Invasive mycotic infections have become more common during recent decades, posing an increasing threat to public health. However, despite the growing needs, treatments for invasive fungal infections remain unsatisfactory and are limited to a small number of antifungals. The aim of this study was to identify novel fungal cell wall inhibitors from a library of small chemical compounds using a conditional protein kinase C (PKC)-expressing strain of Aspergillus nidulans sensitive to cell wall-active agents. Eight "hit" compounds affecting cell wall integrity were identified from a screen of 35,000 small chemical compounds. Five shared a common basic molecular structure of 4-chloro-6-arylamino-7-nitro-benzofurazane (CANBEF). The most potent compound, CANBEF-24, was characterized further and was shown to inhibit the growth of pathogenic Aspergillus , Candida , Fusarium , and Rhizopus isolates at micromolar concentrations but not to affect the growth of mammalian cell lines. CANBEF-24 demonstrated strong synergy in combination with caspofungin, an antifungal that inhibits cell wall biosynthesis. Genetic and biochemical analyses with Aspergillus nidulans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae indicated that CANBEFs selectively inhibit fungal rRNA maturation and protein synthesis, suggesting that their effect on the cell wall is indirect. CANBEFs were nontoxic in insect ( Galleria mellonella , Drosophila melanogaster


A surprise announcement last week that France and Germany will not be competing to host a multibillion-dollar fusion facility makes Japan the odds-on favorite as the site for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)—if it is built. Six nations were originally in the running as host for the reactor, a tokamak-shaped containment vessel that would demonstrate the feasibility of creating large amounts of electrical power. The catch is that the host country must pick up the biggest single share of the costs, which are expected to top $8 billion during a decade of construction. Japanese government and business leaders have said they are willing to put up as much of 70% of the cost, and that the time is long overdue for Asia to be the site of a major research facility.


Role based access control (RBAC) is a widely used access control paradigm. In large organizations, the RBAC policy is managed by multiple administrators. An administrative role based access control (ARBAC) policy specifies how each administrator may change the RBAC policy. It is often difficult to fully understand the effect of an ARBAC policy by simple inspection, because sequences of changes by different administrators may interact in unexpected ways. ARBAC policy analysis algorithms can help by answering questions, such as user-role reachability, which asks whether a given user can be assigned to given roles by given administrators. Allowing roles and permissions to have parameters significantly enhances the scalability, flexibility, and expressiveness of ARBAC policies. This paper defines PARBAC, which extends the classic ARBAC97 model to support parameters, and presents an analysis algorithm for PARBAC. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis algorithm specifically for parameterized ARBAC policies. We evaluate its efficiency by analyzing its parameterized complexity and benchmarking it on case studies and synthetic policies.


Different empirical studies show that one player has dominated the telecommunication industry for a number of years without any change. Different strategies and effort of other players such as lowering tariffs, coming up with cheaper money transfer, other attractive offers like free calls and messages, they have not managed to get a competitive edge leading to one company continuing to dominate the market. For this reason, homogeneity in performance for the companies operating in similar competitive conditions and industrial environment has not been explained. This study examined the moderating role of environment on organizational resources and performance of telecommunication industries in Kenya.To achieve the objectives, the study used a combination of explanatory design and descriptive survey research design, specifically cross sectional design. The target population consisted of 381 respondents and the sample size was 170 respondents from the telecommunication industries in Kenya. The research adopted stratified random sampling technique. The study used mainly primary data which was collected using self-administered questionnaires. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize data while inferential statistics, specifically multiple linear regressions was used to test hypotheses. The analysis used strata statistical package version 11.0 to aid data analysis. The results were presented using tables Environmental factor had no moderating effect on the influence of organizational resources on performance it was just an explanatory variable. Finally, the study recommended that further research be done by replicating the same study in other companies or industries like banks.


It has been studied the feeding patterns of Triatoma rubrovaria (wild triatominae bug, and intradomiciliary secondary vector of T. cruzi) in a rural area of "La Bolsa" (Department of Artigas). Agar double diffusion test were used for analyze the blood meal, from 120 insects, which were confronted to 13 antisera. It has 251 identify blood meals, and the most frequently was mamalian host (73%), but it has a variable source of feeding (mammals, birds, reptils and cockroach), including humans rate 8% of the total. The identify of haemolimphe as feed, place this triatominae bug as an intermediary vector between predator and haematophagous. The most usual mammals are dasypodides and bovines. The frecuence of human blood meal near the dwellings, shows its potentiality as vectors. Therefore, the peridomicile is an area of interaction between, domestic, wild and sinantropic host. The trypanosomic infection's rate at peridomiciles was lesser those at wild areas.


Distributed power control algorithms (DPCAs) based on the Foschini/Miljanic (FM) and Verhulst (V) models and a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) algorithm have been investigated in this work for next-generation passive optical networks (NG-PONs). The DPCAs of FM and V that are represented by the classical control theory as an integral control present limitations in the accuracy of signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SNIR) estimates in weak-signal environments. Furthermore, in this work the development of DPCA-PID-FM and DPCA-PID-V based on PID schemes originated as DPCA-FM and DPCA-V, respectively, has been conducted to overcome the SNIR estimation limitation. The main results have shown that DPCA-FM reaches convergence with a lower number of iterations than DPCA-V for situations of a good SNIR. However, under weak-signal scenarios, DPCA-V exhibits a smaller discrepancy from the optimum power vector solution and better convergence than DPCA-FM. Also, the proportional and differential actions taken in DPCA-V to originate DPCA-PID-V do not present a noticeable impact on the tendency and the velocity of the convergence compared with DPCA-V. On the other hand, DPCA-PID-FM changes the trend in convergence from DPCA-FM. Finally, the increase in channel error estimation causes an error of convergence for all DPCAs studied in this work. The main advantage of DPCAs based on PID is the possibility of utilizing adaptive tuning procedures to tune the PID gains.


Increasing vulnerability to extreme environmental events (EEEs), exacerbated by climate change, is making adaptation inevitable for rural communities in Small Islands Developing states (SIDs), including the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). Particularly the communities' located along the coastal areas that are experiencing sea level rise and coastal erosions, storm surges and flooding. Governments and development agencies across the Pacific have begun to implement adaptation policies to climate change at the community level to build resilience. This paper reports what limits and barriers rural household face for long-term adaptation, using community relocation from Mataniko Riverside to April Ridge, East Honiara, Solomon Islands, as a case study. Two hundred forty six (246) families were affected by the flash flood of Mataniko Riverside in April 2014. The Solomon Island government offered flood victims plots of land in an area safe from flooding. As of July 2015, the date of the study, the relocation process had been stalled, with flood victims still waiting for the promised plots of land. Questionnaires, oral interviews and focus group discussions with flood victims identified vulnerability, flood prone area and changing weather patterns as major limits, and government failures and the socioeconomic reality of these households as major barriers to adaptation. The study determined government failures to include a complicated land tenure system, absence of infrastructure development at the new site, inconsistent commitment to ensure completion of the land transfer to the settlers, and the lack of access to credit. Socioeconomic attributes including insufficient income, lack of formal education and skills, and consequential limited livelihood alternatives, also act as crucial barriers. The research findings indicate the need to design a relocation policy that addresses the limits and barriers identified here, specifically the land tenure system, and the financial support available to facilitate the relocation process.


The characterization of gene expression in cells via measurement of mRNA levels is a useful tool in determining how the transcriptional machinery of the cell is affected by external signals (e.g. drug treatment), or how cells differ between a healthy state and a diseased state. With the advent and continuous refinement of next-generation DNA sequencing technology, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) has become an increasingly popular method of transcriptome analysis to catalog all species of transcripts, to determine the transcriptional structure of all expressed genes and to quantify the changing expression levels of the total set of transcripts in a given cell, tissue or organism. RNA-seq is gradually replacing DNA microarrays as a preferred method for transcriptome analysis because it has the advantages of profiling a complete transcriptome, providing a digital type datum (copy number of any transcript) and not relying on any known genomic sequence. Here, we present a complete and detailed protocol to apply RNA-seq to profile transcriptomes in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells with or without thrombin treatment. This protocol is based on our recent published study entitled "RNA-seq Reveals Novel Transcriptome of Genes and Their Isoforms in Human Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells Treated with Thrombin," in which we successfully performed the first complete transcriptome analysis of human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells treated with thrombin using RNA-seq. It yielded unprecedented resources for further experimentation to gain insights into molecular mechanisms underlying thrombin-mediated endothelial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of inflammatory conditions, cancer, diabetes, and coronary heart disease, and provides potential new leads for therapeutic targets to those diseases. The descriptive text of this protocol is divided into four parts. The first part describes the treatment of human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells with thrombin and RNA isolation, quality analysis and quantification. The second part describes library construction and sequencing. The third part describes the data analysis. The fourth part describes an RT-PCR validation assay. Representative results of several key steps are displayed. Useful tips or precautions to boost success in key steps are provided in the Discussion section. Although this protocol uses human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells treated with thrombin, it can be generalized to profile transcriptomes in both mammalian and non-mammalian cells and in tissues treated with different stimuli or inhibitors, or to compare transcriptomes in cells or tissues between a healthy state and a disease state.


