A large proportion of preterm infants will require some form of respiratory support at birth, due to their underdeveloped and immature lungs. Despite the necessity of respiratory support for survival, mechanical ventilation can be injurious to both the preterm lungs and brain. Recent studies have highlighted that more than 80% of preterm infants will inadvertently receive high and injurious tidal volumes (VT) in the delivery room. In preterm lambs, 15 min of high VT immediately following delivery is sufficient to initiate a cerebral inflammatory response and leads to cerebral haemodynamic disturbance. Similarly, in preterm babies, exposure to high VT in the delivery room was linked to increased incidence of intraventricular haemorrhage. To date, the investigation of respiratory support in the delivery room has focused only on otherwise healthy preterm neonates. This thesis aimed to determine, and characterise, the additional effects of common clinical scenarios with the initiation of ventilation. Chapter 3 of this thesis explored the combined effect of chorioamnionitis and the initiation of ventilation on the preterm brain. Chorioamnionitis is a common antecedent to preterm birth with its incidence increasing with decreasing gestational age; almost two-thirds of extremely preterm infants will be exposed to chorioamnionitis. Chorioamnionitis, similarly to ventilation, causes haemodynamic instability as well as instigating a fetal inflammatory response. It was found that the combination of two days of exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (to mimic chorioamnionitis) and 15 min of high VT ventilation (followed by conventional ventilation for 75 min) increased pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression, densities of astrocytes and apoptotic cells within the brain, as well as causing haemodynamic instability. Interestingly, ventilating LPS-exposed lambs with a 'protective' ventilation strategy, shown previously to partially protect the preterm brain from ventilation-induced injury, did not reduce any markers of ventilation-induced brain injury. Chapter 4 of this thesis similarly investigated chorioamnionitis and the initiation of ventilation but additionally characterised the effect of antenatal glucocorticoid administration. This is also clinically relevant given a large proportion of preterm infants will have been exposed to glucocorticoids prior to birth. Unventilated lambs exposed to betamethasone had increased pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, astrocyte density and vascular extravasation within the brain. LPS administration prior to betamethasone made no additional difference. In contrast, betamethasone exposed ventilated lambs had stable haemodynamics and reduced cerebral inflammation and vascular extravasation. LPS administration prior to betamethasone again made no additional difference following ventilation. Thus, whilst our 'protective' ventilation strategy in Chapter 3 did not protect LPS-exposed lambs from ventilation-induced brain injury, betamethasone administration appeared to mitigate some markers of ventilation-induced brain injury, regardless of the presence or absence of intrauterine inflammation. Given the complex interactions between chorioamnionitis, glucocorticoids and the initiation of ventilation, three common clinical occurrences, we hypothesised that an adjunct therapy that could target the critical pathways involved in ventilation-induced brain injury may be of most benefit. Chapter 5 of this thesis investigated the use of Erythropoietin; studies in term and preterm babies have shown it has a neuroprotective capacity due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties, as well as the ability to increase the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. Chapter 6 of this thesis investigated the use of human amnion epithelial cells, which are stem cell-like cells that have shown potential in pre-clinical models to ameliorate ventilation-induced lung injury; their effects in the brain are not as well characterised. To date, neither therapy has been characterised in combination with the initiation of ventilation. Erythropoietin showed more potential as a treatment for ventilation-induced brain injury as it successfully reduced cerebral vascular protein extravasation back to control levels, indicating it can act on the haemodynamic pathway involved in ventilation-induced brain injury. Human amnion epithelial cells also reduced protein extravasation, but not to the same degree. Both treatments had regional inflammatory effects in the white matter suggestive of incorrect dose or incorrect timing of administration. Further studies are required to elucidate their roles in relation to ventilation prior to clinical translation. Overall, this thesis has demonstrated that the intrauterine environment has the potential to alter brain inflammation and injury resultant from the initiation of ventilation. Given the complex interactions between chorioamnionitis, glucocorticoids and ventilation, three common clinical occurrences, a potential adjunct therapy is required. Erythropoietin, more so than human amnion epithelial cells, shows promise as a therapy for ventilation-induced brain injury; however, it requires follow-up in regards to dosing and timing as well as investigation into its interactions with chorioamnionitis and glucocorticoids prior to clinical translation.


Fine structure, postnatal development and reaction to efferent duct ligation of the loose connective tissue of the rat rete testis were studied by light and electron microscopy. The loose connective tissue of adult rats consists of elongate fibroblasts in a homogenous ground substance, together with some Leydig cells, lymphocytes, macrophages and mast cells. During postnatal development this tissue increases in amount, while the interstitial areolar tissue decreases. The "looseness" of the tissue becomes more evident between days 22 and 27, and may reflect an increase in hydration. Efferent duct ligation for 15 min to five days has no effect on the histological appearance of the tissue.


CONTENTSIntroduction § 1. Complexes of curves and families of functions § 2. Singularities and non-degeneracy of functions § 3. Some variants of the complex of curves § 4. Corners and modular groups § 5. Generators and relations for modular groups Appendix to § 5. The Hatcher-Thurston and Harer complexes § 6. The virtual cohomological dimension of modular groups § 7. Stabilization of homology of modular groups § 8. The virtual Euler characteristic of modular groups References


The paper challenges mainstream theories of Latin American development, showing their theoretical weaknesses and pointing to their role in ideologically mediating the region's 'truncated' capitalism. To that end, the paper presents an alternative view of Latin American development that starts by considering capitalist social reproduction as a worldwide process and regional/national politico-economic development as mediations in the structuring of global capital accumulation. Latin America's specific variety of capitalism is understood to have emerged from its original transformation by expanding European capital into a place to produce raw materials under favourable natural conditions. On the one hand, this has reduced their price and that of the labour-power directly or indirectly consuming them; on the other, it has resulted in a flow of surplus-value towards the owners of those natural conditions of production. The historical development of Latin American societies has expressed the partial overcoming of that antagonistic relationship between rent-paying capital and rent-appropriating landed property.


Internet had made important changes in economic and social life. It provides interaction and a lot of information that create connection for marketers to reach out and touch their customers especially through Social Media. For present, Instagram is the most popular social media sites in Indonesia. Instagram provide an opportunity for one of the marketing strategies by using celebrity endorser to share their visual contents. Unique post and related content can engage consumers in a personal way and affect people on an emotional level. Celebrity Endorsement according to McCracken (1989) is a transfer process of value perception of the endorser to the product and then from product to consumer. The promotion in Instagram happens in simple manner when the celebrities share post in their Instagram feed. Previous study by Tripp (1994) found that multiple product endorsements by celebrities negatively influence consumer perceptions of the endorser and the product. However, in present day, many endorsement activities come from one celebrity endorser with different kind of products posted every day. Multiple product endorsements is imminent and unavoidable otherwise company may need to compensate the celebrity with a huge amount of endorser fee to make one celebrity exclusive only for their product, yet the impact for exclusive endorser has not been proven. This study focuses on Multiple Product Endorsements by Celebrities that happen in Instagram, researcher choose Nikita Willy, Joanna Alexandra and Karin Novilda as the celebrity endorsers. Qualitative approach has been used to explore and generate understanding on consumers' perspective toward multiple product endorsements by celebrity. Literature review revealed there were lack of study on multiple product endorsements in Instagram. Hence, interviews were done among 10 respondents of active Instagram user during May 2018 to June 2018. It was found most of respondents favor multiple product endorsements as long as the products endorsed match with the endorser image, the type of contents shared by the endorser has impact on the product endorsed and multiple product endorsements by celebrities can benefit other products promote by the endorser. In general, it can be concluded that multiple product endorsements in Instagram is acceptable and may become part of the marketing communication strategy.

Keywords: multiple product endorsement, celebrity endorsement


In this study we explore the determinants of happiness as well as analyze its relationship with economics, social matters and family factors with respect to policies. The gist of happiness can be assessed with stages of income levels of the nations and also with reference to different types of other variables that determine the behaviours of individuals directly or indirectly. We construct indices for Happiness, Economic, Social, Demographic, Environmental and Governance indicators through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We compare the level of happiness among countries in different income categories that is, low income, low middle income, high middle income, and high income categories according to World Bank classification. The empirical investigation uses panel data of 56 countries for three waves of WVS for the years 1994, 1999 and 2004. The PCA is used to construct indices. For empirical investigation we used OLS, Pooled Regression model with common and Fixed Effect model and then GMM. We explored different level of happiness for all income categories. We have found that the correlates of happiness for different categories of income affect differently. CHAPTER


In this work we present our first prototype of a modular, low-cost end-of-arm concept for industrial robot applications. The goal is a faster, more flexible and cost-effective alternative compared to current industrial solutions. We use an embedded single-board computer and three cameras as a sensor base for the new system. The scope of robot application is supposed to as wide as possible (e.g. object detection, bin picking, assembly tasks and quality control tasks). We discuss some industry and low-cost-hardware solutions, introduce our system and deliver a proof of concept. Furthermore we use the system to accomplish a vision based pick and place task.


