The authors have applied the collinear laser spectroscopy technique together with a field ionisation detection method to investigate the even parity spectra of atomic argon. The optical excitation is produced by a frequency doubled CW ring dye laser operating in the 300 nm region. The 4s(3/2)20 metastable level populated by means of charge exchange collisions with sodium vapour was chosen to be the starting level in the one-photon excitation process. Two hundred and forty one levels belonging to the 3p5np and 3p5nf configurations has been measured with an absolute accuracy of 0.02 cm-1. The first ionisation limit has been redetermined to be I32/=127 109.88+or-0.02 cm-1 and a MQDT (multichannel quantum defect theory) treatment of the whole series has been performed, completing the previous studies of odd spectra. In addition, some details are given concerning the sensitivity, the advantages and limitations of this method.


This paper examines the significance of widely used leading indicators of the UK economy for predicting the cyclical pattern of commercial real estate performance. The analysis uses monthly capital value data for UK industrials, offices and retail from the Investment Property Databank (IPD). Prospective economic indicators are drawn from three sources namely, the series used by the US Conference Board to construct their UK leading indicator and the series deployed by two private organisations, Lombard Street Research and NTC Research, to predict UK economic activity. We first identify turning points in the capital value series adopting techniques employed in the classical business cycle literature. We then estimate probit models using the leading economic indicators as independent variables and forecast the probability of different phases of capital values, that is, periods of declining and rising capital values. The forecast performance of the models is tested and found to be satisfactory. The predictability of lasting directional changes in property performance represents a useful tool for real estate investment decision-making.


How do people feel about the outcomes of risky options? Results from two experiments demonstrate that the emotional reaction to a monetary outcome is not a simple function of the utility of that outcome Emotional responses also depend on probabilities and unobtained outcomes Unexpected outcomes have greater emotional impact than expected outcomes Furthermore any given outcome is less pleasant if an unobtained outcome is better We propose an account of emotional experiences associated with outcomes of decisions called decision affect theory It incorporates utilities expectations and counterfactual comparisons into hedonic responses Finally we show that choices between risky options can be described as the maximization of expected emotional experiences as predicted by decision affect theory That is people choose the risky option for which they expect to feel better on average


Dorsal agenesis of the pancreas is a rare congenital disorder. We report a case of a 65-year-old man with mild abdominal pain and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen showed a short pancreas with no pancreatic tissue ventral to the splenic vein. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) visualized the absence of a dorsal duct system and confirmed the suspicion of complete agenesis of the dorsal pancreas. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) was also performed to rule out pancreatic malignancy.


The effects of wollastonite on the mechanical properties and in vitro behavior of hydroxyapatite-Ca polyacrylate composites were studied. Powder mixtures of tetracalcium phosphate, poly(acrylic-co-itaconic), and wollastonite fibers (< or =75% by weight) were hot-pressed for 30 min at 300 degrees C and 60 kpsi. Tensile strengths, elastic moduli, and microstructures of the composites were investigated. The tensile strengths of these composites were improved by the addition of wollastonite fibers, whereas the elastic moduli decreased. The highest value of tensile strength (approximately 155 MPa) was achieved by the addition of 40% wollastonite. Composites were immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF) for up to 14 days and then in 1.5 SBF for a week. The changes in the concentrations of Ca, Si, and P ions and the pH of these solutions indicate bioactivity. An evaluation of the microstructures of the composites after SBF immersion indicated that apatite layers had formed on the surfaces of the composites.


In this research preparation of poly (maleamic acide) which substituted with imidazole as a bioactive material is performed. It was prepared from reaction of maleic anhydride with imidazole and Ring opening of maleic anhydride by imidazole, then the substituted maleamic acid was polymerized by freeradical polymerization by using dibenzoylperoxide as initiator. The structure of synthesized polymer was confirmed by FTIR, UV. and 1 H-NMR spectroscopes, The controlled release of imidazol units was studied in different pH values at 37 0 C. All physical properties of


Assessing the degree of spatial organization exhibited by soil moisture plays an important role since hydrological responses of a system are conditioned, to a large degree, by such pattern. This is more significant on plains, because water stays longer on the surface; therefore, it has more time to evaporate or infiltrate and these two processes are basically influenced by soil moisture condition. The aim was to describe surface soil moisture variability by means of a spatial and temporal dimension analysis. Four environments were considered: (A) close to temporary water bodies, poorly drained soils, and humid prairies; (B) extended lowlands, with a cemented horizon in the soil profile, and humid mesophytic meadows; (C) the flat matrix of the landscape, significant proportion of bare soil, and halophytic steppes; and (D) mounds and dunes, deep soils, and mesophytic meadows. Throughout the sampling period, some environments registered high and almost constant values (0.47–0.64 m3/m3); others recorded low and almost invariant values (0.13–0.28 m3/m3), and others showed intermediate values with broader spectrum of variation. In order to further understand surface soil moisture dynamics, multiple linear regression analyses considering soil water storage and water table depth as explanatory variables were applied. In some environments, both variables are significantly involved in the response variable explanation, and in others, soil water storage is the most predictive one. We showed that even though the study area has an extremely flat relief, a soil moisture pattern that underlies the system arises during wet periods and it becomes diffuse in dry ones.


Plant tissue culture plays an important role in plant biotechnology due to its potential for massive production of improved crop varieties and high yield of important secondary metabolites. Several efforts have been made to ameliorate the effectiveness and production of plant tissue culture, using biotic and abiotic factors. Nowadays, the addition of nanoparticles as elicitors has, for instance, gained worldwide interest because of its success in microbial decontamination and enhancement of secondary metabolites. Nanoparticles are entities in the nanometric dimension range: they possess unique physicochemical properties. Among all nanoparticles, silver-nanoparticles (AgNPs) are well-known for their antimicrobial and hormetic effects, which in appropriate doses, led to the improvement of plant biomass as well as secondary metabolite accumulation. This review is focused on the evaluation of the integration of nanotechnology with plant tissue culture. The highlight is especially conveyed on secondary metabolite enhancement, effects on plant growth and biomass accumulation as well as their possible mechanism of action. In addition, some perspectives of the use of nanomaterials as potential therapeutic agents are also discussed. Thus, the information provided will be a good tool for future research in plant improvement and the large-scale production of important secondary metabolites. Elicitation of silver-nanoparticles, as well as nanomaterials, function as therapeutic agents for animal well-being is expected to play a major role in the process. However, nanosized supramolecular aggregates have received an increased resonance also in other fields of application such as animal welfare. Therefore, the concluding section of this contribution is dedicated to the description and possible potential and usage of different nanoparticles that have been the object of work and expertise also in our laboratories.


Reported here are three new metal chalcogenide open frameworks built from supertetrahedral [In35S52O8] (denoted as T5-InOS or o-T5) and [In10S20] (denoted as T3-InS) nanoclusters of different sizes and compositions via co-assembly and/or hybrid assembly modes. Such a set of cluster-based superlattices with dia topological structures clearly exhibit quantum size effects and electronic coupling interaction of adjacent nanoclusters, which can effectively explain that the band gap of the T3-(o-T5) hybrid-assembled material lies in the middle of T3-T3 and (o-T5)-(o-T5) co-assembled materials.


During the last quarter of the twentieth century, a number of works have addressed both the methodological and empirical aspects of population-wide impacts of major causes of diseases. This gradual establishment of "risk assessment" or "risk quantification" has been driven partly by the academic curiosity of individual researchers and partly by the demands of regulatory agencies and public policy for better quantitative evidence on the health implications of certain risk exposures. These efforts nonetheless have generally been within the disciplinary and methodological traditions of individual risk factors and in a limited number of settings. As a result, the criteria for evaluating scientific evidence have varied greatly across risk factors resulting in lack of comparability across risk factors.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the scientific evidence on prevalence and hazards, and the resulting health effects, of a range of exposures that are known to be hazardous to human health, including childhood and maternal undernutrition, nutritional and physiological risk factors for adult health, addictive substances, sexual and reproductive health, and risks in the physical environments of households and communities, as well as among workers. This book is the culmination of over 3 years of scientific enquiry and data collection, collectively known as the comparative risk assessment (CRA) project, involving over 100 scientists, applying a common analytical framework and methods to ensure greater consistency and comparability in using and evaluating scientific evidence across risks.

As a result, our understanding of the comparative extent of disease burden caused by various exposures worldwide has advanced, and key areas of scientific enquiry to better inform policy needs to reduce risks have been elucidated. As public health researchers and practitioners evaluate policy alternatives for improving population health, this book not only demonstrates the enormous potential for disease prevention, but also provides a fundamental reference for the scientific evidence on some of the most important global risks to health.


Objective: Evidence-based social work requires the use of interventions that are supported by good research evidence. This article reviews the empirical research on adolescent alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse group treatments. Despite the popularity of group work, searches of the academic literature yielded only 13 adolescent group treatments for which AOD use outcomes have been reported. These treatments and the studies that evaluated them are systematically reviewed. Method: Methodological, efficacy rating, and treatment factor criteria are applied to these studies. Results: Statistically significant reductions in pre-, post-, and/or follow-up use rates of one or more substances were reported for 10 of the 13 reviewed treatments, but only two met Chambless and Hollon's (1998) criteria for "possible efficacy." Similarities between the two possibly efficacious treatments, as well as among the three treatments with no indication of positive outcomes are described. A major limitation of the studies overall was the lack of group treatment factor descriptions and analyses. Conclusion: If the state of the science is to advance, adolescent AOD group treatment researchers must improve study designs and reporting on group-related treatment factors. Based on the limited information provided, treatment factors and/or active ingredients that may distinguish effective vs. ineffective group work are discussed. Finally, the evidence suggests that group work is a viable modality for treating adolescent AOD abuse despite recent concerns to the contrary. Recommendations for advancing the state of the science are made.


