Computer games and virtual worlds offer unique possibilities for learning and personal development. Physical world play on the other hand offers its own unique opportunities. To combine these opportunities, we have developed the Augmented Home, a game which combines the qualities of both worlds and integrates them into one. This game is designed for children and their parents who can through the system benefit from advantages of both worlds. The Augmented Home draws the virtual world into the physical by binding it to the physical environment. Interaction with the virtual world is made possible through a device that functions as a channel between the two worlds. It channels output of the virtual world to our senses and vice versa channels our actions to the virtual world. The system allows children and parents to experience the virtual world together while they are engaged in activities that benefit the child's educational, social and creative development.


A technique to monitor snowpack development using miniature temperature‐loggers mounted in a vertical array is evaluated from nearly 100 site‐years of measurements in northwestern Canada. The method shows good agreement between interpreted values and actual snow depths checked during site visits. Inferred snowpack build‐up and ablation follow the patterns recorded at nearby climatological stations while absolute amounts and the duration of snow cover vary with elevation and vegetation type. Interpretation of snowpack evolution was possible at 93 per cent of the monitoring sites, a success rate that is judged to be acceptable given the low costs of the technique and the difficulty of obtaining the same information through other methods. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objectives
Malaysia is currently experiencing the nutrition transition, with an increased consumption of refined carbohydrates and fats paralleling an increase in prevalence of obesity and chronic disease. These dietary changes have occurred despite 90% of urban women reporting awareness of the health risks posed by obesity. This study sought to characterize how working women, an understudied population at risk for diet-related chronic disease, navigate food decisions. As Malaysia is a multiethnic nation, we aimed to explore the sociocultural determinants of eating behavior in this unique population.

Methods
A purposive design in combination with a convenience sampling approach was used to recruit 24 women ages 26 to 55 of Malay, Indian, and Chinese descent across 15 university departments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Audio recordings of the individual semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed using grounded theory.

Results
Women identified two important life transitions, getting married and having children, as particularly influential in changing eating behavior. Women reported a desire to eat healthier that was in tension with pressures to cater to the taste preferences of their household members and to accommodate their work schedules. Persistent social norms of eating in group settings and difficulty in accessing foods perceived as nutritious were reported as barriers to changing individual eating behavior. Regardless of education level and marital status, women agreed that the act of eating was closely connected with cultural values and embodied important meanings that took precedence over eating as a health-promoting behavior. While all participants expressed a desire to eat healthier, many reported limited confidence in their ability to consistently give up familiar and tasty foods for healthier alternatives. Shifts in eating behavior such as trying new healthy recipes and adopting a more restrictive diet were reported as most feasible and personally applicable after learning about a family member's declining health.

Conclusions
In this urban, multiethnic population, increasing the accessibility of nutritious foods and changing cultural perceptions of the relationship between food and nutrition may be important for enabling healthy eating behaviors.

Funding Sources
Yale Sustainable Food Program, Yale School of Public Health.


Abstract. Evidence of an underlying trend in the dependence of erythema effective ultraviolet
(UV) radiant exposure (Her) on changes in the total ozone, cloud cover and
aerosol optical depth (AOD) has been studied using solar ultraviolet
radiation measurements collected over a 25-year period (1991–2015) at Chilton
in the south of England in the UK. The monthly mean datasets of these measures corrected for underlying
seasonal variation were analysed. When a single linear trend was fitted over
the whole study period between 1991 and 2015, the analyses revealed that the
long-term variability of Her can be best characterised in two
sub-periods (1991–2004 and 2004–2015), where the estimated linear trend was
upward in the first period (1991–2004) but downward in the second period
(2004–2015). Both cloud cover (CC) and total ozone (TO) were found to have a highly
statistically significant influence on Her, but the influence of the
AOD measure was very small. The radiation amplification factor (RAF) for the
erythema action spectrum due to TO was −1.03 at constant levels of CC over
the whole study period; that is, for a 1.0 % increase in TO, Her
decreases by 1.03 %. Over the first period (1991–2004), the RAF related to
CC was slightly higher at 0.97 compared to that for TO at 0.79. The
proportion of the change in Her explained by the change in CC (47 %)
was much greater than the proportion explained by changes in TO (8 %). For
the second period (2004–2015), the pattern reversed, with the observed RAF
related to TO being −1.25, almost double that of CC (−0.65). Furthermore, in
this period the proportion of variation in Her explained by TO
variation was 33 %, double that of CC at 16 %, while AOD changes had a
negligible effect (1 %). When the data were examined separately for each season, for the first period
(1991–2004) the greatest effect of TO and CC on Her (i.e. the largest
RAF value) was found during spring. Spring was also the season during which TO and
CC variation explained the greatest proportion of variability in Her
(82 %). In the later period (2004–2015), the RAF and greatest
influence of TO and CC were observed in winter (67 %) and the AOD effect
explained a further 5 % variability in Her. This study provides evidence that both the increasing trend in Her for
1991–2004 and the decreasing trend in Her for 2004–2015 occur in
response to variation in TO, which exhibits a small increasing tendency over
these periods. CC plays a more important role in the increasing trend in
Her for 1991–2004 than TO, whereas for 2004–2015, the decreasing trend
in Her is less associated with changes in CC and AOD.


Balloon expandable stents can be used to treat coronary stenosis. During stent implantation, X-ray imaging is used. In order to assist the doctors, it was decided to improve the cardiovascular stents' X-ray absorption ability by placing a unique marker in the stent strut. Tantalum powder, with 98% purity and 3-10 μm grains diameter, was used as the stent integrated marker. The stents were laser cut from a 1.81 mm external diameter stainless steel tube. The integrated marker was made by laser ablation, micro-welding and cutting. The X-ray absorption ability of the stent struts with and without markers was compared and a new analyzing method was created by which the volume of the stent integrated marker can be determined. The stent integrated tantalum powder increased the stent's local X-ray visibility by 0.73%. A new index-number was introduced using which the stent's X- ray absorption ability can be estimated at the stent's planning stage.


Abstract Objective Increasing parental awareness of childhood obesity is an important part of tackling the issue. However, parents' negative reactions to being informed that their children are overweight or obese can hinder their engagement with relevant services. The present study aimed to develop a deeper understanding of why parents react negatively, to help commissioners and service providers design services that are more acceptable to them. Design Open, qualitative responses to a survey were collected using a postal questionnaire. Responses were analysed using content analysis. Setting One local authority in south-west England. Subjects The sample frame included all parents receiving letters informing them that their child was overweight (91st–98th centile) or very overweight (98th–100th centile) through the UK National Child Measurement Programme in 2012. Results Forty-five of 313 eligible parents (14 %) responded to the survey, of whom forty-three rejected either to the judgement that their child was overweight and/or being provided with this feedback. Primary reasons for objection included: lack of trust in the measures used, lack of belief that being overweight is important for children's health (relative to a healthy lifestyle), and fear that discussing weight with children will trigger eating disorders. In addition, parents' responses suggested that they considered receiving this feedback to be a criticism of their parenting skills. Conclusions Overall, three areas for improving communication with parents were suggested: tailoring letters; providing information about the importance of weight independently of lifestyle; and addressing parents' concerns about the risks of talking to children about their weight.


The expansion of liner shipping paralleled developments in retailing and containerization introduced scale economics. The liner industry has moved into an era of prosperity, and container ships have been affecting demand for other ship types. Demand growth is generally taken for granted, but several factors have been putting pressure on smaller carriers, including upsizing and route network developments. Trends appear to favour independent operation over vessel sharing and increasing profitability suggests that carriers will seek to own more of their own assets. Competition from logistics providers will increasingly dictate how the industry develops.


A case of primary meningococcal arthritis in the left hip of a nineteen year-old female is described. The diagnosis was based on microscopical detection of Gram-negative diplococci and a positive meningococcal antibody-test. Treatment with benzylpenicilline and drainage was instituted. Although she was soon asymptomatic, the X-ray examination showed a slight destruction of the hip joint. One and a half years later the X-ray findings were normal. Attention is directed to the broad clinical spectrum of meningococcal disease.


In the High Atlas of Marrakech and Argana valley, Early Triassic red beds rest unconformably on Late Permian strata. These consist of (i) braided, (ii) meandering and (iii) anastomosing river deposits with calcic vertisols formed under arid to semi-arid climate, with strong seasonality. Whereas, the Early Triassic red beds are deposited in (i) alluvial fan setting with very weakly developed calcic aridisols under arid climate, (ii) ephemeral saline lake-salt pan-saline mudflat under a hyper-arid climate and (iii) braided to moderately meandering river environments associated to gleysols indicating a high regional water table. The Late Permian and the beginning of the Mesozoic sedimentation in Moroccan High Atlas records climate oscillations, through detailed sedimentary and pedogenic studies of several stratigraphic sections.


Over decades, I/O optimizations implemented in legacy file systems have been concentrated on reducing HDD disk overhead, such as seek time. As SSD (Solid-State Device) is becoming the main storage medium in I/O storage subsystems, file systems integrated with SSD should take a different approach in designing I/O optimizations. This is because SSD deploys the peculiar device characteristics that do not take place in HDD, such as erasure overhead on flash blocks and absence of seek time to positioning data. In this paper, we present HP-hybrid (High Performance-hybrid) file system that provides a single hybrid file system space, by combining HDD and SSD partitions. HP-hybrid targets for optimizing I/O while considering the strength and weakness of two different partitions, to store large-scale amounts of data in a cost-effective way. Especially, HP-hybrid proposes spatial optimizations that are executed in a hierarchical, fine-grained I/O unit, to address the limited SSD storage resources. We conducted several performance experiments to verify the effectiveness of HP-hybrid while comparing to ext2, ext4 and xfs mounted on both SSD and HDD.