First Enoch is an ancient Judean work that inaugurated the genre of apocalypse. Chapters 1-36 tell the story of the descent of angels called "Watchers" from heaven to earth to marry human women before the time of the flood, the chaos that ensued, and God's response. They also relate the journeying of the righteous scribe Enoch through the cosmos, guided by angels. Heaven, including the place and those who dwell there (God, the angels, and Enoch), plays a central role in the narrative. But how should heaven be understood? Existing scholarship, which presupposes "Judaism" as the appropriate framework, views the Enochic heaven as reflecting the temple in Jerusalem, with God's house replicating its architecture and the angels and Enoch functioning like priests. Yet recent research shows the Judeans constituted an ethnic group, and this view encourages a fresh examination of 1 Enoch 1-36. The actual model for heaven proves to be a king in his court surrounded by his courtiers. The major textual features are explicable in this perspective, whereas the temple-and-priests model is unconvincing. The author was a member of a nontemple, scribal group in Judea that possessed distinctive astronomical knowledge, promoted Enoch as its exemplar, and was involved in the wider sociopolitical world of their time.


To put literature into a course of stu.lv quite irrespective of the teacher's personal appreciation of literary values-to say nothing of accurate discrimination as to the facts-is to go at the matter at the wrong end. To enact that at a given date all the grades of a certain city 'shall have nature studv is to invite confusion and distraction. It would be comic (if it were not tragic) to suppose that all that is required to make music and drawing a part of the course of study is to have the school board legislate that a certain amount of the time of the pupil. covering a certain prescribed ground, shall be given to work with pencil and paper, and to musical exercises. There is no magic by which these things can pass over fro in the printed page of the school manual to the child's consciousness. ' If the teacher has no standard of valuein relation to them, no intimate personal response of feeling to them. no conception of the methods of art ,..hich alone bring the child to a corresponding intellectual and emotional attitude, these studies wiII remain what precisely, they so often are-passing recreations. modes of showing off. or exercises in technique, -Educational Situation.


Book synopsis: Rethinking Social Policy is a comprehensive introduction to, and analysis of, the complex mixture of problems and possibilities within the study of social policy. Contributors at the cutting edge of social policy analysis reflect upon the implications of new social and theoretical movements for welfare and the study of social policy. Topics covered include: criminology and crime control; race, class and gender; poverty and sexuality; the body and the emotions; violence; work and welfare in Europe. Examples are drawn from a variety of welfare sectors such as: social services and community care, health, education, employment, and criminal justice.


Objective To investigate three-planar radiographic results and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) after correcting chronic atlantoaxial instability (AAI) by translaminar screw (TLS) and pedicle screw (PS) fixation, and to explore the potential association of atlantoaxial realignment with PRO improvements. Methods Twenty-three patients who underwent C1 lateral mass screw (LMS)-C2 TLS and 29 who underwent C1 LMS-C2 PS with ≥ 2 years of follow-up were retrospectively analyzed. Three-planar (sagittal, coronal, and axial) radiographic parameters were measured. PROs including the Neck Disability Index (NDI), Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score and the Short Form 36 Physical Component Summary (SF-36 PCS) were documented. Factors potentially associated with PROs were identified. Results The radiographic parameters significantly changed postoperatively except the C1–2 midlines' intersection angle in the TLS group (p = 0.073) and posterior atlanto-dens interval in both groups (p = 0.283, p = 0.271, respectively). The difference in bilateral odontoid lateral mass interspaces at last follow-up was better corrected in the TLS group than in the PS group (p = 0.010). Postoperative PROs had significantly improved in both groups (all p < 0.05). Thereinto, NDI at last follow-up was significantly lower in the TLS group compared with PS group (p = 0.013). In addition, blood loss and operative time were obviously lesser in TLS group compared with PS group (p = 0.010, p = 0.004, respectively). Multivariable regression analysis revealed that a change in C1–2 Cobb angle was independently correlated to PROs improvement (NDI: β = -0.435, p = 0.003; JOA score: β = 0.111, p = 0.033; SF-36 PCS: β = 1.013, p = 0.024, respectively), also age ≤ 40 years was independently associated with NDI (β = 5.40, p = 0.002). Conclusion Three-planar AAI should be reconstructed by C1 LMS-C2 PS fixation, while sagittal or coronal AAI could be corrected by C1 LMS-C2 TLS fixation. PROs may improve after atlantoaxial reconstruction in patients with chronic AAI. The C1–2 Cobb angle is an independent predictor of PROs after correcting chronic AAI, as is age ≤ 40 years for postoperative NDI.


This essay challenges the conventional wisdom that American labor law has reached a dead end. I argue that the dysfunctionality of the National Labor Relations Act has led not to "ossification" - as many believe - but to a hydraulic effect: unable to find an outlet through the NLRA, the continuing demand for collective action has forced open alternative legal channels. The essay outlines three examples to illustrate these emerging trends. The first involves the ability of several thousand janitors in Houston to secure wage increases and health benefits through a unionization campaign governed entirely by private agreement. The second concerns several hundred thousand home care and child care workers who unionized under a regime of state and local labor law. And the third is the story of an immigrant garment worker who relied on a quintessential employment law statute to lead a collective effort for overtime wages at her Brooklyn factory. These accounts illustrate labor law's new dynamism. They also reveal that American labor law is no longer a regime defined by a single federal statute administered by a single federal agency. Rather, the field is increasingly constituted by private processes, state and local regulation, and multiple federal statutes - most notably employment laws like Title VII and the Fair Labor Standards Act - enforced by multiple actors. The essay proposes that we treat each of these decentralizing trends as a productive form of experimentation. Self-consciously embracing this experimental potential will provide new insight into a series of practical questions central to labor law reform. These experimental developments also will help us resolve structural and conceptual quandaries at the core of the field: the appropriate function of private agreement in labor law; the role that states and localities should play in the design of labor policy; and the relationship between individual rights and collective action.


H is called a G-subgroup of a hyperbolic group G if for any finite subset M ⊂ G there exists a homomorphism from G onto a non-elementary hyperbolic group G1 that is surjective on H and injective on M . In his paper in 1993 A. Ol'shanskii gave a description of all G-subgroups in any given non-elementary hyperbolic group G. Here we show that for the same class of G-subgroups the finiteness assumption on M (under certain natural conditions) can be replaced by an assumption of quasiconvexity.


We study a class of self-adjoint operators defined on the direct sum of two Hilbert spaces: a finite dimensional one called sometimes a "small subsystem" and an infinite dimensional one – a "reservoir". The operator, which we call a "Friedrichs Hamiltonian", has a small coupling constant in front of its off-diagonal term. It is well known that under some conditions in the weak coupling limit the appropriately rescaled evolution in the interaction picture converges to a contractive semigroup when restricted to the subsystem. We show that in this model, the properly renormalized and rescaled evolution converges on the whole space to a new unitary evolution, which is a dilation of the above mentioned semigroup. Similar results have been studied before [AFL] in more complicated models and they are usually referred to as "stochastic Limit".


The paper investigates the features of production networks of Japanese manufacturing firms and their domestic operations and export/import activities in normal periods and during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Our previous empirical studies have shown that firms that expand their operations in East Asia are more likely to expand domestic operations, particularly domestic employment, than firms that do not in normal periods. This study further verifies that such tendency stands during the GFC. Moreover, this paper expands the scope of our series of studies by introducing labor productivity as one of the performance variables and also analyzing changes in the relative and absolute size of headquarters and manufacturing activities over time in order to seek a possible sign of de-industrialization.


