Teaching material can be time-consuming and difficult to develop, even for those with experience. Teaching repositories permit the sharing of material and can thus potentially save time and enable re-use of good material. Many teaching repositories have been created for this reason, but they often see limited use and we believe there is a missed opportunity to learn lessons and improve the design of repositories accordingly. This paper reports an investigation of the use of the "Nifty Assignments" repository, in an attempt to discern reasons for the success and failure of teaching repositories to enable effective sharing. We go on to discuss the design of a new online community, the Greenroom, for teachers using the Greenfoot environment. The Greenroom attempts to focus on personal interactions and collaborative development of resources in order to increase engagement and sharing, rather than the traditional download-upload models of other repositories. The comparison and contrast of these two approaches reveal interesting insights about techniques which can contribute to the success of repositories


BACKGROUND
Insulin resistance and hyperglycemia are common in acutely injured patients, and associated with poor outcomes. In the era of tight glucose control, measures of insulin responsiveness (IR) may provide a better indicator of patient status than does the serum glucose concentration. We hypothesized that measures of IR during tight glycemic control protocols are associated with infection and may be more predictive than the serum glucose concentration.

METHODS
All critically injured, mechanically ventilated patients undergo protocolized tight glycemic control with the aid of a computer-based system that calculates the insulin dose using an adapting multiplier (insulin dose = [blood glucose - 60) x M). Consecutive patients on protocol were studied to identify the incidence of positive sterile-site or quantitative bronchoalveolar lavage cultures (>10(4) colony-forming units/mL). Patients were stratified by presence and number of positive cultures and analyzed by both serum glucose measures and measures of IR (average multiplier and average insulin infusion rate).

RESULTS
During the six-month study period, 356 patients were placed on the tight glycemic control protocol. Of these, 101 patients had 192 positive cultures. Patients with positive cultures required significantly more hourly insulin than those without a positive culture (3.7 vs. 2.8 units/h; p = or<0.001). Logistic regression showed the insulin dose (odds ratio 2.1; 95% confidence interval 1.6, 3.0; p = <0.001) and the adapting multiplier to be independent predictors of the patient having a positive culture among other factors associated with nosocomial infection.

CONCLUSIONS
Insulin resistance, quantified by hourly insulin dose and median multiplier, confers a higher risk of systemic nosocomial infection. Patients with positive cultures actually had lower admission and median blood glucose values over their intensive care unit stays, highlighting the decreased value of this measure as a predictor of outcome in the setting of tight glucose control. A greater insulin requirement suggesting resistance may be used as a marker of a higher risk of nosocomial infection.


: The globalization reveals a number of socio-economic perspectives and challenges to the countries. The technological progress and innovation are essential elements of the globalization leaving their indisputable mark on the economic system. Because of this fact, the main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of the innovation on the economic growth and the labor market (in particular on employment and the dynamics and nature of job positions) and to analyze the social and fiscal state policies. The research methodology includes time series analysis through descriptive, graphical and cross-correlation analyses by major macroeconomic indicators related to the labor market, economic growth and innovation. The results of the study indicate the changes in the nature of the work/ job positions at sectoral level in Bulgaria and the EU. Innovations demonstrate a significant positive link, both with employment and economic growth, and a negative such with unemployment. Specific features and general trends are reflected in changes in employment, innovation and economic growth in Bulgaria and the EU. This requires a reconsidering of the public policies in the social sphere and the tax policy.


Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) based materials are widely considered as promising candidates of polymer hosts in solid-state electrolytes for high energy density secondary lithium batteries. They have several specific advantages such as high safety, easy fabrication, low cost, high energy density, good electrochemical stability, and excellent compatibility with lithium salts. However, the typical linear PEO does not meet the production requirement because of its insufficient ionic conductivity due to the high crystallinity of the ethylene oxide (EO) chains, which can restrain the ionic transition due to the stiff structure especially at low temperature. Scientists have explored different approaches to reduce the crystallinity and hence to improve the ionic conductivity of PEO-based electrolytes, including blending, modifying and making PEO derivatives. This review is focused on surveying the recent developments and issues concerning PEO-based electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries.


Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] is grown in rainfed production systems and suffers from periodic drought stress (DS), leading to yield reductions. Natural genotypic variation for root traits is essential for adaptation to water deficit conditions. However, root traits have not been fully utilised as selection criteria to improve DS in bambara groundnut. The present study explored the natural genotypic variation found in single genotypes of bambara groundnut derived from landraces to identify adaptive differences in tap root length (TRL) and root length density (RLD) in response to DS. A diverse core collection of eight bambara groundnut genotypes from various locations (namely, Gresik, LunT, IITA-686, DodR, S19-3, Tiga nicuru, and Ankpa-4, DipC1), were grown for two seasons (2018 and 2019) in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) columns with well-watered (WW) and 30-day DS treatments. Plant samples were collected at 55 days after emergence (DAE) (30 days of DS) and at 105 DAE (30 days of DS plus 50 days of recovery). Under DS, differential TRL among genotypes at 55 DAE was observed, with DodR recording the longest among genotypes with an increase (1% in 2018) in TRL under DS compared to WW, whereas LunT and IITA-686 showed significant (p < 0.001) decrease in TRL (27 and 25%, respectively, in 2018). Average RLD was observed to have the highest reduction under DS in the 90–110 cm layer (42 and 58%, respectively, in 2018 and 2019). Rainy habitat LunT had limited roots in 2018 and recorded the least (0.06 ± 0.013 cm–3) RLD in 2019. However, dry-habitat DodR showed an increase in the RLD (60–90 cm) under DS compared to WW, while dry-habitat S19-3 densely occupied all depths with RLD of 0.16 ± 0.05 and 0.18 ± 0.01 cm cm–3 in the deepest layer in both seasons, respectively. Reduced RLD under DS showed recovery when the plants were re-watered. These plants were additionally observed to have RLD that surpasses the density in WW at all soil depths at 105 DAE. Also, recovery was shown in Tiga nicuru and DodR (0–30 cm) and IITA-686 (90–110 cm) in 2019. Average RLD under DS treatment was associated with substantial grain yield advantage (R2 = 0.27 and R2 = 0.49, respectively) in 2018 and 2019. An increase in TRL allowed DodR to quickly explore water at a deeper soil depth in response to gradually declining soil water availability. High RLD in genotypes such as DodR, DipC1 and S19-3 also offered adaptive advantage over other genotypes under DS. Variation in intrinsic RLD in deeper soil depths in the studied genotypes determines root foraging capacity when facing DS. This suggests that different agroecological environments to which bambara groundnut is subjected in its natural habitat have promoted a phenotypic differentiation in root systems to adapt to ecotypic conditions, which may help offset the impact of DS. The natural genotypic variation exhibited, especially by DodR, could be exploited to identify potential quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control deep rooting and root length density.


2702 EphA2 is one of the prominent downstream targets of Ras pathway and its overexpession is sufficient to confer tumorigenic and metastatic potential upon non-transformed epithelial cells. Elevated protein levels of EphA2 are observed in many types of cancers. A recent study of patients with invasive ovarian cancer showed that EphA2 overexpression is predictive of aggressive ovarian cancer behavior and associated with significantly poor survival. Downregulation of EphrinA1, the ligand of EphA2, is often associated with EphA2 overexpression and reintroduction of EphrinA1 results in tumor growth inhibition. Since the effect of EphrinA1 on tumor growth correlates its ability to induce EphA2 degradation, agonistic anti-EphA2 antibody capable of triggering EphA2 degradation may have anti-tumor activity. Several phage antibodies have been generated against EphA2. Clone 76 showed strong agonistic activity in all tumor lines that have been tested. In vivo tumor studies are underway to further assess clone 76's anti-tumor activity.


We experimentally studied the high-field transport and mobility in nanoscaled Si1 -xGex/silicon on insulator (SOI) PMOSFETs with gate length down to 17 nm. The study relies on the electrical characterization performed from room temperature down to 20 K. Strain relaxation in short channel has been evidenced by nanobeam electron diffraction, which explains the decrease of hole velocity and mobility with gate length. Despite this strain relaxation, a mobility gain is nevertheless preserved in sub-100-nm SiGe PMOS, with a maximum gain for 20% Ge in the layer. Short-channel mobility extraction reveals a lower contribution of Coulomb scattering for SiGe channel PMOS, which may explain this mobility improvement. We also demonstrate that the short-channel transport is governed by the Ge composition in the SiGe layer, with an optimum concentration of 20% Ge. We have finally evidenced a different temperature dependence of the limiting velocity at high field between SiGe and Si PMOS, suggesting that SiGe transport will be governed by inelastic scattering instead of ballisticity as L is shrunk.


In Quebec, furthering your education is very much encouraged and we have observed that more and more people with learning difficulties are enrollingin postsecondary education. However, institutions lack the necessary resources to support this emerging clientele. In this context our developmental research was initiated to create an online support database for persistence in postsecondary education. Here we present the Système d'Aide Multimédia Interactif à la PERSÉVÉRANCE pour les étudiants ayant des Troubles d'Apprentissage (SAMI-Persévérance TA) (Interactive Multimedia Support System for Persistence for Students with Learning Difficulties) developed through this research as well as the results obtained from a trial with 181 students at the postsecondary level. Results revealed that students consider these tracking tools and support tools are pertinent, motivating and useful for resolving certain difficulties that they face during their studies, in terms of learning strategies and weaknesses in oral, written and mathematical skills. Index Terms Perseverance and persistence, postsecondary students, learning difficulties, support tool, learning strategies.


