Background: This study was to determine whether the plasma level of apolipoprotein-A1(Apo-A1) is a better discriminator of coronary artery disease than the level of high density cholesterol(HDL). Methods: Blood samples were collected for Apo-A1 estimation at baseline from 75 patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) and 75 patients with Unstable angina (UA) / Non ST elevation MI(NSTEMI) and age and sex matched 50 controls. Results: The level of plasma apolipoprotein A1 in 75 patients with acute MI was 99.00±18 mg/dL, which was significantly lower (p<0.001) than the level in 50 controls 151.0±24 mg/dL. The level of plasma apoA1 in 75 patients with unstable angina / NSTEMI was 118±17 mg/dL, which was also lower (p<0.001) than the level in 50 controls 151.0±24 mg/dL. The level of HDL cholesterol in acute coronary syndrome patients and controls was statistically not significant (p>0.05) i.e., 38.33±5.35 mg/dL, 39.33±3.09 mg/dL and 38.79±6.91 mg/dL respectively. Conclusion: This study underscores the importance of HDLcholesterol in predicting the risk of coronary events and demonstrates protective effect of apo lipoprotein-A1.


Using Turkish Household Budget Surveys from 2003, 2007 and 2012, this paper investigates the determinants of household education expenditures within an Engel curve framework. In particular, we estimate Tobit regressions of real educational expenditures by income groups using a number of household characteristics (i.e. rural residence, employment status, age, educational attainment of the household head, household size, share of female students and primary school students in the household, and total number of students in the household) to examine if and to what extent the determinants of educational expenditures differ by income groups; income elasticities of educational spending evolves over time; and children from middle-class and poor families can benefit enough from educational opportunities. The estimated expenditure elasticities have lower values for the top- and the bottom-income quartiles while they have larger values for the middle-income quartiles. The results also show that for all income groups the expenditure elasticity of education increases over time, indicating that Turkish households allocates greater share of their budgets to education expenditures


summary For neither I nor anyone else could have known from the beginning what roads we would travel, what choices we would make, nor what the results of these choices would be; in ourselves, in time and space, and in that nightmare called history. James Baldwin "Of the Sorrow Songs: The Cross of Redemption" July 29, 1979 This thesis project is a series of meditations, thoughts, reflections, lingering and fleeting, that move between three geopolitical locations: Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam; Kasoa, Ghana; and Detroit, Michigan. These locations are principally connected by virtue of my travels and work in all three in the summer of 2013. On a deeper level, one that this thesis elucidates, these three locations represent three different, yet connected, modalities of Black movement and existence. A modality is a mode, a single aspect or condition of a larger phenomenon. I begin in the mid-20 century, in Europe, with James Baldwin, Vincent Carter, and Richard Wright with a focus on their non-fiction writing composed while traveling abroad in the late 1950s. Through these three authors I consider the narrative and conceptual techniques employed as each undertakes reflection on the 'self', the 'other', and one's national home. This chapter is grounded in (Black) existentialism and employs the works of Albert Camus and Frantz Fanon as analytical frameworks. The latter three chapters each focus on a specific modality of movement. Migration: Amsterdam picks up on the discordant notes played when Black American travelers, seeking to escape the conditions of Blackness in the United States, meet Dutch Caribbean migrants who are dealing with experiences of post-coloniality in a xenophobic European metropole. The principal literature engaged includes Heather Neff's novel Haarlem; Stew's musical Passing Strange; Anton de Kom's We Slaves of Suriname; and the performance art of Musa Okwonga. Voluntourism: Ghana is composed entirely of my own literary travel writing that is based on notes and observations from my time volunteering in Kasoa, Ghana addressing child labor issues in three fishing communities. This chapter reflects on a variety of concerns ranging from post-coloniality and race, neoliberalism and NGO work, and the ironic dimensions of Western travelers seeking to find a mode of existence beyond capitalistic relations. Automobilty: the last chapter on Detroit is based around my return home at the end of the summer and offers reflections on the relationship between the automobile and the material conditions of Detroit (and of Blackness). In this chapter I argue that analytical work on Black social life, in this instance automobility and hip-hop culture, requires one to think beyond dominant representations and frameworks of understanding Blackness so that one does not reify status-quo, denigrating ideas of Black life used to justify social death. The conclusion ends with a concise yet poignant statement that for the Black subject moving through the aftereffects and afterlives of enslavement, apartheid, and colonialism: the process of traveling is about healing, about escape into togetherness, and into thinking and living beyond and beneath. 1 1 Etymology: from effugiō ("to escape, flee from, avoid, shun") Noun: effugium an escape, flight; a means or way of escape. 2 "to consent not to be a single being" By Fred Moten (2010) Noun: effugium an escape, flight; a means or way of escape.


When customers evaluate a product or service, they weigh its perceived value against the asking price. Marketers have generally focused much of their time and energy on managing the price side of that equation, since raising prices can immediately boost profits. But that's the easy part: Pricing usually consists of managing a relatively small set of numbers, and pricing analytics and tactics are highly evolved.


We demonstrate a new class of bandpass frequency selective surface (FSS), the building block of which, unlike the traditional FSSs, makes use of resonant dipole and slot structures that have dimensions much smaller than the operating wavelength. This design allows localization of bandpass characteristics to within a small area on the surface which in turn facilitates flexible spatial filtering for an arbitrary wave phasefront. The proposed FSS is made up of periodic array of metallic patches separated by thin air-gaps backed by a wire mesh having the same periodicity (Ltlambda). The array of metallic patches constitute a capacitive surface and the wire mesh a coupled inductive surface, which together act as a resonant structure in the path of an incident plane wave. Like traditional FSSs, the capacitive and inductive surfaces of the proposed FSS can easily be fabricated using printed circuit technology on both sides of microwave substrates. It is shown that by cascading such bandpass surfaces in a proper fashion, any arbitrary multipole filter or non-commensurate multiband response can be obtained. The frequency response of the proposed miniaturized-element frequency selective surface (MEFSS) is demonstrated for various incident angles and it is shown that one-pole designs are less sensitive than two-pole designs to the angle of incidence. Dual band designs are also possible based on two-pole designs, but are more sensitive to incident angle than single band designs because of their larger (in terms of wavelengths) spacing. Prototypes of single-pole and dual-pole MEFSSs are fabricated and tested in a waveguide environment at X-band frequencies and excellent agreements between the measured and simulated results are demonstrated


Background

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is a major global health concern and is typically diagnosed by in-lab polysomnography (PSG). This examination though has high medical manpower costs and alternative portable methods have further limitations. This paper develops a new model for screening the risk of OSAS in different age groups and gender by using body profiles. The effects of body profiles for different subgroups in sleep stage alteration and OSAS severity are also investigated.
Methods

The data is derived from 6614 Han-Taiwanese subjects who have previously undergone PSG in order to assess the severity of OSAS in the sleep center of Taipei Medical University Shuang-Ho Hospital between March 2015 and October 2019. Characteristics of subjects, including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), neck circumference, and waist circumference, were obtained from a questionnaire. Pearson regression was used to evaluate the correlations between body profiles and sleep stages as well as sleep disorder indexes. To develop an age and gender independent model, random forests (RF), which is an ensemble learning method with high explainability, were trained by the four groups by gender and age (older or younger than 50 years old) with ratios of 70% (training dataset) and 30% (testing dataset), respectively. Prediction performance was evaluated by sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Variable importance was assessed by averaging the impurity decrease to account for the effect of different factors.
Results

Results indicate that high BMI, neck circumference and waist circumference decreased the duration of slow-wave sleep and increased the sleep disorder indices and the percentage of wake and N1. Additionally, screening models for different gender and age utilizing anthropometric features as predictors via RF were established and demonstrated to have high accuracy (75.63% for younger males, 74.72% for elder males, 78.81% for younger females, and 72.10% for elder females). Feature importance indicated that waist circumference was the highest contributing factor in females and elder males, whereas the BMI was the highest contribution in younger males.
Conclusions

The authors recommend the use of the prediction models for those with Han-Taiwanese craniofacial features.


Editor,—Early surgical intervention has been reported to achieve closure of laser induced macular holes.1 2 We report a case of spontaneous closure of a laser induced macular hole indicating that surgery should not be undertaken before a reasonable period of observation.

### CASE REPORT

A 24 year old physics postgraduate student accidentally sustained an injury to his right eye while aligning an 806 nm titanium-sapphire laser. The laser parameters were pulse energy 2 mJ, pulse duration 100 femtoseconds, and repetition rate 10 Hz. The duration of exposure was limited by his blink reflex. He noted immediate impairment of central vision in this eye.

When examined by an ophthalmologist 2 days later, visual acuity was 6/18 in the right eye. Amsler testing demonstrated an absolute paracentral scotoma which was 1.5° in diameter and abutted fixation. A full thickness macular hole was present with loss of both neurosensory retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The hole was …


Study Objectives
Interventions that decrease leg fluid retention reduce obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity in nonrandomized experiments. We aimed to investigate in a randomized trial the effect of interventions that reduce fluid volume on OSA severity.

Methods
Men diagnosed with severe OSA were randomized to receive daily spironolactone 100 mg + furosemide 20 mg or nutritional counseling to sodium-restricted diet plus placebo pill or placebo pill. All participants underwent home sleep apnea testing at baseline and after 1 week follow-up. The change in apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was the primary outcome.

