Purpose
The Indian Companies Act 2013 mandated auditor rotations in the financial year 2018–2019. Similar regulations are being considered in many countries, based on the assumption that longer tenure is detrimental to audit quality; yet, the evidence from investigations of this assumption is inconclusive. This paper aims to examine the effect of moderating factors on the relation between audit quality and audit tenure, given the regulatory trend and the lack of consensus in extant literature.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the relationship between audit quality and audit tenure among Indian firms from 2001 to 2015 and tests for moderating factors including auditor compensation, business group affiliation and chief executive officer (CEO) duality.

Findings
Contrary to the objective of mandatory rotations, this study finds that longer auditor tenure generally enhanced audit quality among Indian firms prior to mandatory rotations. However, for companies paying abnormally high compensation to auditors, this paper finds that longer tenure decreases audit quality, particularly if the firm is affiliated with a business group or firms where the CEO also serves as the board chair. Thus, the potential benefits of mandated shorter tenure appear to be confined to high-fee paying companies with a business group affiliation and/or a dual-role CEO.

Originality/value
This study is one of the first to examine conditioning factors that affect the relationship between audit quality and auditor tenure. Results suggest that regulations limiting auditor tenure would be beneficial only to the shareholders of a narrow group of firms; while for the majority of firms, limiting auditor tenure may actually be counter-productive.


ABSTRACT This paper describes influence of the molecular weight on thermally enhanced photoinduced reorientation of polymethacrylate films comprising 4-methoxyazobenzene side groups, generated by an axis-selective Z-to-E photoisomerization using linearly polarized (LP) 633 nm He-Ne laser light and subsequent annealing. The polymers with number average molecular weight (Mn) between 4800–27 000 were synthesized by the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. Regardless of the molecular weight, high in-plane reorientation order parallel to polarization direction ( E ) of LP 633 nm light was accomplished when the exposed films were annealed in the smectic temperature range of the polymer films. However, degree of the thermal amplification of the photoinduced optical anisotropy depended on the molecular weight when the annealing temperature increased in the nematic temperature range.


I highly recommend Hanganu-Bresch and Berkenkotter's work to anyone who is interested in the vicissitudes of early psychiatric diagnosis, confinement and treatment. The book is well written and well documented. The reader benefits form the authors' admirable knowledge on the evolution of psychiatry in the 19th century, the social co-creation of the institution of asylum and the many genres of discourse (from admission reports to science fiction) that have shaped these developments. While the book offers but a snapshot of a more extended historical process, I believe there is a lot to learn from such a snapshot.


Backgroud: At present, therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) has gradually been used in the diagnosis and treatment of biliary and pancreatic diseases in children, but reports on and the application of ERCP in children, especially in infants, are still highly limited. Case Presentation: This case report describes a 99-day-old infant with choledocholithiasis who successfully underwent ERCP to relieve an obstruction. The infant developed obstructive jaundice during chemotherapy for a malignant tumor, and a routine blood examination showed signs of infection. Liver damage also occurred. B-ultrasound suggested stones in the lower segment of the common bile duct (CBD). After sufficient communication and preparation, biliary drainage was successfully carried out in the infant using adult duodenoscope (JF240) and related instruments with cooperation from the Department of Anesthesiology. Conclusions: This paper preliminarily introduces our experience with adult duodenoscope in children, providing a good example for hospitals without a special duodenoscope for children to carry out pediatric ERCP. Clinicians should pay close attention to the need of careful use of ERCP in infants.


We report on a method for delivering high fluence pulsed 266 nm laser radiation to the target tissue via an optical fiber. The fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser was concentrated using a hollow glass taper and launched into an optical fiber. Fluences of up to 2 J/cm(2) were routinely output at the tapered optical fiber tip. The maximum fluence generated before failure of the optical fiber was between 3.5 and 8 J/cm(2). Ablation of ocular tissue was demonstrated using fluences of 1.0 and 0.4 J/cm(2). The delivery system has the potential for use in intraocular surgical procedures.


Congestion is a daily phenomenon at Dutch highways. One of the main causes are merges of onramps
and highways. Only little research has been conducted to increase the highway performance
at a merge. This research aims to evaluate to what extent a continuous line in the pre-merging
section of the highway could increase the highway performance. This is done by performing a single
case study at Hengelo-Zuid in combination with using a traffic simulation model.
A literature review shows the relation between traffic characteristics around a merge. At a
macroscopic scale, these are capacity distributions, congestion, traffic flows and shock waves. At a
microscopic scale, also headways, lane distributions and lane changing play an important role. Ramp
metering is usually used to control on-ramp flows and to prevent highway congestion.
The study area at Hengelo-Zuid consists of a two-lane main carriageway. This area is analysed with
data gathered from detection loops and road side video measurements. Data from the adjacent road
network and traffic flow predictions for 2020 are used to determine effects at the wider network
for now and the near future.
In the study area, a capacity drop of 19% is observed. Congestion takes on average 30 minutes, with
highway and on-ramp delays up to respectively three and six minutes. Non-congested and congested
traffic patterns are analysed. Cooperative lane changing is observed, which influences the lane
distribution significantly.
The highway access at Hengelo-Zuid is modelled with the simulation software Fosim. Here, the
capacity value is used as main performance indicator. The model is calibrated and validated with
the observed microscopic and macroscopic traffic flow characteristics to improve the correctness of
capacity calculations.
The effect of the continuous line is evaluated for three different on-ramp flows: 1) a signalised onramp
flow; 2) a random on-ramp flow; and 3) a metered on-ramp flow (with Rijkswaterstaatalgorithm).
All these on-ramp flows are theoretically and practically relevant.
The conclusion is that a continuous line can increase the capacity slightly but significantly. Though,
for high signalised and metered on-ramp flows, this increase is constrained by negative effects at
lane one, which is the left lane from the highway. For these situations, a shorter version of the line
is preferable. The capacity increase is due to an increased share of vehicles at lane one. Aim of the
line is to reach an optimal lane distribution. The amount of lane changes does not increase with a
line, neither before the merge, nor after the merge. With a line, the ramp meter release rate could
be increased significantly without increasing the congestion probability.
In Hengelo-Zuid, the continuous line can reduce the congestion probability. The reduction of
highway congestion duration is estimated to be ten minutes; reduction in on-ramp delay is 1.5
minutes. The results imply that a continuous line could reduce congestion on several places in The
Netherlands.


Hygrothermal models are important tools for assessing the risk of moisture-related decay mechanisms which can compromise structural integrity, loss of architectural features and material. There are several sources of uncertainty when modelling masonry, related to material properties, boundary conditions, quality of construction and two-dimensional interactions between mortar and unit. This paper examines the uncertainty at the mortar-unit interface with imperfections such as hairline cracks or imperfect contact conditions. These imperfections will alter the rate of liquid transport into and out of the wall and impede the liquid transport between mortar and masonry unit. This means that the effective liquid transport of the wall system will be different then if only properties of the bulk material were modelled. A detailed methodology for modelling this interface as a fracture is presented including definition of material properties for the fracture. The modelling methodology considers the combined effect of both the interface resistance across the mortar-unit interface and increase liquid transport in parallel to the interface, and is generalisable to various combinations of materials, geometries and fracture apertures. Two-dimensional DELPHIN models of a clay brick/cement-mortar masonry wall were created to simulate this interaction. The models were exposed to different boundary conditions to simulate wetting, drying and natural cyclic weather conditions. The results of these simulations were compared to a baseline model where the fracture model was not included. The presence of fractures increased the rate of absorption in the wetting phase and an increased rate of desorption in the drying phase. Under cyclic conditions, the result was higher peak moisture contents after rain events compared to baseline and lower moisture contents after long periods of drying. This demonstrated that detailed modelling of imperfections at the mortar-unit interface can have a definitive influence on results and conclusions from hygrothermal simulations.


The Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), version 3.0, and its predecessors, the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) versions 1.0 and 2.0, were developed under the direction of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in an effort to provide standard language for reporting adverse events that occur in NCI-sponsored clinical trials. Each successive version of the CTC has improved the accuracy, precision, and completeness of the criteria in an effort to standardize reporting. We believe that the current version of the CTCAE cannot adequately code the subacute adverse events that commonly occur with today's targeted therapies.


The aim of this article is to reflect on highly skilled migration accounting for countries of origin and destination, using contributions from the international literature, mainly the one produced in Latin America, and focusing on examples from Southern Europe. These reflections inspire some policy recommendations to enhance the role of talented diasporas.


The multiaccessing of a broadcast communication channel by independent sources is considered. Previous accessing techniques suffer from long message delays, low throughput, and/or congestion instabilities. A new class of high-speed, high-throughput, stable, multiaccessing algorithms is presented. Contentions resolving tree algorithms are introduced, and they are analyzed for specific probabilistic source models. It is shown that these algorithms are stable (in that all moments of delay exist) and are optimal in a certain sense. Furthermore, they have a maximum throughput of 0.430 packets/slut and have good delay properties. It is also shown that, under heavy traffic, the optimally controlled tree algorithm adaptively changes to the conventional time-division multiple access protocol.


The thermal conductance of interfaces plays a major role in defining the thermal properties of nanostructured materials in which heat transfer is predominantly phonon mediated. Ongoing research has improved the understanding of factors that govern interfacial phonon transport as well as the ability to predict thermal interface conductance. However, despite this progress, the ability to control interface conductance remains a major challenge. In this manuscript, we present a method to enhance and tune thermal interface conductance at vibrationally mismatched solid-solid interfaces. Enhancement is achieved through the insertion of an interfacial film with mediating vibrational properties, such that the vibrational mismatch at the interface is bridged, and consequently, the total interface conductance is enhanced. This phenomena is explored using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, where the effects of altering the interfacial film thickness, vibrational spectrum, and the temperature of the system are investigated. A systematic study of these pertinent design parameters explores the ability to enhance and tune phonon transport at both ideal (sharp) and nonideal (compositionally disordered) interfaces. Results show that interface conductance can be broadly enhanced by up to 53% in comparison to the vibrationally mismatched baseline interface. Additionally, we find that compositional disorder at an interface does not imply a deterministic change in interface conductance, but instead, that the influence of compositional disorder depends on the characteristics of the disordered region itself. These results, in contrast to macroscopic thermal transport theory, imply that it is possible to increase thermal conductance associated with interface scattering by adding more material along the direction of heat flux.


