Helianthrones 2-4 are a new class of synthetic photosensitizers, which have a molecular skeleton related to that of hypericin. We established that irradiation of heliantrones with visible light leads to the formation of semiquinone radicals and reactive oxygen species. The structures of the paramagnetic anion species produced by electron transfer were calculated on the density functional level and investigated by cyclovoltammetry, UV/vis, and EPR/ENDOR spectroscopy. As with hypericin, the pi system of the helianthrones was found to be considerably deviated from planarity, and, upon electron transfer, deprotonation in the bay region occurs. The structure of the semiquinone radicals was found to be identical in THF, DMF, and aqueous buffered solutions regardless of the means by which reduction was achieved. Semiquinone radicals can be formed via self-electron transfer between the excited state and the ground state or via electron transfer from an electron donor to the excited state of helianthrone. Therefore, the presence of an electron donor significantly enhanced the photogeneration of semiquinone and superoxide radical. The kinetic studies showed that no significant photochemical destruction of helianthrones occurred upon irradiation. Generation of superoxide and singlet oxygen upon irradiation of helianthrones was established by spin trapping techniques. This shows that both type I and type II mechanisms are of importance for the photodynamic action of these compounds.


This paper is concerned with the alternative forms of the analytic solution of the Airy equation. Instead of the traditional Taylor series or asymptotic methods, a homotopy analysis technique is employed, which does not require a small perturbation parameter or large asymptotic parameter. It is shown that a proper choice of linear operator during implementation of the homotopy method can yield uniformly valid solutions, representing the exact decaying/growing Airy functions. Convergence of the homotopy series found is proved mathematically. The obtained explicit analytical expressions for the solution generate results that compare excellently with the numerically computed and large asymptotic ones.


Psu, a 20-kD bacteriophage P4 capsid decorating protein moonlights as a transcription antiterminator of the Rho-dependent termination. Psu forms specific complex with E.coli Rho protein, and affects the latter's ATP-dependent translocase activity along the nascent RNA. It forms a unique knotted dimer to take a V-shaped structure. The C-terminal helix of Psu makes specific contacts with a disordered region of Rho, encompassing the residues 139–153. An energy minimized structural model of the Rho–Psu complex reveals that the V-shaped Psu dimer forms a lid over the central channel of the Rho hexamer. This configuration of Psu causes a mechanical impediment to the translocase activity of Rho. The knowledge of structural and mechanistic basis of inhibition of Rho action by Psu may help to design peptide inhibitors for the conserved Rho-dependent transcription termination process of bacteria.


Preliminary evidence suggests that interpersonal trust is associated with both aggression and prosocial behavior, but little research has been conducted to investigate these relationships in nonclinical samples. It has been suggested by Scott (1980) that general trust is not as useful in predicting behavior in organizational settings as is situational trust. However, if moderated by in-group - out-group status, general trust may be useful in predicting general response tendencies such as aggressive and prosocial behaviors. Building on the norm of reciprocity as described by Kaufmann (1970) and Rushton ( 1980), it was hypothesized that: a) subjects identified as high trusters would show low levels of aggression and high levels of prosocial behaviors towards both in- and outgroup members; b) low trusters would show high levels of aggression and low levels of prosocial behavior towards both in- and out-groups members; and c) moderate trusters would show lower levels of aggression towards the in-group than towards the out-group and higher levels of prosocial behavior towards the in-group than towards the out-group. These hypotheses were not confirmed. Participants reported higher levels of prosocial behavior towards the in-group than towards the out-group, regardless of the level of trust. Group differences also emerged on the aggression measures regardless of trust level. Trend analyses revealed that as trust increases, overall prosocial behavior increases.


Monitoring vegetation response through enhanced change detection by remote sensing and geographical information systems has tremendously improved real time information on surface features. Over the last few decades biomass monitoring at large scale has been made possible from information and metrics derived from satellite sensors. Maasai Mara National Reserve has been utilized in many decades as Kenyan natural grassland for wildlife grazing without periodic assessment of biomass production as affected by impact of climate variability yet it's a tourism hub and one Kenyan economic contributor. This research evaluates the use of high spatial resolution satellite imagery such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer or the Project for On-Board Autonomy–Vegetation and latest SENTINEL-2 for deriving the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index values in relations to in-situ measurements of biomass production between 2009 and 2019 in Mara, Kenya. Area frame sampling of biomass per unit area in Kgha-1clipped from 50cm by 50cm quadrats were used in destructive sampling. The reserve grassland area coverage was estimated to be 717.203km2 (46.75%) where the in-situ total above ground grass biomass projected in dry season was 35.094 tonha-1. This was approximated as 2,516,952.208 tonnes per the season reserve cover while in wet season, 42.123 tonha-1 was approximated as 3,021,074.197 tonnes. The error matrices developed to assess the accuracies of the ecosystem classification indicated values that ranged between 80-100% and 87.5-100% for producer's and user's accuracy respectively. 3 out of 7 satellite imagery maps (2017, 2018, and 2019) were assessed for accuracy using reference data collected during fieldwork in 2018 and 2019 in ecosystem. The overall accuracy was 95.22% with Kappa index of 0.94 for 14 land cover classes shown in table 7. From the findings, potential factors influencing vegetation growth in different climatic regions are varied and complex. It can be noted that climate variability influence vegetation response in spatial scale to supply sustainable quality vegetation/pasture for wildlife feeds and ecosystem development. Vegetation mapping and monitoring of ecosystem behavior help stakeholders with information of vegetation characteristics Decision policy formulation and wildlife planning.