Results
The study included 54 participants and all were assessed at follow-up. The average baseline value of the AHI was similar among groups and from baseline to follow-up the AHI reduced 14.4 per cent (δ value -7.3 events per hour; 95% confidence interval, -13.8 to -0.9) in the diuretic group, 22.3 per cent (-10.7; 95% CI, -15.6 to -5.7) in the diet group, and 0.8 per cent (0.4; 95% CI, -2.5 to 3.2) in the placebo group (p = .001 for time × group interaction). None of the patients had their AHI returned to normal. The reduction in the total body water was 2.2 ± 2.2 L in the diuretic group (p < .001) and 1.0 ± 1.6 l in the low salt diet group (p = .002). Sleepiness and neck circumference were significantly reduced only in the diet group (p = .007 and p < .001 for the time × group interactions, respectively).

Conclusions
Interventions to reduce bodily fluid content in men with severe OSA promoted a limited decrease of apnea frequency. This finding suggests that rostral fluid displacement affects only partially the OSA severity and/or that other factors prevail in determining pharyngeal collapsibility.

Clinical Trial
Sodium-Restricted Diet and Diuretic in the Treatment of Severe Sleep Apnea (DESALT), https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01945801 ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT01945801.


Chinese horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) is a Xiphosura animal of significant commercial importance and in danger of extinction in China. To better estimate how genetic structure can be used to obtain a conservation perspective of the species, genetic variation was examined in nine locations covering its distributing range in the coast of Chinese mainland using ten nuclear microsatellite DNA loci and mitochondrial DNA control region (CR) sequences. Moderate levels of genetic diversity were detected (expected heterozygosity from microsatellites was 0.635, haplotype diversity from mitochondrial DNA was 0.800) as a whole. Significant genetic differentiation was detected only by mitochondrial DNA (FST = 0.0693, P < 0.01), while microsatellite markers indicated nuclear genetic homogeneity of these locations. Probably, nuclear genetic homogeneity was caused by outbreeding among different groups due to artificial transporting. Very weak genetic differentiation indicates that reintroduction programs of the movement and mixing of horseshoe crab from different locations will result in minimal negative genetic effects. Upon four management units were inferred from the results of CR analysis, accordingly four or more nature reserves should be established to conserve this endangered animal along the Chinese coast. Haplotype network pattern indicated that T. tridentatus population in Chinese coast has undergone historic population expansion and very recent historic population recession. Mismatch distributions analysis also revealed existence of historic demographic expansion.


In this project, we present the controlling of a Robot using DTMF technique .The robot is controlled by a mobile phone that calls the other mobile phone attached to the robot. In the course of the call, if any button is pressed, the tone corresponding to the button pressed is heard at the other end. This tone is called "Dual Tone Multi Frequency tone (DTMF)".Using DTMF code, direction of motion of the robot can be controlled by mobile phone. The above system can be used for military purpose as "bomb detector" and as "spy robot" and also for surveillance.


Despite the huge success of deep neural networks (NNs), finding good mechanisms for quantifying their prediction uncertainty is still an open problem. Bayesian neural networks are one of the most popular approaches to uncertainty quantification. On the other hand, it was recently shown that ensembles of NNs, which belong to the class of mixture models, can be used to quantify prediction uncertainty. In this paper, we build upon these two approaches. First, we increase the mixture model's flexibility by replacing the fixed mixing weights by an adaptive, input-dependent distribution (specifying the probability of each component) represented by NNs, and by considering uncountably many mixture components. The resulting class of models can be seen as the continuous counterpart to mixture density networks and is therefore referred to as compound density networks (CDNs). We employ both maximum likelihood and variational Bayesian inference to train CDNs, and empirically show that they yield better uncertainty estimates on out-of-distribution data and are more robust to adversarial examples than the previous approaches.


The purpose of this research is to develop guides by the adoption process of mobile phone in teacher working group or "Kelompok Kerja Guru" (KKG) to assess continued professional development (CPD) context with surface, deep and implicit structures. The members of KKGs have disparities age between junior teacher, middle and senior teacher where they have advantages and drawbacks. A KKG provides workshops, training and discussions that are held each month. To enable and foster these activities across diverse communities, across urban, suburban and rural settings where they have intentions to help teachers improve their competences, KKGs use mobile phone platform (for example; WhatsApp, BBM, Line, Facebook, Twitter) to communicate and share ideas between group members. This study still ongoing through working closely with members (young and old) of KKGs to explore the benefits and drawbacks of a mobile learning approach to assess continued professional development context with surface, deep and implicit structures. The methodology of this study uses qualitative research with a case study based on the government project namely Program Peningkatan Kompetensi Pembelajaran (PKP) Berbasis Zonasi (initial in English; Zoning based Learning Competency Improvement Program) to extend through mobile phones in teacher working groups to complete High order thinking skill (HOTS). The project will take several weeks by observation on the mobile phone, semi-interview to find the aim of this study.


CD44 is a glycoprotein involved in inflammation and cell-cell/cell-matrix interactions. CD44 is upregulated in the kidney upon injury; however, its role in the pathogenesis of renal damage and fibrosis remains largely unknown. The authors show that mice lacking CD44 developed more tubular damage, associated with decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis of tubular epithelial cells, but less renal fibrosis after unilateral ureteral obstruction. In addition, impaired influx of macrophages and decreased accumulation of myofibroblasts was observed in the obstructed kidney of CD44(-/-) mice compared with CD44(+/+) mice. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) exert reciprocal functions in the progression of renal diseases and interact with CD44 in vitro. For the first time, the authors establish diminished HGF-signaling, via its high affinity receptor c-Met, in the absence of CD44 in vivo. In parallel, the signaling of TGF-beta1 reflected by the relative phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of Smad-2 and Smad-3 was reduced in the obstructed kidney of CD44(-/-) mice. In conclusion, CD44 exerts protective effects on tubuli but contributes to renal fibrogenesis at least in part through enhancement of HGF and TGF-beta1 signaling pathway in obstructive nephropathy.


Noise inspection is a predictive maintenance technique that is used to determine machine condition. The noise inspection can be done offline and online. Online noise inspection, which is far away from the object, is performed in the control center room. This monitoring system requires a complicated installation and long cables. The complexity of installation can be overcome by implementing a wireless noise inspection system. Wireless noise monitoring system for machinery condition monitoring still lacks information. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a wireless noise monitoring system. The result of wireless noise testing data on the machine is justified through the analysis of noise testing data of wired system. The research objective was to create a wireless noise measurement that is applied on a gearbox that is equipped with a data acquisition system that operates at a constant load and 5 variations of speed. Comparative analysis is used to justify the noise amplitude, time domain, and frequency domain of wireless and cabled measurements. The final test result indicates that the noise and wireless spectrum signals match the noise spectrum and signals using a cable. The highest amplitude lies at 12-13 of a fundamental frequency at a low frequency and at 30 of a fundamental frequency at a high frequency.


The biharmonic operator plays a central role in a wide array of physical models, notably in elasticity theory and the streamfunction formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The need for corresponding numerical simulations has led, in recent years, to the development of a discrete biharmonic calculus. The primary object of this calculus is a high-order compact discrete biharmonic operator (DBO). The numerical results have been remarkably accurate, and have been corroborated by some rigorous proofs. However, there remained the "mystery" of the "underlying reason" for this success. This paper is a contribution in this direction, expounding the strong connection between cubic spline functions (on an interval) and the DBO. It is shown in particular that the (scaled) fourth-order distributional derivative of the cubic spline is identical to the action of the DBO on grid functions. The DBO is constructed in terms of the discrete Hermitian derivative. A remarkable fact is that the kernel of the inverse of the discrete operator is (up to scaling) equal to the grid evaluation of the kernel of $\Big[\Big(\frac{d}{dx}\Big)^4\Big]^{-1} .$ Explicit expressions are presented for both kernels. The relation between the (infinite) set of eigenvalues of the fourth-order Sturm-Liouville problem and the finite set of eigenvalues of the discrete biharmonic operator is studied, and the discrete eigenvalues are proved to converge (at an "optimal" $O(h^4)$ rate) to the continuous ones. Another remarkable consequence is the validity of a comparison principle. It is well known that there is no maximum principle for the fourth-order equation. However, a positivity result is derived, both for the continuous and the discrete biharmonic equation, showing that in both cases the kernels are order preserving.


Currently product soyghurt not as popular as yoghurt which first appeared in the middle of society and the market. This is possible because of differences in sensory characteristics soyghurt products that are less favored by consumers . In addition to , there is still a lack of effort in developing products manufacturer soyghurt direction preferred by konsumers.This study was conducted to determine the position of the sensory attributes of the seven types of products of yoghurt and soyghurt from the consumer preference. This research was carried out by using the internal and external preference mapping technique. The object of this research, were 7 types of samples from different products, which consists  3 types of products soygurt and 4 types of commercial yoghurt. Sensory analysis was performed hedonic test and descriptive test. Results of cluster analysis of hedonic test and principal component analysis of descriptive test were then analyzed using the technique of preference mapping. Sensory attributes choosen by the consumer in this study is a sweet taste, cheese aroma and smoothness and attributes that are most unpreferred by consumers is a sour taste and a strong smell of acid and followed by a bitter taste. Keywords: Consumers preference, preference mapping, sensory attribute, soygurt, yoghurt.


ABSTRACT The effects of demethylbellidifolin (DMB), a xanthone compound extracted from Swertia davidi Franch, on activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) were investigated. Rat HSC line HSC-T6 cultured in vitro showed an activated status, which expressed α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and synthesized collagen I. Treated with different concentrations (10, 20, or 40 μM) of DMB for 12 –48 hr could markedly inhibit cell proliferation reflected by MTT and [3H]thymidine incorporation assays, and downregulate the expressions of both α-SMA and collagen I in HSC-T6 cells. Also, such treatment concentration-dependently downregulated both mRNA and protein expressions of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). The expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) was very low in activated HSC-T6, which could be significantly upregulated by treatment with DMB. Furthermore, PPAR-γ antagonist PD68235 (5–20 μM) markedly blocked these effects of DMB mentioned above. In summary, DMB inhibits HSC proliferation and activation, which may be related to activating PPAR-γ-mediated pathway.


