The importance of the colonic microflora in health and nutrition is well known, but how they colonize and become established in the colon is not well understood. We therefore characterized the quantitative and qualitative changes of the colonic microflora during the first 120 days of postnatal development. Unlike previous studies, changes were defined for individual pigs using in situ samples collected anaerobically and aseptically from the distal colon. Although the colons were sterile at birth, they were rapidly colonized, and within 12 h bacterial densities had stabilized at 10(-9)-10(10) bacteria/g colonic content. Facultative anaerobes, notably coliforms, initially dominated the microflora, but were supplanted within 48 h after birth by obligate anaerobes, which constituted greater than 90% of the microflora thereafter. Bacteroides spp., the predominant anaerobes in the adult colon, did not markedly increase in abundance until after weaning and were still increasing by postnatal day 120. Shifts in the relative abundances of different bacterial populations throughout the first 120 days after birth confirm previous reports that the establishment of the adult colonic microflora is a gradual, sequential process, and highlight the need to focus research on anaerobic groups.


A new glucose derived magnetic solid acid catalyst (Glu-Fe3O4-SO3H) was synthesized in a convenient and ecofriendly manner and well characterized using FTIR, PXRD, EDAX, SEM, and XPS which showed the presence of Fe3O4 embedded on the surface of the catalyst along with –SO3H, –OH and –COOH functional groups. This new heterogeneous catalyst was studied for synthesis of 2-deoxy galactosides/glucosides with good yields and selectivity. Moreover, the catalyst can be easily separated from the reaction with an external magnetic force and reused for a minimum of four times without any significant decrease in the yields of the products after every recycle.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of interleukin-2 (IL-2) combined with either tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) or alpha-interferon (IFN-alpha) on the proliferation and cytolysis to bladder tumor cells of lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells in patients with bladder cancer.

METHODS
LAK cells were generated by ficoll-paque density-centrifugation from 21 patients with bladder cancer and cultured in medium containing IL-2. LAK cell proliferation was assayed in the presence of various concentrations of either TNF-alpha or IFN-alpha by cell count in 96-well plates. Bladder cancer cell lines BIU-87 and EJ were cultured as target cells and the cytotoxicity of LAK cells was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.

RESULTS
The proliferation of LAK cells induced by IL-2 was enhanced by TNF-alpha in a dose-responsive fashion. The direct growth support for the LAK cells was also observed with IFN-alpha at the concentration of 1000 U/ml after 48 hours of culture. TNF-alpha (5000 U/ml) resulted in an increase in the cytotoxicity of LAK cells to BIU-87 and EJ cells. However, the change of cytotoxicity of LAK cells treated with IFN-alpha was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
TNF-alpha and IFN-alpha enhance the proliferation and activation of LAK cells and influence their antitumor cytotoxicity in patients with bladder cancer.


We report a strategy to rewire cell surfaces for the dynamic control of ligand composition on cell membranes and the modulation of cell-cell interactions to generate three-dimensional (3D) tissue structures applied to stem-cell differentiation, cell-surface tailoring, and tissue engineering. We tailored cell surfaces with bioorthogonal chemical groups on the basis of a liposome-fusion and -delivery method to create dynamic, electroactive, and switchable cell-tissue assemblies through chemistry involving chemoselective conjugation and release. Each step to modify the cell surface: activation, conjugation, release, and regeneration, can be monitored and modulated by noninvasive, label-free analytical techniques. We demonstrate the utility of this methodology by the conjugation and release of small molecules to and from cell surfaces and by the generation of 3D coculture spheroids and multilayered cell tissues that can be programmed to undergo assembly and disassembly on demand.


While caches are essential to reduce execution time and power consumption, they complicate the estimation of the Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET), crucial for many Real-Time Systems (RTS). Most research on static worst-case cache behavior prediction has focused on hard RTS, which need complete information on the access patterns and addresses of the data to guarantee the predicted WCET is a safe upper bound of any execution time. Access patterns are available in those codes that have a steady state of access patterns after the first iteration of a loop (in the following regular codes), however, the addresses of the data are not always known at compile time for many reasons: stack variables, dynamically allocated memory, modules compiled separately, etc. Even when available, their usefulness to predict cache behavior in systems with virtual memory decreases in the presence of physically-indexed caches. In this paper we present a model that predicts a reasonable bound of the worst-case behavior of data caches during the execution of regular codes without information on the base address of the data structures. In 99.7% of our tests the number of misses performed below the boundary predicted by the model. This turns the model into a valuable tool, particularly for non-RTS and soft RTS, which tolerate a percentage of the runs exceeding their deadlines.


Since the late 1970s, there has been considerable debate surrounding the question of whether or not exposures to non-ionizing radiation and electric and magnetic fields (EMF), produced by powerlines and electrical and telecommunications technologies, are harmful to health. Whilst there has been some recent evidence of regulatory fatigue, and attempts to enforce closure, the EMF debate nevertheless still continues. This paper will explore the rôle played by competing images of scientific method in the argumentative strategies used by two of the main protagonists in an Australian public inquiry (held in 1990-91) which investigated the EMF issue: `Inquiry into Community Needs and High Voltage (132kv and above) Transmission Line Development', the so-called Gibbs Inquiry. Apart from documenting some of the epistemologically intricate features of the EMF controversy, the following discussion will also consider the way scientific method discourses can contribute to enhancing the durability of knowledge claims in legal and regulatory settings.


During the last decades, cowpox virus, a member of the genus Orthopoxvirus within the Poxviridae family, has appeared as a pathogen in domestic cats, zoo animal species, and humans. At the same time, vaccinia virus, another orthopoxvirus, has been used as a recombinant vaccine vector with foreign genes inserted in the thymidine kinase (TK) gene. By PCR and cycle sequencing, we have determined the nucleotide sequences of the TK gene and the A‐type inclusion protein (ATIP) gene of virus isolates from two human cowpox cases in Sweden, as well as a human and a feline case from Norway. We also obtained the corresponding sequences from ectromelia virus (strain Moscow), cow‐pox virus (strain Brighton) and vaccinia virus (strain Western Reserve). The new virus isolates differed from ectromelia virus and vaccinia virus, and were confirmed to be cowpox virus strains. Isolates originating from the same country had nearly identical TK sequences and fully identical ATIP sequences. They probably represent local geographical strains of cowpox virus.


The European Landscape Convention is the pan-national legal reference on the subject of land and landscape. It introduces, in the contracting states, new models for the management and development of integrated land use and development of the landscape. At the heart of the planning system is a presumption in favour of sustainable development, which should be seen as a golden thread running through both plan making and decision taking. Local planning authorities should plan positively for new development, and approve all individual proposals wherever possible. Sustainable development guarantees a valid approach to spatial planning, the design of quality and precious landscape in order to restructure territories through the development of social and territorial capital. The objective of this work is to compare the policies, procedures and operating methods adopted in Italy and in the United Kingdom (UK), to govern the landscape in the process of planning, based on the indications of the European Landscape Convention. The method is based on the identification of resources; strategic evaluation; protective measures; the development of the territorial capital.


In an effort to alleviate rice shortages, the Iranian government is attempting to encourage the private sector to become more involved in the rice market and trade of Iran. To this end, the multi rate foreign exchange system, which was adopted for several years mainly to support consumers, is being substituted by a single rate, with which the consumer price of rice is expected to decline, and the producer price to increase towards the world price. In this study, the links between change in rice price on the one hand, and poverty and food insecurity (measured by calorie intake) on the other, are calculated by applying Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (1984) measures to data from a sample of 540 Iranian households. Because of the increase in the real income of consumers following lower prices for a staple food, the poverty rate is calculated to fall from 0.24 to 0.16. The measures of poverty gap and poverty severity are also expected to fall, by 0.07 and 0.26 respectively. However, food insecurity, in terms of daily calorie intake, was found expected to be more severe after market liberalization, particularly among the poorest in Iranian society.


Abstract : When protracted conflicts stalemate and solutions are placed on hold for decades, stability begins to erode in regional relationships, bringing additional conflicts as an unintended consequence. The United States once again needs to play an active role in formulating solutions to world problems affecting vital U.S. interests, such as the Israeli-Palestinian situation. The United States has a great opportunity to attempt new solutions to the Middle East crisis due to two significant occurrences. From the Israeli perspective, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial, unilateral proposal in April 2004 to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank is accompanied by problems (unilateral approach) and strings (statements that other settlements will never be moved). But coupled with Sharon's agreement to President Bush's call for an independent, viable Palestinian state, this response still represents a major shift in attitude. The other major change has come with the death of Yasser Arafat, which has prompted new Palestinian Authority leadership to focus on achieving the now commonly accepted goal of a viable end state and implementing actions to stop the violence. President Mahmoud Abbas, a figure in the PLO that is considered legitimate by both sides, was freely and fairly elected in January 2005. For a true peace, the underlying problems must be addressed through honest negotiations, not through the military solutions of overwhelming might and suicide bombings, no matter how de-stabilizing the process leading to that negotiated solution is going to seem. Appendixes contain a concise overview of recent Israeli-Palestinian history, a map of the Palestine boundaries envisioned by the Zionist organization in 1919, maps of the British provisional mandate over Palestine in 1920 and 1922, partition map for UN resolution GA 181 in 1947, map of Israel following the 1967 war, Palestinian refugee camp locations, and Israeli settlement outposts in January 2002.