The paper presents a planning based visual programming system for sequence control program specification design (VIPS/S-SFCD). VIPS/S-SFCD features an example based programming technique in which designers specify the initial states and goal states of machines using visual representations, and a planning method that infers machine actions and generates the control program specifications. This method is based on the state space model and has the scope to make the searches on the model efficient. We used the planner of VIPS/S-SFCD to experimentally generate control program specifications for actually existing steel plants. The experimental results showed that the quality of control program specifications generated by VIPS/S-SFCD was the same as the ones generated by a design specialist, and the time required for designing control programs was much shorter. According to our experiments, VLPS/S-SFCD can reduce the design time of control programs to 1/3.<<ETX>>


Dengue infections are among the top 10 diseases that cause the most deaths worldwide. Dengue is a severe global threat and problem, especially in tropical countries like Indonesia. The Indonesian Ministry of Health also stated that dengue is as dangerous as COVID-19. One of the preventive actions that can be taken is by controlling vectors (the Aedes aegypti mosquito) where weather factors influence their breeding. In this study, the prediction of dengue incidence rate is carried out using three boosting methods i.e., Extreme Gradient Boosting, Adaptive Boosting, and Gradient Boosting. The data used are monthly data of dengue incidence rate and weather data. The case study used is Bandung district, West Java Province, Indonesia. The important issues that is investigated in this study is to find the weather parameters that have the most influence on IR and gradually improve the prediction model through three test scenarios. From the test results, the weather parameter that has the most influence on the next month's IR is temperature. Meanwhile, the best training data length is five years (2016-2020). Finally, the best prediction model achieved by AdaBoost method with value of Root Mean Square Error and Correlation Coefficient for testing data (January-December 2021) are 0.55 and 0.95, respectively.


A novel pilot pattern channel estimation scheme with MMSE-DFT is proposed for 2×2 MIMO-OFDM VLC system. The simulation results show that a 3dB promotion of SNR is obtained compared to STBC based scheme for 32-QAM format with BER below FEC threshold of 3.8× 10<sup>−3</sup>.


At present there is no health economic model that can fully explain the behaviour of the salaried physician in public health care systems.

My purpose is to create a working economic model of the salaried physician in a public health care system. Any model is a simplification of reality and choices have to be made between simplicity and relevance.

For this reason I present a sequence of models that gradually evolve from simpler models towards more realistic ones. More precise, I develop three models. The first model is a neoclassical model, which considers the salaried physician as a double agent for both the patient and the hospital manager. The second model is a multidisciplinary model, which in addition integrates insights from social psychology and sociology. The third model is a bounded rationality model, which also allows for cognitive limitations and unstable preferences.

At this point, it is my conclusion that the multidisciplinary model is best suited for modelling the salaried physician in a public health care system. At the same time I am of the opinion that the challenge for the future is to further develop the bounded rationality model.


—The current COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of cleanliness and social distancing. These needs will continue to be important as the world moves to a new normal whilst navigating through a post-covid environment. This paper presents a use case application that focuses on enforcing safe distance measures inside a campus building where there is limited manpower resources. Amidst the social setting within the university, staff or students may at times accidentally congregate, which may lead to spread of diseases inconveniencing all affected parties. Our proposed integrated solution consists of a network of video cameras and sensors which allows one to monitor behavior within the building. The integrated smart devices communicate with (1) an analytics server that processes the data from the various sensors and (2) a platform that integrates the analytic results and optimizes the action items to be reflected to the environment. A pilot prototype has been deployed and evaluated within a living lab setting on campus. Results show that the system is useful in streamlining the operational process resulting in more efficient processes and procedures to help enforce safe management measures needed to maintain proper social distancing among occupants in campus. © 2022 by the authors.


Background Between 2016 and 2017 the National Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices regulated the use of nivolumab and pembrolizumab for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In clinical trials conducted, patients with ECOG 0–1 and a life expectancy of at least 3 months were included since the benefit of immunotherapy can be delayed and even present a response after progression (pseudo-progression). Purpose To analyse characteristics of patients with NSCLC treated with nivolumab and pembrolizumab for less than 3 months at our centre. Material and methods Observational descriptive study was conducted. Patients diagnosed with NSCLC treated for less than 3 months (with six or less cycles of nivolumab and four or less cycles of pembrolizumab) from the approval date of these drugs until October 2018 were included. Data from clinical and pharmacotherapeutic records was collected: age, sex, ECOG, histology, brain metastases, PDL-1 expression, number of previous lines, time elapsed since previous treatment if any and reason for discontinuation. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) medians were calculated with SPSS 22.0 using the Kaplan–Meier method. Results Sixty-two patients were included (males 64.5%, mean age 68±9.7), 82.1% ECOG 0–1, 75.4% non-squamous histology and 14.5% with brain metastases). PDL-1 expression was positive in 100% of patients treated with pembrolizumab and in 4.8% of those treated with nivolumab (57.1% of them without determination). 75.8% had received previous treatment, 61.7% of them in less than 3 months and with less than three previous lines (97.2%). Forty-one patients were treated with pembrolizumab and 21 with nivolumab. The median treatment duration was 42 days (3–115). Seven patients discontinued due to drug toxicity. The global median OS and PFS were 361.5 and 61.5 days, with no statistically significant differences between both treatments (p=0.191 and p=0.279 respectively). Conclusion With the aim of improving the rational use of medicines and optimising results, these findings encourage us to carry out studies with a larger sample of patients in order to select the patients who would benefit most from these therapies. The possible presence of pseudoprogression in those who did not reach at least 3 months of treatment constitutes a limitation on observing the possible clinical benefits. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


Moniliella tomentosa was investigated for the presence of different quinones that might be involved in the cyanide-sensitive and/or cyanide-insensitive electron-transport pathways. The naturally occurring quinone in Moniliella tomentosa was found to be ubiquinone-45. Other quinone species could not be detected. The concentration of ubiquinone-45 in mitochondria is not related to the presence or absence of the alternative oxidase activity.


