According to the Red List of IUCN, Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a globally Endangered (EN) species, included in the Red Data Book of Russia and protected throughout the country. Steppe Eagle breeding range in Russia covers semi-desert and steppe areas from Kalmykia in the west to Dauria in the east. The Altai-Sayan Ecoregion (ASER) is key for Steppe Eagle: about half of the entire breeding population of the species in Russia is concentrated here. Therefore, monitoring Altai-Sayan Steppe Eagle breeding groups is very important. In ASER Steppe Egle nests in steppe basins, except for Kuznetsk, including narrow steppe valleys of the Chuya and Katun rivers in Central Altai, as well as in the highlands of Southeastern Altai, partly Tanu-Ola and Western Sayan, including the high-mountain Ukok plateau. The total number of the species nesting in the ASER, considering the foothills of Altai Territory, in 2018 was estimated at 1400–1800 pairs. Currently population does not show a fundamental change, despite various negative and positive dynamics in different ASER breeding groups. By 2022, 756 eagle breeding territories have been identified in the region, which is 47.25% of the estimated species population. About 50% of favorable Steppe Eagle habitats identified during GIS modeling are not covered by survey, although nesting of the species was established in all clusters of modeled habitats during irregular visits. Thus, we know the entire Steppe Eagle breeding range in ASER, including areas where isolated pairs breed in suboptimal conditions. Annual monitoring is carried out in 68 Steppe Eagle breeding territories, which is 9% of the known breeding territories; over a three-year period, 256 breeding territories (33.9%) were monitored, over five years – 312 (41.3%). We regularly monitor breeding groups in the most problematic areas in terms of anthropogenic influence, and in those less impacted by human economic activity: on the left bank of Tes River in the Ubsunur basin, on the Tanu-Ola ridge, in Tuva basin of the Republic of Tyva, in Minusinsk Basin in the Republic of Khakassia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, on the periphery of the Chui steppe, on the Sailyugem ridge and Ust-Kan basin of the Altai Republic, and in the foothills of Altai within the Altai Territory. Ukok and Southwestern Tyva where main Steppe Eagle breeding groups are less susceptible to anthropogenic factors have not been visited in recent years. Diet analysis showed that Steppe Eagles are quite flexible in managing prey resources and using a wide food range, both typical steppe and intrazonal species, diurnal and nocturnal (the latter are represented mainly by roadkill: Jerboas, Hedgehogs, and other species). In particular, eagles nesting in steppe and highlands above forests have such species as Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), Woodpeckers (Picidae sp.), and Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), possibly picked up from roads as well. As eagles most often nest within sight of farms and roads, eagles regularly use them to obtain food, picking up animals that that have died due to various reasons. It increases the threat of poisoning, collision with vehicles, or shooting. Despite the plasticity of Steppe Eagle hunting behaviour, they are closely connected to the mass colonial burrowing rodents (mainly Ground Squirrels Spermophilus sp. and Pikas Ochotona sp.), and high abundance and/or availability of these species in the spring determine both nest occupation and breeding success. If the spring abundance or availability (due to late spring) of basic food items is insufficient, Steppe Eagles do not begin to breed, and in half of the cases leave their breeding territories by mid-summer. Recently we have begun to study Steppe Eagle migration and philopatry not only by ringing, but using transmitters too, in addition to classical monitoring of breeding groups and control of breeding territories occupancy, partner change using photo and video observation of nests, molecular methods, breeding success, productivity, diet. In order to study migrations, 30 Steppe Eagles were tagged with transmitters (Aquila – 22 ind., Druid – 5 ind., Ecotone – 2 ind., GPS-Collars – 1 ind.). Tracking showed that most juvenile birds migrate in the western Circum-Himalayan Corridor, bypassing the high mountains of Central Asia. Only two birds migrated south through Tibet, and both died (one bird crossed the Himalayas but died in Nepal during the winter). Most eagles do not return to natal region in the first year, but wander during their first summer in Kazakhstan, and therefore this country plays a key role in the viability of the Altai-Sayan Steppe Eagle breeding groups. Visits to natal areas are observed from the second to third summer, and during fourth summer eagles begin to select territories and form pairs. Of the five eagles tagged with transmitters (one female and four males) whose home territories were visited during the fourth summer, four males had partners and nest outlines in chosen breeding territories, but only one male bred successfully (female did not have a partner and roamed widely). All eagles returned to their natal region for the summer by sexual maturity and occupied areas no further than 50 km (3, 36, 43 and 50 km) from nests in which they were born. Reproduction of a pair lasts four years on average in control areas, meaning that every four years reproduction is paused for one to four years due to death of one of the partners. It is noteworthy that out of five fledglings tagged with transmitters and returned to the natal region by puberty, not one of them found their parents alive – all parents died during this period and were replaced by young eagles. Over a five-year period, the loss of breeding territories where pairs disbanded was compensated by the formation of new territories by younger birds in almost all control areas. The exception is Sailyugem ridge in the Altai Republic, where anti-plague service carried out the so-called village deratization outside populated areas (on outposts and farms), which led to loss of 30% of nesting pairs in the local Steppe Eagle breeding group due to poisoning with anticoagulants (half of them have not yet recovered). An increase in the Steppe Eagle abundance was noted in Khakassia – by 7.14% between 2011 and 2018, which was initially associated with redistribution of Steppe Eagle breeding pairs to abandoned Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) territories, but recalculation of accounting indicators for all Khakass territories showed the remaining real increase in the species abundance. However, in 2019–2022, this increase was reversed (-3.16% of the 2018 estimate) due to displacement of Steppe Eagles from breeding territories by Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) and the dissolution of some pairs for unknown reasons. In the Republic of Tyva, Steppe Eagle abundance 2008–2018 after a decline due to poisoning with bromadialone in Mongolia in 2001–2002. By 2013, Steppe Eagle abundance in Tyva was estimated at 300–400 breeding pairs (Karyakin, 2013; Nikolenko, Karyakin, 2013), by 2019 – at 311–422 pairs. It was suggested that by 2020 Steppe Eagle would have fully recovered its abundance in Tyva to the 2000 estimate of 373–453 pairs (Karyakin et al., 2018; 2019). However, it did not happen, and the abundance have stabilized at 305–410 pairs. Even though Steppe Eagle began to occupy artificial forest plantations and nest in trees and threat of mortality on power lines in Tyva has been almost completely eliminated in recent years, restoration of the former Steppe Eagle breeding territories has slowed down for a number of reasons: an increase in the number of summer livestock stops in suitable habitats (because of government subsidies), the climate factor (fully feathered nestlings die in thunderstorms with hail, which became regular in July, and excessive moisture leads to intense vegetation, making prey and fledglings die of hunger), local residents killing eagles on purpose (shooting at nests) or accidentally (death under car wheels), and predation by herding dogs. At the same time, Steppe Eagle abundance has remained stable in the highlands of Tanu-Ola during these years. Despite a certain influence of local negative factors on the Altai-Sayan Steppe Eagle breeding groups, the main reason for the frequent dissolution of pairs lies outside the breeding range. We assume that the main contributor to such a short eagle life expectancy is poisoning in wintering grounds. It is already known that Steppe Eagles form aggregations in landfills and cattle burials, where they can accumulate various toxic substances, from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to anticoagulants and heavy metals. But so far chemical contamination of the species has not been studied at all. Another problem for at least some eagles flying to wintering grounds in India is the increasing mortality observed in eagles that were ringed and tagged with transmitters due to avian botulism, which is increasingly occurring on the salt lakes and sores of Northwest India. More than 23,500 birds died from avian botulism in 2019 on the lake Sambar and its vicinity (in Jaipur and Nagaur districts) in Rajasthan (Singh, Sen, 2023). Steppe Eagle fed on bird remains and died as well. This major disaster has received publicity, but eagle death on the smaller scale occurs regularly and is growing every year. Botulism outbreaks are likely to become more frequent as climate change alters wetland conditions in favor of the pathogen, as seen in large salt water bodies of Kutch in Gujarat and Sambar in Rajasthan. If the situation does not change, these areas may become "ecological traps" for Steppe Eagle. Considering the enormous mortality of adult birds, which occurs mainly outside of the ASER, it is necessary to understand its causes. Since we assume the leading role of poisoning in Steppe Eagle mortality, further studies of chemical contamination of birds and clarification of


Background Normative data is useful for comparing measured values of strength with population norms and can avoid the issues associated with limb symmetry index. The available normative shoulder strength values are limited by constraints on research designs and variability in subject groups which prevents this data being successfully extrapolated to the greater population. Purpose The purpose of this study was to establish normative isometric strength values for various movements of the shoulder that are specific to function and rotator cuff strength. A secondary goal of this study was to analyze the effect of age, gender, weight, height, activity level and arm dominance on shoulder strength. Design Observational cohort study Methods Subjects in four age groups (20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59) were included in this study—200 males (40.0 ± 11.6 years, 179.1 ± 6.5 cm, 81 ± 13.0 kg) and 200 females (40.1 ± 11.5 years, 165.3 ± 7.4sm, 64.4 ± 11.6 kg). Bilateral isometric strength measurements were taken with a handheld dynamometer testing seven shoulder movements. Tables of normative strength data were constructed. Multivariate analyses were performed to analyze the effects of age, gender, weight, height and activity level on isometric shoulder strength. Results Men were stronger than women (p<0.001). Age was not associated with most strength measures with the exception of dominant arm abduction (p<0.004), non-dominant arm abduction (p<0.028) and non-dominant arm scapular plane abduction (p<0.004) which had a negative association with strength. Weight was positively associated with strength (p<0.001). Activity level was positively associated with all strength measures (p<0.05) except dominant sided abduction (p=0.056). There were no statistically significant differences between dominant and non-dominant sides. Conclusion This normative data may be useful to the clinician, as it permits a standard against which to compare shoulder strength for various age groups. Clinicians can have confidence that the uninvolved limb, if symptom free, can be used as an adequate benchmark for strength measures. Levels of Evidence Level 3


