogenous covariate X. Our general results on GARCH-X type models are applied to Gaussian based GARCH-X models, GARCH-X models with Student's t-distributed innovations as well as integer-valued GARCH-X (PAR-X) models.


The basic role of Jews is defined as creating a motivating contrast between the mass of the people who often get into trouble, and the subsequently arising leader (prophet) who calls for conscience in order to help the people to survive the trouble. The words of the Old Testament: "You will bring the light to other nations" are understood as a reflection of the fact that such a prophet is important for the whole of humanity. The main reason for anti-Semitism is seen as some psychological incompatibility (perhaps, of some weak autistic nature) of Jews in their contacts with other people. This incompatibility, however, defends Jews against acquiring the feature of conformity of human society (psychology), -- the conformity that has caused serious moral problems over the world. Jews are thus presented as irritating, but positively thinking and contributing people. It is dangerous but interesting to be a Jew.


An investigation of learners' enrolment in Bela-Bela farm schools is a study focused on the challenges encountered by farm schools. These challenges result in the decline of learners' enrolment. The researcher has put more emphasis on the history of farm schools, legislation and policy, and socio-economic conditions of farm societies. The research method is qualitative in nature and it includes literature study, observations and semi-structured interviews. It has been discovered from the data that families working on the farms migrate a lot, and this result in decline of learners' enrolment in farm schools. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for improvements to assist in addressing problems faced by farm schools.


OBJECTIVES
To compare a modified supraclavicular perivascular approach with the axillary perivascular technique for providing brachial plexus blockade.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We studied 100 ASA I/II patients undergoing surgery on upper extremities. Patients were divided into two groups: group 1 (axillary, n = 50) and group 2 (modified supraclavicular, n = 50 ). Patients needing shoulder surgery were excluded from group 1. In both groups 35 ml of 1.5% mepivacaine plus 0.05 mEq/ml of bicarbonate was used. The Winnie axillary perivascular technique was used in group 1. In group 2 we used a modification of the lateral perivascular supraclavicular technique described by Brown, with the needle directed cephalad, medial and posterior to provide paresis in the upper extremity. We recorded the degree of difficulty and time needed for each technique, time until start of paresis and time of motor paralysis in the extremity, area of nerve deficit, and quality of block. In group 2 we measured the depth of paresthesia. Perioperative complications were noted for each group.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences in difficulty, time or quality of block. Time until start of paresis and time of motor paralysis were significantly shorter in group 2 (12.0 +/- 2.5 versus 4.9 +/- 0.2 min, and 15.2 +/- 6.9 min versus 35.3 +/- 5.2, in groups 2 and 1, respectively). Mean depth of paresthesia was 44.1 +/- 5.2 min. The most frequently recorded complications were Horner's syndrome in group 2 and vascular puncture in group 1.

CONCLUSIONS
The modified perivascular lateral supraclavicular technique is a safe, effective method for providing brachial plexus block.


Kirchhoff and Maxwell gave us topological inspection rules for evaluating the transmission of a linear reciprocal branch network. With the addition of the unistor, a branch-like element whose current is proportional to one of its two terminal potentials and independent of the other terminal potential, or the gyristor, whose current is proportional to the sum of its two terminal potentials, we can model any linear network, in general nonreciprocal. The point is that the Kirchhoff-Maxwell methods carry over to such networks without change of form, the only modification of the transmission expression being a relatively simple sign rule for gyristor admittances or a relatively simple nullification rule for unistor admittances.


Introduction: Marine macroalgae or seaweeds are found in the coastal region have created a promising significance in the biomedical area, mainly because of their contents of bioactive substances. The objective of the present study was to investigate the anticonvulsant activity of chloroform and ethanol extracts of Padina tetrastromatica (PT), a marine macroalgae (brown algae) in mice. Materials and Methods: The anticonvulsant activity of chloroform and ethanol extracts of PT was studied at 400 and 600 mg/kg, against maximal electroshock (MES) and pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) induced convulsion in mice. The duration of tonic hind limb extension (THLE), latency to onset of clonic convulsions and percent protection was noted in MES and PTZ tests, respectively. Phenytoin (25 mg/kg) and phenobarbitone (20 mg/kg) served as reference standards. Results: The chloroform extract of PT at 600 mg/kg significantly decreased the duration of THLE, while ethanol extract did not alter the duration of THLE in MES model. Further, chloroform and ethanol extracts of PT was found to be ineffective as an anticonvulsant when assessed by PTZ-induced convulsive model, as compared to their respective vehicle-treated groups. Conclusion: From the results of the present study it can be concluded that the chloroform extract of PT at 600 mg/kg showed significant anticonvulsant activity, while other extracts lack anticonvulsant activity in MES and PTZ model. However, further studies are required using different animal models to support these findings.


Thirty-four adult individuals of Loligo forbesi (males and females with dorsal mantle lengths from 27–77 cm) were observed in captivity in a 3 m diameter closed sea-water system on Faial Island, Azores. Squids were caught by jigging and were fed with horse mackerel (Trachurus picturatus) and chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus), either alive or dead. The maximum survival was 73 days. Feeding behaviour was dependent upon both the size of prey and its state of preservation;e.g. the squid would eat the head of small fish (< about 15 cm), reject the head of medium-sized fish (about 15–35 cm) and would eat only the dorsal part of a big fish (> about 35 cm) or a fish poorly preserved. Seventeen chromatic, 9 postural and 6 movement components of body patterns were observed and described. Conspecific interactions considered to be aggression and dominance were observed among males; no such interactions occurred when one male and two females were kept together. Body patterns in relation to relaxation, stress, shock, feeding, locomotion and aggression are also described.


The aim of this investigation was to develop models that would make it possible to correct exocrine pancreatic secretion data for the effect of BW and feed intake in growing pigs. In addition, the significance of exocrine pancreatic secretion for daily weight gain (DWG) was studied. Data were used from 10 pigs (16 to 32 kg BW) surgically fitted with chronic pancreatic catheters. The samples were collected under controlled conditions for two to five experimental days per animal (a total of 39 observations), during 2 h preprandially and during 2 h when feeding (postprandially). The exocrine pancreatic secretion traits included the hourly output of volume, the amount of protein, and trypsin and amylase activities. Multiple linear regressions were used to develop models to describe exocrine pancreatic secretion. The individual pig was the most important source of variation in the model. With increasing BW, 7 out of 10 pigs showed an increase in exocrine pancreatic secretion. However, the slopes of the regression lines differed between animals, which made it impossible to develop general models for the correction of secretion data for the effect of BW. Postprandial exocrine pancreatic secretion was always higher than preprandial secretion, but the amount of feed intake per se did not seem to affect secretion. Exocrine pancreatic secretion and DWG were positively correlated. We concluded that, under the present circumstances, expressing secretion per kilogram BW or kilogram feed intake was not feasible. Expressing secretion per hour was the best way to present the data.


Medical image segmentation is nowadays at the core of medical image analysis and supports computer-aided diagnosis, surgical planning, intra-operative guidance or postoperative assessment. Large amounts of research efforts have been made in developing effective brain MR (magnetic resonance) image tumor segmentation methods in the past years. However algorithms proposed so far are time consuming because it involves lot of mathematical computations. Also serial segmentation of multiple MRI slices (usually required for 3D visualization) takes exponential time. This results in need for improvement in performance as far as the time complexity is concerned. This paper proposes a methodology that incorporates the K-means clustering and morphological operation for parallel segmentation of multiple MRI slices corresponding to single patient. Segmentation of multiple MRI slices for tumor extraction plays major role in 3D (Three Dimensional) visualization and serves as an input for the same. The proposed framework follows SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) model and since the segmentation of individual slice is independent of each other and can be performed in parallel and multithreading definitely speeds up the entire process. Also the framework does not involve any kind of inter-process communication thus the time is saved here as well.


