Much research into young people's developing sexuality is concerned with risk avoidance and the reduction of negative outcomes. Little research has been conducted into sexual self-exploration and, in particular, masturbation among young people, and this has generally been concerned merely with its prevalence. Little is known about the potential role of masturbation in relation to young people's developing sexuality, especially among young women. This study aimed to explore, using a qualitative approach, how young women reported their experiences of masturbation and whether and how these related to other aspects of their sexual activity. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was employed to identify the range of reported experiences across participants, as well as the relations between various aspects of sexual development and experiences within participants. The findings revealed a broad continuum of views and opinions on female masturbation, which had strong links with parent and partner communication and the young women's beliefs and values concerning their sexual selves. The article concludes by drawing attention to the apparent relation between positive early childhood communication, young women's positive views of their sexual self, and their subsequent sexual activity.


The search for newer cytotoxic agents has taken many paths in the recent years and in fact some of these efforts led to the discovery of some potent cytotoxic agents. Though the vast number of targets of tumor progression has been identified recently, kinases remained key targets in drug design. It is well established that inhibition of JNK1, a serine/threonine protein kinase delays tumor formation. Poly hydroxylated chromenone analog, quescetagetin, inhibits JNK1. As a part of design of coumarin based JNK1 inhibitors, docking studies and 4D QSAR studies were carried out. 3- pyrazolyl substituted coumarin derivatives were chosen for these studies. Docking studies revealed that 3-pyrazolyl substituted coumarins make key interactions with residues at active site of JNK1. In order to investigate the structural features required in these inhibitors, 4D QSAR studies using LQTAgrid module were carried out. The 4D QSAR model built with PLS regression on the matrix of variables specific for interaction energies at each grid point around the molecular dynamics generated conformations of individual compounds shows good predictive abilities. The squared correlation coefficient, R(2) for the model is 0.785, R(2) cross-validated (Q(2)) is 0.698, R(2) predicted is 0.701. Most of the descriptors contributing to 4D QSAR model are Coulombic potential energy based descriptors which highlight the importance of specific atoms in coumarin derivatives in generating these electrostatic potential at specific grid points with the -NH3 probe. We rationalize that solvent accessible van der Waals surface area around such compounds is good measure of this Coulombic potential energy and can be exploited in designing more active compounds.


New information technology is developing faster than the models, metaphors and methods in use for conceptualizing the sharing and managing of information in organizations, in communities and in society in general. The way we utilize information technology today does not seem to succeed in supporting the everyday work practices through which organizations accomplish their work. In this Ph.D. dissertation, the results of a research project about skill, cooperation and computer support in public service one-stop shops are presented and discussed. Based on these results, alternative metaphors are presented for understanding the constructive aspects of front office work practices. One hypothesis is, that there is added value in not only being aware of multiperspectivity as an issue, but of making use of it in design. A problem here is that many traditional research methods, as well as most methods for systems development, are designed to diminish rather than make use of ambiguity and diversity. The metaphor of inverted indexicality of language is introduced in order to conceptualize the construction of meaning in action. New ways of conceptualizing IT management for the shop floor - including design issues - are proposed. Metaphors like 'the art of IT management', 'gardening' and 'caring for' are indicative of the issues at stake.


OBJECTIVE
This study describes experiences of work empowerment among staff members at the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital in Helsinki, Finland.

METHODS
The data were collected on two occasions in 2004 and 2005 using a structured questionnaire with background variables and items concerning verbal, behavioural and outcome empowerment. The questionnaires were sent to all (n1=115, n2=112) members of multidisciplinary teams at the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, with the exception of physicians, departmental secretaries and administrative personnel. The response rate at both data collections was 58%. The data were analysed by statistical methods.

RESULTS
No statistically significant differences were seen in work empowerment between the two data collections. Perceptions of work-related empowerment were relatively strong.

CONCLUSIONS
Work-related empowerment appears to be relatively constant and independent of changes in the organization. Indeed there is good reason to ask whether work empowerment is primarily a function of the individual employee's strengths and competencies.


Abstract: The fuel moisture content (FMC) of forest litter strongly affects fire ignition and behaviour, and is a key factor in planning when and where to burn. Planned burns are safest and most efficient when FMC lies within a narrow range (9 % 17 %). Drier fuels (<9% FMC) can burn too intensely and fires may be difficult to control, while wetter fuels (>17% FMC) may fail to ignite and/or burn poorly. Planned burning is associated with real risks of escape, and large annual operational costs (e.g. in the order of several $100M's per year in several Australian states), but in the absence of reliable estimates of FMC, fire behaviour predictions are compromised, and many burning opportunities may be missed, leading to the inefficient allocation of resources and compromising strategic burn planning.


The occurrence of the ammonite Discamphiceras cf. silberlingi Guex in a core 25 cm above the base of dark, bituminous shales of the lowermost Fernie Formation in the subsurface of northwestern Alberta establishes their middle to late Hettangian age. Associated coccoliths suggest a possible late Hettangian to early Sinemurian age, which is the oldest so far assigned to these shales and differs considerably from both the Sinemurian age of the type Nordegg Member of the outcrop belt and the Pliensbachian age of its supposed basinal equivalents ("Nordegg Member" of some recent authors).


In this paper, steerable filters are used in the evaluation of geophysical data. Steerable filters are band-pass filters having direction property. In extraction of directional properties, input data is passed through various directed band pass filters and then grouped into sub-bands. Here, to present the performance of steerable filters, we have chosen synthetic examples having various direction properties and tried to find out the borders of these samples. As a field study, we have used gravity anomaly map of Konya region. The anomalies caused by buried faults are evaluated for different angles and obtained fault map of the region is compared to previous geological results.


This study investigated how a decrease in neuronal activity affects cerebral blood oxygenation employing a paradigm of acoustically triggered saccades in complete darkness. Known from behavioral evidence as saccadic suppression, electrophysiologically it has been shown in monkeys that during saccades an attenuation of activity occurs in visual cortex neurons (Duffy and Burchfiel, 1975). In study A, using blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors observed signal intensity decreases bilaterally at the occipital pole during the performance of saccades at 2 Hz. In study B.1, the authors directly measured changes in deoxyhemoglobin [deoxy-Hb] and oxyhemoglobin [oxy-Hb] concentration in the occipital cortex with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Whereas a rise in [deoxy-Hb] during the performance of saccades occurred, there was a drop in [oxy-Hb]. In a second NIRS study (B.2), subjects performed saccades at different rates (1.6, 2.0, and 2.3 Hz). Here the authors found the increase in deoxy-Hb and the decrease of oxy-Hb to be dependent on the frequency of the saccades. In summary, the authors observed a focal hypooxygenation in the human visual cortex dependent on the saccade-frequency in an acoustically triggered saccades paradigm. This could be interpreted as evidence that corresponding to the focal hyperoxygenation observed in functional brain activation, caused by an excessive increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) over the increase in CMRO2 during decreased neuronal activity CBF, is more reduced than oxygen delivery.


A highly anticipated use of quantum computers is the simulation of complex quantum systems including molecules and other many-body systems. One promising method involves directly applying a linear combination of unitaries (LCU) to approximate a Taylor series by truncating after some order. Here we present an adaptation of that method, optimized for Hamiltonians with terms of widely varying magnitude, as is commonly the case in electronic structure calculations. We show that it is more efficient to apply LCU using a truncation that retains larger magnitude terms as determined by an iterative procedure. We obtain bounds on the simulation error for this generalized truncated Taylor method, and for a range of molecular simulations, we report these bounds as well as exact numerical results. We find that our adaptive method can typically improve the simulation accuracy by an order of magnitude, for a given circuit depth.


BACKGROUND: Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a somatopsychic illness triggered by changing levels of sex steroids that accompany an ovulatory menstrual cycle. It affects about 3% to 8% of women in their reproductive years. The symptoms of this disorder are primarily affective. The disturbance markedly interferes with work, school or with usual social activities and relationships with others. OBJECTIVE: Are to determine the prevalence and the sociodemographic factors in relation to PMDD and to find out the characteristic features of premenstrual symptoms and their impact on daily living. METHOD: 145 women aged between 18 and 55 years with regular menstrual cycles who met the diagnostic criteria of PMDD out of 1792, were assessed regarding their premenstrual symptoms using the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST). The study was conducted in 1st August 2009 until 31 th December 2009. RESULTS: The study revealed that 8.1% of women met the diagnostic criteria of PMDD. It was found more common among younger females 36.5% (18-25years of age), the majority of them were married (71%).


We show experimentally that a high-resolution imaging radar operating at 576-605 GHz is capable of detecting weapons concealed by clothing at standoff ranges of 4-25 m. We also demonstrate the critical advantage of 3-D image reconstruction for visualizing hidden objects using active-illumination coherent terahertz imaging. The present system can image a torso with <1 cm resolution at 4 m standoff in about five minutes. Greater standoff distances and much higher frame rates should be achievable by capitalizing on the bandwidth, output power, and compactness of solid state Schottky-diode based terahertz mixers and multiplied sources.