The morphological changes in the development of the ovary as a result of eyestalk ablation have been studied in the edible crab, Scylla serrata (Forskal) in the laboratory condition. Changes in four stages in the development of the ovary have been described. They are immature, maturing, ripe and spent. It was seen that eyestalk ablation in Scylla serrata (Forskal) would speed up the maturation of the ovary. In order to arrive at this conclusion, the eyestalks of the female were ablated. A piece of the ovary was taken out by making a small window on the carapace for knowing the condition of the ovary at the start of the experiment and another piece of the ovary of the same animal was again taken for biopsy at the end of the experiment


The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is still underway. An understanding of the virus's mode of transmission and infection is required for its effective containment. Besides the respiratory and digestive tracts, the ocular surface presents an additional mucosal surface that is exposed to infectious droplets and direct/indirect contact. The relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the eye remains controversial. This review examines up-to-date information on ocular manifestation, laboratory testing, transmission, and prevention of COVID-19. Based on clinical observations, the risk of conjunctivitis in COVID-19 is low. Despite the low incidence, positive SARS-CoV-2 results in eye specimens suggest that the ocular surface may harbor SARS-CoV-2, which may increase the infection and transmission risk. We conclude that the ocular surface remains a potential transmission route for the virus that should not be ignored. In addition, the intraocular findings have also been described in COVID-19. The measures for eye and face protection should be widely adopted to stem the tide of the pandemic.


This paper proposes a cut-based technique to compute bounds on the full access probability of an extra stage shuffle exchange network (ESEN) and a wrap-around inverse banyan network (WIBN). Note that the problem of finding an exact full access probability is known to be NP-hard. Our results obtain tighter bounds as compared to those using existing techniques. For a small size multistage interconnection network, it deviates less from the exact value. We also notice that our proposed lower bound is conservative. Further, the lower bound is important as it suggests that a network is at least this much reliable.


ABSTRACT This paper presents results of a study investigating ventilation mode, solar heat gain and daylight performance via vertical fenestration of a common school building in Portugal. In recent years, there has been a growing awareness in energy-efficient building design and operation of the building stock. The windows are usually the first component to be replaced by new and more efficient ones. Dynamic envelope/window systems may optimize the performance of the building when taking into account airing, solar heat gain rejection/acceptance and daylight admission. Higher thermal resistance glazing implies a reduction of solar transmittance. A typical school building located in Covilhã, Portugal was used for the study. Three different conventional windows were used for comparison: a single pane as found in the building, a double-pane to increase the thermal resistance and a double-pane with daylighting controls. Different simulation tools were used during this study. To be comparable with other studies, several ratios were present, namely the window/wall, the glazing/wall ratios, the window/floor and the glazing/floor ratios as well as the window opening area. This paper presents the obtained airflow and solar gains on both the heating and cooling season as well as the level of daylight for both overcast and non-overcast skies. The findings are essential for the assessment of passive building energy-saving techniques on a hypothetical building refurbishment by replacing old windows. However, specific adaptive actions to improve indoor environmental quality are also needed.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
We investigated the effect of adrenaline on desflurane-induced prolonged corrected QT (QTc) interval.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Sixty-two adult patients scheduled for nasal surgery were included. Following intubation, packs soaked in physiological saline were used for Group C (control) and packs soaked in adrenaline (1/200,000, 5 ml) were used for Groups A1 and A2. Group A2 was given desflurane simultaneously with nasal packing; other groups were given desflurane following removal of the packs. QTc interval was evaluated at 9 periods, from prior to induction of anaesthesia to postoperative first hour.

RESULTS
QTc interval was significantly reduced in Groups A1 and A2 compared to Group C during packaging (p < 0.001, p < 0.05 respectively), while QTc interval gradually prolonged after desflurane administration (p < 0.05 in Groups C compared to Groups A1 and A2). Patients did not develop arrhythmia.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that desflurane caused progressive prolongation of the QTc interval, and adrenaline shortened QTc interval only at application period of packs.


Abstract Brain and cardiac MRIs are fundamental noninvasive imaging tools, which can provide important clinical information and can be performed without or with gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs), depending on the clinical indication. It is currently a topic of debate whether it would be feasible to extract information such as standard gadolinium-enhanced MRI while injecting either less or no GBCAs. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a great source of innovation in medical imaging and has been explored as a method to synthesize virtual contrast MR images, potentially yielding similar diagnostic performance without the need to administer GBCAs. If possible, there would be significant benefits, including reduction of costs, acquisition time, and environmental impact with respect to conventional contrast-enhanced MRI examinations. Given its promise, we believe additional research is needed to increase the evidence to make these AI solutions feasible, reliable, and robust enough to be integrated into the clinical framework. Here, we review recent AI studies aimed at reducing or replacing gadolinium in brain and cardiac imaging while maintaining diagnostic image quality.


This paper considers leakage from sub-national climate policies using California's capand-trade program as a representative example. Our analysis is built on a global model of economic activity and energy systems that identifies 15 US regions and 15 regions in the rest of the world. As California's cap-and-trade policy requires electricity importers to surrender emissions allowances, leakage depends on the ability of out-of-state generators to reconfigure transmission to reduce the carbon intensity of electricity supplied to California. If exporters can dispatch carbon-free electricity to California and carbon-intensive electricity is rerouted to other markets, leakage is 47% of the decrease in emissions in California. If exporters are unable to adjust the carbon intensity of electricity supplied to California, as imported electricity is relatively carbon intensive, there is negative leakage to regions supplying electricity to California and the aggregate leakage rate is 5%. We also observe negative leakage to some regions due to changes in fossil fuel prices and that the impact of the trading of emissions permits between California and the EU depends on the ability of out-of-state generators to reconfigure electricity supply.


This phenomenographic study investigates the learning and teaching of Chinese characters through the observation of teaching activities in kindergartens and child care centres. There are two research questions: 1. What does it take for children to learn characters (i.e., What do children learn?) Nine critical features for learning characters have been identified, including the recognizing and writing of characters. 2. What are the various categories of teaching activities that teachers use to teach children to recognize and write characters? (i.e., How do teachers teach?) Four categories of teaching activities have been identified, namely, those that give extraneous clues, those that require imitation of performance, those that provide everyday context, and those that demand actual language use. This study is characterized by examining the object of learning in the teaching activities (rather than simply providing samples of various teach.ing activities). In this respect, this study is an endeavor to theorize the everyday learning and teaching experience of children and teachers in preschools.


