The need for faster, less traffic-disruptive rehabilitation for aging highway infrastructure is an emerging concern for many state highway agencies. In response to this concern, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) launched the Long-Life Pavement Rehabilitation Strategies (LLPRS) program in 1998 to rebuild 2,800 lane kilometers of high-volume urban freeway with premium pavements that will last 30+ years and require minimal maintenance over their service life. This paper presents innovative strategies and technologies for achieving faster project completion with less traffic disruption as applied on three experimental LLPRS projects. The research team and the Caltrans project team used Construction Analysis for Pavement Rehabilitation Strategies (CA4PRS) software from the initial planning and design stages to implement the most economical rehabilitation strategies for the projects. The postconstruction analysis of all three LLPRS projects, made with data collected during construction, revealed a close match with the preconstruction schedule estimate generated by CA4PRS, validating the software's scheduling reliability. Incentive-disincentive contractual provisions proved effective for shortening project duration on all three LLPRS projects, which were time critical because of their heavy traffic volume. Resultant traffic data demonstrate the importance of a public outreach campaign that convinced motorists to use alternative routes or to adjust their commuting modes, resulting in significantly lower traffic demand in the construction work zone. The strategies and lessons addressed in this paper will help state highway agencies and contractors maximize construction productivity for early project completion and minimize inconvenience to the traveling public.


Method for preparation of chitosan immobilized on silica gel (CTS-silica) was described. The CTS-silica was used as absorbent for the absorption of nickel in water. The results showed that this absorbent had relatively high selectivity and strong affinity to nickel. The maximum absorption capacity for nickel can reach 667 mg/g of chitosan. Factors that affect the absorption capacity, such as pH, ion strength and the presence of calcium, EDTA and the mechanism of absorption were discussed in detail. The absorbent can be regenerated with acid and reused for several times. The recovery rate for nickel can reach 99.99%. This absorbent filled in a column can be used in nickel removal from wastewater and drinking water.


Compact planar loop antennas fed by coplanar striplines (CPS) are presented for dual-band and ultrawideband (UWB) operations. The dual-band antenna consists of two resonant radiating parts, namely a strip loop and a slot loop. Based on the dual-band design, a wideband operation can be achieved. Two prototype antennas operating at the 2.4/5 GHz wireless LAN bands with dimensions of 45 × 15 × 0.813 mm3 and for the lower UWB band (3.1-4.8 GHz) with dimensions of 34 × 13.5 × 0.813 mm3 were fabricated on a RO4003 substrate. The measured input reflection loss is lower than 15 dB for the dual-band antenna and 10 dB for the UWB antenna. Both of the antennas show accept able gain and dipole-like radiation patterns over the operating frequency bands.


A 56-year-old woman with rheumatoid factor-positive rheumatoid arthritis underwent FDG-PET/CT because of fatigue, fever, coughing, and weight loss for several months. FDG-PET/CT solely revealed a mildly hypermetabolic hypodense area in the left atrium. Subsequently, transthoracic echocardiography and contrast-enhanced MRI showed a left atrial pedunculated soft tissue mass suggestive for myxoma, with histological confirmation. Myocardial involvement by tumors is rare, and FDG-PET/CT has been very useful for identifying cardiac metastases. However, very few cases have been reported using FDG-PET/CT for detecting primary cardiac tumors, but as shown here, abnormal focal myocardial uptake should trigger further morphological assessment.


In this work a transmission-line model for a patch antenna where a half of the patch is loaded with a dispersive material with negative parameters is used to explore the antenna bandwidth characteristics. Possibilities to reduce the antenna size using the phase compensation in the loaded patch are considered. Resonant properties of patch antennas loaded with a dispersive material and with a non-dispersive medium having ε<inf>0</inf>=-ε<inf>o</inf>, μ<inf>0</inf>=-μ<inf>0</inf>are compared with the unloaded case.


The objective of this research was to identify and to analyze kinds of grammatical errors made by the eighth gradestudents in their recount text andalso to find out the reasons why the errors occurred. The design of this research was descriptive research design. The population of this research was the eighth gradestudents of SMP Negeri 2 Parigi and the number of the sample was 28 students. The researcher used three instruments. They were observation checklist, test, and questionnaire. Theresultof this research indicated thatthe eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 2 Parigi had poor ability in writing recount text. The highestpercentage errors was made in subject-verb agreementby89.2%, the second was spelling and punctuation by 85.7%, the third was simple past tense by 78%, the fourth was preposition by 67.8 %, and the last errors was pronoun by 28.5%. The main sources of those errors wereinterlingual errors and induced errors. Keywords : Analyzing; Errors; Recount Text


This article rethinks a paradigm for ministry in a world in which a culture of choice is radically challenging sacramental, baptismal theology. Drawing on the two fundamental biblical metaphors for baptism—baptism as a womb (John 3) and a tomb (Rom 6)—the article tries to reimagine ministry emerging from these two metaphors. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of developing ministry by the use of this dialectic—ministry as both womb and tomb.


Given widespread concerns over human-mediated bee declines in abundance and species richness, conservation efforts are increasingly focused on maintaining natural habitats to support bee diversity in otherwise resource-poor environments. However, natural habitat patches can vary in composition, impacting landscape-level heterogeneity and affecting plant-pollinator interactions. Plant-pollinator networks, especially those based on pollen loads, can provide valuable insight into mutualistic relationships, such as revealing the degree of pollination specialization in a community; yet, local and landscape drivers of these network indices remain understudied within urbanizing landscapes. Beyond networks, analyzing pollen collection can reveal key information about species-level pollen preferences, providing plant restoration information for urban ecosystems. Through bee collection, vegetation surveys, and pollen load identification across ~350 km of urban habitat, we studied the impact of local and landscape-level management on plant-pollinator networks. We also quantified pollinator preferences for plants within urban grasslands. Bees exhibited higher foraging specialization with increasing habitat heterogeneity and visited fewer flowering species (decreased generality) with increasing semi-natural habitat cover. We also found strong pollinator species-specific flower foraging preferences, particularly for Asteraceae plants. We posit that maintaining native forbs and supporting landscape-level natural habitat cover and heterogeneity can provide pollinators with critical food resources across urbanizing ecosystems.


This thesis addresses several aspects of using static code analysis tools for detection of security vulnerabilities and faults within source code. First, the performance of three widely used static code analysis tools with respect to detection of security vulnerabilities is evaluated. This is done with the help of a large benchmarking suite designed to test static code analysis tools' performance regarding security vulnerabilities. The performance of the three tools is also evaluated using three open source software projects with known security vulnerabilities. The main results of the first part of this thesis showed that the three evaluated tools do not have significantly different performance in detecting security vulnerabilities. 27% of C/C++ vulnerabilities along with 11% of Java vulnerabilities were not detected by any of the three tools. Furthermore, overall recall values for all three tools were close to or below 50% indicating performance comparable or worse than random guessing. These results were corroborated by the tools' performance on the three real software projects. The second part of this thesis is focused on machine-learning based classification of messages extracted from static code analysis reports. This work is based on data from five real NASA software projects. A classifier is trained on increasing percentages of labeled data in order to emulate an on-going analysis effort for each of the five datasets. Results showed that classification performance is highly dependent on the distribution of true and false positives among source code files. One of the five datasets yielded good predictive classification regarding true positives. One more dataset led to acceptable performance, while the remaining three datasets failed to yield good results. Investigating the distribution of true and false positives revealed that messages were classified successfully when either only real faults and/or only false faults were clustered in files or were flagged by the same checker. The high percentages of false positive singletons (files or checkers that produced 0 true positives and 1 false negative) were found to negatively affect the classifier's performance.


Air pollution by the metallurgical units, as the other stressors, can modify the optical and fluorescence properties of leaf plants either directly or indirectly. Therefore stress effects on plants are detectable via changed on fluorescence signature of leaves. Air pollution could induce decrease of chlorophyll (Chl) content as well as significant decline of photosynthetic activity. The chlorophyll florescence as a nondestructive method for the in vivo analysis of plants allow to study the photosynthetic light processes and quantum conversion to detect stress effect on the activity of the photosynthetic apparatus. Metallurgical factory in Elbasan that release chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere is considered a source of air pollution. Some plant species grown in area near the factory were studied to evaluate the efficiency of photosynthetic apparatus in pollution conditions via chlorophyll fluorescence imaging during induction kinetics. Different fluorescence ratios which describe the photosynthetic light processes and the potential and effective quantum yields of Photosystem II were considered too. Chlorophyll fluorescence images were measured using the FluorCam 700MF imaging system (Photon Systems Instrument) as a technique that offers the possibility to study the distribution and patchiness of fluorescence signatures over the whole leaf area. Chl fluorescence images were measured on the leaves of spontaneous plants grown in sites with different level of steel plant air pollution assessed on base of different distances and different directions from the source of the pollution. Contamination effect reflected on photosynthetic activity of leaves was very high particularly on plants located nearer the metallurgical units.


