Characteristics and requirements of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) differ quite significantly compared to standard ad hoc networks. Especially trust in VANETs is very important but still open issue, which will be addressed in this paper. We will describe, discuss and assess approaches and concepts that were proposed in ordinary fixed networks and mobile ad hoc networks and will show weak and strong spots. As basis for our considerations, we will describe a detailed automotive scenario, which relies on inter-vehicle communication for the exchange of safety relevant warning messages.


BACKGROUND
In normal subjects up to 10% of circulating insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) consists of pro-IGF-II. However, its regulation and biological impact remains unknown. In obese subjects, serum free and total IGF-II are increased, and we therefore investigated the impact of obesity and diet on serum pro-IGF-II.

DESIGN
Non-diabetic, obese subjects (n = 34) with a body mass index (BMI) of 38.9 +/- 0.5 kg/m2 were subjected to 8 weeks with very low calorie diet (800 kcal/day) followed by 12 weeks with a weight-stabilizing diet. Fasting serum was collected before the study, and after 8 and 20 weeks. Pro-IGF-II was determined after acid-gel chromatography using a novel, highly specific in-house assay, free and total IGFs were measured after ultrafiltration and acid-ethanol extraction, respectively, and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) were measured with specific immunoassays.

RESULTS
Diet reduced BMI and fasting levels of insulin and glucose (P < 0.001). Serum pro-IGF-II was markedly reduced in obese subjects as compared with matched normal-weight controls (means and 95% confidence intervals: 93 microg/l (82-104 microg/l) versus 171 microg/l (152-192 microg/l), respectively; P < 0.001), and levels remained unchanged after the weight loss. In contrast, during the study period total and free IGF-II decreased (P < 0.05), whereas total IGF-I, IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-2 increased (P < 0.001). Serum free IGF-I remained unaltered. Cross-sectional and longitudinal correlation analyses showed that pro-IGF-II was closer and more consistently associated with IGF-I than IGF-II.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates that pro-IGF-II is reduced in obesity, in contrast to mature IGF-II. This indicates a hitherto unrecognized link between nutrition and pro-IGF-II. In addition, our data indicate that pro-IGF-II is regulated independently of mature IGF-II.


Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, (ALL) is increasingly reported to present in an atypical fashion which may have significant implications for treatment outcomes and survival. This case report presents a Nigerian child who's clinical and radiological features together with effusion cytological findings were suggestive of metastatic neuroblastoma. However, a definitive diagnosis of ALL was established following a bone marrow  aspiration study that revealed abnormal cellularity consistent with L1 morphological subtype. Unfortunately, the child was discharged against medical advice before definitive therapy could be commenced. Key words : Atypical presentations, metastatic neuroblastoma, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.


Oral cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, accounting for 2% of all cases annually and 1.8% of all cancer deaths. To date, tissue biopsy and histopathological analyses are the gold standard methods for the diagnosis of oral cancers. However, oral cancer is generally diagnosed at advanced stages with a consequent poor 5-year survival (~50%) due to limited screening programs and inefficient physical examination strategies. To address these limitations, liquid biopsy is recently emerging as a novel minimally invasive tool for the early identification of tumors as well as for the evaluation of tumor heterogeneity and prognosis of patients. Several studies have demonstrated that liquid biopsy in oral cancer could be useful for the detection of circulating biomarkers including circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), microRNAs (miRNAs), proteins, and exosomes, thus improving diagnostic strategies and paving the way to personalized medicine. However, the application of liquid biopsy in oral cancer is still limited and further studies are needed to better clarify its clinical impact. The present manuscript aims to provide an updated overview of the potential use of liquid biopsy as an additional tool for the management of oral lesions by describing the available methodologies and the most promising biomarkers.


The aim and tasks of this paper are to identify and contribute to the introduction of occupational therapy in the freedom-deprived persons in penitentiaries, trying mainly to identify the women's occupational problems. The study was conducted at the Bacau Penitentiary for minors and youths, over the course of three months, March-May, 2013, the group of subjects being composed of 17 women. The study started from the hypothesis presuming that the use of the occupational therapy intervention in the freedom-deprived women contributes effectively to the improvement of their quality of life. The actual research consisted in applying an intervention with the help of the Occupational Therapy students over the course of three months. After the women were assessed, an occupational therapy intervention plan was conceived and put into practice. The results obtained after the initial assessment indicated the existence of certain occupational problems in the area of leisure time and self-care activities, in the studied subjects. After the occupational therapy intervention, a questionnaire was applied to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. One can say that the use of occupational therapy for the freedom-deprived women lead to the improvement of their quality of life, thus confirming the initial hypothesis.


Background: Childbirth and its experience have the potential physical and psychological impact in the short and long term on mothers' lives. This study aimed to identify and synthesize the qualitative researches in this regard to obtain a deep understanding of this phenomenon.Methods: In this study, articles were searched in databases such as Scopus, Pubmed as well as search in google scholar, Science Direct, key journals, and relevant theses using a predefined search strategy. Searching and selecting the articles and extracting data were performed by two independent authors. After searching, screening, and evaluating the studies, the final synthesis was completed on fourteen articles.Results: The meta-synthesis showed that there were two themes, four categories, and nine sub-categories. The themes include "perception" and "perspective". Perception theme was derived from the two levels of control and security. Perspective theme was derived from of self-efficacy and self-esteem.Conclusion: Childbirth experience is affected by different factors. Health care systems should consider these factors in their patients during pregnancy and childbirth on their policies and guidelines.


Background:   Evaluation is a tool that can promote accountability and enhance organizational improvement.  For these reasons funding entities from government to foundations are increasingly relying on program evaluation as a key instrument to determine effectiveness and hold recipient organizations accountable.  What has ensued is an environment of increasing evaluation efforts, where findings often weigh heavily on future funding decisions.    Purpose:  The purpose of this article is to examine how the nature of the funder-fundee interorganizational relationship influences evaluation utilization by the fundee organization.  Within this context, attention is paid to the role the evaluator plays in the evaluation process and the skills needed to promote utilization.         Setting:  A statewide multi-tier public/private initiative addressing early childhood education. Intervention:  Not applicable. Research Design:  A model is designed to test the influence of the nature of the funder-fundee interorganizational relationship on factors associated with utilization, and ultimately on use itself. Data Collection and Analysis:  A survey was administered online and data analysis was conducted using principal components analysis (PCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings:  The results suggest that the funder-fundee relationship plays a critical role in the evaluation process, and consequently influences utilization.  However, the findings indicate that the relationship among the mediating factors is more complex than originally hypothesized. Keywords:  Evaluation utilization; collaboration; interorganizational relationships


Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture provides means for integrating multiple safety-critical applications on a shared hardware in an airborne system. Error free data transfer between different modules of an IMA cabinet is an issue of critical importance. ARINC 659 has proven to be one of the most comprehensive standards for intra-cabinet data transfer within an IMA cabinet of commercial aircrafts. This paper presents a Hardware Descriptive Language (HDL) based modular design and implementation details of the ARINC 659 Line Replaceable Modules (LRM) for backplane data bus communication. LRM consists of two major modules; Bus Interface Unit (BIU) and Host. BIU is used to achieve control functions, state management, synchronization and data transfer on the backplane data bus. Modular approach has been adopted in the design of BIU. Whereas, the functionality of Host is to provide the data to be transferred, monitor BIU activities and ensure error free transmission of the required data through BIU. Altera's NIOS soft processor core is configured to realize the functionality of the Host. A Direct Memory Access (DMA) interface is used to manage data transfer tasks from Host to Inter Module Memory (IMM) of BIU. The results show that it is highly probable to use FPGA with safety critical soft microprocessor core for practical implementation of the said standard.


Dental Journals constitute a primary source for the study of the history of dentistry in Mexico. Historiographical analysis in this field shows that this source has not been used as profusely as the richness of its content would suggest. The present work shows a wide variety of topics that called the attention of national and foreign dentists during the period 1920-1935, through one of the most outstanding editorial efforts ot that time in this field: the Boletín Odontológico Mexicano (BOM). Likewise, through the analysis and systematization of the BOM contents, new ways will be found for future historical research in dentistry during a decisive period of its development in Mexico.