This work is builds on the study of the 10 top data mining algorithms identified by the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) community in December 2006. We address the same study, but with the application of statistical tests to establish, a more appropriate and justified ranking classifier for classification tasks. Current studies and practices on theoretical and empirical comparison of several methods, approaches, advocated tests that are more appropriate. Thereby, recent studies recommend a set of simple and robust non-parametric tests for statistical comparisons classifiers. In this paper, we propose to perform non-parametric statistical tests by the Friedman test with post-hoc tests corresponding to the comparison of several classifiers on multiple data sets. The tests provide a better judge for the relevance of these algorithms.


Electron-electron correlation forms the basis of difficulties encountered in many-body physics. Accurate treatment of the correlation problem is likely to unravel some nice physical properties of matter embedded in the correlation. In an effort to tackle the many-body problem, an empirically determined symmetry-dependent partition fraction for the electron-electron interaction energy between two interacting states of helium atom is suggested in this study. Using the partition fraction and the lowest-order approximation of the multipole series expansion of the electron-electron interaction, a simple parameter-free pseudopotential for a two-electron system is derived. The groundstate, singly and doubly excited state non-relativistic energies generated by the pseudopotential are in reasonable agreement with literature values.


The use of systemic antibiotics for major head and neck surgical procedures involving the upper aerodigestive tract is now accepted as an important part of perioperative patient care. Despite knowledge of the high counts of bacteria present in saliva, no preoperative regimen for preparing the mouth has ben standardized. Surgical wounds come in contact with saliva during the course of many head and neck procedures. While wound infection rates have been decreased with the use of prophylactic systemic antibiotics, serious morbidity still exists from postoperative wound infections. Reducing the bacterial counts in saliva preoperatively may further decrease wound infection rates. A prospective randomized pilot study of twenty healthy human subjects compared the effects of an oral rinse with clindamycin vs. a placebo rinse of normal saline. There was a statistically significant reduction in both aerobic and anaerobic colony counts in the clindamycin group at 4 hours after treatment. For the group that rinsed with placebo, there was an actual increase in counts 4 hours after treatment. It is concluded that oral rinses with clindamycin can reduce the bacterial content of saliva for a sufficient length of time to be effective as a preoperative prophylactic measure for head and neck surgery involving the upper aerodigestive tract. Future studies are planned to evaluate other potentially effective agents. A logical continuation is a clinical study of preoperative and postoperative rinses.


In the Online Simple Knapsack Problem we are given a knapsack of unit size 1. Items of size smaller or equal to 1 are presented in an iterative fashion and an algorithm has to decide whether to permanently include or reject each item into the knapsack without any knowledge about the rest of the instance. The goal is then to pack the knapsack as full as possible. In this work, we introduce a third option additional to those of packing and rejecting an item, namely that of reserving an item for the cost of a fixed fraction $\alpha$ of its size. An algorithm may pay this fraction in order to postpone its decision on whether to include or reject the item until after the last item of the instance was presented.
While the classical Online Simple Knapsack Problem does not admit any constantly bounded competitive ratio in the deterministic setting, we find that adding the possibility of reservation makes the problem constantly competitive, with varying competitive ratios depending on the value of $\alpha$. We give upper and lower bounds for the whole range of reservation costs, with tight bounds for costs up to $1/6$---an area that is strictly 2-competitive---and for costs between $\sqrt{2}-1$ and $0.5$---an area that is $(2+\alpha)$-competitive.
With our analysis, we find a counterintuitive characteristic of the problem: Intuitively, one would expect that the possibility of rejecting items becomes more and more helpful for an online algorithm with growing reservation costs. However, for higher reservation costs between $\sqrt{2}-1$ and $0.5$, an algorithm that is unable to reject any items tightly matches the lower bound and is thus the best possible. On the other hand, for any positive reservation cost smaller than $1/6$, any algorithm that is unable to reject any items performs considerably worse than one that is able to reject.


ABSTRACT Understanding stochastic diffusion of energetic charged particles in non-uniform background magnetic field is one of the major problems in plasmas of space and fusion devices. In this paper by using the improved perturbation method developed by He & Schlickeiser starting from the modified Fokker-Planck equation of energetic charged particles we derive an isotropic distribution function equation with the infinite selfiteration of anisotropic distribution function g(μ). And then a new perpendicular and parallel diffusion coefficients are obtained which include the infinite self-iteration effect. It is demonstrated that the form of perpendicular diffusion coefficient is form-invariable for the infinite self-iteration effect, but the parallel diffusion coefficient is modified by it. And for simplification by using the simple pitch-angle diffusion model Dμμ = d (d is a constant) we find that the modifying factor to parallel diffusion coefficient coming from the infinite self-iteration effect need to be considered at least for the simple model. We also find that the parallel diffusion coefficient derived in some previous papers is the special case of which is obtained in this paper.


The authors investigate quantisation and feedback of channel state information in a multiuser (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. Each user may receive multiple data streams. The authors design minimises the sum mean squared error (SMSE) while accounting for the imperfections in channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter. This study makes three contributions: first, the authors provide an end-to-end SMSE transceiver design that incorporates receiver combining, feedback policy and transmit precoder design with channel uncertainty. This enables the proposed transceiver to outperform the previously derived limited feedback MU linear transceivers. Second, the authors remove dimensionality constraints on the MIMO system, for the scenario with multiple data streams per user, using a combination of maximum expected signal combining and minimum MSE receiver. This makes each user's feedback independent of the others and the resulting feedback overhead scales linearly with the number of data streams instead of the number of receiving antennas. Finally, the authors analyse the SMSE of the proposed algorithm at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and large number of transmit antennas. As an aside, the authors show analytically why the bit error rate, in the high SNR regime, increases if quantisation error is ignored.


HVAC systems are directly related to comfort (human health, productivity, etc.) and energy consumption. Depending on the application and geographical area, they may become a key disruptive and energy starving system. The research discussed in this paper describes a CFD-based approach for robust HVAC system design aimed at reducing variability in the conditioned area by adjusting operating parameters. Since robust design techniques aim at minimum variance (via S/N ratio), the solutions obtained allow the selection of operating parameters leading to more uniform distribution. Three variables were used: air velocity (to control energy transfer from people to the surrounding air), Unit usage (a ratio to consider the air conditioning system inertia compared to air conditioning requirements), and room temperature set point (representing the relation between the machine and the conditions room).Embedded codes with field functions in the CFD software allow the simulation of a very basic operation strategy, and demonstrate a quasi-dynamic operation for different cooling capacities and air velocity. Results allow allocating operating parameters that lead to a more uniform temperature and relative humidity distributions, therefore, this approach can be adequately combined with statistical design of experiments for better conditions.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


The CSPN Stakeholder Survey forms a key element of CSP improvement planning processes. It aims to:

1. Gauge stakeholder satisfaction levels with the service offered by CSP core teams (individually and collectively).
2. Identify good practice and areas for improvement; provide a tool to support benchmarking across partnerships; provide material for use in advocacy and business planning.
3. Help identify the demand for CSP services to support future CSP business development, and help support Sport England monitoring requirements.

Main findings

All 49 CSPs took part in the survey.
In total, 2,023 valid responses were received, 51 more than 2012 (n = 1,972). Excluding CSPs that did not provide invitation data (n = 16), but including the responses to the Regional and National survey the mean response rate was 41.3%.
A Regional and National survey was created to assess satisfaction levels for partners working across multiple CSPs. In total, 242 responses were received, a response rate of 26% based on the number invited (n = 928).

Satisfaction with contact

Satisfaction was generally very high, scores ranging from 93.6% (Usefulness of the CSP's website content) and 97.9% (Professionalism and helpfulness of staff). Data indicated an increase in the mean total satisfaction score for contact between 2013 (95.7%) and 2012 (93.5%).

There was an increase in the mean total satisfaction score for contact between 2013 (95.7%) and 2012 (93.4%). Notable improvements since 2012 were 'Adding value' (93.6% vs. 89.7%) and 'Support and advice' (96.8% vs. 93.5%). The mean total satisfaction score for Regional and National partners was slightly lower than for the main CSPN survey (95.3%).

Knowledge & understanding of CSPs

Respondents to the CSPN survey were generally clear on the role of the CSP, 84.7% of respondents to the CSPN survey indicating a 'very good' or 'good' understanding representing an improvement of 2.3% on the 2012 Survey.
86.3% of respondents to the Regional and National survey indicated a 'very good' or 'good' understanding; slightly higher than the CSPN survey result.
Overall, the results demonstrate a year-on-year improvement in understanding and knowledge (i.e. very good and good) since the survey began (2011 = 77%, 2012 = 82.4%, 2013 = 84.7%).

Satisfaction with key services

The mean total satisfaction with key services was 95.4%, representing an improvement on the 2012 Survey (90.1%). Respondents rated 'Coordination of the Sportivate programme' the highest (97.9%) whilst 'Co-ordination of a club support programme' had the lowest rating (94.1%).

