Background and Aims

Wine aroma is influenced by complex interactions between various wine constituents. This study investigated the sensorial interactive effects of Sauvignon Blanc impact compounds, 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol, 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine with aldehydes typically originating from oxidation of white wines, methional and phenylacetaldehyde.
Methods and Results

Spiked model wines were subjected to sensory descriptive analysis using a trained panel. The concentration of each compound varied from below aroma threshold value to high values reported in wine. Combinations of the four compounds were also evaluated sensorially. Depending on the concentration of the compounds, methional had a strong suppressive effect on the intensity of attributes contributed by 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol, such as grapefruit and guava, whereas methional and 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine enhanced the intensity of certain attributes, which included cooked beans and cooked potato.
Conclusions

Complex sensory interactions may occur between Sauvignon Blanc impact compounds and compounds related to oxidation depending on concentration of the compounds. Oxidation-derived compounds such as methional can suppress pleasant aroma attributes linked to volatile thiols, while contributing negative attributes especially in the presence of 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine.
Significance of the Study

This study highlights the importance of preserving fresh and fruity flavours while preventing the formation of unwanted aldehydes due to interactions that can influence the overall aroma profile of the wine. This study may also contribute to the sensory characterisation of oxidised Sauvignon Blanc wine.


The possibility of performing simultaneous measurements in quantum mechanics is investigated in the context of the Curie-Weiss model for a projective measurement. Concretely, we consider a spin– 12 system simultaneously interacting with two magnets, which act as measuring apparatuses of two different spin components. We work out the dynamics of this process and determine the final state of the measuring apparatuses, from which we can find the probabilities of the four possible outcomes of the measurements. The measurement is found to be nonideal, as (i) the joint statistics do not coincide with the one obtained by separately measuring each spin component, and (ii) the density matrix of the spin does not collapse in either of the measured observables. However, we give an operational interpretation of the process as a generalized quantum measurement, and show that it is fully informative: The expected value of the measured spin components can be found with arbitrary precision for sufficiently many runs of the experiment.


Temperature-enhanced sputtering of liquid Sn under low energy light and heavy ion bombardment measured using dual quartz-crystal microbalances is reported. This is in support of the potential use of a flowing liquid Sn surface as a plasma-facing component in advanced fusion machines as both a divertor surface and a first-wall material. Previously, significant temperature enhancement under heavy ion bombardment was not reported; this study, extending results to higher temperatures show and order of magnitude enhancement of the absolute sputtering yield beyond mere thermal evaporation which is separately measured


Abstract:  Ruth Benedict, an American anthropologist, considers that "shame" is connected with a public exposure of a human being who experiences this feeling. If we speak about the concept of shame on the cultural level it is worth mentioning that the "monopoly of shame" is held by the Japanese culture after she has lost the Second World War. We are most concerned about the concept of shame in English and Romanian cultures and in the monograph of the famous researcher Ana Wierzbicka we notice that in individualistic types of cultures such as the Anglophone one the interest towards other people's business is low and the concept of shame is not so important nowadays. At the same time the concept of embarrassment has substituted that of shame and began to play a decisive role in this culture, because it is supported socially. If shame has a moral basis, embarrassment does not include it, the latter implying a confusing situation that happened to somebody. The English language popularity which promotes the Anglophone culture by introducing its borrowings into other languages leads to the rare presence of this concept in the Russian and Romanian and other cultures, only there is a misunderstanding on the cultural level here as people, for example, Moldovans, who try to behave like Americans don't understand that in the American culture it is a shame to manifest shame in public, as they are educated not to manifest private emotions in public and they hide it carefully. Shame in the individualistic type of culture is not used as a tool of regulating human's behavior, there are laws for that, in the collectivistic types  of culture shame is more important than the law, this culture is based on relationships.


This paper considers robot motion planning under temporal logic constraints in probabilistic maps obtained by semantic simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The uncertainty in a map distribution presents a great challenge for obtaining correctness guarantees with respect to the linear temporal logic (LTL) specification. We show that the problem can be formulated as an optimal control problem in which both the semantic map and the logic formula evaluation are stochastic. Our first contribution is to reduce the stochastic control problem for a subclass of LTL to a deterministic shortest path problem by introducing a confidence parameter δ. A robot trajectory obtained from the deterministic problem is guaranteed to have minimum cost and to satisfy the logic specification in the true environment with probability δ. Our second contribution is to design an admissible heuristic function that guides the planning in the deterministic problem towards satisfying the temporal logic specification. This allows us to obtain an optimal and very efficient solution using the A* algorithm. The performance and correctness of our approach are demonstrated in a simulated semantic environment using a differential-drive robot.


Many physicians use PDAs/smartphones in the presence of their patients. But how do patients perceive this behavior? This study tested the hypothesis that participants with increased knowledge about medical applications of PDAs/smartphones have more positive perceptions of physicians using them. The authors assigned 250 patients and/or family members in medical or pharmacy waiting rooms at 2 universities to either the control group or the treatment group. The treatment group viewed a brief presentation about how and why physicians use PDAs/smartphones, whereas the control group received no new information. All participants completed a survey about their knowledge (7 items) and perceptions (13 items) of physician use of PDAs/smartphones. The treatment group showed more favorable perceptions (p < .05) on 5 out of 13 survey items. In addition, in the control group, those who showed "high knowledge" had more favorable perceptions (p < .05) on 8 out of 13 survey items compared with control group participants with "low/moderate knowledge" levels. The authors concluded that even a small amount of information increases measurable perceptions. This study suggests that perhaps physicians should take time to share their PDA/smartphone findings with their patients to improve patients' perceptions of their use.


Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) require a diversity of forested habitats over large areas and may thus be particularly affected by the large-scale changes in the composition and age-class distribution of forest landscapes induced by the northern expansion of forest management. In this study we examine habitat characteristics associated to the use of calving areas by woodland caribou females and calves at different spatial scales. Thirty females were captured and collared with Argos satellite transmitters that allowed to locate 14 calving areas. Field surveys were conducted at each of these areas to measure the landscape composition of forest cover types and local vegetation characteristics that are used for both forage conditions and protection cover. At the scale of the calving area, univariate comparisons of the amount of forest cover types between sites with and without calves showed that the presence of calves was associated to mature black spruce forest with a high percent cover of terrestrial lichens. Within calving grounds, univariate comparisons showed that vegetation features like ericaceans and terrestrial lichens, that are important food resources for lactating females, were more abundant in calving areas where females were seen with a calf in mid-July than in areas where females were seen alone. The protection of the vegetation cover against predators was however similar between calving areas with or with¬out a calf. Logistic regression results also indicated that vegetation characteristics associated to forage conditions were positively associated to calf presence on calving grounds. Our results suggest that foraging conditions should be given more attention in analyses on habitat requirements of woodland caribou.


Infrared and far infrared transmission spectra have been measured for the ferromagnetic Ga1-xMnxAs (x=0.034 and x=0.050) between 10 and 12000 cm-1. A broad peak is observed around 1600 cm-1, and this energy is close to the deep acceptor level of Mn impurity in GaAs. A finite featureless absorption, spreading between this peak and the band gap, due to inter valence band transitions is also observed. At the same time, a non-zero absorption is observed in the lowest frequency studied, which points to the absorption by mobile holes related to the metallic DC conductivity. The frequency dependence in this range, which differs markedly from the Drude model, demonstrates a strong influence of electrostatic and magnetic disorder on the optical conductivity. In particular, the existence of a strong coupling between the Mn spins and the holes explains the considerable increase of the far infrared absorption below the ferromagnetic ordering temperature.


The Pacification Police Units (UPPs), created to recover territories ( favelas ) dominated by drug traffickers in the city of Rio de Janeiro, came about as a result of the courage and leadership of the head of Public Security Bureau in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The UPPs were created at the initiative of a public administrator and, initially, without the support of the State, and have since become one of the most respected and widely recognized organizations in Brazilian society.  Due to the success at dismantling the gangs that controlled the favelas and constituted a parallel state within them, UPPs have become the center of a public policy that has allowed their deployment in other underserved communities. In turn, this has enabled the installation of other public services and facilities such as schools and health centers in the favelas , as well as creating the conditions for the local population to freely come and go. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze the role of leadership in the creation and planning of the UPPs distributed among the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In preparing this article, emphasis has been given to the use of oral history, a methodology that focuses on the history of the present through the narrative of the subjects who participated in the events. The Situational Strategic Planning and the Freirean perspective were used for analysis. The story of the UPPs was found to revolve around the existence or not of leaders inside and outside the favelas . Even with 37 UPPs already installed in the city of Rio de Janeiro, each one being the result of a different experience with the communities, the role of the leaders in the favelas is still emphasized.


The synoptic-scale climatology of cold frontal precipitation systems during the passage over central Japan was investigated for 19 years (1988-2006). Cold frontal precipitation events are classified into the following three types: Widespread, Hokuriku, and Jump type. Widespread-type events, which bring precipitation throughout Japan, mainly occur in spring and autumn, and the cyclones tend to move northeastward from the central part of the Sea of Japan. The central pressure of the Widespread-type cyclones is the deepest and this type has the most moisture out of the three types. Hokuriku-type events, which bring precipitation exclusively over the Hokuriku area often appear in winter, and the cyclones move eastward from the northern part of the Sea of Japan. As a result, the isobars form in an east-west orientation over mainland Japan as the cold front arrives in the Hokuriku area. The Hokuriku-type cyclones tend to be relatively weak and there is less moisture during the events. For the Jump-type events, in which the precipitation distribution appears as precipitation bands jumping over the Kanto area, cyclones develop rapidly due to the deep trough at the 500 hPa level, changing the isobars from east-to-west to northeast-to-southwest during the events.