Being Toward Birth: Natality and Nature in Merleau-Ponty By Kascha Snavely This dissertation articulates Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of nature in relation to the existential condition of "natality," as defined by Arendt. Where Heidegger emphasizes mortality in his post-metaphysical ontology, these investigations follow Merleau-Ponty and Arendt who emphasize that humans are not only mortals but "natals," beings who begin. The project has a twofold aim: 1. to present an exegesis of Merleau-Ponty's oeuvre with a special emphasis on the Nature Courses and 2. to sketch out a natal ontology in its own right. This ontology depends on Merleau-Ponty's methodological advancement beyond genetic phenomenology to generative and "poetic" phenomenology, a practice that incorporates historicity and expressivity. He offers a critique of science, particularly of evolutionary biology, that is shown to be relevant in a contemporary context. His natal ontology co-emerges with an ethical standpoint; he shows that a natural prereflective relation to a plurality of others, rather than only a single other, fundamentally conditions human existence. In a natal ontology, knowledge depends on being born with others, through a co-naissance of one's worldly situation.


: Q fever occurs in all geographical landscape zones and in most administrative regions of the Ukrainian SSR. The disease was diagnosed in those areas where no such cases had ever been registered. In the Kharkov region the examination of 425 fever patients with unclear diagnosis resulted in diagnosing 5 cases of Q fever. The proportion of seropositive persons among different professional groups of the population in the eastern part of the republic was determined (6.9% among workers of meat-packing factories, 8.7% among workers of fur- and wool-treating establishments, 5.2% among stock breeders). At the farms of the Kharkov, Poltava and Sumy regions the spread of infection among large cattle was 2.3% and among small cattle 5.6%. Rickettsial carriership revealed in hard ticks collected in the Kharkov region indicated the possibility of the existence of the natural focus of Q fever in this zone and increased the available information on the presence of the territories with the natural foci of this infection in the Ukraine.


To reduce the impact of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders (TMDs), the primary goals are to eliminate pain and restore joint function. However, with the limitations of current treatment options reaching these goals remains elusive. Limitations of current approaches include diagnostic evaluation, missing the early signs of the disease, and recurring pain. There is also difficulty with device fixation, permanent metals implanted, and device life expectancy. To begin addressing some of these limitations and goals, the specific aims of this dissertation focused on the use of altered joint occlusion to gain a better understanding of a TMD model using fibrocartilage, pain, and joint kinematic assessments and testing magnesium as a biodegradable screw in the craniofacial region. From the altered occlusion model, a connection between the compressive properties of TMJ condylar fibrocartilage after 6 weeks of altered loading and changes in histology was observed. Behavioral and anatomical pain assessment results were consistent with an increase in nociceptive signaling, while changes in excitability and action potential waveform were consistent with compensatory changes of TMJ afferents for an overall increase in afferent drive associated with joint degeneration. With the development of the kinematic assessment for the TMJ, repeatable measurements for both translations and movement paths were found for both the incisors and the motion of the condyle relative to the fossa in rabbits. An overall decrease in the range of joint motion was observed at the incisors and in the joint space, with the altered occlusion model. These results suggest a change in joint occlusion, leads to condylar damage, which may contribute to pain associated with at least some forms of TMJ disease. Craniofacial bone remodeling occurred around two magnesium alloy screw types, indicating the promise of using magnesium alloys for craniofacial devices. Due to the essential function of the TMJ for everyday living, the knowledge gained in this dissertation will provide a better understanding of TMDs and improve treatment options.


Macroeconomists are increasingly using nonlinear models to account for the effects of risk in the analysis of business cycles. In the monetary business cycle models widely used at central banks, an explicit recognition of risk generates a wedge between the inflation-target parameter in the monetary policy rule and the risky steady state (RSS) of inflation—the rate to which inflation will eventually converge—which can be undesirable in some practical applications. We propose a simple modification to the standard monetary policy rule to eliminate the wedge. In the proposed risk-adjusted policy rule, the intercept of the rule is modified so that the RSS of inflation equals the inflation-target parameter in the policy rule.


Two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis is the combination of two high‐resolution electrophoretic procedures (isoelectric focusing and SDS‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) to provide much greater resolution than either procedure alone. In the first‐dimension gel, solubilized proteins are separated according to their isoelectric point (pI) by isoelectric focusing. This gel is then applied to the top of an SDS‐slab gel and electrophoresed. The proteins in the first‐dimension gel migrate into the second‐dimension gel where they are separated on the basis of their molecular weight. The basic protocols in this unit are based on the type of equipment originally described by O'Farrell in 1975. For very basic or very acidic proteins, two alternate protocols are provided. A third alternate protocol describes how two‐dimensional electrophoresis can be performed using a minigel system. Protein sample preparation is presented in the support protocol.


Among the most extreme objects in the Universe, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are luminous centers of galaxies where a black hole feeds on surrounding matter. The variability patterns of the light emitted by an AGN contain information about the physical properties of the underlying black hole. Upcoming telescopes will observe over 100 million AGN in multiple broadband wavelengths, yielding a large sample of multivariate time series with long gaps and irregular sampling. We present a method that reconstructs the AGN time series and simultaneously infers the posterior probability density distribution (PDF) over the physical quantities of the black hole, including its mass and luminosity. We apply this method to a simulated dataset of 11,000 AGN and report precision and accuracy of 0.4 dex and 0.3 dex in the inferred black hole mass. This work is the first to address probabilistic time series reconstruction and parameter inference for AGN in an end-to-end fashion.


Original title: Armoede in Kaart 2018

Poverty Survey 2018 is the second edition of the SCP series on poverty to be released in the form of a digital publication. Each 'page' addresses a research question such as: What is poverty? How many poor people are there in the Netherlands? Which groups are most at risk of poverty? How large is a poor household's shortfall? This study is based on data from 2016. This edition is limited to the key figures on poverty; a more extensive version will be published in 2019.


Most of the outstanding Maori artists of today are people who were educated in the Western tradition. Many of them went to Western-type art schools in New Zealand, which taught them much about Western art but little about their traditional art forms. So here were Maori artists more at home with European art forms and techniques than with their own culture. They were educated to become uncomfortable and guilty about their lack of knowledge about themselves. One can see in their innovative work evidence of a struggle to come to terms with their Maori identity.Sidney Moko Mead.1Let us begin with the premise that, like other contemporary indigenous arts, indigenous literatures written in English-or primarily in English-are products of complicated genealogies, genealogies that include diverse and multiply intersecting lines: political, social, personal, textual, linguistic, aesthetic. The influences that bear upon any particular indigenous text written, say, after World War II, are not only manifold but also highly imbricated. Mead's description of some of the forces that drive the innovative works of contemporary Maori artists is certainly apt as a description of the forces that drive the work of many indigenous writers; but, of course, it cannot capture the actual diversity of twentieth- and twenty-first-century indigenous experience and artistic or literary practice. No single description can. Therefore, in addition to our premise of the genealogical complexity of contemporary indigenous texts, let us concede at the outset that the project of contemporary indigenous literary studies is both difficult and complicated (in the most positive sense of these words), and that the work of literary studies will not produce simple formulas for understanding indigenous literatures.What kinds of methodologies, then, might enable us to better understand and to better appreciate how contemporary indigenous literary texts not only produce culturally-inflected, historically-situated meanings for their several audiences, but also produce various kinds of aesthetic interest and pleasure? And what kinds of methodologies might help us to focus specifically on what is indigenous in contemporary indigenous texts?Much attention has been devoted to critical methodologies that focus on single works or on groups of works by a single indigenous author; attention also has been devoted to methodologies that arrange works or authors into categories according to some criterion, such as genre, historical period of production, regional or tribal affiliations, gender or sexual orientation, major themes, and so on. Some of these methodologies emphasize the idea of authorial intent through biographical studies or through interviews with living authors or their associates. Other methodologies emphasize various types of literary contextualization that focus on relevant aspects of indigenous and non-indigenous cultures (including literary cultures), history, politics, social movements, or activism. Less attention has been devoted to methodologies that emphasize the possible influences of indigenous languages or indigenous arts traditions other than oral traditions on the production and reception of contemporary texts written in English. And only slight attention has been devoted, thus far, to the specific issue of the physical production and distribution of contemporary indigenous literatures (how texts come to be published or not published and circulated either narrowly or widely) or to the specific issue of their reception (how particular audiences produce meaning through their encounters with specific texts or how these audiences assign to specific texts literary, cultural, or personal value). Not surprisingly, perhaps, relatively little attention has been devoted to methodologies that emphasize the comparison of specific texts across contemporary indigenous literature traditions, especially across what have become standard indigenous groupings (e. …