The main aim of this paper is to define and investigate a new class of symmetric beta type distributions with the help of the symmetric Bernstein-type basis functions. We give symmetry property of these distributions and the Bernstein-type basis functions. Using the Bernstein-type basis functions and binomial series, we give some series and integral representations including moment generating function for these distributions. Using generating functions and their functional equations, we also give many new identities related to the moments, the polygamma function, the digamma function, the harmonic numbers, the Stirling numbers, generalized harmonic numbers, the Lah numbers, the Bernstein-type basis functions, the array polynomials, and the Apostol–Bernoulli polynomials. Moreover, some numerical values of the expected values for the logarithm of random variable are given.


As with SV40-transformed BHK cells (1), pretreatment of BHK cells with 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (araC) very markedly enhanced the resistance frequency to N-phosphonoacetyl-L-aspartate (PALA) but only modestly increased the resistance frequency to vincristine (VCR). AraC pretreatment of cells that already had moderate VCR-resistance again only modestly enhanced the resistance frequency at a higher VCR concentration. By contrast, delaying the addition of VCR to BHK cells by 7-24 hours after pretreatment with araC increased the enhancement of VCR-resistance frequency to a level comparable to the enhancement of PALA-resistance frequency. VCR-resistant clones isolated without or after araC pretreatment were analysed for amplification of the multidrug resistance (mdr) gene. One of four clones isolated by single-step selection with no araC pretreatment and four of six clones isolated after araC pretreatment showed amplification of the mdr gene. All VCR-resistant clones tested were cross-resistant to actinomycin D and VCR-resistance was inhibited by treatment with verapamil.


A small-signal model of the synchronous-switch post regulator with coupled inductors is developed. Performance variations of the synchronous switch post regulator due to different coupling coefficients are investigated. Comparison of the multiple-output converter using the technique of post regulation with the multiple-output converter using the scheme of weighted-mode control is also discussed. Experiments are given to verify the validity of the proposed small-signal model.


Backgrounds/Aims Choledochal cyst of the bile duct is characterized by cystic dilatation of the intra- or extrahepatic bile ducts. It is a relatively uncommon disease and there is still much controversy regarding its etiology as being congenital or acquired. Methods The medical records of 60 patients who underwent surgical treatments for choledochal cyst between April 1995 and April 2009 at the Gachon University Gil Hospital were reviewed retrospectively. To compare the clinical characteristics, patients under 19 years of age were grouped into children and the others were grouped into adults. Results Of the overall 60 patients, 24 were grouped into children and 36 were grouped into adults. Female predominance was common in both groups (M : F=1 : 6.5). The most common clinical symptom was abdominal pain (73.3%) in both groups. Children had remarkable jaundice (33.3% vs. 0%) and gastrointestinal symptoms including nausea and vomiting. Fever and chills were more common in children because of the associated complications of cholangitis. According to the Todani classification, type I was the most common form of choledochal cyst in both groups, and type IVa was significantly more common in children than adults (45.3% vs. 16.7%). Thirty patients (50%) had anomalous pancreaticobiliary ductal union which was confirmed by preoperative imaging studies or intraoperative cholangiography. All patients except for one child underwent cyst excision with hepaticojejunostomy. Conclusion There was no significant difference in the clinical characteristics of choledochal cysts between children and adults. However, combined diseases especially bile duct malignancy were common in aged patients, early detection and more aggressive surgery is necessary for patients with choledochal cysts.


Despite using multiple concurrent processors, a typical high performance parallel application is long-running, taking hours, even days to arrive at a solution. To modify a running high performance parallel application, the programmer has to stop the computation, change the code, redeploy, and enqueue the updated version to be scheduled to run, thus wasting not only the programmer's time, but also expensive computing resources. To address these inefficiencies, this article describes how dynamic software updates can be used to modify a parallel application on the fly, thus saving the programmer's time and using expensive computing resources more productively. The net effect of updating parallel applications dynamically reduces their time-to-discovery metrics, the total time it takes from posing a problem to arriving at a solution. To explore the benefits of dynamic updates for high performance applications, this article takes a two-pronged approach. First, we describe our experience in building and evaluating a system for dynamically updating applications running on a parallel cluster. We then review a large body of literature describing the existing state of the art in dynamic software updates and point out how this research can be applied to high performance applications. Our experimental results indicate that dynamic software updates have the potential to become a powerful tool in reducing the time-to-discovery metrics for high performance parallel applications.


Context. We previously explored the circumstellar effects on Rb and Zr abundances in a sample (21) of massive Galactic O-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Here we are interested in clarifying the role of the extended atmosphere in the case of Li and Ca. Li is an important indicator of hot bottom burning while the total Ca abundances in these stars could be affected by neutron captures.
Aims. We report new Li and Ca abundances in a larger sample (30) of massive Galactic O-rich AGB stars by using more-realistic extended model atmospheres. Li abundances had previously studied with hydrostatic models, while the Ca abundances have been determined here for the first time.
Methods. We used a modified version of the spectral synthesis code Turbospectrum and consider the presence of a gaseous circumstellar envelope and radial wind in the modelling of the spectra of these massive AGB stars. The Li and Ca abundances were obtained from the 6708 Å Li I and 6463 Å Ca I resonance lines, respectively. In addition, we studied the sensitivity of the pseudo-dynamical models to variations of the stellar and wind parameters.
Results. The Li abundances derived with the pseudo-dynamical models are very similar to those obtained from hydrostatic models (the average difference is 0.18 dex, σ2 = 0.02), with no difference for Ca. This indicates that the Li and Ca content in these stars is only slightly affected by the presence of a circumstellar envelope. We also found that the Li I and Ca I line profiles are not very sensitive to variations of the model wind parameters.
Conclusions. The new Li abundances confirm the Li-rich (and super Li-rich, in some cases) nature of the sample stars, supporting the activation of hot bottom burning in massive Galactic AGB stars. This is in good agreement with the theoretical predictions for solar metallicity AGB models from ATON, Monash, and NuGrid/MESA but is at odds with the FRUITY database, which predicts no hot bottom burning leading to the production of Li. Most (20) sample stars display nearly solar (within the estimated errors and considering possible non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effects) Ca abundances that are consistent with the available s-process nucleosynthesis models for solar metallicity massive AGB stars, which predict overproduction of 46Ca relatively to the other Ca isotope and the creation of the radioactive isotope 41Ca (half life of 0.1 Myr) but no change in the total Ca abundance. A minority (five) of the sample stars seem to show a significant Ca depletion (by up to 1.0 dex). Possible explanations are offered to explain their apparent and unexpected Ca depletion.


The element of carnival-masquerade offers a wide lens through which to view black-white race relations by mirroring and magnifying racial practices in the United States. Perhaps no work of African American literature exemplifies this point more sharply than Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952), which intensifies the narrator's perceptions of race by viewing various images of whiteness and blackness through carnival's distorted mirrors. (1) While this grotesque exaggeration reflects the particularly jaundiced twentieth-century condition of race in the United States, it also involves a re-assessment of carnivalesque perception itself, for precisely in the simultaneously distorted and imagined field of vision, the Invisible Man gains a sense of his own potential to maneuver, be creative, and magically "see around corners" (13). Carnival, as it were, includes an ambiguous space in which subjects assume several racial and class positions to negotiate as well as consent to specific power relations through psychic a nd social forms of masquerade: not just during carnival but also in the more normalized "carnivalisms" that appear in the cross-cultural and intra-racial performances of everyday life. (2) The discussion that follows analyzes the theoretical terms of engagement concerning the concept and practice of carnival-masquerade and then addresses how these ideas on carnival relate to Ellison's Invisible Man and African American culture more generally. Along these lines I suggest that carnival emerges in the text--and in historical context--in a complex mutuality of U.S. racial imagining that involves masking, magic, and ritual sacrifice. These elements create the condition of possibility for a distinct carnival poetics that the Invisible Man can use to redefine himself in terms of the socially responsible and artistic role that he intends to play. This carnival poetics, I argue, is significantly mediated through play itself--the space of creative distortion and experimentation in the African American tradition. Theoretical Considerations: From the "Carnivalesque" to a New World Carnival Poetics The festival of carnival, as a concept and cultural practice, has been expressly noted by literary critics such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Julia Kristeva, Robert Da Matta, and Richard D. E. Burton, among others. It often facilitates a nostalgic return to the familiar pre-Lenten street world of lavish costumes and masquerade, laughing choruses, parades, pageantry, and grotesque consumption of drugs, food, and intoxicants. Ellison's work indeed includes elements of carnival-masquerade that have led a number of literary scholars to propose theoretical connections and critical analyses of Ellison's Invisible Man and the carnivalesque. These critics include, among others, Elliott Butler-Evans, Dale Peterson, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Houston Baker, and Wilson Harris. With the exception of Wilson Harris, whose inventive references to "carnival muses" and "carnival twinship" place Ellison's Invisible Man within the wider spatio-temporal configuration of the Americas, these other writers almost exclusively apply Mikhail Bakht in's notions of the "carnivalesque," "heteroglossia," or "parody" to the study of African American culture, proposing multiple theoretical affiliations of the Bakhtinian "carnivalesque" and a distinct, socio-linguistically-coded "blackness." Butler-Evans, Peterson, Gates, and Baker connect Bakhtin's "carnivalesque" and Ellison's double-voiced narrator and narrations in terms of African American signifying practices and Bakhtin's analysis of parody. In The Signifying Monkey, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., uses Bakhtin's definition of parody to illustrate how Signifyin(g) in African American culture enables its speaker to pose challenging and oppositional verbal self-assertions. For Bakhtin parody fundamentally operates in the form of disguise: Its dialogic exchanges parade as versions of the "same" (characteristically using similar figures of speech), yet within these utterances deliberately incisive double meanings and implied cut-downs are introduced. …


We report a method for bonding silicon-on-insulator wafers onto glass wafers. After pre-cleaning the wafers by an ozone and ultraviolet exposure, followed by mega-sonic water rinse, the SOI wafers are bonded to glass wafers in a vacuum chamber. This is performed at a temperature of 400 °C under an applied voltage of 700 V. The interface between the glass and SOI wafer is tested mechanically and inspected by electron beam microscopy. Furthermore, we demonstrate removal of the silicon bulk layer after wafer bonding. The quality of the single crystalline Si thin film on the glass wafers has been verified by four-circle x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. This process will allow us the integration of thin-film electronics in biological sensor applications.