Introduction: Respiratory variability is important in order to respond to internal and external perturbations. While vagal afferents have been shown to be important for feedback during breathing, the influence of spinal afferents has not been as well described. We hypothesized that disruption of vagal and spinal afferents reduces respiratory variability during eupnea and alters respiratory response during thoracic mechanical restriction (banding). Objective: To prove that disruption of vagal and spinal afferents reduces respiratory variability during eupnea and alters respiratory response during thoracic mechanical restriction Material and Methods: We measured costal diaphragm and thyroarytenoid electromyography (EMG) activity in sodium pentobarbital anesthetized spontaneously breathing male and female Sprague Dawley rats. We conducted three sets of experiments to elucidate contributions of vagal, and spinal afferents: A) inhalation of 10% nebulized lidocaine to attenuate pulmonary vagal afferents B) bilateral injections of 10% lidocaine into the pleural space to attenuate thoracic afferent feedback; C) bilateral tracheal vagotomy caudal to the larynx. Solutions of 10% lidocaine were mixed with saline and 2% Evans Blue dye to confirm the distribution of lidocaine following nebulization and injection. Additionally, banding was performed before and after each experimental protocol. Results: Banding significantly increased costal diaphragm amplitude which was further increased with each intervention, however there was a gender specific increase in thyroarytenoid activity with only ~50% of males demonstrating this phenomenon. Both lidocaine protocols demonstrated features of vagotomy including reduction of each eupneic phase duration coefficient of variance as well as alterations in EMG amplitude. Conclusions: These results demonstrate gender-specific effects of the respiratory system to challenges, and provide preliminary evidence of the importance of non-vagal pulmonary feedback. Moreover, this present study could have broad clinical implications in disorders such as spinal cord injury. Keywords : vagal, spinal injury, respiratory variability, eupnea, respiratory response, thoracic mechanical restriction, gender


If we are to understand and address today's social, environmental and economic crises through education, we must introduce education for sustainable development (ESD) into classrooms and approach it from an integrated perspective. In so doing, this study aims to provide an overview of the current status of the still-emerging research agenda on the integration of ESD into mathematical education and statistical education. To this end, we conducted a systematic review of Scopus and Web of Science databases of theoretical and research articles published between 2010 and May 2023. In total, 32 studies were identified, conducted mostly in Europe, followed by South America, which mainly address teacher training. The results suggest that mathematics education and statistics education are an effective means of providing education focused on ESD, but that teachers still have limited knowledge and resistant attitudes. Therefore, initial and ongoing training must move towards characterizing proposals that provide examples and involve teachers in response to this challenge.


This article considers an individual nickname from the point of view of the independence of its allocation, position in the anthroponymic field in relation to other peripheral naming conventions, the history of study, the role in informal communication, as well as cognitive features. The quoted theoretical material is illustrated by examples of nicknames that are actively used in the military community.


High innovation speed, increasing product complexity and shorter life cycles characterize the global knowledge economy. This causes organizations to search for new and effective ways to innovate. Innovation typically occurs at the boundaries between disciplines and specializations, involving the creation and combination of various types of knowledge. However, sharing knowledge among actors and organizations from different sectoral domains is challenging. Under cross-sectoral circumstances, the processes to initiate and manage boundary spanning are not well understood, making application of developed knowledge in another domain difficult. An in-depth case study from the Netherlands on commercializing space technology (i.e. satellite data) aims to address the complexity of initiating and managing boundary spanning in innovation ecosystems. The results of this study give insight into the process of managing innovation when knowledge needs to be shared and evaluated by multiple organizations. This process includes the identification of involved organizations, the development of effective boundary objects and the division of roles among the organizations from the innovation ecosystem. Hence, our findings enhance understanding of initiating boundary spanning processes across different sectoral domains.


The ribosome has a morphologically distinct structural feature called the stalk, recognized as a vital element for its function. The ribosomal P proteins constitute the main part of the eukaryotic ribosomal stalk, forming a pentameric structure P0-(P1-P2)(2). The group of P1/P2 proteins in eukaryotes is very diverse, and in spite of functional and structural similarities they do not fully complement one another, probably constituting an adaptive feature of the ribosome from a particular species to diverse environmental conditions. The functional differences among the P1/P2 proteins were analysed in vivo several times; however, a thorough molecular characterization was only done for the yeast P1/P2 proteins. Here, we report a biophysical analysis of the human P1 and P2 proteins, applying mass spectrometry, CD and fluorescence spectroscopy, cross-linking and size exclusion chromatography. The human P1/P2 proteins form stable heterodimer, as it is the case for P1/P2 from yeast. However, unlike the yeast complex P1A-P2B, the human P1-P2 dimer showed a three-state transition mechanism, suggesting that an intermediate species may exist in solution.


The rapid development of e-learning systems provides learners with large opportunities to access learning activities through online. This greatly supports and enhances learning practices of users. However the issues related to e-learning systems reduces the success of its application. This is because of many learning activities such as various learning materials, subjects, and learning resources that are emerging in this online world which makes an elearning system difficult. The individual learners find it difficult to select optimized activities for their particular situations/requirements/query, because there is no personalized service belonging to that particular user. Recommender systems that aim in providing personalized environment for studying materials can be used to solve those issues in elearning system. However, e-learning systems need to be able to handle certain special requirements or issues. They are 1) learning activities and learners' profiles that are often presented in tree structures; 2) learning activities contain more uncertain categories which additionally contain unclear and uncertain data 3) there are pedagogical issues, such as the precedence order for a particular user cannot be given separately for each user. To deal with these three requirements, this survey proposes two techniques called a fuzzy tree-structured learning activity model and a learner profile model. These two methods comprehensively explain the difficult learning activities and learner profiles. In these two models, fuzzy category trees and related preference orders are presented to know the semantic relations between learning activities or learner requirements of each individual learner.


The q-voter model, a variant of the classic voter model, has been analyzed by several authors. While allowing us to study opinion dynamics, this model is also believed to be one of the most representative among the many defined in the wide field of sociophysics. Here, we investigate the consequences of conformity on the consensus reaching process, by numerically simulating a q-voter model with agents behaving either as conformists or nonconformists, embedded on heterogeneous network topologies (as small-world and scale-free). In fact, although it is already known that conformity enhances the reaching of consensus, the related process is often studied only on fully-connected networks, thus strongly limiting our full understanding of it. This paper represents a first step in the direction of analyzing more realistic social models, showing that different opinion formation phases, driven by the conformist agents density, are observable. As a result, we identify threshold values of the density of conformist agents, varying across different topologies and separating different regimes of our system, ranging from a disordered phase, where different opinions coexist, to a gradually more ordered phase, where consensus is eventually reached.


This paper contributes to the discussion about 'inclusive business models' as alternatives to large-scale land acquisitions by analysing a case in which a foreign agribusiness investor, within an impact investment paradigm, acquired and rehabilitated a rice processing plant in Chókwè, Mozambique. A contract farming programme drawn up to source raw produce for the factory led to radical shifts in control over land and water resources. The case is set against the background of a large-scale irrigation system that has played an important role in national agricultural policies since colonial times. The private sector-led development approach is strongly supported by the state which portrays it as an opportunity to reduce its dependency on rice imports. The investor redirected the benefits of land and water use through taking a role of coordination and control within the irrigated production system. The ensuing rural transformation reminds one of earlier periods in the development of the irrigation system: the central control over production, and the very high level of agricultural inputs and mechanisation, remind one of the state socialist period, while the removal of smallholders from their land and its concentration in the hands of a few bears a strong resemblance to the scheme's establishment under colonial rule.


7 2 6 J O U R N A L C O M P I L A T I O N © 2 0 1 0 B J U I N T E R N A T I O N A L | 1 0 6 , 7 2 6 – 7 2 7 | doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2010.09605.x The final evaluation of the largest study of parenteral oestrogen to date was made after 855 of 910 men (all with skeletal metastases) had died [8]. LHRH or bilateral orchidectomy (both combined with flutamide) was compared in a randomized trial with i.m. polyestradiol phosphate (PEP). For CVS mortality, there was no significant difference between the groups (39 vs 38 men). CVS morbidity was higher in the PEP group (71 vs 50 men) but offset by the number of events of serious skeletal morbidity in the LHRH/ orchidectomy group (0 vs 18 men). There were no differences in overall, disease-specific or progression-free biochemical survival. Preliminary data from a small study of transdermal oestradiol patches in men with prostate cancer showed protection against bone loss and some improvement in bone density after 12 months [9]. A larger series showed that the oestradiol patches were of equivalent efficacy to LHRH in achieving (and maintaining) castrate levels of testosterone as well as PSA suppression [10].