The present study evaluates natural composition of Serbian roasted hazelnut skins (HS) with potential role in application as functional nutrient of various food products. Total phenols (TPC) and flavonoids contents (TFC) in HS extracts obtained with different ethanol concentrations (10%—I, 50%—II and 96%—III) and their antioxidant activities were investigated. The highest total phenols content (706.0 ± 9.7 mgGAE/gextract) was observed in 96% ethanol HS extract. Ethanol HS extracts showed very high antioxidant activity with effective concentrations (EC50) ranged between 0.052 and 0.066 mg/mL. The phenol and flavonoid content of roasted HS extracts I–III was determined by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS analyses. Contents of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, metals, and C, H, N, S elements in roasted HS were also determined. Relatively high C/N, C/P and C/N/P ratios, rich metal contents and fatty acids composition indicated that hazelnut skin might be a good candidate for use as either human or fungal functional nutrient. In addition, possible application of phenolic HS extracts as UV booster was studied by recording UV spectra (220–440 nm) of 10 mg/L of HS extracts I–III combined with 10 mg/L of chemical sunscreen agent benzophenone-3 and in vitro sun protection factor (SPF) was calculated.


STOP proteins are microtubule-associated, calmodulinregulated proteins responsible for the high degree of stabilization displayed by neuronal microtubules. STOP suppression in mice induces synaptic defects affecting both short and long term synaptic plasticity in hippocampal neurons. Interestingly, STOP has been identified as a component of synaptic structures in neurons, despite the absence of microtubules in nerve terminals, indicating the existence of mechanisms able to induce a translocation of STOP from microtubules to synaptic compartments. Here we have tested STOP phosphorylation as a candidate mechanism for STOP relocalization. We show that, both in vitro and in vivo, STOP is phosphorylated by the multifunctional enzyme calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), which is a key enzyme for synaptic plasticity. This phosphorylation occurs on at least two independent sites. Phosphorylated forms of STOP do not bind microtubules in vitro and do not co-localize with microtubules in cultured differentiating neurons. Instead, phosphorylated STOP co-localizes with actin assemblies along neurites or at branching points. Correlatively, we find that STOP binds to actin in vitro. Finally, in differentiated neurons, phosphorylated STOP co-localizes with clusters of synaptic proteins, whereas unphosphorylated STOP does not. Thus, STOP phosphorylation by CaMKII may promote STOP translocation from microtubules to synaptic compartments where it may interact with actin, which could be important for STOP function in synaptic plasticity.


Janitor fish (Pterygoplichthys spp.) and water samples were obtained from the three sampling stations in Laguna de Bay (central, east and west bay) for heavy metal and microbial analyses during the dry and wet season. Results revealed that cadmium and chromium were not detected in the water samples. Copper concentration of water samples during the dry season in Taguig for west Bay (0.0767 mg/L) and Jala-jala for central Bay (0.097 mg/L) exceeded  the limit of 0.05 mg/L for Class C waters. The fish flesh obtained from the three sampling stations had lead concentration ranging from 0.0573mg/kg to 0.1900 mg/kg (wet weight). Arsenic, cadmium, chromium and mercury in fish flesh were not detected during the dry season, but present at low concentrations during the wet season. The total bacterial and coliform count of water samples differed in the three sampling stations. The total bacterial count in fish flesh in the three sampling stations were 800 to 5,650,000 cfu/g during the wet season and from 200,000 to 2,230,000 cfu/g during the dry season. Coliform were present in all sampling stations (22 to >1,600MPN/g).


. The two main goals in model selection are firstly introducing an approach to test homogeneity of several rival models and secondly selecting a set of reasonable models or estimating the best rival model to the true one. In this paper we extend Vuong's method for several models to cluster them. Based on the working paper of Katayama (2008), we propose an approach to test whether rival models have expected relations. The multivariate extension of Vuong's test gives the opportunity to examine some hypotheses about the rival models and their relations with respect to the unknown true model. On the other hand, the standard method of model selection provides an implementation of Occam's razor, in which parsimony or simplicity is balanced against goodness of fit. Therefore, we are interested in clustering the rival models based on their divergence from the true model to select a suitable set of rival models. In this paper we have introduced two approaches to select suitable sets of rival models based on the multivariate extension of Vuong's test and quasi clustering approach. MSC: 62F03, 62H30.


Meningoencephalomyelitis of unknown aetiology (MUA) is a common inflammatory condition of the central nervous system and its adnexae in dogs. A presumptive clinical diagnosis of MUA is made based on signalment, history, neurological examination, cerebrospinal fluid assessment and magnetic resonance imaging findings following exclusion of infectious aetiologies. Definitive diagnosis requires histopathological examination of brain tissue, most commonly at postmortem examination, since antemortem brain biopsies are rarely performed (Granger and others 2010, Talarico and Schatzberg 2010). The disease is progressive and fatal unless treated with immunomodulatory therapy (Talarico and Schatzberg 2010), such as glucocorticoid monotherapy (prednisolone at 1–2 mg/kg twice daily, Granger and others 2010), or glucocorticoids in combination with other immunomodulatory agents, such as cytosine arabinoside (cytarabine). Cytarabine is an antineoplastic and immunosuppressive agent that causes premature chain termination during DNA synthesis in mitotically active cells. It is an attractive adjunctive agent with glucocorticoids in MUA due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and to reduce long-term glucocorticoid requirement. Doses of 50 mg/m2 are administered as subcutaneous injections every 12 hours over a 48-hour time period, repeated every three to six weeks (Zarfoss and others 2006). In dogs, side effects of cytarabine include myelosuppression, vomiting, diarrhoea and alopecia (Scott-Moncrieff and others 1991). In humans, cutaneous side effects of cytarabine are acral erythema, papular or bullous eruptions and vasculitis (Cetkovska and others 2002).

Here, we report the development of severe focal calcinosis cutis and deep pyoderma at the interscapular injection site of cytarabine during combination therapy with prednisolone in three dogs with MUA. To the …


Purpose of review Recent outbreaks of nosocomial infection and pseudoinfection have been linked to contaminated endoscopes. This review summarizes the recent literature, analyzes the latest published information related to the epidemiology, examines potential causes for the outbreaks, and discusses current alternatives for preventing infection. Recent findings A systematic follow-up of patients revealed that the risk of infection attributed to inadequate endoscope reprocessing was very low. Nevertheless, inadequate reprocessing practices are still considered the main culprit underlying contamination from endoscopy procedures. Moreover, standards of care are difficult to maintain given the numerous inconsistencies that exist among reprocessing guidelines and manufacturer's recommended practices. Exposure to contaminated equipment could be prevented through better reprocessing practices and adherence to decontamination guidelines. Recent literature reinforces the need for endoscopy drying after each reprocessing cycle, endoscope reprocessing after short periods of disuse, surveillance, and for a coordinated approach to handle postcontamination responses. Additional analyses such as health technology assessment and cost analysis are needed to identify control alternatives that are most effective. Summary Although the risk of endoscopy-related infection is very low, continued efforts are needed to ensure that quality is maintained during endoscope reprocessing to reduce the incidence of endoscopy-related infections.


Objective Women with multiple sclerosis are often diagnosed and treated during their reproductive years. Limited data are available on the safety of treatment during pregnancy. The Betaseron Pregnancy Registry prospectively monitored women exposed to interferon β-1b (IFNβ-1b) during pregnancy to estimate the rates of birth defects, spontaneous abortions (SABs) and other negative outcomes in this population. Design From 2006 to 2011, this observational registry enrolled women exposed prior to conception or during pregnancy (but prior to or without abnormalities on prenatal screening). Follow-up continued from enrolment through the 4-month paediatric visit. Setting Patients in the USA who met these criteria were enrolled in the registry. Results The registry enrolled 99 pregnant women; 3 were lost to follow-up. The earliest exposure to IFNβ-1b occurred during the first trimester for 95 pregnancies and in the third trimester for 1 pregnancy. There were 99 birth outcomes (3 twins), including 86 (86.9%) live births, 11 (11.1%) SABs and 2 (2%) stillbirths. Birth defects were reported in five (5.1%) cases. Rates of birth defects and SAB were not significantly different from population comparators. No developmental concerns were identified at the 4-month paediatric visit. Conclusions The small sample size limits the ability to draw definitive conclusions; however, there was no pattern to suggest increased negative outcomes with IFNβ-1b. Clinical trials registration number NCT00317564.


