The shock-free flow field emanating from a pulsating sphere in a vibrationally relaxing gas without viscosity and heat conduction is obtained by numerical integration of the exact equations. The method is applicable to air when models with either one or two vibrational modes are used. The results highlight the various effects of nonlinearity, attenuation, dispersion, spherical spreading, and source compactness. The special case of isentropic flow is first investigated in some detail. This gives information about the effects of nonlinear harmonic growth and of sphere compactness. Approximate solutions are found to be useful in explaining some of the effects observed. These solutions are reviewed, improved where possible, and compared with the numerical solutions. These appear to be particularly useful because they give details of the development of the wave profile whereas the approximate theories are essentially concerned with the changes in amplitude with distance.


Congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV) is a complex three-dimensional deformity with an incidence of 1–3 per 1000 live births. The Ponseti method is widely accepted and practiced, giving reliably good long-term results. There are a number of studies showing the benefits of a physiotherapy led Ponseti service with outcomes similar to a consultant led service. We present the first prospective randomised series comparing a physiotherapy led Ponseti service with a standard orthopaedic surgeon led series. 16 infants with bilateral CTEV were randomised into two groups. Each infant had one foot treated by a physiotherapist and the other foot treated by an orthopaedic surgeon using the Ponseti technique. Both groups had a premanipulation Pirani score of 5.5. All patients were followed up for a minimum of 12 months and the results demonstrated no significant difference in the post-treatment Pirani scores (p=0.77) and no significant difference in the success rate the Ponseti technique (p=1.00). This study is the first of its kind and demonstrates the value of a physiotherapy led Ponseti service in the management of CTEV. Although overall supervision by a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon is still necessary, this service will allow the surgeon to spend more time dealing with more complex problems.


Definition of control and join-control changed during last years in both Czech accounting legislation and International Financial Reporting Standards. This paper deals with character of these changes. This paper also includes comparison of current treatment of control and join-control according to the Czech legislation and according to IFRS. Illustrative examples and cases indicate critical points where are found the substantial differences between Act on Business Corporations as amended with the Czech accounting legislation and IFRS 10 and IFRS 11 respectively. This paper also collates definition of control according to the Act on Business Corporations with definition of control according to the Commercial Code.


In this work, chlorine doped Bi–BiO2−x (Cl–Bi–BiO2−x) was prepared by a one-step solvothermal method using sodium bismuthate (NaBiO3·2H2O) as a Bi source without the addition of a surfactant. Both time and temperature of solvothermal reaction may regulate the amount of Bi0 deposition in the photocatalyst, causing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and oxygen vacancy defects (OVDs). The synergistic effect of SRP and OVD promotes the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, shortens the bandgap, and enhances the optical absorptivity. Imidacloprid, a widely used insecticide, was selected to explore such photocatalysts with controlled OVD and SPR for potential application in pesticide photo-degradation in aqueous solution. Cl–Bi–BiO2−x with a rationally coordinating OVD and SPR shows a narrower band gap, wider light absorption, higher separation efficiency of photo-generated charges and faster pollutant degradation, supporting a green method to synthesize bismuth-based photocatalysts and facilitating the study on the synergistic effect of SPR and OVD on photocatalysts.


Abstract Membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) have been prepared from different acid-base-blends consisting of different sulfonated arylene main-chain polymers and polybenzimidazole PBI and a microphase-separated arylene main-chain block copolymer consisting of a sulfonated and proton-conducting and a hydrophobic microphase. The MEAs have been prepared using 4 different methods: Method A: The membrane has been prepared first as a free film, and the electrodes have subsequently been coated onto the membrane; Method B: The membrane has been prepared first as a polyester-supported film, and the electrodes have thereafter been coated onto the membrane; Method C: The MEA has been built up from the anode; Method D: The MEA has been built up from the cathode. The MEAs have been tested under different temperatures and different meOH concentrations. Three different polyacid-PBI blend membranes could be identified which showed comparable or even better DMFC performance than Nafion®105: a sulfonated polyethersulfone-PBI blend membrane, a sulfonated polyetherketone-PBI blend membrane, and a partially fluorinated sulfonated polyether-PBI blend membrane. The proton-conducting block co-ionomer membrane initially showed an excellent DMFC performance due to reduced meOH permeability, compared to the polyacid-PBI blend membranes, which however degraded with time of the DMFC operation probably being due to irreversible morphology changes. Among all tested MEAs the MEAs prepared by Method B showed the best DMFC performance. The DMFC performance of the MEAs prepared by Method C and Method D was slightly worse than that of the MEAs made via Method B. The DMFC performance of a MEA from the sulfonated polyetherketone-PBI blend membrane which was built up using Method D improved steadily during 4 weeks of DMFC operation.


Bogenschneider argues that inversions result primarily from shareholders' inability to replace ineffective corporate management under Delaware corporate law. He contends that the new theory of capital ownership neutrality is based on the counterfactual assumption of fixed capital investments by U.S. multinationals, and not marginal capital investment by a growing company, which is already tax deductible. Bogenschneider also observes that U.S. multinationals typically operate with effective tax rates equal to or less than those of foreign multinationals.


40 undergraduates were presented with simple letters made up of patterned line modes. Other subjects were shown the same modes but in the form of parallel unconnected lines. On subsequent recognition tests recognition was superior for the lines presented in the unconnected condition. This was true despite various types of recognition tests designed to control for possible bias in favor of the unconnected condition. These improved procedures support the suggestion that the articulated form itself becomes an added factor in the memory span that hinders retention of its component elements.


Myanmar as a country in South-East Asia is vulnerable to disasters including storms, floods, fire, earth fall, earthquakes, depending on the geographical nature and climate of the area. The National Health Committee (NHC) of Myanmar has formed under it an Emergency Healthcare Committee. After the Asian tsunami, the Ministry of Health (MoH) formed the National Disaster Preparedness and Response Committee which developed the National Guidelines for Disasters Preparedness and Response. The experience of dealing with the tsunami has shown that psychosocial support to the affected community not only reduces its psychological distress but can also facilitate physical rehabilitation. Thus mental health and psychosocial aspects have been included in disaster preparedness and management plans of the MoH.


Background Providers of children with developmental disabilities (DD) had to rapidly innovate to translate face to face care to a virtual platform in order to continue to support the needs of their patients during the coronavirus 2019 pandemic. Objectives We aimed to explore the extent of psychological ill-effects, if any, and explore resilience in providers of children with DD. Methods This was a voluntary cross-sectional study involving an anonymous questionnaire, administered via a secure online platform, between 13 May and 1 July 2020, coinciding with the Circuit Breaker (similar to a lockdown) period in Singapore. Participants included healthcare providers serving children with DD in various capacities at public and private healthcare settings in the country. Common diagnoses of DD included autism spectrum disorder and global developmental delay. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25-item were administered. Descriptive statistics were conducted. Results Ninety-five responses were received. Mean age of respondents was 37.4 years (SD 9.45), with 96.8% of them being female. A quarter (24.5%) were medical professionals (doctor, nurse, psychologists), a third (33.0%) were therapists (physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists), a third were school-based providers (teachers in mainstream or special-education schools, learning support educators), and the rest (8.5%) were working in administrative aspects of dealing with children with DD (case manager, social workers, administrative staff). A quarter (25.5%) worked in a hospital, 20.2% worked in a school setting, 37.2% at a therapy centre (e.g early intervention centres), while 17.0% worked in social community agencies. On the DASS (table 1), more than half (56.8%) of the respondents had a positive screen for stress, of which half of these (53.7%) had levels which were in the 'extremely severe' range. Almost half (42.1%) of providers had anxiety, of which 45.0% of these were 'extremely severe'. Depression rate was lower, with a positive screen present in 13.7% in this group of providers, and half of these were in the 'mild' range. Chi-square analysis showed that providers in school-based institutions were more likely than providers in non-school-based institutions to have a positive screen for depression on the DASS-21 (36.8% vs 8.0%, p=0.004). Mean resilience scores on the CD-RISC 25 was 62.7 (range 36.0 to 88.0), lower compared to the published normative data for this scale. Conclusions Providers of children with DD face significant psychological ill-effects during this pandemic, as well as lower resilience compared to the general population. Targeted institutional support for these providers and interventions to improve their resilience are both crucial to enhance the mental well-being of these providers. This will in turn facilitate continued provision of care for children with DD despite the pandemic.


A leading strategy for developing a prophylactic HIV-1 vaccine is the elicitation of antibodies that can neutralize a large fraction of circulating HIV-1 variants. However, a major challenge that has limited the effectiveness of current vaccine candidates is the extensive global diversity of HIV-1 Env, the sole target for HIV-neutralizing antibodies. To address this challenge, a variety of strategies to incorporate Env diversity into the vaccine formulation have been proposed. Here, we assessed the potential of two such strategies that utilize a nanoparticle-based vaccine platform to elicit broadly neutralizing antibody responses. The nanoparticle immunogens developed here consisted of different formulations of Envs from strains BG505 (clade A) and CZA97 (clade C), attached to the N-termini of bacterial ferritin. Single-antigen nanoparticle cocktails as well as mosaic nanoparticles bearing both Env trimers elicited high antibody titers in mice and guinea pigs. Furthermore, serum from guinea pigs immunized with nanoparticle immunogens achieved autologous, and in some cases heterologous, tier 2 neutralization, although significant differences between mosaic and single-antigen nanoparticles were not observed. These results provide insights into the ability of different vaccine strategies for incorporating Env sequence diversity to elicit neutralizing antibodies, with implications for the development of broadly protective HIV-1 vaccines.