Achieving high code reuse in physical design flows is challenging but increasingly necessary to build complex systems. Unfortunately, existing approaches based on parameterized Tcl generators support very limited reuse as designers customize flows for specific designs and technologies, preventing their reuse in future flows. We present a vision and framework based on modular flow generators that encapsulates coarse-grained and fine-grained reusable code in modular nodes and assembles them into complete flows. The key feature is a flow consistency and instrumentation layer embedded in Python, which supports mechanisms for rapid and early feedback on inconsistent composition. We evaluate the design flows of successive generations of silicon prototypes built in TSMC16, TSMC28, TSMC40, SKY130, and IBM180 technologies, showing how our approach can enable significant code reuse in future flows.


Rhizosphere engineering is one of the means to increase the competitive survivability of rhizobial bio-inoculants. This can be achieved by altering the rhizospheric community structure with a co-compatible and co-operative microbial partner. There exists a proto-cooperative mode of interaction between the non-rhizobial endophytes (NRE) and the endosymbiont Rhizobium, which can be unraveled to enhance their competitive survivability. In the present investigation, 8 isolates of nodule associated bacteria (NAB) and 1 rhizobial species were isolated from the root nodules of black gram (Vigna mungo L.,) cultivar VBN6. Among the NAB isolates, 75% were grampositive bacilli belonging to the phylum firmicutes. The promising NABs that showed maximum PGP features were phylogenetically affiliated as Bacillus subtilis NANEB1 and Paenibacillus taichungensis TNEB6. Among them, P.taichungensis TNEB6 registered significant IAA production (15.39 μg.ml-1), siderophore (10.7%), ammonia, HCN and also ACC deaminase activity (94.3 mg-1 hr-1). Interestingly, 75 % of the NAB isolates could solubilize phosphorous. Furthermore, P.taichungensis TNEB6, when co-inoculated with Rhizobium sp showed significant plant growth promotion with respect to enhanced root and shoot length. The vigor index was also maximum in the treatment that received co-inoculation of Rhizobium sp and P.taichungensis (1812) Hence, the study suggests the scope of enhancing the yield potential and fitness of blackgram using a compatible co-inoculant, comprising a multifunctional NAB, P. taichungensis TNEB6 and Rhizobium sp.


We have investigated electrochemical deposition of copper along a very thin gold edge. Exploration of the transition between compact and branched morphologies reveals a faceted morphology, at very low current densities, which is composed of a pentagonal arrangement of twinned crystals. For higher current densities, repeated nucleation gives a tip-splitting regime. A transition between tip-splitting and side-branching morphology is obtained by inducing anisotropy on the substrate, in the form of microscopic teflon furrows. The growth speed of the different morphologies is very different.


Collection of precipitation in a raingage located in Lake Michigan near Chicago over an 11-yr period has permitted a study of the average monthly, seasonal and annual precipitation received off the southwestern shore of the lake. These values are compared with average precipitation occurring in the Chicago urban area and with amounts from other nearby rural and shore stations. From these comparisons, the effects of lake and urban influences on the precipitation pattern are evaluated. The results of this study compare favorably with results from similar lake-precipitation studies performed by the Corps of Engineers. The precipitation data from this station in the lake indicate that precipitation over southern Lake Michigan may be considerably less than previously estimated from data of stations along the shore. The effect of precipitation on lake levels may be better evaluated now that additional information on lake precipitation is available.


A study was conducted in the Tsegede highlands of Tigray Region, northern Ethiopia to determine the changes in some physical and chemical attributes across three adjacent acidic soil sites with different elevation and three land use types. Analytical results of the collected surface layer soil samples showed significant (P ≤ 0.05) correlation of soil bulk density, OM and total N with elevation. In the lower elevation site (Indaslasie), soil OM content declined by about 43 and 52% compared with that of the two higher elevation sites (Cheguarcudo and Indamariam), respectively. Soil pH, exchangeable acidity, exchangeable Al, OM, total N and available phosphorus also exhibited significant (P ≤ 0.05) disparity across the three land use types of the area. Soils of the forest land were less acidic by 0.43 and 0.68 pH units than the cultivated and grazing lands, respectively. The soil OM content of the cultivated land was significantly lower by about 25 and 35% than the grazing and forest land soils, respectively. Available soil P status was low and showed significant correlations with pH (r = 0.65), exchangeable acidity (r = –0.58) and Al (r = –0.53). In general, the study results revealed altitude did not impose any significant effect in aggravating soil acidity whereas land use type affected significantly not only soil acidity but also the important soil fertility related parameters such as OM, total N and available P contents. Therefore, it can be suggested that besides to the usual acid soil management and/or reclamation practices, introducing proper land use management systems are of paramount importance.


IT management costs increasingly dominate the overall IT costs. The main hope for reducing them is to standardize software and processes, as this leads to economies of scale in the management services. A key vehicle by which enterprises hope to achieve this is cloud computing, and they start to show interest in clouds outside the initial sweet spot of development and test. As business applications typically contain multiple images with dependencies, one is starting to standardize on multi-image structures. Benefits are ease of deployment of the entire structure and consistent later management services for the business applications. Enterprises have huge investments in their existing business applications, e.g., their web design, special code, database schemas, and data. The promises of clouds can only be realized if a significant fraction of these existing applications can be migrated into the clouds. We therefore present analysis techniques for mapping existing IT environments to multi-image cloud templates. We propose multiple matching criteria, leading to tradeoffs between the number of matches and the migration overhead, and present efficient algorithms for these special graph matching problems. We also present results from analyzing an existing enterprise environment with about 1600 servers.


Abstract Little is known regarding the activity of desert tortoises during winter, especially for the Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai). We observed adult, juvenile, and hatchling G. morafkai active during November, December, January, and February at 3 field sites in upland Sonoran Desert in central Arizona. At 1 site all individuals under observation (n  =  36), including males, females, and hatchlings, emerged from hibernacula to drink during the first heavy (> 20 mm) rainfall event (December); at all 3 sites, females were observed active (basking, foraging) during winter much more frequently than were males.


This report discusses the curators' evaluation of Web Archiving Service (WAS) release 1, as part of the Web-at-Risk project. This report summarizes the feedback received from the curators and provides details details to illustrate the areas that were either confusing or problematic to them. Their recommendations as well as some considerations for future development are also included. Additionally, many of the observations and suggestions in the Quick Heuristic Evaluation of the WAS echo the feedback received from the curators. These commonalities are noted in the document.


The trade secret literature does not thoroughly consider information asymmetries between companies and employees. This article visualizes the flows of technical information in and between companies and employees and categorized two types of information asymmetries in the information transactions. The information asymmetries cannot be effectively governed by contracts and trade secret law. Companies employ covenants not to compete (CNCs), non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and trade secret protection to shift the legal risks borne by employees from the disclosure risks borne by the companies, both restraining and aggravating the information asymmetries. The contracts and the law cannot increase employee loyalty to eliminate the information asymmetries. The risk shifting is not only costly to the companies but also harms innovation by employees and society due to the inevitable information asymmetries. Moreover, courts are inconsistent in enforcing the contracts and trade secret law for promoting innovation and other policy reasons. This article revisits the literature that concerns the balance and the efficiency of the contracts and trade secret law for innovation. It argues that courts reward companies for training employees and investing in innovation by enforcing trade secrets and CNCs to supplement the ineffective NDAs used by companies. CNCs are less efficient for innovation than trade secret law. Thus, this article suggests that courts rely on a strong trade secret regime when distributing training and innovation rewards. The strong trade secret regime adopts the inevitable disclosure doctrine and allows a broad scope of trade secret protection, rather than enforces broad NDAs or CNCs, which are less efficient for innovation than trade secret law. At least, this regime should not impair employee loyalty.


Background: The kidney is a common target in multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). The aim of this study is to determine the role of intestinal lymphatic pathway on renal injury in hemorrhagic shock rats. Methods: Wistar rats were divided into sham, shock, and ligation groups. The hemorrhagic shock model was induced in the shock and ligation groups. After resuscitation, the mesenteric lymph ducts were ligated in the ligation group. Blood from the carotid artery was taken to determine renal functional indices. The kidneys were used to observe histomorphological changes at 6 h after resuscitation. In addition, kidney homogenate was used to determine malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels at 90 min after shock and 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h after resuscitation. And the survival rate of 24 h was recorded. Results: The survival rate in shock group was obviously lower than sham and ligation groups. The urea and creatinine contents in the serum of shock and ligation groups were significantly higher than the sham group; the indices in the ligation group were significantly lower than the shock group. Histological studies showed various degrees of renal injury in the shock and ligation groups with a lesser severity in the ligation group. MDA, TNFα, IL-6, and MPO in renal homogenate of the shock group were raised, and the activity of SOD was lower in comparison to the sham group. Further, MDA, TNFα, IL-6, and MPO in renal homogenate of the ligation group at 6, 12, and 24 h were lower, and the SOD activity was higher than that of the shock group at the same time points. Conclusion: The mesenteric lymph duct ligation could be used to attenuate renal injury in shock rats. Its mechanism might be related to reducing the polymorph nuclear (PMN) and decreasing inflammatory mediator and free radical.


This report, which is a part of the REWIND project, focuses on maintenance expenses for casted components mounted on offshore wind turbines. The maintenance costs for casted components are extracted from a maintenance operation tool, which simulates maintenance operations at wind turbine farms. This maintenance tool uses Crude Monte Carlo Simulations to estimate the expected maintenance costs. Corrective and preventive maintenance strategies with a constant inspection interval or a condition monitoring system are considered. Furthermore, transportation from shore to the wind turbines by boat and helicopter are considered. A case study assuming a wind turbine farm consisting of ten 6 MW wind turbines placed 30 km off the Danish North Sea coast investigates the cost saving potential for casted wind turbine components (low (LSS) and high speed shaft (HSS) and the hub) when optimizing the maintenance and transportation strategy. The case study shows that the maintenance expenses of casted components correspond to roughly 5% of the overall expected maintenance costs when using a corrective maintenance strategy. This amount can be decreased to roughly 2% when using a condition monitoring system and following a preventive maintenance strategy. The maintenance expenses for the hub dominates the maintenance costs of casted components. The maintenance expenses for LSS and HSS are smaller and much less sensitive to the maintenance strategy or the inspection quality. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the financial support from the Danish Council for Strategic Research (Contract 10 − 093966, REWIND: Knowledge based engineering for improved reliability of critical wind turbine components) which made this work possible.