This latest Brueggemann offering is a compendium of articles previously published in the periodical Journal of Preachers. Each offering is a relatively short, self-contained piece, but they all share an interest in encouraging the preacher in the homiletic task, and specifically in the call to be 'truth-tellers', those charged with 'the enactment and conveyance of this Person who is truth' (p. xiii). Focused around discussions as to what comprises truth, Brueggemann addresses the preacher's task of setting forth an alternative, subversive way of living, one that challenges contemporary ideas and values and that presents a discourse of alternative, dissident truth. As such his 'readers' become his congregation – the articles adopt something of a homiletic tone, and the rhythmic and lively prose deserves to be heard as much as read. The sermonic style is not, though, at the cost of academic or scholarly interaction, and there are frequent footnotes offering further comment on the matter in hand. The volume comprises eight chapters or articles; each takes a different shape/tone, but they share a common aim. The essays are not dated, except for one written the day after the attack on the Twin Towers, but contemporary references (for example, to the Truth & Reconciliation commission in South Africa) suggest that they cover a relatively wide spectrum of time (though still, for this reader at least, remain relevant and contemporary). Attempting to encourage and nurture what Brueggemann terms an 'evangelical faith' (p. 18), familiar biblical concepts or motifs are explored in the proclamation of a radical, subversive truth. Unsurprisingly perhaps, he draws on core Hebrew Bible images as the focus for his 'truth-telling' exploration; he revisits the Exodus and Sinai as focal points for the proclamation of good news, and considers the Mosaic mission as a framework for Lenten exhortation. The sixth chapter (which shares the title of the whole book) has a particular engagement with the ninth commandment, and particularly the fact that false witness is not to be offered to one's neighbour, and its implications, therefore, for how one speaks of God and the world. Elsewhere, Brueggemann offers some useful insights into how themes develop within the biblical tradition; for example, in a piece seeking to hold to both the non-negotiability of the Decalogue and equally the need for interpretive openness in its application, he plots the development of the Sabbath commandment and its varying usage within the Hebrew Bible tradition. This set of essays does not expand significantly on ideas found in other parts of the Brueggemann portfolio, and one would probably not expect them to do so. There are significant echoes here of his articulation elsewhere of the 'prophetic imagination'. But the articles form a succinct, readable set, particularly for the exhortation to challenge hearers as to their capacity for self-deception.


Objective: To study the prevalence, aetiology, gender and site distribution of unerupted maxillary incisors at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos
Methods: Clinical records of 2,240 patients that attended the Orthodontic Clinic of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos Nigeria between June 1998 and December 2000 were retrieved and reviewed. Date extracted included age, gender, tooth type(s) and aetiological factors causing delayed eruption were recorded.
Result: Out of 2,240 patients seen during the period of the study, 39 cases (1.7%) presented with a total of 41 unerupted maxillary incisors. Maxillary right central incisor was found to be most frequently involved tooth 16 (39.0%). The left central incisor involvement was in 13 (31.7%) of maxillary incisors. There was bilateral involvement of the central as well as the lateral incisors in 2 cases representing 4.9% each of the samples studied. Of the lateral incisors, the right one was similarly more often affected (12.2%) than the left one (7.3%). The presence of isolated odontomes was the most common cause of lack of eruption of the maxillary incisors with a prevalence of 20.5%. Other factors causing delayed eruption were odontomes with retained primary tooth (15.4%), presence of supernumerary teeth of especially the mesiodens type (15.4%), retained primary teeth (12.8%), rotation and trauma constituting 7.7% each. An inverted tooth that failed to erupt was recorded in only one case of the population (2.6%). Fibrous tissue delayed eruption of the maxillary incisors in 5.1% and in about 12.8% the etiological factor could not be ascertained
Conclusion: All the teeth that have not erupted six months after its normal eruption date should be subjected to radiological examination to ascertain any possible cause. The earlier the removal of the causative factor preventing eruption of the maxillary incisors, the better is the prognosis KEY WORDS: Unerupted, Teeth, Maxillary and Incisors. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice Vol.6(1) 2003: 60-64


Abstract : In January 1994, the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM) was tasked by Air Command (AIRCOM) to study human factors issues in CC-130 Hercules operations within what was then Air Transport Group (ATG)- now a component of 1 Canadian Air Division. This tasking reflected a perception that the accident record within the Canadian Forces (CF) fleet was significantly worse than the record of other fleets involved in similar operations. In response to this tasking, a joint DCIEM/ ATG team was formed. The activities of this study group were funded by the Chief of Research and Development (CRAD).The following recommendation, served as the impetus to the work. Raise the overall level of systems knowledge among ATG aircrew by developing teaching aids and courses to accelerate the acquisition of knowledge and to compensate for lowered fleet experience levels through advances in training program delivery. In this Volume, systems knowledge training is first placed within a general risk management scheme as an overall causal framework for securing safer and more effective operations within the CC-130 community of 1 Canadian Air Division (1 CAD). Current systems knowledge training practices within the organisation are reviewed next, including past assessments of the need for modernisation of training. It is concluded that while current training practices are sound, thorough, and professional in execution, there remains room for improvement because downsizing and experience loss have impeded the ability of 8 Wing, Trenton, to achieve training modernisation .A selected review of best training concepts and practices is presented. The key areas covered include: the importance of life-long learning; a just-in-time knowledge-to-skill training model; problem-based (i.e., case-based), self-directed learning; effective use of interactive multi-media for training at the Operational Training Unit (OTU), for on-the-job training (OJT) and


The intensity of use hypothesis is widely used both as an explanation of trends in materials consumption over time and as a predictive tool. The paper examines significant weaknesses in the data normally used to test the hypothesis. An examination of long-term trends in the intensity of apparent first use of aluminium, copper and steel in eight countries shows a tendency for usage per unit of GDP to follow an inverted U shape as per capita GDP increases. Cross country comparisons for individual years do not demonstrate such a relationship. Apparent first uses are not always good guides to actual consumption, and the weaknesses in the data are discussed. Per capita GDP is only one influence on materials usage, and the paper looks at other factors, and most notably at the structure of both output and expenditure. China's intensity of use appears anomalous, raising questions about future trends in its materials usage. Avenues for future research are outlined.


The Chancay culture of the Late Intermediate Period, spanning c. 1000-1476 CE, emphasized the importance of death and ritual through woven works, specifically their fiber sculptures. These sculptures often depicted the medium in which they were created, featuring figures commonly identified as female weaving with backstrap looms. My primary resources for this topic include digital images of woven Latin American indigenous artworks, information from the museums that house the works, scholarly journals, and my own observation. I noticed that, by focusing on weaving scenes, the Chancay people reassert their beliefs as well as the spiritual nature of this craft. Weaving's significance stems from its connection to creation, aligning with creation myths the majority of indigenous peoples in Latin America that often reference the world being woven out of nothing by the earth mother; however, its connection to the dead and the underworld comes through the layering of the fabrics, wrapping the thread to build up the figures in the fiber sculptures as one would wrap a body to prepare it for burial and the soul for rebirth. These fiber sculptures were buried in the tombs with the bodies and often found with sewing instruments, indicating the deceased's connection to weaving either as a profession or a spiritual connection. Utilizing comparanda pieces, I deduced that Fiber Sculpture of Mother Teaching Daughter to Weave gives insight on these rituals focused on life and death as well as the daily life of the Chancay people, according to what they valued in their society.


Background Paediatric palliative care focuses on the enhancement of the quality of life for a child and family through a combination of active and compassionate therapies intended to comfort and support the child and family who are living with a life-threatening illness. The purpose of this study was to assess the experience with and confidence in providing paediatric palliative care of practicing family/general practitioners (GPs) and paediatricians. In addition, the learning needs, modes of learning and their methods of coping/self-care were questioned. Methods Two hundred paediatricians and GPs in the province of British Columbia were randomly selected to participate in a mailed survey. The survey consisted of three categories: demographic information, experience and knowledge of paediatric palliative care, educational needs and preferences for learning and provision of their own self-care. Results The response rate of completed surveys was 56.5%. Only 40.1% of respondents felt their knowledge and experience were adequate. Overall, 73.5% of the respondents reported that they would like to learn more about paediatric palliative care. Over 53% of those surveyed preferred that learning be offered remotely through either internet or correspondence. Seventy-four per cent of respondents expressed they had adequate or very adequate self-care strategies to meet their own needs of well-being. Conclusions The results of the survey will guide the paediatric palliative care community to design programmes that will better educate practicing physicians and future physicians about paediatric palliative and end of life care, healthcare services and family communication and support.


In a posttest-only group experimental design, 176 college undergraduates (80 male, 96 female) watched TV crime drama scenes, which included either sexual or physical violence against women, to determine the effects of crime dramas on enjoyment, gender stereotypes, acceptance of the objectification of women, and rape myth acceptance. Male participants who watched sexual violence clips expressed less support for traditional gender stereotypes. There were no significant condition effects for the remaining outcome measures among the male participants except that they perceived the physical violence clips to be the most enjoyable. Results for female participants were mixed. Implications are discussed within the frameworks of social cognitive theory and the potential benefits of well-designed crime dramas to address sexual violence against women.