Recent research has shed light on the plethora of mechanisms by which the gastrointestinal commensal microbiome can influence the local immune response in the gut (in particular, the impact of the immune system on epithelial barrier homeostasis and ensuring microbial diversity). However, an area that is much less well explored but of tremendous therapeutic interest is the impact the gut microbiome has on systemic cell-mediated immune responses. In this commentary, we highlight some key studies that are beginning to broadly examine the different mechanisms by which the gastrointestinal microbiome can impact the systemic immune compartment. Specifically, we discuss the effects of the gut microbiome on lymphocyte polarisation and trafficking, tailoring of resident immune cells in the liver, and output of circulating immune cells from the bone marrow. Finally, we explore contexts in which this new understanding of long-range effects of the gut microbiome can have implications, including cancer therapies and vaccination.


Over the past few decades, the two-wheeled driven cart, also known as the unicycle wheeled mobile robot or wheeled mobile robot with independently driven wheels, has been a favorite case study in the literature on nonholonomic control. In this paper, we show how input-output linearization of a cart can be leveraged for a novel and practical application, closed-loop control of a differential-drive sheet registration device. The current state of the art for control for such a device, typically found in xerographic engines like printers and copiers, is open-loop motion planning. We present a closed-loop method that achieves full-state trajectory tracking via input-output linearization and asymptotically stable internal dynamics. To achieve rapid convergence while satisfying acceleration constraints, we apply elementary gain scheduling to the output tracking controller of the linearized input-output system. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the discrete-time implementation of our control strategy, which is based on a kinematic model with acceleration as the control input.


This paper reports a basal cell ameloblastoma affecting a 66-year-old man whose chief complaint was swelling of the left maxillogingival region.Buccal cavity examination showed an edentulous jaw with an elastic soft bulge and a tiny round ulcer in the left maxillary tubercle. X-ray examination indicated comparatively clear-cut bone resorption in the left maxillary tubercle. Exploratory excision resulted in a histopathological diagnosis of ameloblastoma, which prompted us to perform left partial maxillectomy. One year and 7 months after the operation, relapse occurred across the pterygoplatine fossa towards the proper nasal cavity. Under these conditions, maxillectomy was reperformed.Histopathological examination of the removed portion of the maxilla showed the presence cells which principally resembled basal cells. These basal-like cells were partly continuous with the mucous epithelium and became increasingly diffuse with increasing depth.


The semiconductor design industry of the embedded era has embraced the globalization strategy for system on chip (SoC) design. This involves incorporation of various SoC components or intellectual properties (IPs), procured from various third-party IP (3PIP) vendors. However, trust of an SoC is challenged when a supplied IP is counterfeit or implanted with a Hardware Trojan Horse. Both roots of untrust may result in sudden performance degradation at runtime. None of the existing hardware security approaches organize the behavior of the IPs at the low level, to ensure timely completion of SoC operations. However, real-time SoC operations are always associated with a deadline, and a deadline miss due to sudden performance degradation of any of the IPs may jeopardize mission-critical applications. We seek refuge to the stigmergic behavior exhibited in insect colonies to propose a decentralized self-aware security approach. The self-aware security modules attached with each IP works based on the Observe-Decide-Act paradigm and not only detects vulnerability but also organizes behavior of the IPs dynamically at runtime so that the high-level objective of task completion before a deadline is ensured. Experimental validation and low overhead of our proposed security modules over various benchmark IPs and crypto SoCs depict the prospects of our proposed mechanism.


Preface 1. Biodiversity - evolution, species, genes Michael W. Bruford 2. Why conserve bird diversity? Colin Bibby 3. Mapping and monitoring bird populations: their conservation uses Les Underhill and David Gibbons 4. Priority setting in species conservation Georgina M. Mace and Nigel J. Collar 5. Setting sites for protection Andrew Balmford 6. Critically endangered bird populations and their management, Ben D. Bell and Don V. Merton 7. Diagnosing causes of population declines and selecting remedial actions Rhys E. Green 8. Outside the reserve: pandemic threats to bird biodiversity Deborah J. Pain and Paul F. Donald 9. Predicting the impact of environmental change Ken Norris and Richard Stillman 10. Fragmentation, habitat loss and landscape management Paul Opdam and John A. Wiens 11. The interface between research, education and training Leon Bennun 12. Conservation policies and programs affecting birds Gerard C. Boere and Clayton D. A. Rubec References Index.


Background: The temperature–size rule (TSR) describes a decrease in body size with environmental warming. There is little agreement about why the TSR occurs, but potential explanations include that smaller size (1) maintains aerobic scope, (2) is generated by differential responses of development and growth to temperature, and (3) balances the demand for resources with the expected supply. Organism: The ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. Methods: We grew microcosm populations at three temperatures and measured population density and cell volume for 11 days (c. 20–53 generations depending on temperature). Results: Populations at all temperatures showed typical sigmoidal population growth, but cell volumes oscillated widely. The oscillations reveal a dynamically shifting relationship between cell volume and temperature, such that the TSR was observed only when population sizes stopped growing, while a reverse TSR was observed during the exponential growth phase. Conclusion: The dependence of the TSR on roughly equilibrium conditions challenges the hypotheses that maintaining aerobic scope and differential responses of growth and development to temperature drive the TSR. Reversals of the TSR and oscillations in cell volume are consistent with the idea that balancing resource demand with environmental supply drives body size changes (the supply–demand model), but the oscillations suggest a role for generational lags in achieving an optimal size.


ABSTRACT With the increase of tourists to many destinations, the local lodging industry sector is facing intense challenges. The reassurance of name-brand accommodation helps travelers feel more at ease in a new environment and guarantee them a positive lodging experience. This study examines how travelers' experiences with name-brand hotels influence their attachment to, knowledge of, and trust in brand names. Specifically, brand experience was identified as a holistic concept, incorporating sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual aspects. The results show the significant, positive relationships between brand experience and brand-related variables (brand knowledge, brand attachment, and brand trust). This study provides a foundation for future research investigating tourists' lodging choices and suggests strategies for hotel brand managers.


The 1996 Great American Smokeout (GASO), sponsored by the American Cancer Society (ACS), was held on November 21 and included a national promotional campaign in collaboration with a distributor of over-the-counter (OTC) nicotine medications. The 1996 GASO was the first to use a national promotion that included paid advertising of the GASO through television, magazines, and newspapers; direct-to-consumer promotions; and educational activities about GASO in retail stores that sell OTC nicotine medications. To estimate the impact of this promotional partnership between ACS and a distributor of OTC nicotine medications on smoking-cessation activity, the collaborators analyzed data from three sources. This report summarizes the findings, which suggest that the promotional campaign, combined with OTC availability of nicotine medications, encouraged smoking-cessation activity.


There is a growing need to preserve indigenous knowledge, as indigenous communities around the world face ongoing threats to the survival of their traditional languages and cultures. Although libraries have not traditionally focused on this area, libraries and information professionals can play an important role in assisting indigenous communities with the management and preservation of traditional knowledge through providing resources and expertise in collection, organization, storage and retrieval. Indigenous knowledge, however, differs greatly from Western knowledge and so it must be managed in unique and sensitive ways that may challenge conventional knowledge management tools and processes, as well as prevalent assumptions about knowledge and information. Indeed, information professionals should work with indigenous communities to develop unique solutions that meet local needs. Three indigenous knowledge management projects in Australia, Canada and the United States are examined to illustrate the different methods and tools that can be used for managing indigenous knowledge to accommodate oral traditions, holistic belief systems, security and access concerns, and technological limitations.


