Newspapers,' magazines,' and academic journals' have focused public attention on the general crisis in liability insurance. The medical malpractice insurance crisis has polarized the positions of the insurance and legal communities. The insurance industry views the problem as part of a general litigation explosion driven by overgenerous jury awards, the unpredictable scope of tort liability, overzealous attorneys, a highly litigious social climate, and disproportionate attorneys' fees. Not surprisingly, the litigation bar blames skyrocketing premiums on the greed and mismanagement of the insurance industry as well as on poor physician performance." Physicians, whose insurance rates are soaring, are caught in a legal and economic whirlpool. The intense debate has forced legislatures to generate proposals to "solve" the crisis.' But recent regulatory proposals designed to alleviate the high costs and unavailability of medical malpractice insurance are as predictable as the crisis itself. Ten years ago, states faced a similar situation. The regulatory proposals to mitigate rising premium


EphB1 is required for proper guidance of cortical long-range axon projections during brain development, but how EphB1 regulates this process remains unclear. To determine the relevant cell types in which EphB1 functions for proper cortical axon guidance, we generated a new floxed EphB1 mouse. We show here that EphB1 conditional knockout (cKO) in most of the developing cortical excitatory neurons (Emx1-Cre) failed to produce cortical axon guidance defects. However, EphB1 cKO in GABAergic cell populations (Vgat-Cre or dlx1/2-Cre) reproduced fully the cortical axon guidance defects observed in global EphB1-/- mice. Interestingly, in the EphB1 cKOVgat mice, the misguided axon bundles in the dorsal striatum contained comingled striatal GABAergic and cortical glutamatergic axons. Surprisingly, conditional loss of EphB1 in D1 or D2 dopamine receptor-expressing populations did not produce the cortical axon guidance defects, and no D1-or D2-SPN axons were detected within the misguided axon bundles of EphB1 KO mice. In contrast, parvalbumin-positive GABAergic cell axons were observed in the misguided axon bundles in EphB1 KO mice. Finally, a large fraction of the ectopic axons in EphB1 KO mice were in close apposition to the major blood vessels in the ventral telencephalon, suggesting that EphB1 expression in GABAergic cells normally promotes avoidance of these ectopic long-range axons from the developing cerebral vasculature. Together, our data reveal a new role for EphB1 in GABAergic cells to influence proper cortical glutamatergic long-range axon guidance during early brain development.


The Mullins–Sekerka sharp-interface model for phase transitions interpolates between attachment-limited and diffusion-limited kinetics if kinetic drag is included in the Gibbs–Thomson interface condition. Heuristics suggest that the typical length-scale of patterns may exhibit a crossover in coarsening rate from l(t) ˜ t1/2 at short times to l(t) ˜ t1/3 at long times. We establish rigorous, universal one-sided bounds on energy decay that partially justify this understanding in the monopole approximation and in the associated Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner mean-field model. Numerical simulations for the Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner model illustrate the crossover behaviour. The proofs are based on a method for estimating coarsening rates introduced by Kohn and Otto, and make use of a gradient-flow structure that the monopole approximation inherits from the Mullins–Sekerka model by restricting particle geometry to spheres.


Are biracial people perceived more negatively than their monoracial counterparts? Across two studies, we compared ratings of warmth, competence, and minority scholarship worthiness for biracial (Study 1: Black/White, Study 2: Asian/White), White, and minority (Study 1: Black, Study 2: Asian) college applicants. Findings suggest that both biracial applicants were perceived as colder and sometimes less competent than both White and corresponding minority applicants. Moreover, biracial people were also perceived as less qualified for minority scholarships than other racial minorities, which is partially explained by penalties to warmth and competence. Study 3 shows that disclosing one's biracial identity makes biracial people vulnerable to negative feedback. Taken together, these studies suggest that biracial people who disclose their biracial identity experience bias from perceivers and may be more vulnerable to that bias because of the personal nature of racial disclosure. Findings are discussed considering the stereotype content model (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007), cultural stereotypes about biracial people (Jackman, Wagner, & Johnson, 2001), and the costs of disclosing devalued identities.


Recently, the authors developed a novel room-temperature wiring method using Ag nanoparticle paste. In this paper, the sintering mechanism of the Ag nanoparticle paste was clarified through examination of the adsorption stability and the removal of the dispersant from the Ag nanoparticles. The Ag nanoparticles in the paste are protected by dodecylamine as a dispersant. This paste possesses substantially long shelf life and thermo stability at room temperature. When the printed line of the Ag nanoparticle paste is dipped in a methanol bath, methanol effectively dissolves and removes the dispersant from the nanoparticles. Ag nanoparticles are sintered within a short period. The sintering of Ag nanoparticles is not uniform. Some Ag nanoparticles quickly grow and form a network by sintering (necking). The others maintain a nanometer scale. Large Ag particles and an Ag skeleton continue to grow by absorbing very small nanoparticles. In addition, the use of ethanol and isopropanol as the treatment agent is shown for the first time.


Abstract: Background C-reactive protein (CRP) has prognostic value in hospitalized patients with COVID-19; the importance of CRP in pre-hospitalized patients remains to be tested. Methods: Individuals with symptoms of COVID-19 had a SARS-CoV-2 PCR oropharyngeal swab test, and a measurement of CRP was performed at baseline, with an upper reference range of 10 mg/L. After 28 days, information about possible admissions, oxygen treatments, transfers to the ICU, or deaths was obtained from the patient files. Using logistic regression, the prognostic value of the CRP and SARS-CoV-2 test results was evaluated. Results: Among the 1006 patients included, the SARS-CoV-2 PCR test was positive in 59, and the CRP level was elevated (>10 mg/L) in 131. In total, 59 patients were hospitalized, only 3 of whom were SARS-CoV-2 positive, with elevated CRP (n = 2) and normal CRP (n = 1). The probability of being hospitalized with elevated CRP was 4.21 (95%CI 2.38–7.43, p < 0.0001), while the probability of being hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 positivity alone was 0.85 (95%CI 0.26–2.81, p = 0.79). Conclusions: CRP is not a reliable predictor for the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pre-hospitalized patients. CRP, while not a SARS-CoV-2 positive test, had prognostic value in the total population of patients presenting with COVID-19-related symptoms.


Russia interested in alternative partnership finances as early as the 90s of the XX century. The first attempts to apply the principles of Islamic finance were made by individual banks. The second wave of initiatives began after the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, with increasing interest in 2014 in the face of a complicating foreign policy situation and the imposition of economic sanctions. In such conditions, it became necessary to search for alternative sources of attracting investment, which, inter alia, became Islamic finance. From 1992 to the present, Russia has gained some experience in Islamic finance. This article provides a comprehensive review of the more than 25-year history of the development of the Islamic financial market in Russia in the context of the analysis of its problems and prospects. After introducing the main definitions, concepts, features and principles of Islamic finance, as well as citing numerical and geographical data on the industry, the author describes all the initiatives for the development of Islamic finance in Russia, divided into 4 levels: international, federal, regional and individual. The history of the development of the Islamic financial market in Russia is presented in chronological order with a division into industry components and Russia's experience in developing each of them — Islamic banking, Islamic insurance and the Islamic capital market. At the end, a brief analysis of the current state of the Russian Islamic financial micro-market is made and the main opportunities that Islamic finance can give Russia are also indicated.


Non-thermal equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) is a cold plasma source that promises various innovative applications, and the uniform APPJ is more favored. Glow discharge is one of the most effective methods to obtain the uniform discharge. Compared with the glow dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in atmospheric pressure, pure helium APPJ shows partial characteristics of both the glow discharge and the streamer. In this paper, considering the influence of the Penning effect, the electrical and optical properties of He APPJ and Ar/NH3 APPJ were researched. A word "Glow-like APPJ" is used to characterize the uniformity of APPJ, and it was obtained that the basic characteristics of the glow-like APPJ are driven by the kHz AC high voltage. The results can provide a support for generating uniform APPJ, and lay a foundation for its applications.


Purpose: To examine the effects of short-term psychological interventions on reducing family stress of economically disadvantaged families. Method: Systematic review and meta-analytic procedures were used to synthesize the results of randomized controlled studies published between 1980 and 2018. Results: The search yielded 8 studies that included results for 1,538 families in total. The risk of bias varied across studies. The meta-analysis results suggest a small positive effect (g = .38, p < .001) on child behavioral problems. Heterogeneity was relatively high and significant. We also found small to moderate effects on parenting stress, parental depression, and parenting quality (g ranging from .30 to .51). Discussion: The findings of this review suggest that short-term psychological interventions may reduce the family stress of economically disadvantaged families, with effect sizes that are comparable to those of interventions delivered to ordinary families. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.


Contemporary rural anthropology, both applied and ethnographic, often takes place in situations of extreme political and class conflict. Despite recent debates over reflexivity and ethics generally in such studies, the methodological problems of doing fieldwork under conditions of class conflict rarely figure into the debate; this is particularly true of southern Europe. These problems are at once personal, moral, epistemological, and methodological. This paper describes one fieldworker's efforts to maintain scholarly neutrality in an agro-town in Franco Spain where class conflict was severe. The implications of this experience for critical anthropology and for applied anthropology are discussed.