Animals have been used in research and teaching for a long time. However, clear ethical guidelines and pertinent legislation were instated only in the past few decades, even in developed countries with Judeo‐Christian ethical roots. We compactly cover the basics of animal research ethics, ethical reviewing and compliance guidelines for animal experimentation across the developed world, "our" fundamentals of institutional animal research ethics teaching, and emerging alternatives to animal research. This treatise was meticulously constructed for scientists interested/involved in animal research. Herein, we discuss key animal ethics principles – Replacement/Reduction/Refinement. Despite similar undergirding principles across developed countries, ethical reviewing and compliance guidelines for animal experimentation vary. The chronology and evolution of mandatory institutional ethical reviewing of animal experimentation (in its pioneering nations) are summarised. This is followed by a concise rendition of the fundamentals of teaching animal research ethics in institutions. With the advent of newer methodologies in human cell‐culturing, novel/emerging methods aim to minimise, if not avoid the usage of animals in experimentation. Relevant to this, we discuss key extant/emerging alternatives to animal use in research; including organs on chips, human‐derived three‐dimensional tissue models, human blood derivates, microdosing, and computer modelling of various hues.


Baking soda is a readily available household product composed of sodium bicarbonate. It can be used as a home remedy to treat dyspepsia. If used in excessive amounts, baking soda has the potential to cause a variety of serious metabolic abnormalities. We believe this is the first reported case of hemorrhagic encephalopathy induced by baking soda ingestion. Healthcare providers should be aware of the dangers of baking soda misuse and the associated adverse effects.


Event management is a thriving and growing business in many countries, including Malaysia. There are many local entrepreneurs providing various services for events relating to the music and entertainment industry. Hence, these firms need to develop competitive advantages to ensure that their entrepreneurial endeavours are successful. Marketing orientation and management capabilities are two major contributors to business performance. Therefore, in this study, the aim is to determine the level of marketing orientation, management capabilities and entrepreneurial success, as well as to determine the relationship among these variables. This descriptive and quantitative study uses 200 respondents selected using snowball sampling method from among owners and managers of event management firms in Sabah. IBM SPSS 23.0 was used to analyse data gathered from a self-administered questionnaire. Findings showed that marketing orientation and management capabilities were perceived highly but entrepreneurial success was perceived moderately. There is also a direct, significant and moderate relationship between marketing orientation and management capabilities with entrepreneurial success. This study led to the implication that event management firms need to have strong marketing orientation and management capabilities so that their success in the entrepreneurial endeavours is achieved.


Following a moving target with a narrow-view foveal vision system is one of the essential oculomotor behaviors of humans and humanoids. This oculomotor behavior, called "smooth pursuit", requires accurate tracking control which cannot be achieved by a simple visual negative feedback controller due to the significant delays in visual information processing. In this paper, we present a biologically inspired smooth pursuit controller consisting of two cascaded subsystems: one is an inverse model controller for the oculomotor system; and the other is a learning controller for the dynamics of the visual target. The latter learns how to predict the target motion in head coordinates such that the tracking performance can be improved. We investigate our smooth pursuit system in simulations and experiments on a humanoid robot. By using a fast online statistical learning network, our humanoid oculomotor system is able to acquire a high performance smooth pursuit after about 5 seconds of learning despite significant processing delays in the system.


Fabrication of large-area atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides is of critical importance for the preparation of new heterojunction-based devices. In this paper, we report the fabrication and optical investigation of large-scale chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown monolayer MoS2 and exfoliated few-layer GaS heterojunctions. As revealed by photoluminescence (PL) characterization, the as-fabricated heterojunctions demonstrated edge interaction between the two layers. The heterojunction was sensitive to annealing and showed increased interaction upon annealing at 300 °C under vacuum conditions, which led to changes in both the emission peak position and intensity resulting from the strong coupling interaction between the two layers. Low-temperature PL measurements further confirmed the strong coupling interaction. In addition, defect-related GaS luminescence was observed in our few-layer GaS, and the PL mapping provided evidence of edge interaction coupling between the two layers. These findings are interesting and provide the basis for creating new material systems with rich functionalities and novel physical effects.


The present work presents a microfluidic device with interdigitated microelectrode and microchannel for fetal nucleated red blood cell dielectrophoresis properties characterization using crossover frequency method. To obtain the electric field and its gradient along the microchannel, simulation study was done by using MAXWELL™ software. Results show maximum electric field and gradient are obtained near the electrode edge and they are affected by electrode width and the electrode gap. The crossover frequency should be obtained by keeping the cell moving near the electrode edge. The device has been successfully used in fetal cell characterization with better than 1KHz frequency repeatability, which is about 2% of the measured crossover frequency.


Abstract Observations have been made on the size and concentration of graupel and hail occurring in untreated convective cloud systems over the High Plains of the United States. From these data, an average graupel and hail distribution has been generated. The comparison of this .,ize spectrum with data from other studies, along with the implications to hail detection and hail suppression, is also discussed.


The notion of a molecular network as a system of local density maxima, connected by gradient paths, is extended from position space and the underlying charge density to momentum and phase space, and the momentum density and Husimi distribution, respectively. Local maxima and gradient paths are identified in a series of nine small hydrocarbonic molecules, and the resulting "molecular graphs" are interpreted in terms of symmetry and topology. For the example of a symmetric SN2 reaction, it is shown that the topology of the Husimi function based graphs can be useful for the classification of chemical species and their change. In an appendix, a few relationships among elements of the gradient and the Hessian of the Husimi distribution are derived and briefly discussed.


