The application of active dry yeast (ADY) in bioethanol production simplifies operation processes and reduces the risk of bacterial contamination. In the present study, we constructed a novel ADY strain with improved stress tolerance and ethanol fermentation performances under stressful conditions. The industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain ZTW1 showed excellent properties and thus subjected to a modified whole-genome shuffling (WGS) process to improve its ethanol titer, proliferation capability, and multiple stress tolerance for ADY production. The best-performing mutant, Z3-86, was obtained after three rounds of WGS, producing 4.4% more ethanol and retaining 2.15-fold higher viability than ZTW1 after drying. Proteomics and physiological analyses indicated that the altered expression patterns of genes involved in protein metabolism, plasma membrane composition, trehalose metabolism, and oxidative responses contribute to the trait improvement of Z3-86. This work not only successfully developed a novel S. cerevisiae mutant for application in commercial bioethanol production, but also enriched the current understanding of how WGS improves the complex traits of microbes.


Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) play important roles in ribosomal RNA metabolism. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, box C/D snoRNAs are synthesized from excised introns, polycistronic precursors, or independent transcription units. Previous studies have shown that only a few independently transcribed box C/D snoRNAs are processed at their 5' end. Here we describe 12 additional independently transcribed box C/D snoRNAs that undergo 5'-end processing. 5' Extensions found in the precursors of these snoRNAs contain cleavage sites for Rnt1p, the S. cerevisiae homolog of RNase III, and unprocessed precursors accumulate in vivo in the absence of Rnt1p. Rnt1p cleavage products were identified in vivo when the 5' --> 3' exonucleases Xrn1p and Rat1p are inactivated (xrn1delta rat1-1) and in vitro using model RNA substrates and recombinant Rnt1p. Some of these snoRNAs show increased levels of unprocessed precursors when the rnt1Delta deletion is combined to the xrn1delta rat1-1 mutation, suggesting that these exonucleases participate in the 5' processing or the degradation of the snoRNA precursors. Unprocessed precursors are not significantly destabilized in the absence of the trimethylguanosine capping enzyme Tgs1p, suggesting that a 5' monomethyl cap is sufficient to ensure stabilization of these precursors. These results demonstrate that the majority of independently transcribed box C/D snoRNAs from the yeast genome undergo 5'-end processing and that the Rnt1p endonuclease and the Xrn1p and Rat1p 5' --> 3'exonucleases have partially redundant functions in the 5'-end processing of these snoRNAs.


The identification of an Early Jurassic arc-trench gap assemblage floored by oceanic crust in southwestern British Columbia supports previous inferences of an "inland" subduction zone during Mesozoic time. The tectonic and sedimentary records preserved between oceanic and arc rocks suggest an arc-trench gap site that evolved from a fore-arc setting in Early Jurassic time to an interarc setting in Late Jurassic time to a successor basin during Cretaceous time. A westward subduction shift during Middle Jurassic time is therefore inferred.


Previous empirical research on accounting information has focused on stock market, and has not examined for bond market. The accounting information should differ for stockholders and bondholders. This paper investigates the role of accounting quality in improving bond liquidity. High accounting quality not only reduces information asymmetry, but also decreases overall uncertainty in the market, thereby improving liquidity. The objective of this study is to examine the role of accounting quality in the bond market, and the results highlight the importance of information quality in improving liquidity. I use earnings quality as accounting quality's measurement. The result showed that accounting information had influence in bond market


Demonstrating quantum advantage requires experimental implementation of a computational task that is hard to achieve using state-of-the-art classical systems. One approach is to perform sampling from a probability distribution associated with a class of highly entangled many-body wavefunctions. It has been suggested that this approach can be certified with the Linear Cross-Entropy Benchmark (XEB). We critically examine this notion. First, in a"benign"setting where an honest implementation of noisy quantum circuits is assumed, we characterize the conditions under which the XEB approximates the fidelity. Second, in an"adversarial"setting where all possible classical algorithms are considered for comparison, we show that achieving relatively high XEB values does not imply faithful simulation of quantum dynamics. We present an efficient classical algorithm that, with 1 GPU within 2s, yields high XEB values, namely 2-12% of those obtained in experiments. By identifying and exploiting several vulnerabilities of the XEB, we achieve high XEB values without full simulation of quantum circuits. Remarkably, our algorithm features better scaling with the system size than noisy quantum devices for commonly studied random circuit ensembles. To quantitatively explain the success of our algorithm and the limitations of the XEB, we use a theoretical framework in which the average XEB and fidelity are mapped to statistical models. We illustrate the relation between the XEB and the fidelity for quantum circuits in various architectures, with different gate choices, and in the presence of noise. Our results show that XEB's utility as a proxy for fidelity hinges on several conditions, which must be checked in the benign setting but cannot be assumed in the adversarial setting. Thus, the XEB alone has limited utility as a benchmark for quantum advantage. We discuss ways to overcome these limitations.


: This paper examines a simple and old question: should innovators receive a patent or a prize? The answer I provide is equally simple: they should receive both. The literature on patents versus prizes has proceeded mostly under the assumption that there should be a choice between a regime of patents and a regime of prizes in which patents fall into the public domain upon award of the prize. There are significant "public choice costs" under the prize plans. By this I mean there are risks of inappropriate transfers to patentees – that is, looting – and of confiscation of patentees, through the conduct of or through the omissions of government agents. The innovation regime I propose is a patent-plus-prize scheme. The patentee would receive the patent and a prize that approximates consumer surplus. Public choice costs are considerably lower than under prize schemes: there would be no looting and no risk of confiscation under patent-plus-prize. In addition, private and social incentives to innovate are aligned.


The human adenovirus 5 E1A region can immortalize primary cultures of baby rat kidney cells, but requires the presence of the E1B region for complete oncogenic transformation. One of the effects of the E1B region in the transformation process is the activation of E1A expression. We have investigated the mechanism of this stimulation of E1A expression using nuclear run‐on assays with nuclei from Ad5 E1A‐ and Ad5 E1‐transformed cells. It was found that E1B enhances E1A at the level of transcription‐initiation. This activation is mainly observed when the E1A and E1B regions are integrated simultaneously into the cellular genome and only minimally when these genes are integrated separately, strongly suggesting that a close physical linkage of these regions is essential for the observed effect.


One of the most time-consuming parts of an attorney's job is finding similar legal cases. Categorization of legal documents by their subject matter can significantly increase the discoverability of digitalized court decisions. This is a multi-label classification problem, where each relatively long text can fit into more than one legal category. The proposed paper shows a solution where this multi-label classification problem is decomposed into more than a hundred binary classification problems. Several approaches have been tested, including different machine-learning and text-augmentation techniques to produce a practically applicable model. The proposed models and the methodologies were encapsulated and deployed as a digital-twin into a production environment. The performance of the created machine learning-based application reaches and could also improve the human-experts performance on this monotonous and labor-intensive task. It could increase the e-discoverability of the documents by about 50%.


UNLABELLED
Dating violence perpetration and victimization among adolescents in the U.S. is an important public health problem. The literature examining the relationship between dating violence, substance use, and other risk behaviors among adolescents is limited.

OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to examine associations of adolescent date fighting victimization and date fighting perpetration with substance use and other risk behaviors.

METHODS
Repeated cross-sectional phone surveys of 14-20 year olds from 70 communities across five states were conducted in the spring of2004 and 2006 (n=13,422). Multivariate regression analyses were used to analyze the relationship between date fighting victimization and date fighting perpetration with substance use and other risk behaviors.

RESULTS
Older age, Black race (vs. White), single parent household, age of first drink, riding in a car with a drinking driver, having been sexually victimized, and having threatened or hurt someone with a weapon were associated with date fighting victimization (all p<.01). Older age, female gender, Black race (vs. White), Hispanic ethnicity (vs. White), single parent household, age of first drink, past 30 day drunkenness, past 30 day marijuana use, having been sexually victimized, having perpetrated sexual victimization, and having threatened or hurt someone with a weapon were associated with date fighting perpetration.

CONCLUSIONS
Similar, yet distinct, patterns of individual characteristics and health risk behaviors emerged for date fighting victimization and perpetration among adolescents.


Tropomyosins are structurally conserved α-helical coiled-coil dimeric proteins that bind along the length of filamentous actin (F-actin) in fungi and animals. Tropomyosins play essential roles in the stability of actin filaments in non-muscle cells and are essential for calcium regulation of myosin II contractility in the muscle. Despite the crucial role of tropomyosin in actin cytoskeletal regulation, in vivo investigations of tropomyosin are limited, mainly due to the suboptimal live cell imaging tools currently available in many organisms. Here, we report mNeon-Green (mNG) tagged tropomyosin, with native promoter and linker length configuration, that clearly reports tropomyosin localization and dynamics in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Cdc8), Schizosaccharomyces japonicus (Cdc8), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Tpm1 and Tpm2), in vivo and in isolated S. pombe cell division apparatuses. We extended this approach to also visualize the mammalian TPM2 isoform. Finally, we generated a camelid-nanobody against S. pombe Cdc8, which mimics the localization of mNG-Cdc8 in vivo without significantly influencing cell growth and dynamics of actin cytoskeleton. Using these tools, we report the presence of tropomyosin in previously unappreciated patch-like structures in fission and budding yeasts, show flow of tropomyosin (F-actin) cables to the cytokinetic actomyosin ring, and identify rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton during mating. These powerful tools and strategies will aid better analyses of tropomyosin and actin cables in vivo.