Amylases are a group of enzymes which are significantly applied in food and beverages, detergent, paper and textiles industries. A thermophilic microorganism producing α-amylase for sustainable high temperature operation offer many advantages such as lowering the risk of microbial contamination during substrate degradation and increasing substrate solubility. Previously, production of α-amylase SR74 in Escherichia coli expression system under regulation of T7 lac promoter in pET-32b significantly enhanced the amylase activity to 15.3 U/ml as compared to the native strain. However, current intracellular expression level in Escherichia coli was low and not that suitable for commercialization. Therefore, increased production and commercialization of thermostable α-amylase strongly warrants the need of a suitable expression system. Pichia pastoris is a currently well established methanol utilizing yeast expression system. The aim of the studies was to produce a recombinant Geobacillus sp. α-amylase SR74 in P. pastoris GS115 and characterize the biochemical properties of the purified recombinant α-amylase. In this study, the gene encoding the thermostable α-amylase SR74 in Geobacillus sp. was amplified by PCR, sequenced and sub-cloned into P. pastoris GS115 strain under the control of a methanol inducible promoter namely, alcohol oxidase I (AOX1). The recombinant plasmid was subsequently transformed into P. pastoris via electroporation method. Methanol induced recombinant expression and secretion of the protein resulted in high levels of extracellular amylase production. YPTM medium supplemented with methanol 1% (v/v) was found to be the best medium with the highest expression level (28.6 U/mL) after 120 hours of post induction. The recombinant α-amylase SR74 was purified by using affinity chromatography technique. The purified α-amylase SR74 was found to be 1.9 fold higher with a product yield of 52.6% and a specific activity of 151.8 U/mg. Purified α-amylase SR74 was found to be stable between pH 6.0-8.0 with an optimum pH of 7.0. The enzyme was found to be thermostable and thermoactive at 65°C with a half-life (t1/2) at 60°C for 88 min. Such thermostable and thermoactive characteristic of the α-amylase SR74 would be beneficial for industrial applications, especially in liquefying saccrification.


This paper presents a learning methodology based on a substructural classification model to solve decomposable classification problems. The proposed method consists of three important components: (1) a structural model that represents salient interactions between attributes for a given data, (2) a surrogate model which provides a functional approximation of the output as a function of attributes, and (3) a classification model which predicts the class for new inputs. The structural model is used to infer the functional form of the surrogate and its coefficients are estimated using linear regression methods. The classification model uses a maximally-accurate, least-complex surrogate to predict the output for given inputs. The structural model that yields an optimal classification model is searched using an iterative greedy search heuristic. Results show that the proposed method successfully detects the interacting variables in hierarchical problems, group them in linkages groups, and build maximally accurate classification models. The initial results on non-trivial hierarchical test problems indicate that the proposed method holds promise and have also shed light on several improvements to enhance the capabilities of the proposed method.


Microoganisms associated to the rizosphere of cultivated plants used for human consumption are scarcely analyzed.
However, nowadays, organic farming, where the use of microbial inoculants is essential, has arisen as an emergent alternative
with great commercial interest.
In this study, a collection of bacterial strains isolated from strawberry and blueberry rhizosphere (healthy and infected with
Macrophomina phaseolina) as well as from the inside of stolons of strawberries plants (endophytic bacteria) has been
constructed and characterized by their PGP and biocontrol properties.
Three PGP properties have been determinate: auxin and siderophores production and phosphate solubilization. Regarding
biocontrol activities, the presence of five enzymatic activities have been determined: protease, chitinase, cellulose, amylase
and β-Glucosidase. On the other hand, the ability of the isolated strains to inhibit under in vitro conditions the growth of two
pathogenic fungi of rump fruits, TOR 102 and TOR 872 (both belonging to the specie M. phaseolina) was tested. Strains
reaching the better results were sequenced and identified as: Cupriavidius metalliduras, Bacillus proteolyticus, Arthrobacter
pascens, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Raoultella planticola, Enterobacter roggernkampii, Bacillus megaterium, Pseudomonas
multiresinivorans, Bacillus invictae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Chryseobacterium cucumelis, Klebsiella pneumonia,
Achromobacter denitrificans, Bacillus velezenvelezensis, Burkholdelia contaminans, Bacillus niacin, Pantoea annatis, and
Bacillus frigoritolerans.
After that, a strawberry growth promotion assay was performed under controlled conditions. Strawberries plants were
inoculated with three bacterial strains previously characterized by its high level of auxin production, namely Enterobacter
rooggenkampii (AC8), Chryseobacterium cucumelis (ACH2) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (ACH7t). A greenhouse assay was
carried out, with 6 replicates per treatment, including three strains as well as an uninoculated control. Biometric parameters
(flowering precocity, number and weight or fruits, root and shoot dry weight), as well as quality ones (fruit size and Brix
degrees) were determined at the end of the assay. Results showed that strains ACH7t was significantly superior in flowering
precocity and number of fruits, while strains AC8 and ACH7t showed Brix values significantly different than the other
treatments.


Le Fort III osteotomy with midface distraction osteogenesis (Le Fort III DO) can improve the midface form and change the upper airway space. Some surgeons believe that midface advancement can improve respiratory outcome dramatically, but others think it does not predictably result in the cure of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). In this study, we evaluated the structural and functional changes of the upper airway before and after Le Fort III DO; we hope these studies can improve future protocols for midface advancement. A retrospective study of 11 patients with severe midface retrusion who underwent Le Fort III osteotomy with midface external distractor system was undertaken. These patients had an average of 5.4 months of follow-up. Three-dimensional volumetric assessment of the upper airway was used before and after surgery. We also evaluated the two-dimensional cross-sectional area of the upper airway to show the changes in different airway levels. Two patients with preoperative evidence of OSA were evaluated both preoperatively and postoperatively by overnight polysomnography. The midface was distracted for an average of 20.27 ± 8.04 mm. Comparison between preoperative and postoperative three-dimensional computed tomographic data showed an average 64.30% increase in upper airway volume, an improvement of 9.13 ± 6.94 mL (P < 0.05). The two-dimensional measurement also showed that the cross-sectional area at the posterior nasal spine and uvula airway level increased (P < 0.05), but the cross-sectional area at the epiglottis level and the separation of airway and esophagus level did not increase (P > 0.05). Two patients with preoperative evidence of OSA had both preoperative and postoperative sleeping studies that showed improvement. Le Fort III DO can significantly improve the upper airway space in the cases of syndromic craniosynostosis. The upper airway space above the uvula level was significantly enlarged after Le Fort III DO according to two-dimensional and three-dimensional image measurements, and according to the polysomnography, the OSA was alleviated. Le Fort III DO is a promising procedure in the treatment of severe midface retrusion with OSA in young patients.


Abstract Rhizocarpon smaragdulum Davydov & Yakovchenko sp. nov. is described and a phylogenetic analysis (ITS, mtSSU) is presented, confirming its distinctiveness and indicating a sister relationship with R. suomiense and R. subgeminatum. The species is unique among yellow Rhizocarpon species in having a single hyaline ascospore per ascus. The phylogenetic tree suggests that the number of ascospores per ascus has been reduced in Rhizocarpon more than once during the course of its evolution. Two new distributional records are also reported: Rhizocarpon atroflavescens is new for Siberia and R. norvegicum is new for the Altai Mountains. Rhizocarpon norvegicum in this region grows on rocks and is also lichenicolous on Acarospora bullata.


Despite the importance of inclusive education as a human right for people with special needs, clear foundations and criteria are absent for integrating children with special needs into kindergartens in Palestine. This has led to their exclusion from Palestinian kindergartens, whether directly or indirectly. This study identifies the foundations needed for the institutionalization of inclusive education in Palestinian kindergartens (KG), and the requirements for implementing these foundations. The study utilized qualitative data collection and analysis methods and conducted semi-structured interviews with specialists in inclusion, educational policymakers, kindergartens principals and teachers, and parents. In addition, the content of the national documents that deal with inclusive education was analyzed, with special reference to the issue of inclusion in kindergartens. Grounded theory techniques were used to conduct an inductive analysis of qualitative data (thematic analysis). The results showed that four themes and thirteen sub-themes denote the essential foundations that must be integrated towards the institutionalization of inclusive education in Palestinian kindergartens. These essential foundations are: activating the right base, formulating policies, developing practices, and creating trends. Accordingly, several sub-elements were identified from each of the essential foundations. The study proposes specific recommendations that might help overcome the challenges ahead in the process of institutionalizing inclusive kindergartens in the Palestinian context.


We study the problem of agnostically learning homogeneous halfspaces in the distribution-specific PAC model. For a broad family of structured distributions, including log-concave distributions, we show that non-convex SGD efficiently converges to a solution with misclassification error $O(\opt)+\eps$, where $\opt$ is the misclassification error of the best-fitting halfspace. In sharp contrast, we show that optimizing any convex surrogate inherently leads to misclassification error of $\omega(\opt)$, even under Gaussian marginals.


