This research investigates the social learning affordances of a room-sized, immersive, and interactive augmented reality simulation environment designed to support children's understanding of basic physics concepts in a science center. Conversations between 97 parent–child pairs were analyzed in relation to categories of talk through which children's activities are structured, and their physical and perceptual experiences are related to scientific content knowledge. We provide a detailed account of how parents guide children's scientific reasoning in this novel learning environment, such as by structuring the exploration, and emphasizing perceptual observations as evidence and data. We argue that this particular type of interactive environment affords activities that support learning of complex ideas in science, empowering parents to provide support to the children's perceptual focus and physical engagement. Our findings contrast with studies on high-interactive immersive environments that have typically shown that children tend to isolate themselves from their social surroundings. Mixed-reality environments, in contrast, appear to support significant social interaction, while still offering children playful and engaging experiences.


A combination of reinforcements at different levels can have a synergetic effect on the final properties of a composite. The aim of this work was to produce, evaluate, and compare the wet/dry cycling durability of the exposure of cement composites reinforced with conventional pulps at the micro-scale level, with nanofibrillated cellulose fibers at the nano-scale level, and with combinations of both reinforcements (hybrid composites). To evaluate the durability of their mechanical properties, the composites were tested under flexural loading after 28 days of humidity chamber curing and after 20 wet/dry accelerating aging cycles. Composites reinforced with the nanofibrillated cellulose exhibited significantly higher flexural strength and flexural modulus, but they had lower fracture energy values than those reinforced with conventional sisal fibers. Moreover, the hybrid composites with a high content of nanofibrillated cellulose maintained or even improved their properties after aging.


OBJECTIVE
To present data from a general infant psychiatry clinic, including range and frequency of presenting symptoms, relationship between symptoms and diagnoses, and comparison of two diagnostic systems, DSM-IV and Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC: 0-3).

METHOD
A retrospective chart review was conducted for 177 children, ages birth to 58 months, who were seen between 1982 and 1997. Presenting symptoms were identified. Subjects were given diagnoses using both DSM-IV and DC: 0-3. Presenting symptom variables were reduced using subjective and empirical determinants. Stepwise regression analyses were used to determine whether presenting symptoms and demographic variables predicted diagnoses.

RESULTS
Descriptive statistics on the distribution of current presenting symptoms and assigned diagnosis were compared with previous studies. The study demonstrated interrater reliability for diagnoses using both diagnostic systems, evidence of diagnostic validity via the regression analyses, and good concordance where DSM-IV and DC: 0-3 overlap. DSM-IV disruptive behavior disorders may be better conceptualized in DC: 0-3 as regulatory disorders, leading to alternative conceptualization of the disorder and a different course of treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
This study clarifies a developmental progression of presenting symptoms and diagnoses and suggests the need for continued diagnostic re-evaluation in early childhood. Greater attention to relationship factors and consideration of trauma factors is encouraged.


Semi-natural grasslands are characteristic elements of mountain landscapes across the world. However, a significant decrease in their area has been observed in many places in Europe. This phenomenon leads to many negative consequences, which is why meadows and pastures are managed for conservation purposes in most European countries, especially in protected areas. The aim of this study is to identify the challenges for the management of semi-natural grasslands in the national parks of the Polish Carpathians with a special focus on the implementation of conservation measures. The study highlights also attitudes of local communities towards the conservation of semi-natural grasslands as well as motivations guiding the residents to support conservation activities. According to interviews conducted with parks' employees six key categories of challenges have been distinguished. They are associated with the land ownership structure, financing and implementation of conservation measures, planning and evaluation of applied treatments, and natural and social determinants. Only some of the challenges result exclusively from the mountainous conditions or refer directly to the effectiveness of the conservation measures. Most of the challenges are typical of those found in national parks throughout the world and are connected with legislative and financial issues. The results of interviews showed that implementation of conservation measures in difficult, mountainous conditions, and their labour consumption pose the biggest challenge. A significant problem is also the removal of mown biomass. The possibility of efficient conservation of semi-natural grasslands is in many cases limited by advanced processes of secondary forest succession, complicated ownership relations and difficult procedures of obtaining funds for the active conservation. The attitudes of local communities towards the conservation of semi-natural grasslands are different in individual national parks. The residents supporting the conservation activities are guided by aesthetic and scenic, historical and cultural as well as financial motivations.


Although supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is often useful for the analysis of nonpolar lipids, this study demonstrates for the first time an analytical SFC method with detection by ion trap mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for large and polar lipids, such as lipid A, using a simple, fast, economical, and environmentally-friendly approach. Chemical derivatization of the lipid A was not needed, and the SFC-MS/MS analysis only took 2 min per injection. The method was evaluated by analyzing lipid A spiked into two representative food matrices, lettuce and ground beef. For sample preparation, a simple shaking procedure with 3/1 (v/v) chloroform–methanol was used. %Recoveries in spiked samples were 74 ± 10 at 10–30 μg g−1 in lettuce and 110 ± 5 in meat at 30 μg g−1.


In a randomized prospective study we examined 100 renal transplant patients including 20 children, to test the hypothesis that intraoperative application of clotting factors (in the form of fibrin glue) reduces the postoperative lymph flow and the frequency of lymphocele formation. The study showed that the use of fibrin glue during renal transplantation did not reduce the postoperative production of drainage fluid or lymphocele formation. The postoperative lymph flow was not related to the formation of lymphoceles. In adults the use of higher doses of immunosuppressants seems to increase the risk of lymphocele formation. On the other hand children have a very low rate of lymphocele formation even when high doses of immunosuppressants are used. The postoperative lymph has a constant composition of erythrocytes and leucocytes. The plasma protein extravasation decreased postoperatively and was influenced by the plasma protein content. From these results we conclude that the postoperative frequency of lymphocele formation cannot be reduced by intraoperative use of fibrin glue in the chosen protocol.


This article tries to discuss about the using of interactive teaching model to help students to understand and develop plant concept in their daily lives. Interactive teaching model is a teaching model that focuses on students' questions aspect. Interactive teaching model of the plant concept is based on constructivist approach contain characteristic of science teaching. Teaching characteristic of plant concept is by pay attention and consider the students' early knowledge which can be gained from the environment outside the school. Teacher can help find out the students' knowledge as early understanding about plant concept and also give the opportunity for students to construct their knowledge. The steps to apply the interactive teaching model are preparation, before views, exploratory activities, students' question, investigations, after views and reflections. The use of interactive teaching model can help the students to increase their understanding about plant concept and motivate them to interest to study science. Keywords: Interactive teaching, constructivist, concept


This study was embarked upon to predict hatchability and mortality rate of Muscovy ducks in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from a total of 119 duck farmers. The automatic linear modelling (ALM) and artificial neural network (ANN) models were employed. The average flock size was 9.84±0.60 per household. The predicted hatchability mean values using ALM (8.66) and ANN (8.65) were similar to the observed value (8.66). The predicted mortality mean values using ALM (2.95) and ANN (3.03) were also similar to the observed value of 2.95. Experience in duck rearing, the educational status of farmers, source of foundation stock and season were the variables of importance in the prediction of hatchability using ALM and ANN models. However, primary occupation, source of foundation stock, experience in duck rearing, land holding and management system were the important variables automatically selected for the prediction of mortality. Moderate coefficients of determination (R2 = 0.422 vs 0.376) and adjusted R2 (0.417 vs 0.371) estimates were obtained for hatchability and mortality using ALM. Different patterns were obtained under the ANN models as regards the prediction of hatchability (R2= 0.573 and adjusted R2= 0.569) and mortality (R2= 0.615 and adjusted R2= 0.612). The present information may aid management decisions towards better hatchability and mortality performance in Muscovy ducks.


This article re-examines human–object relations in an Indigenous Nahua context in Mexico. Inspired by the Deleuzian notion of assemblage, the study shifts the focus from the agency of objects to emphasize the emotions of human and nonhuman animals as "persons." Artifacts like clothes and water jars emerge as intersubjective connectors that transfer human substance and voice in short-lived, but emotionally charged, domestic assemblages. The focus on quasi-plain domestic artifacts defines love, the Nahuas' mode of relating, and motherhood, as central to their understanding while, more broadly, reframing the status of objects beyond anthropomorphism.


Since 1973, the National Center for Health Care Statistics, Hyattsville, Md, has carried out a series of national probability sample surveys—the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). In these studies, only visits to office-based physicians are examined, including health maintenance organizations and clinics that are not hospital based. Visits to physicians in government-operated facilities are excluded, along with visits to hospitalbased physicians and physicians primarily engaged in teaching, research, or administration. Telephone contacts of surveyed physicians with patients or visits carried out in any care setting other than the office are also excluded. I have previously reported results of the 1985 NAMCS.1A major objective of this article is to examine the trends in the ambulatory practice of neurology in recent years by comparing data obtained over time using the same NAMCS protocol.


