An experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during November 2009 to February 2010 to study the genetic divergences of 32 genotypes of Brassica rapa L. through principal component analysis and Mohalanobis D 2 analysis. Analysis of variance indicated that considerable genetic variability were existed among the 32 genotypes. On the basis of D 2 analysis, the genotypes were grouped into 6 clusters. Cluster III had the maximum number of 11 genotypes, while the cluster IV and cluster V had only 2 genotypes each. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster I and V (21.871), while the lowest in the cluster II and III (4.237). The intra cluster distance was the maximum in cluster V (0.469) and minimum in cluster III (0.116). The characters yield per plant, number of siliquae per plant, and days to maturity were found prominent towards the genetic divergence. The genotypes G-15 and G-19 from cluster IV and G-1, G- 3, G-4, G-10, G-18, and G-24 from cluster I were suitable for creating more variability for higher yield per plant through hybridization DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v38i3.16968 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 38(3): 417-423, September 2013


The role of the general hospital within the psychiatric service delivery network has undergone profound changes in recent years. Current issues in general hospital psychiatry revolve around questions concerning boundaries, target populations, appropriate services, structural characteristics, and deinstitutionalization. Decisions in general hospital psychiatry derive from a series of influences that originate at varing distances from day-to-day hospital operations. Planning should ideally be filtered through the hospital's internal decision-making process in order to ensure a "bottom-up" rather than a "top-down" emphasis in service policy.


This brief review looks back to the major theoretical, experimental, and clinical work on the dynamics and mechanisms of atrial fibrillation (AF). Its goal is to highlight the most important issues, controversies, and advances that have driven the field of investigation into AF mechanisms at any given time during the last ∼100 years. It emphasizes that while the history of AF research has been full of controversies from the start, such controversies have led to new information, and individual scientists have learned from those that have preceded them. However, in the face of the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia seen in clinical practice, we are yet to fully understand its fundamental mechanisms and learn how to treat it effectively. Future research into AF dynamics and mechanisms should focus on the development and validation of new numerical and animal models. Such models should be relevant to and accurately reproduce the important substrates associated with ageing and with diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, and ischaemic heart disease which cause AF in the vast majority of patients. Knowledge derived from such models may help to greatly advance the field and hopefully lead to more effective prevention and therapy.


ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Sneh Harsh is first author on 'Zika virus non-structural protein NS4A restricts eye growth in Drosophila through regulation of JAK/STAT signaling', published in DMM. Sneh conducted the research described in this article while a postdoctoral researcher in Ioannis Eleftherianos's lab at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Erika Bach at NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, USA, investigating host pathophysiology upon Zika virus infection using Drosophila developing organs as the model system.


In the 1980s, Indigenous Aboriginal women in Australia began to agitate against liquor outlets perceived as affecting the remote communities in which they lived, and mobilized in a series of fluid grassroots public demonstrations against alcohol availability. The women supported dry zones, local prohibition, and abstinence and were opposed to reforms designed to improve drinking places and promote "social" drinking. In these and many other ways, Aboriginal women's activism and ideology resembled that of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Australia decades earlier, despite there being no direct influence from the WCTU. This article explores the commonalities in the tactics and strategies deployed by these "old" and "new" temperance movements and argues that for Aboriginal women, their dissent necessitated a complex negotiation around the social and cultural norms of their society.


Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has a great impact on numberless aspects of our society. In our bronchoscopic lung volume reduction interventional program, we work with severe COPD patients on a daily basis. Objectives: We were interested in the prevalence and outcome of COVID-19, impact of the pandemic on daily life, and the vaccination coverage in our severe COPD patients who have been treated with one-way endobronchial valves. Method: A questionnaire, which consisted of questions related to the infection rate, treatment, and outcome of COVID-19 infections; feelings of anxiety related to the pandemic; adherence to preventive measures; and willingness to be vaccinated; was sent to our patients in June 2021. Results: The questionnaire was sent to 215 patients, and the response rate was 100%. The vaccination rate was 97% in our surveyed population. The majority of patients (63%) indicated that they were quite or very anxious to get infected with COVID-19. Twenty-five (11.5%) patients were diagnosed with COVID-19, with none of these patients having been vaccinated at the time of infection. The infection rate reported in this study is comparable to that of the general Dutch population. However, the hospital admission rate and mortality rates are higher. Conclusions: Our results show that the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in severe COPD patients treated with endobronchial valves was comparable with the general population; however, the hospital admission and mortality rates were worse.


Abstract Present article aims to summarize the impact of 'High-Performance Work-System' (HPWS) on employee performance. The research evaluates and establishes the link between HPWS best practices and corporate performance by investigating the evidence of the effects of these practices on the employee's overall attitudes on the basis of the concept of 'Black Box'. Further, the study contributes empirically by providing possible corrective measures and suggestions to the management of the company, which can be adopted to attain the status of a 'World Class Organization' by the company. Initially, the skewness and kurtosis tests were performed on the survey data to examine the normality of the data. Basis this, the correlation tests were designed and executed. In the present analysis, the bivariate analysis between the various variables (both independent and dependent) as chosen were performed to explore this inter-relationship. The present research uses "Hierarchal Multiple Linear Regression" (HMLR) analysis to examine the net effect on the employee attitudinal measures due to each bundles of the HPWS best practices as highlighted in nine hypotheses. At the end, summary of the recommendations to the general users has also been listed.


We study the dependencies of Earth's magnetosphere on Universal Time, UT. These are introduced because Earth's magnetic axis is not aligned with the rotational axis and complicated because it is eccentric, which makes the offset of the magnetic and rotation poles considerably greater in the Southern hemisphere and the longitudinal separation of the magnetic poles less than 180°: hence consequent UT variations in the two hemispheres are not in equal in amplitude nor in exact antiphase and do not cancel, as they would for a geocentric dipole. We use long series of a variety of geomagnetic data to demonstrate the inductive effect of motions of the polar caps in a "geocentric-solar" frame, which is phase-locked to the Russell-McPherron (R-M) effect on solar-wind magnetosphere coupling. This makes the response of the magnetosphere-ionosphere system different for the two polarities of the Y-component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field in the GSEQ reference frame, explaining the difference in response to the March and September equinox peaks in solar wind forcing. The sunward/antisunward pole-motion effect is detected directly in satellite transpolar voltage data and is shown to have a greater effect on the geomagnetic data than the full dipole tilt effect which generates the equinoctial pattern, the potential origins of which are discussed in terms of the dipole tilt effect on ionospheric conductivities and the stability of the near-Earth tail. Persistent UT variations in Region-1 and Region-2 field-aligned currents and in partial ring current indices are presented: their explanation is an important challenge for numerical modelling of the magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system which we need to quantify the relative contributions of the various mechanisms and to give understanding of the effect of arrival time on the response of the system to large, geoeffective disturbances in interplanetary space. Plain language summary: The effect on terrestrial space weather of Earth's magnetic axis not being aligned with the rotational axis is investigated. It is complex because not only do these two axes not align in direction (the "dipole tilt"), the magnetic axis does not pass through the centre of the Earth, which sets a requirement for an "eccentric" model of the field and not the commonly-used "geocentric" one. For many years, it has been known that the dipole tilt gives a peak in geomagnetic activity at the equinoxes (the semi-annual variation) through the "Russell-McPherron" (R-M) effect. However, although the variation with Universal Time is consistent with the R-M effect for the September equinox, it is not for the March equinox. We here solve this long-standing puzzle by investigating the effects of the motions of the two poles in a frame fixed with respect to both the Earth and the Sun for an eccentric dipole model. But solving one puzzle generates many others. We present observations of the Universal Time variations that these mechanisms combine to generate, which set an important challenge to the numerical modelling of the near-Earth space environment.


Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the tissues that surround and support the teeth and is initiated by inappropriate and excessive immune responses to bacteria in subgingival dental plaque leading to loss of the integrity of the periodontium, compromised tooth function, and eventually tooth loss. Periodontitis is an economically important disease as it is time-consuming and expensive to treat. Periodontitis has a worldwide prevalence of 5–15% and the prevalence of severe disease in western populations has increased in recent decades. Furthermore, periodontitis is more common in smokers, in obesity, in people with diabetes, and in heart disease patients although the pathogenic processes underpinning these links are, as yet, poorly understood. Diagnosis and monitoring of periodontitis rely on traditional clinical examinations which are inadequate to predict patient susceptibility, disease activity, and response to treatment. Studies of the immunopathogenesis of periodontitis and analysis of mediators in saliva have allowed the identification of many potentially useful biomarkers. Convenient measurement of these biomarkers using chairside analytical devices could form the basis for diagnostic tests which will aid the clinician and the patient in periodontitis management; this review will summarise this field and will identify the experimental, technical, and clinical issues that remain to be addressed before such tests can be implemented.


Large-scale standardized test have been widely used for educational and licensure testing. In computerized adaptive testing (CAT), one of the practical concerns for maintaining large-scale assessments is to ensure adequate numbers of high-quality items that are required for item pool functioning. Developing items at specific difficulty levels and for certain areas of test plans is a wellknown challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate strategies for varying items that can effectively generate items at targeted difficulty levels and specific test plan areas. Each variant item generation model was developed by decomposing selected source items possessing ideal measurement properties and targeting the desirable content domains. 341 variant items were generated from 72 source items. Data were collected from six pretest periods. Items were calibrated using the Rasch model. Initial results indicate that variant items showed desirable measurement properties. Additionally, compared to an average of approximately 60% of the items passing pretest criteria, an average of 84% of the variant items passed the pretest criteria.