Abstract This comprehensive review summarizes the published literature data concerning the intramolecular Diels–Alder reactions of vinylarenes (the IMDAV reaction) and alkynyl arenes from 1970 to 2019, and covers mainly intramolecular [4+2] cycloaddition reactions of vinyl- or acetylene-substituted furans, thiophenes, pyrroles, indoles, imidazoles, benzenes, and naphthalenes, in which the unsaturated substituent is linked directly to an arene moiety. The selected area of the Diels–Alder reaction differs from other forms of [4+2] cycloadditions due to the uniqueness of the diene fragment, which, along with an exocyclic multiple bond, includes the double bond of an aromatic or heteroaromatic nucleus in its system. Thus, during the formation of the [4+2] cycloaddition intermediate, the aromaticity of furan, thiophene and even benzene rings is broken, leading, as a rule, to the formation of heterocyclic structures rarely accessible by other methods, in contrast to the majority of intermolecular Diels–Alder reactions, with the highest degree of chemo-, regio-, and diastereoselectivity. Therefore, the IMDAV approach is often used for the synthesis of naturally occurring and bioactive molecules, which are also discussed in this review alongside other applications of this reaction. Whenever possible, we have tried to avoid examples of radical, photochemical, oxidative, precious-metal-complex-catalyzed cyclizations and other types of formal [4+2] cycloadditions, focusing on thermal Diels–Alder reactions in the first step, according to the classical mechanism. The second stage of the process, aromatization, is unique for many initial substrates, and hence considerable attention in this overview is given to the detailed description of the reaction mechanisms. 1 Introduction 2 IMDAV Reactions of Vinylfurans 2.1 Alkenes as Internal Dienophiles 2.2 Alkynes and Allenes as Internal Dienophiles 3 IMDAV Reactions of Vinylthiophenes 3.1 Alkenes as Internal Dienophiles 3.2 Alkynes as Internal Dienophiles 4 IMDAV Reactions of Vinylbenzothiophenes 5 IMDAV Reactions of Vinylpyrroles 6 IMDAV Reactions of Vinylindoles 6.1 Alkenes as Internal Dienophiles 6.2 Alkynes as Internal Dienophiles 7 IMDAV Reactions of Styrenes and Vinylnaphthalenes 7.1 Alkenes as Internal Dienophiles 7.2 Alkynes as Internal Dienophiles 7.3 Alkynes as Internal Dienophiles in Aryl Acetylenes (the Intramolecular Dehydro Diels–Alder Reaction) 8 IMDAV Reactions of Vinylimidazoles, Vinylisoxazoles and Vinylpyridines 9 Conclusion 10 Abbreviations


Leaders have been classified as having charismatic, ideological, or pragmatic (CIP) leadership styles, each characterized by distinct patterns in cognition and interaction. Although each CIP style has been shown to facilitate certain aspects of the creative process for followers, questions remain regarding the impact of leadership style on overall follower creative performance. One factor likely to influence this relationship is leader distance, composed of the physical distance, perceived social distance, and perceived task interaction among leaders and followers. Past research has also emphasized the role of leaders' mental models as they relate to follower performance. Less understood, however, is how the mental models of followers may affect this process. Using the CIP model of leadership, this study explores leader distance and leader–follower mental model congruence on follower creative performance. Results indicated that while leadership style does not directly influence follower creativity, it interacts with leader distance to shape creative outcomes. Results further indicated that while general mental model congruence is not predictive, alignment on specific mental model dimensions contributes to enhanced creative performance among followers. Implications and future research directions are discussed.


A term appropriate for gestational age baby boy was delivered by lower segment caesarean section. The baby was antenatally diagnosed with resolving cystic adenomatoid malformation. At birth, he developed respiratory distress requiring active resuscitation and later was diagnosed to have right lung aplasia, managed with respiratory support. He gradually improved and was discharged home on room air.


In these days, smaller devices are possible to show graphics output, through attaching customized LCD panel displays. Our target system is a small embedded system with an LCD panel. As a typical low-tier embedded system, it has a low-end CPU and restricted memories. We aimed to build-up a full-scale 2D graphics module on it. After analyzing system requirements, we found that the most hardiest restriction is the size of available memory. As an alternative to the full-scale modules, our design shows a TUI (text user interface) model, which is similar to the Unix Curses library and/or primitive graphics system used on earlier PC user interfaces. Our design has a drawback of restricted controllability of 2020 character resolutions on the screen, rather than 240x320 pixel resolutions, while it enables pop-up menus and screen back buffering, with less than 7K extra memory usage. User Interface features including pop-up menus, push buttons, and customizable windows are also provided.


In this paper we consider some basic existence questions about quasiconformal mappings between spherical CR manifolds. A spherical CR manifold is locally modeled on the Heisenberg group. The manifolds we consider are actually quotients of the 3-dimensional Heisen-berg group by cyclic groups of automorphisms. When the group consists of loxodromic elements, the quotient manifold is compact, and if two such manifolds are homeomorphic, there is in fact a quasiconformal homeomorphism. By contrast, when the group consists of parabolics, the manifolds are noncompact, and there are exactly two quasiconformal equivalence classes.


The effects of prostaglandin synthesis inhibitors on development of N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP)-initiated pancreatic tumors were investigated. Female Syrian golden hamsters were given five weekly s.c. injections of BOP (10 mg/kg body weight) during the first 5 weeks and then given 20 p.p.m. indomethacin in the drinking water, 0.25% phenylbutazone in the diet, 1% aspirin in the diet, or no treatment (control group). The resultant incidence of pancreatic carcinoma at week 32 was significantly lower (P less than 0.05) in animals receiving phenylbutazone (36.8%) than in the controls (71.4%) and the numbers of carcinomas per hamster were significantly reduced by indomethacin (0.63) and phenylbutazone (0.58) treatment compared with the control group value (1.29). Aspirin also showed a tendency to decrease pancreatic tumor incidence, but this was not significant. Thus, prostaglandin synthesis inhibitors reduce the development of pancreatic cancer when administered during the post-initiation phase in this animal model.


Worry about crime is known to be higher in some European regions than others. However, cross-national surveys, which are the main source of information to map worry about crime across Europe, are designed to be representative of large areas (countries), and regions often suffer from small and unrepresentative sample sizes. This research produces reliable model-based small area estimates of worry about crime at regional level from European Social Survey data, in order to map the phenomenon and examine its macrolevel predictors. Model-based small area estimation techniques borrow strength across areas to produce reliable estimates of parameters of interest. Estimates of worry about crime are higher in most Southern and Eastern European regions, in contrast to Northern and Central Europe.


Immunomodulation of the immune system by stimulating or suppressing one or both arms, is an emerging concept driven by the understanding of the host defense system. In particular, the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) functions not only as a site for digestion and absorption of nutrients but also acts as a metabolic and immunological organ. This serves as a barrier against abnormal presentation of luminal constituents, caused by dysfunctional intestinal epithelial barrier, to the mucosal immune system. Invasion by pathogens in the case of disease or stress or a massive influx of commensal bacteria overcomes the defensive mechanisms, resulting in the full activation of local dendritic cells and the expression of co-stimulatory molecules and pro-inflammatory cytokines. A growing body of literature demonstrates the immune benefits of increasing the intake of specific nutrients. This strategy involves formulating diets that encompass the bioavailability and utilization of nutrients from various food sources and understanding the dynamics of the macro and micronutrients to support all physiological functions as well as maintaining the function of the immune cells. The nature and type of feed ingredients may also play some roles on the integrity of the GIT of birds. Because dietary intake or nutritional status as well as nutrient requirements may be altered as a result of disease or stress, this may eventually alter the gut microflora and intestinal mucosal integrity, resulting in a compromised barrier of the intestinal epithelium. The weakening of the intestinal integrity could result in an increase in bacterial adherence to the mucosa, bacterial translocation, susceptibility to opportunistic bacterial infection, and mis-appropriation of nutrients. In this chapter, we will discuss the role of dietary energy and nutrients as substrates that have the potential to influence GIT's health and integrity and their roles, directly or indirectly, in modulating bird's ability to be resilient or resist infection.


The sarcoglycanopathies are a group of autosomal recessive limb girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) resulting from mutations in the genes encoding sarcoglycans (SG), small glycoproteins localised to the plasma membrane of muscle fibres. The sarcoglycans consist of a single transmembrane domain, a small intracellular domain, and a large extracellular domain, and their molecular weight ranges from 35 to 50 kDa. The sarcoglycan complex, which is composed of α-SG, β-SG, γ-SG, and δ-SG, is part of the dystrophin associated glycoprotein (DAG) complex, and it acts as a link between the extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton, confers structural stability to the sarcolemma, and protects muscle fibres from mechanical stress during muscle contraction.1–3

The diseases associated with SG gene mutations (α-SG ( SGCA ), LGMD2D, MIM 600119; β-SG ( SGCB ), LGMD2E, MIM 604286; γ-SG ( SGSG ), LGMD2C, MIM 253700; δ-SG ( SGCD ), LGMD2F, MIM 601287) are rare disorders in the general population, but represent a sizeable proportion of all muscular dystrophies with normal dystrophin (about 10–20% of cases).4–8 LGM2D is the most frequent sarcoglycanopathy,9 followed by LGMD2C10 and LGMD2E,11,12 while the most rare is LGMD2F.13

Since the first description of SG gene mutation in LGMD2D,9,14 a large number of patients and mutations have been described,10–13,15–28 and correlations of genotype with clinical phenotype and protein expression have been investigated.29,30 Null mutations in any of the SG genes usually result in a severe phenotype (sometimes resembling Duchenne-like muscular dystrophy) and at the muscle biopsy level absence of the corresponding protein, whereas missense mutations have variable effects on both phenotype and protein level.

Studies of muscle biopsies from patients with null mutations in the SG genes showed that the absence of one SG subunit has consequences for the stability of the entire complex depending on …


The interannual heat content variability in the tropical south Indian Ocean (SIO) and its relationship with El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is studied. The baroclinic ocean response to stochastic wind stress predicted by a simple analytical model is compared with two integrations of the ECHO-G coupled general circulation model. In one integration, ocean–atmosphere interactions are suppressed in the tropical Pacific Ocean, so that this integration does not simulate ENSO. In the other integration, interactions are allowed everywhere and ENSO is simulated. The results show that basinwide variability in the SIO heat content can be produced by two mechanisms: 1) oscillatory forcing by ENSO-related wind stress and 2) temporally stochastic and spatially coherent wind stress forcing. Previous studies have shown that transmission of energy from the tropical Pacific to the southern Indian Ocean occurs through coastal Kelvin waves along the western coast of Australia. The results in this paper confirm the occurrence of such transmission. In the ECHO-G simulations, this transmission occurs both at the annual time scale and at interannual time scales. Generation of offshore Rossby waves by these coastal Kelvin waves at interannual time scales—and, in particular, at the ENSO time scale—was found.