Magnetospheric whistler mode waves play a key role in regulating the dynamics of the electron radiation belts. Recent satellite observations indicate a significant influence of interplanetary (IP) shocks on whistler mode wave power in the inner magnetosphere. In this study, we statistically investigate the response of whistler mode chorus and plasmaspheric hiss to IP shocks based on Van Allen Probes and THEMIS satellite observations. Immediately after the IP shock arrival, chorus wave power is usually intensified, often at postmidnight to prenoon sector, while plasmaspheric hiss wave power predominantly decreases near the dayside but intensifies near the nightside. We conclude that chorus wave intensification outside the plasmasphere is probably associated with the suprathermal electron flux enhancement caused by the IP shock. Through a simple ray tracing modeling assuming the scenario that plasmaspheric hiss is originated from chorus, we find that the solar wind dynamic pressure increase changes the magnetic field configuration to favor ray penetration in the nightside and promote ray refraction away from the dayside, potentially explaining the magnetic local time‐dependent responses of plasmaspheric hiss waves following IP shock arrivals.


The public health importance of the endophilic mosquito Aedes aegypti has increased dramatically in the recent decade, because it is the vector of current outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and Yellow fever viruses. The use of long-lasting insecticide nets fixed on doors and windows (LLIS) is one innovative approach recently proposed for Aedes control and under initial evaluation in different settings. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention in endemic areas of dengue, where insecticide resistance in the mosquito populations has already developed after many years of selection pressure by the local vector control programmes. The aim of this PhD was to evaluate the efficacy of LLIS and assess the impact of insecticide resistance on this intervention. In 2012, cluster randomised controlled trials were conducted in two Mexican cities -Acapulco (Guerrero state) and Merida (Yucatan state). The study compared ten control and ten intervention areas of 100 households each across both cities. Intervention clusters included LLIS (Acapulco and Merida during the first year), followed by targeted treatment (TT) in the productive water container types (in Acapulco during the second year). Cross-sectional entomologic surveys quantified mosquito infestations at baseline (pre-intervention) and in four post-intervention samples surveys approximately at 6-monthly intervals corresponding to dry/rainy seasons. Sequentially over two years from 2012-2014, WHO cone bioassays were performed in order to determine the insecticidal activity of LLIS under operational conditions, susceptibility tests using CDC bottles, biochemical assays and genotyping for kdr were performed on F1 adult mosquitoes emerged from eggs collected using ovitraps. Overall, results showed significant reductions on adult vector densities in houses in the treated clusters with LLIS after two years at Merida and Acapulco: ca. 50% on the presence (OR≤0.62, P<0.05) and abundance (IRR≤0.58, P<0.05) of indoor-resting adults. In Acapulco, the combination of house screening with LLIS and TT of the most productive Ae. aegypti breeding sites had a significant impact on dengue vector populations and sustained that impact for up to 24 months. Based on the WHO efficacy criteria, the LLIS were efficient in killing susceptible Ae. aegypti (most of them achieving 80% of mortality) when first installed, but their activity rapidly declined. Much lower levels of mortality were achieved against the local and resistant Aedes population (less than 40%). The Ae. aegypti local populations demonstrated high levels of resistance to pyrethroids, mainly permethrin, some signs of decreased susceptibility for organophosphates but susceptibility to carbamates. Biochemical analysis showed a significant elevation of oxidases and GST enzyme activity and kdr-1016I and -1534C mutations were found at high frequencies in the two study sites. There was no clear effect attributable to the instalment of LLIS on the mechanism of insecticide resistance (kdr frequencies and levels of enzyme activity), but in terms of intensity of resistance, resistance seemed to be higher within the study arms with LLIS after the intervention. Although the efficacy of LLIS can be compromised by the degradation of the insecticide and/or the resistance of Aedes populations to pyrethroid-based insecticides, the physical barrier would still work as a preventive measure, as demonstrated in this study. The positive entomological impact observed in this study provides evidence of a sustained effect of LLIS on Ae. aegypti, and encourages the development of cluster randomised trials evaluating the epidemiological impact of this intervention.


Purpose
This study aims to examine the perceived value of service digitalization in fine-dining restaurants in France. No study exists on this topic, and its aim is to address this research gap. To do so, a conceptual framework of the perceived benefits and costs of the service digitalization was developed. This study also provides actionable recommendations for fine-dining restaurant managers to create and manage an optimized fine-dining experience for their customers.

Design/methodology/approach
To obtain in-depth information, the authors opted for a qualitative research approach. The authors interviewed 24 fine-dining restaurant managers (listed in the Michelin Guide) and 29 customers of fine-dining restaurants using a video titled "The Restaurant of the Future."

Findings
The findings underline the perceived benefits and costs of service digitalization for both restaurant managers and their customers. This study highlights that fine-dining restaurants are highly experience-centric compared to other types of restaurants and recommends which services should be digitalized and which should not be to create and manage experiences throughout the customer journey.

Practical implications
This research provides restaurants with actionable recommendations in terms of service digitalization to enhance customers' fine-dining experiences.

Originality/value
This research fills a gap by proposing a conceptual framework to examine the digitalization of services in fine-dining restaurants.


Abstract. In 2017 we published a seminal research study in the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing & Spatial Information Sciences about how smart city tools, solutions and applications underpinned historical and cultural heritage of cities at that time (Angelidou et al. 2017). We now return to investigate the progress that has been made during the past three years, and specifically whether the weak substantiation of cultural heritage in smart city strategies that we observed in 2017 has been improved. The newest literature suggests that smart cities should capitalize on local strengths and give prominence to local culture and traditions and provides a handful of solutions to this end. However, a more thorough examination of what has been actually implemented reveals a (still) rather immature approach. The smart city cases that were selected for the purposes of this research include Tarragona (Spain), Budapest (Hungary) and Karlsruhe (Germany). For each one we collected information regarding the overarching structure of the initiative, the positioning of cultural heritage and the inclusion of heritage-related smart city applications. We then performed a comparative analysis based on a simplified version of the Digital Strategy Canvas. Our findings suggest that a rich cultural heritage and a broader strategic focus on touristic branding and promotion are key ingredients of smart city development in this domain; this is a commonality of all the investigated cities. Moreover, three different strategy architectures emerge, representing the different interplays among the smart city, cultural heritage and sustainable urban development. We conclude that a new generation of smart city initiatives is emerging, in which cultural heritage is of increasing importance. This generation tends to associate cultural heritage with social and cultural values, liveability and sustainable urban development.


When designing complete dentures, consideration should not only be given to the occlusal concept but also to the occlusal system as a whole. An important part of that system is the position of the artificial teeth. This prosthetic part of the occlusal system is directly related to the tongue, the floor of the mouth, the cheeks and the lips. The artificial teeth of the mandibular dentures have to be positioned in the so-called 'neutral zone' of the edentulous mandible. The neutral zone is the stress-free area between the tongue on one side and, on the other side, the mimic muscles, which are responsible for the movement of the lips and cheeks. Moreover, the maxillary posterior artificial teeth and the supporting acrylic surfaces of the maxillary denture have an important function in providing support for the upper lip and cheeks in order to prevent a 'denture look' appearance.


Objectives: To assess to what extent hepatitis B vaccination of sex workers in Ghent, Belgium, is successful within the context of the existing health services and to compare this with alternative approaches such as outreach programmes; to compare two hepatitis B vaccination schemes in the outreach programme for sex workers. Methods: Testing all first contacts (n = 1096) in the outreach programme for hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers assessed success of hepatitis B vaccination in routine services. The performance of the outreach service was measured by counting the number of sex workers who started hepatitis B vaccination in the programme. The hepatitis B vaccination schemes were assessed by analysing the number of people completing the vaccination. Results: Naturally acquired HBV was found in 11.9% of 1096 sex workers (0.6% HBsAg), and 7% were vaccinated in existing services. In contrast, hepatitis B vaccination using outreach methodology was able to achieve higher vaccination rates: among non-immune sex workers 82.8% received the first dose of vaccine, and 71.5% the second. If given 1 month later, 67.9% received the third dose, in contrast with 47.9%, when given 6 months later. Conclusions: Existing services are not successful in vaccinating sex workers for HBV, in contrast with specifically targeted outreach services. Shorter intervals between vaccine doses gave better compliance.