ABSTRACT Previous work has shown that older adults with typical age-related memory changes (i.e., without cognitive impairment) pick up irrelevant information implicitly, and unknowingly use that information when it becomes relevant to a later task. Here, we address the possibility that implicit processes play a similarly beneficial role in the cognitive abilities of individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Twenty-two individuals with aMCI and 22 matched controls participated in a picture judgment task while instructed to ignore distractions in the form of word/non-word letter strings. Memory for the distracting words was later tested with a word-fragment completion task. Both groups showed a priming effect, that is, they were significantly more likely to solve fragments of previously presented than non-presented words. However, the aMCI group had significantly higher scores than the older adults without cognitive impairment, t(42) = 2.16, p < .05, Cohen's d = 0.67. Our findings suggest that individuals with aMCI can enhance their performance on an explicit cognitive task, in this case, word-fragment completion, if previously exposed to the relevant information implicitly, opening up possible interventions aimed at this population.


We explore the transient dynamics associated with the emergence of the classical signal in the full quantum system. We start our study from the instability which promotes the squeezing of the quantum system. This is often interpreted as the particle production though being reversible in time. We associate this state a non-dissipative classical fluctuations and study their trigger to develop the coherent state which can be classical if sufficiently developed. The Schwinger-Keldysh in-in formalism yields the classical Langevin equation including the fluctuation force which faithfully reflects the particle production property of the original quantum system. This formalism is applied to some transient process; the initiation of the spontaneous symmetry breaking, appearance of the off-diagonal long-range order in Bose-Einstein condensation, a transient process of the classicalization of the quantum fluctuations in the inflationary cosmology,... and gives some implications on the origin of the irreversibility associated with the transition from quantum to classical.


The response to external electric fields of the $^{1}\mathrm{P}^{\mathrm{o}}$ resonance ``dip'' in the ${\mathrm{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ photodetachment continuum cross section below the n=3 hydrogenic excitation threshold is investigated. Using the relativistic (\ensuremath{\beta}=0.806) 650-MeV ${\mathrm{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ beam at the Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) in Los Alamos, the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of a Nd:YAG laser (where YAG denotes yttrium aluminum garnet) is Doppler shifted to provide a continuously tunable photon beam in the rest frame of the ions. The magnetic field from pulsed Helmholtz coils, surrounding the photon-${\mathrm{H}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ interaction point provides a Lorentz-transformed barycentric electric field. As the magnitude of the external field is increased, there is no observed shift in the photon energy to excite the resonance ${E}_{o}$, 12.650\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.001 eV, until quenching occurs at a field strength of 2.36 MV/cm. The effective strength of the resonant state is consistent with a linear decrease with increasing field. The line shape index q is constant within statistical uncertainty, until the resonance disappears. There is evidence that the width of the resonance remains constant at fields below 1.25 MV/cm. It then broadens at higher fields before the resonance quenches.


Exhorting psychiatrists to use covert medication is not right. Unlike in pediatrics and geriatrics, a small section of schizophrenics and mood disorder patients with full awareness of their legal rights, vehemently refuse medications. In such cases "rules" are required to regulate covert medication, forced medication etc. Only that way both patients' right for autonomy and the professionals duty to administer treatment could be simultaneously taken care of. Section 19 of the Mental Health Act 1987 provides the required legal provision for this. Civil society expects psychiatrists too to function within the boundaries set by a legal framework.


Recently, the task of image generation has attracted much attention. In particular, the recent empirical successes of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique of Langevin Dynamics have prompted a number of theoretical advances; despite this, several outstanding problems remain. First, the Langevin Dynamics is run in very high dimension on a nonconvex landscape; in the worst case, due to the NP-hardness of nonconvex optimization, it is thought that Langevin Dynamics mixes only in time exponential in the dimension. In this work, we demonstrate how the manifold hypothesis allows for the considerable reduction of mixing time, from exponential in the ambient dimension to depending only on the (much smaller) intrinsic dimension of the data. Second, the high dimension of the sampling space significantly hurts the performance of Langevin Dynamics; we leverage a multi-scale approach to help ameliorate this issue and observe that this multi-resolution algorithm allows for a trade-off between image quality and computational expense in generation.


This research study explored the perception African American men had of mentorship, its value to their education and the effects it had on their college success at a predominantly White institution. The study further focused on the impact mentorship had on the student when the mentor was of a different race versus the same race of the student. The research was guided by the following questions: (1) What is the value of mentorships related to attending a higher education institution, (2) What factors lead Black male students to seek mentorships, (3) What are the perceived differences between mentorship with cross-race faculty/staff and Black male faculty/staff, and ( 4) What is the Black males' perception of the role of mentorship to their success? From each research question posed several themes emerged: guidance, growth, acceptance, retention, feeling unsupported, sense of belonging, barriers such as uncomfortableness, white faculty/staff reticence, stereotypes, and lastly mentorship roles that bridge the gap and provide encouragement and company. Research revealed that students perceived mentoring to be of great value to their college experience. Although not mutually exclusive, it was also determined that having access to Black faculty/staff also played a major role in the student's retention and satisfaction at the PWI. Even though all of the participants interviewed expressed feeling comfortable with White faculty/staff, they also identified barriers to seeking mentorship. Feelings of segregation, being stereotyped, and judged led these students to seek mentorship with Black faculty/staff who they believed could identify with their strife and provide them with encouragement to overcome these obstacles. Recommendations include developing multicultural competency programming for faculty/staff to properly address the needs of Black male students, providing comfortable spaces for Black males to express and address their feelings, and the hiring of more Black faculty/staff to assist in their development and serve as role models. iii


We analyze hydrographic and current observations of an upwelling center off eastern South America on the Uruguayan coast ( 35S) and downshelf from the Rio de la Plata estuary. Our observations show that the buoyancy-driven subtidal alongshore circulation is modulated by winds. During the winter, strong upwelling-favorable local winds forced the Rio de la Plata buoyant plume poleward. In the summer, the plume detached from the coast with warm and saline subtropical waters intruding from the north. These waters bounded the upwelling of cold waters in the nearshore area off Uruguay. A shallow submarine canyon cutting obliquely across the shelf facilitates the advection of cold waters into the coastal upwelling domain. An upwelling jet was detected off Uruguay for summer conditions, while for winter the plume configuration generated strong horizontal shear of along-shelf currents. Cross-shelf circulation was dependent on the coastal stratification. Under low stratification (summer) a two-layer circulation developed, with thick surface and bottom mixed layers flowing in opposite directions. High stratification levels (winter) modified this pattern by allowing circulation along a thick stratified interior. The existence of upwelling was linked to the history of wind events and shelf stratification. During the winter, downwelling winds frequently restore the plume, so the upwelling efficiency is very low. In the summer, downwelling events are less frequent and intense, so that the cumulative effect of upwelling events act to export the Plata freshwaters offshore. The reduction of inner-shelf stratification increases the likelihood of a full upwelling to the surface. Analysis of the wind-induced Ekman transport suggests that the Uruguay upwelling system reflects a seasonal wind pattern modulated by significant interannual variability.


INTRODUCTION Trigeminal neuralgia is a severe, debilitating facial pain disorder that has driven some to suicide when unable to obtain relief. Afflicted patients often describe the pain as 'shocking', 'lightning', or 'electric'. If a patient describes pain in the face with words such as these, the diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia should be at the top of the differential diagnosis. Historically, treatment has ranged from poultices and salves to injecting boiling water into the cheek to kill the nerve. The introduction of carbamazepine brought successful medical management to many, but adverse effects, and gradual development of refractory pain, mean that some patients still require invasive procedures to achieve pain control. The goal is to identify the point at which surgical intervention should be considered, and then to guide the choice of procedure. MEDICAL MANAGEMENT First line therapy for trigeminal neuralgia is carbamazepine (Tegretol). If the patient cannot tolerate carbamazepine, other anticonvulsants


The importance of wireless communications, involving electronic devices, has been growing. Performance is a very relevant issue, leading to more reliable and efficient communications. Laboratory measurements are made about several performance aspects of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b, g) Open four-node-point-to-multipoint links. A contribution is given to performance evaluation of this technology, using available equipments (V-M200 access points from HP and WPC600N adapters from Linksys). New detailed results are presented and discussed, namely at OSI layers 4 and 7, from TCP, UDP and FTP experiments: TCP throughput, jitter, percentage datagram loss and FTP transfer rate. Comparisons are made to corresponding results obtained for Open point-to-point links.


This article focusses on Al-Nur, a community centre in Istanbul, Turkey, that caters to Syrian and Palestinian Syrian refugees. It is based on five months of fieldwork conducted in the winter and spring of 2017 in Turkey that included participant observation as a volunteer English teacher at Al-Nur. A focus on the philosophy that guides Al-Nur's functioning as a community centre as well as on the stories of displacement of some of its managers and volunteers sheds light on the importance of being able to (re)create home in exile. Such a focus also sheds light on how repeated displacement has shaped Palestinian Syrian refugees' experiences of exile from Syria as well as their interactions with Syrian refugees.


