Murine splenocytes were cultivated with syngenic EL-4 lymphoma cells in the presence of interleukin-2 to obtain cytotoxic antileukemic lymphocytes. It was shown that the use of cytotoxic lymphocytes helped killing completely syngenic lymphoma cells in the mixture of bone marrow and EL-4 cells, spleen colony-forming hemopoietic predecessor cells being retained.


Purpose- The objective of the research is to investigate how teaching quality, courses delivered and their learning outcomes, student and staff satisfaction are affected when guanxi and non-guanxi based staffs share the same class cohort and subject levels in the selected colleges for this study. The aim of the research is to show the implications, using a primary data inspected, thematically analysed findings of how these differences in quality control, lack of transparency in hiring and pay packages of guanxi and non-guanxi based recruited staff members affect Chinese and non-Chinese staff expectations and also overall image of foreign Universities who partner with colleges in mainland China. Methodology- The primary data is collected from interviews with a) candidates who have been hired through guanxi referrals, b) candidates who have been recruited in conventional ways with no social-ties benefitting their hiring or position, c) learners from three foreign University-partnered colleges in China. Considering the aim, the research strategy was adopted within a qualitative study research design that has applied a thematic analysis. Findings- The investigation compares faculties who were hired on Guanxi-basis and those who were not, and elucidates on a) A mismatch of staff expertise, courses delivered and learning outcomes, b) Absence of platform to share 'best practices', c) Lack of multi-cultural learning ecosystems in staff rooms, d) Missed learning objectives and teacher-student office hours, and e) Varying financial and moral incentives Conclusion- There are clear challenges coming from guanxi-led hired staff not working closely with non-guanxi counterparts (even when they are teaching on the same course), the lack of access of staff profiles and inability of non-guanxi staff to communicate with guanxi-based staffs. The effects on the wider scale falls on student learning, image of foreign Universities, very high staff attrition rate, quality control measures and falling reputation of these colleges nationally within mainland China.


AbstractAs new technologies become more commonplace in the support of instruction, new questions are being raised concerning the effectiveness of traditional pedagogical methods and learning environments. Traditionally, distance education became synonymous with correspondence courses. Today, however the designer of online learning programs has a myriad of choices ranging from synchronous to asynchronous delivery systems. In addition, research on the effects of distance learning systems has traditionally focused on student outcomes. Given the complexities of online education, research into this new domain of instructional delivery should take a variety of forms and seek to answer a wide range of questions. This article illustrates the need for greater complexity in basic research on online education programs by exploring the effects of two different delivery technologies on the nature of interaction.


Financial institutions are experiencing drastic changes after the global financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, financial institutions need to quickly adapt to new compliance regulations that require adapting their internal processes. On the other hand, Fintechs are changing the traditional banking rules by introducing innovative financial processes. Therefore, financial institutions need to be able to improve their operational inefficiencies, and represents a business case for the application of process mining techniques. In this final degree project a real case is faced through different process and data mining techniques. The data used was provided in the BPIC 2017. This challenge proposes a real use case where a Dutch financial institution provides event logs of the loan approval process, with 1.202.267 events pertaining to 31.509 applications. For the approach, we leverage the Disco process mining tool with Python-based data analysis and visualization tools such as Pandas in order to combine different granularity inspection techniques to provide answers to the given questions. In particular, we focus on the main requests from the BPIC 2017 challenge, which are: throughput times per part of the process, influence on the frequency of incompleteness to the final outcome and the frequency of customers asking for more than one offer. Our approach has consisted in identifying the process phases and analyzing each question by phase and then globally. Finally, we discuss concluding remarks and future work.


The role of genomic variants in disease, including cancer, continues to be realized. Thanks to advances in sequencing techniques and their introduction in clinical practice, the number of genomic variants discovered is growing at fast pace. Many variants are classified as Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUS) or conflicting evidence, posing big challenges to their interpretation and usability. We here introduce a modular structure-based framework for the characterization of the impact of protein variants (i.e., MAVISp, Multi-layered Assessment of VarIants by Structure for proteins), accompanied by a Streamlit-based web server (https://services.healthtech.dtu.dk/services/MAVISp-1.0/) to facilitate data access, consultation, and reusability. Currently, MAVISp includes analyses of 167 different proteins and approximately 50 000 variants. New protein targets are routinely analyzed in batches by a team of biocurators through standardized workflows, using high-throughput free energy calculations and simulations. We also illustrated the potential of the approach on a selection of case studies. New variants will be deposited regularly or in connection with future publications where the framework will be applied.


As part of ARL's Research Library Impact Framework initiative, a team from the University of Pittsburgh Library System addressed how special collections support teaching, learning, and research. This project developed a toolkit that allows measurement of impact of engagement with primary sources. The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) initially worked with University of California, Irvine (UCI) to develop student learning outcomes based on the ACRL/RBMS–SAA Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy and used a logic model framework to identify three types of outcomes: initial (attainment of new skills and knowledge), intermediate (behavioral change), and long-term (change in status). Pitt studied two successive cohorts of their Archival Scholars Research Awards (ASRA), a semester-long undergraduate scholarship program that matches each student with a University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) librarian/archivist and a Pitt faculty mentor to engage in an in-depth research project. Next, Pitt refined, expanded, and tested the toolkit for use in class visits to assess student learning and archivist/librarian performance in supporting instructor learning goals. The mapping and assessment toolkit Pitt developed may be applied to teaching with primary sources across different disciplines and institutional settings.


This paper describes the development of an Al-based thin-film gate structure for use in large, high-resolution active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs). Aluminum films are suitable for forming the data lines of such displays, but they are not suitable for forming the gate lines because of the hillock-induced shorts that can occur to overlying metal lines during the heating necessary for insulator deposition. Alloying with yttrium, gadolinium, and neodymium was examined with the aim of reducing hillock and whisker formation during such heating. Although Al films alloyed with 2 at.% of those metals exhibited low hillock densities (10-100 mm-2), the densities were not low enough for the fabrication of SXGA (1280 × 1024 pixels) panels. After investigation of several means to further reduce the formation of hillocks and whiskers, the most effective approach was found to be anodization of the Al-alloy gate lines, suitably patterned for anodization, followed by photoresist application and laser-cutting steps. Illustratively, by use of an anodized Al-Nd (2 at.%) thin-film gate structure, the short-circuit defect rate and contact defect rate for an 11.3-in.-diagonal experimental SVGA (800 × 600 pixels) display could be effectively reduced to zero.


Even though the semimetallic behavior of 1T-TiSe2 seemed to be well established by band structure calculations and photoemission results, this conclusion has been challenged recently. Two high-resolution photoemission investigations deduced semiconducting behavior, however with a very small band gap. Such conclusion from photoemission is afflicted, in principle, by the problem of determining an unoccupied conduction band by photoemission. This problem is solved here by the idea of H2O adsorption onto the van der Waals-like surface, causing a distinct bending of the bands and resulting in a filled lowest conduction band. The detailed analysis yields undoubtedly semiconducting behavior for 1T-TiSe2 and interesting properties of a semiconductor with extremely small band gap.


The effect of a cutout on the pump pressure-flow characteristics and the impeller stability was quantified using computational fluid dynamics analysis in order to provide good hemocompatibility of the monopivot extracorporeal circulation pump. As a result, the following findings were clarified. The pump pressure is lower in the cutout model than in the no-cutout model. The impeller stability with respect to the buoyancy of the impeller is better in the cutout model than in the no-cutout model. The impeller stability with respect to the impeller tilt is better in the cutout model than in the no-cutout model. Therefore, the cutout model, in which the geometry corresponds to the commercialized pump, was likely to be better than the no-cutout model because the stability that has the possibility to decrease the gap instantaneously to increase hemolysis despite the impeller rotational speed slightly.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of Yunnan-cobra venom factor (Y-CVF) in overcoming acute humoral rejection after allograft cardiac transplantation in presensitized recipients.

METHODS
Fifteen Lewis rats received the transplantation of full-thickness skin graft of BN rats three times so as to be presensitized. Fifteen pairs of Lewis rat, as recipients of heart, and BN rat, as heart donors, were randomly divided into 2 groups: experimental group (n = 8), and control group (n = 7). The Lewis rats in the experimental group received heart transplantation of the heart of the BN rat 7 approximately 10 days after the third skin transplantation, and were injected with Y-CVF 80 microg/kg 24 hours before the heart transplantation. The Lewis rat in the control group received only the heart transplantation without Y-CVF injection. Blood samples were collected from all rats before pre-sensitization and 7 days after the third skin transplantation so as to determine the titer of anti-BN rat lymphocyte antibody. 0 and 24 hours, and 6 and 8 days after Y-CVF injection blood samples were collected from the Lewis rats to determine the total complement activity with the complement activity before Y-CVF injection defined as 100%. The survival time of the transplanted heart was observed. After the transplanted hearts stopped to beat, they were resected and underwent HE staining and microscopy. Immunohistochemistry was used to examine the deposition of IgG and complement 3 (C3).

RESULTS
The titer of anti-BN rat lymphocyte antibody was 0 before the pre-sensitization, and increased to 1:1028 - 1:2056 7 days after the third skin pre-sensitization. The serum total complement activity of the Lewis rats decreased to 0 twenty-four hours after the Y-CVF injection, recovered to 2.01% - 15.41% 6 days after, and returned to the normal level (89.61% - 109.46%) 8 days after. The mean survival time of the transplanted hearts of the control group was 12.71 +/- 13.94 hours (with a range of 1.5 - 15 hours), significantly shorter than that of the experimental group (99.50 +/- 38.72 hours, with a range of 23 - 153 hours, P < 0.01). Pathological examination showed that the acute humoral rejection in the control group was mainly complement-dependent antibody-mediated humoral rejection characterized by intravascular thrombosis, and that in the experimental group was mainly cellular rejection, characterized by extensive infiltration of mononuclear cells. Immunohistochemistry showed that remarkable IgG deposition was seen in the cardiac muscle cells and vascular endothelial cells in both groups; however, C3 deposition in vascular endothelial cells could be seen only in the control group.