The decrease in dislocation density and hence the high strength loss can be modelled during martensite tempering as a recovery process. In this work, an innovative approach is presented to understand the role of silicon associated with the inhibition of the recovery rate. A phenomenological model is presented, where a combination of crossslip and solute drag is identified as the main governing mechanism for recovery up to 450 ◦C, from where it is postulated that recrystallisation occurs. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 6 January 2017 Accepted 6 June 2017


Power curves for a substantial number of wind turbine generators (WTG) became available in a number of public sources during the recent years. They can be used to estimate the power production of a wind farm fleet with uncertainty determined by the accuracy and consistency of the power curve data. However, in order to estimate power losses inside a wind farm due to wind speed reduction caused by the wake effect, information on the thrust force, or widely used thrust coefficient (Ct), is required. Unlike power curves, Ct curves for the whole range of operating wind speeds of a WTG are still scarcely available in open sources. Typically, power and Ct curves are requested from a WTG manufacturer or wind farm owner under a non-disclosure agreement. However, in a research study or in calculations over a multitude of wind farms with a variety of wind turbine models, collecting this information from owners may be hardly possible. This study represents a simple method to define Ct curve statistically using power curve and general specifications of WTGs available in open sources. Preliminary results demonstrate reasonable correspondence between simulated and given data. The estimations are done in the context of aggregated wind power calculations based on reanalysis or forecast data, so that the uncertainty of wake wind speed caused by the uncertainty of predicted Ct is comparable, or do not exceed, the uncertainty of given wind speed. Although the method may not provide accurate fits at low wind speeds, it represents an essential alternative to using physical Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models that are both more demanding to computer resources and require detailed information on the geometry of the rotor blades and physical properties of the rotor, which are even more unavailable in open sources than power curves.


In September, 1968, six 'Roorkee Seismoscopes' and two 'Multiple Structural Response Recorders' were installed in the Koyna and Pophali area, Maharashta, India. These have recorded the earthquake of 5.2 magnitude which occurred in the region on October 29, 1968. The structural response results obtained and some other relevent inferences possible on the basis of these records are reported here. They indicate the utility of these simplified earthquake recording devices for structural engineering requirements.


Rank Xerox (NZ) Ltd. v. Commissioner of Inland Revenue (1983) 6 NZTC 61,501 held that receipts from sales of goods sold that were previously hired were assessable as income, at least in the present case. The court declined to decide the exact level of the profit, instead expressing hope the parties could come to an agreement.


Of 382 patients with acute symptoms of coronary heart disease, 160 were hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction, 68 were hospitalized with acute coronary insufficiency, sixteen were hospitalized with acute congestive heart failure, and 138 died before admission to the hospital. Self-treatment with prescribed medications or household remedies was noted in 74% of the entire group, changes in physical activity in 88%, and attention to social proprieties and continuing social obligations in one third. Some forms of activity and self-treatment were potentially harmful. The spectrum of activities was similar for those hospitalized as compared to those who died before hospital arrival.


Engineering methods such as soil nails, geosynthetic reinforcement, retaining structures, gabions, and shotcrete are implemented to stabilize road cut slopes along mountainous areas. However, these structures are not environmentally friendly and, particularly in Ethiopia, it is impossible to address all road problems due to financial limitations. Nowadays, soil reinforcement with plant roots is recognized as an environmentally sustainable alternative to improve shallow slope failure along mountainous transportation corridors. The aims of this study was, therefore, to conduct slope stability analysis along a road corridor by incorporating the effect of plant roots. Five plant species were selected for the analysis based on their mechanical characteristics. Namely, Eucalyptus globules (tree), Psidium guajava (shrub), Salix subserrata (shrub), Chrysopogon zizanioides, and Pennisetum macrourum (grasses). The roots' tensile strength and soil parameters were determined through tensile strength testing and triaxial compression tests, respectively. The factor of safety of the slope was calculated by the PLAXIS-2D software. The study showed that when the slope was reinforced with plant roots, the factor of safety (FOS) improved from 22–34%. The decreasing effect of vegetation on slope stability was observed when soil moisture increased. The sensitivity analysis also indicated that: (1) as the spacing between plants decreased, the effect of vegetation on the slope increased. (2) Slope angle modification with a combination of plant roots had a significant impact on slope stabilization. Of the five-selected plant species, Salix subserrata was the promising plant species for slope stabilization as it exhibited better root mechanical properties among selected plant species.


The search for appropriate institutional framework for local governance and development has been a difficult task in Africa. Although Traditional Authorities are authentic and time-tested institutions of governance, their role has been politically, administratively, and financially marginalized since the introduction of modern local government system. The focus of this paper is the discussion on the various local government structures, policies and their marginalization strategies. The discussions include indirect rule, establishment of town councils, introduction of public treasuries, the first and second republican local government models and the decentralized system of government with creation of District Assemblies. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of the systems were discussed. The issue of local taxation and the bias of the revenue distribution formula against Traditional Councils are also discussed. The Stool Land Revenue (SLR) shared among Traditional Authorities (TAs) is only 7 per cent of the District Assemblies Common Fund (Grants). The District Assemblies receive 55 per cent of the SLR plus DACF. The political structures, taxation authority, distribution of SLR, and Grants are used as tools to marginalize the traditional authorities. While the performance of some modern local government institutions, as agents of local development, is poor the development efforts of some Traditional Authorities at promoting education, health and environmental management, are highly commendable in Ghana. This indicates that Traditional Councils have potentials that are not fully harnessed due to marginalization. Modern local government stands to gain if Traditional Authorities become active partners and their potentials harnessed for development. Keywords : traditional leadership, agglomeration, devolution, marginalization Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 26(1) 2006: 76-88


Poor student motivation in the online lecture process encourages researchers to provide a treatment that results in better student motivation in basic physics courses. Student learning motivation in the basic physics course is 30.38 with a poor category. The treatment applied in this study is to apply alternative assessments in the form of paper assessments, knowledge assessments, portfolio assessments, and discussion assessments. This study aims to determine how to increase learning motivation that occurs in students after the implementation of alternative assessments in online lectures. The research method used in this study is a pre-experimental method with one group pretest posttest design. The instrument used is a scale of student learning motivation attitudes using a Likert scale. Student learning motivation after the implementation of the alternative assessment has a value of 89.50 in the very good category. The increase in student learning motivation has increased significantly with a value of <N-Gain> of 0.85. Various assessments that are not only concerned with knowledge competencies can increase student motivation in carrying out basic physics online lectures.


. The digital revolution has radically changed the world, as new digital technologies have introduced important innovations in factories, hospitals and schools, especially cities, improving the efficiency of city operations and life quality of its citizens and visitors. This study is a demonstration of the capabilities provided by smart cities to promote smart tourism through global experiences, where the study concluded that the inclusion of smart city determinants will make it a smart tourism destination and thus realize the concept of smart tourism as part of smart city, and improve the Provided tourism services quality and tourism experiences, since the innovation and sustainability are the only way to improve life quality and social value of both local residents and tourists.


One of the most prominent models of psychopathy operationalizes this construct as consisting of four factors: interpersonal, affective, lifestyle and antisocial traits. These traits show different relationship patterns with other constructs, and these relations may differ in men and women. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the relations between psychopathic traits and indicators of emotional distress (depression, anxiety and stress), differ between men and women. Data was collected on 650 students (60% women) at the University of Zagreb. The results of Canonical Correlation Analysis indicated that affective psychopathic traits have adaptive potential and represent a protective factor for experiencing emotional distress, while Lifestyle and Antisocial behavior represent risk factors for emotional distress. Moreover, sex had a moderating role in the relationship between Interpersonal and Lifestyle traits and distress, indicating that psychopathic traits seem to be more adaptive in males, compared to females.


Objective To explore UK public decisions around whether or not to get COVID-19 vaccines, and the facilitators and barriers behind participants' decisions. Design This qualitative study consisted of six online focus groups conducted between 15th March and 22nd April 2021. Data were analysed using a framework approach. Setting Focus groups took place via online videoconferencing (Zoom). Participants Participants (n = 29) were a diverse group (by ethnicity, age and gender) UK residents aged 18 years and older. Results We used the World Health Organization's vaccine hesitancy continuum model to look for, and explore, three main types of decisions related to COVID-19 vaccines: vaccine acceptance, vaccine refusal and vaccine hesitancy (or vaccine delay). Two reasons for vaccine delay were identified: delay due to a perceived need for more information and delay until vaccine was "required" in the future. Nine themes were identified: three main facilitators (Vaccination as a social norm; Vaccination as a necessity; Trust in science) and six main barriers (Preference for "natural immunity"; Concerns over possible side effects; Perceived lack of information; Distrust in government;; Conspiracy theories; "Covid echo chambers") to vaccine uptake. Conclusion In order to address vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy, it is useful to understand the reasons behind people's decisions to accept or refuse an offer of a vaccine, and to listen to them and engage with, rather than dismiss, these reasons. Those working in public health or health communication around vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, in and beyond the UK, might benefit from incorporating the facilitators and barriers found in this study.


