Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

In this study we aim to identify the role of green tea catechins (GTCs) in early prevention of breast cell carcinogenesis induced chronically by environmental carcinogens. Most sporadic breast cancers are attributable to long-term exposure to environmental factors through a multi-year, multi-step, and multi-path disease process involving cumulative genetic and epigenetic alterations in progressive breast cell carcinogenesis. Epidemiologic and experimental studies have shown that GTCs may intervene with breast cancer development. However, the mechanisms for GTC prevention of cellular carcinogenesis induced by chronic exposure to environmental carcinogens remain to be elucidated. To study the activity of GTC components in suppression of cellular carcinogenesis, we used our cellular carcinogenesis model that mimics chronic breast cell carcinogenesis induced by cumulative exposures to low doses of the environmental carcinogens 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) and benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). We detected that the four major GTC components epicatechin (EC), epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), epigallocatechin (EGC), and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) at non-cytotoxic levels were able to suppress NNK- and B[a]P-induced cellular carcinogenesis, as measured by suppression of the acquired cancer-associated properties of reduced dependence on growth factors, anchorage-independent growth, and increased cell mobility. We also detected that ECG was more effective than EC, EGC, and EGCG in suppression of cellular carcinogenesis. Investigating the mechanisms for GTCs in counteracting carcinogenic activity of NNK and B[a]P, we detected that all the catechins were able to suppress carcinogen-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in suppressing ROS-induced ERK pathway activation, cell proliferation, DNA damage, and p53 expression. Our cellular model provided a new platform to identify dietary components, at non-cytotoxic levels, capable of effectively intervening in chronic breast cell carcinogenesis induced by cumulative exposures to low doses of environmental carcinogens.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1331. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1331


The thesis investigated cardiovascular health behaviours among people with schizophrenia and depression. People with psychiatric disabilities reported higher levels of obesity, cigarette smoking and sedentary lifestyle compared to individuals from the general population. Major predictors were high levels of fear, psychiatric symptoms, limited knowledge, limited social support and low self-efficacy. The clinical portfolio examines four case studies of different types of medical illness in relation to attachment theory. It was concluded that attachment theory is a useful conceptual framework for informing clinical formulation and explaining the patient-clinician interaction among individuals with a chronic medical illness.


There is a lack of studies on anticoagulant plus antiplatelet therapy for acute ischemic stroke. The present study made a pilot effort to investigate the efficacy and safety of argatroban plus dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in patients with acute posterior circulation ischemic stroke (PCIS). We retrospectively collected patients diagnosed with acute PCIS according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. According to treatment drugs, patients were divided into an argatroban plus DAPT group and a DAPT group. The primary efficacy end point was the proportion of early neurological deterioration (END). The primary safety outcome was symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. All outcomes were compared between the 2 groups before and after propensity score matching (PSM). A total of 502 patients were enrolled in the study, including 35 patients with argatroban plus DAPT and 467 patients with DAPT. There was a higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score in the argatroban plus DAPT group than the DAPT group before PSM (3 vs 2, P = .017). Compared with the DAPT group, the argatroban plus DAPT group had no END (before PSM: 0% vs 6.2%, P = .250; after PSM: 0% vs 5.9%, P = .298). Argatroban plus DAPT yielded a significant decrease in the NIHSS score from baseline to 7 days after hospitalization, compared with that of the DAPT group before PSM (P = .032), but not after PSM (P = .369). No symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was found in any patient. A short-term combination of argatroban with DAPT appears safe in acute minor PCIS.


Objective. To compare the accuracy of different diagnostic methods and their use in estimating the prevalence of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in males attending a urological clinic. Material and methods. The study population was derived from a series of 1153 consecutive males attending a urological clinic in São Paulo between January 1996 and November 1998. Of these 1153 males, 334 had clinically suspected genital HPV infection and comprised the study cohort. The diagnostic methods used included peniscopy, directed biopsy and HPV detection by means of the Hybrid Capture 2 (HC) assay for both oncogenic and non-oncogenic HPV types. Results. Peniscopy was performed for 297 males, positive results being reported in 237 cases (79.8%). Directed biopsy was performed in 188 males, and histology suggested HPV in 140 of these cases (74.5%). HC confirmed the presence of HPV in only 35.2% of the histologically HPV-suggestive cases. Peniscopy has good sensitivity for identifying male carriers of genital HPV. However, the technique has an inherent low specificity, limiting its usefulness to the correct identification of those who never present with HPV infection. Characteristic histological alterations are useful in suggesting HPV infection, but their correlation with HPV detection using HC is not particularly good. Conclusions. These data suggest that both histology and peniscopy have low specificity in detecting male genital HPV. Accurate diagnosis of HPV infection can be confirmed by molecular detection methods only. Histology, however, plays an important role in the differential diagnosis. An appropriate diagnostic protocol for male genital HPV infections in a urological clinic should include peniscopy, histology and molecular diagnostic tools (HC or polymerase chain reaction).


The most important Dutch constitutional issue in 2010 were the General Elections for the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament. After these Elections, a new minority Cabinet has been formed between the Liberal Democrats and the Christian Democratic Party, supported by the populist Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders. Furthermore, a new structure of the Dutch Council of State, the most important advisory body of the government and the highest Dutch Administrative Court, was introduced. The Commission on the Constitution presented their final report in which some interesting ideas were discussed. Also a few important judgments were made on several fundamental rights such as the equal political treatment of men and women. Finally, also elections for the 418 councils of the municipalities were held and an important judgment was given by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Dutch soft drugs policy.


The analysis of the molecular structure called DNA is of particular interest for the understanding of the basic processes governing life. Correlation techniques implemented on digital computers are currently used to do this analysis, but the process is so slow that the mapping and sequencing of the entire human genome requires a computational breakthrough. This paper presents a new method of performing the analysis of DNA sequences with an optical time-integrating correlator. The method is characterized by short processing times that make the analysis of the entire human genome a tractable enterprise. A processing strategy and the resultant processing times are presented. Experimental proofs of concept for the two types of analysis specified by the strategy are also included.


Date of completion is usually set forth in construction contract agreements as one of the most important provisions. Also, it is the provision, which is often violated and the violation results in a dispute between the parties to the agreement. Analysis of research literature has revealed that most authors analyse and identify causes of delays in construction as well as recommend delay analysis methods omitting or underemphasising the liability of the parties to construction contract agreements for violation of construction completion date. One more problem in this area is the difficulty in applying practices of different countries in a specific country due to differences in legislative frameworks. Cases described in research literature are often idealised, while realistic construction projects frequently possess various specific features. This article aims at identifying problems faced when assessing the liability of construction participants for violation of completion date and suggesting ways to handle the problem.


I. Introduction The responsiveness of the cardiovascular system to stress and emotional arousal has been a well-known phenomenon since the classic researches of Cannon. Subsequent studies tended to view stress as a nonspecific threat and did not relate physiological responses to a particular affect evoked or investigate the personalized meanings of the stimulus to the subject. Later researches have indicated that physiological responses could be understood better in terms of the relevance of the stress to the individual. 25 Yet, even here little attention has been paid to the specific quality and quantity of the concomitant affective state. The present study attempts to clarify relationships between specific affective and physiological responses to psychological stress, utilizing quantitative estimates of each. Our major focus is on anger, especially suppressed anger, and on the relation of these feeling states to blood pressure and heart rate. A technique


The difference in the histochemical results between AB-PAS and PAS-AB sequence was studied in the conjunctival goblet cells of monkeys and rats by light microscopy. These sequences demonstrated the presence of different staining patterns of goblet cells in the conjunctiva. In the monkey conjunctiva, the results revealed at least two staining patterns by PAS-AB staining. The goblet cells, which were observed at troughs, showed magenta. The goblet cells, which were observed in the pits of the conjunctiva, showed alcianophilia. In the rats, the goblet cells which showed magenta and the goblet cells which showed alcianophilia were located together in the same gland bud. From the results obtained by the present experiments, it was concluded that the goblet cells of the conjunctiva of the monkey and the rat were grouped into at least two types by histochemical examination.


Empathy plays an important role in creating and maintaining adaptive interpersonal relationships. Accordingly, existing studies often report a negative correlation between empathy and interpersonal aggression. However, findings are sometimes inconsistent, and concerns have been raised about the size of the overall effect. Here, we examined the potential moderating role of empathy mind-sets—beliefs about the malleability of empathy. We hypothesized that the association between low empathy and aggression would be especially strong if individuals also believed that their levels of empathy were unchangeable (i.e., they endorsed a fixed mind-set about empathy); in contrast, a belief that empathy was malleable may weaken the association. Results supported this hypothesis, such that individuals with low levels of empathy were less likely to report aggression—social aggression in particular—if they also believed that empathy was changeable. These results point to a role for beliefs about the malleability of empathy as an important moderator and may point to ways to enhance empathy interventions by targeting mind-sets.


The groundwater quality of the bank of Cooum River at Chennai was studied. Two groundwater samples were taken near the bank of Cooum River on both sides at eight stations. The study was carried out in pre-monsoon period. The samples were subjected to physico-chemical analysis. The results showed that most of the physicochemical parameters were in higher concentrations at most of the groundwater stations.


Surface polishing is required for small crystal blanks to eliminate frequency spurious generated by the infinite rectangular shape. From the productivity viewpoint, bi-convex or plano-cylindrical surface are generally used to realize the energy trapping at the central part of the blanks. So far barrel polishing is the common fabrication technology to obtain bi-convex surface, however, the surface is finished insufficiently and fabrication process takes longer time as the blank size becomes small. To solve this difficulty, two types of new surface micro-polishing mechanisms with fixed abrasive and arrayed blank arrangement are experimentally examined to obtain plano-cylindrical surface. The fastest finishing time of 10 s for a blank is achieved together with the spurious elimination.