We investigate, via numerical simulations, the tidal stripping and accretion of globular clusters (GCs). In particular, we focus on creating models that simulate the situation for the GC systems of NGC 1404 and NGC 1399 in the Fornax cluster, which have poor (specific frequency SN � 2) and rich (SN � 10) GC systems respectively. We initially assign NGC 1404 in our simulation a typical SN (� 5) for cluster ellipticals, and find that its GC system can only be reduced through stripping to the presently observed value, if its orbit is highly eccentric (with orbital eccentricity of > 0.5) and if the initial scale length of the GCs system is about twice as large as the effective radius of NGC 1404 itself. These stripped GCs can be said to have formed a 'tidal stream' of intracluster globular clusters (ICGCs) orbiting the centre of Fornax cluster (many of which would be assigned to NGC 1399 in an imaging study). The physical properties of these GCs (e.g., number, radial distribution, and kinematics) depend on the orbit and initial distribution of GCs in NGC 1404. Our simulations also predict a trend for SN to rise with increasing clustercentric distance - a trend for which there is some observational support in the Fornax cluster. We demonstrate that since the kinematical properties of ICGCs formed by tidal stripping in the cluster tidal field depend strongly on the orbits of their previous host galaxies, observations of ICGC kinematics provides a new method for probing galaxy dynamics in a cluster.


ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, black and Latino students are far more likely than their white classmates to be removed from school as punishment. These disparities have led to widespread concern about a potential "school-to-prison pipeline," in which detentions, suspensions, and expulsions ultimately lead to the overrepresentation of people of color in the nation's prisons. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Breaking the pipeline is an explicit federal priority, and on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton pledged $2 billion to help schools add counselors and reduce suspensions. "This is not just an education issue, this is a civil rights issue, and we cannot ignore it any longer," she told a Harlem audience in February 2016. But while much has been said about the potential negative effects of exclusionary school punishment, little is known about what policymakers can do to address it. By contrast, researchers have devoted considerable attention to studying racial disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes--and there is compelling evidence that when students have a teacher of the same race, they tend to learn more at school (see "The Race Connection," research, Spring 2004). Those findings raise a parallel question: Does having a teacher of the same race make it more or less likely that students are subject to exclusionary school discipline? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In this study, we analyze a unique set of student and teacher demographic and discipline data from North Carolina elementary schools to examine whether being matched to a same-race teacher affects the rate at which students receive detentions, are suspended, or are expelled. The data follow individual students over several years, enabling us to compare the disciplinary outcomes of students in years when they had a same-race teacher and in years when they did not. We find consistent evidence that North Carolina students are less likely to be removed from school as punishment when they and their teachers are the same race. This effect is driven almost entirely by black students, especially black boys, who are markedly less likely to be subjected to exclusionary discipline when taught by black teachers. There is little evidence of any benefit for white students of being matched with white teachers. Although these results are based on a single state, they should encourage efforts to promote greater diversity in the teaching workforce, which remains overwhelmingly white. In addition to offering more diverse role models at the front of the class, our findings suggest that employing more teachers of color could help minimize the chances that students of color, who trail their white peers in academic achievement, are also subjected to discipline that removes them from school. A "Pipeline" Problem The theory behind the "school-to-prison pipeline" concept is that black and Latino students experience harsher discipline in school than their white peers, and that these school-based experiences increase the likelihood of their eventual engagement with the criminal justice system. Indeed, a 2014 analysis of school discipline data by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found these students are overrepresented among students who experience exclusionary discipline across the country. Black children, for example, represented 16 percent of K-12 enrollment nationwide but were 43 percent of students who received multiple out-of-school suspensions during the 2011-12 school year (see "What Do We Know about School Discipline Reform?" features, Winter 2017). Could the lack of diversity in the teaching force contribute to these disparities? In theory, teachers' race could influence whether students experience exclusionary discipline in several ways. It could be preventative: students could have better rapport with same-race teachers, and be less likely to act up in their classes in the first place. …


This book is based on a study of a complex project proposal by governments and corporations for a futuristic city, the Multifunction Polis (MFP). It encompasses issues and challenges symptomatic of growth initiatives in the global competitive environment. Academic rigor is applied using corporate strategy and business principles to undertake a detailed analysis of the project proposal & feasibility study and to subsequently construct practical guidelines on how to effectively manage the interpretation & implementation of a large-scale collaborative venture. It specifically addresses a venture which involves fragmented groups representing a diversity of interests but which aspire to related goals and, to this end, there is a need for cooperation & synergy across the planning process.This is an easy to read book of general interest and well suited to practitioners and academics alike. Its relevance is far-reaching, extending to venture situations defined by location, industry, community or social interest, the context, scale and scope of the project, and the role of organization management, project management, market and industry development and public policy.
flap text of book


On December 18, 1947, the largest 3600-rpm tandem-compound steam-turbine generator ever built up to that-time was placed in service at the Essex Generating Station of the Public Service Electric and Gas Company, Newark, N. J. Since it was the first of a new class of turbine for both the manufacturer and the operating company, and since the throttle steam temperature was 1000 F, extensive tests were made to determine practical operation procedures for the new machine. These tests indicate that, even with the high steam conditions of 1250 psig this 1000 F turbine generator can safely withstand starting and loading rates higher than those normally used. The operating instructions for this machine can be revised to take advantage of these characteristics. Additional data are needed for wider application to other machines and designs.


An ordered mesoporous WO(3-X) with high electrical conductivity (m-WO(3-X)) was prepared and evaluated as an anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Ordered mesoporous tungsten trioxide (m-WO(3)) with an identical pore structure to that of m-WO(3-X) and bulk WO(3-X) (b-WO(3-X)) was prepared for the comparison purpose. An m-WO(3-X) electrode exhibited a high reversible capacity (748 mAh g(-1), 6.5 Li/W) and a high volumetric capacity (∼1500 mAh cm(-3)), which is comparable to the Li metal itself (ca. 2000 mAh cm(-3)). Also, an improved rate capability and a good cyclability were observed in the m-WO(3-X) electrode when compared with m-WO(3) and b-WO(3-X) electrodes. From electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis, the advanced anode performance of the m-WO(3-X) electrode was probably attributed to large ordered mesopores and a high electrical conductivity. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) result displayed that the safety of m-WO(3-X) was more improved than those of graphite and Si anode materials.


In this paper, a robust stationary Kalman filter is designed by minimizing selected performance indices so that it is less sensitive to uncertainties. The uncertainties include not only stochastic factors such as process noise and measurement noise, but also deterministic factors such as unknown initial estimation error, modeling error and sensing bias. To reduce the effect on the uncertainties, three performance indices that should be minimized are selected based on the quantitative error analysis to both the deterministic and the stochastic uncertainties. The selected indices are the size of the observer gain, the condition number of the observer matrix, and the estimation error variance. The observer gain is obtained by optimally solving the multi-objectives optimization problem that minimizes the indices. The robustness of the proposed filter is demonstrated through the comparison with the standard Kalman filter.


Here we report radiocarbon measurements made on wheat seed tissue (Triticum aestivum L.; winter or spring type growth habit), from the seed archive of the IPK Gatersleben, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, which was harvested between 1946 and 2020. The results give an overview of 75 years of radiocarbon concentration evolution in agricultural plant products. The wheat tissue radiocarbon concentrations follow known preand post-bomb radiocarbon records, such as the atmospheric Jungfraujoch, Schauinsland, and NH1 datasets. Based on a Northern Hemisphere growing period from April to July, the Gatersleben seed tissue radiocarbon concentration indicates incorporation of fossil carbon of about 1% with respect to the high alpine, clean-air CO2 of the Jungfraujoch station between 1987 and 2019. We propose to use the preand post-bomb radiocarbon record of Gatersleben wheat as a reference in forensic investigations, such as the age estimation of paper by analyzing starch used in paper manufacture. Additionally, an advantage of the record reported here lies in its extensibility by adding new analyses from future harvests.