Dose-response curves were obtained with subcutaneous histamine acid phosphate (HAP) in twenty-two subjects, intravenous HAP in fifteen subjects, subcutaneous pentagastrin in fourteen subjects and intravenous pentagastrin in twelve subjects in order to determine the minimal doses of these stimuli for maximal pepsin secretion. The minimal doses for maximal pepsin secretion were 2·8 mg HAP on SHT, 1·2 mg/hr HAP on IHT, 300 μg pentagastrin on SPT and 100 μg/hr pentagastrin on IPT.


The assessment of music performances in most cases takes into account the underlying musical score being performed. While there have been several automatic approaches for objective music performance assessment (MPA) based on extracted features from both the performance audio and the score, deep neural network-based methods incorporating score information into MPA models have not yet been investigated. In this paper, we introduce three different models capable of score-informed performance assessment. These are (i) a convolutional neural network that utilizes a simple time-series input comprising of aligned pitch contours and score, (ii) a joint embedding model which learns a joint latent space for pitch contours and scores, and (iii) a distance matrix-based convolutional neural network which utilizes patterns in the distance matrix between pitch contours and musical score to predict assessment ratings. Our results provide insights into the suitability of different architectures and input representations and demonstrate the benefits of score-informed models as compared to score-independent models.


A series of naphthyl-based compounds were synthesized as potential inhibitors of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors. Investigations of structure-activity relationships led to the identification of a series of naphthamides that are potent inhibitors of the VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase family. Numerous analogues demonstrated low nanomolar inhibition of VEGF-dependent human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) proliferation, and of these several compounds possessed favorable pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles. In particular, compound 48 demonstrated significant antitumor efficacy against established HT29 human colon adenocarcinoma xenografts implanted in athymic mice. A full account of the preparation, structure-activity relationships, pharmacokinetic properties, and pharmacology of analogues within this series is presented.


1) All the ovoalbumin system and human serum system within 15 hours of low temperature complement fixation have given a similar titer as that of the conventional method (37°C a hour, cold 24 hours). 2) Two hours after the complement fixation test of ovoalbumin at 10°C and one hour after the fixation at 37°C, antibody titer has nearly coincided with that by the conventional method. 3) The complement fixation in the case of human serum system has been better at a relatively higher temperature. 4) The antibody titer of complement fixation of both ovoalbumin system and human serum system, first at 10°C for 2 hours, then at 37°C for 1 hour has been found higher than that in the case where the complement fixation has been carried out first at 37°C for an hour and then at 10°C for two hours.


We elucidate the thermal properties of superionic conductors, which are of intense current interest for solid-state battery applications. The temperature-dependent thermal properties of superionic NaSbS2 were investigated by analyses of appropriate models revealing that a predominant contribution to thermal transport above the Debye temperature is from thermal diffusion.


Elevated systolic blood pressure, together with normal or low diastolic blood pressure, characterises isolated systolic hypertension, the most frequent form of hypertension in subjects older than 60. Pulse pressure is defined as the difference between systolic and diastolic pressures and probably reflects the rigidity of large arteries, especially the aorta. Epidemiological studies and prospective analyses of patients included in large randomised trials against placebo have demonstrated a close relationship between pulse pressure and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The prognostic importance of pulse pressure has lead to an increased interest in this parameter as a therapeutic target and some authors recommend that, in addition to other therapeutic goals, a reduction in pulse pressure below 50 mmHg is advisable for all hypertensive patients. Moreover, analysis of the effect on pulse pressure is also recommended in comparative trials of antihypertensive agents. Recent analyses of these comparative trials suggest that differences in pulse pressure reduction may have influenced the cardiovascular outcome. In an observational study including more than 3000 patients, eprosartan promoted a substantial reduction in pulse pressure (13.5 mmHg) that was partially independent of the mean blood pressure reduction. This effect was more pronounced in older patients and those who had isolated systolic hypertension or previous cardiovascular disease. This clinical profile of eprosartan may reflect its specific pharmacological properties and help to understand its importance in terms of cerebrovascular, cardiovascular and renal protection. J Clin Basic Cardiol 2005; 8: 11–4.


Urbanization has long influenced Indigenous music. While this is often characterized as cultural loss, Indigenous hip hop in the United States and Canada instead demonstrates a vibrant urban musical practice. Developing the framework of "relocated Indigeneity," this dissertation analyzes hip hop as a form of musical messaging that actively renews heritage culture, marking the city as an Indigenous space. Grounded in Winnipeg, with attention to connections in Chicago, Minneapolis, and other areas, it proposes a move in Indigenous hip hop that parallels a rapprochement between conscious and commercial subgenres in U.S.-based rap. This allows the music to extend beyond existing subgenre conventions of race and gender presentation and to present urban Indigenous communities as spaces of possibility. Finally, it develops a methodology for online ethnography specific to ethnomusicological research that responds to this scene in which musicians and listeners increasingly move between on- and off-line spheres. The dissertation centers upon case studies that address the major concerns arising in hip hop that samples Indigenous sources: performance practice, representation, and mediation. Contextualized analysis of performances at Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards festivities demonstrates the opening of an interstitial space between conscious and commercial rap subgenres. Examples from cross-border artists Chase Manhattan (Anishinaabe/Oglala Sioux/Muskogee Creek) and Drezus (Cree/Saulteaux) indicate how artists adhere to some subgenre conventions while also proposing new ways of listening to heritage cultural knowledge. The study interrogates how rapper Samian (Algonquin) samples powwow music and throat singing by Marie Belleau (Inuit) in a collaborative composition to reveal how hip hop sampling impacts shifting ideas of cultural ownership. Programming decisions made by professionals at radio station StreetzFM demonstrate tensions in mediating Indigenous hip hop in on-and off-line mediums. Ethnographic research with media professionals, artists, and listeners clarifies the relationship between hip hop messaging and narratives about urban Indigeneity. Each chapter combines investigation based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and musical analysis. Countering stereotypes that artists reference, Indigenous hip hop that samples heritage music provides participants with a strategy to demonstrate that Indigenous communities in cities provide locations for rich cultural expression within a contemporary urban landscape.


MR imaging demonstrates the cartilaginous primordia of the bones of the foot and ankle. Ossification of the round bones begins in a single center and extends along the length of the bone. There is a difference between the orientation of the ossification center and that of the main cartilaginous structure. MR imaging can show the zones of the cartilage and the changes that precede ossification. The changes in the cartilage and marrow at different ages are illustrated for the ankle, hindfoot, and midfoot.


The radial structure of the continuous spectrum of shear Alfven waves is calculated in this paper within the separatrix of a magnetic island. Geometrical effects due to the noncircularity of the flux surface's cross section are retained to all orders. On the other hand, only curvature effects responsible for the beta-induced gap in the low-frequency part of the continuous spectrum are kept. Modes with different helicity from that of the magnetic island are considered. The main result is that, inside a magnetic island, there is a continuous spectrum very similar to that of tokamak plasmas, where a generalized safety factor q can be defined and where a wide frequency gap is formed, analogous to the ellipticity induced Alfven eigenmode gap in tokamaks. The presence of this gap is due to the strong eccentricity of the island cross section. The importance of the existence of such a gap is recognized in potentially hosting magnetic island induced Alfven eigenmodes (MiAE). Due to the frequency dependence of the shear Alfven wave continuum on the magnetic island size, the possibility of utilizing MiAE frequency scalings as a novel magnetic island diagnostic is also discussed.


Analysis of water resources potential and useful life of the Shiroro hydro reservoir was carried out with the view to assessing its current state, operations and management. Hydro-meteorological data was obtained from the hydrological Department of the Shiroro Hydropower project for the period of 16 years (1990 to 2006). Analysis of the data reveals that the month of April has the lowest inflow (1,281.7 million m3). Analysis of the inflow and draft shows that the storage in the reservoir is inadequate to power all the four installed turbines, as a consequence of which only three are being used. The seepage through the dam was estimated to be 725.19 m3/day and the useful life of the reservoir was estimated to be 137.7 years (1984 to 2122). Also, calculation reveals that to be able to meet the intended uses of the dam (600 MW output), a balance return flow through a pumped storage operation of 204.5 m3/s would be required. Finally, suggestions were given as to the other possible ways to reduce siltation and enhance reservoir performance.


Novel broadband ultra-antireflective surfaces were created via the electrodeposition of a nanostructured zinc oxide thin film onto conductive, light absorbing periodic nanocone arrays. Nanocone arrays of (i) fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) coated with a 50 nm plasmonic gold thin film and (ii) the electroactive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) exhibited a very low broadband reflectivity of less than 0.1% from 475 to 800 nm at a wide range of incident angles after the electrodeposition of a nanostructured ZnO thin film onto the surface. SEM images reveal the formation of ZnO nanoflowers and nanorods on both nanocone array surfaces; these additional ZnO nanostructures enhance the coupling of the incident visible light into the absorptive gold or PEDOT nanocones to significantly reduce the reflectivity of these surfaces. The ZnO-coated nanocone array surfaces also exhibited an enhanced photoreactivity for the oxidative degradation of methylene blue, suggesting their potential to be used a...


Objectives: The solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a potentially malignant spindle cell neoplasm of mesenchymal origin that was originally described as a thoracic lesion originating from pleural tissue. Recently, numerous extrapleural sites of origin have been described, frequently affecting the head and neck region. The purpose of this article is to focus on a formerly underestimated neoplasm and to highlight its appearance in the head and neck region. Methods: The authors present 2 illustrative cases, including what is probably the first reported case of an SFT arising in the human tonsillar fossa, and give a clinical and pathological literature review. Results: The clinical, histologic, and radiologic features are presented, and the surgical treatment is described. The international medical literature concerning SFTs in general and SFTs of the head and neck in particular is reviewed, and the changing concept of SFTs and hemangiopericytomas is discussed on the basis of the updated World Health Organization classification of soft tissue tumors. Conclusions: It is nowadays recognized that the large majority of lesions formerly classified as hemangiopericytomas are, in fact, variants of SFTs. Although still a rare occurrence, SFTs have become increasingly recognized, and clinicians should be aware of their presentation.