During the last decades, a lot of effort was put into identifying decidable fragments of first-order logic. Such efforts gave birth, among the others, to the two-variable fragment and the guarded fragment, depending on the type of restriction imposed on formulae from the language. Despite the success of the mentioned logics in areas like formal verification and knowledge representation, such first-order fragments are too weak to express even the simplest statistical constraints, required for modelling of influence networks or in statistical reasoning. In this work we investigate the extensions of these classical decidable logics with percentage quantifiers, specifying how frequently a formula is satisfied in the indented model. We show, surprisingly, that all the mentioned decidable fragments become undecidable under such extension, sharpening the existing results in the literature. Our negative results are supplemented by decidability of the two-variable guarded fragment with even more expressive counting, namely Presburger constraints. Our results can be applied to infer decidability of various modal and description logics, e.g. Presburger Modal Logics with Converse or ALCI, with expressive cardinality constraints.


Simhasyadi kashaya mentioned in Chakradatta contains Guduchi, Vasa and Brihati, which are readily available in our surrounding area. It is indicated for Shopha, Swasa, Kasa, Jwara and Chardi. In contrast, Simhasyadi Ghanavati is taken on the hypothesis that Ghanavati is more effective than kwatha. Apart from these, vatis are more durable, and medicinal value can be maintained for a more extended period, easy to administer and easy to store. In the present study, Simhasyadi Kashaya and ghanavati were prepared by standardised methods and tested in albino rats for anti-inflammatory action. The rats of either sex weighing 150 to 250 gm are used in this experiment. The control rats receive 1 ml of distilled water; the standard group is given ibuprofen suspension, test group A given oral administration of Simhasyadi kwatha and test group B given Simhasyadi ghanavati orally. After 1 hour, the rats are injected with 0.05 ml of 1% carrageenan solution subcutaneously into the plantar side of the left hind paw. The paw is marked with ink at the level of the lateral malleolus and immersed in mercury up to this mark. The paw volume is measured plethysmographically immediately after injection and again after 30 min, 60 min, 120 min, 180 min and after 12 hours and eventually 24 hours after challenge. The statistical tests proved that the trial drugs, Simhasyadi kashaya and Ghanavati, had a significant anti-inflammatory effect compared to the control and standard groups. It maintained a constant lower than the control level because of its residual anti-inflammatory action.


Introduction
Although an increasing number of reports have shown favorable outcomes of laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD), the penetration rate of LPD is still low due to concerns about complex procedure. Particularly laparoscopic pancreatojejunostomy (PJ) is a highly technical demanding procedure due to reduced degree of freedom inherent to laparoscopic instruments. Here we describe our technique for overcoming technical difficulties of laparoscopic PJ.

Methods
Six trocars are placed: four trocars on both sides of the upper abdomen in a curvilinear shape with the infra-umbilical trocar in the center and one 12-mm trocar in the epigastrium. The operator stands between both legs of the patient and the laparoscopic camera is introduced through the right lower trocar.

Results
We perform a two-layer, duct-to-mucosa PJ in an end-to-side fashion. For the outer layer anastomosis between the pancreas parenchyma and jejunum, the left lower trocar which is in alignment with the pancreatic transection line is used for the needle to be placed perpendicular to the anastomosis line. For the duct-to-mucosa anastomosis, three trocars (left lower, left upper, umbilical) is alternatively used to make various angles of suture. This technique increses the degree of freedom of the straight laparoscopic needle holder when only one trocar is used for duct-to-mucosa anastomosis.

Conclusions
The trocar position perpendicular to the anastomosis line and alternatve use of multiple trocars is useful to encompass the 360-degree anastomosis for laparoscopic duct-to-mucosa PJ.


The author distinguishes between education, skill training and custodial child care, maintaining that only skill training and custodial care are legitimate functions of the elementary schools. Education, which Bereiter identifies with the explicit teaching of values and appropriate modes of conduct, is not well performed by the schools and more rightfully takes place in the context of the family. Schools, for their part, should limit and clarify their objectives, dividing children's time into periods of intensive skill-teaching conducted by specially trained instructors and periods with no defined teaching agenda or curriculum, when children are supervised in groups by child care personnel.


Background: Some studies have shown that women with breast cancer who have a BMI value gain of more than 2.0 kg/m2 after diagnosis have an elevated risk of dying of breast cancer, and likewise breast cancer patients who gained 5 or more kilogramshad a higher mortality rate than those who maintained their weight. Therefore it can be said that weight control is important for women with breast cancer. In addition to the survival benefit, preliminary research suggests that exercise intervention for weight control may also be effective for enhancing the QOL of cancer survivors. Purpose: We designed an exercise intervention study to assess the feasibility of the intervention in maintaining standard weight and also the effect of the excercise in breast cancer patients. Patients and methods: Breast cancer patients aged 20 to 75 years, stage I to IIIA, with no metastases, who had completed chemotherapy, with BMI values greater than 25 kg/m2 are eligible for participation. The intervention will be to have the patients do aerobic exercise 150 minutes per week, and assess the BMI and health-related QOL using the care note questionnaire, at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months later for each participant. We are also planning dietary interventions for the patients. We will calculate the actual calorie consumption of each patient and give dietary advice for optimal calorie intake. Patients will be required to record their exercise in a formatted note so we can check the exercise adherenece. Citation Format: Arakaki M, Tamaki K, Kamada Y, Uehara K, Gushikawa H. The feasibility of nurse intervention to improve and maintain the BMI of breast cancer survivors over 25 to appropriate levels [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-13-18.


SUMMARY

In the inflorescence of the voodoo lily (Sauromatum guttatum Schot), the spectacular thermogenic respiration which manifests itself in the so-called appendix on the first day of flowering ("D-day") is coupled with unfolding of the spathe and is synchronized with a mild respiratory climacteric and fragrance-production in the yellow, club-shaped organs placed on the central floral axis just above the pistillate ("female") flowers. The agent (or mixture of agents) responsible for triggering these three coordinated events originates in the primordia (buds) of the staminate ("male") flowers, from which it begins to emigrate about one day before D-day. The present report is specifically concerned with the club-shaped organs, hitherto almost completely neglected: their structure, the fragrance they produce, the chemical nature and mobilization of the reserve material they contain, and the nature of the respiratory process to which they fall prey. The results, placed in the framework of certain literature-data, allow speculation as to their biological function, which may well be the stimulation of mating in visiting beetles, i.e., extension of the span of time these potential pollinators spend in the inflorescences. The possibility that in addition the club-shaped organs serve as food for the beetles cannot be excluded.


The contribution analysis the effects of digital transformation, provides a critical assessment of the policies on e-government in Europe and in Italy, and draft a research agenda focused on Liguria Region. The article moves from the need to conduct research aimed at analyzing the change in the relations between subject and institution in contemporary western societies. The article, focusing on official documents, explores the strategies of digital transformation adopted by the EU. Liguria is a case study of interest because, starting from the 2016-2018 Digital Strategic Program, has adopted a strong focus on the principles of Open Government and an explicit decision to invest in specific digital services for citizens and businesses.


Excavations at the 109 hectare site of Kurd Qaburstan on the Erbil plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were conducted by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and 2014. The Middle Bronze Age (Old Babylonian period) is the main period of occupation evident on the site, and the project therefore aims to study the character of a north Mesopotamian urban centre of the early second millennium b.c. On the high mound, excavations revealed three phases of Mittani (Late Bronze) period occupation, including evidence of elite residential architecture. On the low mound and the south slope of the high mound, Middle Bronze evidence included domestic remains with numerous ceramic vessels left in situ. Also dating to the Middle Bronze period is evidence of a city wall on the site edges. Later occupations include a cemetery, perhaps of Achaemenid date, on the south slope of the high mound and a Middle Islamic settlement on the southern lower town. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis provide information on the plant and animal economy of the second millennium b.c. occupations, and geophysical results have documented a thirty-one hectare expanse of dense Middle Bronze Age architecture in the northern lower town.


This entry presents an overview of social justice vocabularies, conceptualizations, and philosophies as they are represented in the history of library and information science (LIS) practice and research. Emphasis is placed on theoretical descriptions of both justice and social justice, and how these constructs are historically related to past and emerging trends in the LIS professions, with a main focus on social justice in regard to public library philosophy and practice in the United States. The entry also includes a discussion of information science research as it relates to the needs of disadvantaged populations


Algorithms for identifying the infection states of nodes in a network are crucial for understanding and containing epidemics and cascades. Often, however, only the infection states of a small set of nodes are known. Moreover, the length of time that each node has been infected is also unknown. This missing data – infection states of most nodes and the infection times of the observed infected nodes – poses a challenge to the study of real-world epidemics/cascades.In this work, we develop techniques to identify the latent infected nodes in the presence of missing infection time-and-state data. Based on likely epidemic paths predicted by a simple susceptible-infected epidemic model, we propose a measure (infection betweenness centrality) for uncovering unknown infection states. We evaluate infection state classifiers based on Naive Bayes, Naive Bayes with kernel density estimation, and decision trees, in combination with features including infection betweenness centrality and different centrality measures. Our experimental results show that among the set of features that include degree and different centrality measures, infection betweenness centrality is the most effective feature for identifying latent infected nodes.