A novel electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma etching technology is described that produces simultaneously highly selective, high-rate, and anisotropic n+ poly-Si etching at a low acceleration voltage. ECR position etching for n+ poly-Si pattern fabrication is discussed. In this technology, a substrate is located at the ECR position in a plasma chamber, and etching is carried out without RF bias power. Due to the low ion energy, high ion current and highly collimated ion flux at the ECR position, n+ poly-Si etching with a high selectivity and a high rate can be realized. The n+ poly-Si etching rate at the ECR position is 3300 A/min, and an anisotropic etching profile is realized by using Cl2  etching gas. The selectivity ratio of n+ poly-Si to SiO2 etching is 260. These etching characteristics are explained by low ion energy, high ion current density and highly collimated ion flux at the ECR position


Currently detoxification of drug and alcohol dependent patients is pharmacologically unresolved, and long-term treatment following the acute phase is also not very successful including a high number of relapses. We would need medications that on the short term cease: the severe vegetative symptoms, the pain, the extremely distressing psychosyndrome characterised by restlessness, anxiety or acute depressive symptoms, and the craving. The optimal would be if there was one medication capable of simultaneously alleviating or diminishing all the above symptoms without causing dependency and preventing relapse in the long-term. Dependency is almost all cases accompanied by primary and/or secondary mood disorder or sleep disorder which should also be treated. It should be considered, however, that following withdrawal of the agent benzodiazepine dependency often develops. The serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitor (SARI) trazodone is effective in the treatment of depression accompanied by sleeping disorder and it has also shown efficacy in alcohol and benzodiazepine-dependency. Its administration may improve the efficacy of detoxification and treatment of following conditions, may decrease medication load and the risk of the development of benzodiazepine dependency. In our clinical practice we frequently use this agent to treat our patients simultaneously suffering from depression and addiction problems, gaining experience comparing it to other pharmacotherapies (benzodiazepines or other antidepressants). The medication is not approved for alcohol and drug dependence, however, treatment t of comorbid conditions is not against to the official recommendations. Our aim was, in addition to reviewing the literature, to share our experience which, although cannot be considered an evidence based study, we deemed worthy of publishing. We cannot, at this point, put forward a protocol addressing all related scientific problems and problems of off-label treatment, and we could not so far treat enough patients with trazodone so that our results would be statistically proven. "Acute" and long term treatment of dependency is not sufficiently effective with a substantial relapse rate, which is in part related to the lack of specific medication also for long term treatment. Among the available psychopharmacons, trazodone is a possible choice, since, as based on patients' reports and clinical observations, improvement of their depressive conditions and sleep problems potentially decreases the risk of relapse of drug and alcohol dependence.


China currently put the development of its western region as one of the most important goals. This greatly stimulated the initiative of hydropower development in its ecological sensitive Yunnan Province. Yet the use of a single tool, like strategy environment assessment (SEA), to achieve sustainable hydropower exploitations remains challenge. Through exploring relationship between the SEA application and standards in green hydropower certification frameworks, this paper demonstrate an integrated stewardship. We believe a successful SEA extension could be promoted by this integration. Keywordsstrategic environmental assessment (SEA); green hydropower certification; sustainable river basin development; Yunnan Province


Objectives: To identify the validated and reliable indicators and tools to assess good governance for population health, wellbeing, and equity in urban settings, and assess processes of multisectoral action and civic engagement as reported by peer-reviewed articles. Methods: We conducted a systematic review searching six databases for observational studies reporting strategies of either urban health, multisectoral action or civic engagement for wellbeing, health, or equity. Results: Out of 8,154 studies initially identified we included 17. From the included studies, 14 presented information about high-income countries. The general population was the main target in most studies. Multisectoral action was the most frequently reported strategy (14 studies). Three studies used Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool (Urban HEART). Health indicators were the most frequently represented (6 studies). Barriers and facilitators for the implementation of participatory health governance strategies were reported in 12 studies. Conclusion: Data on the implementation of participatory health governance strategies has been mainly reported in high-income countries. Updated and reliable data, measured repeatedly, is needed to closely monitor these processes and further develop indicators to assess their impact on population health, wellbeing, and equity.


This thesis is focused on the atomistic modelling of defects both within silicon carbide (SiC) and at the interface between SiC and silicon dioxide (SiO2). These defects are discussed and compared to available experimental data to allow for the identification of performance limiting defects in the current and next generation of 4H-SiC metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices. The results presented throughout this thesis are calculated in the 4H-SiC polytype, which is the most relevant polytype for electronic applications, and as such the devices of interest. These simple bulk models were developed and adapted to produce model 4H-SiC / SiO2 interface systems. All the models used were tested and calibrated against the available experimental and theoretical data to ensure they were representative of the device regions of interest. Through the application of density functional theory (DFT) and the models outlined above, defects, both intrinsic and extrinsic, were calculated, allowing for a comparison with electrically detected magnetic resonance (EDMR) measurements to be made. EDMR and to a lesser extent EPR provide a powerful tool for defect identification, providing a magnetic, symmetric and atomistic picture of a defect from a single technique. This allowed the dominant recombination defect in N-implanted pn-junctions to be identified as the neutral NCVSi, giving atomistic meaning to the unidentified signal from N-implanted devices. The effect of the anneal on forming this and other defects is described, allowing the accumulation and observation of the NCVSi to be understood. Without this mechanistic understanding, it was impossible to explain how the NCVSi is able to persist into the fully processed devices when thermodynamically more stable defects did not. Before these calculations could be conducted, an interface model that was appropriate for the devices of interest was required. This was achieved through the comparison of electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and DFT calculations, allowing an interface that is abrupt, but stepped, to be described. Using this model, the combination of EDMR and DFT calculations was then applied to the problem of defect identification at the SiC / SiO2 interface. This approach allowed the PbC (and dual-PbC) to be identified as the dominant interface defect in the current generation of devices. These results provide an atomistic meaning to the experimentally observed signals, allowing the defects linked to the suboptimal device performance to be identified. This makes it possible to envisage a design paradigm to based upon the knowledge of the target defect, and the processes by which they form, guiding and enhancing the synthetic approach. Ultimately, this approach has the potential to allow SiC (and any other material it is applied to) to reach its full technological potential.


As the clean energy transition gathers momentum, it will face myriad technical, economic, and political challenges. However, one in particular is often underappreciated: the potential disruption to the transition from surging climate extremes. We identify three ways in which extreme events may impede the transition: direct physical impacts to transitional infrastructure, strained resources due to rising recovery costs, and political backlash from disaster-affected populations. If these pitfalls materialize, the transition could stall, leading to continued emissions, additional worsening of climate extremes, and further disruption of the transition. We propose three avenues to avoid this potential positive feedback: integration of adaptation and mitigation as mutually supportive goals, fostering political and cultural commitment to a sustained transition, and an interdisciplinary research and training agenda to improve modeling and preparedness for the cascading impacts of climate extremes


Patient safety and high quality patient care are critical concerns for healthcare providers. The Institute of Medicine report suggests medical errors account for up to 98,000 patient deaths each year. Therefore, the US healthcare system is looking to information technology applications as one means of making patient care safer. This paper compares the psychometric properties of the Electronic Health Record Nurse Satisfaction instrument (based on the Health Information Technology Research-based Evaluation Framework) to our study that employed the same instrument but measured clinical physicians' opinions of an EHR to determine if the instrument could be used across domains of users. Our results found the factor analysis and the clustering of the sub-scale items were different. We propose a two-factorial instrument that identifies the following dimensions: System Features/Performance and Data Quality/Accuracy. Another important contribution of this study is that patient safety was identified as a more salient indicator for physicians.


The papulosquamous diseases have certain common morphologic appearances which may at times lead to confusion in diagnosis. They do not have any common etiologic factor. The most common diseases in this category are psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis, lichen planus, pityriasis rosea, and secondary syphilis. Exfoliative erythroderma is included here since it rarely may be a complication of a pre-existing papulosquamous disease such as psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis, and lichen planus.


The Social Impact Fund Rotterdam represents an interesting financial innovation: place-based impact investing in close cooperation with public and private partners. Place-based impact investing refers to impact investing that is focused on one particular city or region, with the advantages of being a local investor, which include better risk assessment, networks, and "boots on the ground". These advantages should help overcome some of the problems associated with standard impact investing. This article explores how this form of place based impact investing has come about, how it works, and how it deals with the challenges of impact investing, such as effectiveness, measurement, the balance between financial and impact returns, and the allocation of societal costs and benefits. It also highlights the need for social aggregator funds: funds that exclusively invest in a portfolio of small impact investors, to create an aggregated portfolio of social impact investments that has sufficient scale, track record, and risk-return profile to be investable to large institutional investors.


In order to clarify the intracellular localization of salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity in human pancreatic B-cells, an immunohistochemical study at electron microscopic levels was carried out by the protein A-gold technique using antisera against insulin and salivary peptide P-C. Both salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity and insulin-like immunoreactivity were present only in the insulin secretory granules of the pancreatic B-cells. However, the former immunoreactivity was lacking in many insulin secretory granules of foetal pancreatic B-cells while the latter immunoreactivity was seen in all insulin secretory granules. Salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity was not found in the other kinds of cells in the islets. In a previous immunohistochemical study at light microscopic level, salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity appeared in a few pancreatic B-cells at about the 16th week of gestation, in an increasing number during gestation, and was seen in all pancreatic B-cells a few months after birth. The present finding together with the above results suggest that absence of salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity in some foetal pancreatic B-cells may be due to the underdevelopment of salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity in each insulin secretory granule. From the examination of cross-reactivity of antisera against salivary peptide P-C to other kinds of salivary peptides and salivary Protein C, and from the results of an indirect immunofluorescence technique using three kinds of antisera including antisera against salivary peptide P-C, salivary peptide P-B and salivary Protein C, it was thought that salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity in human pancreatic B-cells belongs neither to salivary Protein C nor to salivary peptide P-B nor to salivary peptide P-E, but either to salivary peptide P-C itself or to an unknown substance which has common antigenic determinants with salivary peptide P-C, salivary peptide P-B and salivary Protein C. Salivary peptide P-C-like immunoreactivity was not found in the pancreatic B-cells of other mammals. Thus, although a new substance other than insulin is present in the insulin secretory granules of the human pancreatic B-cells, its pathophysiological function remains unclear.


