David Lewis-Williams is well-known in rock-art circles as the author of a series of articles drawing on ethnographic material and shamanism (notably connected with the San rock art of southern Africa) to gain new insights into the Palaeolithic cave art of western Europe. Some 15 years ago, with Thomas Dowson, he proposed that Palaeolithic art owed its inspiration at least in part to trance experiences (altered states of consciousness) associated with shamanistic practices. Since that article appeared, the shamanistic hypothesis has both been widely adopted and developed in the study of different rock-art traditions, and has become the subject of lively and sometimes heated controversy. In the present volume, Lewis-Williams takes the argument further, and combines the shamanistic hypothesis with an interpretation of the development of human consciousness. He thus enters another contentious area of archaeological debate, seeking to understand west European cave art in the context of (and as a marker of) the new intellectual capacities of anatomically modern humans. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest west European cave art now place it contemporary with the demise of the Neanderthals around 30,000 years ago, and cave art, along with carved or decorated portable items, appears to announce the arrival and denote the success of modern humans in this region. Lewis-Williams argues that such cave art would have been beyond the capabilities of Neanderthals, and that this kind of artistic ability is unique to anatomically modern humans. Furthermore, he concludes that the development of the new ability cannot have been the product of hundreds of thousands of years of gradual hominid evolution, but must have arisen much more abruptly, within the novel neurological structure of anatomically modern humans. The Mind in the Cave is thus the product of two hypotheses, both of them contentious — the shamanistic interpretation of west European Upper Palaeolithic cave art, and the cognitive separation of modern humans and Neanderthals. But is it as simple as that? Was cave art the hallmark of a new cognitive ability and social consciousness that were beyond the reach of previous hominids? And is shamanism an outgrowth of the hard-wired structure of the modern human brain? We begin this Review Feature with a brief summary by David Lewis-Williams of the book's principal arguments. There follows a series of comments addressing both the meaning of the west European cave art, and its wider relevance for the understanding of the Neanderthal/modern human transition.


Combining new approaches with a groundbreaking historical synthesis, this accessible work is the most thorough and up-to-date general history of French Indochina available in English. Unique in its wide-ranging attention to economic, social, intellectual, and cultural dimensions, it is the first book to treat Indochina's entire history from its inception in Cochinchina in 1858 to its crumbling at Dien Bien Ph in 1954 and on to decolonization. Basing their account on original research as well as on the most recent scholarship, Pierre Brocheux and Daniel Hemery tell this story from a perspective that is neither Eurocentric nor nationalistic but that carefully considers the positions of both the colonizers and the colonized. With this approach, they are able to move beyond descriptive history into a rich exploration of the ambiguities and complexities of the French colonial period in Indochina. Rich in themes and ideas, their account also sheds new light on the national histories of the emerging nation-states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, making this book essential reading for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the region, in the Vietnam War, or in French imperialism, among other topics. Caption translations provided in part by Nina Fink.


Thai traditional tobacco cultivation may lead to adverse health effects due to Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) and pesticide exposure. Acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE) and plasm acholinesterase (PChE) have been used to monitor the extent of organophosphate and carbamates exposure in Thai traditional tobacco farmers in Nan Province. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 84 Thai traditional tobacco farmers who had exposure to GTS in two Sub-Districts. A face-to-face questionnaire and a blood test with the Test-Mate OP Kit were used in data collection. It was found that the prevalence of risk level of AChE was 61.90% and the safe level was 38.10%, while the risk level of PChE was 42.86% and the safe level was 57.14%. A multivariate analysis revealed that symptoms of GTS were associated with safe level of AChE such as nausea and vomiting, the safe level of PChE were related to dizziness, but headache and increased saliva were correlated with the risk level. In addition, the safe level of AChE was associated with vomiting after being adjusted and the safe level of PChE with dizziness after being adjusted. Furthermore, pesticide was not applied in all periods but symptoms of GTS were still found in some tobacco farmers who had never used pesticides before; thus, it is possible to conclude that safe levels of AChE and PChE contribute to nicotine poisoning or GTS.


The importance of nutritional fats as a source of energy declined in the past in industrialized countries due to a decrease of physical activity. On the other hand the association between the intake of particular fats and the development of cardiovascular diseases is generally accepted. Thus, some scientific societies (American Heart Association, NIH Consensus Development Conference) recommend a maximal intake of 30% of total energy by fats. In regards to the quality of fats and their effect on blood levels of lipoproteins, it is accepted that large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids lower increased blood levels of low density lipoproteins; however, they lower in a small extent also the antiatherogenic high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. Monounsaturated fatty acids also tend to lower increased LDL, without any lowering effect on HDL, W-3-fatty acids (mainly from fish oil) lower increased triglyceride levels and therefore are used a therapeutic dietary regimen. However, their long-term effects are not quite well known.


This paper proposes an architecture for interworking heterogeneous all-IP networks with an in-depth analysis of its performance. The novelty of this framework is that it freely enables any 3G cellular technology, such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) or the CDMA 2000 system, to interwork with a given broadband wireless access (BWA) system, such as the Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) network or the wireless local area network (WLAN) via a common signaling plane. As a universal coupling mediator for real-time session negotiation and management between these dissimilar networks, the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) has been exploited. The analytical evaluation investigates the behavior of handoff delay, transient packet loss, jitter, and signaling cost during a vertical handoff for the given framework. Finally, an OPNET based simulation platform has been introduced for the verification of the analytical model and results.


Nutraceuticals are promoted and marketed with the stated label of being natural as well as safe herbal products. In order to enhance their effectiveness, nutraceuticals are usually adulterated with undeclared constituents. Slimming herbs may contain sibutramine (SBT) which is an FDA-banned ingredient due to its fatal outcomes. This current work's aim is to design a trimodal sensor for SBT detection in different herbal slimming formulations. Screen-printed silver and multi-walled carbon nanotube inks were employed for the potentiometric sensor. The sensor was designed to fill a reaction well in which a carbon dot-silver nanoparticle pair was applied for fluorimetric and colorimetric purposes. The trimodal sensor was designed to fit an 8 mm 2-pin LED strip connector. Potentiometric measurement took place upon application of one sample aliquot then the optical reaction proceeded next in a specified zone for optical detection. These multiple detection mechanisms achieved the required selectivity for SBT determination in the presence of other slimming products' additives. This trimodal sensor satisfied World Health Organization standards for point-of-care devices demonstrating the suggested device as a dynamic part for rapid on-site detection of undisclosed SBT.


Between March 1994 and June 2003, 80 patients with brachial plexus palsy underwent a trapezius transfer. There were 11 women and 69 men with a mean age of 31 years (18 to 69). Before operation a full evaluation of muscle function in the affected arm was carried out. A completely flail arm was found in 37 patients (46%). Some peripheral function in the elbow and hand was seen in 43 (54%). No patient had full active movement of the elbow in combination with adequate function of the hand. Patients were followed up for a mean of 2.4 years (0.8 to 8). We performed the operations according to Saha's technique, with a modification in the last 22 cases. We demonstrated a difference in the results according to the pre-operative status of the muscles and the operative technique. The transfer resulted in an increase of function in all patients and in 74 (95%) a decrease in multidirectional instability of the shoulder. The mean increase in active abduction was from 6 degrees (0 to 45) to 34 degrees (5 to 90) at the last review. The mean forward flexion increased from 12 degrees (0 to 85) to 30 degrees (5 to 90). Abduction (41 degrees) and especially forward flexion (43 degrees) were greater when some residual function of the pectoralis major remained (n = 32). The best results were achieved in those patients with most pre-operative power of the biceps, coracobrachialis and triceps muscles (n = 7), with a mean of 42 degrees of abduction and 56 degrees of forward flexion. Active abduction (28 degrees) and forward flexion (19 degrees) were much less in completely flail shoulders (n = 34). Comparison of the 19 patients with the Saha technique and the 15 with the modified procedure, all with complete paralysis, showed the latter operation to be superior in improving shoulder stability. In all cases a decrease in instability was achieved and inferior subluxation was abolished. The results after trapezius transfer depend on the pre-operative pattern of paralysis and the operative technique. Better results can be achieved in patients who have some function of the biceps, coracobrachialis, pectoralis major and triceps muscles compared with those who have a complete palsy. A simple modification of the operation ensures a decrease in joint instability and an increase in function.


The Finite-Element Method has become a wmmon tool in the computational electromagneticist's toolbox over the past decade. During the decade of the 1990s. the method has evolved from an interesting approach with great promise for modeling structures that are difficult to model using competing methods, such as integral equation-based approaches, to a mainstream, commercially viable design tool. Although there are a number of excellent commercial finite-element-based design environments, it is still instructive for finite-element novices to write their own programs as an aid in understanding the potential, and limitations, of the method. Writing your own - albeit simple and limited - finite-element program will facilitate better understanding of how to make the most of the excellent commercial programs now on the market. This paper will outline various textbook and online sources of content that facilitates such a voyage of discovery.