CONCLUSION
Administration of CVF is effective in overcoming the acute humoral rejection after allograft cardiac transplantation in presensitized recipients.


Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the 6th most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in the US. Around 85-90% of primary liver cancer is HCC. Besides identified risk factors for HCC including chronic infection with hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV), alcohol abuse, dietary aflatoxin exposure and hereditary hemochromatosis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is as another important risk factor for HCC. NAFLD is a spectrum of liver disease that ranges from hepatic steatosis through non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with or without fibrosis and may progress to cirrhosis or HCC. Iron is an essential metal and hepatocytes are its main storage site. Increased body iron from the intestine due to high dietary iron or hereditary or acquired hemochromatosis may result in hepatic iron overload. NAFLD is frequently associated with elevated serum iron indices when hepatic iron in the absence of hemochromatosis. Epidemiologic data on the association between serum iron markers and risk of HCC are sparse. The aim of the study was to examine the association of iron related serum markers with risk of HCC in NAFLD patients. We hypothesized that elevated serum iron levels, which reflects hepatic iron, are associated with increased risk of HCC among NAFLD patients. Methods: 48,328 patients with NAFLD were identified in the electronic health records (EHR) of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) between 1/1/2004 to 12/31/2018. Among them, 19,908 had at least one measurement of serum iron, transferrin saturation, total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and serum ferritin. After an average 4.47 years of follow-up, 363 patients with NAFLD were diagnosed with HCC at least 30 days after measurement of iron markers. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for HCC incidence associated with elevated levels of the four iron markers adjusted for age, sex, race, body mass index, history of diabetes and tobacco smoking. Results: Serum iron and transferrin saturation were significantly elevated in NAFLD patients who developed HCC compared to others who remained free of HCC during the study. The HR of HCC for elevated serum iron >175 mcg/dl was 3.41 (95% CI 1.48 - 7.85) compared to its normal range at 75-175 mcg/dl. Similarly, the HR for HCC associated with elevated transferrin saturation >35% was 2.56 (95% CI 1.49-4.39) relative to the normal range at 25-35%. The associations were not statistically significant for TIBC and serum ferritin with HCC risk. Conclusions: Elevated serum iron and transferrin saturation levels, but not TIBC or serum ferritin, were significantly associated with increased risk of developing HCC in NAFLD patients. These findings support future studies evaluating serum iron level in risk stratification of NAFLD patients at risk of HCC and potential links to pathogenesis of HCC. Citation Format: Yi-Chuan Yu, Renwei Wang, Jaideep Behari, Ada Youk, Nancy W. Glynn, Jian-Min Yuan. Serum iron markers in relation to hepatocellular carcinoma risk among patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 754.


OBJECTIVES
Recently the incidence of intravaginal ejaculatory dysfunction is increasing among infertile couples in Japan. Some unusual ways of masturbation and psychogenic issues were reported to cause this disorder. Patients, who had done masturbation in an unusual way for long time since their adolescence, were difficult to gain normal intravaginal ejaculation by the behavior therapy which was used for erectile dysfunction. We, therefore, used a masturbation aid (TENGA) for rehabilitation of ejaculation to overcome this condition.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
From January, 2010 through March, 2011, a total of 16 patients with intravaginal ejaculatory dysfunction underwent rehabilitation of ejaculation using TENGA. Patients' satisfaction and achievement of intravaginal ejaculation were evaluated by the questionnaire.

RESULTS
Twelve patients (75%) could ejaculate in the masturbation aid (TENGA). Five patients (31%) succeeded to ejaculate in the partner's vagina after rehabilitation.

CONCLUSIONS
A masturbation aid (TENGA) was a useful tool to correct the way of masturbation and achieve normal intravaginal ejaculation. This masturbation aid can be one of the effective options for the treatment of intravaginal ejaculatory dysfunction.


The interface between the electric utility companies' distribution network and low-voltage installations in large buildings in Hong Kong is defined by both policy and ordinance. The logic of requiring LV systems to satisfy both TN-S and TT earthing is questionable. Arguably it is not possible to achieve separation of transformer earthing and consumer earthing, so a TT classification is overly simplistic. Adherence to, or confusion resulting from, these earthing regulations can compromise operating reliability and electrical safety. It is doubtful that all the requirements of Section 11 of the Electricity (Wiring) Regulations are fulfilled.


Abstract We refine a construction of Choi, Farah, and Ozawa to build a nonseparable amenable operator algebra ${\rm {\cal A}}$ ⊆ ℓ∞ (M2) whose nonseparable subalgebras, including ${\rm {\cal A}}$, are not isomorphic to a C*-algebra. This is done using a Luzin gap and a uniformly bounded group representation. Next, we study additional properties of ${\rm {\cal A}}$ and of its separable subalgebras, related to the Kadison Kastler metric.


CPEC is a huge investment that will bring prosperity and will heal the economic condition of Pakistan. It will also give China the shortest proximity to the rest of the world. It's a project which will benefit both of the countries as well as Europe and the Gulf. Descriptive analysis is used in this research study to investigate the effects of CPEC on Pakistan and China's economy. Diverse literature was found on this topic and is cited in the literature part of this research study. This study shows that Pakistan and China both of the countries will be better off and will achieve good economic results. Pakistan will get the maximum benefit from CPEC because its infrastructure and energy structure is less developed. And by the injection of this massive CPEC project, the Pakistani economy will boost up, and the mutual trade between China and Pakistan will be enhanced. GDP growth and welfare position of Pakistan will take more benefit from CPEC than China. Chinese export of non-agricultural products will increase more than the Chinese export of agricultural products. While in the case of Pakistani exports, the situation is the opposite one. Agricultural exports will be increased more than the increase in non-agricultural exports of Pakistan.


Open-access domestic broadband connection sharing constitutes a voluntary practice that is associated with societal, economic and public-safety benefits. Despite this fact, broadband subscribers are usually hesitant to freely share their broadband connection with guests for a multitude of reasons; one of them being sharing their network might hinder their own broadband quality of experience. In this paper, we investigate experimentally the impact of uplink guest traffic on the sharer's broadband quality of experience under both generic and broadband-sharing-specific packet scheduling policies. Both guest-user traffic and access point profiles employed in our study are developed by analyzing real-world traffic traces and measurements, captured from actual broadband sharing networking environments. Our results validate the suitability of hybrid packet scheduling policies for broadband sharing schemes and show that only a few dozen kilobytes per second of uplink guest traffic can be tolerated by sharers without hampering their broadband quality of experience. In this context, we show that the selection of the most appropriate packet scheduling policy for broadband sharing, as well as its respective configuration, depend largely on the capacity of the broadband connection and the policy's packet-dropping behavior on guest traffic.


The procedure of the utilization of dynamic simulation programs for design and upgrading of biological processes of nitrogen removal is presented. An upgrading of nitrification reactor to predenitrification system is illustrated. Design calculations were performed according to steady-state design practice. An optimization procedure for calculation of volume of denitrification reactor was developed. Minimizing of differences between required and calculated values of denitrified nitrogen is the merit of the applied method. Dynamic simulations were used for optimization of the dimensions of nitrification and denitrification reactors with regard to effluent standard values and fluctuations of wastewater flow and composition. A method for evaluation of dynamic simulation of results with respect to dynamic nature of wastewater effluent standards is suggested.


Singlet and triplet vertical excitation energies from time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) can be affected in different ways by the inclusion of exact exchange in hybrid or Coulomb-attenuated/range-separated exchange-correlation functionals; in particular, triplet excitation energies can become significantly too low. To investigate these issues, the explicit dependence of excitation energies on exact exchange is quantified for four representative molecules, paying attention to the effect of constant, short-range, and long-range contributions. A stability analysis is used to verify that the problematic TDDFT triplet excitations can be understood in terms of the ground state triplet instability problem, and it is proposed that a Hartree-Fock stability analysis should be used to identify triplet excitations for which the presence of exact exchange in the TDDFT functional is undesirable. The use of the Tamm-Dancoff approximation (TDA) significantly improves the problematic triplet excitation energies, recovering the correct state ordering in benzoquinone; it also affects the corresponding singlet states, recovering the correct state ordering in naphthalene. The impressive performance of the TDA is maintained for a wide range of molecules across representative functionals.


In the opening weeks of his administration, President Donald Trump overturned a longstanding U.S. commitment to territorial partition and a two-state model for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized the opportunity to demand "overriding security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River" while exploring regional approaches that bypass the Palestinians. At the same time, a host of Israeli politicians are reviving older models such as limited autonomy without political sovereignty and partial territorial annexation, or advocating for other forms of separation with Israel's continued control. The resulting middle ground—neither two states nor one—poses a great risk to Palestinian self-determination. By situating recent developments in a broader historical context going back to the autonomy plan of Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, this essay provides an overview of a shifting political discourse and examines the consequences for the fate of the Palestinians today.