Abstract 807 The discovery of JAK2 (JAK2V617F) mutation in polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET) has revolutionized our understanding of PV and ET. However, JAK2V617F is not the disease-initiating mutation and constitutes only part of the clone. Pegylated interferona (PegInfα), a form of interferon-alpha with a longer half-life and more tolerable toxicity, can induce not only hematological remission but also reduction of JAK2V617F allelic burden and suppression of the pre-JAK2V617F PV clone, as demonstrated by the return of polyclonal hematopoiesis (Liu Blood, 03). It is not clear whether this salutary effect is achieved by stimulation of an immune response against the PV clone, preferential activation of normal dormant stem cells (HSCs), or suppression of the PV clone by PegInfα. Using X-chromosome based clonality (qTCA) and JAK2V617F allelic burden quantitative assays, we analyzed selected biomarkers in HSCs, granulocytes and platelets of 18 patients treated with PegInfα, and evaluated cell cycle activity in HSCs. Previous data have indicated that PegInfα modulates the number of CD4+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the periphery. This is perhaps an indicator that PegInfα alters immunity against the JAK2V617F-bearing clone. We hypothesized that PegInfα mobilizes marrow Tregs to the periphery, thus decreasing their immunosuppressive and tumor promoting influence on the marrow microenvironment. Therefore, we correlated the number of Tregs before, during and after treatment with JAK2 allelic burden in peripheral blood and marrow samples in ongoing studies. In ongoing studies, 18 patients (7 females and 11 males) with PV and ET were treated with PegInfα, with a median follow-up of 6 months. There were variable JAK2V617F allelic burdens at enrollment (1.2% – 99.8%). Following treatment, 7 of 18 patients demonstrated a decrease in JAK2V617F allelic burden, indicating that PegInfα had an effect on the JAK2V617F-positive clone, while 11 had no response or had an increase in JAK2V617F levels. Six out of 7 female patients were informative for at least one exonic polymorphism out of 5 X-chromosome genes, and all 6 had clonal hematopoiesis as determined by qTCA at the start of treatment. Two of these 6 patients developed polyclonal hematopoiesis during therapy, but in one the JAK2V617F allelic burden was unchanged, indicating that, in this patient, PegInfα had a selective salutary effect on a pre-JAK2V617F clone, while in other patients PegInfα clearly decreased the JAK2V617F-positive clone. In the 7 patients who demonstrated decreased JAK2V617F levels, there was an inverse relationship of JAK2V617F level with the number of circulating peripheral blood Tregs (examples shown in Figs 1 and 2). Statistical analysis of 18 patients showed a significant negative relationship between the number of circulating Tregs and JAK2V617F allelic burden (Spearman9s correlation coefficient -0.4308, p We assessed total colony forming ability in methylcellulose culture media as a measure of hematopoietic progenitor abundance. In 5 patients treated with Pegasys, all 5 demonstrated an increase in colony-forming units. Furthermore, when cell cycle status of CD34+ HSCs was ascertained, we found a decrease in the percentage of HSCs in G0 (quiescence) in 4 out of 6 samples. These findings suggest that PegInfα therapy promotes normal HSC proliferation. For the first time we directly demonstrate that PegInfα therapy in some patients recruits dormant pre-clonal PV HSCs to active hematopoiesis, thereby resulting in production of polyclonal granulocytes and platelets. PegInfα also appears to mobilize Tregs to the circulation, an effect that may be associated with changes in the marrow microenvironment. We conclude that PegInfα can suppress both pre-JAK2V617F and JAK2V617F PV clones in some PV patients, as demonstrated by evaluation of HSCs, granulocytes and platelets, but this often occurs asynchronously. Our preliminary data suggest that PegInfα therapy is associated with an increase in cell cycle activity in HSCs and mobilization of Tregs to the circulation. This provides a possible mechanism by which polyclonal hematopoiesis is restored after PegInfα treatment. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


It was some years ago after practising as an industrial
designer that I experienced the power of design to convey meanings through the coordinated use of attributes which materialised out of a diversity of manufacturing processes. I was fascinated by the fact that a piece of transformed material, a curve or the enhancement of a product displayed in a shop could so strongly attract the attention of a viewer. I
was puzzled by the ability of certain designers to trigger evident or obscure connotations by the complexity of the shapes of their designs. Objects have the ability to define
groups of people or personalities by unconscious criteria. I observed how objects can influence cultures and nationalities and we find ourselves influenced and limited by their appearance, function and value. Can we say that designed objects function only as commodities or as marks of economic wellbeing?

At the beginning of this investigation my intention was to bring some answers to general questions like this. I realised that my research would involve investigating the most recondite accounts of philosophy, sociology and the theory of knowledge. I had to start from the very foundations of the complex act of understanding and, in order to organise all the different concepts, the research is constructed from three main sections.


The aim of the article is to consider the possibilities of the higher theological school of the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of changing ideas about a person in the world. The article talks about the monetization of the education system and the theory of human capital as the main principles of social development. It is emphasized that this affects, among other things, theological universities and the system of spiritual education as a whole. On the example of Catholic universities, which are fully faced with the challenges of our time, in particular with changes in ideas about a person, popularization of the ideas of the philosophy of "new atheism", observed "new moral sensitivity", the risks and changes in Orthodox theological education are assessed, the article is problematized and the proposed topic is updated. The significance of this work increases due to the fact that sociological studies of such a group as the seminary community have not been conducted in Russia since 1988. The author of the article proposes to solve the set goal in two ways. The first one is through a comparative analysis of ideas about a person and his purpose in Orthodox anthropology and in the philosophy of the "new atheism", with a very general linking of the latter to atheism in the USSR. It is proposed not only a theoretical postulation, but also an assessment of students' answers to an open question about spirituality, both the meaning of a Christian's life and the purpose of spiritual education. In addition, an assessment is made of the potential of the highest Orthodox theological school in Russia, what kind of personality it is oriented towards and how it is in tune with modern requirements. The article gives a social portrait of the seminarian, offers an analysis of the students' intentions, especially regarding ordination and the intended direction of ministry, the degree of his responsibility for himself and others. The second way — through the assessment of "the priesthood as a vocation" and "the priesthood as a profession" (M. Weber), the guidelines of the students themselves and the theological academy as a value-normative system are established.


There have been a number of medical cases of malpractice at the Musashino Red Cross Hospital. In 1995, we established a "Medical Practice Evalu- ation Committee" consisting of 11 doctors to review incident reports submitted by doctors describing their mistakes to resolve their own problems with reference to risk management systems in the field of aviation. I discuss the challenges faced by the Musashino Red Cross Hospital in preventing medical malpractice by referring to the principle that improvement of the institutional operating system should be based on the principle that even a minor incident can become a lesson to be shared by the whole hospital. Also, I address the establishment of risk management system in a hospital and what the medical field can learn from the risk management system in the field of aviation.


In the US, defense R&D share of GDP has decreased significantly since 1960. To analyze the implications on economic growth and welfare, we develop an R&D-based growth model that features the commonly discussed crowding-out and spillover effects of defense R&D on civilian R&D. The model also captures the important effects of defense technology on (a) national security and (b) aggregate productivity via the spin-off effect resembling consumption public goods and productive public goods respectively. In this framework, economic growth is driven by market-based civilian R&D as in standard R&D growth models and government-financed public goods (i.e. defense R&D) as in Barro (1990). We find that defense R&D has an inverted-U-shape effect on growth, and the growth-maximizing level of defense R&D is increasing in the spillover effect and in the spin-off effect. Also, there is a welfare-maximizing level of defense R&D that is increasing in the security effect of national defense, and there exists a critical degree of this security effect below (above) which the welfare-maximizing level of defense R&D is below (above) the growth-maximizing level.


markdownabstractCampylobacteriosis is the most frequently reported foodborne zoonosis worldwide. Consumer´s exposure to Campylobacter might be reduced by establishing a microbiological criterion (MC) for Campylobacter on broiler meat. In the present study two possible approaches were evaluated, using the freely available software tool for risk based microbiological criteria TRiMiCri (http://tools.food.dtu.dk/trimicri).
The first approach was the traditional one that implies a microbiological limit (ML-MC) and the second one which is based on the relative risk estimate (RRL-MC). The analyses were based on Campylobacter quantitative data collected from 28 Campylobacter positive bathes processed in 6 Belgian broiler slaughterhouses. To evaluate the performance of ML-MC, n=6, different c (0,1,2) and m (100,1 000,10 000) were used. Results showed that more than 90% of Campylobacter positive batches were not complying with strict ML criteria based on the m=100 for all applied combination of c.
The RRL approach requires a baseline risk which was estimated based on the Campylobacter baseline data collected in Belgium in 2008. Approximately 60% of evaluated Campylobacter positive batches account for higher risk than the baseline risk. For both approaches, application of less stringent criteria results in lower percentage of NC and higher minimum relative residual risks (MRRR; it refers to the change in risk when all batches are sampled and all NC batches undergo treatment that effectively eliminates Campylobacter so they are replaced by zero risk batches).
It was also observed that the number of samples (n) had little effect on risk estimates. Additionally, the results from ML-MC and RRL-MC follow the same curve when plotting percentage of NC against MRRR. However, for RRL-MC the percentage of NC batches and MRRR was lower and higher, respectively. To conclude, obtained results indicate that TRiMiCri is a useful and user friendly tool to make a risk based decision on the choice of the MC.