The paper proposes a TDD-SDMA/TDMA system with a multi-slot assignment to deal with asymmetric traffic in wireless networks, where the packet-based data service is supported. The proposed system assigns more than one time slot for the downlink to each terminal so as to deal with the asymmetric traffic. We also present an efficient algorithm to decide the priority of time slots for the downlink, and by which the maximum potential transmission rate can be obtained for the downlink. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated by computer simulation in terms of the average delay and the average transmission rate and compared with those of a conventional system with a symmetric time slots assignment. It is verified that a significant improvement on system performance can be achieved if the TDD-SDMA/TDMA system employs the proposed multi-slot assignment scheme.


Disseminated cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection occurs predominantly in immunocompromised hosts. Symptomatic CMV cholecystitis and pancreatitis are quite rare, and, to our knowledge, there are no reports of these occurring simultaneously. We describe a patient with a history of chronic myelogenous leukemia (treated with chemotherapy) who presented with recurrent unexplained fevers and an acute abdomen. At surgery, cholecystitis and pancreatitis were found, and a cholecystectomy was performed. The patient developed disseminated intravascular coagulation, eventual sepsis, and multiorgan failure. At autopsy, widespread disseminated CMV infection was found, with CMV-associated foci of acute inflammation and necrosis in the pancreas and in the surgically resected gallbladder. A review of our autopsy files revealed only one renal transplant patient with CMV inclusions and chronic pancreatitis. No pancreatitis was seen in 27 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Cytomegalovirus should be considered as a possible cause of pancreatitis and cholecystitis in immunocompromised patients.


Folk medicine, also known as traditional medicine, is an ancient cultural practice used to contain and manage illnesses and diseases. It is not wrong to say that western/modern medicine developed from folk medicine because medicine was practiced with herbs, divination, and superstition. Some people continue to rely on spiritual powers, divination, and herds in treating ill health. Folk medicine continues to be an integral part of healthcare among many ethnic groups despite the advent of western/modern medicine. Its preference and resilience are based on tradition, choice, inexpensiveness, and easy access. Omenala-tradition is the foundation of folk, and its operating principle is Ọfọ and Ogu. This work looks at the main ethical underpinnings of Igbo folk medicine of South-Eastern Nigeria in the context of Omenala. It concludes that the ethical principle of Ọfọ and Ogu make treatment efficacious, promote patient-healer relationships, and guides healers and patients.


The crisis of socialisation into Christian belief is, in part, evidence of Western secularisation. Added to this, there is evidence of significant existential restlessness. Moreover, many individuals feel alienated from the Church, which has been the historic Western provider of a discourse offering ontological security. Such restlessness finds emotional expression within a popular music culture that frequently interrogates Christian belief. It is argued here that not only is there a hegemonic resistance to Christian discourse, but that the Church inadvertently colludes with these forces, favouring its historic, rationalistic methods of evangelism, the effectiveness of which is now limited. This thesis offers a model to redress aspects of this disconnect, arguing for the significance of affective spaces within which spiritual reflection is encouraged. Using Zygmunt Bauman's sociology of liquid modernity the thesis considers the fluid nature of Western society. In particular, it explores the ways in which popular music articulates core themes in a society in which individuals are effectively bricoleurs, drawing from popular culture in order to tactically resist hegemony. Central to the discussion is the idea that humans are 'hard wired' to develop a sense of self in a proto-musical manner. Drawing on these ideas, the thesis examines popular music as an 'asylum' and as a 'prosthetic technology,' stimulating meaning-making affective spaces. By using creative space for spiritual reflection, it is argued that the Church can encourage "affective-reflective dialogue" to help individuals listen to the Christian discourse in liquid modernity.


In recent years explosion seismology has produced much new knowledge about the nature of the crust-mantle boundary, and the materials that it separates in the lower crust and upper mantle. On the one hand, it is clear that both the lower crust and upper mantle contain more fine structure than was previously imagined and, on the other, that variations in deep structure correlate to some extent with surface geology. For example, a thin crust and sharp Moho are characteristic of Hercynian Europe whereas shield areas and orogenic belts are characterized by a thick crust and gradational Moho. Furthermore useful seismic constraints are now emerging regarding the materials to be found in the crust and mantle. For example, it is clear that the immediate sub-Moho material is most probably peridotite.


Ischemic injury to the gallbladder has been described after hepatic artery embolization but has not been considered a clinically significant complication of this procedure. We present three cases in which therapeutic embolization resulted in symptomatic gangrenous cholecystitis requiring urgent surgical intervention. Clinical parameters that distinguish this infrequent ischemic septic process from the more common postembolization syndrome are discussed and recommendations concerning the diagnosis and management of these complicated patients are outlined.


Shadow zones in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) dramatically impact communication system performance. In this paper an adaptive topology reorganization scheme has been proposed that is able to maintain connectivity in multi-hop three-dimensional UWSNs affected by shadow zones. The optimal placement for the sensor nodes to minimize the transmission loss and to maintain the network connectivity has been found using our proposed mathematical model. The theoretical analysis and the numerical evaluations reveal that our proposed scheme reduces the transmission loss under all propagation phenomena for all water depths in UWSNs and improves communication quality.


In internally fertilizing species male genitalia often show a higher degree of elaboration than required for simply transferring sperm to females. Among the hypotheses proposed to explain such diversity, sexual selection has received the most empirical support, with studies revealing that genital morphology can be targeted by both pre-and postcopulatory sexual selection. Until now, most studies have focused on these two episodes of selection independently. Here, we take an alternative approach by considering both components simultaneously in the livebearing fish, Poecilia reticulata. We allowed females to mate successively (and cooperatively) with two males and determined whether male genital length influenced the female's propensity to mate with a male (precopulatory selection, via female choice) and whether male genital size and shape predicted the relative paternity share of subsequent broods (postcopulatory selection, via sperm competition/cryptic female choice). We found no evidence that either episode of sexual selection targets male genital size or shape. These findings, in conjunction with our recent work exposing a role of genital morphology in mediating unsolicited (forced) matings in guppies, further supports our prior speculation that sexual conflict may be an important broker of genital evolution in this species.


Primary renal agenesis is not a diagnostical challenge as oligohydramnios is almost always present at the time of the anomaly scan. In contrast secondary (or progressive) renal agenesis (e.g. in multicystic dysplastic kidney) is frequently missed as kidneys are present but smaller in size and they tend to vanish with advancing gestational age. We present a case of a 24-year-old woman, gravida 1 para 0, referred to our center at 24+3 weeks' gestation for suspicion of IUGR and oligohydramnios. Ultrasound showed a small multicystic left kidney. The right kidney could not be visualized. In view of the challenging scan conditions and the fact that normal kidneys were documented on previous exams a fetal MRI was requested. This case stresses the possibility of MCDK and other forms of cystic renal dysplasia in fetuses with oligohydramnios – even if a normal urinary tract was visualized on earlier exams. From our experience MRI as an alternative to amnioninfusion was decisive in confirming the diagnosis.


On-site, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 51 groups of campers in Mt. Jefferson Wilderness to understand their perception and evaluation of impacts to vegetation, soil, and trees. At campers' sites, measurements of vegetation loss, mineral soil exposure, tree damage, and site size were made for comparison with visitors' numeric evaluations of conditions. Content analysis of qualitative responses revealed that 75% of groups noticed vegetation impacts, 52% noticed soil impacts, and 51% noticed damage to trees. More than 70% of evaluative comments about conditions were positive, with many related to the functional benefits of impacts. Sites ranged in size from 13 m2 to 453 m2, but there were no statistically significant relationships between 6 measured impact parameters and campers' numeric evaluations of conditions. The difference between visitors' and managerial evaluations of impact conditions will present considerable challenges for selecting and successfully implementing management policies.