Re-opening Close Reading: Literature Education and Literary Experience This dissertation is a performance of, meditation on, and inquiry into the practice of close reading as it relates to the teaching, learning, and interpretation of literature. The objects of close reading include literature, the history of literary pedagogy and its relationship to critical theory, and a narrative that recounts my experience as an instructor of a teacher education course centered on literature and literary pedagogy. The seven chapters form a series of interlocking interpretive essays or "readings" that together raise questions about the relationship between aesthetic experiences with literary texts, the practice of literary interpretation, and pedagogical approaches in the literature classroom. The study is framed by an exploration of John Milton's Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, both of which, I argue, dramatize interpretive acts in ways that tacitly cue reading practices that would become familiar in twentieth-century literary and pedagogical theory. These two texts, the latter of which can be viewed as a "reading" of the former, provide a useful framework for conceptualizing literary knowledge as a kind of experiential knowledge, dramatizing Baconian empiricism and Coleridgean imagination in anticipation of twentiethcentury theories of participatory aesthetics associated with I.A. Richards, John Dewey, and Louise Rosenblatt. Paradise Lost and Frankenstein also provide a testing ground for my own practice of close reading. At the heart of this study is a re-reading of the work of Rosenblatt and some of the New Critics: I argue that Rosenblatt and the New Critics, particularly Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, were pioneers of parallel, rather than opposing, pedagogical traditions, informed by the shared influence of Richards and Dewey. I decouple a vision for an authentic practice of close reading—grounded in aesthetic experience and supported by meaningful interpretive discourse—from the narrower version of close reading promoted by the Common Core State Standards in literacy, which have been widely critiqued in ways that invite reductive accounts of literary history. Through a return to Rosenblatt and the New Critics, alongside a discussion of contemporary debates about the place of close reading in the literature classroom, I articulate principles of practice that could unite secondary and college teachers of literature and inform the teaching and learning of close reading in the twenty-first century. I conclude with a narrative in which I attempt to enact some of these principles in a literature course for teachers, offering a close reading of the tensions and discoveries that emerge in my own teaching.


This article is a case study of the political economy of bank restructuring, privatization and market liberalization in the South Korean banking sector since the 1997/1998 financial crisis. We show that the most crucial factor in that post-crisis bank restructuring was the quick and massive state intervention that involved nationalization or closure of failed banks and a "clean-up" of banks' bad assets through an injection of a huge amount of public funds. This strategy was feasible because the government successfully managed to suppress the vested interests of domestic market participants, including shareholders, employees, and borrowers. We argue that the process of bank restructuring and (re-) privatization in Korea cannot be explained just by market dynamics. On the contrary, we stress that a political economic approach offers a more consistent explanation of the government's rush to sell nationalized banks to foreign investors and international banks. Foreign ownership of domestic banks was a politically motivated agenda of the government designed to create an independent and profit-oriented banking sector that could curb the seemingly omnipotent power of the chaebol conglomerates within the Korean economy.


At present, conventional activated sludge (CAS) systems are widely applied to treat municipal wastewater. The main advantages of CAS systems are that they are robust and generally produce an effluent quality that meets the discharge guidelines. However, CAS systems cannot be considered sustainable because they consume large amounts of energy (mainly for aeration and sludge treatment), have a high CO2 emission and do no recover a potential resource of water, energy and nutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Therefore, in this thesis new municipal wastewater treatment concepts that combine treatment with recovery of valuable resources and can save considerable amounts of energy were investigated by modelling and experiments. Quantitative numerical results showed that the feasibility of two novel wastewater treatment configurations, including combined bioflocculation and anaerobic digestion but with different nutrient removal technologies, i.e. (cold) partial nitritation/Anammox or microalgae treatment, is location dependent. Using Dutch municipal wastewater and climate conditions, the configuration with cold partial nitritation/Anammox is the most promising wastewater treatment concept, because it can: 1) treat wastewater year round; 2) produce an effluent at a quality that meets the discharge guidelines; 3) reduce CO2 emission by 35% compared to the CAS system; 4) achieve a net energy yield up to 0.24 kWh per m3 of wastewater compared to a negative net energy yield of -0.08 kWh per m3 of wastewater for the CAS system; and 5) recover 80% of the sewage P. Additionally, the feasibility of the two configurations was investigated for 16 locations around the globe. The results quantitatively support the pre-assumption that the configuration with (cold) partial nitritation/Anammox is applicable in tropical regions and some locations in temperate regions. The configuration with microalgae treatment is only applicable the whole year round in tropical regions that are close to the equator line. The results also showed that the configuration employing microalgae treatment has an advantage over the configuration employing partial nitritation/Anammox with respect to consumption of aeration energy and recovery of nutrients, but not with respect to area requirements. For a tropical climate country like Thailand, the net energy yield of both configurations is at least a factor 10 higher than the CAS system, while CO2 emission is at least 22% lower. In CAS systems energy recovery from wastewater is accomplished by anaerobic digestion of the organic solids in primary and secondary sludge into methane. However, volatile fatty acids (VFA), which are intermediate digestion products, may be preferred over methane, because VFA can be used as starting compounds for a wide range of higher value products. In this thesis the experimental results showed that a combined process with bioflocculation, using a high-loaded membrane bioreactor (HL-MBR) to concentrate sewage organic matter, and anaerobic fermentation, using a sequencing batch reactor to produce VFA is technologically feasible. An HL-MBR operated at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1 hour and a sludge retention time (SRT) of 1 day resulted in very good performance, because as high as 75.5% of the sewage COD (chemical oxygen demand) was diverted to the concentrate and only 7.5% was mineralized into CO2. It was also found that 90% of the sewage NH4-N and PO4-P were conserved in the HL-MBR permeate, which can be reused as irrigation water as it is free from solids and pathogens. During anaerobic fermentation of the HL-MBR concentrate at an SRT of 5 days, 35°C and without pH control, methane production was inhibited, but incomplete solids degradation mainly limited the VFA production as only 15% of the sewage COD was converted to VFA. Thus, the VFA yield needed to be increased. It was hypothesized that high pH (pH 8–10) fermentation combined with a long SRT, allowing for sufficient solubilization of solids and colloidal COD, can improve the VFA yield. In the current study, it was found that application of a pH shock of 9 in the first 3.5 hours of a sequencing batch cycle followed by a pH uncontrolled phase for 7 days gave the highest VFA yield of 440 mg VFA-COD/g VSS and this was equivalent to 26% of the sewage COD. This yield was much higher than at fermentation without pH control or at a constant pH between 8 and 10. The high yield in the pH 9 shock fermentation could be explained by: 1) a reduction of methanogenic activity; or 2) a high degree of solids degradation; or 3) an enhanced protein hydrolysis and fermentation. This study also demonstrated that the VFA yield can still be further optimized by fine-tuning pH levels and longer operation, possibly with fermentative microorganisms adapted to a high pH that are commonly found in nature. This would further increase VFA yield to 33% of the sewage COD.