Introduction: The first hours of childbirth are a critical period for formation of the mother-infant attachment and reduce anxiety regarding infant and separating mother and infant at this time lead to harmful effects. The Purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of skin to skin contact, immediately after delivery on mother-infant attachment and anxiety regarding infant. Methods: This Randomized controlled trial was conducted on 114 primigravid mothers who referred to Om-ol-banin hospital of Mashhad, Iran in 2008. The Participants were divided into two groups, skin to skin contact and usual care groups. In skin-to-skin contact group, naked infants were placed chest to chest position immediately after delivery on skin contact with their mothers. In usual care group, infants were placed under radiant heater after delivery. Maternal and infants data were collected using questionnaire. Two groups followed up at end of the neonatal period to assess mother-infant attachment and anxiety regarding infant. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 14, Chi square, independent t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 92 mother-infant dyads completed the study. The mean of maternal attachment in skin to skin contact group was significantly higher than the usual care group (51.17±3.88 vs. 49.19±4.56, (p=0.02)) and mean of anxiety regarding infant in skin to skin contact group was significantly lower than the usual care group (28.2±3.32 vs. 26.07±4.16, (p=0.03). Conclusion: Mother-infant skin to skin contact increase maternal attachment and reduce anxiety regarding infant.


Since its inception, the field of deep speech enhancement has been dominated by predictive (discriminative) approaches, such as spectral mapping or masking. Recently, however, novel generative approaches have been applied to speech enhancement, attaining good denoising performance with high subjective quality scores. At the same time, advances in deep learning also allowed for the creation of neural network-based metrics, which have desirable traits such as being able to work without a reference (non-intrusively). Since generatively enhanced speech tends to exhibit radically different residual distortions, its evaluation using instrumental speech metrics may behave differently compared to predictively enhanced speech. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the same speech enhancement backbone trained under predictive and generative paradigms on a variety of metrics and show that intrusive and non-intrusive measures correlate differently for each paradigm. This analysis motivates the search for metrics that can together paint a complete and unbiased picture of speech enhancement performance, irrespective of the model's training process.


This paper addresses the ways in which environmental anthropology has affected – and been affected by – the San (Bushmen) of southern Africa, particularly the Ju/'hoansi of northwestern Botswana and northeastern Namibia. Anthropological research and development work carried out in the Kalahari Desert over the past 50 years has shed considerable light on issues ranging from the ecology of hunting and gathering to the impacts of sedentism, and from demography of small-scale societies to the effects of globalization and climate change. Ecological anthropology and conservation biology have focused a great deal of attention on the Ju/'hoansi and other San, who today are some of the best-known and most intensively studied populations on the planet. A wide range of variation exists among the lifestyles of San peoples, all of whom have undergone substantial socioeconomic changes. Here, particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which development, resettlement, and ecological change have affected the Ju/'hoansi and their neighbors. The lessons learned from these studies have affected both academic writing in ecological anthropology and policies aimed at enhancing the well-being of the San and conserving their environments.


A protein−ligand binding, guided-inquiry laboratory project with potential application across the advanced undergraduate curriculum is described. At the heart of the project are fluorescence and spectrophotometric assays utilizing biotin-4-fluorescein and streptavidin. The use of the same stock solutions for an assay that may be examined by two distinct spectroscopic techniques offers an opportunity to discuss not only protein−ligand binding but also to compare instrumental techniques and to discuss the underlying physical principles that are the origins of the assays. In addition to critically evaluating analytical techniques, students are pushed to develop quantitative pipetting, estimation, and experimental-design skills to collect and analyze their data.


Two countries produce goods and are penalized by the common pollution they generate. Each country maximizes an inter-temporal utility criterion, taking account of the pollution stock to which both contribute. The dynamic is in continuous time with possible sudden switches to less polluting technologies. The set of Nash equilibria, for which solutions also remain in the set of constraints, is the intersection of two manifolds in a certain state space. At the Nash equilibrium, the choices of the two countries are interdependent: different productivity levels after switching lead the more productive country to hasten and the less productive to delay the switch. In the absence of cooperation, efforts by one country to pollute less motivate the other to pollute more, or encourage the country that will be cleaner or less productive country after switching to delay its transition.


A large number of sharp peaks are observed in the derivative magnetoresistance of high-purity n-GaAs and InP at 4 K with electrical field biases slightly less than those required to produce impact ionisation of the shallow donors. The peaks are caused by inelastic scattering of the few electrons in the conduction band by the neutral donors. As series of peaks are observed with compensated samples whose peaks move rapidly to higher magnetic field with increasing bias voltage. These peaks are believed to arise from an impact excitation process whereby the impurity is left in an excited state after a collision and subsequently ionises by the absorption of a phonon. The second set of peaks observed is due to the magneto-impurity effect. A wide range of excited states are involved in high-purity materials, and in the case of InP, nearly one hundred peaks can be detected. Fine structure is found on the fundamental (highest field) peak of the strongest series and is correlated with the central-cell structure observed on the far-infrared magneto-optical transitions between the shallow donor states in the same material.


Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) population decline is largely driven by the loss, fragmentation, and degradation of grassland habitats. Translocation is used to reintroduce or augment populations in fragmented landscapes where natural dispersal is inhibited. Northern bobwhites have been successfully translocated in the southeastern portion of their range, but outcomes of translocations in western ranges have been mixed. Our objective was to conduct a pilot study to test the feasibility of translocating northern bobwhites to a restored, but isolated, habitat in the Cross Timbers ecoregion of Texas, USA and to evaluate the influence of release strategy for improving northern bobwhite site fidelity and survival post-release. The release property was restored through brush management, native species seeding, and proper grazing management. We trapped and translocated 84 northern bobwhites from source populations in the Rolling Plains and Edwards Plateau ecoregions during March 2015. Coveys were assigned to either delayed or immediate release treatment. We radio-collared all hens (n = 40; 11 adults; 29 juveniles) and evenly divided the sample between delayed and immediate releases. Delayed release coveys were held on the release site for 4 weeks in a Surrogator® (Wildlife Management Technologies, LLC). We trapped and radio-collared resident hens (n = 15) in March and monitored all hens through breeding season (March–August; 180 days). We implemented a 2-state (alive or dead) multistate model in Program MARK to analyze survival as a function of the release treatment, resident status, and age. We found no evidence that survival differed between translocated and resident hens (β = 0.48, standard error [SE] = 0.38), release treatments (β = 0.10, SE = 0.40), or age (β = -0.16, SE = 0.54). Daily survival for all hens was 0.99 (SE = 0.009) and breeding season survival was 0.19 (SE = 0.08). Four (20%) immediate, 2 (10%) delayed release, and 0 resident hens dispersed off-property. Translocated and resident hens survived at similar rates, indicating that translocation may be a feasible management strategy for augmenting a northern bobwhite population on restored habitats in the Cross Timbers ecoregion although overall survival was low. We did not find evidence that delayed release improved daily survival post-release, but our small sample size may have prevented us from detecting a difference. However, delayed release birds were effectively sheltered from predation during peak raptor migration. Additional research is needed to fully understand population dynamics and implications of release strategy for translocated northern bobwhite. Citation: Ruzicka, R. E., D. Rollins, and T. Bartoskewitz. 2022. Evaluating release strategy for translocated northern bobwhites in the Cross Timbers ecoregion of Texas: a pilot study. National Quail Symposium Proceedings 9:150. https://doi.org/10.7290/ nqsp09866K


AIMS OF THE PAPER
This paper reviews some of the limited nursing research-based literature, orientated towards the use of spiritual coping strategies in illness. This review aims at identifying those spiritual coping strategies used by the believers and nonbelievers followed by implications for holistic nursing care.

LITERATURE SEARCH
The CINAHL and MEDLINE CD Rom databases were searched, identifying literature published from 1975 onwards which amounted to 187 articles. The majority of the literature traced were found anecdotal with only few studies investigating directly spiritual coping strategies. Following scrutiny of the available articles, only five research studies explored directly the spiritual coping strategies used in various illness, four of which were conducted in USA and one in UK. Because of the small scale research studies, generalization of the findings of this review is limited to the samples used.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Research suggests that spiritual coping strategies, involving relationship with self, others, Ultimate other/God or nature were found to help individuals to cope with their ailments. This may be because of finding meaning, purpose and hope, which may nurture individuals in their suffering. Spirituality is oftenly referred by literature as being synonymous with religiosity. Thus the use of spiritual coping strategies is restricted to individuals who hold religious beliefs. However, the definition of spirituality indicates that this concept is broader than religiosity. The theories on stress-coping (Folkman & Lazarus 1984) and the numinous experience (Otto 1950) outline the rationale for the use of these strategies which are applicable to both the believers and nonbelievers.

IMPLICATIONS
This review suggests that the onset of illness may render the individual, being a believer or nonbeliever to realize the lack of control over his/her life. However the use of spiritual coping strategies may enhance self-empowerment, leading to finding meaning and purpose in illness. This implies that holistic care incorporates facilitation of various spiritual coping strategies to safeguard the wholeness and integrity of the patients.