Concentrations of stress/strain at the notch tip of notched-wide plate specimens of undermatching and evenmatching welded joints are investigated by elasto-plastic FEM analyses. In the undermatching weld specimen in which notch is located at weld fusion line, magnitude of stresses/plastic strains in an area of heat-affected zone side adjacent to the notch tip is released by plastic deformations of weld metal of which yield strength is lower than base metal, and as the results the stress/strain concentration is quite smaller than those in evenmatching weld specimen. This leads us to the conclusion that 9% Ni steel weldments of undermatching austenitic 70%Ni-alloy weld metal will be much insensitive to brittle crack initiation at HAZs than those of evenmatching ferritic weld metal. The local COD δBep values which should control stresses/strains at embrittled HAZs are also considerably smaller in undermatching specimens than in evenmatching specimen. Based on expected joint strength of 9%Ni steel weldments, discussions are made on fracture toughness requirement for both undermatching and evenmatching weld HAZs. Carck path observed in notched-wide plate tension tests at LNG temperatures that brittle crack initiated from the pre-existing notch at HAZ goes into austenitic weld metal and is often arrested is understood by the change of principal stress directions resulted from the difference in Young's modulus between weld metal and base metal.


ABSTRACT
 Science demonstrations are a simple, cost-effective method of improving interest in STEM and highlighting the diversity of scientists, which can impact audience members' sense of belonging and, in turn, influence self-efficacy. However, the pedagogy of science demonstrations has been criticized as creating a power imbalance between the presenter and audience, for being too far removed from the audience's prior experiences, and for lacking interactivity. We report here on an intervention that designed demonstration-experiments to address a lack of interactivity while supporting interest; contextualized demonstrations within everyday experiences to address a lack of prior experiences and support interest, and implemented a near-peer role modeling strategy through high school near-peer role models to address power imbalances while supporting self-efficacy and expanding fourth-grade students' perceptions of who can be a scientist. The study explores the effects of the intervention using a pre-post survey design analyzed by repeated measures multiple analysis of variance (rmMANOVA) (n = 444). Significant improvement was observed for all motivational variables. These results suggest that interactive science demonstrations focused on students' everyday experiences may be an effective strategy to foster STEM interest and self-efficacy and to improve perceptions of who can be a scientist when enacted through high school near-peer role models.


Nigeria relies on data from periodic resource-intensive surveys such as antenatal HIV seroprevalence sentinel surveys (ANC-HSS) and population-based National AIDS and Reproductive Health Surveys (NARHS) for its HIV control efforts. Nigeria has not explored the use of readily available routine programmatic data (RPD) to easily inform and monitor epidemic control efforts at local settings in near real time. This study aimed to determine the utility of RPDs (Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission [PMTCT] and HIV Testing and Counseling [HTC]) as a proxy for monitoring HIV epidemic in Nigeria. Using World Health Organization 12 step triangulation procedures, we compared state-level seropositivity data from PMTCT and HTC programs to HIV prevalence data from NARHS and ANC-HSS reports in relevant pairs from 2010 to 2014 in Nigeria. The study population was pregnant women and general population. We abstracted relevant data from PEPFAR Nigeria data source and published national survey reports. We compared visual (scatterplots and maps) patterns and trends, and performed Pearson correlation and univariate linear regression models of the estimates for best matched/contiguous years for which data were available. Correlation between PMTCT2014 and ANC-HSS2014 was positive and significant (R=0.7,p<0.001). ANC-HSS2014 and HTC2014 were slightly correlated (R=0.4,p<0.05). Significant correlation was observed between ANC-HSS2010 and PMTCT2013 (R=0.8,p<0.001) and between ANC-HSS2010 and HTC2013 (R=0.6, p<0.001). All RPD sources and ANC-HSS indicated a decreasing trend in national HIV prevalence in Nigeria. PMTCT2014 data showed strong capability of predicting HIV prevalence in ANC-HSS2014 in regression model (B=2.09,p<0.0001). Use of routine PMTCT data in monitoring HIV prevalence among women of reproductive age could be more valid and reliable in local settings than the use of HTC data. Use of RPD to monitor national and sub-national-level HIV epidemic in between national surveys in Nigeria could maximize program resources, and promote a more responsive and efficient actions toward epidemic control.


Evaluation of vaccine efficacy to protect against future infection remains a challenge. One of the difficulties lies in developing an antigen specific recall assay that can be applied across clinical sites. TruCulture is a whole blood collection and culture system that was designed for ex vivo/in vitro evaluation of immune responses for clinical trials. This abstract demonstrates a TruCulture tube that is highly effective in eliciting recall responses against Influenza A hemagglutinin (HA) proteins after the annual flu vaccine. Whole blood from 10 healthy donors were collected at 2 days pre- and 14 days post-vaccination (Afluria, Sequiris). Blood was collected in TruCulture tubes containing 5mg recombinant HA antigens (Immune Technology Corporation). After incubation at 37°C for 48 hours, the supernatants were collected and analyzed for 13 analytes by OptiMAP and 47 analytes by TruCulture MAP (Myriad RBM). Several analytes (such as IFNγ, IL-1β, IL-3, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, and IL-23) demonstrated an increase at 14 days after the flu vaccination compared to samples taken prior to vaccination. This increase is specific to the recombinant HA antigens from flu strains included in the flu vaccine administered. The increase in these analytes were either not observed or at significantly reduced levels when the recall response was conducted using recombinant HA antigens from flu strains not included in the vaccine administered. TruCulture preloaded with HA antigens can be a valuable tool to evaluate human immune responses to the annual flu vaccine and indicates that a similar strategy using antigen-specific TruCulture tubes can be developed for the evaluation of any novel vaccine.


Successful building diagnostics requires quick and reliable identification of energy performance problems, and an accurate assessment and cost analysis of the associated energy loss. Today, most auditors rely on thermal imagery for analyzing energy performance problems. Nonetheless, current thermographic inspections are qualitative and thus mainly focus on the visual detection of thermal irregularities. As a result, the quality of the retrofit decision-makings is based on how these images are interpreted by the auditors. To overcome these challenges, this paper presents a new method for calculating the cost associated with potential building energy performance problems. First, based on the Energy Performance Augmented Reality (EPAR) modeling method, actual and expected 3D spatio-thermal models of the buildings under inspection are generated and integrated in a 3D environment. This method leverages thermal and digital images captured by a thermal camera for actual energy performance modeling, in addition to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis for expected energy performance simulation. Based on thermal 3D mesh modeling and threshold-based assessments of temperature deviations, building areas with potential performance problems are detected within the EPAR models. By locating a small crumbled aluminum foil on an inspection surface, the reflected apparent temperature is measured. For areas with potential performance problems within EPAR models, this measurement is used to calculate the actual R-value at the level of 3D points. This information is finally used to calculate both heat loss and gain and also estimate the associated energy costs. The presented method is tested on several interior locations of an existing residential building. Experimental results and the benefits of converting temperature data sensed from building surfaces into actual R-values and the cost of heating and cooling loss are discussed.


For transfer of fingerling fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) from spawning ponds to growing ponds, the optimum combination of brood-fish population density and sex ratio in the spawning pond was 19,200 fish per surface acre and five females to one male. Fingerling production from this combination amounted to 1,524,500 fish. Fathead minnows utilized spawning boards placed up to 5 ft deep, and they also utilized boards placed without reference to the substrate. Larger nest sites encouraged larger egg deposits. Nests were crowded together as effectively by restricting available nest sites as by providing visual isolation or territorial markings. Post-spawning mortality of adults ranged from 20% to 91% with higher survival of females than males.


ABSTRACT Researchers have previously explored how right-wing extremists build a collective identity online by targeting their perceived "threat," but little is known about how this "us" versus "them" dynamic evolves over time. This study uses a sentiment analysis-based algorithm that adapts criminal career measures, as well as semi-parametric group-based modeling, to evaluate how users' anti-Semitic, anti-Black, and anti-LGBTQ posting behaviors develop on a sub-forum of the most conspicuous white supremacy forum. The results highlight the extent to which authors target their key adversaries over time, as well as the applicability of a criminal career approach in measuring radical posting trajectories online.


This paper introduces a 3-d representation of vehicles as a space of scale and orientation transformations that define the shape of individual vehicle instances. This shape space forms a group, where the similarity of different vehicle observations can be evaluated using a distance measure defined by Lie group theory. A generic class of vehicles (e.g. SUV) is represented by a set of curves on the Lie group manifold, called geodesics. The classification of any given vehicle instance is achieved by finding the class with the smallest Lie distance between the geodesics and the vehicle shape. Vehicle recognition is carried out on 3-d LIDAR point clouds. The performance of the Lie classifier is evaluated against two other approaches and found to provide superior recognition performance, particularly with respect to the ability to generalize from a small number of labeled prototypes.


We discuss expansions for the Cotton-York tensor near infinity for arbitrary slices of stationary spacetimes. From these expansions, it follows directly that a necessary condition for the existence of conformally flat slices in stationary solutions is the vanishing of a certain quantity of quadrupolar nature (obstruction). The obstruction is non-zero for the Kerr solution. Thus, the Kerr metric admits no conformally flat slices. An analysis of the next order terms in the expansions in the case of solutions such that the obstruction vanishes, suggests that the only stationary solutions admitting conformally flat slices are the Schwarzschild family of solutions.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the predominant determinants of shower end use consumption and the overarching approach to building a residential demand forecasting model using aligned socio-demographic and natural science data sets collected from 200 households fitted with smart meters in South-east Queensland, Australia. ANOVA as well as multiple regression analysis statistical techniques were utilised to reveal the determinants (e.g. household makeup, shower fixture efficiency, income, etc.) of household shower consumption. The study provides evidence that both household makeup and shower appliance efficiency are the most significant determinants of shower usage among other factors. The generated multiple regression model shows that these significant determinants can explain 90.2% of the variation in household shower consumption. The model also shows that the number of teenagers in the household is the most important household makeup characteristic in terms of shower consumption. The paper concludes with a discussion on the significant shower end use determinants and how this statistical approach will be followed to predict other residential end uses, and overall household residential consumption. Moreover, the implications of the research on conservation strategies and policy design, is discussed, along with future research directions.