Understanding the variation in hereditary symbiont frequency among host populations is a prerequisite to predict symbiont fixation processes. However, the mechanisms driving this variation remain elusive. Exploring the mechanisms responsible for the observed variability on an ecological time scale requires simultaneous study of fitness differentials between symbiotic (S) and non‐symbiotic (NS) hosts, and the symbiont transmission rates to host offspring. We studied these two key mechanisms using a grass–endophyte symbiosis in the alpine grass Festuca eskia. Plants from four native populations varying in endophyte frequencies (ranging from 13% to 100%), and environmental conditions (water availability, and grazing pressure) were transplanted in a common garden. Soil nutrient levels were manipulated to assess genetic and environmental differences within and among populations in fitness‐related traits (i.e. traits linked to clonal growth, sexual reproduction and resource acquisition). A fitness differential favouring S over NS plants was detected in all studied populations: in heavily grazed populations, sexual reproduction was higher in S compared with NS plants, whereas in minimally grazed populations, clonal growth increased. Results showed a positive correlation between endophyte transmission rates and population endophyte symbiotic frequencies. The population endophyte transmission rates were not affected by soil resource level. According to selection pressures acting in each population, symbiotic plants appear to perform better in all F. eskia populations. The correlation between endophyte frequencies and transmission, and the positive effect of S on NS plants under our experimental conditions, indicated a predominant role of endophyte transmission in endophyte frequency variation in F. eskia. The endophyte transmission rate variation is genetically based at the population level and can be explained by a trade‐off with a specific host trait subjected to strong selection; here, we suspected traits linked to plant resource acquisition. Synthesis: Our study provides evidence for the (i) dominant role of endophyte transmission and its responsibility for endophyte frequency variation in a native grass when compared with fitness differential process between S and NS plants at an ecological time scale, and (ii) genetically based variation in endophyte transmission rates. We also confirm the population specificity of positive endophyte effects in a native grass.


Although there has been a recent explosion in the identification of budding yeast kinetochore components, the physical interactions that underlie kinetochore function remain obscure. To better understand how kinetochores attach to microtubules and how this attachment is regulated, we sought to characterize the interactions among kinetochore proteins, especially with respect to the microtubule-binding Dam1 complex. The Dam1 complex plays a crucial role in the chromosome-spindle attachment and is a key target for phospho-regulation of this attachment by the Aurora kinase Ipl1p. To identify protein-protein interactions involving the Dam1 complex, and the effects of Dam1p phosphorylation state on these physical interactions, we conducted both a genome-wide two-hybrid screen and a series of biochemical binding assays for Dam1p. A two-hybrid screen of a library of 6000 yeast open reading frames identified nine kinetochore proteins as Dam1p-interacting partners. From 113 in vitro binding reactions involving all nine subunits of the Dam1 complex and 32 kinetochore proteins, we found at least nine interactions within the Dam1 complex and 19 potential partners for the Dam1 complex. Strikingly, we found that the Dam1p-Ndc80p and Dam1p-Spc34p interactions were weakened by mutations mimicking phosphorylation at Ipl1p sites, allowing us to formulate a model for the effects of phosphoregulation on kinetochore function.


ABSTRACT The present study considers steady laminar two-dimensional incompressible flow over both in-line and staggered flat tube bundles used in heat exchanger applications. The effects of various independent parameters, such as Reynolds number (Re), Prandtl number (Pr), length ratio (L/Da), and height ratio (H/Da), on the pressure drop and heat transfer were studied. A finite-volume-based FORTRAN code was developed to solve the governing equations. In all, 10 modules were considered in this study. The flow is observed to attain a periodically fully developed condition downstream of the fourth module. The nondimensionalized pressure drop decreases monotonically with an increase in the Reynolds number. In general, the module average Nusselt number increases with an increase in the Reynolds number. The results at Pr = 7.0 indicate a significant increase in the computed module average Nusselt number when compared to those for Pr = 0.7. The overall performance of the in-line configuration for lower height ratio (H/Da = 2) and higher length ratio (L/Da = 6) is preferable since it provides higher heat transfer rate for all Reynolds numbers except for the lowest Re value of 25. As expected, the staggered configurations perform better than the in-line configuration from the heat transfer point of view. Also from the heat transfer point of view, equivalent circular tubes perform better than flat tube banks. However, the heat transfer performance ratio was always greater than 1, signifying that from the pressure-drop point of view the flat tube banks perform better than a tube bank with equivalent circular tubes.


Abstract A dilute suspension of uniform, non-Brownian spheres settles slowly in a viscous solvent. The initially well-mixed system showing Poisson or random occupancy statistics evolves to a system having reduced number fluctuations, but otherwise appearing random. The reduced number fluctuations are consistent with recent measurements of velocity fluctuations in settling suspensions. These experimental results test the assumptions leading to the theoretical predictions by Calflisch and Luke that the velocity fluctuations increase without limit with increasing sample dimension. The theoretical prediction assumes Poisson occupation statistics contrary to our observations.


Treatment of the damaged molar often presents a set of challenges unique to the posterior dentition. Traditional dental treatments continue to be refined to improve the prognosis when treating the posterior dentition. Daily treatment-planning decisions involve consideration of local host factors as well as limitations in specific therapeutic approaches. Objectives: The aim of this article is to present a case report of management of periapical abscess of mandibular right first molar associated with furcation involvement utilizing metapex followed by conventional root canal treatment. Results: Patient was evaluated after filling of canals with metapex every three months for one year. Radiographic examination showed healing of furcation defect as well as resolution of periapical radiolucencies. Clinical evaluation revealed reduction of tooth mobility. Discussion: The case was diagnosed as periapical abscess with furcation involvement. The suggested treatment of periapical abscess with furcation involvement by placement of metapex followed by conventional root canal treatment of the involved tooth could result in complete healing of tooth which was considered hopeless.


In the present paper an attempt has been made to investigate a new class of heat type polynomials suggested by Jacobi polynomials. Results analogous to Jacobi polynomials obtained by Srivastava [H.M. Srivastava, Note on certain generating functions for Jacobi and Laguerre polynomials, Publ. Inst. Math. (Beograd) (N.S.) 17 (31) (1974) 149–154] and Varma [V.K. Varma, Appell's double hypergeometric function as a generating function of the Jacobi polynomials, Riv. Mat. Univ. Parma 8 (1967) 305–308] have also been obtained for this new class of heat type polynomials.


In this study are presented the results of an investigation of variation in 17 red cell enzyme systems in the Yoruba, a Negro population of western Nigeria. Nine of the systems were found not to be polymorphic. The other eight systems revealed a close resemblance to the Negroes of Southern Africa, and a marked contrast with the San ('Bushmen'). The Yoruba have a history of many centuries of urbanization, while the Southern African Negroes have only recently begun to inhabit large towns. It would appear not only that the polymorphisms investigated are irrelevant to adaptation to urban conditions, but also that no selective forces, and very little drift, has operated on them since the remote ancestral separation of the populations. These results also suggest that the Khoisan contribution to the Southern African Negro gene pool might not be as uniform or as considerable as might be supposed.


The dynamics at a critical point provides a simple instance of slow collective evolution, characterised by aging phenomena and by a violation of the fluctuation-dissipation relation even for long times. By virtue of the universality in critical phenomena it is possible to provide quantitative predictions for some aspects of these behaviours by field-theoretical methods. We review some of the theoretical results that have been obtained in recent years for the relevant (universal) quantities, such as the fluctuation-dissipation ratio, associated with the non-equilibrium critical dynamics.


After admitting that the immersion of Architecture in digital environment happened in the last decade of the XX Century, this paper argues about the (im)possible links established between analogical and digital worlds. Discarding the possibility of a "transition" between them, the paper points the existence of a "jump" that, more than to tie, unlinks them leaving an emptiness that has to be analyzed. Coexisting in this emptiness we find hybrid structures of pragmatic approach, ruptures of paradigms and sprouting of new forms to project and to make architecture. Clarify this panorama is a basic task we need to do before facing the future, not only in a professional way, but also in the field of architectural education, because we have to know which architecture we desire to transmit.


The ability of background discrimination using pulse shape discrimination (PSD) in broad-energy germanium (BEGe) detectors makes them as competitive candidates for neutrinoless double beta decay (0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta}) experiments. The measurements of key parameters for detector modeling in a commercial p-type BEGe detector are presented in this paper. Point-like sources were used to investigate the energy resolution and linearity of the detector. A cylindrical volume source was used for the efficiency calibration. With an assembled device for source positioning, a collimated 133Ba point-like source was used to scan the detector and investigate the active volume. A point-like source of 241Am was used to measure the dead layer thicknesses, which are approximately 0.17 mm on the front and 1.18 mm on the side. The described characterization method will play an important role in the 0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta} experiments with BEGe detectors at China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL) in the future.


For many years, a moderate to high prevalence of positive reactions to standard tests for syphilis (STS) has been found in sera from the aboriginal inhabitants of the Northern Territory of Australia. In the survey reported here, people living in 18 areas of the Northern Territory were sampled to determine if the positive STS results were due to treponemal infection and, if so, to what extent this was endemic syphilis, yaws, or venereal syphilis. The results of the Treponema pallidum immobilization test were taken to indicate the presence or absence of treponemal disease in the subject. Clinically, no cases of active treponemal infection were seen, though findings on old infections were difficult to interpret in the older age groups. The prevalence of treponemal infection varied from 3.4% to 58.0% in the areas tested. No serological evidence of treponemal infection in children under 15 years of age was found in 6 areas, while in 12 areas it varied from 2.2% to 32.6%. Sera from 60 people who had no clinical signs of treponemal infection gave high-titre CWR and VDRL test results. It was concluded that yaws, endemic syphilis, and probably venereal syphilis are to be found in the aboriginal population.