This research addressed the need for trained child care staff to support optimal early social-emotional development in urban, low-income, ethnic minority children. We evaluated effectiveness of Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT), an approach adapted from Eyberg's Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). TCIT focuses on increasing preschool teachers' positive attention skills and consistent discipline in order to enhance children's psychosocial functioning and prevent mental health problems. A total of 12 teachers participated in small-group workshop sessions with in vivo coaching on their use of skills in the classroom. A multiple-baseline design across four classrooms (3 teachers each) evaluated effects of training on teacher behaviors during weekly classroom observations. Findings indicated systematic increases in trained skills during intervention, and consumer evaluations showed that the training was rated positively. Our results suggest that TCIT is a promising approach for enhancing positive teacher-child interactions in a preschool setting and should receive further investigation.


The most appropriate role the media can play in preventing drug abuse is the dissemination of school-based approaches of proven efficacy. In this paper, that statement is justified from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Suggestions for putting it into practice are offered. Review of the theoretical perspectives of Cartwright, Lazarsfeld and Merton, and Katz suggests that effective uses of mass media for drug abuse prevention must ensure adequate dissemination, maximize positive attention by the target audience (selectivity), encourage positive interpersonal communication, and maximize the principles of monopolization, canalization, and supplementation. Several major ways in which mass media programming can be linked with school-based or community-based programming to achieve these objectives are suggested. Mass media programs are seen as means to improve acceptance of school-based prevention programs by parents. Conversely, schools are seen as playing a crucial role in increasing exposure to media prevention programming, especially if it is an inherent component of a classroom curriculum, and increasing and improving interpersonal discussion about the issues, between students, between students and teachers, and particularly between students and parents.


The explosion mechanism of core-collapse supernovae is a long-standing problem in stellar astrophysics. We briefly outline the main contenders for a solution and review recent efforts to model core-collapse supernova explosions by means of multi-dimensional simulations. Focusing on the neutrino-driven mechanism, we summarize currents efforts to predict supernova explosion and remnant properties.


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
The study aim was to compare mitral valve repair techniques in vitro. Rupture or elongation of the mitral valve chordae tendineae is a known cause of mitral regurgitation, and can be corrected by edge-to-edge repair, chordal replacement, or chordal transposition.

METHODS
A test apparatus was used to apply pressure to porcine mitral valves. Mitral valve specimens were tested intact (n = 50), after they had been experimentally damaged, and after repair. Each test was repeated ten times. Experimental damage consisted of severing either the anterior leaflet strut, and attached marginal chordae (n = 30) or posterior leaflet chordae (n = 20). Valves with damaged anterior leaflets were repaired by either: (i) edge-to-edge repair; (ii) chordal replacement; or (iii) chordal transposition. Valves with damaged posterior leaflets were repaired by the first two techniques. Each repair method was repeated on ten specimens.

RESULTS
Mitral valves repaired using the edge-to-edge repair (p = 0.002) and chordal replacement (p = 0.038), after rupture to anterior leaflet chordae, recovered significantly better than specimens repaired by chordal transposition. There was no statistical difference in recovery between edge-to-edge repair and chordal replacement (p > 0.05). There was no statistical difference (p > 0.05) in the recovery of the pressure withstood by valves repaired by edge-to-edge repair and chordal replacement, after rupture of posterior leaflet chordae.

CONCLUSION
These results showed that edge-to-edge repair and chordal replacement are well suited for the repair of both the anterior and posterior leaflets.


Bamboo plastic composites have become a hot research topic and a key focus of research. However, many strong, polar, hydrophilic hydroxyl groups in bamboo flour (BF) results in poor interfacial compatibility between BF and hydrophobic polymers. Maleic anhydride-esterified (MAH-e-BF) and lactic acid-esterified bamboo flour (LA-e-BF) were prepared while using an in situ solid-phase esterification method with BF as the raw material and maleic anhydride or lactic acid as the esterifying agent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results confirmed that BF esterification with maleic anhydride and lactic acid was successful, with the esterification degrees of MAH-e-BF and LA-e-BF at 21.04 ± 0.23% and 14.28 ± 0.17%, respectively. Esterified BF was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, contact angle testing, X-ray diffractometry, and thermogravimetric analysis. The results demonstrated that esterified BF surfaces were covered with graft polymer and the surface roughness and bonding degree of MAH-e-BF clearly larger than those of LA-e-BF. The hydrophobicity of esterified BF was significantly higher than BF and the hydrophobicity of MAH-e-BF was better than LA-e-BF. The crystalline structure of esterified BF showed some damage, while MAH-e-BF exhibited a greater decrease in crystallinity than LA-e-BF. Overall, the esterification reaction improved BF thermoplasticity, with the thermoplasticity of MAH-e-BF appearing to be better than LA-e-BF.


The European responses to irregularised migrants in the second decade of the twenty-first century have been qualitatively new not so much because of the often-celebrated cultures of hospitality in countries such as Germany and Sweden, but because of acts of solidarity that have challenged the prerogative of nation-states to control access to their territory. I discuss elements of the public response in Germany to the criminalisation of one such act, the search and rescue (SAR) operation of the Sea-Watch 3 in the Central Mediterranean in June 2019, which led to the arrest of the ship's captain, Carola Rackete, by Italian authorities. I argue that while the response to Rackete's arrest was unprecedented, it built upon a year-long campaign in support of private SAR missions in the Mediterranean, which drew on the discourse of rights and was therefore not reliant on a short-term outpouring of compassion. Rackete's supporters have also been energised by alternative visions of Europe, and by the vitriol reserved for her by followers of the populist far right.


This study investigated the feasibility and efficiency of neuron-targeting hybrid placental mesenchymal stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles (PMSC-EVs), engineered by membrane fusion with Targeted Axonal Import (TAxI) peptide modified, TrkB agonist 7,8-DHF-loaded liposomes for treatment of myelomeningocele (MMC) via intra-amniotic cavity administration. The prepared TAxI modified liposomes with 7,8-DHF were used to fuse with PMSC-EVs. Different fusion approaches were investigated and freeze-thaw-extrude method was found to be the optimal. The engineered PMSC-EVs had a uniform particle size and efficiently loaded 7,8-DHF. It also had typical markers of native EVs. Freeze-thaw-extrude process did not change the release profile of 7,8-DHF from engineered EVs compared to TAxI modified, 7,8-DHF loaded liposomes. The engineered EVs could elicit TrkB phosphorylation depending on the incorporation of 7,8-DHF while native EVs did not. The engineered EVs increased neurite outgrowth of apoptotic cortical neurons induced by staurosporine, suggesting that they exhibited neuroprotective function. In a rodent model of MMC, neuron-targeting, engineered EVs became an active targeting delivery system to MMC defect sites. Pups treated with engineered EVs had the lowest density of apoptotic cells and displayed a therapeutic outcome. The study suggests the potential use of engineered hybrid, active neuron-targeting EVs for the in utero treatment of MMC.


In the area of computer simulation, Latin hypercube designs play an important role. In this paper the classes of maximin and Audze-Eglais Latin hypercube designs are considered. Up to now only several two-dimensional designs and a few higher dimensional designs for these classes have been published. Using periodic designs and the Enhanced Stochastic Evolutionary algorithm of Jin et al. (J. Stat. Plan. Interference 134(1):268–687, 2005), we obtain new results which we compare to existing results. We thus construct a database of approximate maximin and Audze-Eglais Latin hypercube designs for up to ten dimensions and for up to 300 design points. All these designs can be downloaded from the website http://www.spacefillingdesigns.nl.


Understanding variability in the chlorophyll-specific absorption of marine phytoplankton, aph*Chl (λ), is essential for primary production modelling, calculation of underwater light field characteristics, and development of algorithms for remote sensing of chlorophyll concentrations. Previous field and laboratory studies have demonstrated significant apparent variability in aph*Chl (λ) for natural samples and algal cultures. However, the potential impact of measurement uncertainties on derived values of aph*Chl (λ) has received insufficient study. This study presents an analysis of measurement uncertainties for a data set collected in the Ligurian Sea in Spring and assesses the impact on estimates of aph*Chl (λ). It is found that a large proportion of apparent variability in this set of aph*Chl (λ) can be attributed to measurement errors. Application of the same analysis to the global NOMAD data set suggests that a significant fraction of variability in aph*Chl (λ) may also be due to measurement errors.


We summarize some design tips and design procedures of nanoapertures with strong field enhancement, based on the theoretical calculations and analyses of near-field distributions of unconventional C apertures and bow-tie apertures by a finite-difference time-domain method. A novel L-shaped aperture is proposed and further validates the proposed design rule. As a result, a 15×15-nm full width half maximum spot forms in the light exit plane of the L aperture. Its intensity maximum enhancement reaches a factor of about 568 and the power throughput is bigger than unity. The mechanisms of electromagnetic field enhancement are preliminarily analyzed. This unconventional nanoaperture is likely to be directly used as an exit aperture of very small aperture lasers, or as an unattached shield, to produce a subwavelength light source with high transmission.