A strong dependence of tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) on the crystal orientation of ferromagnetic electrodes was confirmed experimentally. We studied the TMR of Fe/Al2O3/Fe50Co50 tunnel junctions with single-crystal Fe electrodes of different crystal orientations and found that the TMR ratio increased from 13% to 42% at 2K (8% to 26% at room temperature) when the crystal orientation was changed from (100) to (211). Such a TMR anisotropy could be explained in terms of the anisotropic spin polarization of Fe bulk and/or interface electronic states. The importance of the "momentum-filtering" effect of the tunnel barrier was also discussed.


Abstract. Rice production in Ecuador is steadily affected by extreme climatic events
that make it difficult for farmers to cope with production risk, threatening rural livelihoods and food security in the country. Developing agricultural insurance is a policy option that has gained traction in the last decade. Index-based agricultural insurance has become a promising alternative that allows insurance companies to ascertain and quantify losses without verifying a catastrophic event in situ, lowering operative costs and easing implementation. But its development can be hindered by basis risk, which occurs when real losses in farms do not fit accurately with the selected index. Avoiding basis risk requires assessing the variability within the insurance application area and considering it for representative index selection. In this context, we have designed an index-based insurance (IBI) that uses a vegetation index (normalized difference vegetation index – NDVI) as an indicator of drought and flood impact on rice in the canton of Babahoyo (Ecuador). Babahoyo was divided in two agro-ecological homogeneous zones (AHZs) to account for variability, and two NDVI threshold values were defined to consider, first, the event impact on crops (physiological threshold) and, second, its impact on the gross margin (economic threshold). This design allows us to set up accurate insurance premiums and compensation that fit the particular conditions of each AHZ, reducing basis risk.


In 84 cases of renal cell carcinoma, the effect of embolization was assessed by dividing the patients into two groups: those having undergone (42 cases) or not having undergone (42 cases) embolization. A 16% decrease in tumor volume following embolization using an MMC-micro capsule was noted. In patients without metastasis at nephrectomy, a tendency was observed for the incidence of postoperative metastasis to be lower with more favorable survival for the group with embolization than that without. On the other hand, among cases with metastasis at nephrectomy, there were more patients who survived for a longer period in the embolization group.


The early response and management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the outbreak in Palestine is summarized in this report. Since the WHO announced the pandemic, COVID-19 has rapidly extended globally within a short period of time putting health systems in many countries on alert. This report aims to provide an overview of the national strategies implemented to contain the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in Palestine, highlighting the main steps implemented in etiology, epidemiology, vulnerability, social and economic impacts. Containment of the disease was very successful at the early outbreak by legally enforced lockdown which proved a golden strategy to tackle the disease. Community outreach and raising awareness, and implementation of legally enforced preventive measures were essential to contain the spread of the epidemic in Palestine. Monitoring the outcome of health and preventive measures are important to live the epidemic and minimize its unintentional negative impacts.


Objective: Recent research demonstrates a potential association between metformin use and reduced sporadic vestibular schwannoma (VS) growth in patients undergoing conservative observation. The current study was designed to elucidate the effect of metformin on tumor growth in sporadic VS using volumetric analyses. Study Design: Retrospective cohort. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients: Patients with sporadic VS who elected initial conservative treatment with at least two serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were included. Interventions: Metformin use among patients with observed sporadic VS. Main Outcome Measures: Tumor growth, defined as an increase in volume of at least 20% from the initial MRI. Results: A total of 361 patients were evaluated. Thirty-four patients (9%) had a diagnosis of diabetes at baseline. Nineteen patients (5%) were taking metformin at the time of the initial MRI. Metformin use was not significantly associated with a reduced risk of volumetric tumor growth in a univariable analysis in all patients undergoing observation for VS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.75; 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.40–1.42; p = 0.38) or within the diabetic subset (HR 0.79; 95% CI 0.34–1.83; p = 0.58). Additionally, diabetes status, insulin dependence, hemoglobin A1c value, and metformin dose were not significantly associated with volumetric tumor growth. Conclusion: Despite promising initial results in several previous studies, our data suggest that metformin use does not significantly reduce the risk of volumetric tumor growth in sporadic VS.


OBJECTIVES: The long term survival of adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia with standard risk factor which treated by autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is about 30–50%. We designed a new therapy to improve the long term survival of adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia with standard risk factor. After completely remission, patients underwent 2–3 courses of consolidation chemotherapy. Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) was performed. After hematology recovery, haploidentical lymphocytes irradiated with 7.5 Gy were infused into patients. Here we evaluate the outcome of this approach in adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia with standard risk. METHODS: From July 1998 to July 2007, twenty-four patients including 17 males and 7 females, median age 36 year old (range 14–58) with acute myeloid leukemia with morphology M2 subtype and normal karotype received this approach therapy. Autologous peripheral blood stem cells were collected by aphereses and froze in −198° and storied after 2–3 courses of median dose cytarabine consolidation chemotherapy The autologous stem cells were grafted to patients following the conditioning with the BuCy regimen (Bu16mg/kg and CTX 120mg/kg). Haploidentical lymphocytes obtained by leukapheresis from sibling donors or other relatives were irradiated with 7.5 Gy and were infused into patients after hematopoietic reconstitution. RESULTS: A median dose of 2.5×10 8 /kg, nucleated cells/kg (range, 2.97×10 7 /kg-6.0×10 8 /kg)containing 5 × 10 6 CD34+ cells/kg (range,1.5– 4.8) were autografted. All patients were got hematopoietic reconstitution. The median time for granulocyte recovery >0.5 × 10 9 /L was 11 days and for platelets >20 × 10 9 /L was 14 days following transplantation. All patients were administrated a median dose of 2.0×10 8 /kg haploidentical lymphocytes irradiated with 7.5 Gy. Severe acute GVHD occurred in two patients. One died with severe acute GVHD. Hematopoietic reconstitution delayed in four patients. No other side effects were observed. For the whole group of 24 patients, the median overall survival rate (OSR) was 83.7%. The median disease-free survival (DFS) time was 28.3 moths (range 2–120 m) and the 5-year DFS rate was 50%. The 2-year OS rate was 71%. After a median follow-up of 5.0 years from transplantation, the median DFS and OS were 28.3 years respectively, and the 3-year rates were 50%. Nineteen patients were still in continuous complete remission, 4 patients had relapsed and 3 had died. CONCLUSIONS: Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) combined with haploidentical lymphocytes infusion may prolong the long term survival of adult acute myeloid leukemia with standard risk.


Foundation species are locally abundant and uniquely control associated biodiversity, whereas dominant species are locally abundant but are thought to be replaceable in ecological systems. It is important to distinguish foundation from dominant species to direct conservation efforts. Long-term studies that remove abundant species while measuring community dynamics have the potential to (1) aid in the identification of foundation vs. dominant species and, (2) once a foundation species is identified, determine how long its effects persist within a community after its loss. Long-term data on ant assemblages within two canopy-manipulation experiments—the Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment (HF-HeRE) and the Black Rock Future of Oak Forests Experiment (BRF-FOFE)—provide insights into how ant assemblages change and reassemble following the loss of Tsuga canadensis or Quercus spp. Previous research documented foundation species effects on ants in the HF-HeRE for up to four years after T. canadensis loss. Six additional years of data at HF-HeRE presented for the first time here show that removal of T. canadensis resulted in taxonomic and some measures of functional shifts in ant assemblages that persisted for ten years, further supporting the hypothesis that T. canadensis is a foundation species at Harvard Forest. In contrast, ant assemblages at BRF-FOFE varied little regardless of whether oaks or other tree species were removed from the canopy, suggesting that Quercus species do not act as foundation species at Black Rock Forest. Deer and moose exclosures within each experiment also allowed for comparisons between effects on ants of foundation or dominant tree species relative to effects of large herbivores. At HF-HeRE, effects of T. canadensis were stronger than effects of large herbivores on taxonomic and functional diversity of ant assemblages. At BRF-FOFE, in contrast, effects of Quercus species were weaker than effects of large herbivores on ant taxonomic diversity and some measures of ant functional diversity. These findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing between the roles of irreplaceable foundation species and replaceable dominant ones in forested ecosystems along with other drivers of biodiversity (e.g., herbivory).


In this study, IPARD (Instrument for Precession on Agricultural and Rural Development) promoted businesses are examined in Van province based on investments on agricultural businesses to restructure and upgrade to community standards. The aim of this study is to determine not only whether IPARD programme has led the businesses modernization or improved the number of the enterprises but also defining the problems by examining the business managers' socioeconomically statuses and therefore suggesting solutions, in Van Province, holds an important place in honey production throughout Turkey. The study was conducted on full count method of 94 businesses through filled questionnaires based on 2016's production data. The mean age of the business managers is 36,4 and men/women percentage is 79% to 21 % respectively. 43% of the managers are found to live on by just beekeeping, while 57% has off-farm income. Examined businesses owners' questionnaires showed 71% are pleased to do beekeeping and the rest not. Government supported businesses percentage is 19, while 89% is not supported by the government. When the educational level is examined 69% of the businesses had had some education about beekeeping, while 31% had not had any.


The paper explores the boundaries of the plea bargaining process, and makes a case for extending them to the criminal standard of proof. It examines the possibility of converting the criminal standard of proof into a default rule, subject to negotiation between the parties. Under current plea bargaining practices, the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for concessions on punishment offered by the prosecutor. According to the model proposed here, the negotiation process would not be limited to the attainment of a full admission of guilt. Rather, the prosecutor would also be able to obtain from the defendant a reduction of the standard of proof required to establish criminal culpability, in return for an offer of leniency in sentencing. For instance, the parties could agree that the case will be tried according to the civil standard of proof – the preponderance of the evidence. In exchange for the greater risk of conviction, faced by the defendant under a lower standard of proof, the prosecutor would make a partial concession on the sentence in the event of conviction. The paper addresses the viability of this proposed model and advocates its normative desirability.