The mean total satisfaction with key services for the Regional and National Survey was 92.3%, 3.8% less than the CSPN Survey. Respondents were most satisfied with 'Coordination of the Sportivate programme' (97.1%, n = 264) and least satisfied with 'Organising County, Youth or Level 3 School Games / activities' (70.7%, n = 128).

Although the Regional and National survey broadly followed the same pattern as the CSPN Survey for key services there were some notable exceptions where scores were lower including:
roviding child protection guidance and support (-6.2%);
Providing equality and diversity advice (-5.7);
Organising County, Youth or Level 3 School Games / activities (-26.7%).

Overall satisfaction

95.5% of respondents indicated that, overall, they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' (i.e. overall satisfaction), comparing favourably with the 2011 (91.9%) and 2012 (93.6%) overall satisfaction figures.

Regional and National partners rated overall satisfaction slightly lower (94.3%).

Although it was evident that the number of respondents stating 'very satisfied' decreased slightly in comparison to 2012, the results suggested that overall satisfaction with CSPs has increased year on year since 2011.


: Reverend Ivan Vyshenskyi (1530-1620) was an Orthodox eremite and a famous Ukrainian writer-polemicist of the second half of the 16 th century – early 17 th century. This period in the history of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was marked by the events associated with the decision of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church eparchies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to break with the Eastern Orthodox Church and enter into communion with, and place themselves under the authority of the Pope of Rome in 1596. The Saint expressed a number of essential features of the worldviews (and, partly, of the civil position) of the part of the Orthodox Church that did not compromise on the question of the Union. His attitude to Roman Catholicism, after the events of the Union of Brest, was extremely negative. There is some biographical information about the monk's life, especially before his departure to Mount Athos. During his youth, he lived in South-Western Rus', where the worldview movements gave rise to a minor cultural revival in polemical literature. In this literature, a significant place is occupied by the work of Reverend Ivan.


ABSTRACT Accelerometers embedded in smartphones have become an alternative means of measuring the roughness of roads. However, the differences in their sensitivity and sampling rates between smartphones could produce measurement inconsistencies that challenge the wide spread of the smartphone approach for road roughness measurements. In this study, the roughness measurement inconsistency was investigated between smartphones from three different brands. Using the same vehicle, device mount method, traversal speed, and method of producing a roughness index, field experiments demonstrated that accelerometer sensitivities and maximum sample rates vary significantly among smartphones of the same brand as well as across brands. For each smartphone, to achieve a margin-of-error within a 95% of confidence, significant large amounts of traversals are needed. Specifically, 24 and 35 traversals for a paved and an unpaved road, respectively. A higher sampling rate produced more consistent measurements and the least margin-of-error but resulted in larger data sizes. In addition, the measurements from all smartphones were not very sensitive to the size of the feature extraction window, therefore, selecting the largest practical window size will minimise the data size without significant loss of accuracy. For practical application, calibration is necessary to achieve consistent roughness measurements between various different smartphones.


The development of long life high powered (>50A) hollow cathodes is of importance to meet the demand of increasingly powerful Gridded Ion engines and Hall Effect thrusters. High power cathodes typically operate at greater temperature ranges, which poses a significant challenge to maintain heater reliability. The heater component commonly used to raise the insert to emissive temperatures, has inherent reliability issues from thermal fatigue caused by thermal cycling with large temperature variations. A self-heating hollow cathode allows for potentially higher reliability through design simplicity of removing the heater component, and in addition there can be savings in mass, volume, ignition time and power. This study characterizes the initiation of the start-up process for a heaterless hollow cathode. As such the study analyses conditions of the initiation as a function of detailed geometrical and physical parameters. The Paschen curve can be seen to give a qualitative explanation for the breakdown voltage variance. The quantitative variations between the empirical results and Paschen curve are discussed in relation to non-uniform pressure simulations.


It is known that nonpolarized quasimonochromatic light is characterized by a definite polarization microstructure, and there are a number of both classical' and quantum models of such a light? After passing nonpolarized light through the phase plates and optically active devices, as a general case its polarization microstructure changes. However, direct polarization analysis doesn't allow us to find this changing. Vavilov' was the first to demonstrate the possibility to determine the microstructure of the light changed in such a way in the interference-ellipsometric experiments. The information carried by nonpolarized light about its polarization microstructure can be fixed and recovered b the polarization-holographic method. In this paper we communicate a new possibility of studying nonpolarized light in classical states, which we call "hedgehog" and "tangle." Computer images of such states are depicted in Fig. l(a) and (b) under Y


The market for sustainable buildings is growing, albeit from a slow start, as awareness of the consequences of climate change begin to influence the corporate decision makers seeking new office accommodation. Research has shown that a circle of blame has prevailed in recent times resulting in few sustainable buildings being developed. The recent growth of the Green Star and NABERS rating schemes is testament to the need to establish market recognisable measures of environmentally sustainable development (ESD) against which developers, occupiers, and owners can benchmark their sustainability credentials. The developer's and owner's dilemma that has emerged from the uncertainty as to what a sustainable building is, has been one of; can I afford the added cost of ESD or, more particularly, can I afford not to build ESD? A more precise question that is being asked is how many green stars do I actually need? This paper will examine the growth of the rating systems in Australia and the issues facing developers, owners and valuers in establishing the viability of ESD. It will also explore the occupiers' / corporate real estate perspective looking at workplace and triple bottom line performance as well as issues relating to green leases in ESD premises.


A Madrasa's work culture values can influence not only emotional involvement, normative involvement, and job satisfaction, but also physical, emotional, and cognitive participation in the workplace. The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze the implementation of the 5 values of work culture at the Madrasah Tsanawiyah in Bandar Lampung. This research method is descriptive and qualitative in nature, and collects primary and secondary data using observation, interviews, and documentation. Upon collection, data analysis was carried out by reducing, displaying, and verifying the data so that it could be concluded at the end of the analysis. The research locations are as follows: Madrasah Tsanawiyah 1 Bandar Lampung, Madrasah Tsanawiyah 2 Bandar Lampung, Madrasah Tsanawiyah Muhammadiyah, and Private Madrasah Tsanawiyah in Bandar Lampung. The results explain that the implementation of a work culture by the Ministry of Religion is successful in Madrasah Tsanawiyah 1, Bandar Lampung. The Madrasah Tsanawiyah private schools in Bandar Lampung City are not yet optimal and will be improved. The success of implementing the teacher's example must be carried out in collaboration between the school and parents, because parents are the main figures in the formation of their children's character, and children will therefore act according to the examples applied during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords: Madrasah Tsanawiyah, Pandemic COVID-19, Work Culture


INTRODUCTION
Multidrug resistant Candida auris is an emerging threat worldwide. It has been identified in Africa, however, there is minimal data available comparing C. auris to other Candida species in Africa.

METHODOLOGY
Retrospective, case control study at a tertiary South African Hospital. Clinical and laboratory features of patients with positive C. auris clinical cultures from 1 January 2015 to 31 August 2018 were compared to patients who cultured C. albicans and C. glabrata.

RESULTS
Forty-five clinical cases with C. auris cultures were identified. The median age was 32 years (IQR = 26-46). The median duration of hospital stay was 64 days (IQR = 39-88) and median time from admission to diagnosis 35 days (IQR = 21-53). Indwelling devices and previous antibiotic exposure were found to be significant risk factors. All C. auris isolates were susceptible to amphotericin B and micafungin. Patients treated with amphotericin B alone, had a higher mortality (73.33%, n = 11/15) than patients treated with an echinocandin (54.55%, n = 6/11), however this was not statistically significant. All C. auris isolates were healthcare associated with 80% (n = 36/45) acquired in ICU. The 30-day all-cause in-patient mortality was 42% (n = 19/45) for C. auris, 36% (n = 16/45) for C. albicans and 53% (n = 24/45) for C. glabrata.

CONCLUSIONS
C. auris is an emerging multi drug resistant threat in South Africa. Improved access to echinocandins and improvement of infection prevention and control strategies are imperative to prevent further morbidity and mortality due to this pathogen.


In order to use single heat pipe for multiple heat sources in electronics and space applications, a multibranch heat pipe with two evaporators and a condenser is developed with 20 internal grooves as a wick structure. Experimental investigation is carried out in the present study for axially grooved multibranch heat pipe (AGMBHP) by considering various parameters to obtain the best possible operating condition. AGMBHP is investigated for different filling ratios (range: 75% to 200%) in horizontal orientation for equal heat loads (0-240 W) and unequal heat loads (0-120 W) on evaporators. Heat pipe is tested for dynamic characteristic for optimum filling ratio range of 125% and 150%. Further, condenser cooling flowrate analysis and different orientation study is carried out and compared for horizontal, gravity assisted, anti-gravity and compound positions to understand the performance of heat pipe. AGMBHP is capable to transmit 240 W heat load with a minimum resistance of 0.192 C/W in horizontal orientation. The optimum condenser cooling water flowrate is found to be 5 ml/s under tested conditions. AGMBHP is capable to provide effective thermal conductivity as high as 31,824 W/m K which is quite suitable for electronics cooling. Orientation study revealed that horizontal orientation is comparatively better amongst all the other orientations for AGMBHP.


Justicia Linnaeus (1753: 15) is the largest genus in the family Acanthaceae with about 700 species mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Mabberley 2017). After a through scrutiny of literature and type specimens, it was found that the name of a Brazilian endemic species, Justicia fittonioides Lindau (1904: 411) is illegitimate as it is a later homonym of an African endemic species, Justicia fittonioides Moore (1878: 134). Therefore, a new name is proposed here in accordance with the article 53.1 of Shenzhen Code (Turland et al. 2018).