Background : Scaling Up Nutrition movement is a global effort to strengthen our commitment and accelerating action plan to improve nutrition, particularly the handling of nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life is exclusive breastfeeding and it until 24 months. One of the way is with exclusive breastfeeding counselling that can reduce stunting. The counseling is addressed to brides who need special attention in improving the nutrition and health.
Objective : The aim of research to improve knowledge about exclusive breastfeeding counseling the bride through the use of leaflets. Method : This quasi-experimental study was a sample of 30 person a brides with non-random assignment, the variable a knowledge obtained through interviews using questionnaires while the method of counseling does face to face with an exclusive breastfeeding leaflet. The data was analyzed by dependent t-test.
Result : The results showed exclusive breastfeeding counseling can improve knowledge bride (p= 0,000) with a mean difference is
6,13 and a deviation is 3,71.
Conclusion : Increase of knowledge among 'bride-to be' about exclusive breastfeeding could be improved through the use of exclusive breastfeeding leaflet. Each health center must be in collaboration with Office of Religious Affairs to have exclusive breastfeeding counseling, and set one of the priority programs in the prevention of child stunting.

Keywords: Bride, counseling, knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding


Urinary kallikrein excretion was studied in a group of insulin-dependent diabetic patients in relation to glycemic control, and both urinary and renal tissue levels of kallikrein were measured in untreated and insulin-treated streptozotocin-diabetic rats. While on a fixed normal sodium diet, diabetic patients in poor glycemic control (HbA1c greater than 11%) showed elevated urinary kallikrein, compared to patients with HbA1c less than 11% or normal subjects. Strict glycemic control lowered kallikrein excretion in diabetic patients. In contrast, severely hyperglycemic diabetic rats had reduced urinary and renal kallikrein levels, compared to nondiabetic control rats, and the reduction in urinary kallikrein preceded the development of systolic hypertension. Insulin treatment normalized urinary kallikrein in diabetic rats, but resulted in increased renal kallikrein levels compared to nondiabetic rats. The differences in kallikrein abnormalities observed in diabetic patients and a diabetic animal model may possibly be related to renal hemodynamic changes in clinical and experimental diabetic states.


When given in conventional daily dosage, rifampicin is highly effective but very expensive, costing well over £200 a year for one patient. This makes the use of daily rifampicin regimens unrealistic in nearly all the developing countries and indeed in many technically advanced countries too. If an intermittent regimen containing a smaller total weekly dosage of rifampicin which is both therapeutically effective and of low toxicity could be found the applicability of this very valuable drug would be much increased. It would indeed be a great pity if the report of Dr. Poole and others were to be interpreted as discouraging further investigation along these lines. In the final analysis the aim must be to evaluate rifampicin-containing regimens in terms of efficacy, safety, convenience, cost and applicability, in comparison with the alternative regimens available for the treatment of the same type of disease, in the same population.-We are, etc.,


Presence and pattern of peripheral retinal changes were studied using ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) in patients with cataract of different etiology. UBM was performed in 85 eyes of 65 patients. Mean age was 65, 75+8, 19 years old. UBM was performed using "Sonomed" equipment (USA). Morphology of revealed by means of UBM peripheral retinal changes was made in 5 eyes with uveal melanoma. The signs of retinoschisis were found in 82 eyes (96.5%) using UBM. The initial UBM signs represent inclusions in the inner retinal layers. With the progressing of schisis cystic splitting of retina was found. Confluence of distinct cysts into one schisis zone was characteristic for further progressing. Thus peripheral retinoschisis has acoustic stages, that are confirmed morphologicaly and can be revealed by means of UBM in the majority of old patients with cataract of different etiology.


Park, Chong Hyun Ph.D., Purdue University, August 2016. Parametric Approaches to Fractional Programs: Analytical and empirical Study. Major Professors: Robert D. Plante and Yanjun Li. Fractional programming is used to model problems where the objective function is a ratio of functions. A parametric modeling approach provides effective technique for obtaining optimal solutions of these fractional programming problems. Although many heuristic algorithms have been proposed and assessed relative to each other, there are limited theoretical studies on the number of steps to obtain the solution. In this dissertation, I focus on the linear fractional combinatorial optimization problem, a special case of fractional programming where all functions in the objective function and constraints are linear and all variables are binary that model certain combinatorial structures. Two parametric algorithms are considered and the efficiency of the algorithms is investigated both theoretically and computationally. I develop the complexity bounds for these algorithms, and show that they can solve the linear fractional combinatorial optimization problem in polynomial time. In the computational study, the algorithms are used to solve fractional knapsack problem, fractional facility location problem, and fractional transportation problem by comparison to other algorithms (e.g., Newton's method). The relative practical performance measured by the number of function calls demonstrates that the proposed algorithms are fast and robust for solving the linear fractional programs with discrete variables.


We studied enzymatic adipyl-7-ADCA hydrolysis as a new process for the production of 7-aminodeacetoxycephalosporanic acid (7-ADCA), one of the building blocks for cephalosporin antibiotics like cephalexin and cefadroxil. Adipyl-7-ADCA hydrolysis carried out with immobilised glutaryl acylase was considerably enhanced by addition of phenylglycine amide, the side-chain donor used for cephalexin synthesis; unlike reactions carried out with free enzyme. The rate enhancing effect was not specifically related to phenylglycine amide; we found a linear relationship between the reaction rate and the buffering capacity of the added substance. These observations can be explained by a pH-gradient in the immobilised enzyme, the pH inside the particle being lower (corresponding to low enzyme activity) than outside. It was concluded that the buffer reduced the pH-gradient inside the biocatalyst, and therewith, caused the reaction rate enhancing effects. Further, chloride ions decreased the reaction rate strongly, while sodium, magnesium, sulphate, and potassium did not influence the reaction rate much. For an actual process, it is important to use a buffer that is appropriate for the reaction-pH. In that way the amount of enzyme required in a process can be reduced considerably, in our case a factor of three was found.


Distributed computing accomplished broad appropriation because of consequently parallelizing and transparently executing tasks in distributed environments. Straggling tasks is an essential test confronted by all Big Data Processing Frameworks, for example, Mapreduce[3], Dryad[4], Spark[5]. Stragglers are the assignments that run much slower than different tasks and since a job completes just when it's last undertaking completions, stragglers postponement work fruition. The literature reviews stragglers recognition and rescheduling systems proposed so far and brings up their strengths and shortcomings. This thesis additionally displays wise attributes and impediments of the existing state- of-the- craftsmanship calculations to take care of the issue of stragglers relief. This thesis presents a systematic and organized study of community detection techniques. The literature survey shows that most of the algorithms fail to efficiently reschedule the stragglers. Innocently one may anticipate that straggler taking care of will be a simple assignment, doubling tasks that are sufficiently slower. Actually it is a complex issue for a few reasons. In the first place, Speculative assignments are not free they seek certain assets, for example, system with other running tasks. Second, picking the node to run speculative task on is as significant as picking the task. Third, in Heterogeneous environment it may be challenging to recognize nods that are marginally slower than the mean and stragglers. At long last, Stragglers ought to be recognized as right on time as could reasonably be expected. The proposed framework uses mobile agent approach for rescheduling because the agent can start the execution at the other place from the very same place they left in the earlier machine. The implementation and results shows the proposed work is efficient and improves the overall performance of a big data processing framework.


This paper investigates the impact if ownership and ownership concentration on the performance of China's listed firms. By recognizing the differences between ownership and ownership concentration, and between total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration, we find that ownership concentration is more powerful than any category of ownership in determining firm performance and that it has approximately positive linear relations with firm value. The tradable ownership concentration has a more significant and positive influence on firm performance than total ownership cocncentration. The highest level of firm performance is approached when a firm is characterized with both total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration. Thus, we conclude that it is a rule that ownership concentration enhances firm performance regardless of who the concentrated owners are.


Food and nutritional insecurity remains a global challenge, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing a large share of this burden. Despite much policy attention, it remains unclear whether the goal of eradicating worldwide food and nutritional insecurity will be achieved. There is considerable evidence that women's land rights is central in this discourse, and this is especially relevant in the urban zone, where residents continue to face challenges in accessing land to produce food for their households. A mixed-methods study was carried out between October 2013 and November 2014 in urban and periurban Tamale, northern Ghana, to understand the dynamic and recursive links between gender, access to land and access to nutritious food under the communal land tenure system pertaining in northern Ghana. Results show that although women in the northern region of Ghana are expected to provide soups (usually consisting of vegetables such as okra Abelmoschus esculentus or roselle Hibiscus sabdariffa) to accompany starch based dishes (mostly maize Zea mays, pearl millet Pennisetum glaucum and sorghum Sorghum bicolor), they do not own land. In many cases women were given less than 0.5 acres of land at the fringes of the farmland to produce these vegetables. Women also rely on economic trees like the dawa dawa (Parkia biglobosa) and sheanut trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) to help provide nutritious soups and generate income for basic household needs. These important trees grow on land owned by men, whose permission is needed for access. The dilemma of women worsens if their spouse dies and they are left with the responsibility of providing food for the family, whilst not having land. As a coping strategy, they borrow land from male relatives for cultivation of staple food crops and also engage in trading of food stuffs to improve their livelihood. Finally, they engage in gathering, harvesting and gleaning to improve household food availability. Although women do not own land in northern Ghana, they play a critical role in providing nutritious and diverse diets for their families. Therefore, their innovative methods of food provisioning should be recognised and supported in agricultural and food policy.


