The perceived self-regulation of Chinese world-class athletes were examined in this study. Qualitative data from 14 athletes were analyzed by a grounded theory method. The feelings of Chinese elite athletes who achieved either successful or unsuccessful self-regulation were noted. Results showed that successful self-regulation involved a calm mental state, smooth rhythm in performance, concentration, and flow, whereas rhythmic disorder, stress, mental fatigue, and loss of flow were cited by athletes during unsuccessful self-regulation. Our analysis indicated that a calm mind, rhythmic preparation, and lack of pressure were the major factors contributing to the maintenance of control. Preparation that was not well-planned and regular, the influence of stress, and mental fatigue did not support successful performance.


Primary ovarian insufficiency has been diagnosed in adolescents as young as age 14 years. It is estimated that approximately 1% of the female population in the United States is affected by primary ovarian insufficiency. Evaluation for all potential causes of amenorrhea, or a change from regular to irregular menses for 3 or more consecutive months, including pregnancy, polycystic ovary syndrome, hypogonadal amenorrhea, thyroid abnormalities, hyperprolactinemia, or primary ovarian insufficiency is important for young females. Understanding the unique concerns and needs associated with the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian insufficiency in adolescents is essential for the provision of quality health care for this population.


Equi-atomic Nickel-Titanium (NiTi or Nitinol) has the ability to return to a former shape when subjected to an appropriate thermo-mechanical regime. Pseudoelastic and shape memory effects are some of the behaviors presented by these alloys. The unique properties concerning these alloys have encouraged many investigators to look for applications of NiTi for biomedical applications. One of the most successful applications of Nitinol is orthodontic archwire. The best features of these wires are super-elasticity, the phenomena that causes easy engagement (loading conditions). Superelastic nitinol wires deliver clinically desired light continuous force during deactivation (unloading conditions), enabling effective tooth movement with minimal damage for periodontal tissues. Superelasticity is characterized by a load-deflection plot with a horizontal region [plateau] during unloading, implying that a constant force may be exerted over that particular range of tooth movement. It is known that the NiTi alloy wire undergoes a phase transformation from an austenitic to a martensitic phase as the load increases during the loading process. Metallurgical studies have attributed these characteristics to a reversible phase transformation from the body centered cubic structure to the monoclinic structure of nickel-titanium when the stress reaches a certain level during deformation.The increasing amount of energy stored inside the NiTi wire during this process is consumed during the unloading process as the transformation is reversed, and the martensite structure reverts to austenite . Superelasticity is only exhibited by wires showing high endothermic energy in the reverse transformation from the martensitic phase to the parent phase and with low Load/deflection ratios. These wires show nearly constant forces in the unloading process, a desirable physiological property for orthodontic tooth movement. NiTi archwires have gained acceptable by orthodontists as initial alignment wires. Most of the information about the behavior of orthodontic wires is based on mechanical laboratory three point bending tests to study load-deflection characteristics. A three-point bending test allowed load-deflection curves offer reproducibility. Variations in model design have been shown to affect load- deflection plots. The load deflection performance of NiTi wires depends on the design of the test model. Modified three point bending test which simulates wire force on the teeth in the oral conditions has more correct results than ordinary three point bending test. The purpose of this study is to investigate the load-deflection characteristics of superelastic nickel titanium wires with a new model design trough modified bending tests. In this research a new three point bending fixture was invented and designed to determine the superelastic property in clinical conditions, and the wire samples were held in the fixture similar to oral cavity. By means of this instrument the three point bending test simulates wire force on the teeth in the oral configuration. The lower section of fixture is a rail fabricated from steel, a special movable base with a curved canal assembled over the rail. The upper section designed to simulate the teeth arrangement and curvature: A stainless steel disk (316L, ?80 mm, h10 mm) selected; and twelve rods (316L, ?5 mm, h10 mm) welded to the points representing center of teeth on the disk. The center points of teeth were located on the medium upper standard arc. Distance between the center points of teeth (interbracket distance) was similar to Wilkinson model.To achieve deflections 1, 2 and 4 mm, teeth 5,3 (right) and 2 (left) were selected respectively and rods in these points were movable. A fillet face machined on the rod surface parallel to the standard arc. Brackets fixed on the flat face of rod by superglue and orthodontic wire attached to fixed appliance. The superelastic behavior has been investigated through load-deflection test


A massive dose of 7.5 g of 4,4'-diamino, diphenyl sulphone (dapsone) taken as a suicide attempt in a patient on long-term therapy for tuberculoid leprosy resulted in permanent bilateral retinal necrosis, previously unreported side effect of this drug. The patient developed a severe haemolytic anaemia, methaemoglobinaemia, and acute renal failure requiring peritoneal dialysis. It is proposed that the retinal damage was due to a combination of severe hypoxaemia and the physical effects of red cell fragmentation producing vascular occlusion in the macular and perimacular region, with consequent ischaemic necrosis.


Insurance affects the variability of consumption over time, which is not captured in standard expected utility of wealth models. We develop a consumption-utility model that shows how liquidity constraints and borrowing costs impact the value of insurance. Liquidity constraints generate high insurance demand when premiums are due smoothly, sometimes leading to seemingly dominated choices. Conversely, a risk-averse person may value insurance below its expected value and appear risk loving when premiums are due in a single payment. Moreover, optimal insurance contracts take different forms with liquidity constraints. We show empirical insurance analysis using the standard model can generate misleading counterfactuals and welfare estimates. Finally, we demonstrate the model's feasibility and importance with an application to evaluating cost-sharing reductions on the health insurance exchanges.


Where international higher education broadly analyses international developments in higher education at the system level, internationalization can be seen as a subcategory of this work, focusing more specifically on the international rationales, approaches, strategies, activities and outcomes of higher education at the regional, national and institutional level, and (where possible) in a comparative perspective. This special issue of International Higher Education seeks to highlight new and innovative dimensions in internationalization. It also gives space to examine developments in internationalization of higher education in regions and countries that are less known than English speaking countries and Western Europe. And it illustrates the increasing importance and diversity of internationalization's conceptual understandings and lived experiences in modern international higher education. This annual special issue is a collaboration between the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College and the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.


AbstractRecent work has examined the spatial distribution of droplets within a cloud. Experimentally, most studies analyze interevent times from static probes flown linearly through a cloud, allowing the spatial information to be conveyed through a time series of particle detections. Analysis of these data has shown unequivocally that most clouds have nontrivial spatial structure. There is still debate as to which of many different possible statistical descriptions is most appropriate for characterizing this spatial structure and for identifying spatiotemporal scales of physical significance from the data record. This paper seeks to clarify some pervasive misunderstandings and to outline more carefully the range of validity for several of these statistical tools. Simulations are used to explore the relative scale-localizing capabilities of various commonly used statistical tools.


This paper is an attempt at highlighting the Status of Adult Education in Nigeria. Although the main thrust of the paper is to explain why and how generally Adult Education has low esteem and status in Nigeria, attempts were made to offer some interpretations of the situation. The paper has also explained the meaning of Status, who is an Adult? What is Adult Education? And advanced several recommendations. Some of the recommendations include: legislation to Finance, protect and guarantee Adult Education programmes; Adult Education and Literacy be linked to development activities and to be responsive to the needs and aspirations of the learners; further research and evaluation of Adult Education are needed to identify effective strategies and programmes that would enhance the status of Adult Education in Nigeria. The Nigerian Journal of Guidance and Counselling Vol. 8 (1) 2002: pp. 86-97


The present study investigates web-based learning activities of undergraduate students who generate explanations about a key concept taught in a large-scale classroom. The present study used an online system with Pedagogical Conversational Agent (PCA), asked to explain about the key concept from different points and provided suggestions and requests about how to make explanations, and gave social facilitation prompts such as providing examples by other members in the classroom. A total of 314 learner's text based explanation activities were collected from three different classrooms and were analyzed using the social network analysis methods. The main results from the lexical analysis show that those using the PCAs with social feedback worked harder to use more various types of explanations than those without such feedback. Future directions on how to design online tutoring systems are discussed.


Passive optical division multiple access codes are of great interest in the transmission of broadband networks. However, multiple access interference is one of the main factors limiting the decoding performances. Moreover, these networks suffer from imperfections in up link powers originating from active different users at different locations on the perimeter of the central optical line terminal. In this paper, we examine the near-far impact due to imperfect power control, particularly in the up link passive optical network. We consider two groups of critical users for this purpose. The originality of this work consists in proposing a receiver based on the linear parallel interference cancellation with additional gain factor compensation to mitigate the multiples access interference and to solve the problems of the uncontrolled input power. Link quality of the proposed receiver is analytically established by bit error probability evaluation under the Gaussian approximation. Also, a comparison study to other types of receivers of similar algorithmic complexity is done.


A new simple formula is derived as an approximation for the general exact integrals for the radial component of the electric field generated by a horizontal electric dipole in a half-space of water or earth near its boundary with air. The field in the water or earth is investigated as a function of radial distance from the source for er = 80, 20, and 4, over wide ranges of conductivities and frequencies. Special attention is paid to the ranges in which the direct wave from the dipole produces an interference pattern of standing waves when it interacts with the lateral wave. For selected values of the parameters the radial electric field computed from the new simple formula is compared with the field evaluated numerically from the exact integrals. The agreement is excellent when the ratio of wave numbers characteristic of the denser half-space and air is large, quite good even when this ratio is as small as 2.


