Issues of the effective participation and cooperation of the civil society in power bodies have been a central social problem of the globe in the latest times. Although theoretical issues of participatory governance have been well developed and widely implemented, e. g. in business sector, cooperation of Power and Community pose a serious problem in the world and Ukraine in particular. The effectiveness of cooperation between Power and the civil society is downgraded by the issue the current condition of both parties, the quality of their work and their mutual trust. Also, it needs to be born in mind that this problem is a part of the triangle Power – Society – Business, and that the external environment has significant impact in the conditions of globalization.
Given the Ukrainian context, it should be considered that the power system here was inherited from the Soviet Union. It is incompatible with the present-day realities, and its reform has been so far ineffective. The data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) show the vast numbers of officials in local governance and central power bodies, picked up in industry-like administrative departments. The bulky apparatus of public governance being streamlined on the problem solution process in economic industries, social problems, not mentioning the ones of individual humans, can be looked at only before elections.
On the other hand, according to SSSU, Ukraine has a network of rather diverse public organizations, but their total number is small. According to Eurostat, quantitative and qualitative parameters of the civil society in Ukraine lag far behind the European ones. A diversity of goals, weak consolidation of efforts, resources and methods for solving the most important problems are factors complicating the cooperation between Power and Community.
Theoretical and practical aspects of the problem related with cooperation of Power and the civil society have been elaborated in Europe since long. Advanced principles and various technologies for its solution have been proposed and implemented. The first typology of the public participation in form of "public participation staircase" was admittedly made by researcher Sh. R. Arnstein. She broke the staircase into the three levels: non-participation, symbolic participation, public power. To boost the effectiveness of collaborative action, the European community has elaborated the Code of recommended norms for the participation of the public in taking public decisions. In fact, this technology is the standard of cooperation between Power and Community in Europe.
The need for reform of the system for cooperation of power bodies with the civil society in Ukraine by use the European experience of cooperation is substantiated. The issues of goals, principles, methods and phases of cooperation between the power and the society, their advantages and drawbacks are highlighted.


In this work, the electrochemical properties of the surface treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are investigated for supercapacitors. Nitrogenand oxygen functional groups containing MWNTs are prepared by nitrogen precursors and acidic treatment, respectively. The surface properties of the MWNTs are confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Zeta-potential measurements. The electrochemical properties of the MWNTs are investigated by cyclic voltammetry, impedance spectra, and charge-discharge cycling performance in 1 M H2SO4 at room temperature. As a result, these functionalized MWNTs lead to an increase in the specific capacitance as compared with the pristine MWNTs. It proposes that the pyridinic and pyridinic-N-oxides nitrogen species influence on the specific capacitance due to their positive charges, and thus an improved electron transfer at high current loads, since they are the most important functional groups affecting capacitive behaviors.


This article is a descriptive review of the historical and theoretical conditions of social pedagogy and social work in Poland. It pertains to the definition, tradition and development of social pedagogy and social work in Poland. Using the insiders' expert overview of the latter, it identifies the disciplinary boundaries, commonalities and differences that shape both social work and social pedagogy today. The authors present the academic roots, methodology, research scopes, theoretical framework for practitioners and finally, the practical application for both disciplines. The discussion is based on literary sources and extensive experience in the field presented by an associate professor of social pedagogy and a qualified social worker, both employed at a social pedagogy department. This combination ensures scientific honesty and a double-screening procedure of the content from the perspective of practitioners representing both disciplines. This approach provides a balanced view, since the interdependency and separation of the two fields may be seen as an area of potential negotiation.


Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods for estimating integrals are attractive since the resulting estimators typically converge at a faster rate than pseudo-random Monte Carlo. However, they can be difficult to set up on arbitrary posterior densities within the Bayesian framework, in particular for inverse problems. We introduce a general parallel Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) framework, for which we prove a law of large numbers and a central limit theorem. In that context, non-reversible transitions are investigated. We then extend this approach to the use of adaptive kernels and state conditions, under which ergodicity holds. As a further extension, an importance sampling estimator is derived, for which asymptotic unbiasedness is proven. We consider the use of completely uniformly distributed (CUD) numbers within the above mentioned algorithms, which leads to a general parallel quasi-MCMC (QMCMC) methodology. We prove consistency of the resulting estimators and demonstrate numerically that this approach scales close to n as we increase parallelisation, instead of the usual n that is typical of standard MCMC algorithms. In practical statistical models we observe multiple orders of magnitude improvement compared with pseudo-random methods.


We show that a class of inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis models exist which yield light-element abundances in agreement with observational constraints for baryon-to-photon ratios significantly smaller than those inferred from standard homogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis (HBBN). These inhomogeneous nucleosynthesis models are characterized by a bimodal distribution of baryons in which some regions have a local baryon-to-photon ratio η ≈ 3×10 −10 , while the remaining regions are baryon-depleted. HBBN scenarios with primordial (2 H + 3 He)/H < ∼ 9 × 10 −5 necessarily require that most baryons be in a dark or non-luminous form, although new observations of a possible high deuterium abundance in Lyman-α clouds may relax this requirement somewhat. The models described here present another way to relax this requirement and can even eliminate any lower bound on the baryon-to-photon ratio.


In this work, the feasibility of using lignin as a compatibilizer for composites made from jute fiber fabric and polypropylene (PP) was studied. Since lignin contains polar (hydroxyl) groups and nonpolar hydrocarbon, it was expected to be able to improve the compatibility between the two components of the composite. It was found that lignin acted as β nucleation, fire retardant, and toughening agent for PP matrix. Jute composites exhibit higher stiffness, tensile strength, and impact behavior in respect to those of neat PP. Although scanning electron micrographic observations indicate that PP-jute adhesion was slightly improved by lignin addition, additional benefits were only obtained from impact behavior. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


The problem of maintaining connectivity in a mobile communication network is considered. The agents consist of two classes: one class of agents, which is termed primary mission agents, performs surveillance operations that may or may not be coordinated efforts. The second class of agents, which is termed relay agents, is controlled to maintain the connectivity. Two control algorithms are proposed to retain the connectivity of the network. Sliding mode observers are employed to predict the trajectories of the primary mission agents, when only their positions are known from blue force messages, and this information is used to construct state dependent graphs encapsulating the measure of connectivity. An optimal model predictive control is employed to develop the control policies for the relay agents to maximize connectivity. Also, the hybrid system approach is used to retain the connectivity of the communication network. The efficacy of the proposed control algorithms is confirmed on a case study of Riverine detection and interdiction operation.


Expansion of land clearance mostly for plantation is the big issue in Indonesia including in Papua. Its effect is not only to the catchment area but it also affects fisheries resources. The stress effect occurs worsen in Kumbe River and its floodplain area by the present of introduced fish species such as snakehead (Channa striata) and nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Spatial and temporal fish distributions are important information for the sustainable fisheries resource and theirs utilization. Study on spatial and temporal fish distribution covering four types of swamp ecosystem of Kumbe River was conducted during April-September 2014 and Mei-November 2015. Explorative field survey was conducted in four different ecosystem types in Kumbe River floodplain areas. Ecological data was collected from four sampling sites in each ecosystem type during high water precipitation (April and May) and low water precipitation (August. September and November). and fish samples were collected with different mesh sizes of gillnet fishing experiment conducted in four sampling sites. Parameters measured were fish important relative index and physical and chemical water quality parameters. The results noted 18 fish species deriving from 13 families. The Arridae with its blue catfish (Neoarius graeffei) dominated almost 90% of fish catch both spatial and temporal. Hydrological dynamic seems the key of trigger factor for the spatial and temporal distribution of fish and dynamic of habitat and water quality characteristic in the floodplain of Kumbe River.


The paper deals with the methodology of Lithuanian small and medium enterprises (here and further – SME) creditworthiness evaluation and part of empirical research which reveals the importance and motives of creditworthiness evaluation in the Lithuanian SME performance measurement process. The aim of this study is to analyse the importance of creditworthiness evaluation in performance measurement and its influence on stable company's growth. The three main goals of the paper are: 1) to reveal the methodology of Lithuanian SME creditworthiness evaluation, 2) to analyse the periodicity of Lithuanian SME creditworthiness evaluation and the motives of one's integration into the performance measurement process, and 3) to identify creditworthiness evaluation factors which correlate with stable SME growth results. Analysis of related literature, information comparison and generalization are used for the credit risk and creditworthiness evaluation methodology overview. Empirical research is performed using the survey method, for data evaluation the descriptive statistics method, as well as qualitative (systematization, classification, causal, functional and structural links) and quantitative data analysis (quantitative indicators calculation) were applied. The research results have revealed that the companies evaluating partners' and their own creditworthiness have by 10% higher three last year revenues and the number of employees growth. The paper concludes that creditworthiness evaluation and stable company's growth correlate and enable SMEs to pursue stable growth results while increasing competitiveness and considering confidence and trust among business partners.


Accurate forecast of blood glucose levels could predict the onset of hypo- or hyperglycemic events and provide actionable information to patients, thereby improving glycemic variability and time in range, two important metrics for managing diabetes and assessing clinical outcomes. Current commercial continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) offer glucose trend prediction, but these predictions are often inaccurate. We hypothesize that the limited performance and utility of these predictive algorithms is likely due to using only glucose as the explanatory variable. By accounting for additional relevant features, we aim to build an algorithm that accurately predicts glucose levels with a prediction horizon of 1 hour. We conducted a pilot study in which blood glucose levels, meal and insulin logs, and activity-related parameters, like heart rate and steps, were collected from 5 individuals over a period of 2 weeks. This data was used to develop algorithms for glucose level prediction based on a number of models, including: long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network (RNN), Gaussian Process (GP), Lag Method and Clockwork RNN. The predictions using the LSTM model yielded the best performance. With the inclusion of additional features, the RMSE for a 1 hour prediction horizon using the LSTM RNN was 8.71 ± 3.98 mg/dL. However, work must still be done to improve performance and determine the importance of each feature. Disclosure D. Colburn: None. V. Behnam Roudsari: None. R. Gandica: None. S. Sia: None.