A Review: Angiogenesis is an important biological phenomenon existed in ischemic diseases, tumor, and other diseases. Therapeutic angiogenesis is a frontier area in the treatment of coronary heart disease. The mechanisms and clinical application of therapeutic angiogenesis in coronary heart disease were briefly reviewed in this article.


There is growing interest in utilizing existing infrastructure for storage and distribution of hydrogen. Gaseous hydrogen, for example, could be added to natural gas in the short-term, whereas entire systems can be converted to transmission and distribution networks for hydrogen. Many active programs around the world are exploring the safety and feasibility of adding hydrogen to these networks. Concerns have been raised about the structural integrity of materials in these systems when exposed to hydrogen. In general, the effects of hydrogen on these materials are grossly misunderstood. Hydrogen unequivocally degrades fatigue and fracture resistance of structural steels in these systems, even for low hydrogen partial pressure (~1 bar). In most systems, however, hydrogen effects will not be apparent because the stresses in these systems remain very low. Another misunderstanding results from the kinetics of the hydrogen effects: hydrogen degrades fatigue and fracture properties immediately upon exposure to gaseous hydrogen, and those effects disappear when the hydrogen environment is removed, even after prolonged exposure. There is also a misperception that materials selection can mitigate hydrogen effects. While some classes of materials perform better in hydrogen environments than other classes, for most practical circumstances, the range of response for a given class of material in gaseous hydrogen environments is rather narrow. These observations can be systematically characterized by considering the intersection of materials, environmental, and mechanical variables associated with the service application. Indeed, any safety assessment of a hydrogen pressure system must quantitatively consider these aspects. In this report, we quantitatively evaluate the importance of the materials, environmental, and mechanical variables in the context of hydrogen additions to natural gas piping and pipeline systems with the aim of providing an informed perspective on parameters relevant for assessing structural integrity of natural gas systems in the presence of gaseous hydrogen.


Probabilistic Finite Automaton (PFA), Probabilistic Finite State Transducers (PFST) and Hidden Markov Models (HMM) are widely used in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems and Part Of Speech (POS) tagging for language mod-eling. Traditionally, unsupervised learning of these latent variable models is done by Expectation-Maximization (EM)-like algorithms, as the Baum-Welch algorithm. In a recent alternative line of work, learning algorithms based on spectral properties of some low order moments matrices or tensors were proposed. In comparison to EM, they are orders of magnitude faster and come with theoretical convergence guarantees. However, returned models are not ensured to compute proper distributions. They often return negative values that do not sum to one, limiting their applicability and preventing them to serve as an initialization to EM-like algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new spectral algorithm able to learn a large range of models constrained to return proper distributions. We assess its performances on synthetic problems from the PAutomaC challenge and real datasets extracted from Wikipedia. Experiments show that it outperforms previous spectral approaches as well as the Baum-Welch algorithm with random restarts, in addition to serve as an efficient initialization step to EM-like algorithms.


A critical hydrological process is the interaction between rivers and aquifers. However, accurately determining this interaction from one method alone is difficult. At a point, the water exchange in the riverbed can be determined using temperature variations over depth. Over the river reach, differential gauging can be used to determine averaged losses or gains. This study combines these two methods and applies them to a 34 km reach of a semiarid river in eastern Australia under highly transient conditions. It is found that high and low river flows translate into high and low riverbed Darcy fluxes, and that these are strongly losing during high flows, and only slightly losing or gaining for low flows. The spatial variability in riverbed Darcy fluxes may be explained by riverbed heterogeneity, with higher variability at greater spatial scales. Although the river‐aquifer gradient is the main driver of riverbed Darcy flux at high flows, considerable uncertainty in both the flux magnitude and direction estimates were found during low flows. The reach‐scale results demonstrate that high‐flow events account for 64% of the reach loss (or 43% if overbank events are excluded) despite occurring only 11% of the time. By examining the relationship between total flow volume, river stage and duration for in‐channel flows, we find the loss ratio (flow loss/total flow) can be greater for smaller flows than larger flows with similar duration. Implications of the study for the modeling and management of connected water resources are also discussed.


Not every country is able to attract the right mode of FDI, nor does every investor risks his investments without studying the conditions in the host country. The practice of FDI attraction generally incorporates numerous fiscal and monetary incentives. However, one should note that FDI attraction should be accompanied by development and an increase in the level of human capital, as a prerequisite to attract the right FDI and not every kind of foreign investment. FDI, together with human capital development, are considered among the key drivers of growth as they play complementary effects and reinforce each other. The role of human capital in stimulating FDI and vice versa is one of the controversial issues in the development literature. Human capital is the factor where the transition process has had significant and long-term implications. Human capital became a crucial determinant and a prerequisite for FDI attraction that a country, including Kosovo must have if willing to attract the right mode of foreign capital. Theory and empirical studies are inconclusive as per direct impacts of FDI in developed countries, but when it comes to transition and undeveloped economies, and Kosovo, there is more agreement on the positive effects of FDI in economic development and human capital. This paper seeks to understand the weight of human capital in different types of FDI theories.


Summer mortality is a phenomenon that causes mass die offs of molluscs during the summer months. Summer mortality affected molluscs include many economical important animals including; oysters, mussels, clams, scallops and abalone. The condition occurs in both natural and aquaculture environments and represents a considerable threat towards aquaculture and fi sheries industries world-wide. Although sudden increases in water temperature are known contributors to summer mortality events, intrinsic factors (i.e. animal age and gametogenesis) and extrinsic factors (i.e. food availability and quality, increased salinity, decreased dissolved oxygen and the presence of pathogenic viruses and bacteria) can also play a role. Genetically driven factors are also considered to play a crucial role in susceptibility and resilience to summer mortality and these have been investigated recently using transcriptomics (i.e. broad scale patterns of gene expression). Immune, metabolic and stress response processes have commonly been found to differ between resilient and susceptible families, lines and/or populations. In addition, more complex genetic interactions such as regulatory transcription and epigenetic


We propose a novel end-to-end deep architecture for face landmark detection, based on a deep convolutional and deconvolutional network followed by carefully designed recurrent network structures. The pipeline of this architecture consists of three parts. Through the first part, we encode an input face image to resolution-preserved deconvolutional feature maps via a deep network with stacked convolutional and deconvolutional layers. Then, in the second part, we estimate the initial coordinates of the facial key points by an additional convolutional layer on top of these deconvolutional feature maps. In the last part, by using the deconvolutional feature maps and the initial facial key points as input, we refine the coordinates of the facial key points by a recurrent network that consists of multiple long short-term memory components. Extensive evaluations on several benchmark data sets show that the proposed deep architecture has superior performance against the state-of-the-art methods.


The current research seeks to examine the relationship between sociocultural, administrative, legal/regulatory, financial/economic, technical/technological barriers with the entry of Primary Football League Clubs into the Stock Exchange. The research statistical population is consisted of the sports management professors as the faculty members in Iranian universities including state and private universities, Payame Noor, and the managers of Iranian Football Primer League Clubs. In the current article, a researcher-made questionnaire was used which contains 58 questions in two parts including barriers and solutions. The questionnaire validity was confirmed by the sport management professors, and its reliability was confirmed to be 77.51 based on the confirmatory factor analysis test . For testing the hypotheses, the Spearman correlation test and logistic regression were used.  The findings showed that the sociocultural, administrative, legal/regulatory, technical/technological barriers can affect the entry of the Primary Football League clubs into Stock Exchange, but there is no significant relationship between the economic/financial barriers and the entry of clubs into the Stock Exchange.


Replacing traditional power grids by future smart grids opens manifold opportunities for energy-efficient operation of buildings and cities as well as improved coordination of energy demand and supply. Current information and communication technology provides a suitable basis for the bidirectional flow of information between buildings and other smart grid stakeholders. However, a common notion of shared knowledge is essential in order to unify heterogeneous grid environments, incorporate information of smart grid participants, and process this information in building energy management. In this work, an abstraction layer based on an OWL ontology is presented that enables semantic representation of knowledge for interaction between building energy management systems and smart grids. A well-proven methodology is used to develop this ontology. Furthermore, the ontology application into building energy management systems and smart grid environments is illustrated, and the functional capabilities of this approach are shown.