A 25-year-old Chinese female presented with a few weeks' history of erythematous papular eruption over the forehead, upper back and scalp. The lesions typically consisted of a necrotic or atrophic centre with peripheral erythema and crusting. Skin biopsy showed histological features consistent with malignant atrophic papulosis (Degos' disease). The patient was also found to have anaemia, thrombocytopaenia, positive ANA and anti-dsDNA. She was treated as a case of malignant atrophic papulosis with features of systemic lupus erythematosus and idiopathic thrombocytopaenia on the basis of clinical, histological and further investigative findings. 25


The objective of this study was to research the health status of the elderly population and their perception and compliance to cook medicated juk . The results from this research will be used as basic data for medicated juk development. In addition, the purpose of this study was to find a way to popularize the juk and improve their usage as medicated juk in communal feeding and convalescent hospital for elderly. The study surveyed 300 elderly residents of age over 65, in Daejeon. The following data were collected: general characteristic, health status, perception of medicated juk , and preferred kind of juk for cooking. Moreover, the study researched the constraints in cooking the juk . Data were analyzed by SPSS Windows V. 18.0 and t-test verified the differences among the questions, according to frequency analysis of each item and characteristics of the aged. You might want to specify this characteristic. Within the surveyed elderly population, 80.6% had various existing diseases with circulatory diseases being the most prevalent with 68.9%. This emphasizes on the significance of proper diet, but this recognition is not put into practice. The survey also showed that as the individuals age, they tend to care less about the necessity of proper diet. Despite of this lack of perception, 84.5% of the elderly population responded positively to the question, "Would you like to have medicated juk for curing diseases, if such juk is available?" In addition, the elderly population was in favor of developing the juk that helps to prevent and cure diseases, and many were willing to cook them. The reasons behind their will to cook are arranged in the following order: higher efficacy in curing disease than regular juk , excellence in nutrition, and unavailability of the medicated juk in the stores that requires them to cook. The sources constraining the elderly population in cooking are arranged in the following order: not knowing how to cook the juk , lack of physical strength, financial burden, and lack of information order. Please clarify this part. Suggested change: not knowing what medicated juk is. Furthermore, the main obstacle in cooking the juk is lack of cooking technique, followed by inaccessibility to the ingredients and the financial burden to purchase the ingredients.


AIM
The cagA and vacA profiles and their association with clinical findings show a distinct geographical distribution. In the present study, we aimed to determine the cagA status and vacA allelic subtypes in strains isolated from a university hospital in Ankara and to evaluate their associations with histopathological and endoscopic findings.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 120 H. pylori strains from stock cultures positive for the ureA gene were randomly included in the present study. Of these strains, cagA and vacA allelic subtypes (s1a, s1b, s2, m1, m2) were examined by polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS
Of the 120 strains, 64 (53.3%) were cagA-positive. However, no significant relationship was found between clinical outcomes and cagA positivity. There were 38 (33.6%) strains that had vacA m1 and 74 (65.5%) that had vacA m2 region. Overall, 75 (70.1%) samples were classified as vacA sla, 3 (2.8%) as vacA slb, and 29 (27.1%) as vacA s2. There was no significant relationship between vacA genotypes and endoscopic findings. The predominant vacA genotypes were slam2 (35.6%) and slam1 (33.6%), with almost the same rates. Furthermore, cagA positivity was found to be significantly related with the vacA slam1 genotype.

CONCLUSION
The cagA and vacA profiles of our study population are consistent with the Middle Eastern profile.


This paper proposes to leverage multi-source multi-path diversity to design a video streaming system for supporting concurrent video-on-demand (VoD) services over wireless mesh networks (WMNs). By integrating a wireless interference model into consideration, we have a more realistic network model to capture the characteristics of wireless networks. Based on that, we mathematically formulate the route selection problem for the proposed streaming system using rate/interference-distortion optimization framework, and rely on a genetic algorithm to solve it heuristically. Simulation results show that the proposed system has better performance than systems using single-source, single-path and systems that do not consider interference


A unique distributed architecture for digital simulations is described that is based on the Ada language and relies on many of its unique features. The architecture is object-oriented, modeling a group of simulated objects as they interact under a given scenario. The individual objects are simulated as a collection of subsystem models, which are assembled from a library of such models. Subsystem models can be distributed across a group of networked computers with the aid of a configuration program. The simulation is controlled by a simulation executive which is also distributed. This executive mediates the iteration of the individual models and maintains a common database. The goal of this architecture is to facilitate the generation of complex object-oriented simulations on multiple computers while maintaining the efficiency and maintainability of simpler systems.<<ETX>>


"On Children and Death" is a major addition to the classic works of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, whose "On Death and Dying" and "Living with Death and Dying" have been continuing sources of strength and solace for tens of millions of devoted readers worldwide. Based on a decade of working with dying children, this compassionate book offers the families of dead and dying children the help -- and hope -- they need to survive. In warm, simple language, Dr. Kubler-Ross speaks directly to the fears, doubts, anger, confusion, and anguish of parents confronting the terminal illness or sudden death of a child."


Photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing has been developing quickly in recent years, while its in vivo application is still in the infancy. The complexity of biological environments poses a high challenge to the specificity and reliability of PEC sensing. We herein proposed the concept of small-molecule organic semiconductor (SMOS)-based ratiometric PEC sensing making use of the structural flexibility as well as readily tunable energy band of SMOS. Xanthene skeleton-based CyOH was prepared as a photoactive molecule, and its absorption band and corresponding PEC output can be modulated by an intramolecular charge transfer process. As such, the target mediated shift of absorption offered the opportunity to construct a ratiometric PEC sensor. A proof-of-concept probe CyOThiols was synthesized and assembled on a Ti wire electrode (TiWE) to prepare a highly selective microsensor for thiols. Under two monochromatic laser excitation (808 nm and 750 nm), CyOThiols/TiWE offered a ratiometric signal (j808/j750), which exhibited pronounced capacity to offset the disturbance of environmental factors, guaranteeing its reliability for application in vivo. The ratiometric PEC sensor achieved the observation of bio-thiol release induced by cytotoxic edema and fluctuations of thiols in drug-induced epilepsy in living rat brains.


Objectives: Oral cancer ranks amongst the sixth to eight most common cancers worldwide and exhibits a great variation in incidence among countries. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is rare in individuals less than 40 years of age, with occurrences averaging 4 to 6% in people less than 40 years. The aim of this study was to review the clinical and pathological characteristics of OSCC cases in patients less than 40 years of age in five tertiary health facilities in Nigeria.Methods:All OSCC in the period from 1970 to 2015 from case file records and biopsy reports were retrieved from the records of the five teaching hospitals, to obtain age, gender, location and histologic grades.Results: Ninety-seven (17.4%) cases of OSCC were diagnosed in patients less than 40 years of age. These included 58 males and 38 females giving a male: female ratio of 1.5:1. The mandibular mucosa with 27 (28.7%) cases was the most common site followed by the maxillary mucosa with 24 (25.5%) and palate with 14 (14.4%) cases. Only 5 (5.3 %) cases of OSCC occurred in the tongue. The well differentiated OSCC was the most common histological grade accounting for 48 (50.0 %) cases while the moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated OSCC accounted for 31 (32.3 %) and 17 (17.7 %) cases respectively.Conclusion: OSCC was relatively more common in patients less than 40 years of age in this study than those of previous studies from other regions and OSCC in patients less than 40 years of age was relatively rare in the tongue when compared with similar cohorts from other continents.
Key words: oral squamous cell carcinoma; age less than 40; tongue; mandibular mucosa, Nigeria


The continuous forging equipment was constructed at No. 3 Continuous Casting Machine of Mizushima Works in 1990 to prevent the centerline segregation in continuously cast blooms. To clarify the mechanism of prevention of centerline segregation of blooms by this process, a mathematical model was developed by considering the discharge of the solute-enriched liquid between dendrites. The model shows that the segregation ratio in the central portion of the bloom decreases as the solid fraction at the forging point decreases. The solute concentration in the central portion of the bloom during forging calculated from the model is in good agreement with the observed values. The solute concentration in the central portion of the bloom can be predicted and controlled to a desired value by changing the solid fraction at the forging point by use of casting speed as a variable. As forging proceeds, a solute-enriched liquid region is formed in the upstream liquid region close to the forging point. The carbon concentration in the solute-enriched liquid region, where the solute accumulates, becomes constant after several meters from the forging point.


Voter turnout in Lesotho's 2022 National Assembly elections was at an all-time low of 37%. Since the country returned to multi-party electoral democracy in 1993, voter turnout has steadily decreased. Studies have been undertaken in Lesotho and globally to investigate the reasons for this phenomenon. While the turnout in the 2022 elections is a continuation of the pattern of declining voter turnout in Lesotho and globally, factors specific to each election may provide further insight into this intractable problem. The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the main reasons for the low turnout in the 2022 elections. The study uses qualitative methodology: it relies on primary and secondary data sources such as reports, targeted interviews, newspapers and literature, and legislation. The paper uses Stockemerian clustering of turnout variables to contend that election-specific factors can help to explain the steep decrease in voter turnout in the 2022 elections in Lesotho. Those factors are poor civic and voter education, political fragmentation, and some institutionalist variables.


The events around the death of Jesus left his followers in despair and with unanswered questions. The book shows how the narrator of Luke-Acts assigned Peter to interpret these events. By identifying him as one of the eyewitnesses cited in the Gospel preface, the author shows how, by divine intervention, Peter rose from being a simple fisherman to become a witness of Christ. Using elements of narratology, especially Chatman's Story and Discourse, the author demonstrates how modern literary methods could be applied to interpret ancient biblical texts. The use of Point of View reveals how Peter – in six speeches in the Acts of the Apostles – was able to read the events of the story of Jesus into the Hebrew Scriptures and prove to his audiences that these events followed a divine plan.