Mexicali Revisited Christopher Alexander Introduction Seven years ago, a g r o u p of people under m y d i r e c t i o n b u i l t a few houses i n M e x i c a l i . T h e story of the c o n s t r u c t i o n is t o l d i n full in the b o o k , The Production of Houses, w h i c h is b e i n g published by O x f o r d University Press in the summer of 1 9 8 4 . T w o o f the people—at that time s t u d e n t s — w h o played a very i m p o r t a n t role in the project were D o r i t F r o m m a n d Peter Bossel- m a n n . A few m o n t h s ago, D o r i t had the idea t h a t i t w o u l d be helpful a n d interesting to visit the families and get their reactions seven years after construction to evaluate the extent to w h i c h we had been successful, and to w h a t extent w e h a d made mistakes. A s u m m a r y o f their results is presented in the f o l l o w i n g article. 1 am very delighted that i t is being published a n d that it appears at the time that the b o o k about the project is p u b l i s h e d . Since the a u t h o r s ' analysis is quite extensive, I w i l l not t r y to add to their detailed observations about the families' feelings. H o w e v e r , 1 w a n t t o take this o p p o r t u n i t y to make one i m p o r t a n t overall p o i n t a b o u t the project, to comment on it, a n d to underline i t . T h e dead a n d lifeless q u a l i t y of m o d e r n h o u s i n g projects is w e l l - k n o w n . W h e t h e r we are t a l k i n g a b o u t g o v e r n m e n t housing of the type b u i l t by I n f o n a v i d i n M e x i c o , or the t y p i c a l c o n d o m i n i u m apart ments b u i l t all over the United States, we are all familiar w i t h the abstract h o u s i n g o f m o d e r n times. T h i s abstract h o u s i n g is usually unrelated t o people and somehow fixes the dead h a n d of its impress so strongly o n t h e m that the houses never have the chance to become h u m a n , even in time. W i t h housing projects of this type, there is a grave danger t h a t the w o r l d w i l l gradu ally be filled w i t h plastic and w i t h u n t r a n s f o r m a b l e environments that bear the m a r k and feeling of the machine process, of rigid money, r i g i d technology, and a r i g i d social process. It does n o t matter whether this terrible result is produced by socialistic g o o d w i l l , as in the case of p u b l i c housing, or by the capi talistic desire for profit, as in the example o f A m e r i c a n c o n d o m i n i u m development. In b o t h cases the outcome is the same. T h e w o r l d is robbed of the f u n d a m e n t a l humanness of the en v i r o n m e n t and people, w i t h i n the process o f development that they are given, no longer have the p o w e r to create a n y t h i n g different. The m a i n hypothesis p u t f o r w a r d in The Production of Houses is t h a t h o u s i n g becomes better at a f u n d a m e n t a l level o n l y w h e n the p a t t e r n o f c o n t r o l is deeply changed. N o w , seven years after the families in M e x i c a l i b u i l t their houses, we can begin to judge whether this hypothesis is really true or not. W h a t I find e x h i l a r a t i n g about the project and a b o u t the observations recorded here by Peter and D o r i t , is the w a y i n w h i c h the passage of time has genuinely involved the families, a n d the fact t h a t these families have deeply and radically c o n t i n u e d the process of design and construction. By c o n v e n t i o n a l standards, this may seem a s m a l l p o i n t . Indeed, by present a r c h i t e c t u r a l standards, one m i g h t even w o n d e r i f the families have n o t s p o i l e d the design. The o r i g i n a l f o r m o f the houses is already changed, almost unrecog nizably, i n m a n y cases. The o r i g i n a l design o f the houses is, therefore, lost. I n some ways, the present c o n d i t i o n o f the houses is so different and so o r d i n a r y t h a t an architect using the standards o f the 1980s m i g h t w o n d e r whether the o r i g i n a l architecture has perhaps not been superseded, or made irrelevant, because its c o n t r i b u t i o n , as physical f o r m , is gradually b e c o m i n g m o r e and more invisible as the houses are slowly b u r i e d and t r a n s f o r m e d by the many, m a n y changes made by the families every year. But, i n m y m i n d , this is the t r i u m p h of the project and the real p r o o f of its success. In the b o o k w e speculate a great deal a b o u t the w a y t h a t the families were changed in their feelings of p o w e r , in t h e i r attitudes, and in the ways i n w h i c h they were liberated, able to feel responsible and c o m  pletely i n charge of their o w n future, o f t h e i r o w n lives. T h i s speculation was based on l i m i t e d e x a m i n a t i o n of the state ments made b y the families and on guesses a b o u t their enthusiasm seven years ago. Places/Volume 1, Number 4


The work undertaken in this research focuses on advanced condition monitoring and fault detection methods for wind turbines (WTs). Fourier Transform (FFT) and Short Time Fourier transform (STFT) algorithms are proposed to effectively extract fault signatures in generator current signals (GCS) for WT fault diagnosis. With this aim, a WT model has been implemented in the MATLAB/Simulink environment to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. The results obtained with this model are validated with experimental data measured from a physical test rig. The detection of rotor eccentricity is discussed and conclusions drawn on the applicability of frequency tracking algorithms. The newly developed algorithms are compared with a published method to establish their advantages and limitations.


In order to share practice decision making with women, midwives need to understand their own tacit knowledge and some of the heuristic processes used to arrive at clinical decisions. Arguing that midwifery decision making is intuitive and artful is insufficient defence when accounting for professional practice. Explicit reasoning, individual and shared, should be well to the fore. Contrary to received wisdom, expert practitioners can share their midwifery reasoning with junior colleagues. Role modelling decision making process involves the senior midwife in understanding her own tacit knowledge and coming to terms with practice discussion as a pursuit of understanding, rather than a blame culture activity.


A problem of sequential sampling from an Exponential Distribution is considered in this research. The problem is formulated in the stochastic dynamic programming framework and the objective is to determine a control policy maximizing the total expected reward. It is assumed that under standard assumptions the control limit policy is optimal. Two types of optimal stopping problems are considered. First one is the problem of sampling without recall that once the decision maker cannot return to that observation at a later time, the second type of optimal stopping problems is sampling with recall where the decision maker can select any observation which he has taken earlier.


PURPOSE
This study examines how life satisfaction changes as a function of the transition into retirement, distinguishing between different types of voluntary and involuntary exits.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Perceived satisfaction with life (SWL) was measured among 1,388 older Dutch workers on two occasions, separated by 6 years. During that time, more than half of participants (54%) left full-time employment and entered retirement.

RESULTS
Those who made a voluntarily departure from the workforce reported higher levels of perceived SWL compared with those who remained employed, whereas the life satisfaction scores of those whose departure was involuntary (due to health reasons, organizational reasons) were found to be the lowest. Other factors that had an effect on satisfaction included positive and negative health changes experienced during the 6-year interim, as well as changes in marital status due to divorce or loss of a spouse.

IMPLICATIONS
These findings have important theoretical implications for the understanding of factors that shape individuals' perceptions of how they view the quality of their lives. From an applied perspective, the findings have implications for the development of organizational initiatives aimed at helping workers transition into retirement in such a way as to maintain high levels of subjective well-being.


On the basis of multi-phonon transition theory, the origin of the fast component (100 fs) and the slow component (ns) in photoexcitation dynamics is explained and their evolution time is calculated. From these results, it is seen that the fast component is due to the formation from free electron-hole pair to neutral bipolaron, and the slow one is due to the non-radiative decay of bipolaron.


ABSTRACT The present study demonstrates a construction procedure of a micro-photo bioreactor which has been used for the treatment of the simulated dairy wastewater (henceforth; SDW) by micro-algae chlorella vulgaris (C. Vulgaris). Moreover, this research is an experimental study in the laboratory scale and has been conducted in specific condition and parameters. Therefore, the effect of determined parameters such as flow rate, length of the micro-photo bio reactor, initial pH, luminous intensity and temperature on micro-algae has been studied. The obtained results from the SDW treatment by using specified micro-algae in the optimum situation illustrated that the removal efficiency of the chemical oxygen demand (henceforth; COD) in 120 working hours for flow rate, length of micro-photo bioreactor and the initial acidity, luminous intensity and the temperature effect is equal to 24.21% and 29.26% and 36.05% and 37.81%and 42.57%, respectively. The maximum percent of COD removal efficiency has been obtained in residence time of τ = 52 hours, and the optimum conditions of COD are equal to 42.57%. The turbidity value and existed TDS in SDW has been measured and compared together. Furthermore, significant differences were obtained from the analysis of each parameter. Consequently, the optimum concentration of micro-algae and the optimum pH for SDW purification was obtained (mi = 0.150 L) and (pHi, op = 8.00) on (COD), respectively. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of micro-algae in COD removal from SDW by using C. Vulgaris micro-algae in the designed micro-photo bioreactor.


Background The authors recently showed that "mobile" epidural analgesia, using low-dose local anesthetic-opioid mixtures, reduces the impact of epidural analgesia on instrumental vaginal delivery, relative to a traditional technique. The main prespecified assessment of pain relief efficacy, women's postpartum estimates of labor pain after epidural insertion, did not differ. The detailed analgesic efficacy and the anesthetic characteristics of the techniques are reported here. Methods A total of 1,054 nulliparous women were randomized, in labor, to receive boluses of 10 ml 0.25% bupivacaine (traditional), combined spinal-epidural (CSE) analgesia, or low-dose infusion (LDI), the latter groups utilizing 0.1% bupivacaine with 2 &mgr;g/ml fentanyl. Visual analog scale pain assessments were collected throughout labor and delivery and 24 h later. Details of the conduct of epidural analgesia, drug utilization, and requirement for anesthesiologist reattendance were recorded. Results A total of 353 women were randomized to receive traditional epidural analgesia, 351 received CSE, and 350 received LDI. CSE was associated with a more rapid onset of analgesia, lower median visual analog scale pain scores than traditional in the first hour after epidural insertion, and a significant reduction in bupivacaine dose given during labor. Pain scores reported by women receiving LDI were similar to those in the traditional group throughout labor and delivery. Anesthesiologist reattendance was low but greater with each mobile technique. Conclusions Relative to traditional epidural analgesia, LDI is at least as effective and CSE provided better pain relief in the early stages after insertion. The proven efficacy of mobile epidurals and their beneficial impact on delivery mode make them the preferred techniques for epidural pain relief in labor.