Accumulating evidence has indicated that chronic inflammation is associated with cancer development. Mouse genetic studies have shown that the proinflammatory mediator, PGE2, plays an essential role in gastrointestinal tumorigenesis. Moreover, the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α also plays a key role in tumorigenesis, including colitis-associated colon cancer. However, the relationship between PGE2 and TNF-α in tumorigenesis has not yet been fully investigated. We previously constructed a gastric tumor mouse model, Gan mice, that recapitulates human intestinal-type gastric cancer, in which both the PGE2 pathway and Wnt signaling are activated simultaneously in the stomach by transgenic expression of the COX-2, mPGES-1, and Wnt1 genes. The induction of the PGE2 pathway triggers an inflammatory response in the Gan mouse stomach, and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines is induced in gastric tumor tissues. We herein examined the role of TNF-α in the PGE2-induced inflammation-associated gastric tumorigenesis by crossing Gan mice with TNF-α knockout mice. Importantly, the gastric tumorigenesis in the Gan TNF-α (-/-) compound mice was significantly suppressed in comparison to the control Gan mice. Moreover, the β-catenin level decreased significantly in the gastric tumors of Gan TNF-α (-/-) mice, suggesting a role for TNF-α in the promotion of Wnt signaling. Interestingly, inflammatory cells, including macrophages and CD4+ T cells, still infiltrated into the Gan TNF-α (-/-) mouse tumors, and the expression levels of IL-1α and IL-6 were almost the same as those in the control Gan mouse tumors. Accordingly, it is possible that TNF-α is an important tumor-promoting factor for gastric tumorigenesis, although TNF-α is not essential for PGE2-induced inflammation in the stomach. Notably, macrophages in the Gan TNF-α (-/-) mouse tumors lost their expression of the M2 marker CD206. It has been suggested that macrophages polarized to the M2(-like) type are important for tissue remodeling and tumorigenesis. It is therefore possible that TNF-α is required for macrophage polarization to a pro-tumorigenic status, which may be important for Wnt activation and gastric tumor promotion. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1339. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1339


The genus Callistemon belongs to the family Myrtaceae and comprises 34 species. They are woody aromatic trees or shrubs that are widely distributed in the wet tropics. According to the scientific literature, research on seed germination of this genus was rarely carried out. The germination requirements of Callistemon citrinus and Callistemon linearis were studied under controlled conditions in the laboratory. Seeds of both species were tested for germination at constant temperatures of 25°C, 30°C, 40°C, and at room temperature (23 ± 2°C) coupled with total darkness. Seeds were sown in Petri dishes (0.8% agar water) for 25 days of incubation. The kinetics of germination was determined according to four closely related parameters viz. final germination percentage (FGP), mean germination time (MGT), coefficient of velocity of germination (CVG) and time to 50% germination (T50). The room temperature of 23 ± 2 °C was found optimally suitable for both species, with 80% FGP and 11.1 days MGT for C. citrinus, and only 21.7% FGP and 12.4 days MGT were recorded for C. linearis. Furthermore, significant decrease in FGP was observed in both species at 25°C, 30°C and 40°C of temperature. The analysis also revealed that day 12-15 after seed sowing is suitable for final counts. Due of its very low FGP, seeds of C. linearis need an additional study to determine their viability.


Candida albicans is a human pathogen of significant clinical relevance. This pathogen is resistant to different drugs, and most clinical antifungals are not effective against the prevention and treatment of C. albicans infections. As with other microorganisms, it can produce biofilms that serve as a barrier against antifungal agents and other substances, contributing to infection in humans and environmental tolerance of this microorganism. Thus, resistances and biofilm formation make treatment difficult. In addition, the complete eradication of biofilms in implants, catheters and other medical devices, is challenging and necessary to prevent relapses of candidemia. Therefore, it is a priority to find new molecules or combinations of compounds with anti-Candida biofilm activity. Due to the difficulty of treating and removing biofilms, the aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro ability of different generation of cationic carbosilane dendrons derived from 4-phenylbutyric acid, ArCO2Gn(SNMe3I)m, to eradicate C. albicans biofilms. Here, we assessed the antifungal activity of the second generation dendron ArCO2G2(SNMe3I)4 against C. albicans cells and established biofilms since it managed to seriously damage the membrane. In addition, the combinations of the second generation dendron with AgNO3 or EDTA eradicated the viability of biofilm cells. Alterations were observed by scanning electron microscopy and cytotoxicity was assessed on HeLa cells. Our data suggest that the dendritic compound ArCO2G2(SNMe3I)4 could represent an alternative to control the infections caused by this pathogen.


Rate control (RC) optimization is indispensable for scalable video coding (SVC) with respect to bitstream storage and video streaming usage. From the perspective of centralized resource allocation optimization, the inner-layer bit allocation problem is similar to the bargaining problem. Therefore, bargaining game theory can be employed to improve the RC performance for spatial SVC. In this paper, we propose a bargaining game-based one-pass RC scheme for spatial H.264/SVC. In each spatial layer, the encoding constraints, such as bit rates, buffer size are jointly modeled as resources in the inner-layer bit allocation bargaining game. The modified rate-distortion model incorporated with the inter-layer coding information is investigated. Then, the generalized nash bargaining solution (NBS) is employed to achieve an optimal bit allocation solution. The bandwidth is allocated to the frames from the generalized NBS adaptively based on their own bargaining powers. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RC algorithm achieves appealing image quality improvement and buffer smoothness. The average mismatch of our proposed algorithm is within the range of 0.19%-2.63%.


Recruitment of new blood vessels, commonly referred as tumor angiogenesis, during cancer progression provides an important route by which tumor cells can enter the circulation and cause distant metastasis. Tumor cells that are overexpressing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) can shift the balance towards pro-angiogenic mechanisms to favor aggressive growth and enhanced metastatic potential. In this process binding of VEGF to its receptor is very critical step for triggering kinase activation and trans-phosphorylation that can eventually lead to the activation of a complex signal cascade and completion of angiogenesis. Therefore, interference with the function of the VEGFR has become a promising strategy to inhibit tumor angiogenesis. Through the molecular modeling approach a novel isoindol-amide compound, code named F16, was identified as a potent antagonist for VEGFR. The anti-angiogenic potential of F16 was confirmed through the in vitro angiogenesis assay using HUVEC cells that were grown on ECMatrixTM gel with different concentrations (0 to 10 µM) of F16. Binding assay with fluorokine conjugated VEGF in HUVEC cells proved a strong competitive binding ability for F16 (0.001 to 1.0 µM) with VEGFR in a dose dependent manner. In the whole cell binding assay nearly 95% inhibition of fluorokine conjugated VEGF was observed at 1.0 µM concentration of F16. Also, the western blot analysis showed a strong inhibition of VEGF induced phosphorylation of VEGFR2 by F16 at the same (1.0 µM) concentration in HUVEC cells. Furthermore, In vivo experiments were conducted to confirm the extent of F16 induced tumor growth inhibition in athymic nude mice that were implanted with GI-101A breast tumor xenograft. In these experiments the tumor bearing mice were designated to experimental groups (N = 6/group), namely: Control; F16 (100 mg/kg body weight); Taxol (10 mg/kg body weight); and F16 (100 mg/kg body weight) + Taxol (10 mg/kg body weight). All treatments were given intraperitonealy once in two days for a period of 21 days. Tumor growth was assessed every week using the caliper measurement. In the xenograft mice that were treated with F16 or Taxol alone nearly 65% and 71.5% inhibition of tumor growth was observed, respectively, while combination (F16 + Taxol) treatment showed more than 85.2% inhibition when compared to the untreated controls. Results from our study confirm that F16 inhibits VEGF binding and consequently VEGFR2 phosphorylation to prevent endothelial cell proliferation, migration and sprouting of new capillaries. Our findings so far have fully validated F16 as a promising anti-angiogenic agent. (The Royal Dames of Cancer Research Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is gratefully acknowledged for their generous financial support). Citation Format: Appu Rathinavelu, Sivanesan Dhandayuthapani. A novel anti-angiogenic compound F16 that inhibits xenograft tumor growth. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1003. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1003


Background. Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the complications of pregnancy. Genetic and epigenetic mechanisms are involved in the preeclampsia pathophysiology. The aims of present study were to investigate the role of Keap1 (rs11085735) variants and the methylation status of long non-coding RNA-maternally expressed gene 3 (lncRNA MEG3) in the pathogenesis of PE in a population from Western Iran with Kurdish ethnic background.Results. There was no significant difference in the frequency of Keap1 genotypes comparing 75 patients with PE and 75 women with normal pregnancy. The frequencies of hemi methylated and full methylated lnc-MEG3 were 94 and 6% (P=0.04), respectively in all patients (50 women), 86.4, and 13.6% (P=0.04), respectively in patients with severe preeclampsia and 98 and 0% in controls (50 women). The frequency of full methylated lnc-MEG3 was 14.3% in early-onset and 2.8% in late-onset preeclampsia (P=0.12). The frequency of full methylated lnc-MEG3 was higher in patients with BMI >25 kg/m2 compared to normal weight patients. The PE patients had significantly higher levels of liver biomarkers (alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and total bilirubin) and significantly lower platelet count than healthy pregnant women. Conclusions. Hypermethylation status of lnc-MEG3 increased in patients with PE compared to controls that could be contributed in the pathogenesis and development of preeclampsia and its severe form. However, Keap1 variants might not be involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.


This study examined the adoption of improved technologies in maize-based farming systems on income of farmers in Ondo state, Nigeria. It specifically identifies the socio-economic characteristics, determines the intensity of adoption of improved technologies introduced to maize-based farmers and examine the effect of adoption of improved technologies on their income in the study area. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to obtain data from 160 maize-based farmers that were selected from 3 Local Government Areas in Ondo State. Descriptive Statistical Analysis, Budgetary Technique Analysis and Tobit Regression Analysis were used to analyze the data. Results on socio-economic characteristics disclosed that most (59.82 percent) of the respondents were relatively old (more than 50 years) with the mean age of 54.76 years. Also, 50.63 percent of the respondents had between 5 and 8 members in their households. It was revealed that only 29.62 percent of the respondents had secondary education and above. The farmers were well experienced with 65 percent of them having more than 20 years of farming experience and 73.75 percent of them had less than 2 hectares of land as farm size. The result of profitability analysis shows that the total revenue, gross margin and net farm income for the improved technology adopters are ₦750,450, ₦573,130 and ₦521,940 respectively. On the other hand, the total revenue, gross margin and net farm income for the non-adopters of improved technology are ₦320,140, ₦244,180and ₦227,830 respectively, implying that improved technology adopters performed way better than non-adopters in terms of total revenue, gross margin and total cost. The determinants of intensity of adoption of improved technologies in the study area as shown by Tobit regression estimate revealed that age, extension access, farming experience, marital status, household size, farm size and educational level were statistically significant, implying that they are the important variables found to greatly influence the intensity of adoption of improved technologies by maize-based farmers in Ondo state. It is therefore recommended that policy option requires the traditional technology users to embrace the improved agricultural technologies in order to increase their earning per unit of land cultivated should be introduced.