This study examined the contents of "Adolescent's Consumption Life" unit in 12 Technology·Home Economics textbooks used in the 2009 revised curriculum to analyze the contents of school consumer education. The main summary of this study is as follows: First, the contents of consumer education in the unit of "Adolescent's Consumption Life" consisted of five criteria including the understanding of adolescent consumer, consumer"s right and responsibility, reasonable purchase, resolution to consumer problems, and the formation of new consumption culture. Second, significant differences were found in the contents of consumer education among textbooks because basic concepts have been not been clearly defined yet. Third, essential content was either omitted or hard to understand. Thus, some contents elaborations were inappropriate for students" level. Fourth, there were some limitations in drawing interest and attention from learners and developing dispute resolution competence, since the textbooks mainly comprised the theory-oriented contents of consumer education. Fifth, cautious consideration needs to be taken with regards to clear understanding of basic concepts and systematic and consistent contents composition for coherent and organized school consumer education. These research findings are anticipated to provide basic information of Technology·Home Economics textbooks to teachers, and will be utilized as basic data in organizing textbook contents or developing efficient teaching-learning programs for consumer education.


Various Gin Rummy strategy guides provide heuristics for human players to improve their gameplay. Often these heuristics are either conflicting or contain ambiguity that limits their applicability, especially for discard and end-of-game decisions. This paper describes an approach to analyzing the machine learning capabilities of a Gin Rummy agent to help resolve these conflicts and ambiguities. There are three main decision points in the game: when to draw from the discard pile, which card to discard from the player's hand, and when to knock. The agent us-es a learning approach to estimate the expected utility for discards. An analysis of these utility values provides in-sight into resolving ambiguities in tips for discard decisions in human play. The agent's end-of-game, or knocking, strategy was derived using Monte Carlo Counterfactual regret minimization (MCCFR). This approach was applied to estimate Nash equilibrium knocking strategies under different rules of the game. The analysis suggests that conflicts in the end-of-game playing tips are due in part to different rules used in common Gin Rummy variants.


Abstract : The US Air Force Personnel Plan lists the establishment of a code of ethics to enhance the image of career officers as one of its objectives. Three basic questions are considered: is a published code required; what should be the essential elements of the code; and, what would the publication of a code be expected to accomplish. Current official publications were examined for ethical guidance for Air Force officers. Congressional testimony of officers involved in the unauthorized bombing of North Vietnam in 1972 was reviewed for ethical conduct and attitudes. Traditional elements of the American officer's military ethic were assembled from a variety of official and unofficial, but generally accepted as authoritative, publications. Past and current attitudinal surveys were examined for trends in the perception of the public and the military of the prestige of the officer corps. The following conclusions were reached: Written ethical guidance is incomplete and unwritten codes are inadequate, resulting in uncertainty of standards among the officer corps; a written code would remove the uncertainty; the essential elements of the code should be the traditional one, but added emphasis should be placed on first allegiance to the Constitution; an established code, if enforced, may be expected to improve internal and external prestige, but more importantly, promote higher standards of professional conduct among Air Force officers. It is recommended that a code of ethics by published, and a sample code is proposed.


The aim of this study was to detect the infection by Trypanosoma cruzi in captive Neotropical primates in the Brazilian Amazon. From February 2013 to July 2014, 112 blood samples were collected from Neotropical primates from the Amazonas, Amapá, and Pará States, north of Brazil. The subjects belonged to the families Cebidae (N = 59), Atelidae (N = 41), Callitrichidae (N = 5), Pitheciidae (N = 4), and Aotidae (N = 3). Blood smears also were examined for the presence of trypomastigotes by optical microscopy. For the detection of T. cruzi DNA, a Nested‐PCR with primers TCZ1/TCZ2 and TCZ3/TCZ4 was performed. T. cruzi DNA was detected in 12.5% (14/112) of Neotropical primates examined. Positive samples were detected in 16%, 12.5%, and 11.11% of the different species of primates sampled from the Amapá, Pará, and Amazonas states, respectively. The analysis of the blood smears did not reveal trypomastigote forms of T. cruzi. In conclusion, Neotropical primates kept in captivity were infected by T. cruzi in the studied areas. We recommend that a health management protocol be put into place to prevent the transmission of infectious agents among captive populations, captive and wild populations, and between NHPs and the technicians who handle these animals.


Cleavage of carbon–halogen bonds via either single-electron reduction or atom transfer is a powerful transformation in the construction of complex molecules. In particular, mild, selective hydrodehalogenations provide an excellent follow-up to the application of halogen atoms as directing groups or the utilization of atom transfer radical addition (ATRA) chemistry for the production of hydrocarbons. Here we combine the mechanistic properties of photoredox catalysis and silane-mediated atom transfer chemistry to accomplish the hydrodebromination of carbon–bromide bonds. The resulting method is performed under visible light irradiation in an open vessel and is capable of the efficient reduction of a variety of unactivated alkyl and aryl substrates.


Obtaining reliable water balance estimates remains a major challenge in Canada for large regions with scarce in situ measurements. Various remote sensing products can be used to complement observation-based datasets and provide an estimate of the water balance at river basin or regional scales. This study provides an assessment of the water balance using combinations of various remote sensing and data assimilation-based products and quantifies the non-closure errors for river basins across Canada, ranging from 90,900 to 1,679,100 km2, for the period from 2002 to 2015. A water balance equation combines the following to estimate the monthly water balance closure: multiple sources of data for each water budget component, including two precipitation products - the global product WATCH Forcing Data ERA-Interim (WFDEI), and the Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA); two evapotranspiration products - MODIS, and Global Land-surface Evaporation: the Amsterdam Methodology (GLEAM); one source of water storage data - GRACE from three different centers; and observed discharge data from hydrometric stations (HYDAT). The non-closure error is attributed to the different data products using a constrained Kalman filter. Results show that the combination of CaPA, GLEAM, and the JPL mascon GRACE product tended to outperform other combinations across Canadian river basins. Overall, the error attributions of precipitation, evapotranspiration, water storage change, and runoff were 36.7, 33.2, 17.8, and 12.2 percent, which corresponded to 8.1, 7.9, 4.2, and 1.4 mm month-1, respectively. In particular, non-closure error from precipitation dominated in Western Canada, whereas that from evapotranspiration contributed most in the Mackenzie River basin.


As more experience of deploying SIMPLE based presence systems is
accumulated, it seems that deploying a large SIMPLE presence system is
actually a very hard task. The document analyzes several aspects of
SIMPLE based presence system deployment and shows that difficulties
around the amount of messages (network), state management (memory) and
processing load (cpu). Although this document is a problem statement
document and not a BCP document, several possible optimizations and
directions are listed at the end of the document in addition to an
initial set of requirements for what should be the characteristic of
the solution to the problem stated in the document This document is
intended to be used by the SIMPLE WG in order to work on possible
solutions that will make the deployment of a presence server more
reasonable task. Note that the document does not try to compare the
SIP based presence server to other types of presence servers but only
analyzes the SIP based presence server.


The kings of ancient Champa, a civilisation located in the central region of today's Vietnam, started building sacred temples in a circular valley more than 1500 years ago. The monuments, now known by their Vietnamese name My Son, were discovered by nineteenth-century colonial soldiers and first studied by the French architect Henri Parmentier. Bombed during the Vietnam War, the ruins of the brick towers decorated with exquisite carvings and sculptures were designated as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1999. An Italian team has worked at the site for the last ten years, doing archaeological research and restoration work in cooperation with Vietnamese specialists. This book is the first published volume based on their efforts. The opening section consists of historical, anthropological and architectural studies of the civilisation of Champa. The remainder of the book presents an unusually intimate and extensively illustrated portrait of the archaeologists' research and restoration work at My Son. While this book is important for specialists and students of the history and archaeology of Champa and of Southeast Asia, it also tells a fascinating story that will appeal to general readers and visitors to this exceptional archaeological site.


The anti-hyperglycemic effect of wood powder of Quassia amara (QA) was evaluated in normal and in alloxan diabetes-induced rats. After a 12 h fast and glycemic check, the animals were orally given 0.9% of saline (control group), metformin (500 mg/kg) or QA (200 mg/kg) and, 30 minutes later, they received an oral glucose dose (1g/kg). The blood glucose level was measured after 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. From the oral glucose dose, QA showed anti-hyperglycemic effects, similar to metformin, only in the diabetic animals (p<0.01) when compared to the control group. Although the anti-hyperglycemic mechanism of action of QA was not investigated, a mechanism similar to metformin can be suggested, since both presented similar results for the conditions tested, that is, normal and diabetic rats. It is believed that the use of QA in diabetics could help to control the blood glucose levels and be useful as an alternative therapy.


We recently discovered several nonlysine-analog conformational modulators for plasminogen. These include SMTP-6, thioplabin B and complestatin that are low molecular mass compounds of microbial origin. Unlike lysine-analog modulators, which increase plasminogen activation but inhibit its binding to fibrin, the nonlysine-analog modulators enhance both activation and fibrin binding of plasminogen. Here we show that some nonlysine-analog modulators promote autoproteolytic generation of plasmin(ogen) derivatives with its catalytic domain undergoing extensive fragmentation (PMDs), which have angiostatin-like anti-endothelial activity. The enhancement of urokinase-catalyzed plasminogen activation by SMTP-6 was followed by rapid inactivation of plasmin due to its degradation mainly in the catalytic domain, yielding PMD with a molecular mass ranging from 68 to 77 kDa. PMD generation was observed when plasmin alone was treated with SMTP-6 and was inhibited by the plasmin inhibitor aprotinin, indicating an autoproteolytic mechanism in PMD generation. Thioplabin B and complestatin, two other nonlysine-analog modulators, were also active in producing similar PMDs, whereas the lysine analog 6-aminohexanoic acid was inactive while it enhanced plasminogen activation. Peptide sequencing and mass spectrometric analyses suggested that plasmin fragmentation was due to cleavage at Lys615-Val616, Lys651-Leu652, Lys661-Val662, Lys698-Glu699, Lys708-Val709 and several other sites mostly in the catalytic domain. PMD was inhibitory to proliferation, migration and tube formation of endothelial cells at concentrations of 0.3-10 microg.mL(-1). These results suggest a possible application of nonlysine-analog modulators in the treatment of cancer through the enhancement of endogenous plasmin(ogen) fragment formation.