The analysis attempted to determine whether the expression of p16INK4A has prognostic relevance for patients with lung adenocarcinomas. For this purpose, immunohistochemistry was used to analyze 58 adenocarcinomas. Of the tumors investigated, 20 did not express p16INK4A, while 38 yielded a positive staining result. Median survival time was shorter for patients with p16INK4A negative carcinomas than for those with p16INK4A positive tumors (47 vs. 79 weeks, P = 0.11). The relative risk for patients with p16INK4A negative tumors was increased by a factor of 1.6 in comparison to positively stained tumors. There exists a direct correlation between the proportion of G0/G1 phase cells and the p16INK4A expression. Additionally, there is an inverse relationship between S phases and p16INK4A expression. Furthermore, p16INK4A negative adenocarcinomas show more frequent growth in nude mice than p16INK4A positive carcinomas.


Realization of nonreciprocal transport is of great importance in the development of devices and systems that require the directional manipulation of signals or particles in information processing and modern physics. For ultracold atomic systems, the approaches based on synthetic dimensions have led to rapid advances in engineering quantum transport. Here, we use laser-coupled discrete momentum states of noninteracting ultracold atoms to synthesize a momentum lattice, and construct a closed ring with controllable tunneling phase in the momentum lattice. We measure the density evolution of atoms in the synthetic lattice with the single-site resolution, and observe the nonreciprocal dynamics by controlling the tunneling phase. We show the effect of both the applied phase and the coupling strength between two distinct population regions on the population distribution of atoms in the momentum lattice, and provide the optimal parameters for achieving the nonreciprocal transport.


The aim of this report is to describe the clinical and electroencephalographic findings seen in an elderly woman without previous history of seizures who developed a nonconvulsive generalized status epilepticus following acute withdrawal of lorazepam. Scalp video-EEG monitoring was obtained using the standard 10/20 system of electrode placement. Cognitive and speech functions were specifically tested during the evaluation. Continuous irregular rhythmic generalized 2.0-2.5 Hz sharp-and-slow wave complexes intermixed with spikes and polyspikes more prominent over the frontocentral areas were seen on the EEG. This epileptic activity was continuous and unmodified by sensory stimulation and eyes opening and closing. Intravenous injection of diazepam caused a rapid normalization of the EEG with disappearance of the clinical manifestations. De novo absence status is a specific epileptic condition that should be suspected in all elderly subjects on chronic treatment with psychotropic drugs presenting in a confusional state. An urgent EEG is essential to confirm the diagnosis.


– Product development projects can be utilized to create not only new products or services but also competitively important capabilities on how to work with product development. The resulting capabilities can be, and often are, as important as the product itself. Although there is potential for an organization to improve product development performance, most organizations can learn even more from their development experiences. A reliance on post‐project reviews to share knowledge across projects is doomed to fail, since it usually is of low priority and does not capture the complexity of development projects. The aim of this research is to investigate what organizations can do to reduce the effect of losing valuable experience gained in product development projects., – A multiple case study approach, using both qualitative and quantitative data, is used to perform a study of two high‐tech product development organizations with respect to their inter‐project improvement activities. A framework concerning inter‐project improvement is presented, containing concepts such as levels of learning, improvement content, and axes of improvement., – To avoid losing valuable experience, an organization should use multiple strategies to share knowledge across projects. Examples of successful strategies are to use a well‐established product development process, professional full‐time project managers as well as modularization of the product., – Although research on organizational learning in product development has increased significantly during the last few years, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of inter‐project improvement by combining perspectives from quality management, organizational learning, and knowledge management.


Background. Evidence shows posttransplant antibodies lead to renal allograft failure, but does the time elapsed between transplantation and antibody development impact allograft survival? This is the first study showing importance of when antibodies appear. Methods. Serial sera were collected during 17 years (1991–2008) from two groups of patients, one whose allograft failed due to chronic rejection containing 25 patients (230 sera) and a control group consisting of 25 graft functioning patients (305 sera) who were matched by transplant date to a patient whose graft failed. Results. The median follow-up for failure patients was 7.1±4.8 years and 11.8±4.4 years for controls. Human leukocyte antigens alloantibodies appeared in 24 of 25 (96%) of the failed patients and 48% of the controls (P<0.0001). Time to antibodies also differed between groups. Fifteen (60%) patients from the failure group developed antibodies by 1 year compared with none in the control group. Hazard ratio of antibodies present in 1-year posttransplant from multivariate analysis for allograft loss was 7.77 (P<0.001).Ten-year renal allograft survival in early antibody developers (<1 year) was 27% vs. 80% in the late antibody developers. Conclusions. Overall, human leukocyte antigens antibody development within 1-year posttransplantation markedly lowers allograft survival compared with later antibody development. Therefore, monitoring early antibodies is useful.


Slc24a5 is a putative cation transporter, which is a member of the potassium-dependent sodium-calcium ion exchanger family. Association of the Slc24a5 gene with pigmentation has been established in Zebrafish, mice and humans. Despite these findings, its function in chicken remains unknown. The intent of this study was to describe the association of Slc24a5 with respect to melanin deposition in the chicken using RNAi. The objective was to detect the variety of melanin deposition caused by the down-regulation of Slc24a5 in chicken retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. Nine siRNAs that targeted against Slc24a5 mRNA were found to be effective in suppressing Slc24a5 gene expression in 293FT cells. The most effective target tested effectively inhibited Slc24a5 expression in mRNA and subsequently reduced protein levels in RPE cells. These results show that down-regulation of Slc24a5 results in a reduction of melanin content, as well as a decrease of melaeneous type β and type χ melanosomes simultaneously. Taken together, this work suggests that Slc24a5 function is conserved in the chicken, and necessary for melanin synthesis.


In IWMI Southern Africa Regional Office. Agricultural water management technologies for small scale farmers in Southern Africa: an inventory and assessment of experiences, good practices and costs


Purpose Anastomotic leakage (AL) is the anathema of colorectal surgery. Its occurrence leads to increased morbidity and mortality and a prolonged hospital stay. Much work has gone into studying various biomarkers in drain fluid to facilitate early detection of AL. This stage 2a development study aims to assess the safety and feasibility of reliably detecting the iodine in Gastrografin (GG; Bayer Australia Ltd.) in drain fluid and stool samples by dual-energy computed tomography (DECT). Methods This is a prospective, observational, controlled, consecutive cohort study establishing the safety and feasibility of the detection of GG in surgical drain fluid and stool as a biomarker of AL when patients with a low pelvic colorectal anastomosis undergo luminal flushing of the rectal tube with GG. Results Ten consecutive patients were allocated to the saline flush group and the following 10 to the GG flush group. Three patients in the saline flush group developed an AL. One patient in the GG flush group developed an AL. An elevation in the drain fluid GG was detected using DECT on the day of clinical deterioration. None of the patients in the control group were found to have a positive result on DECT. Conclusion This study demonstrates the safety of a novel approach to the early detection of AL from extraperitoneal colorectal anastomoses. The technique requires validation in a larger cohort and a multicenter study is planned to investigate the efficacy of GG rectal tube flushes as an early biomarker of AL in low pelvic anastomoses.


Lebanon is endowed with its outstanding preservation lagerstatten of fossil fish from the Upper Cretaceous. The batomorphs are represented by 16 species of Rajiformes belonging to 9 genera and 4 families however, their phylogeny remains poorly understood. Also, their diversity is possibly underestimated, compared to the great diversification event observed in the Upper Cretaceous, by lumping the majority of Lebanese rhinobatids in the genus Rhinobatos, whereas their relationships with the modern species of this genus are unclear. We discuss herein the attribution of three lebanese shark-like \textquotedblleftRhinobatids\textquotedblright species included into two new genera to Rhynchobatidae. These species together with Rhynchobatus possess a combination of primitive characters such as propterygium failing to reach the level of the nasal capsules and pectoral fin posterior corner not reaching the level of the pelvic fin. Three additional characters are supporting this clade in the present analysis together with two plesiomorphies. The remaining guitarfishes present a closer relationship with Rajidae than to Pristidae and so the order Rhinopristiformes recently erected by Naylor et al., (2012) is not recovered in our analysis.


Locally abundant ice-marginal landforms lie in a 500 km long zone with a distal margin 10–60 km west of the margins of modern ice caps on central Ellesmere Island. Much of this drift belt, at the heads of the fiords, was deposited by the oscillating margin of a coalesced predecessor of the modern ice caps between 9000 and 7000 BP. The ice continued to retreat east of the present margin, and readvanced to its modern limit in a middle and late Holocene cooler climate. Unweathered but undated till and striations at the base of the drift suggest that the belt does not mark the western limit of central Ellesmere Island ice in the last glaciation. The limit lies an unknown distance downfiord; glaciers in the fiords may have floated. No reliable evidence was found for a complete ice cover of western Ellesmere Island and Eureka Sound in the last glaciation; nevertheless much of central and southern Ellesmere Island and Devon Island may have been glaciated by a regime that left few erosional or depositional landfo...


It has been recognised that organisational learning (OL) possesses considerable potential for developing workers and, through them, organisations. Although its relevance to the public sector has been acknowledged, a relatively small amount of empirical work has been undertaken. Where it has been, emphasis on learning embedded in daily practices has been lacking. This study fills a significant gap by providing a holistic and empirically-based exploration of OL within the public sector based on three diverse case studies in the Welsh Government.
This study illustrates how OL practices in the Welsh Government emerged from mediations between individuals and six structures – namely physical, accountability, development, management intervention, workplace social and work task-based. OL is shown to be a locally formulated and pluralist phenomenon, based on the capacities of individuals involved and the highly nuanced dynamics created by and among the six structures. A new framework for the comprehensive investigation and analysis of OL emerges from the analysis.
Some key findings from the study are that learning involving identifying and assessing new ways of doing things was neither practised nor required in all areas, that engagement in change during the undertaking of day-to-day work activities was a stimulant for learning, that different work tasks presented different possibilities for making and remedying mistakes, that the absence of a target-driven environment was an important enabler for staff to pursue off-the-job learning, that different work tasks presented varying opportunities for engaging with people, that engagement with people tended to happen only when staff felt that it would result in them being able to perform their roles more effectively, that inter-OL was not generally part of working life and that efforts to capture knowledge were generally not made unless there was a clear purpose or value seen for doing so.