This dissertation summarizes research investigating the design of real-time traffic maps. As traffic congestion continues to burden our largest cities, and as the Internet continues to grow at a rapid pace, real-time traffic maps have the potential to be among the world's most popular maps. Furthermore, as mobile devices and in-car-navigationsystems begin to connect to the Internet, millions of drivers will access and read these maps on an array of media. This dissertation reports on research aimed to understand as well as enhance the design of real-time traffic maps. The dissertation includes reviews of previous scientific research, as well as several online traffic maps from around the world. The dissertation also introduces new methods to design and empirically evaluate the performance of real-time traffic maps. The design methods are guided by established cartographic principles, as well as the findings of human subjects studies that reveal more intuitive cartographic strategies. The investigation pays particular attention to the influences of cartographic classification, and cartographic symbolization; the findings suggest that both classification and symbolization significantly influence how map readers perceive and respond to graphical depictions of traffic conditions. With this in mind, the research suggests it is imperative to not only understand the influence of design variables on map perception, but also to, as best as possible, link map design with map-readers' perceptual preconceptions, and preferences. This idea of cognitive congruence represents a new challenge for all kinds of cartographers.


Abstract:In Prácticas descoloniales: El movimiento de resintencia cultural y lingüística, Tseltal Maya scholar and educator Daniel Ochoa shows how an Indigenous perspective can bring forth ideas about language and education. He combines resistencia /resistance and intención /intention into resintencia, a decolonial practice based on nurturing Indigenous culture. The focus is not just on opposing colonial forces, but also, like jaguars faced with capitalist encroachment, maintaining indigenous tradition in the face of global pressures. I consider Ochoa's ideas on Indigenous educational and cultural practices in light of Maya jaguar ontology, as well as in comparison with biological studies of jaguar behavior. I then consider how the Zapatistas incorporate similar ideas of resintencia and jaguar ontology into their political praxis. Drawing from Tsotsil Maya sholar and poet Manuel Bolom Pale's examination of Tsotsil linguistic epistemology Chanubtasel-p'ijubtasel: Reflexión filosófica de los pueblos originarios, I compare this with Zapatista concepts as described in Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater's Autonomy Is in Our Hearts: Zapatista Autonomous Government through the Lens of the Tsotsil Language. Together these works show how Maya writers and educators, and citizens on Maya autonomous lands, are living a jaguar ontology that strives to keep balance in the world.


This series is aimed particularly at early years practitioners, trainers and researchers, with the intention of providing discussions of some of the most recent and relevant research findings, in order to foster evidence-based practice in the rapidly expanding field of early childhood education and care. The contributions to the texts come from internationally renowned writers with experience and expertise in practical as well as academic settings, who are able to offer critical analyses of the research findings they present. The series focuses mainly on the years from birth to six and the research themes reviewed range from those with policy level and macro-issues foci to 'intra-child' questions. Overall, the series explores different perspectives, viewing research issues concerning within-child differences in their contexts, and acknowledging the impact of cultural expectations and constructions of childhood in our complex and diverse global society.


In this research, an atmospheric-pressure air plasma is used to inactivate the multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in liquid. The efficacy of the air plasma on bacterial deactivation and the cytobiological variations after the plasma treatment are investigated. According to colony forming units, nearly all the bacteria (6-log) are inactivated after 10 min of air plasma treatment. However, 7% of the bacteria enter a viable but non-culturable state detected by the resazurin based assay during the same period of plasma exposure. Meanwhile, 86% of the bacteria lose their membrane integrity in the light of SYTO 9/PI staining assay. The morphological changes in the cells are examined by scanning electron microscopy and bacteria with morphological changes are rare after plasma exposure in the liquid. The concentrations of the long-living RS, such as H2O2, and O3, in liquid induced by plasma treatment are measured, and they increase with plasma treatment time. The changes of the intracellular ROS may be related to cell death, which may be attributed to oxidative stress and other damage effects induced by RS plasma generated in liquid. The rapid and effective bacteria inactivation may stem from the RS in the liquid generated by plasma and air plasmas may become a valuable therapy in the treatment of infected wounds.


Abstract: This article explores the progressive style of Islamic education and education philosophy initiated by Omar Muhammad at-Toumy Asy-Syaibani. In conducting the exploration, the author uses a qualitative literature research method with the primary source of the book Falsafatu at-Tarbiyah al-Islamiyah by Omar at-Toumy. The results of this paper are a progressive style in the concept of Omar's Islamic education philosophy, including (1) the concept of Tawazun (balanced) and I'tidal (proportional) applied by Omar in formulating the philosophy of Islamic education accommodating the characteristics of progressivism in education in general and at the same time providing a new color in Islamic progressivism. Omar's concept of tawazun was poured into seeing reality, seeing the process of humans getting knowledge, and sources of knowledge and knowledge that are considered valid. (2) Emphasizing individual and societal change for the better, (3) The philosophy of Islamic education is following the community environment's realities (environmentalism) and can be practiced, not utopian ideas. (4) The philosophy of Islamic education is dynamic (dynamic) which can be changed at any time according to the demands of the times (5) Humans (education subjects) as creatures (natural realities) are the best according to Islamic teachings and have intelligence (instrumentalism) as natural resources and potential in solving all problems in the world, besides that he can prosper or take advantage of all the potential that exists in his life (6) The principle of justice and equality in society (students). A progressive style can be seen in (1) The existence of practical and realistic concepts in Islamic education, not only dwelling on information and theory, (2) According to him, an educator must maintain the differences that students have. , given that students have different potentials. (3) The goals of education are also very dynamic, they are adapted to the times, and (4) The curriculum in Islamic education must also be dynamic and flexible with the times.

Keywords: Progressive,Tawazun; Tagyir; Omar Muhammad at-Toumy; Islamic Education Philosophy.


Parallel processing is the harnessing of multiple processors to work on the same problem. The aim is to speed up the computational process, ideally by the number of processors used. Parallel processing is increasingly emerging as the key to very-high-speed computation. This article is an introductory overview emphasizing the use of parallel computers for computational engineering. >


Background: Individual therapy efficiency of HER2−positive metastatic and pre-metastatic breast cancer patients varies significantly and spans from effectual responsiveness over acquired insensitivity to complete resistance from the outset. Thus no predictive information can be deduced from HER2 diagnostics so that molecular biomarkers indicative for sensitivity / resistance to Herceptin are needed to be identified. The HER2 related HER4-receptor has been shown to have ambivalent (pro-apoptotic or pro-proliferative) activity and consequently represents a prime candidate to affect HER2 activity under Herceptin treatment. We retrospectively analyzed potential her4 gene amplification and HER4 protein expression in HER2−positive, Herceptin treated patients. Patient9s overall and recurrence free survival was evaluated as a function of HER2/HER4 expression. Methods: Using dual color Fluorescence in-situ Hybridization (FISH probes, Zytovision, Bremerhaven, Germany) and qPCR (LC480, Roche, Penzberg, Germany) we quantitatively investigated primary breast cancer tissues from nearly 50 (FISH) and 160 (PCR) patients who received Herceptin treatment. We quantified the her4 gene copy numbers and evaluated the protein expression profile of all four known HER4 isotypes (JM-a/CYT1, JM-a/CYT2, JM-b/CYT1, JM-b/CYT2). Results: FISH analysis revealed a positive and independent prognostic marker in Herceptin treated breast cancer patients with respect to overall survival. Moreover by quantitative PCR analysis we found a significant variability of HER4 protein expression (JM-a/CYT1 and JM-a/CYT2; no JM-b isotypes) in HER2 positive breast cancer tissues, whereas HER2/HER4 positive patients show a significant better recurrence free survival compared to HER2 positive but HER4 negative patients (p = 0,003). Conclusions: HER4 has been demonstrated to potentially exert tumor suppressing activity and in turn to have a favourable impact on the course of breast cancer disease. We show here that HER4 expression prolongs in particular recurrence free survival of Herceptin treated patients which indicates a functional integration of HER4 into anti-HER2 targeting. Complementing functional studies allowing for isotype specific function of HER4 will elucidate the special role of this receptor tyrosine kinase in the context of Herceptin treatment and might facilitate individualized anti-ErbB-receptor targeting with higher efficiency. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-12-23.


Objective: Th is study aimed to identify the proportion of patients who had clinical deterioration in the medical ward that required intensive care unit transfer and the factors associated with this transfer. Methods: A retrospective study of all patients admitted to the medical wards of King Abdulaziz University Hospital between 2010 and 2013 was performed. Th e demographics, admitting department, diagnosis at the time of admission to the ward, and cause of intensive care unit transfer were collected. Patients at risk for deterioration and early intensive care unit transfer were identifi ed using physiologic threshold criteria. Results: A screening of 38380 patients admitted to the various medical services during the study period was performed. Of these, 356 (0.9%) required intensive care unit transfer. Most patients were initially admitted from the emergency department (66.3%), while transfers from another hospital comprised approximately 1%. Intensive care unit transfer patients were more likely to have ischemic heart disease (P < 0.001), diabetes (P < 0.001), renal failure (P < 0.001), or sepsis associated with pressure ulcers (P < 0.001). Th ey were also more likely to be bedridden (P < 0.001) or initially ventilated in the medical ward (P < 0.001). Th e mortality rate of the patients was 3.9% with patients who died being more likely to have unstable blood pressure at the time of admission (P = 0.026). Conclusions: Th is study identifi ed several factors that were associated with intensive care unit transfer. Clinicians should consider these factors when determining patient disposition to ensure timely and appropriate management.


The chelation-assisted cross dehydrogenative coupling of C(sp3)–H bonds is achieved by the Pd(II)-catalyzed reaction of aliphatic amides that contain a 5-chloro-8-aminoquinoline moiety as the direc...