This article examines how the perspectives and experiences of Arab American youth from immigrant communities can help educators think about what it means to teach young people to become active participants in the social, civic, and political spheres within and across the boundaries of nation-states. Arab American youths' perspectives are reflective of the transnational nature of their life experiences, as well as the unfortunate ways they have been positioned as enemy-outsiders to the United States in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Listening closely to the experiences and perspectives of these young people yields concrete implications for designing citizenship education that reflects the changing nature of belonging and citizenship. This article proposes that we stop thinking about citizenship primarily in relation to national identifications and begin to see it as a set of critical practices—practices that give young people the tools to work for social change within and across the boundaries of nation-states.


DKI Jakarta Province implements the construction program of the Integrated Utility Network Facility (IUNF) to prevent repeated excavation and demolition of road bodies Construction work is one of the industries with the highest level of accident risk in the world. Likewise with construction projects in Indonesia, including DKI Jakarta Province, which is implementing the IUNF development program. One of the causes of the high rate of workplace accidents is unsafe conditions caused by poor safety management that cannot identify construction safety risks thoroughly. For this reason, good and reliable construction safety management is needed by identifying every risk that may occur and then conducting qualitative analyses to determine the level of each risk. Risk identification is carried out by first describing IUNF or Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) construction activities.


The aim of this study was to analyze the interaction of a non-native macroalga (Acanthophora spicifera) with native macroalgae (Sargassum spp.) and sponge assemblages in a subtropical embayment of the Mexican Pacific. The intensity of A. spicifera epiphytism on the native seaweed Sargassum varied significantly over time and was inversely related to the Sargassum density and size. The higher intensity (up to 28 individuals per host plant) occurred when Sargassum was smaller and was lower in density (senescence period). The lower intensity was recorded during the growth period of Sargassum and the subsequent increase in intensity was attributed to a high fragmentation period of A. spicifera, which was evidenced by a decrease in its average size and biomass and by the presence of larger free-floating accumulations on the subtidal zone. The facultative interaction between A. spicifera and Sargassum appears to be neutral, as no negative or positive effects were found for epiphytic or basibiont seaweeds. However, this invasive seaweed characteristically monopolizes almost all types of hard substrate, and its effects on other algae and benthic organisms should be investigated. Moreover, A. spicifera was often epizoic on epilithic sponges. This invasive seaweed was found anchored on the sponge tissue by rhizome-like structures. In addition, free-floating fronds of A. spicifera were frequently found carrying small pieces of the basibiont sponge in its basis (60% of them with eggs and embryos), which suggests a novel facilitation mechanism for some sponge species, as the A. spicifera epizoism could favor fragmentation, dispersal and recruitment of these invertebrates. This study shows that A. spicifera is not only a species that adapts rapidly to the new conditions of the receiving environment but, due to its epibiotic traits, it can directly interact with and influence the life histories of some native species.


In West Africa, administration of chloroquine chemoprophylaxis during pregnancy is common, but little is known about its impact on Plasmodium falciparum infection during pregnancy. Therefore, cross-sectional studies in antenatal care clinics (ANCs) and delivery units (DUs) were conducted in Koupéla District, Burkina Faso. Chloroquine chemoprophylaxis was reported by 69% of 597 pregnant women at ANCs and by 93% of 853 women in DUs. P. falciparum peripheral parasitemia was identified in 29% of women at both ANCs and DUs. Placental parasitemia was identified in 22% of delivering women and was strongly associated with low birth weight (LBW) (risk ratio [RR], 1.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-2.4) and prematurity (RR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.6-5.4). In multivariate analysis, use of chemoprophylaxis was not associated with a reduction in the prevalence of placental parasitemia, LBW, or prematurity. Despite the high reported chloroquine chemoprophylaxis coverage, peripheral and placental malaria rates remain high and are associated with known adverse outcomes during pregnancy, including maternal anemia, prematurity, and LBW. Alternative prevention strategies, such as use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and intermittent preventive treatment with more-effective antimalarials, are needed.


The agribusiness has a significant importance to the Brazilian economy. In this case, technologies are needed to increase the efficiency of the productive system, but there are few technological tools that perform interpretations of soil analysis and fertilizer recommendations efficiently and comprehensively. In this context, the AgroFert system proposes to make corrective and fertilizer recommendations based on soil analyzes for several regions and grain crops of Brazil, through two systems: web and mobile, which uses a knowledge base in liming and fertilization. Therefore, this work aims at presenting the conceptual and logical modeling process of a database that have rules of information management to interpret the results of soil analysis reports and to recommend soil correctives and fertilizers. Rules were created that use comparisons, filtering, mathematical operations and logical operations, modeled in the SQL language, and when executed, generate interpretations of soil analysis and recommendations for correctives and fertilizers. The AgroFert covers the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo and the biome of Cerrado. In addition to the conceptual modeling, 22 operations were created, totaling approximately 400 lines of code, and it was possible to recommend fertilizers for 13 grain crops. The results of the tests showed that the computerization of the data present in the RS / SC and Parana manuals facilitated the interpretation of the data present in soil analysis reports, besides increasing the precision and agility in the recommendations of corrective and fertilizer producers.


Living organisms employ chemical self-organization to build structures, and inspire new strategies to design synthetic systems that spontaneously take a particular form, via a combination of integrated chemical reactions, assembly pathways and physicochemical processes. However, spatial programmability that is required to direct such self-organization is a challenge to control. Thermodynamic equilibrium typically brings about a homogeneous solution, or equilibrium structures such as supramolecular complexes and crystals. This perspective addresses out-of-equilibrium gradients that can be driven by coupling chemical reaction, diffusion and hydrodynamics, and provide spatial differentiation in the self-organization of molecular, ionic or colloidal building blocks in solution. These physicochemical gradients are required to (1) direct the organization from the starting conditions (e.g. a homogeneous solution), and (2) sustain the organization, to prevent it from decaying towards thermodynamic equilibrium. We highlight four different concepts that can be used as a design principle to establish such self-organization, using chemical reactions as a driving force to sustain the gradient and, ultimately, program the characteristics of the gradient: (1) reaction–diffusion coupling; (2) reaction–convection; (3) the Marangoni effect and (4) diffusiophoresis. Furthermore, we outline their potential as attractive pathways to translate chemical reactions and molecular/colloidal assembly into organization of patterns in solution, (dynamic) self-assembled architectures and collectively moving swarms at the micro-, meso- and macroscale, exemplified by recent demonstrations in the literature.


In this paper, we introduce the concept of an exoskeleton as a new abstraction of arbitrary shapes that succinctly conveys both the perceptual and the geometric structure of a 3D model. We extract exoskeletons via a principled framework that combines segmentation and shape approximation. Our method starts from a segmentation of the shape into perceptually relevant parts and then constructs the exoskeleton using a novel extension of the Variational Shape Approximation method. Benefits of the exoskeleton abstraction to graphics applications such as simplification and chartification are presented.


To determine the effect of chronic adenosine receptor blockade on atrial responsiveness, we administered theophylline to rats in their drinking water (0.6 mg/ml) for 2 wk. Inotropic and chronotropic responses to the adenosine receptor agonists N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CPA) and 5'-(N-ethylcarboxamido)-adenosine (NECA) were then measured in isolated atria from treated and control animals. The indirect (antiadrenergic) actions of CPA and NECA on force and rate, measured during beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation by isoproterenol, were markedly sensitized (2- to 10-fold reductions in the agonist concentration needed to obtain a half-maximal response) after theophylline. The sensitization was homologous because inotropic and chronotropic responses to carbachol were not affected by theophylline. The direct negative inotropic and chronotropic actions of CPA and NECA, measured without concomitant beta-adrenergic stimulation, were not sensitized after theophylline. The number of atrial A1-receptors, measured by antagonist radioligand binding (maximum specific binding at saturation), was increased by 22% in theophylline-treated rats [66.2 +/- 3.4 vs. 54.3 +/- 1.9 (control) fmol/mg protein, P < 0.05]. Competition binding indicated that the fraction of coupled (high-affinity) receptors was unchanged. The number of ventricular A1-receptors was increased to a similar extent without any change in coupling. Thus chronic dietary theophylline upregulated cardiac A1-adenosine receptors without changing coupling state or affinity and sensitized rat atria to the indirect, antiadrenergic, inhibitory inotropic and chronotropic actions of adenosine receptor agonists.


Over the last few decades, proteins and peptides have become increasingly more common as FDA-approved drugs, despite their inefficient delivery due to their inability to cross the plasma membrane. In this context, bacterial two-component systems, termed AB toxins, use various protein-based membrane translocation mechanisms to deliver toxins into cells, and these mechanisms could provide new insights into the development of bio-based drug delivery systems. These toxins have great potential as therapies both because of their intrinsic properties as well as the modular characteristics of both subunits, which make them highly amenable to conjugation with various drug classes. This review focuses on the therapeutical approaches involving the internalization mechanisms of three representative AB toxins: botulinum toxin type A, anthrax toxin, and cholera toxin. We showcase several specific examples of the use of these toxins to develop new therapeutic strategies for numerous diseases and explain what makes these toxins promising tools in the development of drugs and drug delivery systems.