A composite is any material made of more than one component. Composite materials are solid multiphase materials formed through the combination of materials with different structural, physical and chemical properties. This makes composites different from the other multi component systems such as blends and alloys. Composites are widely used in such diverse as transportation, construction and consumer products (Giannelis, 1996). Composites offer unusual combinations of component materials properties such as weight, strength, stiffness, permeability, electrical, biodegradability and optical properties that is difficult to attain separately by individual components. A composite material can be custom tailored to have specific properties that will meet special requirements. The optimum design of composite component materials and manufacturing process to meet the target properties for specific engineering application is very important. In a composite, one phase is continues and is called matrix, while the other is filler material which make the dispread phase. Composite materials based on the nature of matrix phase can be divided into polymeric, ceramic and metallic composites. Usually the filler phase is embedded to the host matrix phase to make a composite which has properties far from either phase alone. Polymers often have advantages over other materials such as metals and ceramics. They are widely used in various technical applications because of their unique advantages such as ease of production, light weight and ductility. However they have lower mechanical, modulus and strength properties compared to that of metals and ceramics. The commercial importance of polymers and their increasing use, results to the continuous demand for improvement in their properties to meet the necessary conditions. By the composite technology, polymer properties are improved while maintaining their light weight and ductile nature (Jordan et al., 2005).


patients Abstract Objective: To find out the predictive relationship between adult attachment styles and depression in patients diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), recruited from Outpatient Departments (OPDs) of psychiatry of government and private hospitals through purposive sampling technique. The hypothesis for this study was "Depression would be predicted from Adult Insecure Attachment Styles in-patients with Schizophrenia, OCD and with Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders." Urdu versions of Revised Adult Attachment Style (RAAS) were used to assess adult attachment styles, and Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ-9), used to assess depression, along with that a demographic form was employed. Results: Simple linear regression was calculated by using SPSS (22-version). Data analysis suggests 12.6% of the variance in depressive symptoms was explained by insecure attachment style (R2=0.126, F (1)=5.177, p ≤ 0.002). Conclusion: These findings support a direct predictive relationship between insecure attachment style in adult patients with schizophrenia, OCD, and Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders. In conclusion, attachment anxiety and attachment-related avoidance link to depression in our South Asian culture. These findings are impactful especially when it comes to diagnosis, treatment planning, and interventions in


Helminth infections, including hookworms and Schistosomes, can cause severe disability and death. Infection management and control would benefit from identification of biomarkers for early detection and prognosis. While animal models suggest that Trefoil Factor Family proteins (TFF2 and TFF3) and interleukin-33 (IL-33) -driven type 2 immune responses are critical mediators of tissue repair and worm clearance in the context of hookworm infection, very little is known about how they are modulated in the context of human helminth infection. We measured TFF2, TFF3, and IL-33 levels in serum from patients in Brazil infected with Hookworm and/or Schistosomes, and compared them to endemic and non-endemic controls. TFF2 was specifically elevated by Hookworm infection, not Schistosoma or co-infection. This elevation was more strongly correlated with age than with worm burden. To determine if this might apply more broadly to other species or regions, we measured TFFs and cytokine levels in both the serum and urine of Nigerian school children infected with S. haematobium. We found that serum levels of TFF2 and 3 were reduced by infection, but urine cytokine levels were increased (IL-1β, TNFα, IL-13, and IL-10). Finally, to determine if TFF2 and 3 might have immunosuppressive effects, we treated stimulated or unstimulated PMBCs with recombinant human TFF2 or TFF3 and measured proinflammatory cytokine levels. We found that rhTFF2, but not rhTFF3, was able to suppress TNF alpha and IFN gamma release from stimulated human PMBCs. Taken together, these data support a role for TFF proteins in human helminth infection. Author Summary Billions of people are infected with parasitic helminths across the globe, especially in resource poor regions. These infections can result in severe developmental delay, disability, and death. Adequate management of helminth infection would benefit from the identification of host biomarkers in easily obtained samples (e.g. serum or urine) that correlate to infection state. Our goal was to determine if specific proteins involved in tissue repair and immune modulation are altered by infection with specific helminth species in Brazil (hookworm) or Nigeria (blood fluke). One of these proteins, Trefoil Factor 2 (TFF2), was elevated in the serum of hookworm infected individuals, and decreased in the serum of blood fluke infected children. In the blood fluke-infected children, there were also significant increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines in the urine, where the eggs burst from host tissue. Further, in laboratory experiments, Trefoil Factor 2 reduced the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines from human blood cells. This suggests that at high levels TFF2 may suppress inflammation and could serve as a biomarker for infection or treatment efficacy.


Action recognition based on human skeleton structure represents nowadays a prosper research field. This is mainly due to the recent advances in terms of capture technologies and skeleton extraction algorithms. In this context, we observed that 3D skeleton-based actions share several properties with handwritten symbols since they both result from a human performance. We accordingly hypothesize that the action recognition problem can take advantage of trial and error already carried out on handwritten patterns. Therefore, inspired by one of the most efficient and compact handwriting feature-set, we propose in this paper a skeleton descriptor referred to as Handwriting-Inspired Features (HIF3D). First of all a data preprocessing is applied to joint trajectories in order to handle the variabilities among actor's morphologies. Then we extract the HIF3D features from the processed joint locations according to a time partitioning scheme so as to additionally encode the temporal information over the sequence. Finally, we selected the Support Vector Machine (SVM) to achieve the classification step. Evaluations conducted on two challenging datasets, namely HDM05 and UTKinect, testify the soundness of our approach as the obtained results outperform the state-of-the-art algorithms that rely on skeleton data.


This paper establishes a complete marine fuel system model, and gives a sparse matrix solver algorithm to calculate the pipe network flow and pressure of each branch node based on mathematical modeling thought mechanism analysis. In order to get accurate simulated results, fuel's viscosity-temperature curve can fit Chebyshev curve adaptively even when change the oil. With the using of object-oriented technology develop distributed visual simulation system, achieving the dynamic response of the system state and ensure adequate simulation accuracy. Now model has been successfully applied to large-scale full-function DMS turbine simulator and is highly recognized by the national maritime sector.


A robust automatic white balance algorithm is proposed in this paper, using extracting gray color points in images for color temperature estimation. A gray color point is the point where R, G and B components are equivalent under the canonical light source. A little color deviation of the gray color point from gray under different color temperature is used to estimate the color temperature of the light source. The test results show that the proposed algorithm can provide a good perceive effect and has the advantage of easy realization, low complexity and robust convergence.


Aim—To investigate changes in corneal touch sensitivity following excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) using diVerent beam configurations. Methods—20 subjects were given a unilateral −3.00 D correction with either a 5 mm (26 μm, n=10) or 6 mm (42 μm, n=10) beam diameter. Thirty subjects underwent a unilateral −6.00 D correction with 5 mm (62 μm, n=10), 6 mm (78 μm, n=10), or multizone (62 μm, n=10) treatments. The multizone treatment was 6 mm in diameter with the depth of the 5 mm treatment. Corneal sensitivity was measured using a slit-lamp mounted Cochet-Bonnet aesthesiometer before and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after PRK. Stimulus locations included points lying within the ablated zone (central) and outside (peripheral). These were compared with the equivalent locations in control (untreated) eyes. Results—There was a significant reduction in corneal sensitivity within the central (ablated) zone in all treatment groups after PRK. Inmost groups a return to full sensitivity was achieved by 6 months with the exception of the multizone treatment group which showed significant corneal hypoaesthesia at 12 months. Peripheral corneal sensitivity was also reduced in this group up to 3 months after the procedure. A comparison between the −3.00 D and −6.00 D treatment groups showed no significant diVerence. However, combining data from all treatment groups, a significant correlation was found between the interocular diVerence in central corneal sensitivity and postoperative haze at 3 and 6 months. Conclusions—For corrections up to −6.00 D ablation depth and treatment zone diameter do not appear to be clinically important determinants of corneal hypoaesthesia. In contrast, postoperative corneal haze appears to correlate with sensitivity loss. (Br J Ophthalmol 1997;81:686–690) Varying degrees of postoperative corneal hypoaesthesia have been described following a variety of refractive surgical procedures. Epikeratophakia is associated with a marked reduction in corneal sensitivity. Corneal touch thresholds within the donor lenticle are increased as long as 3 years after the procedure. Surprisingly there is also a mild loss of peripheral corneal sensitivity during the first postoperative year, presumably due to retrograde neural degeneration. Studies of corneal sensitivity after radial keratotomy (RK) have produced equivocal results. Shivitz and coworkers found increased touch thresholds for up to 1 year after RK but, in contrast, a recent study reported that corneal sensitivity was unaffected by radial corneal incisions. Recently attention has been directed at the use of argon/fluoride excimer lasers as a means of permanently altering the corneal profile. Compos and coworkers were the first to investigate corneal sensation following excimer photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). They showed that corneal sensitivity was significantly depressed during the first few postoperative months; however, in the vast majority of cases corneal sensation had returned to normal by 6 months. Recent studies 6 have suggested that the extent and duration of corneal hypoaesthesia is dependent on ablation depth. Following deep (>30 μm) ablation both central and peripheral (unablated) corneal sensitivity were reduced compared with a group receiving shallow ablations (<30 μm) Kohlaas et al 3 reported that a small group of patients with severe subepithelial haze appeared to have a delayed recovery of sensitivity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the eVects of ablation depth and treatment zone diameter on central (ablated) and peripheral (unablated) corneal touch sensitivity which was measured using a Cochet-Bonnet aesthesiometer. Materials and methods