Material Transgressions reveals how Romantic-era authors think outside of historical and theoretical ideologies that reiterate notions of sexed bodies, embodied subjectivities, isolated things, or stable texts. Essays examine how these writers rethink materiality, especially the subject-object relationship, in order to challenge the tenets of Enlightenment and the culture of sensibility that privileged the hegemony of the speaking and feeling lyric subject and to undo supposedly invariable matter, and representations of it, that limited their writing, agency, knowledge, and even being. In this volume, the idea of transgression serves as a flexible and capacious discursive and material movement that braids together fluid forms of affect, embodiment, and textuality. They offer alternative understandings of materiality that move beyond concepts that fix gendered bodies and intellectual capacities, whether human or textual, idea or thing. They enact processes—assemblages, ghost dances, pack mentality, reiterative writing, shapeshifting, multi-voiced choric oralities—that redefine restrictive structures in order to craft alternative modes of being in the world that can help us to reimagine materiality both in the Romantic period and now. Such dynamism not only reveals a new materialist imaginary for Romanticism but also unveils textualities, affects, figurations, and linguistic movements that alter new materialism's often strictly ontological approach.


SEVERE hypertensive episodes, sometimes fatal, may occur after the eating of ripened cheeses by patients receiving potent monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Most reported cases have been associated with the mood-elevator tranylcypromine sulfate. This is a report of a severe, paradoxical hypertensive crisis occurring in a patient taking the antihypertensive MAO inhibitor, pargyline hydrochloride, apparently precipitated by the ingestion of aged cheddar cheese. Report of a Case A 59-year-old white widow, a laboratory technician at night, sought medical assistance at 11 PM on Dec 30, 1963, because of generalized pounding headache, profuse sweating, weakness, tremulousness, and anxiety. She had a long history of hypertension which was first noted in 1947 during routine blood pressure evaluation for a blood donation. From 1947 to 1959 she had no symptoms related to the hypertension and she received no antihypertensive medication. While she was working for a physician in 1959 her blood pressure was found


Background: Health behavior risks prevail in older patients and can include unhealthy diet and nutrition, sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity, alcohol use and abuse and poor oral hygiene. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), most of the sickness, dependency, disability, use of resources, institutionalization and premature morbidity and mortality associated with chronic disease can be avoided through preventive measures and risk reduction. Preventive care is more effective in improving health than routine health care, yet research indicates that many patients do not seem to receive preventive strategies due to provider barriers. Evidence supports that training and education significantly improve practitioner knowledge, their decision to use strategies for behavior change and increases confidence.The emerging body of evidence supports brief motivational interventions as effective strategies that can help patients change health behaviors and affect outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess nurse practitioner student confidence and attitudes in using a brief motivational intervention. A secondary aim was to assess the degree of completion of each patient's selected behavioral plan.
Methods: This investigator-initiated pilot study examined relationships among 15 nurse practitioner student confidence and attitudes toward delivery and implementation of a Brief Action Planning (BAP) intervention to 104 older adults. Nurse practitioner students received a BAP educational program and delivered BAP to older adults in an inter-professional collaborative practice that addresses the oral health, health promotion, clinical prevention and social services needs of community-dwelling older adults.Results: Findings showed a significant change (p<0.05) in NP effectiveness, confidence, belief in and the ease of learning and incorporating BAP and the value of adding BAP to care. Forty two percent of patients fully completed, 35% partially completed and 23% did not complete their selected plan to change a health behavior.Conclusion: An educational program increased NP confidence, effectiveness and belief in value and use of a brief motivational technique to change a health behavior. Provider training helps decrease barriers to implementing motivational techniques and prevention strategies. BAP shifts thinking about how to help motivate patients toward change, is easy to learn and feasible.


The plasmid-free Streptococcus pyogenes A454 contains a conjugative element, Tn3701, encoding resistance to erythromycin (Emr), tetracycline (Tcr), and minocycline (Mnr). We have mapped a 50-kilobase (kb) chromosomal region of A454 corresponding to the internal part of Tn3701. Tn3701 includes a 19.7-kb structure, designated Tn3703, on which the Emr Tcr Mnr determinants were localized. Tn3703 was very similar in structure to Tn916. Translocation of the Emr Tcr Mnr markers from A454 onto pIP964, an Enterococcus faecalis hemolysin plasmid, yielded different pIP964 derivatives. When the inserts of four of these derivatives were aligned with the 50-kb region of Tn3701, three of them were found to result from the transposition of Tn3703 and one resulted from the insertion of a 44.0-kb portion of Tn3701, including Tn3703. Tn3701 inserted, apparently without changing its structure, in the chromosomes of various streptococcal transconjugants, as well as in one of the 12 E. faecalis transconjugants studied. Tn3703 inserted at different chromosomal sites in four E. faecalis transconjugants, and one copy of Tn3701 plus an additional copy of Tn3703 were detected in the chromosomes of seven transconjugants.


A cross-section study on sports and health was carried out among 8666 subjects from 15 to 49 years old, for a large range of practices. The analysis compared three groups, 2048 non-athletics, 5381 "moderately" athletic, and 1237 "highly" athletic. Compared to non-athletics, the "moderately" athletic group has a higher opinion of their state of health, with a similar frequency of declared health problems (hospitalisations, absences from work, traumatisms). The intensive practices are accompanied by an opinion of health status similar to the moderately athletic group, with a larger frequency of declared health problems. These results suggest a poor control of sports risks among those who practice the most.


Decay-accelerating factor (DAF) and CD59 are major complement regulators linked to plasma membrane via glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor and inhibit C3 activation and the formation of membrane attack complex, respectively. These factors have been shown to protect human erythrocytes from the lytic action of autologous complement. Here we overview structure and function of these molecules, and discuss about their physiological roles in controlling the complement activation, ie, defining the susceptibility of erythrocytes to complement.


A series of Diels-Alder reactions between the diene 2,2'-biaceanthylene and several dienophiles is presented. The diene is a cyclopenta-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with anthracene units linked by two cyclopentene rings. Depending on the dienophile, the major product was the result of a single addition (dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate) or double addition (quinone, benzyne) to the diene. Single crystal X-ray analysis of the quinone-derivative shows a propeller-like structure composed of mixed enantiomers. The synthesis and photophysical properties of these compounds is presented.


We present a dedicated integrated circuit for the simulation of charged particles based on Monte Carlo method. The Monte Carlo method leads to the solution of a particular form of the integro-differential Boltzmann equation (non-linear charge transport in semiconductors) permitting a direct statistical computation of the simulated particles distribution function in the phase space. This circuit should be the building block of a semiconductor device hardware simulator, associated with a Poisson's equation solver. Because of the complexity of microdynamical transport in semiconductors, the physical model used needs to be simplified in order to achieve a more simple circuit of small size. Starting from a chosen model we describe here how all the arithmetics involved in the problem has been set up for resolving the one-particle Boltzmann equation. Moreover, the binary format for the various physical quantities involved is discussed in view of the desired result accuracy: mainly, the drift velocity in a static uniform electric field taking into account all hot carrier effects.


Homeless drifers are children between 5 – 18 years old who spend their time to earn money and hang around in the streets and public places doing something such as singing around to earn money, selling goods around and so on. KPM Dewi Sartika is an organization handles homeless drifters based on making efficient use of the family to increase social prosperity (education, economy, and health). And it has limited fund and facilities. However, with the limited facilities, the homeless drifters look happy to stay in KPM Dewi Sartika. The objective of this study is obtain a clear picture about children well-being of homeless drifters of 12 years old in KPM Dewi Sartika Bandung. The method used is descriptive study. The data collected by providing a questionnaire 8 domains of children well-being from UNICEF. The results show that the dominant domains are satisfaction with interpersonal relationship (70%), satisfaction with health (70%) and personal satisfaction (60%). Indominant domain is satisfaction domain with time organization (70%).


This article is a study of the commercialization practice of secret marriage in Pekoren Village, Rembang Subdistrict, Pasuruan Regency, East Java Province. Secret marriage is carried out by the community using a broker service. In carrying out its duties, the broker asks for payment in the form of dowry money for operational costs and paying for the services of the Kyai who marry off. This case was analyzed using the eyes of Islamic law and juridical law. While the method used is a descriptive qualitative research method by collecting data through reading or reviewing the expressions and behaviors observed from the speakers in the field. From the field it is described, that the commercialization of secret marriage in Pekoren Village is a fixation of the price of dowry as an operational cost that uses the services of kyai and brokers to find the type of women wanted by interested person. In Islamic law, secret marriage is a legal marriage with the fulfillment of requirements and pillars of marriage. Brokers in this case can be categorized as buying and selling because of doing business, but it is still not suggested in Islam. In Positive Law, unregistered marriage is not valid because one element is not fulfilled, namely marriage recording. In line with these conclusions, the holders of the marriage registration policy must emphasize the regulation of marriage registration. For religious leaders, should not facilitate the  secret marriage ceremonies which are patterned as pleasure.


A technique for obtaining dipolar-mediated INADEQUATE NMR spectra with a large spectral window in the double-quantum dimension is presented. Using the dipolar recoupling sequence C7 to excite the double-quantum coherence under magic-angle spinning, the technique involves incrementing the evolution period in synchrony with the phase of the radiofrequency pulses in the C7 sequence. The technique is demonstrated on a uniformly 13C-labeled amino acid and an extensively 13C-labeled protein to identify 13C connectivity patterns for spectral assignment.