The amino acid content in cocklebur (Xanthium pennsylvanicum Wallr.) seeds was increased by ethylene, which stimulated their germination, regardless of whether they were non-dormant or secondarily dormant. This increase in amino acid content coincided with the increased activities of β-cyanoalanine synthase (CAS, EC 220.127.116.11) in response to ethylene. KCN and/or cysteine, the substrates of CAS, also increased the amino acid content in both non-dormant and secondarily dormant cocklebur seeds. The degrees of the increased amino acid content corresponded roughly to the germination rates of the seeds reported previously. The actual involvement of CAS in the germination process in cocklebur seeds was demonstrated by incorporation into asparagine and aspartate from 14CN which was fed to the cotyledon segments of both non-dormant and secondarily dormant cocklebur seeds. In this case, the incorporation of 14CN was augmented by ethylene, and incorporated more abundantly in the cotyledons of secondarily dormant seeds. Moreover, ethylene decreased the cysteine + cystine content in both the axial and cotyledon tissues, but increased asparagine and aspartate regardless of whether they were non-dormant or secondarily dormant. This suggests that CAS responsiveness to ethylene participates in supplying asparagine and aspartate and in increasing the amino acid pool of cocklebur seeds during the pre-germination period.


Urea assisted denaturation of protein and RNA has been shown to be a valuable tool for studying the stabilities and the folding phenomena of these biomolecules. It has been shown that stacking interactions between nucleobases and urea are one of the driving forces of denaturation. In this study, the ability of urea to form unconventional stacking interactions with RNA bases is investigated by performing high level quantum calculations (RI-MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level) on few thousands of model systems. Four systems were considered based on the RNA nucleobases (GUA, ADE, CYT, and URA) for the investigation. For each system, a set of models were designed to study the role of hetero-atoms/groups of the nucleobases on stacking interactions with urea moiety with respect to every possible pair. Furthermore, for each model, several plane parallel complexes were generated with urea on top of aromatic systems to exhaustively study all possible factors for urea-nucleobases stacking interactions. Energy decomposition analysis (EDA) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis were performed on stacked complexes. AIM analysis was done for the most stable system of each model for all systems to gain better insights on non-covalent stacking interactions. Dispersion component was found to be heavily stabilizing, while the EHF was found to be repulsive for all the four systems indicating lack of hydrogen bonding (HB) type interactions and presence of dispersion type interactions. Interactions of most stable complex for each nucleobase with Urea moeities were also studied to identify the importance of each part of Urea in these stacking interactions. Amide and Carbonyl group of urea molecule was found to play a major role in stacking interactions. We demonstrate that along with functional groups present on the nucleobases, the orientation of urea molecules plays a vital role in stabilizing the urea-nucleobase non-covalent interactions. The proposed study quantifies and provides a comprehensive theoretical description of urea nucleobase unconventional stacking interactions which helps to unravel urea driven RNA unfolding mechanism.


In his recent article entitled 'Can We Believe the Error Theory?' Bart Streumer argues that it is impossible (for anyone, anywhere) to believe the error theory. This might sound like a problem for the error theory, but Streumer argues that it is not. He argues that the un-believability of the error theory offers a way for error theorists to respond to several objections commonly made against the view. In this paper, we respond to Streumer's arguments. In particular, in sections 2-4, we offer several objections to Streumer's argument for the claim that we cannot believe the error theory. In section 5, we argue that even if Streumer establishes that we cannot believe the error theory, this conclusion is not as helpful for error theorists as he takes it to be.


Fermented anchovy of the favorite sea food in Korea made from anchovy (Engraulis japonica) and salt. The study was undertaken to investigate the effects of different retorting conditions on the quality of canned salt-fermented anchovy fillet. The salt fermented anchovy fillet was prepared by fermenting anchovy(Engraulis japonica) with salt(15%) at 5 for 15 days and then cold air drying the fermented °C fillet for 1 hour. The dried fermented anchovy fillet(85g) was filled with olive oil(60g) into can(301-1) and seamed using a vacuum seamer, and then sterilized at Fo 9 and 11 mins in a steam system retort at 12 1 , respectively. After sterilization with different heating conditions, the pH, VBN, amino-N, color value °C (L, a, b), texture profile, TBA value, sensory evaluation and viable bacterial count of the canned salt-fermented anchovy fillet were measured. In both sterilized cans, the viable bacterial counts were not detected. There was no remarkable difference in physicochemical and sensory quality between sterilization conditions. The results showed that sterilization of Fo 9 min was more desirable than that of Fo 11 min to prepare canned salt-fermented anchovy fillet.


Problem Bloodstream infections associated with catheters were the most common nosocomial infections in one paediatric intensive care unit in 1994-7, with rates well above the national average. Design Clinical data were collected prospectively to assess the rates of infection from 1994 onwards. The high rates in 1994-7 led to the stepwise introduction of interventions over a five year period. At quarterly intervals, prospective data continued to be collected during this period and an additional three year follow-up period. Setting A 292 bed tertiary care children's hospital. Key measures for improvement We aimed to reduce our infection rates to below the national mean rates for similar units by 2000 (a 25% reduction). Strategies for change A stepwise introduction of interventions designed to reduce infection rates, including maximal barrier precautions, transition to antibiotic impregnated central venous catheters, annual handwashing campaigns, and changing the skin disinfectant from povidone-iodine to chlorhexidine. Effects of change Significant decreases in rates of infection occurred over the intervention period. These were sustained over the three year follow-up. Annual rates decreased from 9.7/1000 days with a central venous catheter in 1997 to 3.0/1000 days in 2005, which translates to a relative risk reduction of 75% (95% confidence interval 35% to 126%), an absolute risk reduction of 6% (2% to 10%), and a number needed to treat of 16 (10 to 35). Lessons learnt A stepwise introduction of interventions leading to a greater than threefold reduction in nosocomial infections can be implemented successfully. This requires a multidisciplinary team, support from hospital leadership, ongoing data collection, shared data interpretation, and introduction of evidence based interventions.


An algorithm is presented by which nonfaulty processors of a group of fixed size will be able to maintain a consistent and timely knowledge of the group membership. The authors assume an architecture in which the broadcast network is accessed by some time domain multiplexing techniques where the exclusive right to transmit messages is granted to each processor once in every 'cycle'. In an execution of the proposed algorithm, every nonfaulty processor knows of any processor failure within at most two cycles following the cycle in which the failure occurred, and a restarted processor can join the group in two cycles. At most less than half the number of processors are assumed to fail in any three consecutive cycles.<<ETX>>


Live-cell imaging is a powerful method to obtain insights into cellular processes, particularly with respect to their dynamics. This is especially true for meiosis, where chromosomes and other cellular components such as the cytoskeleton follow an elaborate choreography over a relatively short period of time. Making these dynamics visible expands understanding of the regulation of meiosis and its underlying molecular forces. However, the analysis of meiosis by live-cell imaging is challenging; specifically in plants, a temporally resolved understanding of chromosome segregation and recombination events is lacking. Recent advances in live-cell imaging now allow the analysis of meiotic events in plants in real time. These new microscopy methods rely on the generation of reporter lines for meiotic regulators and on the establishment of ex vivo culture and imaging conditions, which stabilize the specimen and keep it alive for several hours or even days. In this review, we combine an overview of the technical aspects of live-cell imaging in plants with a summary of outstanding questions that can now be addressed to promote live-cell imaging in Arabidopsis and other plant species and stimulate ideas on the topics that can be addressed in the context of plant meiotic recombination.


Introduction: In 2004, a Cochrane Review and AAN practice parameter concluded that prednisone 0.75 mg/kg/day is of short‐term efficacy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Subsequent efforts to standardize care for DMD indicated wide variation in corticosteroid use. Methods: We surveyed physicians who follow patients with DMD, including: (1) clinics in the TREAT‐NMD (Translational Research in Europe—Assessment and Treatment of Neuromuscular Diseases) network (predominantly Europe) and (2) U.S. MDA clinic directors. We also documented the co‐administered corticosteroids in a trial of a putative treatment (ataluren) for DMD. Results: Of 105 Treat‐NMD clinicians, corticosteroids were not used in 10 clinics, and 29 different regimens were used—the most frequent 0.75 mg/kg/day prednisone (61 centers); 10 days on/10 days off (36 centers); 0.9 mg/kg/day deflazacort (32 centers); and 5 mg/kg/day on weekends (10 centers). Similar diversity was identified in MDA clinics and in the ataluren trial. Conclusions: Variability in corticosteroid use suggests uncertainty about risks/benefits of corticosteroid regimens for DMD. Muscle Nerve, 2013


One of the challenges in Risk Analysis and Management (RAM) is identifying the relationships between risk factors and risks. In this paper we propose using Extended Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to analyze the relationships between risk factors and risks. E-FCMs are suggested by Hagiwara to represent causal relationships more naturally. The main differences between E-FCMs and conventional Fuzzy Cognitive Maps are the following: E-FCMs have non-linear membership functions, conditional weights, and time delay weights. Therefore E-FCMs are suitable for risk analysis as all features of E-FCMs are more informative and can fit the needs of Risk Analysis. In this paper we suggest a framework to analyze risks using E-FCMs and extend E-FCMs themselves by introducing a special graphical representation for risk analysis. We also suggest a framework for group decision making using E-FCMs. Particularly, we explore the Software Project Management (SPM) and discuss risk analysis of SPM applying E-FCMs.