ABSTRACT Medical auscultation is an important example of how scientific work relies on more than vision alone. If listening through a stethoscope remains one of the most non-invasive, accessible diagnostic practices, its legitimacy as a means for producing medical knowledge has been increasingly questioned in light of abundant evidence-based tests introduced to Western medicine after 1950. This article examines how shifts in auscultation's epistemic status can be observed in medical textbooks and audiocassettes that teach novices the listening and bodily skills necessary for lung auscultation. Specifically, the pedagogical strategies and medial tools used to instruct the listening practice are analyzed. As all stages of teaching auscultation are somehow rooted in familiar sensorial experience, a main didactic method for recognizing and remembering lung sounds uses metaphors and mnemonic devices drawn from culturally specific, everyday sounds and music. Yet, the textbooks also illustrate attempts to standardize nomenclature and scientifically ground lung sound descriptions in order to overcome such individual and time-bound approaches, including the adoption of new sound technologies. While certain tensions exist, all these pedagogic strategies strive for the stabilization of auscultation as a practice. Finally, the article discusses how these didactic strategies find popular cultural "reworkings" in radio shows to teach the general public about auscultation.


Introduction: On contact of antibiotics, S. aureus has gradually acquired multiple antibiotic resistances, including the methicillin (MRSA) and without lose its virulence. The aim of the present study was to report the evolution of resistance of S. aureus to different common antibiotics and to determine the antibiotics active against MRSA. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective and descriptive study for 10 years from January 2005 to December 2014 at the Laboratory of Microbiology of the HU-JRA Antananarivo, the biggest academic hospital located in the capital of Madagascar. All demands for standard bacteriological examination were registered in the laboratory for various bacteriological exams or from samples taken from hospitalized patients and we included all positive cultures for S. aureus . The variables selected and used for the study were community or nosocomial sources of patients and results of susceptibility testing. Results: A total of 906 results from 282 (31.12%) community-acquired and 624 (68.88%) nosocomial infections were studied an average of 100±25strains by year of study. Overall, the prevalence of MRSA was 13.83% (39 of 282 isolates)for community-acquired strains, and 15.70% (98 of 624) for nosocomial infections (p> 0.05)with a total of 29.53%. Resistance rate to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was significantly higher in nosocomial infection than in community-acquired. No significant difference was observed in other antibiotics. Of the 137 MRSA, except vancomycin, fusidic acid is the antibiotic that worked the most in 114 cases (83.21%) followed by gentamicin in 96 cases (70.07%). Apart from ciprofloxacin and tetracycline that we have noticed an increase in resistance rates in 2012 and 2013, almost all antibiotics tested have a stable rate of resistance. Conclusion: The antibiotics tested showed extremely high rates of resistance and that the problem of antibiotic resistance in S. aureus is effective in our center. Keywords: Resistance -antibiotics- S. aureus - HU-JRA Antananarivo


Expansion joint gaps are the gaps which are deliberately left between the rail ends to allow for expansion of the rails in hot weather. Over gapping of these end to end gaps often result in derailments. Therefore in order to prevent dangerous situations and ensuring safety rail lines are periodically inspected. Rail inspection in many countries especially in third world countries, like Bangladesh, is performed manually by a trained human operator who periodically walks along the track searching for visual anomalies. Such manual inspection is lengthy, laborious and subjective. This paper presents a machine vision-based technique to automatically measure the length of rail line expansion joint gaps using morphological processing. This approach has confirmed to successfully detect scenarios of different condition with an accuracy of 89%, thus proving its robustness.


Within the past 20 years there has been a considerable shift in the discourse that surrounds children within society and, more particularly, the legitimacy of their involvement in health research. Prior to this paradigm shift, research on children was seen as inherently too challenging or risky and children were viewed as 'Other', their perspectives irrelevant, their agency too limited and their voices marginalized (Lahman 2008, Carter 2009). Contemporary thinking about research with children lies within an emancipatory, rights-based, empowering paradigm. A whole raft of initiatives (e.g., GenerationR) and documents, including Turning the Tide (RCPCH, 2012), have underpinned the drive for children to be centre-stage and to have their care "assured by research" (Modi et al., 2014).
The main focus of our paper addresses two core questions relating to children's engagement within the development of a research proposal on children's pain literacy. The first question explores 'how to engage children' and since engagement takes time and resources, the second question we address is 'is it worth the effort?'


To succeed in the marketplace, companies must adopt competitive strategies. Economic, as well as ethical aspects of competitive strategies, are of great importance. A lack of healthy competition leads to difficult problems in economic life, especially in the banking sector. The most irresponsible competitive strategies have the potential to make the highest return. However, risky financial decisions usually resulted in banking crises. They were frequently resolved through bailouts at the taxpayer's expense and contributed to moral hazard.


Objective To compare the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States with that of the non-Delta region states. Methods Analyzed data come from national birth certificate and death certificate data for 1999–2007. Data were aggregated for analysis by region, counties of the Delta Regional Authority, non-Delta regions of the eight Delta states, and the 42 non-Delta states. The MMR was calculated using birth data as the denominator and maternal mortality data as the numerator. Results During the 9 years of the study, there were more than 36 million births in the United States and 5002 reported maternal deaths. The national MMR was 13.5/100,000 (95% confidence interval [CI] 13.1–13.9/100,000). The MMR reported in the non-Delta states was 13.6/100,000 (95% CI 13.2–14.0/100,000); in the non-Delta counties of the Delta states, the MMR was 13.1/100,000 (95% CI 12.1–14.0/100,000); and the MMR was 18.5/100,000 (95% CI 16.1–20.9/100,000) in Delta counties. The odds of maternal death in Delta counties is 1.39 times (95% CI 1.22–1.59) higher compared with non-Delta counties or non-Delta states. There was no statistically significant difference between the MMR in non-Delta states and the MMR in non-Delta counties of Delta states. After controlling for maternal race/ethnicity, age, marital status, and education in a multivariable model, the MMR in the Delta counties compared with non-Delta counties and non-Delta states remains significantly increased (odds ratio 1.16, 95% CI 1.01–1.32). Conclusions Overall, maternal mortality is significantly greater in the Delta region of the United States compared with the non-Delta portion. After controlling for maternal race/ethnicity, age, marital status, and education, the odds of maternal death remains 16% higher in the Delta region of the United States compared with the non-Delta United States.


The rule subsystem that is being implemented in the POSTGRES DBMS is explained. It is novel in several ways. First, it gives users the capability of defining rules as well as data. Moreover, depending on the scope of each rule defined, optimization is handled differently. This leads to good performance both when there are many rules each of small scope and when there are a few rules each of large scope. In addition, rules provide either a forward-chaining or a backward-chaining control flow, and the system chooses the control mechanism that optimizes performance whenever possible. Priority rules can be defined, allowing a user to specify rule systems that have conflicts. This use of exceptions seems necessary in many applications. Database services such as views, protection, integrity constraints, and referential integrity can be obtained simply by applying the rules system in the appropriate way. Consequently, no special-purpose code need be included in POSTGRES to handle these tasks. >


An attempt was made to identify the epizootiological features associated with Degnala disease occurring in the rice-growing areas of the Indian subcontinent and believed to be associated with mycotoxins. Epizootiological studies were made on disease outbreaks involving 370 herds from 136 villages of Haryana, India, during the years 1968 to 1978. They revealed that the disease, besides being seasonal and regional in occurrence, has a tendency to confine itself to a particular herd or field. All the disease outbreaks occurred during the winter and were associated with the feeding of rice straw. The incidence of the disease, varied from year to year, assuming serious proportions in certain years. The morbidity and mortality rates were 61.61% and 13.93%, respectively, in buffaloes and 13.49% and 2.41% in cattle, with no sex and age differences. Factors such as housing conditions of animals, shape of rice straw stacks, feeding practices, and use of pesticides and fertilizers had no bearing on the occurrence of the disease. Inadequate postharvest drying of rice plants before stacking and stacking at low-lying places or near water channels were the factors identified with occurrence of the disease. In the case of affected herds, 72.07% of the owners stacked rice straw immediately after harvesting, without allowing the plants to dry adequately, versus 10.60% of the owners of unaffected herds. Similarly, 72.97% of the farmers owning affected herds were found to stack rice straw either in low-lying areas or near canals and other water channels, versus 22.73% of the farmers of control herds.


Wind turbines consist of many mechanical, electrical and hydraulic com-
ponents. Failures in any of these can lead to high financial loss, both as actual repair costs
and from lost production time. Often, failures do not occur instantaneously but rather as a
consequence of sequential degrad- ing. Therefore, many failures can be detected in advance using
so-called condition monitoring systems. Through their supervisory control and data acquisition
system, modern wind turbines store information about their op- erating state. Among other things,
signals such as produced power, wind speed, and various component temperatures are recorded. In
this thesis, a condition monitoring system that leverages this data is developed. The system is
based on deep autoencoders, a type of neural network that learns to reconstruct its input data. By
training an autoencoder on data from a healthy wind turbine it can learn the dependencies between
different SCADA signals under normal conditions. If it then gives a poor reconstruction for new
data, it is likely that something has changed in the internal dynamics of the wind turbine which
could indicate a degraded component.
Previously, many similar systems have been developed. These have shown good results and detected
multiple component failures up to months in advance. However, they usually only monitor one
component at a time and are therefore not able to provide a complete condition monitoring sys-
tem. Autoencoders, which do not suffer this problem, have also been inves- tigated but not at a
larger scale.
In this thesis, a relatively large, labeled dataset was utilized. With this data, the efficiency of
condition monitoring systems based on autoencoders was tested on a variety of real faults.
Moreover, the influence of various prop- erties of the autoencoder was investigated. The results of
the investigation showed that an autoencoder based condition monitoring system is capable of
detecting a variety of failures in wind turbines. Finally, suggestions for future developments are
discussed in the thesis.