This is the first report on occurrence of Biomphalaria straminea in the district of São José de Almeida (municipality of Jaboticatubas) State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The presence of B. glabrata and B. tenagophila had already been reported in this area. Such municipality is part of the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte and comprises 60% of the Tourist Complex of Serra do Cipó. Since the 1950s throughout the 1990s, a schistosomiasis prevalence ranging from 15 to 40% has been observed. Although no B. straminea specimen has been found naturally infected in the region, descendants of these snails collected in the area, showed to be experimentally susceptible to Schistosoma mansoni infection reaching rates from 14.6 to 28.6%. Even not being found naturally infected, in the State of Minas Gerais, the possibility that the species B. straminea may keep endemicity foci of schistosomiasis should be regarded, as in the Northeastern region of Brazil where the high density of this planorbid and the social-economic and sanitary conditions enable to the transmission.


In this work a novel FPGA based hardware is proposed to implement the constrained one-bit transform based block motion estimation algorithm to facilitate real time operation. The designed system occupies a small area in a general purpose FPGA fabric and, that is why it is efficient to implement a whole video coding architecture on a single ASIC chip or an FPGA. The designed system can perform the motion estimation task for a 352 × 288 pixel sized image frame at a speed of 50 frames/second. The designed hardware can further be multiplexed to increase the parallelism for a real time operation for higher image frame sizes, e.g. for HDTV applications.


Remarks in various art-historical studies of recent date prompt the question of how the Vices ('sinnekens') so popular in sixteenth-century drama can be identified in the art of that period. Unlike the 'Iniquity', (the buffoon-like figure who also occurs outside drama), the Vices assume a variety of guises, judging by the texts of the plays. Their appearance can reflect their names, their function in the overall metaphor of the (allegorical!) play in which they figure or the author's satirical intentions, or they may also accentuate the demonic aspect dictated by the play's subject-matter. On the other hand the simple reference to a personage from a play as a 'Vice' is apparently sufficiently clear. Perhaps this is connected with a local tradition of dressing a 'Vice' in a particular costume owned by the dramatic company performing the piece. A Vice's only permanent attribute is a hammer (deriving from Thor's thunderbolt), but it is not sure how traditional this attribute really is. Some light can be shed on all these questions by extant depictions of Vices, three groups of which may be distinguished: (1) illustrations of plays (figs. 3-11), (2) depictions on rebus blazons alluding to the word 'sinnen' (senses) (figs. 12-16) and (3) engravings of the allegorical procession into Haarlem of companies competing in the interlocal contest (1606). Some of the companies had characters from the play to be performed at the competition (including the Vices) march in the procession (figs. 17-19). From these sources it emerges that the Vices (usually two) were either very similar in appearance or as different as chalk and cheese, except for an attribute (a stick or a hammer). Otherwise they differ from the other characters in a play in bizarre items of costume or their vivacious attitudes. With the aid of these data and the information contained in the texts of plays as to the interpretation of the Vices' roles, a number of figures in various prints and paintings can be identified as Vices (figs. 20-24, 26). As for the studies referred to at the beginning of this summary, the conclusion is that Emmens' interpretation of the kitchen-maids in various paintings by Joachim de Beuckelaer as Vices (fig. 1) must be rejected. The boys attired as Iniquity in Maarten van Hccmskerck's series of engravings The tale of Bel and the dragon (figs. 2, 27, 28) are perhaps inspired by the Vices (Gibson), but only to a certain extent. Their function in the illustrated story is not characteristic of the Vices, nor is their costume (Saunders). Apart from a direct or indirect theatrical link, it seems that the Vices do not, or rarely, occur in prints and paintings. This could however be a delusion, for the Vices have scarcely been sought outside this context.


We calculate the variance characterizing the distribution of transition amplitudes for the hydrogen atom in a strong magnetic field, where the transition amplitudes are available experimentally. For two operators, namely Ẑ and P̂-2, we find excellent agreement between the quantum variances and the corresponding semi-classical approximations. We show that the semi-classical analysis is considerably simplified by making use of the scaling property of the system.


Mn-doped AlN nanostructures were grown on ceramic substrate by in situ doping of Mn via a catalyst-free chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using Mn powder, Al powder and NH3 as the starting materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and photoluminescence (PL) were employed to characterize the structure and morphology of the product. It was found that the as-prepared AlN product was wurtzite structure and had a ribbon shape with uniform geometry. The nanobelts were curled and flexible with length up to 10 μm, and the width-to-thickness ratio of these nanobelts was estimated to be 7 with 175 nm wide and 25 nm thick. EDX and XPS demonstrated that Mn was successfully doped into the AlN nanobelts.


Given the ongoing political turbulence worldwide, it is more than necessary for us to reconsider the question of democracy. This question has been posed by French philosopher Claude Lefort for many years, but it has assumed a renewed urgency. Although in Iraq the first danger of democracy, totalitarian dictatorship, was tackled, the liberators clearly had not thought about the other risk when dealing with democracy: the complete implosion of society into a pure formless collection of atomic individuals. Since democracy is a particular political regime, Lefort says, it comes down to understand the formal differences between totalitarianism and democracy. In democracy the place of power is symbolically empty; this place of power can be refigured into a totalitarian power, but can also be actually empty, when a regime falls apart into factions and fractions, all fighting for their own interests and idea(l)s. It is therefore not sufficient to bring democracy by dethroning the king. Although the source of legitimacy in a democratic regime is the people, the people remains indeterminate. This indeterminacy and thus also vulnerability is a core principle of democracy in Leforts theory. Ultimately, the craziness of democracy lies in its vulnerability.


Reflex seizures induced by higher mental activity is rare. We report the case of a young man with myoclonic jerks and generalized tonico-clonic convulsion precipitated by calculation, playing chess and scrabble. Routine EEG, including hyperventilation and photic stimulation, showed no abnormality. Tests stimulation procedures, including spatial tasks, induced focal and generalized EEG spike-wave complex and myoclonic jerks. Valproate was effective in reducing epileptic seizures during a follow-up period of three years. Comparison of our case with previously reported reflex epilepsy with seizures induced by higher mental activity is discussed.


A disordered superlattice (d-SL) is a superlattice with artificial disordering. Temperature dependence of photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation (PLE) spectra are measured for AlAs/GaAs short-period d-SLs with various disordered lengths and are compared with those of ordered superlattices (o-SLs). X-ray satellite peaks are split and PL peak energies are red-shifted with increase of the unit length of disorder. From the PLE results, radiative recombination processes in the AlAs/GaAs d-SLs are inferred to be type-II. The d-SL with a longer unit length of disorder shows more complicated variations in the PL spectrum with changing temperature. The variations are intensified with increase of the disorder lengths. These variations indicate that the localized strength which corresponds to the disorder length is different among the states induced by disordering. The dominant radiative recombination states at higher temperature would correspond to stronger localized states in the d-SLs.


The study aimed to investigate the ameliorative effects of aqueous extract of Citrullus collicynthis some physiological & biochemical parameters in the serum of mice treated with Tamsulosin for 5 weeks. Aqueous extract of Citrullus were prepared and Tamsulosin drug diluted. All preparation administrated orally once in a day by gavages needle. Twenty male albino mice randomly divided to 4 groups at the controlled conditions with pellets and water ad libitum. 1st control group received normal saline, 2ndgroup received ACC 20 mg/kg, 3rd received Tamsulosin 0.01mg/kg, while 4th group received ACC + Tamsulosin. Blood samples were collected, and serum obtained after centrifuged of the blood. Serum kept in eppendrof tubes and stored at deep freeze ( -20 c°) till biochemical tests carried out for detection of GOT, GPT, ALP, urea, uric acid and creatinin levels, also lipid fractions TC, TG and HDL-C with glucose concentration were determined, in addition to FSH, LH and testosterone levels. The results of Tamsulosin administration recorded significant increase (P< 0.05) in the serum concentration of GOT, ALP, urea, uric acid and glucose in addition to lipid fractions, TC and HDL. While significant decline in the LH and testosterone activities recorded as compared control group. While the animals when co-treated with ACC+ Tamsulosin recorded non-significant differences (P> 0.05) in all above parameters as compared control group. So concluded, the animals received long term Tamsulosin when co-treated with ACC improves the deleterious effects of Tamsulosin concerned with hepato-renal function tests parameters in addition to some lipid fractions and hormones.


The global energy demand keeps rising and easy accessible fossil fuel reserves are gradually decreasing which leads to increasing interest in renewable energy sources. The energy production can be based on various sources alternative to petroleum, but the material economy mainly depends on biomass, in particular plant biomass. The potential of renewable biomass resources conversion to chemicals is sufficient to replace fossil crude oil as a carbon resource. In recent years it has increasingly become clear that first generation biofuels have got comparably unfavorable energy balances and therefore most likely can never play a major role in global energy supply. Lignocellulosic biomass is much cheaper for biofuel production than first generation feedstock, but still there are no efficient treatment technologies for large-scale applications. The microalgae might be the future source of biofuels and chemicals production. Microalgal lipids and carbohydrates could be converted to biofuels and the rest of microalgal biomass contains many valuable components, all of which are worth developing into refined products for various applications.