Stoutness is a constant complaint categorized by an overabundance sum muscle versus fat. A precise measure of muscle versus fat is significant for placing gone vitality, heat protection, stun retention, and different capacities. The standard measure of muscle versus fat (communicated as the level of muscle to fat ratio) is between 25%-30% in ladies and 18%-23% in men. Ladies with over 30% muscle to fat ratio and men with over 25% muscle versus fat are watched as fat. About ten qualities which are mostly dependable in causing the sickness are taken from Gene Cards information base. From the computational investigations like various grouping arrangement utilizing clustalW device, the nucleotide succession of LEP quality family is identified with one another. These qualities are then concentrated independently. Further, the preserved space investigation was completed from which the common areas in the family were chosen for the examinations. The preserved area designs present in this quality family were gotten from clustal W apparatus. This moderated designs demonstrated changes, interpretation and length at specific spots which were predominantly associated with causing the disorder. For the quicker investigation for the information of preserved spaces were taken in Bioperl programming.


The immune system defends the body from infectious and non‐infectious threats. Distinct recognition strategies have evolved to generate antigen‐specific immunity against pathogens or toxins versus antigen‐independent tissue repair. Structural recognition, or the sensing of conserved motifs, guides the immune response to viruses, bacteria, fungi, and unicellular parasites. Functional recognition, which is sensing that is based on the activities of an input, guides antigen‐independent tissue healing and antigen‐specific Type 2 immunity to toxins, allergens, and helminth parasites. Damage‐associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), released from damaged and dying cells, permit functional recognition by immune cells. However, the DAMP paradigm alone does not explain how functional recognition can lead to such disparate immune responses, namely wound healing and Type 2 immunity. Recent work established that sensory neurons release neuropeptides in response to a variety of toxins and allergens. These neuropeptides act on local innate immune cells, stimulating or inhibiting their activities. By integrating our knowledge on DAMP function with new information on the role of neuropeptides in innate immune activation in Type 2 immunity, we describe a decision tree model of functional recognition. In this model, neuropeptides complement or antagonize DAMPs to guide the development of antigen‐specific Type 2 immunity through the activation of innate immune cells. We discuss why this decision tree system evolved and its implications to allergic diseases.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the pathogen of children with acute respiratory infection (ARI) in Suzhou and to provide some evidences for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

METHODS
The nasopharyngeal secretion samples from 2492 inpatient children with ARI, during the period of November 2005 to May 2007, were investigated for respiratory syncycial virus (RSV), influenza virus A and B, parainfluenza virus type 1, 2, 3 and adenovirus by both the indirect immunofluorescence assay and virus isolation. Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) were examined by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at the same time.

RESULTS
Of 2492 samples tested, 961 (38.6%) were positive. The total positive rate of virus pathogens in children with ARI was found related to age, season and respiratory disease. The detection rates by age were: 50.0% (412/824), 43.4% (190/438), 30.5% (207/679)and 27.6% (152/551), chi(2) = 96.5002, P < 0.01; the detection rates by season were : 46.7% (366/784), 13.8% (66/478), 13.8% (59/428) and 58.6% (470/802), chi(2) = 392.3279, P < 0.01; the detection rates by disease were (acute upper respiratory infection, acute laryngitis, throat-trachea-bronchitis, bronchial pneumonia, pneumonia genuine, bronchiolitis, bronchial asthma): 21.4% (30/140), 73.7% (14/19), 32.0% (8/25), 36.9% (598/1620), 13.1% (8/61), 66.1% (216/327) and 29.0% (87/300), chi(2) = 162.1276, P < 0.01. There was no association between the total positive rate and sex. The detection rates by sex were: 39.0% (588/1508) for male and 37.9% (373/984) for female, chi(2) = 0.2962, P > 0.05. The peak of RSV appeared from December to March. There was the highest RSV detection rate 50.2% (164/327) with bronchiolitis. The hMPV can be detected all year around. The peak of hMPV appeared in winter and the detection rate was 13.2% (106/802).

CONCLUSION
RSV and hMPV are the main respiratory viral pathogens in Suzhou. Detection of viral pathogens in children with respiratory infection could give fast, accurate diagnostic evidence, and help avoid antibiotics abuse.


A covert communications network CCN is a connected, overlay, peer-to-peer network to support communications within a group in which the survival of the group depends on: a confidentiality and anonymity of the communications; b concealment of participation in the network to both other members of the group and external eavesdroppers; c resilience against disconnection. Anonymity is protected using source rewriting in which the network addresses are changed at each hop along the network path. Network membership is concealed through topology restrictions where each participant has limited knowledge of the network addresses of other participants. Resilience requires increased connectivity to protect against disconnection due to neighbourhood failure. In this paper, we propose measures for determining the suitability of both deterministic and random topologies for use in covert communication networks, and use these measures to analyse the suitability of various types of graphs.


We present a novel approach to automatically annotate images using associated text. We detect and classify all entities (persons and objects) in the text after which we determine the salience (the importance of an entity in a text) and visualness (the extent to which an entity can be perceived visually) of these entities. We combine these measures to compute the probability that an entity is present in the image. The suitability of our approach was successfully tested on 50 image-text pairs of Yahoo! News.


Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert could very well be seen as an urgent call for immediate changes at the Northumbrian Church. In his letter, the monk from Wearmouth-Jarrow denounces a series of abuses which were being committed by ecclesiastical members of his time. Not only does Bede's writing denounce the clergy's lack of moral values and negligence towards the preaching of the Word, but it also proposes specific actions to bring these issues to an end. This paper brings out some key elements from the referred historical source and tries to get some glimpses of a couple of Bede's views on what the real Church should be like. Scholars such as Blair (1990), Brown (2010), DeGregorio (2010), Mayr-Harting (1991) and Yorke (2014) among other ones have helped us to exploit the subjects which are brought here.


Future optical interconnects require ultra-small light sources working efficiently at ultrafast speeds. This will be of paramount importance for the development of the future ultrafast computing and communication systems. In this work, we investigate the high-speed dynamic characteristics of electrically pumped metal-cavity semiconductor nano-light-emitting diodes (nanoLEDs). The nano-light sources consist of a metal-cavity nanopillar coupled to a InP-waveguide on a III-V membrane bonded to silicon. We achieve sub-nanosecond electro-optical response showing potential for direct modulation at Gb/s speeds. The results represent a step forward in providing efficient and ultrafast sources for optical interconnects.


ABSTRACT The common sampling plans for variables rely solely on process performance and do not take into account the engineering specifications while determining the sample size needed. When the process capability index Cpk is good, the limits of the distribution of the lot (the γ/2th percentile and the 1−γ/2th percentile) lie inside the engineering specifications. In this case the area of the tail of the normal distribution that lies outside the engineering specifications is very small, and hence the effect of the sampling error (which is the result of estimating the mean) on this area is negligible. However, when the limits of the distribution lie close to the engineering specifications (that is, when the Cpk is marginal), the area of the tail that lies outside the engineering specifications can be meaningful and therefore the sampling error may result in inaccuracies in estimating the number of defective items in the lot. The objective of this research is to develop a multistage sampling plan, based on Cpk and adjusted to acceptance sampling for variables, taken as a random sample from a lot of size N (given) having (approximately) a normal distribution with a known variance. The sampling plan was compared to MIL-STD-414 (1957) and it was found (via simulations) that the Cpk sampling plan has a smaller probability to reject good lots (0–0.03% vs. 0–0.27% for the MIL-STD-414) and a smaller probability to accept defective lots (0–0.01% vs. 5.2–8.37% for the MIL-STD-414). In addition, the required sample size is smaller for processes with high capability index.


: Aim: In this proposed self-hybrid preliminary regulation, we have found the adequacy and protection of 10% hypertonic saline (HS) in patients with enormous dead hemispheric tissue and 24% mannitol in sections of comparative osmosis for the treatment of increased intra-cranial pressure factor (ICP) (LHI). Methods: From January 2017 to January 2018, LHI patients were registered. The impacts of HS and mannitol in LHI patients for scenes of extended ICP have been counteracted by a rotatable treatment convention. Our current research was conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore from March 2019 to February 2020. For instance, in ordinary spans of 240 minutes after implantation of ICP, mean blood vessel pressure (MAP) and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) were constantly monitored. The efficacy and security of both drugs were estimated at electrolytes, plasma osmolality and renal capability previously and 240 minutes after imbuement initiation. Results: A total of 48 extended ICP scenes occurred in 14 HMI patients, 24 of which were impregnated with 14% HS and 28 with 20% mannitol. Both drugs had a similar effect on reducing ICP (P < 0.03). The contrasts in duration and level of decrease were not critical between the groups (P > 0.07). Despite the fact that both osmoles decreased AP, the degree was most noticeable in mannitol collection (P < 0.06) at T120. The rise in CPP was more notable in the contrast HS group and in mannitol collection (P < 0.06) at T120. Nevertheless, HS was related to a faster pulse rate (HR) and higher serum chloride levels (P < 0.06). Changes in serum sodium levels and osmolality were not critical between samples, while they were higher in the HS sample. Conclusion: Both medicines can be filled out as first-line experts for LHI-led intracranial hypertension, and should be carefully selected according to efficacy and adverse effect distinctions.