Title: Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing: The Linguistic Analysis of a Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Soldier Adviser: Professor Paul Wachtel An attempt was made in this case study to assess the Referential Process, a set of phases that illustrate the process of how individuals place words upon conscious and unconscious nonverbal experiences, in an EMDR treatment of a veteran. The Referential Process was assessed by shifts in scores of three measures, Referential Activity (WRAD), Reflection, and Disfluency, as captured by a computerized linguistic program. The shifts among the measures were used to guide a qualitative description of the process in an effective treatment of a veteran with PTSD. This is the first study to examine levels of referential activity and the referential process in an EMDR treatment and more generally referential activity in any trauma focused treatment. Additionally, whereas most EMDR studies have focused upon one trauma incident, this study adds to the growing, but limited, literature of EMDR treatment in the military population with numerous trauma memories. With the two objectives in mind, the recorded sessions were transcribed and coded and a computerized linguistic and qualitative analysis was applied to 10 sessions of a 12 session EMDR treatment. The patient exhibited high referential activity as measured by WRAD levels, when compared to other psychotherapy samples, which indicates that he was immersed in the narrative for much of the treatment. The high WRAD levels may be attributed to the treatment task of EMDR. An examination of the high WRAD narratives suggests that the WRAD measure may require further examination in trauma populations to decipher if the speaker is immersed in or reliving the narrative. The interaction between WRAD and Reflection in the Referential Process appears important in trauma processing and may relate to the significance of distancing (versus reliving) fostered by the EMDR protocol. The qualitative analysis revealed shifts in the veteran's schema as depicted by changes in: the therapeutic relationship, his negative cognitions about himself and patient reports of relationship with others.


The public health relevance of the opioid epidemic in the United States in 2018 cannot be overstated. Rates of substance use disorders and overdose deaths related to prescription drugs and other opioids, such as heroin, continue to soar. As the U.S. continues to grapple with the opioid epidemic, it is important to understand the role of providers in combating this crisis. Healthcare providers not only have an impact as prescribers of opioids, but also as partners in the interprofessional management of patients who have a substance use disorder. Dental professionals in particular are in a position to have a major impact on the opioid epidemic; dentists regularly manage acute pain and often have frequent patient interactions, providing an opportunity for screening and referral. Recent efforts to educate students and providers have been successful in reducing the rate of opioid prescriptions by dentists, but there are additional opportunities for dental education to address the opioid epidemic. This review aims to highlight and assess current educational efforts by individual dental schools, national membership organizations, and state and federal government to address the role of the dentist in this crisis.


Abstract Background. While dopamine produces well-characterized dose-dependent effects on systemic hemodynamics, there is a paucity of information regarding its effects on hepatic hemodynamics. Infusion rates above 10 μg/kg/min are reported to produce significant vasoconstriction and impair organ perfusion. Therefore, donors are sometimes considered unsuitable when higher doses of dopamine are in use. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of increasing doses of dopamine on hepatic hemodynamics in a nonanesthetized swine model. Materials and methods. Sixteen pigs were instrumented with indwelling catheters in a peripheral artery, peripheral vein, portal vein, and hepatic vein and flow probes around the portal vein and hepatic artery. After recovery, the following variables were measured 10 ± 1 days postinstrumentation: hepatic arterial flow (HAF), portal venous flow (PVF), mean systemic arterial pressure (MAP), central venous pressure (CVP), portal venous pressure (PVP), hepatic venous pressure (HVP), heart rate (HR). Recordings were obtained at baseline and subsequently when dopamine was infused at rates of 3, 6, 12, 15, 21, and 30 μg/kg/min increasing at 1-h intervals. Results. HAF and PVF increased linearly over the entire infusion range, to 69 and 13% over baseline, respectively (P Conclusion. These data show that dopamine infused at dosages of 3–30 μg/kg/min augments HAF, PVF, and THBF and that this effect is linear. These results suggest high-dose dopamine infusion does not disqualify a potential donor liver for transplantation.


Though nearest neighbor Machine Translation (kNN-MT) (CITATION) has proved to introduce significant performance boosts over standard neural MT systems, it is prohibitively slow since it uses the entire reference corpus as the datastore for the nearest neighbor search. This means each step for each beam in the beam search has to search over the entire reference corpus. kNN-MT is thus two-orders slower than vanilla MT models, making it hard to be applied to real-world applications, especially online services. In this work, we propose Fast kNN-MT to address this issue. Fast kNN-MT constructs a significantly smaller datastore for the nearest neighbor search: for each word in a source sentence, Fast kNN-MT first selects its nearest token-level neighbors, which is limited to tokens that are the same as the query token. Then at each decoding step, in contrast to using the entire corpus as the datastore, the search space is limited to target tokens corresponding to the previously selected reference source tokens. This strategy avoids search through the whole datastore for nearest neighbors and drastically improves decoding efficiency. Without loss of performance, Fast kNN-MT is two-orders faster than kNN-MT, and is only two times slower than the standard NMT model. Fast kNN-MT enables the practical use of kNN-MT systems in real-world MT applications. The code is available at https://github.com/ShannonAI/fast-knn-nmt.


The MiGen project is designing and developing an intelligent exploratory environment to support 11-14-year-old students in their learning of algebraic generalization. Deployed within the classroom, the system also provides tools to assist teachers in monitoring students' activities and progress. This paper describes the design of these Teacher Assistance tools and gives a detailed description of one such tool, focusing in particular on the research challenges faced, and the technologies and approaches chosen to implement the necessary functionalities given the context of the project.


We present results of a new model of semiconductor laser amplifiers which differs from previous analyses in that it includes the spectral dependence of material gain and spontaneous emission. The implications of low facet reflectivities are explored in some detail. For reflectivities below about 1 percent, the increased spontaneous emission imposes more stringent limits on current density than realized hitherto. If thermal runaway is to be avoided and gains in the range of 20-30 dB are to be achieved without excessive currents, then facet reflectivities on the order of 0.1-1 percent are probably optimal. Another consequence of including the spectral dependence is that wavelengths longer than that corresponding to the unsaturated gain peak are predicted to experience enhanced amplification at high input powers by comparison to shorter wavelengths.


This thesis proposes improvements to the design of road
accident databases typically used by local authorities in
England. The present design tends to lead to inconsistencies in the information relating to the road network contained in the database.

A methodology for the redesign of the database is proposed which will lead to greater data integrity and provide additional and more detailed information. The advantages of the system are demonstrated by producing accident predictive relationships for sharp bends and minor junctions.

The design has been carried out in the context of a relational database system incorporating data from a geographical information system. The advantages of an object-oriented system are also considered and proposed as
a direction for further research.


Mesophotic reefs, hardgrounds and current‐controlled pelagic to hemipelagic carbonates are facies marking carbonate platform drowning successions, irrespective of the factors controlling this evolution. A modern analogue of a carbonate platform in a state of drowning, where these facies occur has not been properly reported on to date. In the present study, the sedimentary environments of the Saya de Malha Bank are characterized using a multi‐disciplinary approach including sedimentology, hydroacoustics, seismics and oceanography. The Saya de Malha Bank edifice with a surface of 40 808 km2 is located in the tropical Indian Ocean and lies in a water depth of 8 to 300 m extending from the surrounding more than 2000 m deep ocean floor, with no reef reaching the sea surface. Mesophotic coral and red algal facies co‐exist with hemipelagic and bioclastic sands, together with a hardground. Ocean currents and internal waves are identified as major sedimentological controlling factors in the absence of elevated nutrient influx. Many features distributed along the present‐day Saya de Malha Bank were described from studies presenting fossil examples of carbonate platform drowning. The results herein can therefore be applied to other drowning examples, in some cases allowing for more accurate interpretation of the stratigraphic record.


The influence of the joint angle on stretch reflex excitability of the soleus muscle at the ankle has been studied in 22 children aged 3.9 to 13.6 years and 9 adults aged 19 to 70 years. For all subjects, reflex EMG and mechanical twitch torque gain were trivial at resting plantar flexion. The reflex EMG gain reached a maximum between‐15o and‐10o of plantar flexion beyond the neutral angle, 0o, denned as the foot at right angle to the tibia, diminishing steeply with further dorsiflexion. The reflex mechanical gain rose to a peak between 0o and +10o of dorsiflexion beyond neutral, declining steeply thereafter. By contrast, axonally stimulated muscle twitch torque increased serially up to +30o dorsiflexion beyond neutral. For the soleus muscle, the optimal reflex neuromechanical angle lies approximately midway between the angle for optimal reflex EMG gain (in mild plantar flexion, at which the largest and strongest motor units can be activated) and the optimal muscle mechanical angle (at the extreme of soleus muscle dorsiflexion). These studies confirm that the excitability of the spinal alpha motor neuron pool in vivo is strongly influenced by muscle length and explain the variability in reflex excitability within and between subjects, if the joint angle is not controlled. They also indicate how posture influences movement, agreeing with the known function of the soleus muscle in the stance phase of gait and the modulation of motor unit recruitment during voluntary alternating movements at the ankle. Soleus muscle twitch characteristics show a fivefold to eightfold increase in peak force associated with a tenfold reduction in compliance in the first two decades of life and an apparent speeding up of twitch time in the first decade.