Background: To evaluate long-term esthetic, functional, and sensory outcome and preferability of distal digit replantations with respect to contralateral intact finger. Materials and Methods: A total of 63 single-or multi-digit clean cut amputations distal to distal interphalangeal joint (DIPJ) involving nail fold in 45 consecutive patients (mean 29 years, 26 males, 19 females) who underwent replantation surgery between 2010 and 2016 were included in this study. Esthetic outcome, functional, and sensory outcome were assessed in the postoperative 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. Results: Single-digit amputation was noted in 34 patients including thumb (n = 9), index finger (n = 10), middle finger (n = 7), ring finger (n = 7), and little finger (n = 1). Multi-digit amputations were evident in 11 patients involving 2 fingers in five patients (index + middle in two patients, middle + ring in two patients, and thumb + index in one patient), 3 fingers in five patients (index + middle + ring in 4 patients and middle + ring + little in one patient), and 4 fingers in one patient (index + middle + ring + little). All patients were operated within the first 4 h of hospital admission. Postoperative 3-year outcome was excellent in 79.3% of operations, good in 14.2%, and acceptable in 6.3% of operations. None of the operations resulted in poor or very poor outcome and none of the patients had functional loss during the entire follow-up period. A very satisfactory sensory outcome with static two-point discrimination test findings of <6 mm was noted in all operations involving nerve repair, while in operations without nerve repair, the sensory outcome was also moderately satisfactory. Conclusion: Our findings indicate excellent long-term esthetic, functional, and sensory outcomes of distal digit replantation. Our findings emphasize consideration of replantation in single-level clear-cut distal digit amputations without avulsion or crush injury as a technique associated with excellent esthetic long-term outcomes.


During the past decade electromagnetic metamaterials have realized many exotic phenomena that are difficult or impossible using naturally occurring materials. It is their resonantly enhanced interaction with electromagnetic waves that underpins their attractive qualities, which are increasingly important in the terahertz frequency range. Passive and active terahertz metamaterials and devices have enabled novel functionality and unprecedented terahertz device performance. These demonstrations prove their potential to address the so‐called terahertz gap, a technology vacuum associated with the deficiency of natural materials with a desirable terahertz response.


Background: Diabetic patients are prone to multiple complications such as diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). There are many risk factors associated with DFUs that could be simply prevented. Aim : Assessment of risk factors associated with Diabetic Foot Ulcers and their prevalence among diabetic patients attending Suez Canal University Hospitals. Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried in Diabetic and Endocrinology clinic of Suez Canal University Hospital where 68 patients with diabetic foot ulcers were examined. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to document clinical history. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software Ver. 22. Results: The mean age was 58.29± 10.86 years. The most prevalent and significant risk factors were: absence of foot self-care (95.6%), poor foot health education (92.6%), wearing inappropriate shoes (89.7%), insulin dependent therapy (83.8%), poor compliance on diet or treatment (73.5%), poor glycemic control (72.1%), duration of diabetes more than 10 years (70.6%) and presence of peripheral neuropathy (67.6%) with P values <0.05%. Conclusion: The most prevalent risk factors among DFUs patients were: absence of foot self-care, insufficient receiving foot health education and wearing in-appropriate shoes.


The nonlinear interaction of Rayleigh-Benard convection with the large-scale flow that must exist in the mantle to balance the mass flux of moving lithospheric plates is considered by using both numerical and analytic models, The numerical models are two dimensional and include a simulated large-scale flow by explicitly considering a moving lithospheric plate overlying a fluid layer. The analytic model is more idealized but has the advantage of being three dimensional. Both types of models show that convective rolls with axes perpendicular to the lithospheric spreading direction (transverse rolls) decay on a time scale that depends on the spreading velocity and that may be as short as 50 m.y. The three-dimensional analysis shows that the transverse rolls are eventually replaced by rolls with their axes aligned with the direction of spreading (longitudinal rolls). The longitudinal rolls may be a significant vertical heat transport mechanism under the interior of plates, and thus it is suggested that three-dimensional models will be required to investigate terrestrial heat flow, The conclusions contain a speculative section suggesting a connection between the stresses on the lithosphere due to the longitudinal rolls and the emplacement of the linear island and sea mount chains typical of many oceans.


This paper describes the extension to the circular scanning case of a recently proposed approach to source/scatterers localisation problem from field data. The method is based on the concepts of Point Source Spectral Content and Local Spectral Content that allows the determination of the number and the location of a set of sources/scatterers without requiring the solution of full inverse problem, i.e., the inversion of the radiation or scatterer operator. The numerical analysis shows that the achievable performance are often better than those obtained with a rectilinear scanning.


We verify a mutual exclusion protocol with dynamic process creation based on token passing. The protocol is specified using object-based graph grammars. We introduce the protocol and show how the mutual exclusion property and other properties can be verified using the tool Augur, a verification tool for graph transformation systems based on an approximated unfolding technique.


Adequate correction for baseline differences that occur in the same or opposite direction from inferred treatment effects in a simple randomized experimental design is addressed by Monte Carlo simulation. Results confirm that the analysis of covariance (ANOVA) can provide appropriate correction whether baseline means differ significantly by chance in the same or opposite direction from the inferred treatment effect. The results from analysis of simple pre-post difference scores are highly dependent on the direction of chance baseline deviations in relation to the directional treatment effect that would be inferred from rejection of the null hypothesis. The attempt to correct for baseline differences by expressing outcome as percentage of baseline entails directional bias that depends on the location of the zero point, the direction of change, and the level of correlation between baseline and follow-up measurements.


Background

The functional implications of left ventricular (LV) morphological characterization in congenital heart disease (CHD) are not widely explored. This study qualitatively and quantitatively assessed LV shape associations with a) LV function and b) thoracic aortic morphology in patients with aortic coarctation (CoA) with/without bicuspid aortic valve (BAV).
Methods

A statistical shape modelling (SSM) framework was employed to analyse three-dimensional (3D) LV shapes from cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) data in isolated CoA (n=25), CoA+BAV (n=30), isolated BAV (n=30), and age-matched healthy controls (n=25). Average 3D templates and deformations were computed. Correlations between shape data and CMR-derived morphometric parameters (i.e. sphericity, conicity) or global and apical strain values were assessed to elucidate possible functional implications. The relationship between LV shape features and arch architecture was also explored.
Results

The LV template was shorter and more spherical in CoA patient and LV sphericity was associated (p≤0.04) with lower global longitudinal, radial and circumferential strain, irrespective of the presence of aortic stenosis and/or regurgitation. Conversely, LV strain was not associated with arch architecture.
Conclusions

Differences in LV morphology were observed between CoA and BAV patients. Increasing LV sphericity was associated with reduced strain, independent of aortic arch architecture and functional aortic valve disease.


Conventionally it has been believed that the Main Frontal Thurst (MFT) and Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) continue throughout the Nepal Himalaya as two continues and subparallel faults. However, detailed field studies, the study of available geological maps, and the analysis of satellite images as well as SRTM data clearly indicate that the situation is more complex. The imbricate frontal faults in the Nepal Himalaya are generally sub-parallel; they trend from NW to SE and extend for tens of kilometres. Each of the faults in this fault swarm terminates in either a fold or another fault. In the latter case, frequently the fault towards the foreland terminates in the fault extending from the hinterland. The Lesser Himalayan and Siwalik rocks constitute imbricate slices and duplexes. Consequently, there are outliers of the Lesser Himalayan rocks in the Siwaliks of east Nepal in the vicinity of Katari, Bagpati, and Kampughat. Hence, the definition that the MBT separates the Lesser Himalayan and Siwalik rocks becomes invalid. A closer look at the Siwaliks reveals that there are a number of independent and discontinues faults at the foreland front. They too cannot be classified as a single fault. Generally, about 20 to 30 km long tight folds extend from the fault tips and there are extensive areas where the Siwalik rocks are overturned. There are also a number of backthrusts in the Siwaliks as well as in the Lesser Himalaya. A normal fault runs very close to the 'MBT' between the Mahakali River and Budar as well as in the area between Surkhet and Dang. Steeply inclined Recent gravel beds are observed in the Siwaliks of the Mahakali area in far-west Nepal and at Barphalyang in the Ilam district of east Nepal. Such features clearly indicate that the entire Himalayan frontal fault system is tectonically active. Journal of Nepal Geological Society, 2007, Vol. 36 (Sp. Issue) p.2


Suddenly, it seemed, a deluge was upon us: a torrent of magazine articles, newspaper columns, books, talk shows, even a presidential speech, all claiming that "political correctness" (PC) has run amok on campus. The university, if we are to believe these sources, is dominated by tenured radicals. Guided by "well-intentioned" aims of eliminating bigotry, PC faculty and their student allies are zealots in charge of a repressive and censorious culture stifling investigation and discussion. Students and faculty who say the wrong thing, however innocently, are branded racist, sexist, or homophobic and sent packing. It requires real courage to speak out against the "tyranny of the left," and a massive violation of free speech is underway in higher education. The campus, in short, is afflicted with a "new McCarthyism." This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


We investigated the hypothesis that gene expression profiles in cultured cell lines from adults, aged 57–97 years, contain information about the biological age and potential longevity of the donors. We studied 104 unrelated grandparents from 31 Utah CEU (Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain – Utah) families, for whom lymphoblastoid cell lines were established in the 1980s. Combining publicly available gene expression data from these cell lines, and survival data from the Utah Population Database, we tested the relationship between expression of 2151 always‐expressed genes, age, and survival of the donors. Approximately 16% of 2151 expression levels were associated with donor age: 10% decreased in expression with age, and 6% increased with age. Cell division cycle 42 (CDC42) and CORO1A exhibited strong associations both with age at draw and survival after draw (multiple comparisons‐adjusted Monte Carlo P‐value < 0.05). In general, gene expressions that increased with age were associated with increased mortality. Gene expressions that decreased with age were generally associated with reduced mortality. A multivariate estimate of biological age modeled from expression data was dominated by CDC42 expression, and was a significant predictor of survival after blood draw. A multivariate model of survival as a function of gene expression was dominated by CORO1A expression. This model accounted for approximately 23% of the variation in survival among the CEU grandparents. Some expression levels were negligibly associated with age in this cross‐sectional dataset, but strongly associated with inter‐individual differences in survival. These observations may lead to new insights regarding the genetic contribution to exceptional longevity.