This thesis is concerned with the negotiations that Singapore women make as they traverse an ever-changing landscape that is caught in the local-global dialectic. Through field study and archival research the author investigates the effects of the globalization of the economy on the local practices of women. This thesis includes the global influences of the international division of labour, consumer culture and the media. Balancing the global is the local controls of the Singapore government, through various social mechanisms. The social landscape of Singapore and women's position in the landscape are central to the argument that women are especially affected by the globalization and the local controls. The multiple roles women play as they adapt to rapidly changing images of femininity and womanhood are discussed in the context of the local and the global through the cosmetics industry and the use of cosmetics. The agency of women is discussed as women were found to devise different looks to adapt to the many roles they are asked to play in their daily experiences. Women actively seek out methods to accommodate the changing social landscape in Singapore and cosmetics is one way they take control of their femininity as Singapore experiences the local-global dialectic.


The objective of this paper is to investigate and forecast the determinants of Montenegrin inflation empirically, using forecast combination methods, from January 2006 to December 2016, and out-of-sample 12-month horizon forecasting from January 2017 to December 2017. The main research problem is that given the struggle policymakers have had to define proper criteria to diagnose the onset of inflation indicators, we felt compelled to identify an approach and methodology that the government of Montenegro can use in the threshold to accessing the European Union. We examine three individual-predictor SVAR models to forecast inflation.  Model 1 examines the internal determinants of inflation. Model 2 relates to demand-pull and cost-push variables. Model 3 examines external determinants. Combining the above three forecasts, we disclose two more RMSEs: equal and inverse MSE weights. Model 1 predicts inflation at 1.3%, the inverse MSE at 1.5%, and the weighted average at 1.4%. They show forecasting performances that are sustainable and average inflation not more than 1.5% above the rate of the three best performing Member states: Cyprus (0.2%), Ireland (0.3%), and Finland (0.8%) over the 12 months covering April 2017-March 2018. Our findings allow the policymakers to understand the factors involved in identifying the onset of inflation dynamics and inflation expectations in Montenegro better and develop more effective government regulations that can be employed nationally. In so doing, this research advances and recommends the toolset needed, combining forecasts, to combat the concerns of many macroprudential policymakers in Montenegro, especially the Central Bank of Montenegro.


CK2 is an extremely conserved pleiotropic protein kinase with a growing list of more than 300 substrates, the majority of which are proteins implicated in signal transduction, gene expression and other nuclear functions. The CK2 phosphoacceptor sites are specified by multiple acidic residues, with the one at position +3 relative to the target residue being of crucial relevance. The CK2 holoenzyme is composed of two catalytic subunits (αα, α′α′ or αα′), which are essential for cell viability, and a dimer of two non-catalytic β subunits, whose precise function is still poorly understood. Although theβ subunits deeply affect many properties of CK2, both the isolated catalytic subunits and the holoenzyme are constitutively active, which is probably responsible for the oncogenic potential of CK2. Given the structure of the holoenzyme, the β subunits could undergo reversible dissociation under physiological conditions and play a role as anchoring elements and/or as a docking platform for protein substrates and effectors. These unusual features are likely to be instrumental in the involvement of CK2 in a number of key biological functions, notably RNA synthesis, Wnt signaling, ubiquitination and cell survival.


Carbohydrates are made up of starches, sugars, fiber, and filaments found in natural products, grains, vegetables and drain items. Although regularly censured in stylish diets, carbohydrates one of the fundamental nourishment bunches are imperative to a solid count calorie. Carbohydrates are the body's fundamental source of vitality: They makes a difference to fuel brain kidneys heart muscles and central anxious framework.


Fibrinogen (FG) precipitation by ristocetin is enhanced by lowering the temperature to 4 degrees C. The precipitate has similar properties to an acquired cryofibrinogen being resolubilised on rewarming to 37 degrees C, and the process of precipitation and resolubilsation can be repeated indefinitely by lowering and raising the temperature. Other plasma proteins are also precipitated by ristocetin, but to a lesser degree than FG. This property appears to have no relation to ristocetin's ability to aggregate platelets in the presence of von Willebrand's factor, since platelet aggregation by ristocetin is inhibited by lowering the temperature.


This paper compares RiskMetrics and several multivariate GARCH models that are used to forecast Value-at-Risk. We consider a data set that includes the benchmarks that SAMCo uses, the data consists of both fixed income and equity indices. We evaluate the forecasting power of the Value-at-Risk of these models by using the backtesting test and the Comparative Predictive Ability test (CPA). Also the economic significance of time-varying, predictable volatility is examined by using both the minimum-variance and the mean-variance asset allocation rules. We find that incorporating the asymmetry in the correlation between assets in the models to forecast Value-at-Risk bears fruit, as they have a better performance for the statistical tests. In general, assigning a Student-t distribution to the error terms leads to an improvement of the model according to the CPA-test. Finally, we find that it is unlikely that the gains to volatility-timing are due to chance.


Technology is one of the factors affecting the competitiveness of small industries. The higher the mastery of a small industrial technology can dominate the market. Technology here is not only physical facilities but also non-physical facilities such as a human, information and organization. UD Dua Udang and UD Naga Timur are SMEs engaged in the production of household appliances, one of which scop shoes. UD Naga Timur is on eof leader SME his business and includes one of the SMEs which have a market share larger than similar SMEs. UD Dua Udang is a newly established SMEs. This study discusses the performance evaluation technology of the two SMEs. The results of the assessment could use by UD Dua Naga to devise a strategy in order to compete with UD Naga Timur. Methods for assessing the performance of technology used was technometric (Technoware, Humanware, Infoware and Orgaware). From the research results that are both at the level of traditional technologies. UD Naga Timur got higher values for Infoware and Orgaware. UD Dua Udang should fix both of these components by improving the documentation system and also expanding its network by entering its products at a wholesale market in Surabaya and surrounding areas.


The topic of this paper is weak cosmic shear tomography where the line-of-sight weighting is carried out with a set of specifically constructed orthogonal polynomials, dubbed Tomography with Orthogonal Radial Distance Polynomial Systems (TaRDiS). We investigate the properties of these polynomials and employ weak convergence spectra, which have been obtained by weighting with these polynomials, for the estimation of cosmological parameters. We quantify their power in constraining parameters in a Fisher matrix technique and demonstrate how each polynomial projects out statistically independent information, and how the combination of multiple polynomials lifts degeneracies. The assumption of a reference cosmology is needed for the construction of the polynomials, and as a last point we investigate how errors in the construction with a wrong cosmological model propagate to misestimates in cosmological parameters. TaRDiS performs on a similar level as traditional tomographic methods and some key features of tomography are made easier to understand.


Reproduction of koalas was studied at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane, where 80% of births fall between October and January. Gestation ranges from 34 to 36 days. Females are monotocous. Those who wean their young in the first half of the breeding season breed again in the second half. Although polyoestrous, most females conceive at their first oestrus, except 2-y-olds. Males are mature at 3 y old, females at 2 y old. Young emerge from the pouch at 7 months, leave it completely at 9 months, and are weaned at approximately 12 months. Growth curves are provided. Those born early in the season grow faster than those born later; the age when growth ceases is unknown. Longevity is about 12y; and the sex ratio may be slightly biased towards females.


The vertical ladder-based protocols contribute to the NMJ junction's adaptations, and when combined with and without load, can be potentiated. The present study aimed to investigate postsynaptic regions of the biceps brachii muscle in adult male Wistar rats submitted to different vertical ladder-based protocols (Sedentary - S; Climbing - C; Climbing with Load - LC and Combined Climbing - CC). The protocols (C, LC, CC) were performed in 24 sessions, 3 x/week, for 8 weeks. The myofibrillar ATPase analysis showed an increase in crosssectional area (CSA) of the muscle fibers Type I in all trained Groups; Type II in C and LC and reduction in CC; Type IIx higher in all trained Groups. In the postsynaptic cleft, the stained area presents smaller in Groups C, LC, and CC; the total area showed smaller than LC and higher in C and CC. The stained and total perimeter, and dispersion showed a reduction in C, LC, and CC, higher maximum diameter in Groups C and CC, and decreased in LC. Regarding the postsynaptic cleft distribution, the stained area presented a decrease in all trained Groups. The integrated density presented higher principally in CC. The NMJ count showed an increase in all trained Groups. We concluded that the vertical ladder-based protocols combined contributed to the postsynaptic region adaptations.


Omi/HtrA2, a proapoptotic mitochondrial serine protease, is involved in both caspase-dependent and caspaseindependent apoptosis. A growing body of evidence indicates that Omi/HtrA2 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of a variety of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injuries. However, the role of Omi/HtrA2 in renal injuries that occur in neonates with asphyxia remains unknown. The present study was designed to investigate whether Omi/HtrA2 plays an important role in the types of renal injuries that are induced by neonatal postasphyxial serum. Human renal proximal tubular cell line (HK-2) cells were used as targets. A 20% serum taken from neonates one day after asphyxia was applied to target cells as an attacking factor. We initially included control and postasphyxial serum-attacked groups and later included a ucf-101 group in the study. In the postasphyxial serum-treated group, cytosolic Omi/HtrA2 and caspase-3 expression in HK-2 cells was significantly higher than in the control group. Moreover, the concentration of cytosolic caspase-3 was found to be markedly decreased in HK-2 cells in the ucf-101 group. Our results suggest both that postasphyxial serum has a potent apoptosis-inducing effect on HK-2 cells and that this effect can be partially blocked by ucf-101. Taken together, our results demonstrate for the first time that postasphyxial serum from neonates results in Omi/HtrA2 translocation from the mitochondria to the cytosol, where it promotes HK-2 cell apoptosis via a protease activity-dependent, caspase-mediated pathway.