Ten abandoned gold mines.- The Fubini Lectures.- Foreword.- The adventures of measure theory.- What is invariant theory, really?.- Twelve problems in probability no one likes to bring up.- Recurrent Themes of Gian-Carlo Rota's Mathematical Thought.- Resolution of Weyl modules: the Rota touch.- Circulant recursive matrices.- Remarks on Invariant geometric calculus. Cayley-Grassmann algebras and geometric Clifford algebras.- Grassmann geometric calculus, invariant theory and superalgebras.- Rota-Metropolis cubic logic and Ulam-Renyi games.- Umbral nature of the Poisson random variables.- A formal theory of resultants (I): an algorithm in invariant theory.- A formal theory of resultants (II): a constructive definition of the resultant.- Focus on Catalan Numbers and Combinatorics on Words.- Foreword to the surveys by Aigner and Perrin.- Catalan and other numbers: a recurrent theme.- Enumerative combinatorics on words.- Algebraic Combinatorics and Theoretical Computer Science.- Alphabet splitting.- Some operations on the family of equivalence relations.- Solving linear recurrences using functionals.- Polynomiality of the q, t-Kostka revisited.- A combinatorial approach to the theory of Pi-algebras and exponential growth.- On the permanent of certain circulant matrices.- Episturmian words and morphisms (results and conjectures).- A curious characteristic property of standard Sturmian words.


BACKGROUND
An extraoral sinus of odontogenic origin within the face and neck region is normally the consequence of long-standing chronic infection due to caries, trauma or periodontal infection. There is little reported literature on the prevalence of extraoral cutaneous sinus lesions in the paediatric dental patient as presentation is often delayed resulting in misdiagnosis and consequential mismanagement.

CASE REPORT
The cases discussed concentrate on the aetiology, history, presentation and diagnosis of extraoral sinus lesions that presented in children referred to the Child Dental Health Department at the University Dental Hospital of Manchester over a six-month period.

CONCLUSIONS
The importance of correct diagnosis and treatment management of an extra oral cutaneous sinus in the paediatric patient only occurred when the child attended a specialist led paediatric dental clinic for consultation.


Purpose of this research is to find the empirical proof that the board composition, board size, the existence of audit committees, company size and managerial ownership affects some earnings management. With Corporate Governance in the company are expected to affect corporate earnings management actions. This research uses the entire population of IDX services company in the year 2005-2007, using purposive sampling techniques sampling the sample obtained by 25 companies. The results using multiple regression analysis is the composition of the board of commissioners, the overall effect of revenue management. This is evidenced by the significance value of 0.002 0.05. Size does not affect the company's revenue management, as evidenced by the value of significance 0.222 0.05.


If I have to name the most momentous concept for biomedicine in the last decade, I would certainly go for the term "translational" without any hesitation. Not only it describes the vast array of biomedical research activities that relate to the study of human disease, their treatment and prevention; it also directs the processes of novel drug discovery and medical devices invention that directly or indirectly affects our economy as a whole.


The manner in which humans and the divine are brought into communion with each other, a key aspect of many religious traditions, is frequently, if not always, material (or sacramental) in character. Meals and food play an important role in this; such meals can include the consumption of the deity (theophagy), as well as the consumption of the human being by the deity. This paper takes its cue from the discussion of constructions of divine–human communion and explores this subject in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (early second century CE). It shows how in the literary heritage of this bishop, the body as the physical site of martyrdom is of key importance, in particular due to its consumption in the Roman arena. This martyrdom is the way in which Ignatius hopes to enter into perfect communion with the divine. The body thus becomes, in its annihilation, the instrument through which divine–human communion is established. As this all relates to a case of martyrdom, Ignatius' ideas about the body are also subversive in character: the punishment of his body is, through his theological imagination, transformed into a means of achieving Ignatius' goal in life: attaining to God.


Organizational change is inevitable and its impacts will affect all members, albeit to different degrees. These changes also bring about uncertainty, especially as it pertains to one's organization-based identities. However, when studying change and identity, organizational communication scholars have often missed studying the interplay of one's many organization-based identities and how these are made sense of and managed amidst major organizational change. This thesis employs a phronetic-iterative methodology to analyze 16 semi-structured interviews with U.S. graduate students to understand how they have made sense of and managed their organization-based (i.e., graduate student, teaching assistant/instructor, department, university) identities after the COVID-19-induced transition to fully online education in Spring 2020. Analysis of this data suggested that participants used two types of ideal self discursive resources to make sense of and manage these identities, while also experiencing their sensemaking and identity management processes in two distinct stages. Additionally, participants revealed the importance of organizational places as it pertained to making sense of this change and its impacts. With these findings, this thesis extends theoretical work surrounding sensemaking, identity, and place, especially as it pertains to organizational change and providespractical recommendations for organizational leaders in academia to assist some of their highly impacted and identity-precarious populations--graduate students.


The Jiarong Tibetan traditional residence is a characteristic regional architecture, located in a high-intensity, high-altitude and cold area, with geographic identification, and is a typical representative of this ethnic group. It has also become an important tourist destination and has important research value. The research used the methods of field survey surveying and mapping to conduct field survey and surveying on 20 buildings in Xisuo Village, a traditional village in the Jiarong Tibetan area. Measure building plans, elevations, and building sections, and collect measurement data for statistical analysis. The results show that the average total height of the building is 10.08 m, the average total building span is 12.44 m, the average total depth is 10.87 m, and the squareness is 0.87. The square shape of the building is more in line with the seismic requirements of high-intensity areas and the local terrain environment. The maximum window-wall ratio in the building is 0.18 south for the second floor, and 0.025 west for the first floor. Smaller window-to- wall ratios have better adaptability to high-altitude cold areas. The height of the building beam section is generally from 0.17 m to 0.32 m, and the average Beam span-depth ratio is 0.10. The building space construction has a good match with the properties of wood materials. These conclusions quantitatively analyze the characteristics of stone-built houses in high-intensity, high-altitude and cold areas, supplement the research on ethnic regional architecture, and provide materials and references for the design, repair and update of related buildings.


Since 2000, Korea's trade volume with North Africa has increased to over $15 billion and a trade surplus of $7 billion. However recent political unrest across North Africa, especially in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, could threaten to significantly impact Korea's trade, investment and diplomatic activities across the region. As economists have long established the relationship between political stability, economic growth and foreign direct investment, this study performs a deep horizon scan on domestic political stability in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. We use an agent based computational economics (ACE) model called SENTURION to anticipate likely political stability outcomes, scenarios and potential macroeconomic impact. We then offer specific policy and investment advice for Korean business, trade and investment activities in each country, focusing on risk, sectoral and investment strategies given likely political and macroeconomic performance and resiliency in each country.


A new method is presented in this article to control linear time-delay systems using Lambert W function. The absence of a sufficient proof for using matrix Lambert W function in controlling time-delay systems has frustrated researchers. It is a well-established fact that unlike Lambert W Function, the matrix version still lacks the proof, which would guarantee the validity of finding the right-most eigenvalue of linear time-delay systems using this function. This paper presents a new approach in which, a system from any order is forced to use scalar Lambert W function instead of unreliable matrix version. This article studies systems with input delay and state delay respectively and for both of them, sufficient conditions for eigenvalue assignment are proposed.


Quantitative macropore characterizations were performed in large zero-tension soil lysimeters of a Maury silt loam (fine, mixed, mesic Typic Paleudalf) and a Loradale silt loam (fine, silty, mixed, mesic Typic Argiudoll) soil in an effort to assess potential colloid transport. Steel pipe sections (50 cm diameter×100 cm length) were hydraulically driven into the soil for lysimeter establishment. A dye tracer was applied into each lysimeter under saturated conditions at eight-hour intervals using 500 mL pulse applications. After one pore volume elution, the center section of the stained lysimeters was removed, dissected, and photographed. Kubiena tins were inserted into the lysimeter's remaining soil at 15 cm intervals. Vertically oriented thin sections were prepared from each tin. Pore area, diameter, and orientation were evaluated from thin sections and photographs using commercial grade scanners and Photoshop® software. At an input scanning resolution of 60 pixels per cm, the software program was capable of identifying pores with diameters >160 μm. Thin section analysis provided more detail of smaller sized pores (<1.0 mm), while the cationic nature of the methylene blue dye restricted its presence primarily to the larger macropores. The Loradale soils tended to exhibit increased pore area and pore diameter over that of the Maury in both thin sections and photographs. The Loradale soil also showed a more elaborate and vertically oriented network of pores. Although standard soil physical measurements did not suggest the presence of a restrictive layer in these soils, morphological evidence generated from this methodology suggested otherwise. Colloid leaching experiments performed in separate lysimeters of the same soils in a fashion similar to that used for the dye tracer application showed colloid breakthrough and filtration patterns consistent with the macropore characterization observations obtained through the application of this method.


The instability leading to the appearance of subharmonics in the presence of a square wave applied field is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The threshold conditions are found for a range of parameters and the temporal variation of the subharmonic amplitude is measured. It is shown that a relatively simple theory, based on a set of material equations, gives good agreement with some of the experimental results but other experiments indicate that the materials equations alone cannot describe all the observations.