The Web and reasoning started to meet around 1996 with the first projects that added semantics to Web page descriptions in much the same way that HTML added formatting information. Despite the subsequent growth of these semantic Web efforts into a dynamic and well-established research area, serious doubt remains whether reasoning really adds something useful in the Web context. Traditional notions of complete and correct reasoning are obviously based on a heavily simplified world view naively applied to reality. Researchers have developed reasoning methods for rather small, closed, trustworthy, consistent, and static domains. They usually provide a small set of axioms; a proof engine can typically provide complete and correct inferences of the knowledge contained in them


Health monitoring of complex power systems requires multiple sensors to extract vital information from the sensed environment and internal conditions of the systems and their elements. A critical decision, particularly in the context of complex systems, is the number and locations of the sensors given a set of technical and nontechnical constraints. This paper provides a Bayesian belief network (BBN) based sensor placement optimization methodology for power systems health monitoring. The approach uses the functional topology of the system, physical models of sensor information, and Bayesian inference techniques along with the constraints. Information metric functions are used for optimized sensor placement based on the value of information that each possible "sensor placement scenario" provides. The proposed methodology is designed to answer important questions such as how to infer the health of a system based on limited number of monitoring points at certain subsystems (upward propagation), how to infer the health of a subsystem based on knowledge of the health of the main system (downward propagation), and how to infer the health of a subsystem based on knowledge of the health of other subsystems (distributed propagation). Dynamic BBN is used as the engine of projecting the health of the system.


A new algorithm to search for multiple patterns at the same time is presented. The algorithm is faster than previous algorithms and can support a very large number — tens of thousands — of patterns. Several applications of the multi-pattern matching problem are discussed. We argue that, in addition to previous applications that required such search, multi-pattern matching can be used in lieu of indexed or sorted data in some applications involving small to medium size datasets. Its advantage, of course, is that no additional search structure is needed.


Although the bulk of plant biomass contains relatively light, atmospherically derived elements (C, H, O, N, and S), 5-10% of biomass is composed of heavier elements from soil minerals, such as Ca, Mg, K, and P. Plant uptake and cycling transport these heavier elements to the soil surface, resulting in shallower vertical distributions for strongly cycled elements than for other elements. In this paper, we evaluate the biogeochemical consequences of this process at different spatial and temporal scales based on chronose- quence studies and soil database analyses. In the bare coastal dunes of Argentina, the vertical distributions of exchangeable K 1 (strongly cycled) and Na 1 (more weakly cycled) were similar initially but diverged 15 years after pine afforestation, with K distributions becoming significantly concentrated in the surface and Na distributions becoming deeper. To evaluate the effects of plant stoichiometry on micronutrient distributions, chronose- quences of paired native grasslands (low Mn cycling) and eucalypt plantations (high Mn cycling) in the pampas of Argentina were also used. Within 50 years, eucalypts dramatically redistributed Mn pools toward the soil surface, reducing total pools by half at medium depths (20-60 cm) and increasing concentrations by up to an order of magnitude at the surface. Globally, we used generalized contrasts among exchangeable K, Na, and Mg in 7661 soil profiles to estimate the global magnitude of K uplift due to plant activity. Based on this calculation, the exchangeable K pool in the top 20 cm of soils without plant uplift would be 4-6 3 10 15 g smaller globally, one-third to one-half smaller than its current size. Vegetation change alters the vertical distribution and bioavailability of mineral elements. Understanding how the stoichiometry of plant cycling affects soil nutrient distributions will help refine predictions of the biogeochemical consequences of current vegetation change.


Polymeric microspheres represent an important class of components for biological assays because they can be fabricated from many materials, with well-controlled diameters from nanometers to hundreds of micrometers and functionalized with biomolecules. However, the incorporation of such microspheres inside microfluidic chips remains a challenge in particular when reproducibility and mass fabrication play an important role. We design and demonstrate how bead traps can assemble defined patterns of 10 μm-polystyrene microspheres in capillary-driven microfluidic chips and show the applicability of bead traps in the context of fluorescence immunoassays.


ABSTRACT The biosorption characteristics of Cd(II) and Cs(I) using live and dead cells of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis PTCC 5051 as biosorbents have been investigated in the present research. The influence of different experimental parameters such as initial pH (pHi), shaking rate, sorption time and initial metal concentration was evaluated. The optimum pH was obtained as 4 for Cd(II) and 7 for Cs(I). The experimental adsorption data were fitted to the Langmuir linear equation adsorption model. The highest metal uptake values of 0.593 and 0.473 mmol g−1 were calculated for Cd(II) and Cs(I), respectively. The results of Fourier transform infrared analysis suggested the involvement of amine, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups during the biosorption process and also indicated that more functional groups were involved in the biosorption process of live adsorbents, compared with those linked to dead biomass. The results showed that the biomass of S. carlsbergensis PTCC 5051 is a suitable biosorbent for the removal of Cd(II) and Cs(I) from the aqueous solutions.


In this brief note, the author criticises A.K. Kelly's A Critical Note on the Quantity Theory of Money . The author contends that while there are certainly sound arguments supporting the view that the nominal stock of money is partly dependent on the endogenous behaviour of the economic system, this fact does not preclude the existence of two separate supply and demand functions, although it does raise the question of whether the single -equation approach to the estimation of the demand-for-money function is in fact warranted. Moreover, Kelly's position that it is impossible for the suppliers of money to create "excess" monetary balances does not withstand scrutiny. JEL: B22, E41, E51, E52


A new Walk on Equations (WE) Monte Carlo algorithm for Linear Algebra (LA) problem is proposed and studied. This algorithm relies on a non-discounted sum of an absorbed random walk. It can be applied for either real or complex matrices. Several techniques like simultaneous scoring or the sequential Monte Carlo method are applied to improve the basic algorithm. Numerical tests are performed on exam-ples with matrices of different size and on systems coming from various applications. Comparisons with standard deterministic or Monte Carlo algorithms are also done.


Intelligent tutoring and personalization are considered as the two most important factors in the research of learning systems and environments. An effective tool that can be used to improve problem-solving ability is an Intelligent Tutoring System which is capable of mimicking a human tutor's actions in implementing a one-to-one personalized and adaptive teaching. In this paper, a novel Flowchart-based Intelligent Tutoring System FITS is proposed benefiting from Bayesian networks for the process of decision making so as to aid students in problem-solving activities and learning computer programming. FITS not only takes full advantage of Bayesian networks, but also benefits from a multi-agent system using an automatic text-to-flowchart conversion approach for engaging novice programmers in flowchart development with the aim of improving their problem-solving skills. In the end, in order to investigate the efficacy of FITS in problem-solving ability acquisition, a quasi-experimental design was adopted by this research. According to the results, students in the FITS group experienced better improvement in their problem-solving abilities than those in the control group. Moreover, with regard to the improvement of a user's problem-solving ability, FITS has shown to be considerably effective for students with different levels of prior knowledge, especially for those with a lower level of prior knowledge.


A new approach to laser altimetry is offered by the development of micro-lasers and pixilated detectors that enable very high resolution measurement of topography and relatively wide swath observations. An imaging altimeter with a 8x8 array detector working at a probability of less than a single photon/shot could map the Moon or similar sized body in approximately 2 years and provide 5 meter horizontal resolution topography and a 10 centimeter vertical accuracy. In addition, it would provide surface roughness and surface slopes on similar length scales of 5 meters and be able to address a range of problems for which topography or lunar shape is important at the decimeter level. This includes the topography of the polar regions, where ice is thought to have been identified, and also the cratering history of the Moon which could be assessed with a dataset of uniform quality and high resolution.


The present article reports a vocational guidance (VG) activity carried out at a popular course for the university entrance examination (pre-vestibular). The objectives were to make the students aware of the choice of an undergraduation course, to potentialize the expression of feelings in relation to `vestibular' and in relation to the course itself and to promote the integration among the students. The methodology used was based on psychodrama, which involved group debates mediated by the production of posts. The methodology aimed at potentializing the free expression of feelings that are hidden due to `vestibular' and due to the behavioral condition of the students who attended the aforementioned course. The instruments used allowed better identification and integration among the students as well as the awareness of the process of choosing a university course. It was also possible to assist the students by the recognition of the needs derived from that behavioral condition making them ready to choose the university course and the `vestibular' process, and also for their integration and identification with the group they belonged to at that moment.


ABSTRACT Sophisticated machine learning algorithms have been successfully applied to functional neuroimaging data in order to characterize internal cognitive states. But is it possible to "mind-read" without the scanner? Capitalizing on the robust finding that the contents of working memory guide visual attention toward memory-matching objects, we trained a multivariate pattern classifier on behavioural indices of attentional guidance. Working memory representations were successfully decoded from behaviour alone, both within and between individuals. The current study provides a proof-of-concept for applying machine learning techniques to simple behavioural outputs (e.g., response times) in order to decode information about specific internal cognitive states.


Recent studies from North America and continental Europe have reported Zen 1 as a major allergen in atopic dogs, and Der f 2 as a minor allergen. In contrast, Der f 2 is considered a major allergen in Japan. In this study, allergen-specific IgE against Der f 2, Zen 1 and crude Dermatophagoides farinae (DF) was determined using ELISA assays in English atopic dogs. Serum samples were obtained from 59 dogs with non-seasonal atopic dermatitis. ELISA assays using horseradish peroxidase-labelled anti-dog IgE monoclonal antibody (Bethyl; A40-125P) and recombinant Der f 2 (Zenoaq), natural Zen 1 (Zenoaq) and DF extract (Greer Laboratories; North Carolina) were performed by Zenoaq, Fukushima, Japan. The mean optical density (OD) of each sample was determined and the cut-off value was calculated from OD readings obtained from four healthy control dogs. Der f 2, Zen 1 and DF-specific IgE antibodies were found in the serum samples taken from 57 (97 per cent), 45 (76 per cent) and 47 (80 per cent) atopic dogs, respectively, suggesting that both Zen 1 and Der f 2 are 'major allergens' in the South-East England.