Interactions between bacterial biofilms formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and clarithromycin, a macrolide having no anti-P. aeruginosa activity, were investigated. P. aeruginosa incubated for 10 days on membrane filters formed biofilms on the surfaces of the filters. The biofilms were characterized by dense colonizations of bacteria and thick membranous structures that covered the colonies. Treatment of the biofilms with a relatively low concentration of clarithromycin for 5 days resulted in an eradication of the membranous structures. Quantitative analysis of alginate and hexose was done to evaluate the quantity of polysaccharides in or on the biofilms. Treatment of the biofilms with clarithromycin decreased the quantity of alginate and hexose and therefore perhaps the quantity of polysaccharides as well. Eradication of the membranous structures of biofilms, or the decrease in the quantity of polysaccharides, resulted in an increase in the rate of penetration of antibiotics through bacterial biofilms. In vivo therapeutic effects of ofloxacin in the rat infection model, in which the biofilm mode of growth of P. aeruginosa is characteristic, were enhanced by oral coadministration of clarithromycin. It is suggested that clarithromycin eradicated glycocalyx produced by P. aeruginosa, or suppressed the production of glycocalyx, by unknown mechanisms and thereby enhanced the therapeutic efficacies of other antimicrobial agents against infections caused by P. aeruginosa.


The authors outline a formal model of topological navigation in one-dimensional spaces such as single roads. They formally define the concepts of direction giving and of custom map, as well as some specifications for feature detector models, including the idea of sensor synchronicity. The representations necessary to model and make use of differences between the world itself, the world as perceived by the map maker, and the world as experienced by the navigator are discussed. The difficulty of giving precise meaning to what is meant by a 'good' map is shown, and an operational definition of what is meant by a 'landmark' is given: regardless of starting position, any custom map can attain a landmark with but a single direction. It is shown that even in the simplest case, NP-complete problems arise in the efficient selection and sequencing of sensor modalities, even while attempting to navigate from one single object to another. A heuristic is provided that appears reasonable for map creation, and examples are given of several very different maps, each of which is optimal under eight reasonable criteria. >


This article seeks to express the uniqueness of John Calvin's understanding of the meaning of Imago Dei as his reaction to the understanding of the theologians of Irenaeus and Medieval Scholastic Aquinas, then to explain the implications of Imago Dei theologically in the context of God's creation along with its significance on self-identity in the digital age. Calvin restores Imago Dei's view back to the bible. His thesis is human must have the right knowledge about God and himself. It is only through Jesus Christ and His word can a man be renewed and knows himself as Imago Dei, so that he can glorify God again. And it is only through the work of the Holy Spirit can man reflects God in this world.
KEYWORDS: Imago Dei; total depravity; redemption; renewal; knowing oneself.


During the solar eclipse of 7 March 1970, readings were taken and recorded electronically of the times required for the torsion pendulum to rotate through a given fixed part of its path, involving both clockwise and counterclockwise motions, on its first swing from rest. Significant variations in these times were observed during the course of the eclipse as well as in the hours just preceding and just following the eclipse itself. Between the onset of the eclipse and its midpoint there is a steady increase in the observed times. After the midpoint the times decrease suddenly and level off promptly to values considerably greater than those observed before the eclipse. Furthermore, before the eclipse there is a periodic variation in these times. This strange periodicity was essentially repeated two weeks later at the same hours, though the actual values were somewhat greater than the earlier ones. These increases in actual values exceed by a factor of ${10}^{5}$ those that can be explained by the attraction of the moon due to its change in position relative to the sun and earth. All this leads to the conclusion that classical gravitational theory needs to be modified to interpret these experimental facts.


Design and implementation of a personal computer (PC) based measurement circuits & system that containing signals' sensing and generation are demonstrated in this study. The instrument can be easily operated via a user-friendly interface consisted of some functional keys displayed on the PC screen. Compact design of the hardware for the two units (signals' sensing and generation) is made in a plug-in style of PC input/output (I/O) card so that no extra space for the instrument is needed. Design concepts for the hardware and software of the instrument are described. Functional performances of the setup of signals' sensing and generation are tested. The results show user-friendly function and well-behaved performance for the package design.


A sensitive fiber-speckle field sensor using a Ce:Fe-doped LiNbO(3) photorefractive fiber hologram is introduced. We have shown that the sensitivity of this photorefractive fiber specklegram sensor can be of the order of 0.05 µm. The proposed system would offer the widespread use of practical fiber-sensing applications.


A large‐scale phylogenetic study is presented for Cucujoidea (Coleoptera), a diverse superfamily of beetles that historically has been taxonomically difficult. This study is the most comprehensive analysis of cucujoid taxa to date, with DNA sequence data sampled from eight genes (four nuclear, four mitochondrial) for 384 coleopteran taxa, including exemplars of 35 (of 37) families and 289 genera of Cucujoidea. Maximum‐likelihood analyses of these data present many significant relationships, some proposed previously and some novel. Tenebrionoidea and Lymexyloidea are recovered together and Cleroidea forms the sister group to this clade. Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea are recovered as sister taxa and this clade (Phytophaga) forms the sister group to the core Cucujoidea (Cucujoidea s.n.). The nitidulid series is recovered as the earliest‐diverging core cucujoid lineage, although the earliest divergences among core Cucujoidea are only weakly supported. The cerylonid series (CS) is recovered as monophyletic and is supported as a major Cucujiform clade, sister group to the remaining superfamilies of Cucujiformia. Currently recognized taxa that were not recovered as monophyletic include Cucujoidea, Endomychidae, Cerylonidae and Bothrideridae. Biphyllidae and Byturidae were recovered in Cleroidea. The remaining Cucujoidea were recovered in two disparate major clades: one comprising the nitidulid series + erotylid series + Boganiidae and Hobartiidae + cucujid series, and the other comprising the cerylonid series. Propalticidae are recovered within Laemophloeidae. The cerylonid series includes two major clades, the bothriderid group and the coccinellid group. Akalyptoischiidae are recovered as a separate clade from Latridiidae. Eupsilobiinae are recovered as the sister taxon to Coccinellidae. In light of these findings, many formal changes to cucujiform beetle classification are proposed. Biphyllidae and Byturidae are transferred to Cleroidea. The cerylonid series is formally recognized as a new superfamily, Coccinelloidea stat.n. Current subfamilies elevated (or re‐elevated) to family status include: Murmidiidae stat.n., Teredidae stat.n., Euxestidae stat.n., Anamorphidae stat.rev., Eupsilobiidae stat.n., and Mycetaeidae stat.n. The following taxa are redefined and characterized: Cleroidea s.n., Cucujoidea s.n., Cerylonidae s.n., Bothrideridae s.n., Endomychidae s.n. A new subfamily, Cyclotominae stat.n., is described. Stenotarsinae syn.n. is formally subsumed within a new concept of Endomychinae s.n.


Retinoic acid and thyroid hormone receptors can act alternatively as ligand-independent repressors or ligand-dependent activators, based on an exchange of N-CoR or SMRT-containing corepressor complexes for coactivator complexes in response to ligands. We provide evidence that the molecular basis of N-CoR recruitment is similar to that of coactivator recruitment, involving cooperative binding of two helical interaction motifs within the N-CoR carboxyl terminus to both subunits of a RAR-RXR heterodimer. The N-CoR and SMRT nuclear receptor interaction motifs exhibit a consensus sequence of LXX I/H I XXX I/L, representing an extended helix compared to the coactivator LXXLL helix, which is able to interact with specific residues in the same receptor pocket required for coactivator binding. We propose a model in which discrimination of the different lengths of the coactivator and corepressor interaction helices by the nuclear receptor AF2 motif provides the molecular basis for the exchange of coactivators for corepressors, with ligand-dependent formation of the charge clamp that stabilizes LXXLL binding sterically inhibiting interaction of the extended corepressor helix.


I read with interest the article of Eloy et al regarding the qualifications of otolaryngologist expert witnesses. The degree of clinical experience of both plaintiff and defendant medical experts was, at more than 30 years, rather striking. Measuring the degree of expertise is certainly an inexact science. Given the rapidly changing nature of the field of otolaryngology, the level of expertise with relation to the current standard of care can be difficult to estimate based on prior and, in many cases, much earlier achievements. One measure of up-to-date knowledge would be the medical experts' participation in the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process administered by the American Board of Otolaryngology. Diplomates since 2002 have had to participate in an annual recertification process, culminating in a recertification examination every decade. In contrast, otolaryngologists who achieved board certification prior to 2002 are certified for life and do not have to take part in this process, but may voluntarily choose to do so. Given the significant seniority of expert witnesses for both sides, MOC status would seem to provide a good proxy for being up to date with the current standard of care. The MOC status of physicians can be found on the American Board of Otolaryngology website (aboto.org) by typing in the name of the otolaryngologist.


Dynamical interpolation of five years of TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data (October 1992-September 1997) is performed in the South Atlantic basin, through the use of a simple quasigeostrophic model and a simple nudging data assimilation technique. The resulting data set is analysed in order to evidence the role of mesoscale eddies on the interannual variability of the South Atlantic ocean circulations. The annual mean circulations and the eddy fields reveal some significant interannual variability in the Brazil-Malvinas confluence region and in the Aghulas Retroflection region. But this interannual variability spreads out also in large extensions of those previous regions as well as in other areas of the South Atlantic basin. In particular, significant variability shows up in the upper return branch of the subtropical gyre that is interpreted in relation with the drift of some Aghulas rings. The role of those latter rings which are crucial for the Indian-Atlantic interocean exchange processes, is further investigated in the paper, and the fate of five specific rings analysed in detail. The overall influence of topography on the circulation is clearly evidenced, especially through its interaction with eddies.


Basilar-type migraine (BTM) is a type of migraine with aura symptoms resulting from brain stem or bi-hemispheric structures but without motor elements. There are no precise data on the frequency of BTM. The main cohort of the patients includes young people and children with female predomination. The onset of the disease usually occurs before the age of 25. The diagnosis of BTM is based on the finding of two migraine attacks accompanied by a specific aura, with dysarthria, vertigo, tinnitus, impaired hearing, double vision, visual aura elements, ataxia of a cerebellar type, loss of consciousness, and bilateral paresthesias. In the differential diagnosis one should consider the pathology of posterior fossa, diseases with recurrent vertigo, complex epileptic seizures, CADASIL and MELAS syndromes, and alternative hemiplegic migraine with cerebellar symptoms and signs. In the prophylaxis sodium valproate and calcium-entry blockers and, especially in the prophylaxis of vertigo, betahistine chloride are used.