We consider the thermally activated quantum diffusion of a molecular dimer in a periodic surface potential by means of a time-dependent wave packet method. We show that the potential energy surface resulting from the interplay of intradimer and dimer-surface interactions can lead to resonant states and predict high tunneling probabilities at specific, below barrier, energies that depend also on the initial vibrational state of the dimer. For soft molecular bonds, we show that the chaotic dynamical regime of classical dimers is mirrored, in the quantum case, by the tunneling induced mixing of vibrational states. The knowledge of the transmission coefficient is used to formulate an approximate description of quantum thermal diffusion by defining an effective temperature-dependent activation energy that can be compared to the classical case.


Emilins are a family of extracellular matrix proteins with common structural organization and containing a characteristic N‐terminal cysteine‐rich domain. The prototype of this family, Emilin‐1, is found in human and murine organs in association with elastic fibers, and other emilins were recently isolated in mammals. To gain insight into these proteins in lower vertebrates, we investigated the expression of emilins in the fish Danio rerio. Using sequence similarity tools, we identified eight members of this family in zebrafish. Each emilin gene has two paralogs in zebrafish, showing conserved structure with the human ortholog. In situ hybridization revealed that expression of zebrafish emilin genes is regulated in a spatiotemporal manner during embryonic development, with overlapping and site‐specific patterns mostly including mesenchymal structures. Expression of certain emilin genes in peculiar areas, such as the central nervous system or the posterior notochord, suggests that they may play a role in key morphogenetic processes. Developmental Dynamics 237:222–232, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Preserving the privacy of digital biometric data (e.g., face images) stored in a central database has become of paramount importance. This work explores the possibility of using visual cryptography for imparting privacy to biometric data such as fingerprint images, iris codes, and face images. In the case of faces, a private face image is dithered into two host face images (known as sheets) that are stored in two separate database servers such that the private image can be revealed only when both sheets are simultaneously available; at the same time, the individual sheet images do not reveal the identity of the private image. A series of experiments on the XM2VTS and IMM face databases confirm the following: 1) the possibility of hiding a private face image in two host face images; 2) the successful matching of face images reconstructed from the sheets; 3) the inability of sheets to reveal the identity of the private face image; 4) using different pairs of host images to encrypt different samples of the same private face; and 5) the difficulty of cross-database matching for determining identities. A similar process is used to de-identify fingerprint images and iris codes prior to storing them in a central database.


A shape-preserving response prediction methodology for microwave design optimization is introduced. The presented technique allows us to estimate the response of the microwave structure being optimized (fine model) using a computationally cheap representation of the structure (coarse model). The change of the coarse model response is described by the translation vectors corresponding to certain (finite) number of characteristic points of the response. These translation vectors are subsequently used to predict the response change of the fine model. The presented method has very good generalization capability and it is not based on any extractable parameters, which makes it easy to implement. Applications for microwave design optimization are discussed. The robustness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by extensive comparison with space mapping, which is one of the most efficient optimization approaches in microwave engineering so far.


Forest species classification is important for forest management and environment monitoring and protection. As the conventional methods are mainly based on the spectral signatures of forest canopies and the results are at stand level. With the high spatial resolution data, classification at individual tree level becomes achievable. The objective of this study is to develop a novel algorithm of tree crown segmentation for automatic classification at individual tree level. The approach uses the integrating laser scanning data with high spatial multispectral optical imagery. The automatic classification is composed of two stages: (1) tree crown segmentation, (2) species classification. The approach is applied to the test area consisting of both conifers and deciduous trees. The segmentation result shows good accuracy of crown delineation, and over 90% of the trees are segmented correctly.


18 months after a mass examination for coronary heart disease risk factors in employees of a large industrial firm, 75% of the subjects examined at that time were re-interviewed and measurements of blood pressure and weight repeated. Despite an altogether inadequate longterm control of the risk factors detected, a part of the subjects examined had drawn consequences regarding their way of life by reducing weight, changing smoking habits and increasing physical activity, thus proving the effectiveness of information and advice received in a screening investigation. In about 40% of the overweight subjects a reduction in weight and in half of the hypertensives a lowering of blood pressure to values below 160/95 mmHg was noted.


We introduce soft folding, a new interactive method for designing and exploring thin‐plate forms. A user specifies sharp and soft folds as two‐dimensional(2D) curves on a flat sheet, along with the fold magnitude and sharpness of each. Then, based on the soft folds, the system computes the three‐dimensional(3D) folded shape. Internally, the system first computes a fold field, which defines local folding operations on a flat sheet. A fold field is a generalization of a discrete fold graph in origami, replacing a graph with sharp folds with a continuous field with soft folds. Next, local patches are folded independently according to the fold field. Finally, a globally folded 3D shape is obtained by assembling the locally folded patches. This algorithm computes an approximation of 3D developable surfaces with user‐defined soft folds at an interactive speed. The user can later apply nonlinear physical simulation to generate more realistic results. Experimental results demonstrated that soft folding is effective for producing complex folded shapes with controllable sharpness.


Responses to bird song have usually only been studied at the intraspecific level. I experimentally tested whether playback of the song of the black wheatear Oenanthe leucura in an area in S Spain resulted in responses from conspecifics as well as heterospecific birds by comparing the numbers of individuals singing before and after playback. The number of singing male black wheatears increased considerably, but also the number of singing males of five other passerine species increased significantly. The heterospecific response to playback may be due (1) to interspecific territoriality, (2) to black wheatear song signalling the absence of predators, or (3) to heterospecifics confusing the species-identity of the singer. The second alternative is considered more likely, since an ecologically wide array of species increased their song rate following playback. The conspicuous dawn (and dusk) chorus of bird song may be augmented by social facilitation due to the singing of conspecifics as well as heterospecifics.


This invention relates to a star coupler connected to a plurality of nodes within a network using a time triggered protocol on a time slot basis. The invention further relates to a network including a cluster having at least one node. Further, the invention relates to a method for communication between nodes within a network using a time trigger protocol. To provide a star coupler, which is able to increase the bandwidth and to communicate with low propagation delay for communicating the relevant data it is proposed to provide a star coupler (11) comprising a switch (12) having a plurality of input branches and output branches, wherein a switch controller (13) is provided for controlling the switch (12), further comprising means (14, 15) for deriving knowledge about the protocol timing, which knowledge is used for selectively forward data in a certain time slot to at least one predetermined output.


This article circulates between three levels of inquiry and their interweaving – the personal, the local and the national. It draws on several historical dimensions – military, legal, political, sociological, architectural and cultural. In different ways, all these interlinked fields of human action are reflected in the private history of one particular house, built in the 1930s by Khalil Sakakini in Qatamon, Jerusalem. By examining both discursive and material aspects of the house and neighbourhood, the various mechanisms through which Arab property was brought, in the aftermath of the 1948 war, under Israeli control are revealed, some state-orchestrated and preconceived, others more spontaneous and based on individual and collective tendencies and preferences.


Purpose
The globe has experienced a devastating COVID-19 pandemic, putting the planet under lockdown and causing social alienation. The near collapse of social and economic activities is disrupting the supply chain. Customer-required products were in low supply across the world. A slew of new digital firms springs up to fill the need during this time. This study aims to reach a holistic goal by better understanding customers' digitalisation behaviour. The first step is to review existing consumer digital psychology research to map this study's current knowledge of the pandemic's early and late phases and the impact of digital businesses on consumer behaviour. Finally, it provides lawmakers with a future agenda for limiting the digital psychology of consumers and enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach
This study used the Scopus and Web of Science databases to extract records to follow the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses statement. The final 57 papers were applied after the screening process. The digital environment, psychological digitalisation and behavioural changes were recognised as three primary classes based on a comprehensive examination of the previous literature. This study identified possible difficulties in earlier literature: the scarcity of collaborative and transdisciplinary research on digital psychology, which various academics have emphasised in the past. On the other hand, these investigations were primarily conducted in the psychological surroundings of technology users.

Findings
According to this study, digital psychology has improved significantly during the pandemic and many new digital start-ups have arisen. This study also used digital research to create a framework for a pandemic strategic response plan to help minimise the current COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future outbreaks.

Originality/value
The study mapped existing literature on digital psychology alterations because of the novel COVID-19 outbreak.


Objective To examine the role of antiretroviral drugs (ART), HIV-related and traditional risk factors on the incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in HIV-infected patients. Design Prospective hospital-based cohort of HIV-infected patients from 2004 to 2012. Methods CKD was defined using MDRD equation as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) less than 60 ml/mn/1.73 m2 at 2 consecutive measurements ≥3 months apart. Poisson regression models were used to study determinants of CKD either measured at baseline or updated. ART exposure was classified as ever or never. We additionally tested the role of tenofovir (TDF), whether or not prescribed concomitantly with a Protease Inhibitor (PI), taking into account the cumulative exposure to the drug. Results 4,350 patients (74% men) with baseline eGFR>60 ml/mn/1.73 m2 were followed for a median of 5.8 years. At the end of follow-up, 96% had received ART, one third of them (35%) jointly received TDF and a PI. Average incidence rate of CKD was 0.95% person-years of follow-up. Incidence of CKD was higher among women (IRR = 2.2), older patients (>60 y vs <45 y: IRR = 2.5 and 45–60 y: IRR = 1.7), those with diabetes (IRR = 1.9), high blood pressure (IRR = 1.5), hyperlipidemia (IRR = 1.5), AIDS stage (IRR = 1.4), low baseline eGFR (IRR = 15.8 for 6090 and IRR = 7.1 for 70500/mm3 (IRR = 2.5), and exposure to TDF (IRR = 2.0). Exposure to TDF was even strongly associated with CKD when co-administered with PIs (IRR = 3.1 vs 1.3 when not, p<0,001). A higher risk of CKD was found when tenofovir exposure was >12 months [IRR = 3.0 with joint PIs vs 1.3 without (p<0.001)]. A vast majority of those developing CKD (76.6%) had a baseline eGFR between 60 and 80 ml/mn/1.73 m2. Conclusion In patients with eGFR between 60 and 80 mL/min/1.73 m2, a thorough control of CKD risk factors is warranted. The use of TDF, especially when co-administered with PIs, should be mentioned as a relative contraindication in presence of at least one of these risk factors.