Abstract:
"Political salafism" is among the unexpected phenomenon emerge as a result of Arab Spring. It is observable through active involvement of salafi groups in politics in certain countries affected by revolutions. However, salafī–political advocators seems emerged earlier in Malaysia, compare to their counterparts in Egypt. Malaysian Salafi joined themselves in UMNO party (the United Malays National Organization) in 2009, and justified  their involvement in the party  as following salafi method, based on   the notion of "absolute obedience to the ruler," 'prohibition of secession from the ruler," and "necessity renders prohibited things permissible" Such involvement in political life is considered as bringing mileage to the salafī as well as the political party itself, even though the  involvement initially based on gaining certain political benefit. Using historical and descriptive methodology, this article attempts to characterize  raison detré as well as  religious motives underneath  the framework of those salafī advocators.
Keywords: Salafī, 'Aqīdah, Politics, UMNO, Malaysia


: In this study, the effects of filler particle size and shape on the physical properties of silicone rubber composites were investigated using inorganic fillers (Minusil 5, Celite 219, and Nyad 400) except silica, which was already present as a reinforcing filler of silicone rubber. Fillers with small particle sizes are known to facilitate the formation of the bound rubber by increasing the contact area with the polymer. However, in this experiment, the bound rubber content of Celite 219-added silicone composite was higher than that of Minusil 5-added silicone composite. This was attributed to the porous structure of Celite 219, which led to an increase in the internal surface area of the filler. When the inorganic fillers were added, both thermal decomposition temperature and thermal stability were improved. The bound rubber formed between the silicone rubber and inorganic filler affected the degree of crosslinking of the silicone composite. It is well-known that as the size of the reinforcing filler decreases, the reinforcing effect increases. However, in this experiment, the hardness of the composite material filled with Celite 219 was the highest compared to the other three composites. Furthermore, the highest value of 2.19 MPa was observed for 100% modulus, and the fracture elongation was the lowest at 469%. This was a result of excellent interaction between Celite 219 filler and silicone rubber.


Some recent researches reveal that the garment industry is among those with a high rate of returned goods. Therefore exploring and understanding extended supply chains, which cover both direct and reverse good flows, is of particular importance. Yet research on ex tended supply chains in the garment industry is almost neglected in literature. The objective of this paper is to gain an insight into the nature of reverse flows within the extended supply chain in the garment industry. The aim is to emphasise their significance and complexity. Empirical results presented were obtained by a survey conducted in Novi Sad, the second largest city in the Republic of Serbia. It was found that giving more attention to reverse flows in research and practice is necessary. Due to the complexity of the problem, the focus is on retailers and small and medium enterprises, which are considered as drivers for economic recovery and development.


Sixteen years of civil war, which ended in 1992, left Mozambique as one of the poorest countries in the world. Still today Mozambique's human development index ranks the lowest in Southern Africa, with a life expectancy of 52 years and a literacy rate of 47%. Like several other African countries, however, Mozambique's economic potential lies underground. In recent years the discovery of large reserves of gas, oil and coal has attracted foreign investors from across the globe. FDI net inflows of foreign direct investment have risen to 9% of the country's gross domestic product. Coal alone represents 61% of the country's mineral commodities, making Mozambique the second-largest exporter of coal in Africa, after South Africa. Coal production in Mozambique reached 35 700 tonnes in 2010 and is expected to reach 20 million tonnes by 2015. The growing mining industry is also contributing to Mozambique's muchneeded infrastructure development, with electricity lines, roads, railways and ports being constructed to service the needs of foreign investors. This coal revolution is bringing high hopes, but questions still remain. It is yet to be determined whether the mining sector can become the new engine of growth for the country, and whether these billion dollar investments will trickle down to the poor. How much is the mining industry really contributing to the development of Mozambique?


Transfer of lipids between droplets in Pickering emulsions has been studied by time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The special features of self-assembled liquid-crystalline phases have been applied to examine the kinetics of internal phase reorganization imposed by lipid release and uptake by the droplets. The findings reveal faster transfer kinetics in Pickering emulsions than in emulsions stabilized with Pluronic F127. It is shown that the transfer kinetics can be accelerated by adding free surfactant to the dispersions and that this acceleration becomes more dominant when micelles are formed. The effect of immobilization of the droplets has been studied by incorporating them into the appropriate hydrogel network. The droplets are arrested, and the transfer slows down significantly at high enough concentrations of the hydrogel where nonergodic systems are obtained.


With Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, drivers are now more confident in exploring routes out of the ordinary. More portable forms of commercial GPS navigators (GPS-embedded cell phones, MP3 players, and watches) are also available for pedestrians and bicyclists. Most route guidance applications minimize travel distance and time, which are important factors, but are not the only navigational criteria of interest to users, especially in urban and city environments. With the aid of advanced features of geographic information systems (GISs), new geospatial factors such as the three-dimensional (3-D) nature of the roads and crime rates can be included in the route guidance for broader applications. For instance, 3-D GISs can generate information on visible scenery along a given route (for tourists) or the slopes of the consecutive road segments (for pedestrians and bicyclists). In addition, pedestrians and bicyclists can opt to avoid high-crime areas. In the future, this concept of incorporating new geospatial information can be extended, for example, for computing low-elevation areas that are susceptible to flooding and hilly regions with heavy traffic. This paper presents methods of incorporating 3-D features of the roads and geospatial crime rate information for route guidance purposes. It is found that the 3-D nature of the roads and crime rate–related information can result in considerably different route choices.


The nonlinear space charge effect of a bunched beam with Gaussian type longitudinal distribution is discussed in this paper. Some useful formulae are derived for calculating the potential induced by a cylinder model of space charge in the waveguide of a linac with longitudinal density distribution of Gaussian type combining with transverse density distributions of Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij, waterbag, parabolic and Gaussian types, respectively.


We have studied various methods for improving the performance of SMP clusters. Most of them are using special hardware, non standard protocols, so that need special added library and complex programming, tending to raise their cost and to spoil their flexibility. To solve their problems we propose a CPU vs. NIC one to one correspondence method for improving parallel processing performance in a PC cluster, using comparatively simple method where transmitting NICs are fixedly assigned to CPUs one to one. So that the communication load between PCs can be balanced. Applying this method to parallel processing in a dual PC cluster, and comparing this method with conventional ordinary ones, we have obtained better result for some benchmarks.


Abstract Background: Lactase persistence is an autosomal dominant trait commonly distributed in Europe as well as some parts of east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Using real-time PCR to detect the −13910C > T variant common in the European population is a reliable analysis although other variants in the probe-binding site may cause errors in analysis. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the variants in a Danish cohort examined for lactose intolerance as well as to improve the real-time PCR analysis for detection of the different variants. Methods: We genotyped 3395 routine samples using real-time PCR for the −13910C > T-variant. All consecutive samples identified as −13910CC were sequenced using Sanger Sequencing. Using the SDS software we examined various quality value settings to improve on the genetic analysis. Results: Using real-time PCR resulted in 100% successful genotyping of the −13910C > T variant. By using a quality value of 99% and sequencing the undetermined samples we improved the ability of the assay to identify variants other than −13910C > T. This resulted in a reduction of the diagnostic error rate by a factor of 2.4 while increasing the expenses only 3%. Conclusions: We conclude that using a quality value of 99% in the SDS software significantly improves the diagnostic efficiency of the real-time PCR assay for detecting variants associated to lactase persistence.


Orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is a widely used greedy algorithm for sparse signal recovery in compressed sensing (CS). Prior work on OMP, however, has only provided reconstruction guarantees under the assumption that the columns of the CS matrix have equal norms, which is unrealistic in many practical CS applications due to hardware constraints. In this paper, we derive sparse recovery guarantees with OMP, when the CS matrix has unequal column norms. Finally, we show that CS matrices whose column norms are comparable achieve tight guarantees for the successful recovery of the support of a sparse signal and a low mean squared error in the estimate.


There is no data on the prevalence of endocrine disorders in young elite athletes in Russia. Objective: to assess the prevalence of endocrine pathologies and their structure in children and adolescents involved in elite sport. Materials and methods: the study included data from outpatient records of members of national sports teams, who underwent special medical examination. The data of a random sample of 1081 outpatient cards of young athletes, for 26 sports, were analyzed. Results: we found a high prevalence of endocrine pathology (18.6 %) in children and adolescents involved in high-performance sports. Thyroid diseases are most the most frequent in young athletes (in 57.3 % of cases). On second place is obesity (12.3 %). The frequency of weight deficiency and short stature is 8.4 % each. Autoimmune thyroiditis occupies a leading place in the structure of thyroid pathology in young elite athletes. Subclinical hypothyroidism takes the second place, and nodular goiter — the third place. Conclusion: young elite athletes are characterized by a high frequency of endocrine pathology, the leading place in which is occupied by thyroid diseases. It is necessary to further studies aimed at assessing the mechanisms of hormonal adaptation in elite young athletes to assess their impact on the development of the child and the correct interpretation of the hormonal profile obtained during a special medical examination.