Results: From 15 parameters 5 were considered very important (rating of 8-10): knowledge of topographical anatomy (9.7), neurostimulator (9.1), patient comfort (8.2), comfort of anaesthesiologist ease of accessing work area (8.2) and ease of accessing instruments (8.2). Six factors (rated from 6-8) were considered important: quality of needle (7.9), static patient positioning (7.6), no pressure from surgeon (6.8), echograph (6.6), good handbook (6.3) and choice of anaesthetics (6.1). At average (rating of 4-6) were considered: manufacturer of needle (5.4), the presence of nurse (4.8), experience of nurse (4.5) and time of day (3.9). Patient comfort level was rated as average for arms (7.4), legs (7.0) and spinal anaesthesia (7.1), but only satisfactory (6.8) for epidural anaesthesia. The comfort ratings of the doctor while positioning the patient were: arm 8.4, leg 8.2, epidural 8.5, spinal 8.6, work with neirostimulator 8.5 (all very comfortable), but with the echograph 7.0 and during injection aneasthetics 7.6 (average).


Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Energy Simulation have both become increasingly important tools in the building sector. The potential exists to achieve a synergistic relationship between BIM and energy simulation software programs by leveraging information stored within BIM models to inform energy models to save time and improve a design's performance. This study seeks to understand the perceptions of green design stakeholders with regard to the value of BIM-based energy simulation as well as associated barriers and benefits. To do so, an e-survey was used to collect data. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, Cronbach's Alpha coefficients, Spearman correlations, and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results suggest that little to no correlation exists between green design stakeholders' perceptions regarding the value of using information from BIMs to inform energy simulation, and their engagement level with BIM and/or energy simulation. While this study has been limited by its sample size and location of participants, the results help identify different user groups' perceptions and receptiveness to using BIM-based energy simulation tools, which are advancing and transforming the AEC industry. Studies, such as this, emphasize the need for further research on understanding the modeling processes related to energy simulation and BIM models.


User centric design (UCD) strives to investigate and optimize access to desirable features of technologies and services. In information and communication technology (ICT), it initiated in 70' in studies of ergonomics and easy-to-use telecommunication interfaces. These early day studies targeted to optimize human-computer interactions and to make telecommunication equipment easier to use. Development of mobile communications and internet services has greatly expanded the application area of UCD. Nowadays UCD is important part of internet/ corporate intranet development, social media, ubiquitous computing, and management of virtual organizations. It is realized that successful application of UCD can both greatly increase service business value as well as to boost service development e.g. open up new pathways for profitable service innovations. In this presentation we will first have a brief overview on historical development of UCD. Thereafter we summarize methodological UCD toolbox and review relating applications in ICT. We discuss our practical findings in UCD service design and organizational development. The presentation is concluded by summarizing future perspectives of UCD.


Aspergillus niger is an important industrial workhorse with extensive application in the sectors of industrial enzymes, heterogeneous proteins, organic acids and etc. The disclosure of its genomic sequence to the public brought the study of A. niger into the post-genomic era. Diverse omic data are being produced massively and rapidly, which largely upgrades our understanding to the hyperproduction mechanism of A. niger to a systems and molecular level. At meanwhile, its genetic operating system is becoming mature, which enables genome-scale genetic perturbation within A. niger. In conclusion, we are on the right way to redesign and engineer A. niger to an omnipotent cellular factory.


Physical activity is one of the essential prerequisites to enjoy sound health and quality of life. Insufficient physical activity is a well-documented risk factor of the leading non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancers of breast and colon, depression and risk of falling in adults.[1,2,3] Newer evidences indicate that participation in regular physical activities can reduce risk of cancer of bladder, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, lung, and stomach also][4]. These NCDs are the leading causes of premature death and disability, prevalence of which are rising very fast globally. World Health Organization estimates that in 2016 NCDs accounted for 71% of global mortality equivalent to as high as 41 million deaths of which three quarters occurred in low and middle-income countries [5]. Deaths due to NCD have now surpassed the total mortality due to combined causes of the communicable, maternal and perinatal nutrition-related deaths. [6].Apart from being a modifiable risk factor of the major NCDs, regular physical activity also reduces the risk factors associated with NCDs such as overweight, obesity, hypertension, and high blood cholesterol and is also found to be associated with improved mental health, delayed age-related cognitive decline and improved quality of life and well-being.


Abstract BACKGROUND Low bone mineral density (BMD) on dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is likely a risk factor for proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) and proximal junctional failure (PJF). However, prior instrumentation and degenerative changes can preclude a lumbar BMD measurement. Hounsfield units (HU) represent an alternative method to estimate BMD via targeted measurements at the intended operative levels. OBJECTIVE To determine if patients with lower HU at the upper instrumented vertebrae (UIV) and vertebral body superior to the UIV (UIV + 1) are at greater risk for PJK and PJF. METHODS A retrospective chart review identified patients at least 50 yr of age who underwent instrumented lumbar fusion with pelvic fixation, a UIV from T10 to L2, and a preoperative computed tomography (CT) encompassing the UIV. HU were measured at the UIV, UIV + 1, and the L3-L4 vertebral bodies. RESULTS A total of 150 patients (80 women and 70 men) were included with an average age of 66 yr and average follow-up of 32 mo. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.89 demonstrated HU at the UIV/UIV + 1 as the only independent predictor of PJK/PJF with an odds ratio of 0.94 (P-value = .031) for a change in a single HU. Patients with HU at UIV/UIV + 1 of <110 (n = 35), 110 to 160 (n = 73), and >160 (n = 42) had a rate of PJK/PJF of 63%, 27%, and 12%, respectively (P-value < .001). CONCLUSION Patients with lower HU at the UIV and UIV + 1 were significantly associated with PJK and PJF, with an optimal cutoff of 122 HU that maximizes sensitivity and specificity.


Abstract Teaching of knowledge-intensive AI is particularly hard as the process of how knowledge is acquired is difficult to grasp without practical experience. Acquiring and using knowledge about actions, events, processes is especially difficult because of the temporal nature of the subject matter. In this paper we report on a tool called GIPO that has been used for teaching AI students the areas of knowledge acquisition, knowledge engineering, automated planning and machine learning. We give a short walkthrough of some of GIPO's functions, indicating some of the learning opportunities offered. We then compare GIPO with other interfaces used in the computing curriculum. We argue that using a high level integrated tool such as GIPO for supporting teaching and learning improves the students' learning experience, and helps integrate the theory and practice in a range of AI and related subject areas.


Like many contemporary Native American writers, Louise Erdrich has created a hybrid of traditional story and novel closely connected to her literary sense of mixed-bloodedness,which constitues a fundamental characteristic of the contemporary Native American novel. Erdrich writes what we might term her works as "the mixed-blood narrative" in which, like mixed-blood culture,her texts occupy, in terms of subject matter and formal qualities, the margin between purely traditional Native American modes of representation and those modes common in European American culture. The present book distinguishes itself by the exploration of the literary experimentation of hybridization techniques adopted by Louise Erdrich. The four perspectives, i.e. narration, religion, myth and gender, are put forth to conduct a comparatively comprehensive study of hybridization techniques in Erdrich, which play different roles in the formation of Native literary and cultural identity and resistance of the dominant white discourse.


Osteoarthritis of the knee is commonly a disease which afflicts more than one compartment of the knee so medial compartment arthritis is almost always associated with patellofemoral and or lateral compartment disease to a lesser extent. In a review of 250 consecutive osteoarthritic knees strictly unicompartmental involvement occurred in less than 15% of affected knees. To segmentally replace one compartment when more than one is involved may lead to a suboptimal result from the compartmental replacement as well as lead to pain and failure with mid- to long-term follow up. The long term results with tricompartmental replacement continue to show success rates in the order of 90–95% at 15–20 year follow-up with multiple designs and fixation types. Additionally failure to replace the patella, although popular in Europe, has led to increased anterior knee pain in studies in North America. The disadvantage of tricompartmental knee replacement is the extent of surgical trauma compared to compartmental replacement although newer less invasive approaches may lead to similar recovery to compartmental replacement.


A field experiment was conducted in rabi season of the year 2000–2001 with sixteen treatment combinations of four levels of compaction by 0, 2, 4 and 6 passes of a iron roller of 500 kg denoting as C0, C2, C4 and C6 and four levels of irrigation i.e. I4, I5, I6 and I8 denoting number of irrigations. fenugreek (Methi) variety Rmt 1 was taken as test crop. The soil of the experimental field was loamy sand in texture. Compaction decreased the saturated hydraulic. conductivity and total porosity in the sub-surface of 15–30 cm lay rs besides, increase in the bulk density and moisture content of the soil. Soil compaction increased with increase in number of passes of iron roller 2 to 6. This effect was observed upto the harvest of crop but with declining magnitude.


Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by the association of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) with thrombosis and/or pregnancy loss: classification criteria were defined in the updated international consensus held in Sidney in 2005. Vascular and obstetric manifestations display partially different pathogenetic mechanisms. Thrombosis develop as a result of local procoagulative changes upon triggers influence (second-hit theory). Pregnancy morbidity is thought to be dependent on placental thrombosis and complement activation. The laboratory tests include Lupus Anticoagulant (LA), a functional assay, and anticardiolipin (aCL) and anti-β2-glycoprotein I antibodies detected by solid phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The LA testing is relatively standardized while there's still significant interlaboratory discrepancy in ELISA tests. Current APS criteria are under discussion: since for vascular and obstetric APS, different pathogenetic mechanisms have been shown, some criteria variation could also be contemplated. What is the weight of aPL antibodies in provoking thrombosis and which contribution could be expected from aPL per se is debated. As thrombosis is generally considered to be multi-factorial, each case needs a risk-stratified approach. Any primary prophylaxis, intensity and duration of secondary prophylaxis should take into account aPL profile, other cardiovascular risk factors and systemic autoimmune diseases associated. We look forward to the publication of recommendations of the leading experts in the field, developed during the recent 14th International Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


This paper examines a system driven government process and articulates how this system can be transformed into a consumer driven process through the use of Health Information Technology (Health IT). In order to achieve this, expert interviews were conducted with stakeholders familiar with the process, followed by a convening meeting to review status and directions. The findings identified a range of Health IT uses that would facilitate enhanced consumer access and active benefit and health management.


A total of 176 strains of Salmonella enterica representing 116 serotypes were tested for the presence of the T6 epitope of the alpha-1,2-linked N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residue by reaction with a murine monoclonal antibody T6 specific for this structure in the Salmonella Ra core lipopolysaccharide (LPS). All 20 serotypes (70 strains) belonging to serogroups A to E were positive for the T6 epitope while 29% of the 96 serotypes (106 strains) belonging to O serogroups F to 67 were negative; 12 serotypes (12 strains) of subspecies IIIb Salmonella were positive for the T6 epitope, but 10 serotypes (11 strains) of subspecies IIIa Salmonella were found to lack this epitope. In T6-positive strains, the epitope was accessible to antibody binding in both the unsubstituted free rough core LPS and in the rough core LPS substituted with a few repeating units of O side chains. The presence or absence of the T6 epitope in Salmonella strains was not affected by culture conditions, the source of the isolate, the age of the culture or the presence of fimbriae antigens.


We present evidence from a randomized experiment testing the impacts of a six-month early childhood home-visiting program on child outcomes at school entry. Two and a half years after completion of the program, we find persistent effects on child working memory a key skill of executive functioning that plays a central role in children's development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills. We also find that the program had persistent effects on parental time investments and preschool enrolment decisions. Children were enrolled earlier and in higher quality preschools, the latter reflecting a shift in preferences over preschool attributes toward quality. Our findings imply an important role for the availability of high-quality subsequent schooling in sustaining the impacts of early intervention programs.


Purpose : This study aims to examine and compare the features of rolandic epilepsy. Methods : Of 158 patients selected retrospectively, 116 had typical (group A) and 42 had atypical (group B) rolandic epilepsy, as defined by Worrall's criteria. Results : The age at onset of the seizures in group A was 8.6±2.0 y and 6.2±1.7 y in group B (P>0.05). Among the 40 patients who underwent neuroimaging studies (25 patients in group A and 15 patients in group B), abnormal findings in group B included ventricular dilatation, mild cortical atrophy, and partial agenesis of corpus callosum. group A had no abnormal findings. The frequency of seizures was 2.0±1.0 and 2.3±1.2 per month in groups A and B respectively. Seizure control from the initial anticonvulsant treatment was achieved within 3 months in group A, and 3 to 12 months in group B. A 2-year remission rate was noted in 105 patients in group A and in 38 patients in group B. Of these, the recurrence rate after 2 y was 13 in group A and 12 in group B. Conclusion : Age of onset of seizures, gender, frequency of seizures before therapy, and 2-y remission rate were not significantly different in the 2 groups. However, neuroimaging abnormalities, the time to achieving seizure control from the initial anticonvulsant treatment, and the recurrence rate after being seizure-free for 2 y were significantly different in the 2 groups.


Leadership style in an organization is one of the factors that play significant role in enhancing or retarding the interest and commitment of the individuals in the organization. A good leader not only inspires subordinates potentials to enhance efficiency but also meets their requirements in the process of achieving organizational or academic goals. The population of the study comprised of 300 respondents who were selected through simple random sampling technique from Okitipupa Local Government, this comprised of 250 teachers and 50 school principals. Principals' Leadership Assessment Inventory was administered to the principals with the reliability (PLAI, r= 0.72) and Teachers' Job Performance Assessment Scale was administered to the teachers with reliability (TJPAS r = 0.86) . Two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analyzed with correlation statistical analysis. The result shows that there was significant relationship between democratic leadership style and teachers' job performance (r =.118,N= 300, p<.05 . Significant relationship also existed between autocratic leadership style and teachers' job performance (r =-314,N = 300, P<.01). Considering the findings of this study, it was recommended that school principals should imbibe a mixture of autocratic and democratic styles of leadership in their school administration in order to enhance better job performance among teachers. As such, principals could use the democratic style of leadership in some occasions. They should be autocratic in certain situations in order to increase productivity among teachers. Keywords: Academic Performance, Job Performance, Leadership and Principals


In this paper the various steps necessary for selecting a hospital pharmacy computer system are briefly outlined. The major steps include: establishment of the project leader and team; preparation of functional specifications for the pharmacy department; solicitation of vendor presentations; and site visits. Following this, functional specifications are refined and the Request for Proposal is prepared. The Request for Proposal outlines to each prospective vendor the conditions and terms the hospital will agree to enter with the chosen vendor. Evaluation of vendor proposals includes such factors as cost, software applications, interfaces, maintenance, and vendor stability. Vendor evaluation can be quantified based upon pre-defined selection criteria utilizing the application of weight factors to each criteria and scoring each vendor. Therefore, the final decision should be based on which vendor best meets that hospital pharmacy's specific needs as determined by both informal and formal mechanisms.


Schwannomas are peripheral nerve tumors that have a relatively slow-growing pattern usually presenting with compressing symptoms. Treatment is excision of mass, but it is important to decide whether radical excision/nerve grafting or nerve-sparing surgery using intra/extracapsular approach should be performed. Besides that, scarification or preservation of nerve fascicles inside the capsule should be considered during surgery. A case with a giant Schwannoma of the ulnar nerve is presented. Tumor was excised using intracapsular approach enabling salvaging of ulnar artery and healthy ulnar nerve fascicles. Patient's early and late postoperative neurological examination did not show any decline compared to preoperative examination. Intracapsular excision makes preservation of healthy fascicles possible while allowing total excision of the mass. Scarification of the fascicles inside the neural sheath of the tumor results in no neurological deficit. The aim of this study is presenting a case diagnosed in the late course with accompanying neural and vascular pathologies, and reviewal of possible treatment methods for maximizing neurological outcome while minimizing relapse.


I introduce a microfounded model of campaign finance with office-seeking politicians, a continuum of voters, and a large number of heterogeneous lobbies. Lobbies make contributions to politicians according to a common agency framework. Politicians use contributions to finance their electoral expenditures. Voters are not fooled by electoral expenditures: they are influenced in a way that is consistent with the equilibrium behavior of lobbies and politicians. The model is used to: (i) determine the relation between campaign spending and political deadweight; (ii) show the informational value of lobbies' contributions; (iii) evaluate the welfare implications of restricting campaign spending; and (iv) interpret the empirical finding that campaign expenditures have a very low effect on election outcome. One can say that this model makes the best case in favor of campaign contributions. Nevertheless, under reasonable parameter values, a ban on campaign contributions is welfare-improving.


Nanoagriculture is a viable technology by using nanomaterials under various purposes such as nano biocides, seed germination, genetic material transfer in agricultural crops. Nanoparticles were toxic to the plant, human and environment. The nanoparticles are move to the plant by various mechanisms by root uptake, cuticular translocation. The Phytotoxic effect of nanoparticles were reduced root length, shoot length, biomass production, increased genetic material damage, agglomeration observed by the increasing nanoparticle concentration. By reduce the effect of nano material in cultivable crops; prior invitro analysis reduces the phytotoxic effect. Standardization of safe concentration of each nano material at varying concentration and its physiological, biochemical response to agricultural crops should be studied are used to reduce the phytotoxicity to the sustainable safe environment and sustainable for second green revolution in the future.


This article deals with risk controversies in emerging policy networks regarding school safety in the Netherlands. It offers a grounded account of the interpretations of school risks and safety measures by the various stakeholders of the policy network, in particular, schools, local government and the police. Theoretically, policy networks are conceived as mediating between the structural conditions of the 'risk-society' and the 'culture of fear' on the one hand and the institution of safety standards on the organizational level of schools on the other hand. It is argued that in the low-risk context of schools, it is particularly important to take into account the soft, cultural side of safety next to the hard, material side of safety. This distinction also accounts for the ambiguities and controversies over school risks. A further conclusion is that in this network a lack of local leadership seems to hinder the development of firm safety measures. Overall, this article highlights the paradox between a concern for safety and a concern for a school's reputation.


Abstract This article foregrounds representations of ageing and memory within Kazuo Ishiguro's novels, particularly Never Let Me Go (2005) and, the less critically considered, The Buried Giant (2015). While criticism and reviews touch upon themes of ageing, loneliness, and loss of bodily function, scholars are yet to reveal either the centrality of this to Ishiguro's work or how this might speak to real-life questions surrounding ageing. Few readers of Never Let Me Go realise that in writing it Ishiguro's guiding question was 'how can I get young people to go through the experience of old people'? The arguments here seek to restore such authorly intentions to prominence. Ishiguro is more interested in socio-cultural meanings of ageing than biologically impoverished memories: this article examines the shifting relationships Ishiguro presents between memory and age as regards what happens to the ways in which memories are valued, and how people might be valuable (or not) for their memories. Interdisciplinary with age studies and social gerontology, this article demonstrates how Ishiguro both contributes to, and contends with, socially constructed concepts of ageing. In refocusing Ishiguro criticism onto reminiscence rather than nostalgia, this article aims to put ageing firmly on the agenda of future research.