SSC (Sediment Suspended Concentration) is the concentration of suspended sediment. This research was conducted in June 2018 in the Muara Sungai Padang area, Bandar Khalifah District, Serdang Bedagai Regency, North Sumatra Province. This research aims to describe the distribution of vertical and horizontal SSC suspended sediments and the factors that influence them in Padang river estuary  area, Bandar Khalifah District, North Sumatra Province. The method used in this research is the survey method and determining the location of sampling by purposive sampling. Measurement of water quality parameters is carried out in situ, namely temperature, salinity, pH, depth, current speed, and brightness. The results of the study of the distribution of suspended sediments in the waters of the Padang river can be concluded that the pattern of the distribution of suspended sediments when the tide moves towards the upper reaches of the river while at low tide moves towards the sea, namely the waters of the Malacca Strait which is influenced by currents. the largest suspended sediment concentration at tide to low tide is at the sampling point 1 which is 179 mg / l and recedes to pairs at sampling point 1 which is 121 mg / l.


There are two novel printed inverted-F antenna (PIFA) related dual-band antennas for 2.45 and 5.25 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) applications introduced in this paper. One is designed by spiraling the tail of the PIFA and the other is by modifying the feed structure of the PIFA into a coupling configuration. An equivalent transmission line model is proposed to explain the dual-band operation of the spiraling PIFA. The measurement results show that the former antenna has a 10 dB return loss with bandwidth 140 MHz in the 2.45 GHz frequency band and bandwidth 756 MHz at 5.25 GHz, whereas the latter one has the bandwidth 240 MHz at 2.45 GHz and bandwidth 672 MHz at 5.25 GHz. In addition, omnidirectional radiation patterns are achieved at those operating frequency bands with average antenna gains near 0 dBi. The proposed antenna possesses the properties of good performance, compact size (about 50% of a typical PIFA), low profile, and low cost; hence, it is suitable for practical applications in a combo WLAN system


Background: The adoption of primary health care in Nigeria has led to the expansion of health care delivery frontiers especially at the rural level. At this level is the most critical health services delivery point, with an attendant increase in contact between primary health care providers and patients. There is however also a simultaneous increased exposure to occupational and related health risks and hazards.Methods: The objectives of this study were to assess the universal precaution profile of primary health care facilities and determine those factors that inform their prevailing safety status. Using a structured checklist, 23 representative primary health care facilities from the 23 local government areas in Sokoto State were randomly selected for the study, one from each of the local government areas. Results: The facilities were found to have poor universal precaution profile that could guarantee effective control of infection transmission and safety of their personnel. The facilities' mean score on measures and frameworks for ensuring the implementation of Universal Precautions was 53.12% ± 21.68% with only 56.52% scoring above 50%. Conclusion: Safety protocol and facilities for ensuring safe environment were inadequate and poorly developed. None of the facilities had full complement of facilities or resources for ensuring safety of working environment and for personnel's implementation of Universal Precautions. Policy for safety practice was poor, and post exposure intervention programmes for staff in event of accidental exposure grossly underdeveloped. Interventions to improve safety environment and creation of safe climate are essential to protect primary health care workers against occupational hazards.


Safe startup and operation of the nuclear reactor require neutron-sensing instruments to cover a range of about 109. This coverage is obtained by a counting rate meter, a period meter, and a high level power indicator. At normal operating levels, the reactor is regulated by the high level power controller and protected by the high level trips. Emergency shutdown of the reactor can be initiated by any one of 54 different conditions. Since these safety circuits are almost 100% "fail safe", careful design, good maintenance, and cautious operation have been necessary to avoid accidental shutdowns. The period trips and high level trips are provided in triplicate for safety and are coincidence-connected in pairs to guard against accidental shutdown. The use of suppressed-zero circuits has proved helpful. The theory of coincidence-connected trips is briefly discussed.


Feeding 50% ethanolic extract of A. aspera to male rats resulted in reduced sperm counts, weight of epididymis, serum level of testosterone and testicular activity of 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, while motility of the sperm and activity of the HMG CoA reductase were not affected. Cholesterol level in the testis, incorporation of labelled acetate into cholesterol, 17-ketosteroids in urine and hepatic and fecal bile acids were increased. The results suggest that ethanolic extract of A. aspera caused reproductive toxicity in male rats and the action may be by suppressing the synthesis of androgen.


OBJECTIVE
Airway interactions between viruses, especially rhinoviruses, and potentially pathogenic bacteria (PPB; Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis) in early infancy may increase the risk of subsequent wheezing and asthma. We evaluated the association between rhinovirus and PPB in the first 3 months of life and wheezing episodes before age 2 years and asthma at age 5-7 years.

METHODS
An Australian community-based birth cohort of healthy children involved parents collecting nasal swabs weekly and completing symptom diaries daily until age 2 years. In a follow-up subset, asthma diagnosis was assessed annually until age 7 years. Swabs were analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. Children were included if they returned symptom diaries beyond age 3 months (wheeze) or were reviewed at age 5-7 years (asthma).

RESULTS
1440 swabs were returned by 146 children in the first 3 months of life. Wheeze and asthma outcomes were recorded for 146 and 84 children, respectively. Each additional week of rhinovirus detection increased the incidence of wheezing before age 2 years by 1.16 times (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.99-1.35). There were no significant associations between bacteria and wheeze. Each additional week with H. influenzae increased the odds of asthma at age 5-7 years by 135% (odds ratio: 2.35, 95% CI: 0.99-5.58). No significant interaction was observed between rhinovirus and PPB for wheezing or asthma.

CONCLUSION
Early life rhinovirus infection was associated with wheezing before age 2 years and H. influenzae with asthma by age 5-7 years. Microbes may play an etiologic role in wheezing and asthma, warranting further study.


While multiprocessor system-on-chips (MPSoCs) are becoming widely adopted in embedded systems, there is a strong need for methodologies that quickly and accurately estimate performance of such complex systems. In this paper, we present a novel method for accurately estimating the cycle counts of parameterized MPSoC architectures through workload simulation driven by program execution traces encoded in the form of branch bitstreams. Experimental results show that the proposed method delivers a speedup factor of 70.15 to 238.58 against the instruction-set simulator based method while achieving high cycle accuracy whose estimation error ranges between 0.016% and 0.459%.


The article analyzes the legislative acts of the Republic of Serbia governing the use and operation of the languages of national minorities living in the state. Basing on the population census in Serbia in 1981-2011, the article provides the data on the dynamics of absolute and relative number of the Rusins and the Ukrainians as well as on the number of those who have Rusinian as their native tongue. The author concludes that the language rights of national minorities are reflected in laws on the state level: the Constitution, the laws on the use of official languages and minority rights, international treaties (the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages). These legal documents record obligations of the state concerning the public use of minority languages in education, judicial, administrative and public activities, media, culture, economic and social life, toponyms, etc.


Summary Rabbit γM antibody against human type A substance gave precipitin reactions in vitro and induced reversed Arthus type of inflammation in guinea pigs which had received A substance. Preformed complexes composed of A substance and γM antibody also induced the allergic inflammation in normal guinea pig skin. On a weight basis, the minimum dose of the γM antibody for the induction of hemorrhage in reversed Arthus reactions was two to four times as much as the dose of the γG antibody. In the reactions by the preformed complexes, a similar dose of γM and γG antibody in the form of complexes with A substance induced comparable skin reactions.


The research aims to determine the role of Break Even Point Analysis in determining the composition of sales in the achievement of profit targets of various products produced and sold by CV. Metal beams. While the usefulness of the research is to contribute ideas to the company in determining the composition of sales, while deepening science writers get obtained by comparing theory with the practice of the company. Of the above problems, the hypothesis: "Break Even Point Analysis can help a company to determine the exact composition of sales in order to achieve earnings targets." The research method consisted of the study variables and operationalization of variables, types and sources of data, as well as methods of data collection. Analysis tool used is the qualitative analysis and kuantitatif.Perencanaan composition formed during the sales mix is not achieving the desired profit target because the enterprise in planning the composition of sales is not based on analysis of the Break Even Point, but is affected by the mechanism and market conditions.


Full-length cDNA clones corresponding to the transcripts of the two alpha-tubulin genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardi were isolated. DNA sequence analysis of the cDNA clones and cloned gene fragments showed that each gene contains 1,356 base pairs of coding sequence, predicting alpha-tubulin products of 451 amino acids. Of the 27 nucleotide differences between the two genes, only two result in predicted amino acid differences between the two gene products. In the more divergent alpha 2 gene, a leucine replaces an arginine at amino acid 308, and a valine replaces a glycine at amino acid 366. The results predicted that two alpha-tubulin proteins with different net charges are produced as primary gene products. The predicted amino acid sequences are 86 and 70% homologous with alpha-tubulins from rat brain and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, respectively. Each gene had two intervening sequences, located at identical positions. Portions of an intervening sequence highly conserved between the two beta-tubulin genes are also found in the second intervening sequence of each of the alpha genes. These results, together with our earlier report of the beta-tubulin sequences in C. reinhardi, present a picture of the total complement of genetic information for tubulin in this organism.