The evidence in support of a large barrier to internal rotation about the sulphur-sulphur bond is summarized. Each bond in an unperturbed chain of polycatenasulphur may be considered to be in one of two rotational isomeric states symmetrically disposed about the trans state at ϕ≅± 90°. Following analysis of the chain structure, it is proposed that bond rotational states are approximately mutually independent. On this basis, the unperturbed dimensions of polycatenasulphur are calculated to be close to those expected for a freely rotating chain; so that, with a bond angle supplement θ, the characteristic ratio 〈r2〉0/nl2≅(1+cos θ)/(1 – cos θ). The experimental entropy of formation of cyclooctasulphur in liquid sulphur is shown to be compatible with the calculated chain dimensions. An analogous treatment of polycatenaselenium is presented; unperturbed selenium chains should be even more highly coiled than those of sulphur. The dipole moments of some n-alkyl polysulphides are calculated using the rotational isomeric state model of polymeric sulphur, and the stable conformations of catenated sulphur and selenium derivatives, and small sulphur rings, are discussed.


BACKGROUND & METHODS
 Cfz/Dex is a standard of care in relapsed MM, and renal impairment is a poor prognostic factor. The ALLG MM16 trial was initiated to assess the feasibility of treating patients (pts) who have significant RI (eGFR 15 - 40 ml/min) with Cfz/Dex, and to determine whether an early reduction in serum free light chains (SFLC), with a short half-life, could predict renal outcome. A pre-planned interim analysis was conducted after Cycle 1 of the 32nd registered pt, to assess disease and renal response, predictive value of early SFLC measurements and tolerability. Of concern was whether acute kidney injury (AKI) in the early stages of Cfz treatment may be more common in pts with RI. eGFR was calculated using the MDRD formula. SFLC was measured by the FreeLite assay.
 RESULTS
 Patient characteristics
 Mean age was 56.7 ±1 yr; Stage II/III: 4/28. Median eGFR at enrolment was 27 (IQR 21-32) ml/min. The first 11 pts received Cfz 20/27 mg/m2. After a safety analysis, the next 21 pts were treated at 20/56 mg/m2. Twelve pts were treatment naïve (TN) (all receiving 20/56) and 20 pts had relapsed MM (median 3 prior lines; range 1 - 8). One to 29 cycles were administered, median 4.5 in 20/27 and 4 in 20/56 group. Median follow up was 5.1 (0.1 - 26.5) months.
 Disease Response
 Of pts who received ≥4 cycles, 83% achieved ≥PR. In TN pts, best response rates were sCR 33%, CR 17%, VGPR 33%, PR 17%; in relapsed pts, CR 17%, VGPR 25%, PR 33%, PD 25%.
 Renal response
 After the first 2 cycles, 24% of pts had a complete renal response (IMWG criteria). To determine if Cfz acutely worsened eGFR, change in eGFR from baseline to day 7 (D7) and D28 was calculated. D7 eGFR showed substantial improvement in TN compared to relapsed pts (+5.6 vs -1.2 ml/min). At D28, the improvement in TN vs relapsed pts (+21.4 vs +3.5 ml/min), and in the 20/56 vs 20/27 group (+14.2 vs +3.5 ml/min) was more pronounced. Comparable results were seen in serum creatinine.
 Early free light chain kinetics
 Mean change in involved SFLC after 1 & 2 cycles were -54.5% and -67.0% respectively, with mean increase in eGFR of 9.3 and 11.4 ml/min. Involved LC reduction was significantly greater in 20/56 vs 20/27 doses (at C2D1, 81 vs 13%; p<0.001). Early SFLC measurements were performed at C1D3 (24 h post 2nd Cfz dose) and C1D10 (24 h post 4th dose). The change in involved SFLC (∆LC) between baseline and C1D3 was predictive of change in eGFR at C3D1 and C4D1 (Fig 1A & B). For every one log10reduction in involved LC at C1D3, there was an increase in eGFR of 18.2 and 14.8 ml/min at C3 and C4. ∆LC from baseline to C1D10 was also predictive of change in eGFR at C3 (Fig 1C). Thus ∆LC measured early in C1 (C1D3, C1D10) can be used to predict the likelihood of renal response within 2 cycles. Any ∆LC below the required efficacy could be an indication to change treatment strategy.
 Tolerability
 A total of 25 pts have ceased treatment: disease progression (10), CR after 10 cycles per protocol (2), autologous transplant (3), AE (8), investigator or pt decision (1 each). Total AEs (CTCAE V.4.0) were more frequent in more severe RI (78% in 30-60 ml/min; 89% 15-30 ml/min). AEs ≥Grade (Gd) 3 occurred in 50%. The most common ≥Gd 3 AEs were thrombocytopenia (12.5%), cardiac dysfunction (12.5%) and anemia (9%). AEs of particular interest were hypertension (Gd 2 - 3, 19%) and tumour lysis syndrome (6%). There was only 1 case (3%) of AKI (Gd 2). More respiratory AEs occurred in the 20/56 compared to 20/27 cohort (5 vs 1) and all 3 cases of cardiac dysfunction occurred in 20/56 group, but there were no differences in other AEs. To date 8/32 pts have died, all in relapsed MM group - primary causes were myeloma (5), infection (1), respiratory failure (1) and chronic kidney injury (1).
 CONCLUSIONS
 In MM pts with RI, Cfz/dex showed disease response rates comparable to pts with normal renal function in ENDEAVOR. There was no increased AKI due to Cfz; instead, creatinine and eGFR improved with time, with a greater improvement in the 20/56 dose group and in TN pts. Our results also demonstrate the value of early SFLC kinetics measured at C1D3 and C1D10 in predicting renal response. A suboptimal early ∆LC may be an appropriate indicator to use a higher dose density to achieve a better renal outcome.

 Ho: Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel to meeting; Celgene: Other: Travel to meeting ; Amgen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Spencer:Celgene: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Janssen-Cilag: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Honoraria, Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; STA: Honoraria. Mollee:Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Bryant:Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria. Trotman:PCYC: Research Funding; Beigene: Research Funding; Celgene: Other: Unremunerated member of Ad Board, Research Funding; F. Hoffman-La Roche: Other: Travel to meeting, Unremunerated member of Ad Board, Research Funding; Janssen: Other: Unremunerated member of Ad Board, Research Funding; Takeda: Other: Unremunerated member of Ad Board. Gibbs:Amgen: Honoraria. Joshua:Amgen: Honoraria.


This research have a purpose to know is there an influence of problem solving abilty to students mathematical thinking, and to know how strong problem solving ability affect students mathematical thinking. This research used descriptive quantitative method, which a population is all of students that taking discrete mathematics courses both in department of Information Systems and department of mathematics education. Based on the results of data analysis showed that there are an influence of problem solving ability  to students mathematical thinking either at department of mathematics education or at department of information systems. In this study, it was found that the influence of problem solving ability to students mathematical thinking which take place at mathematics education department is stonger than at information system department. This is because, at mathematics education department, problem-solving activities more often performed in courses than at department of information system. Almost 75% of existing courses in department of mathematics education involve problem solving to the objective of courses, meanwhile, in the department of information systems, there are only 10% of these courses. As a result, mathematics education department student's are better trained in problem solving than information system department students. So, to improve students' mathematical thinking, its would be better, at fisrtly enhance the problem solving ability.


The new variant of the energy partitioning scheme introduced in part I of this paper is applied to discuss the relative stabilities of the cubic L12 structure and the tetragonal D022 structure of TiAl3 and ScAl3 and the stabilization of the L12 structure of TiAl3 by alloying with divalent transition metal atoms. Furthermore, a striking difference between the covalent bonding energies of TiAl3 and ScAl3 on the one hand and Ni3Al on the other hand is found.


Enzyme-induced liberation of hard-segment-containing components from polyurethanes was evaluated using two 14C-labeled polyurethanes. A polyester urea-urethane and polyether urea-urethane were synthesized from toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI)/polycaprolactone diol (PCL) or TDI/polyethylene glycol (PEO) with 14C-labeled ethylene diamine. Both materials were characterized using electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), size exclusion chromatography, and material chemistry by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Biodegradation assays were carried out using cholesterol esterase (CE), collagenase (CO), cathepsin B (CB), and xanthine oxidase (XO) at the pH optimum conditions for each enzyme at 37 degrees C. Biodegradation was analyzed by monitoring the release of radiolabel, by weight change, and by surface analysis using scanning electron microscopy. The polyester urea-urethane was shown to be susceptible to enzymatic degradation above the effect of the buffer control solution by the CE but not by the other enzyme systems as monitored by radiolabel released. In the initial period of incubation, the rate of degradation was increased for all systems, including buffer controls; however, the rates dropped off rapidly by day 28. The change in weight data for the polyester urea-urethane and polyether urea-urethane showed no enzyme-dependent biodegradation above the buffer controls. However, in sodium acetate buffer at pH = 5, the polymers showed a significant weight loss relative to other buffers. In conclusion, this study showed that the biological component responsible for the onset of the biodegradation process is more likely the result of a multitude of biologically mediated compounds acting synergistically, with the process being enhanced by physical parameters such as material dissolution. In addition characterization of surface and bulk chemistry as well as material structure evaluation have been shown to be essential to interpret degradation data.


After describing a database-centered planning environment, the article concentrates on issues involved in developing an integrated data model. These include (1) the data requirements for representing modern manufacturing systems, (2) the data requirements for a decision-making environment, and (3) the data requirements of the planning models themselves. By emphasizing information relationships, the authors expect to establish an information structure that will combine computational models, database management, and, eventually, knowledge representation techniques developed in artificial intelligence research.<<ETX>>


In today's borderless business environment, companies are operating in different locations across the globe to ensure that they can gain competitive advantage over their competitors at different countries. To ensure common strategic mission, vision and objectives of the company across the globe, managers from different countries of origin are sent to different countries to equip them with a global mindset in managing the company. The problem is that they have different ways of communication as compared to local managers. These might affect the level of job satisfaction of employees. This study was intended to investigate the influence of different communication styles of expatriate and local managers on employees' job satisfaction in manufacturing companies in Malaysia. From the analysis of 170 data collected from the employees, the results indicate that telling, selling and joining communication styles of local managers are the significant predictors of employees' job satisfaction. For expatriate managers, only selling communication style contributes significantly to the level of employees' job satisfaction. The implications of the study are discussed in detail in the paper.