Plant viruses represent a significant threat to food security for many global populations. Cassava Brown Streak Virus (CBSV) causes immense damage to cassava crops in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. The eradication of CBSV is a difficult challenge, as it has been shown to be fast-evolving and it is transmitted by flying insects that are ubiquitous in cassava growing regions. In this paper we demonstrate the ability of two new developments in bioinformatics that can be used to increase our understanding of CBSV and ultimately inform strategies for its combat. We reconstruct the phylogeny of 29 whole-genome virus isolates using the GHOST model. This phylogeny identifies three distinct clades among the viruses and highlights a section of the genomes that is highly influential in their divergence. We also perform Multiple Correspondence Analysis on the alignment which is consistent in recovering the three clades, and offers insight on the significance of the influence of a variety of external variables on the evolution of the viruses. Knowledge and information from this analysis will be used as a base on which to formulate sustainable Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) management strategies in Africa.


Mobile Ad-hoc networks have been broadly research for many years. Ad-hoc system may be an accumulation from claiming hubs that is joined through a remote medium framing quickly evolving topologies. The infrastructure takes away as well as the dynamic life of these networks anxiety newborn become hard of networking strategies route for staying implemented into orderliness near give capable end-to-end communication. Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is special types of mobile wireless network where the groups of mobile devices form a temporary network without any kind of an infrastructure. It is very useful due to its self maintenance, self organizing and by reason of mobility of wireless communication. In mobile ad-hoc network there are so many attacks which reduced the performance of network. MANET works under no fixed infrastructure in which every node works likes a router that stores and forwards packet to final destination. Due to its dynamic topology, MANET is anywhere, anytime. Since nearby are as there are limited resources in MANET so it faces many problems such as security, limited bandwidth, range and power constraints. This paper examine at different systems on manage congestion control, security issues, separate layers attacks, routing protocols and challenges


The key role of hydrological variability in structuring brown trout populations is well established. However, the influence of additional drivers is more difficult to identify. The implementation of long-term monitoring and the development of reliable tools can help to reveal fine local drivers structuring fish populations in contrasted flow regimes. This study used data series for nine reaches monitored for nine to nineteen years in four French salmonid streams. Study reaches were within five bypassed sections influenced by instream flow. A deterministic trout population dynamics model was applied on each reach, with calibration and validation procedures. Results revealed that biological drivers structured all reaches similarly. In addition, seven other drivers were identified. Among these additional drivers, hydrology mainly explained temporal fluctuations in trout density, regardless of reach. Three drivers independent of hydrology were also revealed: poor water quality, limited spawning area and the effect of power plant operations (overtopping, flushing or plant shutdown). All drivers influenced the whole bypassed section and were never limited to the scale of the reach (sampling area). Further analyses of each driver are now needed, to regionalise and quantify their respective impact precisely. Thus, assessment of trout population status would be simplified , enabling implementation of efficient management rules.


The purpose of this study was to contribute to the model of preparing students for active argumentation in democratic societies and emphasize the teacher's role in classroom discussions /1/. As many as 245 university students reflected upon the statements in the Questionnaire about dialogue and argumentation. The research objective was to investigate the opinion of students – future teachers about argumentation. Results show that students evaluate in a more positive way the areas of argumentation at school from the aspect of the relationship among school stakeholders, with the relationship between pupils as the mostly evaluated; those who have the highest level of knowledge on the concept of argumentation evaluate more positively that engaging in different society activities develops cohesion, dialogue and
argumentation. Students with better assessment on the important teachers' characteristics for argumentation show higher understanding for the encouragement of school activities which contribute to the development of dialogue.


As a contribution to research into conditional constructions, this article presents a novel analysis of the Modern Dutch construction defined by the conditional conjunction mits 'provided that', a less frequent subordinating conjunction that differs in meaning from the main conditional conjunctions als and indien (both 'if'). Using examples from a corpus of 300 text passages containing the construction, we discuss its syntactic and semantic characteristics. It is found that clauses introduced by mits are only appended as a condition to matrix expressions that imply the existence of some specific desirability. We discuss the general viability of the notion of desirability for grammatical analysis. In the interpretation of each instance of a mits-construction, the precise identity of the desirability concerned has to be determined, as well as its locus. This process makes knowledge available about a specific balance of interests of the communicators and other concerned parties. The Dutch mits-construction is thus found to lead the interpreter to understand details of configurations of diverging interests.*


In many wireless systems, interference is the main performance-limiting factor, and is primarily dictated by the locations of concurrent transmitters. In many earlier works, the locations of the transmitters is often modeled as a Poisson point process for analytical tractability. While analytically convenient, the PPP only accurately models networks whose nodes are placed independently and use ALOHA as the channel access protocol, which preserves the independence. Correlations between transmitter locations in non-Poisson networks, which model intelligent access protocols, makes the outage analysis extremely difficult. In this paper, we take an alternative approach and focus on an asymptotic regime where the density of interferers η goes to 0. We prove for general node distributions and fading statistics that the success probability Ps ~ 1 - γηκ for η → 0, and provide values of γ and κ for a number of important special cases. We show that κ is lower bounded by 1 and upper bounded by a value that depends on the path loss exponent and the fading. This new analytical framework is then used to characterize the transmission capacity of a very general class of networks, defined as the maximum spatial density of active links given an outage constraint.


A case of non‐communicating rudimentary uterine horn is presented and is a characteristic example of the way that surgical treatment can exacerbate dysmenorrhea by blocking retrograde menstruation. There is always some risk of missing the true diagnosis in cases of uterine abnormalities, even by direct inspection, but intraoperative laparoscopic ultrasonography can be an invaluable tool in defining anatomy. As laparoscopic resection has become the standard procedure for the treatment of unicornuate uterus, laparoscopic ultrasonography can be a useful tool for providing anatomical information to the operating surgeon about the patient.


Recent advances in condensed matter physics have shown that the valley degree of freedom of electrons in 2D materials with hexagonal symmetry, such as graphene, h-BN, and TMDs, can be efficiently exploited, leading to the emergent field of valleytronics, which offers unique opportunities for efficient data transfer, computing and storage. The ability to couple the valley degree of freedom of electrons with light can further expand the ways one manipulate this degree of freedom, thus envisioning a new class of solid-state-photonic interfaces and devices. Besides this expansion of control of valley by light-waves, coupling of photons with valley-polarized electrons can dramatically expand the landscape of available optical responses, which may bring new means of controlling light in photonic devices. In this work we design such hybrid solid-state photonic metasurface integrating 2D TMD and photonic all-dielectric metasurface. While TMD is naturally endowed with the property of valley to optical-polarization coupling, the photonic metasurface is designed to produce chiral field which selectively couples to the valley degree of freedom of solid-state TMD component. We experimentally demonstrate that such coupling leads to controlled valley polarization due to the coupling of 2D materials with the chiral photonic metasurface. The measured emission from valley excitons in this hybrid system yields the preferential emission of specific helicity.


The increased prevalence of β-lactamase is one of the main factors in resistance to β-lactams in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of blaVEB, blaPER, and blaGES genes in β-lactam-resistant P. aeruginosa. We collected 100 non-duplicated clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa and identified them by standard tests. Using disk agar diffusion test, we detected the β-lactam-resistant isolates and extracted the DNAs of the isolates by alkaline lysis method. Then, the prevalence of blaVEB, blaPER and blaGES genes were detected by PCR method. The results were assessed by SPSS 21 software and Chi-square test. Out of 100 isolates, 43% were detected as resistant against at least one of the beta-lactams tested. Piperacillin-tazobactam was the most effective antibiotic, while 39% and 37% of the isolates were resistant to aztreonam and meropenem, respectively. A significant relationship was observed between the resistance to tested antibiotics and the presence of blaVEB, blaGES, and blaPER genes. Among 43 isolates that were resistant to at least one of the tested β-lactams, 93.02%, 83.72%, and 81.39% of them carried blaVEB, blaGES, and blaPER genes, respectively. According to this study and due to high prevalence of β-lactam resistance genes, it is better to check the level of antibiotic resistance and resistance genes for better management of patients with infection caused by this bacterium. Also, high prevalence of class A β-lactamases indicates the significant role of these enzymes in emerging resistance to beta-lactams.


Geographic routing is a promising solution for data forwarding in power-constrained ad-hoc networks. Such protocols are especially attractive for wireless sensor networks as they can be operated without a central control and are scalable to an arbitrary number of nodes. In this work, we present a class of geographic routing algorithms that enhance energy-efficiency by means of a cross-layer design that incorporates PHY/MAC functions such as on-demand cooperative relaying and leapfrogging. The performance of these protocols is evaluated by means of OMNET++ simulations. Significant improvements are shown in terms of packet delivery ratio, latency and connectivity for different network topologies.


Reinforcement learning has received much attention in the past decades. The three forms of reinforcement learning algorithms are Actor Critic learning, Q learning and Reinforcement Comparison. Q-learning is a form of model-free reinforcement learning with one drawback that is the overestimation (Rising Q) problem. To solve this problem Rough Sets approach is used. This has lead to the modification of the traditional Q learning algorithms to a new form of Q learning namely, Rough Q learning. Actor Critic Learning have a separate memory structure to explicitly represent the policy independent of the value function. Another form of reinforcement learning is Reinforcement Comparison. Using reinforcement comparison method (RC), a reference reward is equated with an average of previously received rewards. The Actor Critic and RC method is also made better by using the rough set approach. The results of the study are in form of various plots for all three forms of reinforcement learning, their variations and the effect of temperature on them.