Conditions are derived for the components of the normed limit of a multi-type branching process with varying environments, to be continuous on (0, ∞). The main tool is an inequality for the concentration function of sums of independent random variables, due originally to Petrov. Using this, we show that if there is a discontinuity present, then a particular linear combination of the population types must converge to a non-random constant (Equation (1)). Ensuring this can not happen provides the desired continuity conditions.


Actins, isolated from human sceletal and heart muscles, were studied using SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. They possessed similar electrophoretic mobility and molecular weight about 46000 daltons.


Gori-I nuclear power plant has been examining the effectiveness and efficiency of the current emergency operation procedures from human factors viewpoint. Previous study showed that some mistakes that the procedures did not comply with the writers' guidelines. Reviewing the cun"ent writers' guidelines for emergency operating procedures revealed that they lack of some important human factors rules such as enumeration of switching conditions and detailed action requirements, definite expression for setup points, description for anticipated results, and recommendation for use of present tense, affirmative sentence and active voice. This study suggested a new classification system for the writers' guideline contents supplementing the deficiencies of the current emergency operation procedure text.


This paper explores the potential impacts of introducing real economic incentives in Choice Experiments (CE). While many others have investigated such impacts before, the majority of the literature has focused solely on mitigation of hypothetical bias. We contribute to this literature by widening the scope of research to other behavioural aspects where consumers in CE are often found to deviate from homo economicus. We develop a theoretical model where not only Willingness to pay (WTP) measures but also decision processing can be affected by the introduction of an economic incentive. Specifically, our model allows for differential impacts on attribute processing, depending on the character of the attribute as well as self-image effects. In an empirical CE survey, we find some, though not unequivocal, support of our model. Even though we find no impact on WTP from introducing an economic incentive, we find marked benefits in relation to a number of behavioural aspects that together would favour the use of an economic incentive regardless of hypothetical bias being present or not.


Groups of four heifers were kept over winter at 20 C (controls) or outdoors with (sheltered) or without (exposed) shelter. Weather conditions were severe. Mean January temperature was −28 C. All animals received the same amount of grain. Calves in the control, sheltered and exposed groups ate on average 9.0, 11.3 and 10.9 g hay/kg body weight per day and gained, over winter, 156, 158 and 140 kg, respectively. Growth of new hair was similar in all groups. However, total hair cover in the cattle kept outside was, in February, twice that of the controls. This increase was attributed to reduced hair shedding. Tissue insulation increased throughout in all groups. External insulation was markedly reduced by exposure of the animals to wind. The influence of coat depth on external insulation was small. Still air critical temperature for the controls fell from 7 to −2 C during the experiment. The effect of acclimatization was to reduce critical temperature to −18 C in the sheltered group during February.The result...


The article analyses interpretation of the category of addressee in the scientific literature, presents the specifics of the linguistic representation of polite addressee in the Ukrainian language. The features of the category of addressee and its linguistic representation from the point of sociolinguistic criteria view are described. Polite addressing is considered as a set of special linguistic indicators that represent communicative interaction, a certain instrument of influencing the addressee, which are sometimes more effective than communication itself. In addition, the emphasis is made on sociolinguistic, national and cultural features of the category of addressees. Polite addressee is regarded as a certain pragmatic vector that determines and regulates the strategy of the speaker's communicative behaviour, influencing the choice and use of language indicators, the specifics of linguistic means of expressing polite addressee use. Linguistic indicators of polite addressee, which are used by the speaker in order to establish a successful communicative act are highlighted and described. The category of addressee is not limited to implementation within one part of speech, since the addressee expressiveness is concentrated in pronouns, nouns and verbs that can name or indicate the addressee, thus the category of addressee is a cross-cutting category inherent not only to one part of speech. The main specialized grammatical indicators of polite addressee expression in the Ukrainian language are personal pronouns ти, Ви, addressee-personal verb forms, vocative case of nouns, imperative verbs, words of the addressee category (vocative and addressee intensifiers dear, respected, etc.), in which the addressee is lexicalized function. From the point of polite addressing view, speakers use a number of linguistic indicators that perform an appellative, phatic, regulatory, connotative, national-cultural function, pragmatically loaded and modally labelled to represent relationships. The authors claim that functional load of a polite addressee is to prepare the conditions for successful implementation of a communicative act. The semantics of the addressee is determined by speech contact, relationship between the communicants, communication situation and the speaker's intention.


In 2014, Denmark abolished the castration requirement that had been in place since the 1950s in order to obtain legal gender reassignment. As a self-declaration model was introduced, the law was amended to enable everyone with a uterus to retain access to pregnancy care and assisted reproduction. Combining Science and Technology Studies with critical transgender scholarship, this paper explores how the legal reforms, which sought to separate legal gender status from the healthcare system, have shaped the emergence of reproductive transmasculinities and the institutionalization of reproductive citizenship for trans men. Drawing on the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries ( Jasanoff, 2015), I discuss how specific understandings of coherence between bodies, gender and parenthood organize and restrict the reproductive practices of trans men. For example, men who give birth are still registered as mothers. Through the framework of biomedicalization (Clarke et al., 2010), I extend my discussion of reproductive autonomy to fertility preservation access. I discuss why, in Denmark, sperm can be frozen in relation to genderaffirmative treatment, but eggs cannot, and in doing so I highlight how this disparity is not only shaped by normative practices of risk prediction, but also by the political opposition to surrogacy in Denmark.


Although most young people--as is the case with their elders--are supportive of freedom of speech/press in general, the same is not true when one considers First Amendment questions in specific circumstances. The author suggests that popular culture examples, such as the controversy surrounding the recent diatribe of major league pitcher John Rocker, can assist the social studies teacher in helping students move beyond what are, in fact, meaningless generalities. If this does not happen, the author argues, young people--like their elders--will abandon support for First Amendment freedoms at the slightest provocation.


A key feature of the NSW health system is its 17 geographically-based area health services (AHSs). Funding to the AHSs by the NSW Department of Health has been guided by the objective of providing the AHSs with a share of resources that allows the achievement of comparable access to health services, assuming the achievement of reasonable levels of efficiency.


The prime mission of European Renal Best Practice (ERBP) is to improve the outcome of patients with kidney disease in a sustainable way through enhancing the availability of the knowledge on the management of these patients in a format that stimulates its use in clinical practice in Europe. A key activity is to produce clinical practice guidelines to help clinicians make the healthcare decisions they face. To further improve the quality and validity of its clinical practice guidelines, ERBP has revised its guideline development process. The present document outlines the principles of ERBP's 10-step approach. Important features include standard procedures for selecting topics, for assembling the guideline development group, for choosing and formulating questions, for finding, appraising and summarizing the evidence, for generating recommendations, for preparing reports and organizing peer review. ERBP has adopted the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system for rating the quality of the evidence and strength of recommendations and has addressed implementation in the development process by integrating the GuideLine Implementability Appraisal tool. Ultimately, it is anticipated that these changes will not only further improve the quality of the guideline development process, but also enhance the quality of care and improve outcomes of patients with kidney disease across Europe.


100 patients suffering from breast cancer and 112 healthy female blood donors from Bremen have been investigated for associations between HLA antigens and this disease. Altogether 58 different antigens of the HLA-A-, B- and -C-loci were typed. Some associations were found regarding Bw22 and Bw55, which, however, are statistically not significant.


In the information age, the problem about network security has been more and more serious. For the management of network traffic, the relevant network management agencies want to classify and identify various network traffic in order to supervise. However, more and more network traffic exist in the form of encryption, so that some malicious people damage it in virtue of the encrypted nature of the traffic. On the other hand, on account of the large capacity of the network traffic itself, traditional method for the data analysis can't satisfy it. Therefore, it is necessary to import the platform of the big data. In this paper, we known about the differences of encrypted traffic and unencrypted traffic through the deep studying of the encrypted traffic at first. Secondly, we classify and analyze current technology about the recognition of encrypted traffic, and deduce the algorithm based on the information entropy recognition technology. Finally, we conduct the experiment about the encrypted traffic recognition technology in the big data platform, provides feasibility verification for network traffic research on big data platform, and make a prospect for the next step through the analysis of experimental result.


To explore alternative applications of gallium(III) oxide and co-precipitated Ga(III)/M(II) oxides (MMg, Ca, and Sr), we investigate the relative dehydrogenation/dehydration activity of nanostructured gallia for alcohols via electronic structure calculations, reactivity tests and DRIFT-IR spectroscopy. Computing the relative reaction barriers with all electron DFT and split-valence basis sets for a panel of 11 alcohols suggested dehydrogenation to be the most active process catalysed by gallia for both primary and secondary alcohols despite its fundamentally acidic behaviour, which was previously suggested to foster dehydration. A key contribution in defining the most active channel is also provided by the interaction between the alcohol carbon skeleton and gallia surface. The only deviation from the relative reactivity just discussed is found for 1-phenyl ethanol, an outcome easily rationalized by the conjugated nature of the nearly-carbocationic TS leading to styrene. Catalytic tests on methanol, ethanol, and 1- and 2-propanol at 400 °C supported the proposed relative selectivity; besides, the recorded alcohol total conversions and product yields agree well with what was proposed by the DFT reaction profiles, thus demonstrating the predictive capability of the chosen electronic structure approach. Finally, temperature programmed DRIFT spectroscopy on the aliphatic C3 alcohols was able to characterize the adsorbed reactants, intermediates, and products, fully supporting the picture described by the theoretical modelling and the reactivity tests. In conclusion, the lower acidity of Ga(III), due to its semi-metallic nature and its larger ionic radius, compared to that of Al(III), leads to opposite selectivity in the competition between alcohol dehydrogenation and dehydration at 400 °C, with the oxide of the latter ion being known to preferentially produce olefins.