Collaboration and the sharing of knowledge is at the heart of Open Science (OS). However, we need to know that the knowledge we find and share is really what it purports to be; and we need to know that the authors we hope to collaborate with are really the people they claim to be. In this paper, the author argues that a prerequisite for OS is trust and that persistent identifiers help to build that trust. The persistent identifier systems must themselves be trustworthy and they must be able to connect the user or their machine to the information they need now and into the future. Infrastructure is rather like plumbing: It goes unnoticed and unappreciated until it fails. This paper puts infrastructure for persistent identifiers in the spotlight as a core component of OS.


Recent events in the world food market have highlighted the present urgent need for restoring and maintaining adequate food reserves. Drought and subsequent famine on the Indian subcontinent and in the sub-Sahara region have demonstrated the gravity of the present world food situation and the extent to which it depends on climatic influences. Climate plays a crucial role in a nation's viability. A nation that cannot feed itself must be able to obtain food from producing nations or suffer epidemic disease, famine, and loss of inhabitants by death or migration.


The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum expresses a RecA homolog that is distributed in mitochondria. A gene disruption mutant is hypersensitive to DNA-damaging agents, indicating that RecA is required for the repair of mitochondrial DNA. We analyzed the process by which a multicellular structure of recA (cid:1) cells is formed. Four hours after starvation, the internal glucose level of recA (cid:1) cells (11.8 (cid:1) 0.9 nmol/mg protein) was higher than that of wild-type cells (6.7 (cid:1) 0.1 nmol/mg protein). The degree of cell-cell adhesion of recA (cid:1) cells was greater than that of wild-type cells, while the migration speed of recA (cid:1) cells (3.5 (cid:1) 0.2 (cid:2) m/min) was less than that of wild-type cells (4.3 (cid:1) 0.3 (cid:2) m/min). The increase in cell-cell adhesion and decrease in motility of recA (cid:1) cells gave rise to the formation of large multicellular structures. The diameters of mounds formed by recA (cid:1) and wild-type cells were 0.30 (cid:1) 0.01 mm and 0.17 (cid:1) 0.01 mm, respectively. wild-type We present here results obtained from assays for cell-cell adhesion, cell motility and glucose levels of recA (cid:1) cells.


The poor performance of various people-oriented forestry projects has prompted the government to adopt the Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) program as the development pathway for addressing upland poverty and deforestation. The Program is based on the premise that if local communities were given access to, control of, and benefits from forest resources, they will be transformed into responsible stewards and partners in the promotion of sustainable forest management. This paper documents and evaluates the impacts and influences of the CBFM strategy on upland development pathways, forest resource management, and the well-being of upland communities. Findings were derived from household and key informant interviews of 20 People's Organizations that were awarded CBFM projects in various areas. The well-being of CBFM participants improved, as evidenced by the marked increase in income over the benchmark income before they were awarded a CBFM project; acquisition of several household and farm assets, which were before uncommon to forest-dependent communities; and generation of employment in the community. The CBFM program has achieved an increase in forest cover compared with past reforestation projects. Policy implications on development pathways in the uplands were also drawn.


A Unified Modeling Language (UML) description of the MASC model of parallel computation is presented. This UML description identifies MASC objects and specifies various object and inter-object relationships, dependencies, and behaviors. This was achieved by describing various views of the MASC model by using many of the UML structural and behavioral diagrams. The use of using UML to describe MASC has been highly effective for further parallel modeling techniques, comparisons to other parallel models, MASC parallel system software research, and MASC algorithm development.


In this paper, we studied the effect of magnetic field, inlet velocity and particle size on capture efficiency of magnetic particles transported in an implant assisted uniform channel through computational simulations. The dominant magnetic and drag forces are included in the simulations. The couple nonlinear Navier-Stokes equation for fluid flow and Newton's second law equation for particle transport are solved using finite element based COMSOL multiphysics software. It is found that capture efficiency increases from 70–80% as we increase the external magnetic field strength from 2–3.5 Tesla. Further, the decrease in capture efficiency is observed from 80– 60% by increasing the inlet velocity from 20–50 mm/s. Enhancement in capture efficiency from 20–100% is observed by increasing the size of magnetic particles from 100 nm to 1.5 µm, respectively. Keywords: Targeted drug delivery, magnetic nanoparticles, Ferromagnetic stent Cite this Article Prakash Chandra, Shashi Sharma, Anurag Gaur, Dharmendra Tripathi. Computer Simulations on Magnetic Particles Capturing in an Implant Assisted Channel for Targeted Drug Delivery . Trends in Drug Delivery . 2015; 2(2): 1–7p


Under the proposed framework, a class of existing stability criteria can be extended to determine the stability of a class of neutral type systems in a critical case, i.e., the spectral radius of the principal neutral term (matrix D in this paper) is equal to 1. Furthermore, an interesting property of the extended criteria is given. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.


A study of the installation and three-year performance evaluation of a fabric-reinforced bituminous concrete overlay of a jointed concrete pavement is reported. The fabric, a polypropylene in an asphaltic mastic, was shown to act as a significant deterrent to the development of reflection cracks in an overlay exposed to over 30,000 vehicles per day for the evaluation period. A recommendation for further use of the fabric is included.


Objectives: To identify selling pattern, availability, per unit cost of FP commodities and their self-procurement pattern in different socio-economic variable areas.  Study Design: Descriptive Cross-Sectional study.  Place and Duration: The survey was conducted in three regions of Islamabad including one sector (G6), one suburban area (Bhara Kahu) and one rural setting (Atthal village in Phulgaran union council) from May 2016 to August 2016. Methodology: The total sample size is 52 private sector pharmacies, chemist (medical store), general stores and others where any form of family planning commodities could be purchased including pills, condoms, injectables and Intrauterine devices (IUDs). The sample was divided in three strata i.e. urban, suburban and rural area selected on the basis of socioeconomic attributes of the region. A total number of pharmacies, chemist shops (medical stores), general stores and others (petrol pump etc.) contacted were 52 out of which 25 were in urban area, 24 were in suburban area and remaining 3 were in rural area. Results: According to this study, 48.1% procurement is done in Stratum-I, 46.2% is done in Stratum-II and only 5.8% is done in Stratum-III. Most available pill brand in Stratum-I and Stratum-II was set of ZAFA and Green star i.e. 36% in Stratum-I and 37.5 % in Stratum-II whereas no pills were being sold in Stratum-III. In Stratum-I, both local and imported condoms were available at most of the shops while in Stratum-II, local condoms were available in highest percentage and in Stratum-III all available condoms were local products. In case of injectable, only one brand i.e. Pfizer by the name of injection Depo-Provera was available for the private sector in Stratum-I and Stratum-II. 52% of the shops in Stratum-I had injectable available, 50% of the shops had injectable in Stratum-II. In Stratum-III, there was no procurement of injectable. Conclusion: The study indicated that urban population has more choices, more purchasing power and the gender difference for procurement is less as compared to suburban and rural area.


This study examines how the firm-specific information in stock prices influences corporate tax behavior. Research demonstrates that managers learn from and respond to information contained in stock prices. However, the extent to which this information affects tax-related decisions remains unclear. I find that price informativeness increases the volatility of effective tax rates. Additional analyses demonstrate that the effect is driven by price informativeness encouraging managers to pursue additional short-term tax planning opportunities. Further, in settings where stock prices are more likely to contain tax-related information, my results are more pronounced as the proportion of taxrelated information in stock prices increases. The results of this study demonstrate that managers learn from the market when making tax planning decisions.


OBJECTIVE
To identify the electrophysiological properties of long-QT syndrome (LQTS) associated missense mutations in the outer mouth of the HERG potassium channel in vitro.

METHODS
Mutations V630A and N633S were constructed by Megaprimer PCR method and cRNA were produced by T7 RNA polymerase. The electrophysiological properties of the mutation were investigated in the Xenopus oocyte heterologous expression system.

RESULTS
Coexpression of mutant and wild-type HERG subunits caused a dominant-negative effect, and the currents were significantly decreased. Compared with wild-type HERG channels, V630A and N633S mutations were related to decreased time constants for inactivation for V630A/WT and N633S/WT at all potentials, reduced slope conductance and the voltage dependence of steady-state inactivation was shifted to negative potentials for V630A/WT and N633S/WT.

CONCLUSION
Present study shows that LQTS associated missense mutations located in the outer mouth of HERG cause a dominant-negative effect and alterations in steady-state voltage dependence of channel gating of heteromultimeric channels suggesting a reduction in expressional current might be one of the pathophysiologic mechanisms of LQTS.


A temporal database model capable of representing absolute, relative, imprecise, and infinite temporal data is proposed. The model is based on temporal tables such as relation-like representations that can contain variables constrained by the formulas of a temporal theory. An algebraic query language for temporal tables is defined, and some problems related to query answering are discussed.<<ETX>>


The paper is written from an Israeli point of view, a point of view of dual responsibility resulting from belonging to the state that both caused the Palestinian Nakba and took in and rehabilitated survivors and refugees of the Shoah. This position is marked by Jacques Derrida as the state of the aporia of taking responsibility. Avot Yeshurun's poetry about the Nakba and the Shoah struggles with assuming responsibility as an Israeli for the consequences of both. In his poem "Passover on Caves" especially, Yeshurun develops a discourse of heterogeneous identities enabling the Jewish Israeli to assume both responsibilities by developing "multidirectional memory" of both traumas without constituting one identity at the expense of the supposedly opposed other.