Adaptive linear equalizers are commonly used in wireless systems to reduce the distorting effects of the channel. One of the key parameters to be determined is the number of taps of the equalizer. In a time varying scenario, the optimum number of taps may vary as a result of changes in the environment. In this paper we introduce a reconfigurable filter structure and a low complexity algorithm that can be used to adjust dynamically and efficiently the number of taps of the equalizer depending on the channel conditions and its evolution.


Tissue-specific effects of ethanol and aminotriazole were studied in rats. Simultaneous administration of both these drugs caused alcoholic cardiomyopathy in the animals, while liver tissue impairment was not detected. Effect of ethanol and aminotriazole on content of reduced glutathione as well as on activity of catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, the enzymes participating in the antioxidation system, were also studied in liver and heart tissues. After repeated simultaneous or separate administration of these drugs concentration of glutathione and glutathione-S-transferase activity were elevated in liver tissue. Acute and repeated administration of a notriazole led to inactivation of catalase the same time, superoxide dismutase was inhibited in liver tissue as a result of the drug repeated administration. Activity of glucose phosphate dehydrogenase was increased in liver tissue of control rats, the diet of which contained isocaloric carbohydrates instead of ethanol.


This paper discusses the long-term prognosis of renal function in 84 boys treated for posterior urethral valves and followed up for a period ranging from 1-21 years. Thirty-one of the 84 patients (39.3%) were either adolescents or had crossed adolescence and this study highlights the changes through adolescence and puberty. Serum creatinine was found to be raised in 53% patients at presentation and 22.5% patients eventually progressed to chronic renal failure. Serum creatinine value 1 year after appropriate decompression of the urinary tract was a more accurate predictor of the eventual renal outcome rather than serum creatinine at presentation. Decompensation at puberty was detected in 3 patients in this study. The predisposing factors identified were the persistence of gross hydroureteronephrosis with voiding dysfunction after treatment in one patient and renal parenchymal disease in the other 2 patients. The "risk factors" for predicting a poor eventual renal function were persistently raised serum creatinine 1 year after decompression by diversion or fulguration, bilateral high grade vesicoureteral reflux, persistent severe upper tract dilatation after treatment, voiding dysfunction and delayed presentation. This study emphasizes the need to diagnose and intervene early, to investigate post-treatment persistent upper tract dilatation for vesicoureteral junction obstruction and for detrusor dysfunction by a complete urodynamic evaluation and to follow up these patients carefully through adolescence and adulthood.


Genetic algorithm is a global probability search algorithm developed by simulating the biological natural selection and genetic evolution mechanism and it has excellent global search ability, however, in practical applications, premature convergence occurs easily in the genetic algorithm. This paper proposes an self-adaptive multi-peak immune genetic algorithm (SMIGA) and this algorithm integrates immunity thought in the biology immune system into the evolutionary process of genetic algorithm, uses self-adaptive dynamic vaccination and provides a downtime criterion, the selection strategy of immune vaccine and the construction method of immune operators so as to promote the population develop towards the optimization trend and suppress the degeneracy phenomenon in the optimization by using the feature information in a selective and purposive manner. The simulation experiment shows that the method of this paper can better solve the optimization problem of multi-peak functions, realize global optimum search, overcome the prematurity problem of the antibody population and improve the effectiveness and robustness of optimization.


Presents an experimental approach to the problem of designing and optimizing walking gaits on a biped robot. The desired movements are designed off-line using a model of the robot and tracked on the real system by means of a simple control law. Because biped robot has more than twenty freedoms, it is difficult to coordinate the relationship between dynamic walking and the freedoms of biped robot. Giving some constraints on the gait in designing body kinematical trajectory, then using the step length, the average velocity, stature, arm waves, kinematical trajectory of the body and step height of freedom leg to simply model biped robot. Above parameters can makeup almost countless gait form. Introduce a step strategy concept of biped walking robot that is stabilized by using reaction null-space method. Several results validate the accuracy of our model and exhibit the robustness and the efficiency of our controller system.


The crucial environmental issue due to fossil fuel use in our society and industries and more and more perceived by the communities is stimulating the development of innovative technologies with the scope of reducing GHGs and pollutants emissions, improving plants efficiency and exploiting renewable energy sources. The idea proposed in the present work links this context: a novel hybrid plant for the production of a mixture of methane and hydrogen (20%vol), called enriched-methane, from a steam reforming reactor whose heat duty is supplied by a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant by means of a molten salt stream is here conceived, modelled and assessed. The enriched-methane mixture can be applied in methane internal combustion engines (ICE) reducing CO, CO2, unburned emissions and improving engine efficiency. Moreover, the residual sensible heat of solar-heated molten salt stream can be used to generate medium-pressure steam and to produce electricity by a steam-turbine. Therefore, the plant proposed is co-generative, producing both hydrogen and electricity from a solar source. The behaviour of methane steam reforming reactor is simulated by means of a 2D mathematical model and the design of a cogenerative solar plant is proposed, evaluating its potentialities in terms of MWh of electricity produced and number of vehicles fed by enriched-methane. A single CSP module (surface requirement = 1.5 hectares) coupled with a 4-tubes-and-shell shaped reactor is able to produce 686 tons/ year of hydrogen, equivalent to 3.430 tons/year of 20%vol H2-CH4 mixture and 3.097 MWh/year of clean electricity.


Introduction: Childhood malnutrition increases the risk of infections, morbidity and mortality in association with decreased mental and cognitive development. Poor conditions of WASH lead to infectious disease, especially diarrhoea, causing nutrient malabsorption and poor appetite and consequently undernutrition.
Methods: the study was a cross sectional analytical study design with a sample size of 165 caregivers with their children aged 6-59 months. The caregivers were randomly within the Kiandutu Informal Settlement. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather hygiene and sanitation information from the caregivers. Children's height, weight and MUAC measurements were obtained. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22.
Results: the nutritional status prevalence for the children was 33.3%, 15.1% and 8.8% for stunting, underweight and wasting respectively. The study results showed that the caregivers had low (88.1%) and moderate (11.9%) knowledge in WASH. Caregivers' WASH practices were also poor: only 23.9% got drinking water from piped water, 61.6% did not treat drinking water before consumption, 71.9% did not have access to a latrine and 55% of those who washed hands used water only.
Conclusion: the study established association between WASH knowledge and some practices among the caregivers with the child's nutritional status. In addition, the nutritional status prevalence was also high above the national rates, this indicated that undernutrition is a major public health problem in informal settlements.


Huntington's disease is a complex degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system. Huntington's disease is an autosomal-dominant, progressive neurodegenerative disorder typically presents during mid-life with a distinct phenotype, including chorea and dystonia, incoordination, cognitive decline, and behavioral abnormalities. HD is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the gene that encodes the protein huntingtin on chromosome 4; this results in progressive atrophy of the striatum as well as cortical and other extra striatal structures. Since 1993, genetic testing has been available to confirm diagnosis in affected adults and for pre-symptomatic testing in at-risk individuals. The review aims majorly on these areas namely: History, etiology, symptoms, pathophysiology, treatment and other aspects of Huntington's disease.


Objective To investigate variations in the effects of prehospital advanced airway management (AAM) on outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients according to regional emergency medical service (EMS) systems in four Asian cities. Methods We enrolled adult patients with EMS-treated OHCA of presumed cardiac origin between 2012 and 2014 from Osaka (Japan), Seoul (Republic of Korea), Singapore (Singapore), and Taipei (Taiwan). The main exposure variable was prehospital AAM. The primary endpoint was neurological recovery. We compared outcomes between the prehospital AAM and non-AAM groups using multivariable logistic regression with an interaction term between prehospital AAM and the four Asian cities. Results A total of 16,510 patients were included in the final analyses. The rates of prehospital AAM varied among Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei (65.0%, 19.2%, 84.9%, and 34.1%, respectively). The non-AAM group showed better outcomes than the AAM group (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] for neurological recovery 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24–0.38]). In the interaction model for neurological recovery, the aORs for AAM in Osaka and Singapore were 0.12 (95% CI, 0.06–0.26) and 0.21 (95% CI, 0.16–0.28), respectively. In Seoul and Taipei, the association between prehospital AAM and neurological recovery was not significant (aOR 0.58 [95% CI, 0.31–1.10] and 0.79 [95% CI, 0.52–1.20], respectively). The interaction between prehospital AAM and region was significant (P=0.01). Conclusion The effects of prehospital AAM on outcomes of OHCA patients differed according to regional variability in the EMS systems.


The present study aimed to verify whether body somatotype was indicative of competitive success in female utsal (indoor soccer) players. One hundred and twelve players (22.1 ± 5.4 years; 58.4 ± 6.9 kg; 161.8 ± 6.2 cm), from ten teams and seven different states, had participated in a national competition. The anthropometric date was analyzed using one-way ANOVA for repeated measures. The somatotype dispersion distance was applied to compare somatotypes between the champion team (reference) and the other teams (from 2nd to 10th position). Anthropometric characteristics did not differ signifi cantly among teams. The results showed that the endomorphic component was predominant in relation to the mesomorphic and ectomorphic component, irrespective of a team's ranking at the end of the competition. Therefore, the body somatotypes of female futsal teams cannot be considered as indicative of their competitive success.