Systemic sclerosis is associated with a broad spectrum of autoimmune thyroid diseases. The association between systemic scleroderma and hypothyroidism is well established. However, there have been very few reports concerning the association between hyperthyroidism and systemic scleroderma. We experienced a patient with Graves' disease who presented with muscle weakness and the patient was finally diagnosed with systemic sclerosis via pathological examination of the muscle. We describe here a rare case of systemic sclerosis associated with Graves' disease.


The Amsterdam painter Lambert Sustris stayed in Padua in the 1540s. During this period he worked, among other things, on a number of murals in palazzi and ville suburbane, and also in villas outside Padua and near Vicenza. Some of these murals still exist, others have vanished. A few drawings by Sustris associated with lost murals have however survived. In Padua, Sustris first worked in a subordinate position under Domenico Campagnola and Gualterio Padovano; later, having attained an independent status, he collaborated with the latter and with Andrea Schiavone, among others. Most of the buildings and mural decorations were designed to recreate and renew Classical Antiquity. Some were influenced by Raphael and the artistic climate in Rome and Mantua after 1530, in which followers such as Giulio Romano figured so prominently. Before going to Padua, Sustris had very likely been in Rome and perhaps in Mantua as well. His patrons in Padua, men like Alvise Cornaro and Marco Mantova Benavides, were members of the city's humanist circles, which were strongly orientated towards Rome and Classical Antiquity. The Amsterdam artist is largely responsible for the importance of the landscape in these paintings with their air of antiquity, paintings which in the case of the villas represent the earliest phase of villa decoration in the Veneto. Sustris' landscapes and figures alike clearly bear witness to a connection with Titian, whose paintings Sustris had probably furnished with landscapes earlier on. Further influences on Sustris' work during this period were primarily Raphael, Francesco Salviati and Parmigianino. Partly on the basis of the murals and drawings attributed here to Sustris, there are justifiable grounds for concluding that in recent decades the influence and position of Giuseppe Porta Salviati in Venice and Padua has been overestimated, to Sustris' disadvantage. Except for during his Padua period, the Amsterdam artist received few public commissions. He consequently sank into almost total oblivion fairly soon after his death. From as early on as the late sixteenth century some of his paintings, by virtue of their style and high quality, were taken for masterpieces by Titian.


Performance of teleoperation can be greatly influenced by time delay in the process of tele-manipulation with respect to accuracy and transparency. Wave variable is an effective algorithm to achieve a good stable capability. However, some traditional wave variable methods may decrease the performance of transparency and suffer the impacts of wave reflection. To deal with the problem of stability and transparency in teleoperation, in this paper, a novel wave variable method with four channel is presented to achieve stable tracking in position and force. In addition, the proposed method can achieve the distortion compensation and reduce the impacts of wave reflection. The simulation experimental results verified the tracking performance of the proposed method.


Gonadotropin-releasing hormones (GnRH) constitute a family of neuropeptides which are important regulators of reproduction in vertebrates. The effect of mammalian GnRH (mGnRH), salmon GnRH, chicken GnRH-I, chicken GnRH-II, and lamprey GnRH-I on [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA of dissociated gonadal cells of marine bivalves has been studied. The incorporation of [3H]thymidine is linear between 1.5 and 8 h of incubation. All five GnRHs significantly increased DNA synthesis in gonial cells of Crassostrea gigas. The maximal activation was about of 135-140% above control. The activation is dose dependent, over the range 10(-11) to 10(-6) M, but is modulated by the physiological condition of the cells and the stage of sexual maturity of the gonad. mGnRH has also a mitogenic effect in dissociated mantle cells of Mytilus edulis. The effect of mGnRH is blocked by a GnRH antagonist ([D-pGlu1,D-Phe2, D-Trp3,6]GnRH, 5 x 10(-6)M) in C. gigas as well as in M. edulis, suggesting that the GnRH action in the gonad is mediated by specific receptors for GnRH or GnRH-like peptides. The existence of GnRH-immunoreactive neurons and fibers in the cerebral and pedal ganglia of M. edulis was demonstrated by immunocytochemistry. They are located principally in the anterior internal area of the cerebral ganglia, close to the cerebral commissure and in the posterior part of the pedal ganglia. The presence of GnRH-responsive cells and GnRH-like immunoreactive material suggests that peptides of the GnRH-like family are present and functional in bivalve molluscs.


We report an extensively modified method for the extraction, solid-phase purification, and HPLC analysis of long-chain acyl-CoAs from tissues. Tissue samples were homogenized in a glass homogenizer in KH2PO4 buffer (100 mM, pH 4.9) and again after the addition of 2-propanol. Acyl-CoAs were then extracted from the homogenate with acetonitrile (ACN). The acyl-CoAs in the extract were bound to an oligonucleotide purification column and eluted using 2-propanol. This eluent was concentrated and then loaded onto a C-18 column and eluted using a binary gradient system in which solvent A was KH2PO4 (75 mM, pH 4.9) and solvent B was ACN containing 600 mM glacial acetic acid. Initial flow rate was 0.5 or 0.25 ml/min depending upon the tissue used. The HPLC eluent was monitoring at 260 nm. Our modifications increased the recovery of the extraction procedure to 70–80%, depending upon tissue, with high reproducibility and significantly improved separation of the most common unsaturated and saturated acyl-CoAs. We also report, for the first time, the mass (nanomoles per gram wet weight) of the most common polyunsaturated acyl-CoAs in rat heart, kidney, and muscle tissues. The modifications and high recovery permit the use of tissue samples of less than 100 mg, making this method useful for the analysis of small tissue amounts associated with mice.


BACKGROUND
Adolescence is a critical time to intervene and establish healthy long-term behaviors to decrease the impact of adult obesity in the future. The purpose of this study was to identify key intervention strategies and techniques for community interventions by analyzing the short-term and longer-term shared experiences of both adolescents with overweight or obesity and their parents involved in a community-based, healthy lifestyle intervention.

METHODS
Qualitative interviews and focus groups were conducted with teens (aged 12-16 years with a BMI above the 85th percentile) and their parents immediately following the 8-week intervention (n = 37 teens, n = 33 parents) and at 12 months follow-up (n = 23 teens, n = 20 parents). Results were analyzed thematically.

RESULTS
Both teens and parents reported high satisfaction with the program. Immediately following the 8-week intervention, teens reported enjoying participating in exercise with similar peers. Parents described inaccurate expectations from the program. After the 12-month follow-up, teens reported struggling with a cyclical pattern of health behaviors, and parents described a sense of loss following the intensive program and improved communication skills with their adolescent.

CONCLUSIONS
Several practical strategies emerged for use in future community programs for adolescents with overweight or obesity. Future programs should consider management of expectations, perceptions vs. outcomes, and the cyclical nature of behavior change in adolescents. Strategies for future health behavior change interventions with overweight adolescents should address time management, translation of knowledge into behavior change, successful implementation of practical goal-setting strategies, and increasing intrinsic motivation.


When Karl Marx explained his famous theory about the class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, he ignored those societies where the property and land ownership significantly play an important role and conflicts may be initiated on the basis of who owns and controls the material resources within the families or societies. More specifically, in India, an agricultural economy, the land holds not only economic but also an emotional value for individuals mostly from marginal families who may own smallholdings and/or other immovable property. As per the law, both men and women can acquire property and land through different ways such as purchase, inheritance, gift, or transfer by government. Yet, inheritance remains a significant option where land is privately owned. In the patriarchal North Indian society, for centuries, it is the male lineage that determines the ownership of the land and the control of the family property. Women, in such situations, where they hardly control any resources, are in financially constrained position than men in their ability to purchase any land or property. Therefore, for ages, Hindu women as daughters, mothers, and wives are facing economic discrimination within the hierarchical, unequal, and autocratic families. Owning immovable property or a piece of land or controlling economic assets, is a distant dream for the majority of women.

The amendments made in Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act (HSA) of 1956 in the year 2005 grant the substantial equal right to daughters as that of sons in a Hindu joint family to benefit Hindu women who constituted 80 percent of women population in India. However, there are problems with the interpretations of this provision, mostly in cases, where the fathers have died prior to 09.09.2005, the courts have denied daughters their right to be the coparceners in such properties. It is on 11.8.2020, that the three judges' bench of the Supreme court, in a landmark judgment has clarified that the amended provisions of Section 6 of the HSA to provide the daughters equal rights as that of sons in a joint Hindu family retrospectively and therefore the death of father before 09.09.2005, the day the amendments to HSA 2005 came into existence, has nothing to do with the daughter's rights in the family property. This judgment has paved a way for the constitutional value of equality and democratic norms in an unequal world of the Hindu joint family. It is seemingly a step to make biased personal laws more gender-equal without any pre-conditions thus may lead to the economic empowerment of Hindu women in the long run. This article will discuss this interpretation of the Supreme Court in light of expanding the scope of women's rights as daughters in Hindu families and argues that a lot more needs to be done to alter the personal laws to transform the patriarchal norms to bring constitutional values of equality, justice and democracy within families and societies not only for a women from Hindu communities but for all women.