Recently, we proposed a ring-shaped surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator sensitive element design, as well as analyzed its characteristics and suggested its optimization strategy, with major focus on their temperature stability. Here, we focus on further optimization of the design to narrow the bandwidth and improve signal detection, while taking into account typical technological limitations. Additionally, the purpose of design optimization and modeling is to check the preservation of operability in the case of lithography defects, which is the most common technological error. For that, we suggest structural alteration of the interdigital transducer (IDT) that leads to its partial fragmentation. Using COMSOL Multiphysics computer simulations, we validate several IDT options and show explicitly how it could be optimized by changing its pin geometry. Based on the results of the study, prototyping and printing of ring resonators on a substrate using photolithography will be carried out.


Cookies enriched with sweet lupin flour were tested for their acceptability and tolerance in young adults, and compared with control cookies. A number of hematological, hepatic and renal tests were performed, as well as the measurement of allergic response, in order to detect possible changes induced by lupin. The study included 31 young adults assigned to two groups which comprised males and females, with mean ages of 26 +/- 6.5, and 27 +/- 5.9 years, respectively. The protein and energy intakes of the subjects were calculated, prior to the study, using the methods of dietary history and the 24-hr recall method. The subjects were free of any abnormalities detectable by medical history, physical examination, biochemical and hematological tests. Body weight and height were measured before the beginning of the study. The ratio weight/height of the individuals was calculated using the Jelliffe's standards. The mean values for the calorie and protein intakes were 1,919 kcal (SD +/- 655) and 59.3 g (SD +/- 22.7). The calorie contents of the control and experimental cookies were 507 and 610 kcal respectively, while the protein contents were 8.4 g and 24.1 g, respectively. The body weight of subjects in both groups increased significantly during the study (P less than 0.01 and P less than 0.02). No significant changes were recorded for other anthropometric parameters, except for the tricipital skinfold (P less than 0.01). Changes observed in hematological parameters were judged to be unrelated to lupin flour. The acceptability and tolerance to high levels of lupin flour were good. The above-mentioned results show that sweet lupin flour is a good and safe source of energy and protein for adults.


We aimed to study the relationship between the prescribing of lipid-lowering medication, social deprivation and other general practice characteristics. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of all general practices in England, 2004-05. For each practice, the following variables were obtained: standardized cost and volume data for lipid-lowering medication, descriptors of general practices, Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2004, ethnicity data from the 2001 Census and Quality and Outcomes Framework data. A regression model was constructed which explained 34.5% of the variation in statin prescribing by general practitioners. The most powerful predictors were higher social deprivation, higher prevalence of coronary heart disease and achievement of cholesterol targets for diabetics. Negative regression coefficients were demonstrated for the proportion of elderly patients in the practice and, to a lesser extent, for the proportion of south Asian and Afro-Caribbean patients. In conclusion, contrary to previous local studies, we found that statin prescribing was higher in more deprived communities, even after adjustment for increased disease prevalence and practice variables associated with deprivation. Statin prescribing was also independently associated with success at achieving cholesterol targets in established disease (secondary prevention). However, our findings suggest under-prescribing of statins to the elderly and possibly also to ethnic minorities.


Comparison of skin hydration degrees based on moisturizing time in children's atopic dermatitis Puteri Wulandari1*, Syahril Rahmat Lubis2, Deryne Anggia Paramita2 Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a skin disease accompanied by an inflammatory reaction influenced by heredity and environment. Atopic dermatitis commonly occurs in infants and children. Overcoming dryness of the skin is an important strategy in the management of AD. One way is by using a moisturizer (emollient) to increase the skin barrier function. This study aimed to compare the degree of skin hydration based on moisturizing time in children with AD, immediately after bathing and 30 minutes after bathing. Methods: This analytical study's design was quasi-experimental (pre-post clinical trial) conducted in dermatologyvenereology policlinic of Universitas Sumatra Utara Hospital. Subjects who met inclusion criteria were children with AD, 2-14 years who met William's criteria, no recent use of topical preparations, and informed consent approved. The bath soap and moisturizer used were Johnson's® baby milk soap and those containing ceramide-3 (Atocalm®), respectively, applied twice a day. Moisturizing time is given immediately and 30 minutes after bathing on the volar part of the right forearm and left forearm, respectively. The degree of skin hydration was measured by Corneometer CM 825®, taken four times on the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 21st day, and categorized into very dry skin, dry skin, and normal skin. Test analysis using SPSS software with p<0.05 was significant. Result: Thirty-seven children with AD followed this study. The median age was 5 (2-13) years, female sex (21 children [56.8%]). There were differences in skin hydration between these groups. There was also significant right forearm volar skin hydration measured immediately after bathing, 1st, 8th, 15th, 21st day (42.3; 48.0; 55.3; 61.3 AU (Arbitrary Unit); p<0.001), respectively. Skin hydration on the left forearm's volar part is significant between 30 minutes after bathing, respectively 1st, 8th, 15th, 21st day (42.3; 44th,7th; 47.7; 52.0 AU; p<0.001). The total amount of dry skin and very dry skin was more in the moisturizing group 30 minutes after bathing than immediately after bathing. Conclusion: Significant difference in skin hydration degrees found between immediately after the bathing group (on the right forearm volar) and 30 minutes after bathing (on the left forearm volar).


A 78-year-old woman who had undergone triple coronary bypass grafting with the right internal thoracic artery ( RITA ) to the left anterior descending artery 8 years previously was referred to our hospital because of heart failure due to progressive aortic valve stenosis. Coronary angiography showed that all of the coronary grafts were patent, and multidetector-row computed tomography demonstrated the functional RITA graft located close to the posterior of the sternum at the level of the second costal cartilage. To prevent injury of the RITA graft, we initially performed an inverted-L - shaped partial sternotomy extended to the right second intercostal space. After institution of peripheral cardiopulmonary bypass, we performed careful removal of adhesions along the posterior of the sternum under decompressed conditions and accomplished resternotomy safely. The patent internal thoracic artery grafts were never dissected and the patient was cooled to a rectal temperature of 22 ℃ . After aortic crossclamping, myocardial arrest was obtained with systemic hyperkalemia by instilling 40 mEq of potassium chloride into the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit and we successfully performed aortic valve replacement. This method is an alternative approach for re-do cardiac surgery after previous bypass grafting in patients with a functional RITA graft located close to the posterior of the sternum. Jpn. J. Cardiovasc. Surg. 41 : 231 - 234 ( 2012 )


Female genital mutilation is a deeply rooted cultural tradition observed primarily in Africa and among certain communities in the Middle East and Asia. It has considerable health consequences. Women from the practising communities are increasingly seen within healthcare settings but few healthcare professionals are trained to treat their specific healthcare needs.


In previous work (Pullen 2022), we introduced the concept of augmenting GPS with six inclined geosynchronous satellites (I-GEOs) that would provide GPS-Block-III-quality military and civil ranging signals along with conveying Satellite-based Augmentation System (SBAS) messages to users. This would create a new means to distribute SBAS messages globally and would support Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) for users not equipped to use SBAS. This paper examines multiple configurations of I-GEO satellites augmenting GPS satellites and includes augmentation by satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). For each arrangement of satellites, the Stanford MAAST GNSS simulation software package is used to evaluate the protection levels and the availability of integrity for aviation LPV approaches (to a minimum decision height of 250 ft) for ARAIM users. MAAST computes PLs and availability for a global grid of military (dual-frequency M-code and/or PRS) and civil (dual-frequency L1/L5 or equivalent) user locations separated by 5 degrees of latitude and longitude. Contour plots of LPV availability, Vertical Protection Level (VPL), and Horizontal Protection Level (VPL and HPL) are generated for each combination of I-GEO and other GNSS satellites. In addition, sorted (by magnitude) values of VPL and HPL are plotted for example locations in the user grid to illustrate the sensitivity of VPL and HPL to the poorest satellite geometries before and after I-GEOs or LEOs are included.


PURPOSE
In this study, 18 children with 21 subcondylar fractures sustained during their growth period (age at trauma from 4-11 years, mean 7.7 years) have been followed-up.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
All patients were treated by custom-made arch bars and intermaxillary fixation for 12-17 days, then kept on a liquid diet for 15 days without fixation. The mean follow-up was 4.7 years. The conservative treatment has been evaluated with clinical, radiographic, and functional parameters.

RESULTS
Remodelling of the condylar head was good in 17, whilst moderate remodelling occurred in the other four condyles. In four patients, a slight deflection (less than 2 mm) to the side of the fracture on wide mouth opening was seen. There was no malocclusion or ankylosis.

CONCLUSION
Conservative treatment of condylar fractures during growth resulted in good function and good remodelling of the condyle. Functional treatment after intermaxillary fixation for 12-17 days proved to be quite acceptable.