Melanoma is a devastating form of skin cancer. Fifteen to twenty percent of melanoma patients have an activating mutation in the GTPase, NRAS. Despite advances in the targeted inhibitor treatment for mutant BRAF melanoma patients, the options for mutant NRAS patients remain poor. TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) is an atypical IκB kinase family member that acts downstream of the RAS effector RalGEF but the role of TBK1 in melanoma is not known. We found that NRAS overexpression in wild-type NRAS melanoma cells increased TBK1 phosphorylation. In a panel of NRAS mutant melanoma cells, we characterized sensitivity to MEK inhibition in 2D as well as 3D cell cultures that mimic the dermal microenvironment. We show that there is a differential response to MEK inhibition in this panel. TBK1 inhibition, through either siRNA transfection or pharmacological inhibitors, cooperated with MEK inhibition to promote apoptosis. These effects were particularly noted in those NRAS mutant cell lines that are insensitive to MEK inhibition. By contrast, this effect was absent in melanoma cell lines wild type for NRAS. These results identify TBK1 as a downstream effector for NRAS mutant melanoma and as a potential target for use in combinatorial therapy in this subset of patients for whom current therapeutic options are limited. Citation Format: Ha Linh Vu, Andrew E. Aplin. Targeting TBK1 promotes apoptosis in MEK-inhibitor resistant mutant NRAS melanoma cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on RAS Oncogenes: From Biology to Therapy; Feb 24-27, 2014; Lake Buena Vista, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2014;12(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A40. doi: 10.1158/1557-3125.RASONC14-A40


Review of Ninotchka Rosca, State of War (New York: Norton, 1988).Against the pessimism which results from the harsh realities of his experience, Milan Kundera contrasts a parallel world in which he has never lost faith, that which he calls "the depreciated legacy of Cervantes":(1) the world of the novel. Kundera believes that the novel "protects" humanity from the "forgetting of being" by keeping" `the world of life' under a permanent light."(2) This gives the novel the potential to add an enriching and nurturing dimension to existence, most particularly when it is devalued by oppressive historical and political forces. Such potential is amply fulfilled by a novel written in exile about a country whose history has been one of brutality and torment: the Philippines. The novel is State of War by Ninotchka Rosca.When Rosca was asked why she, a journalist by profession, should turn to fiction in order to tell the story of her country and its people, she replied: "When people learned I was doing what they called `the big book', I was constantly being asked if I was writing about Marcos. This was in 1977. No, I'd say, Marcos is a boring subject. You already know what's going to happen to him. He's either going to die or he's going to be overthrown -- he's just another dictator. The problem was how to tell a story that was not anybody's story yet was everybody's story."(3)The story turned out, naturally, to be somebody's story, as well as everyone's -- an encapsulation of the Filipino past and future. Rosca found herself turning away from documenting the manipulations of the political `heavyweights', based on actual figures in the government who were, at any rate, busily shaping their own version of history. Instead, she focused on three young people: Adrian Banyaga, Anna Villaverde and Eliza Hansen. As the novel begins, these three are on board a ship, on their way to an island in the south for the celebration of a festival.These characters allow Rosca to explore "the world of life" in its multitude of forms. They live through the vagaries of experience within the bounds of a state which denies them the most basic of freedoms and subjects them to various forms of surveillance. Adrian, the heir to a great fortune, discovers the limitations of privilege and the confusions in his own nature when he is captured and toyed with by the military strongman, Colonel Urbano Amor. Unsure of Amor's motives and unaware of his powerful grandfather's secret strategies against the regime, Adrian remains a true innocent, a man who would have fared far better in a less treacherous time. On the other hand, Anna, who is Adrian's lover, has seen and experienced the most horrific aspects of tyranny. As the wife of a political activist, Anna found herself caught in a whirlwind of civilian rebellion and state repression. Her husband abandons her in order to save his own skin, and Anna is imprisoned and tortured in retaliation. She is only saved from almost certain death by the manipulations of her best friend, Eliza, a high-class courtesan whose favours are sought by two powerful Colonels.Rosca's graphic writing powerfully recreates the pain, the perils and the desires of her characters. In the love between Anna and Adrian, in the friendship and loyalty between Anna and Eliza, she creates a strong nexus of human relationships which holds firm against the annihilating machinery of the totalitarian state. Her fiction reaches for the human reality behind the creative lies of the ruling men, beyond the perversity of a man like Amor, who calls his torture chamber "the romancing room", who does not rape his victims but prefers to disinter their private lives and "fuck the soul".The poignancy of the situations of Adrian, Anna and Eliza also stands in stark contrast to the pedantries of the state's bureaucracy, which hides its intentions behind the subtlest of orchestrations. In a passage of black humour, Rosca recounts a speech made by a government functionary who is so versed in the intricacies of jargon that he requires a translator:"Why be content with providing only the alternative of vertical sepulchrization? …


Most businesses concentrate on refining their business model to enhance results. We see examples everyday of market leaders such as United Airlines, McDonald's and Blockbuster who have built their reputation on a sound, predictable and consistent success formula. Today each is in serious trouble because of it. This article offers a method of recognizing when such success formulas are losing their effectiveness as well as an approach to reinvent them. The article presents examples of leading companies which have stayed with their success formula for too long, as well as examples of firms which have successfully reinvented their business model. It is possible to successfully anticipate the need for change and enhance a firm's business model to maintain and strengthen a market leadership position. A strong focus on the changing requirements of a firm's customers can be achieved through active listening programs in conjunction with a proactive commitment to deliver improved value to them everyday. Understanding that success formulas can fail is important for all business managers to recognize. This represents a significant change from a more traditional approach where businesses concentrate on refining their current business model to improve results. Change in how customers perceive value is the key driver. Anticipating and actively responding to this changing value driver requires a willingness and dedication to reinvent the firm's success formula as appropriate.


It has been shown that when acetylene is used as a carrier gas, the percentage of the total liquid products, based on the reacted carbide acetylene (or carbon), increases owing to the polymerization of the carrier gas itself, provided its concentration is sufficiently high. If the concentration is low, the effect of the introduced acetylene appears limited merely to the suppression of the formation of free acetylene. An explanation for a higher content than in the reacted gas of methane in the effluent gas used for desorption has been given for the acetylene system. The supplementary data in support and evidence for the reasonableness of the over-all mechanism of nascent acetylene polymerization, which may be written n(C_2H_2)=(C_2H_2)_n, have been given. It has been indicated that the efficacy of the synthesis of hydrocarbon liquids directly from calcium carbide is higher than even the catalytic polymerization, so far reported in literature, of ordinary acetylene.


Most of this dissertation is occupied by a section-by-section interpretation of Ajax (pp. 20— 108), which provides the basis for a relatively brief discussion of some of its structural features (pp. 108—49), notably the motif of 'search' and 'disclosure' and the role of the Chorus. Its starting-point, however, is a historical survey of explanations of the so-called Trugrede in 646—92 (pp. 7—20), of which Griitter's own (not wholly novel) interpretation (pp. 42—58) is central to his understanding of the whole play. On his view, the Heraclitean concept of the 'unity of opposites' is fundamental to the tragedy of Ajax, who is subject equally to human aspiration to independence and to divine exaction of submission, but reconciles both in his death, and by this coincidentia oppositorum achieves unity with the cosmos; in the Trugrede he speaks, like the 'god' of Heraclitus, from a level of superhuman isolation, and the misunderstanding of the Chorus and Tecmessa, so far from being intended by him, is symbolic of human inability to grasp pure truth. Griitter's detailed exposition of the play is consistently sensible and well argued; his comments on the structure are valuable, but some essentials might have been emphasized by supplementary diagrammatic presentation. There is excellent treatment of such topics as the symbolism of Hector's sword, the problems of the Messenger-speech, and the false logic of Agamemnon's harangue to Teucer, though also some laxity over details: a reference to 215 dava/r^j and 229 daveirai (p. 26 n. 2) overlooks four previous occurrences of dvfioKew (99, 100, 106, 110) and another to the (abnormal) gloss iiavutui; on 355 tuppovrioTcjq (pp. 124 —5) ignores the existence of £ vet. 354 with its alternative explanations, and also of ££ recc. 355.


It is very well known that we should take a sociolinguistic teaching approach for Spanish heritage language (HL) learners' instruction. Potowski (2005) proposed that instruction be centered on literacy development and grammatical knowledge. However, not much has been said regarding grammar instruction: What does Spanish HL learners' grammar look like? What are the main similarities and differences between advanced L2 learners and HL learners? What are the most effective grammar teaching techniques for Spanish HL learners? Can those techniques used for L2 grammar teaching be applied to HL learners? In this article, an answer to all of these questions is offered. Moreover, practical examples of activities are provided using several techniques such as processing instruction, interactional feedback, dictogloss, and input enhancement, followed by pedagogical implications derived from current research on grammar instruction for both advanced L2 and HL learners of Spanish.


We examine the dynamic of exploitation and exploration in international networks for companies that enter new foreign markets. While exploitation is related to experiential learning in closed netwo ...


Understanding the formation of spicules Spicules are small jets lasting a few minutes that form in the solar atmosphere and propel hot plasma upward from the visible surface. The underlying physics of spicules is not well understood. Martínez-Sykora et al. developed radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations that can spontaneously produce numerous spicules with properties that match observations. Interactions between large-scale magnetic fields and the plasma, such as ambipolar diffusion, drive the formation process and subsequent evolution. Understanding how spicules form will help assess how much they heat the solar corona and how they relate to other solar phenomena. Science, this issue p. 1269 Simulations explore how spicules form in the solar atmosphere. In the lower solar atmosphere, the chromosphere is permeated by jets known as spicules, in which plasma is propelled at speeds of 50 to 150 kilometers per second into the corona. The origin of the spicules is poorly understood, although they are expected to play a role in heating the million-degree corona and are associated with Alfvénic waves that help drive the solar wind. We compare magnetohydrodynamic simulations of spicules with observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph and the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. Spicules are shown to occur when magnetic tension is amplified and transported upward through interactions between ions and neutrals or ambipolar diffusion. The tension is impulsively released to drive flows, heat plasma (through ambipolar diffusion), and generate Alfvénic waves.


Renal hydatidosis usually requires surgical treatment such as pericystectomy, marsupialization, or nephrectomy. In the era of minimally invasive surgery, laparoscopic treatment is preferred. Two main challenges in laparoscopy are to avoid the spillage of contents and to minimize incision for delivering the specimen. We herein discuss the use of a hydatid trocar cannula system (HTCS) to overcome these problems. A 46-year-old male patient having a large renal hydatid cyst (18×15 cm) was operated using HTCS. Three standard laparoscopic ports were placed and the HTCS was placed from the fourth port (18 mm). After aspiration of contents, the cyst was inspected using laparoscope and all contents were sucked. The operation time was 120 min and the total blood loss was around 100 ml. No intraoperative spillage was noted. The patient was orally allowed on Day 2 and discharged on Day 3. Oral albendazole therapy was continued 3 months after the operation. He remained symptom free and abdominal computed tomography did not reveal any recurrences during a follow-up of 2 years. Use of HTCS in renal hydatidosis not only prevents the spillage of hydatid fluid, but also assists in the complete evacuation of contents and allows intracystic visualization to check complete removal of scolices.