This research is a quantitative study that aims to determine the effect of educational exposure 4.0, passion in studies, and readiness for the implementation of technology in learning for prospective teachers in the TKI field. The research sample of 111 students of the 5th semester PTI study program in two large universities in East Java by random sampling with proportional techniques. The analysis technique used is the analysis of PLS (Partial Least Square). The results of this study indicate that educational exposure 4.0 has a positive and significant effect on the readiness of implementing information technology in learning both directly and indirectly
Keywords: education 4.0, passion, tpack-21.


This paper highlights the nature of individualistic employee voice in the context of contemporary Indian organisations. As the demand for knowledge workers increase, more organisations are finding that employee voice is critical for developing business intelligence. Yet, organisations often find their employees mostly silent despite the potential of knowledge sharing. Considering the benefits and the implicit costs associated with employee voice, the paper draws on senior executives' accounts of employee voice that represent varied industry sectors and uses qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate broad themes around the nature, content, boundaries, avenues, and targets of voice along with its underlying mechanisms. The paper extends management perspectives on employee voice behaviour and contributes towards understanding the intricacies of individual dynamics and human experience in voice scholarship. The study has implications for Indian indigenous voice research and practice.


This paper is concerned with the relationship between the interest rate smoothing behavior of a central bank and the variability of inflation and output. The issue is analyzed through the lens of a small open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with nontraded goods price rigidities and habit persistence. The benchmark model is calibrated to match certain key business cycle features of a small open economy like Australia. Relative to the benchmark model, experiments on a Taylor rule with interest rate smoothing are conducted. Due to the existence of a short run expectational Phillips curve in the model, monetary policy will imply certain trade-offs between inflation and output variance, under sensible parameter values of the model. More importantly, in a world where there exists such a trade-off, greater interest rate smoothing in the Taylor rule can potentially yield lower sacrifices in terms of output variability in return for lower inflation, thus increasing policy effectiveness. JEL Classification: E32; E44; E52; F41


Nanoparticles of Eu2O3 and Tb2O3 have been prepared using ultrasound radiation and were deposited sonochemically on microspherical alumina particles. In a different sonochemical reaction Eu2O3 and Tb2O3 were doped into nanophased alumina particles. For both systems the decay times of the fluorescence was measured. The luminescence of the alumina substrate was found to be much shorter than that of the rare-earth oxides. Differences between the decay times of the deposited and doped materials are accounted for by the stronger guest-host interaction and absence of concentration quenching in the doped material.


The vulnerability of embryonic and larval stages of European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax to environmental temperature and the longer-term consequences for the early juveniles was demonstrated. This phenotypic plasticity was highlighted by subjecting D. labrax at 15.2 +/- 0.3 or 20.0 +/- 0.4 degrees C (mean +/-s.d.) up to metamorphosis and then at the same temperature (18.5 +/- 0.7 degrees C). After 4-6 weeks at the same temperature, the measurement of critical swimming speed at four exercise temperatures (15, 20, 25 and 28 degrees C) showed a significantly higher swimming capacity in the fish initially reared at 15 degrees C than for fish initially reared at 20 degrees C. This performance was correlated with significant differences in the phenotype of red muscle. Thermally induced phenotypic plasticity was clearly demonstrated as an important mechanism controlling swimming performance in early juveniles of D. labrax.


Social robots are robots that help people as capable partners rather than as tools, are believed to be of greatest use for applications in entertainment, education, and healthcare because of their potential to be perceived as trusting, helpful, reliable, and engaging. This paper explores how the robot's physical presence influences a person's perception of these characteristics. The first study reported here demonstrates the differences between a robot and an animated character in terms a person's engagement and perceptions of the robot and character. The second study shows that this difference is a result of the physical presence of the robot and that a person's reactions would be similar even if the robot is not physically collocated. Implications to the design of socially communicative and interactive robots are discussed.


Due to the increasing need for service personalization in pervasive environments, the management of user's contextual media preferences becomes an important issue. In this paper, we present a framework for managing ambient preferences, which is a continuously updated set of attributes reflecting user's need and expectations for different media services in different contexts. These attributes are dynamically collected and updated based on the interactions of the users in distributed environments. The proposed framework provides mechanisms to store and share these preferences in order to provide personalized services to the user according to the different contextual situations. We demonstrate the development of the framework, its implementation and usage in distributed environment settings.


A sensitive and selective method for the screening of 28 different compounds including testosterone and prohormones, nandrolone and prohormones, stanozolol and metandienone in solid nutritional supplements is described and validated. The different substances are extracted from the solid nutritional supplements by liquid-liquid extraction with a mixture of pentane and freshly distilled diethylether (9/1) after dissolving the supplement in NaOH (1 N). The anabolizing agents are derivatized with a mixture of MSTFA/NH(4)I/ethanethiol (320/1/2), routinely used for the derivatization of anabolic steroids extracted from urine. The TMS-derivatives are analysed by GC-MS in the SIM mode. The limits of detection were in the range from 2 to 40 ng/g. One supplement was analysed with this method and was found to contain several forbidden substances according to IOC doping regulations. All detected compounds, except dihydrotestosterone, could be confirmed with GC-MS(2), proving that the proposed method is suitable for the screening of anabolizing agents in solid nutritional supplements.