Programmed cell death (pcd) is activated during the hypersensitive response (HR) of plants to avirulent pathogens. We have recently shown that, similar to pcd in animal cells, nuclei of cells undergoing HR cell death contain fragmented nuclear DNA (nDNA). Here, we report that cell death occurring during the HR is accompanied by an increase in the activity of several deoxyribonucleases. Induction of nuclease activities was coordinated with cell death and may account for the degradation of nDNA during the HR. HR-associated nuclease activities were not induced during senescence, following necrotic cell death resulting from abiotic stress, or in response to induction of plant defense mechanisms by salicylic acid. HR-associated nuclease activities were stimulated by Ca2+ and inhibited by EGTA, EDTA, and Zn2+. At least one of the HR-associated nuclease activities was detected in nuclei purified from leaves undergoing pcd. A nuclease with an electrophoretic mobility similar to that of the nuclease activity found in nuclei isolated from leaves undergoing HR cell death was purified. Our findings are in accordance with some of the biochemical events that occur during pcd in animal cells. However, further analysis of the pattern of nDNA fragmentation and the corresponding structural changes that occur in the nuclei of tobacco cells undergoing HR cell death revealed that these features may have differences from those that take place during apoptosis in animal cells.


Fixed income investors doing Asian cross-border deals have become increasingly agnostic in the types of transactions they are now engaging in, departing from the "safe" high-quality credit portfolios that underlie traditional securitizations and venturing into nontraditional asset classes and structures such as equity hybrids, mezzanine debt, single-asset or single-issuer deals, real estate, and distressed debt. These trends are driven by the chase for higher yields. Increasingly, a double-digit internal rate of return is becoming the predominant determinant for whether or not to do a deal. In Asia, however, foreign exchange controls and currency mismatching remain the biggest challenges to realizing such high levels of return. Cross-border movements of capital and currency conversions are often strictly regulated by central banks. Even where and to the extent permitted, the risk of local currency depreciation requires cross-currency and other types of market hedging, the cost of which may well render the proposed deal unfeasible. TOPICS: Fixed income and structured finance, international investing, real estate, risk management, interest-rate and currency swaps


Recently, the harmonic troubles in a distribution network are worried in the background of the increase of the connection of distributed generation (DG) and the spread of the power electronics equipments. As one of the strategies, control the harmonic voltage by installing an active filter (AF) has been researched. In this paper, the authors propose a computation method to determine the optimal allocations, gains and installation number of AFs so as to minimize the maximum value of voltage total harmonic distortion (THD) for a distribution network with DGs. The developed method is based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) which is one of the nonlinear optimization methods. Especially, in this paper, the case where the harmonic voltage or the harmonic current in a distribution network is assumed by connecting many DGs through the inverters, and the authors propose a determination method of the optimal allocation and gain of AF that has the harmonic restrictive effect in the whole distribution network. Moreover, the authors propose also about a determination method of the necessary minimum installation number of AFs, by taking into consideration also about the case where the target value of harmonic suppression cannot be reached, by one set only of AF. In order to verify the validity and effectiveness of the proposed method, the numerical simulations are carried out by using an analytical model of distribution network with DGs.


With the emergence and sprawl of the Internet, people are wired in increasing numbers to data online. As the interface between humans and data starts to disappear due to better web integration at the front-end, interstices seem to be cut open in cyberspace by those who have gone too far in their dependence on this data h(e)aven. This paper attempts to look into one of those interstices to read traces of the existential status of the data-subject. The main argument will be that the dilemma of the data-subject, being prone to the spectral attraction of data yet always anxious about its helpless addiction to cyber-space, discloses certain aspects of freedom essential to human existence. Previous studies on existential freedom and civil liberties will be drawn upon to help understand the factical condition of the data-subject in a broader context of human freedom.


This thesis shall examine the development of a contemporary Irish animation industry, and in doing so, shall demonstrate how representations of Irish culture in animated film can be effectively assessed using postcolonial models of cultural production. The application of postcolonial theory not only acts as a method of describing the historical circumstances that have determined the emergence of a contemporary Irish animation industry, but also illustrates how the social, historical
and educational aspects of animation production in Ireland reflect the postcolonial conditions of Irish society itself. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the presence of a large American animation studio in Ireland, under the stewardship of ex-Disney animation director Don Bluth, played a pivotal role in the development of the indigenous Irish industry, and constituted a colonial moment in Irish animation history. Whilst assessingth e long-tenn effects of the Don Bluth studio on the education of Irish artists and the aesthetic tradition adopted by the contemporary industry in Ireland, this study also recognises the existence of an Irish animation history that pre-dates the arrival of the American studio. It shall consider the pioneers of indigenous animation production in Ireland, working at the forefront of cinema in the early 20th Century, and the experimental application of animation aesthetics in a social and economic climate not conducive to
filmmaking practices. This investigation engages multiple analytical tools to generate a portrayal of the past, present and potential future of the Irish industry, involving debates over animation aesthetics and authorship, resistant forms of cinema, and its analysis in Irish news media. But most importantly, this study generates primary evidence in the form of interviews with producers, directors, artists, and educators working in the contemporary Irish industry, thereby complimenting conceptual theory with first-hand experience of the economic and social realities underpinning indigenous animation production. It is these oral accounts that offer useful insights into models of production, aesthetic
expression and processes of cultural transmission, in the increasingly commercialised and globalised animation industry of the 21st Century.


Assay of group-specific blood substances (GSBS) A and B was conducted in 21 series of an albumin preparation produced from donors' blood serum, in 11 series of placental and in 5 series of "Postab" albumin. GSBS content was estimated by a comparative use of poly- and monoclonal antibodies prepared in this country. More than 80% of the preparations from donors' blood serum did not contain GSBS A and B. In the preparations obtained from placental and postabortion blood the mean levels of GSBS significantly fluctuated, and with the use of poly- and monoclonal antibodies in comprised 8.3-9.1 micrograms/ml GSBS A and 16.7-42.8 micrograms/ml GSBS B, respectively. Administration to recipients of albumin preparations contaminated with GSBS may produce an immunomodulating side effect.


Background
Examination with Cone Beam CT (CBCT) is common for localizing maxillary canines with eruption disturbance. The benefits and costs of these examinations are unclear.

Objectives
To measure: 1. the proportion of orthodontists' treatment decisions that were different based on intraoral and panoramic radiography (M1) compared with CBCT and panoramic radiography (M2); and 2. the costs of producing different treatment plans, regarding patients with maxillary canines with eruption disturbance.

Subjects and methods
Orthodontists participated in a web-based survey and were randomly assigned to denote treatment decisions and the level of confidence in this decision for four patient cases presented with M1 or M2 at two occasions for the same patient case.

Results
One hundred and twelve orthodontists made 445 assessments based on M1 and M2, respectively. Twenty-four per cent of the treatment decisions were different depending on which method the raters had access to, whereof one case differed significantly from all other cases. The mean total cost per examination was €99.84 using M1 and €134.37 using M2, resulting in an incremental cost per examination of €34.53 for M2.

Limitations
Benefits in terms of number of different treatment decisions must be considered as an intermediate outcome for the effectiveness of a diagnostic method and should be interpreted with caution.

Conclusions
For the patient cases presented in this study, most treatment decisions were the same irrespective of radiological method. Accordingly, this study does not support routine use of CBCT regarding patients with maxillary canine with eruption disturbance.


This study investigated the effect of motivational orientations and the social aspects of emotional intelligence (EI) on L2 Spanish learners' willingness to participate in a study abroad program. The only significant result was the correlation between an integrative motivational orientation and the Altruism Scale score (N = 68, r = .290, p < .05), indicating that those learners with a higher desire to learn the L2 in order to interact with members of the target community also showed more responsiveness to others as measured by empathy, nurturance, helpfulness, and social responsibility. No additional interactions were found between the motivational orientations and the social aspects of EI. Neither the motivational orientations (integrative/instrumental) nor the social subscales of EI used correlated with the L2 learners' participation in a short-term (three weeks to Costa Rica, N = 30) or a long-term study abroad program (a full semester to Spain, N = 13). This finding is indicative that those variables do not seem to have an influential effect or predictability on whether participants would ultimately continue their study of L2 Spanish in a foreign country or at home in the near future.