The TGD based model for biological self-organization relies on the hierarchy h eff = nh 0 of effective Planck constants labelling dark phases of ordinary particles residing at magnetic flux quanta. This model generalizes and suggests the replacement of non-equilibrium thermodynamics as basis of self-organization with its quantum variant based on dark matter hierarchy. The challenge is to formulate basic thermodynamical notions like work in terms TGD based quantum theory. The basic mechanism would be a phase transition creating dark matter phase as a Bose-Einstein condensate like state with particles having identical conserved quantum numbers. Conservation laws would force the ordinary matter to have opposite total charges. For instance, in the case of work one has momentum or angular momentum as a conserved charge. In the case of charge separation and high Tc superconductivity it would be em charge. Even color charges can correspond to conserved charges in TGD framework allowing scaled variants of strong interaction physics. Basic biological functions involving the notion of work and also the formation of sensory percepts would rely on this mechanism. Also the ZEO based theory of consciousness predicting the change the arrow of time in ordinary state function reduction plays a central role and a model of nerve pulse is discussed as an example.


BACKGROUND
Fas/FasL is a member of Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) super family, and related to tumor cell apoptosis. It is hypothesis by forward study that activated lymphocytes is more sensitive with Fas/FasL due to up-regulation of FasL expression, so it can be inverse killedly and cleared by tumor cell. The aim of this investigate is to study the fuction of FasL gene and gene therapy of lung cancer by to down-regulationg the FasL gene expression with a siRNA expression plasmid in lung cancer cell A549 as well as its inverse killing effect between activated T lymphocytes and lung cancer cell A549.

METHODS
Potential RNAi oligonucleotides of FasL was designed and synthesized according to appropriate web site. Then a FasL siRNA plasmid was constructed using a pGCsi-U6 vector.The plasmid was sequenced to confirm the inserted sequence. Western blot analysis was used to assess the levels of FasL proteins after the constructed plasmids have been transfected into A549 cells.

RESULTS
It was confirmed by sequencing that the plasmid was constructed successfully. The result of Western blot clearly showed that FasL siRNA plasmid inhibited FasL expression in A549 cells.

CONCLUSIONS
The construct of FasL siRNA plasmid is successful. FasL protein expression of A549 cell is effectively inhibited by RNAi .


This paper shows the results of combined experimental and theoretical work that have unravelled the mechanism of ultrafast ejection of a methyl group from a cluster, the methyl iodide dimer (CH(3)I)(2). Ab initio calculations have produced optimized geometries for the dimer and energy values and oscillator strengths for the excited states of the A band of (CH(3)I)(2). These calculations have allowed us to describe the blue shift that had been observed in the past in this band. This blue shift has been experimentally determined with higher precision than in all previously reported experiments, since it has been measured through its effect upon the kinetic energy release of the fragments using femtosecond velocity map imaging. Observations of the reaction branching ratio and of the angular nature of the fragment distribution indicate that two main changes occur in A-band absorption in the dimer with respect to the monomer: a substantial change in the relative absorption to different states of the band, and, more importantly, a more efficient non-adiabatic crossing between two of those states. Additionally, time resolved experiments have been performed on the system, obtaining snapshots of the dissociation process. The apparent retardation of more than 100 fs in the dissociation process of the dimer relative to the monomer has been assigned to a delay in the opening of the optical detection window associated with the resonant multiphoton ionization detection of the methyl fragment.


Objectives Dental caries occur through a multifactorial process that may influence all tooth surfaces throughout an individual's life. The application of decision analytical modeling (DAM) has gained an increasing level of attention in long-term outcome assessment and economic evaluation of interventions on caries in recent years. The objective of this study was to systematically review the application of DAM and assess their methodological quality in the context of dental caries. Methods A systematic review of the literature published to 31st December 2018 was conducted in Medline, EMBASE, NHSEED, and Web of Science electronic databases. The main information and model characteristics of studies was extracted with the methodological quality of included studies reviewed and assessed using the Philips' checklist. Results Twenty five studies from different settings were included. Modeling techniques mainly comprised main type of modeling including Markov models (n = 12), Markov/microsimulation mixed model (n = 7), systematic dynamic models (n = 3), microsimulation models (n = 2) and decision tree (n = 1). The mean number of criteria fulfilled was 25.1 out of 60 items, which varied between year of study and research groups. The percentage of criteria fulfilled for data dimension was lower than for the structure and consistency dimension. Critical issues were data quality, incorporation of utility values, and uncertainty analysis in modeling. Conclusion The current review revealed that the methodological quality of DAM in dental caries economic evaluations is unsatisfied. Future modeling studies should adhere more closely to good practice guidelines, especially with respect to data quality evaluation, utility values incorporation, and uncertainty analysis in DAM based studies.


Summary The current studies demonstrate the critical importance of ovarian hormones in the initiation and promotion of carcinogenesis of mammary glands in rats by polynuclear hydrocarbons. Removal of ovarian hormones from the rats immediately after the administration of the carcinogenic hydrocarbons either inhibited or profoundly reduced the incidence of mammary cancer. Excision of ovaries beyond 7 days after feeding of carcinogenic hydrocarbon, however, was unable to prevent or to reduce significantly the incidence of mammary cancer in these rats. Likewise, feeding of carcinogenic hydrocarbons to already castrated rats failed to induce any mammary cancer if the time between castration and feeding of carcinogen was prolonged. These experiments suggest that neoplastic transformation in the cells of the mammary glands in rats cannot take place in the absence of the participation of ovarian hormones, since subsequent supply of ovarian hormones from the functioning grafts failed to produce any mammary cancers. The experiments also indicate that there may be a quantitative balance between the carcinogenic polynuclear hydrocarbon and the hormones which govern the induction of mammary cancer in rats. In a small number of rats, a potent carcinogen was capable of inducing cancer in the mammary glands in which the metabolic activity was decreasing after the removal of ovarian hormones, whereas a "less potent" carcinogen failed to do so under the same circumstances. In these animals receiving a less potent carcinogen, mammary cancer could be induced if optimal ovarian hormones are present. Some of the rats receiving a toxic dose of DMBA (30 mg.) died of adrenal apoplexy. DMBA caused necrosis and hemorrhage mostly in the inner zones, especially the zona reticularis of the cortex, whereas zona glomerulosa and medulla were frequently spared. An incidental finding in the present experiment was the observation of chloroleukemia in two out of 100 rats receiving a single dose of 30 mg. DMBA.


Phase separation of immiscible fluids is a common phenomenon in polymer chemistry, and is recognized as an important mechanism by which cells compartmentalize their biochemical reactions. Biomolecular condensates are condensed fluid droplets in cells that form by liquid-liquid phase separation of intrinsically-disordered proteins. They have a wide range of functions and are associated with chronic neurodegenerative diseases in which they become pathologically rigid. Intrinsically-disordered proteins are conformationally flexible and possess multiple, distributed binding sites for each other or for RNA. However, it remains unclear how their material properties depend on the molecular structure of the proteins. Here we use coarse-grained simulations to explore the phase behavior and structure of a model biomolecular condensate composed of semi-flexible polymers with attractive end-caps in a good solvent. Although highly simplified, the model contains the minimal molecular features that are sufficient to observe liquid-liquid phase separation of soluble polymers. The polymers condense into a porous, three-dimensional network in which their end-caps reversibly bind at junctions. The spatial separation of connected junctions scales with the polymer backbone length as a self-avoiding random walk over a wide range of concentration with a weak affinity-dependent prefactor. By contrast, the average number of polymers that meet at the junctions depends strongly on the end-cap affinity but only weakly on the polymer length. The regularity and porosity of the condensed network suggests a mechanism for cells to regulate biomolecular condensates. Interaction sites along a protein may be turned on or off to modulate the condensate's porosity and tune the diffusion and interaction of additional proteins.


This paper introduces a new nonlinear planning technology based on complexity theory, with a case study of its application in a large Brazilian public university. We present the background of this management technology as applied to institutions of knowledge production. Furthermore, we describe different schools of organizational-strategic thinking, focusing on its logical bases. Following the presentation of the university case, we describe the use of the Outcome Network Mapping tool and its effects on indicators of institutional development. Finally, we discuss impacts and results.


This study investigated the effects of monaural versus binaural amplification upon the speech recognition scores (SRSs) of children with bilateral moderate sensorineural hearing loss after more than 4 years of hearing aid use. There was a significant decrease in SRSs for the unaided ears of the monaural hearing aid users, but there were no significant differences between initial and retest SRSs for their aided ears, or for both ears of those using binaural amplification. The SRS reduction was found to be large enough to be significant on an individual ear basis (by exceeding 95% confidence limits of the binomial model) in five of the ten unaided ears of the monaurally fitted children, but this did not occur for any of the initial-retest SRS differences in the aided ears of either group. These findings demonstrate that the auditory deprivation effect, which has been reported for adults using monaural hearing aids, is also found in children.