Access to information Acts as a power to reach and get the services and supports with equality and dignity - This has to be seen as two sides of the same coin having Government on one side and People on the other side, who need to work with better connectivity and coordination. In view of poor access and mismatched service delivery systems, RTI came out as a weapon in the hands of People as well as Government for moving towards the development with better sustainability and quality. A SWOT analysis of RTI reflects that it has got some limitations and mostly confined to asking for information by the people that is time taking, unhealthy and unfriendly. At the same time RTI insists for proactive disclosure of information which is better in all aspects, but not followed by many. Resources like Water, Land, Minerals and others have got better access for investors who do business for business purpose leaving people and environment as the victims. Under these circumstances, the CSOs who work very near to the people have got several opportunities for the effective utilization of provisions of RTI. The initiatives made with selected CSOs have resulted for significant impact and the targeted groups could get the benefit of resources as an empowerment. The initiatives are simple, flexible, replicable, scalable and sustainable matching to the dynamics of the given environment.


Background Chronic compression of the cervical spinal cord leads to a clinical syndrome of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Clinical symptoms of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) or cervical myeloradiculopathies result in spinal cord and root dysfunction. The primary aims of surgical intervention for multilevel myelopathy are to decompress the spinal cord and maintain stability of the cervical spine. Secondary aims are to minimize complications which include long-term pain and motion loss. Laminoplasty as either single-door or double-door technique and with/without instrumentation is an established mode of surgical treatment. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the result of single-door laminoplasty technique, supported with instrumented fixation in patients with multilevel degenerative cervical spondylotic myeloradiculopathy. Methods A prospective and without control study has been conducted in the institution in 17 patients with CSM, operated by canal expansive single-door laminoplasty (Hirabayashi technique) between April 2010 to April 2015. These patients were followed up for at least 3 years with both clinical and radiographic evaluations. Results On clinical evaluation, 15 of the 17 patients (87%) experienced relief of their symptoms. According to the Nurick classification, 11 patients' demonstrated improvement by one grade, two patients improved by two grades, two patients were unchanged and two had worsening of the Nurick grade. Conclusions The results of this study regarding the use of open-door laminoplasty with instrumented fixation suggest that this technique is a satisfactory alternative for cases of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy without deformation. Level of Evidence Level III therapeutic study. keywords: cervical spine, spondylotic myeloradiculopathy, single-door laminoplasty, instrumented fixation, nurick clinical evaluation volume 10 article 17 doi: 10.14444/3017


The migration of classic Internet to support real time and multimedia applications (videoconference, VoIP) require improvement of the network level service. Since several real-time and multimedia applications are multicast, our interest is to integrate Diffserv and multicasting in order to satisfy QoS requirements of the multicast group. The problem on which we are concentrating in this paper is related to providing QoS requirements for multicast applications using Diffserv and principally on overload traffic, which may be created by replication of multicast packets in Diffserv domain. In this case, the policing component in Diffserv routers may perform dropping packets and because core routers are working by aggregation, thus other traffic (the rest of traffic) may be affected. In this paper, we present a new protocol called control for QoS-based multicasting in Diffserv (CQMD) to resolve the multicast and Diffserv integration problem. This paper shows under what conditions the new member can be accepted into the multicast group in Diffserv domain. In addition CQMD can achieve QoS-satisfaction, ensure protection for other traffic in the Diffserv domain, good resources management and incur less message overhead.


Image keypoints and descriptors play a crucial role in many visual measurement tasks. In recent years, deep neural networks have been widely used to improve the performance of keypoint and descriptor extraction. However, the conventional convolution operations do not provide the geometric invariance required for the descriptor. To address this issue, we propose the sparse deformable descriptor head (SDDH), which learns the deformable positions of supporting features for each keypoint and constructs deformable descriptors. Furthermore, SDDH extracts descriptors at sparse keypoints instead of a dense descriptor map, which enables efficient extraction of descriptors with strong expressiveness. In addition, we relax the neural reprojection error (NRE) loss from dense to sparse to train the extracted sparse descriptors. Experimental results show that the proposed network is both efficient and powerful in various visual measurement tasks, including image matching, 3-D reconstruction, and visual relocalization.


Digital text is the most frequent interchange form of data that could hold sensitive information such as audit firms, banks, and educational institutes. This sensitive information needs to preserve its integrity and originality so that it could not only secure the data but also helps to identify ownership of text documents. This paper presents a novel and invisible digital watermarking approach for the secure exchange of text documents over the internet. Digital watermarking serves from the last decade for detection of forgery and tempering from digital text documents and maintained the copyright and authentication successfully. Many states of the art watermark techniques achieve high imperceptibility, robustness, and high hidden capacity; unfortunately failed to maintain the balance among these three conflicting parameters. As resolvent, we propose an intelligent Three-Level Digital Watermarking (3LDW) system for text documents copyright protection. 3LDW system can be applied to Microsoft Word objects, document open spaces, and text feature coding without affecting the content of the original document. Experimental results reveal that our proposed 3LDW system strongly resist against formatting attacks and efficiently preserves the imperceptibility. Additionally, embedding capacity analysis demonstrates a prominent improvement of the proposed system as compared to other similar approaches.


Aimed at space-based passive detection and tracking of ballistic targets, a multi-target multi-Bernoulli (MeMber) filtering algorithm based on a focal plane ambiguous measurement model is proposed. The measurement error sources of space-based passive detection are analyzed. It is found that focal plane target tracking is the basis of space target tracking in the framework of the distributed data processing structure, and the main error of focal plane measurement is pixel resolution. Based on the above analysis, the focal plane ambiguous measurement model is established to replace the traditional measurement model and the generalized likelihood function is designed. Finally, the MeMber filter is modified based on ambiguous measurement and generalized likelihood function. The simulation experiment compares the tracking effect of a MeMber filter based on ambiguous measurement and traditional measurement, respectively. The filter based on ambiguous measurement achieves better results. It shows that ambiguous measurement is closer to reality and has more application value.


Training Deep neural networks (DNNs) on noisy labeled datasets is a challenging problem, because learning on mislabeled examples deteriorates the performance of the network. As the ground truth availability is limited with real-world noisy datasets, previous papers created synthetic noisy datasets by randomly modifying the labels of training examples of clean datasets. However, no final conclusions can be derived by just using this random noise, since it excludes feature-dependent noise. Thus, it is imperative to generate feature-dependent noisy datasets that additionally provide ground truth. Therefore, we propose an intuitive approach to creating feature-dependent noisy datasets by utilizing the training predictions of DNNs on clean datasets that also retain true label information. We refer to these datasets as "Pseudo Noisy datasets". We conduct several experiments to establish that Pseudo noisy datasets resemble feature-dependent noisy datasets across different conditions. We further randomly generate synthetic noisy datasets with the same noise distribution as that of Pseudo noise (referred as "Randomized Noise") to empirically show that i) learning is easier with feature-dependent label noise compared to random noise, ii) irrespective of noise distribution, Pseudo noisy datasets mimic feature-dependent label noise and iii) current training methods are not generalizable to feature-dependent label noise. Therefore, we believe that Pseudo noisy datasets will be quite helpful to study and develop robust training methods.


This paper presents a technique to carry out progressive transmission of a volume data set using a hierarchical index of the data set. The intermediate data transmitted can be used as a complete representation, allowing the client to perform any computation on the volume and to generate any isosurface. The experiments performed show that a good approximation can be achieved for medical data sets with less than ten per cent of the data transmitted. The hierarchical index used is a compressed BONO index (cell octree), that is also used to speed up the isosurface generation.