We investigate a relay network where the source can potentially utilize an untrusted non-regenerative relay to augment its direct transmission of a confidential message to the destination. Since the relay is untrusted, it is desirable to protect the confidential data from it while simultaneously making use of it to increase the reliability of the transmission. We first examine the secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the network assuming a single antenna relay, and calculate the exact SOP for three different schemes: direct transmission without using the relay, conventional non-regenerative relaying, and cooperative jamming by the destination. Subsequently, we conduct an asymptotic analysis of the SOPs to determine the optimal policies in different operating regimes. We then generalize to the multi-antenna relay case and investigate the impact of the number of relay antennas on the secrecy performance. Finally, we study a scenario where the relay has only a single RF chain which necessitates an antenna selection scheme, and we show that unlike the case where all antennas are used, under certain conditions the cooperative jamming scheme with antenna selection provides a diversity advantage for the receiver. Numerical results are presented to verify the theoretical predictions of the preferred transmission policies.


: Rickey L. Williams The author describes several issues of concern to physicians caring for adolescents. Methods of recruiting adolescent patients and the problem of confidentiality are described. The care of adolescents with special needs is also discussed.


Objective To perform a preliminary usability evaluation of a novel, compact pneumatic compression device in patients with lymphoedema. Methods This open-label, single-arm trial had two phases: the first focused on the fitting of the pneumatic compression device (Aria FreeTM, Aria Health, San Diego CA, USA) and the second focused on evaluating the comfort of the entire system during a 45-min usage period. Both phases were conducted in a monitored clinical environment. Patients aged ≥18 years with a diagnosis of lower limb lymphoedema who had used a pneumatic compression device for ≥3 months were eligible. Patients rated subjective fit, comfort and usability on an 11-point Likert scale (where higher scores indicate better fit/comfort/usability). The truncated cone method was used to infer limb volume before and after therapy in phase 2. Results Twenty-four patients were screened, and 15 were enrolled (80% female; mean age 62 years); all completed both study phases. Patients rated the garment as easy to set up and fit (median score 6.5), and all reported that the therapy was comfortable (median score 10; p < 0.001 vs. reference score of 6). There was a 1.85% reduction in limb volume after device use for 45 min (p = 0.018 vs. before therapy). No safety issues were identified. Conclusions The new pneumatic compression device fitted well, was easy to use and reduced leg oedema.


Background

The critical roles of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification have been demonstrated by more and more evidence. However, the cross-talking of m6A and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in gastric cancer (GC) tumorigenesis is still unclear. Here, our work focused on the functions and molecular mechanism of m6A-modified lncRNA DLGAP1 antisense RNA 2 (DLGAP1-AS2) in GC.
Methods

LncRNA expression profile data was derived from GEO. M6A profile was screened using Methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-Seq). The metabolism assays were conducted using quantitative analysis of glucose, lactate, ATP and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR). The m6A level of specific RNA was identified using MeRIP-qPCR. The molecular interaction was detected using RIP assay.
Results

Microarray analysis found that lncRNA DLGAP1-AS2 up-regulated in GC cells. Clinical data showed that DLGAP1-AS2 high-expression was correlated with advanced pathological stage and poor prognosis. Functionally, DLGAP1-AS2 promoted the Warburg effect (aerobic glycolysis) and knockdown of DLGAP1-AS2 suppressed the tumor growth of GC cells. Mechanistically, m6A methyltransferase METTL3 enhanced the stability of DLGAP1-AS2 via m6A site binding. Moreover, DLGAP1-AS2 interacted with YTHDF1 to enhance the stability of c-Myc mRNA through DLGAP1-AS2/m6A/YTHDF1/c-Myc mRNA.
Conclusions

In conclusion, our work indicates the functions of m6A-modified DLGAP1-AS2 in the GC aerobic glycolysis, disclosing a potential m6A-dependent manner for GC treatment.


Recent studies in southern California suggest that long-term deformation rates are far in excess of that which can be accounted for by historical seismicity, and thus, a deficit of moderate and/or large earthquakes exists in southern California. Although possible, this conclusion is not unique because aseismic deformation may have contributed to bulk regional strain. We examined Cretaceous to Pleistocene sedimentary rocks exposed in the Ventura basin along four cross-strike traverses to evaluate the possibility that aseismic deformation contributed to regional shortening. Our field and microstructural investigations suggest that aseismic deformational mechanisms, particularly pressure solution, contributed significantly to permanent shortening strain during the late Neogene and that the proposed seismic deficiency may be overestimated.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if the presence of cyclosporine A (CsA) in whole-blood samples decreased labeling efficiency when an in vitro red blood cell labeling procedure is used. Methods: Red blood cells were labeled by an in vitro method which required sodium pertechnetate, disodium edetate (EDTA), stannous chloride and stopper down centrifugation. Labeling efficiencies were calculated and plotted. Results: When 2 J.Lg of stannous ion was used to label RBCs, no significant change in labeling efficiency was observed with different concentrations of CsA. Upon increasing the concentration of stannous ion per sample, no improvement in labeling efficiency was observed. Conclusion: Cyclosporine levels in the blood do not affect the labeling of red blood cells if 2 J.Lg of stannous ion per milliliter of patient whole blood are used. Quality RBC labeling with sodium pertechnetate is possible even when patients have high cyclosporine blood levels.


Detail enhancement is a well‐studied area of 3D rendering and image processing, which has few equivalents for 3D shape processing. To enhance details, one needs an efficient analysis tool to express the local surface dynamics. We introduce Wavejets, a new function basis for locally decomposing a shape expressed over the local tangent plane, by considering both angular oscillations of the surface around each point and a radial polynomial. We link the Wavejets coefficients to surface derivatives and give theoretical guarantees for their precision and stability with respect to an approximate tangent plane. The coefficients can be used for shape details amplification, to enhance, invert or distort them, by operating either on the surface point positions or on the normals. From a practical point of view, we derive an efficient way of estimating Wavejets on point sets and demonstrate experimentally the amplification results with respect to noise or basis truncation.


Different from previous surveys in semantic parsing (Kamath and Das, 2018) and knowledge base question answering(KBQA)(Chakraborty et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2019; Hoffner et al., 2017) we try to takes a different perspective on the study of semantic parsing. Specifically, we will focus on (a)meaning composition from syntactical structure(Partee, 1975), and (b) the ability of semantic parsers to handle lexical variation given the context of a knowledge base (KB). In the following section after an introduction of the field of semantic parsing and its uses in KBQA, we will describe meaning representation using grammar formalism CCG (Steedman, 1996). We will discuss semantic composition using formal languages in Section 2. In section 3 we will consider systems that uses formal languages e.g. $\lambda$-calculus (Steedman, 1996), $\lambda$-DCS (Liang, 2013). Section 4 and 5 consider semantic parser using structured-language for logical form. Section 6 is on different benchmark datasets ComplexQuestions (Bao et al.,2016) and GraphQuestions (Su et al., 2016) that can be used to evaluate semantic parser on their ability to answer complex questions that are highly compositional in nature.


Recent years have witnessed the prevalence of wearable devices. Wearable devices are intelligent and multifunctional, but they rely heavily on batteries. This greatly limits their application scope, where replacement of battery or recharging is challenging or inconvenient. We note that wearable devices have the opportunity to harvest energy from human motion, as they are worn by the users as long as being functioning. In this article, we propose a battery-free sensing platform for wearable devices in the form factor of shoes. It harvests the kinetic energy from walking or running to supply devices with power for sensing, processing, and wireless communication, covering all the functionalities of commercial wearable devices. We achieve this goal by enabling the whole system running on the harvested energy from two feet. Each foot performs separate tasks and two feet are coordinated by ambient backscatter communication. We instantiate this idea by building a prototype, containing energy harvesting insoles, power management circuits, and ambient backscatter module. Evaluation results demonstrate that the system can wake up shortly after several seconds' walk and have sufficient Bluetooth throughput for supporting many applications. We believe that our framework can stir a lot of useful applications that were infeasible previously.


Viscosity represents the most important single property of any lubricant for internal combustion engines. The reason for this fact is that viscosity controls friction or lubrication regimes and consequently wear and performance life of the engine. Because of viscosity depending on temperature, pressure, and often shear rate, the local viscosity at the frictional contacts defined as effective viscosity will be responsible for the friction and wear situation at a specific location within the engine.


The problem of using Internet resources is becoming increasingly urgent. A world-wide system of computers, local networks, servers, voluntarily joined together into one network distributed across the planet, which serves to exchange information, has been created, and the question of regulating this network arises. This is a big social problem, and for this reason it is so widely and hotly debated around the world. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to analyze the attitude of citizens towards the state control over Internet traffic in the 21st century. Research methods: The leading research method is a survey conducted with residents of a metropolis, which allows considering this problem as a dynamic process. Results of the study: The article presents the results of the interviews and shows that the majority of users of Internet resources have a negative attitude towards the control of user Internet traffic by the state. The majority of the population is not only not ready to pay the costs to communication companies, but is also ready to show civic activism in obstructing the functioning of the law. The respondents indicated the following main objectives, which the state adheres to, controlling the users' network traffic: preventing recruitment to prohibited terrorist organizations; prevention of acts of terrorism; drug trafficking prevention; receiving information about public opinion; prevention of illegal actions and rallies; receiving information about the activities of opposition parties; obtaining compromising materials. Practical significance: The data obtained in the work can be used in jurisprudence, practical psychology, as well as for further theoretical development of this issue.