Subtotal esophagectomy may be performed without thoracotomy by transhiatal dissection. We describe an alternative to the classical technique of transhiatal manual blunt dissection of the esophagus using a ring dissector, which allows a less traumatic dissection of the esophagus above the carcinoma of the esophagus. This instrument, designed for this particular purpose, produces a rapid and clean blunt dissection.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the western world. Several hereditary CRC predisposing syndromes have been described and their genetic component has been elucidated. Taken together, these syndromes account for at most 5% of all CRC cases. Twin studies have, however, suggested a much stronger contribution of genetic factors suggesting that a number of CRC predisposing genes remain to be identified. The genome-wide linkage analysis in 18 non-FAP/non-HNPCC colorectal cancer families revealed regions of interest on three chromosomes, when the analysis was performed under the assumption of locus heterogeneity. The region on chromosome 22q was suggested in the parametric analysis, while the results of both parametric and nonparametric analysis provided support for the regions on chromosomes 11q and 14q. After finemapping of the regions on chromosomes 11q and 14q both the HLOD score and the NPL scores were reduced but still within the range of suggestive linkage. Families exhibiting linkage to chromosomes 11 and 14 were identified and overlapping regions were determined (11q13.2–13.4, 11q22.1– 23.1 and 14q23.1-24.1). (Paper I) The SMARCA3 gene has been shown to be a common target for methylation in colon and gastric cancer. Germline mutation screening of the SMARCA3 gene was performed in order to evaluate the role of this gene among Swedish colorectal cancer patients, some of whom also had a family history of gastric cancer. The lack of pathogenic germline mutations suggests that the gene has very little role, if any, in the predisposition to colorectal and gastric cancer. Several identified variants in the SMARCA3 gene could act as modifying or low-risk alleles, however additional studies are needed to determine their role. (Paper II) The CHEK2 1100delC, novel low-risk breast cancer predisposing allele, has been found at particularly high frequency in families with both colorectal and breast cancer. To investigate the possible role of this variant in CRC predisposition the variant frequency was determined in CRC cases and controls. No over-representation of the variant was detected in cases. However, due to the low frequency of the variant in the Swedish population, a very low penetrance effect of CHEK2 1100delC could not be excluded. (Paper III) Bi-allelic germline mutations in the MUTYH gene are known to predispose to recessively inherited MAP syndrome, characterized by the occurrence of an increased number of colonic polyps. We found no evidence for the contribution of MUTYH in familial CRC with a low polyp number. The two most common MUTYH mutations, Y165C and G382D, have been identified in the Swedish population and evidence for a slightly increased CRC risk among heterozygote carriers of these mutations was seen. In addition, three novel variants affecting the same amino acid position, R423Q, R423P and R423R, have been detected among sporadic CRC cases, however their significance remains to be determined. (Paper IV)


The mechanical structure of pollen grains, typically characterized by soft apertures in an otherwise stiff exine shell, guides their response to changes in the humidity of the environment. These changes can lead both to infolding but also to excessive swelling and even bursting of pollen grains. We use an elastic model to explore the mechanics of pollen grain swelling and the role that soft, circular apertures (pores) play in this process. We identify and explore a mechanical weakness of the pores, which are prone to a rapid inflation once the grain swells to a critical extent. This transition leads to the bursting of the grain and the release of its content. Our results shed light on the inactive part of the mechanical response of pollen grains to hydration once they land on a stigma as well as on bursting of airborne pollen grains during rapid changes in air humidity.


We performed a clinical phase II trial of the combination of paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) and cisplatin in patients with locally advanced (stage IIIB) or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), using a 3-hour infusion of paclitaxel followed by a 1-hour infusion of cisplatin. Treatment was repeated every 21 days, for a maximum of six cycles. The patients received paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 followed by cisplatin 75 mg/m2. At present, 52 chemotherapy-naive patients with stage IIIB (17.3%) or stage IV (82.7%) NSCLC have been entered into this ongoing trial. Ten (19%) of the patients are women and 42 (81%) are men. With 197 courses of chemotherapy given, all 52 patients are evaluable for toxicity. Hematologic toxicities were moderate: World Health Organization (WHO) grade 3 or 4 neutropenia occurred in 38.7% of the cycles (47.7% of patients), and WHO grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia was observed in 1.5% of cycles (3.8% of patients). Other toxicities consisted mainly of WHO grade 2 or 3 alopecia and nausea/vomiting. World Health Organization grade 1 or 2 polyneuropathy occurred in 30.4% and grade 3 or 4 only in 1% of all courses. Of 40 patients evaluable for response, a complete remission was noted in one patient, a partial remission occurred in 13 patients (32.5%), stable disease was seen in 14 patients (35%), and disease progressed in 12 patients (30%). These results suggest that the combination of paclitaxel and cisplatin is active and tolerable in the treatment of NSCLC. The efficacy of the combination seems high in this poor-prognosis population.


The aim of this article is to reveal situation and level of the victimization of persons with disabilities in Lithuania, also to present the victimology characteristics of victims with disabilities and to formulate proposals, recommendations for the development of help and support system. The article presents an analysis of victims' statistics, still very fragmental data on the violent victimization of victims with disabilities, its prevalence, and dynamics for 2013–2019 years. The victimological discourse presents and analyses the victimization of victims, their risk and the likelihood of becoming victims. The emphasis is put on the situation of women with disabilities, which requires a review of the scope, specialization, and accessibility of services provided to victims. The research shows that the current practice of law enforcement institutions does not focus on the assessment of the situation of victims with disabilities, they remain unidentified, and so the latency of their victimization processes is extremely high. This is evidenced by the comparison of statistical data with international victimological research. Thus, there is an emphasis on the extremely high vulnerability of victims with disabilities, which should lead to more attention for this category of victims by identifying them, investigating and ensuring their protection, providing quality services and support.


Training multiple agents to perform safe and coop-erative control in the complex scenarios of autonomous driving has been a challenge. For a small fleet of cars moving together, this paper proposes Lepus, a new approach to training multiple agents. Lepus adopts a pure cooperative manner for training multiple agents, featured with the shared parameters of policy networks and the shared reward function of multiple agents. In particular, Lepus pre-trains the policy networks via an adversarial process, improving its collaborative decision-making capability and further the stability of car driving. Moreover, for alleviating the problem of sparse rewards, Lepus learns an approximate reward function from expert trajectories by combining a random network and a distillation network. We conduct extensive experiments on the MADRaS simulation plat-form. The experimental results show that multiple agents trained by Lepus can avoid collisions as many as possible while driving simultaneously and outperform the other four methods, that is, DDPG-FDE, PSDDPG, MADDPG, and MAGAIL(DDPG) in terms of stability.


In this work, H/D isotopic substitution neutron diffraction was combined with empirical potential structure refinement (EPSR) and DFT-based quantum calculations to study the interactions between B(OH)3 boric acid molecules, B(OH)4- metaborate ions, water molecules, and potassium cations in borate solutions. The results show that the solute ions and molecules have a marked effect on the second coordination shell of the water molecules, causing a greater deviation from a tetrahedral structure than is observed for pure water. Potassium ions and trans-B(OH)3 tend to form a monodentate contact ion pair (MCIP) with a K-B distance ∼3.8 Å, which remains constant upon changing the solution concentration. Potassium ions and cis-B(OH)3 form both a MCIP at K-B ∼3.8 Å and a bidentate contact ion pair (BCIP) at K-B ∼3.4 Å. As the solution concentration increases, there is a BCIP to MCIP transformation. Boric acid molecules can undergo hydration in one of three ways: direct hydration, interstitial hydration, and axial hydration. The energetic hydration preference is direct hydration → interstitial hydration → axial hydration. Nine water molecules are required when all water molecules directly interact with the -OH groups of B(OH)4-, and a tenth water molecule is located at an interstitial position. The hydrogen bonding between boric acid molecule/metaborate ion and water molecules is stronger than that between water molecules in the hydration layer.


Cells are equipped with surveillance mechanisms that carefully scan the DNA for breaks and repair any that are found. So what happens when this quality control apparatus comes upon the end of the chromosome, the telomere? An ill-placed repair at this position will join two chromosomes together or, worse, join the end of one chromosome to internal sequences in another, creating genetic havoc. In his Perspective, Shore summarizes emerging evidence in yeast that Ku, a protein that facilitates the joining of broken DNA ends, may work in a special way at the telomere to actually protect the ends from inappropriate joining reactions and facilitate other telomere functions.


This study examines the underpricing and long-term performance of A-share initial public offerings (IPOs) issued in China between January 1996 and December 2004. The sample is divided into State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and non-State Owned Enterprises (non-SOEs) to investigate the difference in IPO underpricing and long-term performance between these two groups. I find that non-SOEs are significantly less underpriced than SOEs. In addition, I find that the changes in government policies do have an impact on IPO underpricing. My study confirms the results of previous studies that the long-term stock returns of Chinese IPOs is positive using a market index as a benchmark, while the long-term operating performance of these IPO firms exhibits negative changes. However, the SOE and non-SOE sub-samples do not show any significant differences in either long-term stock returns or operating performance when size- and book-to-market-matched portfolios are used as benchmarks. Finally, my findings are also consistent with the signaling theory of IPOs.


A resonator for 1.444 µm Nd:YAG laser was designed, and 1.444 µm laser was obtained, the maximum static-state output energy was 310 mJ, electric-optics conversion efficiency was 0.56% and slope efficiency was 0.81% when the pump energy was 55 J. The 1.444 µm Q-switched laser was obtained, whose energy was 18 mJ and pulse width was 150 ns when the pump energy was 24 J. The CCD image showed that the energy distribution of the obtained laser was uniform and the divergence angle was 0.8 mrad.


A sweet solution, such as sucrose or glucose, can be used for analgesia for minor short term procedural pain, such as immunisation, in infants up to 12 months of age. The sweet solution is given orally and provides short term analgesia. It has National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Level I evidence of efficacy and no serious adverse effects have been reported. This article is part of a series on non drug treatments summarising indications, considerations, evidence and where clinicians and patients can get further information.