Serum zinc (Zn) levels tend to be low in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. This cohort study was conducted to investigate the relationship between zinc deficiency and CKD progression. Patients were classified into two groups based on Zn levels < 60 μg/dl (low-Zn group, n = 160) and ≥ 60 μg/dl (high-Zn group, n = 152). The primary outcome was defined as end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or death and was examined over a 1-year observation period. Overall, the mean Zn level was 59.6 μg/dl and the median eGFR was 20.3 ml/min/1.73 m2. The incidence of the primary outcome was higher in the low-Zn group (p<0.001). Various Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for baseline characteristics showed higher risks of the primary outcome in the low-Zn group than in the high-Zn group. Competing risks analysis showed that low Zn levels were associated with ESKD but not with death. Moreover, in propensity score-matched analysis, the low-Zn group showed a higher risk of the primary outcome [adjusted hazard ratio 1.81 (95% confidence interval 1.02, 3.24)]. Furthermore, an interaction was observed between Zn and serum albumin levels (interaction p = 0.026). The results of this study indicate that zinc deficiency is a risk factor for CKD progression.


Objectives Markers of chronic inflammation, acute-phase reactants, and growth factors may be concomitantly involved in a number of pathologic processes in the general population and uremic patients. In addition, growth factors may influence peritoneal membrane transport characteristics. However, the association between plasma growth factors, markers of chronic inflammation, and peritoneal membrane transport remains largely unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between plasma levels of selected growth factors [basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)] and markers of chronic inflammation [interleukin (IL)-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), and fibrinogen] in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients. The potential link between the above substances and dialysis adequacy was also explored. Design Single-center, cross-sectional study. Setting Peritoneal Dialysis Unit, Medical Faculty, Jagiellonian University Hospital, Kraków, Poland. Patients 32 stable end-stage renal disease patients (13 M, 19 F; mean age 53.6 ± 13.7 years) on CAPD for a median period of 19.5 months. Patients free from signs and symptoms of any inflammatory disease (including peritonitis) for at least 3 months were included into the study. All patients underwent measurements of dialysis dose [Kt/V, weekly creatinine clearance (wCCr)] and peritoneal solute transport using a standard peritoneal equilibration test (PET). Methods TGFβ1, bFGF, VEGF, and IL-6 were measured with ELISA, CRP was assayed with immunonephelometry, and fibrinogen with Multifibren U reagent (Dade Behring Marburg GmbH, Marburg, Germany). Nephron 97 for Windows software was used to assess dialysis adequacy. Results Significant positive correlations between plasma bFGF and IL-6, as well as fibrinogen concentrations (R = 0.36, p < 0.05 and R = 0.39, p < 0.05, respectively), were found. VEGF correlated significantly with IL-6 and CRP (R = 0.65, p < 0.0001 and R = 0.51, p < 0.005, respectively). An association between VEGF and bFGF was also found (R = 0.59, p < 0.0005). Serum level of TGFβ1 revealed no relationship with any marker of acute-phase activation, remaining growth factors, or dialysis adequacy. Positive correlation between TGFβ1 concentration and dialysate-to-plasma ratio for creatinine in PET (R = 0.35, p < 0.05) was found. In addition, patients with lower solute transport (low/low-average transporters) had lower serum levels of both bFGF and TGFβ1 compared to patients with higher solute transport. Patients with total wCCr > 60 L/week/m2 were characterized by lower levels of bFGF and IL-6. Serum level of IL-6 and plasma levels of bFGF and VEGF were significantly lower among subjects with residual renal function (RRF) > 2.0 mL/minute. Conclusions Our results indicate that systemic inflammation in peritoneal dialysis patients is associated with increased plasma VEGF and bFGF but not TGFβ1. The negative correlation with RRF suggests that either the renal clearance of these cytokines and growth factors may contribute to their elimination, or cytokines and growth factors have a negative impact on RRF. We also suggest an association between serum levels of growth factors tested and peritoneal membrane function.


The concept of polycentricity has gained significance in discussions on spatial development in Europe in recent years. This paper presents new evidence on polycentric city networks in Central-Eastern Europe based on selected results of the ESPON project POLYCE (Metropolisation and Polycentric Development in Central Europe). The authors discuss existing applications of the concept in the context of EU spatial policies and present an exploratory analysis of relational polycentricity focused on international networks of firms and research co-operation between seven capital cities in Central-Eastern Europe (Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Budapest and Ljubljana). Analysis of networks of firms in the advanced producer service sector reveals strong ties between Budapest, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw, with Berlin being less connected but hosting firm subsidiaries of higher order. The investigations on research networks within EU Research Framework Programmes demonstrate that Berlin and Vienna play dominant roles in research co-operation within the region and are also well integrated in European scientific communities. There is no clear indication that inter-urban firm and research networks are influenced by travel times or ethnic ties between the cities, but the similar structures of firm and research relations suggest that different kinds of interactions, networks and co-operation between cities often go hand in hand with each other and are connected in some way.


Nannizzia gypsea (formerly Microsporum gypseum) belongs to geophilic dermatophytes, fungi involved in keratin degradation in the soil; however, they are also found in dogs and cats. Transmission to humans can occur directly by contact with soil, but indirect transmission via domestic animals is reported too. The exact source of the infection is usually difficult to assess and in most cases only hypothesised and rarely investigated. This case report describes a kerion caused by N. gypsea in a 2-year-old boy, where the contagion was probably secondary to domestic healthy carrier dogs. A "One-Health" approach involving human dermatologists and veterinarians, combined with the use of conventional and molecular-based techniques, allowed tracing of the epidemiological chain and managing of not only the treatment but also the prevention of a recurrence. The child's lesion began to regress after about 8 weeks of treatment with both systemic and topical therapy, while the dogs were given chlorhexidine and miconazole baths. No recurrences nor new infections occurred, demonstrating the effectiveness of the strategies used.


Acquired ungual fibrokeratoma (1) is a benign tumor, on average appearing in the fifth decade of life. However, it may also begin in the pediatric age, without sex predilection. It appears as an asymptomatic, flesh-colored, smooth, hard on palpation papule, which starts from the cuticle at the proximal nail fold and protrudes towards the distal edge (2). The toenails are more frequently affected than finger nails. It can stand on the nail plate, under it or in its context. It can be dome-shaped, rod-shaped as in the current case or branching. Histologically, the epidermis is hyperkeratotic, acanthotic with elongation of the epidermal ridges; the core of the tumor consists of thickened collagen fibers oriented along the longitudinal axis of the neoformation, with a decrease in the elastic fibers and a variable amount of fibroblasts. The tumor should be removed radically, because in some cases it tends to recur.


A Chieftain of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State, Chief Chuks Okeke, recently testified at the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Tribunal alleging that election in the South East region were rigged in favour of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Goodluck Jonathan. Chuks Okeke alleged that his party conspired with and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to perpetrate election rigging. He however admitted under cross-examination that his allegation in respect of other states in the South East was based on information received from other politicians. Transparency, accountability and ethical re-orientations in the business of election and electoral process are tantamount to institutionalizing due process mechanisms in electoral matters. Due process stripped off all its technicalities, bails down to meticulous and enthusiastic observance of the laid down rules and regulations for election business. The paper examines what constitutes ethics, accountability and transparency in the conduct of election. It also examines electoral process and actors in the electoral process and the general observation in Nigeria's electoral process. The paper goes on to identify the major problems and challenges associated with election in Nigeria and offers solutions to the problems identified.


We have developed an X-ray detector which covers a broad energy band than a typical GEM. To detect hard X-rays and gamma-rays, we have developed a GEM coated with gold (``Au-GEM''). We have evaluated the response of the Au-GEM for X-rays with energies below 25 keV. We first determined the voltage applied to the Au-GEM by irradiating the detector with X-rays from an 55Fe radioactive source. As a result, we determined the voltage applied to the Au-GEM to be 220 V and obtained an energy resolution of 1.9 keV (FWHM) at 5.9 keV with gold and without gold. Second, to compare the response to X-rays below 25 keV with gpld and without gold, we irradiated the detector with X-rays and gamma-rays from 57Co and 109Cd radioactive sources. As a result, the energy resolution for the Au-GEM and a 50μm-LCP-GEM (without gold) at 22 keV (Ag-Kα) were found to be 7.0 keV (FWHM) and 5.6 keV (FWHM), respectively. Although the energy resolution at 5.9 keV is no different between a detector with gold and without gold, the energy resolution with gold at 22 keV is worse than without gold.