Public involvement in traditional political institutions has declined significantly over the past few decades, leading to what some have seen as a crisis in citizenship. This trend is most striking amongst young people, who have become increasingly alienated from mainstream electoral politics in Europe. Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence to show that younger citizens are not apathetic about 'politics' – they have their own views and engage in democracy in a wide variety of ways that seem relevant to their everyday lives. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, young Europeans have borne the brunt of austerity in public spending: from spiralling youth unemployment, to cuts in youth services, to increased university tuition fees. In this context, the rise and proliferation of youth protest in Europe is hardly surprising. Indeed, youth activism has become a major feature of the European political landscape: from mass demonstrations of the 'outraged young' against political corruption and youth unemployment, to the Occupy movement against the excesses of global capitalism, to the emergence of new political parties. This article examines the role that the new media has played in the development of these protest movements across the continent. It argues that 'digitally networked action' has enabled a 'quickening' of youth participation – an intensification of political participation amongst young, highly educated citizens in search of a mouthpiece for their 'indignation'.


BACKGROUND
Transient receptor potential melastatin subtype 8 (TRPM8) is a cold-sensing cation channel, mainly localized in the sensory neurons, which can be activated by menthol, a compound with a naturally cold sensation in mint. However, the effect of TRPM8 activation in inflammation and cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI) is not well defined.

METHODS
TRPM8 knockout (KO) mice (TRPM8-/-) and their wild-type littermates, aged 8 weeks, were randomly divided into sham and MI groups and were fed with chow or chow plus menthol.

RESULTS
Dietary menthol significantly attenuated MI injury, evidenced by decreased survival rates and plasma cardiac troponion I levels, reduced infarct size and cardiomyocytes, declined collagen deposition, and rescued cardiac function and hemodynamics. However, these effects of menthol disappeared when mice were lacking TRPM8. Furthermore, feeding of menthol ameliorated elevated expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and aggravated inflammation infiltration in the MI mice but not in TRPM8-/- mice. In addition, menthol treatment increased the release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which were absent in TRPM8-/- mice.

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, our results suggest that dietary menthol can protect against inflammation and cardiac remodeling after MI through activation of TRPM8.


Doping into nanotubes is an attractive and significant way to tailor their electron transport and emission properties. This article reviews some recent experimental and theoretical advances in the studies of doping behaviors in carbon nanotubes and gallium nitrogen nanotubes, and doping effects on their field electron emission properties. The general theory for field emission mechanism of one-dimensional nanosystems is presented to provide an overall picture of the field emission process and doping behavior. Potential applications of doped nanotubes as diverse nanoscale emitters, microscopy probes, electronic guns and nanoelectronic devices are discussed.


Context: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease in which the myelin lining the central nervous system is damaged and often occurs between the ages of 20 and 40. In addition to loss of motor, sensory, and cognitive function, patients with MS also experience related symptoms such as depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue, and pain. Objectives: The aim of this study was to systematically and meta-analyze the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral, mindfulness and acceptance and commitment (CMAC) therapies to improving the psychological symptoms of patients with multiple sclerosis in Iran. Methods: The study was conducted using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis. This study examined articles published from the beginning until November 20, 2021 in Persian and English on cognitive and behavioral interventions performed in Iran, in order to influence psychological symptoms for people with multiple sclerosis. Articles relevant to research were screened in external (Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science) and internal databases (Sid, Magiran, Ganj, Irandoc, Civilica). The quality of the included RCTs was assessed using the Cochrane guideline risk of bias tool. The results were expressed in terms of mean difference (MD) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval. Data analyses were performed by RevMan5.4. Results: In the first stage of the search, 792 articles were obtained. After reviewing the titles of the articles, 701 articles were discarded due to irrelevance and duplication and 91 articles remained. Finally, 21 studies were selected by reviewing the abstracts and considering the inclusion criteria. Compared with the control group, the standardized mean difference (SMD) estimate depression was 1.60 (2.27, 0.93), for anxiety 0.49 (0.80, 0.19), for stress 0.97 (1.70, 0.23) and for fatigue 0.19 (2.75, 1.25) had a positive effect; But no significant effect on pain reduction equal to 0.49 (2.21, 1.23) was not found. Conclusions: The meta-analysis in the posttest showed that the effects of CMAC were considerable on reducing depression, anxiety, stress, and fatigue, but the effects were not notable for pain mitigation. Future high quality studies with follow-up evaluations are needed to support the effects of CMAC on reducing symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis and to evaluate the interventional features that enhance and maintain the effects.


Cancer is a disease of genomic perturbations that lead to dysregulation of multiple pathways within the cellular system. While common pathways are believed to be shared within specific cancer types, the mechanisms behind why particular patients respond differently to treatment is not well understood. Genomics studies such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) attempt to address this issue by collecting large-scale whole-genome measurements of mRNA expression, DNA copy number, and epigenetic features. Common analysis of these measurements integrates data across multiple samples to distinguish signal from noise. However, serious challenges remain in identifying genomic features and pathways significant for prognosis and clinical treatment classifications. We have created the Five3 Analysis Pipeline to streamline discovery of individual samples' mutations, small indels, copy number alterations, genome rearrangements, expression changes, and resulting pathway activities. This pipeline is capable of processing and integrating data from both next generation sequencing and microarray platforms in the analysis of single or multiple tumor samples. Our sequence analysis corrects for both tumor sample impurity and germline variation to accurately identify somatic mutations present in the tumor. Our pathway analysis incorporates gene copy number, mutations, expression, and promoter methylation on a superimposed pathway constructed from several curated pathway databases in a sample-specific manner. By applying this pipeline to the TCGA breast cancer datasets, we recapitulate established breast subtypes at a pathway-dependent level. For example, basal tumors appear enriched for proliferation pathways compared to luminal samples within this cohort. Expanding the pathway analysis to include TCGA lung cancer samples, we find similar subnetworks activated between basal and squamous lung and between luminal and lung adenocarcinomas. This hints at similar genomic mechanisms for these subtypes independent of tissue of origin. Finally, by analyzing genomic alterations across all breast cancers we see mutational clusters in PIK3CA that correspond with publicly-available hotspots [1]. As suggested by previous reports [2], we find that samples with mutations clustered in exon 10 exhibit differential pathway activities relative to those samples with mutations clustered in exon 21, independent of subtype and TP53 mutation status. These results show the power of this integrated genomic platform in elucidating pathway signatures and the need to consider cross cancer analyses to identify shared tumorigenic mechanisms that may suggest common therapeutic targets. [1] Forbes, S.A et al. COSMIC: mining complete cancer genomes in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer. Nucl. Acids Res. (2011) 39: D945-D950 [2] Vasudevan KM et al. AKT-independent signaling downstream of oncogenic PIK3CA mutations in human cancer. Cancer Cell 2009 Jul.;16(1):21–32. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-06-07.


Grazing by large herbivores is increasingly used as a management tool in European nature reserves. The aim is usually to support an open but heterogeneous habitat and its corresponding plant and animal communities. Previous studies showed that birds may profit from grazing but that the effect varies among bird species. Such studies often compared bird counts among grazed areas with different stocking rates of herbivores. Here, we investigated how space use of Konik horses and Highland cattle is related to bird counts in a recently restored conservation area with a year-round natural grazing management. We equipped five horses and five cattle with GPS collars and correlated the density of their GPS positions on the grazed area with the density of bird observations from winter through the breeding season. We found that in the songbirds of our study site, both the overall density of bird individuals and the number of species increased with increasing density of GPS positions of grazers. Correlations of bird density with horse density were similar to correlations with cattle density. Of the eight most common songbird species observed in our study area, the Eurasian Skylark and the Common Starling had the clearest positive correlations with grazer density, while the Blackbird showed a negative correlation. Skylarks and Starlings in our study area thus seem to profit from year-round natural grazing by a mixed group of horses and cattle.


In response to the rapid and wide acceptance and use of endoscopic treatments for early gastric cancer, the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, in collaboration with the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association, produced "Guidelines for Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection and Endoscopic Mucosal Resection for Early Gastric Cancer" in 2014, as a set of basic guidelines in accordance with the principles of evidence‐based medicine. At the time, a number of statements had to be established by consensus (the lowest evidence level), as evidence levels remained low for many specific areas in this field. However, in recent years, the number of well‐designed clinical studies has been increasing. Based on new findings, we have issued the revised second edition of the above guidelines that cover the present state of knowledge. These guidelines are divided into the following seven categories: indications, preoperative diagnosis, techniques, evaluation of curability, complications, long‐term postoperative surveillance, and histology.


Inelastic electron scattering form factors for the excitation of the 3/2- state at 6.32 MeV in 15N were measured. The experimental data obtained require (a) a momentum-transfer-dependent effective charge, in agreement with that predicted by coupling single-hole wavefunctions to a collective vibration of the 16O core, and (b) an effective magnetic moment having 0.7 times the single-particle value.