Implementation, fault analysis, and maintenance of robot welding automation solutions are traditionally restricted to professional software developers only. Program code is written in a general purpose programming language and, hence, unmanageable by other stakeholders with limited or no programming skills. To tackle this problem we have implemented a domain-specific language (DSL) specifically designed to the domain of robot welding automation and to be intuitively manageable by all stakeholders. The created DSL supports a textual and visual notation and is embedded within a full featured tool chain which let our customer fully replace the creation and maintenance of welding automation solutions by our DSL-based development approach.


The notion of "partnership" has been a powerful one in regard to notions of school improvement and educational reform in recent years. The traditional construct that the achievement of children's potential is primarily the concern of schools has given way to a readiness by other social institutions such as universities to accept some responsibility and to participate in the school education system. As institutions that form part of the educational fabric of our communities, it is logical that universities and schools would establish partnership relationships for a number of purposes. One such purpose, given that a basic role of universities in research, is clearly in the area of developing the knowledge base about all aspects of schooling and, in particular, about learning and teaching.


This work deals with modelling surface subsidence that aims to help industrialize underground coal gasification (UCG). UCG is a long-known, but poorly industrialized, method of energy extraction from coal. Risks of surface subsidence and groundwater pollution are two main hurdles that are affecting the potential industrialization of UCG. The particular challenge is the existence of groundwater because of implications to both its pollution and its influence on surface subsidence. Additionally, the coal combustion and the complex geometry of the UCG reactors impacts surface subsidence. To meet these challenges, the thermal and fluid analyses should be included in the model, and surface subsidence should be modelled in three dimensions to capture the collapsed shape of the UCG reactor. Based on the nature of these challenges and an earlier successful implementation, Itasca's commercial FLAC3D software with intrinsic thermal and fluid models was chosen to model surface subsidence. This study determines that the inclusion of fluid analysis improves the predictions of surface subsidence when compared with measurements at the highly watered Shatsk UCG site. In turn, thermal analysis mildly influences the modelled surface subsidence. The fluid analysis shows that the flow in the upper aquifer influences surface subsidence to a greater extent than the flow in the lower aquifers. High temperatures cause an upward flow in the lower aquifer located above the UCG reactor but does not change the flow pattern in the upper aquifer. The fluid analysis also reveals that if the UCG reactor is filled with water, surface subsidence does not occur.


Abstract. Forest assessment and measurement can be costly, laborious and time-consuming when done manually. Remote Sensing aids by providing data of sufficient accuracy for large tracts of forest lands in the form of maps. These data can then assist in decision- making for better forest management. This study estimated canopy cover, a primary forest measurement parameter, using remotely- sensed data. Satellite images such as Planetscope and WorldView were used to estimate canopy cover. The results were then compared to measurements obtained from a manual inventory – in this case, of an Acacia mangium plantation. The manual inventory was conducted in a National Greening Program (NGP) site in Basay, Negros Oriental. Field inventory involved a Static Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) survey and a Total Station survey to get the accurate location of trees present in the plot. Diameter- at- breast was measured for all trees. Tree height and crown diameter were measured for at least 10 percent of all trees in the plot.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the relations between physical fitness and body composition with general health in overweight and obese high school girls. Materials and Methods: 104 overweight and obese high school girls in Varamin city were randomly selected from available participants. (BMI) was calculated. Subjects with 85 to 95 Percentile (BMI) for age and sex (CDC) were considered as overweight and more than 95 were considered obese. To assess physical fitness status, muscle endurance (Sit- up), flexibility (sit and reach), cardiorespiratory endurance (running 548m.), agility (4 by 9 m.), pectoral girdle muscle endurance (modified pull up) and sprint (45m) were evaluated. The Slauter and colleague formula was used to predict body composition. WHR was also calculated. Results: The General Health Questionnaire was used to assess general health. The analysis of data showed among the components of body composition only between body lean mass and body fat mass and body mass index with general health and body mass index was significantly associated with symptoms of social functioning(P=0.045). The relationship between physical fitness with general health and its sub scales was not significant (p=0.292) which can be caused by sampling error. Kolmogorov Smirnov test, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used (α≤ 0.05) Moreover, the relation between flexibility, cardio-respiratory endurance with some of general health and its sub scales was significant (P=0.038). Conclusion: whereas there was negative relation between physical fitness level with general health index and decrease of its marks, is sign of lack of physical and mental health and being significant relationship between flexibility, cardiorespiratory endurance variables with some of general health index, are possible that physical fitness factors involved in health of people. Therefore, with consideration the findings of this research we can expect that doing physical activities are necessity for overweight and obese teenagers.


At present, the technique of network fault diagnosis has been a very hot research domain. The scholars from both domestic and abroad have put forward many diagnosis approaches, but many of which have some disadvantages in dealing with uncertain problems. This paper proposes a rough set-support vector machine algorithm after studying the rough set and the support vector machine theories. In order to reduce the dimensions of the classification space, the algorithm first diminishes the attributes of the faults by means of the rough set theory (RST), thus improves the effect of the classification of the support vector machine (SVM).


Many Information Systems and Technology (IS/IT) practitioners, including the managers, find themselves struggling and challenged with problems, such as integration, consolidation, configuration, development, technology planning and management of software, hardware and processes. Due to these widely shared problems, which have remained over the last decade across the globe, private companies and government bodies as well as academic institutions have come to recognise the need for EA as a possible approach to addressing the above mentioned challenges. This book examined the domains, from business to technical, within the contexts of practice and theory. It provides empirical insights on the concept of EA, from development to implementation, as well as institutionalisation. This includes the 'disconnects' that exist in technology deployment, information flow, business and information technology alignment. With thus, a better understanding on why things happen in the way that they do in the computing environments of various organisations is gained. The book is designed to serve IS/IT specialists and managers, undergraduate and postgraduate students.


I attempt to empirically establish the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Namibia using the cointegration framework. The main objectives of the article are to econometrically determine the nexus between financial development and economic growth using multivariate Granger causality tests, impulse response functions and variance decomposition, as well as propose some policy alternatives for the policy makers. The article contributes to macroeconomic literature on the financial development-economic growth relationship given the fact that it is one of the few researches on the same topic ever done on Namibia. The article finds that there is a unidirectional relationship between financial development and economic growth in Namibia running from economic growth to financial development. The findings imply that Namibia realises financial sector development when the economy grows and not the other way round. The fact that the financial services sector is not significantly influencing economic growth in Namibia is a real cause for concern which implies that either the banking sector is too small to have any significant impact on the economy or it is uncompetitive and therefore inefficient. The article recommends that one way of reforming the financial sector in Namibia is to subject it to some form of competition through the licensing of new banks, of course, taking into account the size of the Namibian market. _____________________________________________________________________________


Continuation of application No. PCT/US2006/ 045715, filed on Nov.30, 2006, Continuation-in-part of application No. 1 1/440,152, filed on May 25, 2006, Continuation-in-part of application No. 1 1/440,156, filed on May 25, 2006, Continuation-in-part of appli cation No. 1 1/440,148, filed on May 25, 2006, Con tinuation-in-part of application No. 1 1/440,155, filed on May 25, 2006, Continuation-in-part of application No. 1 1/440,091, filed on May 25, 2006, which is a continuation of application No. 09/973,433, filed on Oct. 9, 2001, now Pat. No. 7,063,942.


Children who are in the early elementary classroom are children who are at an early age range. Early childhood period is a short time but it is a very important period in one's life. Therefore, at this time the full potential of the child should be encouraged so that it will develop optimally. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an approach to learning that is more appropriate to the child's level of cognitive development, One approach that can be used in lowgrade teaching in particular is an integrated thematic approach. One of the advantages of thematic learning is holistic in nature. Holistic nature is in accordance with the level of cognitive development of children, and also relefan with science learning pattern that requires integrity and coherence (holistic). So the design of learning science with a thematic approach dinyakini will provide an effective influence on the process of learning is done.


Integrating foil sensors into fibre-reinforced plastics offers the advantage of making manufacturing measurable with spatial resolution and thus simplifies quality control. One challenge here is the possible negative influence of the integrated sensors on the mechanical behaviour of the structure. This article shows how the different parts of a film sensor influence important mechanical strength parameters of fibre composites. A comparison of two thermoplastic carrier films shows that by choosing polyetherimide (PEI) instead of polyimide (PI), a considerably more advantageous failure behaviour of the composite is achieved. While integrated PI films reduce the interlaminar shear strength by 68%, no impairment is noticeable due to PEI films. For the critical energy release rate, PEI-based film sensors even lead to a significant increase, while a significant deterioration of 85% can be observed for PI-based sensors. However, not only the film substrate plays a decisive role for the interlaminar shear strength, but also the sensor structures themselves. In this article, sensor structures made of gold were investigated. The decisive parameter for the impairment seems to be the area share of gold structures in the sensor. For a sensor pattern made of gold lines with an area filling of 50%, a reduction of the interlaminar shear strength of up to 25% was observed depending on the angle between the shear stress and the gold lines. No impairment was observed for sensor structures with less gold area. The results show that PEI substrates can be a superior alternative for sensor integration into fibre composites and suggest that there is a trade-off between sensitivity and degradation of mechanical properties when designing interdigital sensors.