Circuit techniques for a CMOS amplifier suitable for read waveform signal processing in high-speed disk drives are described. A 30-MHz low-noise preamplifier with a gain of 100 was designed in 3- mu m CMOS, capable of being driven by an inductive source, and producing an equivalent input noise voltage spectral density of 2 nV/ square root Hz. This, with other recent developments, makes it possible to conceive of entirely CMOS read/write signal-processing ICs. >


The public increasingly requires that higher education institutions demonstrate their return on investment by measuring graduation rates, cost per student, job placement rates, and income. The motivation is economic: public institutions are accountable to the investor, in this case, the taxpayer. Tribal Colleges and Universities (tcus), on the other hand, are indebted to and inspired by the revolutionary vision of their founders: the ancestors, elders, and community members who believed that higher education rooted in tribal sovereignty, identity, systems, and beliefs would ensure the survival and prosperity of their people. tcus are advancing Native student access and completion, developing scholars who are contributing to knowledge creation through community-based research, and promoting economic and entrepreneurial development in tribal communities.


Based on the double-layer elastic foundation beam theory, the rails and the wall plates of the electromagnetic launching device are modeled as a double-layer elastic cantilever foundation beam. After establishing the kinetic differential equation and setting the boundary condition of the cantilever beam, the displacement solution of double-layer elastic cantilever foundation beam under no load condition is obtained. Applying theHeaviside Function, the deflection equation of the upper and lower beam, the expression of the bending moment, and the stress are obtained. In the case of given motion parameters and structural parameters, the analytical solutions of the rail and the wall plate are calculated. The ANSYS numerical analysis is carried out under the same condition and the results of both solutions are in good agreement. The results can provide theoretical basis for the design of strength and stiffness of the electromagnetic launch device.


Buist, N. R. M., Campbell, J. R., Castro, A., and Brant, B. (1971). Congenital islet cell adenoma causing hypoglycemia in a newborn. Pediatrics, 47, 605. Frentz, V. K. (1959). Tumors of the Pancreas, p. 79. Armed Forces, Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C. Grant, D. B., and Barbor, P. R. H. (1970). Islet-cell tumour causing hypoglycaemia in a newborn infant. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 45, 434. Robinson, M. J., Murray-Clarke, A., Gold, H., and Connelly, J. F. (1971). Islet cell adenoma in the newborn: report of two patients. Pediatrics, 48, 232. Yakovac, W. C., Baker, L., and Hummeler, K. (1971). Beta cell nesidioblastosis in idiopathic hypoglycemia of infancy. Journal of Pediatrics, 79, 226.


PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION
It has been reported that interleukin (IL)-8 is produced in the amnion and that its production is enhanced by the initiation of labor. The purpose of this study was to clarify the mechanism of IL-8 production by amnion-derived (WISH) cells.

METHODS
Cells were cultured and treated with various concentrations of interleukin (IL)-1alpha, IL-1 receptor antagonist (ra), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- alpha, C2-, C6-ceramide, mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitor (U0126) and pyridinyl imidazole (p38 MAP kinase inhibitor, SB203580). IL-8 in the culture medium was measured by ELISA.

RESULTS
The production of IL-8 was significantly increased by IL-1alpha or TNF-alpha, and the increase of IL-8 stimulated by IL-1alpha was suppressed by IL-1 ra in a dose-dependent manner. The increase in IL-8 production by IL-1alpha or TNF-alpha was further enhanced by simultaneous addition of C2-ceramide. The increase of IL-8 stimulated by IL-1alpha or TNF-alpha was also suppressed by treatment with U0126 or SB203580. The results of this study demonstrate that the production of IL-8 induced by IL-1alpha and TNF-alpha is enhanced by C2-ceramide, and suppressed by MEK inhibitor or P38 MAP kinase inhibitor.

CONCLUSION
The results suggest that ceramide-mediated accumulation and MAP kinase-mediated suppression of inflammatory events in the amnion may play an important role in the maintenance of pregnancy and initiation of labor.


A descriptive study was conducted to determine the emotions of women at three points during the amniocentesis process. A volunteer convenience sample of 60 women who were undergoing a first amniocentesis in the second trimester of pregnancy participated in the study. Participants completed a demographic and an amniocentesis information survey upon entry into the study. An emotion scale was administered at three specific times. Results showed that positive emotions increased significantly as the process unfolded. Some negative emotions decreased over time. Correlation of the information score and the emotion score demonstrated no significant relationship between these variables.


━━ Background. Pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (PEH) is a malignant tumor that is de-rived from the vascular endothelium. It is difficult to determine an appropriate treatment for this tumor because most PEHs are slow-growing. We herein report the case of a rapidly progressive PEH. Case. The patient was a 31-year-old female patient who was found to have an abnormal shadow on a chest radiograph taken during a health examination. Whole-body computed tomography and positron emission tomography revealed a nodule of 2.6 cm diameter in the right lower lobe and multiple small nodules in both lungs. We performed partial resection of the right lower lobe and diagnosed PEH with pleural invasion. At 6 months after surgery, the patient developed but-tock pain, and recurrence was detected in the left and right iliac bones and in the resection stump of the right lung. At 10 months, metastasis was detected in the vertebral bones and left femur. Her pain improved after pallia-tive irradiation of bone metastasis. At 13 months, the patient's dyspnea associated with right malignant pleural ef-fusion worsened. We performed pleurodesis but could not control the pleural effusion. She died at 16 months after surgery. Conclusion. Most PEHs are slow-growing malignant tumors; however, rapid progression may occur, as was observed in this case. Patients with PEH require close follow-up and


Transgenic mice harboring the human hemopexin promoter sequences linked to the lacZ reporter gene were generated and analyzed for temporal and spatial distribution of beta-galactosidase. Upstream sequences spanning from -1800, -700 and -500 bp to the transcription start point direct regulated beta-galactosidase expression specifically to the liver and to the brain of transgenic mice. These results suggest that the 500 bp DNA fragment flanking the 5'end of the human hemopexin gene contains the cis-acting elements required for tissue and developmental stage-specific expression in vivo and provide evidence for a new extrahepatic site of expression of the hemopexin gene.


The objective of the study was to examine the effect of exogenous hydrogen sulde donor; sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS), on thefree radical generation, cNOS uncoupling in the myocardium, and diastolicfunction in old rats. To evaluate diastolic function of the heart, we used pressure-volume (PV) conductance catheter system (Millar Instruments, USA). It was shown that H2S levels in. the isolated mitochondria and whole heart homogenates obtained from old age rats were significantly lower comparing with adult animals. The markers of combined oxidative and nitrosative stress (the rate of 0 ₂⁰ H generation, pools of H₂0₂, diene conjugates, malondialdehyde, uric acid, the activity of iNOS, nitrate reductase, and NO pools) were increased in the old hearts in line with cNOS uncoupling. Such changes in NOS coupling resulted in the loss of diastolic relaxation (decrease of the rate of relaxation of the left ventricle (dp/dtmin) by 33%, 3-times increase of the end-diastolic pressure, 1.5-time increase of the time constant of left ventricular relaxation (Tau g) and 2-time increase of the end-diastolic stiffness). It has been found that NaHS inhibits oxidative and nitrosative stress, restores cNOS coupling and constitutive de novo synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), which promotes an improvement of the diastolic function (increase of the dp/dtmin by 20% and decrease of Tau g by 13%) . Key words: aging; cNOS uncoupling; heart; hydrogen sulfide; nitrosative stress; oxidative stress.


Abstract In 2012–2013, the people of Vietnam participated in a lengthy process of public consultation to amend the constitution and land law. This article analyzes the approach that party leaders took during the 2013 constitutional consultation and law-making period as the leaders responded to submissions calling for radical reforms of constitutional and legal arrangements of land ownership. This analysis will provide insights into how, if at all, the discussion in 2012–2013 was different from previous discussions in relation to reforming the constitutional and legal arrangements of land ownership in Vietnam. The article argues that despite unprecedented consultation and discussion, party leaders did not intend to make substantive changes to land ownership.


Fire is the most important disturbance factor in Cypress (Austrocedrus chilensis) forests in Patagonia, Argentina. This ecosystem recovers poorly after fire, and direct sowing could be a potentially useful restoration practice. To evaluate the effect of season of sowing, post‐fire plant cover (PC), and climatic variability on seedling emergence and survival, three direct sowing studies were established in two burned cypress stands: Trevelin (xeric conditions) and El Bolsón (mesic conditions). Two studies were conducted in winter (2000 and 2001) and one in spring (2001). Precipitation was higher than the mean during the 2000–2001 growing season and lower during 2001–2002. At both sites, emergence and survival were much higher for winter‐ than for spring‐sown seedlings. In the xeric stand, emergence and survival of winter‐sown seedlings increased with medium and high PC values, after the humid and dry summers, respectively. However, most spring‐sown seedlings did not emerge, and those that did were short‐lived. Because of the more favorable growing conditions in the mesic stand, PC had no effect on emergence and only favored first year survival of winter‐sown seedlings after the dry summer. Spring‐sown seedlings showed no association with PC in the mesic site, probably because the first summer was exceptionally humid. We speculate that shading plants exert a positive effect on cypress seedling establishment, likely by reducing the stress from high temperatures and low water availability. Sowing of small patches under the protection of understory vegetation could be useful in restoring burned cypress stands.


Decorating a home is a major investment and we all want to be sure that our choice of paints, wallpapers, and fabrics is the right one. This practical, informative illustrated guide to understanding and using color enables you to create a stylish home that reflects your individual taste and is a pleasure to live in. Based on a pioneering color system called "Living with Color," this approach will both simplify and refine all of your decorating and furnishing decisions. The "Living with Color" system divides the color spectrum into six clearly defined palettes - Air, Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, and Mineral - in addition to a range of Naturals. Each palette is then subdivided into warm and cool shades. Inspiring color photographs show how these palettes can be combined beautifully in interior decoration. The book then addresses the entire home, room by room, offering practical, straightforward, and economical advice on using different color palettes to achieve particular styles and effects. A superb selection of color photographs illustrates color schemes for both contemporary and traditional kitchens, living rooms, dining rooms, halls, bedrooms, bathrooms, children's rooms, and home offices. Carolyn Warrender demonstrates the practical use of color with step-by-step advice on how to make your own sample board, and with easy-to-follow decorating projects, each showing the use of special paint effects or other color-based techniques. These projects are brought to life by specially commissioned artworks and by the author's own tips for personal finishing touches. Finally, a questionnaire and a series of checklists enable you to create a personalized portfolio of colors. Once you've identified the colors that you most enjoy, you will be able to create a home that is a true reflection of your personal taste and lifestyle.