When discussing racial othering, some specialists in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century opera have used the term "Orientalism."1 Yet few have examined Indianist opera, particularly its intersections with racial identity. Opera composers Mary Carr Moore, Charles Cadman, Frederick Converse, Arthur Nevin, Eleanor Freer, William Hanson, and Victor Herbert treated Native American themes that highlighted their Eurocentric prejudices.2 Their works set in transcultural landscapes asserted Darwinist ideals sometimes fused together with Hegelian notions of cultural progress, and these viewpoints affected both their librettos and music.3 These early twentieth-century American opera composers turned to Indianist works in a quest for a national character, but did so despite opera's inherent structural constraints in echoing authentic Native American music and culture. Composers portrayed Native Americans exotically and mimetically, as Indianist compositions became part of the American Romantic lexicon.4 Although operas often contained approximations of Native American gestures, modes, and melodies, which were then harmonized, their composers set them with harmonic characteristics found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European music, including Wagner's music dramas as well as Puccini's operas. These composers who borrowed from Wagner and Puccini include operetta composer Victor Herbert, who initially claimed that Indianist opera was not representative of Anglo-American culture and the idea of a soprano portraying a Native American woman unpalatable:If the subject be an American one, it is not necessary that the dramatis personae be either Indians or Puritans. Indians are not a suitable subject for an opera. The state of the Indians is pathetic, it is true, but in an opera they would not strike audiences seriously. You will see what I mean; suppose an Indian tenor, taking a high C and then trilling on a high D in order to touch the emotions of a soprano . . . prima donna squaw!5Herbert nonetheless composed Natoma in 1911 with librettist Joseph Redding, as they treated four races textually and musically, exploring Native American, Spanish, Caucasian, and biracial characters through racial, national, economic, and religious conflict.6 The work is set in 1820s California under Spanish rule and shows fixed and emerging social hierarchies, both through the Spanish treatment of Native Americans, and through the encroaching Anglo-American culture's behavior toward the Spanish.In Natoma, national identity issues were worked out by the othering of races through distinctive musical devices, such as themes, musical gestures, modes, and melodies. These devices speak to Herbert's depiction of this otherness to be resolved by ethnic assimilation, specifically the Christianization of Natoma, the principal Native American character at the opera's conclusion. Natoma becomes the sacrificial martyr, an allegorical representative of a disappearing culture through religious conversion, and Herbert similarly reflects this in the music. Dramatically and musically, assimilation eliminates the "other," allowing the dominant social group to remove a perceived threat. This trope of assimilation works in contrast to many nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century operas, such as Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Camille Saint Saens's Samson et Dalila, Arthur Nevin's Poia, and Mary Carr Moore's Narcissa, in which the ethnic distinctiveness of the characters is preserved, thereby emphasizing the otherness of various races. This essay will not only address the other in Indianist opera, but will also discuss assimilation, particularly within Herbert's Natoma, and will consist of three parts: first, an introductory exposition on the rising interest in Native American culture in Herbert's day; second, important early influences on Indianist music; and third, otherness and assimilation conveyed through Indianist musical gestures in Indianist opera, principally Herbert's Natoma. …


Removal of radionuclide and hazardous contaminants from hot cells in Hanford's 324 Building will produce an aqueous waste stream requiring volume reduction and packaging. This paper describes a compact and remotely-operated evaporator system that was designed for use in the 324 Building's B-Cell (a shielded hot cell) to volume-reduce the waste waters that are generated from pressure washing of hot cell ceiling, wall, and floor surfaces. The evaporator incorporates an electric-heated reboiler to provide evaporation and drying to allow disposal of waste material. Design features of the evaporator system were strongly influenced by the need for remote handling and remote maintenance. Purified water vapor from the evaporation process will be released directly to the hot cell ventilation air.


Molecular mechanisms underlying cardiac remodeling and heart failure are insufficiently understood. Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), a biologically active lysophopholipid, is involved in many critical cellular processes. However, its role in cardiac pathologies is unclear. In the present study, we investigated the involvement of S1P signaling in cardiac hypertrophy in response to pressure overload and angiotensin II. Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and angiotensin II infusion significantly increased cardiac expression levels of S1P1, the major cardiac receptor subtype for S1P, and sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1), the key enzyme catalyzing the formation of S1P. Expression levels of S1P1 and SphK1 were increased by angiotensin II in cultured cardiomyocytes and were much higher than those in cardiac fibroblasts, suggesting S1P signaling is primarily activated in cardiomyocytes. S1P and S1P1-selective agonist induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation and cellular hypertrophy in cultured cardiomyocytes. Pharmacological inhibition of the ERK pathway using U0126 reduced S1P-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and knocking down S1P1 inhibited S1P-induced phosphorylation of ERK1/2, indicating S1P induces hypertrophic responses in cardiomyocytes via S1P1-mediated activation of ERK pathway. Moreover, knocking down S1P1 and SphK1 reduced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and atrial natriuretic peptide upregulation in response to angiotensin II, suggesting S1P1 pathway is essential for angiotensin II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Next we searched for small molecular weight compounds that can potentially inhibit S1P signaling for therapeutic intervention and found LE135, a synthetic retinoid, inhibited angiotensin II-induced S1P1 upregulation and S1P-mediated phosphorylation of ERK1/2. Oral LE135 inhibited TAC-induced S1P1 upregulation in the heart and reduced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in response to pressure overload. LE135 also ameliorated cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis induced by angiotensin II infusion. These results demonstrate that S1P/S1P1 signaling is an attractive therapeutic target for cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling.


Advances in fiber-optic and VLSI technology are leading to the development of multi-gigabit wide-area networks based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). The Thunder and Lightning network project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is building a high-speed ATM switch in which each link operates at 40 gigabits per second. The instant start protocol, developed for the Thunder and Lightning network, maximises throughput by allowing transmission to begin without a reservation while guaranteeing lossless communication even when the network cannot handle the initial rate of transmission. Instant start is able to provide this behavior with the use of first-in first-out (FIFO) buffers. This paper discusses the problems of exercising flow control in the high-speed Thunder and Lightning network and describes the techniques used by the instant start protocol to overcome them.


The nonsense‐mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway regulates mRNAs that aberrantly terminate translation. This includes aberrant mRNAs and functional natural mRNAs. Natural mRNA degradation by NMD is triggered by mRNA features and environmental cues. Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes multiple proteins with ferric and cupric reductase activity. Here, we examined the regulation by NMD of two mRNAs, FRE1 and FRE2, encoding ferric and cupric reductases in S. cerevisiae. We found that FRE2 mRNAs are regulated by NMD under noninducing conditions and that the FRE2 3′‐UTR contributes to the degradation of the mRNAs by NMD. Conversely, FRE1 mRNAs are not regulated by NMD under comparable conditions. These findings suggest that regulation of functionally related mRNAs by NMD can be differential and conditional.


ABSTRACT Bien dans mes baskets (BDMB) uses an after-school team sports program as a medium for social work with groups in a high school in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). BDMB is a long-time partner of Centre de recherche de Montréal sur les inégalités sociales, les discriminations et les pratiques alternatives de citoyenneté (CREMIS). This narrative essay stems from a process of collective knowledge-building combining sociology, social work theory, and clinical practice. Using methods inspired by group analysis, we met online with members of BDMB (three social workers and three volunteer coaches) to discuss how they adapted to the pandemic. In this essay, after describing how BDMB uses basketball as a medium for social work with groups, we will see how the program had to adjust in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, we will discuss the social and educational inequalities underscored by the current social and health crisis and analyze how BDMB, at its own scale, is able to address some of these.


Women remain underrepresented in engineering and broadening participation has recently become the focus of education reform efforts. Increased emphasis on K-12 engineering education calls for the design of learning environments and curricula that increase interest and conceptual understanding of engineering work, beginning in the early years of childhood. We seek to understand what works, for whom, in what contexts, how it works, and how engineering curricula can be improved to promote social justice. Here, we evaluate the impact of a curricular intervention designed to promote equity in elementary engineering education. The integrated STEM curriculum unit engages first-grade students in programming a cookie-jar alarm. Using a KIBO robot, students program a distance sensor to trigger the alarm and customize the sounds and flashing lights. Students' pre-/post-drawings of 'engineers at work' were used to elicit reflection in semi-structured interviews, and to assess changes in students' conceptions of engineering work following the curricular intervention. A mixed analysis of the data revealed students' conceptual understanding of engineering work improved following the two-week curricular intervention, regardless of gender. However, the girls in the study were more likely than boys to identify as an engineer following the programming design task. We discuss the students' self-reported explanations and elements of the intervention that may have facilitated conceptual change. We recommend that, to promote equity in engineering education, "gender-responsive" curricula are essential.


We investigate the crossover of the entanglement entropy toward its thermal value in nearly integrable systems. We employ equations-of-motion techniques to study the entanglement dynamics in a lattice model of weakly interacting spinless fermions after a quantum quench. For weak enough interactions we observe a two-step relaxation of the entanglement entropies of finite subsystems. Initially, the entropies follow a nearly integrable evolution, approaching the value predicted by the generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) of the unperturbed model. Then, they start a slow drift toward the thermal stationary value described by a standard Gibbs ensemble (GE). While the initial relaxation to the GGE is independent of the interaction, the slow drift from GGE to GE values happens on timescales proportional to the inverse interaction squared. For asymptotically large times and subsystem sizes the dynamics of the entropies can be predicted using a modified quasiparticle picture that keeps track of the evolution of the fermionic occupations caused by the integrability breaking. This picture gives a quantitative description of the results as long as the integrability-breaking timescale is much larger than the one associated with the (quasi)saturation to the GGE. In the opposite limit, the quasiparticle picture still provides the correct late-time behavior, but it underestimates the initial slope of the entanglement entropy.


A light and electron microscopic study was done on seven cases of schwannomas, four of which were benign and three were malignant. Spherical or oval cytoplasmic inclusion bodies, one to three microns in diameter, were detected in all cases. These inclusions were demonstrable by Luxol fast blue stain. Ultrastructurally, the inclusions appeared as whorls of cell membranes reminiscent of myelin sheath. These lamellar bodies probably reflect the peculiar membrane characteristics of Schwann cells, and they provide a useful marker for recognition of benign or malignant schwannomas.