Graphene is complexed with cellulose fibers to construct 3D aerogels, which is generally considered to be an environmentally friendly and simple strategy to achieve wide sensing, high sensitivity and low detection of wearable piezoresistive pressure sensors. Here, graphene is incorporated into waste paper fibers with cellulose as the main component to prepare graphene coated waste paper aerogel (GWA) using a simple "filtration-oven drying" method under atmospheric pressure. The GWA was further annealed to obtain the carbonized graphene coated waste paper aerogel (C-GWA) to achieve low density and excellent resilience. The result shows that the C-GWA has a rough outer surface due to the 3D structure formed by interpenetrated fibers and the carbon skeleton with wrinkles. The sensor based on GCA shows low density (25mg/cm3), a wide detection range of 0-132 kPa, an ultra-low detection limit of 2.5 Pa (a green bean, ≈ 53.4 mg), and a high sensitivity of 31.6 kPa− 1. In addition, the sensor based on C-GWA with the excellent performance can be used to detect human motions including the pulse of the human body, cheek blowing and bending of human joints. The result indicates that the sensor based on C-GWA shows great potential for wearable electronic products.


A case of amnesia with preferential disorder of verbal recall, associated to a limited infarct of the left superior, external and anterior thalamus, is reported. This lesion involved the anterior and middle dorso-lateral nuclei and the centrolateral nucleus, sparing most of the structures classically incriminated in diencephalic amnesia. At the initial stage, the patient presented discrete language impairment and severe deficit of semantic processing, which later recovered. At the late stage, the anterograde and retrograde amnesia principally concerned the recall of verbal information used in daily life, verbal learning using short-term and long-term recall, questionnaires evaluating retrograde memory and requiring the evocation of proper names. Verbal priming was also affected. Verbal recognition was preserved. Evocation of the most recent events of the personal life was also impaired. Confrontation of this case with others previously reported suggests that various thalamic amnesias may be described, associated to different cognitive deficits, in relation with the preferential situation of lesions.


A 68-year-old male, who had advanced rectal cancer with multiple pulmonary metastases, had undergone resection of rectal cancer operatively and was treated with a combination chemotherapy using 5'-DFUR (5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine) and MMC (mitomycin C) for multiple pulmonary metastases. Nine months from the start of this therapy, pulmonary metastatic lesions disappeared completely on chest X-ray examination and computed tomography. This case corresponded to complete response (CR) according to the response criteria proposed by Koyama-Saitoh. No significant side effects were observed during this chemotherapy. From the results in this case, the combination chemotherapy was considered to be one of the effective antineoplastic therapies available for pulmonary metastasis from large bowel cancer.


Bran from a Canadian Red Spring Wheat, of both a coarse and fine type, was compared with that from a French Soft Wheat, also with coarse and fine characteristics. The coarse type whether Canadian or French had the more significant effect on the stool weight, speeded the intestinal transit as measured by Hinton markers, and reduced intraluminal pressure in the colon more than did the fine types from the same sources in patients with diverticular disease. The texture of a bran may be important in relationship to its clinical efficacy.


Contamination of sediment with compounds derived from crude oils pose significant threats to human health as well as to the natural ecosystem. One particular class of compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are common in heavier crude oils (ex. tar sands oil), may pose long-term threats. These compounds may persist in the environment for long periods of time following a crude oil spill. As such, this study sought to evaluate the persistence of PAHs in sediment and possible correlation between PAH distribution and grain size. This was accomplished through the collection of sediment samples from a portion of river bank along the Kalamazoo River near Ceresco, MI. Five years previously, a pipeline break spilled an estimated 843,000 gallons of diluted bitumen being transported from Alberta, Canada's Athabasca oil field. Samples were collected from two areas: 1) an area of the river bank that was reworked following the spill and 2) an area in the floodplain thought to have been inundated with oil at the time of the spill but has since remained relatively undisturbed. The samples were analyzed using gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GCFID) for 17 PAHs known to have potentially harmful human and ecosystem health effects. Results indicate the presence of PAHs in all samples. In addition, a detailed analysis of grain size was carried out on each sediment sample. There is some variability in the presence of specific PAHs between sample location and sediment grain size fraction, though identifying a clear correlation is complex. Since production and transportation of tar sands oil is projected to increase in the coming years, understanding the fate of PAHs in the environment is crucial to remediation preparedness. By relating the persistence of PAH compounds to grain size in a dynamic natural environment, it may be possible to better predict areas where PAHs may concentrate in future spills of tar sands oil, thus better informing future remediation efforts in similar environments. Table 1: Field site and laboratory readings for pore water and surface water samples Parameter OC1 OC4 SW Temperature (°C) 18.4 21.0 22.1


ABSTRACT Preventive healthcare is a crucial pillar of health as it contributes to staying healthy and having immediate treatment when needed. Mining knowledge from longitudinal studies has the potential to significantly contribute to the improvement of preventive healthcare. Unfortunately, data originated from such studies are characterized by high complexity, huge volume, and a plethora of missing values. Machine Learning, Data Mining and Data Imputation models are utilized a part of solving these challenges, respectively. Toward this direction, we focus on the development of a complete methodology for the ATHLOS Project – funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, which aims to achieve a better interpretation of the impact of aging on health. The inherent complexity of the provided dataset lies in the fact that the project includes 15 independent European and international longitudinal studies of aging. In this work, we mainly focus on the HealthStatus (HS) score, an index that estimates the human status of health, aiming to examine the effect of various data imputation models to the prediction power of classification and regression models. Our results are promising, indicating the critical importance of data imputation in enhancing preventive medicine's crucial role.


New bis(thio)substituted, S-,O-substituted, and S-,S-substituted benzoquinone compounds were synthesized from the reaction of p-chloranil (1) with S-,O-substituted thiols, dithiols, and monothiols. The 13C NMR spectra and the IR spectra of heterocyclic compounds 3, 4 and 7, 8 showed different behavior; that of 3, 7 showed a carbon signal and a >CO group band for the carbonyl group and that of 4, 8 showed two carbon signals and split bands for the carbonyl group. The structures of the novel compounds were characterized by microanalysis, FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS, and UV–vis spectroscopy. The crystal structure of 2,3,5,6-tetrakis(4-fluorobenzylthio)cyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-dione (15) was determined by the X-ray diffraction method. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 21:446–452, 2010; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/hc.20634


Using traffic control systems you can solve a lot of traffic problems, such as traffic incidents, fuel consumption, delays, traffic jams, emission of pollutants, parking and others. Developing traffic control systems require less cost than other parts of the transport infrastructure improvements. If you want to implement traffic control system to the streets of cities you must to estimate all traffic factors. In order to implement all traffic factors you need to create traffic flows imitation model. The developed imitational model of the traffic flows permits the modeling of various traffic flows at the intersections. The main task of this imitation model is traffic jam detection. Imitation model was tested with real and forecasted data. The developed imitational model of the intersection can be applied to any intersection of the city. Ill. 11, bibl. 6 (in English; abstracts in English and Lithuanian). http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.112.6.447


To the Editor.— The Veterans Administration (VA) health care system is the largest in the nation, serving approximately 3.4 million patients per year. Many patients have medical conditions related to smoking, such as lung cancer, head and neck cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and atherosclerotic heart disease. In spite of this, the VA has been reluctant to impose restrictions on smoking in its medical facilities. 1 In the past, VA hospitals have distributed free cigarettes to patients, and many still provide tobacco products in the canteen service. Why hasn't the VA taken a more active role in discouraging smoking? Many have the impression that the majority of veterans are smokers, who would vehemently object to restrictive smoking policies. Others question the fairness of smoking limitations to patients who smoke as a result of the military's past practice of distributing free cigarettes. Reluctance to deprive those veterans with chronic disabling illnesses


The study was conducted to determine the optimum level of salinity tolerance on the growth performance and proximate composition of Wallago attu fed with tilapia meat. The experimental fish were collected from River Chenab district Muzaffargarh and acclimatized for 14 days in freshwater before the experiment began. The fish were divided into five treatments: T1, T2, and T3 with salinity levels 4, 8 and 12-ppt respectively with a control group (T0) in freshwater. Each treatment had one replicate and fish were stocked at a density of 5 fish's/aquarium in the Laboratory. Fish were fed 5% of their body weight with tilapia meat and water was exchanged regularly after every alternate day. The present study indicates the highest survival rate at 12-ppt and mortality was observed beyond this point. Non-significant changes in growth parameters viz; Feed intake, Feed conversion ratio, and Weight gain, were found in treatments and the control group. Additionally, proximate composition (moisture, ash content, protein and fat) showed significant changes (P<0.005) in groups. Water quality parameters were found within the acceptable range during the study period. The result suggests that W. attu is a suitable species for rearing in harsh water earthen lakes and emphasizes the importance of considering salinity levels and leads to innovation in sustainable aquaculture practices.