While recent empirical evidence supports the notion of presidential particularism?that presidents distribute federal funds to certain groups of voters in order to achieve their own political objectives?work associated with that evidence does not distinguish between presidents' alternative objectives, nor between their alternative strategies for attaining those objectives. Using monthly US data on project-grant awards in 2009 and 2010, we study which objectives presidents pursue in distributing resources. We also address theoretical and empirical ambiguities regarding when and which congressional districts receive distributive benefits. Our results show that core constituencies of the president's party receive more federal funding in both presidential and congressional elections. Districts represented by moderate members of both parties and partisan members of the president's party do not, however, benefit from funding advantages before votes on important legislation. These results indicate that the president attempts to use distributive benefits to influence presidential and congressional election votes, but not votes of federal legislators.


In this article, fixed-order robust H ∞ controller design for systems with ellipsoidal parametric uncertainty based on parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions is studied. Using the concept of Strictly Positive Realness (SPRness) of transfer functions, a fixed-order robust control design method in terms of solution to a set of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs) is proposed. Since controller parameters are decision variables, any controller structure, such as PID, can be considered. The weighted infinity-norm of closed loop sensitivity functions are considered as performance specification in the synthesis problem. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


There are numerous deleterious effects of repeated bouts of acute high glucose (HG) or chronic HG. At the molecular level, HG causes oxidative stress, increases advanced glycation end products which activate their cognate receptors (AGE/RAGE), and activate pro-inflammatory pathways. At the physiological level, tooth decay (lactic acid demineralization of enamel), gum disease, obesity (pro-inflammatory cytokines, adipokines), erectile dysfunction, vaginal infections result from HG. Important to this project, HG damages blood vessels leading to the cardiovascular complications in diabetes. HG accelerates macrovascular disease increase risk of strokes, myocardial infarction and renal failure. Further, HG promotes an increased susceptibility to dermal breakdown, forming a portal of entry for microbial infections. This is accompanied by inadequate wound healing of decubitus ulcers, trauma/accident-induced injury or cutaneous infections.An integral component of wound healing is the process of neovascularization or reperfusion of the injured or ischemic area to supply necessary nutrients and for removal of necrotic or damaged cells and debris. A primary component of neovascularization is endothelial cell (EC) migration to sites of injury. It is well established that HG conditions result in disturbed endothelial migration and wound healing. My specific aim is to delineate the molecular mechanisms of the HG impaired EC migration. The working hypothesis of this project it that high glucose inhibits the pro-angiogenic AMP-activated kinase, thereby inhibiting matrix metaloproteinase-2 collagen cleavage and matrix degradation, which under physiological glucose levels, facilitates wound healing through neovascularization. This pathway is mediated by the phosphorylation and activation of AKT2 (protein kinase B-â), which subsequently increases activating transcription factor 2 (ATF-2) binding to the MMP-2 promoter to increases its expression and activity.


The gene specifying a membrane-bound nucleoside diphosphate sugar hydrolase of Salmonella typhimurium was mapped near the metA locus by using intergeneric crosses between this bacterium and Escherichia coli.


1219 The Rockefeller University Press $30.00 J. Cell Biol. Vol. 216 No. 5 1219–1221 https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201704023 Epithelia are a hallmark of metazoa and are the tissues that are the most affected in human diseases, including cancer. Therefore, unraveling the mechanisms that regulate their development and homeostasis is also instrumental to understanding the origin of the diseased state. Because of its superb genetic tools and the ease of imaging, the Drosophila melanogaster serves as an excellent model to study epithelial tissues during morphogenesis and homeostasis. Drosophila crumbs (crb) was the first gene identified as a guardian of cell polarity and tissue integrity. crb encodes an evolutionarily conserved transmembrane protein, which not only controls apical–basal polarity but performs a variety of other tissue-specific functions, including cell proliferation, tissue growth, and cell survival under stress. It is well established that the proper amount of Crb is essential in maintaining epithelial integrity: although loss of Crb can lead to a loss of apical–basal polarity, too much Crb can expand the apical portion of epithelial cells or can even result in the formation of a second apical pole. Therefore, several mechanisms are set in place to tightly control the amount of Crb. One of these depends on Crb stabilization by the scaffolding protein Stardust (Sdt), one of the core members of the Crb complex. Sdt binds to the short, highly conserved cytoplasmic tail of Crb, and loss of sdt results in the loss of apical Crb and impaired epithelial integrity in the embryo (Bachmann et al., 2001; Hong et al., 2001). This function of Sdt is antagonized by the AP-2 complex, binding of which to Crb promotes its endocytosis (Lin et al., 2015). These examples reveal the complexity of Crb regulation, which is crucial to fine tune the amount of Crb on the apical surface, and hence its activity. In this issue, Perez-Mockus et al. shed light on a novel mechanism by which Sdt proteins ensure the correct amount of apical Crb. Perez-Mockus et al. (2017) show that in some epithelia, the E3 ubiquitin ligase Neuralized (Neur) regulates Crb by controlling the stability of a subset of Sdt isoforms that are able to bind to Neur. The Schweisguth group previously showed that loss of the Bearded (Brd) complex results in the disintegration of several embryonic epithelia because of down-regulation of apical Crb, Sdt, DPatj (Drosophila protein associated with tight junctions), Par6, and atypical PKC (aPKC). This function of Brd is mediated by increased activity of the neur E3 ubiquitin ligase (Chanet and Schweisguth, 2012), which raises the question of what proteins Neur targets in this context. Perez-Mockus et al. (2017) focused on Sdt, a member of the membrane-associated guanylate kinase family, as the primary target of Neur. A total of 12 Sdt isoforms are predicted in Drosophila, which fall into two classes: those containing exon 3 (represented by Sdt-PB in this study) and those lacking exon 3 (represented by Sdt-PF in this study). Perez-Mockus et al. (2017) revealed that the 433 amino acids encoded by exon 3 (which is present in Sdt-PB but not in Sdt-PF) contain two putative Neur binding motifs (NBMs) similar to those present in other Neur target proteins, e.g., Delta and Serrate. This suggests that Sdt-PB may be a target of Neur. Overexpression of either Sdt isoform in wing imaginal discs resulted in increased Sdt protein and, as a consequence, increased endogenous Crb protein. Strikingly, upon overexpression of Neur with Sdt-PB, the enrichment of Sdt and Crb was abolished. In contrast, overexpressed Neur did not affect the enrichment of overexpressed Sdt-PF, suggesting that the down-regulation of Sdt depends on exon 3. In fact, Neur, when coexpressed with either of the two Sdt isoforms in S2R+ cells, could coimmunoprecipitate Sdt-PB but not Sdt-PF, suggesting that exon 3, which contains two NBMs, is required for this association. This assumption was further corroborated by elegant transgenomic approaches resulting in the establishment of fly lines in which either all Sdt isoforms or only exon 3–containing isoforms were endogenously tagged (sdtGFP and sdtGFP3, respectively). In a third variant, exon 3 was replaced by GFP (sdtΔ3GFP). Animals of all three genotypes were viable and fertile, even those in which none of the Sdt variants contained exon 3. This is particularly striking because previous data showed that sdt alleles carrying nonsense mutations in exon 3 (sdtEH681 and sdtM120), which result in premature stop codons, lead to embryonic lethality (Hong et al., 2001; Berger et al., 2007). One may speculate that, in these cases, nonsense-mediated decay of the mutant mRNA may have an effect on sdt mRNAs lacking exon 3, thus resulting in a complete loss of sdt function. sdtGFP, sdtGFP3, and sdtΔ3GFP expressed Sdt proteins in the embryo and in wing imaginal discs. Upon Neur overexpression in wing discs, SdtGFP3 and SdtGFP isoforms were completely or almost completely down-regulated, respectively. Some residual apical Crb was still detectable in both cases because Neur-resistant Sdt variants were not affected by Neur overexpression. In The Drosophila melanogaster scaffolding protein Stardust (Sdt) stabilizes the transmembrane protein Crumbs, a conserved regulator of apical–basal epithelial polarity. In this issue, Perez-Mockus et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https ://doi .org /10 .1083 /jcb .201611196) report that a subset of Sdt isoforms are targeted by the ubiquitin ligase Neuralized, thus fine tuning the endocytosis and activity of this apical determinant. Stardust, the Janus-faced partner of Crumbs


BACKGROUND
Mushrooms (US6759049B2, CA2372185A1, DE60108325D1) can be contaminated by heavy metals as described in various patents.

OBJECTIVE
This study has determined the potential human health risk associated with the consumption of mushroom in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Concentrations of Pb, Cd, Sn, Cu, Ni, Al and Zn in both wild/cultivated mushroom and background soil/substrate were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS).

METHODS
Heavy metal pollution was calculated using Bio-Concentration Factor (BCF) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) while human health risk assessment employed Estimated Daily Intake (EDI), Target Hazard Quotient (THQ), Hazard Index (HI), Carcinogenic Risk (CR) and Total Cancer Risk (TCR). The mean concentration of metals in mushroom and soil/substrate ranged from 0.021 mg/kg - 29.16 mg/kg and 0.01 mg/kg - 56.11 mg/kg. When compared with standards by WHO, EU, SON, DPR, USEPA and NAFDAC, 100% violation was observed in Ni, Cu, Cd, Zn and partial violation by Pb in the mushroom sample although soil heavy metal concentrations were within safe limits.

RESULTS
There was bioconcentration and heavy metal enrichment as PLI ranged from 3.39 - 23.58. Estimated daily intakes were (0.00 - 0.47, 0.00 - 0.51 and 0.00 - 1.17) mg/kg/day and THQ were (0.01 - 0.46, 0.01 - 0.31 and 0.03 - 1.51) for adults, adolescents and children respectively. There was a violation of Permissible Tolerable Daily Intakes (PTDI) set by JECFA. Hazard indices were all >1, another indication of health concern.