Statement of Problem: Utilization of denture cleaning solutions and toothpastes are common methods of cleaning the denture surfaces, which can increase the surface roughness of acrylic dentures. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of two cleaning agents in the form of solution and paste on the surface roughness value of denture following tooth brush application. Materials and Method: Thirty acrylic discs with 20 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness were made and uniformly polished. These discs were randomly divided into three groups, each comprising ten discs. The roughness value (Ra) was measured, using talysurf.10. The discs in the first group were brushed using tooth paste and brush. The discs in the second group were first brushed using water and tooth brush, and then immersed in cleaning solution for 92 hours. The discs in the third group (control) were only brushed using water and tooth brush. For all the groups, tooth brushing abrasion test was performed with 200gr weight applied. The surface roughness of each specimen after 10.000 strokes was determined. Data were analyzed with ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test (α =0.05). Results: An increase in the surface roughness was observed for all groups. However, surface roughness in the first group, for which tooth paste had been used was significantly increased as compared to the other groups ( p =0.01). But there was no significant difference between the other two groups ( p >0.05). Conclusion: Denture cleaning materials in the form of solution produce less surface roughness as compared to the ones in the form of pastes. Key words: Denture cleanser, Surface roughness, Acrylic resin


Just over 100 years ago the first epidemic of meningococcal meningitis was described in Africa [1]. This epidemic probably started in northern Nigeria and spread rapidly westwards reaching present-day Ghana in 1906 where its epidemiological features including its size, high attack rate and seasonality were well described by Horn [2]. During the subsequent 100 years large epidemics of meningococcal meningitis have occurred every few years in countries of the Sahel and sub-Sahel, the African meningitis belt. These have shown little difference in their major epidemiological characteristics from those of the epidemic described by Horn [2]. Nevertheless the similarity of these epidemics disguises the fact that over the years some subtle changes have been taking place.

The capsular serogroup of the meningococci responsible for the first African epidemics of cerebrospinal meningitis is not known. However, typing of isolates obtained from across Africa during the 1940s and 1950s yielded predominantly serogroup A isolates and at the time that Lapeyssonnie published his classical account of meningococcal disease in Africa in 1963 [3] it was generally assumed that all major epidemics of meningococcal disease in Africa were caused by meningococci belonging to this serogroup. Reports of epidemics in the 1970s in Nigeria [4] and Burkina Faso [5] in which a substantial number of isolates belonged to serogroup C showed that non-serogroup A meningococci have epidemic potential but these outbreaks were considered to be anomalies. This view was comprehensively demolished by the occurrence in 2002 of a large epidemic of meningococcal disease in Burkina Faso which was caused predominantly by meningococci belonging to serogroup W135 [6]. This outbreak led to fears that a massive epidemic of serogroup W135 meningococcal meningitis might sweep across Africa with devastating effects in a non-immune population. Fortunately, this has not happened, but cases of W135 meningitis have continued to occur in Burkina Faso and neighbouring countries, often cohabiting with serogroup A meningococci. Recently, the story has taken an even more remarkable turn with the report of a major epidemic of over 4000 cases of meningococcal disease in Niger in 2006 caused in a large part by meningococci belonging to serogroup X. In southwestern Niger meningococci belonging to this serogroup were responsible for 90% of cases [7].

The advent of major epidemics of serogroup W135 and serogroup X meningococcal infections in Africa raises a number of important questions. Where did the epidemic strains of bacteria come from?, what set off the epidemics caused by these strains?, and what can be done to contain them?

It might be anticipated that major epidemics of meningococcal disease in the African meningitis belt would be initiated by the introduction of a new strain from outside the belt, to which the local population had little immunity. There is evidence that this may have happened at least once in the case of serogroup A epidemics [8] and a possible explanation for the Burkina Faso epidemic is the introduction of the W135 strain by pilgrims returning from Mecca and Medina where serogroup W135 meningococci were responsible for a large proportion of meningococcal infections at the time of that outbreak [9]. However, acceptance of this apparently straightforward explanation is complicated by the fact that strains of serogroup W135 meningococci similar to the strain responsible for the epidemic in Burkina Faso have been circulating in West Africa for many years and were shown to be capable of causing invasive disease [10, 11]. A similar situation pertains in relation to the serogroup X epidemic in Niger in 2006. Although this was the first large epidemic to be caused by meningococci of this serogroup, isolated cases and small outbreaks of serogroup X disease have been recorded in several West African countries including Niger and Ghana in the past [12, 13]. What gave these bacteria, previously thought to be of relatively low virulence, the ability to cause major epidemics? Was this the acquisition of some new virulence factor by the epidemic strains of meningococci or could it have been due to some environmental change? No virulence factor has been identified to support the first hypothesis. Might the emergence of serogroup W135 and X meningococci be due to the selective advantage given to meningococci belonging to these serogroups by widespread vaccinations with serogroup A+C meningococcal polysaccharides? In the past 20 years, A+C meningococcal polysaccharide vaccines have been used extensively in the African meningitis belt to contain epidemics and many millions of doses have been given. Experience with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines has shown that vaccination can lead to serotype replacement so on first consideration this seems a credible explanation for the occurrence of W135 and X epidemics. However, there are several reasons which make this an unlikely explanation for what has occurred. First, there is little to suggest that in Africa meningococcal A+C polysaccharide vaccines have any major impact on the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carriage of meningococci and it is in the nasopharynx that any selection would take place. Second, the use of serogroup C conjugate vaccines, which have had a major impact on carriage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, has not so far been associated with any significant serotype replacement in disease or carriage, perhaps because of the generally low prevalence of carriage with serogroup C strains in these communities. Finally, epidemiological studies in Burkina Faso and now in Niger have not shown any clear association at the regional level between attack rates with W135 or X meningitis and previous vaccination with A+C polysaccharide vaccines. The role of prior vaccination cannot be excluded, as polysaccharide vaccines might have a more subtle effect on carriage than detected by simple cross-sectional surveys but, at present, this seems to be an unlikely cause of these epidemics.

Very few longitudinal studies of nasopharyneal carriage of meningococci have been undertaken in Africa but those that have, in particular an important study undertaken in northern Ghana [12], have shown that even over a fairly short period of time there are changes in the predominant serogroup of the meningococci present in the nasopharynx of asymptomatic carriers. These changes reflect natural cycles of infection and immunity that occur independently of any effect of vaccination. Perhaps epidemics of non-serogroup A meningococcal disease occur when the environmental factors that predispose to a major epidemic such as low absolute humidity, dust and possibly social factors occur at a time and place when a non-serogroup A meningococcus is at the peak of one of these natural waves.

The public health consequences of these recent changes in the epidemiology of meningococcal infection in Africa are serious. Although the sudden appearance of a serogroup W135 epidemic in Burkina Faso in 2002 was not followed by a massive epidemic across Africa, it is not clear why this did not happen as the limited number of studies that have been done have shown low background W135 bactericidal antibody concentrations in countries in the meningitis belt. An A,C,Y,W135 polysaccharide vaccine is available in limited amounts but it is too expensive for epidemic control as this vaccine is targeted primarily at protecting pilgrims and travellers to at-risk areas. This problem was overcome in an imaginative way by removing the serogroup Y polysaccharide component of the quadrivalent vaccine, thus invalidating it as a vaccine that could be used by pilgrims, but making it possible for the manufacturer to make this available for epidemic control at an affordable cost. This trivalent vaccine has been deployed widely in Burkina Faso with success. However, the advent of a serogroup X epidemic poses an even more difficult problem as there is currently no serogroup X vaccine commercially available even within a multivalent vaccine. Is the serogroup X strain responsible for the epidemic in Niger going to spread into neighbouring countries, for example northern Nigeria with its massive population or even to areas outside the meningitis belt? Should a crash programme be undertaken to produce a serogroup X vaccine and if so, who would be prepared to do this if the only market for the vaccine would be in Africa? On the other hand will serogroup X disease disappear with acquisition of naturally acquired immunity following widespread nasopharyngeal carriage with the epidemic strain? Unfortunately, our lack of knowledge of the factors that govern the peculiar epidemiology of meningococcal disease in Africa means that we can only guess.


Approximately 20% of patients withy systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have disease which begins in childhood. Several series have reported that childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) is often more severe than adult disease with more pronounced clinical, immunologic and serologic abnormalities. In particular, renal and central nervous system (CNS) involvement tend to be more severe in pediatric than in adult patients. The morbidity and mortality associated with SLE result from a combination of severe organ damage from disease, infection or side effects and complications of treatment. Since neither disease activity nor disease damage in SLE can be measured directly with any clinical sign or laboratory value, a number of disease indices have been developed that allow standardized comparison of SLE cohorts. Disease activity indices including SLEDAI, SLAM, BILAG and ECLAM have been validated in cSLE and none appears superior. The SLICC damage index was developed to measure permanent disease damage in adults with SLE and was subsequently validated in cSLE. It has been suggested that pediatric version should include additional domains addressing pediatric specific issues such as growth failure and delayed puberty, but both indices are reversible and they do not fulfil the definition of nonreversible organ damage. Several predictors (risk factors) have been linked with poor prognosis in cSLE. Using the SLICC-DI scoring system for damage, it has been demonstrated that renal and/or CNS disease represent major determinants of morbidity and mortality in cSLE. Diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis is most consistently linked with a poor prognosis if associated with hypertension. Other suggested risk factors associated with poor prognosis in cSLE include acute thrombocytopenia, young age at diagnosis, male sex and nonwhite (black, Asian and Hispanic) ethnicity. The presence of antiphospholipid antibodies may predispose to disease damage by increasing the risk for recurrent venous thrombosis, stroke and thrombocytopenia. Similar to previous adult studies, it has been shown in cSLE that cumulative disease activity over time results in increased damage, and early introduction of therapy with immunosuppressive drugs might improve the outcome by preventing permanent damage. The exact impact of corticosteroid therapy on increased disease damage is still controversial, but patients may benefit from judicious use of corticosteroid with refined tapering schedules and early introduction of steroid-sparing drugs. It has been also demonstrated that frequent occurrence of severe, major disease flares requiring intravenous cyclophosphamide treatment represent a risk factor for damage, but not mild or moderate flares. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The overall East African literary landscape is dominated by oral literature, and the two cited languages, English and Swahili, must stand out. Today their most dynamic contact zones are located in Kenya and Tanzania. Swahili studies and Anglophone African literary studies have long dominated the formal study of literature in East Africa, and are now extending into two new contact languages, Sheng and Engsh, and the literature emerging from these language masses. Prominent features are code-switching, issues of translation, and the mix of narrative and public health knowledge on the topic of HIV/AIDS. This article surveys these issues, with one eye to the South Pacific parallel, and amongst the cultural lament finds much wry humour expressed.