AIMS
Pro-inflammatory response of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is triggered by endothelial damage and a causative step for thrombosis and neointimal thickening in the injured arterial vessels. Therefore, we investigate a role of cytosolic Hsp60 as a novel pro-inflammatory mediator in VSMCs.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Hsp60 was detected in the cytosol of VSMCs. The selective depletion of cytosolic Hsp60 in VSMCs reduced the IκB kinase activation, repressed the induction of nuclear factor (NF)-κB-dependent survival genes (MnSOD and Bfl-1/A1), and enhanced apoptotic death in response to TNF-α. Moreover, a quantitative RNA sequencing revealed that the expression of 75 genes among the 774 TNF-α-inducible genes was significantly reduced by the depletion of cytosolic Hsp60. In particular, the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, such as CCL2, CCL20, and IL-6, was regulated by the cytosolic Hsp60 in VSMCs. Finally, the depletion of cytosolic Hsp60 markedly inhibited the neointimal thickening in the balloon-injured arterial vessels by inducing apoptotic cell death and inhibiting chemokine production.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides the first evidence that cytosolic Hsp60 could be a therapeutic target for preventing VSMC hyperplasia and inflammatory response in the injured vessels.


Because of ignoring the semantic relations between words,traditional query expansion methods cannot achieve the desired goals to expand right keywords in the nonstandard short term. Linked Data technology exploits the graph structure of RDF( Resource Description Framework) to form Linked Open Data Cloud,and provides more semantic information. In order to take into account the semantic relationships,a new query expansion method based on semantic property feature graph was proposed by combining semantic Web and graph. It used DBpedia resources as nodes to build a RDF attribute graph in which the relevance of a node was given by its relations. First,15 kinds of semantic property weights for expressing semantic similarities between resources were obtained by supervised learning. Then,the query keywords were mapped to DBpedia resources based on the labelling properties in the whole graph of DBpedia. According to semantic features,the neighbor nodes were found out by breadth-first search and used as expansion candidate words. Eventually,the word sets with the highest relevance score values were selected as the query expansion terms. The experimental results show that compared with LODKeyword Expansion,the proposed method based on semantic graph achieves recall of 0. 89 and provides an increase of 4% in Mean Reciprocal Rank( MRR),which offers a better matching result to users.


BACKGROUND
The squid ink that is discarded as waste during processing can be effectively utilised as a gel enhancer in surimi gels, especially those prepared from dark-fleshed fish which have poor gel properties. It also acts as an antioxidant, inhibiting lipid oxidation. This investigation aimed to study the effect of melanin-free ink (MFI) from splendid squid (Loligo formosana) on properties and oxidative stability of surimi gel from sardine (Sardinella albella).

RESULTS
MFI (0-0.1 g kg(-1) surimi) increased the breaking force and deformation of sardine surimi gel in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). The addition of MFI had no effect on whiteness of surimi gels (P > 0.05). The expressible moisture content of gels decreased as the levels of MFI increased (P < 0.05). Based on a microstructure study, gel added with MFI at a level of 0.08 g kg(-1) surimi was denser and finer than that of the control (without MFI). Surimi gels with MFI had lower peroxide values, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, nonanal and 2-decenal.

CONCLUSION
MFI could improve the properties of sardine surimi gel. Additionally, it was able to prevent lipid oxidation in surimi gels during refrigerated storage.


Improvements in Internet technology, development of multimedia applications, protocols and improvement in user devices have led to the popularity of multimedia applications, among which video streaming applications are most popular. Streaming video services are sensitive to network conditions, thus making Quality of Experience (QoE) of end users sensitive to network conditions. QoE is affected by small disturbances in network conditions and end users observe this as blurred video or lost scenes. This may lead to end users giving up the service or switching to another network operator. To avoid this, network operators and service providers need to maintain QoE at a satisfactory level. The purpose of this study is to develop a monitoring method, which can monitor network congestion in Wi-Fi, based on QoE in HTTP video streaming services. This study proposes a QoE assessment method based on Machine Learning (ML), which allows network operators and service providers to predict QoE from network level measurements. This study was conducted in four steps. Initially, network monitoring probes were designed to measure key metrics that affect QoE, which involved development of QoE assessment model based on relationship between Quality of Service (QoS) and QoE, and implementation of an active measurement protocol called Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) for network level measurements. Subsequently, a direct link was established between subjective QoE and objective network measurements by designing various test cases. Data was collected by performing network measurements on a Wi-Fi testbed to study the impact of wireless rate adaptation and link utilization on QoE by loading WLAN with cross traffic on downlink or bi-directional paths along with YouTube video. A ML approach was then used to classify network level measurements into QoE levels. A set of ML algorithms: SVM, KNN and Logistic Regression were tested and evaluated to build a classification model to be used in network monitoring system module within network management system. Ultimately, the performance of the proposed QoE assessment method was evaluated using five test cases. The results show that this method performed well and give high classification accuracy in all cases. Outputs from this work may be used by network operators and service providers to modify their network management system by developing effective congestion management solutions to bring back QoE to satisfactory level. (Less)


ABSTRACT One of the most common chromosomal abnormalities in acute leukemia is a reciprocal translocation involving the HRX gene (also called MLL, ALL-1, or HTRX) at chromosomal locus 11q23, resulting in the formation of HRX fusion proteins. Using the yeast two-hybrid system and human cell culture coimmunoprecipitation experiments, we show here that HRX proteins interact directly with the GADD34 protein. We have found that transfected cells overexpressing GADD34 display a significant increase in apoptosis after treatment with ionizing radiation, indicating that GADD34 expression not only correlates with apoptosis but also can enhance apoptosis. The amino-terminal third of the GADD34 protein was necessary for this observed increase in apoptosis. Furthermore, coexpression of three different HRX fusion proteins (HRX-ENL, HRX-AF9, and HRX-ELL) had an anti-apoptotic effect, abrogating GADD34-induced apoptosis. In contrast, expression of wild-type HRX gave rise to an increase in apoptosis. The difference observed here between wild-type HRX and the leukemic HRX fusion proteins suggests that inhibition of GADD34-mediated apoptosis may be important to leukemogenesis. We also show here that GADD34 binds the human SNF5/INI1 protein, a member of the SNF/SWI complex that can remodel chromatin and activate transcription. These studies demonstrate, for the first time, a gain of function for leukemic HRX fusion proteins compared to wild-type protein. We propose that the role of HRX fusion proteins as negative regulators of post-DNA-damage-induced apoptosis is important to leukemia progression.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the contribution of the MHC class I chain-related A (MICA) gene polymorphism to the genetic risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

METHODS
HLA-DRB1-DQA1-DQB1 genotyping, MICA exon 5 microsatellite genotyping and HLA-B8 genotyping were performed in 48 Italian SLE patients and in 158 healthy control subjects.

RESULTS
Of HLA class II haplotypes, only DRB1*03-DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201 (DR3-DQ2) was significantly more frequent among SLE patients than among healthy control subjects [odds ratio (OR) = 6.5, corrected P < 0.0026]. HLA-B8 was detected in 31% SLE patients and 13% healthy control subjects (OR = 3.0, P = 0.005). The allele-wise comparison between patients and controls showed that both MICA5 (OR = 2.5, corrected P < 0.0005) and MICA5.1 (OR = 2.4, corrected P < 0.0005) were positively and MICA9 (OR = 0.2, corrected P < 0.0005) was negatively associated with the disease. The MICA5/5.1 genotype was positively associated with SLE (OR = 28.9, corrected P < 0.0015) also in subjects negative for DR3-DQ2 (OR > 22.6, corrected P < 0.011). The simultaneous presence of DR3-DQ2 and MICA5.1 was detected in 15/48 (31%) SLE and in 10/158 (6%) healthy control subjects (OR = 6.7, corrected P < 0.011). The simultaneous combination of DR3-DQ2 and MICA5 was found in 10/48 (21%) SLE patients and in only 1/158 healthy control subjects (OR = 41.3, corrected P < 0.011). Logistic regression analysis showed the independent positive associations of MICA5 and MICA5.1 and negative association of MICA9 with the disease, and revealed that the interaction of the three major markers (DR3-DQ2, MICA5 and MICA5.1) was associated with increasing genetic risk, which was highest (OR > 30.3) in DR3-DQ2-positive subjects carrying the MICA5-5.1 genotype.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study provides the first demonstration of the independent association of the MICA gene polymorphism with genetic risk of SLE.


We present video of gross-total resection of a large cerebellopontine angle tumor consisting of both vestibular and facial schwannoma components via the translabyrinthine route in a patient with neurofibromatosis type 2. The facial nerve is reconstructed using a greater auricular nerve graft, and an auditory brainstem implant is placed. Prior to surgery the patient had no facial nerve function on the operative side and had lost useful hearing. He also had usable vision only on the ipsilateral side and had contralateral vocal cord paralysis. The video can be found here: http://youtu.be/IOkEND-0vhI .


Simple Summary There is an increasing demand for information on the nutraceutical properties of food. Due to its bioactive components and high digestibility, goat milk is an excellent functional food. Dietary fat supplementation can further enrich the value of goat milk by modifying its acidic profile. Nevertheless, animal health can also benefit from lipids supplied with rations. In this review, the relationships between dietary fats and goat health status are summarized. Particular attention is paid to describing the effects of specific fatty acids on lipid metabolism and immune functionality. Abstract Fat supplementation has long been used in dairy ruminant nutrition to increase the fat content of milk and supply energy during particularly challenging production phases. Throughout the years, advances have been made in the knowledge of metabolic pathways and technological treatments of dietary fatty acids (FAs), resulting in safer and more widely available lipid supplements. There is an awareness of the positive nutraceutical effects of the addition of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to fat supplementation, which provides consumers with healthier animal products through manipulation of their characteristics. If it is true that benefits to human health can be derived from the consumption of animal products rich in bioactive fatty acids (FAs), then it is reasonable to think that the same effect can occur in the animals to which the supplements are administered. Therefore, recent advances in fat supplementation of dairy goats with reference to the effect on health status have been summarized. In vivo trials and in vitro analysis on cultured cells, as well as histological and transcriptomic analyses of hepatic and adipose tissue, have been reviewed in order to assess documented relationships between specific FAs, lipid metabolism, and immunity.