The departmental library is discussed within the context of the university as a whole. The structure of the academic library is related to the structure of the parent institution. Departmental libraries are examined as to their performance for students and faculty. Detailed crnticisms of specific shortcomings are presented, illustrated from the author's experiences. The implications of departmental libraries for the professional librarian are argued. An "ideal" central library is described. A short list of suggested readings is appended.


Current statistical parsers tend to perform well only on their training domain and nearby genres. While strong performance on a few related domains is sufficient for many situations, it is advantageous for parsers to be able to generalize to a wide variety of domains. When parsing document collections involving heterogeneous domains (e.g. the web), the optimal parsing model for each document is typically not obvious. We study this problem as a new task --- multiple source parser adaptation. Our system trains on corpora from many different domains. It learns not only statistics of those domains but quantitative measures of domain differences and how those differences affect parsing accuracy. Given a specific target text, the resulting system proposes linear combinations of parsing models trained on the source corpora. Tested across six domains, our system outperforms all non-oracle baselines including the best domain-independent parsing model. Thus, we are able to demonstrate the value of customizing parsing models to specific domains.


The political entrepreneur is to be found in the public sector. However, the public entrepreneur not only acts in relation to other public actors, but also in relation to the business sector with entrepreneurs. To discuss and understand who is the political entrepreneur is therefore to explore the relationships and networks between the public sector and the business sector, the entrepreneurs involved and how the political entrepreneur must act to promote favourable conditions for entrepreneurs. In times of global economic competition, economic recession and transformation of the urban and rural economic landscapes, it is important from local and regional perspectives to have political entrepreneurs that seek new opportunities for growth. This is done by changing traditional norms and values of who the entrepreneur might be and how entrepreneurship is to be conducted. It is about identifying windows of opportunities and exploring new formal and informal favourable conditions for existing and potential entrepreneurs.


In order to ensure responsible Artificial intelligence (AI) applications engineering, we need to make sure that the development of AI systems is mindful of the consequences for individuals and societies. By anticipating the consequences of the design choices, reflecting upon the problem being solved by engaging all stakeholders and taking appropriate actions to ensure openness and the system's social, legal, and ethical acceptability. This research aims to develop an engineering process model by which ethical considerations can be addressed throughout the AI systems' software development life-cycle. The design methodological framework engineered in this PhD research will support aligning system goals with key ethical values by providing explicit values analysis and interpretation mechanisms, formal representation of ethical values, mechanisms for stakeholders participation in handling ethical deliberation, and providing support for governance and compliance mechanisms.


Jerome's College in Waterloo, have written a book based upon interviews with a number of contemporary Canadian Roman Catholics. The result is a series of short vignettes of a rather eclectic grouping of clerics (e.g., Emmett Carter, Remi De Roo), politicians (e.g., Marc Lalonde, Andy Hogan), writers (e.g., Morley Callaghan, Marie-Claire Blais), journalists (e.g., Mary Jo Leddy, Larry Henderson), activists (e.g., Richard Cashin, Jean Forest) and even a Supreme Court judge (Emmett Hall) and a scientist (Larkin Kerwin). The personal sketches highlight the influence of Catholic attitudes and teaching on the work of each person concerned. An historical introduction outlining the early history of the Roman Catholic Church in various regions of Canada precedes the individual portraits. The book was produced for a popular audience and makes for light reading. It leaves the underlying religious and political issues it provokes largely unexplored. For those not familiar with Canada's history, the historical introduction does have


There has been a surge of clinical interest in the idea of response-guided dosing (RGD). The goal in RGD is to tailor drug-doses to the stochastic evolution of each individual patient's disease condition over the treatment course. The hope is that this form of individualized therapy will deliver the right dose to the right patient at the right time. Several expert panels have observed that despite the excitement surrounding RGD, quantitative, data-driven decision-making approaches that learn patients' dose-response and incorporate this information into adaptive dosing strategies are lagging behind. This situation is particularly exacerbated in clinical trials. For instance, fixed design clinical studies for estimating the key parameter of a dose-response function might not treat trial patients optimally. Similarly, the dosing strategies employed in clinical trials for RGD often appear ad-hoc. In this paper, we study the problem of finding optimal RGD policies while learning the distribution of a dose-response parameter from a cohort of patients. We provide a Bayesian stochastic dynamic programming (DP) formulation of this problem. Exact solution of Bellman's equations for this problem is computationally intractable. We therefore present two approximate control schemes and mathematically analyze the monotonicity, stationarity, and separability structures of the resulting dosing strategies. These structures are then exploited in efficient, approximate solution of the optimal learning problem. Computer simulations using the Michaelis-Menten dose-response function are included as an example wherein we study the effect of cohort size and prior misspecification on learning, and also compare the performance of various dosing policies.


Globally, the energy supply in the market is tight and the oil price fluctuates sharply. With the increasing degree of environmental pollution, both developed and developing countries pay special attention to the development of new energy, and energy conservation and emission reduction have been put on the agenda. As new energy vehicles have the advantages of energy conservation and environmental protection, they are strongly supported by governments. Many countries regard new energy vehicles as substitutes for traditional vehicles, and their development has ushered in a good opportunity. Under the background that the government and enterprises pay more attention to the development of new energy vehicles, it is of positive significance to study the intelligent manufacturing enterprises of new energy vehicles in a province. This paper studies the manufacturing of new energy vehicles through soft computing. Next, this paper also analyzes the financial market. Enterprise risk is closely related to investor income and social healthy development, which is a hot issue concerned by the public and the government. However, in recent years, there have been a series of cases in which enterprises have suffered huge losses using "hedging" to avoid operational risks, which has aroused public concern about the motivation of enterprises to use derivative financial products. Based on the leverage characteristics of derivative financial instruments, scholars believe that the high leverage profit in the capital market is the main incentive for enterprises to use hedging for hedging speculation. Existing studies pay more attention to the consequences of enterprise hedging, and they analyze the impact of enterprise hedging, focus on the result level after enterprise hedging, and seek the significance of enterprise hedging. Through the research on soft computing, this paper will apply it to the intelligent manufacturing of new energy vehicles and promote the development of hedging in China's financial market


This paper sets out the results of a study conducted in the inland areas in central Italy on certain phenomena that, for decades, have evolved separately: urban and socio-economic growth, environmental and cultural conservation and the curbing of seismic risk. The study was carried out by analysing the urban conversion of land in the Italian Apennines over the past 50 years, focusing on areas of varying seismic hazard. Our analysis highlights that territorial planning has failed to tackle this risk in an integrated manner, implementing entirely uncoordinated actions that have produced poor results. Thus, our main goal is to study urban development and its effects on the Apennine system and devise possible strategies to mitigate the seismic risk in this area of significant worth, but made extremely vulnerable by policies and solutions that have never been "nature-based".


Solder paste plays a crucial role as the widely used joining material in surface mount technology (SMT).The understanding of its behaviour and properties is essential to ensure the proper functioning of the electronic assemblies.The composition of the solder paste is known to be directly related to its rheological behaviour. This paper provides a brief overview of the solder paste behaviour of four different solder paste formulations, stencil printing processes, and techniques to characterize solder paste behaviour adequately. The solder pastes are based on the Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu alloy,are different in their particle size, metal content and flux system. The solder pastes are characterized in terms of solder particle size and shape as well as the rheological characterizations such as oscillatory sweep tests, viscosity, and creep
recovery behaviour of pastes.


Bone marrow biopsy (BMB) is a standard technique used in various therapies, research, diagnosis, and prognosis. The extensive forces during biopsy result in unnecessary stress concentrations that are primarily hazardous to weak end bones. To enhance protection and to better identify the risks of bone biopsy, it is essential to understand and predict the interaction of needles with multiple layers of skin and bone. The present investigation aimed to find out the numerical evaluation of forces involved in the insertion and extraction of the needle into multilayer iliac crest model. The insertion and extraction forces have been studied at different diameters of biopsy needles up to a depth of 15.35 mm and insertion speeds in the range of 1 mm/sec - 10 mm/sec. The results showed that the insertion and extraction forces vary according to the needle diameter and relative velocity among the needle and tissue layers. A linear force vs. depth relationship has been obtained in the preliminary phase, and as the depth of insertion increases, the forces increase non-linearly. At the end phase of penetration, the forces augmented more rapidly at a low insertion rate compared to the high insertion rate.


While in most patients with non-medullary thyroid cancer (TC), disease remission is achieved by thyroidectomy and ablation of tumor remnants by radioactive iodide (RAI), a substantial subgroup of patients with metastatic disease present tumor lesions that have acquired RAI resistance as a result of dedifferentiation. Although oncogenic mutations in BRAF, TERT promoter and TP53 are associated with an increased propensity for induction of dedifferentiation, the role of genetic and epigenetic aberrations and their effects on important intracellular signaling pathways is not yet fully elucidated. Also immune, metabolic, stemness and microRNA pathways have emerged as important determinants of TC dedifferentiation and RAI resistance. These signaling pathways have major clinical implications since their targeting could inhibit TC progression and could enable redifferentiation to restore RAI sensitivity. In this review, we discuss the current insights into the pathological processes conferring dedifferentiation and RAI resistance in TC and elaborate on novel advances in diagnostics and therapy to improve the clinical outcome of RAI-refractory TC patients.