Tetrad analysis of MATa/MAT alpha diploids of Saccharomyces cerevisiae generally yields 2 MATa:2MAT alpha meiotic products. About 1 to 1.8% of the tetrads yield aberrant segregations for this marker. Described here are experiments that determine whether the aberrant meiotic segregations at the mating-type locus are ascribable to gene conversions or to MAT switches, that is, to mating-type interconversions. Diploid strains incapable of switching MATa to MAT alpha, or the converse, nevertheless display changes of MATa to MAT alpha, or the reverse. These events must be attributed to gene conversion. Further, we suggest that MATa and MAT alpha alleles may represent nonhomologous sequences of DNA since they fail to display postmeiotic segregations.


—Emukit is a highly flexible Python toolkit for enriching decision making under uncertainty with statistical emulation. It is particularly pertinent to complex processes and simulations where data are scarce or difficult to acquire. Emukit provides a common framework for a range of iterative methods that propagate well-calibrated uncertainty estimates within a design loop, such as Bayesian optimisation, Bayesian quadrature and experimental design. It also provides multi-fidelity modelling capabilities. We describe the software design of the package, illustrate usage of the main APIs, and showcase the breadth of use cases in which the library already has been used by the research community.


Purpose: This study aims to propose a telenursing intervention model for assisting the selfmonitoring of elderly patients with chronic heart failure and ascertain its efficacy in lowering the risk for hospitalization and the maintenance and improvement of patients' quality of life (QOL). Methods: Nursing intervention was provided through video calls for one year to patients aged ≥65 years with chronic heart failure who had frequently been hospitalized. The following items were compared and investigated: patients' number and duration of hospitalization before, during, and after the intervention along with their weight, blood pressure, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) values, and QOL. Results: Video call nursing intervention was provided to 11 patients. The mean length of calls was 11.5 ± 3.6 min/session. Patients were hospitalized two to five times a year before the inter‐ vention, but nine were not hospitalized even once during the intervention period; of these, five were never hospitalized during the year following the completion of the intervention. No apparent changes were observed in parameters such as the BNP value; however, the scores for the psycho‐ logical questions of the SF-36® used to assess post-intervention QOL were significantly higher. Conclusion: This study confirms the efficacy of the telenursing intervention model for giving successive sessions of rapid and intensive intervention, customized for each patient to enhance their QOL and prevent hospitalizations. The preventive impact on hospitalization continued to last after the completion of the intervention period, suggesting that it effectively contributed to strengthening the self-monitoring abilities of patients living in their homes.


Fuzzy Logic includes a technique are widely applied to the vehicle steering control system, however, to get the parameters required by a reliable Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC), needed training and learning process. Quantum behaved Particle Swarm Optimization (QPSO) is a simple optimization method that guarantees the achievement of global convergence quickly. This paper aimed to optimize of the steering control system on vehicle with steer-by-wire system using QPSO. The vehicle steering control system consists of Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) and the Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) control are built in cascade, in which FLC is used to minimize the lateral motion error and PID control is used to suppress yaw motion error of the vehicle. The parameters of the control system are optimized by QPSO consists of three parameters to determine the position of the centre and the width of the triangle membership function of FLC and three constant gain of PID control. The optimization is done through the software in the loop simulation of vehicle models represented by 10 Degree of Freedom (DOF) of the vehicle dynamics. Simulation results showed that optimization using QPSO on the parameters of the control system can guarantee the movement of the vehicle is constantly maintained at the desired trajectory with a smaller error and higher vehicle speeds compared to the control system without tuned. The results obtained will be used as the basis for testing of the hardware in the loop simulation (HILS) so it can further improve the performance of steer-by-wire system.


In recent years it has become apparent that the hemostatic system has a role to play in regulating angiogenesis. This is achieved by components of the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems regulating proteolysis in the milieu and context of extra cellular matrix and the fibrin clot. It is also an emerging paradigm that cryptic fragments, released by proteolysis from components of the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems, have a role to play in regulating angiogenesis. Presented herein is a brief overview of the regulation of angiogenesis by the hemostatic system.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive memory dysfunction, oxidative stress, and presence of senile plaques formed by amyloid beta (Aβ) accumulation in the brain. AD is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. AD has a variety of risk factors, including environmental factors, metabolic dysfunction, and genetic background. Recent research has highlighted the relationship between AD and systemic metabolic changes such as glucose and lipid imbalance and insulin resistance. Irisin, a myokine closely linked to exercise, has been associated with glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and fat browning. Recent studies have suggested that irisin is involved in the process in central nervous system (CNS) such as neurogenesis and has reported the effects of irisin on AD as one of the neurodegenerative disease. Here, we review the roles of irisin with respect to AD and suggest that irisin highlight therapeutic important roles in AD. Thus, we propose that irisin could be a potential future target for ameliorating AD pathology and preventing AD onset.


The mission of Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), established under the Federal Government's national collaborative research infrastructure program, is to deliver ocean observations to the marine and climate science community. However, the observations have many uses, ranging from real-time operational forecasting to understanding of processes and policy decision making. Observations need to be provided in a format that fits the purpose of the intended application. Turning observations into usable data, time series, gridded products and analyses broadens the use of such observations. Value adding by developing products that are relevant to end-user needs and easily accessible to non-scientists is also required as a strategic response to new and emerging socioeconomic, legal and policy priorities. This paper describes some of the pathways on which IMOS observations are being delivered and used in Australia, demonstrating the value that ocean observations have for society.


The intrinsic skeletal muscle core clock has emerged as a key feature of metabolic control and influences several aspects of muscle physiology. Acute alcohol intoxication disrupts the core molecular clock, but whether chronic consumption, like that leading to alcoholic myopathy, is also a zeitgeber for skeletal muscle remains unknown. The purpose of this work was to determine whether chronic alcohol consumption dysregulates the skeletal muscle core molecular clock and clock-controlled genes (CCGs). C57BL/6Hsd female mice (14 weeks old) were fed a control (CON) or alcohol (EtOH) containing liquid diet for 6 weeks. Gastrocnemius muscles and serum were collected from CON and EtOH mice every 4-h for 24-h. Chronic alcohol consumption disrupted genes of the core clock including suppressing the rhythmic peak of expression of Bmal1, Per1, Per2, and Cry2. Genes involved in the regulation of Bmal1 also exhibited lower rhythmic peaks including Reverb α and Myod1. The CCGs, Dbp, Lpl, Hk2, and Hadh were also suppressed by alcohol. The nuclear expression patterns of MYOD1, DBP, and REVERBα were shifted by alcohol, while no change in BMAL1 was detected. Overall, these data indicate that alcohol disrupted the skeletal muscle core clock but whether these changes in the core clock are causative or a consequence of alcoholic myopathy requires future mechanistic confirmation.


This study presents an innovative methodology for preform design in metal forging processes based on the convolution neural network (CNN) algorithm. The proposed approach extracts the features of inputted forging product geometries and utilizes them to derive the corresponding preform shapes by employing weight arrays (filters) determined during the convolutional operations. The filters are progressively updated during the training process, emulating the learning steps of a process engineer responsible for the design of preform shapes for the forging processes. The design system is composed of multiple three-dimensional (3D) CNN sub-models, which can automatically derive individual 3D preform design candidates. It also implies that the 3D surfaces of preforms are easily acquired, which is important for the forging industry. The proposed preform design methodology was validated by applying it to two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric shapes, one-quarter plane-symmetric 3D shapes, and two other industrial cases. In all the considered cases, the design methodology achieved substantial reductions in the forging load without forging defects, proving its reliability and effectiveness for application in metal forging processes.


In mammals, GRF and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) are encoded in separate genes. We report here that in the salmon a 4.5-kilobase gene contains five exons that encode the biologically active part of the GRF-like peptide (amino acids 1-32) on exon 4 and PACAP on exon 5. Analysis of two fish messenger RNAs reveals that a long precursor containing GRF and PACAP and a short precursor containing only PACAP are both expressed in the brain of at least five species of salmon, whereas mice express only the long precursor encoded by the PACAP gene. Synthetic salmon PACAP-38 and salmon GRF-like peptide-45 both stimulated GH release from cultured salmon pituitary cells; PACAP stimulated a concentration-dependent release of GH at both 4 and 24 h of incubation, whereas GRF-like peptide did not. Alternative splicing, resulting in the short precursor in which GRF-32 is excised, may provide a means for differential control of GH secretion with higher production of the more potent PACAP. A duplication of the GRF-like/PACAP gene in evolution after the divergence of fish and tetrapods would explain separate genes and regulation for GRF and PACAP in mammals.


: The neurological and neuropsychological complications of vascular and orthopedic surgery can be prevented by the early detection of the ischemic penumbra, that is, the stage at which the ischemic nervous structures are no more functional, but still alive and salvageable by reperfusion. This can be achieved by intraoperative neuromonitoring of the electroencephalogram and evoked potentials. We illustrate how these techniques led to improvement of the surgical strategy and patient outcome in carotid endarterectomies, descending aorta surgery and surgery performed under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest.