Purpose

This paper aims to develop a framework to assess the reliability of structures subject to a fire following an earthquake (FFE) event. The proposed framework is implemented in one seamless programming environment and is used to analyze an example nine-story steel moment-resisting frame (MRF) under an FFE. The framework includes uncertainties in load and material properties at elevated temperatures and evaluates the MRF performance based on various limit states.

Design/methodology/approach

Specifically, this work models the uncertainties in fire load density, yield strength and modulus of elasticity of steel. The location of fire compartment is also varied to investigate the effect of story level (lower vs higher) and bay location (interior vs exterior) of the fire on the post-earthquake performance of the frame. The frame is modeled in OpenSees to perform non-linear dynamic, thermal and reliability analyses of the structure.

Findings

Results show that interior bays are more susceptible than exterior bays to connection failure because of the development of larger tension forces during the cooling phase of the fire. Also, upper floors in general are more probable to reach specified damage states than lower floors because of the smaller beam sizes. Overall, results suggest that modern MRFs with a design that is governed by inter-story drifts have enough residual strength after an earthquake so that a subsequent fire typically does not lead to results significantly different compared to those of an event where the fire occurs without previous seismic damage. However, the seismic damage could lead to larger fire spread, increased danger to the building as a whole and larger associated economic losses.

Originality/value

Although the paper focuses on FFE, the proposed framework is general and can be extended to other multi-hazard scenarios.


Experience-dependent plasticity is the ability of brain circuits to undergo molecular, structural and functional changes as a function of neural activity. Neural activity continuously shapes our brain during all the stages of our life, from infancy through adulthood and beyond. Epigenetic modifications of histone proteins and DNA seem to be a leading molecular mechanism to modulate the transcriptional changes underlying the fine-tuning of synaptic connections and circuitry rewiring during activity-dependent plasticity. The recent discovery that cytosine methylation is an epigenetic mark particularly dynamic in brain cells has strongly increased the interest of neuroscientists in understanding the role of covalent modifications of DNA in activity-induced remodeling of neuronal circuits. Here, we provide an overview of the role of DNA methylation and hydroxylmethylation in brain plasticity both during adulthood, with emphasis on learning and memory related processes, and during postnatal development, focusing specifically on experience-dependent plasticity in the visual cortex.


We present families of single determinantal representations of on-shell scalar products of Bethe vectors. Our families of representations are parameterized by a continuous complex variable which can be fixed at one's convenience. Here we consider Bethe vectors in two versions of the six-vertex model: the case with boundary twists and the case with open boundaries.


Inversion of the ihf site in the promoter region of the early promoter of bacteriophage Mu did not influence the integration host factor (IHF)-mediated functions. IHF bound to this inverted site could counteract H-NS-mediated repression, directly activate transcription, and support lytic growth of bacteriophage Mu. This implies that the IHF heterodimer and its asymmetrical binding site form a functionally symmetrical complex.


Candida parapsilosis is an increasingly
important human pathogen. However, little is known about its potential to cause disease. The aims of the present study were
to analyse the
production of acid proteinases by clinical isolates of C. parapsilosis in the presence of different
keratinous substrates from human sources (stratum corneum, nail and hair) and to verify the capability of yeast cells to adhere
and grow as biofilm on these substrates. By scanning electron microscopy, it was observed that all C.
parapsilosis sensu stricto isolates adhered to the keratinous substrates. For the isolate recovered from onychomycosis, the cell population attached to
stratum corneum and hair keratin consisted mainly of blastoconidia.
Differently, on nail keratin, pseudohyphae production was observed. Overall, there was a loose association
between yeast cells and keratinous substrates. However, on stratum corneum, flocculent extracellular material
was seen evolving cells from the onychomycosis isolate by forming a
biofilm-like structure. The
isolates recovered from onychomycosis and cutaneous lesion produced higher amount of acid proteinases in medium supplemented with nail keratin and stratum
corneum keratin, respectively, than that in salt
medium (absence of keratin). Furthermore, no
differences were observed in the amount of acid proteinases produced by the
isolate recovered from tracheal secretion in the media tested (absence and
presence of keratin substrates). The information
derived from this study will further our understanding of acid proteinase
production by C. parapsilosis isolates and provide an insight into pathogenic mechanisms in C. parapsilosis particularly from isolates recovered from superficial mycoses.


In this paper, we study a limiting distribution induced by Bartlett's formulation of the Luria–Delbrück mutation model. We establish the validity of the probability generating function and devise an algorithm for computing the probability mass function. Maximum-likelihood estimation and asymptotic behaviour of the distribution are considered.


Despite the well-known distracting effects, many drivers still engage in phone use, especially texting and especially among young drivers, with new emerging messaging modes. The present study aims to examine the effects of different answering modes on driving performance. Twenty-four students (12 females), aged between 19 and 25 years (M = 20.83, SD = 1.53), volunteered for the study. They accomplished the Lane Change Task (LCT) with baseline and dual-task runs in a driving simulator. In dual-task runs, participants answered text messages on a smartphone by voice or text message with varying task complexity. Driving performance was measured by lane deviation (LCT) and subjective measures (NASA-TLX). Across all trials, driving performance deteriorated during dual-task runs compared with the baseline runs, and subjective demand increased. Analysis of dual-task runs showed a benefit for voice-based answering to received text messages that leveled off in the complex task. All in all, the benefits of using voice-based answering in comparison with text-based answering were found regarding driving performance and subjective measures. Nevertheless, this benefit was mostly lost in the complex task, and both the driving performance and the demand measured in the baseline conditions could not be reached.


Metallic stents have been recently introduced for treating superior vena cava (SVC) obstruction. Dose data, in terms of dose-area product (DAP), from 44 patients referred for SVC stent placement on a digital unit have been retrospectively analysed in terms of their fluoroscopic and radiographic components. The mean DAP for the 44 examinations was 42 Gy cm2 and the effective dose was estimated to be 5.8 mSv. The fluoroscopic component was approximately 80%, with a mean screening time for these examinations of 17 min. The mean number of digital exposures was 86.


Book synopsis: Unmatched in scholarship and scope, The International Encyclopedia of Ethics is the definitive single-source reference work on Ethics, available both in print and online.

Comprises over 700 entries, ranging from 1000 to 10,000 words in length, written by an international cast of subject experts
Is arranged across 9 fully cross-referenced volumes including a comprehensive index
Provides clear definitions and explanations of all areas of ethics including the topics, movements, arguments, and key figures in Normative Ethics, Metaethics, and Practical Ethics
Covers the major philosophical and religious traditions
Offers an unprecedented level of authority, accuracy and balance with all entries being blind peer-reviewed


SUMMARY

Detailed source process of the 2000 November 15 Lake Van (eastern Turkey) earthquake (Mw= 5.6) was retrieved using the method of Kikuchi & Kanamori for source inversion of complex body waveforms. The event has been reported by USGS as a deep (67 km) subcrustal earthquake resulting from a rupture on a normal fault beneath the Bitlis Suture zone where continental collision is in action between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. However, our source model based on the analysis of complex body-waveforms suggests that the earthquake is a shallow crustal event comprised of two subevents on a predominantly reverse fault at depths of 12.5 and 15 km with a time interval of about 18 s. The seismic moment of the second subevent (Mo= 1.6 × 1017 Nm; strike = 76°, dip = 55° and rake = 120°) is larger than the first subevent (Mo= 1.0 × 1017 Nm; strike = 87°, dip = 62° and rake = 110°). Visual inspection of the strong ground motion records and waveform inversion analysis of the near-field records from four broad-band stations confirm the occurrence of the two subevents at shallow depths. We examined whether or not the observed complex waveforms of the main shock can be modelled in terms of a single point source embedded at an intermediate depth, and the result turned out to be further evidence for the multiple rupture. The plausibility of the focal depths and mechanisms of the two subevents was also examined by retrieving the source parameters of 14 aftershocks from near-field waveform data. Most of the aftershocks were relocated at depths around 15 km, which agrees with the shallow main shock. In addition, the analysis of near-field waveform data indicates subcrustal earthquake activity neither in the source region of the Lake Van earthquake nor in the Turkey–Iran border region. In the Turkey–Iran border region, an event on 1999 February 19 was reported to have taken place at a depth of 66 km (USGS) and 77 km (ISC), which also conflicts with our focal depth (18 km) determined through CMT inversion analysis of the broad-band records at the station GNI.


The estimative of the concentration of surface ozone promotes the creation of data for planning forecasting the air quality, useful in the management of public health. The aim of this study was to develop an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to estimate the concentration of surface ozone due to climate data daily. The ANN, the Feedforward Multilayer Perceptron kind, was trained taking as reference the daily concentration of ozone measured. In the intermediate and output layers we used activation functions type tan-sigmoid and linear, respectively. The performance of the ANN developed was very good, and it can be considered as part of the set of indirect methods to estimate the concentration of surface ozone. The proposed model can be used by the government as a tool to enable the public interventional actions during the period of atmospheric stagnation, when ozone levels in the atmosphere may represent risks to public health.