As datasets grow to tera- and petabyte sizes, exploratory data visualization becomes very difficult: a screen is limited to a few million pixels, and main memory to a few tens of millions of data points. Yet these very large scale analyses are of tremendous interest to industry and academia. This paper discusses some of the major challenges involved in data analytics at scale, including issues of computation, communication, and rendering. It identifies techniques for handling large scale data, grouped into "look at less of it," and "look at it faster." Using these techniques involves a number of difficult design tradeoffs for both the ways that data can be represented, and the ways that users can interact with the visualizations.


Sexual communication between sex partners can involve just one sensory modality or a combination, depending upon such factors as species, habitat, and context. Ethological aspects of sexual communication has been widely documented in rodents. In rats, sexual communication between male and female varies according to the production of signals by a female that signal receptivity, proceptivity, and attractivity. However, in the laboratory experiment, such approach is often neglected. In the present study, two types of stimulus female--Lordotic and Darting--were used with the aim to examine developmental changes in precopulatory behaviour of males. Besides the dependence of the male's precopulatory repertoire on the strength of proceptive stimuli emitted by the female was studied. Male rats ranging from 30 to 175 days of age were observed under the dyadic interaction. It was found: (a) Precopulatory behaviour of the 30-day-old males was not clear-cut, the males devoted more time to social investigation of adult (Darting) female. (b) All the 40-day-old males exhibited precopulatory behaviour in the range of the repertoire displayed by adult animals. (c) Precopulatory activity of juvenile (45-day-old) as well as of adult (90-day-old) males exposed to Lordotic female was significantly lower as compared with that exhibited by males toward Darting female. (d) Copulatory readiness of males increased with the age, in fact, all animals aged from 75-135 day were able to pass from the precopulatory into the copulatory phase of sexual interaction. (e) Although the 175-day-old males exhibited pronounced precopulatory activity, they did not initiate copulations. The implications of each of these findings are discussed from the point of view of both the developmental aspects and the stimulus-response relationships. To sum up, the development of normal flow of sexual behaviour of male rats proceeds simultaneously with the development of physiological and morphological parameters. The appearance of precopulatory behaviour is less dependent on the internal (hormonal) readiness than copulatory behaviour. The connection of both phases, i.e. precopulatory and copulatory, is terminated at about Day 75, and is the key moment of sexual interaction from the point of view of reproductive success. In fact, a successful course of sexual interaction is codetermined by the intensity of behavioural stimuli and/or by the completeness of proceptive patterns provided by the female partner. It is clear that the reproductive process cannot be completed without some degree of communication. The deterioration of sexual interaction found in males aged 175 day seems to be the consequence of their absolute heterosexual abstinence.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


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An independently tunable multichannel filter based on graphene superlattices with fractal potentials is theoretically studied. It is found that such fractal structures with a defect layer possess an unusual tunneling state occurring inside the forbidden gap, and the defect modes can be modulated by changing the width of the defect layer. The facts that the wave functions of defect states do not overlap and their bases are orthogonal lead to the result of the independency among the defect modes. The modulation of energy, energy interval and number of the defect modes may lead to potential applications in graphene-based electronic devices.


Online social networks provide user relationships and increase information and resource sharing between a large amount of users. Communications by social networks overtake the emails, and it poses enormous security challenges in this platform. Numerous privacy leakages arise while unauthorized users can access information at anywhere and anytime. This paper presents Usage Decision Online Social Network (UDOSN) model to protect private data from illegal access before and during the usage in online social networks. The authentication function controls the access requests before the usage, and right requests are done by the authorization function during the usage. Presented scenarios show the process of both functions. Moreover, Usage Decision Online Social Network model is reusable and environment-independent, and it is defined for social network with formal descriptions.


We investigated the effects of temperature and pH on single strand‐conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analyzed by capillary electrophoresis (CE) using short‐chain linear polyacrylamide as the sieving medium. Nine different mutations (in factor V, cystathionine β‐synthase, and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase genes), including both transitions and transversions, were investigated. We confirmed that low temperature in general increased the number of detectable single‐strand conformations and thereby the sensitivity of the analysis. The pH effects of the separation matrix on the migration pattern, and thus the assay sensitivity, varied markedly between the different DNA fragments. Seven of nine single point mutations were detected at the ordinary pH of 8.3, whereas the CBS T833C mutation was discriminated at the extreme pH values of 9.0 and 6.4, and the CBS G797A mutation could not be detected at any pH value within the range 6.4–9.0. These data emphasize the importance of the pH of the separation matrix in detecting certain mutations by SSCP. Hum Mutat 13:458–463, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The objective was to determine the reliability and validity of a local positioning system (LPS) promising high accuracy at reduced product costs. Fifty-five random static positions in a gym (54.8  × 26.0 m) were obtained 10 times via LPS (50 Hz) and measuring tape. An athlete's LPS-derived peak and time-series speed and acceleration during dynamic movements (n = 80) were compared with Vicon (100 Hz). Reliability and validity were assessed via Intraclass and Concordance Correlation Coefficients (ICC/CCC), root mean square errors, Bland-Altman plots, and analysis of variance. ICC3,1 (≥0.999) and CCC (0.387-0.999) were calculated for static positions (errors <0.22 m). CCC for time-series speed and acceleration, and peak speed, acceleration, and deceleration were 0.884-0.902, 0.777-0.854, 0.923, 0.486, and 0.731, respectively. Errors were larger in time-series acceleration (14.37 ± 3.77%) than in speed (11.99 ± 5.78%) (ηp2 = 0.472, p < 0.001) and in peak acceleration (28.04 ± 14.34%) and deceleration (25.07 ± 14.90%) than in speed (7.34 ± 6.07%) (ηp2 = 0.091, p < 0.01). LPS achieved excellent reliability and moderate-to-excellent validity of time-series speed and acceleration. The system accurately measured peak speed but not peak acceleration and deceleration. The system is suitable for analyses based on instantaneous speed and acceleration in game sports (e.g., energy estimations).


The accuracy in determining the quantum state of a system depends on the type of measurement performed. Homodyne and heterodyne detection are the two main schemes in continuous-variable quantum information. The former leads to a direct reconstruction of the Wigner function of the state, whereas the latter samples its Husimi Q function. We experimentally demonstrate that heterodyne detection outperforms homodyne detection for almost all Gaussian states, the details of which depend on the squeezing strength and thermal noise.


Background:
Road trauma represents a significant yet neglected public health challenge in Zambia leading to loss of lives, severe disabilities and hampering development. It disproportionately affects low and middle income countries (LMIC) with 90%  of all road deaths occurring there. Zambia, like many other LMIC lacks robust evidence to guide road safety initiatives and program planning due to limited research, poor quality data and competing health priorities.
Objectives:
We aimed to investigate the epidemiology of road trauma cases seen at a general hospital in Monze district from 2013 to 2017. We further assessed the road trauma data quality as captured by the hospital registry.
Methods:
We reviewed records for all road trauma cases seen at Monze Mission Hospital from 2013 to 2017. Descriptive statistics  were used to summarised using means and proportion. We further assess the variables captured for each case that  presented at the hospital including socio-demographic and trauma-related details. Depending on the quality of data obtained, statistical methods were applied to explain the epidemiology including Chi-square, t-tests and proportional  tests were used to assess the differences in means and proportions, respectively.
Results:
The road trauma data at MMH are very poor evidenced by a lot of missing variables for road trauma cases that would aid  understanding of the epidemiology of road trauma cases seen at the facility. However, of the 449 road trauma cases reviewed, 62.4% of these were males. The highest road trauma burden was recorded among those aged 15-44. Time trend analysis shows a decreasing pattern in road deaths in Monze district. The case-fatality rates were very high with more than 90% the of deaths occurring before arrival at the hospital. However, many case files lacked data on occupation, education level, type of road user, type of vehicles involved and time of collision.
Conclusion:
The available data at MMH suggested that young and active people aged 15-44 years were the most affected of road  trauma in Monze district, with males experiencing a higher burden than females. The data also showed a decreasing  trend in the road trauma burden in Monze district. However, these results should be interpreted with great caution as the data are highly unreliable due to suspected very high levels of underreporting.


A new non-disturbing optically interrogated silicon sensor for measuring electromagnetic power in the microwave and millimetre-wave range is presented. A prototype was realised and then tested in the microwave frequency range 2.5-18 GHz. A minimum detectable electromagnetic power density of /spl sim/1.4 mW/cm/sup 2/ was measured. Higher performances are expected, according to simulations, in optimised devices.