In this work we analyse the conceptions that the students of different degree of instruction use when they interpret and make predictions on the functioning of the electrical circuits, in various problematic situations. For this reason we have studied the evolution of such ideas, in different educational levels, from high school until the end their university studies. The obtained results have shown the existence of important differences of conceptual type between apprentices and experts and the persistence of numerous alternative conceptions in all the teaching levels, even in individuals who have finished their studies in the university and aspire to be physics teachers. Also we have observed that the students maintain a considerable degree of confidence in their personal conceptions and that this safety increases with the instruction level. On this base we have formulated, finally, some interesting implications for the teaching of the electrical circuits and the initial training of the secondary education teachers.


A neglected area in studying experimental interventions is to compare different disciplines with each other. This editorial performs an interdisciplinary analysis as it contrasts interventions in clinical drug trials with interventions in economic experiments. There are not only methodological similarities (method of difference and randomization) but also differences (blinding). The large number of similar challenges and problems in implementation and analysis (e.g., self-selection, the volunteer subject, and external validity) offers the potential for cross-fertilization of the two disciplines whether their language barriers can be overcome.


Many recent studies registered respiratory dysfunction after laparoscopic surgery; it is well known that the stimulation of the diaphragmatic tendon centre produces a typical shoulder pain. We hypothesize that diaphragmatic tendon centre stress causes postlaparoscopic ventilatory alterations; the aim of this study was to verify whether clinically respiratory dysfunction and shoulder pain relationship exists, after laparascopy with or without contemporaneous stimulation of gallbladder area. So we evaluated, preoperatively and 24 hours after the operation, 20 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy (CP), 20 gynaecological patients undergoing laparoscopic ovarian surgery (GP) and 20 control patients undergoing orthopaedic limbs operations (OP) by pulmonary function tests, using computerized spirometry. Diaphragm referred pain was assessed for location and intensity. No orthopaedic patient showed postoperatively pain or pulmonary dysfunction demonstrating that the typical postlaparoscopic restrictive pattern is independent of general anaesthesia. In the CP and GP groups postoperative pulmonary functions were significantly reduced if compared with the orthopaedic control group but not significantly different between them. Moreover, 8 patients from the CP group and 13 from the GP group referred diaphragmatic pain: they showed significantly greater reduction of pulmonary function in comparison with the patients without pain in the respective groups. We conclude that diaphragmatic dysfunction after pneumoperitoneum, and not gallbladder area stimulation, seems to play the most important role in the pathogenesis of both shoulder pain and respiratory restrictive abnormalities after laparoscopy.


Low energy assumption is one of design challenges for data transmission in sensor networks. In this paper, we firstly compare the total energy consumption rates of direct transmission protocol, hop-by-hop transmission protocol; direct-hop transmission protocol and energy-balanced transmission (EBT) approach by simulations, and identify the drawbacks of the above protocols respectively. Then a scheme called energy-efficient with optimal balanced-factor (EEOBF) by Transmission Range Adjustment is presented and a heuristic algorithm (HA) is given to choose the optimal route nodes and their transmission ranges. Simulation results show that our flexible approach not only can keep the energy consumption balancing among route nodes, but also can minimize the total energy consumption obviously.


Drug development is impeded by the need to design for each drug target a test that detects the binding of drug candidate molecules to the target protein. Therefore, a general method to detect ligand binding is highly desirable. Here, we present an observation toward developing such a method, which is based on monitoring a change in water absorption by infrared spectroscopy. Infrared spectroscopy has high sensitivity for water, and changes in its hydrogen bond pattern can be observed. We studied absorption changes of water upon the addition of phosphenolpyruvate or Mg(2+) to pyruvate kinase. In each case, there is a decrease in the absorption of water in the 3000-3100 cm(-1) region on the low wavenumber side of the OH stretching vibration when a ligand binds to the protein. Our results suggest that the weaker water absorption is due to the release of protein-bound water into bulk water during ligand binding. This observation has high potential for drug development as well as for basic research because it can lead to a general method for detecting molecular association events that (i) is label-free, (ii) works with both binding partners being in aqueous solution, and (iii) is based on a universal process that takes place in all binding events.


STAT3 is constitutively phosphorylated on tyrosine(705) in self-renewing, CD5(+) murine B-1 lymphocytes. Nuclear extracts from untreated primary B-1 or CD5(+) BCL(1) B lymphoma cells were found to contain immunoreactive STAT3 protein that binds to a sis-inducible element present in the promoter of the p21(waf1/cip1) tumor suppressor gene and is constitutively phosphorylated on serine(727). To determine the functional significance of constitutive STAT3 activation in B lymphoma cells, a specific STAT3 antisense oligonucleotide was developed and used to examine basal BCL(1) cell growth and IgM production. Abrogating STAT3 expression in BCL(1) cells inhibited their proliferative capacity and induced a corresponding decrease in secretion of IgM. Cell cycle analysis showed a block in progression through G1 in BCL(1) cells treated with the STAT3 antisense oligonucleotide. These results indicate that STAT3 controls cell growth and immunoglobulin secretion by enhancing progression through the G1 phase of the cell cycle in BCL(1) B cell lymphoma.


This article historicises the role of cooperatives within modern development and highlights the contemporary presence of cooperatives in local, national, regional and global spaces. The article emphasises the extent to which the people-centred character and the logic of solidarity within these institutions also constitute and shape the global economy, thus challenging the dominant image of the global economy as anchored around transnational corporations and 'pure global capitalism'. Moreover, the article highlights the case for cooperatives and the cooperative economy as an alternative to the neoliberal model of primitive accumulation. Central to this argument are the challenges this poses for an alliance between labour and cooperative movements to advance counter-hegemonic politics. There are times when, because the social order is collapsing, realism consists not of trying to manage what exists but of imagining, anticipating and initiating the potential transformations inscribed in present changes.


The four-coordinate scandium phosphinidene complex, [LSc(μ-PAr)]2 (L = (MeC(NDIPP)CHC(Me)(NCH2CH2N((i)Pr)2)), DIPP = 2,6-((i)Pr)2C6H3; Ar = 2,6-Me2C6H3) (1), has been synthesized in good yield, and its reactivity has been investigated. Although 1 has a bis(μ-phosphinidene)discandium structural unit, this coordinatively unsaturated complex shows high and versatile reactivity toward a variety of substrates. First, two-electron reduction occurs when substrates as 2,2'-bipyridine, elemental selenium, elemental tellurium, Me3P═S, or Ph3P═E (E = S, Se) is used, resulting in the oxidative coupling of two phosphinidene ligands 2[PAr](2-) into a diphosphene ligand [ArP-PAr](2-). Complex 1 easily undergoes nucleophilic addition reactions with unsaturated substrates, such as benzylallene, benzonitrile, tert-butyl isocyanide, and CS2. This complex also shows a peculiar reactivity to CO and Mo(CO)6, that includes C-P bond formation, C-C coupling and C-O bond cleavage of CO, to afford novel phosphorus-containing products. In the last two types of reactivity, reaction profiles have been computed (for the insertion of (t)BuNC and the CO activation by 1) at the DFT level. The unexpected/surprising sequence of steps in the latter case is also revealed.


The slag backfills of the former sulfuric acid factory of Mortagne-du-Nord (59) are sulfide- and metal-rich (Zn, Pb, Cd). Sulfide oxidation leads to acidification of surficial groundwater and the dispersal of the metals into the environment, by flow towards the rivers which run along the site. The surficial groundwater pHs fall between 2.5 and 6.8 and the metal content is very high, reaching in places 6 000 mg/L of Zn, 2.5 mg/L of Pb and 600 mg/L of Cd. To conceive a remediation scenario, we tried beforehand to understand the phenomena that govern the oxidation of the sulfides. For this purpose, water levels and water compositions have been surveyed every 2 months during 4 years, a geochemical simulation of the alteration/oxidation has been proposed and leaching tests have been performed.

1. The survey of the water table level and periodical chemical analyses of the groundwater have shown that the slag alteration is reactivated when the water table drops until the sulfide-bearing ≪ fresh ≫ slags are unsaturated.

2. The analysed waters always show an unbalanced negative ionic charge. Geochemical calculations allow to propose several equilibrium models of the waters and to conclude that the presence of thiosulfates (S2O23−) in the original waters most likely explains the observed ionic disequilibrium.

3. The geochemical modelling of the slag alteration, first by percolation in unsaturated conditions (allowing O2 supply) and then under saturated conditions (without O2 renewal), reproduces satisfactorily the chemistry of sampled groundwaters.

4. Leaching tests of the slags have been performed in the laboratory both by percolation (unsatured environment) and by cirulation (saturated and closed environment). These tests allowed to obtain alteration solutions comparable to the waters sampled on site, with progressive ≪ aging ≫ of the material, in agreement with the decrease of the dissolved metals observed on site during the 4-year survey. Moreover, the tests confirm the importance of the oxygen supply in the reactivation of the alteration.

The evolution of the groundwater chemistry, the thermodynamic modelling, as well as the leaching experiments allow to determine with some details the alteration/oxidation mechanism and show that: (1) alteration is actived or reactived after a drop of the water table within the sulfide-bearing facies, (2) the oxygen supply by diffusion in the poral air is the driving force of slag oxidation, and (3) maintaining the backfills in saturated conditions practically stops alteration.

The geochemical evolution of the site is directly related to its history, with successive re-profiling of the channels which have lead to a lowering of the water table of about 2 m. The remediation should be focused on in-situ processing (water treatment aimed to lower acidity, active barriers, …) rather than on ex-situ (excavation) solutions.