OBJECTIVE
To define the optimal conditions of pregnancy in patients affected by Crohn's disease.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Retrospective study of 25 patients affected by Crohn's disease, followed during eight years at Rouen's University Hospital.

RESULTS
Twenty patients added up 34 pregnancies. Seventeen patients at least had a child, adding up 26 livebirths. Among the 17 pregnancies beginning with an active Crohn's disease, this proved to be still active in 16 cases. Among the eight interrupted pregnancies, six had an active disease. Out of the five menaces of preterm delivery stopped or not, four were in push. Eight neonatal hypotrophies were connected to a push.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
From a confrontation between the data of the literature and our experience, it emerges the following essential points: when Crohn's disease is quiescent, it does not affect the pregnancy, except a moderate fetal hypotrophy. When the disease is active, the risk of abortion and prematurity increases. There is no influence of the pregnancy on Crohn's disease, when pregnancy arises during a period of quiescence of the disease. Two thirds of the pregnancies of these women take place without new push of their disease. During pregnancy, there is no contraindication as far as the usual treatments of Crohn's disease are concerned, with a limitation however for the use of immunosuppressants.


We present an algorithm for creating free-viewpoint video of interacting humans using three handheld Kinect cameras. Our method reconstructs deforming surface geometry and temporal varying texture of humans through estimation of human poses and camera poses for every time step of the RGBZ video. Skeletal configurations and camera poses are found by solving a joint energy minimization problem, which optimizes the alignment of RGBZ data from all cameras, as well as the alignment of human shape templates to the Kinect data. The energy function is based on a combination of geometric correspondence finding, implicit scene segmentation, and correspondence finding using image features. Finally, texture recovery is achieved through jointly optimization on spatio-temporal RGB data using matrix completion. As opposed to previous methods, our algorithm succeeds on free-viewpoint video of human actors under general uncontrolled indoor scenes with potentially dynamic background, and it succeeds even if the cameras are moving.


Summary Linguistics hegemony, linguistics imperialism, and linguistic colonialism are serious issues that have not gained enough attention in applied linguistics research. English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in non-anglophone countries is a type of linguistics imperialism (Phillipson, 2018). EMI policy has led to adverse outcomes in several aspects such as low achievement of learning outcomes, challenges to students' identity, limited access to educational resources, unjust treatments, and unfair assessment in undergraduate programs. This research study investigates the views of students and academic experts using questionnaires and interviews. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings of this study demonstrate the lack of educational justice and the strong connection between linguistic hegemony and the colonization of consciousness. The findings show that participants in EMI programs do not engage in authentic, rigorous, and fun learning. Decisions to use EMI are either based on fallacies regarding the nature of language, on fuzzy assessment of educational priorities, or both. We strongly encourage applied linguists, language policymakers, and university administrators to play significant roles in challenging English hegemony and English supremacy to promote educational justice, equal opportunities to learn, and fair treatment in EMI undergraduate programs around the globe, especially in non-anglophone countries.


This work presents a 14-band low-complexity and high-performance synthesizer architecture for multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing operating in the range of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The synthesizer uses a single phase-locked loop with trivial divide-by-2 circuits, single side band mixers, low-complexity filters, and multiplexers. Specifications of the synthesizer components are chosen in order to minimize the total spurs power and respect the IEEE802.15.3a recommendations.


The formation dynamics of charged excitons is studied in CdTe-based quantum wells by picosecond time-resolved photoluminescence. The formation time is obtained by an analysis of temporal behavior of photoluminescence signal after excitation in resonance with either neutral or charged exciton. It is shown that the formation time varies strongly when changing the electron concentration. We also demonstrate that the localization of neutral excitons has strong impact on the formation time of charged exciton and is over two times longer when exciting the low energy side of neutral exciton line.


The use of coherent optical signal processing in long-distance optical communication systems has dramatically increased data capacity enabling encoding of multiple-bit information in the amplitude and phase of a light beam. Direct detection of phase information of a high-speed modulated light remains challenging and requires an external, local oscillator for referencing, which is expensive for short-reach optical communications, for example, in datacenters. The availability of less complex integrated photonics devices for coherent signal detection would alleviate this bottleneck. On the other hand, phase information of coherent, orthogonally polarized light beams can be extracted from their polarization states and it is, therefore, possible to achieve phase measurements via fast polarization detection. Here we demonstrate an on-chip, high-speed coherent optical signal receiver enabled by spin-orbit coupling in Si-photonics circuitry. In a coherent communication experiment with up to 16 Gbaud/s rate, the high-speed quadrature phase-shift keying signals detected by a Si nanodisk based polarisation measurements at multiple wavelength in the C-band were recovered with a bit error rate below the forward error correction threshold. The proposed on-chip nanodisk coherent receiver shows promise in high-speed coherent optical communication applications where phase detection is required at low cost and small footprint.


The word wide web is a rapidly going and changing information source. Its growth and change rate make the task of finding relevant information harder. With the dynamic nature of WWW, for a given query the set of relevant web pages web pages is also dynamic, it leads to problem of scalability the assumption of accurate sufficient static image of the web is reduced with its change. Most of the search engines failed to user satisfaction for relevant, complete and updated information. On the part of search desirable to generate the searching technique to get the improvement in the regency and coverage of search engines. In this paper architecture of a search engine is proposed which may lead the user relevant web pages. This architecture uses ontology, semantic based web so as to help user to draw relevant information through search engines.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect the interests of accounting students to the selection of accounting careers or entrepreneurs with income as a moderating variable. Factors influencing career selection are measured by motivation variable degree, motivation following USAP, personality, real entrepreneur, non real entrepreneur and economic motivation. The sample used in this research is 150 sample respondents obtained from several universities in Semarang city. This research is a survey research conducted on Faculty of Economics students of Accounting study in Semarang city. The data used in this study is the primary data obtained from the questionnaire method that is given directly to the students of the Faculty of Economics of Accounting studies. Data analysis techniques use multiple linear regression with income variable. The results showed that motivation variables follow USAP, personality, real entrepreneurship and non-real entrepreneurship influence on accounting student's interest toward career selection as an accountant or entrepreneur, while the variable of motivation degree and economic motivation have no effect on student accountancy interest toward career selection as accountant or businessman. Keywords : interest, motivation, degree, follow USAP, personality, real entrepreneur, non real entrepreneur, economy, multiple regression analysis with moderating income variable.


Background: the Dengue Eradication Program is a government initiative to reduce dengue cases through preventive measures aimed at mosquitos. All activities in the various health sectors were restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to assess the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever Eradication and Control program at the Sememi Health Center in Surabaya. Materials and Methods: this was a qualitative study with an evaluative approach. Key informants were identified using purposive sampling. The data was gathered through in-depth interviews and observations. The results were analyzed by evaluating the program's implementation using the system approach method. Results: it is well known that the program evaluation results are positive. The results of the input variables meet the minimum standards that have been established. The outcome of the process variables is less than ideal. Dengue prevention counseling, mosquito net eradication, monitoring, and evaluation activities were not carried out. All activities that make crowds impossible to carry out. The assessment of output variables is based on the number of larva-free days and dengue cases in the good category. Conclusion: the input and output variables are satisfactory in accordance with the government's policy provisions and should be maintained. To improve the program's effectiveness, process variables must be improved, specifically increasing the implementation of counseling activities related to dengue prevention, eradication of mosquito nets, and monitoring and evaluation activities.


The purpose of this article is to seek feedback on a new methodology being developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to measure and value the output of household transport in the UK. This includes all modes of transport which are provided by the household such as car, van, motorcycle, bicycle and walking and all purposes where the cost is not already included in the UK National Accounts. The figures quoted in the article are provisional and should be interpreted cautiously, bearing in mind their sensitivity to some of the assumptions used and the sampling variability around the results. This work is experimental and the author invites feedback on the methodology and underlying assumptions.The paper outlines the information available form the National Travel Survey and the different options for valuing household transport. The second section describes the method used to gross the data and estimate the distance travelled by parties in the UK - initial estimates are included. The next section deals with the method used to value the distance travelled and looks at the sampling variability around the results. Where possible the sensitivity to certain assumptions has been tested. A brief description of how these results will fit into the transport account and areas for future developments conclude the article. The transport project is part of a programme of work to produce a Household Satellite Account (HHSA).


This study explores that the publication trends of scholarly database of web of science in Library and information science (LIS) during 1973 to 2012. This study also reveals the trend in authorship pattern and collaborative research in network security with a sample of 388 articles downloaded from the database of web of knowledge during 1973 to 2012 (four decades) with 108 LCS and 1404 TGCS and 9958-time cited reference also measured. The growth trend is booming taken the sample duration in this field LIS research output. The study also indicates that multi-authors productivity is dominant, single research also exists. The proportion of single authored papers has shown a declining trend during the period 2002 – 2007. The degree of collaboration in research is 0.95 in network security research productivity.


The complexity of chemical instrumentation is such that automation of certain instrument functions by conventional algorithmic means is either very difficult or completely unsuitable. This paper details work in progress on the application of knowledge based systems technology to the tuning of a complex analytical instrument, a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (TQMS). The knowledge representation schemes and interface design between the expert system and the TQMS instrument are discussed. Preliminary results of optimizing the TQMS on chemical standards are presented.