For the low content and weak fluorescence intensity, usually presenting shoulder peaks, it is often hard to locate protoporphyrin IX and identify its fluorescence intensity in human blood serum. Biorthogonal spline wavelet may work for the identification of its weak signal Superimposing protoporphyrin IX fluorescence signal on the background of blood serum spectrum, a series of varied fluorescence spectra of them can be obtained. The protoporphyrin IX fluorescence signal from blood serum background is separated and the fluorescence spectrum can be divided into corresponding discrete approximate signals (a1-a7) and discrete details signals (d1-d7) by biorthogonal spline wavelet bior 5.5 seven levels decomposition. The signal frequency shows a gradual decrease with increasing decomposition. Protoporphyrin IX fluorescence peak emerges when it comes to the 7th decomposition. The signal peak shifts about 2.5 mm downwards as the signal intensity decreases, whereas the signal peak from wavelet filter remains where it was. As the synchronization disappears between signal intensity and signal peak, usually it is hard to assure the fluorescence intensity and peak location. However, signal from wavelet filter may ignore the affect and identify the protoporphyrin IX in human blood serum with the help of biorthogonal spline wavelet. As the linear alternation of wavelet and discrete details signals maintain their inborn linear relations, the authors can carry out the qualitative and quantitative analysis for the precise content and quantity of protoporphyrin IX in blood serum, which provides a feasible method for the application of blood serum fluorescence spectrum to tumor early diagnosis.


This study attempts to investigate the issues that impede the provision of affordable housing for Malaysian population. These issues need to be identified and addressed, as they hinder potential private investments in affordable housing projects. In order to achieve this aim, a qualitative method was adopted, in the form of interviews with several developers and institutional investors. Seven areas were recognised to be the sources of major problems with affordable housing in Malaysia namely, the lax policy; poor urban design and planning; supply and demand; property overhang, financing, and price; lacking innovation and research and development; escalating development costs; as well as obsolete quota and subsidy programmes. These findings may provide invaluable insight for policymakers in identifying and resolving the issues of affordable housing, which may then create potential avenue for private investment to alleviate the issue of shortage of affordable housing.


This study investigated three key determinants of demand for general practice services: population growth, population ageing and trends in service use. Projection of future service use on the basis of the two demographic factors yielded a projected growth in number of general practice services of 5.9% by 2006, with a further 6.5% growth by 2011. When trends in service use were taken into account as well as demographics, a lower rate of growth in services was projected, but an increasing proportion of long consultations and an increasing proportion of services for older adult patients. It is concluded that population ageing and population growth will continue to be major drivers of demand for general practice services in the next decade. Patterns of service use will also be a key contributor, with increased use of long consultations suggesting a greater requirement for the general practice workforce than has previously been proposed.


PURPOSE
Amblyopia is a developmental abnormality of visual cortex characterized by spatial processing deficits. Recently, it has been suggested that temporal processing also is affected. We investigated temporal sensitivity by measuring temporal synchrony sensitivity.

METHODS
In Experiment 1, we used a contrast detection task to compare the detection of a flickering 3 Hz Gaussian blob to that of synchrony discrimination for a 180° phase shift. In Experiment 2, we measured synchrony thresholds directly by assessing the minimum degree of asynchrony that allowed subjects to discriminate which of 4 high-contrast Gaussian blobs was flickering asynchronously in time (synchrony thresholds). Three temporal frequencies (1, 2, and 3 Hz) and two element separations (1.25° and 5°) were compared.

RESULTS
In Experiment 1, we found that the amblyopes (mean age 19.90 ± 8.59 years, range 11-48 years) exhibited a synchrony deficit only for the 1.25 degrees element separation in the amblyopic eye. In Experiment 2, we also found that the sensitivity for nonstrabismic (pure anismetropia) amblyopes (mean age 15.70 ± 4.00 years, range 12-23 years) was reduced for all three temporal frequencies, whereas for strabismic (strabismus and anisometropia) amblyopes (mean age 24.10 ± 10.03 years, range 11-48 years) it was reduced at 3 Hz only, possibly suggesting a different extent of impairment in temporal synchrony for different types of amblyopia.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that amblyopes have a foveal low-level temporal processing deficit that could explain the previously reported deficit for figure-ground discrimination.


The willingness to participate in cockroach control activities is said to be dependent on individual and community's perception of the importance of cockroach infestation. Quantitative questionnaire and ranking exercise were used to determine respondents' knowledge, perception and attitude to cockroach infestation in Makurdi, Nigeria, between Mar. and Jun. 2006. Two hundred and thirty four household heads comprising 128 (54.7%) males, 106 (45.3%) females, 80 (34.2%) civil servants, 67 (28.6%) business men and women, 57 (24.4%) farmers, and 30 (12.8%) students participated. Two hundred and six (88.0%) of the respondents reported seeing cockroaches in their houses; 98 (41.9%) considered cockroach infestation in their apartments to be low, 90 (38.6%) and 48 (20.5%) rated cockroach infestation in their apartments as moderate and high, respectively. Eighty-two (35.0%) respondents considered cockroach infestation to be a potential health risk, 92 (39.3%) did not associate cockroach infestation with any health problem, and 60 (25.6%) were not sure that cockroaches transmit diseases. There was no significant gender difference in perception of the health risk associated with cockroach infestation (t= 0.14, df'= 1, P>0.05). Cockroach was ranked fourth amongst the five household pc . red and 136 (58.1 %) of the respondents controlled cockroach infestation manually. While \ 75.2%) of the respondents reported that they felt embarrassed when visitors saw cockroaches in their homes, 58 (24.8%) said they were not embarrassed. The study revealed that the vector competence of cockroach was grossly underrated and consequently the risk of contracting cockroach-borne infections is high. There is need for further entomological investigations and community health education on health hazard associated with cockroach infestation.


Diseased animals are the main source of infection of schistosomiasis. River beach wild fecal contamination is the direct risk factor for schistosomiasis transmission, and the river beach contamination index has important significance in the schistosomiasis monitoring. This paper reviews the river beach wild fecal contamination to the identification and evaluation of the risk of schistosomiasis transmission.


The world's first bulk-type fully high temperature superconducting synchronous motor (HTS-SM) was assembled and tested in our laboratory at the University of Cambridge. The fully HTS-SM was designed with 75 Y123 HTS bulks mounted on the surface of the rotor and six air core 2G HTS racetrack coils used for stator windings. We successfully applied a light fan load test for this fully HTS-SM at its operating temperature of 77 K. The detected decay of the trapped magnetic flux densities at the centre of the HTS bulks was up to 16.5% after 5 h of synchronous rotation. Due to the high current density of the HTS material, the ac stator field for the 2G HTS winding was 49.2% stronger compared with a comparable copper winding. In the meantime, we estimated that the efficiency was about 86% potentially under stable low frequency rotation at 150 r/min. The results show that the performance of this HTS motor is acceptable for practical applications.


A laparoscopic guided technique of percutaneous chemical destruction of the gall bladder is described. The procedure entails the creation of a percutaneous access cholecystostomy for stone removal/fragmentation. After endoscopic occlusion of the cystic duct, the alkali corrosive, sodium carbonate was instilled into the gall bladder for 10-15 minutes. The treatment was applied in 11 animals with three deaths because of technical mishaps and eight survivors, in five of which a histologically confirmed complete destruction of the gall bladder (chemical cholecystectomy) was achieved without damage to the rest of the biliary tract or liver parenchyma.


Reinforced concrete short-span solid-slab bridges are used to compare Dutch and North American practices. As an assessment of existing solid-slab bridges in the Netherlands showed that the shear capacity is often governing, this paper provides a comparison between Aashto (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) practice and a method based on the Eurocodes, and recommendations from experimental research for the shear capacity of slab bridges under live loads. The results from recent slab shear experiments conducted at Delft University of Technology indicate that slabs benefit from transverse force redistribution. For ten selected cases of straight solid-slab bridges, unity checks (the ratio between the design value of the applied shear force and the design beam shear resistance) are calculated according to the Eurocode-based method and the Aashto method. The results show similar design shear forces but higher shear resistances in the North American practice, which is not surprising as the associated reliability index for Aashto is lower.