Based on the data of NCEP, OLR and rainfall of China, we studied the influences of the East Asian winter monsoon activities on the precipitation during the raining season over China by correlation analysis and composite analysis. The result shows that annual and interdecadal change of East Asian winter monsoon is distinct. It is strong from 1950s to the middle of 1980s but weak after the middle of 1980s. The effect of abnormal winter monsoon on the precipitation during raining season is significant over the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River basin. It is revealed that the precipitation will increase when preceding winter monsoon is weak but decrease when preceding winter monsoon is strong. In this paper, some appropriate reasons are given to explain the abnormal rainfall by analyzing the distribution of SSTA and the variation of summer circulation. It is pointed out definitely that the variation of SSTA and summer circulation is a primary cause for abnormal rainfall over the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang River.


Acute non-rheumatic streptococcal myopericarditis (ANRSM) is a rare complication of an upper airway infection by streptococcus group A in developed countries. Cardiac involvement in bacterial infections must be adequately treated because it can lead to long-term complications. This case report describes recurrent ANRSM in an 18-year-old man, which illustrates how difficult and challenging the diagnosis of this disease can be. LEARNING POINTS In developed countries, acute non-rheumatic streptococcal myopericarditis is a rare complication of an upper airway infection by streptococcus group A and can mimic acute myocardial infection with ST elevation. The diagnosis is made on the basis of a recent upper airway infection by streptococcus group A in the absence of a rheumatic setting. Cardiac imaging (mainly ultrasound and magnetic resonance) plays a major role in making the diagnosis. Prognosis is very good when appropriate treatment with antibiotics and non-steroidal inflammatory drugs is provided.


Successful body plethysmographic examination of infants and toddlers can now be performed by means of a special baby plethysmograph which is commercially available (Fa. Jaeger, Würzburg, Fed. Rep. of Germany). The apparatus is equipped with a heated rebreathing system and manipulation ports. Examinations require paying attention to certain potential sources of error: the consequences of necessary sedation; possible undefined leaks due to non-airtight manipulation ports; the influence of irregular breathing or increasing hyperventilation; the effect of nasal resistance; the large variation in total airway resistance; problems in the quantitative evaluation of box pressure/flow curves and curve form analysis. Careful handling can overcome all these difficulties. From the clinical point of view, body plethysmographic examination is just as important for infants and toddlers as for schoolchildren and adults.


Background: Inter-arm difference (IAD) in blood pressure (BP) has been observed in various general populations and in individuals with increased risk of cardio vascular disease and peripheral vascular disease. The prevalence of raised IAD in BP in young healthy adults has not been well addressed in most prior studies.
Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of raised IAD in BP in young healthy adults, to find the gender difference in mean IAD and mean arterial BP, to find the difference in mean arterial BP according to the presence of IAD in BP.
Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among 284 medical students. BP was measured twice in each arm, using an automatic device that was calibrated according to the manufacturer's recommendations and the values were averaged. IAD in BP is defined as difference between average BP in right arm and average BP in left arm.
Results: Prevalence of raised IAD in BP in the study group was 16.5% (47). None had IAD in BP ≥ 20 mm of Hg. Mean systolic IAD in BP was 5.915(±3.81) mm of Hg and mean diastolic IAD in BP was 3.18 (±2.44) mm of Hg. The mean values of systolic and diastolic IAD in BP were almost similar in males and females , but the mean values of mean arterial BP in both arms were significantly different (P


Association rule is an important model in data mining. However, traditional association rules are mostly based on the support and confidence metrics, and most algorithms and researches assumed that each attribute in the database is equal. In fact, because the user preference to the item is different, the mining rules using the existing algorithms are not always appropriate to users. By introducing the concept of weighted dual confidence, a new algorithm which can mine effective weighted rules is proposed in this paper, which is on the basis of the dual confidence association rules used in algorithm. The case studies show that the algorithm can reduce the large number of meaningless association rules and mine interesting negative association rules in real life.


The article deals with the problem of unity and interrelation of educational, educative, and developmental functions of the educational process in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors substantiated the productivity of the attempt to study the unity and interrelation of educational, upbringing, and developmental functions of the educational process under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors used a survey of 189 respondents, scientific and pedagogical workers of higher education, as an experimental method of research: National University of Culture and Arts (Kyiv, Ukraine); Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, (Vinnytsia, Ukraine); Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University (Vinnytsia, Ukraine); Zaporizhia National University (Zaporizhia, Ukraine); Alexander Dovzhenko Hlukiv (National Pedagogical University) (Hlukiv, Ukraine). The problem of the unity of educational, upbringing, and developmental function of the learning process in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic was considered based on the elaborated sources of foreign and domestic scientists. An empirical study was carried out, which helped to determine the situation in 2021 in retrospect of the considered problem. It is concluded that the unity and interrelation of educational, pedagogical, and developing functions of the learning process in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic are the key factors of identity formation because its formation is possible only in the context of dialogical and man-centered models of education, where it is fully possible to take into account the anthropological characteristics of man, in particular his need for dialogue as communication. The authors point out that in the article scientific and pedagogical employees prefer the distance form of education because they believe that it is possible to use more various platforms and services for training and education of higher education applicants. The data of the empirical study showed that the majority of educators believe that the educational function of the learning process under the COVID-19 pandemic has changed for the better because the applicants have become more self-organized and disciplined, tired and eager to learn new material through various Internet resources. It has been observed that academic educators show indicators of improvement in their competencies during practice in the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that educators use a variety of online tools to work with applicants, such as: Zoom, Classtime, Google Meet, and others.