The etiology of lumbocrural pain is closely related to intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) serve crucial roles in IDD progression. This study investigated the effect of lncRNA H19 on autophagy and apoptosis of nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) in IDD. The rat model of IDD was established. Normal NPCs and degenerative NPCs (DNPCs) were cultured in vitro. H19 expression in IDD rat was detected. DNPCs were treated with si-H19 to evaluate autophagy and apoptosis of DNPCs. The binding relationships between H19 and miR-139-3p, and miR-139-3p and CXCR4 were verified. DNPCs were co-transfected si-H19 and miR-139-3p inhibitor. The phosphorylation of NF-κB pathway related p65 in DNPCs was detected. LncRNA H19 was upregulated in IDD rats. Downregulation of H19 inhibited autophagy and apoptosis of DNPCs. LncRNA H19 sponged miR-139-3p to inhibit CXCR4 expression. si-H19 and miR-139-3p inhibitor co-treatment induced autophagy and apoptosis, and enhanced CXCR4 expression. si-H19 decreased p-p65 phosphorylation, while si-H19 and miR-139-3p inhibitor co-treatment partially elevated p-p65 phosphorylation. In conclusion, lncRNA H19 facilitated the autophagy and apoptosis of DNPCs via the miR-139-3p/CXCR4/NF-κB axis, thereby aggravating IDD. This study may offer new insights for the management of IDD.


Engagingly written and well researched, this volume is an important contribution to the literature on church planting in the West. What makes it stand apart from most texts on church planting is its solid grounding in empirical research. Christopher James analyzes the results of a survey he conducted of just over half of the roughly 100 new churches planted in Seattle since 2001. His analysis leads him to describe four "practical ecclesiological models" that represent most of this largely post-Christian city's new churches. The author's in-depth qualitative research into half of the churches he surveyed, which took the form of interviews with pastors, focus groups, and participant-observation of worship gatherings, adds invaluable color and detail to his descriptions of the four church models. These descriptions in themselves would make the book worth reading, but James goes on to evaluate each model using the lens of missional theology. Why he chose this particular evaluative framework is not made sufficiently clear. His main justification— that "missional" rhetoric is popular among church planters—seems insufficient. Given the lens he uses, though, his assessments are even-handed and convincingly argued for. Refreshingly, the book proceeds to make practical recommendations for practitioners of each of the four models, describing "concrete steps that practitioners in each of the four models can take to minimize the characteristic weaknesses of their models and amplify their unique strengths" (184). James does a good job of showing how each proposal builds on his earlier evaluation and delivers on his promise to provide steps that are practical and doable. One weakness is the lack of discussion of how to communicate the gospel using words in the post-Christian context. Church planters serving in the Global North, as well as those involved in their preparation, training, and oversight, should carefully study this book. It would make an excellent resource for a church-planting community of practice or for an advanced class on church planting in the West. The author's weaving together of sociological and ecclesiological insights to describe and evaluate current models and offer proposals for church planting in a post-Christian context is exemplary. Hopefully it will stimulate others to do this kind of research and writing, something that the author facilitates by including his methodology and survey questions.


Reliance on highly polluting cooking technologies poses a significant risk for human health. This study quantifies and compares the impact of different clean cooking access scenarios on future health-age trajectories among population subgroups in South Africa. Using microdata from five waves of the South African National Income Dynamics Study, we develop a dynamic microsimulation model and a composite metric of individual health status that is used to explore how health status changes under alternative access scenarios for the period 2010–2030. We find that there are clear gains of using clean cooking technologies for population health, and that electrification alone does not improve health status, if it is not accompanied by an increase in the use of clean cooking technologies in homes. Our results imply that achieving universal access to clean cooking in South Africa can by itself improve average population health by almost 4% by 2030 compared to a scenario without clean cooking technologies, with the health of individuals of genders and races with the poorest health and well-being endowments improving the most. Thus, clean cooking can contribute to narrowing existing inequalities by improving health for the most vulnerable population groups that disproportionately depend on polluting cooking technologies.


As educators, we must find ways to incorporate critical theory into courses as a means to counterbalance the onslaught of advertising rhetoric extolling the supposed virtues of instructional technologies. While I am an avid user and ardent supporter of instructional technology, I am concerned that my graduate students are unaware of the potential negative consequences of adopting a new technology without a critical assessment of its worth and usefulness.


The article is devoted to the issues assessing the state household bank savings during the crisis states of the Ukrainian economy, which were observed in 2008-2009, 2014-2016, and 2020-2022 and were caused by various reasons. Based on the analysis the structure bank savings, their types, dynamics and trends, it was concluded that the savings behavior of households had multidirectional vectors. In particular, during the crisis states the economy in 2009, 2014-2016, 2020-2021, household savings in the national currency had a downward trend, while in foreign currency – an increasing trend. The overflow of savings from national currency to foreign currency proves the existence high devaluation expectations during the crises observed in Ukraine. The assessment the structure household savings during the analyzed period showed that the lion's share of deposits in their total volume belongs to short-term deposits "on demand", which in the current year has a growing tendency. Such a trend is threatening and carries potential risks for the stability the exchange rate dynamics of the hryvnia and the reduction of inflation rates in Ukraine. Low interest rates on longer-term household deposits and low trust in banks during economic crises are among the main reasons for this trend. It was determined that certain factors affect the saving behavior and motivation of households during economic crises, including the presence of asymmetric information, which does not make it possible to make an informed decision; insufficient level of financial literacy; the advantage of investing in foreign currency; accumulation of funds outside the banking system in various assets. It is emphasized that household savings have active and passive forms. Active savings are an investment potential for their owners and the state as a whole. Passive savings in conditions of economic growth are a factor inhibition of macroeconomic development and a lost opportunity for the country. Restoration of economic growth requires large amounts investment, the source which in any country is domestic savings.


This analysis considers two aspects of yield performance using a large sample of data collected from individual U.S. farms. In the first, observable farm and operator characteristics are related to relative yield perofmance. In general, larger, more diversified farms have higher relative yields. In addition, more intensive use of productive inputs tends to be associated with higher yields. In a second segment of the analysis, we focus on the extent to which yield performance for different crops on a single farm tend to be correlated. Our results suggest that farms in major growing regions tend to have greater correlation of crop yields. In addition, larger, more specialized farms tended to have more consistent yield performance across crops. Implications for whole-farm insurance contracts are discussed.


Flood is one of the striking water induced disaster that hits most of the part of the world. In Nepal also it is one of the serious disasters which affect the study describes the technical approach of probable flood hazard analysis. Segment of Balkhu River within the Balkhu catchment of area 44.37 km2 from Kirtipur gorge to Bagmati confluence was taken as area of study. The total length of the study segment was 5485.89 m. One dimension HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System) model was used for the analysis. The study shows that higher flood depth increases and low flood depth decreases with increase in intensity of flood. Also, huge area of barren land area is affected by flood and few percentage of settlement area is affected by flood indicating the damages to the human lives. Huge area of barren land indicates that in future human lives are more prone to disasters as those lands have gone through planning for future settlement. Nepalese Journal on Geoinformatics -13, 2014, Page: 52-57


In the Qur'an, there are commands, prohibitions, warnings, instructions and stories of previous Prophets. Study of the content of al-Qur'an is not only a worship of Allah but also to get guidance that lives in accordance with Islamic law. Al-Qur'an thematic study is one of the methods of studying the Qur'an that is practiced by Muslim scholars and ulama. One of the thematic studies contained in al-Qur'an is the association of husband and wife like nusyuz . Nusyuz is a violation of a shared commitment to what is obligatory in the household. The study of nusyuz needs to be done in relation to understanding, asbabun nuzul , ulama's review as well as a review of Islamic law on these actions. By conducting a study of the nusyuz , we are expected to be able to better understand the related matter, giving knowledge to others in order to avoid the actions that lead to the nusyuz .


Purpose Previous studies analyzing neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have evaluated the benefit of cisatracurium with conflicting results, and data evaluating other NMBAs remains limited. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of cisatracurium to vecuronium in ARDS. Materials and methods A single-center, retrospective, propensity matched review of patients who received cisatracurium or vecuronium continuous infusions between October 1, 2017 and June 30, 2020 for ARDS was conducted. The primary endpoint was duration of mechanical ventilation. Secondary endpoints included change in PaO2/FiO2 ratio at 48 h, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital mortality, and ICU and hospital length of stay (LOS). Safety endpoints included newly developed myopathy, presence of bradycardia or hypotension, and newly developed barotrauma or volutrauma. Results Twenty-nine patients were included in each group. There was no statistically significant difference in the primary endpoint of ventilator days between cisatracurium and vecuronium groups (mean 15.9 vs. 20.5 days respectively; p = .2). No statistically significant differences were found in secondary endpoints of ICU mortality (51.7% vs. 51.7%) or length of stay (18.7 vs. 23.9 days, p = .19), hospital mortality (51.7% vs. 55.2%, p = .79) or length of stay (22 vs. 30.6 days, p = .08), or mean change in PaO2/FiO2 (29.8 vs. 36.6; p = .74). Statistically significant differences were not observed in safety endpoints of myopathy (37.9% vs. 37.9%), barotrauma or volutrauma (13.8% vs. 3.5%; p = .16), bradycardia (31% vs. 13.8%; p = .12), or hypotension (96.6% vs. 82.8%; p = .08) Conclusions No significant differences were seen in efficacy or safety endpoints between cisatracurium or vecuronium groups, suggesting that vecuronium may be a safe alternative agent for neuromuscular blockade in ARDS. Results of this analysis warrant confirmation in a larger, randomized study.