Modern Business commerce Education cover diversified fields of education and research in different aspects of business environment. It includes Finance, Marketing, Accounting, Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurship Development, Commercial and Business Law etc. In order to attain Economic Growth of a region or a country, one needs professional Economists and Accountants eith advanced practical knowledge to enable to evaluate and analyze the complexities of the large scale business and other Financial institutions in one side and to face the stiff competition from the MNCs from the other side. Here the commercial experts who have trained in different aspects of business environment have to play a very important role. Keeping in view the above facts and demand of the time, prospects of Commerce Education seems very bright. To avail the advantage of Commerce, a lot of educational institutions have been opened to educate students in the field of Commerce with more knowledge on practical. The focus of the paper is on the current status, challenges and about different opportunities available in commerce education.


The circle criterion provides a convenient method of testing stability in nonlinear feedback systems. The need for computer computation of the relative stability conditions for the Nyquist plot can be avoided by using a logarithmic gain-phase plot on the Nichols chart. The results of this technique agree within about 1% with those obtained from a computer solution of the Nyquist plot.


This study adopts the brand relationship perspective to investigate the effects of social media-based brand communities on social marketing performances. An empirical study was conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses. Two analyses, one with 152 survey respondents on Weibo and the other with 209 survey respondents on Facebook, revealed that most of the antecedents (with the exception of monetary needs fulfillment) including information needs fulfillment, entertainment needs fulfillment, and social interaction needs fulfillment had positive effects on brand relationship quality for both Weibo and Facebook. Further, we found that brand relationship quality had positive effects on fans' behavioral intentions toward brands, including willingness to buy, member continuance intention, and electronic word of mouth intention. This study contributes to research that shows brand relationship quality can be improved via a social media-based marketing approach. Implications corresponding to the research findings as well as study limitations and future directions are also discussed.


Predicting the pose of objects from a single image is an important but difficult computer vision problem. Methods that predict a single point estimate do not predict the pose of objects with symmetries well and cannot represent uncertainty. Alternatively, some works predict a distribution over orientations in $\mathrm{SO}(3)$. However, training such models can be computation- and sample-inefficient. Instead, we propose a novel mapping of features from the image domain to the 3D rotation manifold. Our method then leverages $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ equivariant layers, which are more sample efficient, and outputs a distribution over rotations that can be sampled at arbitrary resolution. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method at object orientation prediction, and achieve state-of-the-art performance on the popular PASCAL3D+ dataset. Moreover, we show that our method can model complex object symmetries, without any modifications to the parameters or loss function. Code is available at https://dmklee.github.io/image2sphere.


An implicit finite difference scheme for solving time-dependent convection dominated diffusion equations in two space variables is presented. A one-sided difference approximation is used for the convection terms and a second-order central difference approximationfor the diffusion term. The implicit scheme is consistent,unconditionally stable and its $L^2$ error estimation is optimal. By preconditioning technique of incremental unknowns, the implicit scheme is an efficient one.


Knowledge is subject to enclosure through digital technology and legal rules. Data collected, stored and pooled by the Internet of Things (IoT) or Artificial Intelligence (AI) are no exception to this. Operators acting in the markets related to the algorithmic society may have a quite diversified range of intellectual property rights (IPRs) to protect the information they produce and manage. This is exploited through algorithmic processing techniques, aggregating collected data for the generation of new ones, thus creating additional information and knowledge. This paper studies whether and when data, information and knowledge, presented within the Big Data, IoT and AI structures, may be considered and exploited as commons. The analysis is not aimed at stating that commons should be the general solution for the algorithmic society. Nor does it endorse legal interpretations unilaterally favoring openness and limiting IPR protection and privacy rules (though this could be the case under certain circumstances). The question is to establish whether a certain level of commons should be provided by regulation or left to spontaneous private initiatives. In this regard, two different meanings of data commons are used in this work. The first one refers to the open access systems provided by regulation, equivalent to a public domain protection, and opposed to exclusivity mechanisms. The second refers to data commons which are privately 'constructed' on top of background regulation and manage resources for a limited set of claimants.


The enterprise budgets for owner-operators and tenant-operators are presented in two formats. One format is a summary of costs and returns for the enterprise. This format presents costs by broad categories such as herbicides, insecticides, etc. The other format presents a detailed listing of the operations, the equipment size and the associated power unit along with the date performed and the associated costs for tractor, machinery and materials. Together these formats provide the detailed information necessary to adjust budgets to individual situations. In addition, the appendix to this report contains detailed cost estimates for an extensive list of equipment, irrigation systems, and operating inputs. These may also be used to modify budgets contained in this report or construct new enterprise budgets.


Technology-based interventions for promoting health behavior-change frequently leverage multiplayer game mechanics such as group-based competitions. However, health interventions successful for groups writ large may not always translate to successful behavior change at the individual level. In this paper, we explore the tension between group and individual success, based on an empirical study on a long-term real-world deployment of a pervasive health game for youth. We report five distinctive player types along the dimensions of motivation, behavior, and influence on others. Based on the findings, we provide design suggestions to help game designers integrate group-based mechanisms that maximize intervention effectiveness.


The differentiation between two identical chemical groups in the Ca'a"bd molecule in enzymic reactions is discussed first. It is then shown that squalene biosynthesized from two molecules of [1-D2]farnesyl pyrophosphate is asymmetrically labelled at one of its central methylene carbon atoms, one of the deuterium atoms at C-l of one of the two farnesyl residues having been replaced stereospecifically by HB of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate. The trideuterio succinic acid obtained by ozonolysis from such squalene is shown to be dextrorotatory and to have the S absolute configuration. The steric position of HA and of HB at position 4 of the dihydronicotinamide ring in NADH and NADPH, transferred from substrates to coenzyme by 'A'- and 'B'-specific dehydrogenases respectively, is deduced. This was achieved by making a correlation between the laevorotatory 2R-[2-D1]succinic acid (made chemically from enzymically generated 2S-3R-[3-D1]malic acid) and the [2-D1]succinic acids derived by chemical degradation from positions 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the dihydronicotinamide ring of 'A'-deuterio and 'B'-deuterio NADH. The absolute configuration of C-4 of the dihydronicotinamide ring in 'A'-deuterio NADH is R and in the 'B'-deuterio NADH it is S.


This paper proposes an interpolation based progressive algebraic Chase decoding (PACD) algorithm for Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. Based on the received information, 2η (η > 0) interpolation test-vectors are constructed. They are ordered using a reliability function, assessing their potential of yielding the intended message. The decoding is performed progressively granting priority to decode the test-vectors that are more likely to yield the intended message, and it will be terminated once the intended message is found. In the proposal, the decoding of a later test-vector utilizes the interpolation information that is generated during the decoding of the earlier ones. It results in the binary tree that represents the evolution of the interpolated polynomial sets growing in a depth-first-search manner. The PACD algorithm has the advantage of adapting its decoding computation to the channel condition, leveraging the average decoding complexity. This channel dependent feature will be validated by our simulation results which show that the PACD algorithm is less complex than various interpolation based algebraic decoding algorithms. We will also demonstrate that it can achieve a high RS decoding performance.


Abstract. An adaptive segmented stationary method for non-stationary signal is proposed to reveal the turbulent kinetic energy evolution during the entire sandstorm process observed at the Qingtu Lake Observation Array. Sandstorm which is a common natural disaster is mechanically characterized by a particle-laden two-phase flow experiencing wall turbulence, with an extremely high Reynolds number and significant turbulent kinetic energy. Turbulence energy transfer is important to the understanding of sandstorm dynamics. This study indicates that large-/very-large-scale coherent structures originally exist in the rising stage of sandstorms with a streamwise kinetic energy of 75 % rather than gradually forming. In addition to carrying a substantial portion of energy, the very-large-scale-motions are active structures with strong nonlinear energy transfer. These structures gain energy from strong nonlinear interaction. As sandstorm evolves, these large structures are gradually broken by quadratic phase coupling, with the energy fraction reducing to 40 % in the declining stage. The nonlinear process in the steady and declining stages weakens and maintains a balanced budget of energy. The systematic bispectrum results provide a new perspective for further insight of sandstorms.


Advective heat transported by water percolating into discontinuities in frozen ground can rapidly increase temperatures at depth because it provides a thermal shortcut between the atmosphere and the subsurface. Here, we develop a conceptual model that incorporates the main heat‐exchange processes in a rock cleft. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations based on the model indicate that latent heat release due to initial ice aggradation can rapidly warm cold bedrock and precondition it for later thermal erosion of cleft ice by advected sensible heat. The timing and duration of water percolation both affect the ice‐level change if initial aggradation and subsequent erosion are of the same order of magnitude. The surplus advected heat is absorbed by cleft ice loss and runoff from the cleft so that this energy is not directly detectable in ground temperature records. Our findings suggest that thawing‐related rockfall is possible even in cold permafrost if meltwater production and flow characteristics change significantly. Advective warming could rapidly affect failure planes beneath large rock masses and failure events could therefore differ greatly from common magnitude reaction‐time relations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Voltage - Var Control and Optimization (VVC&O) mechanism in distribution system assisted by local controllers and Distributed Management System (DMS) helps in meeting operating criterion and achieving energy savings. Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) with VVC&O allows reduction in peak load and energy consumption, by having flat voltage profile near lower bound of ANSI Standards (114V), while maintaining power factor within limit. To estimate the energy saving, CVR factor is needed and accurate load modeling is required to estimate CVR factors. In this work, distribution system was modeled and simulated utilizing data from one of the feeder in Pullman, WA. This paper presents the results of the study done on improving the VVC capabilities by integrating Smart Meter Infrastructure. Load Modeling was done by observing the behavior of loads at each house and comparing the smart meter data with the simulation results. Precision of developed load model provides enough information to make a decision on required changes in voltage at a substation at a given time for energy saving without violating operation criterion. Results of VVC&O show that energy saving of 4-5% can be achieved at the typical distribution substation.