Background Large-scale heterosis breeding depends upon stable, inherited male sterility lines. We accidentally discovered a male sterility line (SW-S) in the F1progeny of a Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge from Shandong, China (purple flowers) crossed with a S. miltiorrhiza f. alba from Sichuan, China (white flowers). We sought to provide insights into the pollen development for male sterility in S. miltiorrhiza. Methods The phenotypic and cytological features of the SW-S and fertile control SW-F were observed using scanning electron microscopy and paraffin sections to identify the key stage of male sterility. Transcriptome profiles were recorded for anthers at the tetrad stage of SW-S and SW-F using Illumina RNA-Seq. Results The paraffin sections showed that sterility mainly occurred at the tetrad stage of microspore development, during which the tapetum cells in the anther compartment completely fell off and gradually degraded in the sterile line. There was little-to-no callose deposited around the microspore cells. The tetrad microspore was shriveled and had abnormal morphology. Therefore, anthers at the tetrad stage of SW-S and fertile control SW-F were selected for comparative transcriptome analysis. In total, 266,722,270 clean reads were obtained from SW-S and SW-F, which contained 36,534 genes. There were 2,571 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in SW-S and SW-F, of which 63.5% were downregulated. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis indicated that the differentially expressed genes were enriched in 56 functional groups (GO terms); of these, all DEGs involved in microgametogenesis and developmental maturation were downregulated in SW-S. These results were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. The two GO terms contained 18 DEGs, among which eight DEGs (namely: GPAT3, RHF1A, phosphatidylinositol, PFAS, MYB96, MYB78, Cals5, and LAT52) were related to gamete development. There were 10 DEGs related to development and maturation, among which three genes were directly related to pollen development (namely: ACT3, RPK2, and DRP1C). Therefore, we believe that these genes are directly or indirectly involved in the pollen abortion of SW-S. Our study provides insight into key genes related to sterility traits in S. miltiorrhiza, and the results can be further exploited in functional and mechanism studies.


The multicanonical Monte Carlo simulation method is applied to phase-modulated optical communications systems. The method is used to estimate the bit-error rate of long-haul differential phase-shift-keying transmission. The simulation results are in good agreement with the predictions of a previously reported theoretical model. Furthermore, the simulations imply that the phase noise, that determines the error rate, can be approximated as Gaussian for many practical cases.


In many intracellular processes, the length distribution of microtubules is controlled by depolymerizing motor proteins. Experiments have shown that, following non-specific binding to the surface of a microtubule, depolymerizers are transported to the microtubule tip(s) by diffusion or directed walk and, then, depolymerize the microtubule from the tip(s) after accumulating there. We develop a quantitative model to study the depolymerizing action of such a generic motor protein, and its possible effects on the length distribution of microtubules. We show that, when the motor protein concentration in solution exceeds a critical value, a steady state is reached where the length distribution is, in general, non-monotonic with a single peak. However, for highly processive motors and large motor densities, this distribution effectively becomes an exponential decay. Our findings suggest that such motor proteins may be selectively used by the cell to ensure precise control of MT lengths. The model is also used to analyze experimental observations of motor-induced depolymerization.


The experiments were performed at the Department of Floriculture of UFSM from August 2013 to May 2014 in two experimental phases. The first experiment aimed to verify rooting Euryops chrysanthemoides in different concentrations of IBA, in a randomized block design, evaluated the number and length of roots. In the second experiment the different plant densities of E. chrysanthemoides pot (1, 2, 3 or 4 plants) in a completely randomized design and analyzed for the number of branches, number of buttons, number of open flowers and drought were evaluated, the average height of the branches, the middle notes of floral stems and closing the height of the vase. Observed a greater number and length of roots in 1.000 mg L-1 IBA. The density of four plants per pot is recommended to number 15.


BACKGROUND
Mild developmental dysplasia of hip (DDH) causes high morbidity of osteoarthritis (OA) on adult. It is thought that change of collagen and proteoglycans in cartilage may be the direct reasons for osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE
To detect the changes of the expressions of type II collagen of acetabular cartilage in early DDH and to investigate the relevance between type II collagen and the degeneration mechanism of the acetabular cartilage.

METHODS
The rabbit model of DDH was successfully established by applying the method of knee extending and fixing with cylinder cast in which left lower extremity as experimental group and right one as control group, checking with X-ray after 5 weeks. The stains of H&E and toluidine blue were applied on the samples of acetabular cartilage to observe the morphological changes of chondrocytes and extracellular matrix (ECM). The immunohistochemical staining and Western-blot were employed to respectively qualify and quantitate the expression of type II collagen.

RESULTS
Pathohistology observing indicated the signs of retrogressive changes of acetabular cartilage in experimental group. Also, the positive stained cells in type II collagen in experimental group was higher based on immunohistochemiscal staining. The quantitative amounts of type II collagen by Western-blot in experimental group was higher significant difference existed between two groups (t = 2.18, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The expression of type II collagen is correlated to a degeneration of acetabular cartilage and increase obviously in early DDH.


1. The facts In January 2003, Air France lodged a complaint before the French Competition Authority (FCA) regarding an alleged cartel between the four oil companies established in the La Reunion…


Flexibility is an essential quality for an athlete, which is why a high level of flexibility is required to increase efficiency and economy of movement, which interests all sports disciplines.The purpose of this scientific approach is to show that the development of static flexibility specific to foot techniques in karate, for practitioners between the ages of 14 and 18, is not done at random. The drive systems, applied within the programme proposed in this study for the development of flexibility, are subject to anatomically determined laws of motion, are functional and succeed in a methodical sequence.The experiment performed on karate practitioners - Shotokan emphasizes the importance of developing specific mobility which will allow them to execute foot techniques at a higher level and achieve outstanding performance.The application of the tests and the implementation of carefully selected drive systems that contribute to the development of mobility specific to karate techniques substantiates the working hypothesis and validates through its results the correctness of the experimental operation.


The intriguing phenomenon of metal superelasticity relies on stress-induced martensitic transformation (SIMT), which is well-known to be governed by developing cooperative strain accommodation at multiple length scales. It is therefore scientifically interesting to see what happens when this natural length scale hierarchy is disrupted. One method is producing pillars that confine the sample volume to micrometer length scale. Here we apply yet another intervention, helium nanobubbles injection, which produces porosity on the order of several nanometers. While the pillar confinement suppresses superelasticity, we found the dispersion of 5-10 nm helium nanobubbles do the opposite of promoting superelasticity in a Ni53.5Fe19.5Ga27 shape memory alloy. The role of helium nanobubbles in modulating the competition between ordinary dislocation slip plasticity and SIMT is discussed.


The Mineral Resources Institute at the University of Alabama, along with investigators from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Nevada-Reno, have conducted a research program on the beneficiation, of Eastern oil shales. The objective of the research program was to evaluate and adapt those new and emerging technologies that have the potential to improve the economics of recovering oil from Eastern oil shales. The technologies evaluated in this program can be grouped into three areas: fine grinding kerogen/mineral matter separation, and waste treatment and disposal. Four subtasks were defined in the area of fine grinding. They were as follows: Ultrasonic Grinding, Pressure Cycle Comminution, Stirred Ball Mill Grinding, and Grinding Circuit Optimization. The planned Ultrasonic grinding research was terminated when the company that had contracted to do the research failed. Three technologies for effecting a separation of kerogen from its associated mineral matter were evaluated: column flotation, the air-sparged hydrocyclone, and the LICADO process. Column flotation proved to be the most effective means of making the kerogen/mineral matter separation. No problems are expected in the disposal of oil shale tailings. It is assumed that the tailings will be placed in a sealed pond and the water recycled tomore » the plant as is the normal practice. It may be advantageous, however, to conduct further research on the recovery of metals as by-products and to assess the market for tailings as an ingredient in cement making.« less


Tensor completion from incomplete observations is a problem of significant practical interest. However, it is unlikely that there exists an efficient algorithm with provable guarantee to recover a general tensor from a limited number of observations. In this paper, we study the recovery algorithm for pairwise interaction tensors, which has recently gained considerable attention for modeling multiple attribute data due to its simplicity and effectiveness. Specifically, in the absence of noise, we show that one can exactly recover a pairwise interaction tensor by solving a constrained convex program which minimizes the weighted sum of nuclear norms of matrices from O(nr log2(n)) observations. For the noisy cases, we also prove error bounds for a constrained convex program for recovering the tensors. Our experiments on the synthetic dataset demonstrate that the recovery performance of our algorithm agrees well with the theory. In addition, we apply our algorithm on a temporal collaborative filtering task and obtain state-of-the-art results.


BACKGROUND
Dependence of left ventricular (LV) relaxation on cardiac systolic load is a function of myocardial contractility. The authors hypothesized that, if a tight coupling would exist between LV contraction and relaxation, the changes in relaxation rate with an increase in cardiac systolic load would be related to the changes in LV contraction.

METHODS
Coronary surgery patients (n = 120) with preoperative ejection fraction >40% were included. High-fidelity LV pressure tracings (n = 120) and transgastric transesophageal echocardiographic data (n = 40) were obtained. Hearts were paced at a fixed rate of 90 beats/min. Effects on contraction were evaluated by analysis of changes in dP/dt(max) and stroke area. Effects on relaxation were assessed by analysis of R (slope of the relation between tau and end-systolic pressure). Correlations were calculated with linear regression analysis using Pearson's coefficient r.

RESULTS
Baseline LV end-diastolic pressure was 10+/-3 mm Hg (mean +/- SD). During leg raising, systolic LV pressure increased from 93+/-9 to 107+/-11 mm Hg. The change in dP/dt(max) was variable and ranged from -181 to +254 mm Hg/s. A similar variability was observed with the changes in stroke area, which ranged from -2.0 to +5.5 cm2. Changes in dP/dt(max) and in stroke area were closely related to individual R values (r = 0.87, P<0.001; and r = 0.81, P<0.001, respectively) and to corresponding changes in LV end-diastolic pressure (r = 0.81, P< 0.001; and r = 0.74, P<0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
A tight coupling was observed between contraction and relaxation. Leg raising identified patients who developed a load-dependent impairment of LV performance and increased load dependence of LV relaxation.