A country with an advanced economy always pays close attention for a road.
Heavily trafficked road is a road with huge volume of load from the vehicle that moved
or stays in a road. Thin surfacing is one of thin asphalt overlay surfacing method.
However, there is generally a lack of practical examples of thin surfacing applications,
including costs involved, the benefits and in what circumstances they should be used for
best return on investment. The Shell Pavement Design Method (SPDM) is used in this
study for the design of new asphalt roads by calculation of thin surfacing overlay with
high performance at heavily trafficked road with low and high temperature condition.
The method that used in this study is divided into data collection and analysis.
Data collection is given from asphalt data such as material test, indirect tensile
strength, unconfined compressive strength, permeability, indirect tensile stiffness test,
vehicle data and road from Libya. Analysis from data collection is used Shell Pavement
Design Method (SPDM) program to design thin surfacing overlay for heavily trafficked
road.
Retona blend 55 can be the best composition and suitable for thin surfacing on
hot and arid region compared with two others bitumen according to experimental test.
polymer SBS was the better bitumen for thin surfacing overlay for hot arid region. The
result shows that polymer SBS can be used for asphalt and no need to do overlay for
every year. The analysis using SPDM program can be focused more on high
temperature especially at rutting and overlay calculation.
Keyword: SPDM, thin surfacing, bitumen, hot arid region


This paper presents the design and implementation of a sequential simulator for the parallel functional language BSML based on the parallel computation model Bulk Synchronous Parallelism (BSP). This simulator is implemented in sequential, runs in any browser, and provides a graphical representation of the parallel executions. Due to the pure functional nature of BSML, the results obtained by this simulator are the same than the results that could be obtained by executing the program in parallel.


Introduction: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) cells are known to produce excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS), particularly superoxide (O2•-), which may contribute to the aggressive nature of this disease. Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EcSOD) is an antioxidant enzyme that catalyzes the dismutation of O2•- to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the extracellular environment. By limiting O2•- concentration and producing H2O2, EcSOD is thought to regulate the redox state of the tumor microenvironment that could contribute to pancreatic cancer progression. The current work tests the hypothesis that EcSOD modulates PDA growth and invasion by modifying the balance between H2O2 and ONOO- formation. Methods: EcSOD and 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT), a marker of protein nitration by ONOO-, were evaluated in specimens from patients with PDA. EcSOD expression was correlated with clinicopathologic and treatment-related variables and survival in a tissue microarray (TMA) of 114 patients with Stage I-IV PDA. EcSOD was constitutively overexpressed in two primary PDA cell lines and clonogenic survival and doubling time were measured. A Matrigel invasion assay was used to determine the impact of EcSOD on PDA tumor cell invasive capacity. We also utilized and GC4419, a selective SOD mimic currently in clinical development. GC4419 dismutates O2•- but does not react with H2O2 under physiologic conditions. PDA cells stably expressing EcSOD and luciferase were used to create hind leg xenografts in athymic nude mice to assess the impact of EcSOD on tumor growth and then via peritoneal injection to determine the impact on peritoneal metastasis formation using bioluminescence imaging (BLI). Results: EcSOD expression was reduced in PDA compared to normal pancreas in 11/16 specimens evaluated (69%). A decrease in expression was also seen in areas of premalignant ductal epithelium (PanIN-3) relative to adjacent pancreas. In normal pancreas tissue, there was no evidence of immunoreactive 3-NT; however, 11/16 PDA specimens (69%) had robust levels of immunoreactive 3-NT. In the TMA, EcSOD expression was absent in 41/114 of the PDA biopsies (36%). The median survival of patients with intact EcSOD expression was 11.0 months vs. 6.5 months for patients with loss of EcSOD expression. Compared to patients with intact EcSOD, patients with loss of EcSOD more often had advanced stage disease and were less likely to be treated with surgery. In an adjusted proportional hazard model of more than 10 clinical variables, the HR for death with loss of EcSOD was 1.63 (95% CI=1.02-2.58, p=0.04). EcSOD overexpression significantly reduced clonogenic survival, doubling time, and tumor cell invasion relative to controls. GC4419 also significantly reduced PDA invasiveness in the Matrigel assay. PDA cells stably expressing EcSOD showed decreased growth and doubling time in hind limb xenografts and significantly less peritoneal metastasis using BLI. Conclusions: Loss of EcSOD expression and oxidative stress as indicated by the presence of 3-NT is a common finding in PDA. Loss of EcSOD expression correlates with negative prognostic factors and shorter survival in patients with PDA. Overexpression of EcSOD resulted in reduced PDA growth, invasion, and peritoneal metastasis. The selective SOD mimic GC4419 also reduced invasion of PDA tumor cells. Together these findings support the hypothesis that modulating O2•- in the PDA microenvironment alters parameters of progression, oxidative damage, and may represent a target for limiting the spread of PDA. (Supported by The American Surgical Association Foundation Fellowship (JJM) and the American Cancer Society (JJM). Citation Format: James J. Mezhir, Brianne R. O9Leary, Andrew M. Bellizzi, Sean Altekruse, Charles F. Lynch, Brenda Y. Hernandez, Wendy Cozen, Michael D. Henry, Jeffrey Keene, Robert A. Beardsley, Douglas R. Spitz, Frederick E. Domann. The role of extracellular superoxide dismutase activity in pancreatic cancer biology and therapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer: Innovations in Research and Treatment; May 18-21, 2014; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(13 Suppl):Abstract nr B52.


The educational system has been revolutionized and changed the style of learning, teaching, communication and providing the information. There is need to use innovative methods in teaching children with mental retardation. The experiment across ten participants assessed the efficacy of music in teaching concept of direction to children with mental retardation at primary level. Students were divided in two groups: experimental and control. While experimental group receive instruction through rhymes with musical components, other group received instruction in a traditional way. The investigation involved t-test; the findings revealed that experimental group performed better in post test in learning and retention: in addition the researcher observed that the attention, concentration and interest were higher in experimental group though it was not a part of the study.


This study was carried out to investigate and analyze the vascular flora and injury status in Shinduri coastal dune area (N36° 49´, E126° 11´), where designated as Natural Monuments and the result are as follows. The vascular plants identified and surveyed were 125 taxa including 108 species, 14 varieties, 2 forms and 1 hybrid of 92 genera of 40 families and there are 20 taxa including 17 species, 2 varieties and 1 hybrid of 15 genera of 10 families for woody plants, while 105 taxa including 91 species, 12 varieties and 2 forms of 78 genera of 34 families for the herbaceous plants at the study sites. Seventeen taxa including 17 species of 15 genera of 9 families were investigated for naturalized plants and ratio of naturalization was 13.6 percents at the study sites. Glehnia littorolis Fr. Schm. and Lilium callosum S. et Z. appeared as rare and endangered plants designated in Korea Forest Service. Nine taxa in degree 1, 2 taxa in degree 2, 4 taxa in degree 3, 2 taxa in degree 4 and 2 taxa in degree 5 were represented for especialized species.


Introduction, Mireille Rosello Dread heads: roles, models, and the Black voice in mainstream news, Paulette M. Caldwell Hijacking national identities in French sitcoms: stereotypes and gay performance in Les filles d'a cote, Jean Manil Hallucinations of France and Africa in the Colonial Exhibition of 1931 and Ousmane Soce's Mirages de Paris, Christopher L. Miller Reflections and confessions on the 'Minority' and Immigrant I.D. Tour, Laura Elisa Perez & Ali Behdad The critic as tourist: Hottentot Venuses and comparatist glands, Mireille Rosello Recipes for resistance: the textualization of minority identity in Edmond de Maleh's Mille ans un jour, Ronnie Scharfman.


for a better worldTM In the early 1990's a new failure mode for high current, high voltage semiconductor devices was discovered. The failure mode was of considerable practical significance and caused a series of equipment malfunctions in the field. This failure mode affects all kind of devices like diodes, thyristors, GTOs, IGCTs, IGBTs, etc. It consists of a localised breakdown in the bulk of the devices and is not related to junction termination instabilities. The location of the breakdown spot on the wafer is random. The onset of the breakdown occurs without a precursor within a few nanoseconds and there is no sign of early failures or wear out. The failure rate is, thus, constant in time but strongly dependent on the applied voltage and shows a small dependence on temperature. Application note 5SYA 2046-03


Abstract The environmental sensitivity to oil pollution is addressed in the Loire estuary, an area of very high economical and recreational value. The first part of the paper deals with the evaluation of remote sensing images (SPOT, Landsat Thematic Mapper and ERS-1 radar). The availability of the right images with respect to low tide conditions is discussed. Well-established classifications are used for both visible and radar images, which produce mainly geomorphological information: coastline, sediments, vegetation. Living resources at risk are compiled mostly out of ancillary data, i.e., maps and reports. These two types of information lead to ranking the shoreline in terms of its ecological sensitivity. Man-made objects and human activities are also incorporated. After collecting all relevant data, we examine in a second part how to merge them and produce environmental sensitivity maps, using both CAD (Computer Assisted Design) and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) tools.