Abstract The volume focuses on the analysis of glacial clastic sedimentary deposits, both ancient and recent. The papers range from reviews of glacial systems and cold-climate weathering products and processes to conceptual and field studies of specific ice-marginal and cold-climate sediments. Papers are included that deal with tidewater glaciers, mountain settings on Earth, permafrost areas on both Earth and Mars and detailed regional analyses of cold-climate sediments of Late Pleistocene and Holocene age. The identification of sedimentary facies allows an accurate reconstruction of many of the developmental processes that are involved in ice-marginal and periglacial environments. Lithostratigraphic characteristics of clastic deposits also constitute circumstantial evidence for the previous existence of ancient, and certainly pre-Quaternary, cold-climate systems. This is demonstrated by a study on putative Palaeozoic glacial deposits in Saudi Arabia.


using multi agents in the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for aggregating data has gained significant attention. Planning the optimal itinerary of the mobile agent is an essential step before the process of data gathering. Many approaches have been proposed to solve the problem of planning MAs itineraries, but all of those approaches are assuming that the MAs visit all SNs and large number of intermediate nodes. This assumption imposed a burden; the size of agent increases with the increase in the visited SNs, therefore consume more energy and spend more time in its migration. None of those proposed approaches takes into account the significant role that the connected dominating nodes play as virtual infrastructure in such wireless sensor networks WSNs. This article introduces a novel energy-efficient itinerary planning algorithmic approach based on the minimum connected dominating sets (CDSs) for multi-agents dedicated in data gathering process. In our proposed approach, instead of planning the itineraries over all sensor nodes SNs, we plan the itineraries among subsets of the MCDS in each cluster. Thus, no need to move the agent in all the SNs, and the intermediate nodes (if any) in each itinerary will be few. Simulation results have demonstrated that our approach is more efficient than other approaches in terms of overall energy consumption and task execution time.


Functional coroutines are a restricted form of control mechanism, where each coroutine is represented with both a continuation and an environment. This restriction was originally obtained by considering a constructive version of Parigot's classical natural deduction which is sound and complete for the Constant Domain logic. In this article, we present a refinement of de Groote's abstract machine for functional coroutines and we prove its correctness. Therefore, this abstract machine also provides a direct computational interpretation of the Constant Domain logic.


Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1985-1988, were used to assess differences in weight-loss practices of overweight adults by sex and race. Data were available for 112,108 respondents from 21 states, aged greater than or equal to 18 y. Overweight was defined as body mass index greater than or equal to 27.3 for women and greater than or equal to 27.8 for men. Weight-loss practices were defined as increasing physical activity only, eating fewer calories only, increasing physical activity and eating fewer calories only, increasing physical activity and eating fewer calories, and not trying to lose weight. The weight-loss practice most frequently reported by overweight women was increasing physical activity and eating fewer calories (blacks, 32%; whites, 33%). Overweight men most frequently reported not trying to lose weight (blacks, 55%; whites, 49%). Although the prevalence of overweight for black women was twice that for white women, weight-loss practices were similar for both groups. Prevalence of overweight was similar for black and white men but weight-loss practices differed slightly.


Fuzzy rule based systems have been very popular in many control applications. However, when fuzzy control systems are used in real problems, many rules may be required. The number of rules required depends on the number of inputs and the number of fuzzy linguistic terms used. This exponential explosion of fuzzy rules can take too much computing time to solve any but the simplest problems. This paper proposes a hierarchical fuzzy system that partitions a problem for more efficient computation. The hierarchical fuzzy rule base algorithm constructs rules from data for the purpose of performing fuzzy classification. Illustration examples are also generated and the results show that this hierarchical fuzzy system can be successfully used for classification applications.


An analog-to-digital conversion system is described which utilizes three parallel integrators of different sensitivities in front of a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to achieve a wide dynamic range, high linearity, and noise reduction. Gain ranging decisions are made by the hardware using a novel method of checking the ADC serial data output, with a minimal amount of logic circuitry. Applications to gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) are described.


Time-resolved spectra of neutral and ionized atomic emissions from slag sample are measured by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Various factors affecting the calibration-free CF-LIBS method are carefully analyzed, and subsequently these factors are either avoided or corrected. Plasma temperature and electron density are calculated by Saha–Boltzmann plot and Stark broadening of Ca, respectively. At the same time, self-absorption and local thermodynamic equilibrium have been carefully studied. An automatic spectral lines elimination algorithm is applied to calculate plasma temperature and element concentration. The calculated element concentrations show marked changes with acquisition time increasing. Due to the influence of continuous spectrum at early times and self-absorption at late times, the large absolute errors sum is obtained in these two periods. The smallest absolute errors sum corresponds to the gate delay time 1.5 μs < td < 2 μs for our experimental setup.


The scope of this dissertation is to present the design and development of a distributed system build on microservice architecture. The main purpose is the collection and extraction of information. The data are real time measurements of temperature, humidity, light and GPS longitude and latitude coming from a sensor unit. Extracting the data, we gather useful information about the local environment. In addition, this dissertation examines the scalability of the system and presents the positive effects of a distributed system in IOT field.


We present the modeling and analysis of distributed autonomous robots using the specification language for hybrid systems, called CHARON. Coordination between distributed autonomous robots has attracted researchers of embedded and hybrid systems, since there has been increasing demand for multiple robots working together in a dynamically changing or unknown environment to carry out missions such as search and rescue, cooperative localization, and scouting and reconnaissance. To maximize the capability of performing tasks collaboratively as a team, formation control is one of crucial parts in developing distributed autonomous robots. In this paper formation control of a team of robots is modeled using CHARON and the model is analyzed using simulation with assertion checking capability of the CHARON toolset.


Few would contest the impact of technology on modern day society. There are, however, wide-ranging opinions and contestations regarding the social and ethical implications of the increasing entanglement of our lives with technology (Introna, 2017; Marx, 2016; Robertson & Travaglia, 2017). Introna (2017) suggests that "At the center of this technology/society interrelationship we find many complex questions about the nature of the human, the technical, agency, autonomy, freedom and much more" (para. 1). Central to our entanglement in this techno-societal complex is the issue of the use of personal data and the scope and limitations of individuals' agency (a) to make rational, informed choices regarding consent to having their data collected, analyzed, and used (Prinsloo & Slade, 2015); (b) for freely gifting (Kitchin, 2013, p. 263) unrequested data in ways that suggest digital promiscuity (Payne, 2014); and (c) to negotiate terms and conditions around receiving benefits in exchange for personal data, in a phenomenon known as the "privacy calculus" (Knijnenburg, Raybourn, Cherry, Wilkinson, Sivakumar, & Sloan, 2017, para. 1). It is also important to note the increasing automated and directed surveillance of digital users without their knowledge or consent (Kitchin, 2013), which raises "unprecedented challenges to how we currently elicit, secure, and sustain user consent" (Luger, Rodden, Jirotka, & Edwards, 2014, p. 613). The Big Data revolution (Kitchin, 2014) with its accompanying generative mechanisms for extracting data "has become an idea with social and political power in its own right" (Robertson & Travaglia, 2017, para. 1). The reductive quantification of complex social phenomena and the combination of different datasets suggest the need to (re)consider the notion of consent, the scope and limitations of informed consent, in general (Wilson, 2017), and, more specifically, consent in the context of higher education.

As the volume, velocity, and variety in data have increased, institutions, including higher education organizations, are increasingly enlarging their capacity to facilitate the tracking of students on an unprecedented scale. As such, "The privacy and ethical issues that emerge in this context are tightly interconnected with other aspects such as trust, accountability, and transparency" (Pardo & Siemens, 2014 p. 438). In deciding whether providing individuals (i.e., students) control over their personal data is a "true remedy or fairy tale" (Lazaro & Le Metayer, 2015), we suspect that the devil lies in the details.

In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of ethical considerations in the collection, analysis, and use of student data before investigating specific issues surrounding and informing the notion and scope of student consent. We map a broad framework of considerations and consider the ethical implications of allowing students to opt out of all or some aspects of the collection of their data.


The amyloid cascade hypothesis posits that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is driven by the production of A[beta] from the cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by secretases. However, APP is also cleaved by caspases to release a toxic peptide termed C31 into the cytoplasm that has been shown to increase cell death in vitro. A single point mutation from Asp to Ala at position 664 of APP (APP695 numbering scheme) prevents caspase cleavage of APP and attenuates A[beta]-induced toxicity, demonstrating a potential role for caspase cleavage of APP in Alzheimer's pathology. However, due to disadvantages such as APP overexpression and insertional artifacts in some transgenic lines, the protective effect of the D664A mutation remains unclear. We have developed a knock-in mouse line carrying the D664A mutation to study its effects on baseline dendritic morphology by crossing it with the GFP-M mouse. Immunofluorescent staining of DA/GFP -M brain sections revealed that the D664A mutation itself had no impact on the basal or apical dendritic spine morphology when compared to their WT/GFP-M littermates across different age groups. In a second study, primary hippocampal neuronal cultures from the DA mice and their WT littermates were treated with 7PA2 conditioned media (7PA2-CM) containing various A[beta]42 concentrations of to quantify the protective effect of this D664A mutation in dendritic spine density. However, our neuronal culture experiments failed to demonstrate any protective effects of the D664A mutation as it was retrospectively discovered that our 7PA2-CM lacked the A[beta]42 oligomers necessary to induce toxicity in WT controls


The increase in the global population is directly responsible for the acceleration in the production as well as the consumption of textile products. The use of textiles and garment materials is one of the primary reasons for the microfibers generation and it is anticipated to grow increasingly. Textile microfibers have been found in marine sediments and organisms, posing a real threat to the environment as it is invisible pollution caused by the textile industry. To protect against the damaging effects that microplastics can have, the formulation of mitigation strategies is urgently required. Therefore, the primary focus of this review manuscript is on finding an environmentally friendly long-term solution to the problem of microfiber emissions caused by the domestic washing process, as well as gaining an understanding of the various properties of textiles and how they influence this problem. In addition, it discussed the effect that mechanical and chemical finishes have on microfiber emissions and identified research gaps in order to direct future research objectives in the area of chemical finishing processes. In addition to that, it included a variety of preventative and minimizing strategies for reduction. Last but not least, an emphasis was placed on the potential and foreseeable applications of machine vision (i.e., quantification, data storage, and data sharing) to reduce the amount of microfibers emitted by residential washing machines.