With the FPLAPW (full potential linearized augmented plane wave) method we calculate the equilibrium volumes, the bulk moduli and the electronic structures of the light actinide metals in their crystal structure of ambient conditions. We examine also their structural stability under pressure and we show several phase transitions for Np and Pu. The results are significantly different from the previous calculations. With our fully relativistic MTO (muffin tin orbital) method we find for the stabilized δ-phase (face centred cubic) of Pu an electronic structure which presents a 5f peak pinned at the Fermi level, in agreement with photoelectron spectroscopy and the high value of the electronic specific heat coefficient.


The human nose has the potential to be an alternative route for the systemic delivery of a wide range of therapeutic agents. The richly supplied vascular nature of the nasal mucosa and its high drug permeation makes it a potential route for the administration of many drugs including proteins, peptides and vaccines. Nasal route is most suitable for those drugs which cannot be administered orally due to gastric degradation or hepatic first pass metabolism. In situ forming polymeric systems are formulations that are in sol form before administration into the body but once administered, undergo gelation in situ, to form a gel. The formation of in situ gel depends on factors like temperature, modulation, pH change, presence of ions etc. Temperature modulated gel is the widely accepted in situ formulation. The article provides a detailed review on the mechanism of in situ gel formation and the type of polymers used along with their evaluation. The uses of the strategies which enhance the nasal bioavailability are being used to formulate a number of drugs for delivery via the nasal route. A combination of mucoadhesive polymer along with thermoreversible polymer can be utilized for easy and safe delivery of therapeutic agents including biopharmaceuticals.


Abstract We revisit a phenomenological description of turbulent thermal convection along the lines proposed originally by Gough (1965) in which eddies grow solely by extracting energy from the unstably stratified mean state and are subsequently destroyed by internal shear instability. This work is part of an ongoing investigation for finding a procedure to calculate the turbulent fluxes of heat and momentum in the presence of a shearing background flow in stars.


Background Injuries pose a major public health and development problems in construction work places. However there is limited studies and given less attention by the government and companies to protect the construction workers from injury.This study aims to estimate prevalence and factors associated with injury among 40/60 condominium construction workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional quantitative data method was conducted to estimate the prevalence and factors associated with injury among 40/60 condominium construction workers. For the survey, 504 workers from city government of Addis Ababa 40/60 condominium sites were selected using multistage sampling technique. Data were collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaire. The data were entered by using EPI Info version 7 and analysed using SPSS version 20, and results were presented in tables and figures. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was used as a measure of effect. Result The prevalence is 38.3%, of the respondents have got injuries. Marital status (married of [AOR: = 0.054 (0.005–0.616)], single AOR: = 0.058 (0.005–0.661), Divorcee [AOR: = 0.072 (0.005–0.0989)] and coupled [AOR: = 0.031 (0.002–0.403)], service [AOR: = 0.404 (0.231–0.711)], chewing chat [AOR: = 2.570 (1.589–4.158)] and not using personal protective device [AOR: = 0.355 (0.192–0.654)] were significantly associated with injury among 40/60 condominium construction workers. Conclusion In this study the prevalence of injury among 40/60 construction workers was 38.3% CI 95% (33.9, 42.5) with significant associated factors of marital status, chat chewing, service year and not using personal protective device. Therefore counter measures such as creating awareness of risk factors, providing and using personal protective devices could be effective to decrease prevalence of injuries among construction workers.


Purpose
The best treatment for femur fractures is the surgical one within 48 h from the admission to the hospital. These fractures have serious consequences, both in terms of morbidity and socio-economic impact. In the hospital A.O.R.N. Cardarelli of Naples in Italy, the mean pre-operative length of hospital stay (LOS) was nine days and just 4 per cent of patients was operated within the suggested time. Therefore, a diagnostic-therapeutic-assistance path (DTAP) was implemented to improve the process.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes two groups of patients (534 and 562, respectively) before and after the introduction of DTAP, through six sigma (SS) based on define, measure, analyze, improve and control cycle. Age, gender, American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) score, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and allergies were used as independent subgrouping variables. The t-tests and chi-square were performed to compare the groups, tools of SS were used.

Findings
The analyses were conducted considering overall patients and some subgroups. The overall reduction in LOS was about 54 per cent, patients without cardiovascular diseases and with a low ASA score had the highest reduction, more than 60 per cent. All the p-values proved a high statistically significant difference between the two groups.

Research limitations/implications
The influence of the Italian health-care system is a minor limitation while, unfortunately, the lack of a follow-up did not allow quantifying the real gain in health of patients. A lean thinking analysis would suit this context.

Practical implications
There are practical advantages for both hospital and patients: the hospital will have an increase in admissions and more beds available, while patients will benefit of a faster intervention and a shorter wait.

Originality/value
This is the first analysis through SS of DTAP showing its positive influences in terms of both socio-economic impact and patients' outcome. Policy leaders could use this study as an example to evaluate the introduction of the same clinical pathway in other health facilities.


Macroautophagy is an intracellular catabolic process involved in the formation of multiple membrane structures ranging from phagophores to autophagosomes and autolysosomes. Dysfunction of macroautophagy is implicated in both physiological and pathological conditions. To date, 38 autophagy-related (ATG) genes have been identified as controlling these complicated membrane dynamics during macroautophagy in yeast; approximately half of these genes are clearly conserved up to human, and there are additional genes whose products function in autophagy in higher eukaryotes that are not found in yeast. The function of the ATG proteins, in particular their ability to interact with a number of macroautophagic regulators, is modulated by posttranslational modifications (PTMs) such as phosphorylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, acetylation, lipidation, and proteolysis. In this review, we summarize our current knowledge of the role of ATG protein PTMs and their functional relevance in macroautophagy. Unraveling how these PTMs regulate ATG protein function during macroautophagy will not only reveal fundamental mechanistic insights into the regulatory process, but also provide new therapeutic targets for the treatment of autophagy-associated diseases.


Historically, African American teachers have been actively involved in political movements that sought to improve the material conditions of African Americans. More contemporary examinations of African American teachers' pedagogy and, in particular, African American women's pedagogy, have found that these teachers have a decidedly political mission to their teaching. Some researchers have described these teachers' pedagogy as culturally relevant. Notwithstanding, there is a growing body of research that seeks to highlight how Black women, in various contexts, have participated in political activities and how their participation is part of a Black feminist activist tradition. This article examines how contemporary African American women teachers continue the tradition of political involvement and situates their activities in a Black feminist activist tradition. The data are taken from a qualitative study of two African American women elementary school teachers. The findings reveal that among other things, the teachers' pedagogy was inherently political.


An eye movement experiment is reported in which target words of two and four letters were presented in sentences that strongly raised the expectation of a particular word. There were three possible conditions: The expected word was present in the sentence, an unexpected word of the same length was present, or an unexpected word of a different length was present (all continuations were acceptable, but the latter two were difficult to predict). Our first purpose was to test one of the core assumptions of the Extended Optimal Viewing Position model of eye guidance in reading (Brysbaert & Vitu, 1998). This model states that word skipping is primarily a function of the length of the upcoming word. It leads to the prediction that an unpredicted two‐letter word will be skipped more often than a predicted four‐letter word, which is indeed what we observed. Our second aim was to determine if we could obtain an interaction between context predictability and parafoveal word length, by looking at what happens when the length of the parafoveal word does not agree with the length of the expected word. No such interaction was observed although the effects of both word length and predictability were substantial. These findings are interpreted as evidence for the hypothesis that visual and language‐related factors independently affect word skipping.


By employing RNase activity gel analysis, we detected a novel group of RNases in wheat and related species. The molecular weight of the RNases varied from 8-14 kDa, which was lower than that of most plant RNases characterized previously. The small RNases expressed abundantly in seedlings and differed in their optimal pH and ionic requirement in digesting RNA substrate. Several members of the small RNases were detected in dormant and germinating wheat seeds. During germination, the activity of two RNases did not change significantly whereas that of the other two RNases showed a gradual pattern of decrease and increase, respectively.


Researchers have shown that various natural language processing techniques can be used in document analysis to impact search performance. For the most part, they examined how an analysis system with certain performance characteristics can be leveraged to improve document and/or passage search results. We have previously shown that semantic queries which utilize named entity and relation information extracted from the corpus can lead to significant improvement in search performance. In this paper, we extend our previous efforts and examine how search performance degrades in the face of imperfect named entity and relation extraction. Our study was carried out by developing gold standard annotated corpora and applying different error models to the gold standard annotations to simulate errors made by automatic recognizers. We identify automatic recognizer characteristics that make them more amenable to our search tasks, show that recognizer recall has more significant impact on semantic search performance than its precision, and demonstrate that significant improvement in both MAP and Exact Precision scores can be achieved by adopting automatic named entity and relation recognizers with near state-of-the-art performance.