1. Intellectual Organization and Adaptation. 2. Intellectual Development and Other Factors. 3. Sensorimotor Development. 4. The Development of Preoperational Thought. 5. The Development of Concrete Operations. 6. The Development of Formal Operations. 7. Further Aspects of Piaget's Theory. 8. The Implications of Piaget's Theory for Education: Principles of Constructivism. 9. Applications.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Previously, we demonstrated an inflammatory response of human PDL (hPDL) cells to mechanical loading. The cellular reaction was dampened by heat pre-treatment suggesting a protective role for heat shock proteins (HSP) during stress-induced ischemia. Here we explored if HSP70, which has already been documented in the pressure zone of tooth movement, might be regulatorily involved in the attenuation of the inflammatory response.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fifth passage hPDL cells were mechanically loaded in the presence of the HSP70 inhibitor VER155008. Cell morphology, HSP70 expression, viability, IL-6 and IL-8 expression were determined by means of microscopy, realtime-PCR and ELISA. The conditioned medium of mechanically loaded and pre-treated hPDL cells was used to culture monocytes to identify a potential impact on adhesion and osteoclastic differentiation capacity.

RESULTS
Mechanical cell stress resulted in a significant increase of pro-inflammatory parameters. HSP70 inhibition led to a further enhancement of cytokine expression. The conditioned medium of mechanically loaded hPDL cells significantly increased monocyte adhesion and differentiation along the osteoclastic pathway. VER155008 pronounced this effect significantly.

CONCLUSION
The results indicate a regulatory role for HSP70 in the control of the inflammatory hPDL cell response to mechanical loading and identify HSP70 as a target in the attempt to attenuate tissue damage during orthodontic tooth movement. Furthermore, the present findings point to the risk of increased periodontal destruction when medication targeting HSP70 is applied for severe medical conditions during orthodontic tooth movement.


The effect of heparin, aspirin, and recombinat tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) on TP-9201 pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics was investigated in beagles. Animals received TP-9201, an Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid (RGD)-containing synthetic peptide glycoprotein (gp)IIbIIIa antagonist as a bolus of 0.31 mg/kg, followed by a 4-h infusion of 0.5 mg/kg/h. rt-PA was administered as a modification of the weight-adjusted standard regimen. Heparin was administered as a bolus followed by an infusion producing a 1.5- to 2-fold increase in the activated prothromboplastin time (aPTT) above baseline values. Aspirin was administered orally, approximately 24 and 2 h before TP-9201. TP-9201 had a plasma clearance of 9.9 +/- 2 ml/min/kg and a volume of distribution that was larger than plasma volume. Administration of heparin and aspirin with TP-9201 did not affect the clearance of TP-9201, whereas rt-PA resulted in a faster clearance (p = 0.05). Whether the faster clearance is physiologic or a result of rt-PA interference in the TP-9201 assay is unclear. TP-9201 completely inhibited ADP-mediated platelet aggregation. After discontinuation of TP-9201, recovery of platelet aggregation had a half life (t1/2) of 2-3 h and was complete < or = 24 h. Coadministration of heparin did not interfere with TP-9201 pharmacodynamics, whereas aspirin and rt-PA slowed the recovery of platelet aggregation. The template bleeding time profile for the TP-9201-treated animals was similar to that of the aspirin-treated animals.


* With 95% confidence intervals indicated with error bars. † Level of psychological distress is based on responses to the questions, "During the past 30 days, how often did you feel: 1) so sad that nothing could cheer you up, 2) nervous, 3) restless or fidgety, 4) hopeless, 5) that everything was an effort, or 6) worthless?" Response categories were: all (4), most (3), some (2), a little (1) and none (0) of the time. Response codes 0–4 for the six items were combined to yield a point value on a 0–24 point scale. A value of 13 or more was used to define serious psychological distress. A value of 8–12 was used to define mild to moderate psychological distress. § Adults were asked if they had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and, if yes, whether they currently smoked cigarettes every day, some days, or not at all. Those who smoked every day or some days were classified as current cigarette smokers. ¶ Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the noninstitutionalized U.S. civilian population aged ≥18 years and are derived from the National Health Interview Survey Sample Adult component.


This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D and the possible risk factors in Thai athletes. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 96 student athletes (73 males, 23 females) at the Institute of Physical Education Udonthani Thailand. Vitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency (<20 ng/mL) or insufficiency (20-30 ng/mL) was determined using a standard blood test. The mean±SD age was 20.8±1.4 years. The prevalence of hypovitaminosis D was 42.7% (8.3% for vitamin D deficiency, 34.4% for vitamin D insufficiency). Factors related to hypovitaminosis D included being a female (OR=2.7, 95% CI 1.0-7.0, P=0.04), and sun exposure of 30 min or less per day (OR=3.1, 95% CI 1.2-8.0, P=0.01). However, types of sport, sunscreen application, and consumption of high vitamin D foods were not significantly related to hypovitaminosis D prevalence. The relatively high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in student athletes suggests these sport athletes (particularly the females) should consider increasing their exposure to vitamin D producing mechanisms.


Trade liberalization and globalization has modernized the food retail sector in Taiwan, affecting consumers, producers and trade patterns. These changes have placed significant pressures on farmers and processors including more stringent quality control and product varieties. The government has launched a rice production-marketing contract program in 2005 to assist rice farmers and the agro-business sector to work together as partners. The minimum scale for each contract is 50 hectares of adjacent rice paddies with 50 participants including rice farmers, seedling providers, millers and marketing agents. In order to evaluate the outcome of this program, a survey is conducted in the summer of 2005 after the first (spring) crop is harvested. Information of price and value of output and major variable and fixed inputs are collected along with characteristics of the farmers and farms. The survey results show that the average revenue of a contract farm is about 11 percent higher than an average non-contract farm. The per hectare cost of production in a contract farm is about 13 percent lower and as a result the average profit margin under contract is more than 50 percent above those without contract. A swtiching regression profit frontier model is adopted to further investigate their efficiency performance. The result indicates that an average contract farms is 20 percent more efficient than an average non-contract farm in a comparable operating environment. The result also suggests that although contract farming has potential to improve the profit of smallholders, it is not a sufficient condition for such improvement.


Abstract The use of primary scientific inquiry and experimentation to develop students' understanding of methodologies used by scientists and the nature of science is a key component of the Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Introduction to inquiry-based experimentation also has been shown to improve students' attitudes and interest in science. However, implementing scientific inquiry activities that include experimental design and data analysis in a classroom of middle or high school students can be daunting for teachers with limited experimental experience. Here, we present a fourto five-day, inquiry-based laboratory activity designed to teach students about the scientific process and excite them about scientific discovery while providing opportunities for interactions of both teachers and students with scientists in the field. Within this laboratory module, students make observations and develop their own research questions, then design, execute, analyze, and present the results of their hypothesis-driven experiments investigating the behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans, a relatively inexpensive and tractable model organism. Our experience running this module in a middle school biology classroom suggests students enjoyed the opportunity to investigate their own research questions, and post-course surveys indicated that students' fear of biology decreased and their interest in biology-related careers increased following participation in the module.


The Third Edition of the Florida Citrus Rootstock Selection Guide was recently released online. This website is a valuable resource containing updated information on rootstock options. The site is unique in that several technologies there complement the rootstock table, including: 1) an interactive online version of the table; 2) an extensive bibliography containing over 100 rootstock references; and 3) an expert system to help focus on the best rootstock candidates given certain user-selected criteria. The expert system is a backward-chaining platform that interviews users about their planting and site requirements. The system uses artificial intelligence technology to infer the best candidate rootstocks based on those criteria. The results are presented in an ordered list from top to bottom showing rootstocks that might be considered. The expert system is built on the Exsys Corvid® Core for Mac OS® X platform, which has the advantages of providing robust development features at a reasonable cost. This paper presents the expert system, provides details on the development process, and discusses the results of a focus group presentation for real-world user feedback.


Neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries exhibit oscillations during thermonuclear bursts, attributed to asymmetric brightness patterns on the burning surfaces. All models that have been proposed to explain the origin of these asymmetries (spreading hotspots, surface waves, and cooling wakes) depend on the accretion rate. By analysis of archival RXTE data of six oscillation sources, we investigate the accretion rate dependence of the amplitude of burst oscillations. This more than doubles the size of the sample analyzed previously by Muno et al., who found indications for a relationship between accretion rate and oscillation amplitudes. We find that burst oscillation signals can be detected at all observed accretion rates. Moreover, oscillations at low accretion rates are found to have relatively small amplitudes ( ) while oscillations detected in bursts observed at high accretion rates cover a broad spread in amplitudes ( ). In this paper we present the results of our analysis and discuss these in the light of current burst oscillation models. Additionally, we investigate the bursts of two sources without previously detected oscillations. Despite the fact that these sources have been observed at accretion rates where burst oscillations might be expected, we find their behavior not to be anomalous compared to oscillation sources.


T follicular helper (Tfh) cells play a crucial role in orchestrating the humoral arm of adaptive immune responses. Mature Tfh cells localize to follicles in secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs) where they provide help to B cells in germinal centers (GCs) to facilitate immunoglobulin affinity maturation, class‐switch recombination, and generation of long‐lived plasma cells and memory B cells. Beyond the canonical GC Tfh cells, it has been increasingly appreciated that the Tfh phenotype is highly diverse and dynamic. As naive CD4+ T cells progressively differentiate into Tfh cells, they migrate through a variety of microanatomical locations to obtain signals from other cell types, which in turn alters their phenotypic and functional profiles. We herein review the heterogeneity of Tfh cells marked by the dynamic phenotypic changes accompanying their developmental program. Focusing on the various locations where Tfh and Tfh‐like cells are found, we highlight their diverse states of differentiation. Recognition of Tfh cell heterogeneity has important implications for understanding the nature of T helper cell identity specification, especially the plasticity of the Tfh cells and their ontogeny as related to conventional T helper subsets.