Abstract This study aims to develop the Attitudes and Beliefs Scale about Sexuality during Pregnancy (ABSSP) and to test its validity and reliability. The study utilized a methodological approach and was conducted at a university hospital. The ABSSP developed in this study consisted of 25 items and 4 sub-scales. As a result, the ABSSP was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool in Turkish pregnant women. The scale developed is believed to contribute to the literature as a measurement tool to identify attitudes, myths, beliefs, and knowledge of pregnant women and their partners about sexuality in pregnancy.


Presented is a survey of 10 years experience of "Gastrectomie de principe" in the treatment of gastric cancer performed in the Surgical Department of Fulda. 219 gastrectomies were analysed, all of which were combined with lymphadenectomy of compartment I and II. Splenectomy was performed in 91%. 20% of the patients were operated with an early cancer, 37% showed no lymph node involvement. The rate of complications due to surgery was 13%, in 5.5% of patients we saw an insufficiency of the anastomosis, causing lethal outcome in 40% of these cases. The overall hospital mortality was 5.5%. Survival rates depended strongly on lymph-node involvement. The highest 5-year-survival of nearly 90% was seen in patients with an intestinal carcinoma in tumor stage T1 N0 M0, the 5-year-survival of all patients with an early cancer was 82%. The overall 5-year-survival was 25%. Total gastrectomy as the standard operative procedure shows low mortality, good controllability of complications and is to be recommended as a sufficiently safe therapeutical concept in patients with gastric cancer.


Mullerian Inhibiting Substance (MIS) previously detected in the Sertoli cells of the calf testis has been localized in the granulosa cells of the ovarian Graafian follicle by using an immunoperoxidase technique and a monoclonal antibody (IG8) to MIS that almost completely blocks its biological activity. The immunoperoxidase technique (avidin-biotin complex method) demonstrated specific localization of MIS in the cytoplasm of the ovarian granulosa cells in the bovine Graafian follicles over a wide age span, i.e. one day, one week, three months, two-and-a-half years and five years. The presence of MIS in the ovary implies a function that is as yet unknown.


This presentation is a tutorial on AutoView, an AutoMod extension package that recreates model animation according to a user-defined script. AutoView allows users to restart animation and move back and forth in time and 3-D space. Animation is created using text files generated from an AutoMod simulation model. By creating a user-defined camera description file, animation can take place that allows for panning from one view to another, as well as for attaching the camera to a simulated load or vehicle and traveling with that entity during portions of the animation. The animation is provided at an enhanced response time because it does not have the logical and statistical processes of AutoMod (which can slow animation). This tutorial demonstrates several animation scripts previously constructed with AutoView, discusses the creation of AutoView files from AutoMod, and describes the development of a camera description file.


Electrical tree growth is a precursor to dielectric breakdown in high voltage polymeric insulation. Partial discharge (PD) has a close relationship with electrical tree propagation and can be both used to understand the aging process, and as a diagnostic tool for asset management. In this paper it is shown that PD patterns change through the early stages of tree growth, and consideration of these changes gives insight into the processes of tree growth. Here, trees have been grown in epoxy resin in needle-plane geometries with 2 mm gaps, at 15 kV peak AC. The PD phase-resolved pattern can be regarded as a combination of the well-known turtle-like and wing-like PD patterns. As a tree extends its length, a wing-like pattern is seen and the maximum discharge magnitude has an almost linear relationship with the maximum length of the growing branch. Comparison of the energy released by discharges and the vaporization energy needed for tree growth supports the proposal that the wing-like pattern corresponds to PDs responsible for growth in length of the trees. Implications for mechanisms for tree growth are considered. Results suggest that asset managers may be able to use partial discharge analysis to distinguish different stages of tree growth, providing a valuable prognostic tool for optimising high voltage plant management and replacement.


Background: To evaluate a standard latex hysteroscopy model training course on gynecologists' surgical skills. Methods: 74 gynecologists who attended to hysteroscopy training courses of Training Centre, Tehran University, 2013 to 2015 were investigated. Theoretical information of trainees were obtained at the beginning, at the end and 6 months after the course by filling up a reliabile and valid questionnaire. and its subjective and objective impact on their surgical skills and satisfaction were evaluated.  Results: 87.84% of participants were satisfied by the curriculum and for most of them, virtual uteruses were felt realistic. After 6 months, subject impact of curriculum was 77.03%. But, 60.81% of gynecologists hardly could perform hysteroscopy, which was mostly due to lack of technology (53.22%)(Harders, 2006 #11). Objective assessment of surgical skills was done for those who could perform hysteroscopy. Of them 58.7% had experienced a significant increase in their surgical skills (p=0.004).  Correlation of subjective and objective impact of curriculum was low (r=0.43), (p=0.003). Conclusion: Hysteroscopy training program can improve gynecologists' hysteroscopic skills. The only index which is significantly correlated with the subjective impact of these courses is the number of previous operations. Also in Iran, because of lacking hysteroscopy equipment in most hospitals, the effect of training courses decreases after a while. So we recommend to train hysteroscopy in all medical universities and equip all hospitals with hysteroscope. Also we suggest training courses for all gynecologists and repeted it every some years.


Marine conservation is a complex challenge and its success is generally determined by social factors. Consequently, before promoting the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs), it is necessary to consider the stakeholder's vision upon them, their perceptions, interests and expectations, in order to minimize conflicts and achieve the necessary support for their implementation and effective management. In this context, and considering the project to propose the creation of a Multiple-Use Coastal Marine Protected Area (AMCP-MU) in the Almirantazgo Sound, we evaluated the perception of artisanal fishermen from the Magallanes region on the topics of biodiversity conservation, MPAs and the project to create a new AMCP-MU. Thirty-five fishermen were interviewed in different coves from Porvenir, Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales cities. In general, the interviewees demonstrated basic knowledge about the aforementioned topics, which, in general, was obtained through different means. Forty three percent of the fishermen interviewed, perceived MPAs as closed areas, intended to protect species and were human activities represent a threat to them, while 23% indicated that MPAs are not necessarily closed areas, allowing the development of some activities. Regarding the creation of an AMCP-MU in the Almirantazgo Sound, 68% of the fishermen stated that it should not generate restrictions for the development of their activities, nor for those of other sectors (e.g. tourism sector). In regards of the fishermen's perception upon the stakeholders linked to biodiversity conservation in the region, 54% of the fishermen showed some apprehension towards public services, due to their regulating and supervising role, while the tourism sector and Non-governmental organization were viewed more positively. The results of this work contribute to the understanding of the human dimension of marine conservation in Magallanes, highlight the importance of communication to find a common ground between diverse actors with different cultural interests and experiences, and provide contextual background for the process of creation and implementation of MPAs.


Objectives. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of guided imagery training on heart rate variability in individuals while performing spaceflight emergency tasks. Materials and Methods. Twenty-one student subjects were recruited for the experiment and randomly divided into two groups: imagery group (n = 11) and control group (n = 10). The imagery group received instructor-guided imagery (session 1) and self-guided imagery training (session 2) consecutively, while the control group only received conventional training. Electrocardiograms of the subjects were recorded during their performance of nine spaceflight emergency tasks after imagery training. Results. In both of the sessions, the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), the standard deviation of all normal NN (SDNN), the proportion of NN50 divided by the total number of NNs (PNN50), the very low frequency (VLF), the low frequency (LF), the high frequency (HF), and the total power (TP) in the imagery group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Moreover, LF/HF of the subjects after instructor-guided imagery training was lower than that after self-guided imagery training. Conclusions. Guided imagery was an effective regulator for HRV indices and could be a potential stress countermeasure in performing spaceflight tasks.


Since the turn of the millennia, the term "extreme weather" has been used very frequently in Norwegian media. It first appeared in the mid-1990s. This article tries to explain the rise of this new category of weather, by a historical comparison between the establishment of a Norwegian storm warning system in the second half of the 19th century and the establishment of a Norwegian extreme weather warning system by the end of the 20th. In both cases, the state was active. In the first case by establishing a national Meteorological institute and covering the necessary telegraph expenses for warnings by telegraph. In the second case by making this Meteorological institute a part of a new national system for protection against disasters. Both events were stages in a long term process of giving bad weather individuality, in order to make the warnings recognizable in growing currents of electronic information. However, extreme weather is not defined by physical properties, but by its expected economic, technical and social consequences. Thus, it's not a meteorological term, but an institutional one.


Pb2MReO6 (M = Co, Cr) perovskites were prepared by high pressure−high temperature method. Rietveld refinements of synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction show that the crystal structure of Pb2CoReO6 is trigonal (space group R-3) with almost complete ordering of Co and Re cations, while Pb2CrReO6 (space group Pm-3m) is a cubic perovskite with one single site for Cr and Re atoms. The difference between the symmetry and the degree of order was further clarified by X-ray absorption spectroscopy that establishes formal oxidation states in these phases as Pb2Co ReO6 and Pb2Cr ReO6. Pb2CrReO6 is a simple perovskite with a high magnetic ordering temperature of 643 K. Pb2CoReO6 is a double perovskite with −23% high field negative magnetoresistance at 10 K and 9 T. First-principles calculations of Pb2CoReO6 indicate a half metallic electronic structure.