A global outbreak of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia began in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The rapid rise in the case numbers and mortality led to the saturation of hospitals in many countries. COVID-19 patients usually present with fever, fatigue, dry cough, and dyspnea. Given the shortage of diagnostic kits in many countries and very high sensitivity of computed tomography (CT) for diagnosis of COVID-19 in clinically suspicious patients, the chest CT has been implemented among the primary initial methods of diagnosis before the confirmatory laboratory tests. This puts radiologists and radiology staff on the front line of this alarming pandemic. This report summarizes chest CT findings of COVID-19 patients to facilitate diagnosis and reviews a list of necessary precautions and safety measures for diagnostic and interventional radiology personnel. These precautionary plans are extremely important to avoid contamination of the health-care providers, as well as cross-contamination between patients.


Interval availability is a dependability measure defined by the fraction of time during which a system is operational over a finite observation period. The computation of its distribution allows the user to ensure that the probability that its system will achieve a given availability level is high enough. The system is assumed to be modeled as a Markov process with countable state space. We propose a new algorithm to compute the interval availability distribution. One of its main advantages is that, in some cases, it applies even to infinite state spaces. This is useful, for instance, in case of models taking into account contention with unbounded buffers. This important feature is illustrated on models of multiprocessor systems, subject to breakdowns and repair. When the model is finite, we show through a numerical example that the new technique can perform very well. >


Free and ligated oxide clusters of thorium(IV) and uranium(IV) were studied with density functional theory using all-electron scalar relativistic method, as well as energy-consistent relativistic f-in-core pseudopotentials. The main driving force for the cluster formation is the sintering of the dioxoactinide moieties, which is more favorable for thorium(IV) than for uranium(IV) because, for the latter, a penalty for bending of the uranyl(IV) is to be paid. We assumed that the rhombic structural motif that exists already in the (AnO(2))(2) dimer could be a guide to explaining the preference for the existing An(6)O(8)-type clusters. On the basis of this, we have theoretically explored the possibility of the existence of similar (zonohedric) polyhedral actinide oxide clusters and found that the next possible cluster would be of An(12)O(20) stoicheometry. We have predicted by our DFT computations that the corresponding zonohedral clusters would be minima on the potential energy surface. The alternating An-O rhombic structural motif also offers a possible explanation of the existence and stoichiometry of the only nonfluorite cluster thus far, the An(12)O(20), which is nonzonohedral, nonconvex, but still a rhombic polyhedron. Our relativistic all electron DFT computations of both free cationic and ligated clusters predict that preparation of the larger clusters is not forbidden thermodynamically. We have also found that for the uranium(IV), oxide dimer and hexamer clusters are antiferromagnetic, broken spin singlet in their ground state, while ligated [U(6)O(8)] clusters prefer an all high-spin electronic configuration.


The 10th annual IEEE Computer Society International Symposium on Wearable Computers took place on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2006. ISWC is the premier conference in wearable computing, featuring the latest in technical advances and fashions. Attendees came from both academia and industry, representing a broad spectrum of nationalities and technical interests, with more than 150 participants from 19 countries. The papers, posters, and demonstrations at the conference focused on several themes. The conference had sessions on activity recognition, location systems, interface evaluation, input devices and sensors, and wearability


The chlorimuron-ethyl-degrading bacterium LW3 was isolated from contaminated soil and identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing as Pseudomonas sp. When chlorimuron-ethyl was provided as the sole nitrogen source, the degradation efficiency in liquid medium was about 81.0% after 7 days of inoculation with strain LW3. The effects of chlorimuron-ethyl concentration and temperature on biodegradation were examined. Two metabolites of degradation were analyzed by LC/MS. Based on the identified products, strain LW3 seemed to be able to degrade chlorimuron-ethyl by cleavage of the sulfonylurea bridge. The inoculation of strain LW3 to chlorimuron-ethyl-treated soil resulted in a higher degradation rate than in uninoculated soil, regardless of the soil being sterilized or nonsterilized. This microbial culture has great potential for the bioremediation of soil contaminated with chlorimuron-ethyl.


1. Summary. The problem of testing the general multivariate linear hypothesis, also known as MANOVA, and the problem of testing independence between two sets of multivariate normal random variables are the two problems considered in this paper. In [3] two sufficient conditions for the power function of an invariant test of the general linear hypothesis to be a monotone increasing function of each of the noncentrality parameters have been obtained. In [2] one of these two conditions has been extended to invariant tests of the hypothesis of independence between two sets of variates. These conditions are in terms of, respectively, the convexity and the symmetry of certain sections of the acceptance regions of the tests; and their verification is, in general, nontrivial. In this paper it is shown that the power functions of the members of a class of invariant tests based on statistics "generated" by symmetric gauge functions of convex increasing functions of the maximal invariants are monotone increasing functions of the relevant noncentrality parameters. In this process we have explained an interesting tie-up between the monotonicity properties of the invariant tests for the two problems (Theorem 2) and have obtained extension of some results on the symmetric gauge functions and convexity in the matrix theory (Theorem 3 and Theorem 4). The terms "invariance," "invariant tests," and "maximal invariants" have been used throughout this paper in connection with the relevant groups of transformations mentioned in the Section 2 without their explicit mention each time.


This volume presents a collection of Martine Francke's photographs - her own favourites - grouped within themes of childhood, the theatre, the Orient, old age, portraits, museums and landscapes. In creating her pictures, which range from portraits of Michel Foucault and Marc Chagall, Franck sees the camera as "a frontier...that one is constantly breaking down so as to get closer to the subject". The foreword includes a faxed conversation between Franck and John Berger, the author and art critic.


The effect of respiratory inhibition caused by vagal stimulation or lung inflation on the central neural mechanism that maintains respiration after cessation of a facilitatory stimulus was studied in anesthetized cats. Phrenic activity was increased by carotid sinus nerve stimulation or by squeezing or stretching calf muscle. On cessation of stimulation there was an immediate decrease in respiratory output followed by a slow decrease (afterdischarge) over a period of 5 min. Vagal stimulation or lung inflation, which caused marked inhibition of inspiration, had no effect on the development of the afterdischarge or on the course of the subsequent recovery process. The mechanism causing afterdischarge is probably a buildup of activity in a neural network in the medulla and pons. Since its activity is unaffected by vagal inhibition of respiration, it can be concluded that the network is separate from inspiratory output neurons and those involved in phase switching and that it is not dependent on increased central inspiratory neuron activity.


A loss analysis of blue semipolar (20-2-1) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with ion implanted apertures (IIA) reveals the presence of loss due to absorption in the implant and other absorbing regions. Devices using a buried tunnel junction (BTJ) scheme to confine the current are then analyzed to find the absence of any excess losses. The effect of changing the number of DBR periods on both device types is simulated to give a 70% and a 95% increase in output power for the IIA and BTJ devices, respectively, with the removal of one period from the top DBR at 10 kA/cm2. The mode structure of two different BTJ devices with different index confinements is compared to show that the 0.034 increase in refractive index difference significantly increased the prevalence of higher order modes.


: This study evaluated leaf supply of zinc (Zn) and boron (B) using either soluble or sparingly soluble fertilizers in young sweet orange trees. Three experiments were set up in a greenhouse to compare two sources and four doses (control, low, adequate and high) of fertilizers as follows: (i) Experiment I (B): boric acid and calcium borate; (ii) Experiment II (Zn): Zn sulfate and Zn oxide; and (iii) Experiment III (B + Zn): boric acid + Zn Sulfate and Zn Borate. The sparingly soluble sources were effective in increasing the Zn and B leaf concentration. Dry matter of the aerial part increased 18 % with B applications in adequate concentration independent of the B fertilizer sources. In contrast, trees did not grow well with applications of adequate concentration of Zn as Zn Sulfate or high Zn concentration as Zn borate. Superoxide dismutase activity in leaves increased with applications of low concentration of Zn as Zn oxide and decreased with high concentration of Zn from either source. Polyphenol oxidase activity increased with application of adequate concentration of B as boric acid and high concentration of B as calcium borate. Furthermore, the upper concentrations of Zn were toxic in orange trees when the source was Zn sulfate. Increases in plant growth without damage to leaf tissue and positive responses of key enzymes of orange trees in a range of nutrient concentration applications demonstrated the practical use of sparingly soluble fertilizers to supplying B and Zn foliarily to plants.


We use data on one-participant retirement savings plans to identify a behavioral bias in savings decisions. Investors who earn top-decile returns increase contributions to their accounts more than other investors. Using characteristics of the investors, characteristics of their retirement savings accounts, and multivariate regression analysis, we first show that such ``return chasing'' behavior is robust to controls for financial illiteracy, macroeconomic conditions, learning, transaction costs, housing prices, and informational frictions. We then use a structural two-asset model with tax-deferred and taxable assets to show that a permanent increase in expected returns produces investment responses for younger or liquidity-constrained investors that are consistent with our data. Our results provide evidence that younger investors' recent portfolio experiences have highly persistent effects on their expectations.