Processing enormous hyperspectral data results in high computational complexity. Band selection (BS) is one common practice to accomplish this goal. However, determining the number of bands to be selected and finding appropriate bands for BS are very challenging since it requires an exhaustive search. Instead of directly dealing with these two issues, this paper introduces a new approach, called progressive band dimensionality process (PBDP) which performs progressive band dimensionality expansion and reduction via band prioritization (BP) which prioritizes the hyperspectral bands according to their priority scores calculated by a specific BP criterion. Two dual processes, referred to as forward PBDP (FPBDP) which performs band expansion in a forward manner and backward PBDP (BPBDP) which performs band dimensionality reduction in a backward manner. By virtue of its progressive nature the PBDP can be implemented by high computing performance while avoiding excessive computing time required by finding an optimal subset from all possible band subset combinations out of full bands. As a consequence, PBDP provides band selection with an advantage of not being trapped in high computational complexity resulting from solving combinatorial mathematics problems. A key to success in PBDP is how to design BP criteria to meet various applications. To address this need, four categories of BP are derived from different designing rationales, second order statistics, higher-order statistics, classification, and band correlation/dependence.


Autonomic Computing (AC) is defined as 'computing systems that manage themselves in accordance with high-level objectives from humans'. AC is now a well-established scientific domain, and a priority for industry. Automated detection, diagnosis, and ultimately management, of software/hardware problems define autonomic dependability. The paper reports on applying state of the art autonomic dependability methods to the Logging and Bookkeeping data, with promising results on detection.


Background: The dental bonding agent with primer increases the strength between the tooth and orthodontic brackets by making a hydrophobic surface for the adhesive to bond to the etched tooth surface. This has controversial results in literature about the affects between bracket and teeth with use of primer bond strength. Aims: To determine the effect of water flosser on the shear bond strength (SBS) of metal orthodontic brackets. Materials and Methods: 45 sound premolars extracted for orthodontic reasons were randomly assigned into 3 groups (Gs), (G1: Control group), (G2: Teeth subjected to White Aquarius® Water Flosser device (WAWF) at quarter pressure) and (G3: Teeth subjected to WAWF at half pressure). G2 and G3 were subjected to the WAWF irrigation device for a period equivalent to 2-years of cleaning while the control group (G1) underwent no cleaning. Each group was tested using Instron® (Universal testing machine), by the aid of knife-edged rod running at a speed of 0.5 mm/min. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and range) for each group were calculated. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS software version 24.0 (IBM, Chicago, IL) was used with the P-value set at 0.05.Differences in Adhesive Remnant Index (ARI) scores among groups were analyzed using the Chi-square test. Results: 15 (33.3%) teeth were located in each of the three groups. G1 had a mean shear bond strength of 23.3760 ± 9.3Mpa, G2 23.0940 ± 6.1Mpa while G3 24.3887 ± 5.2 Mpa. One-way ANOVA showed no significant differences in the bond strength measurements between the tested groups. Analysis of ARI scores showed no significant differences in the mode of bond failure among the groups (P-value 0.88). Conclusion: WAWF has no effect on the SBS of metal orthodontic brackets, thus suggesting that WAWF is safe and can be included in the oral hygiene regimes of the patients wearing this type of appliance.


A robust watermark scheme for copyright protection is proposed in the present paper. The present method selects the pixel locations to insert the watermark by a new technique called fuzzy based wavelet approach. The watermark is embedded in the sorted pixel locations of fuzzy based wavelet approach by using pixel value difference method. The proposed approach overcomes the weak robustness problem of embedding the watermark in the spatia domain and also in pixel value difference method. Further the watermark extraction does not require the original image as in the case of many digital watermarking methods. The fuzzy logic approach in the wavelet domain eliminates the requirement of repeated embedding process. The experimental results indicate the high image quality and robustness against various attacks when compared to several approaches.


ABSTRACT We use Office for National Statistics' micro data for large UK establishments in the production industries in the period 1997–2008 to study the relationship between their productivity and the presence of substantial R&D activities, either at the production unit itself, or at other UK reporting units owned by the same enterprise group. We estimate that total factor (revenue) productivity is on average about 14% higher at the establishments which have substantial R&D themselves, compared to those with no R&D. Among the establishments with no R&D themselves, we estimate that productivity is on average about 9% higher at those which belong to enterprise groups which do have substantial R&D elsewhere in the UK in the same sub-sector. For the establishments with substantial R&D themselves, we also estimate a significant positive relationship between current productivity and past R&D expenditure using dynamic specifications which allow for both establishment-specific 'fixed effects' and a serially correlated error component.


The present paper argues the inclusion of powerful, international NSAs in the category of 'international legal persons.' The argument builds on the generally accepted idea that for the purpose of both the protection and the accountability of entities within the international legal system, these should have the enhanced status of legal 'subject' rather than 'object.' Behind this legal reality lies the normative reality of the international rule of law ideal: powerful entities that operate to some degree independently on the international plane should be controlled by law and held accountable for their actions. In other words: political or economic actors should be visible also in the international legal order. After these preliminary propositions, this chapter examines if and how the international legal personality (ILP) of NSAs may be constructed today. I distinguish three ways in which the ILP of NSAs is construed within the parameters of the conventional conception of ILP: a) 'transnational ILP,' b) 'soft ILP,' and c) 'regular ILP.' The chapter proceeds, however, to search for a new grounding of ILP theory. This search is supported by the general dissatisfaction with the formal conception of ILP, which draws on fiction theory. I will suggest to reconsider the 'real personality' theory or 'realist' theory of international legal personality. This paper aims to provoke debate on the possibility of a 'new' realist theory so that we may be better equipped when addressing questions of NSAs and international law. In doing so it also aims to build an argument against the popular conviction that the concept of ILP and its theory has flopped. It defends the view that ILP is relevant and useful in today's international legal reality, provided that a new theoretical grounding is developed.


A generalized and versatile approach for control of the circulating currents of Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) has been recently proposed by using Lagrange Multipliers in the ABC frame. This approach is capable of analytically obtaining the differential current references associated with the desired operating conditions imposed to the optimization procedure. Previous implementations of this control approach have been sensitive to harmonic distortion of the control signals when applied to systems with a low number of levels, and have depended on average value calculations of sinusoidal variables, slowing down the dynamics of the control and making the tuning of the control system difficult under certain conditions. This work demonstrates that the performance of the versatile Lagrange-based control can be improved by introducing adaptive filtering based on Second Order Generalized Integrators (SOGIs) for processing the system variables needed for calculating the circulating current references. In addition to improved control dynamics and easier tuning of system controllers, the use of the adaptive filters provides inherent capability for operation under frequency variations, and is therefore suitable for control of MMCs operating in weak grids as well as for high- or medium-voltage motor drives.


The formation of emitting sites on highly polished stainless steel and titanium electrodes in vacuum is investigated. It is shown that during the first application of an electric field between broad-area electrodes clumps damage the cathode surface. These clumps originate both from the cathode and the anode. If a spark-conditioned cathode with a field enhancement factor β=40 is placed opposite a new anode, an electric field of 6·5×106 V m−1 is enough to damage the cathode, resulting in a field enhancement factor of 100. It is demonstrated that conditioning of electrodes by sparks results from the detachment of more or less loosely bound particles from the electrodes. For small electrode separations (d<1 mm) clumps initiate a breakdown if the microscopic field strength βV/d after the impact on the cathode is higher than a critical field strength Fb, which equals similar 7×109 V m−1. The field enhancement factor β can be decreased by ion bombardment, but the breakdown voltage is the same as after spark conditioning. It is shown that after conditioning by ion bombardment clumps are responsible for the onset of a spark.


Glutathione Peroxidase-1 (GPx1) is an enzyme playing an important role in the defense against oxidative stress which is associated with many pathological conditions. Thus, changes in the expression of this enzyme in different human tissues and fluids could be an indicator used for oxidative status assessment. Since most analytical methods for GPx1 determination are based on relative activity measurements, here we propose the absolute quantification of this protein in red blood cells through the measurement of Se present as selenocysteine in its structure. For this purpose, the sample is treated for hemoglobin precipitation and further fractionated by size-exclusion liquid chromatography (SEC) with ICP-MS for final detection. Purity of the species in the fraction obtained by SEC was assessed by orthogonal chromatographic separation based on a reversed phase mechanism (RP) of the peptides obtained by tryptic digestion of the corresponding fraction. The use of ICP-MS detection after such capillary-RP-HPLC permitted us to detect a single Se-containing peptide that was further confirmed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometric detection (ESI-MS) to belong to GPx1. Once the purity of such fraction was addressed, the quantitative analysis of GPx1 was conducted by Se post-column isotope dilution analysis after SEC separation in different samples of human red blood cells. When the concentration results obtained via SEC-ICP-MS for different protein standards are plotted versus the activity measurements (using the spectrophotometric H2O2/NADPH/GR method) a good correlation curve is obtained. Such results permit us, from ICP-MS measurements, to obtain simultaneously the GPx1 absolute concentration as well as the activity by interpolation in the previously obtained curve.


A series of seven para-substituted β,β-difluorostyrenes has been prepared and their proton and fluorine magnetic resonance spectra recorded. The fluorine spectra show interesting correlations with the σ- values for the para substituents, the fluorine resonances moving to lower field and the geminal fluorine-fluorine coupling constant decreasing as σ- increases. These trends parallel those observed in the analogous styrenes but rather more precise relationships have been established for the fluorine compounds. Long range fluorine-fluorine spin-spin coupling over six and seven bonds, respectively, has been observed in the β,β,β,3- and β,β,4-trifluoro-styrenes.


CDKN2A/B homozygous deletion is a key molecular marker in the 2021 WHO classification of IDH-mutant astrocytomas; presence of CDKN2A/B homozygous deletion results in a grade of 4. On multivariable analysis, infiltrative pattern, larger tumor volume, and higher 95th percentile of nCBV were independent predictors of CDKN2A/B homozygous deletion. The infiltrative pattern and larger volume may be reflected from the increased tumor cell proliferation, whereas the higher 95th percentile of nCBV may reflect the increased angiogenesis due to CDKN2A/B homozygous deletion.