In cases of cervical incompetence, the Shirodkar procedure is occasionally necessary when the McDonald procedure cannot be used due to poor cervical anatomic conditions. We have further facilitated a modified Shirodkar procedure with some modifications. A transverse incision over the anterior lip of the cervix is made and the bladder is separated from the cervix. One end of an atraumatic forceps is introduced deeply into the space between the bladder and the cervix, and the other end is pushed against the posterior fornix to grasp paracervical tissues, so that a needle is easily passed through at the tip of the forceps. The knot is placed anteriorly and a silk thread is passed around the tape in the posterior fornix to facilitate removal of the tape. This procedure resulted in no complications and greatly facilitated removal of the tape, resulting in a cervical cerclage which was comparatively easily carried out.


Abstract:  The Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that Earth's biota and material environment form a self‐regulating system, has been influential in conservation biology, but it has not translated into specific guidelines. Proponents of phylogenetics and ecology often claim primacy over the foundations of conservation biology, a debate that has deep roots in philosophy and science. A more recent claim is that conservation efforts should protect evolutionary processes that will allow diversification. Phylogenetics, ecology, and evolution all have legitimate roles in conservation, when viewed in a temporal perspective. Phylogenetic studies identify the bioheritage of past species radiations, ecology preserves the life‐support systems for these lineages in the present, and evolutionary processes allow adaptation of these lineages to novel challenges in the future. The concept of temporal domains in conservation (past, present, future) has an appropriate metaphor in the Norse worldview known as the Orlog. In this body of mythology, three sisters tend the tree of life and fend off a dragon gnawing at the roots. The names of these sisters, Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, translate to Past, Present, and Future. In Viking mythology, the threads of life cannot persist without the cooperation of these sisters. In the science of conservation biology, they represent the handmaidens of Gaia–three scientific disciplines that can succeed only with a spirit of familial cooperation.


Laparoscopic approach in emergency theatre is an irreplaceable tool to manage patients with acute surgical pathology. We retrospectively reviewed surgical access records from the Emergency Department for acute right iliac fossa pathology. We considered 51 patients (16 male, 35 female, mean age 23.8 years) access for acute right iliac fossa pathology over the last year. 44 patients underwent laparoscopic approach (86%); 8 patients were treated with an open approach. Outcomes evaluation was based on data comparison from open appendicectomy over 4 year time period. Variables considered for data analyses were: role of laparoscopic surgery for gangrenous/perforated appendicitis, Conversion rate, Laparoscopy appendicectomy for elderly patients. Our study demonstrated that a laparoscopic approach at acute right iliac fossa pathology is feasible, safe and can offer a low incidence of infectious complications, less post-operative pain, rapid recovery, and represent a valid diagnostic tool in doubtful cases, at the expense of longer operating time than OA. We suggest that LA should be the initial choice for all patients with acute right iliac fossa pathology.


This thesis exemplifies the strength in the combination of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry ESI-MS/MS as detection techniques for liquid chromatography (LC) in the search for and investigation of compounds that bind or can bind hetero-atoms. Furthermore, some aspects involved in the coupling of LC and ICP spectrometry and quantification without identical standards have been studied.The importance of using a separation step in combination with ICP spectrometry was shown for urine and blood plasma samples from patients treated with boron neutron capture therapy. In addition to the carrier molecule used in the therapy, one major and a few possible minor metabolites were found in the urine samples. One fragment mass of the major metabolite was obtained with LC-ESI-MS/MS. Liquid chromatography coupled to ICP-MS was also shown to be a valuable tool for fingerprinting metal-binding compounds in complex matrices, such as siderophores (iron-complexing compounds) in soil. The presence of at least two siderophores in a field soil solution sample could be revealed by LC-ICP-MS. Their identities could thereafter be determined by LC-ESI-MS/MS.The non-UV-absorbing o-carboranylalanine could be quantified in relation to its degradation products by LC-ICP-AES, which provided information about the mechanism behind the degradation. Moreover, LC-ICP spectrometry was shown to provide an accurate quantification of biomolecules (bias < 10 %) when evaluated from external calibration graphs based on inorganic elemental standards.Finally, the causes of the large decrease in boron signal seen when adding acetonitrile to the LC mobile phase in LC-ICP-MS was investigated in some detail. Space charge effects might explain a large part of the depression from carbon species on the boron signal.


Measuring taxonomic similarity between words plays an important role in many semantic-based applications but still remains a challenging task today. We propose a new method which utilizes restrictive context matrices for this problem. We learn a set of special lexico-syntactic patterns automatically and use them to extract taxonomic related contexts of words from raw text. These restrictive contexts are then transformed into real matrices and similarities between them are calculated to reflect the taxonomic similarities between words. The main contribution of our work is that taxonomic related context of words can be mined, evaluated, and used to measure taxonomic similarities between words. Experimental results on Miller-Charles benchmark dataset achieve a correlation coefficient of 0.856.


To deploy a robot in a human-centric environment, it is important that the robot is able to continuously acquire and update object categories while working in the environment. Therefore, autonomous robots must have the ability to continuously execute learning and recognition in a concurrent or interleaved fashion. One of the main challenges in unconstrained human environments is to cope with the effects of context change. This paper presents two main contributions: (i) an approach for evaluating open-ended object category learning and recognition methods in multi-context scenarios; (ii) evaluation of different object category learning and recognition approaches regarding their ability to cope with the effects of context change. Off-line evaluation approaches such as cross-validation do not comply with the simultaneous nature of learning and recognition. A teaching protocol, supporting context change, was therefore designed and used in this work for experimental evaluation. Seven learning and recognition approaches were evaluated and compared using the protocol. The best performance, in terms of number of learned categories, was obtained with a recently proposed local variant of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), closely followed by a Bag-of-Words (BoW) approach. In terms of adaptability, i.e. coping with context change, the best result was obtained with BoW, immediately followed by the local LDA variant.


In today's medicine, drug therapy represents an imp ortant tool to treat or control disease. Dosing drugs is based on the assumption that a part icul dose will yield a predefined concentration in the circulation and thereby establ ish the desired therapeutic effect. The fact that liver and kidney function may affect this rela tionship is appreciated, as is the fact that the use of co-medication potentially may interfere with the relationship between dose and blood concentration. Also environmental factors, like die t, alcohol use, smoking behaviour and caffeine intake may alter the rate at which particu lar drugs are metabolized, and will thus affect exposure of individuals to these drugs. A fa ctor that has been neglected for a long time is genetics: differences in genetic make up may aff ect the relation between drug dose and blood concentration. Variant alleles encoding drug transporters or drug metabolizing enzymes with altered activity, present in the population, w ill give rise to unexpectedly high or low blood concentrations in response to a particular dose of a drug in certain individuals. The variation in drug metabolizing capacity between individuals is k nown for quite some time, but only recently this is becoming available as a routine di agnostic to provide better therapy. An important group of enzymes involved in drug metabol ism is the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, which is mainly (but not only) active in th e liver and the intestine. It consists of a family of isoenzymes, each with their own substrate specificity, and catalyzes oxidative reactions in order make potentially toxic and harmf ul substances more soluble. Purpose is to protect the body against toxic substances. The mos t important cytochromes with respect to drug metabolism are CYP3A4, CYP2C9, CYP2C19 and CYP 2D6. For these enzymes, however, several variant alleles encoding enzymes w ith decreased activity exist (see www.cypalleles.ki.se), giving rise to interindividu al differences in capacity to metabolize drugs. The best known example in this family is the enzyme CYP2D6, for which even 10% of the Caucasian population is a poor metabolizer, due to inheritance of two inactive variant alleles.


A ten-story downtown Chicago office building, built in the early 1970s, had been experiencing insulating glass unit failures, water leakage, and problems with occupant comfort. Several investigations in the 1990s concluded that the entire curtain wall system was deficient and required replacement. However, the office building houses the offices for the Social Security Administration's Midwest Region, and each month serves over 9 million beneficiaries. Disruptions to this operation would be catastrophic. Based on careful study and analysis of the existing curtain wall aluminum framing elements and connections to the building structure, it was concluded that the framing could be reused and was capable of supporting a supplemental cladding system attached to its exterior face. A pre-glazed unitized curtain wall system was designed which was hung to the original framing after the original glass was removed. This solution reduced the disruption to occupants, enhanced the speed of installation, and reduced the time period between deglazing and new cladding installation to a matter of days. The work was largely performed from the exterior of the building starting in the fall of 2007 and is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2008. The replacement cladding has enhanced insulating glass, condensation control and water management; providing a cost effective solution to the client's problems.