Introduction. Covid-19 patients (pts) with hematologic malignancies have a severe prognosis with mortality rates around 40%, particularly when on active treatment (Cattaneo et al, Cancer, in press). However, the long-term prognosis and persistence of specific immune responses among those who survive acute infection are unclear.

 Aim: Pts with hematological diseases were followed longitudinally after the acute phase of COVID-19 according to protocol NP4156 approved by the local EC. Clinical outcome and specific antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 were monitored during convalescence, and correlated to the diagnosis and treatment of the underlying hematological disease.

 Pts and Methods. Pts affected by multiple myeloma (MM), follicular (FL) and diffuse large B-cell (DLC) lymphoma (NHL), chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (CLD), myelodysplastic/chronic myeloproliferative syndromes (MDS/MPN) and surviving the acute phase of virologic-proven COVID-19 were eligible. Immune response parameters were evaluated at +1, +3, +6, +9 and +12 months after nasal swab negativization. Antibodies (Ab) to different conformations of COVID-19 virus proteins, nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S), were measured using a highly sensitive luciferase-immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) assay.

 Results. Of 51 eligible pts, 41 were tested for SARS-CoV-2 Ab at first timepoint (+1m) (6 pts too early, 2 refusal, 2 lost to follow-up). For 9 of them, Ab levels at +3m were also available. Ab levels of 14 controls without hematologic disorders (Ctrls) also surviving COVID-19 were evaluable at +1m and in 9 of them at +3 months as well. Diagnoses included FL (9) and DLC (6) NHL, CLD (7), MM (10), MDS/MPS (9). The status of hematological disease at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis was as follows: diagnosis (n=4; 10%), complete or partial remission (n=16; 39%), relapse/refractory (n=6; 15%; stable (n=15; 36%). Twenty-one pts (51%) were on active treatment, including 6 on chemoimmunotherapy; 7 pts had received chemoimmunotherapy previously. Median time from SARS-CoV-2 detection to swab negativity was 30d (range 8-63), and was not influenced by sex, age, hematologic diagnosis, disease status, nor treatment received. Two pts, both affected by DLC secondary to FL, remained swab-positive at day 119+ and 123+.
 At +1m, both N- and S- seropositivity rate was slightly lower in pts [N+ in 30/41 (73%); S+ in 27/41 (66%)] vs 13/14 for both N+ and S+ in Ctrls (93%) (P=0.16 and 0.08, respectively). Discrepancies between N and S seropositivity were observed in 7 (17%) pts, all with lymphoid disorders. Ab levels were similar in hematologic pts and in Ctrls (N+ 894,707 vs 870,541 LU and S+ 907,591 LU vs 724,120 LU, respectively, P=NS) (Fig.1a). Both seroconversion rates and Ab levels were not influenced by age, sex, status of hematologic disease, ongoing treatment, time to swab negativity, severity of pneumonia and steroid treatment during acute COVID-19. However, a diagnosis of NHL negatively impacted on seroconversion for both N and S. In 15 pts with NHL compared to 26 pts with other hematologic cancers, the N-seropositivity rate was 47% vs 92%, and the S-seropositivity rate was 40% vs 85%y (P=0.002 and 0.0053, respectively). N and S Ab levels were also lower than in other hematologic diseases (515,281 LU vs 1105409 LU, P=.002 and 474,309 LU vs 1,148,303 LU, P=.005 respectively) (Fig.1b). Rituximab (RTX) had been used in 13 of 15 NHL (87%), and treatment was ongoing in 6/13. While N-seroconversion and Ab levels were not influenced, no pts on ongoing RTX had S-seroconversion vs 5/7 pts with past RTX use (P=0.021) and mean antibody levels were 17622 LU vs 668548 LU, respectively (P=0.008).
 At +3m, no significant variations of both anti-N and anti-S antibody levels had occurred compared to timepoint +1m. Seroconversion status was maintained by 9/9 Ctrls and by 8/8 pts; the only pt with Ab levels below the cut-off at +1m did not show seroconversion at+3m.

 Conclusions: Overall, hematologic pts surviving COVID-19 have N- and S- antibodies levels and seroconversion rates similar to controls without hematologic disorders, although time to swab negativity seems more similar to critically ill pts than in the general population. A diagnosis of NHL negatively impacts on seroconversion and Ab levels, and ongoing RTX seems to have a negative role specifically on anti-S Ab production. Ab response persists at 3 months; the study is ongoing and further data will be available at time of meeting.

 Disclosures

 Tucci:
 Amgen: Consultancy. Rossi:
 Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jazz: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Abbvie: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Alexion: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sanofi: Honoraria; Amgen: Honoraria; Novartis: Other: Advisory board; Takeda: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astellas: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria. Imberti:
 Biogen: Honoraria; Genzyme-Sanofi: Honoraria; Meck-Serono: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; Biogen: Other: Advisory board; FISM (Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla): Research Funding; Regione Lombardia: Research Funding. Notarangelo:
 NIAID, NIH: Research Funding. Cohen:
 NIAID, NIH: Research Funding.


Transformer-based pre-trained models have achieved great improvements in semantic matching. However, existing models still suffer from insufficient ability to capture subtle differences. The modification, addition and deletion of words in sentence pairs may make it difficult for the model to predict their relationship. To alleviate this problem, we propose a novel Dual Path Modeling Framework to enhance the model's ability to perceive subtle differences in sentence pairs by separately modeling affinity and difference semantics. Based on dual-path modeling framework we design the Dual Path Modeling Network (DPM-Net) to recognize semantic relations. And we conduct extensive experiments on 10 well-studied semantic matching and robustness test datasets, and the experimental results show that our proposed method achieves consistent improvements over baselines.


The complex of symptoms know as generalized periarticular calcinosis is a disease observed clinically as occurring in periods lasting only a few days, and with a mainly monoarticular arthritic or tenosynovitis character which may be localized in various joints. A primary chronic course of the disease is rare. Crucial for the diagnosis is the demonstration of multiple periarticular calcifications, which can be identified biochemically as hydroxyapatite. The calcification probably initiates the burst of inflammation, and for this reason the symptoms can be certainly classified pathogenically as a crystalline synovitis. Etiologically, the disease is probably due to both genetic and acquired metabolic anomalies. Modification of calcification cannot be undertaken in our present ignorance of the exact pathogenesis, and for this reason the therapy of generalized periarthritis must remain symptomatic. The effect of non-steroid antiphlogistics, corticosteroids and colchicin is, however, unsatisfactory.


Customers' perceptions of reliability may not always reflect the level of reliability purported by traditional reliability indices. This has been recognised and efforts have been made by the electricity supply industry (ESI) in the United Kingdom to relate "reliability investment" with customers' marginal benefits obtained from such investment. A difficulty encountered during such earlier and recent efforts has been the lack of appropriate valuation of these benefits. With a view to correcting this paucity, the authors have conducted studies, based on customer surveys, aimed at assessing the customer outage costs (COG) due to electric service interruptions. The incremental values of these costs, /spl Delta/COC, following reliability investment are considered proxies of reliability worth and customers' marginal benefits. The results of these studies have provided a very good insight into customers' concerns regarding supply interruptions, but most importantly a coherent method for evaluating the customer benefits (/spl Delta/COC) has been developed and the required generic data for such evaluation generated. Using these data, a consistent method for calculating the value of lost load (VOLL) is also developed.


In human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), sleep and wake episodes are sporadically distributed throughout the day and the night. To determine whether these sleep disturbances affect the 24-h hormone profiles and the normal relationships between hormone pulsatility and sleep stages, poly-graphic sleep recordings and concomitant hormone profiles were obtained in 6 African patients with sleeping sickness and in 5 healthy African subjects selected from Abidjan on the Ivory Coast. Polysomnographic recordings were continuous, and blood was taken every 10 min throughout the 24-h period. Plasma was analyzed for cortisol, prolactin, and plasma renin activity (PRA). The 24-h rhythm of cortisol, considered to be an endogenous circadian rhythm, was attenuated in all of the patients except one. However, as in normal subjects, slow wave sleep (SWS) remained associated with the declining phases of the cortisol secretory episodes. Prolactin and PRA profiles, which are strongly influenced by the sleep-wake cycle, did not manifest the nocturnal increase normally associated with the sleep period; instead, they reflected a sporadic distribution of the sleep and wake episodes throughout the 24-h period. In patients with sleeping sickness as in normal subjects, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep began during the descending phases of prolactin pulses. In both groups, PRA reflected the sleep stage distribution with non REM (NREM) sleep occurring during the ascending phases and REM sleep during the descending phases of the PRA oscillations. However, in sleeping sickness patients, the marked sleep fragmentation often did not allow sufficient time for PRA to increase significantly, as is normally the case in subjects with regular NREM-REM sleep cycles. These results demonstrate that, together with the disruption of the sleep-wake cycle, there are profound differences in the temporal organization of the 24-h hormone profiles in humans with African trypanosomiasis. However, the relationship between hormonal pulses and specific sleep stages persists, indicating the existence of a robust link between hormonal release and the internal sleep structure.