Postoperative infection following total hip replacement and the complications associated with the treatment regimens are unsolved problems. The long term results of resection arthroplasties for infection in the older, debilitated individuals are poor insofar as patients may be destined to be either on crutches or bedfast for the duration of their lives.


In this work, a bilayer chitosan/sodium alginate scaffold was prepared via a needleless electrospinning technique. The layer of sodium alginate was electrospun over the layer of chitosan. The introduction of partially deacetylated chitin nanowhiskers (CNW) stabilized the electrospinning and increased the spinnability of the sodium alginate solution. A CNW concentration of 7.5% provided optimal solution viscosity and structurization due to electrostatic interactions and the formation of a polyelectrolyte complex. This allowed electrospinning of defectless alginate nanofibers with an average diameter of 200–300 nm. The overall porosity of the bilayer scaffold was slightly lower than that of a chitosan monolayer, while the average pore size of up to 2 μm was larger for the bilayer scaffold. This high porosity promoted mesenchymal stem cell proliferation. The cells formed spherical colonies on the chitosan nanofibers, but formed flatter colonies and monolayers on alginate nanofibers. The fabricated chitosan/sodium alginate bilayer material was deemed promising for tissue engineering applications.


It is suggested that a number of theoretical models for non-test data can be tested by factor analysis. A traditional method for transforming principal-axis factor solutions is used as an aid in making such tests; a modification of this method is suggested. Means of using all of the information in a model for the purpose of determining the transformation of the arbitrary factor solution are presented, and an illustrative example is given.


A FIELD experiment was carried out on the farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt during the winter season of 2016 to study the effect of bio-fertilization under different level of nitrogen and potassium (75% and 50% from the full dose) on the growth and yield of Onion plants. The obtained results showed that the microbial inoculation leads to a significant increase in growth parameters (foliage heights, number of leaves and dry weights). As well as NPK-contents as responded to all treatments under investigation in all stages of plant growth. The same trend was observed in yield parameters (bulb weights, total bulbs yield, Total soluble solids%, Dry matter% and NPK contents in bulb tissues). The treatment T4 (A. chroococcum + 75 % dose of NK) gave the highest total yield with an increase by 6.19% over the control. Also, the bio-fertilization has a pronounced increase in microbial count in comparison with the mineral fertilization. The obtained results of PGPR effects on growth parameters and yield of onion recommend their use as an alternative tool to reduce chemical fertilizers.


ABSTRACT Existing studies focus on explaining how militaries adapt in different ways to the challenges of war. However, organisation theory suggests that competition and normative pressure will lead overtime to convergence within particular business and policy sectors, as optimal ways of organizing and operating are learned and emulated. I examine this dynamic in the context of the conflict between the Afghan Taliban and the British Army. That there should be convergence in modes of operation or organizational form between these two very different opponents seems most improbable. Yet, as this article shows, convergence did occur as the conflict wore on.


Multicomponent Reactions have attracted considerable attention with respect to the needs to improve the capability to synthesize molecules in more facile and efficient as well as economy ways. Although a large number of MCRs have been reported from the late of 18 th century, the initial disclosure of catalytic asymmetric version was made only several years ago. In this short review, several recent examples of catalytic asymmetric α-aminoalkylation are introduced.


Africa is on the verge of a mining boom. We review the environmental threats from African mining development, including habitat alteration, infrastructure expansion, human migration, bushmeat hunting, corruption, and weak governance. We illustrate these threats in Central Africa, which contains the vast Congo rainforest, and show that more than a quarter of 4,151 recorded mineral occurrences are concentrated in three regions of biological endemism—the Cameroon‐Gabon Lowlands, Eastern DRC Lowlands, and Albertine Rift Mountains—and that most of these sites are currently unprotected. Threats are not uniform spatially, and much of the Congo Basin is devoid of mineral occurrences and may be spared from direct mining impacts. Some of the environmental impacts of African mining development could potentially be offset: mining set‐asides could protect some wildlife habitats, whereas improving transportation networks could increase crop yields and spare land for conservation. Research and policy measures are needed to (1) understand the synergies between mining and other development activities, (2) improve environmental impact assessments, (3) devise mitigation and offsetting mechanisms, and (4) identify market choke points where lobbying can improve environmental practice. Without careful management, rapid mining expansion and its associated secondary effects will have severe impacts on African environments and biodiversity.


Abstract Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease that is increasing the number of cases worldwide. The treatments currently used have not worked as expected. Alternative and complementary medicines were inserted in health services, especially in primary care, as an attempt to minimize risks and help control diseases such as diabetes. Among the herbal medicines used stands out cinnamon, which can serve as an adjuvant in the control of diabetes. Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of 3 grams of cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) per day for 90 days in reducing glycemic and lipid levels in adults with T2DM compared with placebo Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II trial, which will be conducted at basic health units in the city of Parnaíba, state of Piauí, Brazil. In total, 130 people diagnosed with T2DM, followed at health units, with hemoglobin A1c > 6.5%, and using oral antidiabetic medicines, are expected to participate in the study. The intervention will last for 3 months, and each participant will receive a total of 3 bottles containing 120 capsules in each bottle of cinnamon or placebo. Each person should take 4 capsules daily, for 90 days. The patients will be distributed into the 2 groups by performing block randomization (n = 6) at a ratio of 1:1 according to a code generated by a software. Assessments of socioeconomic, clinical, lifestyle, anthropometric, and laboratory variables will be performed in 2 separate visits. Discussion: This study will be the first to investigate cinnamon to reduce glycemic, lipid, and anthropometric levels in Brazil. In case of favorable results, this therapy may be used as an alternative or additional medicine in cases where only oral antidiabetic agents are used and can promote the use of the product to minimize future complications of patients with diabetes and people who do not have the disease. Trial registration: RBR-2KKB6D, registered on December 11th, 2018.


SCOPE
Main objectives of this study were (1) to demonstrate direct signaling of starch on human dendritic cells (DCs), (2) to study whether this is mediated by the pattern recognition receptors such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and (3) to study whether intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) are involved in modulating the starch induced immune activation of DCs.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Two different types of resistant starch, High-maize® 260 (RS2) and Novelose® 330 (RS3) were characterized for their starch content and particle size. Human DCs and reporter cells for TLRs were incubated with starches and analyzed for NF-kB/AP-1 activation. Complex coculture systems were applied to study the cross-talk. High-maize® 260 predominantly binds to TLR2 while Novelose® 330 binds to TLR2 and TLR5. The strong immune-stimulating effects of High-maize® 260 were attenuated by starch-exposed IECs illustrating the regulatory function of IECs. Despite these attenuating effects, DCs kept producing Th1 cytokines.

CONCLUSION
Resistant starch possesses direct signaling capacity on human DCs in a starch-type-dependent manner. IECs regulate these responses. High-maize® 260 skews toward a more regulatory phenotype in coculture systems of DCs, IEC, and T cells.


he ongoing development of a three-axis stabilized microsatellite bus concept designed for critical, embedded government or commercial aerospace applications at APL is described. These microsatellites can form the basis for cost-effective, multiple in situ or remote sensing missions for monitoring physical phenomena; for missions enabled via fl ying a number of satellites in formation; and for a constellation of satellites launched by a low-cost launch vehicle. The foundation for this microsatellite bus concept, with a weight of 30 kg and size of 20 � 20 � 61 cm, is based on technologies and manufacturing processes now in place or being developed at APL. The microsatellite and its foundational technologies are being advanced for insertion into current and future APL Space Department proposals and programs and are also candidates for technology transfer to industry for commercial applications.


This paper describes the recent creation at a western Canadian university qfa distance-delivery Doctor cf Education in educational leadership and administration that was developed in response to ongoing requests from the field. A rationale for the design ofthe program is presented based on the need for national and global graduate study networks that are accessible, affordable, and sustainable, and consistent with the boundary-breaking leadership development model offered by Robertson and Webber (2002). Pedagogical and practical considerations-such as content articulation, staffing, supervision, financing, support infrastructures, and access are highlighted in relation to the strengths, limitations, and politics ofdistance-delivery technology-mediated formats for seniorgraduate study.


This study explored the intuitions and usage of social media (SM) for communication and instructional support by information technology (ICT) education students on field placement. A random sampling procedure was used to select 37 pre-service teachers (female = 65%; mean age = 24, SD = 2 years). Students responded to a questionnaire on SMs about enhancing communication and instructional support during field placement. Descriptive statistics were used to profile the student's use of SM on field placement. The results suggest students use SM for peer mentoring, instructional support by lecturers, social support and creative learning experiments. Results also indicate that SM augment communication and instructional support for ICT students while on field placement.


Task-oriented dialogue systems often employ a Dialogue State Tracker (DST) to successfully complete conversations. Recent state-of-the-art DST implementations rely on schemata of diverse services to improve model robustness and handle zero-shot generalization to new domains [1], however such methods [2, 3] typically require multiple large scale transformer models and long input sequences to perform well. We propose a single multi-task BERT-based model that jointly solves the three DST tasks of intent prediction, requested slot prediction and slot filling. Moreover, we propose an efficient and parsimonious encoding of the dialogue history and service schemata that is shown to further improve performance. Evaluation on the SGD dataset shows that our approach outperforms the baseline SGP-DST by a large margin and performs well compared to the state-of-the-art, while being significantly more computationally efficient. Extensive ablation studies are performed to examine the contributing factors to the success of our model.