We extend previous work on antifield dependent local BRST cohomology for matter coupled gauge theories of Yang-Mills type to the case of gauge groups that involve free abelian factors. More precisely, we first investigate in a model independent way how the dynamics enters the computation of the cohomology for a general class of Lagrangians in general spacetime dimensions. We then discuss explicit solutions in the case of specific models. Our analysis has implications for the structure of characteristic cohomology and for consistent deformations of the classical models, as well as for divergences/counterterms and for gauge anomalies that may appear during perturbative quantization.


The bounded real lemma for positive discrete time-invariant systems is addressed in this study. The results about bounded real lemma for continuous time-invariant systems are extended into discrete time-invariant systems. Such systems are asymptotically stable and their H ∞ norm less than one is equivalent to that the corresponding linear matrix inequality admits a diagonal positive-definite solution. The last example in this study illustrates the result does not hold for general discrete time-invariant systems.


Background. The prevalence of anxiety in BA patients is considerably higher than in healthy people. It is little known how negative emotions can influence the quality of life (QL) of BA patients with cold airway hyperresponsiveness (CAHR) in winter.

Aim. To study the influence of anxiety on the QL of BA patients in the cold season of the year.

Methods. 111 BA patients were studied in winter. They were divided into two groups: with anxiety (68) and without it (43). To estimate QL a questionnaires SF-36 and AQLQ were used. «Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale» was applied to find out anxiety. CAHR was estimated by the results of 3-minute isocapnic hyperventilation with cold air.

Results. In the group of patients with anxiety in comparison with the patients without it there was a decrease of QL in domains PF (52.7±3.1 and 65.0±4.4, p<0.05), VT (45.3±2.3 and 59.2±2.8, p<0.001), SF (48.3±3.0 and 64.6±3.5, p<0.001) and MH (56.6±2.3 and 71.2±2.7, p<0.001) by SF-36, and in domains «Environment» (3.4±0.2 and 4.5±0.2, p<0.001) and «General Qol» (3.3±0.1 and 3.9±0.1, p<0.01) by AQLQ. The direct correlation was found out between FEV1 and «Environment» in the group without anxiety (r=0.41, p<0.01), whereas patients with anxiety did not have it. Hence, anxiety but not lung dysfunction is a dominating factor of QL decline in the latter case. The QL of patients with CAHR and anxiety gets considerably worse. The decline of QL of these patients in all domains except «Emotion» was revealed by AQLQ. The most significant worsening was obtained in domain «Environment».

Conclusion. Anxiety in BA patients has a negative influence on QL mainly on the psychosocial status. CAHR in winter also affects physical aspects of QL.


Tuberculosis is a common infection in developing countries. Pulmonary tuberculosis is the most commonly associated disease in cases of secondary aspergilloma. Fungus infection is gradually becoming commoner and has been difficult to evaluate since diagnoses were seldom confirmed. Multiplex PCR method provides a rapid, simple, and reliable alternative to conventional methods to identify common clinical fungal isolates. Hence, this study was taken up to find the fungal co-infections among TB patients and also to confirm the isolates by multiplex PCR. Sputum samples were collected from 80 patients who were TB-positive and were on ATT from MMCH&RI between Feb 2012 and Dec 2012. Samples were processed and identified as per standard protocol. Growth was confirmed by repeated isolation for at least 3 times. Out of 80 pulmonary tuberculosis-positive patients, 26 cultures grew fungus, 12 were found to be Aspergillus sp. three Candida albicans, four Mucor, four Fusarium, one Cladosporium spp. and one Paecelomyces spp. was obtained from the culture. Off all the 26 isolates obtained, 12 strains of Aspergillus sp. were taken for molecular identification by multiplex PCR. Opportunistic mycoses are often grave, the early, rapid, and accurate identification of the pathogenic fungus is critical for timely and appropriate management. From this study, the authors have found correlation between fungal isolation, duration of ATT, and extent of lesion and in relation to the cavity form. It is necessary to screen all TB patients irrespective of ATT in order to start antifungal therapy. Keywords:  Aspergillus, Tuberculosis, multiplex PCR, rapid


Time-resolved laser spectroscopy has been performed to study the radiative properties of various microscopic systems. Using Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) techniques, natural radiative lifetimes have been studied not only in neutral B, S, Ge, Ce, Pb, and in singly ionized V, Fe, Zr, Mo, La, Ce, Eu, Gd and Yb, but also in doubly ionized La, Ce, Pr, Eu, Er, Gd, Tm, Lu, and W. Data are compared with theoretical calculations and astrophysical implications are discussed. Thermal evaporation or laser-produced plasma generation has been employed for free atom and ion production. The Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) technique was used to shorten the 8 nano-second commercial laser system pulses to 1 ns. To obtain even shorter-duration laser pulses, a further laser system (pulse-length of less then 100 pico-seconds), which includes a Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser, a Distributed Feedback Dye Laser (DFDL) and a butterfly Ti:Sapphire amplifier, was utilized. For accessing the Ultra-Violet (UV) region, mainly nonlinear conversion in crystals was used. Further down into the Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) region, Stimulated Raman Shifting (SRS) in hydrogen and resonance-enhanced sum-difference four-wave-mixing in krypton were employed. In the Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) region, high-order harmonics were produced in different noble gases. Time-resolved fluorescence signals were detected by a fast detection system, which includes a fast detector (e.g. a micro-channel-plate photo-multiplier tube) and a fast transient oscilloscope. Lande factors of levels in the even-parity Rydberg series of neutral lead were studied by analysis of the Zeeman quantum beats in the time-resolved fluorescence. With two-colour laser (1EVU + 1UV) pump-probe and time-of-flight ion detection techniques, photon ionisation cross-sections of He (2p states) were investigated. The pump-probe technique was also utilised to determine the radiative lifetimes of some short-lived N2 molecular states by changing the delay time between the pump and probe laser pulses. (Less)


ABSTRACT A new diapsid reptile, Malerisaurus langstoni, n.sp., from the Late Triassic Dockum Formation of Texas, was a small, gracile, long-necked animal similar to modern bipedal lizards in size, proportions, and inferred activities. The skull is diapsid with an incomplete lower temporal arcade and a fixed quadrate. A similar configuration of the cheek region is known in many long-necked Permo-Triassic protorosaurs (= Prolacertiformes) that paralleled the squamates in the loss of lower temporal bar without any phyletic relationships to the latter group. The protorosaurs were very successful during the Permo–Triassic period, being recorded from all continents except South America. The number of neck vertebrae and its length are diagnostic characters for classifying the two families of protorosaurs. The family Protorosauridae (including Protorosaurus, Prolacerta, Kadimakara, Macrocnemus, Malerisaurus and the unnamed Yerrapalli form) has a moderately long neck, with 8 vertebrae. The family Tanystropheidae (...


Lee Fennell's "Slices and Lumps: Division and Aggregation in Law and Life" reveals the benefits of isolating configurations in legal analysis. A key characteristic of configurations -- or "lumps" -- whether found or created, is that they are indivisible. To say a lump is indivisible is not to say that it is literally impossible to divide, but rather "that it is considerably less valuable when divided, or that it is expensive (perhaps prohibitively so) to divide successfully."

This Essay will extend Fennell's approach to indivisibilities to the context of technology regulation. Fennell discusses at least two types of indivisibilities in the book. I will call these indivisibilities of fact and indivisibilities of law. Indivisibilities of fact are facts about the world that make it difficult to divide up a resource in ways other than predetermined lumps. Indivisibilities of law are outcomes at law that are relatively "all-or-nothing." Indivisibilities of both types are at play in current issues in technology regulation.

With respect to indivisibilities of fact, this Essay will discuss the example of indivisibility of privacy regulation. Some argue that piecemeal, sector-specific privacy regulation is the same as no regulation at all due to realities of the technosocial environment. This comes down to a debate about the degree to which the level of consumer privacy-a fact about the world-is indivisible. With respect to indivisibilities of law, this Essay will discuss the example of consent in the law of adhesion contracts in the digital age. Whether there is consent is a binary distinction, with major implications at law. Some consumer advocates have argued that consent should be segmented into meaningful consent and less meaningful consent. But, perhaps, the concept of consent is indivisible. Whether or not consent can be understood as divisible-a characteristic of the law-has major implications for this area of law and policy.


1. In February 2003 the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) hosted a workshop on physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling. The workshop comprised several presentations; these considered the use of PBPK models in risk assessment, requirements for PBPK models and parameters for incorporation of PBPK methods into risk assessment. The presentations were followed by a general discussion which focussed on the strengths and weaknesses of PBPK modelling, whether PBPK models could be integrated into COT risk assessments and how this could be achieved.


Background: Although most of the literature refers to sinusitis and upper respiratory tract as causative factor of otitis media (OM), only few articles refer to actual nasal pathologies that can lead to it. Objective: To study the influence of sinonasal disease on the middle ear condition (OM). Material and Methods: 200 patients of otitis media attending ENT Services of teaching institution in Central India were included.In 340 ears detailed ENT examination was carried out. Results: Of the 200 patients of otitis media 50% had chronic suppurative otitis media tubotympanic type, 41% had retraction and remaining had cholesteatoma and otitis media with effusion. Sinonasal evaluation revealed deviated nasal septum in 80%, sinusitis in 13.5% and polyp in 10.5% patients. Multiple sinonasal pathologies were present in some patients. On treatment of sinonasal disease significant improvement of middle ear disease was found in 79.31% ears after septal correction (Wilcoxon Signed rank test, P<0.05), 82.35% ears after treatment of sinusitis and in 76.92% ears after polypectomy. Conclusion: On the basis of these results we recommend evaluation and treatment of sinonasal disease before surgical treatment of ear disease is undertaken.