As an integral part of reliable communication in wireless networks, effective link estimation is essential for routing protocols. However, due to the dynamic nature of wireless channels, accurate link quality estimation remains a challenging task. In this article, we propose 4C, a novel link estimator that applies link quality prediction along with link estimation. Our approach is data driven and consists of three steps: data collection, offline modeling, and online prediction. The data collection step involves gathering link quality data, and based on our analysis of the data, we propose a set of guidelines for the amount of data to be collected in our experimental scenarios. The modeling step includes offline prediction model training and selection. We present three prediction models that utilize different machine learning methods, namely, naive Bayes classifier, logistic regression, and artificial neural networks. Our models take a combination of PRR and the physical-layer information, that is, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and Link Quality Indicator (LQI) as input, and output the success probability of delivering the next packet. From our analysis and experiments, we find that logistic regression works well among the three models with small computational cost. Finally, the third step involves the implementation of 4C, a receiver-initiated online link quality prediction module that computes the short temporal link quality. We conducted extensive experiments in the Motelab and our local indoor testbeds, as well as an outdoor deployment. Our results with single- and multiple-senders experiments show that with 4C, CTP improves the average cost of delivering a packet by 20% to 30%. In some cases, the improvement is larger than 45%.


Background: Traumatic brain injury is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in pediatric age group. ICP monitoring and early decompressive craniectomy in cases that develop intracranial hypertension has been described to be the method of choice in many pediatric trauma centers. Here in, we propose a protocol with conservative measures for the management of patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Methods: We managed a series of seven children who were successfully treated with this protocol between March 2013 and June 2013. Our protocol consists of following treatment modalities: >Intubation in all patients with severe TBI and using mechanical ventilation in all cases for the beginning >Sedatives and analgesics and pain management >Serial ABGs Q6h >Hyperosmolar therapy via hypertonic saline 5% >Correction of anemia, coagulopathy, hypoalbuminemia and maintaining normoglycemia >Early initiation of p.o. feeding via OG tube >Avoiding hypothermia >early detection of fever and extensive fever work-up and management of infections >Management of spasm >Postponing tracheostomy till up to 21 days >Avoiding EVD for ICP monitoring and relying on radiologic surveillance and clinical judgment especially the size and reaction of pupils Results: Of 7 children managed by this protocol all patients were discharged with favorable condition. None of these patients underwent decompressive craniectomy, ventriculostomy for ICP monitoring and tracheostomy. Conclusion: Adelson et al published a guideline in 2003 for management of children with severe TBI which further evidence-based analysis marked no measures as "standard", three as" guidelines" and other recommendations as "options". Conservative management of children with severe TBI is not only cost-beneficial but also provides favorable outcomes. Radiologic surveillance and clinical judgement remains superior to ICP monitoring due to lower risk of fatal infections. Keywords: Severe traumatic brain injury, conservative, children Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA


The space-time analogy is a well-known topic within wave optics that brings together some results from beam diffraction and pulse dispersion. On the above basis, and taking as starting point some classical concepts in Optics, several photonic devices have been proposed during the last few years with application in rapidly evolving fields such as ultrafast (femtosecond) optics or RF and microwave signal processing. In this contribution, we briefly review the above ideas with particular emphasis in the generation of trains of ultrafast pulses from periodic modulation of the phase of a CW laser source. This is the temporal analogue of Fresnel diffraction by a pure phase grating. Finally, we extend the analogy to the partially coherent case, what enables us to design an original technique for wavelength-to-time mapping of the spectrum of a temporally stationary source. Results of laboratory experiments concerning the generation of user-defined radio-frequency waveforms and filtering of microwave signals will be shown. The devices are operated with low-cost incoherent sources.


Six lists of names from working groups set up under Art. 14.13 are approved, consisting of three names of families, 43 names of genera and five names of species, to be treated as conserved against the listed synonymous or homonymous names. Lists were compiled by working groups approved by the International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi and the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi: on Cordyceps, Diaporthales, Dothideomycetes, Hypocreales, Leotiomycetes, and Trichoderma and Hypocrea. Issues around interpretation of Art. 14.13 and 56.3 and implementation of Art. 57.2 are discussed.


The study aims at investigating the influence of IMC growth on the thermomechanical fatigue behaviour of lead free solder joints. As a potential driving parameter of the failure of such assemblies, a numerical study is carried out to conclude on the implementation in future predictive FE models. A first FE model of a Single Lap Shear test is used to highlight in which conditions neglecting the IMC thickness can be an issue for material identification. It has been shown that common IMC layers present after fusion do not represent an important source of error except for the thinnest and stiffest soldered joints. The most important impact of IMC on this kind of test is the error of estimation on the Young's modulus and the stress increasing at the ends of the joint. The creep properties determination is not impacted by IMC. A second FE model is used to simulate the consequences of IMC growth in a BGA. The simulation of a classic BGA under a thermal load shows that warpage is not really impacted by a stiffer joint contrary to the stress levels in the corner ball. Differential displacement due to CTE mismatch produces higher stress levels in the solder balls near the bi-material interfaces when IMC layers are considered. Submodelling techniques are used to analyse with more details the interfacial gradients of stress and determine if IMC implementation is necessary to reproduce all the potential conditions of failure.


Although thymic tumors often arise from the thymic epithelium, the most common thymic epithelial tumor is thymoma. Thymoma is also the most common primary tumor of the anterior mediastinum. Traditionally, Masaoka-Koga staging are the most commonly used staging system for thymoma. In recent years, The "International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG)" and the "International Association for Lung Cancer Association (IASLC)" proposed the TNM classification as a recommendation for thymic malignancies. Survival expectation and response to the treatment are quite high in thymomas.


Most readers will be aware of past and present issues surrounding the illicit traffic in antiquities. There are already a number of generic books available on the subject.1 This article reflects on the problem of treasure‐hunting in Bulgaria and the inadequacy of Bulgarian legislation, which is leading to the deterioration and destruction of Bulgarian heritage sites. As no changes in the legislative basis can be observed at this stage there is a real threat to the country's cultural inheritance. This paper reflects upon the results of personal research undertaken in Bulgaria as part of a PhD.


This research evaluated a driver-initiated incident detection system that is based on the principle that drivers will report incidents to the responsible highway agency by using in-vehicle communications equipment. A FRESIM model was used to simulate four types of incidents occurring in light, moderate, and congested traffic flow. The results showed that all simulated incident types occurring in light, moderate, or congested traffic were detected quickly with high probability of detection. The performance of the proposed Driver-based Incident Detection System was compared to that of the conventional highway-based Incident Detection System that relies on loop detectors and the California algorithm. The comparison indicated that the Driver-based Incident Detection System was superior as it detected most incidents in a shorter time. This paper also describes the wireless communication technologies that can support the Driver-based Incident Detection System and how the system can be incorporated into evolving Intelligent Transportation Systems.


This work presents a new methodology based on a multi-interface superlattice approach to investigate interface electrochemistry in conversion reactions, through first-principles DFT or DFT + U calculations. This method is applied to the CoO electrode for which several experimental data are available, and describes the main interface effects by means of three interdependent descriptors, namely the chemical (interface bonding), the mechanical (stress) and the electrical/electrochemical (electric bias) descriptors. Thanks to this decomposition, the most probable interfaces occurring during the CoO conversion have been determined, and a probable electrode morphology has been proposed. Furthermore, the addition of an external redox potential to the multi-interface superlattice has revealed asymmetric electrochemical interface phenomena in charge and discharge, shedding some light into the voltage hysteresis observed for the CoO conversion/reconversion.


Anti-reductionists hold that special science explanations of some phenomena are objectively better than physical explanations of those phenomena. Prominent defenses of this claim appeal to the multiple realizability of special science properties. I argue that special science explanations can be shown to be better, in one respect, than physical explanations in a way that does not depend on multiple realizability. Namely, I discuss a way in which a special science explanation may be more abstract than a competing physical explanation, even if it is not multiply realizable, and I argue that this kind of abstraction can be used to support the idea that that special science explanation omits explanatorily irrelevant detail.


We report a unique low-cost technique for measuring gain and noise figure (NF) in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers using a broad-band amplified spontaneous emission source and a transmission filter, by extracting the slope and intercept of output power spectral density versus input power spectral density at filter edges. The required filter depth is 30 dB. Discrepancies of /spl les/0.3 dB are found between gain or NF obtained from this technique and those measured using conventional spectral-interpolation technique employing multiple lasers at 100-GHz spacing across the C-band.


responsibility over oneself in the future, or over one's future selves. The third section, Successive selves and individualism, deals with philosophical, clinical and cultural issues arising from the notion of successive selves. Topics include: the metaphysics of successive selves; the normativity of individualism; therapeutic goals for a liberal culture, and the continuity of self-sufficiency for individualism. The fourth section, Divided minds, addresses the issue of whether the clinical and scientific evidence supports the notion of divided minds and multiple selves, and ends by exploring philosophical ideas on self-ownership. Two rather more general issues emerge early on and re-appear throughout the text. The first concerns the problem of how we should act towards persons/patients/clients whose behaviour challenges the traditional concept of a person (as being a unified, motivationally transparent organism subject to a single will and capable of introspective deliberation). The second concerns the more general problem of the ethics of the relationship between practitioner and client, or simply between one person and another, in an age when the political, legal and moral views of the individual (grounded on the traditional concept of a person) stand in stark contrast to a cultural outlook (styled "modernism" by Radden but more typically termed "postmodernism" in philosophy, literature, and the arts) which poses radical challenges to precisely this view of the individual. Modernism/post-modernism has created a climate of acceptance for radical ideas about the self, ideas which, only a century ago, were viewed as eccentric and bizarre. What is highly encouraging is that concerns in the clinical and research literature in modern psychiatry, abnormal psychology, and neuroscience are increasingly engaging with the relevant concerns in contemporary philosophy of mind, and vice-versa, to produce a growing area of inter-disciplinary discussion and debate which can only benefit all involved. Radden's book is very much in the spirit of this new climate of cooperative inquiry, whilst maintaining an admirably sharp focus on her subject matter. More than this, though, the text will be of interest to those engaged not only in the areas mentioned above, but also to those working in the relevant areas of law and social policy. Radden sustains an approach which is accessible but does not duck the important issues She fully acknowledges the highly problematic ethical issues raised for practitioners, whilst addressing possible responses with great clarity. Similarly, the philosophical problems of personal identity and the unity of the self are carefully set out, and the philosophical resources on hand are subject to critical scrutiny. As Radden herself acknowledges, she has achieved more by way of analysis than in terms of synthesis or resolution. But this is, none the less, a tour de force of intellectual inquiry. Only one reservation comes to mind when reflecting upon the book as a whole. Radden adopts a moderately Lockean view of the person, and gives the impression that "person" and "self" can be viewed as being synonymous. This is to ignore recent (postmodernist) cultural developments which have found expression in Continental and, increasingly, in analytical, philosophy. The philosophical expression of these developments i) acknowledges fundamental conceptual and methodological problems with views such as Radden's; whilst, ii) situating the traditional concept of a person in the context of the ethical, legal, and political concerns which originally motivated it; and, iii) subjecting the concept of reflexivity to critical scrutiny as a philosophical problem in its own right. These recent developments reflect what is essentially a cultural change in the way individuals conceive of themselves, which cuts across all the conventional disciplinary boundaries of academia (for a useful introduction, and response, to some of the philosophical issues, see Luntley).' It would have been helpful to both philosophers and practitioners if Radden had acknowledged these matters and their relevance to the clinical and philosophical issues she deals with, if only for the sake of completeness. However, this is but a small gripe overall Radden has succeeded in producing a text that will interest both practitioners and philosophers at all levels of expertise, and which will, without doubt, inform debate on these issues for a considerable time.