To analyze the relationship of the peripherin gene(PRPH, OMIM17071) mutations with high myopia,genomic DNA was collected from 180 probands with high myopia (<or=-6.0 dipoters) and 60 unrelated persons without high myopia. The coding sequences of PRPH gene in 240 subjects were analyzed using exon-by-exon PCR-heteroduplex-SSCP analysis and sequencing. Variations at codon21TTC-->TTT(Phe21Phe,4/180), nt2138C-->G(IVS3,1/180), codon277 GCC-->ACC(Ala277Thr,8/180), codon237 CCA-->TCA (Arg237stop,1/180), codon292CCG-->CCA (Ala292Ala,1/180),codon361CUG-->CUC(Leu361Leu,12/180), codon369 AAA-->AAG(Lys369Lys,12/180),nt3331G-->C(IVS7,3/180)were detected in a number of probands as indicated in the blanket. Of the 8 variations one( codon 277,G-->A,Ala277Thr) is a missense mutation identified in 8 of the 180patients and one of 60 controls; The mutation of codon361 and codon 369 were synonymous one and linkage each other; Another one(codon237,CCA-->TCA,Arg237stop) is a heterozygous nonsense mutation identified in one patient with autosomal recessive inheritance mode population but not in the 60 normal controls. The others were synonymous mutations. Eight nucleotide variations were found in the PRPH gene. We found no evidence that mutations in the PRPH gene are responsible for the high myopia in Chinese.


Objective: To explore the related factors and early predictors of persistent ectopic pregnancy (PEP) in patients with interstitial pregnancy after operation. Methods: The clinical data of patients with interstitial pregnancy who underwent surgery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2013 to August 2021 were collected. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether PEP occurred (8 patients in PEP group and 124 patients in non-PEP group). Using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis, the basic data, surgical methods, the ratio of postoperative to preoperative serum β-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG), the duration of when the serum β-hCG had decreased to normal after the operation were compared and analyzed to find the related factors of PEP after interstitial pregnancy surgery. The sensitivity and specificity of the ratio of 24-48 hours postoperative β-hCG to preoperative β-hCG in predicting postoperative PEP were evaluated by drawing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Before PSM, the ages of patients in PEP group and non-PEP group were (30.0±4.0) and (32.4±5.0) years old, respectively, P>0.05. After PSM, 8 PEP patients in the study group and 29 patients in the control group were matched successfully, and the ages of the two groups were (30.0±4.0) and (30.1±3.2) years old, respectively, P>0.05. After PSM, there was no significant difference in gravidity, parity, menopausal days, preoperative β-hCG level and maximum diameter of lesions, all P>0.05. After PSM, the proportion of patients with maximum diameter ≤ 2.6 cm in PEP group (6/8) was significantly higher than that in control group (31.0%, 9/29), P=0.025. The median (Q1, Q3) of the ratio of 24-48 hours postoperative β-hCG to preoperative β-hCG ratio was 52.9% (49.9%, 59.7%) in the PEP group, which was significantly higher than 31.5% (23.8%, 39.0%) in the control group (P=0.001); The median (Q1, Q3) of duration of when the serum β-hCG had decreased to normal after the operation in PEP group was 52.0 (34.8, 92.0) d, which was significantly higher than 24.0 (20.5, 31.0) d in control group (P<0.001). The ROC-Area Under Curve of the ratio of 24-48 hours postoperative β-hCG to preoperative β-hCG ratio for predicting postoperative PEP in the two groups was 0.892 (95%CI: 0.725-1.000, P=0.001). The cut-off value for predicting PEP was 48.5%, where the diagnostic sensitivity was 87.5%, the specificity was 93.1%. Conclusions: In the operation of interstitial pregnancy, the maximum diameter of lesion ≤ 2.6 cm is a related factor for postoperative PEP. There was no significant difference in the risk of PEP between cornuotomy and cornectomy. The ratio that 24-48 hours postoperative β-hCG/preoperative β-hCG ratio greater than 48.5% was a reference index for predicting postoperative PEP and guiding treatment.


Facial expression recognition (FER) has received considerable attention in computer vision, with "in-the-wild" environments such as human-computer interaction and video understanding. Recognizing dynamic facial expressions in videos is generally considered a more practical and reliable approach than still images. However, the dynamic FER problem in videos has challenges in terms of both data acquisition and the structural aspects of the learning model. In particular, video frames that deviate from the target facial expression class can significantly degrade the performance of dynamic FER. In this paper, we present an affectivity extraction network (AEN) for dynamic FER. AEN combines features of different semantic levels and classifies both sentiment and specific emotion categories with emotion grouping. To address the challenges of dynamic FER, we propose frame-level emotion-guided loss functions and a structural aspect of the learning model. The AEN has two branches: a bottom-up branch that learns facial expressions representation at different semantic levels and outputs pseudo labels of facial expressions for each frame using a 2D FER model, and a top-down branch that learns discriminative representations by combining feature vectors of each semantic level for recognizing facial expressions at the corresponding emotion group. Additionally, the proposed frame-level emotion-guided loss functions encourage AEN to prevent the loss of emotional information and retain the emotional probability of a video clip. Experimental results on various video datasets show that the proposed AEN consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art in Ekman and sentiment FER. Representative results demonstrate the promise of the proposed AEN for dynamic FER in the video.


A Tsunami damper, which is installed on the outer wall of a nuclear power plant, is usually used as a ventilation window of the machine room, but can serve as a device for preventing flooding of the machine room when large waves flow over the outer wall. The sealing strip, which is inserted between the casing and the blades, plays an important role in maintaining a watertight environment. In this study, in order to ensure an effective watertight performance of the tsunami damper, FE analysis is conducted to compare the contact characteristics of sealing strips with three different section shapes. In the analysis, the casing and the blade of Tsunami damper are assumed to be rigid bodies; the sealing strip is assumed to be a flexible body. The stress, the strain, and the contact pressure are investigated to examine the sealing performance of each model.


Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005

666

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a B-cell neoplasm characterized by the accumulation of clonal malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow (BM). Adhesion of MM cells to stromal cells of BM induces IL-6 secretion, which plays a critical role in progression of MM. IL-6 activates multiple signaling pathways including Ras/MAPK, JAK/STAT and PI3-K/Akt, which mediate proliferation, survival and drug resistance of MM cells. JAK/STAT signaling, by upregulating expression of inhibitors of apoptosis including Bclxl, Mcl-1, survivin and XIAP, mediates cell survival and resistance to chemotherapies in MM cells. Thus, JAK/STAT pathway represents an attractive target for new MM therapies. Here we report identification and characterization of a novel class of JAK inhibitors, and demonstrate their ability to strongly (90% at 72h) suppress growth and induce apoptosis in MM cells. We show that treatment of U266 MM cells with these compounds inhibited JAK/STAT signaling and downregulated the expression of Bclxl and Mcl-1, antiapoptotic members of the Bcl2 family, as well as XIAP and survivin, members of the IAP family of caspase inhibitors. This resulted in activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 and PARP cleavage, indicating induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, these JAK inhibitors significantly (3-10 fold) augmented the cytotoxicity of commonly used chemotherapeutic agents including cisplatin and fludarabine, highlighting their potential as chemosensitizers. The chemosensitizing efficacy of JAK inhibitors correlated with their ability to derepress mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. In addition to inducing apoptosis, JAK inhibitors strongly downregulated expression of cyclinD1. Induction of apoptosis and suppression of cell growth correlated with ability of this class of compounds to inhibit JAK/STAT signaling, as structurally related, but nonactive compounds, showed no effects on growth of U266 cells. These results indicate a potential therapeutic application for JAK inhibitors in the treatment of MM and other tumor types, either as monotherapy or in combination with established treatment modalities.


In Colombia, the electrification of the transportation sector has become an interesting possibility to consider in order to reduce pollution, global warming and promote efficient vehicles. Currently, most vehicles run on an internal combustion engine (ICE). However, the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) raises questions regarding the impact of these alternative technologies on: users' driving patterns, the mobility of cities, energy consumption, environmental impact, the energy distribution network, comfort conditions and adaptation to new ranges and speeds. Therefore, given their limitations, it is necessary to know the potential that the EVs technologies have in order to be properly adopted by users. This paper describes the application of a statistical prediction model, which determines the EVs technology that is most likely to be adopted in the city of Bogota, Colombia.


According to the results of the mechanical experiments and the CT images, the finite element model of the proximal femur was established. Using Finite Element Method, postoperative biomechanical parameters can be comprehensive analyzed. The analysis can be grouped by the patient body weight, the angle of fracture line, the position and angle of cannulated screw, which may influence the result of the operation. In the 216 groups of the parameters, the relative displacement of the fracture position, the strain at the bottom of the screw hole, the max stress of the screw and the max strain of the proximal femur was used for planning and evaluation. After comparing and analyzing the displacement, strain and stress, the rational parameters of internal fixation for femoral neck fractures can be found. And optimal operation planning parameters can be found according to the theory of biomechanics. Index Terms Biomechanical analysis. Biomimetics. Femoral neck Internal-fixation Finite Element Method.


The ABL rule is derived as a tool of standard quantum mechanics. The ontological significance of the existence of objective probabilities is discussed. Objections by Kastner [Am. J. Phys. 69, 860–863 (2001)] and others to counterfactual uses of the ABL rule are refuted. Metaphysical presumptions leading to such views as Kastner is defending in her Comment are examined and shown to be unwarranted.