ABSTRACT Although diversity-ecosystem theory predicts that ecosystem functioning is strongly determined by species number, species traits play an important role in regulating ecosystem-level dynamics. We analyze responses of species attributes to diversity level and resource availability, and explore their consequences for ecosystem functioning and ultimately assess the contributions of five traits (vegetative plant height, clonal growth, root depth, cespitose habit and seed mass) to ecosystem functioning defined by spatial stability of community biomass. We found that functional traits disproportionately affected spatial stability. Relationships between species functional traits and spatial stability of community biomass indicated that diversity of vegetative plant height facilitated stability of a nitrogen fertilized undisturbed natural community (NAT), and that of a phosphorus fertilized forb, legume and bunchgrass community (FLB). The clonal growth form was also identified as a stabilizing trigger for a unfertilized undisturbed natural community (NAT), whereas diversity in root depth, cespitose habit and seed mass were related to destabilization of a nitrogen fertilized rhizomatous grass community (RRR). Studies quantifying interactions among plant traits, community structure and ecological functioning will contribute much more to understanding of the effects of the ecological behavior of specific traits on the ecosystem functioning.


A new method for measuring the three-dimensional magnetic stray fields extending beyond a magnetic head is presented. The electron beams are injected to the head surface, and the positions of the reflected electron beams are measured at the detecting plane placed above, and in parallel with, the head surface. The three-dimensional magnetic fields are reconstructed using an algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) algorithm from the deflection vectors of the reflection electron beams which are deflected by the magnetic fields. Our measurement system was applied to the measurement of the field distribution of an erasing head for a video cassette recorder. From these results, the applicability of our method for measuring magnetic stray field distribution near the head surface is clarified.


This article describes a combined experimental and theoretical study on nanophase structure development as a result of liquid phase demixing in solution-cast blends of the organic semiconductor poly(9,9'-dioctyl fluorene) (PFO) and the ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)). Blend layers (200 nm) are prepared by spin coating a 1:9 (w/w) PFO:P(VDF-TrFE) blend solution in a common solvent on a poly(ethylenedioxy thiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonate) substrate. Owing to the pronounced incompatibility between the two polymers, a strong phase-separated morphology is obtained, characterized by disk-like nanodomains of PFO embedded in a P(VDF-TrFE) matrix, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy. By varying the processing conditions, we find the average domain size and standard deviation to increase with spinning time. The considerable increase in domain size suggests the coarsening process not to be impeded by a steep rise in viscosity. This indicates solvent evaporation to be only moderate within the experimental time frame. The evolution of the observed phase morphology is modeled using ternary diffuse interface theory integrated with a modified Flory-Huggins (FH) treatment of the homogeneous (bulk) free energy of mixing, to account for significant molecular differences between the active blend components. Using calculated FH interaction parameters, the model confirms the phase separation to occur via spinodal decomposition of the blend solution during spin coating, as suggested by experimental observations. The simulated phase morphologies as well as the modeled trends in domain growth and standard deviation compare favorably with the experimental data. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Abstract Introduction: Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) is an autosomal dominant disorder of chromosome 11p15 that results in increased IGF-2 and CDK1NC. This leads to excessive cell proliferation and tumor formation. The following highlights a case of metastatic pheochromocytoma in a patient with BWS. Clinical Case: A 30-year-old male presented with sudden onset blurry vision without any associated complaints. His past medical history was significant for BWS. His family history was negative for uncontrolled hypertension, sudden death, thyroid cancer or hyperparathyroidism. Physical examination was notable for an elevated systolic blood pressure of 200/160 mm of hg and fundoscopy revealed features of hypertensive emergency. Laboratory investigations revealed an elevated plasma normetanephrine [10445 pg/ml (normal: <148)], metanephrine [93 pg/ml (normal: <57)], total metanephrine [10538 pg/ml (normal: <205)], epinephrine [134 pg/ml (normal:<50)], norepinephrine [23526 pg/ml (normal: 112-658), total catecholamine level [23660 (normal: 123-671pg/ml)] and dopamine [403 pg/ml (normal<30)] levels. His PTH, corrected serum calcium, gastrin, insulin, carcinoembryonic antigen, calcitonin levels and basal metabolic panel were all normal. MRI of the abdomen demonstrated bilateral adrenal nodules with a large mass encasing the celiac axis along with evidence of hepatic lesions. I-123 MIBG scan showed mild radioactive tracer uptake in the adrenal nodules and mass near the celiac axis but not in the hepatic lesions. PET scan confirmed MRI findings and was negative for any evidence of malignancy in the chest, pelvis and skeleton. MRI of the brain was negative for metastasis as well as pituitary abnormalities. Ultrasound-guided liver biopsy was positive for malignant cells that stained positive for chromogranin and synaptophysin confirming the diagnosis of metastatic pheochromocytoma. He was treated with phenoxybenzamine, diltiazem and lisinopril. He underwent cycles of cyclophosphamide, vincristine and dacarbazine. Genetic testing revealed a variant in SDHD gene which was of uncertain significance. Repeat biochemical testing on follow up after a year and a half showed a decreased plasma normetanephrine [487pg/ml] and metanephrine levels [110 pg/ml] in comparison to his levels on presentation. Repeat imaging revealed a decrease in tumor burden including bilateral adrenal nodules, celiac axis mass and hepatic metastases. Conclusion: This is an unusual case of malignant pheochromocytoma in the absence of SDHB mutation in a patient with BWS. Genetic causes in these patients are yet to be determined. However, genes H19 and KCNQ1OT1 have been implicated in addition to IGF-2 and CDK1NC


Background: The primary objective of this U.S. based multi-center study was to examine the association of overweight and obesity with A1c levels for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) .
 Methods: Electronic health record data spanning 2017-2021 for children and adolescents from the T1D Exchange Quality Improvement (T1DX-QI) Collaborative was analyzed. BMI percentiles were calculated using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth curves, and children were categorized into normal weight, overweight, obese and severely obese groups. Normal weight was defined as a BMI < 85th percentile for age and sex. Overweight was defined as a BMI ≥ 85th to < 95th percentile. Obesity was defined as having a BMI <120% of the 95th percentile whereas severe obesity was defined as having BMI ≥120% of the 95th percentile. HbA1c levels and BMI were from last in-person encounter.
 Results: Of 14,484 T1D patients aged < 18 years, 2,063 (14%) were underweight, 9,320 (65%) normal weight, 1,769 (12%) overweight, 977 (7%) obese and 333 were severely obese (2%) . More people of Black (12%) and Hispanic (18%) race/ethnicity were in the obese group relative to the normal weight group (8% and 10% respectively; p<0.001) . HbA1c levels were higher in the obese/severely obese group compared to normal weight patients (HbA1c Mean (SD) : Obese (9.1 (2.3)) /severely obese (9.1 (2.2) vs. Normal weight: 8.7 (2.0) ; p<0.001) .
 Conclusion: In this extensive real-world study, we found obese children and adolescents with T1D were more likely of Black or Hispanic race/ethnicity and have higher HbA1c levels compared to those with healthy weight.

 A.B.Mekhoubad: None. B.Miyazaki: None. J.M.Lee: Advisory Panel; GoodRx, Consultant; Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. S.Hsieh: None. N.Noor: None. O.Ebekozien: None. S.Rompicherla: None. E.L.Ospelt: None. A.J.Roberts: None. J.Sanchez: None. D.Ferro: None.

 The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust


Based on sampling likelihood and feature intensity, in this paper, a feature-preserving denoising algorithm for point-sampled surfaces is proposed. In terms of moving least squares surface, the sampling likelihood for each point on point-sampled surfaces is computed, which measures the probability that a 3D point is located on the sampled surface. Based on the normal tensor voting, the feature intensity of sample point is evaluated. By applying the modified bilateral filtering to each normal, and in combination with sampling likelihood and feature intensity, the filtered point-sampled surfaces are obtained. Experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm is robust, and can denoise the noise efficiently while preserving the surface features.


MedfoLink is a new software technology that applies novel design features to help solve issues regarding medical records processing that are part of the national agenda. This software overcomes the vocabulary and performance limitations of existing medical language processing technologies by employing high speed databases, Java, and the UMLS (unified medical language source). MedfoLink is a Java technology that enables a computer to accurately record and interpret data from patient records. MedfoLink's design incorporates two novel approaches: (a) intelligent algorithms that with practice improve comprehension of medical records and (b) the ALI (adaptive learning interface) architecture that enhances performance by integrating existing technologies with an object-oriented approach. Future applications of MedfoLink range from individual patient care, to clinical drug trials, to public health monitoring.


This paper develops an exploratory analysis of the situation and future possibilities of the municipality of Santa Maria Huatulco (Oaxaca, Mexico) from the perspective of planning and management of smart destinations. It begins with the conceptualization of smart tourism destination and points out how this notion developed from that of smart city. Subsequently, after setting out the methodology followed, the four main characteristics of smart destinations are presented: innovation, technology, sustainability and accessibility. It continues with the presentation of two success stories: Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Tequila (Mexico), and highlights the practices carried out by these destinations to ensure the satisfaction of their citizens, as well as those who visit them. Later, the municipality of Santa María Huatulco and its current state are qualitatively analyzed based on the four characteristics mentioned above. The text closes with some reflections discussing the main areas in which this municipality should work to become a smart tourist destination, as well as the benefits of such a conversion.