Background Intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid (HA) are widely used in the treatment of inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases. A novel slightly modified hyaluronic acid, HYADD4 (Hymovis®), has recently been tested in an ovine meniscectomy model of osteoarthritis, causing a reduction of vascularity and intimal hyperplasia, and an increase in the synthesis of high molecular weight HA by synovial fibroblasts (1). HYADD4 is a modified hyaluronate where the polysaccharidic backbone is derivatized with hexadecylic (C-16) side chains, through amide bonds, with a 1–3 mol % degree of substitution of repeating units. At a concentration as low as 0.3% (w/v) HYADD4 forms a gel, while unsubstituted hyaluronic acid forms viscous solutions at concentrations that are ten times higher. Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of HYMOVIS on an in vitro models which reproduces some inflammatory aspects of the osteoarthritis process. Methods Synthetic calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals (0.025mg/ml) were used to stimulate a monocytic cell line (THP-1), pre-activated with phorbol myristate acetate 50ng/ml, in presence or absence of Hymovis® (0.5 mg/ml). The production of IL-1β and IL-8 were determined in the supernatants along with the chemoattractant activity on polymorphonuclear cells. The results were compared with those obtained using 2 other types of HA (Hyalubrix® and Hyalgan®). The scavenger effect of Hymovis® on cytokines were investigated through the quantification of the trapping of these proteins to the chemical structure of HYADD4 and the others HA. The stimulation with LPS was used as control. Results Hymovis® has shown a strong effect on the inhibition of the production of IL-1β (from 1750±230 pg/ml to 120±52 pg/ml). Although of smaller intensity, this effect was observed also using the other HA (Hymovis>Hyalubrix>Hyalgan). The anti-inflammatory property of Hymovis was also evident on the release of IL-8 (from 2300±315 pg/ml to 150±35 pg/ml) and on the migration of polymorphonuclear cells. The inhibitory effect of IL-8 release was confirmed after stimulation with LPS. All the 3 types of HA have shown to possess a little capacity to trap IL-1β (about 20%) while any scavenger effect was observed towards IL-8. Conclusions The hexadecylic derivative of HA Hymovis® has shown a potent anti-inflammatory action on the released of pro-inflammatoy mediators upon stimulation with CPP crystals, frequently associated with more severe and advanced OA. Due to the physical-chemical property of HA preparations, it was likely that its coating on crystals might determine a lower inflammatory activity of crystals themselves. We were able to exclude this hypothesis testing a different stimuli as LPS. The little scavenger effect of all HA towards IL-1β does not account for the observed anti-inflammatory effect as well. It is possible that Hymovis® is able to protect cells from the extracellular compartments where inflammatory stimuli are present. The investigation of IL-1β and IL-8 at the transcriptional level will be evaluated to confirm this hypothesis. References MM Smith, MA Cake, P Ghosh, A Schiavinato, R A Read, CB Little. Rheumatology 2008; 47: 1172. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Using achievement goal theory as a theoretical framework, in this study we identified and described motivational climates in second- and fourth-grade elementary physical education classes. Participants were 10 physical education specialists from 6 schools and their intact second- and fourth-grade classes. Videotaping of teachers (4 lessons per teacher) and teacher and student interviews and questionnaires were used for data collection. The data revealed that, for the majority of lessons at both grades, the teachers provided students with a variety of activities, made learning meaningful, recognized and evaluated students based on effort/mastery, used heterogeneous grouping, and provided sufficient practice time. All these are mastery-focused practices. The teachers, however, recognized/evaluated students in public ways more often than privately and seldom allowed students choices in their own learning, characteristics of a performance-focused climate. Taken together, the findings indicated that the motivational climate these teachers created was neither mastery nor performance focused but a blending of the 2 approaches.


An exhibition of 150 rare objects of Chinese art from the collection of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden will be shown in six museums under the auspices of the International Exhibitions Foundation, opening at the National Gallery of Art on September tenth. Thereafter it will be shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; The Asia House Gallery, New York; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco and the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The selection was made by Professor Bo Gyllensvärd, Keeper of the King's collection and Director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, and John A. Pope, Director of the Freer Gallery of Art.


There is no evidence of an increased quantity of ingestion of copper in areca nut chewers by way of habitually swallowing the 'quid juice' allegedly contain 'appreciable quantity' of soluble copper. Our experimental findings are favour of assuming that the amount of copper ingested, if at all, is well within the threshold limit of tolerance and therefore of no clinical significance. In conjunction with our earlier observation this study again proved the absence of visible and clinically/diagnostically detectable fibrosis in visceral organs, that includes liver, in patients suffering from advanced oral submucous fibrosis.


Petrophysical properties evaluation from well log analysis has always been crucial for the identification and assessment of hydrocarbon bearing zones. East Baghdad field is located 10 km east of Baghdad city, where the southern area includes the two southern portions of the field, Khasib formation is the main reservoir of East Baghdad oil field.
In this paper, well log data of nine wells have been environmentally corrected, where the corrected data used to determine lithology, shale volume, porosity, and water saturation. Lithology identified by two methods; neutron-density and M-N matrix plots, while the shale volume estimated by single shale indicator and dual shale indicator, The porosity is calculated from the three common porosity logs; density log, neutron log, and sonic log, the water saturation is calculated by Indonesian model and Archie equation, and the results of the two methods were compared with the available core data to check the validity of the calculation.
The results show that the main lithology in the reservoir is limestone, shale volume ranged between 0.152 to 0.249, porosity between 0.147 to 0.220, and water saturation from 0.627 to 0.966, the high-water saturation indicate that the water quantity is the determining factor of the reservoir units.


Nanotechnology is a key element in modern technological progress offering solutions to some of the most pressing issues for society, such as in the fields of health, communication, and energy consumption. The solutions that nanotechnology provides comprise amplifiers, actuators, or sensors and emitters, etc. as building blocks operating at the nanoscale. Semiconductor nanowires are perfectly suited for the use in such applications, as they not only provide functional electronic and optical properties but also nanoscale dimensions. Their high aspect ratio furthermore makes them inherently suited to bridge scales from the nanoscale to the macroscopic scales humans interact with. Key requirements for such nanodevices-besides the high functionality-are also reliability and stability. A thorough understanding of the operation and the limitations of nanowire-based devices is therefore urgently needed. Here, the operation, stability, and degradation of optoelectronic and all-optical devices based on semiconductor nanowires are investigated. Ultra-high spatial resolution hard X-ray detection is demonstrated using a GaAs nanowire with an axial p-n junction. Advanced X-ray analytical techniques are applied to study the detector operation by monitoring internal electrical fields in-operando. Inspecting the stability, a hot electron beam-induced selective oxidization of the n-type nanowire segment is observed. Further, the operation and stability of all-optical ZnO and CdS nanowire devices are investigated. The spontaneous and stimulated emission from the nanowires is detected as a function of electron irradiation using an electron microscope. As electron beams are frequently used for nanoscale sample inspection and fabrication, an understanding is sought for electron beam-induced changes of the optical properties.


In this article it is spoken about a communicative approach that is aimed at the formation of students' semantic perception and understanding of a foreign language, as well as the mastery of linguistic material for the construction of speech utterances.


Objective: To evaluate, in a nursery, the effect of two controlled release fertilizers in three concentrations on the growth components and quality index in caracolillo seedlings.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A factorial arrangement (2 x 3) housed in a completely randomized design was used, with seven treatments and twelve repetitions. For three months, the growth of caracolillo plants maintained in 310 cm3 polyethylene tubes, with a substrate of peat moss, vermiculite, agrolite and soil (2:1:1:1), plus controlled release fertilizer (CRF) Basacote® 9M (16-8-12) and Multicote® 12M (18-6-12), in three doses each: 10 (low), 20 (medium) and 30 kg m-3 (high), in addition to a control without conventional fertilization (CF) 17N-17P-17K in doses of 10 kg m-3. The variables height, diameter, leaf number, robustness index (RI), aerial/root dry biomass ratio (ADB/RDB R) and Dickson's quality index (DQI) were measured. The means were compared by Tukey's test at a 5% confidence level.
Results: Basacote® and Multicote® fertilizers in low doses allowed an adequate growth and development in caracolillo plants, which was reflected in the variables height, diameter and number of leaves. The RI and DQI indices presented values within the normal ranges, while those of ADB/RDB R were rather low, but in the three cases there were no statistical differences.
Study Limitations/Implications: Based on the results obtained, it is recommended to continue monitoring the studied plants in the field, which would allow adjustments in the initial fertilization doses.
Findings/Conclusions: The low doses (10 kg m-3) of the controlled release fertilizers Basacote® and Multicote® showed the best results in the growth and development of caracolillo in the nursery stage, but the RI, ADB/RDB R and DQI indices did not present statistical differences.


The study examined the use of electronic information resources and research output by academic staff in private universities in Ogun state, Nigeria. Three private universities were selected out of the nine private universities in Ogun state. These universities are Crescent University, Abeokuta, Babcock University, Ilishan- Remo, and Redeemers' University, Mowe, all in Ogun State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling method was used to investigate respondents. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire. 225 copies of the questionnaire were administered at Babcock University and 144 were retrieved. 88 at Crescent University and 80 were retrieved, while 215 at the Redeemers' University and 130 were retrieved. The research looked at the extent with which electronic information resources were used in the private universities in Ogun State, using the three universities as sample. A total of 528 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents at the three universities and a valid number of 354 (66%) questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed. The questionnaire was designed using nominal and likert scales. The study revealed that most of the academic staff from the three private universities knew and used electronic information resources for their research work as shown on Tables 5, 6, 7 and 8. Findings from Tables 8 and 9 indicate that most of respondents from the three private universities have published their articles and presented papers with the use of electronic information resources. The study also revealed on Table 6 that effective use of electronic information resources contribute to the academics' research output hence 329 (92.9%) of the total respondents supported that view. It is imperative to state here that lack of personal computer and erratic power supply among others are major constraints that inhibit use of electronic information resources in the three private universities which invariably affects their research output. The researchers recommended that private universities in Nigeria expedite action in the area of improving access to electronic information resources through provision of subsidized computers and improved electricity supply in their various universities. Moreso, academic staff are advised to acquire computer skills, learn and relearn to navigate and utilize the vast available electronic information resources on the internet to achieve better research output.