BACKGROUND
The validation of computer-aided methods in the production of stored blood and blood components represents for a pharmaceutical institution a basic condition for the carrying out of the decrees of pharmaceutical companies. When validating computer-aided methods in medicine or pharmacy, the fields of informatics and technology have to be linked to applications in medicine and pharmacy.

METHOD
In many cases the methods for the documented proof that a system achieves the expected capacity are too complex, so that a validation is only practicable in module groups. This is shown with an example of the blood typing on microtiter plates.

RESULTS
After the selection of the hard- and software according to the safety criteria of information technology taking into consideration functional classes and degrees of quality, a complete documentation of the validation of blood typing on the microtiter plate was carried out.


Existing literature usually considers earnings manipulation to be a negative social phenomenon. We argue that earnings manipulation can be a part of the equilibrium relationships between firm's insiders and outsiders. We consider an optimal contract between an entrepreneur and an investor where the entrepreneur is subject to a double moral hazard problem (one being the choice of production effort and the other being intertemporal substitution, which consists of transferring cash flows between periods). Investment and production effort may be below socially optimal levels because the entrepreneur cannot entirely capture the results of his effort. The opportunity to manipulate earnings protects the entrepreneur against the risk of a low payoff when the results of production are low. Ex-ante, this provides an incentive for the entrepreneur to increase his level of effort and invest efficiently.


PURPOSE
Brucella canis is pathogenic for dogs and humans. Serological diagnosis is a cost-effective approach for disease surveillance, but a major drawback of current serological tests is the cross-reactivity with other bacteria that results in false positive reactions. Development of indirect tests with improved sensitivity and specificity that use selected B. canis proteins instead of the whole antigen remain a priority.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
A western blotting assay was developed to define the serum antibody patterns associated to infection using a panel of positive and negative dog sera. B. canis positive sera recognized immunogenic bands ranging from 7 to 30 kDa that were then submitted to ESI-LC-MS/MS and analyzed by bioinformatics tools.

RESULTS
A total of 398 B. canis proteins were identified. Bioinformatics tools identified 16 non cytoplasmic immunogenic proteins predicted as non-homologous with the most important Brucella cross-reactive bacteria and nine B. canis proteins non-homologous to B. ovis; among the latter, one resulted non-homologous to B. melitensis. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD042682.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The western blotting test developed was able to distinguish between infected and non-infected animals and may serve as a confirmatory test for the serological diagnosis of B. canis. The mass spectrometry and in silico results lead to the identification of specific candidate antigens that pave the way for the development of more accurate indirect diagnostic tests.


Allium such as leek (A. ampeloprasum L.) and scallion (A. chinense L.) powders blended with wheat flour improved the breadmaking properties of bread height (mm) and specific volume (cm3/g). Brabender farino-graphs of the Allium (leek and scallion) powder/wheat flour showed remarkable changes in the profile such as width of the tail. Size-exclusion high performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC) of the wheat proteins in the Allium (leek and scallion) blended or not blended wheat flour showed a profile of low, medium and high molecular weight peaks. The area of the high molecular weight peak of the wheat proteins was larger in the Allium blended flours than in control (wheat flour) indicating that these protein fractions were related to the improvement in breadmaking properties.


ABSTRACT Online teacher education is an important alternative in response to the problem of teacher shortage. The format of interaction is critical in leveraging social and intellectual connection between learners. Yet, few studies have examined this issue in online teacher preparation. In this study, we examined two commonly used interactional formats that are synchronous and asynchronous interaction. We separated 145 pre-service science teachers into four groups experiencing face-to-face interaction (G1), synchronous interaction through online meetings (G2), asynchronous interaction through online forum (G3), and individual work without interaction (G4). The four groups received the same curriculum and the impact of instructors on peer interaction was controlled. We compared pre-service teachers' social and cognitive presences and their science teaching using the 5E model between the four groups. The results show that the two groups with synchronous interaction (G1 and G2) outperformed the one with asynchronous interaction (G3) and no interaction (G4) in social presence, cognitive presence, and science teaching. Pearson correlation data suggest that the participants' social presence correlated largely with cognitive presence and their teaching practice to some extent. However, cognitive presence correlated poorly with the teaching practice. The findings provide empirical evidence supporting the importance of interaction in online instruction. Synchronicity was positively related to the pre-service teachers' connection to peers in the learning community, which entailed better interaction with content but might not necessarily promote their cognitive learning outcome. Implications for online teacher preparation were also discussed.


The yellowstriped butterfish, Labracoglossa argentiventris, inhabit shallow waters over rocky bottoms along the Pacific coast from Kyusyu Island to the Boso Peninsula. This stock is important to coastal commercial fisheries in the northern part of the Izu Islands, which use bulk net, gill net, seine and set net to catch this resource. Assessment and management of the stock are necessary for its effective utilization. This thesis focuses on the population dynamics and stock assessment of yellowstriped butterfish, such as age and growth, standardization of catch per unit effort (CPUE), and abundance estimation, to provide information for fisheries resource management. In Chapter 2, a method to determine the age of yellowstriped butterfish using from the otolith was studied. The edge of the opaque zones as a ring mark on sectioned sagittal otoliths was used. Monthly changes in the marginal growth rate and proportion of appearance of ring marks on the edge of the otolith were examined. Formation of the first ring was observed during spring or summer, corresponding to one and a half years after hatching. Thereafter, one ring was formed each year in the same season as the previous year. In Chapter 3, age, growth and maturity were examined using samples collected in the waters around the northern part of the Izu Islands from 1994 to 2003. Age distribution was estimated from the otoliths and scales. Age distribution determined from the scales resulted in an underestimation compared to the values from the otolith analysis. The comparison of multiple age determination indicated that within reader bias of otolith was smaller than that of scale. Growth was investigated by fitting the von Bertalanffy growth model to the age-length data and the allometric growth model to the length-weight data using maximum likelihood methods. Because the number of small sized fish was insufficient, all parameters could not be estimated by areas (Izu Oshima Island, Toshima Island ~ Shikinejima Island, Kouzushima Island). The selected von Bertalanffy growth model, based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), was the differential asymptotic length and variance by area and sex, and growth coefficient by sex. The growth of yellowstriped butterfish was fast until 2 years of age. The estimated asymptotic length of females was larger than that of males. The estimated asymptotic length in the southern part of the study area was larger than that in the northern part of the study area. The effect of the difference of ageing character, otolith or scale, on the growth curve was investigated. Age before 1 year old fish was determined using the large differences in fork length between the older fish, so ageing character was not used. Because 亘  真吾 168 タカベの資源学的研究 169 the growth speed of large sized fish was slow, age-length relationship was almost same after 4 years of age. For these reasons, difference between the two growth curves was much smaller. The selected allometric growth model, based on the AIC, was multiplicative error structure of differential sex in parameters. The monthly change of the value of Gonadosomatic Index was high from September to December, spawning season, and the peak was October. The maturity rate of 1 year old was 15% and that of after 2 years old was 100%. In Chapter 4, standardization of CPUE was carried out to improve the reliability of the abundance index. To estimate a year effect, any other factors that may influence CPUE were removed from index by using the generalized linear model. Landing in weight by each operation of gill net of Izu Oshima Island, seine from Toshima Island to Shikinejima Island, and bulk net of Kouzushima Island were obtained from 1991 to 2003 by landing slips. Data of sea surface temperature and current pattern of Kuroshio were also obtained for the same period. Because there was little information about movement in the study area, two hypotheses were considered about the movement after recruitment, the case to move from one island to other islands, and the case that there is no movement among islands. Year, month, area, fishing methods, sea surface temperature, and current pattern of Kuroshio were incorporated as main effects and two-way interactions. For each area, the best model was statistically selected by the AIC from all candidate models. The year effect of standardized CPUE was calculated by least squared mean. The trend of relative abundance of yellowstriped butterfish has remained at the same level after 1991. In Chapter 5, stock size of yellowstriped butterfish was estimated by the tuning virtual population analysis based on two hypotheses about the movement among islands using the catch at age and CPUE data. The previous study of rearing experiment showed that probability of agreement of true age by using data from otoliths was higher than that from scales. In addition, previous chapter also indicated that within reader bias for otoliths was lower than that for scales. For these reasons, the otolith ageing was considered to be true for catch at age estimation, and the bias in scale ageing was corrected for the basis for otoliths. The standardized CPUE was used as an abundance index for the tuning. Parameters were estimated by the least squares method and standard error was also estimated by the bootstrap method using resampling data of CPUE and catch at age. The yearly change of stock size of yellowstriped butterfish in the northern part of the Izu Islands after 1998 ranged from 600 to 700 metric tons. The catch rate of this stock ranged from 20 to 30%. The estimated standard error of the stock size became larger in recent years. Coefficient of variation of stock size in 2003 was 0.2. The selectivity of older fish was higher than that of younger fish. This result suggests that the target of this fishery is large sized fish which are high priced, and fishing intensity of small sized fish is low. The estimated stock size, fishing mortality, and selectivity, using two hypotheses of the movement shows the same trends. A similar conclusion of the stock management plan was possible. The percent spawning per recruitment was about 50% in 2003 in each area. The results showed that if the fishing effort is increased from the present level, the amount of catch of large sized fish would decrease, although the total amount of catch would increase slightly. The present level of fishing mortality is close to F0.1. Yield per recruit and spawning per recruitment analysis also suggested that the current level of exploitation is not overfishing. For the sustainable use of yellowstriped butterfish stock, both the current level of fishing effort and low fishing intensity on younger fish should be maintained.