In this paper, we propose a new linear detector for the iterative receiver for MIMO-BICM systems. Instead of performing vector matched filtering after the interference cancellation, the proposed detector successively combines the soft information from different receive antennas, where the combining factors are computed based on the joint likelihood function of multivariate Gaussian random variables. Numerical results show that significant performance improvement can be achieved and the additional complexity is negligible.


Objective
Exenatide once weekly (ExeOW) is one of the long-acting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists. Embedding exenatide in poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres enables the once-weekly subcutaneous injection of exenatide as a treatment for diabetes. We report a case of a patient with type 2 diabetes and hypothyroidism who developed long-standing subcutaneous nodules after treatment by ExeOW injection.

Methods
Case report and review of the literature. A 57-year-old Japanese man with type 2 diabetes treated with ExeOW and primary hypothyroidism.

Results
We observed multiple subcutaneous nodules remaining at the ExeOW injection site for >10 weeks. As the patient's thyroid hormone levels normalized, these nodules decreased and disappeared, and his hemoglobin A1c levels improved.

Conclusion
The patient's clinical course suggests that the hydrolysis of ExeOW at the site of injection may be inhibited by concomitant hypothyroidism, in which glycosaminoglycans including hyaluronic acid are known to accumulate (including in the skin). This case may indicate that hypothyroidism prolongs the existence of subcutaneous nodules from ExeOW treatment.


A sarcoid-like reaction is the presence of noncaseating granulomas due to a T-cell mediated inflammatory reaction in draining lymph nodes of tumors or in the vicinity of tumors. Breast cancer, lymphoma, and cutaneous melanoma have been observed to induce a sarcoid-like reaction. Herein, a patient is reported with conjunctival melanoma in whom multiple noncaseating granulomas were observed in the sentinel lymph node without evidence of micrometastasis. Fungal and mycobacterium stainings were negative and further systemic workup excluded sarcoidosis. This case identifies conjunctival melanoma as a cause of a sarcoid-like reaction.


In this chapter, the problem of gesture recognition in the context of human computer interaction is considered. Several classifiers based on different approaches such as neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), hidden Markov model (HMM), deep neural network (DNN), and dynamic time warping (DTW) are used to build the gesture models. The performance of each methodology is evaluated considering different users performing the gestures. This performance analysis is required as the users perform gestures in a personalized way and with different velocity. So the problems concerning the different lengths of the gesture in terms of number of frames, the variability in its representation, and the generalization ability of the classifiers have been analyzed.


Let $(M,g)$ be a compact Riemann surface with no boundary and $u=(u_1,u_2)$ be a solution of the following singular Liouville system: $$\Delta_g u_i+\sum_{j=1}^2 a_{ij}\rho_j(\frac{h_je^{u_j}}{\int_M h_je^{u_j}dV_g}-1)=\sum_{l=1}^{N}4\pi\gamma_l(\delta_{p_l}-1), $$ where $h_1,h_2$ are positive smooth functions, $p_1,\cdots,p_N$ are distinct points on $M$, $\delta_{p_l}$ are Dirac masses, $\rho=(\rho_1,\rho_2)(\rho_i\geq 0)$ and $(\gamma_1,\cdots,\gamma_N)(\gamma_l > -1)$ are constant vectors. In the previous work, we derive a degree counting formula for the singular Liouville system when $A$ satisfies standard assumptions. In this article, we establish a more general degree counting formula for 2$\times$2 singular Liouville system when the coefficient matrix $A$ is non-symmetric and non-invertible. Finally, the existence of solution can be proved by the degree counting formula which depends only on the topology of the domain and the location of $\rho$.


The efficient treatment of the disease such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as a global concern is impeded by the limited understanding of the disease complexity. We applied a systems-biology framework for a functional analysis of disease development using candidate genes. We identified, the keys dysregulation, pathways, and Hub-genes leading the disease. Moreover, we constructed a molecular disease network for the disease via integrating the pathways, providing an intuitional view to understand the development. In addition, the druggability of genes and their new application in terms of marker discovery or new drug discovery were examined. Our analyses identify a series of highly overexpressed genes, also featuring high centrality, yet being less underlined in the context of NAFLD development in the previous research. We also found several relatively low overexpressed genes, having a central place in the PPI network topology, whose potential involvement in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis might be undermined otherwise using network biology. Our results reveal that the biological processes related to disease progression are complex. Indeed, our pathway studies identified Hub genes, which may reinforce poly-pharmacological cross-talks followed by disease progression to irreversible stages holistic approaches via systems biology tools help us identify more reliable targets and disease-mediated genes integrated into translational studies and drug development in this area.


Many computer systems today are not satisfactory to their users. Often the user interface does not receive the attention that it deserves, even though to the user, the interface is the most important part of the computer system. Further, many interfaces are not designed with reference to how humans process information. This research addressed this problem by designing and evaluating a cognitively engineered interface. Cognitive engineering of a human-computer interface is the leveraging of empirical findings from the cognitive sciences and application of those findings to the design of the interface. It was hypothesized that a cognitively engineered interface is superior to interfaces that are not cognitively engineered. Ten cognitive-design principles were extracted from the literature and explicitly applied to the design of an interface. Reaction time, accuracy, workload, and preference for this interface were experimentally determined and compared with that of two other interfaces. The other two interfaces were designed by separate teams for the same problem situation but were not, however, designed with explicit reference to the cognitive design principles. The cognitively engineered interface was found to be superior across all measurements. In fact, a postexperimental analysis also found a strong correlation between performance and the extent to which the 10 design principles were applied in each of the three interfaces. Therefore, based on the experimental results, I concluded that implementing a set of critical cognitive-de-sign principles will produce a "cognitively friendly" interface.


In this paper, we focus on the question of liability in circumstances where an IoT system has not performed as expected and where this has resulted in loss or damage of some kind. We will argue that the combination of AI and the IoT raises several novel aspects concerning the basis for assessing responsibility and of allocating liability for loss or damage, and that this will necessitate the development of a more creative approach to liability than generally followed in many legal systems. Most legal systems combine linear liability based on contractual relationships and fault-based or strict liability on a wrongdoer in tort law. We seek to demonstrate that this approach is no longer sufficient to deal with the complex issues associated with the interaction of AI and the IoT, and to offer possible solutions. Our discussion will proceed as follows: first, we will explain the nature of an IoT system in general terms, drawing on case studies from both the consumer and commercial sphere to illustrate this. We will then focus on the role of AI in the operation of an IoT system. Secondly, we will analyze the particular issues that arise in the circumstances where an AI-driven IoT system malfunctions and causes loss or damage, and the specific legal questions this raises. Third, we will examine to what extent legal systems (particularly the UK and the EU) are currently able to address these questions, and identify aspects that require action, whether in the form of legislation or some other intervention. Finally, we will propose an alternative for addressing the liability challenges arising in this particular context.