CONCLUSION
Nickel showed the highest carcinogenic risk with values of 4.83E-04 - 1.43E-01, 5.31E-04 - 1.00E-01 and 1.20E-03 - 2.29E-01 for adults, adolescents and children respectively. About 80% of TCR ranged from x10-1 - x10-3. Consumption of mushroom in Niger delta-Nigeria may pose significant health risk.


Abstract. In this paper, we derive the dispersion equations for field-aligned cyclotron waves in two-dimensional (2-D) magnetospheric plasmas with anisotropic temperature. Two magnetic field configurations are considered with dipole and circular magnetic field lines. The main contribution of the trapped particles to the transverse dielectric permittivity is estimated by solving the linearized Vlasov equation for their perturbed distribution functions, accounting for the cyclotron and bounce resonances, neglecting the drift effects, and assuming the weak connection of the left-hand and right-hand polarized waves. Both the bi-Maxwellian and bi-Lorentzian distribution functions are considered to model the ring current ions and electrons in the dipole magnetosphere. A numerical code has been developed to analyze the dispersion characteristics of electromagnetic ion-cyclotron waves in an electron-proton magnetospheric plasma with circular magnetic field lines, assuming that the steady-state distribution function of the energetic protons is bi-Maxwellian. As in the uniform magnetic field case, the growth rate of the proton-cyclotron instability (PCI) in the 2-D magnetospheric plasmas is defined by the contribution of the energetic ions/protons to the imaginary part of the transverse permittivity elements. We demonstrate that the PCI growth rate in the 2-D axisymmetric plasmasphere can be significantly smaller than that for the straight magnetic field case with the same macroscopic bulk parameters.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Previous investigators have suggested that port-site recurrences are possibly a result of abdominal insufflation, forcing viable cancer cells into the circulation to metastasize and thrive in areas of trauma. Using a syngeneic animal cancer model, we tested the hypothesis that pneumoperitoneum increases the incidence of wound metastasis by a blood-borne mechanism.

METHODS
Male BD IX rats (N = 150) were injected intraperitoneally with 2 x 10(5) viable syngeneic 1,2-dimethylhydralazine-induced colon cancer cells (DHD-K12). Animals were divided into three groups: A (abdominal insufflation with 3-cm incision on the back into muscle remote from the peritoneum); B (3-cm back incision alone); and C (control group with 3-cm midline abdominal incision). Three weeks after surgery, the animals were euthanized and autopsied.

RESULTS
In the two groups with back wounds, the incidence of cancer growth at the incision was zero, as demonstrated grossly and by histologic sample (A: 0/47, B: 0/43). In contrast, the autopsied control group had a 42% incidence of metastasis to the wound (25/59). There seemed to be no difference in the distribution of intra-abdominal disease between those rats that underwent insufflation and those that did not.

CONCLUSION
It is unlikely that pneumoperitoneum promotes hematogenous wound implantation of free intraperitoneal cancer cells.


Recent studies demonstrated that activation of the nuclear enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) by oxidant-mediated DNA damage is an important pathway of tissue injury in conditions associated with oxidative stress. Using a dual approach of PARP-1 suppression, by genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition with the phenanthridinone PARP inhibitor PJ-34, we now demonstrate an essential role of PARP-1 in the development of pulmonary inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). PARP-1+/+ and PARP-1-/- mice received an intratracheal instillation of LPS (50 microg), followed after 24 h by bronchoalveolar lavage to measure the cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IL-6, the chemokines MIP-1alpha and MIP-2, leukocyte counts and myeloperoxidase activity (neutrophil accumulation), protein content (high permeability edema), and nitrite/ nitrate (nitric oxide production). Malondialdehyde (an index of lipid peroxidation) was measured in lung tissue. Similar experiments were conducted in BALB/c mice treated with PJ-34 or vehicle. The absence of functional PARP-1 reduced LPS-induced increases of cytokines and chemokines, alveolar neutrophil accumulation, lung hyperpermeability, NO production, and lipid peroxidation. Histological analysis revealed attenuated lung damage after PARP inhibition. Our findings support a mechanistic role of PARP-1 in the regulation of LPS-induced lung inflammation. Pharmacological inhibition of PARP may be useful in clinical conditions associated with overwhelming lung inflammation.


We are currently developing an adaptive, emotional, and expressive interface agent, which learns when and how to notify users about self-assigned tasks and events. In this paper, we describe the learning system and the user feedback mechanism we have designed. Then, we discuss issues concerning the expression of emotions, in the situation where the user should not be distracted by an adaptive tool and is not expected to create a strong relationship with it.


Pharmacists are not yet fully integrated into the primary health care team and their skills could be better used to help patients with their long term medicines. The government is encouraging the setting up of medicines management services. Community pharmacists are well placed to help patients who have cardiovascular disease or who are at risk of this: they have an opportunity to identify at-risk patients, they can identify under treated patients at the point of dispensing, and they can provide education and advice on lifestyle and diet. They are also involved in smoking cessation services. Practice based pharmacists can improve patient care through medication review clinics.


The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) regulates several peripheral and central functions and is a molecule of interest in psychiatric diseases such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety and depression. The study of OT in human serum samples is however hampered by inconsistent sample preparation and analysis as well as low endogenous blood concentration (1–10 pM). This results in varying reports on OT's blood levels and interpretation of OT's role in different (patho)physiological states. Quantitative mass spectrometry (MS) is a highly promising technology to address this problem but still requires large sample volumes to achieve adequate sensitivity and reliability for the quantitation of compounds at low concentrations. We therefore systematically evaluated sample preparation methods for MS to achieve a reliable sample preparation protocol with good peptide recovery, minimal matrix effects and good overall method efficiency in line with FDA guidelines for bioanalytic method development and validation. Additionally, we investigated a strategy to improve the ionization efficiency of OT by adding charged and/or hydrophobic moieties to OT to improve the lower limit of quantitation. Optimized sample preparation in combination with OT modification with a quaternary pyridinium ion improved the sensitivity of OT by ∼40-fold on a tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (API4000 QTRAP), resulting in a lower limit of quantitation of 5 pM in water (linear range 5 pM – 1 mM) and 2 nM in human serum (linear range 2 nM – 1 mM) compared to 200 pM in water and 86 nM in serum with unmodified OT. This approach and protocol provide a solid foundation towards method development for OT quantitation using MS, which should be of high value for fundamental research as well as clinical monitoring of OT upon drug treatments.


In 1955, Dr. Jerome Conn described a patient with severe hypertension and hypokalemia and an aldosterone-secreting adenoma. The prevalence of hyperaldosteronism is increased among patients with obesity or resistant hypertension. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers reduce the secretion of aldosterone, but with chronic treatment aldosterone concentrations "escape" back to baseline values. Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonism reduces mortality in patients with heart disease who are already taking an ACE inhibitor and diuretic. In addition to affecting sodium and potassium homeostasis via classical MR-dependent pathways, aldosterone induces inflammation and causes cardiovascular remodeling and renal injury. Some of these effects involve MR-independent pathways. At the same time, ligands other than aldosterone can activate the MR. This paper reviews mechanism(s) for the proinflammatory and profibrotic effects of aldosterone and presents data indicating that endogenous aldosterone, acting at the MR, contributes to many of the pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic effects of angiotensin II in vivo.


Background In this study, we present our experiences with local injections of triamcinolone and prilocaine in patients diagnosed with Tietze syndrome. Methods Between January 2016 and January 2019, a total of 28 patients (12 males, 16 females; median age: 33 years; range, 21 to 51 years) who were diagnosed with TS in our clinic were retrospectively analyzed. Triamcinolone hexacetonide and prilocaine hydrochloride were injected into painful joints. At first week, pain sensation of the patients was recorded using the Pain Rating Scale developed by the British Pain Society. Pain was also assessed at one, two, and three weeks after injections qualitatively and based on physical examination. Results At one week, the pain severity before the local injection treatment was above average the pain-related discomfort rates, and the response was quite favorable after the treatment (p=0.005 and p=0.001, respectively). A statistically significant rating was observed for treatment response and success (p=0.003). Totally 75% of the patients experienced more than 70% reduction in pain level after the injection. Conclusion Our treatment approach involving injection of a mixture of steroid and a local anesthetic provides a rapid relief from pain, irrespective of age, sex, or employment status in patients diagnosed with Tietze syndrome.


The elastic constants of triclinic T1H3(C204)2 · 2 H 2 0 and their temperature derivatives have been determined from ultrasonic resonance frequencies of thick plane-parallel plates. The elastic constants differ only slightly from those of the isotypic potassium salt. However, a distinct difference in respect to the deviation from Cauchy's relations occurs similar to the situation in many other isotypic potassium and thallium salts. The thermoelastic constants show an almost isotropic behaviour in contrast to the very large elastic anisotropy.