Four recent books attest to how much remains to be understood about queer Chinese cultures, both historically and in the contemporary period, especially in relation to their wider global contexts. While varying by discipline and approach, these books converge around a common set of analytical agendas: casting light on the importance of language and its discursive reach in popular understandings of same-sex desire, overturning the problem of long-standing heteronormative biases in area studies, grappling with the ghost of Western concepts of gender and sexuality, and jostling with the tensions between the global and the regional in diasporic China's queer formations. Yet despite their virtues, and in spite of their unanimous refusal to include the label "queer" in their titles, these books, to varying degrees, risk losing sight of the genealogical historicism that has methodologically grounded more global syntheses of queer scholarship.


Purpose - – The present study aims to examine the similarities and differences between young consumers in Indonesia and Thailand based on actionable and strategy-yielding marketing variables (e.g. Machiavellianism, ethical orientations, trust, opportunism and materialism) and, second, it examined the impact of these variables on consumer ethics. Design/methodology/approach - – A convenience sample of university students from a large private university in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) and a large public university in Chiang Mai (Thailand) were asked to complete a survey that incorporated scales to measure consumers' ethical beliefs, specifically, Machiavellianism, ethical orientation, opportunism, trust and materialism, as well as demographic classification questions. Findings - – The findings showed that young Indonesian and Thai consumers display similarities on most of the constructs. Moreover, the study found that personal moral philosophies (i.e. idealism and relativism) and trust strongly influence their judgment in ethically intense situations in both countries. Research limitations/implications - – The current study has several limitations, especially the use of convenience sampling that may limit the generalizability of the findings. Students in Indonesia and Thailand may behave differently from general consumers or other cohorts with regards to their ethical judgments. Practical implications - – Because personal ethical positions are developed over a lifetime of experiences in dealing with and resolving moral issues, schools and universities should intervene and educate youth on acting in ways that are consistent with moral rules. Currently, universities and schools in Indonesia and Thailand and many other countries in developing countries do not promote this knowledge to students. Originality/value - – This is one of the first studies exploring consumer ethics in Indonesia and Thailand.


If double consciousness is a factor in the fiction of African Americans, then it makes sense that it would be all the more so in their practice of the visual arts. While the writing of African Americans is "difficult, working in English, a language with a white |personality'" (Major, Dark and Feeling 26), at least African traditions of storytelling survived in the slave colonies and evolved into the strong, rich African-American modes of vernacular speech, tales, and lyrics. Unfortunately, this was not time to the same extent for African traditions of visual expression. Although some examples of African-influenced carvings, pottery, basketry, and ironwork are extant from the period, "the surviving visual art tradition was |generic, simple, and (almost completely) restricted to areas of dense and recent contact with tropical Africa'" (Robert Farris Thompson, qtd. in Fine 17). The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s provided a modem alternative for those seeking a uniquely African-American perspective in all the arts, but was primarily a literary and musical phenomenon. It produced muralist Aaron Douglas, and the thirties and forties introduced now well-known painters such as Jacob Lawrence, the brothers Beauford and Joseph Delaney, Archibald Motley, Lois Mailou Jones, and Hale Woodruff, but their works were not widely exhibited until years later. So, when a young African American of the 1940s and '50s, being educated in the Eurocentric tradition, found himself interested in fine, color, composition, texture, light, and the allure of gessoed canvas and creamy paper, sable brushes and viscid paints, he had few directions in which to grow other than along the trellis of Western art. Clarence Major was gifted, as his early experiences with both words and paints make clear, and he was endowed with a drive to become an artist. But his consciousness was split by the nature of being an American of African descent, in an ambivalent political relationship to the Western cultural heritage that he was beginning to love, especially as a painter. Based on my experience of Major's paintings and his fiction (Emergency Exit, My Amputations, Such Was the Season, and Fun & Games), it is apparent that his career as a writer is due, at least in part, to this early splitting of consciousness in the area of his first passion, painting. For years Major deferred, almost even denied, his passion for painting a passion whose nature - more obviously Eurocentric and less practical than that of his writing - threatened to alienate him from his African-American community ("Necessary Distance" 202-05). In a sense, he went underground with his painting and got into the habit of seeing through his writing, which was easier to conceal. The painting however, remained a motivating force in his literary work. Major's questions about his own identity as an African American and his relationship to the African-American community seem to have led him to become a man of double vision, searching for a colorful but color-blind existence, both through the visual image and the written word. Major remembers "being the kind of kid that just gravitated toward visual expression," and he says that painting came "more naturally" to him than writing. He still recalls being entranced by a kindergarten assignment to draw a "big, red apple," which he took home and proudly showed to his mother (Major, telephone interview). By the time Major was twelve, his paintings were spilling out of his bedroom into the family's hall. He won "many prizes" in school art contests. One of these awards, granted when he was in high school, provided a scholarship to a program for school-age children at the Art Institute of Chicago, and he stayed with these lessons until he left home to join the Air Force (Major, "Licking Stamps" 177-79). It was a formative period for Major, not strictly because of the scholarship program, but because he also met some regular college- and graduate-level Art Institute faculty and students who encouraged him and provided an even greater level of awareness on his part. …


The limits to the reliability that can be claimed for a design-diverse fault-tolerant system are mainly determined by the dependence that must be expected in the failure behaviours of the different versions: claims for independence between version failure processes are not believable. We examine a different approach, in which a simple secondary system is used as a back-up to a more complex primary. The secondary system is sufficiently simple that claims for its perfection (with respect to design faults) are possible, but there is not complete certainty about such perfection. It is shown that assessment of the reliability of the overall fault-tolerant system in this case may take advantage of claims for independence that are more plausible than those involved in design diversity.


A study was carried out to
investigate the effects of fire related cues (heat and smoke) and sulphuric acid treatments on the germination
of four woody savanna species, namely, Terminalia avicennioides, Piliostigma thonningii, Piliostigma reticulatum
and Prosopis africana. The heat treatment consisted of putting seeds in a preheated oven at 100, 150 and 200 °C
for 2.5 min. Seeds were then soaked in four concentrations of smoke solution (0 (tap water), 25, 50 and
100% smoke solutions). Parallel to smoke and heat treatment, seeds of the four species were each soaked in
concentrated sulphuric acid for 2 hours and also according to the conventional soaking time of each species.
Under experimental conditions, heat and smoke did not stimulate seed germination. For P. thonningii and P.
africana, soaking seeds for 2 hours in sulphuric acid significantly increased germination capacity compared
with conventional soaking time of 5 min. Longer soaking time reduced mean germination time. Results of
this study will be useful in the establishment of these species.


To investigate bilingual language control, prior language switching studies presented visual objects, which had to be named in different languages, typically indicated by a visual cue. The present study examined language switching of predictable responses by introducing a novel sequence-based language switching paradigm. In 4 experiments, sequential responses (i.e., weekdays, numbers or new sequences) and an alternating language sequence (e.g., L1-L1-L2-L2) were implemented, both of which were memory based. Our data revealed switch costs, showing that a language switch is associated with worse performance compared with a language repetition, and mixing costs, which constitutes the performance difference between pure and mixed language blocks, even while producing entirely predictable responses (i.e., language and concept). Additionally, we found these switch costs with overlearned and new sequences and found that switch costs were reduced with longer preparation time. The obtained data are consistent with a proactive interference account, such as the inhibitory control model.


This essay argues, via Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze, that in distinction to a neoliberal notion of time that overlooks the present moment and past experience, Ben Lerner's 10:04 posits the existence, in both its form and content, of a kind of freedom not imminent to or beyond the endless presentism and debt-mortgaged non-future of neoliberal time but one that is immanent to and within it. The novel does so by stressing the way in which the actual, lived present, if properly attended to, gives rise to a virtual future containing multiple potentialities that have yet to be realized. What emerges is a deep sense of contemporaneity or affective time that heralds the potential of a nascent collective. 10:04 performs this notion in its very metafictional form(lessness) that calls attention to the fragility of both narrative and time that, particularly during moments of disruption, allow the subject to experience affectively an actual present carrying a virtual past into a future teeming with potentialities that a neoliberal temporality, in which the future is tamed by a drop down menu of preselected options, must deny. Thus, 10:04 reveals that we can experience a freedom to come within even the presentism of neoliberal temporality so that freedom after neoliberalism, as the novel's Benjaminian influenced refrain suggests, will be "the same but a little different."


I sighed with relief when I read how counselling helped a nurse resolve 20 years of buried grief (Points of View, Nursing Standard February 27). Someone else has felt like I have.


Although great progress has been made in reducing renarrowing of the lumen after stenting of coronary arteries, a considerable number of patients develop recurrent in-stent stenosis. Several studies suggest that neointimal proliferation is the crucial pathophysiological process underlying restenosis after stenting. The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS) has been implicated in the development of neointimal hyperplasia. We tested the hypothesis that polymorphisms of the RAS genes are associated with recurrent in-stent restenosis (ISR). Coronary stent implantation was performed in 272 patients with clinical symptoms or objective signs of ischemia. At follow-up angiography 6 months after stenting, 81 patients (29.8%) revealed in-stent restenosis. These patients underwent balloon angioplasty and were scheduled for a further 6 months of follow up. One year after initial stenting of the coronary artery, 39 patients displayed no significant angiographic ISR, whereas 42 patients developed recurrent in-stent restenosis (RISR). The survey of specific functional polymorphisms of the RAS, namely the angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) D/I, the angiotensinogen (AGT) T174M and M235T, and A1166C of the angiotensin-II receptor 1 (AGTR1), revealed that the incidence RISR in the high-risk cohort was not associated with any of the polymorphisms examined in this study.