Rechargeable battery is the leading energy storage option for renewable power sources such as solar, wind and tidal (Park, et al., 2019, Tarascon, 2010). Furthermore, everyone owns a device powered by a rechargeable battery. Most of these devices are powered by lithium ion batteries (LIBs) owing to their rechargeability and high-energy density (Shin, et al., 2019). However, the rechargeable battery will lose its ability to retain a charge over time, forcing the consumer to discard the battery or product, which ends up in landfills. Owing to the high chemical activity of Li and the toxicity and flammability of organic solvent-based electrolytes, LIBs cause alarming safety and environmental issues (Yang, et al., 2018). Although Na+/K+ batteries are possible alternatives, these technologies also utilize organic electrolytes. Hence, there is a huge motivation to explore a battery chemistry that is long lasting, environmentally friendly, and cost-efficient. Rechargeable batteries based on water-based electrolytes are a revolutionary alternative and hold a prominent place in the energy storage research community. Along with other advantages, water also has a higher ionic conductivity (1 S cm-1) than organic electrolytes (~10-2 – 10-3 S cm-1) which is ideal for high rate cycling of batteries (Fang, et al., 2018, Winter, et al., 2004).The development of rechargeable aqueous batteries is ongoing, and there are systems based on monovalent ions (e.g. K+) and multivalent ions (e.g. Al3+, Zn2+ and Mg2+) (Liu, et al., 2014, Zhang, et al., 2017). Multivalent systems are more desirable given that their multiple redox states promise high specific capacity and energy density. Among multivalent systems, the rechargeable zinc ion battery (ZIB) has a huge potential, owing to its large overpotential for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) (Fang, et al., 2018, Xu, et al., 2012, Glatz, et al., 2020, Zeng, et al., 2019). Apart from that, Zn holds a number of advantages over others, namely: high Earth abundance (low cost), high theoretical capacity (820 mAh g-1), low redox potential (-0.762 V vs SHE) and nontoxicity (Blanc, et al., 2020). Clearly, the electrochemical stability of Zn in aqueous solutions enlightens an opportunity to develop a "green" rechargeable battery.The aqueous ZIB consists of three main components, the Zn anode, electrolyte (e.g. Zn salts, such as ZnSO4, ZnNO3 or Zn(CF3SO3) in water) (Zhang, et al., 2016) and the cathode material (layered transition metal oxides, metal sulphides, polyaniline compounds, Prussian blue analogues etc.) (Fang, et al., 2018). Most scientific contributions on ZIB are devoted to the development of high-capacity and stable cathode materials. Owing to the cost effectiveness, environmental friendliness, and high theoretical capacity, Mn and V-based layered oxides are popular as cathode materials (Xu, et al., 2012, Alfaruqi, et al., 2015, Zhang, et al., 2019, Wei, et al., 2019). However, due to the +2 charge of Zn, it can suffer severe electrostatic interactions with the layered host material resulting in sluggish charge transfer kinetics (Yang, et al., 2018). Incorporation of metal ions (Zn2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Li+, Na+) or structural water molecules between layers can mitigate these interactions and improve structuralstability (Zeng, et al., 2019, Lewis, et al., 2022). Dissolution of cathode material in aqueous electrolytesis another issue, which is typically addressed by electrolyte optimization (Zhao, et al., 2019).When considering the anode, growth of Zn dendrites on the anode surface is a major bottleneckfor the expansion of ZIB (Zhao, et al., 2019), i.e. localized nucleation of Zn, further aggravated by thedeposition of new Zn at preformed crystals. These Zn dendrites lead to an internal short circuit of thebattery. Furthermore, as deposited highly active Zn surface can undergo side reactions (corrosion,HER), leading to by-products and low coulombic efficiency (Zhao, et al., 2018). There have been fourmain strategies to tackle these problems: (i) electrolyte optimization, (ii) Zn anode surfacemodification, (iii) 3D Zn host design, and (iv) electrochemical protocol development (Blanc, et al.,2020). Among these, the surface passivation of Zn anode with inorganic (ZnO, TiO2, CaCO3) (Kang,et al., 2018, Kim, et al., 2020, Zhao, et al., 2020, Xie, et al., 2020) and organic (polyamide, polyvinylbutyl) (Zhao, et al., 2019, Hao, et al., 2020) coatings is a promising new approach.Although there has been some progress, effective and practically viable approaches to retardZn dendrite growth are yet insufficient. The final fate of the electrodeposited Zn critically relies on theinitial nucleation pattern and nanoscale surface kinetics (Zhao, et al., 2019, White, et al., 2012).Researchers have recognized the importance of this and have analyzed the dendrite formation viatechniques such as ex-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) andtransmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Song, et al., 2016), yet these "stop-and-go" methods restrictsthe study of dynamic processes in real-time. Operando techniques are necessary to observe theevolution of micro/nanostructure of Zn deposits as it happens, which would help to establish thedeposition kinetics and transfer dynamics at the Zn anode. Hence, advanced operando characterizationtools are expected to guide the development of safe, cost-effective, and environmentally friendlyaqueous batteries and supercapacitors for future grid scale energy storage.


Purpose
This study aims to focus on the role of niche brands in online retailer assortments and the general market positions of niche brands, no prior study has explicitly focused on if and when brick-and-mortar retailers should include niche brands in their category assortments.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors empirically analyze the category performance implications of focusing assortments on niche brands, at the expense of mainstream brands, in two product categories that have significant niche brand presence, namely, coffee and beer. The empirical data include sales, distribution and marketing tactical information for 50 US geographic markets from 2001–2011.

Findings
This research finds that a mainstream brand focus has a generally positive impact on category performance. However, a store's strategic shift toward niche brands is beneficial in certain cases such as when a store has higher average prices or product form variety or when they are part of a powerful chain. The authors also find that a niche brand focus strategy is becoming increasingly viable over time for brick-and-mortar retailers.

Originality/value
Little is known about the parameters that might make a brick-and-mortar retailer more or less likely to pursue a niche brand focus strategy and when doing so might improve category performance. This analysis helps clarify the conditions under which a brick-and-mortar retailer may experience category level sales increases from focusing assortments on niche brands.


For the pattern classification problems the neuro-pattern recognition which is the pattern recognition based on the neural network approach has been paid an attention since it can classify various patterns like human beings. In this paper, we adopt the learning vector quantization (LVQ) method to classify the various kinds of money. The reasons to use the LVQ are that it can process the unsupervised classification and treat many input data with small computational burdens. We will construct the LVQ network to classify the Italian liras. Compared with a conventional pattern matching technique, which has been adopted as a classification method, the proposed method has shown excellent classification results.


This paper presents the performance investigation and design technology of Line Start-up Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor(LSPMSM) with super premium efficiency, including design consideration and evaluation for motor starting-up, key performance, advanced finite element analysis(FEA) for the design, improvement and verification, prototype build and test, design and test data comparison to Premium® Efficient Induction Motor(PEIM). To assess the design technology, LSPMSM prototype was built amended from a PEIM with the same frame, stator punching and rated output. Based on the prototype test, two novel improvement designs and analyses have been done to eliminate the noise and vibration. Additionally, the comparisons with PEIM on power factor, efficiency, frame size and active material consumption indicated the significant performance improvement and active material cost down can be achieved by LSPMSM.


Infrared spectroscopy of large-sized protonated methanol clusters, H(+)(MeOH)(n) (n = 4-15), was carried out in the OH stretch region to characterize the development of the hydrogen bond network with the cluster size, n. The band intensity of the free OH stretching mode decreased with n, and the band finally disappeared at n = 7. On the other hand, the broad absorption band due to hydrogen-bonded OH stretches exhibited a remarkable shift with the cluster size, and it finally converged on 3300 cm(-1) for n >/= approximately 10. The size dependence of the infrared spectra was morphologically interpreted in terms of the formation of the bicyclic hydrogen-bonded structure of the clusters.