PurposeThe present research was based on an online questionnaire. A total of 256 undergraduate psychology students aged 18–44 (M = 23.61; SD = 0.57) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina took part in the study (137 women; 53.3%). A sociodemographic and academic survey and the locally adapted versions of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Tuckman Procrastination Scale were used in this study. Participants were contacted by an email advertisement in which the main purpose of the study was explained, and the instruments remained open from September to November of 2021. Descriptive analyses – means, standard deviations and frequencies – were calculated using IBM SPSS v.25, and mediation and moderation analyses were conducted on PROCESS macro.Design/methodology/approachAcademic achievement has always been a concern in the high undergraduate's community. Numerous studies have addressed psychological aspects of students' academic life; however, a past-positive (PP) time perspective, a warm and sentimental view of past events that took place in someone's life, has not been profoundly contemplated. The fact that students might organize their activities, employ different strategies to fulfill their tasks and motivate themselves to pursue their academic goals based primarily on their past experiences calls the attention on conducting research on this time perspective dimension and its relationship with procrastination and academic motivation. It was hypothesized that the PP time perspective would positively predict academic achievement via the mediation of academic motivation in a way that the potentiate effect of PP time perspective on academic achievement would be increased in highly motivated students, but this effect would be reduced in less motivated students. Also, it was hypothesized that the relationship between motivation and academic achievement would be negatively moderated by procrastination such that academic achievement would increase with academic motivation; however, that increase would be attenuated by procrastination.FindingsAcademic achievement was positively associated with PP time perspective (r = 0.39; p < 0.01) and academic motivation (0.36; p < 0.01) and negatively associated with procrastination (r = −0.15; p < 0.05). Results showed that academic motivation mediated the relationship between PP time perspective and academic achievement (ß = 1.37; R2 = 0.21; p < 0.001). Additionally, procrastination moderated the relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement but only at the low (ß = 0.76; p < 0.001) and medium (ß = 0.44; p < 0.001) levels of procrastination, while at high levels of procrastination, that relationship was not statistically significant (ß = 0.11; p > 0.05).Originality/valueThis is the first study that examined the mediated role of academic motivation in the relationship between PP time perspective and academic achievement and that included the moderating role of procrastination.


Objective: to study personality characteristics, behavioral style, and modes of relations with their people in patients with somatized disorder. Subjects and methods. Eighty-six patients diagnosed as having somatized disorder were examined using Leary's interpersonal diagnosis system. Results. The author revealed the following personality characteristics and behavioral styles: a depressed need for authoritarianism, dominance, autonomy, aggressiveness, a display of qualities, such as superfriendliness, benevolence, submissiveness, dependency, and suspiciousness. These characteristics give an insight into the development of somatization in patients with somatized disorder.


The paper proves Liouville-type results for stable solutions of semilinear elliptic PDEs with convex nonlinearity, posed on the entire Euclidean space. Extensions to solutions which are stable outside a compact set are also presented.


Background. Although most mirror therapy studies have shown improved motor performance in stroke patients, the optimal mirror training protocol still remains unclear. Objective. To study the relative contribution of a mirror in training a reaching task and of unilateral and bimanual training with a mirror. Methods. A total of 93 stroke patients at least 6 months poststroke were instructed to perform a reaching task as fast and as fluently as possible. They performed 70 practice trials after being randomly allocated to 1 of 5 experimental groups: training with (1) the paretic arm with direct view (Paretic-No Mirror), (2) the nonparetic arm with direct view (Nonparetic-No Mirror), (3) the nonparetic arm with mirror reflection (Nonparetic Mirror), (4) both sides and with a nontransparent screen preventing visual control of paretic side (Bilateral-Screen), and (5) both sides with mirror reflection of the nonparetic arm (Bilateral-Mirror). As baseline and follow-up, patients performed 6 trials using only their paretic side. Primary outcome measure was the movement time. Results. We found the largest intervention effect in the Paretic-No Mirror condition. However, the Nonparetic-Mirror condition was not significantly different from the Paretic-No Mirror condition, while the Unaffected-No Mirror condition had significantly less improvement than the Paretic-No Mirror condition. In addition, movement time improved significantly less in the bimanual conditions and there was no difference between both bimanual conditions or between both mirror conditions. Conclusion. The present study confirms that using a mirror reflection can facilitate motor learning. In this task, bimanual movement using mirror training was less effective than unilateral training.


A hallmark of ambient displays is their constant presence in the periphery of the user's attention, such as the Ambient Orb1 that changes color based on the outdoor weather. Users of such a device can explicitly turn their attention to the device if they are curious about the current weather conditions, and also be notified of a change by noticing the light changing abruptly, e.g., as a thunderstorm suddenly begins. However, especially in a mobile context, it can be difficult to have truly continuous indicators that are not fatiguing, annoying, or consuming considerable power. We propose "pseudo-ambient" displays that are not continuous, yet are nearly always accessible since they are triggered at regular intervals. Our contention is that such displays can potentially provide most of the benefits of a fully continuous ambient display, with limited drawbacks. In this work we focus on haptic pseudo-ambient displays. Yet, we believe the same approach can apply to other modalities, such as visual and audio.


Is religion dying out in Western societies? Is personal spirituality taking its place? Both stories are inadequate. Institutional religion is not simply coming to an end in Western societies. Rather, its assets and properties are redistributed: large parts of the church have gone into liquidation. Religion is crossing the boundaries of the parish and appears in other social contexts. In the fields of leisure, health care and contemporary culture, religion has an unexpected currency. The metaphor of liquidation provides an alternative to approaches that merely perceive the decline of religion or a spiritual revolution. Religion is becoming liquid. By examining a number of case studies in the Netherlands and beyond, including World Youth Day, television, spiritual centers, chaplaincy, mental healthcare, museums and theatre, this book develops a fresh way to look at religion in late modernity and produces new questions for theological and sociological debate. It is both an exercise in sociology and an exercise in practical theology conceived as the engaged study of religious praxis. As such, the aim is not only to get a better understanding of what is going on, but also to critique one-sided views and to provide alternative perspectives for those who are active in the religious field or its surroundings.


We present formal techniques for improving the performance of group communication systems built with the Ensemble toolkit. For common sequences of operations we identify a fast-track through a stack of communication protocols and reconfigure the system''s code accordingly. Our techniques are implemented as fully automated tactics of the NuPRL proof development system and are based on an embedding the implementation language of Ensemble into the logical language of NuPRL. Together with verification techniques to be developed in the near future they will lead to a logical programming environment for the construction of reliable and efficient group communication systems.


Comparison is made between memristor linear, nonlinear drift models with Hewlett Packard (HP) experimental data using MATLAB mathematical model analysis. Average power predictions indicated that the experiment with 0.58mW and linear model with 0.86mW showed better agreement in comparison to nonlinear model with 1.17mW. Instantaneous power profile comparisons between both linear and nonlinear models with experimental data indicate that further modeling efforts are needed to capture details in instantaneous power profile for experimental data. Average power model-based predictions are nominally on the same order as the physical device.


Purpose: To re-evaluate the appearance of the anterior diaphragm by the use of MDCT. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 81 consecutive patients that underwent chest CT by using 64 channel MDCT. We classified the anterior diaphragm as three types (types 1-3) based on 5 mm axial scans: a line behind the xiphoid, a discontinuity and opening anteriorly, and the presence of broad and poorly defined bands. We also classified the anterior diaphragm as three types (types A-C) using 2 mm sagittal reformation images, based on the shape of the anterior diaphragmatic fibers traveling from the base of the pericardium to the xiphoid: a downward slope, an upward slope, and a flat shape, and compared the two groups using a correlation determined by statistical analysis. Results: We could classify the appearance of the anterior diaphragm for all cases on the axial scans and sagittal reformation images. The number of types 1, 2, 3 on the axial scans was 30.9%, 38.3%, and 30.9% and the number of types A, B, C on the sagittal reformation images was 33.3%, 22.2%, and 44.4%, respectively. Type A was seen for 92% of type 1 cases, type C was seen for 88% of type 3 cases, and type B was seen for 54.8% of type 2 cases. The types seen between the axial and sagittal reformation images showed a significant agreement (r=0.868, p


BT1718 is a small-molecule drug conjugate, also called Bicycle drug conjugate (BDC), comprising a constrained bicyclic peptide (Bicycle) that binds with high affinity and specificity to membrane type 1-matrix metalloprotease (MT1-MMP; MMP14; MT1) covalently linked through a hindered disulfide linker to the potent antitubulin agent DM1. MT1 is naturally involved in tissue remodeling; however, its overexpression is linked to increased tumor aggressiveness and metastasis. Overexpression of MT1 is associated with poor survival in NSCLC, TNBC, and other solid tumors. MT1 expression can also be observed in tumor-associated stromal cells. The Bicycle binder for BT1718 was identified using a proprietary phage display peptide technology consisting of highly diverse phage libraries of linear amino acid sequences constrained into two loops by a central chemical scaffold. While binding with similar affinity and specificity to that observed with monoclonal antibodies, the small size of a Bicycle (1.5-3 kDa) aids in its rapid extravasation and tumor penetration, making it an ideal format for the targeted delivery of cytotoxic payloads. BT1718 shows profound antitumor activities as a single agent when given at doses as low as 3mg/kg biw, producing complete regression of tumors in cell-line and patient-derived xenograft models. BT1718 is also able to produce rapid complete regression of very large tumors (~1000 mm 3 ). We have evaluated the target dependence of antitumor activities of BT1718 by evaluating tumor response in a range of xenograft models with varying expression of MT1, as measured by mRNA, FACS, and IHC. We evaluated a panel of cell-line derived xenograft (CDX) and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors across various indications including lung, breast, colorectal, stomach, head and neck cancer, and multiple myeloma. In both CDX and PDX models, the efficacy of BT1718 was dependent on the MT1 expression levels. Moderate and high MT1-expressing cell lines showed partial or complete regression when treated with BT1718, while low MT1-expressing lines showed limited or no effect. BT1718 is a first-in-class, cytotoxic small-molecule drug conjugate with great potential for treatment of MT1-expressing solid tumors and is about to begin clinical testing. Citation Format: Gavin Bennett, Mike Rigby, Bob Lutz, Peter Park, Nicholas Keen. The mechanism of action of BT1718, a novel small-molecule drug conjugate for the treatment of solid tumors expressing MT1-MMP [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2017 Oct 26-30; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2018;17(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B135.