Turmeric oleoresin is a widely used a flavoring agent and a food color with relevant nutraceutical properties. It is obtained by organic solvent extraction of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.). Microencapsulation is a good alternative to transform liquid food flavorings free-flowing powders and to improve stability of protection of compounds of interest. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess microencapsulation by spray drying of turmeric oleoresin using blends of maltodextrin-gelatin and starch-gelatin, evaluating its sorption isotherms and the storage stability at different temperatures. Turmeric oleoresin encapsulated was stored at - 20, 25 and 60°C, in the absence of light, and at 25ºC in the presence of light, and analyzed over a period of 35 days for curcumin and total phenolic contents and color. The encapsulation efficiency was 72.3% for capsules with starch-gelatin blends and 52.1% with maltodextrin-gelatin blends. Besides the greater encapsulation efficiency, starch-gelatin blends also showed greater stability during storage and retention of curcumin and phenolic compounds. Encapsulated materials were more stable during storage at - 20ºC and less stable at 25°C in the presence of light. Water adsorption of turmeric oleoresin microcapsules were well described by GAB model and the microcapsules produced with starch-gelatin blends showed high hygroscopic behavior.


Abstract Intra-racial diversity among black Americans provides unique opportunities for students of congressional representation. Studies of representation often conflate slavery descendant African Americans who identify mainly based on race, and African immigrants who identify based on ethnicity as well as race, so it's important to determine to what extent legislators substantively represent both. Drawing on conceptions of racial consciousness, linked fate, and the diversity infrastructure thesis, we focus on the legislative activity of individual legislators, race-based caucuses (e.g. the Congressional Black Caucus) and ethnic/nationality-based ones (e.g. the Ethiopian Caucus) to determine their substantive representation of black Americans regarding US-Africa foreign policy issues. Statistical analysis of the 110th–111th Congresses reveals that African and Asian American legislators manifest greater substantive representation, suggesting that descriptive representation is sufficient but not necessary for substantive representation. Also, being a member from a state with a large African immigrant population is positively associated with substantive representation. In addition, the presence of African American legislators on African ethnic-based caucuses has the greatest impact on its substantive representation, indicating that African American racial consciousness has the greatest impact on the substantive representation of African immigrants at the caucus level.


Aims The present study was performed to evaluate pre-admission history, presentation, initial treatment and long-term mortality in patients with myocardial infarction and diabetes. Methods and Results Between 1990 and 1992, 6676 patients with acute myocardial infarction were screened for entry into the Trandolapril Cardiac Evaluation (TRACE) study. In this cohort 719 (11%) of the patients had a history of diabetes. Among the diabetic patients 19% were treated with insulin, 52% with oral hypoglycaemic agents and 29% with diet only. The diabetic patients were slightly older, more likely to be female and had a higher prevalence of known cardiovascular disease. Even though the diabetic patients had the same frequency of ST-segment elevation on the electrocardiogram and the same admission delay, treatment with thrombolysis and aspirin was less frequently prescribed to the diabetic patients than to patients without diabetes. The mortality rate was significantly increased in the diabetic patients, 7-year mortality being 79% in insulintreated, 73% in tablet-treated and 62% in diet-treated diabetic patients compared with 46% in patients without diabetes. In a multivariate analysis only diabetic patients treated with oral hypoglycaemic agents or with insulin had an increased mortality compared with non-diabetic patients. Conclusions Patients with diabetes mellitus and myocardial infarction are treated with thrombolysis to a lesser extent than non-diabetic patients. Diabetic patients treated with oral hypoglycaemic agents or insulin, but not those treated with diet alone, have a significantly increased mortality following acute myocardial infarction compared with non-diabetic patients.


Different models of relation between flow and Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility axis have been postulated. The main models link the magnetic foliation with the dyke wall, where the magnetic lineation is parallel to the flow direction or where the magnetic foliation develops an imbrications disposition respect the dyke wall. At a first approximation the main differences resides in the turbulence caused by the dyke walls during the flow. In this work is presented a systematic sampling along different Quaternary dykes (Western Azores) that show both models within the same dykes, differing in the position on it: imbrication models developed in the borders and magnetic lineation parallel to the flow direction in the center of the dyke. However, some dykes only show magnetic lineation parallel to the flow without any imbrication pattern. In these cases the magnetic parameters show the same trends, at different scale, between dykes with only one or two kind of fabrics. The magmatic flow direction, in some cases, can be better defined if the dyke is sampled just at the center of it, in contrast with the expected results in the borders which can be influenced by the local irregularities of the flow and the dyke wall.


Summary

1. Decades of introductions of exotic sportfish to mountain lakes around the world have impoverished them biologically, and this may be exacerbated by global warming. We assessed the current status of invasive salmonids and native zooplankton communities in 34 naturally fishless lakes along an elevational gradient, which served as an environmental proxy for the expected effects of climate change.

2. Our main goal was to explore how climate-related variables influence the effects of stocked salmonids on the total biomass, species richness and taxonomic composition of zooplankton. We predicted that warmer conditions would dampen the negative predatory effects of exotic brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) on zooplankton communities because more temperate lakes contain a greater diversity of potentially tolerant species.

3. Instead, we discovered that the persistence of stocked brook trout in the warmer lakes significantly amplified total zooplankton biomass and species richness. In colder and deeper lakes, zooplankton were relatively unaffected by S. fontinalis, which however persisted better in alpine lakes than at lower elevations after stocking practices were halted over two decades ago. Warmer lake conditions and higher concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were significant primary drivers of zooplankton species turnover, both favouring greater species diversity.

4. Our findings of an ecological surprise involving potential synergistic positive effects of climate warming and exotic trout on native zooplankton communities presents a conundrum for managers of certain national mountain parks. Present mandates to eradicate non-native trout and return the mountain lakes to their naturally fishless state may conflict with efforts to conserve biodiversity under a rapidly changing climate.


The purpose of this investigation was to assess the value of sulcular fluid flow (SFF) measurements in evaluation of the healing of deep periodontal pockets after scaling and root planing. Fourteen adult patients with advanced periodontal disease received supragingival prophylaxis and instructions in oral hygiene. Immediately after baseline examination, meticulous scaling and root planing were performed. One to five selected pockets per patient were monitored on Days 0, 30, 120 and 210. Subgingival microbial proportions, sulcular fluid flow, probing depth, Gingival Index and bleeding after probing were assessed and recorded. The subgingival microbial proportions were determined with darkfield microscopy. The periodontal conditions were markedly improved by Day 210 as depicted by the microbial proportions. The proportion of motile micro-organisms was reduced from 51% at baseline to 9% on Day 30. This result was sustained until Day 210. Healing was also evident from the changes in Gingival Index scores and bleeding after probing. Probing depth was reduced from a mean of 8.3 to 4.5 mm. Correlations between the individual means recorded for the clinical parameters and bacterial proportions were calculated for the pooled data of all four examinations. Sulcular fluid flow did not correlate with the clinical parameters. Gingival Index, bleeding after probing or probing depth. The latter three parameters correlated significantly with the microbial proportions and each other. When the pooled tooth surface recordings of Days 30, 120 and 210 were divided into two groups according to the proportion of motile bacteria (the groups with less than 18% of spirochetes and motile rods and the groups with greater than 18% of spirochetes and motile rods), a significant difference in the mean amount of sulcular fluid flow (P less than 0.01) and mean probing depth (P less than 0.001) could be demonstrated between the two groups.


PurposeOnline health monitoring of large complex equipment has become a trend in the field of equipment diagnostics and prognostics due to the rapid development of sensing and computing technologies. The purpose of this paper is to construct a more accurate and stable grey model based on similar information fusion to predict the real-time remaining useful life (RUL) of aircraft engines.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a referential database is created by applying multiple linear regressions on historical samples. Then similarity matching is conducted between the monitored engine and historical samples. After that, an information fusion grey model is applied to predict the future degradation trajectory of the monitored engine considering the latest trend of monitored sensory data and long-term trends of several similar referential samples, and the real-time RUL is obtained correspondingly.FindingsThe results of comparative analysis reveal that the proposed model, which is called similarity-based information fusion grey model (SIFGM), could provide better RUL prediction from the early degradation stage. Furthermore, SIFGM is still able to predict system failures relatively accurately when only partial information of the referential samples is available, making the method a viable choice when the historical whole life cycle data are scarce.Research limitations/implicationsThe prediction of SIFGM method is based on a single monotonically changing health indicator (HI) synthesized from monitoring sensory signals, which is assumed to be highly relevant to the degradation processes of the engine.Practical implicationsThe SIFGM can be used to predict the degradation trajectories and RULs of those online condition monitoring systems with similar irreversible degradation behaviors before failure occurs, such as aircraft engines and centrifugal pumps.Originality/valueThis paper introduces the similarity information into traditional GM(1,1) model to make it more suitable for long-term RUL prediction and also provide a solution of similarity-based RUL prediction with limited historical whole life cycle data.