Introduction: Patients with diabetes often generate large amounts of data specifically related to the disease and to their general health. Cross-institutional sharing of patient health care data is complex, and as a consequence, data are not always available to the health care provider treating the patient. Accommodating this challenge could lead to better clinical effectiveness and improve clinical research. This work aims to present an approach for a blockchain-based platform for sharing health care data. The approach considers privacy concerns, data sharing, and patients as the center for governing their own data. Methods: The concept of this blockchain-based platform consists of using the NEM multi-signature blockchain contracts for access control of data management and the sharing and encryption of data to allow privacy and control of health care data. The architecture is built around cryptography, tokens, and multi-signature contracts. The multi-signature contract enables several entities to administrate the activity of an account and control the assets of one account. Multi-signature generates a contract that assigns the rights and powers of a certain account to other accounts; this contract can be edited to allow or remove entities. Discussion: Using blockchain could lead to improvements in diabetes data management. In the coming years, this technology should be implemented in existing small-scale diabetes health care system to explore its real-world benefits and challenges. Conclusion: This new approach could potentially lead to more efficient sharing of data between institutions and utilization of new types of data and research possibilities.


This essay analyzes racialized exclusions in sociology through a focus on sociology's deep epistemic structures. These structures dictate what counts as social scientific knowledge and who can produce it. A historical analysis of their emergence and persistence reveals their connections to empire. Due to sociology's initial emergence within the culture of American imperialism, early sociological thought embedded the culture of empire's exclusionary logics. Sociology's epistemic structures were inextricably racialized, contributing to exclusionary modes of thought and practice along the lines of race, ethnicity, and social geography that persist into the present. Overcoming this racialized inequality requires problematizing and unsettling these epistemic structures by (1) provincializing the canon to create a transformative epistemic pluralism and (2) reconsidering common conceptions of what counts as "theory" in the first place.


The term "motor neurone disease" describes a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system affecting the motor nuclei of the cranial nerves, the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord, and the descending corticospinal (pyramidal) tracts. This is the definition of the term as used in Britain, and when the initial brunt of the disease falls on the brain stem it usually produces progressive bulbar palsy, and when predominantly the spinal anterior horn cells are initially affected progressive muscular atrophy. The term "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" is generally used when the early symptoms and signs are due to damage to the corticospinal tracts and when there is comparatively little evidence of lower motor neurone degeneration. In the United States, on the other hand, this term is often used (as is "motor system disease") as if it were synonymous with the British motor neurone disease. Motor neurone disease is generally sporadic, rarely familial, and occurs worldwide and in all races. Symptoms usually develop between the ages of 50 and 70 years. The incidence is about 1 new case per 100 000 population per year, with a prevalence of 2-5-7 per 100 000.1 2 The disease is, however, endemic in the Chamorro people on the island of Guam, where it shows a high familial incidence, often occurring in association with the so-called Parkinsonism-dementia complex. Nevertheless, it is still uncertain whether this form is genetically determined or whether it is due to a combination of genetic and environmental influences. '6 Both the aetiology and pathogenesis of the condition remain obscure. While it may sometimes follow many years after an attack of acute anterior poliomyelitis I or encephalitis lethargica,8 no concrete evidence favours viral infection, and attempts to isolate a causal virus from the spinal cords of patients have been unsuccessful.9 10 A link with malignant disease has been postulated,'1 but recent work suggests that this is a chance association."2 Other unsubstantiated associations that have been suggested have been with diffuse angiopathy,"3 14 disorders of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism,'5 16 high concentrations of manganese and calcium in the central nervous system,'7 and exocrine pancreatic dysfunction. There is some evidence'8 of disordered protein metabolism in neurones (but not in myelin) and of abnormal DNA-directed mRNA synthesis in anterior horn cells,'9 but whether these abnormalities indicate a fundamental pathogenetic mechanism is still uncertain. The postulate that the condition is due to premature aging in motor neurones, showing some indirect affinity with the process which occurs in cortical neurones in the presenile dementias, is commonly advanced but remains unsupported. In 1970 Campbell and colleagues20 suggested that chronic lead intoxication might be an important factor, but this view was not widely accepted. Nevertheless, Conradi and colleagues2" found raised lead concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients when compared with controls, and more recently22 they have reported raised plasma lead concentrations in 16 patients compared with 18 control subjects. The plasma concentrations found, by the technique of flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry, were lower in both the patients and the controls than those reported earlier for normal individuals; but nevertheless the concentrations in the patients were significantly higher than in the controls. They postulate that the exposure of the motor end plates to increased amounts of circulating lead in the plasma may result in the uptake of lead by the motor neurones and that this may be conducted by retrograde axoplasmic flow to the cell bodies-as occurs with various injected macromolecules (such as intravenous horseradish peroxidase)." While many neurologists will think that it is inherently improbable that lead will prove to be the primary aetiological agent in motor neurone disease, the findings of this careful study cannot be ignored or dismissed lightly-especially when, in such a tragic progressive disease, we have no other clues to indicate an alternative, testable, working hypothesis.


Gallons of studies have been conducted regarding the customers' satisfaction and their underlying factors.But, if the same individual is the shopper of both the organized and un-organized retail stores, then howmuch his/her satisfaction differs from any one retail format to the other retail format is a matter of concernfor the strategists or planners. Further, over the time period, what exactly case the above said difference insatisfaction, is unsolved in Indian scenario. In this context, the research problem is stated as "can theconsumer-learning differentiate their shopping satisfaction with respect to competing retail formats"?Keeping in view this research problem, the objectives of the study are (1) to extract the underlying factors ofshoppers' learning in shopping malls & un-organized family-run stores separately, (2) to examine the impactof consumer-learning on the shopping satisfaction towards shopping-mall in comparison to family-run stores,and (3) to examine the relative importance of individual factors of learning for the shoppers' satisfaction inboth the competing retail formats. So far as the methodology and research design of this study is concerned,the causative research design is followed and a self administered structured questionnaire is administered to asample size of 307. The data is analyzed through SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. The data analysis techniqueslike explorative factor analysis and path diagram through structural equation modeling (SEM) is adopted.Major findings of this study refers that consumer-learning differentiates their satisfaction in the mall morepositively in comparison to the satisfaction they get in family-run retail stores (Kirana stores). Originality ormajor contributions of this study justified with the difference in shoppers' satisfaction between twocompeting retail formats and the shoppers' learning proven as the major driving force of the above saiddifference in satisfaction.


The critical importance of autophagy in cell health and its proposed role in disease-relevant biology, including cancer, inflammation, and immunology, has increased the need for more effective assays to screen for agents that modulate autophagic activity. Here we utilize NanoLuc Binary Technology (NanoBiT) to develop a homogeneous plate-based assay to measure autophagic flux in cell culture models. In this approach, an exogenous LC3B (Atg8) fusion protein was tagged on its N-terminus with an 11 amino acid peptide (HiBiT) and stably expressed in mammalian cells, including U2OS and HEK293. After exposure to various treatment conditions, cellular levels of this novel autophagy reporter were determined by addition of a lytic detection reagent containing Large BiT (LgBiT). LgBiT rapidly associates with HiBiT in the cell lysate, producing a bright, luminescent enzyme in the presence of the furimazine substrate. The bright signal allows low levels of expression of the reporter, maximizing the assay response, and the signal is stable, allowing assay of multiple 96- or 384-well plates in the same experiment. In response to autophagic stimuli, including nutrient deprivation and various mTORC inhibitors (e.g., PP242 and rapamycin), autophagic degradation of expressed LC3 reporter was evident by reduced assay signal. In contrast, in response to both upstream (e.g., 3-MA and wortmannin) and downstream (e.g., bafilomycin A1 and chloroquine) inhibitors of the autophagy pathway, degradation of the autophagic reporter was effectively blocked and assay signal was consistently increased as predicted. Compound effects were time dependent and stratified according to expected potency and efficacy of the test agents employed. The use of a mutant reporter based on LC3G120A further demonstrated the specificity of the wild-type LC3 reporter for the detection of autophagic activity. When assayed in 384-well plates with automation, HEK293 autophagy reporter cells produced Z' values of ~0.7 in response to autophagy induction with PP242, while subsequent blockade of autophagy with bafilomycin A1 resulted in Z' values of ~0.8. This data, and subsequent LOPAC library screening, indicates the potential utility of this assay method for HTS applications. In addition, the HEK293 autophagy reporter cells can be induced to form 3D cell spheroids, thus allowing investigation of assay performance in this more complex model. Autophagy reporter levels increased with increasing spheroid size (up to 650 μm diameter tested) in a manner proportional to a surrogate measure of viable cell number. Importantly, both induction and inhibition of autophagic activity was easily detected following PP242 and bafilomycin A1 treatment, respectively. Using this novel plate-based assay system for the determination of autophagic flux, it is possible to screen test agents and quantitatively determine both the potency and efficacy of autophagy modulation. Citation Format: Dan F. Lazar, Amani A. Gillette, Braeden L. Butler, Christopher T. Eggers, Brock F. Binkowski, Gediminas Vidugiris, Michael R. Slater, Dongping Ma, James J. Cali. A novel plate-based assay for screening autophagic activity in 2D and 3D cell culture models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3312. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3312


Bubbly flows are present in various industrial processes including metallurgical processes in which gas bubbles are injected at the bottom of bulk liquid metal to stir the liquid metal and homogenize the metal. Understanding the motion of such bubbles is essential, as it has been shown that bubble flotation can remove inclusions. In this work, we have numerically studied three-dimensional dynamics of a pair of inline Argon bubbles rising in molten steel under the influence of a transverse magnetic field. We have explored the effects of two transverse magnetic field strengths (Bx = 0 and 0.2 T). The bubbles' motion and transient rise velocities are compared under different magnetic fields. The shape deformations and path of the bubbles are discussed. The flow structures behind the bubbles are analyzed. We found that structures are more organized and elongated under a magnetic field, whereas it is complex and intertwined when the magnetic field is not included. We have used a geometry construction-based volume of fluid (VOF) method to track interface, maintain mass balance and estimate the interface curvature. Additionally, we have incorporated a Sharp Surface Force Method (SSF) for surface tension forces. The algorithm is able to minimize the spurious velocities.