Abstract. Lakes play important roles in the economic-social sustainable development.
However, due to unreasonable development and urbanization in recent years,
lake water pollution and ecological degradation have occurred in China. The
improvement of the lake inflow water quality is very important. A filtration
system includes Gravel filtering system, Aquatic plant area and Ecological
bag area was established. The test river is one of the typical lake inflow
river and located in the river network in the Chang Dang lake, China. Water
quality, zooplankton and phytoplankton in the inflow river were observed form
July to mid-August in order to analyze the general process. The average
removal rate of NH3-N (ammonia nitrogen) TN (total nitrogen) and TP
(total phosphorus) is 28.33, 25.76 and 24.43 %, respectively. The
Pantle-Buck method was used to evaluate the water quality and the B∕T index
was used to evaluate the nutrition situation. The B∕T values were reduced
by 20 % and the SI pollution index was reduced by 11.8 %. Therefore, a
positive effect on the water's ecological restoration was achieved by the
filtration system.


This paper presents generalized modeling and analysis of the impact of imperfect device-to-device (D2D) association for direct D2D communication in spectrum-shared downlink cellular networks. It also addresses practical interference and energy constraints that are imposed on the underlying D2D communication network. Specifically, new decentralized schemes to identify and then establish point-to- point D2D communication links between well-identified groups of active devices when downlink cellular resources can be accessed by the underlying D2D network are proposed. Through the analysis, detailed characterization of devices that can serve others are first presented, wherein each of which is required to meet a specific transmit power constraint it can dedicate to serve others. Then, the downlink resources (i.e., physical channels) that can be used by serving devices to serve others via D2D communication links are identified cooperatively in the D2D network, while meeting an interference constraint per channel as imposed by the primary cellular network. The analysis then proceeds to analyze the proposed D2D association, which aims to simultaneously improve the desired link quality while minimizing the effect of interference at each served device, considering various practical but imperfect operating scenarios. Numerical results are presented to clarify some of the main outcomes of this work.


Determining consumers' perceptions and preferences of the practicality of floral gifts, fragrance and longevity is important to floriculture industry stakeholders because these attributes can increase floral gift value. Recent research shows that floriculture sales are decreasing. Increasing the demand for floral gifts among Generations X and Y is one way to counter this trend. The objective of this study was to explore ways to help the floriculture industry improve sales through increased industry awareness of consumers' expectations of floral gifts. A questionnaire and focus group discussion were used to investigate consumers' expectations. We found that Generation XY participants felt floral gifts were the least practical. However, as participants aged, there was a shift towards floral gifts being considered both emotional and practical. Furthermore, Generation Y participants want more fragrant flowers, whereas older participants prefer greater longevity over fragrance.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to value an innovation project derived from a product diversification strategy in the agricultural auto parts sector, considering uncertainties and flexibility as sources of value for the project.

Design/methodology/approach
A case study project is presented and valued using real options, with the possibility of including new information modelled by Bayes' theorem, which enables the fitting of the probabilities of the project for the purpose of valuation through the decision tree method.

Findings
The results indicate the effect of new information and provide implications for value creation, demonstrating the need for a more profound and systematic approach to the use of investment strategies considering factors endogenous and exogenous to a firm that can and should be considered in the decision-making process.

Practical implications
This study contributes to an understanding of the relationship of strategy and innovation through product diversification with value creation and serves as a guide for controlling the possibility of investments in diversified companies and agribusiness using the methodology discussed in this paper.

Originality/value
Valuing the inclusion of new information through Bayesian inference in the analysis of investments is a methodological feature that has received minimal attention in the literature. Therefore, the use of Bayesian theory for the real options model applied to agribusiness is the main innovation of this study to demonstrate new ways of modelling uncertainty in addition to stochastic processes.


Using several frameworks for public policy analysis, documents how midwifery in Ontario evolved from being illegal in 1982 to being a self‐regulated health profession in 1990. In 1985, the Ontario Government agreed that midwifery should be "legalized"; but how to do it was the question. The lobbying efforts of two coalitions armed with research‐based evidence influenced the policy decision process. Coalition A favoured midwifery becoming a self‐regulated health profession based on their beliefs that: (1) childbirth should be "de‐medicalized" and (2) the parents have a right to choose. Coalition B favoured the medical model and believed that "treatment was better"; it opposed home births, in general, and midwifery being self‐regulated, in particular. Also examines future implications of the Midwife Act.


This essay analyses the necessity of the renovation of schools' sports contest.It further proposes a new model of schools 'sports contest which not only is combined with the teaching goal and content,but also accords with the students' physiological and psychological characteristics as well.


Evolutionary computation offers practical advantages to the researcher facing difficult optimization problems. These advantages are multifold, including the simplicity of the approach, its robust response to changing circumstance, its flexibility, and many other facets.

The evolutionary algorithm can be applied to problems where heuristic solutions are not available or generally lead to unsatisfactory results. As a result, evolutionary algorithms have recently received increased interest, particularly with regard to the manner in which they may be applied for practical problem solving.


A newly developed laser desorption and laser postionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (LD-LPI-TOFMS) for the direct microtrace determination of rare earth elements (REEs) in residues has been presented. Benefiting from spatially and temporally separated processes between desorption and ionization, LD-LPI-TOFMS plays a dual role in alleviating the barriers of deteriorating spectral resolution at high irradiance, serious matrix effects and elemental fractionation effects at low irradiance. Compared with the conventional laser desorption/ionization (LDI) method, this technique offers unambiguous full-elemental determination of 15 REEs with more uniform relative sensitivity coefficients (RSCs) ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 for all REEs investigated, satisfying the semiquantitative analysis criteria. More importantly, a highly sensitive analysis of REEs with very little consumption was achieved by getting the utmost out of desorbed neutral atoms instead of increasing the amount of the sample, resulting in outstanding relative and absolute limits of detection (LODs and ALODs) of ∼ng/mL and ∼femtogram. The results presented here indicate that LD-LPI-TOFMS offers great potential in microtrace determination for elements in solution samples with minor sample preparation.


The pertinence of this work stems from the need to study the cognitive bases of lexical synonymy of nouns, through which the semantic proximity between synonyms is formed for native speakers. Most of the works devoted to synonymy have been carried out within the framework of the systemocentric approach. This study tries to solve the problem: it studies synonymy in anthropocentric and cognitive aspects and it allows revising the traditional approach. The article aims to describe the cognitive bases of the synonymous similarity of different categories of Russian nouns. The linguistic materials for research are: 1) two psycholinguistic experiments (426 participants); 2) Russian National Corpus; 3) Russian dictionaries; 4) publications in the media. In the first experiment, subjects suggested synonyms for the stimuli; in the second experiment native speakers explained the meaning of the stimuli. The hypothesis is that logical and situational foundations create semantic proximity in the native speaker's lexicon. The research has shown that the hypothesis was confirmed. According to the logical basis, the semantic similarity of synonyms is the result of the coincidence of most of the semantic components identified by using logical procedures: synonyms have the same core semantic components. This base is typical for object nouns. For situational basis, the semantic proximity is associated with the ability of synonyms to express similar situations from the point of native speaker's view. The situation is understood broadly as a fragment of reality (scene) in which objects – people, objects, non-objective entities – are in certain relationships with each other. This basis is realized primarily for abstract nouns and personal names. The distinguished bases cannot always be clearly distinguished, especially for polysemantic words. Depending on the category of nouns and communicative strategy a native speaker can refine the meaning, using synonyms, or neutralize the differences between synonyms.


The aminopeptidase PepC is a cysteine peptidase isolated from lactic acid bacteria. Its structural and enzymatic properties closely resembles those of the bleomycin hydrolases, a group of cytoplasmic enzymes isolated from eukaryotes. Previous biochemical and structural data have shown that the C-terminal end of PepC partially occupies the active site cleft. In this work the substrate specificity of PepC was engineered by deletion of the four C-terminal residues. The mutant PepCDelta432-435 cleaved peptide substrates as an oligopeptidase while the aminopeptidase specificity was totally abolished. The substrate size dependency indicated that PepCDelta432-435 possesses an extended binding site able to accommodate four residues of the substrate on both sides of the cleaved bond. The activity of PepCDelta432-435 towards tryptic fragments of casein revealed a preference for peptides with hydrophobic amino acids at positions P2 and P3 and for Gly, Asn and Gln at position P1. PepCDelta432-435 was shown to be highly sensitive to the thiol peptidase inhibitors leupeptin or E64 which are inefficient towards the wild-type PepC. In conclusion, deletion of the four C-terminal residues in PepC produces a new enzyme with properties resembling those of an endopeptidase from the papain family.


Subjective cognitive decline is a symptom that may appear in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. This study examined the effects of smartphone-based calendar training and walking exercise regimen on postmenopausal women experiencing subjective cognitive decline. Experimental group 1 participated in both calendar training and walking exercise, group 2 participated in calendar training only, and the control group did not receive either intervention. Forty-two participants completed a cognitive function test and questionnaire upon entering the study and 12 weeks later. The controlled oral word association score increased in experimental groups 1 and 2 and decreased in the control group. Memory contentment increased in experimental group 1, maintained in experimental group 2, and decreased in the control group. Smartphone-based calendar training and a walking exercise regimen improved executive function and memory contentment in everyday life, but the effects on depressive symptoms and self-esteem were not significant. Our findings demonstrate that smartphone-based calendar training and walking exercise improved cognitive function and have potential as nonpharmacologic interventions to strengthen cognitive function in women experiencing subjective cognitive decline.