The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships among social capital i.e. cognitive, structural and relational social capital and occupational stress in banking industry of Pakistan. Survey questionnaire technique was used to collect the data from employees of banking industry. Total response rate from employees of the bank was 55%. Multiple regression technique was used to test the hypothesis of the study. An inverse and significant relation was found between cognitive, structural and relational dimensions of social capital and occupational stress. This study is significant due to the insights it provides for the banking industry managers of Pakistan to better understand the occupational stressors inherent in the functions of their workforce. Furthermore, this study develops an understanding of the social capital and its relationship with occupational stress to enhance social capital among employees and help them in achieving organizational goals effectively.


Sum-Product Networks (SPN) are deep probabilistic models that have shown to achieve state-of-theart performance in several machine learning tasks. As with many other probabilistic models, performing Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) inference is NP-hard in SPNs. A notable exception is selective SPNs, that constrain the network so as to allow MAP inference to be performed in linear time. Due to the high number of parameters, SPNs learned from data can produce unreliable and overconfident inference; this phenomenon can be partially mitigated by performing a Robustness Analysis of the model predictions to changes in the parameters. In this work, we address the problem of assessing the robustness of MAP inferences produced with Selective SPNs to global perturbations of the parameters. We present efficient algorithms and an empirical analysis with realistic problems.


Background. Teenagers, a huge age group in developing countries, face a period with many physical, mental and social problems. Appropriate health education concerning their periodic development is of importance in community health services. The present study performed a comparative assessment of subjects' knowledge, attitude and practice, concerning puberty health programs. Method. In an interventional study, 350 girl students aged between 12 and 14 were randomly selected through a two-phase sampling and divided into two parallel groups. Their knowledge, attitude and practice concerning puberty health were measured by a questionnaire for each subject. Then, one group was trained through a self learning pamphlet and another participated in a discussion panel and some lectures about puberty health. Mean scores were obtained by a test and compared between groups as well as in preand post intervention using student t-test and paired t-test. Results. Both groups were similar in scores before intervention. After intervention, mean score for knowledge significantly increased in both groups (P<0.001). In the self-learner group, mean scores for attitude were not significantly different after education (p=0.16 & 0.056, respectively); but in the other group, they were statistically remarkable (p<0.001& p=0.0001, respectively). The comparison of scores obtained in two groups showed significant increases in knowledge and practice levels through discussion panel (p<0.001); but no significant difference was observed concerning attitude (p=0.84). Conclusion. Discussion panel is more effective than self-learning despite traditional and cultural obstacles in puberty health education for Iranian teenage girls.


The consequences of daily cyclic hypoxia on a European grass shrimp: from short-term responses to long-term effects ABSTRACT: and all major organs) after 7 days. Further, it activated physiological adaptations resulting in an acceleration of the moult cycle and in morphological changes to the gills within 16 days of cyclic hypoxia. Finally, we demonstrated how the cyclic hypoxic regime reduced adult body size and ammonium excretion within 28 days of exposure, and affected reproduction in adult P. varians after 40 days exposure.


Introduction In 2010, to address the increased vulnerability of MSMs as well as Transgenders to HIV transmission especially in the context of South East Asia, ISEAN and Hivos, jointly submitted a regional proposal to the Global Fund Round 10. The programme's goal is to reduce the vulnerability and risks of MSM and TG to HIV infection in the island countries of Southeast Asia. This grant was approved and has since then been called, the ISEAN Hivos Program. Part of the challenge of implementing a regional programme is being able to fulfil its monitoring and evaluation requirements. In the initial phase of the ISEAN-Hivos implementation, efforts were undertaken to manualize the Programs M&E Requirements leading to the development of an M&E Toolkit. Methods This presentation provides a description of the ISEAN-Hivos Toolkit and shares the principles that it followed to come up with a tool that can be applied in implementing an HIV-prevention project, targeting MSMs and TGs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Timor Leste. The ISEAN-Hivos M&E Toolkit is comprised of the following: Approved M&E Plan and Performance Framework M&E Reporting Templates and Tools Unique Identifying Code Guidelines ISEAN Hivos Calendar for Reporting Conclusion The experience of ISEAN-Hivos in fielding its M&E Toolkit provides empirical evidence of the value of manualization of programme management tools and guidelines in coordinating a cross-country regional HIV grant, which can provide learning for similar initiatives in various geographical contexts.


We report the establishment of a model of neural differentiation in four well-characterized Ewing's sarcoma cell lines. This process was induced by serum-depleted medium (1% fetal bovine serum) and agents such as dibutyryl cyclic AMP and retinoic acid. The morphologic changes were characterized predominantly by the presence of neurite-like elongated processes showing varicosities and branching along their course with numerous internal filaments and electron-dense granules. Immunocytochemically, differentiation was accompanied by a considerable increase in reactivity for neural markers of several types: neuroblastic, neuroepithelial, neuroendocrine, Schwannian and even glial. In contrast, the tumor promoter, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate inhibited differentiation. Several morphologic changes were observed in phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-treated cells: the cells became smaller and rounder, were poorly adherent to substrate, by electron microscopy lacked cytoplasmic organelles, electron-dense granules or neural processes, and showed decreased expression of neural markers. Northern blot analysis was performed to establish whether there was any relationship between neural differentiation and degree of N-myc, c-myc and dbl oncogene expression. There was no N-myc oncogene expression in the mRNA of Ewing's sarcoma cells, even after neural induced differentiation. The degree of c-myc and dbl oncogene expression appeared heterogeneous, and varied with the culture condition. Based on these results, it may be inferred that Ewing's sarcoma cells in vitro display a variable neural phenotype, there being a variety of biologic responses to diverse culture media and various differentiation agents, but with no consistent effect on N-myc, c-myc and dbl oncogene expression.


It is well known that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the entropy vector of a collection of n random variables and a certain group-characterizable vector obtained from a finite group and n of its subgroups [1]. However, if one restricts attention to abelian groups then not all entropy vectors can be obtained. This is an explanation for the fact shown by Dougherty et al [2] that linear network codes cannot achieve capacity in general network coding problems (since linear network codes form an abelian group). All abelian group-characterizable vector s, and by fiat all entropy vectors generated by linear network codes, satisfy a linear inequality called th e Ingleton inequality. In this paper, we study the problem of finding nonabelian finite groups that yield charac terizable vectors which violate the Ingleton inequality. Using a refined computer search, we find the symme tric group S5 to be the smallest group that violates the Ingleton inequality. Careful study of the stru cture of this group, and its subgroups, reveals that it belongs to the Ingleton-violating family PGL(2,p) with primes p ≥ 5, i.e., the projective group of 2×2 nonsingular matrices with entries in Fp. This family of groups is therefore a good candidate for constructing network codes more powerful than linear network codes.


The article analyzes and substantiates the peculiarities of the implementation of modern methods of auxiliary and alternative communication in the process of psychological support of children with autism spectrum disorders. Modern experience shows that in the conditions of early intervention, the development of children with autism spectrum disorder acquires stable positive dynamics. Assistance to children with autism spectrum disorder is most successfully provided in the paradigm of complex support. In children with autism spectrum disorders, disorders in the field of social communication and language pragmatics are found in all without exception, regardless of age and level of development. An analysis of the views of various researchers on the problem of communication and speech disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders suggests that the introduction of alternative and auxiliary communication means is an effective intervention that gives quick results and has a positive effect on the development of communication and language. The best result is achieved in a situation where the child's environment supports the practice of using alternative and auxiliary communication tools, knows how to respond correctly to the child's communicative initiatives, create situations in which he could use alternative and auxiliary communication tools and conduct training in the process of everyday interaction. Accordingly, the authors of the article actualize the issue of finding alternative opportunities to build a communicative space between the child and parents, as well as the implementation of auxiliary communication methods using modern mobile applications and devices. When choosing means of additional communication, the level of communicative development, communicative capabilities and abilities of the child are assessed. As part of an empirical study, the positive results of the implementation of modern software for mobile devices are demonstrated in order to optimize the construction of a constructive communicative space between a child with autism spectrum disorder and significant adults.


Sesamia nonagrioides Lef. and Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübn.) are two corn borers present in the Mediterranean area that share a similar feeding habitat. The female sex pheromones of the two species consist of (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate, (Z)-11-hexadecen-1-ol, (Z)-11-hexadecenal and dodecyl acetate (77:8:10:5 w/w) and (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate and (E)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (97:3 w/w) respectively. Although the pheromones share no common components, previous work had shown the inhibition of the response by O. nubilalis males to their own pheromone owing to the presence of S. nonagrioides pheromone. In this study, the pheromone of O. nubilalis and its two components separately were shown to inhibit the attraction of S. nonagrioides males to the synthetic female pheromone in both laboratory wind-tunnel bioassay and field trapping studies. In the wind tunnel, the number of contacts of S. nonagrioides males with the source were significantly (P < 0.05) reduced by the single pheromone components of O. nubilalis. In the field, the addition of 1% of O. nubilalis pheromone significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the catches of S. nonagrioides males. The components of both pheromones also elicited electroantennographic responses from antennae of male S. nonagrioides moths. The ecological consequences and the possibilities of applying this cross-inhibition for mating disruption techniques are discussed.