An imbalance in the activity of the basal ganglia in Parkinsons disease is known to result in disturbance of the planning and initiation of mainly self-initiated voluntary movements. The effectiveness of self-initiated movements can be improved by adding an external stimulus. Despite a large number of studies in this area, the neural mechanisms of motor control of these movements and the role of the basal ganglia in their implementation remain unknown. The aim of the study was to compare brain activity during the execution of externally triggered (ET) and internally guided (IG) movements in normal state and Parkinson's disease. We used functional MRI with block designed paradigm to analyze brain activity caused by voluntary movements. Twenty healthy participants and twenty Parkinson's disease patients (OFF-state) were asked to perform hand movements in response to sound stimuli (ET) and in advance of the stimuli (IG). We showed that brain activity during externally induced movements is lateralized mainly in the contralateral hemisphere, both in normal and in Parkinson's disease. During the IG movement, brain activity was observed also in the ipsilateral hemisphere, to a greater extent in patients, which indicates difficulty in performing this test. At the same time, in patients, activation was observed not only in the posterior parts of the putamen but also in the anterior ones during IG movements. These results showed that IG movements in patients with PD were made with the participation of both sensorimotor and associative basal ganglia-thalamocortical loops. This work was supported by RFBR
 19-315-90097 .


A fully automated smoothing procedure for uniformly sampled datasets is described. The algorithm, based on a penalized least squares method, allows fast smoothing of data in one and higher dimensions by means of the discrete cosine transform. Automatic choice of the amount of smoothing is carried out by minimizing the generalized cross-validation score. An iteratively weighted robust version of the algorithm is proposed to deal with occurrences of missing and outlying values. Simplified Matlab codes with typical examples in one to three dimensions are provided. A complete user-friendly Matlab program is also supplied. The proposed algorithm, which is very fast, automatic, robust and requiring low storage, provides an efficient smoother for numerous applications in the area of data analysis.


Abstract Knowledge transfer (KT) has received increasing attention in recent years. This is evident from many knowledge transfer initiatives and projects reported in the literature. However, how to measure the success of knowledge transfer projects still remains a challenge because knowledge transfer is a very complex process. This paper focuses on agricultural knowledge transfer facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICT). It attempts to develop a conceptual model for identifying the causal factors affecting the success of ICT‐based knowledge transfer. Drawing from relevant literature it also proposes a set of associated measures for each dimension in the model. The success model of ICT‐KT is based on a modification of a Delong & Mclean (2003) information system success model. Six dimensions in the model are developed, these being: knowledge quality; system quality; service quality (with sub‐dimensions of e‐service quality and extension quality); use; user satisfaction; and net benefits. Preliminary measures associated with each dimension are discussed and directions for future research are identified.


A methodology utilizing 1H NMR spectroscopy has been developed to measure the concentration of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) in dietary supplements. For sample preparation, a very simple dilution with deuterated chloroform and addition of internal standard is sufficient. CoQ10 produces a distinct peak of the CH groups in the isoprene side chain of the molecule in the δ 5.15 - 5.05 ppm range, where it can be distinguished from other matrix compounds. The method was shown to be of adequate sensitivity with a limit of detection (LOD) of 7.8 mg/L, to control the CoQ10 content in the majority of the products. The precision expressed as relative standard deviation was around 5 %; linearity was observed from 14 to 2000 mg/L (R = 0.99). The developed methodology was applied for the analysis of 21 food supplements (capsules, tablets, and liquid products). On the basis of the labeled amounts, only two products contained substantially lower concentrations of CoQ10 (57 % and 51 %). All other concentrations varied between 83 % and 190 % with respect to labeling. The developed NMR method may be used by quality assurance laboratories for routine control of CoQ10 products.


OBJECTIVE
We analyzed the retrospective performance of Para Powerlifters over eight years considering sex, the origin of impairment and sport classification of Para Powerlifting.

DESIGN
This retrospective study analyzed data from 6791 (4613 and 2178 for male and female, respectively) individual results from 1634 athletes' performances. We collected absolute load (kg), relative load (kg/BM), chronological age and origin of impairment (acquired or congenital), and sport classification (leg length difference (LLD), limb deficiency (LD), range of movement (ROM), impaired muscle power (IMP), hypertonia (HT), Ataxia (AT), Athetosis (ATH) and short stature (SS) of Para Powerlifters.

RESULTS
Males being stronger than females thorough the years with acquired impairment being stronger than congenital impairment. Para Powerlifters with acquired impairment were older compared to congenital impairment over the years. Acquired impairment males won 60% more medals than the congenital group. There was a significant association between competition achievement and sports class classification, with a higher number of medals for limb deficiency than other sports classes.

CONCLUSION
These results demonstrate that the sex, origin of impairment and sports classification influences performance of athletes in Para Powerlifting. Thus, this information can help athletes, coaches, sport managers and sport institutions involved in the sport of Para Powerlifting.


Uncertainty estimation is an important research area to make deep neural networks (DNNs) more trustworthy. While extensive research on uncertainty estimation has been conducted with unimodal data, uncertainty estimation for multimodal data remains a challenge. Neural processes (NPs) have been demonstrated to be an effective uncertainty estimation method for unimodal data by providing the reliability of Gaussian processes with efficient and powerful DNNs. While NPs hold significant potential for multimodal uncertainty estimation, the adaptation of NPs for multimodal data has not been carefully studied. To bridge this gap, we propose Multimodal Neural Processes (MNPs) by generalising NPs for multimodal uncertainty estimation. Based on the framework of NPs, MNPs consist of several novel and principled mechanisms tailored to the characteristics of multimodal data. In extensive empirical evaluation, our method achieves state-of-the-art multimodal uncertainty estimation performance, showing its appealing robustness against noisy samples and reliability in out-of-distribution detection with faster computation time compared to the current state-of-the-art multimodal uncertainty estimation method.


The future power grid is expected to further expand with highly distributed energy sources and smart loads. The increased size and complexity lead to increased burden on existing computational resources in energy control centers. Thus the need to perform real-time assessment on such systems entails efficient means to distribute centralized functions such as state estimation in the power system. In this paper, we present our experience of prototyping a system architecture that connects distributed state estimators individually running parallel programs to solve non-linear estimation procedure. Through our experience, we highlight the needs of integrating the distributed state estimation algorithm with efficient partition and data communication tools so that distributed state estimation has low overhead compared to the centralized solution. We build a test case based on the IEEE 118 bus system and partition the state estimation of the whole system model to available HPC clusters. The measurement from the test bed demonstrates the low overhead of our solution.


Measuring quality qualitatively gave rise to the term quality cost. Quality costs at PT. Putra Karangetang turned out to have a considerable influence on the profitability of the Company, where by allocating greater costs to control and valuation would reduce the costs of internal failure and the cost of external failure so that the impact on profit was increasing. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of quality costs in increasing profitability at PT. Putra Karangetang. The method used is descriptive qualitative method and using Return On Investment (ROI) as a measure of company profitability. ROI value is influenced by the company's net profit compared to the company's total assets, and the results of research prove that quality costs incurred to produce quality products, and the contribution of quality costs greatly affect the increase in profitability of the company.


Sindbis virus has long been the prototypical alphavirus used in the study of assembly of icosahedral viruses which contain membranes. Much is known about the assembly pathway and molecular architecture of this virus, and models of mechanisms of infection and release of the viral RNA have been proposed. This review will focus on the structural aspects of in vitro antibody neutralisation of a metastable alphavirus, Sindbis virus, which results from antibody induced conformational changes. For the alphaviruses, structures of in vitro antibody induced conformational neutralisation for Sindbis virus, and receptor occlusion for Sindbis and Ross River virus (RRV) have been reported. A model is presented which could extend the mechanism of antibody induced conformational neutralisation to any metastable virus structure. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper provides the main findings of an evaluation of a service to provide alternative care at home for patients receiving long-stay hospital care. Elderly people receiving the service were compared with a group of similar patients in an adjacent health district. The paper presents data on length of time at home and in hospital, changes in quality of life and care of elderly people, and effects upon informal carers for the two groups. Elderly people receiving community-based care had a higher quality of life, and there was no evidence of greater stress upon their carers. The community-based service, although it involved extra costs to the social services department, had lower costs for the health service and society as a whole than long-stay hospital provision. It is concluded that the model of care can effectively integrate the new approach of case management into an existing geriatric multidisciplinary team.


In certain spots on the planet which have less attainable of utilizing enormous breeze power plants, the expressway wind vitality can be utilized to help little loads in the main grids. Interstates road lighting for instance of that heaps that is expending a great deal of vitality and cost every year. When the vitality that originates from vehicles development along the highway avenues can be taken in thought, this paper has examined the outcomes if moment vehicles wind speed during 24 hours per day. 24 hours, brief interim of vehicles wind speeds have been estimated by utilizing anemometer put in the road. A vertical pivot wind turbine (VAWT) has been proposed to be utilized in this task. All venture regulation has been simulated by utilizing Opendss program; it can support time series simulation. The outcomes demonstrated that the undertaking is possible to be utilized in Al-Durra Highway Street. The normal breeze speed of moving vehicles is 4.7 m/s which can deliver 67.3 watt by the proposed turbine. The got energy saw that it as contributed to be utilized by the maingrid during the day time. All the demonstrated bends of the outcomes speak to the Iraq grid support by diminishing the main demand and operational expenses too.


Abstract Monitoring the oxygen saturation of an unborn child is an invasive procedure, so far. Transabdominal fetal pulse oximetry is a promising method under research, used to estimate the oxygen saturation of a fetus noninvasively. Due to the nature of the method, the fetal information needs to be extracted from a mixed signal. To properly evaluate signal processing algorithms, a phantom modeling fetal and maternal blood circuits and tissue layers is necessary. This paper presents an improved hardware concept for an artificial vascular system, utilizing an FPGA based CompactRIO System from National Instruments. The experimental model to simulate the maternal and fetal blood pressure curve consists of two identical hydraulic circuits. Each of these circuits consists of a pre-pressure system and an artificial vascular system. Pulse curves are generated by proportional valves, separating these two systems. The dilation of the fetal and maternal artificial vessels in tissue substitutes is measured by transmissive and reflective photoplethysmography. The measurement results from the pressure sensors and the transmissive optical sensors are visualized to show the functionality of the pulse generating systems. The trigger frequency for the maternal valve was set to 1 per second, the fetal valve was actuated at 0.7 per second for validation. The reflective curve, capturing pulsations of the fetal and maternal circuit, was obtained with a high power LED (905 nm) as light source. The results show that the system generates pulse curves, similar to its physiological equivalent. Further, the acquired reflective optical signal is modulated by the alternating diameter of the tubes of both circuits, allowing for tests of signal processing algorithms.