Radial distributions of absolute nitric oxide (NO) density and gas temperature are measured in atmospheric confined plasmas using Mid-IR quantum cascade laser absorption spectroscopy (QCLAS). Two ro-vibrational transitions of the fundamental band are probed in the electronic ground state NO(X) at 1900.076 cm−1 and 1900.517 cm−1, respectively. Plasmas are generated using nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) discharges in air at atmospheric pressure. The spatial measurements are radially performed halfway between the discharge electrodes with a resolution down to 0.3 mm by the Abel inversion technique. The gas temperature is determined using two methods: (i) based on the ratio of the two ro-vibrational absorption lines and (ii) based on the collisional broadening line shape. The local NO density is obtained from local absorption coefficients and temperature dependent line strengths. The results were found in good agreement. The time averaged gas temperature and density at the discharge center are found at 800(±100) K and 2(±0.2)  ×  1015 cm−3, respectively. The FWHM of the NO density radial profile is found at 6–7 mm. This is large compared to the discharge channel width, i.e. typically below 0.5 mm, which is explained mainly by hot reactive jets induced in the post-discharge.


Abstract. We investigate time evolution of scaling index αA that characterizes auroral luminosity fluctuations at the beginning of substorm expansion. With the use of UVI images from the Polar satellite, it is shown that αA typically varies from values less than unity to ~1.5, increasing with breakup progress. Similar scaling features were previously reported for fluctuations at smaller scales from all-sky TV observations. If this signature is interpreted in terms of non-linear interactions between scales, it means that the power of small-scale fluctuations is transferred with time to larger scales, a kind of the inverse cascade. Scaling behavior in the aurora during substorm activity is compared with that in the field-aligned currents simulated numerically in the model of non-linear interactions of Alfvenic coherent structures, according to the Chang et al. (2004) scenario. This scenario also suggests an inverse cascade, manifesting in clustering of small-scale field-aligned current filaments of the same polarity and formation of "coarse-grained" structures of field-aligned currents.


We consider a logistic regression model with a Gaussian prior distribution over the parameters. We show that accurate variational techniques can be used to obtain a closed form posterior distribution over the parameters given the data thereby yielding a posterior predictive model. The results are readily extended to (binary) belief networks. For belief networks we also derive closed form posteriors in the presence of missing values. Finally, we show that the dual of the regression problem gives a latent variable density model, the variational formulation of which leads to exactly solvable EM updates.


Abstract We calculate the present ice budget for Antarctica from measurements of accumulation minus iceberg calving, run-off and in situ melting beneath the floating ice shelves. The resulting negative mass balance of 469 Gt year−1 differs substantially from other recent estimates but some components are subject to high temporal variability and budget uncertainties of 20–50%. Annual accumulation from an earlier review is adjusted to include the Antarctic Peninsula for a total of 2144 Gt year−1. An iceberg production rate of 2016 Gt year−1 is obtained from the volume of large icebergs calculated from satellite images since 1978, and from the results of an international iceberg census project. Ice-shelf melting of 544 Gt year−1 is derived from physical and geochemical observations of meltwater outflow, glaciological field studies and modeling of the sub-ice ocean circulation. The highest melt rates occur near ice fronts and deep within sub-ice cavities. Run-off from the ice-sheet surface and from beneath the grounded ice is taken to be 53 Gt year−1. Less than half of the negative mass balance need come from the grounded ice to account for the unattributed 0.45 mm year−1 in the IPCC "best estimate" of the recent global sea-level rise.


The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of self-regulation instruction on fractions and decimal numbers on academic achievement and attitude towards mathematics in elementary school program in Turkey. The subjects of the study were fourth year elementary school students (N=60). Zimmerman, Bonner and Kovach's (1996) model related to selfregulation instruction was adapted to fraction and decimal numbers teaching activities and carried out for six weeks during the academic year. Self-regulated learning instruction was implemented in the experimental group. The results in the study suggested that the students in the experimental group had higher academic achievement on fraction and decimal numbers, and attitude scores in mathematics than the control group.


This article addresses the question whether unreliable narration, as the concept is understood in the tradition following Wayne Booth's original definition, can occur in non-fictional stories. Contrary to Pekka Tammi's conclusion in a recent article, this article's answer is affirmative. It seeks to demonstrate, through a comparative analysis of respectively Mark's and Matthew's stories about the Canaanite woman (Mark 7:24–30 and Matthew 15:21–28), how Matthew comes forward as an unreliable narrator, and that his narrative unreliability is a function of what James Phelan has termed underreporting. The textual analysis, which leans on Gregory Currie's and James Phelan's theories of unreliable narration, argues that far from being more or less identical stories, as is suggested by various exegetes, Matthew's pericope is significantly different from that of Mark. It is different both thematically and regarding the portrayal of the figure of Jesus, but also, and not least, by pursuing a more complex and daring communicative strategy based on unreliable narration and a system of multilayered irony. In concluding the theoretical discussion of unreliable narration, I suggest not only that unreliable narration is possible in non-fictional stories, but also that it is a somewhat misleading concept when applied to the kind of stories Wayne Booth normally referred to, namely fictional first-person narratives.


Though rapid increase in energy consumption has become a global problem, most of the solutions developed to address it for residential consumers are based on qualitative studies conducted with small numbers of users, typically in the developed world. Recent work has begun to explore consumption practices, and motivations, barriers and other factors affecting energy consumption in urban India. However, the small numbers of participants in those studies limit their generality. Our work contributes to this picture through a survey of 1724 residents of urban India, exploring the motivations and barriers affecting energy conservation and their opinions about sharing energy consumption data and future technologies for conservation. We found that urban Indians practice conservation because it is a learned habit and to save money, while comfort and convenience are the major barriers in conserving energy. Contrary to previous findings, we did not find a major influence of tradition, spirituality or moral reasons for conservation. Moreover, participants have minimal privacy concerns regarding sharing energy data. Interestingly, participants were not only interested in energy monitoring solutions, but were also positive about automated energy controlling systems, which contrasts previous findings. We conclude with design opportunities for this demographic such as information-sharing opportunities, appliance level consumption disaggregation, and convenient manual controls. Index Terms—Energy, Sustainability, Survey, India.


In this thesis, a comprehensive formalization of Milner's Calculus of Communicating Systems (also known as CCS) has been done in HOL theorem prover (HOL4), based on an old work in HOL88. This includes all classical properties of strong/weak bisimulation equivalences and observation congruence, a theory of congruence for CCS, various versions of "bisimulation up to" techniques, and several deep theorems, namely the "coarsest congruence contained in weak equivalence", and three versions of the "unique solution of equations" theorem in Milner's book.
This work is further extended to support recent developments in Concurrency Theory, namely the "contraction" relation and the related "unique solutions of contractions" theorem found by Prof. Davide Sangiorgi, University of Bologna. As a result, a rather complete theory of "contraction" (and a similar relation called "expansion") for CCS is also formalized in this thesis. Further more, a new variant of contraction called "observational contraction" was found by the author during this work, based on existing contraction relation. It's formally proved that, this new relation is preserved by direct sums of CCS processes, and has a more elegant form of the "unique solutions of contractions" theorem without any restriction on the CCS grammar.


During 2002-2017, the most common incident adrenal gland disorder among male and female service members was adrenal insufficiency and the least common was adrenomedullary hyperfunction. Adrenal insufficiency was diagnosed among 267 females (crude overall incidence rate: 8.2 cases per 100,000 person-years [p-yrs]) and 729 males (3.9 per 100,000 p-yrs). In both sexes, overall rates of other disorders of adrenal gland and Cushing's syndrome were lower than for adrenal insufficiency but higher than for hyperaldosteronism, adrenogenital disorders, and adrenomedullary hyperfunction. Crude overall rates of adrenal gland disorders among females tended to be higher than those of males, with female:male rate ratios ranging from 2.1 for adrenal insufficiency to 5.5 for adrenogenital disorders and Cushing's syndrome. The highest overall rates of adrenal insufficiency for males and females were among non-Hispanic white service members. Among females, rates of Cushing's syndrome and other disorders of adrenal gland were higher among non-Hispanic white service members compared with those in other race/ethnicity groups. In both sexes, the annual rates of adrenal insufficiency and other disorders of adrenal gland increased slightly during the 16-year period.


Due to recent developments in network technologies, broader channel bandwidth is becoming prevalent in worldwide networks. As one of the new technologies making good use of such broadband channels, dynamic relocation of databases through networks, database migration, will soon be used in practice as a powerful and basic database operation. We propose two transaction processing methods to take advantage of database migration in broadband networks. These methods choose the most efficient transaction processing method between the conventional method, based on the two-phase commit protocol, and our method, using database migration. We also propose a concurrency control mechanism and a recovery mechanism for our proposed methods. Simulation results are presented comparing the performance of our proposed methods and the conventional transaction processing method based on the two-phase commit protocol. The results demonstrate that the effective use of database migration produces better performance than the conventional method.