We study a model of opinion dynamics introduced by Krause: each agent has an opinion represented by a real number, and updates its opinion by averaging all agent opinions that differ from its own by less than one. We give a new proof of convergence into clusters of agents, with all agents in the same cluster holding the same opinion. We then introduce a particular notion of equilibrium stability and provide lower bounds on the inter-cluster distances at a stable equilibrium. To better understand the behavior of the system when the number of agents is large, we also introduce and study a variant involving a continuum of agents, obtaining partial convergence results and lower bounds on inter-cluster distances, under some mild assumptions.


Access to formal insurance services is scarce in developing countries. Based on empirical evidence, major risks and risk management strategies of ethnic minority farm households in mountainous Northern Vietnam are presented and analyzed. The paper investigates the theoretical links between poverty, vulnerability and risk. The concept of vulnerability to poverty lays the analytical framework. Results suggest that limited endowment with and access to capital assets and service institutions, as well as human and economic risks are the main components affecting rural livelihoods. Constrained access to adequate risk management strategies increase household's vulnerability, drowning them more and more in poverty.


This study examines the differences in mental health experiences of workers in professional and non-professional roles, with a particular focus on the influence of gender. We examine: i) the perceived mental health of a subset of professional workers including accounting, academia, dentistry, medicine, nursing, and teaching, chosen because they represent different gender composition and sectors; and ii) work stress and work absences. Statistical analyses were applied to data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and a related Mental Health and Well-Being survey. Those in the selected professions reported better mental health, higher job satisfaction, and a lower prevalence of mental disorders, but higher self-perceived life and work stress compared to workers in non-professional roles. Workers in these professions reported higher job security and higher job control, but also higher psychological demands. Women in these professions showed significantly higher physical exertion and lower job authority and higher rates of work absences.


In the era of globalization, knowledge of foreign languages has become essential for companies looking to get into the international market. Knowledge of English only is not enough to communicate with countries where English is not the official language. Salespeople are disadvantaged if they do not speak the language or do not know the local client`s culture. Multilingualism and interculturalism are key and strategic instruments for establishing good business relationship, professional communication with foreign customers, business negotiations etc. Particularly in the EU, but also in Asia and Latin America, much attention is paid to the role of multilingualism and interculturalism in international trade. In this paper we present the first international trade activities in which multilingualism and interculturalism have an important role, and the applicability of the approach of the languages for specific purposes in the companies planning to go to foreign markets.


ABSTRACT In short-lived mammals, age at maturity is a particularly important parameter influencing lifetime fitness. Age at maturity proves highly variable in altricial rodents, but little is known for small precocial rodents of the order Caviomorpha. Even though extreme precociality implies early maturation, female cavies and guinea-pigs (genus Cavia) advance puberty considerably in the presence of males. We briefly review earlier findings and compare them to data from altricial rodents. We report experiments on 2 very similar species of cavy, the dark-backed (C. magna) and the wild cavy (C. aperea). In the dark-backed cavy, we tested whether the male signal responsible for acceleration of maturity is a chemical in urine, as demonstrated for mice. Females exposed twice daily to male urine on their nares matured at the same age (73–75 d) and mass (around 330 g, 4 times birth mass) as females treated with water. Thus, chemicals in urine did not replace the effect of male presence. Two experiments with wild cavies showed that male presence without physical contact was sufficient to accelerate puberty, even though physical interaction leads to even earlier maturation. Presence of a male during the first 10 d of life only did not lead to advanced maturation in young females. Functionally, it may be more correct to speak of a delay in the onset of maturity in the absence of males rather than considering male presence to stimulate early maturation. Comparative evidence suggests that precocial species generally mature earlier than altricials.


An analytical model of an axisymmetric eddy current probe with a cylindrical ferrite core above a layered conductive half-space is developed. Initially we consider the magnetic vector potential of a circular filament coaxial with a ferrite core over a layered conducting half-space. The principle of superposition is then used to derive close-form expressions for both the electromagnetic field and the impedance of a coil from the filament field. Rather than locating the probe in infinite space, it is confined coaxially within a circularly cylindrical boundary on which the vector potential field is zero. The radius of this artificial boundary is large in order to ensure that does not interfere substantially with the field near the probe. By using a truncated region in this way, the vector potential in the probe region can be expanded as a series rather than an integral form. Thus the solution of the problem amounts to finding the expansion coeefficients in the series. The numerical predictions of probe imped...


It has been widely shown that ligand-binding residues, by virtue of their orientation, charge, and solvent exposure, often have a net destabilizing effect on proteins that is offset by stability conferring residues elsewhere in the protein. This structure-function trade-off can constrain possible adaptive evolutionary changes of function and may hamper protein engineering efforts to design proteins with new functions. Here, we present evidence from a large randomized mutant library screen that, in the case of PUF RNA-binding proteins, this structural relationship may be inverted and that active-site mutations that increase protein activity are also able to compensate for impaired stability. We show that certain mutations in RNA-protein binding residues are not necessarily destabilizing and that increased ligand-binding can rescue an insoluble, unstable PUF protein. We hypothesize that these mutations restabilize the protein via thermodynamic coupling of protein folding and RNA binding.


The firing rate of the mitral/tufted cells in the olfactory bulb is known to undergo significant trial-to-trial variability and is affected by anesthesia. Here we ask whether odorant-elicited changes in firing rate depend on the rate before application of the stimulus in the awake and anesthetized mouse. We find that prestimulus firing rate varies widely on a trial-to-trial basis and that the stimulus-induced change in firing rate decreases with increasing prestimulus firing rate. Interestingly, this prestimulus firing rate dependence was different when the behavioral task did not involve detecting the valence of the stimulus. Finally, when the animal was learning to associate the odor with reward, the prestimulus firing rate was smaller for false alarms compared with correct rejections, suggesting that intrinsic activity reflects the anticipatory status of the animal. Thus, in this sensory modality, changes in behavioral status alter the intrinsic prestimulus activity, leading to a change in the responsiveness of the second-order neurons. We speculate that this trial-to-trial variability in odorant responses reflects sampling of the massive parallel input by subsets of mitral cells. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The olfactory bulb must deal with processing massive parallel input from ∼1200 distinct olfactory receptors. In contrast, the visual system receives input from a small number of photoreceptors and achieves recognition of complex stimuli by allocating processing for distinct spatial locations to different brain areas. Here we find that the change in firing rate elicited by the odorant in second-order mitral cells depends on the intrinsic activity leading to a change of magnitude in the responsiveness of these neurons relative to this prestimulus activity. Further, we find that prestimulus firing rate is influenced by behavioral status. This suggests that there is top-down modulation allowing downstream brain processing areas to perform dynamic readout of olfactory information.


A novel polysaccharide-based polyelectrolyte complex was formed via ionic self-assembly (ISA) of a carboxylic derivative of starch, maleic starch half-ester acid (MSA), with chitosan (CS) and precipitated from aqueous solution. Both Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and elementary analysis results showed that there was CS in the complex. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the thermal resistance of the complex was higher than that of two components and the corresponding blend. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis result revealed that the complex was amorphous, whereas its components were semi-crystalline. In addition, the drug release behavior of the complex that contains 5-fluorouracil behaved pH-responsive. All the experimental results verified the complex was composed of MSA and CS, and also indicated that the driving force for the self-assembly of the complex was predominantly the electrostatic interactions between two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, cationic CS, and the anionic MSA. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


Laboratory experiments on the cold stenothermal midge Diamesa cinerella (Diptera, Chironomidae) were performed to study the relationship between increasing temperature and heat shock proteins (HSP70) expression at translational level (Western blotting). Thermotolerance of IV instar larvae collected in nature at 1.5-4.3°C during seasons was analyzed through short-term (1 h at ten different temperatures from 26°C to 35°C) and long-term (1-14 h at 26°C and 1-4 h at 32°C) heat shocks. A high thermotolerance was detected (LT50=30.9-32.8°C and LT100=34.0-37.8°C). However, survival decreased consistently with increasing exposure time, especially at higher temperature (LTime50=7.64 h at 26°C and LTime50=1.73 h at 32°C). The relationship between such heat resistance and HSP70 expression appeared evident because a relationship between HSP70 level and larval survival rate was generally found. A heat shock response (HSR) was consistent only in the summer larvae. The absence of HSR in the other populations coupled with even higher amounts of HSP70 than in summer, led us to hypothesize that other macromolecules and other adaptive mechanisms, apart from biochemical ones, are involved in the response of D. cinerella larvae to high temperature. Altogether these results stressed how in this midge the HSP70 protein family confers resistance against cold, being detected under natural conditions in control larvae collected in all seasons, but also against warm under experimental heat shocks. These results give new insights into possible responses to climate changes in freshwater insects within the context of global warming.