1. ABSTRACT. Decompression melting can be approximated as an isentropic (that is, reversible adiabatic) process. In such a process, specific entropy (S) and pressure (P) are the independent variables and equilibrium is achieved when the specific enthalpy (H) of the system reaches a minimum. We present a largely graphical analysis of decompression melting in one-component systems based on phase equilibria in H-P-S space. Although mantle sources contain more than one component, use of one-component model systems provides insights into several aspects of mantle melting that can be generalized to more complete and complex systems (for example, batch vs. fractional fusion; the influence of pressure-dependent solid-solid reactions on melting; melting of multilithologic mixtures such as peridotite plus eclogite; advection of heat and melting by rising magmas) and places these insights into the visualizable framework of simple phase diagrams.


A new single channel, time division multiple access (TDMA)-based broadcast scheduling protocol, termed the Five-Phase Reservation Protocol (FPRP), is presented for mobile ad hoc networks. The protocol jointly and simultaneously performs the tasks of channel access and node broadcast scheduling. The protocol allows nodes to make reservations within TDMA broadcast schedules. It employs a contention-based mechanism with which nodes compete with each other to acquire TDMA slots. The FPRP is free of the "hidden terminal" problem, and is designed such that reservations can be made quickly and efficiently with negligible probability of conflict. It is fully-distributed and parallel (a reservation is made through a localized conversation between nodes in a 2-hop neighborhood), and is thus scalable. A "multihop ALOHA" policy is developed to support the FPRP. This policy uses a multihop, pseudo-Bayesian algorithm to calculate contention probabilities and enable faster convergence of the reservation procedure. The performance of the protocol, measured in terms of scheduling quality, scheduling overhead and robustness in the presence of nodal mobility, has been studied via simulations. The results showed that the protocol works very well in all three aspects. Some future work and applications are also discussed.


A simple and effective strategy for designing a fluorescent probe for bromate was described in this work. Organosilane modified carbon dots were prepared by pyrolysis of citric acid in N-(β-aminoethyl)-γ-aminopropyl methyldimethoxysilane solvent at 230 °C and further doped onto silica nanoparticles by a silylation reaction. The fluorescence of carbon dot doped silica nanoparticles was quenched by bromate in acidic medium. By utilizing this property, the nanoparticle could be used as a sensor to detect bromate. The parameters affecting the performance of the sensor probe such as types of acid medium, acid concentration, reaction temperature, and time were investigated and optimized. The detection limit of the sensor was found to be 1.1 ng mL−1, with a linear range from 8 to 400 ng mL−1 and relative standard deviation of 2.0% (150 ng mL−1, n = 9). The method was successfully applied to the determination of bromate in drinking water samples, and the recoveries were in the range of 96.3%–103.7%.


The impact of grazing animals and plant protection on shrub seedling establishment was studied in 2 separate experiments. A total of 3,665 seedlings were monitored for survival during a sheep grazing trial in 1994, and 5,755 seedlings were monitored during a cattle grazing trial in 1986. Approximately 1/2 of the seedlings were located under the canopy of mature plants and 1/2 were located in the interspaces between plants. The presence of domestic livestock and the seedling location affected both the overall survival at the end of the growing season and the pattern of survival during the growing season. The interaction between these independent variables resulted in the highest survival (0.11) for sheltered seedlings in the grazed pastures and the lowest survival (0.009) for unprotected seedlings in the grazed pastures. Seedlings in the ungrazed pastures had survival rates intermediate between these 2 rates. The pattern of seedling survival was similar in both experiments. Seedlings in the grazed pastures experienced high mortality during the actual grazing event and immediately after grazing. Seedlings which were unsheltered experienced the lowest survival due to trampling. Survival rates late in the summer were not affected by grazing but were dependent on receiving precipitation during this normally dry period of the year. The interaction between grazing and seedling location may partially explain the aggregated distribution of Artemisia found in many communities. This aggregation should affect interspecific competition and may play a role in later stages of plant succession within these shrub-dominated communities.


The previously demonstrated activity of aqueous solutions of methionine and zinc salts against biofilms of uropathogenic bacteria prompted us to investigate the structure and properties of zinc methionine complex obtained from such solutions. The paper presents the analysis results of zinc coordination complexes with methionine obtained by synthesis (0.034 mol of L-methionine, 0.034 mol of NaOH, 40 mL of H2O, 0.017 mol ZnSO4, 60 °C) and simple crystallization from water solution (25 mL of a solution containing 134 mmol/L L-methionine, 67 mmol/L ZnSO4, pH = 5.74, I = 0.37 mmol/L, crystallization at room temperature during more than two weeks). IR spectral analysis and X-ray diffraction showed the structural similarity of the substances to each other, in agreement with the data described in the literature. DSC confirmed the formation of a thermally stable (in the range from −30 °C to 180 °C) chelate compound in both cases and indicated the possible retention of the polymorphic two-dimensional structure inherent in L-methionine with the temperature of phase transition 320 K. The crystallized complex had better solubility in water (100 to 1000 mL per 1.0 g) contra the synthesized analog, which was practically insoluble (more than 10 000 mL per 1.0 g). The results of the solubility assessment, supplemented by the results of the dispersion analysis of solutions by the dynamic light scattering method indicated the formation of zinc-containing nanoparticles (80 nm) in a saturated water solution of a crystallized substance, suggesting the crystallized substance may have higher bioavailability. We predicted a possibility of the equivalent existence of optically active cis and trans isomers in methionine-zinc solutions by the close values of formation enthalpy (−655 kJ/mol and −657 kJ/mol for cis and trans forms, respectively) and also illustrated by the polarimetry measurement results (∆α = 0.4°, pH = 5.74, C(Met) = 134 mmol/L; the concentration of metal ion gradually increased from 0 to 134 mmol/L). The obtained results allowed us to conclude that the compound isolated from the solution is a zinc-methionine chelate with the presence of sulfate groups and underline the role of the synthesis route for the biopharmaceutical characteristics of the resulting substance. We provided some quality indicators that it may be possible to include in the pharmacopeia monographs.


Bromodomain and extraterminal protein inhibitors (BETi) are epigenetic therapies aimed to target dysregulated gene expression in cancer cells. Despite early successes of BETi in a range of malignancies, the development of drug resistance may limit their clinical application. Here, we evaluated the mechanisms of BETi resistance in uveal melanoma, a disease with little treatment options, using two approaches: a high-throughput combinatorial drug screen with the clinical BET inhibitor PLX51107 and RNA sequencing of BETi-resistant cells. NF-κB inhibitors synergistically sensitized uveal melanoma cells to PLX51107 treatment. Furthermore, genes involved in NF-κB signaling were upregulated in BETi-resistant cells, and the transcription factor CEBPD contributed to the mechanism of resistance. These findings suggest that inhibitors of NF-κB signaling may improve the efficacy of BET inhibition in patients with advanced uveal melanoma. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings provide evidence that inhibitors of NF-κB signaling synergize with BET inhibition in in vitro and in vivo models, suggesting a clinical utility of these targeted therapies in patients with uveal melanoma.


Seymour, F. W. (1976). Aust. paediat. J., 326–329. The treatment of encopresis using behaviour modification. A method of modifying the behaviour of children with encopresis attending a child psychiatric unit is described. Treatment involved sitting the children on the toilet for 5 minutes, at regular intervals each day. The desirability of defaecation on the toilet, and clean pants, was reinforced with tokens which were later exchanged for material rewards. Laxatives and enemas were given when needed. After discharge from the ward, parents were encouraged to continue with a modified form of the above programme and to ignore soiling when it occurred. Results at follow‐up for 12 children showed that 6 of the children were not soiling at all, 3 were substantially improved from before treatment, and 3 were no better.


The current increase in the prevalence of nosocomial infections within the hospital environment despite adequate cleaning and disinfection can be said to be due to the following: (i) ineffectiveness of the various disinfectant formulations used in infection control on the various hospital equipments and wards; (ii) development of resistance to the various chemical disinfectant formulations been used in the hospitals by the various microorganisms. Ten bacteria isolates from different clinical specimens of hospitalized patients identified using standard bacteriological methods and found after screening to be resistant to two or more classes of the antibiotics: cephalosporins, quinolones, Betalactams, nitrofuran, macrolide and an aminoglycoside using the Kirby-Bauer method of disc diffusion test were used in this study. These were subjected to susceptibility testing against three selected disinfectant formulations (Izal, Dettol and Jik) at the manufacturer's dilutions and half the dilutions prescribed on their labels by using agar diffusion method. Out of these clinical isolates used in this study, 5 (50%) and 2 (20%) were resistant to manufacturer's dilution and half the dilution of Dettol respectively, 9 (90%) and 6 (60%) to manufacturer's dilution and half the dilution of Izal respectively while 1 (10%) and 0 (0%) were resistant to manufacturer's dilution and half the dilution of Jik respectively. The resistance demonstrated by some of the nosocomial agents in this study against the selected disinfectant formulations at their manufacturer's dilution and half the prescribed dilutions showed the probability of the nosocomial agents developing some mechanisms of resistance against the various disinfectant formulations rather than ineffectiveness of the disinfectant formulations. However, the effectiveness of Jik formulation at half the manufacturer's prescribed dilution shows that Jik is still an important disinfectant formulation in the control of nosocomial agent most especially the resistant strains.