Intra-ring variation in wood density and tracheid anatomical properties and wood property interrelationships were investigated in Thuja occidentalis L. Samples were taken from three stands in Abitibi–Témiscamingue, Quebec, Canada. The structure of T. occidentalis wood is simple, homogeneous and uniform, which is desirable for wooden structures that require wood uniformity. From early- to latewood, cell and lumen diameter decreased, while cell wall thickness increased. These changes led to an increase of the cell wall proportion. Wood ring density and width interrelationships were weaker in mature wood compared to juvenile wood. Earlywood density is the more important in determining mature wood density than latewood density and proportion. Earlywood density explains 92% and 89% of the variation in juvenile and mature wood density, respectively. The negative relationship between ring density and width, although significant, was low and tends to weaken with increasing tree age, thus providing the opportunity for silvicultural practices to improve both growth and wood density. Ring width was positively and strongly correlated to early- and latewood width, but negatively correlated to tracheid length and latewood proportion. Accordingly, increases in ring width produce smaller tracheids and wider earlywood without a corresponding increase in latewood. Practical implications of the results are discussed.


This article evaluates the psychological processes, discursive practices, and sociopolitical mechanisms underlying the identity reconstruction of Muslim immigrant women in the United States and the Netherlands. Specifically, it focuses on the ways in which Muslim immigrant women who are embedded in both Islamic and Western cultures negotiate their traditional and modern identities and self-representations and construct a coherent self-narrative about their bicultural existence as "Western-Muslim." The qualitative evidence presented here expands existing theoretical and empirical discussions on biculturalism and acculturation by demonstrating the ways in which contextual factors define the negotiation repertoire that is available to bicultural individuals. The findings of this article also call into question some of the earlier findings on cultural conflict hypothesis, because it shows that successful negotiation of bicultural identities depends not so much on whether the individual perceives these identities and cultures to be compatible with each other, but rather on the availability of a coherent self-narrative of belonging to both cultural worlds.


Numerical modeling of compressible two-phase flow is a challenging and important subject in practical cases and research problems. In these problems, mutual effect of shock wave interaction creates a discontinuity in the fluid properties and interface of two fluids as a second discontinuity lead to some difficulties in the numerical approximations and estimating an accurate interface during the hydro-dynamical capturing process. The main objective of this research is accurate capturing of the interface and numerical study of shock wave during gas-gas and gas-liquid interface of two-phase flows. For these purposes , HLLC Riemann solver and Godunov numerical method was used for a hyperbolic two-pressure two-fluid model where programming was conducted in two-space dimensional with the second order accuracy. Various one and two-dimensional problems were simulated such as compression and expansion shock tubes, shock wave interaction with R22/air bubble, underwater explosion and hypersonic shock with M=6 interaction with a cylindrical water column. The numerical results obtained from this attempt exhibit very good agreement with the experimental results, as well as the previous numerical results presented by the other researchers based on the other numerical methods.


The aphorism that children are not little adults certainly applies for the imaging of interstitial lung disease. Acquiring motion-free images of fine pulmonary structures at desired lung volumes is much more difficult in children than in adults. Several forms of interstitial lung disease are unique to children, and some forms of interstitial lung disease encountered in adults rarely, if ever, occur in children. Meticulous attention to imaging technique and specialized knowledge are required to properly perform and interpret chest imaging studies obtained for the evaluation of childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD). This review will address technique recommendations for imaging chILD, the salient imaging findings in various forms of chILD, and the efficacy of imaging in the diagnosis and management of chILD.


This paper improves on the best-known runtime and measurement bounds for a recently proposed Deterministic sublinear-time Sparse Fourier Transform algorithm (hereafter called DSFT). In (Iwen, 2008 ), (Iwen, 2007), it is shown that DSFT can exactly reconstruct the Fourier transform (FT) of an N-bandwidth signal f, consisting of B Lt N non-zero frequencies, using O(B2ldrpolylog(N)) time and O(B2 ldr polylog(N)) f-samples. DSFT works by taking advantage of natural aliasing phenomena to hash a frequency- sparse signal's FT information modulo O(B ldr polylog(N)) pairwise coprime numbers via O(B ldr polylog(N)) small Discrete Fourier Transforms. Number theoretic arguments then guarantee the original DFT frequencies/coefficients can be recovered via the Chinese Remainder Theorem. DSFT's usage of primes makes its runtime and signal sample requirements highly dependent on the sizes of sums and products of small primes. Our new bounds utilize analytic number theoretic techniques to generate improved (asymptotic) bounds for DSFT. As a result, we provide better bounds for the sampling complexity/number of low-rate analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) required to deterministically recover frequency-sparse wideband signals via DSFT in signal processing applications (Laska, 2006), (Kirolos et al., 2006).


On a local scale, invasiveness of introduced species and invasibility of habitats together determine invasion success. A key issue in invasion ecology has been how to quantify the contribution of species invasiveness and habitat invasibility separately. Conventional approaches, such as comparing the differences in traits and/or impacts of species between native and/or invaded ranges, do not determine the extent to which the performance of invaders is due to either the effects of species traits or habitat characteristics. Here we explore the interaction between two of the most widespread earthworm invaders in the world (Asian Amynthas agrestis and European Lumbricus rubellus) and study the effects of species invasiveness and habitat invasibility separately through an alternative approach of "third habitat" in Tennessee, USA. We propose that feeding behaviors of earthworms will be critical to invasion success because trophic ecology of invasive animals plays a key role in the invasion process. We found that (1) the biomass and isotopic abundances (delta13C and delta15N) of A. agrestis were not impacted by either direct effects of L. rubellus competition or indirect effects of L. rubellus-preconditioned habitat; (2) A. agrestis disrupted the relationship between L. rubellus and soil microorganisms and consequently hindered litter consumption by L. rubellus; and (3) compared to L. rubellus, A. agrestis shifted its diet more readily to consume more litter, more soil gram-positive (G+) bacteria (which may be important for litter digestion), and more non-microbial soil fauna when soil microorganisms were depleted. In conclusion, A. agrestis showed strong invasiveness through its dietary flexibility through diet shifting and superior feeding behavior and its indirectly negative effect of habitat invasibility on L. rubellus via changes in the soil microorganism community. In such context, our results expand on the resource fluctuation hypothesis and support the superior competitor hypothesis. This work presents additional approaches in invasion ecology, provides some new dimensions for further research, and contributes to a greater understanding of the importance of interactions between multiple invading species.


This paper develops the Parameterized Expectations Approach (PEA) for solving nonlinear dynamic stochastic models with rational expectations. The method can be applied to a variety of models, including models with strong nonlinearities, sub-optimal equilibria, and many continuous state variables. In this approach, the conditional expectations in the equilibrium conditions are approximated by finite-dimensional classes of functional forms. The approach is highly efficient computationally because it incorporates endogenous oversampling and Monte-Carlo integration, and it does not impost a discrete grid on the state variables or the stochastic shocks. We prove that PEA can approximate the correct solution with arbitrary accuracy on the ergodic set by increasing the size of the Monte-Carlo simulations and the dimensionality of the approximating family of functions.


Bone marrow is a complex of cells, that support hematopoiesis in an organism of animal. The bone marrow cells (BMC) have high therapeutic potential, it gives an opportunity to use them for treatment of different destructions of hematopoiesis and after chemotherapy. Thus, a clinical requirement in marrow increases constantly and requires creation of pool of biomaterial. In clinical veterinary and transplantation there is a requirement to create long-term storage of bone marrow cells by freezing technology. Using cryoprotectant preserves cell structure close to the control, but research is conducted, to study the mechanisms and the fight against the negative effects of cryodestruction. Despite the fact that these days the hematopoietic system cells are studied actively many aspects of their biochemistry are still uncertain and deserve special attention. The glucose-6-phosphate, ATP, pyruvic acid and lactic acid in the dogs` bone marrow cells before and after cryopreservation with dimethylsulfoxide have studied. It was found that 7% DMSO was the most effective cryoprotectant and survive 83.51 ± 1.9% of cells. The ATP, pyruvic and lactic acids levels in dogs` bone marrow cells after freezing-thawed with DMSO were near to the control measure.