In machining of superalloys, a major quality performance characteristic refers to the integrity of the machined surface. In this consideration, the paper deals with a comparative evaluation of surface integrity in dry, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), and cryogenic turning of Inconel 718. The comparison is concerned with residual stresses, plastic work, and microhardness developed under these different cooling lubrication conditions. The residual stresses generated on the workpiece surface were more tensile in the tangential (hoop) direction than in the axial direction. On the other hand, larger compressive stresses beneath the surface were observed in the axial direction. We have clearly observed that cryogenic machining resulted in higher compressive residual stresses when compared with dry or MQL machining. In addition, cryogenic machining yielded a thicker compressive zone of material beneath the machined surface. The correlation between residual stresses and plastic work suggested that the effects of mechanical loads, in comparison with thermal effects, were minor. It was further shown that the highest machined surface hardness was related to cryogenic cooling lubrication. In contrast to the microhardness variation, no drastic change in microstructure was observed. Moreover, no significant correlation between thermally induced phase transformation in a machined surface layer and microhardness was established.


The aim of the topological sensitivity analysis is to obtain an asymptotic expansion of a design functional with respect to the creation of a small hole in the domain. In this paper, such an expansion is obtained for the Helmholtz equation, in two and three space dimensions, with a Dirichlet condition on the boundary of an arbitrarily shaped hole. In this case, the main difficulty is related to the nonhomogeneous symbol of the Helmholtz operator. In the numerical part of this work, we will show that the topological sensitivity method is very promising for solving shape inverse problems in electromagnetic applications.


The gut microbiome has been implicated in a multitude of human diseases, with emerging evidence linking its microbial diversity to osteoporosis. This review article will explore the molecular mechanisms underlying perturbations in the gut microbiome and their influence on osteoporosis incidence in individuals with chronic diseases. The relationship between gut microbiome diversity and bone density is primarily mediated by microbiome-derived metabolites and signaling molecules. Perturbations in the gut microbiome, induced by chronic diseases can alter bacterial diversity and metabolic profiles, leading to changes in gut permeability and systemic release of metabolites. This cascade of events impacts bone mineralization and consequently bone mineral density through immune cell activation. In addition, we will discuss how orally administered medications, including antimicrobial and non-antimicrobial drugs, can exacerbate or, in some cases, treat osteoporosis. Specifically, we will review the mechanisms by which non-antimicrobial drugs disrupt the gut microbiome's diversity, physiology, and signaling, and how these events influence bone density and osteoporosis incidence. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between orally administered drugs, the gut microbiome, and osteoporosis, offering new insights into potential therapeutic strategies for preserving bone health.


The purpose of this research was to explore the evolution of prospective elementary teachers' competencies (in practices, knowledge, and attitudes); examine the relationships that occur between knowledge, attitudes and practices; and develop an idea of how certain prospective elementary teachers grow and progress in their enactment of two of the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, persevering in problem solving and constructing viable arguments. This was conducted as a case study of the first two of three inquiry-based mathematical content courses for elementary teachers. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected from a cohort of students moving through the curriculum over the course of a year. Results showed there was an increase in prospective elementary teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching scores over time, but no change in their procedural knowledge or attitude scores. Positive, linear relationships existed between all of the pair-wise comparisons between mathematical knowledge for teaching, procedural knowledge, and attitudes toward mathematics. Overall, students grew in their ability to problem solve and construct viable arguments in mathematics while moving through the curriculum, with a few exceptions. Three factors contributed to students' learning in the curriculum: the amount of effort made by the student, the atmosphere and attitudes of students in the class, and the nature of the content and questions asked in the curriculum. Another important consideration which arose from the data analysis was the opportunities the curriculum allowed for the practice of written versus verbal explanations, and what was formally assessed. Designers of teacher education programs using a similar curriculum should evaluate the importance of written versus verbal explanations in the goals of the course, and appropriately assess the students. 1 1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM


Hepatitis C virus non-structural NS5A protein inhibits epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated activation of the Ras-ERK mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway at a point upstream of Ras activation. To determine the mechanism of this inhibition, the events occurring between the EGF receptor and Ras in Huh-7 cells harbouring the HCV subgenomic replicon were investigated. It was shown that, following EGF stimulation, these cells exhibited decreased EGF receptor tyrosine phosphorylation, aberrant recruitment of the adaptor proteins ShcA and Grb2 to the EGF receptor, reduced phosphorylation of ShcA and reduced Ras activation in comparison with control cells. These data are consistent with effects of NS5A and/or other components of the replicon on multiple events occurring upstream of Ras.


It is proved that investment attractiveness of regions is an indisputable factor in the stable socioeconomic development of the country. The purpose of the study is to analyse investment attractiveness of region and to substantiate proposals for improving investment attractiveness of Cherkasy region. The subject of the study was peculiarities of formation and expansion of investment potential in the region. Methodology. The paper is based on the views of prominent domestic and foreign economists. During the research process, the following methods were used: monographic, historical, analysis and synthesis (in theoretical and empirical studies of investment process); systematic (for the systematization of methodological approaches and indicators of investment attractiveness assessment of the region); statistical and graphics (for the analysis of state and trends of investment processes in Ukraine); comparative (for analysing the investment attractiveness of regions). Results. The essence of investment attractiveness of region as aggregate characteristic of conditions of a certain territory of the country is determined, which includes assessment of development level of investment infrastructure, human capital, financial opportunities, which significantly affect the formation of profitability of invested fixed assets and investment risks. Investment attractiveness of an individual region of Ukraine is assessed. It is proved that investigated region is investment-attractive and has a powerful potential for increasing the volume of gross agricultural products and providing the population with quality food products. Practical implications. The main problems connected with the receipt of investments into the economy of the region are determined, ways of their solution are revealed. In order to improve investment attractiveness level of Cherkasy region, we recommend local authorities to work in the following areas: introduction of free funds accumulation mechanism, in particular, in venture funds; creation of innovative risks insurance system; accumulation of public funds within the framework of social and pension insurance systems and their focus on long-term lending of investment activity; strengthening investment activity of population and ensuring guaranteed protection of their savings.


Few situations more dramatically illustrate the salience of science to policy than an epidemic. The relevant science takes place rapidly and continually, in the laboratory, clinic, and community. In facing the current swine flu (H1N1 influenza) outbreak, the world has benefited from research investment over many years, as well as from preparedness exercises and planning in many countries. The global public health enterprise has been tempered by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002–2003, the ongoing threat of highly pathogenic avian flu, and concerns over bioterrorism. Researchers and other experts are now able to make vital contributions in real time. By conducting the right science and communicating expert judgment, scientists can enable policies to be adjusted appropriately as an epidemic scenario unfolds.


In mature (450-600 g) 21 degrees C-acclimated male rats, anaesthetized with urethane, blood flow (measured by the radioactive microsphere technique) to brown adipose tissue (BAT) was determined during the infusion of the beta-adrenoceptor agonist BRL 28410 or noradrenaline bitartrate at doses chosen to give similar increases in whole body oxygen uptake. Blood flow to BAT during BRL 28410 infusion was only about one third of that found during noradrenaline infusion although increases in whole body thermogenesis were similar (55 and 77% for BRL 28410 and noradrenaline, respectively). This suggests that BAT may be less involved in the thermogenic response to BRL 28410 than to noradrenaline. In a separate experiment using slightly smaller rats (350-500 g) hind limb oxygen uptake was measured in situ using a venous bypass preparation. BRL 28410, at a dose having a maximum effect on whole body thermogenesis (53% increase), had no effect on oxygen delivery to the hind limb but significantly increased oxygen extraction by 33% (p less than 0.001). In contrast, noradrenaline, also at a dose that maximally increased whole body thermogenesis, led to a 35% decrease in oxygen delivery to the hind limb and no change in oxygen extraction. For the thermogenic beta-agonist BRL 28410 the hind limb, and presumably muscular tissue in general, may be contributing to thermogenesis.


Various types of microorganisms particularly bacteria and fungi are capable of producing xylanolytic enzymes that degrade xylan into simple sugars to be used as their carbon sources. Xylanolytic enzymes, particularly endo-1,4-β-xylanase, has been extensively used in various industrial sectors, including biofuel, livestock, paper, and food. Previously, Bacillus sp. SS3.4 was observed to have xylanolytic activities on wheat bran, suggesting its capability of producing xylanolytic enzymes, endo-1,4-β-xylanase included. With great numbers of data available in nucleotide and protein sequence databases, bioinformatics analyses of protein structure for function prediction have become attractive to supplement wet laboratory experiments to reduce time and money consumption. Therefore, in this study, bioinformatics analyses were performed on Bacillus sp. endo-1,4-β-xylanase sequence in order to further evaluate the enzyme's function by exploring its protein structure in comparison to other known bacterial endo-1,4-β-xylanase. In this study, Bacillus sp. endo-1,4-β-xylanase sequence was identified from its whole genome sequence. The sequence was then analyzed by using BLAST to perform a homology search for identifying the protein, MUSCLE to perform multiple sequence alignment for comparing with other enzyme sequences, PHYLOGENY-FR to display its relatedness among Bacillus, Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma reesei, and SWISS-MODEL to generate its three-dimensional structure. Results from BLAST confirmed that the identified sequence was endo-1,4-β-xylanase, with greater relatedness to Bacillus velezensis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens endo1,4-β-xylanase. While results from MUSCLE and SWISS-MODEL suggested that the endo-1,4-β-xylanase belongs to the Glycosyl Hydrolase 11 (GH11) family bearing the distinct shape of a jelly roll with well-conserved binding and catalytic residues. These results strongly suggest that Bacillus sp. endo-1,4-β-xylanase is potentially capable of degrading xylan with highly similar mechanism as with other endo-1,4-β-xylanase.