With the emergence of the latest concept of smart cities, there is a rapid change of lifestyle and a mass migration to cities. At the same time, cities have high demands of infrastructure such as transport and building, and resources such as food, water, and energy, as well as issues like scarcity of adequate land, unapproachable government. All these are adding to the extreme need to find smarter solutions for cities, that can provide better lieable conditions for the citizens. Thus, the Indian government planned 100 smart city project. Many questions were raised on the proposal justification on time, money, approach and objectives. Through this project, I am evaluating the current proposal as an urbanist and using the opportunity to refine the project for a realistic and promising future, rather than creating a label of smartness. In this project, I explore the conditional development of smart cities, investigating various examples from different continents and producing an analytical framework towards the approach of making a city smarter. These examples are assisting me to set guidelines, to shape the Indian cities with its own definition of smartness. The focal point of this project is Delhi, but the other Indian cities will be able to learn from the process of selection of projects and principles. Although, due to lack of time, I would emphasis of few sectors of smartness, in selective neighbourhoods of Delhi.


Two extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) phenolic extracts (BUO and OMN) modulate DPP-IV activity. The in vitro DPP-IV activity assay was performed at the concentrations of 1, 10, 100, 500, and 1000 μg/mL, showing a dose-dependent inhibition by 6.8 ± 1.9, 17.4 ± 6.1, 37.9 ± 2.4, 57.8 ± 2.9, and 81 ± 1.4% for BUO and by 5.4 ± 1.7, 8.9 ± 0.4, 28.4 ± 7.2, 52 ± 1.3, and 77.5 ± 3.5% for OMN. Moreover, both BUO and OMN reduced the DPP-IV activity expressed by Caco-2 cells by 2.9 ± 0.7, 44.4 ± 0.7, 61.2 ± 1.8, and 85 ± 4.2% and by 3 ± 1.9, 35 ± 9.4, 60 ± 7.2, and 82 ± 2.8%, respectively, at the same doses. The concentration of the most abundant and representative secoiridoids within both extracts was analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). Oleuropein, oleacein, oleocanthal, hydroxytyrosol, and tyrosol, tested alone, reduced the DPP-IV activity, with IC50 of 472.3 ± 21.7, 187 ± 11.4, 354.5 ± 12.7, 741.6 ± 35.7, and 1112 ± 55.6 µM, respectively. Finally, in silico molecular docking simulations permitted the study of the binding mode of these compounds.


The main aim of this study was to evaluate a new combination of test items on its practical use as a tool for determining the fundamental movement skills performance in 6- to 10-year old primary school children. This combination of tests should cover the different aspects of fundamental movement skills (i.e. locomotion, balance and object control), measure performance levels within the broad spectrum of this age range in both boys and girls and be able to detect the existing performance differences between ages. For this purpose, 1121 primary school children (6-10 years) were assessed during their regular PE class using three test items of the Korper Koordinations Test fur Kinder (KTK-3), i.e. walking backwards (WB), moving sideways (MS), jumping sideways (JS), and an eye hand coordination test item (EHC). Univariate General Linear Model analyses were used to evaluate main and interaction effects of sex and age on the test outcomes. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to confirm the different constructs measured by the four test items. Moreover, in line with previous studies the raw scores were converted into movement quotients (i.e. MQKTK-3 and MQKTK-3+EHC) to classify the children's performance level. Accordingly, percentage of agreement and Cohen's kappa between both classifications was determined to gain insight in the influence of the addition of the EHC to the KTK-3. Significant effects for sex and age were found. Girls outperformed boys on WB and boys outperformed girls on EHC (P<0.05). On all test items children of a certain age group scored better than their 1-year younger peers, except at WB between 10- and the 8- and 9-year olds and at MS and JS between 10-year olds and 9-year olds. Moderate positive associations between the test items were found (P<0.05). An 80.8% agreement of classification of children was found based on the MQKTK-3 or the MQKTK-3+EHC (Cohen's kappa 0.59 (P < 0.001)). Consequently, The KTK-3+EHC appears to adequately cover different aspects of the fundamental movement skills. It provides practitioners a tool that can objectively assess the broad performance spectrum within young children in applied settings, which better meets children's individual developmental needs


PURPOSE: Studies on the maturity status of sub-Saharan African property markets are scanty. The absence of such studies appear to have made African property markets such as the Nigerian market unattractive to foreign investors who require market information to assess the viability of proposed investments. This paper explores the maturity status of selected city property markets in Southwestern Nigeria (that is, markets in the capital cities of Lagos, Ibadan and Osogbo), with a view to providing information for enhanced property investment in Africa.DESIGN / METHODS: The study adopted and expanded on property market maturity paradigms suggested by Keogh and D'Arcy (1994), Akinbogun (2012) and Jones Lang LaSalle (2014) to measure the maturity status of the property markets in the Nigerian cities. In achieving this objective, the study sampled players in the markets estate surveyors and valuers, public land administrators and financiers (represented by commercial banks) using questionnaire surveys and structured interviews. The responses were classified by means of a five-point classification scale which expanded on the initial scale developed by Dugeri (2011).FINDINGS: The three property markets were found to exhibit varying maturity characteristics (with weighted mean scores of 3.07, 2.71, 2.51 respectively), representing emerging and immature stages of evolution on the maturity path.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The study concluded that the Ibadan and Osogbo markets require substantial remodeling to make them attractive to international investorsORIGINALITY/VALUE: The value of the paper is in providing much needed information for enhanced property investment in Africa


Customer satisfaction is one of the primary factors leading to the continuation of relationships. There are several main streams in services and retail research (both offline & online): customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer retention. In this paper we will review the main antecedents of customer satisfaction and its consequences, such as purchase intentions and attitude (e.g., Oliver, 1980; LaBarbera and Mazursky, 1983), which lead to customer loyalty and retention (Bolton, 1998). The forerunner of customer satisfaction may differ between offline and online channels (Balasubramanian et al. 2003). In offline environment, some traditional service quality dimensions that determine customer satisfaction are unobservable. The traditional/offline channel characteristics that determine customer satisfaction and service quality are: physical appearance of facilities, and employees' empathy and responsiveness (Balasubramanian et al. 2003). On the other hand, Online environment is originated towards self-service with little human interaction, therefore other parameters, such as trust (or assurance) in the online channel, perceived security of the online service, and operational competence (e.g., high system availability, best prices, and fast response times) may play a central role in enhancing customer satisfaction (e.g., Balasubramanian et al. ,2003; Chiou and Droge, 2006). We will demonstrate the differences between online retail services and offline (traditional) retail services, and review main service parameters in online retailing (in contrast to traditional service characteristics).


In an effort to improve the health status of the Indonesian people, the quality of hospital services must always be improved through easy access to health facilities. One way is to use an onlinebased registration service system. This literature review aims to examine some of the problems that occur in online-based registration services. The method used is by conducting a review of various journals on international and online-based registration services in Indonesia, in the 2010-2019 period. Searching for journals using ResearchGate and Google Scholar, the journals that are looking for are journals in the health sector, after several screenings and reviews that match the theme, 22 journals are obtained. The use of an online-based registration service system can reduce the length of patient queues when registering before getting service from a doctor. Several hospitals in Indonesia have used online-based registration services, but there are still many obstacles. This obstacle can occur during the planning process as well as during the service implementation process, for example, namely lack of human resources, missing SOPs, a patient who cannot use a cellphone and a lack of information on patients about the online registration system. The benefits of making this literature review are expected that hospitals that will implement online-based registration services understand and understand what are the factors of obstacles to online registration services so that they are better prepared to avoid these obstacle factors.


The term 'pemphigus' refers to chronic autoimmune skin disorders that cause blistering erosions on the skin and oral mucosa. The two major clinical forms are pemphigus vulgaris and pemphigus foliaceus. Although rare, they confer a stark symptomatic burden upon patients that significantly impacts daily life. Comorbid mental health issues are not routinely screened for in patients with pemphigus, and current UK guidance provides no formal provision for the identification and treatment of psychological issues. This review is the first of its kind, to our knowledge, to systematically examine the available evidence on mental health issues in pemphigus. Published work suggests that the incidence of anxiety and depression is much higher in patients with pemphigus compared with both the general population and with patients having other chronic skin disorders. Disease severity appears to be closely linked to mental health, with worsening of pemphigus associated with deteriorations in psychological wellbeing. Corticosteroids, which are associated with depression in chronic use, are the current first‐line therapy for pemphigus and have been identified as a potential confounder and independent risk factor for mental health comorbidity in pemphigus. Current evidence is unclear whether a bidirectional relationship exists between mental health and pemphigus severity, and more thorough research is required to develop understanding of this issue. In conclusion, we have identified a high incidence of mental health comorbidity in pemphigus, and recommend routine screening of patients with pemphigus for mental health issues and signposting toward mental health services as an initial measure to address this.