Poultry, swine, and pre-ruminant calves have limited ability to digest phytate, the storage form of about 80% of total phosphorus in plant-based feedstuffs. The resulting excess phosphorus excretion in manure, upon application to farmlands, can leach into and pollute water bodies. Even so, a 1989 report to EPA on the costeffectiveness of Best Management Practices to reduce non-point phosphorus pollution of water bodies indicates that animal exclusion is not necessarily the most cost effective among the available options. Since 1989, however, the use of phytase in feeds has gained increasing popularity in poultry and swine industries. Phytase, an enzyme that is added to the feed to break down phytate, can reduce phosphorus excretion by up to 60%; decreases in nitrogen excretion from phytase supplementation of feeds have also been reported.


A conformable device for wearable phototherapy applications is presented. The device consists of a 1 mm thick elastomeric membrane edge-lit by specially fabricated micro-sized LEDs. Nanoparticle based scattering films are utilized to extract light and a uniform emission of 15 µW/cm2 is reported over an area of 2 cm2.


A class of irreversible refrigeration cycles is investigated to determine the maximum coefficient of performance in the heat pump mode and the refrigerator mode. For the purpose of generality and simplicity of the results, finite-time heat transfer in the condenser and evaporator is expressed in terms of arithmetic mean temperature differences. The generic source of internal irreversibility is measured by a single irreversibility factor which transforms the Clausius inequality into an equality to simplify the cycle model. These optimum cycle performances are obtained as closed form analytical expressions in which the irreversibility factor has been shown to be simply related to the ratio of the actual and endoreversible cycle coefficients of performance.


Identification of power system modal oscillation damping in frequency has become more feasible through angle measurements and communication systems. Frequency domain estimation provides reasonable estimates of these parameters if given very long estimates and the modes are well separated. This paper shows how the estimation is improved if the modes are decoupled as part of the estimation process. The results show good performance compare to a key previous method.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify the perceived factors that contributed to the success of the Iranian national team in the senior Greco-roman World Championship-2009 in Denmark from the viewpoint of coaches and athletes. To reach this goal, four specific areas, including physical and physiological, psychological, management and facilities were included in a questionnaire developed for this study. Validity was established by a review of 10 wrestling experts and reliability was estimated with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .89. From an original pool of 250 people, of which there were 150 wrestlers and 100 trainers, a proportional random sample of 60 wrestlers and 40 wrestling coach were selected. Management factors were identified as most important followed by in order of perceived importance by psychological factors, facilities, and physical factors.


ABSTRACT At the 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties, scheduled for November 2021, negotiators will finally decide on the future of international carbon markets under the Paris Agreement. While several issues still need to be solved, this 'policy impact forum' article seeks to raise awareness of an important challenge that must be dealt with at the implementation stage: the lack of national administrative capacity. We argue that no matter how international carbon markets will ultimately look like under the Paris Agreement, low-capacity countries will find it difficult to build up the institutional structures needed to successfully participate in carbon markets. International support for bureaucratic capacity building can help to overcome this barrier. The implementation of market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement must thus be accompanied by increased investments into international cooperation and bureaucratic support programmes. We substantiate our argument with an empirical analysis of the market mechanisms used under the Kyoto Protocol.


Chelation therapy for patients with transfusional hemosiderosis is guided by the degree of iron overload and ongoing transfusion requirements; liver iron concentration (LIC) is one tool for measuring current iron burden. During the clinical development of the novel oral iron chelator deferasirox, LIC was measured in subcutaneous liver biopsy samples, but also non-invasively by biomagnetic liver susceptometry (SQUID-BLS) and magnetic resonance imaging (R 2 -MRI: FerriScan®). These methods were compared in a substudy of a large, open-label, randomized Phase III study in 586 β-thalassemia patients with transfusional hemosiderosis; the study evaluated the efficacy and safety of long-term deferasirox and deferoxamine treatment. 48 patients (aged 17–35 yrs) gave informed consent for adding BLS and MRI assessments (baseline, 6 and 12 months) to the biopsy assessments (baseline and 12 months) of the main study. At baseline, 47 patients were assessed by BLS and biopsy, 45 by R 2 -MRI; at 6 months, 42 by BLS and R 2 -MRI; at 12 months, 41 by BLS and R 2 -MRI, 39 by biopsy. BLS was performed and evaluated locally at 3 centers in Hamburg, Turin and Oakland. MR images were recorded at 4 centers in Hamburg, Turin, Stanford and Los Angeles and were analyzed centrally. Data from BLS and R 2 -MRI remained blinded until study completion. LIC from biopsies was determined by AAS from extracted paraffin blocks in a central laboratory and used as the standardized reference method. LIC was expressed as mg/g dry weight for all methods: for BLS, a wet-to-dry weight conversion factor of 3.3 was applied, while MRI was calibrated against fresh freeze-dried liver biopsies. The relationship between BLS or R 2 -MRI with biopsy measurements was modeled by linear regression after log-transformation of the data. To account for the correlation between baseline and post-baseline measurements of the same patient, mixed-effects models were fitted. On average, the LIC data obtained from BLS and biopsy were related by a factor of 0.46 (95% CI: 0.32, 0.67). With R 2 -MRI assessment of LIC vs biopsy, the factor was 0.72 (95% CI: 0.54, 0.97). BLS and R 2 -MRI measurements could not be related appropriately by a factor. Overall, LIC from biopsy was generally larger than that obtained from BLS; R 2 -MRI measurements fell in-between biopsy and BLS. Differences are caused in part by the variability in the wet-to-dry weight ratio relating in vivo with in vitro methods. In conclusion, LIC data from 3 independent methods were correlated but not equivalent. It is therefore important that for an individual patient, a single method is consistently used under standardized conditions.


Abstract Background Antipsychotic drugs are frequently prescribed to older adults, but they may be associated with serious adverse effects. The objective was to investigate the association between use of antipsychotics in older adults and the risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Methods Design This study was designed as a cohort study. Setting Data were obtained from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink from January 1, 2000, to September 29, 2016. Participants Primary care patients 65 years or older in the United Kingdom with a first prescription for an oral antipsychotic were included in the study. Measurements Incidence of UTIs was calculated for periods with and without exposure to antipsychotic drugs in one cohort. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis with Andersen-Gill extension for recurrent events was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results During the study period, 191,827 individuals with a first prescription for an oral antipsychotic drug were identified. Current use of antipsychotics was associated with an increased risk of UTI compared with past use (adjusted HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.28–1.34). This effect was strongest in the first 14 days of use (adjusted HR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.73–1.95) and in individuals who used more than one antipsychotic drug concomitantly (adjusted HR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.45–1.87). The risk was slightly higher for typical antipsychotics than for atypical antipsychotics. Stratification by sex showed that risk estimates were slightly higher in men than in women. Conclusions Use of antipsychotics was associated with an increased risk of UTIs in both men and women, particularly in the first weeks after the start of treatment.


Beta zero-thalassaemia comprises a series of closely related haemoglobinopathies which are widely spread in some areas (the Mediterranean, Caucasus, Central Asia, and others). It is caused by a variety of mutations in the beta-globin gene which damage its expression, thus leading to severe illness, which is often lethal at an early age. By means of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction analysis, and sequencing by the Maxam-Gilbert method, we have identified a number of mutations in the beta-globin gene that cause beta zero-thalassaemia in the Azerbaijanian population, viz AA deletion in codon 8, C----T transition in codon 39, and a previously unknown G deletion in codons 82/83.


: Exploring the effect of personalization on different queries can improve the ranking result. There is a need for a mechanism to estimate the potential for personalization for queries. Previous methods to estimate the potential for personalization such as click entropy and topic entropy are based on the prior clicked document for query or query history. They have limitations like unavailability of the prior clicked data for new/unseen queries or queries without history. To alleviate the problem, we provide a solution for the queries regardless of query history. In this paper, we present a new metric using the topic distribution of user documents in the topical user profile, to estimate the potential for personalization for all queries. Using the proposed metric, we can achieve more performance for queries with history and solve the cold start problem of queries without history. To improve personalized search, we provide a personalization ranking model by combining personalized and non-personalized topic models where the proposed metric is used to estimate personalization. The result reveals that the personalization ranking model using the proposed metric improves the Mean Reciprocal Rank and the Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain by 5% and 4% respectively.