Seymour's second neighbourhood conjecture asserts that every oriented graph has a vertex whose second out-neighbourhood is at least as large as its out-neighbourhood. In this paper, we prove that the conjecture holds for quasi-transitive oriented graphs, which is a superclass of tournaments and transitive acyclic digraphs. A digraph $D$ is called quasi-transitive is for every pair $xy,yz$ of arcs between distinct vertices $x,y,z$, $xz$ or $zx$ ("or" is inclusive here) is in $D$.


Topological semimetals such as Weyl or Dirac semimetal with superconductivity have emerged as a new class of topological materials to realize and study Majorana Fermion. This article reports the density functional theory calculated bulk electronic band structure of recently discovered topological superconductor candidate AuSn4. The study has been performed on AuSn4 considering two space groups symmetries viz. Aea2 and Ccce as reported earlier. This study is further extended to the calculation of Z2 invariants. The Fermi surfaces corresponding to the bands, which are responsible for non-trivial band topology along with the surface states are also mapped. The complete study suggests that AuSn4 is a topological semimetal. On AuSn4, it is the first report in the literature showing the non-trivial band topology based on first-principle calculations.


This paper proposes a new Unified Switch Fault Diagnosis (UFD) approach for two-stage non-isolated DC-DC converters used in energy harvesting applications. The proposed UFD is compared with a switch fault diagnosis consisting of two separate fault detection algorithms, working in parallel for each converter. The proposed UFD is simpler than the two parallel fault diagnosis methods in realization. Moreover, it can detect both types of switch failures, open circuit and short circuit switch faults. It can also be used for any two-stage non-isolated DC-DC converters based on two single switch converters, no matter the converter circuits in each stage. Some selected simulation and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) experimentation results confirm the validity and efficiency of the proposed UFD. Also, the proposed UFD is applied successfully for fault-tolerant operation of a buck/buck–boost two-stage converter with synchronous control and a redundant switch.


E-government (e-gov) projects have an increasing influence on how government business processes evolve and change. While early e-gov projects focused on government-to-public information and interaction, the second and third wave of e-gov projects also emphasize internal effectiveness and efficiency, along with intra- and interdepartmental as well as intra- and interbranch integration. With these increases in scope and scale of e-gov projects, existing business processes, including core processes, become candidates for improvement and change. While the private-sector-oriented literature on business process change abounds with descriptive and prescriptive accounts, no equivalent has been found in the public-sector-related literature. Although many insights drawn from the private sector may apply, the public sector seems to develop distinct practices. This paper contributes to the understanding of current practices in e-gov-induced business process change, comparing those practices to prescriptions derived from private-sector experience. Among other factors, the more inclusive approach observed in e-gov business process change may explain the higher success rate of public-sector projects compared to those reported from the private sector.


The recent publication of the stenographer's transcript of Whitehead's guest lecture on "social ethics" has shed new light on the relation between his metaphysics and ethics. Instead of including ethics in his philosophy, Whitehead treats it as a distinct, specialized science that does not share in the universality of metaphysics. The present article argues that an analysis of his lecture shows that a nonindividualist Whiteheadian ethics is possible without rupturing the coherence of Whitehead's system or contradicting the ontological or subjectivist principle. As part of a larger transition in Whitehead's thinking during the years 1925–1927, he reformulates the notion of the environment as inheritance and is therefore able to pose the question of the endurance of values at the level of society, which is the purview of ethics. Reconstructing the metaphysical background may provide a "stimulus to the imagination" for ethical debates today, especially in the field of environmental ethics.


The highly polymorphic D1S80 locus has no known genetic function. However, this variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) locus has been highly valuable in forensic identification. In this study we report the allele and genotype frequencies of five African populations (Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, and Rwanda), which can be used as databases to help characterize populations and identify individuals. The allele frequencies were used to infer genetic associations through phylogenetic, principal component, and G test statistical analyses. Compliance with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations was determined as were FST estimates, theta p values, and power of discrimination assessment for each population. Our analyses of 28 additional populations demonstrate that the D1S80 locus alone can be used to discriminate geographic and ethnic groups. We have generated databases useful for human identification and phylogenetic studies.


ABSTRACT Grape cultivar IAC 138-22 'Máximo' grafted on IAC 766 'Campinas' and IAC 572 'Jales' rootstocks and trained in upright trellis was evaluated during consecutive summer and winter growing seasons for comparison different canopy management: a) branch thinning: comparison between one branch and two branches per spur and b) branch tipping: comparison between low and high upright trellis. The results obtained of the phytotechnical and physicochemical grape must characteristics allowed to confirm that there was no significant difference between rootstocks regarding branch thinning intensity and upright trellis height. The largest effect observed in canopy management was for yield values promoted by branch thinning. No effect was observed in the grape must physicochemical characteristics when the different treatments were compared in the same growing season. Regarding to the upright trellis height, larger values of soluble solids were obtained for the high trellis than in the low trellis. Winter growing season resulted in lower values of yield and greater values of total soluble solids and titratable acidity than in the summer growing season.


The objective of the study was to assess customer knowledge, attitudes and usage of Internet Banking services in Nairobi Kenya. The study sought to assess customers' knowledge level of Internet Banking, establish level of accessibility of Internet Banking services, determine attitudes of customers towards Internet Banking and assess customer usage of Internet Banking. The aim was to gain a deeper understanding on the current situation with a view to offer recommendations regarding the marketing of the service to customers. The study employed the descriptive survey design and stratified the sample to lower, middle and upper class demographics in order to compare the study variables among the different social classes. The findings indicate that the knowledge levels of Internet Banking among the respondents were high as majority of lower class respondents and nearly all of the middle and upper class respondents were well aware that Kenyan banks are offering Internet Banking services. The practice (usage) of Internet Banking was varied across the different strata. Very few lower class respondents used the service while the usage significantly increased among the middle class and a majority of the upper class used the service. With regard to the attitudes, most of the respondents across the different strata felt that the Internet Banking service was worth using, increased accessibility to cash to the customers was effective and had caused a change in their Banking habits. The respondents also indicated that the service had increased competitiveness among banks, had attracted more customers, increased loyalty, and added value to their Banking experience and enhanced the banks service delivery. RECOMMENDATIONS Internet Banking is one of the growing Banking services that is set to increase revenues to the banks as well as reduce the queues have become a problem and a source of inconvenience to many customers. The study of KAP of Internet Banking is a growing 4 phenomenon that is set to take over conventional Banking. It is therefore important for banks find ways to introduce or improve the service. Banks that do not offer the services should seriously consider introduction of Internet Banking in the near future. The usage of Internet Banking is largely concentrated among the upper class. The attitudes of customers towards Internet Banking are relatively high. The banks therefore will not have a hard time convincing the customers to use the service. However, it is recommended that they focus on increasing security and availability to the customers.


It was shown previously (Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 1803) that the rate of hydrogen atom abstraction, k, from ethylbenzene (EB) by TAML complex [FeV(O)B*]- (1) in acetonitrile exhibits a large kinetic isotope effect (KIE ∼ 26) in the experimental range 233-243 K. The extrapolated tangents of ln(k/T) vs T-1 plots for EB-d10 and EB gave a large, negative intercept difference, Int(EB) - Int(EB-d10) = -34.5 J mol-1 K-1 for T-1 → 0, which is shown to be exclusively due to an isotopic mass effect on tunneling. A decomposition of the apparent activation barrier in terms of electronic, ZPE, thermal enthalpic, tunneling, and entropic contributions is presented. Tunneling corrections to ΔH⧧ and ΔS⧧ are estimated to be large. The DFT prediction, using functional B3LYP and basis set 6-311G, for the electronic contribution is significantly smaller than suggested by experiment. However, the agreement improves after correction for the basis set superposition error in the interaction between EB and 1. The kinetic model employed has been used to predict rate constants outside the experimental temperature range, which enabled us to compare the reactivity of 1 with those of other hydrogen abstracting complexes.


CALL research, like other sub-fields in applied linguistics, has been dominated by explanatory, quantitative studies which aim to understand the effectiveness of technological innovations. Qualitative research in CALL, on the other hand, has received more attention in recent years, most evidently from the publications of two special issues on qualitative research in CALL by CALICO Journal (2015) and Language Learning & Technology (2018). The inherente strength of qualitative studies in CALL is that they celebrate depth of interpretation by focusing on specific contexts and a small number of participants. Yet this strength can sometimes be perceived as a limitation when transferability and applicability of findings are considered. However, this potential shortcoming can be overcome when findings of multiple studies are meaningfully synthesised, for example, in a qualitative research synthesis (QRS). QRS is a relatively new form of research synthesis in CALL which systematically summarises qualitative findings guided by research questions and a predetermined research protocol. To report current methodological practices and identify areas of strengths and weaknesses, this methodological review analyses the methodological sections of 16 QRS in CALL using a most recent, CALL-based QRS methodological framework comprising seven stages (Chong & Plonsky, 2021). Findings reported include length of methodological sections, implementation of the seven methodological stages, and convergent and divergent methodological practices. Suggestions, especially about qualitative data extraction and synthesis, are made in light of the findings.