In vitro assays of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of maleidrides from polyketides in fungi were performed. The results show that the enzymes are closely related to primary metabolism enzymes of the citric acid cycle in terms of stereochemical preferences, but with an expanded substrate selectivity. A key citrate synthase can react both saturated and unsaturated acyl CoA substrates to give solely anti substituted citrates. This undergoes anti-dehydration to afford an unsaturated precursor which is cyclised in vitro by ketosteroid-isomerase-like enzymes to give byssochlamic acid.


Overall theoretical performance analysis of gas turbines can be conducted by applying design parameters into several thermodynamic theories and equations. However, limited availability of the design parameters will not provide sufficient room for a detailed analysis. Gas turbine manufacturers publish only a limited amount of design/performance data, while important parameters remained hidden and the available information is not sufficiently enough for obtaining a complete gas turbine performance dataset. Five main parameters commonly provided by a gas turbine manufacturer's catalogues; pressure ratio of the compressor, exhaust mass flow rate, exhaust temperature of flue gas, overall efficiency, and electrical output. A theoretical model developed based on Mathcad software as documented in literature is used to reveal other hidden gas turbine parameters. A similar theoretical model using another solver was developed to obtain a complete dataset by using the available catalogue data with additional assumptions, which correspond to the commercial state of the art.The engineering equation solver (EES) software has been used as a platform to rebuild the theoretical model. As the main development, a graphical user interphase (GUI) has been introduced to the new program with the aim to make it more user friendly. Furthermore on top of obtaining the hidden thermodynamic parameters for the gas turbine, performing flue gas analysis and an exergy analysis has now become possible through this program. The developed EES program is expected to be run in the learning laboratory at the Division of Heat and Power Technology, Department of Energy Technology, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm and finally it is going to be incorporated into CompEdu Learning Platform of the same division.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Abstract This Colloquium Lecture provides an overview of the progress made in molecular medicine applying genetics and genomics to the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of human diseases. Specifically, the methods for identifying genes involved in human diseases are described. Examples from 10 genes and diseases will be provided, drawing on the author's research. Topics include examples from simple Mendelian diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, inherited cancers, oncogenes activated by chromosomal translocations, host genes involved in infectious disease, genes identified via genomewide association studies, pathogens causing cancer, and gene families contributing to multiple diseases. For each example, historical details will be provided as background for readers to understand the context and process of the discoveries, technologies explained, and current understanding and treatment implications detailed. Table of Contents: Introduction / Cystic Fibrosis: From Family Studies to Gene Mapping, Cloning, ...


Forest roads are built to facilitate the transport of personnel and wood, and so to promote village develop- ment. In this study 18 development indices of village in relation to increasing forest road density were evaluated during three decades for the villages of Aryam, Estakhrposht, Hosein Abad, Daram, Sarm and Darzikola in Neka-Zalemrood forest. According to the National Population and Housing Census of Iran (NPHCI), the rank of zero was considered for cases when a village did not have a specific facility and the rank of one was considered for cases when a village had a specific facility and service. The total length of forest roads was measured on maps from the years 1986, 1996 and 2006. Results showed that the total length of built roads at the end of 1986, 1996 and 2006 was 7, 25 and 36 km, respectively. Index of development in the village of Estakhrposht and Daram was positive at the end of the second decade whereas the villages of Estakhrposht, Daram, Aryam and Darzikola with ranks of 1.494; 0.053; 0.293 and 0.053 had positive development index in the third decade. The index of development in other villages was still negative at the end of 2006. The villages of Sarm and Daram enjoyed 5 and 7 services and facilities, respectively, in the second decade. So, their development index increased from -0.3 to 0.06 for Sarm and from -0.3 to 0.17 for Daram. 7.5 km of forest roads in the village of Estakhrposht were asphalted in the third decade (1996-2006) and the village of Estakhrposht enjoyed 18 development indices in total.


We analyzed the medical records of all live birth infants (LBs) born with major birth defects (MBDs) at King Fahd Hofuf Hospital (KFHH) during a three-year period. Our objectives were to determine defect prevalence rate, patterns, geographic differences, associated maternal and infant risk factors, and the contribution of the defects to mortality in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Out of 30,159 infants born alive during the study period, 687 (2.27%) had one or more MBDs. Systems most commonly affected were the cardiac (20.8%), musculoskeletal (18.7%), and central nervous (18.3%) systems. We observed higher rates/1000 LBs of life-threatening CNS and cardiac defects and diaphragmatic hernia than rates reported from other countries. Rate of defects/1000 LBs increased from 0.79% in the birth-weight group >/=4000 g to 15.2% in the birth-weight category <1500 g. Fifty-six infants with MBDs were born to diabetic mothers; diabetes was the only identified maternal disease associated with birth defects. Diabetic mothers and those of infants with chromosomal anomalies had higher means of age and parity than the control mothers ( 33.5 yrs (SD 5.2), 31.4 yrs (7.5), and 8.8 (3.8), 7.39 (3.8), for age and parity of diabetic and chromosomal anomalies respectively vs. 26.8 yrs (6.4) and 5.2 (3.7) in the controls, P<0.01). Out of the 687 infants, 254 (36.97%) died; and MBDs were the most common disease- specific cause of death in our NICU throughout the study period.


We employ transgenic mice with selective expression of tdTomato or cre recombinase together with optogenetics to investigate whether hypothalamic arcuate (ARC) dopamine/tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) neurons interact with other ARC neurons, how they respond to hypothalamic neuropeptides, and to test whether these cells constitute a single homogeneous population. Immunostaining with dopamine and TH antisera was used to corroborate targeted transgene expression. Using whole-cell recording on a large number of neurons (n = 483), two types of neurons with different electrophysiological properties were identified in the dorsomedial ARC where 94% of TH neurons contained immunoreactive dopamine: bursting and nonbursting neurons. In contrast to rat, the regular oscillations of mouse bursting neurons depend on a mechanism involving both T-type calcium and A-type potassium channel activation, but are independent of gap junction coupling. Optogenetic stimulation using cre recombinase-dependent ChIEF-AAV-DJ expressed in ARC TH neurons evoked postsynaptic GABA currents in the majority of neighboring dopamine and nondopamine neurons, suggesting for the first time substantial synaptic projections from ARC TH cells to other ARC neurons. Numerous met-enkephalin (mENK) and dynorphin-immunoreactive boutons appeared to contact ARC TH neurons. mENK inhibited both types of TH neuron through G-protein coupled inwardly rectifying potassium currents mediated by δ and μ opioid receptors. Dynorphin-A inhibited both bursting and nonbursting TH neurons by activating κ receptors. Oxytocin excited both bursting and nonbursting neurons. These results reveal a complexity of TH neurons that communicate extensively with neurons within the ARC. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Here, we show that the great majority of mouse hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) neurons that synthesize TH in the dorsomedial ARC also contain immunoreactive dopamine, and show either bursting or nonbursting electrical activity. Unlike rats, the mechanism underlying bursting was not dependent on gap junctions but required T-type calcium and A-type potassium channel activation. Neuropeptides dynorphin and met-enkephalin inhibited dopamine neurons, whereas oxytocin excited them. Most ventrolateral ARC TH cells did not contain dopamine and did not show bursting electrical activity. TH-containing neurons appeared to release synaptic GABA within the ARC onto dopamine neurons and unidentified neurons, suggesting that the cells not only control pituitary hormones but also may modulate nearby neurons.


The background and meaning of some of Li Po's famous poems. Kuo uses his knowledge of earlier scholars' research to explain Li's poems (pp. 57-62, 77-78, 94-98 and 99-113), in a manner which is very helpful to modern students who have not had this type of training. In conclusion, one can say that Kuo's book is very informative for scholars who are interested in Li Po's life and poetry but fails miserably in its study of Tu Fu. In view of Kuo's past contributions, this serves as a good example of how academic work suffers when it is used primarily to serve political ends.


Abstract Due to an increase in energy price and pollution plus environmental regulations, companies start to adopt green policies. In fact, companies are encouraged by governments to develop strategies to achieve more sustainable operations. Based on this literature review the contribution of Lean Manufacturing on environmental performances will be discussed, a survey of 50 different automotive companies based in Morocco, shows how they are carrying out manufacturing and environmental practices. The result of this study shows a positive impact of advanced Lean Manufacturing's tools on the environmental performance and contribute to the present literature on environmentally friendly Manufacturing. The findings and proposals of this paper can be a beginning step for Moroccan companies to completely use their capability of environmental practices and improve their manufacturing productivity performance while identifying trends in organizational development.


The article is devoted to the analysis of development and testing of experimental practicums for foreign students based on modern techniques. It is of special importance for programs in chemical engineering and material's science as respective practicums provide students with opportunities to learn more about cutting-edge interdisciplinary methods used for development and investigation of modern materials properties. The purpose of the article is to develop an interdisciplinary experimental practicum on microfluids for a Master's degree program «Smart Materials» in English. Methods. The analysis was carried out on the basis of Kazan National Research Technological University (KNRTU). The development of the experimental practicum was carried out on the basis of the KNRTU international partners' experience: the University of Regensburg (Germany) and Carnegie Mellon University (USA) through a comparative analysis of master's programs at KNRTU and international partners, as well as teaching materials of relevant educational programs. It is concluded that microfluidic systems such as «lab-on–a–chip» devices are a promising technology for the implementation of various chemical and chemical-technological processes for the end user or group of users as well as an actual experimental environment for students studying natural sciences. The practicum was tested on Bachelor's and Master's students. The practicum was analyzed for its potential to be implemented as a component of short-term academic programs such as summer schools. The practicum aroused greater interest among students compared to traditional laboratory work due to the possibility of self-design and manufacture of microfluidic devices and control of the process of obtaining nanoparticles using a computer.