In this work, a cerium/tetraethylenepentamine dithiocarbamate complex was synthesized and evaluated for the corrosion inhibition capability on an AA2024-T3 Al alloy in a 3.5% NaCl medium. The synthesized compounds were characterized via spectroscopic techniques. The corrosion inhibition behaviour of the complex was elucidated by electrochemical measurements and surface analysis techniques. Based on electrochemical test results, the corrosion inhibition efficiency of the complex increases with the immersion time of aluminium alloy in the test solution. The corrosion inhibition reaches 96.80% when the aluminium is immersed in a 3.5% NaCl solution containing a corrosion inhibitor for 120 h. The potentiodynamic polarization test results show that the complex acts as a mixed-type corrosion inhibitor and the passive range is widened. The surface analysis methods reveal that the corrosion inhibition ability of the complex originated from the formation of a protective layer on the Al surface. This film is created from the physisorption and chemisorption of cerium ions and organic parts simultaneously released from the complex molecules.


ABSTRACT It is commonly thought that children learning two languages simultaneously during infancy go through a stage when they cannot differentiate their two languages. Virtually all studies of infant bilingual development have found that bilingual children mix elements from their two languages. These results have been interpreted as evidence for a unitary, undifferentiated language system (the unitary language system hypothesis). The empirical basis for these claims is re-examined and it is argued that, contrary to most extant interpretations, bilingual children develop differentiated language systems from the beginning and are able to use their developing languages in contextually sensitive ways. A call for more serious attention to the possible role of parental input in the form of mixed utterances is made.


Objective: To find out the types and outcome of respiratory illnesses at a tertiary healthcare facility. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Rai Medical College Teaching Hospital, Sargodha Pakistan. Period: January 2022 to July 2022. Material & Methods: Admitted children of both genders aged between 1 month to 12 years were analyzed. At the time of admission, characteristics like gender, age, body weight, vaccination status and types of respiratory illness were noted. Duration of hospitalization along with outcome was recorded. Results: During the study period, a total 851 children were admitted. Out of these 851 children, 266 (31.3%) children had some kinds of respiratory illnesses and were further analyzed. There were 148 (55.6%) male children while overall mean age was 3.9±2.6 years. Pneumonia was the commonest respiratory illness noted in 92 (34.5%) children while bronchiolitis was the 2nd most common respiratory illness observed in 56 (21.1%). A total of 241 (90.6%) children were discharged, 11 (4.1%) referred to other departments, 7 (2.6%) LAMA while deaths were noted in 7 (2.6%). Vaccination status was found to have significant association with the outcome (n=0.0096). Conclusion: Respiratory illnesses contribute significantly to children admitted to resource limited healthcare facilities. Poor immunization status has significant association with mortality among children with respiratory illnesses.


Three hundred and sixty-five women were operated for ectopic pregnancy at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Odense University Hospital in a 13-year period. In all cases, the diagnosis was verified by histological examination. In 245 cases there was curettage material available for histological examination. The slides were reviewed by one pathologist. The most common types of endometrium associated with ectopy were decidual reaction (42%), secretory endometrium (22%) followed by proliferative endometrium (12%). The endometrial changes classically considered as suggestive of ectopic pregnancy were found only in 53% of the cases. The histological examination of all this curettage material reveals a wide variety of endometrial histologies associated with ectopy: any type of endometrium without trophoblasts may be associated with ectopic pregnancy.


Introduction Femoral heads made from zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) are the most advanced bioceramic available for total hip arthroplasty. ZTA's superior mechanical properties result from the polymorphic transformation of its zirconia (ZrO2) phase in the presence of a propagating crack. In vitro derived activation energies predict that several human lifetimes are needed to reach a state of significant transformation;1 but in vivo confirmation of material stability is still lacking. This investigation determined if transition metal ions might be responsible for triggering the tetragonal to monoclinic ( t ® m -ZrO2) phase transformation in this bioceramic.

Materials and Methods BIOLOX® delta femoral heads (CeramTec GmbH, Plochingen, Germany) were acquired and characterized for their surface monoclinic content, Vm , using Raman spectroscopy. Then they were physiologically scratched with different metals ( i.e. , Ti, CoCr, and Fe, n=3 each) to simulate in vivo staining as a result of acetabular shell impingement due to subluxation or dislocation. They were subsequently hydrothermally aged for up to 100 h in an autoclave at 98∼132°C and 1 bar pressure. Raman maps, each consisting of 120 spectra, were compiled and monoclinic contents, Vm , calculated for zones adjacent to and away from the metal stains.2 Activation energies for the t ® m transformation in stained and non-stained zones were derived and compared to retrieved heads having service lives of between ∼45 days and ∼8 years.

Results The fractions of m -ZrO2 in the as-received and treated heads are presented in Table 1. In all cases, significantly greater amounts of m -ZrO2 were found on the metal stained areas, with the transformation amounts similar to retrieved heads. Activation energies for the t ® m transformation in non-stained, CoCr-, Fe-, and Ti-stained zones were found to be 79, 60, 62, and 67 kJ/mol, respectively. Extrapolated t ® m time-transformation curves at 37°C are shown in Figure 1 along with average m -ZrO2 fractions from 15 short- and medium-term retrievals. Data are compiled for values obtained on the main-wear-zones (MWZ) and non-wear-zones (NWZ) versus their elapsed time in vivo .

Discussion This experiment suggests a discrepancy in predicted ( in vitro ) versus observed ( in vivo ) phase transformation rates for metal stained ZTA femoral heads.1 This phenomenon should be carefully considered because of its potential effect after reductions of dislocations and in the taper of these heads. While explaining the gap between in vitro predictions and in-vivo observations for phase transformation rates in ZTA components, an intrinsic incompatibility between ZTA and metal ions was also demonstrated. This phenomenon arises from a catalytic reaction at the ceramic surface by enhanced hydroxyl concentrations near the metal stains.

Conclusion Metal ions have an apparent detrimental role in destabilizing the zirconia phase at the surface of ZTA femoral heads which may impact mechanical or wear performance. Metal ions naturally present in the prosthetic joint space, metal staining of the head from hip instability, or metal ions released from modular taper corrosion may contribute to ZTA instability, even in well-functioning THA prostheses.


Globally, COVID-19 pandemic has become a threat to humans and to the socio-economic systems they have developed since the industrial revolution. Hence, governments and stakeholders are calling for strategies that could help to restore the normalcy while dealing with this pandemic effectively. Since, till now, the disease is yet to have a cure; therefore, only risk-based decision-making can help governments to achieve a solution that is sustainable in the long term. To help the decision-makers to explore viable actions, we here propose a risk assessment framework for analyzing COVID-19 risk to areas, using integrated hazard and vulnerability components associated with this pandemic for effective risk mitigation. The study is carried on a region administrated by Jaipur municipal corporation (JMC), India. Based on the current understanding of this disease, we hypothesized different COVID-19 risk indices (C19Ri) of the wards of JMC such as proximity to hotspots, total population, population density, availability of clean water and associated land use/ land cover, are related with COVID-19 contagion and calculated them in a GIS-based multi-criteria risk reduction method. The results showed disparateness in COVID-19 risk areas with higher risk in north-eastern and south-eastern zone wards within the boundary of JMC. We proposed to prioritize wards that are under higher risk zones for intelligent decision-making regarding COVID-19 risk reduction through appropriate management of resources-related policy consequences. This study aims to serve as a baseline study to be replicated in other parts of the country or world to eradicate the threat of COVID-19 effectively.


Background Smartphones may offer a new and easy tool to assess stress, but the validity has never been investigated. Objective This study aimed to investigate (1) the validity of smartphone-based self-assessed stress compared with Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and (2) whether smartphone-based self-assessed stress correlates with neuroticism (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Neuroticism, EPQ-N), psychosocial functioning (Functioning Assessment Short Test, FAST), and prior stressful life events (Kendler Questionnaire for Stressful Life Events, SLE). Methods A cohort of 40 healthy blood donors with no history of personal or first-generation family history of psychiatric illness and who used an Android smartphone were instructed to self-assess their stress level daily (on a scale from 0 to 2; beta values reflect this scale) for 4 months. At baseline, participants were assessed with the FAST rater-blinded and filled out the EPQ, the PSS, and the SLE. The PSS assessment was repeated after 4 months. Results In linear mixed-effect regression and linear regression models, there were statistically significant positive correlations between self-assessed stress and the PSS (beta=.0167; 95% CI 0.0070-0.0026; P=.001), the EPQ-N (beta=.0174; 95% CI 0.0023-0.0325; P=.02), and the FAST (beta=.0329; 95% CI 0.0036-0.0622; P=.03). No correlation was found between smartphone-based self-assessed stress and the SLE. Conclusions Daily smartphone-based self-assessed stress seems to be a valid measure of perceived stress. Our study contains a modest sample of 40 healthy participants and adds knowledge to a new but growing field of research. Smartphone-based self-assessed stress is a promising tool for measuring stress in real time in future studies of stress and stress-related behavior.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the modified Makuuchi incision in the surgical treatment of renal tumors.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A total of 29 patients with renal tumors were operated using the modified Makuuchi incision. Patients' age ranged from 48 to 72 years. Twenty-three patients were male, and 6 patients were female. Renal tumors affected the right side in 22 patients and the left side in 7 patients. Twenty-six patients underwent radical nephrectomy, while 3 patients underwent partial nephrectomy.

RESULTS
A perfect exposure was achieved with this incision in the surgical field. No serious complications such as bleeding or other organ injuries happened during the surgery. Blood transfusion during surgery was unnecessary. Additional use of analgesics due to wound pain during the postoperative period was not required. Incision-related complications, such as wound infection and wound dehiscence, did not occur in the early postoperative period. Patients had no complaints about the cosmetic appearance of their abdomen due to the incision. Incisional hernia was not observed in patients.