The absence of a definition of "investment" in the ICSID Convention has led several arbitral tribunals to develop a narrow reading of this term. The most recent notable example of such conservative interpretation is a decision of the ICSID tribunal in Malaysian Historical Salvors (MHS) v. Malaysia . In that case, the tribunal concluded that MHS's contract with Malaysia to undertake complex salvage operations did not rise to the level of an investment because, among other things, the contract did not significantly contribute to Malaysia's economic development. MHS's four years of work also failed to reach the necessary level of risk and duration. This decision signifies a worrying trend in international jurisprudence to interpret the notion of investment restrictively. It remains to be seen whether an ad hoc annulment committee, which was constituted at the claimant's request on October 30, 2007, will support the tribunal's interpretation.


The Pamir Frontal Thrust (PFT) of the Trans‐Alai Range in Central Asia is the principal active fault of the intracontinental convergence zone between the Pamir and Tien Shan. Its northward propagation is reflected by frequent seismic activity and ongoing crustal shortening. Recent and historic earthquakes exhibit complex rupture patterns within and across seismotectonic segments bounding the Trans Alai, challenging our understanding of fault interaction and seismogenic potential. We provide paleoseismic data from five trenches along the central PFT segment (cPFT) and interpret five and possibly six paleoearthquakes that have ruptured since ∼7 ka and 16 ka, respectively. Our results indicate that at least three major earthquakes ruptured the full‐segment length and possibly crossed segment boundaries with a recurrence interval of ∼1.9 kyr and potential magnitudes of up to Mw 7.4. We did not find evidence for great (i.e., Mw ≥8) earthquakes. However, discrepancies between slip and rupture extent during apparent partial segment ruptures in the western half of the cPFT, combined with significantly higher scarp offsets, indicate a more mature fault section with potential for future fault linkage. We estimate an average rate of horizontal motion for the cPFT of 4.1 ± 1.5 mm/yr during the past ∼5 kyr, which does not fully match the GNSS‐derived present‐day shortening rate of ∼10 mm/yr. This suggests a complex distribution of strain accumulation and potential slip partitioning between the cPFT and additional faults and folds within the Pamir that may be associated with a partially locked regional décollement.


In their continuous quest for ecologic improvements, private voluntary certification initiatives might undermine the willingness to continue of the participating farmers. In this research, the ecologic contribution and the farmers' acceptance of changing the pesticide policy of a private certification initiative is presented. To measure the perceived farmers' disutility, the choice preference technique is used. We can conclude that there is room for ecologic improvements but that farmers are in general change averse, primarily because of the fear that price compensation will remain largely absent.


This paper reports a spoken natural language dialogue system that manages the interaction between the user and the industrial robot ABB IRB 140. To the extent that the dialogue system is multimodal, it uses three communication modalities: (i) spoken language (automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis), (ii) visual recognition of the figures and determination of their positions, and (iii) typed text. To the extent that the dialogue system is adaptive, it takes the verbal and spatial contexts into account in order to adapt its dialogue behavior and to process spontaneously formulated user commands of different syntactic forms without explicit syntactic expectations. The industrial robot is slightly modified and enabled to manipulate over graphical figures, following the instructions of the dialogue system.


In this paper, we propose two new approaches for preparing active substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In the first approach (method 1), one transfers AgI nanoparticles capped by negatively charged mercaptoacetic acid from a AgI colloid solution onto a quartz slide and then deoxidizes AgI to Ag nanoparticles on the substrate. The second approach (method 2) deoxidizes AgI to Ag nanoparticles in a colloid solution and then transfers the Ag nanoparticles capped by negatively charged mercaptoacetic acid onto a quartz slide. By transfer of the AgI/Ag nanoparticles from the colloid solutions to the solid substrates, the problem of instability of the colloid solutions can largely be overcome. The films thus prepared by both approaches retain the merits of metal colloid solutions while they discharge their shortcomings. Accordingly, the obtained Ag particle films are very suitable as SERS active substrates. SERS active substrates with different coverages can be formed in a layer-by-layer electrostatic assembly by exposing positively charged surfaces to the colloid solutions containing oppositely charged AgI/Ag nanoparticles. The SERS active substrates fabricated by the two novel methods have been characterized by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. The results of AFM and UV-vis spectroscopy show that the Ag nanoparticles grow with the increase in the number of coverage and that most of them remain isolated even at high coverages. Consequently, the surface optical properties are dominated by the absorption due to the isolated Ag nanoparticles. The relationship between SERS intensity and surface morphology of the new active substrates has been investigated for Rhodamine 6G (R6G) adsorbed on them. It has been found that the SERS enhancement depends on the size and aggregation of the Ag particles on the substrates. Especially, we can obtain a stronger SERS signal from the substrate prepared by method 1, implying that for the metal nanoparticles capped with stabilizer molecules such as mercaptoacetic acid, the in situ deoxidization in the film is of great use in preparing SERS active substrates. Furthermore, we have found that the addition of Cl- into the AgI colloid solution changes the surface morphology of the SERS active substrates and favors stronger SERS enhancement.


Chief executive officers (CEOs) spend the majority of their time in organizations communicating. Mintzberg's (1973) seminal work reported that CEOs spend up to 80% of their time communicating. It is not surprising then to find that selecting the most appropriate media channel to communicate to internal and external constituencies in the media rich environment of the 21st century is one of the greatest challenges CEOs currently face (Zeller & Spirek, 2003). Although Rice noted in 1984 that the CEO is an actor interacting and providing leadership utilizing computer-mediated communication channels with varying media rich channels, the complexity of this use for the CEO and his or her organization has increased exponentially over the past two decades. Specifically this investigation responds to this predicament. This dissertation explores when, where, what and how CEOs utilize multimedia channels across a media rich continuum.
The results generated with the CEOs demonstrate that media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984) is a fruitful framework. Findings indicate that the CEOs are stressed and these leaders seek information to conduct this communication effectively given the host of media-rich channels now available. The majority of the 60 CEO interviewees emphasized computer-mediated communication was important or absolutely necessary as a powerful communication channel. Adding to this complexity is the CEOs' personal communication needs as well. Put simply, the effective and efficient use of computers across a host of scenarios is difficult. When, where, and how to utilize computer-mediated communication in combination with other communication channels was recognized as a difficult decision-making process with salient implications for selecting one medium over another. The self-reports repeatedly document that CEOs' medium choices were associated with the degree of success in creating a shared meaning with his or her intended audience.
Based upon the current investigation's findings, future research should consider responding to media richness theory's contribution to the field of communication. The findings underscore Rice (1984) and Williams, Rice, and Rogers' (1988) challenge that the skills of leadership utilizing new media communication channels must include an understanding of the user's attitude and experience, be it CEO, stakeholder, or employee.


The author had worked as a bacteriologist in Ankara American Air Force Hospital from 1958 to 1972. During this period of time he was able to isolate 771 shigella strains from the American patients of the hospital. The amounts and the percentages of the subgroups are listed below together with the two other Ankara City Pediatric hospital results (see article). american community lived in Ankara for 15 years and shared many aspects which were important in shigella epidemiology like using city's tap water, shopping from the same green groceries to by fruits and vegetables so on. For shigella cases Ankara had seasonal alterations in July and August being the peak months. Americans, disease followed that course exactly. The big difference was being the local people of the city had those epidemics with the flexneri strains but Americans had them with the sonnei strains. To show the possible sources which could infect the community time to time and make sonnei predominant yielded negative result. All the patients stools were cultured. Sensitivity studies employing "plate disk diffusion" techniques were done. All patients treated accordingly. Stools checked for routine carriership exams. None become a chronic carrier. American installations had their shops, clubs, mess halls. The food handlers of these places had checked routinely by the preventive medicine office. None found infected. Only at 1963 the amount of flexneri isolations were higher than sonnei. All the remaining years sonnei were predominant. Antibiotic sensitivity studies showed no differences between subtypes. Except streptomycin and sulphamide strains stayed fairly sensitive to other antibiotics. Resistance factors contained maximum 6 markers. The little Americans community in Ankara consisted a unique and highly socioeconomic-wise developed group of the city. Many attempts to find the answer for the question is "who is infecting who" was always fruitless. That gives the impression as if the Americans were more sensitive to the shigella infections caused by sonnei strains for some reason. In another words Americans were more resistant to the infections other than sonnei.


Present paper studies the changes in the cropping pattern of crops in Yavatmal district as case study for the period 1991-2010. We divide the period into two distinct periods: 1991-2000 and 2001-2010. The trends in the production of Cereal Crops, Pulses and Cash Crops are observed using mean comparison T test and Dummy variable regression model. These statistical and simple econometric exercises support the noticeable change occurred in the cropping pattern in the Yavatmal district during the economic reforms period. The results can be concluded as the production of wheat increased marginally but production of Jawar crops has drastically declined from 2206.3 mean value to 990.4, and its place has been taken over by Soybean and Sunflower crops during the study period. The production of Bajara declined. The over all production trends in the cereal is a cause of concern for the government in particular and public in general. The mean value of cereal is declined from 2515.6 to 1266.7, which is significant change at 1% level of significance. If this trend remains continue in the coming years, it would be alarming bell for of us.