Heterobasidion annosum ranks as one of the most destructive pathogens in North American coniferous forests. Understanding the population biology of' th@ fungus may help us to understand not only the basic biology of the organism, but also general patterns of disease development, modes of host-pathogen interactions, effect of management practices on the dynamics of dispersal, establishment, and evolution of the pathogen and/or the host. in turn, this information allows for a more profound understanding of the general health of an ecosystem leading to more refined and targeted management practices. In the case of H. annosum, previous research has elucidated aspects of the etiology and spread of disease for host species such as European pines and spruces. In these instances, primary stump infection and root-to-root secondary contagion appear to be major avenues of disease development. No information is available on the true fir/H. annosum pathosystem for Western North America, although the pathogen is increasingly affecting this tree species. Because of the different hosts involved, of the different biogeographic region and of the significant genetic divergence amongst groups of H. unnosum characterized by different host preferences, it is not possible to extrapolate results from other regions of the world to Western North America, and in particular to Caiifomia. Two genetically distinct intersterility groups (ISGs) of the fungus are present in California: the S ISG mostly infects true firs, hemlocks, Douglas-firs and sequoias, while the P ISG is found mostly on pines, incense cedars, and junipers. These two ISGs are known to mate in the laboratory, but evidence recently. Still, there is no understanding of the frequency of mating and gene flow between the two groups. In the* last years our research effort has been to elucidate the dynamics of fungai establishment and spread in California mixed conifer forests with a predominance of true fir. The scale of our analyses has ranged from small scale studies designed to understand the genetic structure of pathogen populations in individual mortality centers to larger analysis at the broader regional level, designed to shed light on medium to long distance gene flow between demes of one ISG and even potentially between ISGs. One of our focuses has been to relate the genetic structure of this organism to forest stand characteristics in the attempt to understand the impact of forest management on the population biology of this organism, on the epidemiology of the disease, and on the severity of the mortality associated with this pathogen. Our regional scale analysis has also benefited from a parallel undergoing research program Alice Ratcliff (PSW Forest Service), on the genetic structure of H. annowrn in pine mortality centers.


When in 313 the emperor Constantine declared his support for the Christian religion, he was taking a risk. An earlier generation of church scholars had supposed that in the three hundred years since the death of Christ, his followers had manage to expand to the point that Constantine's declaration of support was simply a recognition of the inevitable--Christian triumph by sheer force of numbers. Recent work suggests a more complex reality. Christianity was very slow to get going: by about 200, perhaps as many as 200000 Christians existed on the earth. Even by maximum estimates of expansion, Christian populations in the early years of the 4th century probably totaled only about 6 million, perhaps as much as 10 percent of the Roman population. That 10 percent was unequally distributed: in cities, particularly in Rome and the big cities of the eastern empire, and among the poorer and, above all, more middling classes--merchants, lower-level bureaucrats, soldiers, and their wives-who aspired to rank and prosperity. Christianity had more limited progress among the senatorial elite and in vast expanses of the countryside where about 90 percent of Romans lived out their lives as poor farmers. By 313, in other words, Christianity had a notable presence among urbanites climbing the social ladder, but among both old aristocratic elite and the rural majority the new religion was a vague form on a distant horizon. Constantine's support of Christianity in 313 was no capitulation to an inevitable surge of Christians, but rather a gamble, not only on a faith but also on a class of people on the move. Disciplines Architectural History and Criticism | Arts and Humanities | Christianity | Classics This book chapter is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/169


The term triangulation derives from scientific surveying, where it refers to the use of a series of triangles to map out a given area. However, since the 1960s, especially with the publication of the celebrated work by Webb and his colleagues (1966), the concept of triangulation has been seized upon by social scientists as a multi-method research technique in which both qualitative and quantitative research methods are combined to provide more comprehensive findings than would be possible through the use of a single method (Morse 1991). Within the context of social and behavioural research, methodological triangulation has been defined as the utilization of multiple data collection techniques to investigate a research question and or issue (Jick 1983: 138; Knafl and Breitmayer 1989: 234-235). Thus defined, methodological triangulation has been regarded as a useful tool in enhancing confidence in research findings (Smith 1975). Denzin (1970) has distinguished two types of methodological triangulation in the social sciences: "within-method triangulation", which involves the use of varieties of the same method to investigate a research issue and "between method triangulation", which involves the use of different (sometimes even contrasting) research methods. In this study on evaluation of Youth Information Centres in Jamaica, the emphasis was mainly on "between-method triangulation", whereby a structured social survey was supplemented by other methods of data collection, including: secondary data collection, focus group discussions, elite interviews and observation.


A recent trend in human rights scholarship reflects the influence of the cultural relativist claims that have often been advanced by the political elites of the non-Western authoritarian states. This scholarly trend in which universalism meets cultural relativism gives birth to the notion of "chastened universalism," or "tempered universalism." The Politics of Women's Rights in Iran, by anthropologist Arzoo Osanloo, fits well in this trendy genre. I read these ethnographical studies with interest—and for an aftereffect. What comes after such knowledge? As an un-chastened advocate of universalism, I use the standards derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights model. How should I modify my approach, or methodology, in analyzing and presenting the violations that take place in a contemporary nation-state like Iran? These ethnographical explorations call for a retooling of human rights discourse and practice. My conclusion is, however, that these explorations hardly provide meaningful guidelines, or even vague recommendations, that could be of practical value to human rights monitors and researchers who must remain focused on the occurring violations, with the victims always in sight.


The Tarner Lectures on the Philosophy of Science were first given in 1919 at Trinity College, Cambridge. They were intended as a course on 'the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Relations or Want of Relations between the different Departments of Knowledge' (as noted in the Preface to Alfred North Whitehead's The Concept of Nature [1920], based on his inaugural Tarner Lectures). The present volume comes from Lloyd's 2012 Tarner Lectures; and, while its subtitle refers to ancient history, Lloyd demonstrates throughout his close engagement with twentieth-century philosophies of science and their ancient counterparts. This well illustrated volume is divided into five chapters. The first four examine the use of demonstration and its relation to democracy, debate, and discovery. They probe the ontological presuppositions of historical actors, with a view to understanding what ancient investigators thought they were studying and what they regarded as the value of their endeavours. Lloyd interrogates the nature and character of intellectual investigation itself, as practised in the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Greece, India, and China. Lloyd is well known for his detailed studies of ancient Greek and Chinese science and philosophy, as well as for his commitment to comparative histories. He reminds us that what we understand today to be 'science' differs in many ways from the studies of the physical world that were undertaken in ancient civilisations. In the concluding chapter, 'The Great Divide', which was not part of the lecture series, Lloyd explores questions related to the character of reasoning in human populations across space and time, acknowledging that linguistic, social, and cultural differences come into play. He argues that the capacity to investigate is shared by humans universally, but that the various styles and manifestations of investigation are diverse and distinct, both in antiquity and in more modern times. Throughout the volume, Lloyd emphasizes the differences in the routes for inquiry undertaken by thinkers in various ancient cultures. In the final chapter, he provocatively points to pluralism present in modern science. Currently, questions related to scientific pluralism are being debated by philosophers of science, including Hasok Chang and Martin Kusch. Is scientific inquiry enhanced by the coexistence of different—even conflicting—theories? Lloyd's history of inquiry in antiquity is valuable in thinking about this sort of question today.


Seventy-nine crossbred steers and heifers born in June or August were stratified by weight, calving group, and sex and assigned to treatment or control. Yearlings in the treatment group (TRT; n = 40) grazed native summer Sandhill range and had access to ad libitum dried distillers grains (DDG) pellet in a creep feeder for 54 d of a 63-d grazing period. Control (CON; n = 39) yearlings grazed in an adjacent pasture without DDG. Immediately after the grazing period, yearlings were placed in a feedlot and fed to a similar finish end point. Individual forage and DDG intake estimates and animal ADG and carcass characteristics were used to determine the value of DDG to TRT yearlings at the end of the grazing period and at harvest. Intake of DDG averaged 4.99 kg/d DM. Summer ADG was greater (P < 0.01) for TRT (1.27 kg/ d) than CON (0.88 kg/d). Yearlings previously allowed access to DDG gained more (P < 0.01) during the first 30 d in the feedlot (1.32 vs. 1.10 kg/d for TRT and CON, respectively). Yearlings allowed access to DDG were harvested 14 d before CON (138 d on feed). Final 1A contribution of the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research Division, Lincoln, NE 68583. Journal Series No. 15206. 2Corresponding author: email@example.com weight, feedlot ADG, and carcass characteristics were similar between TRT and CON. There was a tendency (P = 0.15) for TRT cattle to have a higher percentage grading choice, (67 vs. 51% for TRT and CON, respectively). The value of DDG to yearlings grazing Sandhill range was greater than the estimated cost at both the grazing and harvest endpoints.


It is shown in the present work that the distorted-space model of matter can describe conventional force-constants and transition-mediator structures. The distorted-geometry structures exhibit non-Newtonian features wherein the hole or core-region fields of the structures are energetically-repulsive (negative pressure), do not behave functionally in an r-4 manner and terminate at zero at the radial origin (no singularity). Near the core of the distortion the magnetic fields dominate the energy-densities of the structures thereby departing from classical particle-structure descriptions. Black-body radiation-emission and structural modeling leads to a description of transition dynamics and photonic entities.


Abstract We report on an experiment on the distracting effects of in-car conversations through augmented-reality glasses. Previous research showed that in-car phone conversations can be distracting, but that the distraction might be reduced if the remote caller receives visual information about the driving context. However, what happens if such video sharing becomes bidirectional? The recent introduction of commercial augmented-reality glasses in particular might allow drivers to engage in video-supported conversations while driving. We investigate how distracting such video-based conversations are in an experiment. Our participants operated a simulated vehicle, while also playing a conversational game (Taboo) with a remote conversant. The driver either only heard the remote conversant (speech-only condition), or was also able to see the remote person in a virtual window that was presented through augmented reality (video call condition). Results show that our participants did not spend time looking at the video of the remote conversant. We hypothesize that this was due to the fact that in our experiment participants had to turn their head to get a full view of the virtual window. Our results imply that we need further studies on the effects of augmented reality on the visual attention of the driver, before the technology is used on the road.