Sheet piles are interlocked segments used for temporary or permanent soil and water retaining structures such as below-grade parking structures and sea walls. Although steel is commonly used due to its strength and ease of manufacturing, it rusts in saltwater. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite sheet piles are resistant to chlorides and have higher corrosion resistance, but their mechanical properties vary in length and width. Stress risers at corrugation corners make soil-structure interaction a challenging design issue. This research aims to develop a standardized test procedure to determine the resisting moment capacity of FRP composite sheet piles. Cantilevered FRP sheet piles fixed with a sand-concrete mixture of ~70 psi (0.48 MPa) compressive strength were tested under static loads. Strain gages and LVDTs were used to collect data on deformation response up to and beyond peak induced stress. Results suggest that the refined test procedure can assist engineers in designing efficient sheet pile structures and become a basis to develop ASTM standard.


The World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the proportion of the elderly will soon include nearly a quarter of the world population. Ensuring that health systems are prepared to deal with this phenomenal rate of aging and associated diseases generates many challenges. Among these challenges is facing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) that may occur at some point in the elderly life and may harm societies. AD is considered a neurological, psychological, mental, and health setback. The Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) can improve patient care and support many medical functions, such as diagnosing diseases that can reduce preventable harm. This research's main objective is to design, implement, and evaluate the Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis Ontology (ADDO). It is a comprehensive semantic knowledge base toward the development of fuzzy ontology-based CDSS for AD diagnosis. ADDO can serve as a core component of CDSS, which provides representation, annotation, and access to aspects related to AD's study and diagnosis. Toward the management of this objective, ADDO is based on the essentials of the Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) and follows the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and the Ontology for General Medical Sciences (OGMS) principles. ADDO focuses on representing the patient characteristics, complications, drugs, diagnosis examination tests, and key aspects of their periodic visits in a standard way. The possibility of semantic interoperability is taken into account by integrating ADDO and a heterogeneous AD dataset. We used ADNI as a case study to mapping a set of real instances. To manage the medical domain's uncertainty, ADDO is extended to fuzzy ontology to accommodate the medical linguistic variables and enhance diagnosis results' efficiency. ADDO is constructed using Protégé 5.5.0 software and evaluated using the HermiT reasoner and SPARQL semantic queries. ADDO currently includes 7060 concepts, 99 properties, 46274 axioms, and 30708 annotations. As a result, ADDO is consistent and more reliable in managing most AD aspects than other existing AD ontologies.


Both lignin and waste plastic are refractory polymers whose oxidation can produce feedstocks for the manufacture of chemicals and fuels. This brief review explores how renewably generated electricity could provide energy needed to selectively activate the endothermic depolymerization reactions, which might assist the production of hydrogen. We identify mediated electrochemistry as a particularly suitable approach to contending with these refractory, sparingly soluble materials.


The new healthcare measures proposed by the Brazilian National Humanization Policy stress the patients' welcoming, which constantly seeks to recognize the needs of clients and the forms of satisfying these needs. Studies have demonstrated the importance of humanized care, in which listening to the client is a valuable tool for assessing the efficacy of the service of-fered to a particular population. The aim of the present study was to describe how clients per-ceive the manner in which they are received at a hand rehabilitation clinic and to analyze the most important factors. A qualitative approach was adopted, with semistructured interviews in which clients were asked about how they were received at the clinic in terms of access, posture, and technique. Content analysis consisted of arranging, classifying and analyzing the results. Twelve patients from a public hospital in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, participated in the study. The patients considered good reception to be the most hu-manized manner of being received–– with care, politeness, and fondness. Communication between therapist and client proved to be important in building a trusting relationship, generating client satisfaction and favoring progress in the treatment. It was evident that a warm reception was a valuable therapeutic instrument for the rehabilitation professional. Having listening skills and revealing oneself to be sensitive to the needs of the client helps reduce the natural fear and anxiety experienced at the beginning of physical therapy treatment and facili-tates the entire process.


Electrophysiological studies (for example, electroneuronography, nerve action potentials, absolute amplitudes of the muscle compound action potentials, and stimulation thresholds) do not accurately predict facial nerve function after the excision of acoustic neuromas. To eliminate individual nerve variability, the authors measured the ratio of the amplitudes of muscle compound action potentials produced by stimulating the facial nerve at the brainstem proximally and at the internal auditory meatus near the transverse crest distally after total tumor excision in 20 patients. The mean tumor size was 36 mm. The facial nerves were anatomically intact in all patients after tumor excision. The follow-up period ranged from 14 to 28 months. Facial nerve outcome was determined by a modified House-Brackmann grading scale. Initial facial nerve function was measured at Days 4 to 7 postoperatively, and final function was the grade at last follow up. The following results were obtained: all patients with proximal-to-distal amplitude ratios greater than 2:3 had Grade III or better initial function and Grade I final facial nerve function; 90% of patients with amplitude ratios between 1:3 and 2:3 had Grade III or worse initial facial nerve function, and 100% of these patients had Grade III or better final facial nerve function; all patients with amplitude ratios less than 1:3 had Grade IV or worse initial and final facial nerve function. The authors conclude that the proximal-to-distal amplitude ratios after acoustic neuroma excision can accurately predict postoperative facial nerve function.


The third-order term in the density expansion of the radial distribution function for the Lennard-Jones fluid in two dimensions is calculated with the aid of the Percus–Yevick and Hypernetted Chain theories. The Percus–Yevick energy-equation values are adopted as the best estimates of the fifth virial coefficient and are reported together with the best available results for the lower coefficients. The estimation of the critical-point parameters is only slightly affected by the addition of the fifth virial term.


On October 7, 2008, a 13-foot-long asteroid burst through Earth's atmosphere and exploded above Sudan's Nubian Desert. Its arrival created a stir because it was the first time that an asteroid that had been tracked and studied in space had collided with our planet. Even more intriguing, the bulk of the fragments that landed on Earth, collectively referred to as Almahata Sitta—the Arabic name of the train station near their landing site—turned out to be carbon-rich meteorites containing graphite and diamonds. Suchmeteorites are called ureilites, and they usually contain tiny diamonds about 100 to 1,000 nanometers long. But a few of the Almahata Sitta meteorites had diamonds up to 100 times larger (1). "It was kind of an unusual sample," says Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. It was thought that diamonds in ureilites formed when a massive asteroid collided with a planet, with the planet destroyed in the collision. The ensuing high temperatures and pressures would have turned the asteroid's graphite into diamond. But a new theory suggests that the Almahata Sitta ureilites may have come from material ejected from Mars when it was barely a few million years old. If so, the meteorites and the diamonds in them could be giving us our


Miscanthus species originated in Asia and were imported into Europe and North America as ornamental plants. They are perennial rhizomatous grasses with lignified stems and present very high growth rates, even in more temperate maritime climates. This potentially abundant biomass offers benefits to many sectors and is used to an extent in energy generation applications, however, issues with regards to its physicochemical combustion characteristics currently hinder this uptake. In this work, a novel alternative application, namely its direct use of dry miscanthus (DM) plant as an adsorbent for heavy metals removal (HMR) from wastewaters, was investigated. The physical, chemical, and leaching properties of DM were analyzed using XRD, SBET, TGA, DSC, SEM‐EDX, elemental analysis, halogen, and ICP techniques. Subsequently, the HMR capacity of miscanthus was studied for lead, copper, and zinc from aqueous solutions. Results showed a high percentage removal of 66%, 83%, and 88%, respectively, with the majority being removed during the first hour of the test. Overall the results show that DM plant can be effectively utilized in wastewater treatment. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 1058–1067, 2018


Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott is an emergent aquatic and semi-aquatic species native to Asia, where it grows in tropical and subtropical areas. This species is widely cultivated for its edible corm and is considered as alien in various parts of the world, becoming sometimes invasive (e.g., in Spain), and in these areas eradication should be carried out. As part of ongoing studies on Araceae, in 2015 a population
of C. esculenta was discovered in Rome (central Italy), where it grows along ditches. This is the first record of a naturalized population in Italy. A comprehensive view of this species in Italy and Europe was given, with clarifications about its occurrence in the Balkans, where C.
esculenta was excluded from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. A morphological description based on the population found and considerations of its ecology and the climatic conditions at the Roman site are provided.


The paper proposes an open-source platform for developing kinematic and dynamic models, simulation and control design of robots, based on MaTX [1]. We show that the developed programs can be easily transfered for direct execution in real-time, making use of improvements in the recent Linux kernel toward hard real-time capability. We show that, in combination with the real-time preemption patch of Ingo Molnar [2], there is the potential for real-time control of a robot arm. This is confirmed through experiments for real-time control of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries seven-DOF PA-10 robot [3].