In this study, we examine an income replacement rate of each prefecture in Japanese public pension system using an agent-based simulation. The income replacement rate is a ratio of an individual's pension and the average income. On the basis of the statistics of each prefecture, we calculate the amount of pension, wage structure and marriage behavior using a proposed agent-based model. From simulation results, we try to see circumstances of current pensioners in each prefecture based on the population change, the income replacement rate and the wage growth rate. We visualize differences of income replacement rates among 47 prefectures for pensioners to see the value of their pension benefit by comparing to the average income in each prefecture. The proposed method helps pensioners to design their lives with pension benefits.


BACKGROUND
The significant difference in central and peripheral blood pressure (BP) values has only recently been widely recognized. Ambulatory BP monitoring has been shown to have advantages over office BP measurements because ambulatory monitoring can provide important information not available when only office BP is measured. The aim of this study was to assess the 24-hour central systolic pressure (CSP) profile, CSP short-term variability, and 24-hour systolic pressure amplification profile.

METHODS
The study group comprised 50 hypertensive subjects and 50 normotensive subjects. All participants underwent 24-hour peripheral and central pressure monitoring.

RESULTS
CSP was lower than peripheral pressure levels during the day (124.1 ± 15.7 mm Hg vs 133.9 ± 16.3 mm Hg; P < 0.001) and night hours (114.4 ± 14.5 mm Hg vs 121.5 ± 15.2 mm Hg; P < 0.001). The CSP nocturnal fall was lower than the peripheral pressure fall in normotensive subjects as well as in hypertensive subjects. Although 24-hour systolic pressure amplification was similar in subjects with and without hypertension (9.2 ± 3.1 mm Hg and 8.3 ± 2.4 mm Hg; P = NS), it was significantly lower during the night than during the day in both groups. The nocturnal fall in systolic pressure amplification was correlated with the day-night difference in heart rate (r = 0.70; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Central pressure differs significantly from peripheral pressure during regular daily activity as well as during night hours. Moreover, it appears that systolic pressure amplification varies throughout the 24-hour period and that the main factor determining nocturnal fall in systolic pressure amplification is nocturnal drop in the heart rate. More studies are required to demonstrate advantage of this novel technique over traditional pressure monitoring in clinical practice.


Consider a cost-sharing game with players of different contribution to the total cost: an example might be an insurance company calculating premiums for a population of mixed-risk individuals. Two natural and competing notions of fairness might be to a) charge each individual the same price or b) charge each individual according to the cost that they bring to the pool. In the insurance literature, these general approaches are referred to as"solidarity"and"actuarial fairness"and are commonly viewed as opposites. However, in insurance (and many other natural settings), the cost-sharing game also exhibits"externalities of size": all else being equal, larger groups have lower average cost. In the insurance case, we analyze a model with externalities of size due to a reduction in the variability of losses. We explore how this complicates traditional understandings of fairness, drawing on literature in cooperative game theory. First, we explore solidarity: we show that it is possible for both groups (high and low risk) to strictly benefit by joining an insurance pool where costs are evenly split, as opposed to being in separate risk pools. We build on this by producing a pricing scheme that maximally subsidizes the high risk group, while maintaining an incentive for lower risk people to stay in the insurance pool. Next, we demonstrate that with this new model, the price charged to each individual has to depend on the risk of other participants, making naive actuarial fairness inefficient. Furthermore, we prove that stable pricing schemes must be ones where players have the anti-social incentive of desiring riskier partners, contradicting motivations for using actuarial fairness. Finally, we describe how these results relate to debates about fairness in machine learning and potential avenues for future research.


The immunoperturbations in paraproteinemias are due predominantly to a disturbance of the B-cell system. The immunologic deficiency is characterized clinically by an increased susceptibility to infections and serologically by a reduction of the nonmyeloma immunoglobulins. In advances cases the capacity to produce specific antibodies is impaired. This may be attributed to a low rate of synthesis or an increased catabolism of normal immunoglobulins.


In Gironde (SW of France), 98% of drinking water comes from the North Aquitaine multilayered aquifer system. It constitutes an important strategic water resource considering the great quality of this water and its natural protection against anthropic pollutions. Nevertheless, some of these aquifers are overexploited. In order to manage these resources, a regional planning of groundwater was approved in 2003. It plans the realization of new facilities to improve the spatial distribution of pumping areas in order to minimize groundwater mining impacts on specific sites.
Thus, a new well field is planned in the Medoc region at 35 km west of Bordeaux. It will be composed of 14 wells and will produce 10 million cubic meters by year extract from Oligocene aquifer (150 m below ground surface). In this region, most of the surface is occupied by the Landes forest, which corresponds to a monoculture of maritime pines (Pinus pinaster). Soils are mainly composed of sand in which a phreatic aquifer (Plio-Quaternary) is in development.
In order to evaluate the impact of the future well field on the Oligocene aquifer and the multilayered aquifer system, a hydrodynamic model (PHONEME) was specially built for this with MARHTE (Thiery, 2014). It incorporates 8 aquifers and 7 aquitards, covering a total surface of 4,430 km².
Simulations done with the groundwater model show a maximum impact of 30 m on the Oligocene and an impact between 0 and 35 cm on the phreatic aquifer.
Results from the hydrodynamic model were used to evaluate impact on forest production using the INRA forest growth model GO+ (Lousteau et al., 2012). This multi-model approach was done in order to gives some answers on the impacts on the growth of trees with the implementation of a well field and to bring solutions to limit use conflicts.


Serial hyperpolarized 13C+mpMRI and paired metabolic image-guided biopsy were employed in a new integrative active surveillance (AS) paradigm, exemplified by a patient who initially enrolled in AS for 5 years, but later underwent radical prostatectomy upon progression. Metabolic biomarker kPL images detected early progression preceding radiologic and clinical parameters. Final whole-gland histopathology also linked kPL and PI-RADS targets to multifocal tumors, where kPL spatially reflected intratumoral heterogeneity, and high kPL regions correlated with adverse pathologic features such as G4 cribriform pattern, extracapsular extension, and lymphovascular invasion. Results indicated HP 13C may help optimize AS by improving clinical risk calculation.


With the rapid development of the wind generation,uncertainties of random wind and load bring some inevitable impacts on the security of power system. Once the uncertainty causes line power to exceed its limit, line overload will occur. The paper presents the risk control of transmission line overload for windintegrated power systems. Firstly, a risk control model of line overload is proposed considering the uncertainties of loads,generator outputs and wind powers. The generation cost and security level of system associated with overload can be optimally controlled. Then path following interior point method is employed to carry out the optimal control. Finally the simulation is made on the modified IEEE-30 bus system. Results show that the risk of line overload is effectively reduced through the optimization of control variables.


Background: LSZ102 is an orally bioavailable selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) that inhibits estrogen receptor (ER) mediated gene transcription, induces receptor degradation, and blocks ER-dependent cell growth in preclinical models. This first-in-human study of LSZ102 is evaluating LSZ102 as a single agent (SA) and in combination with the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib or the PI3K inhibitor alpelisib (BYL719) in patients (pts) with locally advanced/metastatic ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC). Here, we present the immunohistochemistry (IHC) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) data obtained from a subset of pts treated with either LSZ102 SA or the combination of LSZ102 and ribociclib. Methods: ER IHC was performed with an antirabbit antibody (clone SP1) on FFPE samples collected at baseline and cycle 1 day 15 (C1D15), and the ER value was reported using the H-score method. A Novartis exploratory PanCancer next-generation sequencing ~600 gene panel for cell-free DNA (cfDNA) was used on plasma samples collected from pts treated with SA or the combination at baseline, on treatment (C1D1, C2D1/C3D1, C5D1, CXD1) at radiological assessments and at the end of treatment (EOT). Results: One hundred fifty-three pts with MBC (median number of prior lines of therapy in metastatic setting = 4; range, 0-10) were treated with LSZ102 SA or the combination of LSZ102 and ribociclib (data cutoff, November 30, 2018). ER protein levels, assessed by IHC H-score, are downregulated in about 75% of C1D15 samples in both SA and combination-treated pts. In this cohort of heavily pretreated pts, cfDNA sequencing was performed on approximately 400 samples from 135 pts, and the genomic landscape is described both at baseline and EOT for pts with detectable ctDNA (~77% of pts). At baseline, approximately 40% of pts had mutations in the ESR1 ligand-binding domain (LBD), and approximately 40% of pts had PIK3CA activating mutations. LBD ESR1 mutations were mainly subclonal with several pts harboring multiple mutations at baseline. The frequency of ESR1 Y537S mutation was no higher in EOT samples after LSZ102 treatment compared with baseline. Moreover, the tumor reduction of target lesions > 30% was observed in pts harboring different baseline ESR1 mutations, including Y537S, treated with either SA or the combination. Furthermore, the longitudinal cfDNA analysis showed a consistent reduction of the overall circulating tumor fraction (ctDNA fraction), from baseline for the majority of patients who achieved either partial response or stable disease with either SA or the combination. Conclusions: Consistent with being a SERD, LSZ102 treatment leads to the degradation of ER in tumor biopsies. The addition of ribociclib does not alter LSZ102-induced ER downregulation. The most common genetic alterations found in cfDNA collected from enrolled ER+ MBC patients before the study treatment were ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations. Importantly, the antitumor activity was observed in pts harboring a variety of ESR1 LBD mutations. Furthermore, enrichment of ESR1 Y537S mutations was not observed after LSZ102 treatment. Finally, the on-treatment longitudinal assessment of cfDNA measuring ctDNA fraction and mutation dynamics is maturing as a useful tool for monitoring the treatment efficacy. Citation Format: Komal Jhaveri, Dejan Juric, Sara Cresta, Yoon-Sim Yap, Francois P. Duhoux, Catherine Terret, Rachel Layman, Alejandro Balbin, Qing Sheng, Serena Liao, Adam Crystal, Giuseppe Curigliano. Tumor ER protein modulation, molecular characterization and monitoring of cfDNA in phase 1 study of LSZ102 and LSZ102 + ribociclib in patients with ER+ MBC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-10-07.