A method of burst-error correction is presented which works for a large class of codes. Any single burst of length up to somewhat less than one half the number of check digits can be corrected. The number of decoding computations per code word is proportional to the square of the code length for long codes. The code can be chosen in a random manner, except that several trials may sometimes be necessary in order to find a suitable code.


The electronic and optical properties of several possible C/B-codoped models of anatase and rutile TiO2 have been investigated systematically using spin-polarized density functional theory calculations. Our calculated results show that the synergistic effect of C/B codoping can induce some hybridized energy states appearing in the forbidden gap and the band gap has a narrowing in anatase and rutile TiO2, which can lead to a decrease of the photon excitation energy and an obvious red-shift of the optical absorption edge. These results lead to an excellent photocatalytic activity in C/B-codoped TiO2. Moreover, with the increase of C and B impurities' concentration in anatase and rutile TiO2, we find that the intensity of impurity states has a strengthening in the band gap, the position of impurity states changes, and the visible-light absorption performance improves gradually.


We present Graformer, a novel Transformer-based encoder-decoder architecture for graph-to-text generation. With our novel graph self-attention, the encoding of a node relies on all nodes in the input graph - not only direct neighbors - facilitating the detection of global patterns. We represent the relation between two nodes as the length of the shortest path between them. Graformer learns to weight these node-node relations differently for different attention heads, thus virtually learning differently connected views of the input graph. We evaluate Graformer on two popular graph-to-text generation benchmarks, AGENDA and WebNLG, where it achieves strong performance while using many fewer parameters than other approaches.


C4 grasslands proliferated later in Australia than they did on other continents (∼3.5 Ma vs. 10–5 Ma). It remains unclear whether this delay reflects differences in climate conditions or ecological feedbacks, such as fire, that promote C4 ecosystems. Here, we evaluated these factors using terrestrial biomarkers from marine sediments off western Australia. Fire‐derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) indicate fire ecology did not substantially change during or following C4 expansion. The presence of fire‐adapted C3 woody vegetation likely diminished the role of fire and delayed C4 expansion until it was prompted by climate drying between 3.5 and 3.0 Ma. At the same time, mass accumulation rates of weathered PAHs increased 100‐fold, which indicates a significant loss of soil carbon accompanied this ecosystem shift. The tight couplings between hydroclimate and carbon storage altered boundary conditions for Australian ecosystems, and similar abrupt behavior may shape environmental responses to climate change.


Background: Total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) is one of the anesthetic techniques that needs no inhalational agent but only an intravenous agent for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. Among drugs used in TIVA, propofol is the most popular agent. Rapid emergence and antiemetic characteristics of propofol are well known advantages but a dose dependent cardiovascular depressant effect is one of the disadvantages of this drug. Otherwise, ketamine, a dissociative agent, has been restricted in its use because of bad dreams, delirium and delayed emergence even though it has profound analgesic characteristics. However, ketamine has a stimulatory effect on the cardiovascular system, so it can raise blood pressure and pulse rate and in the case of TIVA, these properties can be advantageous when used with propofol. This study was aimed to decide whether TIVA using propofol and ketamine would have more stable vital signs during anesthesia and more rapid and smoother emergence in comparison with inhalational anesthesia using isoflurane. Methods: Thirty two patients scheduled for elective general anesthesia were randomly allocated into two groups; I (inhalational anesthesia using isoflurane) group and PK (TIVA using propofol and ketamine) group. I group was controlled with isoflurane 1-1.5 vol% and the PK group was controlled with propofol 3-12 mg/kg/hr and ketamine 0.5-1.0 mg/kg/hr. Arriving at the recovery room, a single observer recorded the time to spontaneous movement, responses to painful pinch and verbal command, and orientation to age, name, place, date and time. At 5, 10, and 30 minutes after anesthesia, a PARS (postanesthesia recovery score), count-down test, and VAS (visual analogue scale) were checked. Postoperative events were checked in the recovery room and 24 hours lator. Results: There was no significant difference in demographic data or characteristics of operation. Compared with the I group, the PK group had significantly rapid orientation responses on place, date and time. Restoration in the count-down test was more rapid in the PK group after 10 minutes in the recovery room. The VAS was lower in the PK group after 30 minutes in the recovery room.


PURPOSE: Patients with and survivors of hematologic malignancies are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 disease and complications. This study examined patients' vaccination attitudes and behaviors and their correlates. METHODS: A two-wave survey was fielded in December 2020 and June 2021 among hematologic malignancy patients and survivors (N = 2,272). Demographic characteristics, intent to get vaccinated, vaccination status, attitudes toward vaccination, and level of trust in specific sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines were assessed. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and linear probability models were estimated to examine binary outcomes and their correlates. RESULTS: In December 2020, before COVID-19 vaccines were available, 73% stated they were likely or very likely to get vaccinated if an FDA-approved vaccine became available; however, in June 2021 over 90% reported being vaccinated. Being younger, unmarried, trusting local faith leaders, and not having a bachelor's degree or more were negatively associated with getting vaccinated. Among those hesitant in December 2020, those who expressed a distrust of vaccines in general were least likely to get vaccinated. Being vaccinated in June 2021 was positively associated with the degree to which respondents trust their oncologist, federal agencies, and pharmaceutical companies. Oncologists and primary care physicians were reported as the most trusted sources for information about vaccines. DISCUSSION: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy remains a public policy concern even now, as additional boosters are recommended among vulnerable populations. Our findings suggest that patient trust in their treating physicians can play a critical role in promoting individual patient and public health goals.


Fluorescence-based single-molecule approaches have helped revolutionize our understanding of chemical and biological mechanisms. Unfortunately, these methods are only suitable at low concentrations of fluorescent molecules so that single fluorescent species of interest can be successfully resolved beyond background signal. The application of these techniques has therefore been limited to high-affinity interactions despite most biological and chemical processes occurring at much higher reactant concentrations. Fortunately, recent methodological advances have demonstrated that this concentration barrier can indeed be broken, with techniques reaching concentrations as high as 1 mM. The goal of this Review is to discuss the challenges in performing single-molecule fluorescence techniques at high-concentration, offer applications in both biology and chemistry, and highlight the major milestones that shatter the concentration barrier. We also hope to inspire the widespread use of these techniques so we can begin exploring the new physical phenomena lying beyond this barrier.


Background: Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) is a negative-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Paramyxoviridae family and causes acute, highly contagious disease in small ruminants. Lysine acetylation plays central role in regulating gene expression. However, the extent and function of lysine acetylation in host cells during PPRV infection remains unknown. Methods: Lysine acetylation of PPRV-infected Vero cells was tested and differentially expressed lysine acetylation was found. The acetylated peptides were enriched using specific antibody and labeled with demethylation. Proteins with acetylation sites were identified. Subsequently, intensive bioinformatics analysis of succinylome of PPRV-infected Vero cells was were performed. In this study, intensive proteomic quantification analysis of the proteome and acetylome of PPRV-infected Vero cells was performed using dimethylation labeling-based quantitative proteomics. Results: We identified 4729 cellular proteins and 1068 proteins with 2641 modification sites quantifiable detected by mass spectrometry, of which 304 proteins with 410 acetylation sites were significantly acetylated in response to PPRV infection. Bioinformatics analyses revealed that the differentially acetylated proteins mainly participated in carbohydrate catabolic and DNA metabolic process, and were associated with multifarious functions, suggesting that intracellular activities were extensively changed after PPRV infection. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the identified proteins further indicated that a variety of chaperone and ribosome processes were modulated by acetylation. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study on acetylome in host cell infected with PPRV. It provides an important baseline to future study the roles of acetylation in the host response to PPRV replication.


Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections and relapse of disease remain major problems after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). Great promise as an alternative strategy, with a potential use for very broad patient population, arises from the non-MHC-restricted target-recognition of cancer cells and virally-infected cells by γδT-cells. Therefore, we investigated the role of γδT-cells after allo-SCT and CMV infection. An increase in selectively Vδ1-positive γδT-cells was observed in CMV-reactivating patients from CMV-positive conventional donors. Even more important, γδT-cell expansions were also observed after CMV-negative cordblood transplantation. However, in contrast to expansions from CMV-positive donors, γδT-cells from cordblood donors did not only include Vδ1-positive but also Vδ3-positive cells. Expanded Vδ2-negative γδT-cells were not only able to lyse CMV-infected fibroblasts, but also to partially mature dendritic cells (DCs) and to kill primary leukemic blasts. CMV- and leukemia-reactivity were restricted to the same clonal population and separated from DC-maturation capacities of Vδ2-negative T-cells. Vδ2-negative γδTCRs selectively mediated anti-leukemia-reactivity. This makes CMV-reactive γδT-cells e.g. from cordblood donors as well as individual Vδ2-negative γδTCRs interesting candidates for adoptive immunotherapy strategies


Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. They are distinguished by long incubation periods, characteristic spongiform changes associated with neuronal loss, and a failure to induce inflammatory response. Prion diseases in animals, Scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (commonly known as "mad cow disease") in cattle, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans are all examples of infectious diseases. The prion protein (PrP) was identified in a patient in 2015, and it was previously believed to be the cause of all known mammalian prion diseases. However, The protein alpha-synuclein, which is thought to be responsible for MSA, was suggested to be the cause of the disease in 2015.