We studied the effect of nearest pattern interaction on a global pattern formation in a two-dimensional space, where patterns are to grow initially from a noise in the presence of a periodic supply of energy. Although our approach is general, we found that this study is relevant in particular to the pattern formation on a periodically vibrated granular layer, as it gives a unified perspective of the experimentally observed pattern dynamics such as oscillon and stripe formations, skew-varicose and crossroll instabilities, and also a kink formation and decoration.


RUNX family proteins are expressed from alternate promoters, giving rise to different N-terminal forms, but the functional difference of these isoforms is not understood. Here, we show that growth of a human B lymphoblastoid cell line infected with Epstein–Barr virus is inhibited by RUNX1c but not by RUNX1b. This gives a novel functional assay for the unique N-terminus of RUNX1c, and amino acids of RUNX1c required for the effect have been identified. Primary resting B cells contain RUNX1c, consistent with the growth inhibitory effect in B cells. The oncogene TEL–RUNX1 lacks the N-terminus of RUNX1c because of the TEL fusion and does not inhibit B cell growth. Mouse Runx1c lacks some of the sequences required for human RUNX1c to inhibit B cell growth, indicating that this aspect of human B cell growth control may differ in mice. Remarkably, a cell-penetrating peptide containing the N-terminal sequence of RUNX1c specifically antagonizes the growth inhibitory effect in B lymphoblastoid cells and might be used to modulate the function of human RUNX1c.


Across sectional study to determine the occurrence and antimicrobial resistance pattern of Salmonella spp. in finishing pigs was carried out at 12 selected pig farms.
The farm characteristics and certain management
practices associated with the occurrence of Salmonella spp.
were also evaluated. Rectal swabs were collected
aseptically from 210 randomly selected finishing pigs. Suspect Salmonella colonies isolated were identified using
a set of conventional biochemical tests and these
isolates were sent to the Veterinary Research Institute
(VRI) for serotyping. The antimicrobial sensitivity test was conducted on the isolates against a panel of selected
antimicrobials that are commonly used in local pig production using disc diffusion method.
In addition, a questionnaire on the management of farms, herd health programme,and common antimicrobial usage was
collected from farm representative, resulting in variables that could be analyzed to identify factors associated
with the occurrence of Salmonella.
The results showed that 32 out of 210 finishing
pigs (15.2%)tested were positive for Salmonella typhimurium
and the isolates were detected from 9 out of 12 farms sampled (75.0%).Most of the isolates showed a relatively high level of antimicrobial resistance. The occurrence of
Salmonella in pigs were significantly associated with (1) farms which were not equipped with footbath or vehicle wheels dip; (2) farms with vermins/birds in the surrounding; (3) farms with less frequent pen cleaning and (4) farms which are located adjacent to the neighbouring farms.


Ionic conductors based on N-substituted oligo(ethylene oxide) poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) were investigated. Two different PPTAs (Mv = 12,000 and 3600) were grafted with tri(ethylene oxide) and hexa(ethylene oxide). These modified PPTAs were found to be soluble in organic solvents such as dimethyl acetamide and dimethyl sulfoxide and were miscible with various concentrations of oligo(ethylene oxide). The resulting blends formed complexes with lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate (LiSO3CF3). The thermal and ionic conductive properties of the blends were investigated. The conductivities of some of the blends were in the range of 0.5–5.0 × 10−5 S/cm at 25°C and 0.5–5.0 × 10−4 S/cm at 100°C. The profile of conductivity at various temperatures followed the Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher (VTF) plots and it suggested that the major ionic transport took place in the amorphous phase.


In the recent years, environmental pollution, specially, air pollution, has become one of the main concerns of the international community and those are affected health of living organisms and natural ecosystems. In the recent past, environmental pollution has imposed significant human and financial costs on society. One of the most pollutant sectors is the industrial sector and between the polluting industries, the high energy consumer industries have imposed a significant part of environmental pollution. Hence, assessment of environmental performance in these industries is important. This paper using a directional distance function approach and (SBM) approach has evaluated the environmental performance and technical efficiency in the other non-metallic mineral products and production of basic metals industry, respectively. The results indicate that the other non-metallic mineral products industry Although technically more efficient, but have a lower environmental performance and Production industrial facilities, industrial Production cement, lime and plaster and asphalt manufacturing industry had the lowest environmental performance.


The crucial role of trust in organisations has been demonstrated by previous trust research. This thesis attempts to shed light on a new perspective on our understanding of trust relationships in organisations by investigating downward trust from two perspectives – that of the leaders' and of the followers'– to paint a complete picture. This thesis investigates different antecedents and outcomes of downward trust. In respect of antecedents of supervisors' trust in the follower, two sets of antecedents are proposed – a set of general antecedents, ability, benevolence and integrity (ABI) and another set of specific ones, availability and receptivity. The general antecedents were found to be stronger predictors than the specific ones. A person-oriented approach was adopted along with a variable-oriented approach. On the basis of their pattern of scores across the trustworthiness variables, five categories of followers were identified, which were trustworthy, trustable, capable, well-meaning and untrustworthy followers. The patterns predicted leaders' trust in followers and their ratings on follower job performance. Regarding employee felt trust, perceived justice and delegation were found to influence their perceptions of being trusted. Employee occupational self-efficacy was found to mediate the relationship between employee felt trust and job performance. The interaction between downward trust and upward trust was also considered by examining the (in)congruence between downward trust (follower felt trust) and upward trust (trust in leaders) using an empirical technique – response surface analysis. In general, follower occupational self-efficacy and job performance were found to be enhanced when the congruence was at a high trust level, also when downward trust was higher than upward trust, if they were incongruent.


This paper proposes a method to estimate the relationship between the price of a good sold at auction, and a post-auction outcome which is observed among auction winners. To account for both the endogeneity of the auction price and sample selection, we develop a control function approach based on the non-parametric identification of an auction model. In our application we estimate a performance equation using unique field data on wages earned by cricket players and their game-specific performances. Our empirical strategy benefits from the fact that wages are determined through randomly ordered sequential English auctions: the order in which players are sold acts as an exogenous shifter of wages. We find that the positive correlation between wages and performance comes (almost) exclusively from the selection and endogeneity effects.


Although the marketing mix has been covered in great detail in many veins of literature, very little information exists regarding the mix of marketing tools within the agriculture industry serving U.S. agricultural producers. Using a survey conducted by AgriMarketing magazine in June 2006, a two-fold analysis is undertaken. This study attempts to determine the differences in the use of marketing tools by industry and simple regression analysis is conducted to determine promotional factors that produce a significant impact on sales. Both mass media and other promotional tools were found to be the most consistently significant factor impacting sales of firms in the study.


Angina pectoris is cardiac pain that is a common clinical symptom often resulting from myocardial ischemia. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is effective in treating refractory angina pectoris, but its underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. The spinal dorsal horn is the first region of the central nervous system that receives nociceptive information; it is also the target of SCS. In the spinal cord, glial (astrocytes and microglia) activation is involved in the initiation and persistence of chronic pain. Thus, the present study investigated the possible cardiac pain-relieving effects of SCS on spinal dorsal horn glia in chronic myocardial ischemia (CMI). CMI was established by left anterior descending artery ligation surgery, which induced significant spontaneous/ongoing cardiac pain behaviors, as measured using the open field test in rats. SCS effectively improved such behaviors as shown by open field and conditioned place preference tests in CMI model rats. SCS suppressed CMI-induced spinal dorsal horn microglial activation, with downregulation of ionized calcium-binding adaptor protein-1 expression. Moreover, SCS inhibited CMI-induced spinal expression of phosphorylated-p38 MAPK, which was specifically colocalized with the spinal dorsal horn microglia rather than astrocytes and neurons. Furthermore, SCS could depress spinal neuroinflammation by suppressing CMI-induced IL-1β and TNF-α release. Intrathecal administration of minocycline, a microglial inhibitor, alleviated the cardiac pain behaviors in CMI model rats. In addition, the injection of fractalkine (microglia-activating factor) partially reversed the SCS-produced analgesic effects on CMI-induced cardiac pain. These results indicated that the therapeutic mechanism of SCS on CMI may occur partially through the inhibition of spinal microglial p38 MAPK pathway activation. The present study identified a novel mechanism underlying the SCS-produced analgesic effects on chronic cardiac pain.


We consider the problem of stabilizing a plant with a network of resource constrained wireless nodes. In a companion paper, we developed a protocol where each node repeatedly transmits an appropriate (stabilizing) linear combination of the values in its neighborhood. In this paper, we design an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for this control scheme, which observes the transmissions of certain nodes and uses that information to (a) recover the plant outputs (for data-logging and diagnostic purposes) and (b) identify malicious behavior by any of the wireless nodes in the network. We show that if the connectivity of the network is sufficiently high, the IDS only needs to observe a subset of the nodes in the network in order to achieve this objective. Our approach provides a characterization of the set of nodes that should be observed, a systematic procedure for the IDS to use to identify the malicious nodes and recover the outputs of the plant, and an upper bound on the delay required to obtain the necessary information.