Citrus farming is a smallholder enterprise in Eastern Uganda that has been prioritised and has received significant strategic support from government. However, farmers are variably engaging and benefiting from it probably due to existing inefficiencies in the value chain. This study aimed at analysing the citrus value chain, to identify factors affecting its performance, to foster citrus market competitiveness. The study involved citrus farming households, input suppliers, processors and traders. Cross sectional data were obtained and analysed using value chain mapping and gross margin analysis techniques. Results showed that farmers produce citrus using traditional technologies, including use of informally distributed planting materials with limited chemicals and irrigation. Value addition is limited and processing is still a critical missing link, thus fruits are commonly sold fresh. Generally, the value chain is not well coordinated and there is lack of trust among actors. Nevertheless, gross margin analysis shows that citrus farming is a profitable venture, which can lead to improvement in smallholder farm incomes and gainful employment in some segments of the value chain. Thus, citrus value chain upgrading opportunities lie within provision of quality planting materials, processing for value addition, and establishment of commodity innovation platforms. Keywords : Actors, margins, oranges, smallholder


In this letter, we demonstrate the first BN/Graphene/BN field effect transistor for RF applications. The BN/Graphene/BN structure can preserve the high mobility of graphene, even when it is sandwiched between a substrate and a gate dielectric. Field effect transistors (FETs) using a bilayer graphene channel have been fabricated with a gate length LG=450 nm. A current density in excess of 1 A/mm and DC transconductance close to 250 mS/mm are achieved for both electron and hole conductions. RF characterization is performed for the first time on this device structure, giving a current-gain cut-off frequency fT=33 GHz and an fT.LG product of 15 GHz.m. The improved performance obtained by the BN/Graphene/BN structure is very promising to enable the next generation of high frequency graphene RF electronics.


Abstract This paper presents the evolutionary (time-dependent) power spectral density curves of six strong-motion earthquakes. The earthquake accelerograms are treated as piecewise-separable and the frequency-independent modulating function is estimated by applying the mean square minimization criterion. The results show that, as the time increases, the power spectral densities of earthquakes can vary both in magnitude and in peak location over the frequency axis. The analysis demonstrates that the nonstationary characteristics of earthquakes can be reasonably assessed by a simple computation procedure and the information thus obtained can be helpful in developing improved stochastic models for earthquake simulation.


Discovering criteria and characteristics of a healthy family is quite essential from both conceptual aspect and therapeutic basis. This study was targeted at developing a model of healthy family in Iranian society. A mixed method (qualitative-quantitative) of research was applied to the study. In the qualitative stage, the researchers interviewed selected couples and family specialists and then based on their opinions, criteria and characteristics of healthy family were identified. Subsequently, the relevant investigations carried out concerning healthy family were scrutinized out, of which topics on healthy family extracted. In the second stage, the model was investigated for its fitness with fieldwork studies. In analyzing transcripts of interviews with couples, 83 and 19 categories were obtained respectively from open coding and axial coding based on topic similarity. Likewise, through analysis of transcripts of interviews with family specialists, 106 and 21 categories established while using open and axial coding respectively. Finally, qualitative analysis of previous researches on healthy family resulted in 114 categories which were then distributed into 20 categories in the light of axial coding in accordance with topic similarity. As a result, a model of healthy family was constructed including fourteen dimensions by means of triangulation in compliant with the categories extracted from interviews with family specialists, couples, and the available previous research results. The findings also revealed that the qualitative model suggested for healthy family fitted fieldwork data and supposed factorial structure was also confirmed.


Abstract This paper is based on data from the LANCHART (Language Change in Real Time) corpus. LANCHART is 'data-based' in that transcripts are orthographically normalized and both transcripts and annotations are time stamped and stored in a database. The corpus is structured according to generation, gender, geography, class, and time of recording. The socio-linguistic issue treated is the relationship between genre, as defined in the context of a so-called Discourse Context Analysis, and a particularly frequent and significant phonetic variable, viz. the (æ) variable in Modern Danish. Through repeated searches in the corpus we show that genres do have an effect on phonetic variation and that they frequently develop in real time, at least with regard to the patterning of the selected phonetic variable. The results are discussed in the context of intra-individual variation within the sociolinguistic interview, i.e., the timehonored style problem.


Implements are described from the localities mentioned in the title, which lie at heights of 885, 576, and 450 feet above O.D. respectively. Hackpen Hill forms a ridge of Chalk running north and south, capped by patches of Tertiary clay. Trimmed stones of eolithic nature were obtained from fields ploughed in Drift-gravels, together with abraded Upper Greensand chert, quartzite-pebbles, and small flints. The greater number of the flaked stones were found within and near shallow pits excavated in yellow Drift-clay, apparently newer than the Red Clay with Flints, exposed at the edges of the larger hollows. The implements are unabraded, abraded, and striated; some stained brown, some green, others unstained; evidently some are in situ, others were brought with the Drift. Implements taken from the clay are described, and a distinction is made between the palæoliths and neoliths obtained from the same surface. The similarity in the mineral condition of the former to palæoliths from Knowle Farm Pit is pointed out, and both are referred to the Chelléen period. It is noteworthy that, while implements and flakes are numerous on the top of Hackpen Hill as compared with good, trimmed pieces, yet at this 570-foot level on the Winterbourne-Bassett plain implements and flakes are very scarce, while trimmed pieces are very numerous, although the level of the Winterbourne stones is 300 feet lower. Many of the latter, however, have been evidently rechipped, and are therefore of later date. The Author concludes that implements of at least three palseolithic periods are


This simple method for restraining movement makes procedures with pediatric patients much easier. The method uses a standard readily available bed sheet, is easy to learn, can be modified for use on various body areas, and makes short procedures possible with minimal nursing assistance. Procedures are made more safe by keeping children still without sedatives. Because wrapping in a bed sheet is less threatening to a young child than a standard Velcro restraint system, the entire procedure proceeds more smoothly than with commercially available restraints. Short procedures that might otherwise need to be referred out can now be performed in the office.


Abstract Daptomycin is typically the treatment of choice for vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE) bloodstream infections (BSI) in patients with hematological malignancies, but increasingly daptomycin nonsusceptible VRE are being reported. We reviewed our experience with daptomycin nonsusceptible VRE BSI among patients with hematological malignancies. We compared risk factors and outcomes of 20 patients with daptomycin nonsusceptible VRE BSI (case patients) with 40 matched control patients with daptomycin susceptible VRE BSI. Case patients had more complications (6/20 vs. 2/40, p = .013); all-cause mortality was similar in both groups. By multivariable analysis, only prior daptomycin exposure within 90 days was significantly associated with daptomycin nonsusceptible VRE BSI (odds ratio 26.71; p < .0001). In 25% of case patients, all of whose VRE isolates had an initial minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 4 μg/mL, nonsusceptibility developed during treatment, raising the question of whether higher doses of daptomycin should be used for VRE BSI in hematology patients.


A thesis Presented to the Department of Architecture Faculty of Environmental and Development Studied University of Science And Technology, Kumasi — Ghana in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Post-Graduate Diploma in Architecture


This article assesses the progress of the European Union's Water Framework Directive from a legal and policy perspective. Emerging judgments from the Court of Justice of the European Union are providing new clarity, for example on cost recovery for water services and the application of the 'no deterioration' principle. The article reflects on transposition, especially in the UK; analyses several aspects that have been especially challenging, for policy-makers, regulators and water users; and identifies some missing elements. Challenges include the meaning of 'good status' and the derogations to achieving the same; the article will suggest that the derogations are needlessly complex, and that 'good status' as a binding obligation has had unintended consequences. Absent from the text currently is provision for drought, climate change and ecosystem services, and it concludes that each of these could usefully be part of the Commission's review in 2019.


AbstractAlthough substance use disorder (SUD) patients are documented to have an inactive lifestyle, which is associated with cardiovascular disease, other lifestyle-related diseases and premature death, evidence regarding their aerobic endurance and muscular strength is limited. Therefore, the authors aimed to evaluate directly assessed maximal oxygen consumption, walking efficiency, as well as maximal strength in a group of SUD patients.A total of 44 SUD patients in residential treatment, 31 men (31 ± 8 years) and 13 women (34 ± 10 years), were included and completed the physical testing. The patients were compared with an age- and sex-matched reference group.Male and female SUD patients exhibited a maximal oxygen consumption of 44.6 ± 6.2 and 33.8 ± 6.6 mL· min−1 kg−1, respectively. This was significantly lower than the reference group, 15% (P = 0.03) for men and 25% (P = 0.001) for women. In addition, the SUD patients had a 13% significantly reduced walking efficiency (P = 0.02), compared with healthy controls. The impairments in aerobic endurance were accompanied by significant reductions in maximal strength of 30% (P = 0.001) and 33% (P = 0.01) for men and women, respectively. In combination, these results imply that SUD patients have impaired endurance and muscular strength compared with what is typically observed in the population, and consequently suffer a higher risk of developing cardiovascular and other lifestyle-related diseases and early death. Effective physical exercise should be advocated as an essential part of the clinical practice of SUD treatment to improve the patient's health and consequently reduce the costs because of the high use of emergency departments, hospital, and medical care.


In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future European Constitution as well as future changes of it should be decided by the European citizens. After a discussion of the pros and cons of direct democracy, the ability of direct democracy to help creating a European demos is discussed. Consequently, we propose a mandatory (required and binding) referendum on total and partial revisions of the European Constitution. In addition, we propose a constitutional initiative, a statutory and a general initiative as well as a fiscal referendum for financially important projects.


AbstractShipboard ADCP and towed CTD measurements are presented of a near-inertial internal gravity wave radiating away from a zonal jet associated with the Subtropical Front in the North Pacific. Three-dimensional spatial surveys indicate persistent alternating shear layers sloping downward and equatorward from the front. As a result, depth-integrated ageostrophic shear increases sharply equatorward of the front. The layers have a vertical wavelength of about 250 m and a slope consistent with a wave of frequency 1.01f. They extend at least 100 km south of the front. Time series confirm that the shear is associated with a downward-propagating near-inertial wave with frequency within 20% of f. A slab mixed layer model forced with shipboard and NCEP reanalysis winds suggests that wind forcing was too weak to generate the wave. Likewise, trapping of the near-inertial motions at the low-vorticity edge of the front can be ruled out because of the extension of the features well south of it. Instead, the authors...