A hardware design of a real-time system for point targets detection in infrared image sequences is presented in this report. A high performance parallel process is designed with pipeline modules. In this report, we design this system using a CPLD. In addition the experiment results show that this system detects point targets quickly and correctly in infrared image sequences with low SCR and the system architecture is simple and doesn't need any memory, so this system can be used in some real time applications.


Planetary albedo (PA; shortwave broadband albedo) and its long-term variations, which are controlled in a complex way by various atmospheric and surface properties, play a key role in controlling the global and regional energy budget. This study investigates the contributions of different atmospheric and surface properties to the long-term variations of PA based on 13 years (2003–15) of albedo, cloud, and ice coverage datasets from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Single Scanner Footprint edition 4A product, vegetation product from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and surface albedo product from the Cloud, Albedo, and Radiation dataset, version 2 (CLARA-A2). According to the temporal correlation analysis, statistical results indicate that variations in PA are closely related to the variations of cloud properties (e.g., cloud fraction, ice water path, and liquid water path) and surface parameters (e.g., ice/snow percent coverage and normalized difference vegetation index), but their temporal relationships vary among the different regions. Generally, the stepwise multiple linear regression models can capture the observed PA anomalies for most regions. Based on the contribution calculation, cloud fraction dominates the variability of PA in the mid- and low latitudes while ice/snow percent coverage (or surface albedo) dominates the variability in the mid- and high latitudes. Changes in cloud liquid water path and ice water path are the secondary dominant factor over most regions, whereas change in vegetation cover is the least important factor over land. These results verify the effects of atmospheric and surface factors on planetary albedo changes and thus may be of benefit for improving the parameterization of the PA and determining the climate feedbacks.


ABSTRACT This article identifies and analyzes an emerging archive of children's picture books that represent transgender and gender creative child characters. The subgenre of children's literature is referred to as new queer children's literature. The author explores the ways these texts represent queer youth as they negotiate various social institutions, especially the family and the school. It is suggested that an ambivalent reading of these images—one neither committed to anti-normativity nor assimilation—can help us understand the queer present at its most affirmative and, by extension, aid us in beginning to theorize possible queer futures.


Background: There is a paucity of studies done on medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) in Kerala, India. The objective of this study was to examine the sociodemographic and other clinical variables associated with this condition. Materials and Methods: The clinical sample was taken from the General Medicine Clinic of a tertiary care hospital, in Kerala. The referred cases meeting the criteria (N=48) for medically unexplained physical symptoms were enrolled for this cross-sectional study. The medical doctor with experience in psychiatry completed the questionnaire. Results: Most of the patients were middle-aged females from rural areas. The most common symptom reported was headache. Most of the patients had symptoms for five years or more and had seen two-to-five consultants. A majority of the patients had undergone special investigations and a few had expensive and invasive investigations. Cluster C personality disorders were the most common associated personality disorders with medically unexplained physical symptoms. Conclusions: To our knowledge this is the first psychosocioeconomic study on medically unexplained physical symptoms, done in Kerala, India. Medically unexplained physical symptoms cause loss of productivity and economic burden and are a major public health problem. Future studies are warranted focusing on non-pharmacological treatment, psycho-education on mind–body association, and medical models on specific cytokines associated with medically unexplained physical symptoms for personalized management, and to examine the effect of a combination of pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.


BACKGROUND
 The phase 3 REACH2 trial (NCT02913261; N = 309) was the first successful randomized study in SR aGVHD, demonstrating that RUX, a JAK1/2 inhibitor, was superior to BAT. At day 28, RUX pts had a significantly higher overall response rate (ORR) than BAT pts (62.3% vs 39.4%; P < .001). RUX also led to a higher durable ORR at day 56 (39.6% vs 21.9%; P < .001) and showed clinically meaningful treatment benefits across pt subgroups of baseline characteristics; failure-free survival was longer with RUX (5.0 vs 1.0 month; HR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.35 to 0.60) (Zeiser R, et al. NEJM. 2020).
 The safety profile of RUX was as expected in pts with SR aGVHD, with cytopenias being the most common adverse events (AEs). To further define the safety profile of RUX in SR aGVHD, we report additional safety data up to day 28.
 METHODS
 Pts ≥ 12 years old with grade II-IV aGVHD following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT) who were refractory to steroids were randomized 1:1 to RUX (starting dose, 10 mg bid) or investigator-selected BAT and stratified by aGVHD grade. Crossover to RUX was allowed in BAT pts who had not responded by day 28 or lost response thereafter.
 Safety was assessed during the randomized treatment period by monitoring the frequency, duration, and severity of AEs, including AEs of special interest (AESI; ie, cytopenias, infections, bleeding events, other). AEs were assessed according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v4.03.
 Infections were also assessed by investigators using an infection-specific grading system predictive of mortality that was developed for and validated in alloHCT recipients (Cordonnier C, et al. Transplantation. 2006). Infections were classified by type (viral, bacterial, fungal, unknown, other) and severity (grades 1 to 3). We report AEs up to day 28, when exposure to RUX and BAT was similar.
 RESULTS
 A total of 302 pts (RUX, n = 152; BAT, n = 150) received ≥ 1 dose of study drug and were included in this analysis. Most pts experienced ≥ 1 AE up to day 28, with similar rates observed between RUX (96.1% [grade ≥ 3, 78.3%]) and BAT (94.7% [grade ≥ 3, 79.3%]). The most common AEs (all grades [grade ≥ 3]) in RUX vs BAT pts were thrombocytopenia (32.9% [27.0%] vs 18.7% [16.0%]), anemia (30.3% [22.4%] vs 28.0% [18.7%]), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection/reactivation (25.7% [7.2%] vs 20.7% [8.0%]). However, AEs led to low rates of discontinuation (RUX, 11.2%; BAT, 4.0%), primarily due to anemia (2.0% vs 0.7%), thrombocytopenia (2.0% vs 0%), and pancytopenia (1.3% vs 0%).
 Serious AEs occurred in 37.5% of RUX pts and 34.0% of BAT pts. The most commonly reported serious AEs were sepsis (RUX, 5.3%; BAT, 2.0%), diarrhea (3.3%; 0.7%), and CMV infection/reactivation (2.6%; 3.3%), with sepsis leading to death in 3 RUX pts (2.0%) and 2 BAT pts (1.3%). Among AESI, the most common events were infections excluding tuberculosis (RUX, 61.2% [grade ≥ 3, 32.2%] vs BAT, 58.7% [grade ≥ 3, 37.3%]) and thrombocytopenia (50.0% [41.4%] vs 32.7% [29.3%]). The risk of developing an AESI was similar between RUX and BAT pts, except for the risk of thrombocytopenia, which was higher in pts receiving RUX (Figure). A total of 15 deaths in the RUX arm (9.9%) and 21 in the BAT arm (14.0%) occurred up to day 28. The main cause of death in both arms was aGVHD, with higher rates seen in the BAT arm (11.3% vs 5.9% in the RUX arm).
 When assessed using the grading system developed by Cordonnier et al, infections were reported in 61.2% (grade 3, 22.4%) of RUX pts and 55.3% (grade 3, 18.7%) of BAT pts. Among pts with infection, the median time to first occurrence of infection was 2.1 (range, 0-27.0) weeks with RUX vs 1.9 (range, 0-21.3) weeks with BAT. Main types of infections were viral (RUX, 42.8%; BAT, 33.3%), bacterial (29.6%; 32.7%), and fungal (8.6%; 4.7%). The most common viral infections in RUX vs BAT pts were CMV (grade 3, 4.6% vs 3.3%) and Epstein-Barr virus (no grade 3); the most common bacterial infections were urinary tract (no grade 3), device-related (no grade 3), and sepsis (grade 3, 2.6% vs 2.0%); and the most common fungal infections were bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (grade 3, 2.0% vs 0%) and oral candidiasis (no grade 3).
 CONCLUSIONS
 The safety profile of RUX was consistent with what has been previously reported and what is expected in pts with SR aGVHD, including a higher risk of developing thrombocytopenia with RUX. Up to day 28, the risk of developing other AESI was similar between RUX and BAT. No new or unexpected safety findings were observed.

 Von Bubnoff: Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Clinical biomarker research, steering committee, Patents & Royalties: Research support, Research Funding; Astra Zeneca: Honoraria, Other: Lectures, Patents & Royalties: Astra Zeneca. Wagner:MSD: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Medac: Other: Travel grand; Shire: Other: Travel grand; Kite/Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Forcade:JAZZ: Other: Travel grant for congress; NEOVII: Other: Travel grant for congress; Gilead: Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Other: Travel grant for congress; Sanofi: Other: Travel grant for congress. Civriz Bozdag:Novartis: Research Funding. Ayuk:Neovii: Research Funding; Therakos/Mallinckrodt: Honoraria, Research Funding; Kite/Gilead: Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria. Yoon:Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Kyowahako Kirin: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy; F. Hoffmann-La Roche: Other: All authors received support for third-party writing assistance, furnished by Scott Battle, PhD, provided by F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland., Research Funding; YuhanPharma: Research Funding. García Gutiérrez:Novartis Pharma AG: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Incyte: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Rubio:Medac: Consultancy; Gilead: Honoraria; MSD: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; Neovii: Research Funding. Xu:Novartis: Current Employment. Morando:Novartis: Current Employment. Mahuzier:Novartis: Current Employment. Chandraiah:Novartis: Current Employment. Socié:Incyte: Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Alexion: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Elsalys: Honoraria.