Research conducted in England over the last decade has documented sustained, significant decreases in children's wellbeing. While recent changes to curriculum policy promoting children's wellbeing have been introduced, a notable feature of the discourse surrounding the promotion of children's wellbeing is that wellbeing is regarded as opposed to, or in tension with, children's academic achievement. Recently, Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren proposed that there is an inevitable 'trade-off' between children's 'wellbeing' and their academic achievement. Using PISA 2012 data, Heller-Sahlgren argues that pupil happiness and high achievement do not go hand in hand; implying policymakers have a decision to make about which they uphold as the priority. In this article, I discuss the theoretical assumptions underpinning transnational comparisons of children's wellbeing and review evidence from psychology and education to ascertain whether a trade-off is empirically supported. I argue that far from being incompatible, children's wellbeing and achievement are positively associated. However, this relationship is not straightforward and requires careful disentangling of the hedonic and eudaimonic components of wellbeing. I underline four main gaps in current knowledge of the wellbeing-achievement relationship to date: the need for (1) multidimensional conceptualisation and measurement of wellbeing, (2) exploration of mediating mechanisms/constructs explaining the wellbeing-achievement relationship, (3) objective operationalisation of achievement, and (4) investigation of developmental differences. To conclude, I argue that when making policy recommendations researchers should avoid 'all or nothing' thinking which lures governments into false dichotomies.


Cells adapt to microenvironmental alterations in oxygen levels and temperature by shifting metabolic processes and initiating transcriptional programs. Engineered systems have been developed to probe the biological responses of cells to their microenvironment. Our microfluidic platforms for gas control have allowed us to generate oxygen landscapes and gradients found in the physiological setting as a result of metabolic consumption and oxygen transport limitations. For gas control, we studied the hypoxic activation of the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) family of transcription factors HIF-1α and HIF-2α in human endothelial cells, and we demonstrated differential hypoxic activation of HIF-1α and HIF-2α in a spatial linear oxygen gradient. Our temperature control studies have focused on nonshivering thermogenesis in human subcutaneous adipocytes. We used a ratiometric cell-permeable thermoprobe to demonstrate intracellular heat generation in adipocytes. Demonstrable single-cell thermogenesis during cold exposure allowed study of the requirement of glucose in cold-induced thermogenesis. Additionally, one of the fundamental questions in studying temperature-regulated transcription in human adipose tissue is whether cold-exposed cells in proximity to the skin surface undergoing browning release paracrine factors that induce the transcriptional program for conversion of adipocytes in deeper layers of fat which are not being directly exposed to cold. For this purpose, we developed an engineered system which generates temperature gradients and allows us to study paracrine interactions between warm and cold fat cells. Our findings suggest adipocytes exposed to cold temperature may modulate cellular responses in neighboring warm cells.


We examine the classical joint source-channel coding problem from the viewpoint of statistical physics and demonstrate that in the random coding regime, the posterior probability distribution of the source given the channel output is dominated by source sequences, which exhibit a behavior that is highly parallel to that of thermal equilibrium between two systems of particles that exchange energy, where one system corresponds to the source and the other corresponds to the channel. The thermodynamical entropies of the dual physical problem are analogous to conditional and unconditional Shannon entropies of the source, and so, their balance in thermal equilibrium yields a simple formula for the mutual information between the source and the channel output, that is induced by the typical code in an ensemble of joint source-channel codes under certain conditions. This formula, as well as the statistical-mechanical perspective that leads to it, form the main contribution of this paper. We also demonstrate how our results can be used in applications, like the wiretap channel, and how can it be extended to multiuser scenarios, like that of the multiple access channel.


This paper describes a usage-based pricing scheme for distributing digital content over peer-to-peer networks that rewards peer users who actively participate in the distribution process. We present a dynamic distribution model that is used to compare centralized, client-server distribuition with peer-to-peer network distribution. The conventional problem of free-riding in peer-to-peer networks is eliminated or vastly reduced. The participation incentive creates effective peer-to-peer network communities and leads to faster content distribution than in equivalent client-server settings while retaining the same profit level.


Abstract Albania, for 30 years, has entered the phase of transition from a society organized into a one-party central governing regime to a democratic society of a free market economy. But the pace of moving in this direction and modernizing the country is not the expected one, because the centralized proclamations of the political elite and expertise have not allowed liberal approaches to enter Albanian legislation and governing practices. This has been the case in particular in the sector of territorial planning, where central governments have aimed and managed to not allow the actual decentralization of the governing function of drafting and adopting local territorial planning instruments. This has resulted in a shortage of local instruments, in general, but even when managed to ensure they are presented far beyond the needs, problems and objective local imbalances. This is because their distance mapping from the actual municipality for which they were designed failed to recognize the specifics and characteristics of each of them. The result has been evident; in both cases, planning has been inexistent to drive sustainable, smart and inclusive urban development processes. In this paper we aim to build another approach for future development in Albania, a country which aims at integration into the European Union. This path should be development based on previously adopted territorial planning instruments, drawn up in democratic and parliamentary processes as a local political activity. Central government must understand and accept the new and different role than the one it played 30 years ago in territorial development issues, and that the process of drafting and adopting local territorial planning instruments should be a function of local government itself.


Experimental results have been inconclusive about low temperature storage of recalcitrant seeds from temperate zone trees. Experiments were conducted on four species of oak chinkapin (Quercus muehlenbergii Engelm.), water (Quercus nigra L.), Shumard (Quercus shumardii Buckl.), and northern red (Quercus rubra L.). Storage temperatures were -1.5 DC and 3 DC, and lengths of storage were 1, 2, and 3 years. Seeds, stored both hydrated and dried, had moisture contents ranging from 23 to 45 percent. Chinkapin acorns did not survive past 1 year in storage, and few northern red acorns were viable after 3 years. Both water oak and Shumard acorns survived at high and low moisture contents; however, Shumard acorns lost 2/3 of their viability by year 3 with best survival rates at -1.5 DC, while water oak survival was over 75 percent after three years storage at 3 DC. Presprouting occurred in all species. Additional investigations have begun on white oak (Quercus alba L.), swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii L.), and red buckeye (Aesculus pavia L.). Differences are known to exist in the degree of recalcitrance in seeds, and these studies will determine if some recalcitrant seeds are more amenable to storage than others. INTRODUCTION Low temperature storage of hardwood tree seeds has been studied for the last 30 years. During this period, it has been determined that seeds can be divided into at least two storage classes orthodox and recalcitrant (Roberts 1973). Orthodox seeds can be dried to a moisture content (MC) less than 12 percent and stored for long periods of time at low or sub-freezing temperatures; recalcitrant seeds are sensitive to moisture loss, making storage for any useful period extremely difficult. Some north American genera containing species with recalcitrant seeds are Castanea (Pritchard and Manger 1990) and some Acer, Aesculus, and Quercus (Bonner 1990). The physiological basis of recalcitrant behavior is not fully understood. Several hypotheses have been proposed suggesting that seed deterioration during storage may be due to (1) deleterious changes in lipid composition (Flood and Sinclair 1981, Pierce and Abdel Samad 1980), (2) physical disruption of the seed membranes (Seewaldt and others 1981, Simon 1974), or (3) an increasingly aberrant metabolism during hydrated storage (Pammenter and others 1994) and as water is lost (Berjak and Pammenter 1997). Acorns of the red oaks and of Quercus robur have reportedly been stored at -1 DC or -2 DC for periods up to 5 years in Europe (Suszka and Tylkowski 1980, 1982). Experiments here have been less successful, suggesting a varying degree of dormancy between European and United States species. We are reporting. the results from a 3-year storage study of chinkapin (Quercus muehlenbergii Engelm.), water (Quercus nigra L.), Shumard (Quercus shumardii Buckl.), and northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) acorns; and preliminary results of a storage experiment on species with seeds even more sensitive to desiccation, namely red buckeye (Aesculus pavia L.), white oak (Quercus alba L.), and swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii L.). PROCEDURES Shumard, water, and chinkapin oak acorns were collected locally in Oktibbehaand Winston Counties, Mississippi. The northern red oak acorns were from Georgia, the swamp chestnut oak from Texas, and the white oak from North Carolina. All seeds were cleaned by floatation, soaked overnight, and then stored at 3-4 DC until the start of the experiment. Original MC's for each drying regime were determined by drying 4 to 5 samples of acorns at 105 OC for 16 to 17 hours. In preparation for germination tests, acorns were cut in half, and the seed coat peeled from the half containing the embryo. Buckeye seeds were germinated intact. Germinations were conducted on moist Kimpak at an alternating temperature regime of 20 OC for 16 hours in the dark and 30 DC for 8 hours with light. The red oaks received 60 days of moist stratification prior to testing. Since sprouting in storage can be a common problem, counts were made at the start of each germination test of the number of . seeds in a sample which had sprouted during storage and stratification. Experiments were conducted as follows: Experiment 1-High and low moisture levels for Shumard, water, chinkapin, and northern red oak acorns were imposed by either soaking in tap water for 16 hours or by drying on a lab bench for 16 hours. Lots of 100 to 150 acorns were stored in 4-mil polyethylene bags either in a refrigerator set at 3 DC or in a modified chest freezer set at -1.5 DC. Temperature in the latter fluctuated from -1 to -3 DC. Original percent germination was determined for all species and was tested again as follows: 1, 2, and 3 years for water and northern red oak; 2 and 3 years for Shumard oak; and 1 and 2 years for chinkapin oak. Seeds were germinated as six replications per sampling period. Experiment 2-This experiment was conducted on tree species with highly recalcitrant seeds. Two separate lots of swamp chestnut oak acorns were received from Texas; the first lot was stored fresh or after drying on the lab bench for 2 days. Buckeye and the second lot of swamp chestnut oak acorns were stored either fresh or after drying for 3 or6 days on the lab bench; the large size of these seeds and limited amounts received restricted quantity stored to 25 per bag. White oak acorns were stored 50 per bag at the fresh MC only. Seeds were stored at either 4 DC in a Lab-Line Ambi, Paper presented at the Tenth Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference, Shreveport, LA, February 16-18, 1999. 2 Plant Physiologist and Plant Physiologist (Emeritus), USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Mississippi State, MS 39762, respectively. Hi-Low Chamber or at-2 DC in a modified chest freezer. Original percent germination was determined, and all species were tested again at 75 and 90 days. Seeds were germinated as two replications per sampling period. Seeds dried prior to storage were rehydrated overnight in tap water prior to germination testing. Tests at 120 days and 6 months are planned. RESULTS Experiment 1-High MC's ranged from 33 percent (Shumard) to 46 percent (northem red) and lows from 23 percent (water oak) to 35 percent (northem red); original viability averaged over 90 percent for all species (table 1). Chinkapin oak did not survive formore than 1 year in storage; by this time, sprouting was prevalent, especially in the high temperature treatment (3 DC), and germination had been reduced by at least 30 percent for all treatments (fig. 1). Storage at the low temperature treatment, -1.5 DC, yielded the best results; MC at this temperature did not have a Significant effect on storability. Northern red oak also did not store well beyond 1 year. Storage at -1.5 DC kept germination high and sprouting at a minimum (fig. 1); however, unlike chinkapin oak, the acorns stored at -1.5 DC and high MC yielded signiftcantly better germination results than those dried prior to storage. By the second year, however (fig. 2), germination had dropped below 35 percent, even in the best storage treatment (-1.5 DC/high MC); and by year 3, survival in all treatments was minimal (fig. 3). The best 2-year storage treatment for Shumard oak was also -1.5 DC/high MC (fig. 2). However, like chinkapin oak, germination had fallen well over 30 percent from the Original value, and by year 3 (fig. 3), viability had dropped to less than 30 percent for all treatments. Water oak was unique in that storage at -1.5 DC was not superior to that at 3 DC; and, unlike any of the other species, one treatment, 3 DC/high MC, had excellent survival after 3 years (figS. 1-3). Experiment 2-MC's of fresh seeds vs. those dried for 2 to 6 days varied by as little as 4.5 percent or as much as 17.5 percent within a species (table 2); original viability of treated seeds averaged 80 percent or more. Quercus michauxii acoms did not store well at 4 DC. but. through 90 days have survived at rates above 50 percent when stored at -2 DC (fig. 4). In contrast. red buckeye seeds (fresh and day 3 . 124 Table 1-Original average moisture contents and germination of acorns at the start of storage experiment 1