The concepts of Landscape Ecology applied to urban planning may favor the hierarchical classification of vegetation fragments, identifying the most important ones according to the city zones' land use. We present the case study of Sao Goncalo do Rio Abaixo, a town that is going through a deep transformation process due to the iron mining activities in the Iron Quadrangle in the state of Minas Gerais. The methodological process presupposes the classification of RapidEye satellite images and mapping of use and land cover; application of landscape metrics (area, perimeter, distance to nearest neighbor, core area, shape index and NRVI); and the integration of metrics using multi-criteria evaluation. Areas that are appropriate for the application of public policies, which promote the management of the vegetation cover, have been identified. These comprise not only the institutional green areas but also private properties, since the vegetation cover must be understood as a systemic network.


The KefB and KefC systems of Escherichia coli cells are activated by iodoacetate (IOA) and chlorodinitrobenzene (CDNB), leading to a rapid drop in the intracellular pH. However, survival of exposure to IOA or CDNB was found to be essentially independent of KefB and KefC activation. No correlation was found between the toxicity of the compound and its ability to elicit protective acidification via activation of KefB and KefC.


With the help of a set of exact closed-form solutions to the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we comprehensively investigate Landau and dynamical instabilities of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a periodic array of quantum wells. In the tight-binding limit, the analytical expressions for both Landau and dynamical instabilities are obtained in terms of the compressibility and effective mass of the BEC system. Then the stability phase diagrams are shown to be similar to the one in the case of the sinusoidal optical lattice.


Conservation and management of Hawai'i's native freshwater-amphidromous fishes, crustaceans, and gastropods is hindered by a lack of biological information. A one year project was begun at 'Ohe'o Gulch, Haleaka15 National Park in November, 1992 to develop population survey methodologies for application at 'Ohe'o and other streams, to establish a baseline of population information at 'Ohe'o, and to gather population data which could be compared to populations elsewhere. Direct observation quadrat methods were used to survey the populations of 'o'opu (Lenfipes concolor, Sicyopterous stirnpsoni, and Awaous guamcnsis), '6pae kuahiwi (Atya bisulcata), and hihiwai (Neritina gmnosa). Trapping was used to survey the alien prawn Macrobrachiurn lar. During the project the 'o'opu and '6pae populations were surveyed twice each. Hihiwai and M. lar were surveyed three and four times each respectively. IIabitat quality appeared poor overall, but good in some upper segments of the stream system. The method developed for 'o'opu provided consistent results between observers and through time. Methods for the other species also provided good results. In the cases of 'o'opu and '6pae, numerical resampling of survey data dcmonstratcd that statistical power to detect temporal changes in overall density is likely to bc enhanced by using fewcr quadrats per station and a greater number of stations in subsequent surveys. The overall size frequencies and the withinstream distribution of average sizes of 'o'opu, '6pae, and M. lar were fairly stable. The within-stream species distribution of 'o'opu conformed to expectations and was also stable. In comparison with other streams in pristine areas of Hawai'i, 'o'opu and 'Zipae abundance was generally low. I Iowcver, 'o'opu 'alamo'o were locally abundant and individual 'alamo'o were very large in some areas. E Iihiwai were almost non-existent and appear to have declined in abundance since a prior survey two decades ago. M. lar were abundant and exhibited symptoms of 'black-spotted' disease. Other demographic characteristics of these species were analyzed. The causes of the observed low native faunal abundance in 'Ohe'o are unknown. Limited surveys were also carried out in next-door Pua'alu'u Stream. Withinstream species distribution differed between lower 'Ohe'o and the lower reach of Pua'alu'u. Such difference may be attributed to differing hydrology and geomorphology. Population monitoring in 'Ohe'o should continue and include monitoring of reproduction and recruitment via larval trapping at the terminus. Such monitoring might be conducted in conjunction with an M. lar control program.


In 2005, members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) formed the Injection Support Team (IST). A community-based research project examined this drug-user-led intervention through observation of team activities, over 30 interviews with team members, and 9 interviews with people reached by the team. The IST is composed of recognized "hit doctors," who perform outreach in the open drug scene to provide safer injecting education and instruction regarding safer assisted-injection. The IST represents a unique drug-user-led response to the gaps in local harm reduction efforts including programmatic barriers to attending the local supervised injection facility.


Mobile applications, particularly those from social media platforms such as WeChat and TikTok, are evolving into"super apps"that offer a wide range of services such as instant messaging and media sharing, e-commerce, e-learning, and e-government. These super apps often provide APIs for developers to create"miniapps"that run within the super app. These APIs should have been thoroughly scrutinized for security. Unfortunately, we find that many of them are undocumented and unsecured, potentially allowing miniapps to bypass restrictions and gain higher privileged access. To systematically identify these hidden APIs before they are exploited by attackers, we developed a tool APIScope with both static analysis and dynamic analysis, where static analysis is used to recognize hidden undocumented APIs, and dynamic analysis is used to confirm whether the identified APIs can be invoked by an unprivileged 3rdparty miniapps. We have applied APIScope to five popular super apps (i.e., WeChat, WeCom, Baidu, QQ, and Tiktok) and found that all of them contain hidden APIs, many of which can be exploited due to missing security checks. We have also quantified the hidden APIs that may have security implications by verifying if they have access to resources protected by Android permissions. Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential security hazards by presenting various attack scenarios, including unauthorized access to any web pages, downloading and installing malicious software, and stealing sensitive information. We have reported our findings to the relevant vendors, some of whom have patched the vulnerabilities and rewarded us with bug bounties.


Introduction. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is the most common pathology of polyethological sound perception. Systemic glucocorticosteroid therapy has long been considered the main treatment method. In recent years, topical therapy has been of great interest. However, intratympanic injections cause considerable discomfort to the patient and require about 1 hour per day to perform the procedure.Materials. In order to modernize and reduce the time spent on delivering steroids into tympanic cavity, this article considers the experience of managing 41 patients with sudden unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Patients of the first group received dexamethasone 4 mg / ml in a volume of 1 ml by catheterization of the auditory tube, followed by introduction into the tympanic cavity. Patients of the second group were divided into 2 subgroups: in the first subgroup, dexamethasone 4 mg / ml in a volume of 0.5 ml was administered into tympanic cavity through a pre-imposed hole in the eardrum using a radio-wave device, and patients of the second subgroup received a classic intratympanic injection of dexamethasone 4mg / ml 0.5 ml after application anesthesia of the eardrum. The audiometry was performed before treatment, after 1, 2 weeks, 1 and 6 months.Results. The average time spent in the clinic of patients of the first group was 30 minutes, while patients of the first subgroup of the second group had 20 minutes a day. The longest time in the clinic was 2 subgroup of patients from 2 groups-about 1 hour.Conclusions. Radio-wave myringotomy is the safest and most convenient method. The smallest amount of time spent on the patient was observed in the subgroup of intratympanic injections that performed radio-wave miringotomy. It has been proved that the methods of topical treatment are not inferior in efficiency to each other.


The indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base raises serious concerns about whether those detainees will receive the process and rights due to them under statute and whether they will have the power to pursue those rights. How, for instance, could a detainee pursue an effective appeal of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal without effective assistance of counsel? How could a detainee challenge his detention when the U.S. government renders that detainee to foreign custody? The All Writs Act is a broad and historic statute originally codified in the Judiciary Act of 1789 that provides that 'courts may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.' The Act provides the courts with an equitable power to issue injunctions that ensure that litigants' substantive rights are not frustrated by interstices in the applicable law. It is in this Act that district courts exercising habeas corpus jurisdiction found the right to effective assistance of counsel and the right to thirty days' notice prior to transfer to foreign custody. The Military Commissions Act stripped the courts of habeas jurisdiction with respect to alien enemy combatants, but the equitable power of the All Writs Act can attach to any jurisdiction, including the appellate power given to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review determinations made at Guantanamo Bay. This Note provides a roadmap for the standard that should apply when the courts consider whether to issue an All Writs Act injunction, and concludes that such injunctions are not only permissible but also an appropriate and important exercise of the courts' power.


Abstract The establishment of new regional economic alliances beyond the frontiers of a single nation has required that engineers be prepared to work in an economy that is now best seen as essentially international in nature. It is evident that future engineers should have a better understanding of the global economy, awareness of cultural diversity, and appropriate training to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams. This paper describes an adaptation of the first year Introduction to Engineering Design course at Penn State that has been tailored not only to teach the basic concepts in design, innovation and creativity, but also to introduce in experimental sections the concept of global design, and expose the students to other cultures through multi-national projects. Students are required to work in global design teams with students from institutions in other countries. They are challenged to solve a design problem and to use effectively the available technology for communication. This multinational project provides students the opportunity to work in a global distributed team, learn the value of different ideas from different cultures, gain knowledge of design opportunities in other countries and become skilled at how to use collaborative tool effectively.


Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Objective To determine the short-term outcomes of two different lateral approaches to the lumbar spine. Methods This was a retrospective review performed with four fellowship-trained spine surgeons from a single institution. Two different approach techniques were identified. (1) Traditional transpsoas (TP) approach: dissection was performed through the psoas performed using neuromonitored sequential dilation. (2) Direct visualization (DV) approach: retractors are placed superficial to the psoas followed by directly visualized dissection through psoas. Outcome measures included radiographic fusion and adverse event (AE) rate. Results In all, 120 patients were identified, 79 women and 41 men. Average age was 64.2 years (22 to 86). When looking at all medical and surgical AEs, 31 patients (25.8%) had one or more AEs; 22 patients (18.3%) had a total of 24 neurologically related AEs; 15 patients (12.5%) had anterior/lateral thigh dysesthesias; 6 patients (5.0%) had radiculopathic pain; and 3 patients (2.5%) had postoperative weakness. Specifically, for neurologic AEs, the DV group had a rate of 28.0% and the TP group had a rate of 14.2% (p < 0.18). When looking at the rate of neurologic AEs in patients undergoing single-level fusions only, the DV group rate was 28.6% versus 10.2% for the TP group (p < 0.03). Conclusion Overall, 18.3% of patients sustained a postoperative neurologic AE following lateral interbody fusions. The TP approach had a statistically lower rate of neurologic-specific AE for single-level fusions.