If one had a water-filled balloon containing living auditory sensory cells and placed this in a larger container of water, any vibrations that passed through the larger container would pass right on through the balloon and its contents. The vibrations would undoubtedly shake the cells and if there were nerve fibers connected to them a stimulation would result. If the balloon were brought out of the water so as to be surrounded by air, any vibrations occurring in the air would, mostly, be reflected back from the surface of the balloon. Because of the great difference in the physical properties of air and liquid, only very small vibrations (compared to those in the air) would be produced in the water-filled balloon. The situation could be complicated even further by encasing this water-filled balloon in some rigid material, such as bone, and covering this with a sound-absorbent material. Under these conditions,


In this paper, we propose a verification methodology of large-scale legal knowledge. With a revision of legal code, we are forced to revise also other affected code to keep the consistency of law. Thus, our task is to revise the affected area properly and to investigate its adequacy. In this study, we extend the notion of inconsistency besides of the ordinary logical inconsistency, to include the conceptual conflicts. We obtain these conflictions from taxonomy data, and thus, we can avoid tedious manual declarations of opponent words. In the verification process, we adopt extended disjunctive logic programming (EDLP) to tolerate multiple consequences for a given set of antecedents. In addition, we employ abductive logic programming (ALP) regarding the situations to which the rules are applied as premises. Also, we restrict a legal knowledge-base to acyclic program to avoid the circulation of definitions, to justify the relevance of verdicts. Therefore, detecting cyclic parts of legal knowledge would be one of our objectives. The system is composed of two subsystems; we implement the preprocessor in Ruby to facilitate string manipulation, and the verifier in Prolog to exert the logical inference. Also, we employ XML format in the system to retain readability. In this study, we verify actual code of ordinances of Toyama prefecture, and show the experimental results.


ABSTRACT MS rarely occurs in gypsies in Hungary despite the high DR2 frequency. When it does occur, it has special features more resembling that of Asians than Central Europeans. In order to find correlation between the clinical observations and the immunogenetical data, the distribution of DQw1 subtypes was investigated by means of Eco RV ‐ DQ beta RFLP in DR2 positive healthy gypsies and Hungarians, as well as in DR2‐positive Hungarian and unselected gypsy MS patients. DQw6 correlated with MS susceptibility in Hungarians. This allotype was completely absent in healthy DR2‐positive gypsies. DR2‐positive gypsy MS patients, however, carried DQw6. No correlation of complement allotypes with the occurrence of MS was found in Hungarians, while a striking elevation of C4 QO occurred in gypsy MS patients compared with healthy individuals in the gypsy group. The absence of the DR2, DW2, DQw6 haplotype, and the low frequency of C4A QO in healthy gypsies seems to be associated with the low MS prevalence, but genes outside this region might also influence the MS susceptibility.


A portion of northern Biscayne Bay, Dade County, Florida, was investigated to determine the distribution of its benthonic foraminiferal assemblage. Percentages were calculated for the standing crop and total population from a count of all specimens present in aliquots of 26 samples taken from 15 stations. One hundred fifty-two species belonging to 75 genera and 35 families have been identified. Although the primary interest is the description of the fauna and its distribution, additional information on depth, temperature, and bottom condition was obtained to facilitate discussion of ecologic factors as they pertain to the patterns of distribution. The area is a complex positive estuarine bay, with influx of fresh waters from the west (inland) side and open ocean waters mixing on the east. The presence of barriers, natural and man-made, further complicates the water circulation and water quality, in addition to the effects of tides, weather, and hydrologic factors. Areal distribution and abundance of certain species can be correlated with the grain-size distribution of the sediments. The distribution of specimens illustrates areas of mixing or foraminiferal assemblages and the association of certain faunal assemblages with particular environmental conditions. The presence of several species not known to South Florida waters are noted herein. The species recognized are recorded in the section on systematics


The 106th Congress is considering a general overhaul of derivatives regulation. Pending legislation would codify the unregulated status of certain derivatives, exempt many other currently-regulated contracts from oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and permit the trading of a new kind of contract: a futures contract based on the stock of an individual corporation. Derivatives legislation has been reported out of committee in both House and Senate. This report analyzes this legislation in the 106th Congress, and will be updated as developments warrant.


We have successfully developed novel extraction enhanced lateral insulated gate bipolar transistors (E2LIGBTs) in conventional silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers, which exhibit super-high speed switching of 34 ns turn-off time and a low on-state voltage of 3.7 V at 84 A/cm2 simultaneously with a high breakdown voltage of 738 V. This is the first report showing its superior switching speed and on-resistance compared to conventional lateral double diffused metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (LDMOS). The superior performance is achieved by a new anode structure designed with the proposed E2 concept, which simultaneously achieves enhanced electron extraction and suppression of hole injection at the anode region without life time control. The E2 concept is realized using the anode structure, consisting of a narrow p+-injector and a wide Schottky contact on a lightly doped p-layer over an n-buffer. The switching speed can be controlled by the area ratio of the Schottky area over the injector area.


We study the emergence of organizational forms, focusing on two mechanisms—reconfiguration and transposition—that distinguish the founding models of the first 26 biotechnology companies, all created in the industry's first decade, from 1972 to 1981. We analyze rich archival data using hierarchical cluster analysis, revealing four organizational variants of the dedicated biotech firm (DBF). Three were products of reconfiguration, as executives from Big Pharma used past practices to incorporate new science. One DBF variant resulted from 'amphibious' scientists who imported organizing ideas from the academy into their VC-funded start-ups. We argue that such transpositions are fragile, yet charged with generative possibilities. Copyright © 2012 Strategic Management Society.


: The main purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of training and development on service sector. In the methodology of this paper we used the quantitative and qualitative method conducted with respondents in travel agencies. The questionnaire was structured with types of training and training needs for service sector employees, the research refers the level of trainings that are conducted in the travel agencies. Introduction of the information technology and different application programmes has increased the need of trainings of travel agency workers. The simple random technique is used to collect data from targeted travel agencies. The T test and correlation matrix is used to see the impact of training to employee's performance. As a strategic activity, the training is related to the mission of the travel agency and its long-term objectives and is a major contributor to the development of skilled, flexible and dedicated employees while providing training in combination with other human resource management functions. In businesses that are in service sector that have experience in their field professional consultants - people who have the necessary skills and knowledge to implement the training, are responsible for staff training. However, in terms of transferring practical knowledge, managers are much more efficient. Their practical experience and skills, knowledge of their company, network of business contacts, and personal knowledge of the human resources of their organization make them qualified than the professional trainers, responsible for human resources.Training can be developed on the job and of the job depending on the organisation needs and employees skills, while communication skills are usually needed in travel agencies this is one together with use of software packages are the most important trainings that were identified in our research.


In this study object-based image analysis (OBIA) techniques were applied to assess land cover changes related to mineral extraction in a conflict-affected area of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over a period of five years based on very high resolution (VHR) satellite data of different sensors. Object-based approaches explicitly consider spatio-temporal aspects which allow extracting important information to document mining activities. The use of remote sensing data as an independent, up-to-date and reliable data source provided hints on the general development of the mining sector in relation to socio-economic and political decisions. While in early 2010, the situation was still characterised by an intensification of mineral extraction, a mining ban between autumn 2010 and spring 2011 marked the starting point for a continuous decrease of mining activities. The latter can be substantiated through a decrease in the extend of the mining area as well as of the number of dwellings in the nearby settlement. A following demilitarisation and the mentioned need for accountability with respect to the origin of certain minerals led to organised, more industrialized exploitation. This development is likewise visible on satellite imagery as typical clearings within forested areas. The results of the continuous monitoring in turn facilitate non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to further foster the mentioned establishment of responsible supply chains by the mining industry throughout the entire period of investigation.


Abstract A new Nearctic species of Perlidae (Insecta, Plecoptera), Perlesta ephelida sp. n., is described from the male, female, and egg stages. This species has been previously reported as, or confused with, Perlesta shubuta Stark from several central and eastern U.S. states. Perlesta ephelida is distinctive from Perlesta shubuta and other regional Nearctic congeners mainly according to male genitalic and egg characteristics. Perlesta ephelida is a widely-distributed eastern Nearctic species, whereas Perlesta shubuta appears to be restricted to a narrow latitudinal belt in the Gulf Coast region from Louisiana east conservatively to the Florida panhandle. The egg of Perlesta shubuta is depicted with scanning electron microscopy for the first time.


Mutual information function, which is an alternative to correlation function for symbolic sequences, and a "symbolic spectrum" are calculated for a human DNA sequence containing mostly intron segments, those that do not code for proteins. It is observed that the mutual information function of this sequence decays very slowly, and the correlation length is extremely long (at least 800 bases). The symbolic spectrum of the sequence at very low frequencies can be approximated by 1/fα, where f is the frequency and α ranges from 0.5 to 0.85. It is suggested that the existence of the repetitive patterns in the sequence is mainly responsible for the observed long-range correlation. A possible connection between this long-range correlation and those in music notes is also briefly discussed.


A self-injection-seeded, flash-lamp-excited, Q-switched laser oscillator is presented. The laser comprises two resonators that are operated sequentially. The first resonator, which includes all the high insertion loss, damage prone, wavelength tuning, and line-narrowing components, is used to generate the seed signal. The second resonator is a low-loss, Q-switched resonator whose output wavelength and line width are controlled by the seed signal. Output pulses of energy as high as 325 mJ have been obtained that are tunable over a range of the order of 90 nm and with a bandwidth of the order of 0.05 nm.


Root temperature is an important ecological factor affecting plant growth. A solar greenhouse with an active solar heating system was built in Jinan, in the cold climate zone of northern China. Experiments encompassing the complete cycle of heat collection, heat storage, and heat release were carried out. Using the experimental data, the numerical simulation of soil heat storage with a variable heat flow was executed using the ANSYS (ANSYS Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, USA) Fluent software. Soil temperature fields were studied on typical sunny days and typical cloudy days in the transition season and winter. The solar collector efficiency and coefficient of performance of the system were investigated. The applicability of this active solar soil heating system with soil heat storage for cold areas was evaluated. The results showed that the system effectively maintained suitable ground temperatures to prevent plant growth inhibition caused by low ground temperatures in winter. During the experimental period, the solar collector efficiency was 47% and the system's coefficient of performance was 67.70. The thermal performance of the system was much better than a traditional energy system. This study showed that this active solar heating system with soil heat storage is an economic and feasible way to increase soil temperatures in solar greenhouses in cold areas.