The purpose of this study was to compare 6-year visual outcomes of antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) monotherapy and initial combination therapy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and anti-VEGF therapy for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) in a Chinese population and to investigate imaging biomarkers associated with visual outcomes. Forty-eight treatment-naive PCV eyes of 46 patients were reviewed retrospectively, which underwent anti-VEGF monotherapy or initial combination therapy. PCV was classified into 2 subtypes. Mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) using logarithm of minimal angle resolution and imaging morphological features was compared. No significant differences of mean BCVA changes were noticed between anti-VEGF monotherapy and combination therapy in either subtype 1 PCV or subtype 2 PCV during 6-year period (all P values >0.05). Compared with BCVA at baseline, the mean BCVA at 72 months deteriorated significantly in eyes with subtype 1 PCV (P < 0.001), while the mean BCVA at 72 months remained stable in eyes with subtype 2 PCV (P=0.941). In subtype 2 PCV eyes with continuous retina pigment epithelium, the mean changes of BCVA in eyes treated with anti-VEGF monotherapy were better than those in eyes treated with combination therapy (P=0.020). Anti-VEGF monotherapy and combination therapy for various subtypes of PCV had comparable long-term visual outcomes in most cases in real world. Imaging biomarkers which correlate with visual outcomes and treatment response should be included in the classification of PCV and validated in real world.


Background Since the onset of the Great Recession in Europe, unmet need for medical care has been increasing, especially in persons aged 65 or older. It is possible that public pensions buffer access to healthcare in older persons during times of economic crisis, but to our knowledge, this has not been tested empirically in Europe. Methods We integrated panel data on 16 European countries for years 2004–2010 with indicators of public pension, unemployment insurance and sickness insurance entitlement from the Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset and unmet need (due to cost) prevalence rates from EuroStat 2014 edition. Using country-level fixed-effects regression models, we evaluate whether greater public pension entitlement, which helps reduce old-age poverty, reduces the prevalence of unmet medical need in older persons and whether it reduces inequalities in unmet medical need across the income distribution. Results We found that each 1-unit increase in public pension entitlement is associated with a 1.11 percentage-point decline in unmet medical need due to cost among over 65s (95% CI −0.55 to −1.66). This association is strongest for the lowest income quintile (1.65 percentage points, 95% CI −1.19 to −2.10). Importantly, we found consistent evidence that out-of-pocket payments were linked with greater unmet needs, but that this association was mitigated by greater public pension entitlement (β=−1.21 percentage points, 95% CI −0.37 to −2.06). Conclusions Greater public pension entitlement plays a crucial role in reducing inequalities in unmet medical need among older persons, especially in healthcare systems which rely heavily on out-of-pocket payments.


A new and promising area of research has recently emerged in the field of career development: career competencies. The present article provides a framework of career competencies that integrates several perspectives from the literature. The framework distinguishes between reflective, communicative, and behavioral career competencies. Six career competencies are discerned: reflection on motivation, reflection on qualities, networking, self-profiling, work exploration, and career control. Based on this framework, we developed the Career Competencies Questionnaire (CCQ) and preliminarily validated it in two samples of young employees between 16 and 30 years of age. The results provided initial support for the content, factorial, discriminant, and incremental validity of the CCQ. We hope to stimulate further discussion, research, and development of interventions in the area of career development. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.


I have been at both physics and Electrical Engineering going on about 32 years now. But I have had two major interests all along. One is to better understand the Cosmos we live in. The other stems back to two events in my life several years removed from each other. The first event happened in Texas back in 1973 while taking a short trip across east Texas with my folks. The event was witnessing something that would be classified as a close encounter of the first type. What my folks and I saw out in east Texas was a very brilliant glowing object circular in shape due south of the road we where on above a cattle field. I and my folks remember pulling over to look at it and we remember driving away afterwards. But we do not remember anything in between. The second event took place back in 1983 in Tucson Arizona while working for the Military. One evening I and several others had gone out into the desert northeast of Tucson to cook out and have a good time. What we did not know was several unidentified objects had been spotted out south of Tucson by workers up on Kitt Peak in the area of Ryan Field a small local airport south of Tucson.. These objects took a slow flight path out across Tucson towards the direction we where at.. I ended up being about 100 yards from one of these as it progressed across the valley. Close enough to see a lot of detail, to get a good idea by its general shape and size and flight aspects that this was not anything our Military had at the time. While I never saw any aliens or little green men. What I witnessed was intelligently controlled, had some motive power different from anything our planet uses and could have been a robotic probe similar to one�s we launch at present into space.. I also learned later that the Military on Davis Monthan had tracked these same objects that evening also. These two events sparked keen interests in space propulsion which later got utilized during the era of Alcubierre Warp Drive research with the group ESAA.


In recent years, electronic mutual-inductor and IEC61850 serial standards are adopted in digital substation. Once electronic mutual-inductor has been used, the input signals of relay protection and other secondary devices are not the traditional analog quantities any more. The simulation system cannot offer such interface up to now, so the secondary devices which are based on electronic mutual-inductor in digital substation cannot be tested and researched in this way. A kind of testing system aiming to real-time digital relay protection is introduced in this paper. By adding secondary interface to the primary simulation system, such as ADPSS (invented by China Electric Power Research Institute), a closed-loop testing system which is based on IEC61850 standards is established. The testing results verify that the system has great significance on improving the application of digital substation, and it has great use value.


HIV-1 strains containing subsubtype A2 are relatively rare in the pandemic but have been repeatedly identified in Kenya, where candidate vaccines based in part on subtype A, but not A2 strains, may be evaluated. Among the most recent is CRF16_A2D, a circulating recombinant form (CRF) whose prototypes are complete or partial HIV-1 sequences from Kenya, Korea, and Argentina. Using samples from blood bank discards in Kenya and complete genome sequencing, this report further documents CRF16_A2D and related recombinants and identifies a second CRF, CRF21_A2D. The two A2-containing CRFs, and two recombinants related to CRF16_A2D, share common structural elements but appear to have been independently derived. Concerted selection may have influenced the emergence and spread of certain A2-containing strains in Kenya. The second complete subtype C sequence from Kenya is also reported here. Monitoring of A2-containing recombinants and subtype C strains, both relatively rare in Kenya, may be informative in the course of cohort development and evaluation of candidate vaccines.


Background & Aims: To develop an effective model of predicting fatalOutcome in the severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.Methods: Between February 20, 2020 and April 4, 2020, consecutive COVID-19 patients from three designated hospitals were enrolled in this study. Independent high- risk factors associated with death were analyzed using Cox proportional hazard model. A prognostic nomogram was constructed to predict the survival of severe COVID-19 patients.Results: There were 124 severe patients in the training cohort, and there were 71 and 76 severe patients in the two independent validation cohorts, respectively. Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that age ≥ 70 years (HR 1.184, 95% CI 1.061-1.321), Panting(breathing rate ≥ 30/min) (HR 3.300, 95% CI 2.509-6.286), lymphocyte count < 1.0 × 109/L (HR 2.283, 95% CI 1.779-3.267), and IL-6 >10pg/mL (HR 3.029, 95% CI 1.567-7.116) were independent high-risk factors associated with fatal outcome. We developed the nomogram for identifying survival of severe COVID-19 patients in the training cohort (AUC 0.900, [95% CI 0.841-0.960], sensitivity 95.5%, specificity 77.5%); in validation cohort 1 (AUC 0.811, [95% CI 0.763-0.961], sensitivity 77.3%, specificity 73.5); in validation cohort 2 (AUC 0.862, [95% CI 0.698-0.924], sensitivity 92.9%, specificity 64.5%). The calibration curve for probability of death indicated a good consistence between prediction by the nomogram and the actual observation. The prognosis of severe COVID-19 patients with high levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) receiving tocilizumab was better than that of those patients without tocilizumab both in the training and validation cohorts, but without difference (p = 0.105 for training cohort, p = 0.133 for validation cohort 1, and p = 0.210 for validation cohort 2).Conclusions: This nomogram could help clinicians to identify severe patients who have high risk of death, and to develop more appropriate treatment strategies to reduce the mortality of severe patients. Tocilizumab may improve the prognosis of severe COVID-19 patients with high levels of IL-6.


From the perspective of general practice, hospital data indicating that the prevalence of mental illness is much higher in inner London than elsewhere in Britain may be misleading. A study in five inner London practices found morbidity patterns for mental disorder similar to those recorded in a national survey.


[1] Hyporheic pore water samples were collected from two sites within the Allequash Creek wetland, in Vilas County, northern Wisconsin, from August 2003 to October 2004. Samples were collected simultaneously at the surface and at 2, 5, 7, 10, and 15 cm below the sediment-water interface. Concentration ranges were 3.7 to 58 pM for inorganic mercury, <0.5 to 16 pM for methylmercury, 3.02 to 152 μM and 0.38 to 96.6 μM for oxidized and reduced iron, respectively, 1.28 to 48.2 μM and< 0.05 to 9.76 μM for oxidized and reduced sulfur, respectively, and 109 to 689 μM for dissolved organic carbon. These concentrations are typical of anoxic environments such as wetlands and lake sediments. These data were used to gain a better understanding of the processes controlling spatial and temporal variability of inorganic mercury and methylmercury. Findings show that conditions conducive to mercury methylation exist in the hyporheic zone, especially in late summer, when accumulation of reduced iron and sulfide are indicative of microbial iron and sulfate reduction. Methylmercury concentrations also peak in late summer, with the highest concentrations appearing 2 to 10 cm below the sediment-water interface. While there is a general covariance of total mercury and methylmercury over the depth profile, poor correlation was observed over time, highlighting the dynamic nature of hyporheic zone conditions and suggesting changes in mercury speciation and partitioning.