The role of adhesivity as a factor of virulence in cases of N. meningitidis has not yet been established. Unlike other bacteria in which the presence of adhesivity reflects an enhanced virulence, a high capacity of adherence is associated with a low virulence and invasive capacity in cases of meningococcus. In order to gain more insight into the knowledge of this phenomenon we have studied the adhesivity of 109 strains of N. meningitidis to human pharyngeal epithelial cells. Twenty nine out of the 109 strains were isolated from blood or spinal fluid of patients with meningococcal infection (meningitis or septicemia), whereas the remaining 80 strains were obtained from pharyngeal smears of healthy carriers. The adhesivity was measured as the number of meningococci adhered to 50 epithelial cells according to Craven's scale. Strains of healthy carriers showed a greater adhesivity than that of patients (p less than 0.001). The relevance of the pharyngeal area in the evaluation of the adhesive capacity is in accordance with the hypothesis that meningococcal adhesivity decreases when the microorganism crosses the pharyngeal epithelium. The results would support the concept that the virulence of N. meningitidis is related to its adhesiveness.


This article focuses on a socio-historical analysis of the activism of the student leaders of the MNEF, a French student association in charge of social security for students. Based on archival documents, it aims to understand what kind of socialisation these leaders acquired. Firstly, the article describes the activist environment that these young leaders belonged to. To understand their activist commitment, we must grasp the changing relations between the MNEF and other student organisations and political parties in the 1970s. These student activists were involved in two interconnected areas of socialisation. On the one hand, they were socialised as "militants", due to their involvement in broader militant movements (unions and political parties). On the other hand, they were socialised as "managers", which was specific to the MNEF given their unique status as young company directors. By focusing on how expertise was acquired and representations were internalised, this article ultimately covers a form of "capital accumulation" as activists, a factor that helps us understand why several of these young leaders later entered politics.


A structural import demand equation is derived and estimated for a large number of countries, using recent time-series techniques that address the problem of nonstationarity. The average price elasticity is close to zero in the short run but is slightly higher than one in the long run. A similar pattern holds for income elasticities: the short-run income elasticities are on average less than 0.5, while the long-run income elasticities are close to 1.5. The paper also analyses the small-sample properties of both the ordinary-least-squares (OLS) and the fully modified (FM) estimators of the short- and long-run elasticities, using Monte Carlo methods.


Introduction: Lung carcinoma is a leading cause of death. Early detection of the disease will improve the survival rate. An easy, inexpensive method for early detection or even screening at the practitioners office is lacking. Electronic noses use arrays of chemosensors for patterns describing individual breath. This abstract describes a proof of principle study for discriminating NSCLC from COPD using an electronic nose. Methods: 66 newly diagnosed (nd) NSCLC patients in the lung cancer group were compared to 73 COPD patients using a Cyranose 320 (Smith Detection) electronic nose. Gas samples were taken immediately after exhalation and raw files were transferred to a self developed pattern recognition software (DiagNose) to learn a common pattern for each ndNSCLC and COPD and then group each file.DiagNose software empoys neuronal network principles for pattern recognition. Results: Pattern analysis of all files correctly identified 62 of the 73 samples as COPD and 59 of the 66 samples as Carcinoma patients (sensitivity 84%; specificity 89%). Diskussion Patterns derived from breath analysis of NSCLC and COPD patients analyzed with a special software based on neuronal network techniques were able to correctly discriminate between cancer and COPD patients in the great majority of cases. Sensitivity and Specificity were both high. Further improvements with even more sophisticated algorithms may further improve these results. Our study demonstrates the potential of pattern recognition for early detection of lung carcinoma in a populationat risk.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Protein kinase C epsilon (PKCe) is among the six PKC isoforms (α, δ, e, η, μ, ζ) expressed in both mouse and human skin. We have reported that epidermal PKCe levels dictate the susceptibility of PKCe transgenic (TG) mice to the development of squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) elicited either by repeated exposures to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) or initiation with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene and tumor promotion with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Histologically, SCC in TG mice, like human SCC, is poorly differentiated and metastatic. To find clues about the mechanism by which PKCe may impart susceptibility to UVR-induced development of SCC, we compared the effects of UVR treatment of TG mice with their wildtype (WT) littermates on hair follicle putative stem cells (HSCs). HSCs in the mouse hair follicle are known to be the precursor cells for SCC in the mouse skin (Mol Carcinog. 46: 579-84, 2007). The cell surface markers CD34 and α6-integrin mark mouse hair follicle bulge cells, which have attributes of stem cells, including quiescence and multipotency. In this experiment, TG and WT mice were exposed to UVR (2kJ/m2, 3x weekly i.e, Monday, Wednesday, Friday) emitted by Kodacel-filtered FS-40 sun lamps. At 24 hr post last UVR (1, 2 or 4) exposures, mice were sacrificed and the dorsal skin removed for keratinocyte isolation. Keratinocytes were incubated for 30 minutes in the dark at 4oC with FITC-conjugated rat anti-human α6-integrin antibody at 10 μl per 106 cells and PE-conjugated rat anti-mouse CD34 antibody at 2 μg per 106 cells (FITC-α6-integrin and PE-CD34 antibodies; BD Biosciences). Flow cytometric analysis was done using a BD Biosciences FACS Calibur flow cytometer using a 488 nm laser as excitation. For both untreated and treated mice, the percent of double positive cells was higher in the TG than in WT mice. Both acute and chronic UVR treatment increased (2-fold) the number of double positive cell in both TG and WT mice. To examine the rate of proliferation of bulge region stem cells, a 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine labeling (BrdU) experiment was performed. Three-day old neonatal mice were injected twice daily for three days with 50 mg/kg of BrdU in PBS. At 8 weeks of age mice were sacrificed and the dorsal skin harvested for keratinocytes. The cells were stained for α6-integrin and CD34, fixed then stained for BrdU. In the WT mice, the percent of double positive cells maintaining BrdU label was 28.4 + 0.6% compared to 4.0 + 0.06% for the TG mice, an approximately 7-fold decrease in the TG mice. Similar results were obtained in a repeat experiment, indicating that the double positive cells in the TG mice cycle at a faster rate. This may contribute to the sensitivity of these transgenic animals to UVR-induced development of squamous cell carcinomas (Support: NIH grants CA102431 and CA35368 T32ES007015).

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5151.


In recent years, modern technologies have found large applications in sectors such as engineering, healthcare, information technology, robotics, and so forth. One important field in the use of such modern technologies is the field of air transport, where the main objective of using these technologies is to facilitate work for people, make individual tasks more efficient and faster, or reduce the risks associated with human error. In this paper, we will look at artificial intelligence and its use in aviation. Despite the rapid pace of improvement, artificial intelligence is still finding its way to reach its full potential. The history of artificial intelligence dates back to ancient times when many philosophers wondered whether a machine could think. The answer is found in the second half of the 20th century, when, besides theoretical knowledge, we can also observe the first intelligent machines. There is no clear and single correct definition for artificial intelligence, so the subject of the next section is to define artificial intelligence from different sources. The following section details the difference between deep learning and machine learning, comparing their main differences and applications in aviation. The analysis of the current state of application of artificial intelligence in aviation represents the core part of this paper. The emphasis in the analysis is put mainly on applications in the field of airports, air traffic management and safety. In each of these areas, the benefits of using AI are evaluated based on already established AI-enabled technologies. Finally, by analysing the sources available and those applied in our work with the use of a mathematical model, we assess how important the role artificial intelligence currently plays in air transport.


Classical approaches to engineer skeletal muscle tissue based on current regenerative and surgical procedures still do not meet the desired outcome for patient applications. Besides the evident need to create functional skeletal muscle tissue for the repair of volumetric muscle defects, there is also growing demand for platforms to study muscle-related diseases, such as muscular dystrophies or sarcopenia. Currently, numerous studies exist that have employed a variety of biomaterials, cell types and strategies for maturation of skeletal muscle tissue in 2D and 3D environments. However, researchers are just at the beginning of understanding the impact of different culture settings and their biochemical (growth factors and chemical changes) and biophysical cues (mechanical properties) on myogenesis. With this review we intend to emphasize the need for new in vitro skeletal muscle (disease) models to better recapitulate important structural and functional aspects of muscle development. We highlight the importance of choosing appropriate system components, e.g., cell and biomaterial type, structural and mechanical matrix properties or culture format, and how understanding their interplay will enable researchers to create optimized platforms to investigate myogenesis in healthy and diseased tissue. Thus, we aim to deliver guidelines for experimental designs to allow estimation of the potential influence of the selected skeletal muscle tissue engineering setup on the myogenic outcome prior to their implementation. Moreover, we offer a workflow to facilitate identifying and selecting different analytical tools to demonstrate the successful creation of functional skeletal muscle tissue. Ultimately, a refinement of existing strategies will lead to further progression in understanding important aspects of muscle diseases, muscle aging and muscle regeneration to improve quality of life of patients and enable the establishment of new treatment options.


INTRODUCTION
Little is known regarding systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria and mortality in developing countries. We evaluated the utility of the SIRS criteria to predict death among a paediatric surgical population in Lilongwe, Malawi.

METHODS
Age, SIRS variables (temperature, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, respiratory rate and leucocyte count), diagnosis, surgical procedure and outcome were analysed for paediatric surgical patients during 2012. Age-specific criteria for SIRS variables were then applied to the data.

RESULTS
Using published SIRS criteria, temperature was the only variable that correlated with mortality. When norms for an African population were used, leucocyte count also correlated with mortality.