This paper presents a concept analysis examining chronic disease self-management in aging adults from a system level perspective. Using Rodgers and Knafl"s evolutionary methodology, literature from nursing and other disciplines was selected. Three sets of paired attributes; knowledge/education, relationship/partnership, self-monitoring/self-care and one umbrella attribute; action skills were identified. The results revealed that variability exists in how self-management is understood and applied amongst the disciplines, and that a knowledge gap exists within the nursing literature in relation to aging adults and self-management at the system level. However, relative to the literature from other disciplines, nursing has devoted more attention to the development of theory focusing on self-management, and two system level theoretical frameworks were identified that may support analysis of the attributes presented here.


This paper aims at extending advertizing response theory by presenting a three-dimensional model of advertizing perceptions (conceptualized as experiences) by incorporating concepts from cognitive film psychology and narrative transportation theory. The conceptual model is operationalized, tested and evaluated on empirical data from an e-survey measuring the experiential dimensions and ad liking of ten selected TV ads. The findings showed reliability and validity of the proposed measurement scales. The study supported the hypothesized positive influence of all three dimensions on ad liking, but to variable degree. The results showed that the suggested application of the framework is capable of measuring advertizing experiences based on their degree of didactic, narrative and lyrical potential. Findings also suggested that the lyrical dimension supports the narrative experience, adding a new 'lyrical' perspective to the conceptual understanding of narrative transportation in advertizing.


When a buckling-restrained brace (BRB) is composed of a flat steel core encased in a rectangular steel tube with infill mortar, the flat steel core develops high-mode buckling waves within the spaces occupied by compressible debonding layers when BRB is in compression. The wave crests and troughs collide with mortar and then acting outward forces on restrainer. The steel tube wall may bulge out if the restrainer is too weak to sustain the outward forces and the BRB may lose its compression carrying capability. The outward force can be estimated according to steel core high-mode buckling wavelength and the debonding layer thickness. The restrainer capacity in resisting outward forces can be estimated by using the upper bound theory in plastic analysis. The results of 39 BRB tests were compared in order to evaluate the effectiveness of steel tube capacity estimation methods. 24 BRBs exhibiting local bulging failure suggested that the steel tube capacity can be estimated by assuming the bulged wall as a wedge shape with five of its boundary developing flexural strength. The proposed estimation is conservative and can be adopted for BRB design in preventing local bulging failure for severe seismic services.


The premature breakage in some four cylinder diesel engine crankshafts was reported. All crankshafts were failed from the same region. Failures had occurred in the first crankpin, the nearest crankpin to the flywheel. Dynamic analysis and finite element modelling were carried out to determine the state of stress in the crankshaft. FEM results revealed that the first crankpin fillet is the most vulnerable point to fracture. Soderburg diagram of the studied crankshaft showed that the service operation point, which stands for mean and alternating stresses of the critical region (first crankpin fillet) was located in the safe region. Therefore, it can be concluded that fatigue fracture has not occurred in the crankshaft. SEM images of the fractured surface also showed cleavage fracture and put in evidence that the failure was brittle fracture. No sign of fatigue failure was observed. The fracture may have been caused by an overload. However, the results suggest re-evaluation of the design and manufacturing. The fillet rolling may play an important role in this matter. Optimization of the fillet rolling process by changing process parameters has been recommended to the manufacturer. This recommendation has been adopted by the manufacturer and no further fracture has been reported since.


The paper describes the test of flicker evaluation made by eleven different types of power quality analyzers. The standard IEC 61000-4-15Ed.2 (Functional and design specification of flickermeter) issued on August 2010 specifies performance testing. Existing flickermeters from different manufacturers may provide different results when processing non-uniform voltage fluctuations. The flickermeters response to voltage varying signals with envelope shape typical for sawmill, heat pump, granulator was tested. Voltage fluctuation caused by operating of this electrical equipment was measured in the real low voltage distribution network by means of the power quality analyzer Topas 1000. Available to the analysis were one-period records of voltage fluctuation. These were simulated on the programmable power voltage source HP6834B in the university lab. All power quality analyzers were together connected on the output of this voltage generator. Additional were made tests according to the IEC 61000-4-15Ed.2 standard. Short term flicker severity (Pst) was measured and evaluated.


We describe postradiosurgical treatment outcomes of our consecutive series of 1,676 patients (654 females and 1,022 males, mean age 63 years, range 19-92 years) who underwent Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS) for brain metastases, focusing particularly on GKRS for multiple lesions. The most common primary cancer was lung (1,057; 63.1%), followed by alimentary tract (198; 11.8%), breast (180; 10.7%), uro-genital (113; 6.7%) and others (128; 7.6%). Mean and median lesion numbers were 7 and 3, respectively, range 1-85. The overall median survival times were 9.0 months in females and 5.9 in males after GKRS (p < 0.0001). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to assess tumor numbers by group: 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-39 and ≥40. The post-GKRS median survival times were 8.3, 5.3, 6.9, 5.2, 5.6, 3.0, 5.3 and 4.3 months, respectively (p < 0.0001). Also, the Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare 15 pairs of groups based on tumor numbers: 1 vs. ≥2, ≤2 vs. ≥3, ≤3 vs. ≥4, ---, and ≤15 vs. ≥16. In each of the 15 pairs, the median survival times of patients with lower tumor numbers were significantly longer than those of patients with higher tumor numbers (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, 14 other pairs of groups, based on tumor numbers, were also assessed by this method: 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 3, 3 vs. 4, ---, and 14 vs. 15. Among the 14 pairs, only the 1 vs. 2 pair showed a significant median survival time difference (p = 0.0002); no significant differences were detected for the other 13 pairs. Although tumor number was demonstrated to have a significant impact on the duration of survival, approximately 85% of patients with brain metastasis died of causes other than brain disease progression, regardless of tumor number.


Although a number of different ear recognition techniques have been proposed, not much work has been done in the field of ear detection. In this work we present a new ear detection approach for 3D profile images based on surface curvature and semantic analysis of edge-patterns. The algorithm applies edge-based detection techniques, which are known from 2D approaches, to a 3D data model. As an additional result of the ear detection, the outline of the outer helix is found, which may serve as a basis for further feature extraction steps. As our method does not use a reference ear model, the detector does not need any previous training. Furthermore, the approach is robust against rotation and scale. Experiments using the 3D images from UND-J2 collection resulted in a detection rate of 95.65%.


Background/Aims: This study aimed to test a potential model of the relationship between various cardiometabolic risk factors including obesity, unhealthy diet, low physical activity, dyslipidemia, and high blood pressure in a large population-based sample of children and adolescents. Methods: In this nationwide study, a representative sample of 5,528 students aged 10-18 years was selected by multistage random cluster sampling from 27 provinces of Iran. Demographic, anthropometric, biological, and biochemical factors were determined. Structural equation modeling (path analysis) was applied to evaluate the causal relationship between these variables. Results: The mean age of study participants was 14.7 ± 2.41 years and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 19.4 ± 4.1. Higher socioeconomic status was directly associated with unhealthy diet, low physical activity and BMI in both sexes. Age had a positive direct effect on low physical activity in both sexes. BMI showed the greatest direct effect on total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and mean arterial pressure in comparison with the direct effects of unhealthy diet and low physical activity. BMI was associated negatively with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in both groups. Conclusions: No previous study has used path analysis for determining the interactions examined in this study among a nationally representative sample of children in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The results of this study underline the imperative need for the weight loss and lifestyle change from childhood as the first-line preventive strategy for metabolic syndrome and noncommunicable diseases.


This interview with Mark SaFranko was conducted by Estelle Jardon for the closure of the seminar "Le texte dans tous ses etats : genese, publication, traductions" organized on November 15, 2018. It mainly focuses on his fourth crime novel, The Suicide (2014), but also traces his crime fiction production, from his main sources of inspiration to his slyly subversive writings of the formula, which has been rarely discussed. SaFranko is prompted to reflect on his writing of genre fiction, on his conflicting relation to conventions, and on his subsequent difficulties in getting published in the United States. SaFranko talks about the flexibility of the label "crime fiction" as a literary genre, about his crime thrillers that he rather considers as psychological suspense novels and his attraction to character-driven mystery plots. He also discusses the metaphysical dimension of The Suicide, its unconventional detective protagonists, and retraces his writing process of the novel. Finally, this interview explores the particulars of crime fiction.


Based on the idea of charge-neutral atoimc spheres we have calculated the electronic structure of ordered and disordered Cu-Zn, Ni-Pt, and Al-Li alloys using the linear-muffin-tin-orbital (LMTO) method and the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker coherent potential approximation (KKR CPA) method in the atomic-sphere approximation (ASA), respectively. The equilibrium lattice constants and the formation energies of ordered alloys obtained with the LMTO-ASA method show that the calculations done with charge-neutral atomic spheres are closer to the experimental results than the conventional equivolume atomic-sphere-type calculations. In the case of disordered alloys, we find that charge-neutral atomic spheres are essential for the stability of these alloys within the KKR-ASA CPA method where the Madelung-type contribution is neglected. Our results clearly indicate that for disordered alloys any future implementation of a full-potential method within the single-site CPA should be carried out with charge-neutral cells rather than the Wigner-Seitz cells.