The microbial cell membrane is affected by physicochemical parameters, such as temperature and pH, but also by the specific growth rate of the host organism. Homeoviscous adaption describes the process of maintaining membrane fluidity and permeability throughout these environmental changes. Archaea, and thereby, Sulfolobus spp. exhibit a unique lipid composition of ether lipids, which are altered in regard to the ratio of diether to tetraether lipids, number of cyclopentane rings and type of head groups, as a coping mechanism against environmental changes. The main biotechnological application of the membrane lipids of Sulfolobus spp. are so called archaeosomes. Archaeosomes are liposomes which are fully or partly generated from archaeal lipids and harbor the potential to be used as drug delivery systems for vaccines, proteins, peptides and nucleic acids. This review summarizes the influence of environmental parameters on the cell membrane of Sulfolobus spp. and the biotechnological applications of their membrane lipids.


The semantics of wh-exclamatives has been traditionally derived from the semantics of whquestions (Zanuttini & Portner's 2003, Gutierrez-Rexach 1996). Nevertheless, several authors (Villalba 2003, Castroviejo 2006, Rett 2008) have emphasized certain important properties of exclamative constructions relating them to degree expressions. This would amount to making exclamatives equivalent to expressions of high degree. In this paper we present evidence from Spanish with two goals: (i) to characterize a more refined and complex classification of exclamatives and, (ii) to defend a unified approach that would explain the restrictions on exclamative constructions.


The purpose of the present study was to shed light on the behavioral component of emotions by investigating antecedents and consequences of outward emotional reactions during table tennis competitions. With regards to the antecedents of outward emotional reactions, in line with appraisal theories, we considered the importance and the controllability of the situation as two important constructs. Fifteen table tennis matches, involving in total 21 players (7 females) with a mean age of 16.71 (SD = 0.70), were video recorded during the finals of the youth National Championship in Greece. Based on the footage, outward emotional reactions after every point were classified as neutral, positive, or negative. Situational factors in relation to the scoring system, bearing the importance and the controllability of the situation, were formed to assess antecedents of outward emotional reactions. To measure the consequences of outward emotional reactions, the impact on the outcome of the next point was assessed. Generalized linear models with a logit link were computed separately for positive outward emotional reactions after having won a point and negative outward emotional reactions after having lost a point. In general, the results show that while situational factors bearing the importance of the situation could predict positive and negative outward emotional reactions, the effects of situational factors bearing the controllability of the situation were less conclusive. In addition, the results also showed interactive effects between the two constructs for both positive and negative outward emotional reactions. With regard to the consequences of outward emotional reactions, negative and positive outward emotional reactions could not predict the outcome of the next point. To conclude, this study highlights the behavioral component of emotions as a viable alternative to enhance our understanding of the role of emotions in sport.


Introduction: Combination therapy with multiple therapeutic agents has wide applicability in medical and surgical treatment, especially in the treatment of cancer. Thus, new drug delivery systems that can differentially release two or more drugs are desired. Utilizing new techniques to engineer the established drug delivery systems and synthesizing new materials and designing carriers with new structures are feasible ways to fabricate proper multi-agent delivery systems, which are critical to meet requirements in the clinic and improve therapeutic efficacy. Areas covered: This paper aims to give an overview about the multi-agent delivery systems developed in the last decade for differential release in combination therapy. Multi-agent delivery systems from nanoscale to bulk scale, such as liposomes, micelles, polymer conjugates, nano/micorparticles and hydrogels, developed over the last 10 years, have been collected and summarized. The characteristics of different delivery systems are described and discussed, including the structure of drug carriers, drug-loading techniques, release behaviors and consequent evaluation in biological assays. Expert opinion: The chemical structure of drug delivery systems is the key to controlling the release of therapeutic agents in combination therapy, and the differential release of multiple drugs could be realized by the successful design of a proper delivery system. Besides biological evaluation in vitro and in vivo, it is important to speed up practical application of the resulting delivery systems.


Abstract Background Optimal CMV prevention strategies for pediatric solid-organ transplant (SOT) patients have not been clearly defined for early and late post-transplant periods. Methods We analyzed CMV prevention strategies in liver, kidney, heart, lung and intestinal SOT patients from 2005 to 2015 in our institution. A hybrid strategy was defined as prophylaxis for ≤6 months post-transplant and then transition to a pre-emptive strategy. Results Of 833 patients, 769 were prophylaxis and 62 were hybrid strategies. Compared with prophylaxis, hybrid patients were more likely to have a D−/R− CMV serology status, be ≤1 year old and have a heart transplant (P < 0.001). We found no significant differences in CMV disease frequency, rejection or mortality between hybrid and prophylaxis groups. In total, we found 13 cases of CMV disease, of which 1 was a hybrid and the rest a prophylaxis strategy. The median time to CMV disease was 1.5 years from transplant. We found more allograft rejection (n = 9) in patients with CMV disease compared with patients with CMV infection or no Infection. For the same comparisons, no significant difference was found for age or type of organ transplant. Late rejection was frequent (n = 6/13, 67%) in patients with CMV disease, and the majority were not started on empiric anti-virals with the rejection episode. In contrast, no CMV disease was found in patients who had late rejection and received empiric anti-viral with the rejection episode, even though these patients had increasing CMV DNAemia (P = 0.04). Conclusion In the early post-transplant period, a hybrid CMV prevention strategy is effective with similar clinical outcomes compared with a prophylaxis strategy, even in younger CMV naïve patients and relatively more immune suppressed heart transplant patients. A hybrid strategy may provide effective long-term control of intermittent CMV replication as suggested by the low frequency of CMV disease in this group compared with prophylaxis. In the late post-transplant period, administering episodic empiric anti-virals with a rejection diagnosis may be necessary to prevent CMV disease associated with late rejection episodes. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


The relation between interplanetary magnetic sector boundary crossings and areas of high vorticity in the troposphere that was reported during 1963-1973 cannot be investigated in the years after 1973 because of changes in the processing of the 500 mb " height grids prepared by the National Meteorological Center. In particular, we cannot say that the effect disappeared. The same applies to vorticity computed from NMC winds grids. The Limited Area Fine Mesh grid has a large noise in com* puted vorticity after December 3, 1974. Therefore the interesting analysis of Larsen and Kelley cannot be extended. They had found that forecasts of Vorticity Area Index were significantly poorer after a sector boundary.


This article discusses theoretical approaches, research designs as well as selected findings of studies that investigate foreign and second language teachers' professionalism. Although research on language teachers, their knowledge, beliefs and skills, is scarce at the moment, two fundamental `research families' can be found: a qualitative and a (fairly recent) quantitative approach, with diverse theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Selected findings from important studies are presented accordingly, framed by a critical evaluation of their value and limits. With respect to further research, collaborative and interdisciplinary projects are recommended to provide deeper insight into the construct of language teachers' professionalism and the process of professional development in foreign/second language teaching.


This project was funded, in part, by the Research Foundation, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-2101. The purpose of this study was to document and compare, using surface landmarks, the magnitude of forefoot and hindfoot motion accompanying passive ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ADROM). Twenty-two healthy subjects had their right ankle passively dorsiflexed two times from a resting position to a maximum dorsiflexion while they were supine and their subtalar joints were positioned in neutral. Initial resting position and maximum ADROM were measured from surface markings over the fibula, fifth metatarsal, and heel in pictures taken with a 35 mm camera. The difference between the maximum ADROM and the initial measurements obtained from the markings over the fifth metatarsal and heel were used to represent motion of the forefoot and hindfoot, respectively. The grand mean forefoot motion (39.8 degrees ) and hindfoot motion (37.1 degrees ) were significantly different (F = 13.62, p </= 0.001). The motions, however, were significantly correlated for the two trials (r = 0.905 and 0.704). The small magnitude of the difference (= 2.7 degrees ) in forefoot and hindfoot motion and significant correlations between the motions challenge the need for foot stabilization other than maintaining the subtalar joint in neutral. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1991;13(1):20-22.


The aim of this study was to assess the value of screening of cervical status in normal as well as in pregnancies with risk factors. 1327 pregnancies were studied prospectively; 16% had a medical history of earlier obstetrical or gynecological complications (group I) and 6% had complications during the first 24 weeks of the current pregnancy (group II). The remainder were considered low‐risk pregnancies and randomly divided into groups III and IV. In groups I, II and III cervical scoring in accordance with Westin was performed in weeks 24, 28 and 32. The incidence of births before 37 weeks of gestation was 5.6% in group I, 8.8% in group II, 1.5% in group III and 0.7% in group IV. In presence of the risk factors, 61% of the spontaneous preterm deliveries were predicted early in pregnancy. The predictive value of a normal cervical score was high (about 95%) in all groups. In uncomplicated pregnancies the predictive value of a pathological score was only 4% and for cervical dilatation, 6%. In the risk groups the predictive value of a pathological cervix was 3‐5‐fold higher. Cervical examination in low‐risk pregnancies does not improve prediction of preterms but is a complement in a system for indication for preterm delivery in women with defined risk factors.


Field experiments were conducted at Agricultural Experimental Farm, Giridih, Jharkhand, during the kharif (wet) seasons of consecutive four years (1998-2001) to study the effect of staggered seeding of blackgram (Phaseolus mungo L.) in rice field as a cereal-legume intercropping system and to minimize the degree of competition between the crop species to avoid yield damage, and at the same time to create a high level of competition by the intercrops to suppress the weeds. Intercropping systems were assessed on the basis of land equivalent ratio, relative crowding coefficient, aggressivity, actual yield loss, monetary advantage, etc. Intercropping reduced the yield of component crops when compared with respective pure stands. However, deferred seeding of blackgram in rice (30 cm) after one weeding was most remunerative system and registered maximum rice-equivalent yield (2711 kg ha -1 ). Rice-black-gram (20 cm) intercropping system was very effective for weed smothering among unweeded intercropping treatments. In conclusion, deferred seeding of blackgram in rice field (30 cm) with one weeding may be recommended for better yield, weed suppression and better economics in the eastern plateau region of India.