When a DT-plasma is compressed to very high density, the particles resulting from nuclear reactions give their energy mostly to D and T ions, by nuclear collisions, rather than to electrons as usual. Fusion can thus proceed as a chain reaction, without the need of thermonuclear temperatures. In this paper, we derive relations for the suprathermal ion population created by a fusion reaction. Numerical integration of these equations shows that a chain reaction can proceed in a cold infinite DT-plasma at densities above 8.4 × 1027 ions · cm−3. Seeding the plasma with a small amount of 6Li reduces the critical density to 7.2 × 1027 ions · cm−3 (140 000 times the normal solid density).


This paper proposes and evaluates the hybrid autoregressive transducer (HAT) model, a time-synchronous encoder-decoder model that preserves the modularity of conventional automatic speech recognition systems. The HAT model provides a way to measure the quality of the internal language model that can be used to decide whether inference with an external language model is beneficial or not. We evaluate our proposed model on a large-scale voice search task. Our experiments show significant improvements in WER compared to the state-of-the-art approaches1.


The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP), implemented in a network of eight schools in Catalonia, demonstrates the value of an Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) towards supporting dialogical, technological, and systemic dimensions in teaching and learning. Using a design-based research (DBR) approach, a survey queried teachers, students, and external stakeholders regarding their perceptions about educational innovation. The results provide both the profile and the innovative nature of the whole KBIP experience at each participating school. The main results help illustrate the potential of KBIP methodologies. The findings exemplify the value of this particular DBR method for evaluating educational innovations.


Current multiscale plasmonic systems pose a modeling challenge. Classical macroscopic theories fail to capture quantum effects in such systems, whereas quantum electrodynamics is impractical given the total size of the experimentally relevant systems, as the number of interactions is too large to be addressed one by one. To tackle the challenge, in this paper we propose to use the Madelung form of the hydrodynamic Drude model, in which the quantum effect electron spill-out is incorporated by describing the metal–dielectric interface using a super-Gaussian function. The results for a two-dimensional nanoplasmonic wedge are correlated to those from nonlocal full-wave numerical calculations based on a linearized hydrodynamic Drude model commonly employed in the literature, showing good qualitative agreement. Additionally, a conformal transformation perspective is provided to explain qualitatively the findings. The methodology described here may be applied to understand, both numerically and theoretically, the modular inclusions of additional quantum effects, such as electron spill-out and nonlocality, that cannot be incorporated seamlessly by using other approaches.


OBJECTIVE
The aim was to evaluate epidemiological aspects of intrusive injuries in primary teeth, extent and severity of injuries, provided treatment, and complications to the primary and permanent dentition.

METHODS
This was a retrospective study based on the clinical and radiographic data of 102 intruded teeth in 70 patients. Follow-up period varied from 6 months to 6 years, with the mean time of 2.7 +/- 1.5 years. Data were collected through dental files and dental trauma forms. The following parameters were analyzed at control examinations: rate of spontaneous re-eruption, presence of complications, time elapsed between the injury and complication, and possible sequels on permanent successors.

RESULTS
Mean age of the patients was 2.5 +/- 1.3 years. Fifty-six children were injured because of the fall while walking or running. Most of children had one intruded tooth. Maxillary central incisors were the most frequently injured teeth. Seventy injured teeth were <2 mm intruded. Mean time elapsed from the injury until the professional help was 45.0 +/- 67.3 h. Within 2 months after trauma, 48 intruded teeth re-erupted spontaneously. Crown discoloration occurred in 10 intruded teeth, pulp necrosis was diagnosed in nine cases and pathologic root resorption was found in five injured teeth.

CONCLUSIONS
The most common mechanism of injury was fall. Spontaneous re-eruption occurred in the majority of intruded primary teeth. In comparison with moderate or severe intrusions, mildly intruded teeth took less time to re-erupt. Mildly intruded teeth exhibited less complications in comparison with moderately and severely intruded teeth.


We implement optical logic operations, using a polarization-encoding architecture based on digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI). The method is based on the intensity dependence of DSPI on the rotation of the polarization direction in the paths of the interferometer between acquisition of frames. The 16 two-input logic operations can be achieved and stored in a host computer. This scheme also offers the possibility of creating dynamic logic gates.


Trauma leads to 5.7 million annual deaths globally, accounting for 25%-33% of global unintentional deaths and 90% of the global trauma burden in low- and middle-income countries. The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and the World Health Organization assert that emergent and essential surgical capacity building and trauma system improvement are essential to address the global burden of trauma. In response, the Rutgers Global Surgery program, the School of Nursing and Medicine, and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital faculty collaborated in the first Interprofessional Models in Global Injury Care and Education Symposium in June 2016. This 2-week symposium combined lectures, high-fidelity simulation, small group workshops, site visits to Level I trauma centers, and a 1-day training course from the Panamerican Trauma Society. The aim was to introduce global trauma nurses to trauma leadership and trauma system development. After completing the symposium, 10 nurses from China, Colombia, Kenya, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay were surveyed. Overall, 88.8% of participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the program and 100% stated being very satisfied with trauma lectures. Symposia, such as that developed and offered by Rutgers University, prepare nurses to address trauma within system-based care and facilitate trauma nursing leadership in their respective countries.


Interventions shown to be effective in improving the health of a population may actually widen the health inequalities gap while others reduce it. Therefore, it is imperative that all systematic reviewers consider the potential for their findings to reduce or increase health inequalities. However, challenges arising when incorporating health inequality considerations in systematic reviews relate to the nature of the evidence base, the nature of the review process, the reviewer and lack of guidance available to reviewers. The aim addressed here is how we can enable systematic reviewers to consider a priori whether, and how, an individual's socio-economic status (i.e. their income, educational or occupational status) may moderate the effectiveness of healthcare interventions, in order to predict the likely impact on socio-economic health inequalities. Methods used to examine this aim included a mapping review of the review guidance on the conduct of systematic reviews considering health inequalities; a methodology study on the use of programme theory to inform considerations of socio-economic health inequalities in systematic reviews; a 'best fit' framework synthesis approach in developing a meta-framework and a worked example of meta-framework development. The mapping review found 20 review guidance documents to inform health inequality considerations in systematic reviews. The underlying assumption in the guidance was that reviewers would understand the ways in which an individual's socio-economic status moderates intervention effectiveness. The guidance advocates the use of theory to inform health inequality considerations in systematic reviews, but offer little practical advice. The methodology study found that the use of theory in socio-economic focused systematic reviews was fragmented and ad-hoc, with little use of formal theory. A meta-framework approach combined two theoretical perspectives (socio-economic health inequalities and complex interventions) into a single framework to inform socio-economic health inequality considerations in systematic reviews. The meta-framework identified factors relating to the type of intervention, implementation, context, participant response, and mechanisms associated with differential effects across socio-economic groups. Methodological challenges in developing a meta-framework to inform evidence synthesis identified include; i) identification of theory, ii) selection of theory, iii) operationalisation of theory and iv) evaluation of theory. The meta-framework can inform socio-economic health inequality considerations at different stages in the review process. In particular, during question formulation, literature searching, data extraction, analyses and synthesis, and assessments of applicability. In the event of a lack of evidence of the impact of socio-economic status on differential effectiveness of health interventions, the theory-led meta-framework can ensure that reviewers base assessments of the applicability of the findings to disadvantaged populations on a posteriori reasoning rather than post-hoc assumptions. In this way, the meta-framework aims to increase the usefulness of systematic reviews in informing healthcare practice and policy.


PURPOSE
To determine the temporal kinetics of the simultaneous translocation of arrestin and rod alpha-transducin in mice exposed to different lighting environments and to compare the subcellular compartmentation of cone alpha-transducin with arrestin.

METHODS
Double labeling immunofluorescence microscopy and image analysis are used to visualize and quantify the concentrations of rod arrestin and alpha-transducin in the subcellular compartments of the rod outer segments, the rod inner segments and the synaptic terminals.

RESULTS
The magnitude of the effects of the translocation are clearly contrasted in images of the retinas of animals that have been maximally light adapted verses retinas that have been maximally dark adapted. The onset of light results in a rapid, simultaneous, translocation of arrestin and alpha-transducin from their respective compartments (alpha-transducin in the rod outer segment and arrestin in the rod inner segment) to the opposite compartment. Almost all of alpha-transducin has translocated in less than two min whereas the translocation of the majority of arrestin requires at least five to six min. Translocation in the opposite direction, from light to dark, occurs more slowly for both proteins with arrestin requiring almost 30 min and alpha-T needing more than 200 min to complete its journey. Under the same lighting conditions, cone arrestin translocation is incomplete. Cone alpha-transducin does not translocate under any the lighting conditions tested. Unlike the frog, continuous exposure of mice to light does not result in arrestin translocating back to the rod inner segment.

CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that there are four mechanisms involved in the translocation of these two proteins. They also support the conclusion that the more important cellular function of the translocation process is to terminate phototransduction in rod and cone photoreceptors, which could provide protection against light damage. The secondary function of translocation is to maximize rod sensitivity to light during dark adaptation. The restricted localization of cone alpha-transducin to the cone outer segment is consistent with the function of cones in bright light, just as the concentration of rod alpha-transducin in dark adapted rod outer segment is consistent with their functioning in dim light.