This study presents a novel perspective on pressure-transient analysis (PTA) of downhole-pressure and flow-rate data by use of system-identification (SI) techniques as widely used in advanced process engineering. Key features of the paper are that it considers the classic PTA process from a system-theoretical perspective; derives the causal structure of the flow dynamics; proposes a method to deal with continuously varying pressure and flow-rate signals contaminated with correlated noise, which estimates physical reservoir parameters through a systematic matching procedure in the frequency domain; and can cope with arbitrary (i.e., not necessarily piecewise constant) flow-rate signals. To this end, the wellbore and the reservoir are modeled as two distinct two-port power-transmitting systems that are bilaterally coupled at their common boundary. This structure reveals that, from an SI perspective, the wellbore dynamics affect the bottomhole data as a feedback mechanism. Because of this feedback structure, it is necessary to use closed-loop SI techniques, and, because of the presence of sensor noise, the reservoir model cannot be identified solely from the bottomhole measurements. Therefore, an auxiliary signal is needed, for which we choose the surface flow rate, although other signals, such as the bottomhole temperature, could potentially also be used. Then a suitable closed-loop SI technique is the so-called two-stage method. The first stage of the algorithm removes the dynamic effects of the wellbore from the noisy data, and the second stage identifies the reservoir model in terms of rational polynomials. Thereafter, the usual physical reservoir parameters (e.g., averaged permeability and skin factor) are obtained through matching the results of the identified reservoir model and those of typical analytical reservoir models in the frequency domain, as an alternative to classic graphical or numerical type-curve analysis. The method does not rely on a piecewise constant approximation of the flow-rate signal, unlike other known PTA methods such as time-domain deconvolution. Six numerical experiments, by use of a synthetic data set, and one field example, by use of data from a real gas well, illustrate the key aspects of the proposed method.


Scale-free behavior as well as oscillations are frequently observed in the activity of many natural systems. One important example is the cortical tissues of mammalian brain where both phenomena are simultaneously observed. Rhythmic oscillations as well as critical (scale-free) dynamics are thought to be important, but theoretically incompatible, features of a healthy brain. Motivated by the above, we study the possibility of the coexistence of scale-free avalanches along with rhythmic behavior within the framework of self-organized criticality. In particular, we add an oscillatory perturbation to local threshold condition of the continuous Zhang model and characterize the subsequent activity of the system. We observe regular oscillations embedded in well-defined avalanches which exhibit scale-free size and duration in line with observed neuronal avalanches. The average amplitude of such oscillations are shown to decrease with increasing frequency consistent with real brain oscillations. Furthermore, it is shown that optimal amplification of oscillations occur at the critical point, further providing evidence for functional advantages of criticality.


The current investigation explores how gay fathers who become parents through gestational surrogacy experience the transition to parenthood. Structured interviews were conducted with one of the partners in 40 couples that had conceived children via surrogacy. The interviews consisted of closed- and open-ended questions examining changes in fathers' careers; lifestyles; couple relationships; relations with family of origin; friendships; self-esteem; and self-care. Thematic and quantitative analyses of the data were employed. The most striking psychological findings were that fathers reported greater closeness with their families of origin and heightened self-esteem as a result of becoming parents and raising children.


Abstract Fluid therapy selection is an important consideration for managing hemodynamically unstable patients. When working with reptiles, limited information is available for species-specific osmolality. A further understanding of reptile fluid balance and plasma osmolality is needed to select the most appropriate fluid for each situation. To date, osmolality has not been reported in a chameleon. Blood was collected from the ventral tail vein of 12 veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) and 12 panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis) to measure plasma osmolality using an osmometer and to measure sodium, potassium, glucose, and uric acid concentrations using a standard chemistry analyzer. The chemistries were used to calculate osmolality using seven different formulas. The osmometer measured osmolalities in the veiled and panther chameleons were 330.5 mOsm/kg (range: 285–346.5 mOsm/kg) and 308.0 mOsm/kg (294–358.5 mOsm/kg), respectively. Bland–Altman plots were used to assess the level of agreement between these measured osmolalities and the seven calculated osmolalities. There was poor agreement between the measured and calculated osmolalities. Multiple linear regression was used to develop a species-specific equation for calculated osmolality; this was useful for veiled chameleons (osmolality = 2.098 [Na+]), but not panther chameleons. When comparing the measured osmolalities of these chameleons to other reptiles, there were significant differences (P < 0.05) between all groups, except veiled chameleons and green iguanas (Iguana iguana). The results of this study suggest that plasma osmolality should be considered species-specific in reptiles, and that an osmometer is the preferred method for measuring osmolality in veiled and panther chameleons.


Several techniques have been proposed over the years for automatic hypocenter localization. While those techniques have pros and cons that trade-off computational efficiency and the susceptibility of getting trapped in local minima, an alternate approach is needed that allows robust localization performance and holds the potential to make the elusive goal of real-time microseismic monitoring possible. Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have appeared on the scene as a flexible and versatile framework for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) along with the associated initial or boundary conditions. We develop HypoPINN—a PINN-based inversion framework for hypocenter localization and introduce an approximate Bayesian framework for estimating its predictive uncertainties. This work focuses on predicting the hypocenter locations using HypoPINN and investigates the propagation of uncertainties from the random realizations of HypoPINN's weights and biases using the Laplace approximation. We train HypoPINN to obtain the optimized weights for predicting hypocenter location. Next, we approximate the covariance matrix at the optimized HypoPINN's weights for posterior sampling with the Laplace approximation. The posterior samples represent various realizations of HypoPINN's weights. Finally, we predict the locations of the hypocenter associated with those weights' realizations to investigate the uncertainty propagation that comes from those realizations. We demonstrate the features of this methodology through several numerical examples, including using the Otway velocity model based on the Otway project in Australia.


Large-scale data intensive applications with real-time requirements are currently emerging in many disciplines of science and engineering. Such applications can benefit from a grid environment provided that an efficient solution to the following data scheduling problem can be found: schedule the transfer of a set of large-scale data objects of distributed applications in a grid environment so as to meet real-time constraints associated with these data transfers. Based on this premise, This work focuses on the aforementioned problem and proposes a new effective path-selection based scheduling algorithm. The algorithm performs its optimization based on a schedule reflection model; a new cost criterion that takes into account the satisfiability of each application as a whole. We show, by simulation, that our algorithm improves the performance of data intensive real-time applications.


In this work, first, we construct Frenet-Serret frame of a curve in the Galilean 4-space. As a result of this, we obtain the mentioned curve's Frenet-Serret equations. Then, we prove that tangent vector of a curve in Galilean 4-space satisfies a vector differential equation of fourth order. Additionally, some characterizations of Galilean spherical curves and an example of the main results are presented.

 Key words: Galilean space, Frenet-Serret frame, spherical curves, vector differential equation.


Describing how to teach students to formulate critical responses to the dances they see, create, and perform, this text is written for teachers and dancers at all levels. It outlines a five-step, systematic approach to critical evaluation, with practical examples and explanations of the theories for each step. Practical tools aimed at helping the reader use the book to develop the critical process include: "think on it" ideas for writing and discussion, teaching/learning principles; teacher hints; chapter summaries; chapter objectives; sample assignments; and references. Particularly explored and outlined is the ORDER approach to critical evaluation - Observation, Reflection, Discussion, Evaluation, and Recommendations.


Optic pathway gliomas (OPG) occur in 15% of patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1; OMIM 162200). Genotype-phenotype correlations in patients with NF1 may help to determine the risk group for developing complications such as OPG in coincidence with other NF1.features. We evaluated 52 patients with NF1 (25 with OPG and 27 without OPG). All subjects underwent a clinical examination focused on neurofibromatosis type 1 and molecular diagnostics of NF1 gene using protocol based on RNA analysis confirming the diagnosis of NF1. In the group with OPG patients, there was a significantly higher incidence of freckling (P=0.017), neurofibromatosis bright objects (NBO) (P=0.0038), compared to the group without OPG. The differences between the groups with respect to Lisch nodules were on the borderline of statistical significance (P=0.088). The frequency of neurofibromas in the group with OPG was not significant (P=0.9). From all patients with the mutation localized in the first tertile of the NF1 gene majority (71%) had optic glioma compared to individuals who didn't have the OPG 29% (P=0.0049). Our results present the clustering of mutations in the 5'tertile of NF1 gene in patients with optic nerve glioma and suggest higher incidence of freckling and neurofibromatosis brain objects in these patients. Molecular analysis of NF1 gene is important part in complex management of NF1 patients and contributes to a better understanding of clinical picture of NF1 patients. .


Urban airborne particulate is a complex mixture of air pollutants, many of which have not been identified. However, short-term mutagenesis tests together with chemicophysical parameter analysis are able to better assess air quality and genotoxic load. The findings of continuous monitoring (January 1991-August 1998) of urban air genotoxicity of a Po Valley town (Italy) on Salmonella typhimurium and Saccharomyces cerevisiae are reported. During this period, various measures (catalytic devices, unleaded fuels, annual vehicle overhaul, etc.) to improve air-dispersed pollutant control were enforced. However, a continuous presence of genotoxic compounds is shown and more qualitative than quantitative changes are evident. We also demonstrate the ability of the Comet assay to detect DNA-damaging agents in airborne particulate samples. We applied the test to human leukocytes and, with major improvements, to plant cells (Allium cepa roots and epigean tissues of Impatiens balsamina). The first findings on human leukocytes confirm the sensitivity of this assay, its peculiarity and its applicability in assessing genotoxicity in environmental samples. The capability of plants to show the response of multicellular organisms to environmental pollutants largely counterbalances a probable lowering in sensitivity. Moreover, application of the Comet test to epigean tissues could be useful in estimating the bioavailability of and genotoxic damage by air pollutants, including volatile compounds (ozone, benzene, nitrogen oxides, etc.) to higher plants.


Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has contributed immensely to human learning and teaching by simplifying difficult concept and enhancing accessibility to contemporary data and developments in human societies in all fields and forms of knowledge, especially social sciences which study human interaction in time and space. However, developing countries such as Nigeria have been experiencing challenges in other sectors that are ICT driven. Therefore, it is necessary to ascertain the nature of this challenges in the school system where it has become a set of tool used by teachers for enhancing learnability of school curriculum and improving academic achievement. Therefore, this study examined the teachers' perceived challenges of using ICT in teaching secondary school Social Studies Subjects in Ilorin, Nigeria. Specifically, the study identified the teachers' perceived challenges of ICT use in social science subjects in classroom situations and influence of gender and school proprietorship on the challenges. Descriptive survey research design was employed. Population for this study comprised all social science teachers in Ilorin. The sample for this study comprised 300 respondents through a stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire titled "Challenges of using ICT in Secondary Schools (CICTSS)" was used. Its reliability was obtained using the test-retest method index of 0.78. Three research questions were raised, a research question was answered using mean and standard deviation while two corresponding hypotheses were tested using t-test statistic. Findings of the study showed that many challenges such as unavailability of computer laboratory, lack of instructional software, the inefficiency of teachers' technical knowledge, irregular power supply and poor maintenance of computer systems are the constraints in use of ICT facilities by social science teachers. The study also revealed that there is no statistically significant difference between male and female (t=0.29, p>0.05), and private and public social science teachers (t=0.26, p>0.05) on the challenges associated with the use of ICT facilities in schools. Based on these findings, it was recommended among other that regular workshops, seminars, and in-service training should be organised to improve teachers' efficiency on the usage of ICT.


The outbreak of rural unionism in the early 1870s and its subsequent collapse is a well-known milestone in labour history. It was one of the earliest attempts to raise wages among unskilled labourers through unionism. There has been much conjecture but little systematic analysis of its effect on rural wages. Using two different approaches we provide the first econometric estimates of the impact of rural unionism on wages during this era. We find that unionism produced a significant effect on the wage, although its overall impact was not large and declined substantially following the collapse of unionism in the late 1870s.


Evolutionary anthropology has traditionally focused on the study of small-scale, largely self-sufficient societies. The increasing rarity of these societies underscores the importance of such research yet also suggests the need to understand the processes by which such societies are being lost-what we call "modernization"-and the effects of these processes on human behavior and biology. In this article, we discuss recent efforts by evolutionary anthropologists to incorporate modernization into their research and the challenges and rewards that follow. Advantages include that these studies allow for explicit testing of hypotheses that explore how behavior and biology change in conjunction with changes in social, economic, and ecological factors. In addition, modernization often provides a source of "natural experiments" since it may proceed in a piecemeal fashion through a population. Challenges arise, however, in association with reduced variability in fitness proxies such as fertility, and with the increasing use of relatively novel methodologies in evolutionary anthropology, such as the analysis of secondary data. Confronting these challenges will require careful consideration but will lead to an improved understanding of humanity. We conclude that the study of modernization offers the prospect of developing a richer evolutionary anthropology, by encompassing ultimate and proximate explanations for behavior expressed across the full range of human societies.


Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oil crop in many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, yet has received little attention in applying modern biotechnology in its improvement due to regeneration and transformation difficulties. Here within, we report the successful production of transgenic fertile plants of sesame (cv Sohag 1), after screening several cultivars. Agrobacterium tumefaciens- carrying the pBI121 plasmid {neomycin phosphotransferase gene (NPTII) and a β-glucuronidase gene (GUS)} was used in all experiments. Recovery of transgenic sesame shoots was achieved using shoot induction medium (Murashige and Skoog MS basal salt mixture + Gamborg's B5 vitamins + 2.0 mg/l BA + 1.0 mg/l IAA + 5.0 mg/l AgNO3 + 30.0 g/l sucrose + 7.0 g/l agar + 200 mg/l cefotaxime and 25 mg/l kanamycin) and shoots were rooted on MS medium + B5 vitamins + 1.0 mg/l IAA + 10.0 g/l sucrose and 7.0 g/l agar. Rooted shoots were transplanted into soil and grown to maturity in greenhouse. Incorporation and expression of the GUS gene into T0 sesame plants was confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) and GUS histochemical assay. Several factors were found to be important for regeneration and transformation in sesame. The most effective were plant genotype and the addition of AgNO3 for successful recovery of sesame shoots. Co-cultivation time and optical density of the Agrobacterium were also critical for sesame transformation. This work is an attempt to open the door for further genetic improvement of sesame using important agronomic traits.


The Andean region presents specific challenges related to its globally important natural heritage, the broad range of pressures on landscapes and ecosystems that accentuate the effects of climate change (CC), and a great diversity of institutional arrangements and policy tools to increase the adaptive capacity of socioecological systems and related disaster risk reduction strategies. In this context, regional readings are needed to generate a multiscale and multisectoral analysis of the responses of Andean countries in public policy and at the grass roots. This paper examines institutional challenges and local perceptions regarding the implementation of CC adaptation policies in the Andean countries. We analyze the regulatory, institutional, and policy framework related to CC policies in Andean countries over the last 5 years. Further, we analyze synergies and opportunities, as well as possible tensions and resistance, that the implementation of CC adaptation policies may generate among diverse actors (civil society organizations, peasant/indigenous communities, and local/regional authorities, among others). For this, we analyze 7 case studies at the subnational level across the Andes. These were chosen to reflect the diversity of local governance contexts across the region and the progress and challenges faced in implementing CC adaptation policies on the ground. This analysis reveals how the implementation of CC adaptation policies in diverse territorial contexts often lacks articulation and coherence with the governance tools and platforms typically used by local actors. In response to this overall limitation, various representative strategies derived from the case studies are highlighted, illustrating different modes of multiactor and multiscale cooperation. Finally, based on our sociopolitical analysis, we propose some key recommendations for the different stakeholders, which could inform the development of an agenda for multiscale and multiactor CC adaptation governance in the region.


This study investigates parental experiences and perceptions of the care received during their child's prolonged hospitalization. It relates this care to the Beanstalk Program (BP), a developmentally focused care program provided to these families within an acute care hospital setting. A total of 20 parents (of children hospitalized between 1-15 months) completed the Measures of Processes of Care (MPOC-20) with additional questions regarding the BP. Scores rate the extent of the health-care provider's behaviour as perceived by the family, ranging from 'to a great extent' (7) to 'never' (1). Parents rated Respectful and Supportive Care (6.33) as highest, while Providing General Information (5.65) was rated lowest. Eleven parents participated in a followup, qualitative, semi-structured interview. Interview data generated key themes: (a) parents strive for positive and normal experiences for their child within the hospital environment; (b) parents value the focus on child development in the midst of their child's complex medical care; and (c) appropriate developmentally focused education helps parents shift from feeling overwhelmed with a medically ill child to instilling feelings of confidence and empowerment to care for their child and transition home. These results emphasize the importance of enhancing child development for hospitalized infants and young children through programs such as the BP.


Student response systems (SRSs) have been proven useful for enhancing student engagement and improving learning outcomes. Although many previous studies have found that both instructors and students generally hold positive attitudes toward technology which can increase classroom interaction, continuously maintaining student attention and interest remains a key challenge. The Center for Teaching and Learning Development at National Taiwan University has proactively promoted the use of an SRS since 2011. Two major approaches have been successfully implemented to assist professors in applying the SRS in their classrooms: the adoption of the Zuvio multimedia online interactive system and the implementation of a faculty SRS development group. Based on qualitative data gathered from the faculty SRS development group, this study elucidates four crucial teaching practices of the SRS: (1) designing pre- and post-instruction content comprehension assessments, (2) ensuring participatory learning through guided classroom discussions, (3) combining theory and practice, and (4) implementing group report evaluation participation.


Understanding the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards afforestation is crucial for successful afforestation. To better understand the people's perceptions about the coastal green belt, we surveyed the Satkhira and Bhola districts during January 2021. A questionnaire survey of 200 respondents was conducted by a purposive and random sampling technique to obtain quantitative data. On the other hand, two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were performed to obtain qualitative data based on the diversity of age, sex, education, and occupation variables. We used to evaluate the respondent's perceptions about the coastal green belt by 5-point Likert scale data. The majority portion of the people in our study area was poor and their profession was fisherman and housewife among males and women respectively. The majority of them agreed that the green belt helped them in numerous ways, to rear their cattle and built a house near the green belt, by promoting the growth of crops, and further protect them from different natural calamities by reducing wind velocity. Shelterbelts greatly enhance tourism in that area, improved communication facilities, and increase their socio-economic condition and values. Shelterbelt has long-term benefits, peoples have positive attitudes towards shelterbelt and they seek training to maintain this shelterbelt smoothly. Respondents wanted fruit tree species as shelterbelt species near the embankment. This information can be used for policy formulation in terms of successful plantation by considering people's attitudes, which may work in both mitigation and adaptation of climate change in the coastal remote areas of Bangladesh.