CONCLUSION
This type of incision provided a perfect exposure of the field in the surgical treatment of renal tumors.


The large-conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK) channels distributed in both excitable and non-excitable cells are key participants in a variety of physiological functions. By employing numerous high-affinity natural toxins originated from scorpion venoms the pharmacological and structural characteristics of these channels tend to be approached. A 37-residue short-chain peptide, named as martentoxin, arising from the venom of the East-Asian scorpion (Buthus martensi Karsch) has been investigated with a comparatively higher preference for BK channels over other voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels. Up to now, since the specific drug tool probing for clarifying structure-function of BK channel subtypes and related pathology remain scarce, it is of importance to illuminate the underlying mechanism of molecular interaction between martentoxin and BK channels. As for it, the current review will address the recent progress on the studies of pharmacological characterizations and molecular determinants of martentoxin targeting on BK channels.


Distributed systems with decentralized control, such as peer-to-peer systems, computing grids across multiple organizations, and compositional web services require a rethinking of basic issues in their design and implementation. This dissertation establishes a model of these systems, examines the issues of programming models, access control, and trust, and proposes and evaluates new methods for implementing access control and trust management in these systems.
We begin by abstracting these systems into the model of service-oriented systems that use associative interactions. It then examines the fundamental issues of access control in decentralized systems, and its greater requirements than in systems with central control. From this analysis we identify possible solutions for access control implementations that have not been explored. We then introduce a framework developed to support computation in these kinds of networks, and then together with the lessons learned from the taxonomy, offer and evaluate contractually-limited capabilities as an access control mechanism.
We then address the questions of trust, cooperation, and access control decisions by offering and evaluating a reputation-tracking mechanism that incorporates a quantified measure of uncertainty, realizing that intrinsic to any system with decentralized control is the uncertainty of information arising from incomplete state. We show this mechanism promotes cooperation by throttling uncooperative nodes while providing high levels of service to cooperative nodes. We then further examine the question of reliability of these networks by introducing a logic for verifying access control properties. This logic unifies a logic of belief with temporal logic, and establishes formal models of these systems that can then be proven to possess desirable properties.


ABSTRACT The rate of renin secretion from renal juxtaglomerular epithelioid cells appears to be inversely correlated to intracellular Ca activity. Such a dependency of renin secretion on Ca activity could be controlled by Ca-activated Cl channels that may be involved in the volume control of juxtaglomerular cells.


Micro-credit and mental health - Micro-credit, a Bengali invention of Professor Muhammad Yunus, is an innovative practice of credit, based on very small loans, given to people traditionally ignored by the banking system. These loans allow people to open small businesses or to support their current activities. Micro-credit is a tool that develops the potentials of marginal people and encourages autonomy. It represents a parallel welfare policy that holds back human passivity, supports self-recovery, and reprocesses the social dimension of relationship, the internal/external dialectic between individual and group. Micro-credit involves the "poorest of the poor", the people traditionally excluded from the banking system, because considered "not includable", or simply "not trustworthy" enough. This paper describes micro-credit practices, adopted by the mental health service of Carpi (a small town in northern Italy). The basic aim of this service is to counter the idea that people with psychiatric disorders, as the poor, are not worthy of trust, nor of receiving financial loans. Micro-credit enhances autonomy, initiative and shared responsibility. It is a basic tool of active citizenship. It represents an alternative model of welfare and of coconstructed care: a collaborative model built with different stakeholders. It is an important tool to keep in check public costs by promoting self-esteem and quality of life, by bringing people to become more autonomous and less dependent on services. Parole Chiave: microcredito, fiducia, gruppo, gruppoanalisi, riabilitazione, beni relazionali, salute mentale. Key Words: micro-credit, trust, group, group analysis, rehabilitation, relational goods, mental health.


A new line spectrum at about 860 meV has been observed in silicon co-doped with iron and boron. The isochronal annealing behaviour of this line spectrum and the FeB centre was studied by transmission spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), respectively. The good agreement between the two measurements strongly suggests that the line spectrum originates from excitations at the trigonal FeB pair complex, well known from previous EPR studies. The positions of the FeB donor and acceptor levels were estimated to be at Ev+110 meV and Ec-275 meV respectively, in close agreement with previously reported values for the FeB pair. Furthermore, the energy difference between the ground and first excited states of this centre was determined to be 1.09 meV, which compares favourably with the 0.75 meV EPR value previously obtained.


A total of 1299 urine samples from kidney-transplant patients were tested for bacteriuria using the electrochemical rapid procedure. For germ counts of more than 10(5)/ml the registration rate was 97.6% after incubation for 1 hour and 100% after 2 h, providing the patients were not under the influence of antibiotics at the time of examination. Bacteria inhibitors in the urine delayed the reaction so that an incubation period of 2-3 hours was necessary. The electrochemical rapid procedure proved to be unsuitable in cases where small quantities of germs are expected to be discharged.


Abstract This article explores the importance of specific forms of social capital for small-scale enterprises while highlighting that such analyses must incorporate local sociocultural complexities. In Eastern Indonesia, small-scale entrepreneurs in Makassar city rely heavily on informal networks, linkages, and trust relationships for their livelihoods. This dependence reflects different social capital forms, embedded in local ethnic and social relations that are inclusionary for some, yet exclusionary for others. Findings show that although bonding social capital is prevalent, albeit with diverse implications, bridging social capital is less so, and linking social capital is virtually absent. A lack of the latter, combined with widespread corruption in the city, hinders livelihood progress for many local entrepreneurs. *Many thanks to the small-scale entrepreneurs in Makassar who took the time to talk to me about their work. I am also grateful to Hasbi for his field work assistance, Pak Ahmad Syamsuddin Suryana (Pusat Pengembangan Usaha Kecil Kawasan Timur Indonesia) and Pak Nurman Said (State Institute of Islamic Studies) for their enthusiastic support in Makassar, and Stephanie Coen and Laura Schoenberger for their research assistance in Canada. Thanks also to Wendy Allen, Indonesia Social Equity Project, McGill University, and the three referees for their useful comments.


For the past two decades, successive Australian governments have sought to increase the participation of women in STEM-related fields. One reason for this is the advancement of social equality; another reason is the popular theory that STEM-based-innovation is and will be a primary driver of future economic growth. Rigorous intellectual property law (particularly patent law), supports this strategy by facilitating the commercialisation of innovative ideas. A patent provides the inventor(s) with an opportunity to monetise their work, and (in exchange) the technology disclosed can be used by the public to further scientific progress.

One measure of female participation in STEM, is participation as an inventor in the patents system. There is some evidence that Australian patent applications with female inventors have increased over the last 30 years. However, while applications have increased, it is unclear whether women are as successful as men in having their patent application proceed to grant. In 2018, Yale researchers examined 2.7 million US patent applications and found that inventors with female sounding names were less likely to be granted a patent than inventors with male or neutral sounding names. The researchers concluded that some bias was evident from the examiner-side and suggested that the examination process be 'more blind to the identity of participants.

This study will work with large data sets from IP Australia to determine whether the gender of the inventor impacts Australian patent application outcomes. The findings from this project could have major implications on patent prosecution procedures and long term strategies for gender equity in STEM fields.


In plasma spraying, the individual droplet behavior at impact is the fundamental element to understand the resulting coating microstructure. A new experimental set-up, developed in SPCTS laboratory (Limoges, F) with two fast shutter cameras (exposure time : 100 ns…1ms) allows visualisation at impact of a single particle plasma sprayed with a direct current (d.c) torch. A fast two color pyrometer enables to monitor particle temperature just prior to its impact, its flattening and its thermal history. Working in parallel with a free falling drop experiment, enables to obtain larger (about three orders of magnitude) time and dimension scale (realized in Advanced Joining Process Laboratory, Toyohashi, J). Each technique gives interesting and complementary results thanks to pyrometric signals and images. Results obtained with plasma sprayed particles allow studying the matter ejections generated on impact splashing .while both techniques allow following the flattening splashing. Calculation and comparison of quenching rates for millimetre sized drops on a stainless steel substrate give indications concerning the disk shaped splat formation.


Self-assembly of high-aspect-ratio filaments containing β-sheets has attracted much attention due to potential use in bioengineering and biomedicine. However, precisely predicting the assembled morphologies remains a grand challenge because of insufficient understanding of the self-assembly process. We employed an atomistic model to study the self-assembly of peptide amphiphiles (PAs) containing valine-glutamic acid (VE) dimeric repeats. By changing of the sequence length, the assembly morphology changes from flat ribbon to left-handed twisted ribbon, implying a relationship between β-sheet twist and strength of interstrand hydrogen bonds. The calculations are used to quantify this relationship including both magnitude and sign of the ribbon twist angle. Interestingly, a change in chirality is observed when we introduce the RGD epitope into the C-terminal of VE repeats, suggesting arginine and glycine's role in suppressing right-handed β-sheet formation. This study provides insight into the relationship between β-sheet twist and self-assembled nanostructures including a possible design rule for PA self-assembly.