The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. I. Gorton, G.T. Heinemann, I. Crnkovic, H.W. Schmidt, J.A. Stafford, C. Szyperski, K. Wallnau (Eds.) Component-Based Software Engineering


This demo paper presents a design and implementation of a system AnomalyKiTS for detecting anomalies from time series data for the purpose of offering a broad range of algorithms to the end user, with special focus on unsupervised/semi-supervised learning. Given an input time series, AnomalyKiTS provides four categories of model building capabilities followed by an enrichment module that helps to label anomaly. AnomalyKiTS also supports a wide range of execution engines to meet the diverse need of anomaly workloads such as Serveless for CPU intensive work, GPU for deep-learning model training, etc.


In a traditional dynamic network reconfiguration study, the optimal topology is determined at every scheduled time point by using the real load data measured at that time. The development of the load forecasting technique can provide an accurate prediction of the load power that will happen in a future time and provide more information about load changes. With the inclusion of load forecasting, the optimal topology can be determined based on the predicted load conditions during a longer time period instead of using a snapshot of the load at the time when the reconfiguration happens; thus, the distribution system operator can use this information to better operate the system reconfiguration and achieve optimal solutions. This paper proposes a short-term load forecasting approach to automatically reconfigure distribution systems in a dynamic and pre-event manner. Specifically, a short-term and high-resolution distribution system load forecasting approach is proposed with a forecaster based on support vector regression and parallel parameters optimization. The network reconfiguration problem is solved by using the forecasted load continuously to determine the optimal network topology with the minimum amount of loss at the future time. The simulation results validate and evaluate the proposed approach.


It is proposed that the `bare' strange matter stars might not be bare, and the observed pulsars might be in fact the `bare' strange stars. As intensely magnetized strange matter stars rotate, the induced unipolar electric fields would be large enough to construct magnetospheres. This situation is very similar to that discussed by many authors for rotating neutron stars. Also, the strange stars with accretion crusts in binaries could act as x-ray pulsars or x-ray bursters. There are some advantages if pulsars are `bare' strange stars.


Majority of today's fixed-pitch, electric-power quadrotors have short flight endurance (<; 1 hour) which greatly limits their applications. This paper presents a design methodology for the construction of a long-endurance quadrotor using variable-pitch rotors and a gasoline-engine. The methodology consists of three aspects. Firstly, the rotor blades and gasoline engine are selected as a pair, so that sufficient lift can be comfortably provided by the engine. Secondly, drivetrain and airframe are designed. Major challenges include airframe vibration minimization and power transmission from one engine to four rotors while keeping alternate rotors contra-rotating. Lastly, a PD controller is tuned to facilitate preliminary flight tests. The methodology has been verified by the construction and successful flight of our gasoline quadrotor prototype, which is designed to have a flight time of 2 to 3 hours and a maximum take-off weight of 10 kg.


Myeloma cells thrive in an environment of sustained inflammation, which impacts the development and evolution of the disease, as well as drug resistance. We evaluated the impact of genetic polymorphisms in the Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway, which have been implicated in different inflammatory responses in the outcomes of patients with symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM) who have received contemporary therapies. We found that the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in both the TLR4 and toll/interleukin‐1 receptor (TIR)‐associated protein (TIRAP) genes was associated with lower response to primary therapy mainly for patients who received immunomodulatory drugs but not in patients treated with bortezomib‐based therapies. Furthermore, TIRAP SNP was associated with a significantly shorter progression‐free survival and overall survival, independently of other prognostic factors, such as age, transplant, International Staging System stage, lactate dehydrogenase and cytogenetics. This is the first study to demonstrate the effect of SNPs in TLR4/TIRAP in MM. Our data indicate that genetic variability in the immune system may be associated with different responses to antimyeloma therapies and may be a critical component affecting the natural history of the disease, providing the basis for further investigation of the role of these pathways in myeloma.


Co-occurring traumatic brain injury (TBI) and substance use disorders (SUD) are a major public health concern, yet TBI is often underrecognized within SUD treatment organizations. Social workers in these organizations are well positioned to deliver tailored treatment, but little is known about what social workers are doing to address the needs of these clients. The purpose of this study was to examine current social work practices in providing care to clients with co-occurring TBI and SUD. Using grounded theory methodology, authors conducted semistructured interviews with 17 licensed social workers employed in various SUD treatment settings. Transcript coding was conducted through an iterative process and data were analyzed using NVivo (version 12.0). Results demonstrated that social workers lack basic knowledge on the relationship between TBI and SUD. Additional barriers to providing care included lack of skills to identify history of TBI, lack of community resources, poor agency collaboration, and access-to-care restrictions. Social workers identified their primary roles as advocacy, care coordination, and serving on multidisciplinary teams. These results informed development of a capacity-building model, with recommendations for social work situated in each level of the socioecological framework. This study has important implications for building workforce capacity and collaborative care systems to improve client outcomes.


This paper deals with the multi-class QoS of B-ISDN service. ATM switch should divide different classes for guaranteeing QoS of system. The buffer management mechanism (partial share output buffer) is presented. No-priority and priority scheme are adopted. Cell loss probability and delay are analyzed for no priority, high priority and low priority services. Results show the ATM switch that we propose can control the performance of system effectively.


This paper investigates the multiple emitting multiple receiving points diversity technique as one of the ways of meeting the tripartite conditions of high data rate, less transmit power, and low unwanted electromagnetic radiations of the frequency-selective power-line channels. To be resilient to the intersymbol interference present in frequency-selective fading, the diversity technique must be used in conjunction with wideband multicarrier modulation. We propose an efficient space-frequency and space-time-frequency (STF)-coded multitone M-ary multilevel frequency-shift keying (M3FSK) for high-rate indoor communications over the multiwire power-line channels. We show that coding by using three dimensions of space, frequency, and time, the STF system is capable of achieving up to 8-dB diversity gain. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance improvement of the STF over other diversity schemes as well as over single-wire M3FSK systems in a highly impulsive power line.


Background and methodology Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) (i.e. injections, implants and intrauterine methods) has the potential to reduce unintended pregnancies but in the UK these methods are under-used. To inform a campaign planned to increase awareness of LARC, eight focus discussion groups were held with 55 women in two cities in Scotland, UK. Trained interviewers sought spontaneous views of unintended pregnancy and contraception in general, and condoms and pills in particular, and attitudes towards health professionals giving contraceptive advice. Attitudes towards LARC were discussed both before and after women were given detailed information about the methods. Results Women recognised the importance of using contraception but admitted to taking risks. Pills and condoms were familiar and acceptable despite undesirable side effects. Women were poorly informed about LARC, had firm but incorrect beliefs about their safety and side effects, disliked any method which involved an invasive procedure and/or vaginal examination, and had rather a low opinion of advice given by health professionals. Accurate information was not wholly successful in dispelling negative views of LARC. Discussion and conclusions Many factors influence contraceptive choice. Attitudes towards methods are complex and may be difficult to change. Some barriers to LARC, including the need to see a health professional, cannot be overcome but giving more information about ease of use, reversibility, effects on weight and the positive experiences of other women, as well as describing these methods as lasting rather than long-acting, may help improve acceptability.


Oral delivery is the most common method for bovine lactoferrin (bLf) administration. However, the presence of proteolytic enzymes in the stomach and intestine limits the effective absorption of bLf within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. To determine the extent of bLf proteolysis, several digestion models were developed using luminal extracts and mucosal homogenates isolated from four regions of rat intestine: duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and proximal colon. The kinetics of bLf degradation followed a pseudo‐first‐order rate, and almost complete hydrolysis of bLf was observed in the luminal extracts, indicating that bLf is more susceptive to luminal peptidases rather than mucosal enzymes. Moreover, a significant reduction in bLf proteolysis was observed in the presence of soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI), bestatin, and bacitracin, suggesting that there exist trypsin‐like and aminopeptidase‐like proteases, which play a key role in the degradation of bLf in the intestine. Lactoferrin was then encapsulated in several lipid‐based delivery systems including liposomes and solid lipid particles (SLPs) with polymer modification, showing at least 50% of intact bLf remaining after 6 h of digestion compared with native bLf. These findings suggest that particle encapsulation may modulate protein digestion and possibly achieve sufficient oral bioavailability of bLf.


This dissertation covers three aspects of upper-extremity exoskeleton design: 1) Kinematics & motion: How to support the full range of motion of the human shoulder? We present a 2D visualization method that can show coupling between the range of motion (ROM) of rotations of the glenohumeral joint. This visualization helps in communication, comparison, design and analysis of human and assistive device ROM. We furthermore provide a conceptual design and differential inverse kinematics method for a redundant 4 degree of freedom (DOF) shoulder-exoskeleton. The extra DOF allows for movement redundancy to steer away from body collisions and kinematic singularity. 2) Haptics & Control: How to get devices such robots or exoskeletons to behave as some defined impedance in a stable manner when interacting with human users; how to implement stable admittance control with inertia reduction? We analyze the energetic behavior of the control method 'admittance control'. During admittance control an interaction force with a human user is measured, which is used in a dynamical mechanical model that prescribes a motion for the exoskeleton to follow. Such a method is inherently active (i.e. it generates energy that can result in coupled instability) when it is used to reduce the apparent inertia of the exoskeleton. We provide insight into why this energetically active behavior occurs, and provide guidelines to design a controller that is (close to) passive and is therefore (almost) always stable when in contact with a human limb. 3) Human Factors: How do humans respond to dissipative shared control forces? Passive and active exoskeletons can apply forces to the human user to steer or help the person and share control authority. A passive force that only dissipates energy is a damping force. We investigate how position dependent damping forces around reaching targets influence human reaching time and kinematics. Results show that humans increase their accelerations and decrease their reaching time when assisted in this manner. We pose the hypothesis that damping forces attenuate neural activation dependent motor noise. Without the damping, this higher noise for higher accelerations would have had too much of a negative effect on the required task accuracy.