Why are we still intrigued by Nietzsche? This chapter argues that sustained interest stems from Nietzsche's challenge to what we might call the 'staticism' inherent in our ordinary experience. Staticism can be defined, roughly speaking, as the view that the world is a collection of enduring, re-identifiable objects that change only very gradually and according to determinate laws. The chapter discusses Nietzsche's rejection of the remnants of staticism in Hegel and Schopenhauer (1). It outlines why Nietzsche deems belief in any variant of the staticist picture as problematic (2); and examines Nietzsche's adualistic-dialetheic stance towards, for example, first-person and third-person descriptions in the philosophy of mind (3). The chapter closes with a discussion of the contributions of "Nietzsche on Time and History".


In the past decade, the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has emerged as a potential new construct for explaining behavioral variance not accounted for by traditional measures of general academic intelligence or personality. EI researchers credit E. L. Thorndike as the first to propose such a construct when he suggested that social intelligence is independent of abstract or academic intelligence. The current paper traces the historical roots of social intelligence and the current scientific status of emotional intelligence. It appears that emotional intelligence, as a concept related to occupational success, exists outside the typical scientific domain. Much of the data necessary for demonstrating the unique association between EI and work-related behavior appears to reside in proprietary databases, preventing rigorous tests of the measurement devices or of their unique predictive value. For those reasons, any claims for the value of EI in the work setting cannot be made under the scientific mantle. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Keeping in view the concept of agglomeration economies and the New Economic Geography (NEG) angle, this paper makes an attempt to examine the rural to urban population movement at the district level in India. The findings tend to confirm that higher levels of urbanisation and higher migration rates are not strongly associated. Nevertheless, there exists a cluster of districts which are able to attract migrants on a large scale in spite of being already urbanised. The work participation rate, share of services and construction work, and literacy rate all form parts of this positive nexus, indicating that opportunities exist with increased levels of urbanisation which prompt people to migrate. The positive spill-over effects of higher levels of urbanisation are not limited to the urban spaces only as the adjoining rural areas are also indicative of a significant transformation process. The land use pattern and activities seem to be changing and some of the developmental impact is evident. However, having concluded with a positive note it is important to mention that the regional variations in this respect bring out sharp differences in the relationship between urbanisation level and migration rates, determinants of the nature of urbanisation and also, the outcome variables of urbanisation and migration. There are many districts with higher levels of urbanisation; yet, they are not able to attract migrants at a rapid pace. New investment opportunities are to be created in these spaces to reduce the cost of growth and make employment creation more effective, facilitating the rural population to take the benefits of agglomeration economies.


Tissue defects can be accompanied by functional impairments that affect the health and quality of life of patients. Hydrogels are three-dimensional (3D) hydrophilic polymer networks that can be used as bionic functional tissues to fill or repair damaged tissue as a promising therapeutic strategy in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This paper summarises and discusses four outstanding advantages of hydrogels and their applications and advances in the repair and regeneration of tissue defects. First, hydrogels have physicochemical properties similar to the extracellular matrix of natural tissues, providing a good microenvironment for cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. Second, hydrogels have excellent shape adaptation and tissue adhesion properties, allowing them to be applied to a wide range of irregularly shaped tissue defects and to adhere well to the defect for sustained and efficient repair function. Third, the hydrogel is an intelligent delivery system capable of releasing therapeutic agents on demand. Hydrogels are capable of delivering therapeutic reagents and releasing therapeutic substances with temporal and spatial precision depending on the site and state of the defect. Fourth, hydrogels are self-healing and can maintain their integrity when damaged. We then describe the application and research progress of functional hydrogels in the repair and regeneration of defects in bone, cartilage, skin, muscle and nerve tissues. Finally, we discuss the challenges faced by hydrogels in the field of tissue regeneration and provide an outlook on their future trends.


In this study, we have used a direct immunoassay where the simple binding between antigen and an antibody is detected. Immunoassays were performed in a drop system, monitoring the frequency decrease of the quartz-crystal microbalance device because of mass increasing during immunoreaction. The QCM sensor was coated on both sides by gold electrodes, only one side of the crystal (liquid side) was in contact with the solution; the other side (contact side) was always dry. We tested a piezoelectric immunosensor for aflatoxin B1 (AFLA-B1) mycotoxin detection through the immo- bilization of DSP-anti-AFLAB1 antibody (AFLA-B1-Ab anti AFLAB1) on gold-coated quartz crystals (AT-cut/5 MHz). The DSP (3,3'-Dithiodipropionic-acid-di-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester) was used for the covalent attachment of the proteins. The piezoelectric crystal electrodes were pretreated by DSP for 15 min, rinsed with water and dried in a gentle flow of nitrogen gas. Then the DSP-coated crystals were installed in a sample holder and exposed to the anti-AFLAB1 antibody and to the AFLA-BI. Frequency and resistance shifts (Δf and ΔR) were measured simultaneously. Δf versus AFLA-BI concentrations in the range of 0.5 - 10 ppb exhibited a perfect linear correlation with a coefficient of above 0.998.


This paper revisits the crucial period following the Arab oil boycott of 1973, when the welfare state in the UK finally collapsed along with the heavy industrial base upon which it rested. Unlike the post‐war welfare‐state 'settlement', the new post‐welfare market state was imposed by Margaret Thatcher's governments. It was marked for vocational education and training by the 1988 Education Reform Act and the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act. This legislation was part of what has been called 'a succession of Acts of Parliament… [that] mark the most decisive break in British social policy since the period between 1944 and 1948'. The paper revises and refines previous accounts to suggest that this outcome was not inevitable, nor is it sustainable, and that it is best comprehended as a new type of state formation.


This research paper aimed to propose a model of management towards the excellence of Buddhist Sunday School. Mixed methods research was designed and it was divided into three steps. The first step was to study management using questionnaires to collect from 109 teachers, and data were analyzed by descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean and standard deviation. The second step was to develop the model by interview10 key informants with an interview form. The third step was to propose the model with focus group discussion of 9 experts. Data was analyzed by content analysis. The research study found that management model for the excellence of Buddhist Sunday School was a participatory school management (Bovorn) and was the development of people to become a complete human being, both body, mind, intelligence, knowledge, along with morality, ethics, and culture of living, able to live happily with others consists of 5 elements: 1) Principle, 2) Purpose, 3) Procedure system, 4)  Action process consisted of (1) School management at Home (Ban), Temple (Wat), School (Rong-Rian) or called "Bovon" in Thai, (2) Participation in curriculum administration, (3) The teacher is acted as a person of learning, (4) The development of the learner to be a perfect human being of good, clever and happy, (5) Buddhist teaching management integrated with modern science, (6) clean, shady, safe learning resources linked to Thai wisdom, (7) Kalayanamit evaluation, and 5) Evaluation.


Among the components of a pedestrian detector, its trained pedestrian classifier is crucial for achieving the desired performance. The initial task of the training process consists in collecting samples of pedestrians and background, which involves tiresome manual annotation of pedestrian bounding boxes (BBs). Thus, recent works have assessed the use of automatically collected samples from photo-realistic virtual worlds. However, learning from virtual-world samples and testing in real-world images may suffer the dataset shift problem. Accordingly, in this paper we assess an strategy to collect samples from the real world and retrain with them, thus avoiding the dataset shift, but in such a way that no BBs of real-world pedestrians have to be provided. In particular, we train a pedestrian classifier based on virtual-world samples (no human annotation required). Then, using such a classifier we collect pedestrian samples from real-world images by detection. After, a human oracle rejects the false detections efficiently (weak annotation). Finally, a new classifier is trained with the accepted detections. We show that this classifier is competitive with respect to the counterpart trained with samples collected by manually annotating hundreds of pedestrian BBs.


Abstract : A collapse of North Korea poses the single greatest threat to peace and stability in East Asia. A violent collapse, known as a "hard landing" would be a costly disaster. A more benign collapse, or "soft landing," while less disruptive, requires a level of sustained North Korean economic growth and South Korean investment not possible under current economic conditions. Even if North Korea were somehow able to execute a soft landing and reunify with the South, huge social differences exist between the two Koreas that would make the process more costly and difficult than that experienced by other divided nations. In response, this thesis states that a primary aim of U.S. foreign policy in East Asia should be to prevent a collapse of North Korea, and proposes a combination of confidence building measures, economic aid and diplomatic engagement calculated to drive North Korea towards reengagement with the outside world and increased interdependence with South Korea. The primary goal of these policies is to promote peace and stability in the region, while paving the way for reconciliation. Reunification is treated as a domestic issue to be resolved by the two Koreas at some future date.


Both host and pathogen competitively manipulate coordination environments during bacterial infections. Human cells release the innate immune protein siderocalin (Scn, also known as lipocalin-2/Lcn2, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin/NGAL) that can inhibit bacterial growth by sequestering iron in a ferric complex with enterobactin (Ent), the ubiquitous Escherichia coli siderophore. Pathogenic E. coli use the virulence-associated esterase IroE to linearize the Ent cyclic trilactone to linear enterobactin (lin-Ent). We characterized lin-Ent interactions with Scn by using native mass spectrometry (MS) with hydrogen–deuterium exchange (HDX) and Lys/Arg specific covalent footprinting. These approaches support 1:1 binding of both Fe(III)-lin-Ent to Scn and iron-free lin-Ent to Scn. Both ferric and nonferric lin-Ent localize to all three pockets of the Scn calyx, consistent with Scn capture of lin-Ent both before and after Fe(III) chelation. These findings raise the possibility that Scn neutralizes both siderophores and siderophore-bound iron during infections. This integrated, MS-based approach circumvents the limitations that frustrate traditional structural approaches to examining Scn interactions with enterobactin-based ligands.