We consider the covalence characters of the 3d electron with the eg orbital freedoms and put forward a new mechanism of the orbital ordering (OO) based on the direct coulomb repulsion in this article. The results show that the orbital-orbital interaction (OO-I) between the adjacent ions in 180-degree configuration is dominated by the super-exchange energy accompanied by a weak orbital-spin coupling, and the OO-I in 90-degree configuration is monitored by the oxygen on-site coulomb repulsion. The ferro-OO is the stable ground state for the one-dimensional chain in the case of the 90-degree configuration.


The aim of this article is to contribute to the endeavor of operationalizing and assessing the research of small firm's embeddedness. We hope to contribute to the existing literature by investigating form and degree of embeddedness of women entrepreneurs belonging to a marginal minority group in the periphery. A comprehensive questionnaire was administered in 2006 to a sample of 372 Arab-Muslim women entrepreneurs in the Northern and Southern "Triangle" of Israel, using a snowball convenient method. The data reveal that the vast majority of Arab women entrepreneurs are "over-embedded" within their minority ethnic milieu in the periphery. Highly embedded businesses are owned by women with an average of nearly 3 young children, with many of their businesses located at home and not registered. The women also reported on many difficulties and complain about lack of counseling opportunities.


This paper proposes an IFD (Information Flow Diagram) and an analysis method using the IFD for finding unexpected obstacles during the specification process of embedded software. Recently, embedded software has become increasingly larger in scale and more complicated, while time available for software development has become shorter. Both these industry trends affect the quality of the software. To improve the quality, it is necessary to find unexpected obstacles early in the specification process. This paper also describes a case study and discusses IFD and the analysis method.


Cocos nucifera Linn., which contain lauric acid has been known had antibacterial activity against Propionibacterium acnes that usually improve severe of pimple. Current study investigated optimum formula of emulgel mask based on the C. nucifera L. Extract from Kopyor coconut. Extract were tested for antibacterial against P. acnes ATCC 11827. In this research, C. nucifera L. extract of 1 and 5% were formulated as an active agent of peel off antiacne emulgel mask-containing carbomer 940 in various concentration (1% and 1.5%). The peel-off emulgel mask of C. nucifera L extract was then evaluated in terms of viscosity, pH, drying time, spreadability, and antibacterial activity. The selected formula was formula containing 5% of extract and 1% of carbomer 940. This formula had pH that suitable with skin pH 4.5–6.5, had good spreadability, and also produced highest antibacterial activity against P. acnes.


Hemobilia is the result of a pathological communication between bile duct and intra or extrahepatic vessel. 40% to 60% of the haemobilia cases are Iatrogenic, and the other causes are either vascular malformations or hepatic blunt trauma. We describe the case history of a patient in which laparoscopic cholecystectomy was complicated 3 months later by massive hemobilia. The cause of haemorrhage was a fistula between the principal bil duct and the right hepatic artery. This complication was successfully managed by surgery and angiographic embolization with full recovery of the patient.


Please send all communucations concerning ADVANCED PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS to RAYMOND E. WHITNEY, MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT, LOCK HAVEN UNIVERSITY, LOCK HAVEN, PA 17745. This department especially welcomes problems believed to be new or extending old results. Proposers should submit solutions or other information that will assist the editor. To facilitate their consideration, all solutions should be submitted on separate signed sheets within two months after publication of the problems.


The authors discuss the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), a method of using partially overlapping pulses (from pump and Stokes lasers) to produce complete population transfer between two quantum states of an atom or molecule. The procedure relies on the initial creation of a coherence (a population-trapping state) with subsequent adiabatic evolution. The authors present the basic theory, with some extensions, and then describe examples of experimental utilization. They note some applications of the technique not only to preparation of selected states for reaction studies, but also to quantum optics and atom optics. [S0034-6861(98)00803-4]


The intervocalic voicing of stops in Romance usually begins by /k/. This seems to be in blatant contradiction with the fact that velar stops are intrinsically less voiced. A reassessment of all relevant facts —typological generalizations, Romance diachronic data and their traditional interpretation— is the first step towards an explanation.


Aims. We study the evolution of circumstellar disks in 22 young (1 to 100 Myr) nearby (within 500 pc) associations over the entire mass spectrum using photometry covering from the optical to the mid-infrared. Methods. We compiled a catalog of 2340 spectroscopically-confirmed members of these nearby associations. We analyzed their spectral energy distributions and searched for excess related to the presence of protoplanetary disks. The dataset has been analyzed in a homogeneous and consistent way, allowing for meaningful inter-comparison of results obtained for individual regions. Special attention was given to the sensitivity limits and spatial completeness of the observations. Results. We derive disk fractions as probed by mid-infrared excess in the 22 regions. The unprecedented size of our sample allows us to confirm the timescale of disk decay reported in the literature and to find new trends. The fraction of excess sources increases systematically if measured at longer wavelengths. Disk percentages derived using di ff erent wavelength ranges should therefore be compared with caution. The dust probed at 22–24 µ m evolves slower than that probed at shorter wavelengths (3.4–12 µ m). Assuming an exponential decay, we derive a timescale τ = 4 . 2 − 5 . 8 Myr at 22–24 µ m for primordial disks, compared to 2 ∼ 3 Myr at shorter wavelengths (3.4–12 µ m). Primordial disks disappear around 10 ∼ 20 Myr. Their decline matches in time a brief increase of the number of "evolved" disks (defined here as including transitional and debris disks). There is more dispersion in the fraction of excess sources with age when measured at 22–24 µ m in comparison to shorter wavelengths. Conclusions. The increase in timescale of excess decay at longer wavelength is compatible with inside-out disk clearing scenar- ios. The increased timescale of decay and larger dispersion in the distribution of disk fractions at 22–24 µ m suggest that the inner (terrestrial-planet forming) and outer (giant-planet forming) zones evolve di ff erently, the latter potentially following a variety of evolutionary paths. The drop of primordial disks and the coincident rise of evolved disks at 10 Myr are compatible with planet formation theories suggesting that the disappearance of the gas is immediately followed by the dynamical stirring of the disk.


Electron beam welding is recognized as a low heat input for obtaining thinnest bead width and longest weld penetration among the technologies to provide low distortion. The challenge is to keep the electron beam focused without distractions to surroundings which is obtained by performing the process in a vacuum chamber. EBW modeling is similar to laser weld in terms of heat flux flow with a surface heat on bead area in the form a Gaussian distribution. When the beam forms a keyhole, the heat is conducted to the base metal by a frustum distribution. As there is no blind end at the bottom, a portion of the heat would leave out to ambience through the lower end of the bead. The heat flow mechanism is calculated using Peclet number from where the empirical formulae power distribution is determined. Peclet number variation is calculated as a function of radial distance, penetration depth and distance from wall. A method for incorporating weld velocity and gas flow in simulation and modeling is also discussed. Finite element analysis is done and temperature graphs were obtained for welding using Ansys software. Weld material used is SS304 and temperature dependent thermal and structural properties are considered. The output obtained is the thermal isotherms around the weld to estimate the fusion, bead and heat effected zones.


(is paper uses an improved deep learning algorithm to judge the rationality of the design of landscape image feature recognition. (e preprocessing of the image is proposed to enhance the data. (e deficiencies in landscape feature extraction are further addressed based on the new model. (en, the two-stage training method of the model is used to solve the problems of long training time and convergence difficulties in deep learning. Innovative methods for zoning and segmentation training of landscape pattern features are proposed, which makes model training faster and generates more creative landscape patterns. Because of the impact of too many types of landscape elements in landscape images, traditional convolutional neural networks can no longer effectively solve this problem. On this basis, a fully convolutional neural network model is designed to perform semantic segmentation of landscape elements in landscape images. (rough the method of deconvolution, the pixel-level semantic segmentation is realized. Compared with the 65% accuracy rate of the convolutional neural network, the fully convolutional neural network has an accuracy rate of 90.3% for the recognition of landscape elements. (e method is effective, accurate, and intelligent for the classification of landscape element design, which better improves the accuracy of classification, greatly reduces the cost of landscape element design classification, and ensures that the technical method is feasible. (is paper classifies landscape behavior based on this model for full convolutional neural network landscape images and demonstrates the effectiveness of using the model. In terms of landscape image processing, the image evaluation provides a certain basis.


The selectivity of gillnets for the inhabiting forage fish community in the Santa Cruz Channel (PE, Brazil) was estimated an experiment using three mesh sizes (30, 40 and 50 mm). The SELECT was used to estimate retention curves through four models: normal location, normal scale, lognormal and gamma. Aggregated as catches in all fisheries, 28 species were identified. Selectivity parameters for species Opisthonema oglinum, Anchovia clupeoides and Cetengraulis edentulous were estimated. The normal scale model gave the best fit for all species studied. In the case of O. oglinum fishing in the Santa Cruz Channel the catches of young individuals are particularly significant in gillnets with a 30 mm mesh size. However, a possible increase in mesh size indicates little change in the length structure of the catch for larger sizes, but catches would certainly be reduced. Thus, regulations with increased mesh size should result in non-viability of fishing continuity with reduced catches.