The effect of air pollution on health is listed as a significant cause of death worldwide. Slightly over 3 million deaths per year are due to outdoor air pollution. Studies have shown that short term increases in exposure to particulate matter have increased the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure. However, less is known about the longer term effects of air pollution on various cardiovascular diseases. The American Heart Association formally recognized PM2.5 as a significant cardiovascular risk factor in 2010. Since then, more prolonged term exposure to air pollution has been suggested to cause chronic cardiometabolic and cardiovascular problems. The effects of long term (>3 years) air pollution are significant, but not as much is known about how location affects this exposure. Associations with cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors are often increased in urban settings, which is attributed to a higher concentrations of outdoor air pollution, independent of ethnic groups and seasonal changes. Potential causes of long term air pollution concentrations in cities or metropolitan areas come from traffic exposure and traffic intensity. The Environmental Protection Agency and United Nations have suggested changes in air quality standards, implementation plans, and ways to reduce vehicle emissions specifically to improve human health and reduce the adverse effects of air pollution; however, more work still needs to be done. This review assesses the impact of the global long term (>3 years) air pollution exposure, specifically in urban environments on cardiovascular health and disease.


This article presents an overview of the background, technology, regulation, and standardization in the course of deploying smart utility networks (SUNs) in TV white space (TVWS) communications, two wireless technologies currently receiving overwhelming interest in the wireless industry and academia. They are independent to and uncorrelated with each other, but share the same mission: conserving resources and increasing efficiency. This article reviews the systems as separate technologies, and then combines them to propose a hybrid solution that draws out their respective advantages. The first part focuses on SUNs and describes the SUN usage model with typical application requirements and practical examples, followed by the latest developments in standardization initiatives with emphasis on the currently active IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.11ah groups. The second part discusses TVWS, studying and summarizing the regulations governing its usage, and then reports on the standardization bodies' responses to these regulations with a focus on IEEE 802.11af, 802.19.1, and 802.22. Finally, the third part amalgamates the SUN usage model with TVWS regulations and deployment scenarios, providing relationship mapping between the SUN components and regulation-compliant TVWS devices. Further discussions concentrate on the opportunities and challenges along the path of realizing a practical SUN in the TVWS spectrum under the current technical and regulatory conditions. Several recommendations are made from both regulatory and technical standpoints to further increase utilization of SUNs in TVWS.


To the Editor. —Offical US government assessments indicate that from 1972 through 1975, when the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) was signed and came into force, 4 countries in the world had biological weapons (BW) development programs. In the 1990s, that number is around 10 and includes China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Taiwan, with the status of the BW programs that existed in the past in Russia and South Africa ambiguous at present. 1-6 It is not clear exactly how many of these nations are currently producing or stockpiling BW agents, but apparently 2 or 3 (possibly China, Iran, and Iraq) may be. 1-6 Of particular significance is the fact that several of these 10 nations are signatories of the BWC, which prohibits both the development and production of BW. There was no serious international response to the use of chemical weapons by Iraq against


The development of gp120 targeted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drug has improved antiretroviral therapies owing to its effects on attachment to target cells. Some currently available antiretroviral therapies that act by inhibiting viral infection still are limited on the toxicity issues; therefore, novel approaches to treat and prevent HIV infections are still needed. Herein, we introduce carbon dot nanoparticles as a new strategy for preventing HIV-1 infection via interaction with gp120 and subsequent elimination of target cell interaction. Carbon dots (diameter: ∼2 nm) exhibiting a graphene-like structure were prepared by pyrolysis of citric acid and further associated with boronic acid-containing molecules. Specific peaks from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis indicated successful modification of the carbon dots by boronic acid. The lower cytotoxic effects of this carbon-based material were evaluated using WST-1 assays. The existence of boronic acid moieties on the edge of carbon dots enhanced the inhibitory activity by suppressing syncytium formation. These findings provide a basis for further studies of carbon dot-based applications in HIV prevention and therapy.


Soft tissue management, dissection, and handling are of paramount importance during Achilles tendon repair. Although surgical repairs of Achilles tendons have predictably excellent outcomes, complications including wound infection and stiffness are not uncommon. The authors' surgical technique for Achilles tendon repair includes tagging the posterior paratenon for later layered repair and incising the posterior fascia, exposing the flexor hallucis longus muscle belly. This posterior compartment fasciotomy allows for both hematoma evacuation away from the tenuous posterior skin and mobilization of the posterior paratendon for complete closure over the repaired Achilles tendon. With this modified technique, the authors report a 1% infection rate and a 1% failure rate. [Orthopedics. 2016; 39(4):e790-e793.].


Knowledge sharing (KS) is an important component of knowledge management. Through KS, the creation and dissemination of new knowledge is made possible. The authors propose SemKnow semantic knowledge management system to enhance the functionality of scholarly repositories. Repositories are commonly used by academic institutions to manage the research work of their scholars and enhance visibility among peers. Previous research done by the authors was used to identify the factors influencing knowledge sharing among postgraduate student at one of the research intensive university in Malaysia. This paper proposes a KMS tool for enhancing knowledge sharing using the semantic web.


Twenty-six experiments were carried out in England and Wales from 1983 to 1985 to compare urea and ammonium nitrate (AN) as N top-dressing for cereals over the range 100–300 kg/ha N. Most of the experiments were sited on chalky or other soils of pH>7·0 where the greatest differences in effectiveness were expected. The results showed that while relative N offtake in grain was 2·5% greater from AN, there was no difference in grain yield. Splitting the main N application increased N offtake from urea but not from AN. Overall, urea effectiveness from a single application at GS 31 increased with increasing rainfall on the day of application, but was not increased by subsequent rainfall. On chalk soils, urea effectiveness increased with increasing cumulative rainfall up to the fifth day after application. There was little effect of rainfall on urea effectiveness when the dressing was split. Although grain yield was unaffected by the type of fertilizer N applied, grain N concentration was usually less from urea. The fertilizer N requirement for optimum yield (Nopt) wassimilar for both fertilizers. Splitting the main N application had no effect on yield or Nopt. We concludethat urea is a satisfactory source of N for cereals.