Scientometrics is one of the most important scales for evaluating scientific outputs. Co-word and social network analysis (SNA) were used to investigate relationships in the field of social accounting researches indexed on Scopus. The findings of the study indicate that the most frequent topics and vocabulary in this area is economic analysis, economic and social effects. Moreover, the most valuable subject areas were identified: based on closeness, they are water resources, tourism economics and structural adjustment. Based on centrality, economic impact, economic analysis, environmental economics and income distribution. The results of the study indicate that many important social and environmental issues can be assessed through social accounting. Co-authorship analysis revealed that the co-authorship network in this domain was discrete and with low density. By utilizing the co-occurrence map, researchers and policymakers can make policy making more effective through being aware of the research trends and hot topics in social accounting.


We grew epitaxial thin films of CoMn2O4 and Co2MnO4 on Nb-doped SrTiO3(011) and SrTiO3(001) single crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition. The magnetic Curie temperature (Tc) of the Co2MnO4 thin films was ~176 K, which is higher than that of the bulk whereas CoMn2O4 thin films exhibited a value of Tc (~151 K) lower than that of the bulk. For the Co2MnO4 thin films, the M − H loop showed a coercive field of ~0.7 T at 10 K, similar to the value for the bulk. However, the M −H loop of the CoMn2O4(0ll) thin film grown on a Nb-doped SrTiO3(011) substrate exhibited a coercive field of ~4.5 T at 30 K, which is significantly higher than those of the Co2MnO4 thin film and bulk. This giant coercive field, only observed for the CoMn2O4(0ll) thin film, can be attributed to the shape anisotropy and strong spin-orbit coupling.


Various classes of Petri net languages are compared. A constructive proof of the equivalence, from the point of view of descriptive power of general Petri nets and restricted Petri nets (no multiple arcs of self-loops are allowed in the latter class), is presented. The descriptive power of Petri nets versus that of finitely recursive processes is discussed. >


The objective of the present study was to apply the Interactive Model methodology to the Individualism-Collectivism: Horizontal and Vertical Models to better understand the last model. The sample consisted of 271 individuals and the Idiocentric-Allocentric Athlete Profile Inventory was used. Multiple analyses of variance revealed that when the constructs become polarized, as in the Idiocentric supremacy, greater are the individual needs for differentiation from others, success and achievement. As the constructs get balanced, the individuals tend to present more egalitarian attitudes, and allocentric individuals seek benefits for the group, submission and hierarchy. In conclusion, one can infer that as the fields of idiocentrism and allocentrism become more distant from the bisector, the vertical dominion increases (hierarchy), while a greater proximity with the bisector favors the horizontal dominion (equality). These areas don't reflect the predominance or not of one construct over the other anymore


Immigration scholars and advocates frequently criticize our immigration system for imposing severe penalties akin to (or worse than) those in the criminal justice system — such as prolonged detention and permanent exile from the United States — without providing sufficient procedural protections to minimize enforcement errors. Yet there has been relatively little scholarship examining the frequency of errors in immigration enforcement and identifying recurring causes of those errors, in part because the data is hard to find. This Article begins by canvassing some of the publicly available data on enforcement errors, which reveal that such mistakes occur too frequently to be dismissed as flukes. Although the data is too limited to draw any definitive conclusions as to the causes of such errors, it appears that some errors occur because low-level officials are asked to administer complex and ambiguous immigration laws quickly and with little training or oversight. This Article concludes by calling for immigration reform advocates to gather more information about wrongful deportations, following the lead of the Innocence Project, which has used data from DNA exonerations to raise public awareness of wrongful convictions and to advocate for additional procedural protections in the criminal justice system.


The environment which surrounds office workers has undergone a big transformation with the collapse of lifetime employment, the shift from the long employment principle to meritocracy, the results principle, the introduction of flexible work hours, outsourcing and dispatch work. Today's office worker stressor include 1. VDT work, 2. meritocracy, 3. management by objective, 4. excessive load on the middle and advanced age generations, 5. the collapse of the lifetime employment system and 6. non-employee changes. (1) VDT work management, (2) the use of Information technology, (3) Improvement of office environments, (4) Management of long overtime work and (5) Support of superiors and colleagues are thought as stress management.


Background Drowning is the first leading cause of death for children age lower than 15 years. The mortality rate per 100 000 children aged 0–14 years is between 9.3 and 11.5, (2004–2008). A survey on the swimming ability of Thai children under 15 reveals that only 16.3% of them can swim. Objective To evaluate of general swimming and safety swimming programme. Methodology This study is the Quasi-Experimental Research, which has the objective to evaluate the three group of children's the ability to swim and skills to make them survive when they have crisis during swim. These groups of children were given the different swimming courses. Result The result of the study showed that after completion of the courses, there were no significant differences among three groups of children in terms of the ability to swim, when they were tested to swim for 25 m distance. However, in terms of ability to perform safety and rescue swimming, the children in group 1 demonstrated more effective than other children from groups 2 and 3, respectively. Conclusion and Discussion In summary, we found that the children who took part in the course that specific for safety and rescue swimming had more ability than ones who took part in general swimming course. Therefore, the safety and rescue swimming courses (survival swimming curriculum) should be promoted widely throughout the country, and this will help to reduce the death of children due to drowning.


Over 100million tonnes of nitrogen (N) fertiliser are applied globally each year to maintain high yields in agricultural crops. The rising price of N fertilisers has made them a major cost for farmers. Inefficient use of N fertiliser leads to substantial environmental problems through contamination of air and water resources and can be a significant economic cost. Consequently, there is considerable need to improve the way N fertiliser is used in farming systems. The efficiency with which crops use applied N fertiliser - the nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) - is currently quite low for cereals. This is the case in both high yielding environments and lower yielding environments characteristic of cereal growing regions of Australia. Multiple studies have attempted to identify the genetic basis of NUE, but the utility of the results is limited because of the complex nature of the trait and the magnitude of genotype by environment interaction. Transgenic approaches have been applied to improve plant NUE but with limited success, due, in part, to a combination of the complexity of the trait but also due to lack of accurate phenotyping methods. This review documents these two approaches and suggests future directions in improving cereal NUE with a focus on the Australian cereal industry.


Learn all about the political, economic and social systems of Ancient Rome and how they have influenced our world today.


In order to fill the existing skills gap in U.S. manufacturing, effective teaching techniques of manufacturing courses should be considered by academic institutions. Hands-on experiments and real life projects can be incorporated into the curriculums in order to produce new graduates with adequate knowledge of manufacturing skills. In this paper, we discuss project-based learning in an undergraduate manufacturing systems course. The course includes lectures, labs and industry projects. The lectures provide students with theoretical and technical content on manufacturing systems. The labs provide students with hands-on experience on design, analysis, and improvement of manufacturing systems. The industry projects enhance students understanding of manufacturing systems and provide them with real life experience. Students were divided into groups and a manufacturing project was assigned to each group. Moreover, an industry advisor was assigned to each group. Students, supervised by the course instructor, worked with local industry to identify project ideas, define problems, and set the goals for the projects. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed to assess the learning outcomes and the impact of the industry projects. Course assessment is based on exams, quizzes, lab reports, and successful completion of the industry projects.


A. E. Ringwood believes that many of the major problems we face in understanding the nature of the earth's interior and of the moon's interior and of the origin of the earth-moon system can be solved in his lifetime. It is just possible that he is correct, and reasons for such optimism are not hard to find. Progress in understanding the earth and the moon has been immense in the eighteen years that have elapsed since Ted Ringwood received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne. He has played a major role in the development of this understanding through his personal research. Moreover, he has stimulated and inspired colleagues in Canberra and throughout the world to work with him in seeking solutions to these problems that will meet the tests that geophysics and petrology can supply.