Using in-situ micropillar compression, the local strain rate sensitivity in Ti6242 and Ti6246 has been investigated to strengthen our understanding on the rate- and slip system-sensitive deformation of dual-phase Ti alloys. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to find target grains anticipating basal and primatic slip activities under compression test. Micropillars with similar α orientation and incomparable β morphology were made by a focused ion beam (FIB). Strain rate sensitivity (SRS) was determined based on the constant strain rate method (CSRM). The marked difference of SRS is found in the α+β of both alloys such that in Ti6242 the SRS in the basal slip is considerably higher than that in the prism whilst both slips in Ti6246 show somewhat similar SRS, inferring that either local chemical effects or the β morphology could affect rate-sensitive deformation behaviour.


Mesoporous silica materials with cylindrical pores (MPSC) and interparticle pore structures (IPMPS) were synthesized by typical sol–gel methods, and their structural properties were characterized. The enzyme immobilised on IPMPS exhibited higher specific reactivity because of an improvement in the substrate affinity of the enzyme immobilised on the pore spaces of the IPMPS support. Fourier transform infrared and circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated that the highly ordered structure of formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) is not altered by binding to IPMPS and MPSC surfaces. Interestingly, after 10 repeated reactions, FDH immobilised on IPMPS exhibited a residual activity higher than that of FDH immobilised on MPSC. The cycle performance of the enzyme immobilised on MPSC decreased because of support aggregation by the released enzyme. Meanwhile, IPMPS has a high-intensity surface electrical charge that is highly dispersible in the presence of enzymes. In addition, enzymes that were inactive because of being buried inside mesopores are quantitatively determined. The dependency of the activity of FDH immobilised on IPMPS and MPSC as a function of substrate (formaldehyde) concentration was also evaluated to determine the potential application of these materials as biosensors. Formaldehyde concentrations of 3.0–500 μM could be detected using FDH immobilised on the IPMPS support.


One Swell Ion Channel When mammalian cells are faced with osmotic challenges, they need to swell or shrink. The molecular characterization of the volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC) remains unknown, although many candidate proteins have been proposed. Voss et al. (p. 634, published online 10 April; see the Perspective by Mindell) used a genome-wide screen to identify a group of leucine-rich repeat–containing (LRRC) proteins necessary for forming VRAC. Suppression of LRRC8A nearly eliminated the presence of VRAC in mammalian cells. A heterooligomer of LRRC proteins appears to form VRAC. Identification of VRAC components is an essential step forward in the understanding of swelling-activated ion channels and provides opportunities for understanding both the mechanism of the channel and its role in physiology. Components of an elusive swelling-activated anion channel are identified and form a structurally new class of channel. [Also see Perspective by Mindell] Regulation of cell volume is critical for many cellular and organismal functions, yet the molecular identity of a key player, the volume-regulated anion channel VRAC, has remained unknown. A genome-wide small interfering RNA screen in mammalian cells identified LRRC8A as a VRAC component. LRRC8A formed heteromers with other LRRC8 multispan membrane proteins. Genomic disruption of LRRC8A ablated VRAC currents. Cells with disruption of all five LRRC8 genes required LRRC8A cotransfection with other LRRC8 isoforms to reconstitute VRAC currents. The isoform combination determined VRAC inactivation kinetics. Taurine flux and regulatory volume decrease also depended on LRRC8 proteins. Our work shows that VRAC defines a class of anion channels, suggests that VRAC is identical to the volume-sensitive organic osmolyte/anion channel VSOAC, and explains the heterogeneity of native VRAC currents.


As a counselor, family therapist, and teacher who works with family physicians and residents, I often get to observe what I believe is the essence, or soul, of family medicine – relationship. Unfortunately, as you probably know all too well, certain pressures in health care today seem to be putting the specialty at risk of losing its relational soul. What's a family physician to do? Although you may not be able to radically change the environment in which you practice, I believe you can change your attitude and your effectiveness within that environment by focusing on your strengths – the 10 As of family medicine: 1. Alliance with the patient against disease and the vulnerability it brings. Even well-functioning patients are susceptible to feeling overwhelmed when disease or accidents befall them. Family physicians are natural allies with their patients in the trenches where pain and confusion reside. 2. Attentiveness to the total person. Financial burdens, family conflicts, life transitions, community and housing situations, and so on can have a significant impact on patients' health and wellness. Paying attention to these life experiences gives family physicians a more comprehensive view of the patient's situation and creates opportunities for intervention or support. 3. Acceptance of the patient. Every person needs a place of acceptance, one that is free from judgment. The exam room should be a place where patients can discuss any topic with trust and confidentiality. 4. Accountability. While family physicians are accepting of patients, they also need to challenge them at times. Destructive habits and behaviors cannot be ignored. Because of their relationship with the patient, family physicians can address difficult issues and offer accountability and motivation. 5. Availability and continuity over the life cycle. Family physicians, more than any other professionals except perhaps clergy, are with the individual through all phases of life. What a privilege this is, but also what a responsibility! 6. Authenticity. Being honest and genuine is something patients count on from their family physician. Authenticity affects so many aspects of the patient relationship, from providing candid and helpful feedback to ensuring transparent and ethical approaches to care. 7. Affirmation. Some patients rarely, if ever, receive affirmation. Knowing their patients' struggles and efforts, family physicians find ways to encourage their patients as they work toward positive goals and behaviors. 8. Awareness of what is going on beyond the overt disease. Family physicians understand that medicine is more than biological knowledge; it includes sensitivity to biopsychosocial issues as well. 9. Anticipation of the life pathway and possible difficulties and obstacles. Anticipatory guidance about what is coming next in life and what patients can do to prepare can reduce their pain and confusion. Anticipating the good and providing hope wherever possible is also important. 10. Advocacy in a fragmented, broken system. Now more than ever, patients need an advocate in the health care system. Family physicians have been fulfilling this role for years without recognition or reimbursement for it, but there are signs that payment for care coordination activities is slowly becoming a reality. With today's time, reimbursement, and productivity pressures, you may sometimes feel that you're barely holding things together. Focusing on these 10 factors will help you protect your relational soul as a family physician.


Q-fever is a zoonotic disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, an intracellular Gram-negative bacterium. A cross sectional epidemiological study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of Q-fever in flocks of sheep in Yobe State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the animals. A total of 420 blood samples from sheep of various ages were tested from April, 2018 to July, 2018 for Q-fever using indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Out of the 420 sera tested 49 (11.7%) were seeropositive for Q fever. Of the 315 females sheep tested, 39 (12.4%) were seropositive and out of 105 male sheep tested, 10 (9.5%) were seropositive. There was no significant association (p>0.05) between the sex of sheep tested for Q fever. The seroprevalence was higher in animals greater than 2 years 41 (12.1%) than in animals less than 2 years 8 (9.8%). There were no significant associations between age and infection with Q-fever even though that animal greater than 2 years showed higher prevalence than those less than 2 years. The highest seroprevalence 22 (12.3%) was recorded in Yankasa sheep, and the least seroprevalence 8(9.9%) was recorded in Uda. The seroprevalence of 19 (13.6%), 16 (11.4%) and 14 (10.0%) were recorded in Damaturu, Potiskum and Gashua zones respectively. There was no significant association (p>0.05) between the breed and location of the animals tested for Q fever infection. This study concludes that Q-fever is endemic in sheep in Yobe State. Enlightenment campaign is recommended to educate the livestock farmers, herders and the general public on the dangers of Q-fever infection. There is need for large scale epidemiological investigation of the disease in other livestock farms in the state.


For high-performance computing (HPC) system designers and users, meeting the myriad challenges of next-generation exascale supercomputing systems requires rethinking their approach to application and system software design. Among these challenges, providing resiliency and stability to the scientific applications in the presence of high fault rates requires new approaches to software architecture and design. As HPC systems become increasingly complex, they require intricate solutions for detection and mitigation for various modes of faults and errors that occur in these large-scale systems, as well as solutions for failure recovery. These resiliency solutions often interact with and affect other system properties, including application scalability, power and energy efficiency. Therefore, resilience solutions for HPC systems must be thoughtfully engineered and deployed.In previous work, we developed the concept of resilience design patterns, which consist of templated solutions based on well-established techniques for detection, mitigation and recovery. In this paper, we use these patterns as the foundation to propose new approaches to designing runtime systems for HPC systems. The instantiation of these patterns within a runtime system enables flexible and adaptable end-to-end resiliency solutions for HPC environments. The paper describes the architecture of the runtime system, named Plexus, and the strategies for dynamically composing and adapting pattern instances under runtime control. This runtime-based approach enables actively balancing the cost-benefit trade-off between performance overhead and protection coverage of the resilience solutions. Based on a prototype implementation of PLEXUS, we demonstrate the resiliency and performance gains achieved by the pattern-based runtime system for a parallel linear solver application.


Citric acid extracts of granule-rich fractions, prepared from rabbit and guinea pig heterophils or human neutrophis, killed Cryptococcus neoformans in vitro. These extracts sere fractionated by micropreparative electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels. In preparation of rabbit and guinea pig heterophils, cryptococcidal activity was associated predominantely with lysosomal cationic protein complex. Human neutrophils lacked strictly comparable cationic proteins but contained other components that killed C. neoformans. These components appeared to be identical to previously described proteins of the human neutrophil active against Candida parapsilosis.