Steps can be taken by a speaker to improve his presentation of a technical topic to a lay audience and make the subject more understandable to the listener. These steps stress the use of (1) much advance peparation, (2) informative exercises, entertaining stories, and simple drawings, (3) examples picked to fit the audience, and (4) a changing style depending on audience reaction. Giving attention to these points will help to make the presentation successful for both the speaker and the listener.


Abstract. In the context of an increasing world population, the demand for agricultural crops is continuously rising. Especially rice plays a key role in food security, not only in Asia. To increase crop production of rice, either productivity of plants has to be improved or new cultivation areas have to be found. In this context, our study investigated crop growth of paddy rice (Oryza Sativa J.) in Germany. An experimental field in the vegetation period of 2014 with two nitrogen treatments was conducted using remote sensing methods. The research project focussed on two main aspects: (1) the potential of UAV-based and hyperspectral remote sensing methods to monitor selected growth parameters at different phenological stages; (2) the potential of paddy rice cultivation under the present climate condition in western Germany. We applied a low-cost UAV-system (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to generate high resolution Crop Surface Models (CSM). These were compared with hyperspectral in-field measurements and directly measured agronomic parameters (fresh and dry aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf-area-index (LAI) and plant nitrogen concentration (PNC)). For all acquisition dates we could determine single in-field structures in the CSM (e.g. distribution of hills) and different growth characteristics between the nitrogen treatments. Especially in the second half of the growing season, the plants with higher nitrogen availability were about 25 – 30 % larger. The plant height in the CSM correlates particularly with fresh AGB and the LAI (R2 > 0.8). Thus, the conducted methods for plant growth monitoring can be a contribution for precision agriculture approaches.


This paper describes an efficient feature selection method that quickly selects a small subset out of a given huge feature set; for building robust object detection systems. In this filter-based method, features are selected not only to maximize their relevance with the target class but also to minimize their mutual dependency. As a result, the selected feature set contains only highly informative and non-redundant features, which significantly improve classification performance when combined. The relevance and mutual dependency of features are measured by using conditional mutual information (CMI) in which features and classes are treated as discrete random variables. Experiments on different huge feature sets have shown that the proposed CMI-based feature selection can both reduce the training time significantly and achieve high accuracy.


Abstract Focusing on the leakage problem in high temperature and high salinity oil fields (reservoir temperature 1208C-1308C, formation water salinity 220000 mg/L), a gel-blocking system is proposed using a polymer and a phenolic prepolymer. Specifically, it addresses the short storage time issue of synthetic phenolic prepolymer by introducing p-hydroxybenzoic acid to modify and effectively extend its lifespan. The additional introduction of c-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (KH550) improves the wall-adhesion of this system. The proposed gel-blocking system shows good on-site application results in a western China oil field.


We propose that escape theory, which describes how individuals seek to free themselves from aversive states of self-awareness, helps explain key patterns of materialistic people's behavior. As predicted by escape theory, materialistic individuals may feel dissatisfied with their standard of living, cope with failed expectations and life stressors less effectively than others, suffer from aversive self-awareness, and experience negative emotions as a result. To cope with negative, self-directed emotions, materialistic people may enter a narrow, cognitively deconstructed mindset in order to temporarily blunt the capacity for self-reflection. Cognitive narrowing decreases inhibitions thereby engendering impulsivity, passivity, irrational thought, and disinhibited behaviors, including maladaptive consumption.


PurposeThe authors set out to show how key private security industry actors in Sweden establish body-worn cameras (BWCs) as a tool to protect private security officers from the public the officers police and to improve the work environment of the officers.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with key personnel involved in the implementation of BWCs. The authors' analysis focused on delineating recurrent moral stories and affirmative environments to show how BWC use was made legitimate as a work environment tool.FindingsThe authors show how BWC use by private security officers patrolling public spaces in Sweden is legitimized by four organizational narratives: (1) the vulnerable security officer and the caring employer, (2) defenders of protective regulation, (3) moral selves and morally dubious others and (4) function creep and moral guardians. The authors explain how such organizational narratives are key to establishing and legitimizing the use of BWCs as a tool to improve the work environment of private security guards, and how certain narrative environments promote such organizational narratives in Sweden to improve the work environment of private security guards.Originality/valueThe authors' findings in this article add to a small but growing literature on BWC use in policing outside of the USA and the UK as well as to the hitherto very limited research from the work environment and managerial perspectives. The authors illustrate the importance of organizational narratives and narrative environments for understanding organizational change involving legitimation of new technologies.


The objective of this field questionnaire survey was to describe the dairy cow productivity and socio-economic profile of dairy cattle farmers in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta smallholder farming communities which have been targeted dairy development policy. The study was conducted on 190 Friesian Holstein (FH) cows maintained under smallholder's management system in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A total of 83 farmers were randomly selected and interviewed with structured questionnaire to assess the socio-economic dairy farmer and productivity performance of dairy cows. The number of dairy productivity performance within the normal. Shortages as well as high cost of feed, occurrence of disease, scarce information about feeding and high medicament cost were the main constraints which might have contributed considerably to delayed age at first service, late age at first calving, long calving interval, short lactation length and low milk production. Therefore, strategies designed to solve the existing problem should be important by involving all stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of improvement strategiesor dairy development policy was being implemented and necessary respect to environmental factors affecting agricultural activities such as a constraint on land use and access to water resources.


In this paper, a simulation framework of analysis is presented aiming at evaluating the safety performance of the Residual Heat Removal system (RHRs) of the Chinese High Temperature Gas- Cooled Reactor - Pebble Bed Modular (HTR-PM) under uncertain operation conditions, and components and equipments failures. A transparent and fast model of the passive system has been implemented in MATLAB to reproduce the three-interconnected natural circulation trains of the RHRs, for removing the residual heat of the reactor core after a reactor shut-down. The model is characterized by a one-dimensional mono-phase moving fluid, whose operation is based on thermal-hydraulic (T-H) principles. The model is coded into a Monte Carlo (MC) failure engine for sampling single and multiple components faults at random times and of random magnitudes. Accidental transients of the system are simulated, highlighting equipment contribution to system failure.


ABSTRACTThis study was designed to isolate and identify a novel β-carotene cleaving microorganism from sea buckthorn juice and to detect the carotenoid-derived aroma compounds catalyzed by the microbial enzyme. The strain was characterized based on morphological and biochemical properties, as well as part of its 16S rDNA sequence analysis. It was then identified using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) and classified as coagulase-negative Staphylococcus pasteuri (GeneBank Accession No. KP171185). β-Ionone and β-cyclocitral were formed as the main flavor products of β-carotene in submerged culture. When cell-free culture supernatant was applied for the conversion, nearly complete degradation of β-carotene (2 mg) was observed after 12 h. β-Ionone and β-cyclocitral were the main aromas, whereas β-ionone-5,6-epoxide, 2-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl cyclohexanone and dihydroactinidiolide were formed in minor quantities. Moreover, the carotenoid-cleavage enzyme activities of S. pasteuri were partially characte...


Along with owner's equity, credits from external sources are also important in the process of farms' production activities. Farms' demand for credit varies depending on the income generated from production. Repayment problems may occur in this process.The aim of this study is to determine the factors that may lead to defaults on agricultural credits used by farms in Eskisehir via performing logistic regression analysis. Results of the data collected from 117 farms through a survey reveals that 70,94% of farms have used credit cards specialized for agriculture and 9,4% of farms have not been able to make their repayments in time. In conclusion of the analysis, economic profitability ratio, credit tenor and leverage ratio variables have been found to be associated with the dependent variable in a meaning degree.


Previous studies of the TRansgenic Adenocarcinoma of the Mouse Prostate (TRAMP) model vasculature suggest that, as tumors develop, vessels invade the glandular epithelium. However, changes in the vasculature are difficult to study in conventional thin tissue sections. The authors used a new approach to characterize morphologic and architectural changes of blood vessels and pericytes during tumor development in TRAMP mice.


Families and educators have turned to digital tablets to support the unique needs of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), due to their ease of use, social acceptance, low cost, and portability. While school-based trial programs are emerging, there is very little research examining collaborative partnerships between families and educators relating to digital tablets. This study employed a qualitative methodology to investigate the use of digital tablets in the home setting to support students with ASD. Underpinned by Moll and Greenberg's funds of knowledge theoretical framework, the study posited that the use of digital tablets for students with ASD can be enhanced if experiences from the home setting are validated by educators. It used semistructured interviews and anecdotal evidence with four families to explore the various ways digital tablets are used. Data from interviews with four teacher participants in a school-based trial were used to examine the collaboration between homes and schools regarding digital tablet use. The results showed that digital tablets were used daily in their homes. Frequent recreational and educational uses were reported as well as uses that supported behavior and communication. Finally, there were some suggestions in relation to the collaboration between home and school.


Isolation and low-temperature X-ray analyses of intramolecular triarylmethane-triarylmethylium complexes with a naphthalene-1,8-diyl-type skeleton have been achieved. These bridged cations prefer a C--H localized structure both in solution and in the solid state. The bridging hydrogen undergoes a facile intramolecular 1,5-hydride shift from one carbon to another in solution. The C--H delocalized geometry is suggested to be the transition-state structure of the degenerate rearrangement. Charge-transfer interaction from the triarylmethane to the triarylmethylium units is evident in the electronic spectra. This interaction stabilizes the present cations. Low reactivity toward Brønsted acids indicates that these species are not the reaction intermediates in the acid-assisted long-bond cleavage of 1,1,2,2-tetraarylacenaphthene derivatives.