ABSTRACT The classic Neotethyan Ankara Melange formed within the Triassic-Eocene İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan ocean ('N Neotethys'), bordered in central Anatolia by the Kırşehir and Tauride-Anatolide continental units to the south and by the discontinuous Sakarya continent to the northwest. Farther north, the separate Intra-Pontide ocean probably remained partly open until the early Cenozoic. The Neotethyan Ankara Melange developed via phases of intra-oceanic accretion (mainly pre-Aptian), initial continental accretion (i.e. Coniacian (?)), arc magmatism (Upper Cretaceous) and continent-continent collision (Maastrichtian-Early Eocene). Variably dismembered ophiolitic rocks of Early-Middle Jurassic age within the Ankara Melange formed by supra-subduction zone (SSZ) spreading above a generally northward-dipping subduction zone. Volcanic-sedimentary lithologies of Triassic-Cretaceous age represent fragments of oceanic crust including variably sized oceanic seamounts. The oceanic volcanics and sediments accreted from the downgoing plate, whereas the ophiolites represent fragments of the overriding plate. The main driver of accretion in the Ankara area was collision of a large Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous oceanic seamount (probably plume related) and its capping carbonate platform, with Middle-Late Jurassic fore-arc oceanic lithosphere. Intra-oceanic arc and proximal-distal fore-arc basin units developed above the accretionary complex and within remnant Neotethyan ocean to the north during the Upper Cretaceous. After docking with the Sakarya continent, the Ankara Melange was transgressed by continental margin fore-arc and syn-collisional foreland basin sediments (Campanian-Early Eocene). Comparisons with Neotethyan melanges across Anatolia to the Caucasus indicate exceptional development in the type Ankara area.


ABSTRACT In this article the authors compared chimpanzees' executive function with that of children. They developed a nonverbal dimensional change card sorting task, which indexed the development of executive function. Three pairs of mother and offspring chimpanzees and 30 typically developed 5-year-old children were presented with 2 target stimuli and a test stimulus comprising 2 dimensions (size and shape) on a display; they were required to sort the test stimulus according to 1 dimension (e.g., shape). After 5 consecutive correct trials, the participants had to sort the test stimulus according to the other dimension (e.g., size). The results showed that the chimpanzees often failed to sort the test stimuli according to the first and reversed dimensions. On the other hand, the children were correctly able to use both dimensions. These results indicate that chimpanzees may have less developed executive skills than children.


Deep neural networks have achieved great successes on the image captioning task. However, most of the existing models depend heavily on paired image-sentence datasets, which are very expensive to acquire. In this paper, we make the first attempt to train an image captioning model in an unsupervised manner. Instead of relying on manually labeled image-sentence pairs, our proposed model merely requires an image set, a sentence corpus, and an existing visual concept detector. The sentence corpus is used to teach the captioning model how to generate plausible sentences. Meanwhile, the knowledge in the visual concept detector is distilled into the captioning model to guide the model to recognize the visual concepts in an image. In order to further encourage the generated captions to be semantically consistent with the image, the image and caption are projected into a common latent space so that they can reconstruct each other. Given that the existing sentence corpora are mainly designed for linguistic research and are thus with little reference to image contents, we crawl a large-scale image description corpus of two million natural sentences to facilitate the unsupervised image captioning scenario. Experimental results show that our proposed model is able to produce quite promising results without any caption annotations.


This article examines the international legality of the projection of Australian adjudicative and enforcement jurisdiction against non-nationals in the Southern Ocean forming part the Antarctic Treaty Area. It sets out the Australian legal foundations on which Australian jurisdiction is currently being exercised for alleged breaches of Australian law applying to the Australian Antarctic Whale Sanctuary in the HSI v. Kyodo case. It then evaluates the exercise of Australian jurisdiction in light of the applicable international law. It accepts arguendo the factual basis of Australia's territorial claim in Antarctica, but nevertheless concludes that the extension of Australian jurisdiction over non-nationals in the purported Antarctic Australian Whale Sanctuary contravenes conventional and customary international law. In light of this conclusion, the article details the nature and importance of the ATS in order to highlight what is at stake by the challenged posed by the assertion of Australian jurisdiction. It then presents reasons why (in addition to illegality) the projection of Australian prescriptive, adjudicative and enforcement jurisdiction in what almost all other states consider the high seas off Antarctica is an unsound idea. The article concludes by arguing that the current Australian law conferring jurisdiction ought to be repealed.


ABSTRACT Electrical resistivity tomography is a technique widely used for the investigation of the structure and fluid dynamics of the shallow subsurface, particularly for hydro‐geophysical purposes, sometimes using cross‐borehole configurations. The results of electrical resistivity tomography inversion and their usefulness in solving hydrogeophysical problems, even though invariably limited by resolution issues, depend strongly on the accuracy of inversion, which in turn depends on a proper estimation and handling of data and model errors. Among model errors, one approximation often applied in cross‐hole electrical resistivity tomography is that of neglecting the effects of boreholes and the fluids therein. Such effects inevitably impact the current and potential patterns as measured by electrodes in the boreholes themselves. In the presence of very saline fluids, in particular, this model approximation may prove inadequate and the tomographic inversion may yield images strongly contaminated by artefacts. In this paper, we present a case study where highly saline water was used for hydraulic fracturing to improve permeability of a shallow formation impacted by hydrocarbon contamination, with the final aim of improving the effectiveness of in situ contaminant oxidation. The hydraulic fracturing was monitored via time‐lapse cross‐hole electrical resistivity tomography. Arrival of the saline water in the monitoring borehole likely caused a strong borehole effect that significantly affected the quality and usefulness of electrical resistivity tomography inversions. In this paper, we analyse the experimental dataset and produce, via three‐dimensional electrical resistivity tomography forward modelling, a viable explanation for the observed, paradoxical field results.


Severely immunodeficient NOD/Shi-scid, IL-2Rγnull (NOG) mice provide an in vivo model for human cell/tissue transplantation studies. NOG mice were established by combining interleukin-2 receptor-γ chain knockout mice and NOD/Shi-scid mice. They exhibit a high incidence of thymic lymphomas and immunoglobulin (Ig) leakiness. In this study, we assessed the incidence of malignant lymphomas and the occurrence of leakiness in 2,184 non-experimental NOG retired breeder mice aged 16–40 weeks. We established that the total incidence of lymphomas was only 0.60% (13/2,184). Most lymphomas (10/13) occurred in female mice by the age of around 25 weeks. No mice developed Ig leakiness. All lymphomas were derived from the thymus, and consisted mainly of CD3-positive and CD45R-negative lymphoblastic-like cells. Therefore, based on the absence of Ig leakiness and a very low incidence of lymphomas, including thymic lymphomas, NOG mice may be useful in regeneration medicine for xenotransplantation of human embryonic stem (ES) cells or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, and in transplantation experiments involving tumor cells.


Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) play an important role in supplying critical loads. The majority of UPS systems employ batteries as a mean of energy storage. Since typical loads are supplied by AC voltage, an inverter is an indispensable part of a UPS to convert DC voltage to AC. Conventional control methods for single phase inverters suffers from many drawbacks like slow dynamic/transient response, oscillatory no-load behavior and distorted waveform in presence of non-linear loads. This paper in concerned with the control loop design for a single-phase voltage source inverter when employed in UPS applications. The regulation of the output voltage is done based on reference tracking to ensure good steady-state and dynamic performance. The control loop is designed taking into consideration the low damping during light loads. Three control strategies are proposed. The first is based on modified PID controller which demonstrated moderate performance and is suitable for low cost applications. The second method is based on an additional current control loop which has the benefit of inherent inverter protection. The last method is based on the theory of "internal model controller" which gives nearly ideal steady-state regulation. Key points in implementing controllers with digital controllers are addressed. An experimental system is built to verify the validity of theoretical results


In this investigation, the effects of fungicides Switch 62.5 WG (%37.5 Cyprodinil + % 25 Fludioxonil) and Mythos SC 300 (300 g/ L Pyrimethanil); widely used on greenhouse grown tomatoes against grey mould (Botrytis cinerea); were studied on the morphology and anatomy of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) pollens. Application of excessive dosages of fungicides affected fruit production and quality, as such possible effects due to overdose applications were put forth. Fungicides were applied to tomatoes grown in pots in the greenhouse at recommended dosage (60 g/100 L water for Switch; 125 mL/100 L water for Mythos) and double the recommended dosage (120 g/100 L water for Switch; 250 mL/100 L water for Mythos). The pollen width-length, exine-intine layer thickness, pore width-length, crevice width-length were measured using an ocular micrometre. The data obtained revealed that there was a reduction in the values of the groups getting fungicide application as compared to the control. Increased dosage resulted in a decrease in the values of fertile pollen percentages in all fungicide applied groups and the toxic effect became more evident at higher doses. Generally there was an overall increase in the percentage of oblate spheroidal type pollens at higher dosages as compared to the control, but the percentage of prolate spheroidal types decreased. Furthermore, some pollen morphological structures that are not observed in the control group were encountered in the pollens in polar view at 60 g/ 100 L Switch and 125 mL/ 100 L Mythos.


In recent years, rodent repelling devices are increasing in urban public spaces, especially in front of food storages or restaurants. These devices emit high-frequency noise, whose spectral peak is around 20 kHz, with extremely high sound pressure. To make good use of these high-frequency sounds adequately and effectively, security of the people exposed to these sounds must be ensured. Especially young children are supposed to be sensitive to high-frequency sounds. Hence, the consideration to the security of them is a matter requiring immediate attention. As a first step to solve this matter, the measurement of noise from a rodent repelling device was carried out in a commercial facility. In parallel with that, questionnaire survey was conducted to the workers and young users in the facility. The measurement results showed that the maximum sound pressure level was about 120 dB directly under the device, and more than 90 dB at the point of 15 m away from the device. Concerning the result of the questionnaire survey, the younger workers and users recognized the high-frequency sound from the rodent repelling device more clearly when compared with the elderly workers. Furthermore, most of the answerers who recognized the high-frequency sound reported negative evaluation, such as "unpleasant", "noisy", "having a headache or an earache" and so on. Taking these serious results, remedial measures were discussed while considering economical efficiency, immediacy and facility. The specific method and the result of remedial measures will be described in this paper.