This paper presents a model for COVID19 in Mexico City. The data analyzed were considered from the appearance of the first case in Mexico until July 2021. In this first approximation the states considered were Susceptible, Infected, Hospitalized, Intensive Care Unit, Intubated, and Dead. As a consequence of the lack of coronavirus testing, the number of infected and dead people is underestimated, although the results obtained give a good approximation to the evolution of the pandemic in Mexico City. The model is based on a discrete-time Markov chain considering data provided by the Mexican government, the main objective is to estimate the transient probabilities from one state to another for the Mexico City case.


Abstract The problem of reducing data from continuously recording ice nucleus counters is addressed. These instruments characteristically have large response times which make their data difficult to interpret. A statistical theory of instrument response is developed which parameterizes the response of these instruments and reconstructs an estimate of the true count-versus-time profiles. Data from two NCAR ice nucleus counters used on separate field projects are summarized to provide example response characteristics. Field calibration techniques for these NCAR counters are also described. Although intended for use on ice nucleus counters, the interpretation techniques are applicable to other continuously recording instruments having significant response times.


We studied minute ventilation, breathing pattern, end-tidal CO2 partial pressure (PACO2), and tracheal occlusion pressure in cats anesthetized with ketamine (40 and 80 mg/kg) before and after CO2 inhalation. Before CO2 administration ventilation was reduced and PACO2 increased relative to unanesthetized cats at both ketamine doses. Breathing pattern was of the "apneustic" type, being characterized by 1) prolonged inspiratory duration and relatively short expiratory time and 2) markedly curvilinear (convex upward) inspiratory volume-time profile. The latter reflected a similar curvilinearity in the tracheal occlusion pressure waveform. During CO2 inhalation, the ventilatory response to CO2 was similar to that in unanesthetized cats in spite of a depressed tracheal occlusion pressure response. This discrepancy was due to the fact that in the presence of a convex upward inspiratory volume-time profile, the shortening of inspiratory duration with increasing CO2 results in a marked increase of mean inspiratory flow, and hence the ventilatory response to CO2 remains high.


The influence of certain factors on organizational structure has been in researchers' focus for years, together with their impact on the overall organizational efficiency. Many of these factors are from the environment where traditional view commonly divided into internal and external factors. This paper presents the findings of a study to evaluate the influencing factors and impact on organizational structure of a sample of firms located in Hanoi, Vietnam. Structured questionnaires were administered with respect to these factors. The variables studied were identified from among the factors considered in contingency theory and by incorporating elements of the strategic choice approach. After grouping the variables into two factors (related to external and internal respectively), the results revealed three groups of firms according to how they regarded the impact of these factors on organizational structures. In those groups that consider the variables of internal factors to be modifiers of structure the organizational structures are of the "complex classical" type, whereas simple forms predominate in the group that believes these variables do not modify their structure.


We propose a novel mechanism for the coexistence of metallic ferromagnetism and singlet superconductivity assuming that the magnetic instability is due to kinetic exchange. Within this scenario, the unpaired electrons which contribute to the magnetization have a positive feedback on the gain of the kinetic energy in the coexisting phase by undressing the effective mass of the carriers involved in the pairing. The evolution of the magnetization and pairing amplitude and the phase diagram are first analyzed for a generic kinetic exchange model and then are determined within a specific case with spin dependent bond-charge occupation.


Natural gas demand is projected to continue to rise. To meet this demand an increase in exploration and drilling will occur. This paper identifies some long term ecological impacts that remain following the plug and abandonment of the drill pads.


Coffee is a major international commodity, and because of this, coffee production has the potential for considerable global impacts on the environment. These impacts can include the consumption of energy, water, land and the loss of native forest. Here we quantify these costs using Costa Rica as a case study, and describe an initiative undertaken at the Montes de Oro Cooperative in which these impacts are reduced substantially through the development and application of alternative technologies. We show how these processes reduce the consumption of resources, and also reduce economic costs to the farmer, thus providing a market-based incentive for conservation. The initiatives undertaken at Montes de Oro can provide a model for the future, for reducing the environmental costs of coffee production, while simultaneously improving the economic conditions of the people in coffee producing regions.


The main objective of this study was to analyze the geometric parameters of the northwestern flank of the Ruashi II mine in relation to the geomechanical characteristics of the host rock if they are respected. This flank experienced a slope failure of the stopes slopes that washed away 177m3 of earth, which hampered the mining operations for several months. To do this, modeling based on the measurements of discontinuities, discriminated a family of stratification whose orientation is 87/311, two families of breaks oriented 77/45 and 46/117 and a westward sliding plane whose orientation parameters are 44/300. Samples taken from the three formations on the flank up to the current operating level have been used to determine the geomechanical parameters that were used to assess the margin of safety with respect to the rupture. After implementation of the 2D model obtained on the area under study by performing two cuts, the result showed that the safety factor was satisfactory. The landslide that occurred at the Ruashi II site is due to the saturation of the soil by the infiltration of runoff water through the tensile cracks in the Saprolite. This resulted in a decrease in cohesion and an increase in specific weight in the geological formations. For its protection, a surface drainage upstream of the unstable zone by digging gullies and percolation drains at the foot of the bleachers is to be considered.


This article introduces the Music Therapy Community Clinic's (MTCC) Music for Health Project based in a tuberculosis (TB) hospital in South Africa. The value of this community music therapy project is explored from various narrative frameworks pertaining to health and the TB disease. Initially viewed from a reductionist medical narrative with a primary focus on treatment of physical symptoms, music therapy offers patients a diversion from their illness, but is perhaps a luxury rather than an essential form of therapy. The project is then considered from a narrative framework of empowerment, placing TB as a disease that predominantly affects those who are disempowered through poverty, stigmatization and isolation. Three case studies explore how community music therapy serves to empower patients on individual and collective levels, and consider possibilities this may hold for influencing the health behaviour of patients. As TB is becoming a pertinent issue worldwide, the article may offer possibilities for the role of creative approaches in the care of TB patients.


Acute obstructive cholangitis due to the migration of necrotized tumor fragment is a rare complication occurring after a transarterial chemoembolization. The percutaneous tumor removal procedure following percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage is an appropriate treatment over endoscopic removal for the relief of acute cholangitis in this case. Following this serial management, no invasive hepatocellular carcinoma of the bile duct recurred after two years of follow-up.


This paper considers a dynamic lot-sizing problem with backlogging under a minimum replenishment policy. For general concave production costs, we propose an O(T5) dynamic programming algorithm. If speculative motive is not allowed, in this case, a more efficient O(T3) algorithm is developed.


Introduction: Tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) is a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory or in second or later relapse, and adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) after at least 2 lines of systemic therapy. Real-world data on the safety of tisa-cel are limited, particularly in the pediatric and young adult patient ALL indication. Data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and Cellular Therapy (CT) Registry presented at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in 2019 found that efficacy and safety outcomes in 105 patients treated with tisa-cel for the ALL indication (Grupp 2019) and 47 treated for the LBCL indication (Jaglowski 2019) were largely similar to the clinical trials. Because tisa-cel is the only CAR T-cell therapy currently approved for 2 distinct indications in 2 distinct populations, we sought to further characterize the real-world adverse event (AE) profile of tisa-cel in each indication. In this large-scale analysis, we utilized the FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) database to assess tisa-cel-related AEs in both the ALL and LBCL indications.
 Methods: The FAERS database contains de-identified reports of product-related AEs, coded using the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) and classified as serious or non-serious. The database was queried for cases involving tisa-cel (and its trade name) in patients up to 25 years of age for the ALL indication, from the FDA approval date (August 30, 2017) through March 31, 2020; and in patients age ≥18 years for the LBCL indication, from the FDA approval date (May 1, 2018) through March 31, 2020. Cases were excluded if the age of the patient was unknown, or if the case was reported outside the US. Patient characteristics and AEs were summarized using descriptive statistics; comparisons of the proportion of AEs by indication were made using the Chi-square test with statistical significance determined at a two-sided α=0.05.
 Results: A total of 687 cases were retrieved (428 pediatric or young adult ALL, 259 adult LBCL); 94% of the cases were classified as serious. The median age among ALL cases was 13 years (range 0.5-25 years) and the median age among LBCL cases was 65 years (range 18-89 years) (Table). For both indications, cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was the most commonly reported reaction term (56.5% of ALL cases and 53.7% of LBCL cases). Some clinical features of CRS, including pyrexia, hypotension, and tachycardia, were reported more frequently among ALL cases compared with LBCL cases (pyrexia 51% vs. 41%; hypotension 25% vs. 16%; and tachycardia 9% vs. 5%, for ALL versus LBLC cases, respectively). A greater proportion of ALL cases reported immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), including headache and seizure (11% and 3% respectively, vs. 3% and <1% in LBCL cases). Hypogammaglobulinemia and infections were also reported in ALL cases more often than in LBCL cases. Out of specification test results with tisa-cel were reported in a greater proportion of LBCL cases (1.6% of ALL cases vs. 7.3% of LBCL cases).
 Conclusion: In this, the largest real-world analysis of AEs associated with tisa-cel to date, we found statistically significant differences in AE patterns between ALL and LBCL. A greater proportion of cases under the ALL indication reported ICANS, infections, and some CRS clinical features, including pyrexia, hypotension, and tachycardia. Out of specification test results showed trends similar to those reported from the CIBMTR CT Registry, where a higher proportion of LBCL patients had cell viability <80% compared to ALL patients. These differences in reported AEs based on the indication can complement clinical trial data and can assist clinicians in appropriate prevention and mitigation efforts when using tisa-cell.