Objective: The open reading frame 8 (ORF8) within the short unique (Us) region of the bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) genome was predicted to encode a protein with homology to Us9 protein of other alphaherpesviruses. The aim of this study is to identify the protein encoded by the Us ORF8 and to examine the effect of its expression in mammalian cells. Methods: A polyclonal antiserum was raised against Us ORF8 protein expressed in Escherichia coli. A recombinant baculoviurs designated as Ac/CA8 was created by integrating Us ORF8 under the control of the mammalian CAG promoter into the baculovirus genome. Us ORF8 protein was expressed in rabbit kidney (RK13) cells transduced by Ac/CA8. Results: The antiserum reacted specifically with 27-and 32-kD polypeptides from the BHV-1-infected and Ac/CA8-transduced RK13 cells. High-level expression of Us ORF8 protein in RK13 cells transduced by Ac/CA8 led to a distinct cytopathic effect and a reduction in cell viability; the onset of apoptotic cell death was induced as judged by DNA laddering and chromatin condensation analyses. Conclusions: These data represent the identification of BHV-1 Us ORF8 protein, which directly induces apoptosis in RK13 cells.


Energy Efficiency is one of the key elements of the Environment-Economic aspect of the three spheres of sustainability. To make any business sustainable in the light bulb industry, it could be applied as a strategy to gain competitive advantage in the functional level. This paper investigates the market awareness of environmentally friendly products such as the energy efficient light bulb (or energy bulb) and its market availability, demand, quality and brightness, low waste (e-waste), sustainable consumption (durability), warranty, commission rate, and profitability. It also finds that energy efficiency and low waste are valuable strategies to create market demand for energy bulbs to make sustainable profit and product stewardship eventually to contribute to the e-waste management. A 500 sample survey is conducted in Bangladesh to analyze the energy bulb buyers' and sellers' view about this product locally. After the results and interpretation through descriptive statistics and regression of the variables, this study finally draws a pathway model to show that sustainable energy definitely leads to sustainable business. From the buyers' point of view, sustainable consumption and low waste as well as from the sellers' point of view profit and sustainable product both support sustainable business backed by sustainable strategy, energy efficiency being the key. To make the competitive advantage enduring, ensure profitability and profit growth for the shareholders of the corporate world, especially the electrical and electronics industry; with the energy bulb in particular, an energy efficiency strategy could be implemented in businesses worldwide. As the COP26 (The 2021 United Nations Conference on Climate Change) limits the global warming rise by 1.5%, energy bulb has been the pioneer in promoting sustainable products to adopt the sustainable strategy to limit carbon emissions globally.


Firms seek to imitate innovations that yield competitive advantage, but imitation can presage disappointment when the innovation value is below expectations. Empirical research has only rarely examined the diffusion of such disappointing innovations, and it is not known whether negative information from past adopters will halt the diffusion process. Likewise, the effect of heterogeneity in the innovation value on its spread has not been systematically investigated. Here, a unique dataset on a disappointing innovation is used to examine how adoption decisions are imitated, but actual use and subsequent abandonment can yield information that reduces the likelihood that others will adopt. The findings show imitation of the adoptions of other firms, but avoidance of the innovation once these firms start using the innovation or abandon it. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The three-dimensional acoustic intensimetry employing multiple probe-modules are implemented for estimating the source distance by calculating the nearest intersection points of the vectors. The probe spacing, source localization error, and source distance affect the estimation error. It is found that the intensity vectors indicating the source location diverge in some directions due to the geometric singularity. Numerical and experimental tests are conducted with three probe-modules configured as an equilateral triangle on a plane. The result reveals that the large error due to geometric singularity can be significantly reduced by only excluding the corresponding vectors that cause the divergence.


Claims made by good samaritans for reimbursement of expenses, remuneration for time, effort, and expertise expended, and compensation for losses incurred as a consequence of their intervention have traditionally been treated at common law with reluctance and, where the protected interest is proprietary, even with hostility. Two normative premises have been suggested for this traditional, yet enduring, attitude: the concern with preserving personal liberty and the precept that altruism should be a reward unto itself. This Article challenges both premises and maintains that rather than being antagonistic to claims of good samaritans, these premises supply normative justification for allowing (in appropriate circumstances) these claims. Hence, both personal liberty and altruism ? interpreted either as respect for others, as commitment to the inculcation of concern for others, or as sympathetic concern for the genuine interests of others ? require reform of the prevailing doctrine.


Flowslides and stability issues have occurred periodically within stockpiles of coking (metallurgical) coal at coal processing plants and export terminals in Queensland's Bowen Basin, and to a lesser degree in New South Wales, since the early 1970s. A description of the issue and summary of research at James Cook University (JCU) from 1973 to 2000 was published in ACARP Report C4057 (Eckersley, 2000). Eckersley (2022) partly updated that work with SEEP/W transient seepage modelling of a 12 m high coal stockpile constructed at Hay Point in late 1991 for which initial moisture content, pore water pressures at the stockpile base, outflows from subsoil drains and final density and moisture profiles were measured. This provided a good starting point for modelling of moisture movements within production coal stockpiles as required for meaningful slope stability analyses. The current paper provides an accessible summary of available data from laboratory shear strength testing of coking coal to assist in selection and critical assessment of parameters for slope stability analyses of coal stockpiles. This includes data for saturated coal likely to form the base of a stockpile and currently limited data for unsaturated coal forming the bulk of a stockpile. It then highlights some issues in the selection of parameters for stability analyses of coal stockpiles.


Genetic regulatory networks enable cells to respond to changes in internal and external conditions by dynamically coordinating their gene expression profiles. Our ability to make quantitative measurements in these biochemical circuits has deepened our understanding of what kinds of computations genetic regulatory networks can perform, and with what reliability. These advances have motivated researchers to look for connections between the architecture and function of genetic regulatory networks. Transmitting information between a network's inputs and outputs has been proposed as one such possible measure of function, relevant in certain biological contexts. Here we summarize recent developments in the application of information theory to gene regulatory networks. We first review basic concepts in information theory necessary for understanding recent work. We then discuss the functional complexity of gene regulation, which arises from the molecular nature of the regulatory interactions. We end by reviewing some experiments that support the view that genetic networks responsible for early development of multicellular organisms might be maximizing transmitted 'positional information'.


CASE REPORT
We present case reports of two young patients suffering from full thickness traumatic macular holes resulting in visual impairment of more than 60%. Both showed anatomical and visual improvement whilst waiting for surgical treatment.

DISCUSSION
Spontaneous closure of a traumatic macular hole is an unusual outcome. OCT and clinical follow up enabled monitoring of this resolution during a period of a few weeks. Complex surgery was thus avoided by a short observational period.


At any point during the progression of many tumor types, cells can develop a hyperploid DNA content. Hyperploid tumors are significant more aggressive, with a higher growth rate and a poor patient prognosis. Yeast genetics have implicated three important genes involved in DNA ploidy changes: cdc2, cyclin b, and a specific inhibitor of the p34(cdc2)/cyclin B kinase, rum1. Mutations in these genes uncoupled the dependence mitosis on DNA replication in the fission yeast, Saccharomyces pombe. It was proposed that the inactivation of the mitotic kinase complex, p34(cdc2)/cyclin B, induces a G(1), state wherein the cells re-replicate their DNA without an intervening mitosis. We show in this report that treatment of only M phase-arrested mouse cells, with the protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine, induced polyploidy. Nocodazole-arrested metaphase FT210 cells were pulsed with 100 ng/ml of staurosporine for 1 h. This 1-h treatment results in the inhibition of the mitotic p34(cdc2) kinase. The inhibition of the mitotic kinases leads to a reduction in the histone H1 and H3 mitotic-associated phosphorylations, chromosome decondensation and nuclear membrane reformation. When released into normal growth medium, these cells are reset to a G(1)state, re-replicate their DNA without completing mitosis, and become octaploid.


This article reviews methods for computing ro‐vibrational spectra of van der Waals molecules. Due to the presence of large‐amplitude motion, calculations often play an important role in assigning and understanding the spectra of van der Waals molecules. Fortunately, it is possible to make usefully accurate calculations because important parts of the spectrum can be understood by doing calculations that omit the intramolecular coordinates. In this article, we present new ideas for deriving kinetic energy operators and discuss choosing basis functions and doing the matrix–vector products that are required to obtain a spectrum using the Lanczos algorithm. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. WIREs Comput Mol Sci 2011 1 952–963 DOI: 10.1002/wcms.73


Introduction: Advanced glycated end products (AGEs) play an important role in the progression of diabetes and exacerbation of its complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of supplementation of Resveratrol, the essential oil of cumin and Vitamin C, on levels of blood sugar, lipid, insulin resistance and AGEs in type 2 diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: In this double-blind randomized clinical trial, diabetic patients were randomly divided into four groups: Cumin essential oil, Resveratrol supplement, vitamin C and the control group. After two months, Insulin resistance, AGEs, Insulin, glucose and lipids were measured, using standard kits and results were analyzed. Results: There were no significant differences between the groups in the beginning of the study. Insulin resistance and AGEs showed no significant differences between the four groups after study, although in the Resveratrol group, levels of body mass index (BMI) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) were reduced (p=0.001, p=0.04). In the cumin group, BMI (p=0.001), triglyceride (p=0.01) and HbA1C (p=0.01) levels decreased significantly after intervention. In the vitamin C and control groups, none of the measured variables were significantly different post-intervention. Conclusion: Resveratrol can be effective in weight loss and metabolic control in diabetic patients. Cumin showed high efficacy in the improvement of sugar and dyslipidemia indices in these patients.