The appropriation of scientific writing represents a challenge for academics, especially in graduate students' training where the production of a dissertation or a thesis is mandatory in many programs. Although the cognitive dimension of this form of writing has been well documented, some studies underline its multidimensional character. Training programs in counseling, in particular, are characterized by disciplinary diversity where numerous epistemological positions may influence graduate students' appropriation of scientific writing. Based on qualitative data collected with a focus group of master's students in vocational guidance, a clinical training program involving several forms of writing, the results show that social/relational and affective dimensions also play a major role in the appropriation of scientific writing.


Summary

We describe the experimental procedure we use to calibrate a cryogenic pass-through magnetometer. The procedure is designed to characterize the magnetometer sensitivity as a function of position within the sensing region. Then we extend a theory developed in an earlier paper to cover inexact observations and apply it to the data set. The theory allows the calculation of a smooth, harmonic, internally consistent interpolating function for each of the nine components of the response tensor of the magnetometer. With these functions we can calculate the response to a dipole source in any orientation and position, and predict the magnetometer signal from any kind of specimen.

The magnetometer in the paleomagnetic laboratory onboard the research vessel Joides Resolution is the subject of one such experiment and we present the results. The variation with position of sensitivity is displayed in a series of plane slices through the magnetometer. We discover from the calibration model that the X and Z coils are misaligned so that the magnetic centre of the coils is displaced from the geometric centre by approximately 0.7 cm.

We synthesize the signal expected from the magnetometer when a variety of simple cores are measured. We find that, unless appropriate corrections are made, changes in magnetization direction can appear as variations in magnetic intensity, and conversely, fluctuations in the magnetization strength can produce apparent swings in declination and inclination. The magnitude of these effects is not small and is certainly worth taking into account in the interpretation of records from this kind of instrument. In a pilot study on data from a core measured with the shipboard magnetometer, we observe some large distortions, particularly in declination, that are attributable to uncorrected instrumental effects.


Problem, research strategy, and findings: Places around the world already experience significant damage from climate change–related weather events, economic disruption, and health impacts, exacerbated by poverty, segregation, and inequitable infrastructure. Unfortunately, Texas provides a perfect illustration of these forces, with impacts made even more severe by a lack of climate planning. How can planners minimize harm and reduce risk, given the state leadership's unwillingness to undertake climate planning? One place to start is to investigate residents' climate change beliefs to understand whether they share the state's climate antagonism and then use this information to shape a planning response. In this study, I analyzed a survey (n1⁄4 1,053) to ask: What are Texans' perceptions of climate change, and how can planners use this knowledge to create strategies to catalyze climate planning? Respondents expressed strong agreement about negative effects of climate change and increased frequency of extreme weather. They believed that climate change is due at least in part to human activity, and they expressed robust support for climate-related planning activities. These responses sharply differ from the state's approach. However, despite agreement about climate issues, respondents did not identify climate change as a major concern about the future. This contrast suggests an opportunity for new climate-related communication frames to bridge the gap between climate perceptions and planning action. Takeaway for practice: These findings inform three recommendations: better connect climate change impacts to everyday concerns, including housing, air quality, and health; emphasize common ground about benefits provided by nature, especially related to health; and use community engagement to refine these frames. I propose that planners can accelerate climate planning by following the lead of other disciplines that emphasize human health impacts of the climate crisis. In addition, planners can strengthen climate planning by extending environmental planning's use of local knowledge from environmental health, urban heat planning, and climate-related land use planning to climate planning more broadly.


The 'international community' is omnipresent in international debates. It is a point of reference. Much international action is undertaken in its name. And many a catastrophe – from Aleppo to climate change – is portrayed as a failure of the international community. As is clear from these random references, the functions, meanings and content of the concept of 'international community' are fluid: it is as appealing as it is evasive – and in fact, often it appeals precisely because it is evasive, and because a wide range of diverse, sometimes competing, meanings and expectations are projected onto it. The working paper seeks to unveil some of the functions, meanings and expectations projected upon the notion of 'international community'. While it focuses on debates in one particular field, viz. international law, its themes are of significance to a wider audience.


Two SiC-containing metal diborides materials, classified in the ultra-high-temperature ceramics (UHTCs) group, were fabricated by hot-pressing. SiC, sinterability apart, promoted resistance to oxidation of the diboride matrices. Both the compositions, oxidized in air at 1450°C for 1200 min, had mass gains lower than 5 mg/cm2. Slight deviations from parabolic oxidation kinetics were seen. The resistance to thermal shock (TSR) was studied through the method of the retained flexure strength after water quenching (20°C of bath temperature). Experimental data showed that the (ZrB2+HfB2)–SiC and the ZrB2–SiC materials retained more than 70% of their initial mean flexure strength for thermal quenchs not exceeding 475° and 385°C, respectively. Certain key TSR properties (i.e., fracture strength and toughness, elastic modulus, and thermal expansion coefficient) are very similar for the two compositions. The observed superior critical thermal shock of the (ZrB2+HfB2)–SiC composite was explained in terms of more favorable heat transfer parameters conditions that induce less severe thermal gradients across the specimens of small dimensions (i.e., bars 25 mm × 2.5 mm × 2 mm) during the quench down in water. The experimental TSRs are expected to approach the calculated R values (196° and 218°C for ZrB2+HfB2–SiC and ZrB2–SiC, respectively) as the specimen size increases.


In this study, the impact of moderate intensity pulsed electric field (MIPEF) treatment parameters on enhancing the lycopene content and lycopene in vitro bioaccessibility was investigated. In the first experiment, tomato fruits were treated at 0.4, 1 and 2 kV/cm using 1 or 10 monopolar pulses of 4 μs at a frequency of 0.1 Hz and analysed 24 h after holding period at 4 0 C while in the second experiment, the influence of treatmentintensity (0, 4, 80 and 320 μs) and holding period (0, 24 and 48 h) on lycopene contents and lycopene in vitro bioaccessibility was evaluated. Fresh sample, without MIPEF treatment, showed the lowest lycopene content (23.27±2.13 μg/g FW) and the lowest lycopene bioaccessibility (8.1±1.70%), while all MIPEF treatments (4 or 40 μs) at different electric field strength (0.4-2.0 kV/cm) enhanced the lycopene content and lycopene bioaccessibility. The results of second experiment revealed that the highest duration treatment (320 μs) showed the maximum lycopene enhancement immediately after the treatment (57.98±4.48μg/g) and decreased thereafter. All the treatments except 320 μs sample enhanced the lycopene invitrobioaccessibility after 24 h after holding period and decreased thereafter. The maximum total lycopene bioaccessibility content (9.6%) of whole tomato was achieved by a 4 μs (at 1 kV/cm) treatment after a 24 h holding period.


The possible relationship between myofiber type composition and adipose tissue development in skeletal muscle in vivo has been suggested. Recent evidence indicated that satellite cells are multipotent cells that can undergo not only myogenic, but also adipogenic differentiation. In the present study, rat satellite cells were isolated from soleus, back, extensor digitorum longus, tibialis anterior and quadriceps muscles, and their adipogenic potentials were compared by culturing them under adipogenic conditions in vitro. Cells from soleus muscle exhibited the highest adipogenic potential as judged from Oil Red-staining and immunocytochemical C/EBPalpha-staining. The adipogenic potential of satellite cells was positively correlated with type I myofiber distribution in the corresponding muscle of origin. These results demonstrated that the adipogenic potential of satellite cells differs according to the muscle of origin and suggested that its possible correlation to type I myofiber distribution may account for preferential adipose tissue development in slow oxidative muscles.


Simulation games have become widespread in business courses, yet the understanding of their learning effects remains limited. The effectiveness of using simulation in marketing classes is not uniform, and not all students welcome it to the same extent. Drawing on a survey among 173 students engaged in a simulation game as part of a course in a 2-year business graduate program, we employ "expectation–confirmation theory" and the "unified theory of acceptance and use of technology" to develop a model to investigate the relation between Learner Satisfaction and Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy with a marketing simulation game. In addition, we examine the influence of Age, Gender, Course Type, Course Stage, and Recalled Performance. We report that Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy drive Learner Satisfaction. We also find Recalled Performance of students to be related to Learner Satisfaction. We discuss the implications of our results for the use of marketing simulation games in business programs in relation to experiential learning theory linking Learner Satisfaction to learning outcomes. In light of our results, instructors can affect the learning experience from simulation games by acting on Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy as antecedents of Learner Satisfaction.


Let G be a connected reductive algebraic group, and ? a Frobenius morphism of G. Corresponding to the notion of G complete reducibility, due to J.-P. Serre, we introduce a new notion of (G; ?)-complete reducibility. We show that a ?-stable subgroup of G is (G; ?)-completely reducible if and only if it is G-completely reducible. We also strengthen this result in one direction to show that if H is a ?-stable non G-completely reducible subgroup of G, then it is contained in a proper ?-stable parabolic subgroup P of G, and in no Levi subgroup of P. We go on to introduce another new notion, that of G?- complete reducibility for subgroups of G?. We show that a subgroup of G? is G? completely reducible if and only if it is (G; ?)-completely reducible. Finally, we introduce the notion of strong ?-reductivity in G for ?-stable subgroups of G, and show that this is an analogue to the notion of strong reductivity in G in the setting of ?-stability. We discuss a notion of G-complete reducibility for Lie subalgebras of Lie(G), which was introduced by McNinch. We show that if H is a subgroup of G that is contained in C (S), where S is a maximal torus of CG(Lie(H)), then H is G-completely reducible if and only if Lie(H) is G-completely reducible. We give criteria for a Lie subalgebra of Lie(G) to be G-completely reducible. For example, an ideal in Lie(G) is G-completely reducible if it isinvariant under the adjoint action of G.