This report presents the results from the second phase of a longitudinal study of Americans' knowledge and feelings about agricultural biotechnology and how those perceptions and attitudes have changed over time. Two independent national probability samples of 1,200 adults were interviewed by phone in the spring of 2001 and 2003. While this report focuses on the findings from 2003, longitudinal comparisons are presented where appropriate. The report begins with an investigation of Americans' awareness of the presence of genetically modified (GM) ingredients in the foods they encounter everyday. Next, the report describes Americans' actual and perceived knowledge of science, biotechnology and food production. It then examines American opinions about GM foods in general, along with their opinions on a variety of existing and potential GM food products with direct or indirect consumer benefits. The report discusses the relationship between opinions of GM food and a variety of factors, including demographics, knowledge of biotechnology, purchasing behaviors and styles of food selection. Finally, it describes Americans' thoughts on GM food labeling. Highlights of the findings are below. Americans pay little attention to agricultural biotechnology. - Only half of Americans are aware that foods containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients are currently sold in stores. - Despite the prevalence of such foods, only one-quarter of Americans believe they have eaten them. - Little more than a third of Americans have ever discussed biotechnology. - Awareness, although still low, has increased slightly from 2001. Americans do not have much knowledge about agricultural biotechnology. - Self-reported knowledge of biotechnology is low. - Quizzes on biotechnology and food production reveal that Americans are generally uninformed about both, and this has not changed since 2001. Opinion on the acceptability of GM foods is split. - When asked directly, about half of Americans report that they approve of plant-based GM foods, (down from 2001) and about a quarter approve of animal-based GM foods (unchanged from 2001). - Approximately 10% of Americans report being unsure of their opinion of GM foods. Opinions of GM food are easily influenced. - Approval increases when specific benefits of GM food are mentioned. - Reactions to the technology depends on what it is called. The term biotechnology evokes the most positive responses, while genetic modification is perceived most negatively and genetic engineering is most often associated with cloning. Demographics and styles of choosing food are related to acceptance of GM foods. - Women, people over 64, and people with low levels of education are less likely to approve of GM foods. - People who value naturalness and healthfulness in their foods are slightly less likely to approve of GM foods. - People who have purchased organic foods in the past are less likely to approve of GM foods.


Venous thromboembolism (VTE) consists of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) and is a major cause of disease burden in Australia. A prospective study conducted in Perth, Western Australia, estimated the age-adjusted annual incidence of VTE to be 0.57 (95% CI, 0.47-0.67) per 1000 residents. There were over 14,700 cases of VTE in Australia in 2008, contributing to an estimated financial cost of $1.72 billion for that year. Post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) is a frequently overlooked chronic complication of DVT, specifically proximal DVT (occurring at or above the popliteal vein). It is a clinical syndrome encompassing the presence of chronic pain, swelling, skin discolouration and, in severe cases, venous ulceration. It affects approximately one-third of patients following DVT, and about 5% to 10% of patients progress to severe PTS. It is the cause of significant morbidity and health care utilisation.


We present an interactive video stylization system for transforming an input video into a painterly animation. The system consists of two phases: a content extraction phase to obtain semantic objects, i.e., recognized content, in a video and establish dense feature correspondences, and a painterly rendering phase to select, place, and propagate brush strokes for stylized animations based on the semantic content and object motions derived from the first phase. Compared with the previous work, the proposed method has the following three advantages. First, we propose a two-pass rendering strategy and brush strokes with mixed colors in order to render expressive visual effects. Second, the brush strokes are warped according to global object deformations, so that the strokes appear to be naturally attached to the object surfaces. Third, we propose a deferred rendering and backward completion method to draw brush strokes on emerging regions and simulate a damped system to reduce stroke scintillation effect. Moreover, we discuss the graphics processing unit-based implementation of our system, which is demonstrated to greatly improve the efficiency of producing stylized videos. In experiments, we verify this system by applying it to a number of video clips to produce expressive oil-painting animations and compare it with the state-of-the-art approaches.


now weak-minded. She cannot read or be trusted with the most simple errand. Before the convulsions, however, she is said to have been bright and intelligent, and could say several words. It may be of interest to add that the mother attributed the convulsions to the falling of the child into a dirty stream two or three weeks before their onset. The child was nearly drowned, and after being pulled out vomited much dirty water. In this case it is obvious that blockage of the right external or common iliac vein is present, which may with reason be attributed to thrombosis occurring at the time the enlarged abdominal vein was first noticed. The evidence of thrombosis in one vein suggests that the associated cerebral symptoms were due to thrombosis within the cranial cavity. This thrombosis may have been of infective nature consequent upon the entrance of micro-organisms contained in swallowed dirty water into the blood.]


While academic self-efficacy is widely considered an individual cognitive variable, it may be influenced by a sense of belonging and connection to others in the school community. Using a correlation and multiple regression design, the study in this article examined the relationship between perceptions of school belonging, educational aspirations, and academic self-efficacy among 40 African American male high school students. Results indicated that feeling encouraged to participate and educational aspirations were significant, positive predictors of academic self-efficacy. Other components of perceptions of school belonging were not significant in predicting academic self-efficacy. Recommendations for future research and practical suggestions for school counselors are discussed.


Randomized trials comparing drug-eluting stents (DES) with bare-metal stents have shown that the former significantly reduce the incidence of angiographic and clinical restenosis into an unprecedented low, one-digit, range. However, post-DES restenosis is not zero. Next to incomplete coverage with DES of the vessel segment injured by balloon angioplasty, factors such as stent underexpansion, stent overexpansion, and nonuniform distribution of stent struts have been associated with post-DES restenosis. Current evidence suggests that inadequate, though predominantly focal, delivery of the antiproliferative agent (sirolimus or paclitaxel) into the vessel wall is likely the common cause of post-DES restenosis. There is no consensus at present on how to treat post-DES restenosis. Long-term results reported to date on small numbers of patients undergoing interventional treatment for post-DES restenosis appear to be worse than outcomes observed after the index intervention, regardless of whether another DES was implanted or not, and warrant further study.


Female rats were kept on a diet with a low content of animal protein (5.5%) beginning from the 2nd day after delivery. Beginning from the 10th day after delivery their body weight was persistently lower than that of control females. Also the body weight of their young was lower than that of control animals throughout the experiment, with significant differences appearing on the 17th day of life. Spontaneous termination of maternal milk intake occurred in malnourished young 10 days later than in the controls. Retention of 85Sr in malnourished females was in keeping with their milk production. Irrespective of the differences in body weight and the quality of solid food, the malnourished young began consuming solid food at the same age and in the same relative amounts as the controls. Thus in malnourished young the period of gradual weaning was prolonged by more than to 3 weeks in contrast to 2 weeks in the controls. This is probably due to the slower extinction of the oral sucking mechanism resulting from changes in the maturation of the CNS. No changes were found in maternal behaviour (nest building and efficiency of retrieving) in malnourished females during the suckling period. However, infanticide appeared in some females during the weaning period.


Objective: This study aims to determine the content and methods of the instructional activities that will be constructed in the future, concerning the residents, specialists and academicians in the area of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP).
Material and Methods: Target group of the study is the residents, specialists and the academic staff in CAP units in Turkey. The data has been collected by means of two different questionnaires designed for specialists/residents and the academicians. The questionnaire was designed by the authors. The questions have been prepared to evaluate the topics that have to be take part in a postgraduate courses, the methods/environments of education, the competency of specialists and residents on the topics in the questionnaire and the needs of the academicians to enhance their present instructional features. The questionnaire has been submitted and the data has been collected both by means of e-mails between March-May 2013. The data has been evaluated by descriptive statistics and chi-square test.
Results: Within the questionnaire period 29% of 160 child and adolescent psychiatry specialists, 50% of 230 residents and 58% of 110 academicians of the field in Turkey were accessed. The topics included to the questionnaire were found necessary in high proportions (71.9-95.3%) by the academicians. There was a statistical significance between academicians and specialists for finding all the topics necessary, as well as the academicians and residents concerning the "ethical approach in child and adolescent psychiatry", "forensic child and adolescent psychiatry" and "basics of psychopharmocology". Many additional new topics and methods have been suggested from all three groups.
Discussion: The reason why the academicians recommended high proportion of topics than the residents and specialist can be the academicians' way of evaluation in a wide frame where the residents/specialists focus more on their practical necessities. Designing further studies to evaluate the underlying reasons in the differences of educational needs between academicians and the residents/specialist and the patient variability, professional conditions and practices of specialists that have lower demands may be useful. It has been concluded that the results of this study will contribute to update the content and methods of those activities that will be planned on continuing medical education/continuing professional development, as well as reach them to large attendees.


It remains a huge challenge to design effective and efficient trackers under complex scenarios, including occlusions, illumination changes and pose variations. To cope with this problem, a promising solution is to integrate the temporal consistency across consecutive frames and multiple feature cues in a unified model. Motivated by this idea, we propose a novel correlation filter-based tracker in this paper, in which the temporal relatedness is reconciled under a multi-task learning framework and the multiple feature cues are modeled using a multi-view learning approach. We demonstrate that the resulting regression model can be efficiently learned by exploiting the structure of blockwise diagonal matrix. A fast blockwise diagonal matrix inversion algorithm is developed thereafter for efficient online tracking. Meanwhile, we incorporate an adaptive scale estimation mechanism to strengthen the stability of scale variation tracking. We implement our tracker using two types of features and test it on two benchmark datasets. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed approach when compared with the other state-of-the-art trackers.