Abstract Background: Diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) is a chronic disease of significant prevalence causing hyperglycemia and several comorbidities. Evidences highlight the performance of non - protein bioactive compounds found in vegetables in the control of hyperglycemia. This study describes a protocol of a systematic review, which analyzes the action of proteins and bioactive peptides of plants in DM2. Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items guide this protocol for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes Protocols (PRISMA-P) was used. The databases that will be used for searching will be PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Virtual Health Library, Brazil (VHL). Studies that use bioactive proteins and peptides of vegetal origin in DM2 will be included in the systematic review. The studies will be identified using clinical parameters and the effect on insulin resistance. The characteristics of the studies as control groups, test substance, dosage, intervention time, and the main results will be described. Selection of studies, data extraction, and methodological quality assessment will be performed independently by two experienced reviewers. Results: This protocol will be the basis for a systematic review identifying the mechanism of action of plant proteins and peptides in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: Systematic reviews from this protocol will provide support for the construction of researches that analyze the effect of plant bioactive proteins and peptides on the control of hyperglycemia and how these molecules act in the control of DM2. Prospero Registration Number: CRD42019110956.


Abstract. Light plays a central role in many applications. The key to unlocking its versatility lies in shaping it into the most appropriate form for the task at hand. Specifically tailored refractive index modifications, directly manufactured inside glass using a short pulsed laser, enable an almost arbitrary control of the light flow. However, the stringent requirements for quantitative knowledge of these modifications, as well as for fabrication precision, have so far prevented the fabrication of light-efficient aperiodic photonic volume elements (APVEs). Here, we present a powerful approach to the design and manufacturing of light-efficient APVEs. We optimize application-specific three-dimensional arrangements of hundreds of thousands of microscopic voxels and manufacture them using femtosecond direct laser writing inside millimeter-sized glass volumes. We experimentally achieve unprecedented diffraction efficiencies up to 80%, which is enabled by precise voxel characterization and adaptive optics during fabrication. We demonstrate APVEs with various functionalities, including a spatial mode converter and combined intensity shaping and wavelength multiplexing. Our elements can be freely designed and are efficient, compact, and robust. Our approach is not limited to borosilicate glass but is potentially extendable to other substrates, including birefringent and nonlinear materials, giving a preview of even broader functionalities, including polarization modulation and dynamic elements.


The role of the pulpal nerves in the dentinogenesis of the rat dentition was studied experimentally by means of a time marker of lead acetate and by electron microscope after the individual dissection of the trigeminal and cervical sympathetic nerves or both. Following trigeminectomy, the longitudinal growth of the denervated incisor decreased. Contrary to this, following cervical sympathectomy, the longitudinal growth of the denervated incisor and molar increased 10-5%, and the collagen fibers increased predominantly in the pulpal tissue. The sympathetic nerves seem to play an important part in controlling the differentiation of the odontoblasts, inhibiting the maturation of the growth center of the apical pulp in the continuously developing teeth.


Formulations of Eulerian general relativistic ideal hydrodynamics in conservation form are analyzed in some detail, with particular emphasis to geometric source terms. Simple linear transformations of the equations are introduced and the associated equivalence class is exploited for the optimization of such sources. A significant reduction of their complexity is readily possible in generic spacetimes. The local characteristic structure of the standard member of the equivalence class is analyzed for a general equation of state (EOS). This extends previous results restricted to the polytropic case. The properties of all other members of the class, in particular specialized forms employing Killing symmetries, are derivable from the standard form. Special classes of EOS are identified for both spacelike and null foliations, which lead to explicit inversion of the state vector and computational savings. The entire approach is equally applicable to spacelike or lightlike foliations and presents a complete proposal for numerical relativistic hydrodynamics on stationary or dynamic geometries.


This paper presents the analytical calculation of the heat transfer coefficient of a complex housing shape of a Totally Enclosed Fan-Cooled (TEFC) industrial machine when it works below 20% of its nominal speed or close to stall. Therefore, passive cooling is dominant, and most of the heat is extracted by the combination of natural convection and radiation phenomena. Under these conditions, the area-based composite approach was used for the development of the analytical calculation method. A test rig using a TEFC Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) was constructed, and the collected experimental data was used to validate the proposed analytical method successfully.


Making sense of words often requires to simultaneously examine the surrounding context of a term as well as the global themes characterizing the overall corpus. Several topic models have already exploited word embeddings to recognize local context, however, it has been weakly combined with the global context during the topic inference. This paper proposes to extract topical phrases corroborating the word embedding information with the global context detected by Latent Semantic Analysis, and then combine them by means of the Polya urn ´ model. To highlight the effectiveness of this combined approach the model was assessed analyzing clinical reports, a challenging scenario characterized by technical jargon and a limited word statistics available. Results show it outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of both topic coherence and computational cost.


Spontaneous immune tolerance in mouse liver transplantation has always been a hotspot in transplantation-immune research. Recent studies revealed that regulatory T cells (Tregs), hepatic satellite cells and Kupffer cells play a potential role in spontaneous immune tolerance, however the precise mechanism of spontaneous immune tolerance is still undefined. By using Microarray Chips, we investigated different immune regulatory factors to decipher critical mechanisms of spontaneous tolerance after mouse liver transplantation. Allogeneic (C57BL/6-C3H) and syngeneic (C3H-C3H) liver transplantation were performed by 6-8 weeks old male C57BL/6 and C3H mice. Graft samples (N = 4 each group) were collected from 8 weeks post-operation mice. 11 differentially expressed miRNAs in allogeneic grafts (Allografts) vs. syngeneic grafts (Syngrafts) were identified using Agilent Mouse miRNA Chips. It was revealed that 185 genes were modified by the 11 miRNAs, furthermore, within the 185 target genes, 11 of them were tightly correlated with immune regulation after Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and Genbank data cross-comparison. Verified by real-time PCR and western blot, our results indicated that mRNA expression levels of IL-6 and TAB2 were respectively down regulated following miR-142-3p and miR-155 augment. In addition, increased miR-152 just silenced mRNA of CaMK II and down-regulated translation of CaMK II in tolerated liver grafts, which may play a critical role in immune regulation and spontaneous tolerance induction of mouse liver transplantation.


Multinational firms operate in multiple national jurisdictions, making them difficult for any one government to regulate. For this reason the firms themselves are often in charge of their own regulation, increasingly in conjunction with international organizations by way of public-private governance initiatives. Prior research has claimed that such initiatives are too weak to meaningfully change firms' behavior. Can public-private governance initiatives help firms self-regulate, even if they lack strong monitoring or enforcement mechanisms? I take two steps toward answering this question. First, I introduce a new measure of firms' performance on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues: the extent to which the firms issue public responses to claims of misconduct from civil society actors. Second, I argue that public-private governance initiatives allow firms to benefit from the legitimacy of their public partners, lowering the reputational cost of transparent response. Employing novel data on firm responses to human rights allegations from the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, I find that membership in the largest and most prominent initiative, the United Nations Global Compact, significantly increases firms' propensity to respond transparently to stakeholder allegations. These results suggest a limited but important role for public-private initiatives in global governance.