The purpose of the study was to examine the media coverage of newly hired NCAA Division I-FBS football coaches through the investigation of media releases (n = 191) related to their hires. Results indicate that (a) African Americans were under-represented in the hiring process, when compared to the proportion of African American athletes on the team; (b) African Americans were most likely to be hired to coach positions with a high concentration of African American athletes, while Whites were most likely to be hired as a coordinator; and (c) Whites were more likely than African Americans to be depicted as helping the team through their knowledge and experience, while African Americans were more likely than were Whites to help the team through their recruiting efforts and relationships with the players. Results suggest that the media perpetuate the dominant racial ideology in the U.S. and are discussed accordingly.


Bladder adenocarcinoma is a bladder neoplasia not frequently seen in urology service consultations. Its clinical presentation varies and its origin can be extravesical. Treatment is predominantly radical and life expectancy is quite variable. The case presented here is a male patient in the seventh decade of life with adenocarcinoma in the bladder dome, who was studied and treated with partial cystectomy and bilateral lymphadenectomy. His progression has been favorable and there is no recurrence data or tumor activity at one-year follow-up.


Early days: a wartime airfield, RAC's search for a motorsport venue, and the first British Grand Prix of 1948. Subsequent Silverstone history told decade-by-decade: track changes, commercial developments, politics. Year-by-year highlights and landmarks: club events as well as the big races memorable moments, highs and lows the people - drivers, personalities, commentators. Packed with first-hand interview content from significant people in Silverstone's history. Contains a wealth of historic photographs, many in colour.


With the increase of structure complexity, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) take a fair amount of computation cost. Meanwhile, existing research reveals the salient parameter redundancy in CNNs. The current pruning methods can compress CNNs with little performance drop, but when the pruning ratio increases, the accuracy loss is more serious. Moreover, some iterative pruning methods are difficult to accurately identify and delete unimportant parameters due to the accuracy drop during pruning. We propose a novel adversarial iterative pruning method (AIP) for CNNs based on knowledge transfer. The original network is regarded as the teacher while the compressed network is the student. We apply attention maps and output features to transfer information from the teacher to the student. Then, a shallow fully-connected network is designed as the discriminator to allow the output of two networks to play an adversarial game, thereby it can quickly recover the pruned accuracy among pruning intervals. Finally, an iterative pruning scheme based on the importance of channels is proposed. We conduct extensive experiments on the image classification tasks CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and ILSVRC-2012 to verify our pruning method can achieve efficient compression for CNNs even without accuracy loss. On the ILSVRC-2012, when removing 36.78% parameters and 45.55% floating-point operations (FLOPs) of ResNet-18, the Top-1 accuracy drop are only 0.66%. Our method is superior to some state-of-the-art pruning schemes in terms of compressing rate and accuracy. Moreover, we further demonstrate that AIP has good generalization on the object detection task PASCAL VOC.


Purpose: The most important thing is to know exactly what needs users have when planning a housing. People have their own criteria that directly influence purchasing decisions when choosing a house to live in. And they select the house with the largest number of elements satisfying these criteria. This days most consumers are mostly satisfied with their material needs. And now people thinking more important motive than simply pursuing material gains. It is the most essential role in they consume consciously or unconsciously that meeting the needs of which step. And now days housing space has become a merchandise, this study check the related function of the residential space and human needs. Method: First, this study wanted to understand the housing needs, which is needs related to housing in basic needs that humans have. Second, this study wanted to understand what the requirements and the criteria for choosing housing of actual resident, who want to have changed housing. Third, This study check how to set up the direction of development in housing planning, through the comparison of the housing needs and the residential function defined above. Result: Henceforth housing should consider meet the Esteem Needs and Self-Actualization Needs, among the type of Grow-based Motivation. The functions for this are convenience, independence, economics, sociality, relaxation, and expressivity. In addition, it should be able to express oneself and recognize the value of oneself through leisure activities and interaction with neighbors. And, it should be able to move toward the direction to express that hobby activities for individual talent development in separate space


The rate of aggressive behaviours among teenagers in and off school environments has is becoming alarming to Nigeria society at large. Thus, the effects of these aggressive behaviours are of great concern to the fellow teenager, their parents, school management and other relevant stakeholders in education in Nigeria. This study used a genre of Drama-in-Education (DIE) in understanding factors that contribute to aggressive behaviours among teenagers. In an exploratory approach using descriptive analysis, the study was carried out in two settings: Uyo, Akwa Ibom state and Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state. Fifty teenagers comprising 26(52%) male and 24(48%) female within the age range of 13 to 12 years participated in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state. Similarly, thirty teenagers comprising 13(43%) male and 17(57%) female of ages ranging from 12 to 20 years participated in the study in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state. Findings however, revealed that the use of Drama-in-Education as exposed to the teenagers in this study; have helped understand that there were several possible contributing factors to development aggression and have suggested likely measures for ameliorating aggressive and violent behaviours in teenge population. The study thus, recommends the integration and use of Drama-in-Education as instructional method that is participatory in nature as an antidote to aggressive and violent behaviours among adolescents. Keywords: Theatre, drama-in education, aggressive behaviour, teenagers


Differences between the inhibitory activities of specific compounds on analogous enzymes isolated from different animal species are one of the critical issues to evaluate when exploring structure-activity relationships. The activity of acarbose is about ten times stronger in rat than in human, and that of neosalacinol is similar in both species. Binding affinities of acarbose and neosalacinol to four catalytic domains of alpha-glucosidases in human and rat were compared to investigate the cause of activity differences among species. Species difference was brought about complicatedly by the balance of interaction with four domains, and the result was indicated that larger ligand would show larger species difference in activity.


The duplication of gauge potentials in association with a single local symmetry group may induce the classical generation of nonlinear σ-models, whenever families of complex or real scalar fields are suitably coupled to the various gauge fields.


The accepted method of accounting for a change in accounting estimate requires that any over or under expense related to years prior to that change be allocated to current and affected future periods. A change in accounting principle requires that any over or under expense related to years prior to that change be recognized in the year of change. Variable stock plans require estimation of a future market price-the market value at the measurement date. The amount of this estimate may change each year. FIN 28 uses the catch-up method (as for a change in accounting principle) to account for these changes over the service period or vesting period of stock option awards. However, this treatment is not consistent with the treatment applied to other changes in accounting estimate as discussed in APB 20. Should changes in accounting estimate re-lated to variable stock plans be accounted for using the prospective method? This would seem to be more consistent with previous rules of GAAP (i.e., APB 20). However, perhaps there is a more fundamental issue to consider - the usefulness of a measurement approach in reporting an event and its ability to achieve consistent and comparable measures of income. Currently, the FASB is planning to issue an exposure draft on accounting for stock compensation plans. However, over two years have passed since the comment deadline passed on this discussion document, and release of an exposure draft on the subject was postponed each quarter during 1986. As the FASB continues to study this issue, it should consider the position it stated in paragraph 16 of FIN 28: the method of measuring compensation for stock appreciation rights and other variable plan awards should not be changed without a comprehensive reexamination of the measurement principles underlying APB Opinion No. 25. We believe that FASB should reexamine the entire issue of measurement, including the method applied and the circumstances under which that method best reflects operating income when variable stock options are used as compensatory rewards. This review should include APB 20 and the relative importance of consistency among approaches used versus other considerations such as the matching of costs and income measurement.


A coordinated multi-agent computation paradigm is proposed as a design tool of an intelligent robot system. A multi-agent programming paradigm and programming language, New Valid, is introduced. New Valid is designed as a tool for programming coordinated multi-agent computation systems. The coordinated computation paradigm is designed as a message flow programming system on the basis of a functional programming system. A history-sensitive computation feature, named agent, is introduced into a functional programming language, Valid. A model of mult-agent robot systems is proposed. The robot sytem is constructed as an ensemble of functions, each of which works as a coordinated independent agent through message communications. All sensory information put into robot is treated as messages. Several examples of multi-agent robot systems are shown.<<ETX>>


A 27‐year‐old man presented with pigmented macules on the right sole, which showed a parallel‐ridge pattern on dermatoscopy. His work for a chemical company involved handling para‐phenylenediamine. Histological examination of a biopsy from a lesion did not find any proliferation of atypical melanocytes. Shaving the cornified layer of the lesions with a surgical knife resulted in the disappearance of macules. We speculate that para‐phenylenediamine on the sole of the patient's work boot might have become blotted to the cornified layer of the cutis. This report adds a new occupation‐related differential diagnosis for skin diseases showing a parallel‐ridge pattern on dermatoscopy.


Abstract Are female suicide bombers deadlier than male suicide bombers? Utilizing newly coded data on the tactical attributes of suicide terrorism worldwide from 1998 to 2015, this study shows that the use of female suicide bombers is not only positively correlated with the lethality of the suicide attacks, but also accentuates the existing tactical advantages of suicide terrorism. Especially in the cases of soft targets like civilians, and easily accessible locations, the deadliest outcomes result from those attacks carried out by female suicide bombers.


There is evidence that non-coding RNAs play significant roles in the regulation of nutrient homeostasis, development, and stress responses in plants. Accurate identification of ncRNAs is the first step in determining their function. While a number of machine learning tools have been developed for ncRNA identification, no dedicated tool has been developed for ncRNA identification in plants. Here, an automated machine learning tool, PINC is presented to identify ncRNAs in plants using RNA sequences. First, we extracted 91 features from the sequence. Second, we combined the F-test and variance threshold for feature selection to find 10 features. The AutoGluon framework was used to train models for robust identification of non-coding RNAs from datasets constructed for four plant species. Last, these processes were combined into a tool, called PINC, for the identification of plant ncRNAs, which was validated on nine independent test sets, and the accuracy of PINC ranged from 92.74% to 96.42%. As compared with CPC2, CPAT, CPPred, and CNIT, PINC outperformed the other tools in at least five of the eight evaluation indicators. PINC is expected to contribute to identifying and annotating novel ncRNAs in plants.