Most explosives are micro- and nanoscale composite material systems consisting of energetic crystals, amorphous particles, binders, and additives whose response to mechanical, thermal, or electromagnetic insults is often controlled by submicrometer-scale heterogeneities and interfaces. Several advanced dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques, including phase imaging, force volume mode, and Kelvin probe force microscopy with resonance enhancement for dielectric property mapping, have been used to map the local physical properties of mock explosive materials systems, allowing the identification of submicrometer heterogeneities in electrical and mechanical properties that could lead to the formation of hotspots under electromagnetic or mechanical stimuli. The physical interpretation of the property maps and the methods of image formation are presented. Possible interpretations of the results and future applications to energetic material systems are also discussed.


Rapid environmental changes in the Arctic, including permafrost thaw and coastal erosion, are expected to have great impacts on the global climate system, on the ecosystem and on local communities. However, the magnitude at which these processes occur and their impacts is still not completely understood. This project focuses on the study of coastal erosion rates and the resulting organic carbon and nutrient release to the nearshore zone on Herschel Island and Yukon Coastal Plain in northwest Canada. The methodological approach involves field sampling and surveys, laboratory analyses and remote sensing. Fifteen permafrost cores from different ecological units were drilled during the expedition to Herschel Island in 2013. Additionally, training areas for ecological units were delineated with GPS. Core samples will be analysed for CNS, TOC, grain size and δ13C signature. Training areas will be used to produce a map of ecological units with supervised classification of RapidEye imagery. Maps for soil organic carbon and nitrogen content will be produced based on the assumption that soil organic carbon and nitrogen contents are homogenous within ecological units. Rates of coastal erosion will be calculated from spatially detailed DEMs from different years. Airborne LIDAR scanning of the Yukon Coast and Herschel Island with POLAR 5 was carried out in the summers 2012 and 2013. A high-resolution DEM based on LIDAR data will enable comparisons between short-term three-dimensional changes of the coastline and soil organic carbon and nitrogen release into the nearshore zone.


Coronavirus IBV encodes a piconarvirus 3C-like proteinase. In a previous report, this proteinase was shown to undergo rapid degradation in vitro in reticulocyte lysate due to a posttranslational event involving ubiquitination of the protein. Several lines of evidence presented here indicate that the proteinase itself is stable. Translation of the IBV sequence from nucleotide 8864 to 9787 resulted in the synthesis of a 33 kDa protein, representing the full-length 3C-like proteinase. Pulse-chase and time-course experiments showed that this protein was stable in reticulocyte lysate for up to 2 hours. However, a 45 kDa protein encoded by the IBV sequence from nucleotide 8693 to 9911 underwent rapid degradation in reticulocyte lysate, but was stable in wheat germ extract, suggesting that an ATP-dependent protein degradation pathway may be involved in the turnover of the 45 kDa protein. To identify the IBV sequence responsible for the instability of this 45 kDa protein species, the region from nucleotide 8693 to 9787 was translated both in vitro and in vivo, leading to the synthesis of a stable 43 kDa protein. These results suggest that a destabilising signal may be located in the IBV sequences between the nucleotides 9787 and 9911. Meanwhile, protein aggregation was observed when the product encoded by the IBV sequence from nucleotide 9911 to 10510 was boiled for 5 minutes before being analysed in SDS-PAGE; when the same product was treated at 37"C for 15 minutes, however, protein aggregation was not detected. Deletion studies indicate that the presence of a hydrophobic domain downstream of the 3C-like proteinase-encoding region may be the cause for the aggregation of the product encoded by this region ofORF la.


Multiple choice questions are an established method of testing an examination candidate's knowledge. For students of Veterinary Nursing, they are both an important learning and revision tool and a key part of the examination. These self-assessment questions and answers provide not only a comprehensive revision aid linked to the structure of the veterinary nursing course but also offer practice in answering multiple choice questions. The aim of these two volumes is to provide a structured revision programme for the student. They will enable trainee Veterinary Nurses to test and expand their knowledge, whilst simultaneously improving their examination technique. *structured revision programme *the most efficient method of knowledge consolidation *affordable and concise *unique, and based on the current RCVS Veterinary Nursing syllabus.


This study investigated transfer of reading-related cognitive skills between learning to read Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among Chinese children in Hong Kong. Fifty-three Grade 2 students were tested on word reading, phonological, orthographic and rapid naming skills in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). The major findings were: (a) significant correlations between Chinese and English measures in phonological awareness and rapid naming, but not in orthographic skills; (b) significant unique contribution of Chinese and English rapid naming skills and English rhyme awareness for predicting Chinese word reading after controlling for all the Chinese and English cognitive measures; (c) significant unique contribution of English phonological skills and Chinese orthographic skills (a negative one) for predicting English word reading after controlling for all the English and Chinese cognitive measures; and (d) significant unique contribution of Chinese rhyme awareness for predicting English phonemic awareness. These findings provide initial evidence that developing reading-related cognitive skills in English may have facilitative effects on Chinese word reading development. They also suggest that Chinese orthographic skills or tactics may not be helpful for learning to read English words among ESL learners; and that Chinese rhyme awareness facilitates the development of English phonemic awareness which is an essential skill predicting ESL learning.


In this paper, initial stress measurement theory of micropolar elastic medium by stress release method is described. This measurement method uses the circular solid inclusion cell (SI-cell) as the strain sensor. And because of the SI-cell is regard as inclusion embedded in the micropolar elastic medium, measurement theory is derived by use of the solution of the elastic material with a inclusion problem through the correspondence principle between elasticity and couple stress elasticity. The characteristic of this measurement theory is that the radius of an over coring is finite. Several examples are shown by graphical representation and numerical results.


This paper outlines the requirements for metal recovery from wastewater, with particular reference to electroplating. The technical features of three alternative membrane processes are described. Nanofiltration is shown to separate ionic species on the basis of coulombic interactions or hydrated ion size, which leads to either a 'charge9 pattern or a 'hydration9 pattern of rejection. These rejection patterns provide ion selectivity. Ultrafiltration (UF), coupled with ion-complexing polymers or ion exchange resin, also provides efficient removal of metal ions, at high flux. The effectiveness of the UF-resin process is considerably increased as the resin size is decreased. Solvent extraction in a Liquid Membrane Contactor (LMC), which is based on microporous hollow fibre modules with aqueous and organic phases circulating through the shell or fibre lumens, achieves high fluxes of metal ions. A limitation of the LMC is the need to avoid phase leakage. The factors governing the critical displacement pressure and the effective transmembrane pressure are discussed. An LMC with a high packing density of fibres in the shell is preferred. Finally, the paper discusses criteria for selection of 'user friendly9 technologies for the electroplating industry. The membrane technologies, particularly in combined form, score highly except in terms of simplicity. This aspect needs further development.


The electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection capability of SOI CMOS output buffers has been studied with Human Body Model (HBM) stresses. Experimental results show that the ESD voltage sustained by SOI CMOS buffers is only about half the voltage sustained by the bulk NMOS buffers. ESD discharge current in a SOI CMOS buffer is found to be absorbed by the NMOSFET alone. Also, SOI circuits display more serious reliability problem in handling negative ESD discharge current during bi-directional stresses. Most of the methods developed for bulk technology to improve ESD performance have minimal effects on SOI. A new Through Oxide Buffer ESD protection scheme is proposed as an alternative for SOI ESD protection. In order to improve ESD reliability, ESD protection circuitries can be fabricated on the SOI substrate instead of the top silicon thin film, after selectively etching through the buried oxide. This scheme also allows ESD protection strategies developed for bulk technology to be directly transferred to SOI substrate. >


Despite extensive critical attention, Arthur C. Clarke's distinctive science fiction has never been fully or properly understood. This study examines some of his lighthearted shorter works for the first time and explores how Clarke's views regularly diverge from those of other science fiction writers. Clarke thought new inventions would likely bring more problems than benefits and suspected that human space travel would never extend beyond the solar system. He accepted that humanity would probably become extinct in the future or be transformed by evolution into unimaginable new forms. He anticipated that aliens would be genuinely alien in both their physiology and psychology. He perceived a deep bond between humanity and the oceans, perhaps stronger than any developing bond between humanity and space. Despite his lifelong atheism, he frequently pondered why humans developed religions, how they might abandon them, and why religions might endure in defiance of expectations. Finally, Clarke's characters, often criticized as bland, actually are merely reticent, and the isolated lifestyles they adopt--remaining distant or alienated from their families and relying upon connections to broader communities and long-distance communication to ameliorate their solitude--not only reflect Clarke's own personality, as a closeted homosexual and victim of a disability, but they also constitute his most important prediction, since increasing numbers of twenty-first-century citizens are now living in this manner.


Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) has become a popular tool to investigate biomolecular adsorption phenomena at surfaces. In contrast to optical mass-sensitive techniques, which commonly detect the adsorbed nonhydrated mass, the mechanically coupled mass measured by QCM-D includes a significant amount of water. A mechanistic and quantitative picture of how the surrounding liquid couples to the deposited solutes has so far been elusive for apparently simple phenomena like the random adsorption of nanometer-sized particles on a planar surface. Using a setup that enables simultaneous measurements by reflectometry and QCM-D on the same support, we have quantified the variations in coupled water, as sensed by the QCM frequency response, as a function of coverage for the formation of monolayers of globular proteins, virus particles, and small unilamellar vesicles. We found a close-to-linear relationship between the surface coverage and the relative contribution of water to the frequency response for these adsorption scenarios. The experimental hydration curves could be reproduced quantitatively using a theoretical model that assigns a pyramid-shaped hydration coat to each adsorbed particle and that accounts for the random distribution of adsorbents on the surface. This simple model fits the experimental data well and provides insight into the parameters that affect hydration.