This dissertation contains a detailed report on the results of a research project on the behaviour of a dynamical system consisting of a hoop to which a heavy particle is fixed at the rim. This loaded hoop rolls on a rough surface while remaining in the vertical plane. The motion of the hoop consists of various, possibly alternating, phases consisting of rolling without slipping, spinning or skidding motion and in some cases ends by hopping off the surface. A general mathematical model is developed, consisting of a system of second order ordinary differential equations, one for each of the three degrees of freedom. Analytic solutions are obtained in some cases; otherwise numerical solutions are used. Three specific applications of the general model are dealt with. In the first application the problem of massless hoops is investigated. The main emphasis is on the somewhat controversial question of what happens after the normal reaction becomes zero in a position where the particle is still moving downwards. A new result shows that the hoop can continue to move horizontally in a motion defined as skimming. The second application deals with rigid hoops and a large number of detailed results are presented. Classification schemes for the different types of behaviour are introduced and summarised in the form of phase diagrams. Some emphasis is placed on the rather amazing number of different patterns of motion that can be obtained by varying the parameters. In the third application two elastic models are analysed, with the primary purpose of explaining one aspect of the reported behaviour of experimental hoops, namely hopping while the particle is moving downwards. A chapter on experimental models rounds off the project.


Models of narrative schema knowledge have proven useful for a range of event-related tasks, but they typically do not capture the temporal relationships between events. We propose a single model that addresses both temporal ordering, sorting given events into the order they occurred, and event infilling, predicting new events which fit into an existing temporally-ordered sequence. We use a BART-based conditional generation model that can capture both temporality and common event co-occurrence, meaning it can be flexibly applied to different tasks in this space. Our model is trained as a denoising autoencoder: we take temporally-ordered event sequences, shuffle them, delete some events, and then attempt to recover the original event sequence. This task teaches the model to make inferences given incomplete knowledge about the events in an underlying scenario. On the temporal ordering task, we show that our model is able to unscramble event sequences from existing datasets without access to explicitly labeled temporal training data, outperforming both a BERT-based pairwise model and a BERT-based pointer network. On event infilling, human evaluation shows that our model is able to generate events that fit better temporally into the input events when compared to GPT-2 story completion models.


This prospective study was performed at the Department of Infectious Diseases, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, in the period from 1991 to 2000. We included all adult patients with multiple erythema migrans who gave consent to lumbar puncture, had routine blood and CSF tests performed, and borrelial antibody titres in CSF and blood determined. In the majority of these patients skin, blood, and CSF specimens were cultured in MKP medium for the presence of Borrelia. Of 332 patients with multiple erythema migrans, 200 (115 females, 85 males, aged 15-80 years) fulfilled inclusion criteria. The median number of skin lesion was three (2-60). Sixty-three (31.5%) patients had no associated symptoms, whereas 137 (68.5%) patients (including two with arthritis, six with radicular pain, a patient with facial palsy, another patient with foot palsy and a patient with transitory diplopia) reported local and/or constitutional symptoms. Routine CSF examination revealed abnormal results in 62/200 (31%) patients: lymphocytic pleocytosis (6-1119 x 10(6)/L leukocytes) was found in 15 (7.5%) patients (six were clinically without systemic symptoms, six had mild systemic symptoms, three reported radicular pains) and elevated CSF protein concentration was present in 52 (26%) patients (nine also had elevated CSF cell counts). Intrathecal borrelial antibody production was demonstrated in eight (4%) patients (only three of them had elevated CSF cell counts) and B. burgdorferi sensu lato was isolated from skin lesions, blood, and CSF in 77/191 (40.3%), 3/154' (1.95%), and 2/200 (1%) patients, respectively. B. afzelii predominated among the isolates. In patients with multiple erythema migrans abnormal CSF findings are not rare and may be present without any clinical sign of central nervous system involvement.


In examining 379 patients with asthma, I 1 found vasomotor rhinitis in 145 (38 per cent). The incidence was highest among those with specific allergic asthma, about 47 per cent; among those with so-called pathergic asthma it was 37 per cent. When the vasomotor rhinitis appeared at about the same time as the asthma, the conditions were brought on by the same causal agents, and when the vasomotor rhinitis appeared long before or after the asthma, the conditions were attributable to different agents. The present contribution is an analysis of 74 cases of vasomotor rhinitis in which there was no history of asthma or any evidence of asthma at the time of examination. The patients had presented themselves for treatment only of refractory nasal conditions. They were examined in 1936 and 1937 in my allergy department in the Krankenhaus der Kaufmannschaft, in Vienna, according to a uniform plan of procedure, described


Efficient reconstruction of a fully functional skin after wounds requires multiple functionalities of wound dressing due to the complexity of healing. In these regards, topical administration of functionalized nanoparticles capable of sustainably releasing bioactive agents to the wound site may significantly accelerate wound repair. Among the various nanoparticles, superparamagnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles gain increasing attractiveness due to their intrinsic response to an external magnetic field (eMF). Herein, based on the Fe3O4 nanoparticle, we developed a fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-loaded Fe3O4 nanoparticle using a simple mussel-inspired surface immobilization method. This nanoparticle, named as bFGF-HDC@Fe3O4, could stabilize bFGF in various conditions and exhibited sustained release of bFGF. In addition, an in vitro study discovered that bFGF-HDC@Fe3O4 could promote macrophage polarization toward an anti-inflammatory (pro-healing) M2 phenotype especially under eMF. Further, in vivo full-thickness wound animal models demonstrated that bFGF-HDC@Fe3O4 could significantly accelerate wound healing through M2 macrophage polarization and increased cell proliferation. Therefore, this approach of realizing sustained the release of the growth factor with magnetically macrophage regulating behavior through modification of Fe3O4 nanoparticles offers promising potential to tissue-regenerative applications.


During the past fifteen years, the GAA has gone through a renaissance. Despite the rising popularity of other sports, it has revolutionised itself to take its place centre stage in the Irish sporting arena, enjoying a greater groundswell of support than ever before. The developments have been astounding. The emergence of Ulster football and the revival in the West. In hurling, the men from Clare and Wexford and the domination of D.J. Carey. The amazing development of Croke Park and the rise in supporters' fanaticism. 'Jayo-mania' in 1995 heralding the era of the GAA superstar. The strikes and revolts of the Cork and Offaly hurlers and the emergence of player power. In GAA: The Glory Years, Ronnie Bellew tells the story of these remarkable fifteen years - of the events, on and off the field, the breakthroughs, the controversies and the personalities behind a golden era that has seen the GAA reinvent itself to become the hottest ticket in town. This is the story of how the GAA got from there to here.


Abstract. The current study investigated the effectiveness of the Quiet Classroom Game, an interdependent group contingency using an iPad loaded with a decibel meter app, for increasing academically engaged behavior. Three first-grade classrooms in the southeastern United States, identified as displaying high levels of noise and disruptive behavior, were included in the study. A multiple-baseline design with an embedded ABAB condition sequence was used to evaluate the effect of implementation of the Quiet Classroom Game on academically engaged behavior, disruptive behavior, and classroom decibel level. Implementation of the intervention resulted in large increases in academically engaged behavior, moderate to large reductions in disruptive behavior, and large decreases in classroom noise. Results of social validity checklists administered to teachers and students indicated acceptability and utility of the intervention. Findings of the study suggest that the Quiet Classroom Game may be an effective method for increasing the academically engaged behavior and decreasing the noise and disruptive behavior of first-grade students in a general-education setting.


In 1974, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Expanded Programme on Immunization to ensure that all children have access to routinely recommended vaccines. Despite improvement in global coverage with the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine (DTP3), from 5% in 1974 to 83% in 2011, almost one fifth of the world's children still had not received their third dose of the DTP series during their first year of life. In May 2012, the World Health Assembly endorsed the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) to guide the Decade of Vaccines' vision to extend benefits of immunization to all persons. GVAP's key indicators include achieving and sustaining 90% national DTP3 coverage and ≥80% DTP3 coverage in every district by 2015. During 2012, as in the 2 preceding years, an estimated 83% of infants worldwide received 3 doses of DTP vaccine; however, coverage varied among the WHO regions. Among 194 WHO member states, 131 (68%) achieved ≥90% DTP3 national coverage, and 59 (30%) achieved ≥80% DTP3 coverage in every district. However, 22.6 million children did not receive 3 DTP doses, a key indicator of immunization program performance. Strengthening national immunization systems, especially in countries with the greatest number of undervaccinated children, should be a global priority to reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.


Anxiety may happen to every human especially in a uncertain waiting environment. Lengthy waiting time can disturb and damage the image of a company's performance. Understanding on waiting time anxiety and visual knowledge concept from all researcher backgrounds has been one of the key points in implementing an efficient visual knowledge tool. This paper will look into related researches that incorporate waiting time anxiety and visual knowledge in their works. Finally some discussions and opinions are presented for the future research.


We present a two-photon interference experiment in a modified Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer in which two Hong–Ou–Mandel effects occur in tandem and construct superposed two-photon states. The signal photons pass both the arms of the MZ interferometer while the idler photons pass one arm only. Interestingly, the probability of the idler photons emerging from any output port still shows a sine oscillation with the two-photon phase difference and it can be characterized only by the indistinguishability of the two-photon amplitudes. We also observe a two-photon interference pattern with a period being equal to the wavelength of the parametric photons instead of the two-photon photonic de Broglie wavelength due to the presence of two-photon phase difference, in particular, with complementary probabilities of finding the two-photon pairs in two output ports. The abundant observations can facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the two-photon interference.