Domestic violence in South Africa is increasingly becoming a major social problem. Domestic violence disrupts family life and the functioning of family members. However, domestic violence is still narrowly defined and viewed as affecting women who are usually the victims/survivors of such violence. The impact of domestic violence on children is largely underestimated and ignored. Most research and intervention programmes have focused on the problem as it affects women thus treating the impact of violence on children as of secondary importance. The aim of this study is to examine domestic violence from the perspective of black teenagers who either witness or experience such violence themselves. In an attempt to understand and make sense of Black teenagers' experiences and views of violence in their homes and intimate relationships, insights from different theoretical perspectives are used. These are Trauma theory, Social learning theory and the Funnel of Violence theory. Using a qualitative methodology, the study explores black teenagers experiences of domestic violence in their home of origin and their perceptions of violence in intimate relationships. Focus group interviews were conducted with 22 black male and female teenagers between the ages of 14 and 21 to obtain data. The study was conducted in Kayamandi, a township situated in the Stellenbosch area. The findings revealed that the teenagers have been exposed to constant conflict between their parents, the causes of which include alcohol abuse and infidelity. The exposure to violence at home has been traumatic and has affected teenagers on an emotional, psychological and sometimes physical level. The conflict at home has also affected their ability to cope and adopt in their social and school environment. Some have also been direct victims of violence since they have suffered abuse at the hands of both their parents. As a result, their relationship with their parents has been strained. In addition, they seem to have adopted distorted views on how to deal with problems within relationships. They tend to view violence as a means to resolve conflict in intimate relationships and some of these teenagers have come to believe that violence is acceptable since it is an indication of love. They also believe that violent behaviour is a consequence of provocation and is carried out unwittingly to punish and discipline the victim. In most cases the victims of violence are women. iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


IT IS common to see children with a recurrent dermatitis of the feet, very often misdiagnosed by the nondermatologist. The eruption is described in this report, and a cause is suggested. The eruption is of variable duration and intensity. Examination reveals an acute dermatitis consisting of erythema, fissuring, weeping, and crusting. The dermatitis is bilateral, but not symmetrical. It is limited to the dorsal, lateral, and plantar surfaces of the great toes, and the dorsal aspects of the other toes. Unless there is gross infection, the interdigital webs are clear. Because of location and appearance, this condition would appear to be causally related to shoes. Elements of allergic contact dermatitis, including positive patch tests, are absent. Since the dermatitis often occurs in hot weather, primary irritancy produced by heat, perspiration, and friction must be considered as an etiologic factor. Are tight shoes, friction, heat, and perspiration sufficient to explain this


Acid-base balance regulation and changes in electrolyte metabolism have been studied in 20 subjects exposed to 1.5% CO2 over a period of 42 days with control periods preceding and subsequent to exposure. During exposure to CO2 a slight uncompensated respiratory acidosis was present during the first 23 days followed by a compensated respiratory acidosis. Deacclimatization was incomplete, even after 4 weeks of recovery on air. Arterial CO2 tension increased 5 mm Hg during exposure and remained at this elevated level during the first 9 days of recovery on air. In chronic respiratory acidosis the concentration of chloride in the red cells and in plasma remains practically normal, indicating that the chloride shift does not operate. Cation exchange was observed under these conditions. Sodium increased while potassium showed an approximately equivalent decrease. Sodium and potassium balance studies indicated that only sodium exhibits a pattern paralleling the two phases of acid-base balance regulation, retention being followed by increased excretion. Body weight was maintained throughout the experiment in spite of a 24–30% reduction in food intake.

mild respiratory acidosis and compensation; 1.5% CO2 exposure and recovery; arterial pCO2, chloride shift, and cation exchange; sodium and potassium excretion; sodium potassium and nitrogen balance; acid-base regulation in chronic hypercapnia; time course in acid-base regulations during chronic exposure to low concentration of CO2; acclimatization and deacclimatization to low concentration of CO2

Submitted on July 22, 1963


A field study was conducted to determine the prevalence of various poultry diseases in broilers and layers at Khushab district in Pakistan. The prevalence study was conducted in 360 poultry farms. Diagnosis of diseases in poultry was done based on history, clinical signs, post-mortem examination, cultural, and biochemical characterization. Overall, incidence of Newcastle disease (ND) was found as the highest (avg. 7.85%) in broiler, followed by Fowl typhoid (avg. 6.58%), Mycoplasma (avg. 5.68%), Escherichia coli infection (avg. 5.52%), Coccidiosis (avg. 4.59%), Mycotoxicosis (avg. 4.56%), Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD; avg. 2.84%), Infectious coryza (avg. 2.50%), Hydropericardium syndrome (HPS; avg. 1.67%), and Infectious bronchitis (IB; avg. 1.59%). The period during April to June appeared to be comparatively safer for the broilers as low incidence of disease was recorded at this period. In case of layers, incidence of ND was the highest (avg. 7.92%), followed by Fowl typhoid (avg. 6.97%), Mycotoxicosis (avg. 5.52%), Coccidiosis (avg. 4.75%), IBD (avg. 3.17%), Mycoplasmosis (avg. 3.0%), Infectious coryza (avg. 2.52%), Fowl cholera (avg. 1.52%), IB (avg. 0.90k%), E. coli infection (avg. 0.73%), and HPS (avg. 0.46%). For layers, the period during January to March appeared to be safer. In conclusion, diversified diseases are prevalent in both layers and broilers. Thus, proper vaccination practices, brooding arrangements, preventive measures, and biosecurity practices are recommended.


This research aimed to test and validate the only existing real-time coupled model of human thermal comfort by comparing simulation results and measured data for a number of different realistic non-uniform scenarios. This model incorporates detailed and realistic human figures in CFD, coupled with the IESD-Fiala model which enables the reaction of human occupants and their influence on the environment by heat and mass transfer to be modelled. A set of likely configurations have been created in an environmental chamber. Typical furniture, a thermal manikin and a portable fan have been used to generate non-uniform controlled environments, and detailed measurements have been taken. The same configurations have been modelled using the coupled model. The initial results highlight that this coupled model can effectively predict human thermal comfort in non-uniform environments, being able to represent dynamic conditions around the body in real time. Further work is addressing more complex configurations.


A computation method for the development of the interface in coextrusion flows is proposed. It is based on the transformation of the nonmixing condition at the interface into a transport equation of the rheological constants in the whole domain. The coextrusion flow of a Newtonian fluid and of a Carreau fluid is tested. It is pointed out that the interface location is strongly dependent on the flow rate and on the flow rate ratio.


Abstract Objective: This study evaluates the effects of mechanical cervical dilatation during scheduled cesarean section (CS) on intra- and postoperative blood loss. Methods: A single-center randomized double-blind controlled trial (NCT03444792) conducted at a tertiary University Hospital in the period between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 included all women scheduled for scheduled CS under spinal anesthesia if they met our inclusion criteria. Eligible participants were randomized to one of two groups. Group (I): Women with intraoperative cervical dilatation and Group (II): women with no intraoperative cervical dilatation. The primary outcome of this study was the mean volume of total blood loss during CS. The secondary outcomes included the mean reduction in the hemoglobin and hematocrit, the rate of primary postpartum hemorrhage, the duration of surgery, the duration of hospital stay, the rate of wound infection and endometritis. Results: No statistical significant difference between both study groups regarding the baseline characteristics. No significant difference in the intraoperative blood loss between both groups (p = .21); however, there was significantly more postoperative blood loss in group II (p = .001). The total blood loss was significantly higher in group II (912.6 ± 242.1 versus 845.8 ± 188.9 mL) in group I (p = .029). There were significantly lower postoperative hemoglobin and hematocrit levels in group II (p = .014 and .033 respectively). The mean duration of CS was significantly shorter in the cervical dilatation group (p = .002). No difference between both groups regarding the rate of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) (p = .21), the duration of hospital stay (p = .17), the rate of wound infection (p = .32), the rate of endometritis (p = .82). Conclusions: Mechanical cervical dilatation during scheduled CS could be associated with lower postoperative blood loss, higher postoperative hemoglobin & hematocrit levels and shorter duration of CS.


This article examines the moderate role of motivation on the relationship between the big five model of personality traits and organizational commitment as an attempt to understand the influence of multitude psychological and motivational factors on employees' behavior towards their organizational commitment.
     In general, the idea of this framework is taken from personality aspect and Theory of Commitment of (Allen & Meyer, 1996) which focus on how well the job is being performed by employees rather than only asking if they are doing their job. The basic foundation for forming and developing this new framework is: (1991) Allen & Meyer's model of Organizational Commitment, Job Characteristics model of employee motivation for Hackman & Oldham (1975), and Big Five Model of Personality for Cost & McCrae.
     In this study, data has been collected from surveying 241 employees of one of the private universities in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), results indicate that personality has a significant negative relationship with organizational commitment (r= -.729).
     The importance of this framework is epitomized in deeply understanding the work and personnel psychology aspects according to the interrelated effects of personality and extrinsic motivation on employees' behavior that will help organizations to seek and tailor best solutions to their problems and to achieve organizational development, effectiveness, and employees' well-being.