Two experiments were conducted to explore whether children, who have been exposed to the concept of the soul, differentiate the soul from the mind. In the first experiment, 4- to 12-year-old children were asked about whether a religious ritual affects the mind, the brain, or the soul. The majority of the children claimed that only the soul was different after baptism. In a follow-up study, 6- to 12-year-old children were tested more explicitly on what factors differentiate the soul from the mind and the brain. Children differentiated the soul from the mind and the brain along two dimensions: function and stability. In contrast to their responses about the mind and the brain, children did not claim that the soul was important for cognitive, non-cognitive, or biological functioning. Children consistently indicated that the mind and the brain change and grow over time. In contrast, children indicated that the soul is something that stays constant and is devoted to various, predominantly spiritual, functions.


Unique changes occur in epithelial cells infected with herpes simplex, herpes zoster, and varicella. Although characteristic epithelial cell forms have been observed in these diseases for many years, 1 only recently has their diagnostic value been emphasized. 2 The diagnostic microscopic findings in herpes simplex, herpes zoster, and varicella are seen in ordinary hematoxylin and eosin stained sections. Within this group of diseases, the changes are identical but are unlike those found in other vesicular diseases of the skin. Current studies have demonstrated that epithelial cells infected with one of these viruses undergo a series of morphologic and tinctorial transformations. 3 All cells are not simultaneously infected; as a result, various stages of this cellular change and accumulation of inclusion material are seen in any single specimen. In the past, the small, eosinophilic, intranuclear inclusion body of Lipschutz has received the most attention. This probably represents one of the last


High flexural strength of computer-aided manufacturing resin composite blocks (CAD/CAM RCBs) are required in clinical scenarios. However, the conventional in vitro approach of modifying materials' composition by trial and error was not efficient to explore the effective components that contribute to the flexural strength. Machine learning (ML) is a powerful tool to achieve the above goals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop ML models to predict the flexural strength of CAD/CAM RCBs and explore the components that affect flexural strength as the first step. The composition of 12 commercially available products and flexural strength were collected from the manufacturers and literature. The initial data consisted of 16 attributes and 12 samples. Considering that the input data for each sample were recognized as a multidimensional vector, a fluctuation range of 0.1 was proposed for each vector and the number of samples was augmented to 120. Regression algorithms—that is, random forest (RF), extra trees, gradient boosting decision tree, light gradient boosting machine, and extreme gradient boosting—were used to develop 5 ML models to predict flexural strength. An exhaustive search and feature importance analysis were conducted to analyze the effective components that affected flexural strength. The R2 values for each model were 0.947, 0.997, 0.998, 0.983, and 0.927, respectively. The relative errors of all the algorithms were within 15%. Among the high predicted flexural strength group in the exhaustive search, urethane dimethacrylate was contained in all compositions. Filler content and triethylene glycol dimethacrylate were the top 2 features predicted by all models in the feature importance analysis. ZrSiO4 was the third important feature for all models, except the RF model. The ML models established in this study successfully predicted the flexural strength of CAD/CAM RCBs and identified the effective components that affected flexural strength based on the available data set.


Purpose
This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework informed by a literature review. This framework aims to deepen and broaden the understanding of the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and non-financial reporting (NFR) through qualitative research approaches.

Design/methodology/approach
A review of corporate governance and NFR literature and existing research frameworks leads to the development of a conceptual framework to encourage future qualitative accounting research on the corporate governance mechanisms for NFR.

Findings
Few studies consider the complex interrelationships between NFR and corporate governance mechanisms. Quantitative studies using secondary data sources dominate accounting research on the topic. Of the small number of qualitative studies, many are theoretical and offer little new knowledge about the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms in practice. The research framework, developed from a literature review and consideration of multiple qualitative approaches, proposes numerous avenues for future research.

Research limitations/implications
This paper is based on a scoping review of the literature using peer-reviewed journal papers. Other researchers may have identified additional literature for inclusion, including grey literature.

Practical implications
More qualitative research into NFR and corporate governance mechanisms may help to guide practitioners seeking to incorporate sustainability into their governance practices.

Social implications
The critical relationship between NRF and corporate governance is under-explored in research yet has significant consequences for organisations pursuing sustainability.

Originality/value
The authors develop a conceptual framework for qualitative accounting research on NFR and corporate governance, addressing key outstanding questions in this area and considering different theoretical perspectives when approaching this critical topic. Although there is scope for further research in general in this promising area, including quantitative reviews and discursive studies, qualitative research would be of particular value. The authors also outline multiple directions for nurturing academic debate.


In this paper, we present a novel audio synthesizer, CAESynth, based on a conditional autoencoder. CAESynth synthesizes timbre in real-time by interpolating the reference sounds in their shared latent feature space, while controlling a pitch independently. We show that training a conditional autoen-coder based on accuracy in timbre classification together with adversarial regularization of pitch content allows timbre distribution in latent space to be more effective and stable for timbre interpolation and pitch conditioning. The proposed method is applicable not only to creation of musical cues but also to exploration of audio affordance in mixed reality based on novel timbre mixtures with environmental sounds. We demonstrate by experiments that CAESynth achieves smooth and high-fidelity audio synthesis in real-time through timbre interpolation and independent yet accurate pitch control for musical cues as well as for audio affordance with environmental sound. A Python implementation along with some generated samples are shared online.


AIM
To evaluate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) babA2, babB and a recombinant gene between babA2 and babB (babA2/B), and their role in the development of atrophic gastritis in Costa Rican and Japanese clinical isolates.

METHODS
A total of 95 continuous H. pylori-positive Costa Rican (41 males and 54 females; mean age, 50.65 years; SD, +/- 13.04 years) and 95 continuous H. pylori-positive Japanese (50 males and 45 females; mean age, 63.43; SD, +/- 13.21 years) patients underwent upper endoscopy from October 2005 to July 2006. They were enrolled for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based genotyping of the H. pylori babA2, babB and babA2/B genes. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi(2) test and the Fisher's exact probability test and multivariate analysis was performed by logistic regression adjusting for gender and age. P < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.

RESULTS
The PCR-based genotyping of 95 Costa Rican and 95 Japanese isolates showed a higher prevalence of babA2 in Japan (96.8%) than in Costa Rica (73.7%), while that of babA2/B was higher in Costa Rica (11.6%) than in Japan (1.1%). In Costa Rican isolates only, babA2 was significantly associated with atrophic gastritis (P = 0.01).

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that the status of babA2 and babA2/B shows geographic differences, and that babA2 has clinical relevance in Costa Rica.


The output engages with the field of Printmaking and cross-cultural dialogue in the visual arts. The work responded to a proposition by the curator, John Robinson, who had bought a second-hand book containing elements of a person's life. The book contained the name Audrey MacDonald, an address in Edinburgh, a list of items to pack and a luggage label from the Hotel Rossiya in Moscow. Inspired by Turkish author Yashar Kemal's novel, 'They Burn Thistles', my work engaged with the clues of cultural exchanges. The project aimed to engage artists in a thematic exhibition around imaging and imagining the life of a traveller. Audrey MacDonald was used as a premise for researching different cultural traditions responding to the location of Hobart based on travel and exposure. A variety of visual responses were explored with initial involving copying sections of Persian miniatures. These forms were abstracted and developed into a suite of lithographic collages. The works contrasted chance-based organic lithographic washes on Japanese rice paper against strong geometric forms redolent of architecture. Incorporated into the strategy was thinking through Hobart as 'Edinburgh' in the sense that the building blocks of the cities are directly related to the mountain rocks they are carved from. This continues my research into the integration of culture and place influenced by forms of printmaking that are accessible through trade and travel. This work innovates on cultural traditions combining languages and materials from Japan, Turkey, Europe and Australia.


The author believes that the value of teaching in the academy will continue to be diminished as long as teaching and scholarship are viewed as separate and unequal. Thus, pedagogical proficiency is a fundamentally important component of religious and theological scholarship. Pedagogical skills allow scholars to be in dialogue with people outside of their content specialization and outside of the academy; therefore, they enable dialogue with the people of a religious tradition who are not scholarly specialists, but who are the living community of the religious tradition. The article seeks first to articulate a clear understanding of teaching competency, drawing on the concept of pedagogical proficiency. The case is then made for the role of teaching in scholarly research and, finally, its specific role in religious and theological research, showing that research accountability to a living religious tradition necessarily demands teaching competency.


Peri-implantitis is a major cause of dental implant failure. Bacterial biofilm contamination on the implant induces surrounding bone resorption and soft tissue inflammation, leading to severe deterioration of oral health. However, conventional biofilm removal procedures, such as mechanical decontamination and antiseptic application, are not effective enough to induce reosseointegration on decontaminated implant surfaces. This is due to (1) incomplete decontamination of the biofilm from inaccessible areas and (2) physicochemical alteration of implant surfaces caused by decontamination procedures. Herein, a safe and effective therapeutic approach for peri-implantitis is developed, which involves decontamination of implant-bound biofilms using the kinetic energy of microsized oxygen bubbles generated from the catalytic reaction between hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and manganese oxide (MnO2) nanozyme sheet-doped silica diatom microparticles (Diatom Microbubbler, DM). Rapidly moving microsized DM particles are able to penetrate narrow spaces between implant screws, exerting just the right amount of force to entirely destroy biofilms without harming the surrounding mucosa or implant surfaces, as opposed to conventional antiseptics such as chlorhexidine or 3% H2O2 when used alone. Consequently, decontamination with DM facilitates successful reosseointegration on the peri-implantitis-affected implant surface. In summary, our new DM-based therapeutic approach will become a promising alternative to resolve clinically challenging aspects of peri-implantitis.