A novel water-soluble polymer was prepared by copolymerization and sulfomethylation using acrylamide (AM) and N-allylbenzamide (NABI) as raw materials under mild conditions. The effects of ratio of AM to NABI, initiator concentration, reaction temperature, pH, and monomer concentration on the copolymerization were studied. The sulfonates copolymer was characterized by infrared (IR) spectroscopy, 1H NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was found that the sulfonates copolymer could achieve up to 25%, 30% retention rate of the viscosity at a high temperature (120°C) and a vigorous shear condition (1000 s−1). It was also found that the sulfonates copolymer had moderate salt tolerance (NaCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2·6H2O) and its viscosity could be restored to the original value when the shear rate changed from 170 to 510 s−1 and 510 to 170 s−1. At last, the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) of the sulfonates copolymer was tested by core flood, and with up to 10.6% EOR was afforded in presence of 5000 mg/L NaCl brine at 60°C. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013


This chapter introduces PADRES, the publish/subscribe model with the capability to correlate events, uniformly access data produced in the past and future, balance the traffic load among brokers, and handle network failures. The new model can filter, aggregate, correlate and project any combination of historic and future data. A flexible architecture is proposed consisting of distributed and replicated data repositories that can be provisioned in ways to tradeoff availability, storage overhead, query overhead, query delay, load distribution, parallelism, redundancy and locality. This chapter gives a detailed overview of the PADRES content-based publish/subscribe system. Several applications are presented in detail that can benefit from the content-based nature of the publish/subscribe paradigm and take advantage of its scalability and robustness features. A list of example applications are discussed that can benefit from the content-based nature of publish/subscribe paradigm and take advantage of its scalability and robustness features.


The paper deals with the successive application of time-based arrival management and automatic arrival-departure-coordination. DLR's arrival manager 4D-CARMA supports approach controllers with sequence and advisory information during two time-based human-in-the-loop experiments: First 4D-CARMA was used for dual threshold operation on a parallel runway system operated in mixed mode for arrivals and departures.
The dual threshold operation was performed within the context of the OPTIMAL project of the European commission. Particular consideration is given in this paper to the validation exercises performed with three different European controller teams. An increase of the inbound flow of 3 to 4 arrivals per hour without negative impact on the outbound flow and on controller workload is possible if automatic arrival-departure-coordination together with advisory information is provided to the controllers. In an additional human-in-the loop experiment 4D-CARMA supports the controllers to integrate unequipped aircraft into a stream of 4D equipped ones performing a user-preferred CDA approach.


Introduction: Somatoform disorder (SD)is group of psychiatric disorders that disrupt multiple physical symptoms, accompanied by disturbance in thoughts, impairing activities of daily living due to muscle and joint pain, low back pain, headache, chronic tiredness, palpitation, stomach upset, dizziness and sleeplessness which may cause occupational and social dysfunction.
Objective: Evaluation of patients by Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), Pain Disability Scale (PDS) and complications duloxetine medication during treating of patients with somatoform disorder at Koshi Zonal Hospital.
Methodology: A total of 50 patients with first time diagnosis of SD were selected by in this cross sectional study on the basis of diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM-5), pain and other symptoms, were treated with Duloxetine medication in early stage of Somatoform Disorder and results were evaluated at 2nd week, 6th week and 12th  week. The study was conducted from March 2016 to July 2017 at Koshi Zonal Hospital.
Results: Out of 50 early SD patients, total mean age was 41.38 years (range 20-60), 21 patients recovered at 6th week and 22 patients recovered at 12th week but 7 patients needed other medications after 12 weeks. Duloxetine was well tolerated with nausea and headache being the most common complaint following use of duloxeting.
Conclusion: Duloxetine can be both effective and well tolerated in the treatment of early stage of somatoform disorder.


Malignant melanoma is a well known high grade tumor but with slowly progressing malignancy. Primary malignant melanoma is a rare, highly malignant and has a poor prognosis disease. A 54-years-old, pre- menopause female presented with a mass coming out of vagina with foul smelling vaginal discharge and prolonged vaginal bleeding for 3 months. On per speculum examination, there was a friable greyish fungating mass measures 5×3 cm in size with contact bleeds which predominantly involved the vagina. Pap smear was done and reported as carcinoma (NOS). Later, biopsies were done at various sites around cervix, vaginal mass, left vaginal tumour margin and endometrial. Cervical and endometrial biopsies show no evidence of malignancy. However, the biopsy from vaginal mass reported as malignant melanoma of vagina. The left vaginal wall margin also shows tumour involvement. The patient was received an external pelvic radiotherapy. CT scan staging shows the malignant tumour has metastasized to the lung and liver. Currently patient is under chemotherapy follow up.


In the present article, we have investigated the influence of inclined magnetic field on Walter's Liquid B fluid flow through stretching sheet. Elastic deformation and Rosseland diffusion approximation for radiative heat flux are considered. With the help of similarity transformation the flow and energy equations are solved analytically by using confluent hypergeometric method. Results for various physical parameters are presented through graphs. It's also noted that the increasing values of elastic deformation parameter increase the local Nusselt number.


ABSTRACT Objective Isometric resistance training may reduce resting blood pressure (BP); however, the magnitude of this effect varies among individual subjects and few studies attempted to predict it. This study aimed to investigate the potential hypotensive effects of isometric training and their association with cardiovascular reactivity to acute isometric exercise and muscle strength in young women. Methods In this randomized trial, twenty young women were randomly assigned to either the training (n = 10) or control (n = 10) group. Women from the training group performed unilateral isometric handgrip sessions for 8 weeks (4 × 2 min at 25% of maximal voluntary contraction [MVC]; 3 days/week). Cardiovascular reactivity to acute isometric exercise and MVC were measured at baseline. Resting BP was assessed during and after the intervention. Results Resting systolic BP significantly lowered only in the training group. The change in resting systolic BP following an 8-week intervention was significantly associated with the systolic BP and diastolic BP reactivity to the acute exercise at baseline during set 3 and 4 (P <.05). The handgrip MVC was associated with changes in systolic BP (r = 0.79, P =.007), diastolic BP (r = 0.68, P =.032), and mean arterial pressure (r = 0.79, P =.006). These results indicated that high cardiovascular reactivity and strength attenuate the hypotensive effects following isometric training in young women. Conclusions The hypotensive effects following isometric training may be identified by BP reactivity to acute isometric exercise or handgrip strength in young women.


A method was developed for the estimation of the erosive wear of fiber-insulating materials. The wear increases with increasing impact velocity of the particles, increasing impact angle, particle size and the thermal ageing of the fibre elements. Through CFD simulation of the particle-containing gas flow, the erosion depth can be predicted.


Cladribine is a purine nucleoside analog which initiates the apoptotic mechanism within cells. Moreover, the available data confirms that cladribine, with the participation of the p53 protein, as well as the proapoptotic proteins from the Bcl-2 family, also induces the activation of the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. However, while there has been a lot of research devoted to the effect of cladribine on lymphatic system cells, little is known about the impact of cladribine on the reproductive system. The aim of our study was to evaluate apoptosis in oviduct epithelial cells sourced from 15 different female rats. In so doing, the sections were stained with caspases 3, 9, and 8. Results suggest that cladribine also induces apoptosis in the oviduct epithelial cells by way of the intrinsic pathway. Indeed, the discontinuing of the administration of cladribine leads to a reduction in the amount of apoptotic cells in the oviduct epithelium.


Abstract.
 The diversity and abundance of wetland birds have been threatened by increasing anthropogenic activities during recent decades. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of human-induced disturbance on bird species richness and abundance of natural wetlands in southwest Ethiopia. Bird surveys were performed at 56 locations during both the wet and dry seasons in 2010 and 2011. Generalized linear modeling (G) was used to correlate species richness with environmental variables. It was found that wetlands with low human disturbance were characterized by a higher richness (n > 10) of wetland dependent specialist birds (depending completely on wetlands for food and nesting) than the highly disturbed wetlands. However, for wetland-associated birds (those able to nest and feed in wetlands as well as in other habitats), there was no significant difference (P = 0.31) in species richness between disturbed and non-disturbed wetlands. The abundance of wetland dependent specialist birds was significantly affected (P < 0.001) by human disturbance, whereas the abundance of wetland associated birds was not (P = 0.39). Fifty-three percent of the variation in species richness of wetland dependent birds was explained by a combination of water depth, sludge depth, conductivity, chlorophyll a, total phosphorus, human disturbance and vegetation cover. It is recommended that anthropogenic activities should be minimized and controlled in and around these wetlands to conserve biodiversity.


Power consumption and thermal dissipation are becoming critical design constraints as processors continue to become more complex and are implemented in denser technologies. As this trend continues, the contribution of static power consumption to overall power consumption continues to rise and is expected to surpass dynamic power consumption within a few process generations. Thermal densities are also rising. The combination of rising static power and thermal density exposes a feedback loop between the two that can cause unmanageable temperatures.
Many applications do not require the full processing power of modern chips. The question then arises of how designers of modern processors can take into account the needs of applications that require the full processing power of modern designs and those that don't. Techniques ranging from voltage scaling to complexity effective design have been proposed to address these issues.
This work explores an alternative, Aide de Camp, that uses an asymmetric multi-core design. I argue that Aide de Camp can provide nearly the same performance as a more complex modern processor, but with considerably less power consumption and heat dissipation. It provides a mechanism to improve performance over a single core when all cores are scheduled simultaneously. It also provides a technique to deal with thermal overload situations. Finally, it provides an alternative to existing complexity effective designs.
This thesis examines the design space of asymmetric multi-core designs and the effect of various design decisions on the performance, energy consumption and practicality of asymmetric multi-core design. The potential of Aide de Camp to save energy as well as increase processing capabilities is demonstrated and compared to a modern dual-core processor. A variety of thermal techniques are explored and compared to existing single core thermal techniques.