Objective: Overweight and obesity have been steadily evolving around the globe. These health problems would give consequences to physical and psychosocial dimensions of the affected individuals. They could lead to various chronic diseases such as heart problems and cancers. Furthermore, they could give adverse effects to mental health, ranging from low self- esteem to depression. This study aimed to explore the roles of nurses to improve mental health of overweight and obese young women. Methods: The design of the study was qualitative. Data were collected by having in- depth interviews to five participats that represented five different areas of Jakarta, Depok, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi. Participants were recruited with the inclusion criteria of females, aged 18 to 22 years old, with BMI above 24, resided in Jabodetabek for minimum 5 years or temporarily domiciled for minimum 1 year, and agreed to participate in the study. Results: Results of our study found that participants had correct understanding about the causes of overweight and obesity, but could not differ overweight from obesity. They reported self image dissatisfactions, were willing to lose weight but did not know how to deal with their weight issues.The findings also demonstrated the presence of negative opinions coming from family that could damage the intact of their self esteem. They reported the needs of being listened and respected, and believed that nurses attitudes could help them in building positive self image and fulfilling their needs. Conclusion: Our study emphasized the roles of nurses in addressing the psychological needs of overweight and obese women through psychotherapies, including cognitive behavior and interpersonal therapies. We suggested the enhancement of nurses competences in caring patients with overweight and obesity, particularly in improving their mental health. Keywords: mental health, nurses, obesity, overweight.


An integrated X-ray rocking diffractometer and calorimeter had been developed. The diffractometer is based on a high intensity X-ray source and a position sensitive detector. The calorimeter uses two fluxmeters connected to a thermal reservoir, and ramps the sample temperature continuously between 10 K and room temperature. This system allows the thermal and structural anomalies associated with structural phase transitions to be recorded simultaneously, allowing comparisons to be made without ambiguities from independent apparatus having slightly different temperature calibrations. The system has been tested by studying the ferroelectric phase transition in KD2PO4.


ISSN: 2278 – 1323 All Rights Reserved © 2014 IJARCET 272 Abstract :In cloud computing load balancing is required to achieve evenly distribute load among the nodes and to efficiently make use of the resources Load balancing ensures that all the processor in the system or every node in the network does approximately the equal amount of work at any instant of time. This technique can be sender initiated, receiver initiated or symmetric type (combination of sender initiated and receiver initiated types). This paper presents the features and discussed about the pros and cons of various load balancing algorithm in the authors style. Various consideration of the algorithm like throughput, performance, fault tolerance, migration time, response time etc has been discussed.


Finding interesting patterns is a challenging task in data mining. Constraint based mining is a well-known approach to this, and one for which constraint programming has been shown to be a well-suited and generic framework. Dominance programming has been proposed as an extension that can capture an even wider class of constraint-based mining problems, by allowing to compare relations between patterns. In this paper, in addition to specifying a dominance relation, we introduce the ability to specify an incomparability condition. Using these two concepts we devise a generic framework that can do a batch-wise search that avoids checking incomparable solutions. We extend the ESSENCE language and underlying modelling pipeline to support this. We use generator itemset mining problem as a test case and give a declarative specification for that. We also present preliminary experimental results on this specific problem class with a CP solver backend to show that using the incomparability condition during search can improve the efficiency of dominance programming and reduces the need for post-processing to filter dominated solutions.


Staphylococcal alpha toxin interacts not only with membranes of erythrocytes but also with membranes of other kinds of mammalian cells (platelets, hepatocytes, and lysosomes from polymorphonuclear leukocytes) with the formation of characteristic ring-like structures that can be seen by electron microscopy. Such structures are not observed when alpha toxin is added to membranes derived from various bacteria. The rings seen on mammalian cell membranes tend to be either randomly disposed or in square array. The frequency with which square arrays are seen is influenced by the presence of staphylococcal delta toxin, by the negative staining agent, and by the kind of cell from which the membrane is derived. Synthetic membranes in the form of liposomes, prepared individually from phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl serine, phosphatidyl inositol, and cardiolipin, produced randomly disposed rings upon addition of alpha toxin. Liposomes made from phosphatidyl ethanolamine did not yield rings. Alpha toxin-treated liposomes prepared from chloroform-methanol extracts of brain white matter consistently showed rings that were rectangularly ordered. Ordered rings on membranes derived from toxin-treated platelets and those on toxin-treated brain extract liposomes were seen in freeze-etched as well as in negatively stained preparations.


Abstract Educational theorists may be right to suggest that providing mindfulness training in schools can challenge oppressive pedagogies and overcome Western dualism. Before concluding that this training is liberatory, however, one must go beyond pedagogy and consider schooling's role in enacting the educational neurofuture envisioned by mindfulness discourse. Mindfulness training, this article argues, is a biopolitical human enhancement strategy. Its goal is to insulate youth from pathologies that stem from digital capitalism's economisation of attention. I use Bernard Stiegler's Platonic depiction of the ambiguousness of all attention channelling mechanisms as pharmaka—containing both poison and cure—to suggest that this training is a double-edged sword. Does the inculcation of mindfulness in schoolchildren empower them; or is it merely an exercise in pathology-proofing them in their capacity as the next generation of unpaid digital labourers? The answer, I maintain, depends on whether young people can use the Internet's political potentialities to mitigate the exploitation of their unpaid online labour time. That is, on whether the exploitative 'digital pharmakon'—the capitalistic Web—can at the same time be socio-politically curative.


In Arabidopsis, the CLE genes encode a family of at least 32 peptide ligands. Our gain-of-function studies demonstrated that all of the 18 genes we examined caused pleiotropic and often opposing phenotypes, including various combinations of increased root and rosette growth, root stunting, dwarfing, shoot apical meristem (SAM) arrest, asymmetric leaf development, and "shrub-like" phenotypes. Many CLE genes caused similar phenotypes that correlated with common amino acid substitutions among subsets of the genes, suggesting key amino acids necessary for certain phenotypes. The pleiotropic phenotypes we observed were the results of integrated hypermorphic and global neomorphic responses to abundant ectopic ligands through multiple signaling pathways. The phenotypes are also suggestive of wide ranging, often antagonistic roles played by these genes in plant development. The interpretations of our findings and some apparently contradictory recent results are discussed in this context.


Aqueous-Two Phase Systems (ATPS) is an important tool for the separation of biological entities as proteins, membranes, enzymes, among others. On the other hand, microfluidics is an emerging technology that studies and manipulates liquids either one single phase or dispersed fluids such as droplets at the micro or smaller scales. Applications of microfluidics in different areas such as molecular biology, biochemical analysis and bioprocess have increased in the last years. In this work, we proposed a droplet-based microfluidic approach to generate ATPS systems and to observe how two model proteins, native ribonuclease A (RNase A) and its PEGylated form (PEG-RNase A), behave and partition on these systems. Using polyethylenglycol (PEG) and potasium phosphate salts as the phase-forming chemicals, we were able to form ATPS systems inside the microfluidic device as commonly performed in conventional ATPS macrosystems. Even more, formation of ATPS systems in which one of the fluids was present as a droplet was also achieved. As expected, model proteins exhibited the same behavior as they do in a macrosystem, that is, they displaced to a particular phase according to their affinity for them. When native RNase A was placed in the salt-rich phase, it remained there, and migrated from the PEG-rich phase to the former. On its part, PEGylated RNase A remained in the PEGrich phase or migrated from salt-rich phase to the PEG-rich phase. These results open the possibility for a prospect of micro bioprocess to separate interest biomolecules.


Abstract While the significant ecosystem damage caused by invasive weeds has been well documented, the economic consequences of specific invasive weed species are poorly understood. Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L., hereafter YST) is the most widespread noncrop weed in California, resulting in serious damage to forage on natural range and improved pasture. A survey was administered to California cattle ranchers to investigate YST infestation rates, loss of forage quantity and value, and control or eradication efforts. The results were used to estimate countywide losses and costs for 3 focus counties, as well as statewide losses/costs, due to YST in California. Total losses of livestock forage value due to YST on private land for the state of California are estimated at $7.65 million per year, with ranchers' out-of-pocket expenditures on YST control amounting to $9.45 million per year. Together, these amount to the equivalent of 6%–7% of the total annual harvested pasture value for the state. Therefore, while the impacts are relatively small within the statewide total agricultural production system, losses and costs due to YST infestation do constrain California's livestock grazing sector.


This study was to find out a suitable business model for a Professional Women's Volleyball League in Thailand. The samples analyzed were composed of representatives from the Sports Authority of Thailand, executives from the Thailand Volleyball Association, executives of the Thailand Volleyball League, and executives from several volleyball clubs, as well as, representatives from different branches of the media, sponsors, sports personnel; including, coaches, players, referees, team staff members, organizing committee staff members. Purposive sampling was used. The results found that the national women's volleyball players have high performance. They were good enough to become professional players. Other data has shown the strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats of the league management, as well as the success factors in administration and management which reflect the lack of a professional business operations plan for a professional women's volleyball league. Recommendations are given to lead to proper business model which will eventually improve volleyball at both the professional level and the national volleyball team of Thailand in the future.