The paper focuses on the theoretical innovation of learning-oriented assessment (LOA) concept and investigates its rationale in practice via an empirical study. Firstly, the developed LOA is theoretically interpreted as an aid to facilitate current learning process, and autonomy for future learning and assessment. Secondly, the paper explores the effectiveness of implementing the innovative LOA in the empirical study where three research questions are raised. The data shows its success as a learning tool in practice. Lastly, some conclusions are drawn including a summary of theoretical explanations of LOA and answers to the research questions in the empirical study.


Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in health service utilization patterns and a rapid rise in care being delivered remotely. However, there has been little published research examining patients' experiences of accessing remote consultations since COVID-19. Such research is important as remote methods for delivering some care may be maintained in the future. Objective The aim of this study was to use content from Twitter to understand discourse around health and care delivery in the United Kingdom as a result of COVID-19, focusing on Twitter users' views on and attitudes toward care being delivered remotely. Methods Tweets posted from the United Kingdom between January 2018 and October 2020 were extracted using the Twitter application programming interface. A total of 1408 tweets across three search terms were extracted into Excel; 161 tweets were removed following deduplication and 610 were identified as irrelevant to the research question. The remaining relevant tweets (N=637) were coded into categories using NVivo software, and assigned a positive, neutral, or negative sentiment. To examine views of remote care over time, the coded data were imported back into Excel so that each tweet was associated with both a theme and sentiment. Results The volume of tweets on remote care delivery increased markedly following the COVID-19 outbreak. Five main themes were identified in the tweets: access to remote care (n=267), quality of remote care (n=130), anticipation of remote care (n=39), online booking and asynchronous communication (n=85), and publicizing changes to services or care delivery (n=160). Mixed public attitudes and experiences to the changes in service delivery were found. The proportion of positive tweets regarding access to, and quality of, remote care was higher in the immediate period following the COVID-19 outbreak (March-May 2020) when compared to the time before COVID-19 onset and the time when restrictions from the first lockdown eased (June-October 2020). Conclusions Using Twitter data to address our research questions proved beneficial for providing rapid access to Twitter users' attitudes to remote care delivery at a time when it would have been difficult to conduct primary research due to COVID-19. This approach allowed us to examine the discourse on remote care over a relatively long period and to explore shifting attitudes of Twitter users at a time of rapid changes in care delivery. The mixed attitudes toward remote care highlight the importance for patients to have a choice over the type of consultation that best suits their needs, and to ensure that the increased use of technology for delivering care does not become a barrier for some. The finding that overall sentiment about remote care was more positive in the early stages of the pandemic but has since declined emphasizes the need for a continued examination of people's preference, particularly if remote appointments are likely to remain central to health care delivery.


BACKGROUND :Cathater-directed therapy(CDT)has been considered as an alternative to systemic thrombolysis(ST) in acute pulmonary embolism(PE) in the presence of contraindications for ST.We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CDT compared to SIT in acute PE management with right ventricular dysfunction(RVD). MATERIAL-METHODS: Acute PE patients with RVD diagnosed between 2007-2013 treated by CDT were included.Afterwards PE patients treated by CDT were matched by age,sex,mean pulmonary artery pressure,and shock index at admission with a PE patient whom recieved ST.The primary,secondary and tertiary outcomes were mortality,complications and the change in haemodynamic parameters in thefirst 24 hours. RESULTS: Thirty-two acute PE patients(58.5±15.3 years old)were included.Seventeen(53%)and fifteen(47%)of the study group were diagnosed as massive and submassive PE, respectively. CDT was performed in six(40%)patients with massive PE and nine(60%)with submassive PE. All-cause mortality,major and minor bleeding complications did not differ among CDT and ST groups(p>0,05). Haemodynamic parameters were stabilized in 93% of CDT group and76.5% of the ST group in thefirst 24 hours(p>0,05).24 th hour systolic blood pressure(116±13mmHg vs.110±23 mmHg,p=0.078)and diastolic blood pressure(72±4mmHg vs.67±9 mmHg,p=0.017)were found to be higher while heart rate(88±16mmHg vs.90±10 mmHg,p=0.068)were found to be lower in the CDT group. CONCLUSION: CDT is a safe and effective treatment option for acute PE with RVD.It should be considered as a first-line treatment for patients having contraindications for ST with acute PE and RVD in experienced centers.


Semantic principles are more important than syntactic ones for low proficient second language learners: Evidence from sentence processing Josje Verhagen Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics & Free University Amsterdam Abstract: Beginning second language (L2) learners of Germanic languages often place verbs behind negation and certain adverbs, thereby violating the target-like word order (Vainikka & Young-Scholten, 1996). Syntactic accounts of L2 acquisition explain this by assuming that full syntactic structures cannot be projected in early L2 grammars. Semantic accounts explain the pattern by a principle of scope marking: verbs follow scope-bearing elements, such as negation and adverbs, since they fall in their semantic scope domain. Two auditory sentence processing experiments are presented to distinguish between these accounts. Subjects are beginning Moroccan and Turkish learners of Dutch. In experiment 1, items contain lexical verbs or auxiliary verbs that precede or follow negation. In experiment 2, negation is replaced by temporal adverbs. The results show that processing preferences are dependent on differences in scope properties between negation and (different types of) adverbs, suggesting that semantic rather than syntactic principles guide early L2 processing. Vainikka, A., & Young Scholten, M. (1996). Gradual development of L2 phrase structure. Second Language Research, 12, 1, 7-39.


We combine infrared and Raman spectroscopies to investigate finite length scale effects in CuGeO3 nanorods. The infrared-active phonons display remarkably strong size dependence whereas the Raman-active features are, by comparison, nearly rigid. A splitting analysis of the Davydov pairs reveals complex changes in chemical bonding with rod length and temperature. Near the spin-Peierls transition, stronger intralayer bonding in the smallest rods indicates a more rigid lattice which helps to suppress the spin-Peierls transition. Taken together, these findings advance the understanding of size effects and collective phase transitions in low-dimensional oxides.


This paper describes BIMCV COVID-19+, a large dataset from the Valencian Region Medical ImageBank (BIMCV) containing chest X-ray images CXR (CR, DX) and computed tomography (CT) imaging of COVID-19+ patients along with their radiological findings and locations, pathologies, radiological reports (in Spanish), DICOM metadata, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and Immunoglobulin M (IgM) diagnostic antibody tests. The findings have been mapped onto standard Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) terminology and cover a wide spectrum of thoracic entities, unlike the considerably more reduced number of entities annotated in previous datasets. Images are stored in high resolution and entities are localized with anatomical labels and stored in a Medical Imaging Data Structure (MIDS) format. In addition, 10 images were annotated by a team of radiologists to include semantic segmentation of radiological findings. This first iteration of the database includes 1,380 CX, 885 DX and 163 CT studies from 1,311 COVID-19+ patients. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest COVID-19+ dataset of images available in an open format. The dataset can be downloaded from this http URL.


The precise, human control of quantum systems, by its definition, must combine models of the classical and the quantum world into a calculus that supports both. Open, irreversible quantum systems must interact with closed, reversible quantum systems to predict evolutions that are partially open and closed. Inevitably, the problems of quantum measurement, the assumptions of scattering, and the role of spacetime comes under scrutiny. Such considerations have extraordinary practical value: the precise control of a quantum information is the cornerstone of scalable quantum computing. Traditionally, quantum control theory as well as a formalism of redundancy and partial measurements, known as quantum error correction, attempt to remedy systematic quantum- noise and random quantum-noise respectively, but have had mixed success. This dissertation examines how the imprecision of control in quantum and classical spin systems affects the flow of select information to a receiver and how such systems may be optimized against the imprecise scattering of control fields and spins. To this end, this dissertation intertwines the physics of state evolution with the physics of information control in classical and quantum systems. First in classical systems, a method for encoding and decoding classical spin- processing information provides an example of information flow. Then an analytic calculation of a semi-conductor spin channel's information capacity is performed. The results limit the rate of information processing and inform the design of materials for optimal spintronic information-processing in semiconductors. Next, noisy quantum interactions are described, so that the complexities of correcting small, random phase errors using traditional control theory and quantum error correction may be explained. How these noisy processes affect the relevant information flow of a quantum algorithm (derivatives of the Quantum Fourier Transform and Grover Search) is considered, several novel methods of source-coding for these quantum channels are presented and their efficacy calculated. These methods include Unitary- Fault Tolerance, Clifford operations of locally-variant basis, and an entropic controller. Together they show classical systems in the steady state can be used to control scalable, high-precision quantum-computing machines, and ultimately may eliminate all temporal control from quantum operations.