This paper decomposes daily crude oil shocks into demand shock, supply shock and risk shock. Then, it employs Diebold and Yilmaz connectedness index approach to explore the differences for the time-varying effect of different types of structural shocks on new energy stock markets in China, Europe and the United States during the period 10 June 2009–30 October 2018. The new findings show that: 1) There are time-varying features of structural shocks to all new energy markets. 2) The crude oil demand shock and risk shock have a large explanatory ability on the returns of all new energy stock markets, while the crude oil supply shock has a small impact. 3) The influences of crude oil demand shocks on the market returns of new energy in China, Europe and the United States are 1.31%, 8.64%, and 4.47%, respectively; however, the affection of crude oil risk shocks to the market returns of new energy in the same markets are 3.17%, 7.91%, and 21.51%, respectively. 4) The crude oil demand shock and supply shock have little impact on any new energy market volatilities, but the effects of crude oil risk shocks to China and the United States' new energy market volatilities are 2.44% and 3.14%, respectively.


An approach to modelling the behaviour of dimensions of PM parts during the sintering process for the prediction of dimensional changes is given. The model is developed on the basis of significant process factors by applying a multilayer neural network architecture with the backpropagation learning algorithm. Results of the simulation in the form of diagrams and tables are presented. The presented model gives better results than the one based on statistical analysis of experimental data, i.e. less total mean approximation errors of the part dimensions for 11.4%. A practical result of the model is the determination of compact dimensions to compensate for dimensional changes during sintering.


Infecting bacteriophage T4 uses a contractile tail structure to breach the envelope of the Escherichia coli host cell. During contraction, the tail tube headed with the "central spike complex" is thought to mechanically puncture the outer membrane. We show here that a purified tip fragment of the central spike complex interacts with periplasmic chaperone PpiD, which is anchored to the cytoplasmic membrane. PpiD may be involved in the penetration of the inner membrane by the T4 injection machinery, resulting in a DNA-conducting channel to translocate the phage DNA into the interior of the cell. Host cells with the ppiD gene deleted showed partial reduction in the plating efficiency of T4, suggesting a supporting role of PpiD to improve the efficiency of the infection process.


Most of program comprehension works over source code. In reality we often found that proven and workable software, exist without source code. Identifying end-to-end interaction within existing software is a promising way for run-time software comprehension. Those identified interaction forms a set of use cases. Based on use case modeling concept, ontology is created for each finding interaction in order to check for completeness and consistency. OWL serves as platform for ontology development. That ontology gives us a better understanding of software behavior. The procedures to identify the end-to-end interaction has been formulated and tested for university information systems.


One of the more complex and widespread rituals practiced by Native American groups focused on the calumet, a sacred pipe with a feathered shaft. The Calumet Ceremony was a powerful ritual through which members of another tribe were adopted. It also promoted social unity within tribes and facilitated contact and trade between them. Perhaps the most detailed description of a Calumet Ceremony was recorded near the turn of the century by ethnographer Alice C. Fletcher. Fletcher witnessed the Hako, a version of the Calumet Ceremony practiced by the Chaui clan of the Pawnee. With the invaluable assistance of Tahirussawichi, a Pawnee Ku'rahus or ceremonial leader, and renowned Indian scholar James R. Murie, himself a Pawnee, the author describes in marvelous detail the intricate rhythm and structure of the ceremony. Each song of the Hako is transcribed, translated, interpreted by the Pawnee Ku'rahus, and later analyzed by the author. Fletcher concludes that the Hako promised longevity, fertility, and prosperity to individuals and worked to insure "friendship and peace" between clans and tribes. The Hako, was originally published in 1904. Helen Myers, an associate professor of music at Trinity College and the ethnomusicology editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.


Objective To compare the efficacy and safety of dermaroller treatment with that of TCA CROSS in acne scars. Methods We selected thirty patients of atrophic acne scars for the study. Group I patients underwent four sessions of dermaroller therapy four weeks apart. Group II were treated with four sessions of TCA CROSS technique four weeks apart. Results After four sessions of dermaroller and TCA CROSS each, marked improvement was seen in 40% patients in the dermaroller group and in 60% patients in the CROSS group. Moderate improvement was seen in 40% patients in dermaroller group and in 26.6% patients in the CROSS group and mild improvement was seen in 20% patients in dermaroller group and 13.3% patients in the CROSS group. Side effects were mild and infrequent in both groups. Conclusion Both treatments are equally effective and safe for the treatment of acne scars.


Background and aims In the literature, there are reported cases of pituitary apoplexy following spinal anaesthesia or accidental dural puncture following epidurals. This case report aims to highlight the anaesthetic considerations when managing a pregnant patient with pituitary macroadenoma during the peripartum period. Methods Informed consent for publication has been obtained from patient. Results A 33 year-old primigravida was diagnosed with pituitary macroadenoma during her first trimester when she presented with bitemporal hemianopsia. There was no immediate neurosurgical intervention required for her condition. Bromocriptine and thyroxine replacement was started in second trimester. the patient was under the care of neurosurgery, endocrine, ophthalmology, obstetrics and anaesthesia throughout her pregnancy and was well for the rest of her pregnancy with no worsening of her visual field defect. the neurosurgical and obstetric team agreed to let the patient undergo normal vaginal delivery at 40 weeks gestation. the anaesthetic goal for this patient was to avoid hypertension or hypotension in order to minimise the risk of haemorrhagic or ischaemic pituitary apoplexy. After adequate counselling, epidural was chosen for labour analgesia to avoid excessive hypertension during labour. With lumbar epidural, adequate pain control was established and baby was delivered uneventfully. Close neurological monitoring of the patient was performed post-delivery. Patient was discharged well on the next day and was followed up by neurosurgery. Conclusions Management of parturient with pituitary macroadenoma involves a multidisciplinary team approach. the anaesthetic management should address the various maternal and foetal needs by maintaining stable systemic, cerebral and placental haemodynamic and to avoid raised intracranial pressure.


A training video is often judged by whether the issues and techniques portrayed have a realistic quality. Realism in training videos is valuable largely because it may contribute significantly to others' ability to comprehend and perform the techniques. Perhaps more importantly, it stimulates a more receptive attitude toward the intervention in targeted audiences. The complexity of developing a realistic, informative, yet engaging training video series often leaves many such efforts falling short. However, some training tapes are successful at providing more realistic situations and practical skills. Dealing With Anger provides a useful model for working with African American youth in small groups. The series contains two tapes, one designed for African American males and another for African American females. Initially, a scenario displaying an ineffective management of a volatile situation is shown, followed by a brief discussion and a demonstration of an alternative response based on the authors ' model. Major principles of the model are then clarified. The model presents three themes: "Givin' It, Takin' It, and Workin' It Out." For each of these themes, concrete descriptions are provided. For example, in the "Givin ' it" segment, the following steps are presented: ( 1) "Stay calm and ask if you can talk to the person," (2) "Say something positive, if you can," (3) "Tell the person what's on your mind," (4) "Ask if the person understands," (5) "Thank the person for listening, if you can. " The successful achievement of each of these steps is shown. A psychoeducational format and group interactions serve to clarify principles and help participants integrate the ideas and strategies for successful conflict management. Techniques such as modeling, role play, and homework assignments are used to achieve therapeutic goals. Participants a1-e guided to discuss situations fi-om their own experiences that were similar to dilemmas demonstrated in the videos. During this phase of the program, participants practice thinking through difficult situa-


Introduction: Drug discovery is the process of designing new candidate medications for the treatment of diseases. Over many years, drugs have been identified serendipitously. Nowadays, chemoinformatics has emerged as a great ally, helping to rationalize drug discovery. In this sense, quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR) models have become complementary tools, permitting the efficient virtual screening for a diverse number of pharmacological profiles. Despite the applications of current QSAR models in the search for new drug candidates, many aspects remain unresolved. To date, classical QSAR models are able to predict only one type of biological effect (activity, toxicity, etc.) against only one type of generic target. Areas covered: The present review discusses innovative and evolved QSAR models, which are focused on multitasking quantitative structure–biological effect relationships (mtk-QSBER). Such models can integrate multiple kinds of chemical and biological data, allowing the simultaneous prediction of pharmacological activities, toxicities and/or other safety profiles. Expert opinion: The authors strongly believe, given the potential of mtk-QSBER models to simultaneously predict the dissimilar biological effects of chemicals, that they have much value as in silico tools for drug discovery. Indeed, these models can speed up the search for efficacious drugs in a number of areas, including fragment-based drug discovery and drug repurposing.


I investigate Aquinas's position that natural virtue can pose dangers to living a moral life, dangers that include natural virtue's inflexibility to circumstance, the opposing vices it may breed if blindly followed, and its aptitude for deceiving people into thinking they are genuinely virtuous. I also consider whether Aquinas regards these problems as remediable given that he sees natural virtue and natural vice as instances of nature being determined to one. He maintains that we can overcome the moral pitfalls that natural virtue and natural vice pose, though perfect mastery is not possible without divine intervention, insofar as our bodily disposition is not directly subject to reason.


Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) distributed target scene raw signal simulation is an important tool for the study and test of SAR systems and processing algorithms, mission planning, and inversion algorithm design. In this paper, the squint spotlight SAR scene model is evaluated to achieve spotlight SAR raw signals in the 2-D frequency domain and the precision of the model is analyzed. It is known that the range migration phenomenon in the time domain is explained as the coupling between the range and azimuth in the 2-D frequency domain. To realize the coupling relation in the 2-D frequency, interpolation may be needed. However, interpolation is a time-consuming manipulation. For efficiency, some signal processing methods are employed to couple the range and azimuth frequencies. Those tricks are derived from some optical principles, which give us some novel thoughts. Therefore, the efficiency of the simulator is highly improved, which facilitates its application to the verification and test of the real-time processor.