DISCUSSION
With the exception of temperature, published SIRS criteria were not predictive of mortality. Leucocyte count became predictive of death using norms specific to an African population. SIRS and its component data are a worthwhile area of future prospective research in developing countries.


Background and Aims Evoked potentials are a useful non-invasive method for the assessment of neurological status in term and preterm infants at risk for perinatal CNS damage. The present study intended to gather reference values of visual evoked potentials (VEP) for preterm and term neonates and identify neonates at risk for perinatal CNS lesions using VEPs. Methods 23 healthy preterm and term neonates (group A) and 16 infants with perinatal brain injury (group B) were examined for this study. Groups were classified according to their post-conceptual age (A1/B1: 42–45 weeks, n=4/6; A2/B2: 38–41 weeks, n=5/8; A3: 36–37 weeks, n=12; A4/B3: < 36 weeks, n=2/2). Stimulation was triggered by stroboscopic flashes (1 Hz/10 µs) and P1 and N2 waves were analyzed. Results Latencies significantly correlated with post-conceptual age (P1: p<0.001, N2: p<0.05) and gestational age (P1: p<0.01). The average latency values (mean±SD) of the subgroups were: group A1 (P1:165.7ms±33.5; N2:211.5ms±29.9), A2 (P1: 199.6ms±34.2; N2:255.6ms±25.8), A3 (P1:223.8ms±14.7; N2:272.1ms±13.5), A4 (P1:240 resp. 209ms; N2:242 resp. 233ms). Average latencies of term infants with or without perinatal injury differed significantly for P1 (228.8 ms±30.9 vs. 165.7ms±33.5; p<0.05) and N2 (266.0 ms±21.1 vs. 211.5ms±29.9; p<0.01). Conclusions The present study adds to the knowledge on normal VEP values during early development. Present data showed a negative correlation with post-conceptual age for central latencies as an equivalent of progressing myelination regardless of extra- or intrauterine maturation. Term infants with perinatal brain injury showed significantly prolonged VEP latencies compared to healthy children.


Cold-induced sweetening and browning in the Maillard reaction have driven extensive research in the areas of plant physiology, biochemistry, and food science in Solanum tuberosum because of its importance to the potato-processing industry. Prior research has not characterized wild Solanum relatives of potato for tuber composition and has not determined if relationships between tuber composition and chip color after cold storage in wild species are comparable to those found for cultivated potato. Extensive inter- and intraspecific variation for chip color and tuber composition were found in the wild Solanum species examined. Tuber sugar profiles suggested that invertase activity at low temperatures differed between and within species. Tuber fructose, glucose, and sucrose concentrations partially explained chip color variation in most accessions, but asparagine concentration and percent dry matter did not. Most wild species had reducing sugar concentrations and chip color scores after 2 degrees C storage that were less than those in S. tuberosum cultivar Snowden. Sugar profiles and relationships between specific sugars and chip color in Solanum pinnatisectum were unique among the species examined.


Electronic-photonic integrated circuits (EPICs) are a promising technology for overcoming bandwidth and power-consumption bottlenecks of traditional integrated circuits. Silicon is a good candidate for building such devices, due to its high-index contrast and low propagation loss at telecom wavelengths. This work presents recent advances in demonstrating discrete components built in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platforms, around 1550 nm, that can be used as building blocks for future EPIC systems. The work covers several microring-based structures suitable for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) applications, such as hitless single-ring filters, multi-channel second-order tunable filterbanks, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) with telecom-grade specifications, and dynamical slow light cells for delay lines and optical memory elements.


Background In early rheumatoid arthritis (eRA), predictors of clinical response and of radiographic progression would be very useful for optimal targeting of available therapies. Individual biomarkers as well as combinations of biomarkers, such as the MBDA test, can be considered for these purposes. In the SWEFOT study, patients with eRA (symptom duration < 1 year) were started on methotrexate (MTX); at 3 months, responders (DAS28 ≤ 3.2) continued MTX monotherapy and were followed in regular care, whereas non-responders were randomized to receive either triple DMARD therapy or the addition of infliximab. Objectives To study the MBDA score and the levels of the 12 individual biomarkers at baseline (BL) as predictors of clinical response at 3 months and radiographic progression at 1 year in eRA. Methods Analyses were performed for patients from the SWEFOT trial who had BL and 3-month assessments of DAS28 (based on ESR), and the MBDA score and the 12 individual biomarkers at BL; and for a subset of patients who also had radiographs at BL and 1 year time-points (assessed using the Van der Heijde modified Sharp score [SvdH]). Patients with DAS28 > 3.2 at 3 months were considered clinical non-responders, and patients with a change in SvdH > 0 as radiographic progressors ("radiological non-responders"). Group comparisons of biomarkers and MBDA scores were performed by Mann-Whitney U test. Results The results are summarized in the table below. Clinical non-responders had significantly higher BL values for CRP and IL-6 compared to responders. TNF-R1 and VCAM-1 were significantly lower for non-responders, while other biomarkers and the MBDA did not differ. The patients who progressed radiographically had, at BL, significantly higher MBDA scores, inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, SSA and IL-6), MMP-1, MMP-3 and TNF-R1, as well as a trend towards higher VEGF. Conclusions In eRA patients treated initially with MTX, individual biomarkers at BL may help identify those patients who are less likely to achieve DAS28 ≤ 3.2 after 3 months of MTX therapy. In addition, the MBDA score and individual biomarkers at BL may identify patients at higher risk for radiographic progression during the first year of therapy. Disclosure of Interest K. Hambardzumyan: None Declared, S. Saevarsdottir: None Declared, R. Bolce Shareholder of: Crescendo Bioscience, Employee of: Crescendo Bioscience, K. Forslind: None Declared, S. Ernestam: None Declared, I. Petersson: None Declared, P. Geborek: None Declared, D. Chernoff Shareholder of: Crescendo Bioscience, Consultant for: Crescendo Bioscience, D. Haney Shareholder of: Crescendo Bioscience, Employee of: Crescendo Bioscience, E. Sasso Shareholder of: Crescendo Bioscience, Employee of: Crescendo Bioscience, R. van Vollenhoven Grant/research support from: AbbVie, BMS, GSK, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, UCB, Consultant for: AbbVie, BMS, GSK, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, UCB


Economic literature recognises human capital as a key factor in productivity growth. The objective of the present paper is to verify whether and how human capital influenced the growth of total factor productivity in Italian agriculture. Analysis is performed on a panel of the Italian provinces over the 1951-91 period, the empirical production function being constructed through a DEA frontier approach after testing the input set specification. Subsequently output-oriented Malmquist indexes constructed with and without human capital indicators in the production set are computed. The results obtained show that human capital has not improved the use of agricultural resources directly, as an additional input in the production function; the growth of total factor productivity in Italian agriculture was the result of the accumulation of human capital and not of the initial endowment. Furthermore, human capital acted as a non-neutral production factor and primary education was no more effective than higher education in improving the use of resources in agriculture.


Abstract Hepatic artery variations increase the difficulty of laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD). The safety and efficacy of LPD in the presence of aberrant hepatic arteries (AHA) must be further verified. Patients with normal and variant hepatic arteries who underwent LPD and preoperative arterial angiography were retrospectively analyzed. Variation type, intraoperative management, and clinical treatment outcomes were compared. There were 54 cases (24.8%) of AHA. The most common hepatic artery variation was accessory right hepatic artery (RHA) from the superior mesenteric artery (SMA, n = 12, 5.5%), followed by replaced RHA from the SMA (n = 10, 4.6%), accessory left hepatic artery from the SMA (n = 10, 4.6%), and replaced common hepatic artery from the SMA (n = 6, 2.8%). Each type of arterial variation was successfully preserved in all cases, and there were no significant effects on the evaluated surgical indices, conversion rate, incidence of postoperative complications, or follow-up results. Our findings indicated that preservation of AHAs during total LPD is feasible. There were no significant effects on surgical indices, incidence of postoperative complications, or follow-up outcomes. The influence of AHA on the safety and efficacy of LPD must be further verified. Patients with normal and variant hepatic arteries who underwent LPD and preoperative arterial angiography were retrospectively analyzed. There were 54 cases (24.8%) of AHA. There were no significant effects of AHAs on surgical indices, incidence of postoperative complications, or follow-up outcomes.


The ability to programmatically assemble colloidal micro/nanostructures into highly ordered superstructures is of great importance in both fundamental studies and practical applications. In addition to the sophisticated manipulation of the short-range and long-range interactions imposed on the colloidal building blocks, the intrinsic shape elements including face, edge, corner, concave, convex, and curvature also play very important roles in solving the "jigsaw puzzle" of the superstructures. Here, the recent progress in the development of colloidal assembly strategies for the formation of complex superstructures is reviewed, with a primary focus on the unique effects of the morphology of the building blocks to the assembly processes and the final structures. Overall, this Review aims to shed light on the fundamental understanding of the colloidal behaviors of complex micro/nanostructures and promote the continued development of effective strategies for the creation of functional materials with complex compositions and morphologies.


Indoor positioning system is a key component for developing various location based services such as indoor navigation in large complex buildings (e.g., commercial center and hospital). Meanwhile, it is challenging to design a cost effective solution which is able to provide high accuracy. A new method, namely Two-Step Movement (2SM), was proposed in [1] to demonstrate how to build a positioning system which requires only one Reference Point (RP) by exploiting user movement. The method can offer good precision and minimize the number of RPs required so as to reduce system implementation cost. Built on 2SM, here we first improve the positioning performance through multi-sampling technique to combat measurement noise. Secondly, we propose the Generalized Two-Step Movement (G2SM) method for device-to-device (D2D) systems in which both the mobile terminal (MT) and RP can be mobile device. The mobile user's position can be derived analytically and given in simple closed-form expression. Its effectiveness in the presence of noise is shown in simulation results.