The two main objectives in this study were investigating the microbial quality and microbial communities of 'use-by date' Mung bean sprouts by using conventional culture and 16S/18S rDNA PCR-DGGE methods, and evaluating the efficacy of natural antimicrobial substances, chemical disinfectants, and thermal treatments in reducing and inhibiting the growth of the pathogens on mung bean seeds. Retail samples of pre-packed mung bean sprouts were obtained from three retailers in the local area. The microbial quality and communities were evaluated on the 'use-by date'. The highest counts of total aerobic counts (7.86 log10 CFU/g), yeasts and moulds (7.0 log10 CFU/g), total lactic acid bacteria (6.24 log10 CFU/g) and total coliforms (6.63 log10 CFU/g) were found in samples from one shop and the DGGE band sequences also identified major populations of LAB from the same samples, These indicated poor quality and spoilage of the samples from this location and could be related to improper storage at temperatures above 5°C.

The combination of conventional culture methods with the PCR-DGGE technique revealed a larger diversity of bacterial communities than eukaryotic ones based on the relative number of amplimers present on most of the OGGE gels. Identification based on band analysis revealed that the Enterobacteriaceae (29.6%), soil bacteria (20.4%), lactic acid bacteria (18.5%). yeast (14.8%). Pseudomonas spp. (13%), and Flavobacterium (3.7%) constituted the major populations in bean sprout samples. Cluster analysis of the OGGE patterns of both 16S and 18S rDNA amplimers found no strong relationship between sample sources and batches indicating the variability of natural populations.

The use of natural antimicrobial products, such as a mixture of lime juice and vinegar (1: 1, pH 2.83) and bacteriocin-like substances produced by Pediococcus acidilactici, failed to reduce and inhibit the growth of Listeria monocytogenes on mung bean seeds. The former solution had higher antimicrobial efficiency in reducing the pathogen on seeds (1.93 log10 CFU/g) compared to the Pediococcus broth culture (1.22 log10 CFU/g), but both solutions failed to inhibit the re-growth of the pathogen during the sprouting process and also reduced seed germination percentage by 13-18%.

The evaluation of efficacy of sequential washing using a combination of chemical treatments (two-step dipping) against the pathogens on seeds showed that a two-step dipping treatment in a solution containing 2% sodium hypochlorite for to min followed by 5% lactic acid solution for 5 min was the most effective treatment. This treatment achieved the highest reductions of L. monocytogenes (2.91 log10 CFU/g) and Salmonella Typhimurium (3.20 l0g10 CFU/g) after treatment and continued to reduce the pathogen during the sprouting process. This may be due to the chemical residues on treated seeds which lowered both pathogens on sprouted seeds to below the limit of detection <50 CFU/g) by direct plating without significantly affecting seed viability.

The use of thermal treatments based on a hot and cold water dipping was found to be more effective in reducing the normal flora on seeds and less affecting of seed germination compared to microwave heating. The use of a hot and cold water dipping treatment at 92°c for 1 min followed by ice-cold water at 5°C for 30 sec achieved the highest reduction of L. monocytogenes on seeds (>5 log10 CFU/g) but had the lowest germination percentage (89%) compared to other hot and cold water dipping treatments. Microwave heating at 1-4 kW showed a poorer efficiency in reducing nonnal flora on seeds and severely affected seed viability.

Overall, a two-step washing with 2% sodium hypochlorite followed by 5% lactic acid seems to be the most successful treatment in reducing and inhibiting the recovery of the pathogen during the sprouting process. However, the chemical residues on treated seed may become a negative image to apply this treatment in the sprout industry.


By comparing two subsequent human tumor stages we previously described calcyclin as a new potential melanoma associated neoplastic progression marker positively linked with metastasis. In this study the calcyclin expression levels in a representative panel of human melanoma cell lines were correlated with the occurrence of DNase I hypersensitive (DH) regions and potential enhancer elements in a 6 kb genomic fragment spanning the human calcyclin gene. Examination of the chromatin structure of the transcription unit revealed no qualitative differences in DH sites within the panel of tested human melanoma cells, but especially the sequences around the transcription start site and a 1.5 kb upstream region appeared more accessible to the nuclease in frequently (BLM, MV3) as compared to poorly (530, 1F6) metastasizing cells. The genomic fragments that harbor one or more DH sites were subjected to functional analysis by luciferase reporter gene assays. Thus, an enhancer element was detected between 361 and 167 bp upstream of the transcription start site. This enhancer displayed equal activating potential (2-3 fold) both in weakly and in frequently metastasizing cells and was apparently recognized by transcription factors present in both types of human melanoma cells lines. We conclude that, in addition to a slight amplification of the encoding gene, the elevated calcyclin mRNA levels are only reflected in a selectively increased accessibility of the chromatin structure to DNaseI in metastasizing melanoma cells.


The essay analyzes the evolution of the paternal identity in the society and in the family, starting from the key distinction between paternal function and paternal role. We explore the issues of responsible paternity, and the need of a co-responsibility between mother and father to enhance the parenting and promote a positive adult-child relationship. In addition, we underline the necessity that the pedagogical reflection focuses its attention on the unique and irreplaceable bond that ties father and child to investigate not in opposition or for analogy with the maternal-filial one. Finally, it appears particularly urgent the focus on the difficulties that in the flesh fathers live in their liquid fatherhood, trying to understand and forgive its dispersions.


This paper reports on a challenging application that uses shape memory alloy (SMA) wire to function simul- taneously both as actuator and sensor in an underactuated system. The study highlights the potential of SMA to operate an open-loop unstable, highly nonlinear complex dynamical system with the focus of reducing cost, weight, and system complexity. To authenticate this concept, the system under consideration is the well-known classical control problem—ball balancing beam system instrumented with self-sensing SMA wires. The proposed mechatronic system design is tuned and verified by co-simulation using automatic dynamic analysis of mechanical systems and is demonstrated in real time. The results are promising and depict the intellectual handling ability of the self-sensing SMA to stabilize and control the system, thereby establishing the merit of introducing undersensing for the control of underactuated systems.


The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional language learning, leading to a shift towards online teaching and requiring new approaches to language education. This study examines the effectiveness of AI-powered collaborative and interactive Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction in a post-COVID-19 online education environment. The study used a mixed-methods approach, incorporating statistical and in-depth qualitative data gathering and processing strategies. EFL teachers and students from the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC) in Benin were surveyed, interviewed, and observed during online language learning sessions. The data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study employed questionnaire surveys to analyse quantitative data and used the thematic (content) analysis method to isolate the most important trends and themes hidden within the qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews and online class observations. Results showed the challenges and opportunities of using AI-powered collaborative and interactive language learning in EFL teaching, the learning methodologies and assessment approaches used in AI-enabled collaborative e-learning, the role of technology in supporting pervasive learning, and the impact of professional development for teachers in ICT on integrating AI-assisted collaborative e-learning in EFL instruction. The findings offer new perspectives on the effects of AI-supported collaborative and interactive language learning on EFL teaching and its implications for EFL teachers and students in the post-pandemic era.


This paper takes as its point of departure, the debate between cosmopolitanism and communitarianism in international normative theory. It expresses a number of dissatisfactions with this debate, criticising its inattention to politics and history, its Eurocentrism, and the simplistic imageries of threat on which attitudes towards boundaries in this debate are premised. It attempts to remedy these problems by recasting the figure of the subaltern that haunts this debate—hitherto imagined as a passive recipient of Northern/Western largesse— as an active agent struggling for emancipation, and contrasts the potentials of cosmopolitanism and communitarianism to function as vocabularies in which such struggle might be articulated. In addition, by thinking about cosmopolitanism and communitarianism, not merely as ethical doctrines about justice, but also as political worldviews crafted in particular historical and material contexts, it demonstrates the ambiguous appeal of both cosmopolitanism and communitarianism from the point of view of the subaltern. The paper then turns to the writings of four postcolonial thinkers who refuse the conventional opposition between cosmopolitanism and communitarianism (James Joyce, Rabindranath Tagore, Edward Said and Frantz Fanon). Rather than resolving the cosmopolitan/communitarian impasse, it argues that the tension between communitarian essentialism and cosmopolitan deconstruction that characterizes their work constitutes a protest sensibility that is better suited to the exigencies of subaltern struggle in the contemporary historical conjuncture.


We present a theoretical model of a parliamentary democracy, where party structures, government coalitions and fiscal policies are endogenously determined. The model predicts that, relative to proportional elections, majoritarian elections reduce government spending because they reduce party fragmentation and, therefore, the incidence of coalition governments. Party fragmentation can persist under majoritarian rule if party supporters are unevenly distributed across electoral districts. Economic and political data, from up to 50 post-war parliamentary democracies, strongly support our joint predictions from the electoral rule, to the party system, to the type of government, and to government spending. JEL Classification: H00, D72, D78.


The article reveals the work of Ukrainian scientists in the study of Viktor Yanukovych's regime of personal power. It is stated that the greatest contribution to the explanation of its nature and functioning mechanisms was made by Ukrainian political scientists Yurii Matsiievych, Mykola Mykhalchenko, Mariia Karmazina. The author pays attention to the peculiarities of sociological, historical and philosophical approaches to the research of power vertical in 2010-2014. The conclusion about the deficiency of empirical works against the background of powerful theoretical generalizations is drawn.


A magnetic thermometric method is used to determine cross-sectional average axial catalyst temperature profiles for superparamagnetic neckel catalyst beds during ethane hydrogenolysis, an exothermic reaction. Each solid temperature profile is determined from an axial profile of cross-sectional average magnetization and is represented by a polynomial. In turn, each magnetization profile is determined from voltage data obtained as the bed is moved through an AC permeameter. A Fredholm equation of the first kind, "regularized" using a minimum variance constraint, is inverted to determine the magnetization profile.

The determination of the axial temperature profile for a reactor operating at 11.0% conversion is detailed. It provides a good test of the method used. Some limitations of the method are highlighted by attempts to analyze data from a reactor operating at complete conversion. The potential for model parameter estimation is discussed.