Finding the wavevectors (eigenvalues) and wavefronts (eigenvectors) in nanostructured metasurfaces is cast as a problem of finding the complex roots of a non-linear equation. A new algorithm is introduced for solving this problem; example eigenvalues are obtained and compared against the results from a popular, yet much more computationally expensive method built on a matrix eigenvalue problem. In contrast to the conventional solvers, the proposed method always returns a set of 'exact' individual eigenvalues. First, by using the Lehmer-Schur algorithm, we isolate individual complex roots from others, then use a zero-polishing method applied at the very final stage of ultimate eigenvalue localization. Exceptional computational performance, scalability, and accuracy are demonstrated.


Abstract Background: Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are at an increased risk for health disparities that serve as barriers to participation in daily occupations. Understanding the lived experience of individuals with ID can illuminate barriers and facilitators to these health-promoting occupations. Commonly used methods examining health for individuals with ID may not reveal important information about their daily participation potentially due to cognitive or communication limitations. Participatory action research including Photovoice is a viable alternative to meet their unique needs. Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the process of using a Photovoice method with individuals with ID and present results from two participants to understand their meaning of health. Method: An analysis of two participants is provided to illustrate the use of Photovoice. Results: Three themes, Personal Identity of Health, Nutrition, and Meaningful Occupation were identified using photos, personal narratives, and focus group data. Conclusions: Participants had complex definitions of health that are better understood through the composite of narrative descriptions and visual data as compared to more commonly used research methods. The use of a Photovoice method allowed participants to communicate additional depth and complexity of their understanding of health that has not been previously captured.


Applications fo polyimides in microelectronics were reviewed. Only materials that can retain sufficient reliability for severe heat conditions(180-400°C) can be used as insulation materials for electronics. Polyimides are an invaluable organic materials that satisfy the heat resistance requirement. For polyimides, fine patterning technologies of below 1 micron have been established. These technologies are sufficient for wiring board applications and passable for LSI wiring. Dielectrics with low k become necessary for high performance electronic products Table 1 lists k for various inorganic materials and organic polymers. Except for Teflon and polyethylene, polyimides give the lowest k. A large number of monomers with a variety of structures offer wide possibilities for molecular design of polyimides. Now-a-days, corresponding to strong demands for better electrical consumer products, many kinds of applications are spreading widely; e.g. LSI buffer coat films, TAB tapes, adhesives for LSI packaging, liquid crystal orientation films, and optical application fields such as waveguides. Polyimides will be more important material in electronics, because of their superior properties coupled with wide design tolerance.


Progress in the study of generalized oscillator strengths since January 1, 1970 is reviewed. The status of methods for the experimental determination of electron collision cross sections and generalized oscillator strengths is discussed including the comparison of inelastic and elastic scattering when elastic cross sections are available, the use of a comparison gas with a transition of known cross section, and the determination of optical oscillator strengths from forward scattering spectra. Outstanding discrepancies between limiting generalized oscillator strengths (at zero momentum change) and optical oscillator strengths are resolved for the most part. There are no longer any outstanding discrepancies involving refractive indices. Two new selection rules, one relating to singlet-singlet transitions, the other to singlet-triplet transitions are described. Other deviations from the Born approximation at large momentum changes are discussed. Generalized oscillator strengths are applied to the calculation of cross sections (in Born approximation) for resonant energy transfer in collision between two molecules one of which is excited. A list of publications is included.


: Aim: To this day, HIV/AIDS remains a 21st century threat. The overall pace of new HIV infections are steadily decreasing in some countries, but there is still a burden of disease in Asia. A few surveys have shown that 73 to 95 percent of the Patients infected with HIV have manifestations in the ears, nose and throat. The purpose of this survey was to Recognize the extent of ENT signs in HIV-infected patients. at KCMC based on age, gender and CD4 counts. Methods: It is an illustrative cross sectional examination directed to the KCMC clinic including HIV infected patients who visited HIV treatment centers. Our current research was conducted at Services Hospital, Lahore from March 2019 to February 2020. Advantageous tests were used to obtain study members, and 200 patients were recruited. in the exam. Information was collected through a patient survey, and the results were being investigated using SPSS restitution 24. Results: Sixty-eight (38%) of the 200 HIV-infected patients had ENT indications. The most The age group influenced was 0 to 9 years of age. The onset of ENT was more common in women. (23.5%) than in men (10.5%). Those with CD4 cells check under 200cells/μL in addition it was a strong ubiquity (56.3%). Conclusion: This survey showed that 33% of the population under consideration presented ENT signs. All clinical experts should be aware of the ENT signs in HIV-infected people. to ensure early and appropriate mediation.


The process of information evaluation may compete with the decision making process by requiring the limited cognitive resources. In the case of Major Events, such as the Football World Cup or the Olympic Games, the thematic grouping of every information may be overwhelming. The theme switching caused by information associated with a different thematic group may be modelled as an interruption in multitasking set-ups. Thus, automating the thematic grouping of information may facilitate the decision making process by reducing the theme switching for a decision maker when he reads a set of messages. In this paper were used clustering techniques with multi-criteria to group the messages in themes. These criteria were implemented as configurable operators. To achieve a better comprehension of those parameters, we introduced the concepts of Thematic Strength (TS) and Thematic Density (TD). The evaluation of the strategy was made over a set of operational messages available in the Pacificador system during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.


The mathematical models and methods for adaptive fuzzy control are offered. The methods also take into account the statistical information and risk conditions at the control implementation.


Background The NALCN encodes a sodium ion leak channel that regulates nerve-resting conductance and excitability. NALCN variants are associated with two neurodevelopmental disorders, one is CLIFAHDD (autosomal dominant congenital contractures of the limbs and face, hypotonia, and developmental delay, OMIM #616266) and another is IHPRF (infantile hypotonia with psychomotor retardation, and characteristic facies 1, OMIM #615419). Case Presentation In the current study, a Chinese infant that manifested abnormal facial features, adducted thumbs, and neurodevelopmental retardation was diagnosed with CLIFAHDD syndrome. A trio-based whole-exome sequencing revealed that the infant harbored a de novo variant of the NALCN gene (c.4300A>G, p.I1434V). Conclusions Our findings further enriched the variant spectrum of the NALCN gene and may expand the clinical range of NALCN-related disorders.


Background: Positional release therapy (PRT) has been suggested as an effective treatment for myofascial trigger points (MTrPs). Considering the mechanism of PRT, a new modified technique, known as Manual Passive Muscle Shortening (MPMS), is introduced for the treatment of MTrPs. Objectives: To compare the effects of MPMS and PRT on the sensitivity of latent MTrPs in the upper trapezius and determine the active cervical lateral flexion range. Methods: In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, 30 female university students, who were identified with latent MTrPs of the upper trapezius, were recruited from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. The participants were randomly allocated into experimental (n, 15) and control (n, 15) groups. The experimental group was treated with the MPMS technique, while the control group received PRT. The participants took part in 3 treatment sessions, as well as a follow-up session 1 week after the third session. During each session, the second physiotherapist, who was blind to the pretreatment information, applied the appropriate technique. The visual analogue scale (VAS), pressure pain threshold (PPT), and bilateral active range of cervical lateral flexion were recorded to assess the effects of treatment. The first physiotherapist, who was blind to the treatment approach for the participants, recorded the outcomes before treatment, during the first session, after treatment (third session), and in the follow-up. Results: A total of 30 participants were included in the data analysis. In the follow-up, intergroup changes indicated a significant increase in PPT (P = 0.000), a significant decrease in VAS scores (P = 0.002), and a significant increase in the right lateral flexion (P = 0.012) in the experimental group. Left lateral flexion also increased in this group, although it was not statistically significant (P = 0.254). At the end of the study, there were no significant differences between the groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: According to the results, both MPMS and PRT were effective techniques in immediate pain relief of upper-trapezius MTrPs. Therefore, MPMS may be used as a new technique in the treatment of MTrPs.


Purpose

This study examines the effect of business cycle, market return and momentum on the financial performance of socially responsible investing (SRI) mutual funds using data from two complete business cycles as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Design/methodology/approach

A "fund of funds" approach is used to identify the extent to which SRI financial performance is affected by the macroeconomic climate. The Fama-French Three-Factor model and the Carhart four-factor model are used to bring the results into alignment with commonly used finance methodologies.

Findings

The results indicate that SRI tends to preserve value during economic contraction more than it adds value during economic expansion. Market return is important during both expansion and contraction, while momentum is important only during expansion.

Research limitations/implications

These findings suggest that double screening, for both financial and social performance, enables portfolio managers of SRI funds to have insight into those companies that are particularly vulnerable during times of economic contraction.

Practical implications

These results bring added clarity to the mixed findings found by previous researchers examining the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance.

Social implications

This study reinforces the idea that the financial performance of companies with high ethical standards is comparable to the financial performance of the market as a whole during times of economic expansion and superior to the market as a whole during times of economic contraction.

Originality/value

Business cycle analysis, along with the Fama-French Three-Factor model and the Carhart four-factor model, brings SRI research more into the realm of conventional financial analysis than previous studies.