A novel class of GSK-3 inhibitors with favorable water solubility was identified in a HTS screen. SAR studies identified bioisosteric structural moieties in this class of compounds. The compounds were tested in a GSK-3 inhibition assay at 100 microM ATP giving IC(50)'s in the range from 0.1 to 10 microM. The compounds are ATP competitive inhibitors. They modulate glycogen metabolism and stimulate the accumulation of intracellular beta-catenin in whole cell assays with EC(50)'s in the range from 2 to 18 microM and 4.5-44 microM, respectively. For selected compounds, only a 10-fold lower potency was obtained in cellular assays compared to the potency obtained for inhibition of the isolated enzyme, reflecting a good cell permeability of this compound class. At 10 microM of test compound a 3-fold stimulation of the glycogen synthesis in rat soleus muscle was obtained compared to the level of glycogen synthesis observed at 0.2 nM insulin. This stimulation of glycogen synthesis is comparable to the maximal stimulation by insulin itself.


In recent years, applications of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) have increased in number and diversity. Because fiber‐optic cables used for DTS are typically sheathed in dark UV‐resistant materials, the question arises as to how shortwave solar radiation penetrating a water column influences the accuracy of absolute DTS‐derived temperatures in aquatic applications. To quantify these effects, we completed a modeling effort that accounts for the effects of radiation and convection on a submersed cable to predict when solar heating may be important. Results indicate that for cables installed at shallow depths in clear, low‐velocity water bodies, measurable heating of the cable is likely during peak solar radiation. However, at higher velocities, increased turbidity and/or greater depths, the effects of solar heating are immeasurable. A field study illustrated the effects of solar radiation by installing two types of fiber‐optic cable at multiple water depths (from 0.05 to 0.8 m) in the center and along the sidewall of a trapezoidal canal. Thermistors were installed at similar depths and shielded from solar radiation to record absolute water temperatures. During peak radiation, thermistor data showed small temperature differences (∼0.003°C–0.04°C) between depths suggesting minor thermal stratification in the canal center. DTS data from cables at these same depths show differences of 0.01°C–0.17°C. The DTS differences cannot be explained by stratification alone and are likely evidence of additional heating from solar radiation. Sidewall thermistor strings also recorded stratification. However, corresponding DTS data suggested that bed conduction overwhelmed the effects of solar radiation.


Ankle fractures are among the most common lower extremity injuries. Displaced fractures typically are treated operatively to restore anatomic alignment of joint surfaces, reduce tibiotalar contact stresses, and minimize posttraumatic arthritis. Treatment of these fractures must include intraoperative examination of the syndesmosis to ensure its integrity. determine result of fixation of small fragement posterior malleolus versus conservative treatment on syndesmotic stability. This study was conducted on twenty patients who were candidate for operative treatment of pott"s fracture with posterior malleolus fracture at Benha university hospitals. Patients were divided into two groups; Group I: Underwent posterior malleolus fixation with or without syndesmotic screw. Group II: Underwent conservative treatment with Syndesmotic screw. Mean age of the study population was 39 years, The most frequent side was right side (60.0%) while left side was 40.0%. The most frequent mechanism of injury was SER (60.0%) followed by PER (40.0%). As regard skin condition, 70.0% of patients showed skin edema. As regard integrity of skin, 90.0% of patients showed closed fracture, 10.0% showed open fracture grade I. There was no significant difference between both groups as regard AOFAS. P value was 0.517. There was no significant difference between both groups as regard ROM. P value was 0.517. There was no significant difference between both groups as regard union time. P value was 0.853. Great benfit of fixation of posterior malleolus on sydesmotic stability as syndesmotic stability restore without need supplemental fixation of syndesmosis provided that AITFL and PITFL are intact. If AITFL, PITFL torn fixation of posterior malleolus alone not suffient supplemental fixation of syndesmosis is required in addition to reduction and fixation of posterior malleolus.


INTRODUCTION :
Copper related liver disease is one of the most common etiologies of liver disease
in India.
Wilsons disease (WD) is the most common of the copper related liver diseases. It
is a genetic disorder which follows autosomal recessive inheritance. WD is
characterized by a mutation in ATP 7B gene at 13 q 14. WD generally presents as
persistently elevated aspartate / alanine aminotranferases , chronic hepatitis,
compensated or decompensated chronic liver disease or rarely it may present as
Acute Wilsonian crisis. WD is diagnosed by Serum Ceruloplasmin levels, KF ring,
24 hr urinary copper level, hepatic copper quantification and / or ATP 7 B
mutation analysis. WD is treated by copper chelation either with Pencillamine or
Zinc or both.
Indian childhood cirrhosis ( ICC) has fascinated the medical fraternity for almost
100 years. The peculiar features, enigmatic etiology and uniformly fatal outcome
had frustrated many. In 1978, a finding almost by chance revealed a striking
association of exceedingly high hepatic copper content. This finding led to the
hypothesis that milk contaminated with copper caused the disease. It was
characterized by occurrence of the disease in the infants with dietary history of
dietary copper consumption. It is largely disappearing in India because of
preventive strategies.
There is a heterogeneous group of patients who do not fit into either WD or ICC.
There are case reports of this uncommon disease from other countries also. It was
described in Austria , Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan and USA. In India
 largely after the disappearance of ICC it was described as Atypical copper
cirrhosis.
AIMS :
1. To look for evidence of increased copper intake in Atypical copper
related liver disease (ACLD ) patients.
2. To study clinical features and treatment outcome of ACLD patients.
CONCLUSION :
 The conclusions drawn from this study are, the 11 patients have features of hepatic copper overload not fitting into either WD or ICC. This condition is different from WD by not showing neurological involvement and coombs negative heamolytic aneamia with normal ceruloplasmin, and negative for Kayser Fleisher rings and ATP 7 B mutations. This condition is different from ICC by the occurrence of disease after 5 years with no dietary history of copper intake and histology different from ICC. The treatment outcome of ACLD patients with either Penicillamine or Zinc or both sequentially is good. There was no evidence for increased copper intake in drinking water in ACLD patients studied. Further studies into causation of ACLD are needed.


Language assessment can be a valuable tool for giving information regarding language teaching. Given the importance of assessment that has undergone much change, there are important issues that warrant investigation, particularly those related to language instructors. The main objectives of the study were to investigate the English language instructors' beliefs about assessment, the assessment practices that English language instructors use in assessing students' work and the extent to which language instructors' assessment beliefs correspond to their practices. Differences in the assessment beliefs/practices of the English language instructors in terms of TESL qualifications, years of work experience, number of courses taught per week and source of prior assessment training were also investigated.This study employed an explanatory sequential quantitative driven design. In this design, the researcher collected data through two questionnaires and a semistructured interview from six Malaysian universities' instructors using a purposive sampling strategy. English language instructors were selected as informative and useful subjects for the study based on two criteria: those who are employed full time, and those who are teaching proficiency courses. Using descriptive statistics, the researcher was able to answer the first two questions of the study. Frequency, percentage, means, and standard deviation (SD) were used to report descriptive data. Pearson correlation coefficient was employed to explore the relation between English language instructors' assessment beliefs and their reported practices. Independent-Samples t-test was used to examine the differences that occurred in the independent variables of the study for the first four hypotheses in both the fourth and the fifth questions of the study, namely: TESL qualification, years of teaching experience, work load and class size. Three one-Way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to examine the differences that occurred among the three groups of the fifth independent variable namely: assessment training.Analysis of data showed that English language instructors believed that the purpose of assessment was to improve teaching and learning. They tended to use a variety of assessment methods to assess students' language ability in their classrooms giving more weightage on formative assessment (course work) than on summative assessment (final test). Further, they apply process-oriented approach to second language assessment more than product-oriented approach. In addition, they use different types of assessments for every language skill taught in the language unit/center. All correlations between subscales on both assessment beliefs and practices were estimated as positive and statistically significant indicating that instructors' assessment practices were notably dependent on their assessment beliefs. Finally, this study has found out that none of the hypothesized factors influencing assessment beliefs and practices of English language instructors (TESL qualifications, years of work
experience, number of courses taught per week and source of prior assessment training) had any significant difference between different categories of teachers depending on those factors.These findings highlight that instructors should be more empowered in their role as the assessors of students. Their knowledge about what, how, when to assess should be developed through long profession development courses; one-shot workshops or seminars would not be enough to improve instructors' assessment literacy.


PURPOSE
Rural youth have higher rates of alcohol and tobacco use compared to their urban counterparts. However, the economic dependence of rural communities may differentially influence risk behaviors. While research has shown that adults working in mining have elevated rates of alcohol and tobacco use, the influence of living in a mining community on early adolescent substance use is unknown.

METHODS
Using data from a representative sample of 4,535 middle school students in a state with heavy reliance on mining, we conducted weighted logistic regression to investigate whether community-level mining economic dependence influences rural-urban differences in adolescent alcohol and tobacco use. All models adjusted for sociodemographics, military family involvement, parental monitoring, and length of residence.

FINDINGS
Over one quarter of the sampled students lived in rural counties and approximately half of these counties met the USDA mining economic typology. After stratifying rural counties by mining and nonmining economic dependence, students in rural mining counties had significantly higher odds of all measures of alcohol use (AORs ranged from 1.83 to 3.99) and tobacco use (AORs ranged from 1.61 to 5.05) compared to students in urban counties. Only use of smokeless tobacco was higher among students in rural nonmining counties.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings demonstrate rural-urban disparities in adolescent substance use that are particularly pronounced among youth living in counties with economic dependence on mining. Future research on this subject should include a wider range of community-level factors that may have specific relevance in rural settings to inform the development of population-level interventions.