 Zettler: Cardinal Health: Current Employment. Feinberg:Cardinal Health: Current Employment. Balanean:Cardinal Health: Current Employment. Gajra:Cardinal Health: Current Employment.


Slepian and Wolf (see IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol.19, p.471-80, July 1973) first considered the data compression of correlated sources called the SW system, where two sequences emitted from correlated sources are separately encoded to codewords, and sent to a single decoder which has to output original sequence pairs. Recently, Oohama (see IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol.42, p.837-47, May 1996) has extended the SW system and investigated a more general case where there are some mutual linkages between two encoders of the SW system. In this paper, we investigate variable-length coding which allows asymptotically vanishing probability of error for the system considered by Oohama. We clarify the admissible rate region for mixed sources characterized by two ergodic sources, and show that this region is strictly wider than that for fixed-length codes.


Building home assistant robots has long been a goal for vision and robotics researchers. To achieve this task, a simulated environment with physically realistic simulation, sufficient articulated objects, and transferability to the real robot is indispensable. Existing environments achieve these requirements for robotics simulation with different levels of simplification and focus. We take one step further in constructing an environment that supports household tasks for training robot learning algorithm. Our work, SAPIEN, is a realistic and physics-rich simulated environment that hosts a large-scale set of articulated objects. SAPIEN enables various robotic vision and interaction tasks that require detailed part-level understanding.We evaluate state-of-the-art vision algorithms for part detection and motion attribute recognition as well as demonstrate robotic interaction tasks using heuristic approaches and reinforcement learning algorithms. We hope that SAPIEN will open research directions yet to be explored, including learning cognition through interaction, part motion discovery, and construction of robotics-ready simulated game environment.


Background: In China, routine chest X-ray (CXR) is generally required for peripherally inserted central venous catheters (PICC) to determine the position of the catheter tip. The aim of this study is to assess the value of a routine post-procedural CXR in the era of ultrasound and intracavitary electrocardiography(IC-ECG) -guided PICC insertion. Methods: A retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted to review the clinical records of all patients who had PICCs in the Venous Access Center of Beijing Cancer Hospital between January 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020. The incidence of catheter misplacement after insertion was measured. A logistic regression analysis was performed to examine potential risk factors associated with PICC-related complications and a cost analysis to assess the economic impact of the use of CXR.Results: There were 2,857 samples from 2,647 patients included. The overall incidence of intraoperative and postoperative catheter misplacement was 7.4% (n=210) and 0.67% (n=19), respectively. There was a high risk of postoperative catheter misplacement when the left-arm was chosen for placement (OR: 10.478; 95% CI: 3.467-31.670; p<0.001). The cost of performing CXR for screening of PICC-related complications was $23,808 per year, and that of using CXR to diagnose one case of catheter misplacement was $1253.Conclusion: This study confirms that misplacement of PICCs guided by ultrasound and IC-ECG is rare and that postoperative CXR is very costly. In our setting, routine postoperative CXR is unnecessary and not a wise option.


Male Sprague Dawley rats received various amounts of extract of Crassostrea gigas by gavage every day for 2 weeks or one month. At these times, groups of animals were sacrificed and samples of major organs analyzed for levels of glutathione (GSH) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. Following the two week protocol, GSH levels were significantly increased in the mucosa of the large intestine; at one month the small intestine and spleen were elevated. GST activity increased in liver under both schedules and at one month, activity was also elevated in kidney and small intestine. Since the Crassostrea gigas extract contains high levels of a variety of important amino acids, it is concluded that biologically available peptides are taken up in target organs and stimulate GSH metabolism. Enhanced levels of GSH and associated enzymes may contribute to a more effective detoxification phenotype, thus providing enhanced chemoprotective capacity.


Partition coefficients relate the amount of a trace element that enters a growing crystal to the amount of that element in the coexisting fluid. These coefficients are constants and are characteristic of each mineral species. Although poorly known at the present time, partition coefficients can be readily determined in the laboratory for many geologically important minerals. When the coefficient is known, the composition of the fluids in which a crystal grew can be calculated by measuring the level of concentration of that element in a mineral. In this way new information can be obtained for important paleoecological and other geological problems. Examples are given to illustrate how this concept can be applied by using the trace elements in the evaporation products of or in contact with sea water to determine paleosalinities and related problems.


Despite the use of new performance measurement systems (PMSs), such as Balanced Scorecard (BSC), organisations worldwide have collapsed, leaving few clues before their collapse. So, two questions arise: 'Why does it happen?' and 'How can it be addressed and resolved?' The motivation of this research paper is to address these two questions. The study is a 'multi-case study' comprise of four cases for which the 'documentary review procedure' has been used to analyse data. For the development of theproposed model, this study used 'analytic generalisation' where BSC is used as our initial template. This study found that strong business performance can quickly be negated if the associated risk factors in achieving KPIs are not taken into account explicitly. It is also found that ignoring or paying insufficient attention to all relevant stakeholders in designing PMS makes an organisation more vulnerable to collapse. The basic limitation of case study research is applicable to this study. Further research can be carried out to test empirically the validation of our proposed model in different geographical settings. The study uncovers the underlying weakness of existing PMSs which fall short of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Based on the balanced scorecard, our proposed Performance-Risk Linkage Model (PRLM) will have the potential to demonstrate a revamped conduit in strategic performance measurement systems, which will enable practitioners to get a competitive edge in managing the performance of complex organisations. This is one of the very few studies that examine the scope of the integration of key risk factors and all relevant stakeholders with performance measurement systems and, to our knowledge, the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific Region.


Within the IEEE, young engineers are called Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD). All IEEE members who graduated within the last ten years are automatically enrolled as GOLD members. For more information about the GOLD initiative, please visit http://www.ieee.org/GOLD. The CE Society builds up a variety of offers for GOLD members, with one of them being the GOLD events during the Society's conferences. These GOLD conference events are briefly highlighted.


A three component catalyst system entailing an amino acid (O(t)Bu-L-threonine), a hydrogen bond donor (sulfamide), and an amine base (DMAP) allows α-branched aldehyde addition to nitroalkenes in good to high yield and excellent ee. Importantly, the lowest reported catalyst loading (5.0 mol%) and aldehyde stoichiometry (1.2-2.0 equiv) is demonstrated and in most instances the best current product profile is observed.


We describe an original asymmetric synthesis of (S)-α-methylDOPA proceeding by the concept of memory of chirality, the only source of chirality being the starting D-alanine. The initial chirality of the amino acid is temporarily transferred to a dynamic axial chirality of a tertiary aromatic amide. The (S)-α-methylDOPA hydrochloride is obtained after four steps with 98% ee.


Abstract International marriage is composed over 10% among total marriage in Korea. This study tried to know what kinds of social networks, especially transnational networks, the immigrant wives use for the process of being married and for the adjusting to marriage and Korean culture, and how their Korean families also are affected by the transnational networks. For the purposes of this study FGI and the interviews were applied for the immigrant wives, the multicultural husbands and the specialist groups in metropolitan city DaeGu. 18 migrant interviewees from Vietnam, China, Philippine, etc. were collected by the snow-ball sampling. 5 husbands were collected from the self-help meeting in multicultural families support center. The transnational networks of the immigrant wives in DaeGu were deterritorialized and reterritorialized actively. Migrant wives managed the close relationship with their family members of motherland, and had the networks sticky with relatives, friends, and other fore-immigrant wives from the same countries. Their migrations are characterized as 'chain migration'. Even though they acquired the Korean nationality, they have the transnational identities. They and their Korean families are interrelated and internetworked in exchanging economic resources as goods and money, human beings, love, child caring, foods and culture over local boundaries.Keywords: the migrant wives, chain migration, deterritorialization, reterritorialization, the transnational networks


Since the Microsoft Kinect has been released, the usage of marker-less body pose estimation has been enormously eased. Based on 3D skeletal pose information, complex human gestures and actions can be recognised in real time. However, due to errors in tracking or occlusions, the obtained information can be noisy. Since the RGB-D data is available, the 3D or 2D shape of the person can be used instead. However, depending on the viewpoint and the action to recognise, it might present a low discriminative value. In this paper, the combination of body pose estimation and 2D shape, in order to provide additional characteristic value, is considered so as to improve human action recognition. Using efficient feature extraction techniques, skeletal and silhouette-based features are obtained which are low dimensional and can be obtained in real time. These two features are then combined by means of feature fusion. The proposed approach is validated using a state-of-the-art learning method and the MSR Action3D dataset as benchmark. The obtained results show that the fused feature achieves to improve the recognition rates, outperforming state-of-the-art results in recognition rate and robustness.


This paper presents an analysis of the major mechanical component (the thorax) of the micromechanical flying insect (MFI), a centimeter sized aerial vehicle currently in development at UC Berkeley. We present a description of the kinematics of the mechanism which converts piezoelectric actuation into complex 3D wing motion. A complete non-linear modeling of the system based on the Lagrangian energy technique is presented. A design methodology is presented in order to achieve optimal matching conditions. Two kinds of sensors which are presently utilized on the MFI are described. Experimental results are presented which validate some of the modeled non-linear aspects of the mechanism.