Using 126 endogenous lichen fungus (ELF) extracts, inhibitory activities against monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and cholinesterases (ChEs) were evaluated. Among them, extract ELF29 of the endogenous fungus Diaporthe mahothocarpus of the lichen Cladonia symphycarpia showed the highest inhibitory activity against hMAO-A. Compounds alternariol (AT), 5′-hydroxy-alternariol (HAT), and mycoepoxydiene (MED), isolated from the extract, had potent inhibitory activities against hMAO-A with IC50 values of 0.020, 0.31, and 8.68 µM, respectively. AT, HAT, and MED are reversible competitive inhibitors of hMAO-A with Ki values of 0.0075, 0.116, and 3.76 µM, respectively. The molecular docking studies suggested that AT, HAT, and MED had higher binding affinities for hMAO-A (−9.1, −6.9, and −5.6 kcal/mol, respectively) than for hMAO-B (−6.3, −5.2, and −3.7 kcal/mol, respectively). The relative tight binding might result from a hydrogen bond interaction of the three compounds with a Tyr444 residue in hMAO-A, whereas no hydrogen bond interaction was proposed in hMAO-B. In silico pharmacokinetics, the three compounds showed high gastrointestinal absorption without violating Lipinski's five rules, but only MED showed high probability to cross the blood–brain barrier. These results suggest that AT, HAT, and MED are candidates for treating neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression and cardiovascular disease.


Few manipulative experiments that explicitly test the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function have focussed on regenerative processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. Of the studies that have taken place, most have concentrated on the effects of leaf litter diversity rather than the effects of consumer diversity on decomposition. In the present study, we established an in-situ mesocosm experiment on an intertidal mudflat in the Ythan Estuary, Scotland, to investigate the interactive effects of consumer diversity, resource diversity and microbial activity on algal consumption and decomposition. We assembled communities of three commonly occurring macrofaunal species (Hediste diversicolor, Hydrobia ulvae and Littorina littorea) in monoculture and all possible combinations of two and three species mixtures and supplied them with single vs two-species mixtures of the algae Fucus spiralis and Ulva intestinalis. Further, we also investigated whether algal decomposition changes nutrient remineralisation within the sediment by determining the C:N ratio of the surficial sediment. Data were analysed using extended linear regression with generalized least squares estimation to characterise the variance structure. We found that consumer species diversity effects are best explained by compositional effects and that species richness per se may not be the single most important determinant of resource use and decomposition in this community. Algal identity and invertebrate identity effects underpin the observed response and reflect species-specific traits associated with algal consumption and processing. The role of the microbial community is comparatively weak, but strongly linked to faunal activities and behaviour. The C:N ratio of the sediment increased with consumer species richness, indicating increased mineralisation in more diverse communities. Overall, our results suggest that although consumer species richness effects per se are weak, decomposition and subsequent incorporation of resources is nevertheless dependent on the composition of the decomposer community, which, in turn, has important implications for biogeochemical nutrient cycling in marine coastal habitats.


Gibberellins (GAs) are a major class of plant hormones that control many developmental processes, including seed development and germination, flower and fruit development, and flowering time. Genetic studies with Arabidopsis thaliana have identified two genes involved in GA perception or signal transduction. A semidominant mutation at the GIBBERELLIN INSENSITIVE (GAI) locus results in plants resembling GA-deficient mutants but exhibiting reduced sensitivity to GA. Recessive mutations at the SPINDLY (SPY) locus cause a phenotype that is consistent with constitutive activation of GA signal transduction. Here we show that a strong allele of spy is completely epistatic to gai, indicating that SPY acts downstream of GAI. We have cloned the SPY gene and shown that it encodes a new type of signal transduction protein, which contains a tetratricopeptide repeat region, likely serving as a protein interaction domain, and a novel C-terminal region. Mutations in both domains increase GA signal transduction. The presence of a similar gene in Caenorhabditis elegans suggests that SPY represents a class of signal transduction proteins that is present throughout the eukaryotes.


The sensitivity of massively-parallel sequencing has confirmed that most cancers are oligoclonal, with subpopulations of neoplastic cells harboring distinct mutations. A fine resolution view of this clonal architecture provides insight into tumor heterogeneity, evolution, and treatment response, all of which may have clinical implications. Single tumor analysis already contributes to understanding these phenomena. However, cryptic subclones are frequently revealed by additional patient samples (e.g., collected at relapse or following treatment), indicating that accurately characterizing a tumor requires analyzing multiple samples from the same patient. To address this need, we present SciClone, a computational method that identifies the number and genetic composition of subclones by analyzing the variant allele frequencies of somatic mutations. We use it to detect subclones in acute myeloid leukemia and breast cancer samples that, though present at disease onset, are not evident from a single primary tumor sample. By doing so, we can track tumor evolution and identify the spatial origins of cells resisting therapy.


Purpose: Mapatumumab (TRM-1, HGS-ETR1) is a fully human agonistic monoclonal antibody that targets and activates tumor necrosis factor–related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptor 1 (death receptor 4). Mapatumumab functions like the natural receptor ligand, TRAIL, a tumor necrosis factor superfamily member that is an important mediator of apoptosis in cancer cell lines. Promising preclinical activity with mapatumumab has been observed. Experimental Design: This phase I, open-label, dose-escalation study assessed the tolerability and toxicity profile of ≥2 doses of mapatumumab administered i.v. in patients with advanced solid tumors. Patients received mapatumumab every 28 days until progression or dose-limiting toxicity. Results: There were escalation levels from 0.01 to 20.0 mg/kg. Forty-one patients, 27 female, with a median age of 55 years (range, 23-81) were entered into the study and received 143 courses. The most common diagnoses were colorectal (10 patients) and ovarian cancer (9 patients). Patients received a median of two cycles (range, 1-33). Mapatumumab was well tolerated. Adverse events considered at least possibly related to mapatumumab that occurred most frequently included fatigue (36.2%), hypotension (34.1%), nausea (29.3%), and pyrexia (12.2%). The majority of adverse events were grade 1 or 2. The maximum tolerated dose was not reached. Linear pharmacokinetics was observed for doses up to 0.3 mg/kg and for the 20 mg/kg level, whereas exposure at 3 and 10 mg/kg increased less than proportionally. No objective responses were observed, but 12 patients had stable disease for 1.9 to 29.4 months. Conclusions: Mapatumumab is well tolerated and further evaluation of this TRAIL-R1 targeting agent is warranted.


Objectives: The effects of ozone treatment on direct mechanical injury and the inflammation secondary to the injury resulting from blunt thoracic trauma were evaluated with the histopathological results obtained in our study. Patients and Methods: 24 adult male Wistar albino rats of the same colony with an average weight of 200-250 gr were used in our study. The rats were divided into 3 groups. First group were anaesthetized with ketamine HCl/xylazine. Second group were given contusion with isolated unilateral lung contusion. Third group were given 30 μgr/ml ozone at a dose of 1.1mg/kg intrarectally after the contusion for five days. Four different parameters; atelectasis, parenchymal inflammation, perivascular mononuclear inflammation and bronchial injury, were used in histopathological evaluation and all parameters were scaled. Results: Cell concentration, perivascular mononuclear inflammation and leukocyte infiltration were significantly higher in the lung tissues of all the rats in the trauma group compared to the anesthesia group. However, when the control, trauma and ozone groups were compared, there was no significant difference in terms of alveolar edema and bronchial injury. Similarly, among subgroubs of trauma and ozone groups, there was not a statistical significance in terms of histopathological data. Conclusion: When inflammatory stages and cell distribution were compared between the study groups, advanced acute inflammatory changes were found on the fifth day of inflammation in both contusion groups and no significant difference was observed in terms of inflammatory response pattern. Consequently, no positive effect of ozone treatment was shown on the acute and subacute inflammatory response in decreasing the primary and secondary injury caused by the trauma.


Introduction Management of pregnant patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be complex, requiring specialist knowledge and access to multidisciplinary care from Obstetricians, Radiologists and Surgeons. To this end, a combined IBD-Obstetric clinic was started in May 2013. The aim of this study was to identify the benefits of the combined service in improving adherence to guidelines and pregnancy outcomes. Method Retrospective review of records to obtain patient demographics, medical, drug, surgical and obstetric history, mode of delivery and birth weight over a period of 3 years from May 2013 till May 2016. Results A total of 95 pregnancies in 89 women (mean age 31, range 19–43) were identified. 39 women had Crohn's disease, 49 ulcerative colitis and 1 IBD-unclassified. 37 women were on 5ASA, 20 Azathioprine, 5 Infliximab, 4 Adalimumab and 2 on combination Azathioprine-Anti-TNF-Ab. Treatments started or reinstated: 25 prednisolone, 16 5ASA and 30 topical therapy in keeping with its safety profile in current guidelines. No women were started on anti-TNF Ab but two women had an increase in Adalimumab dose. 5/6 women had infliximab till week 25. 93% women were well pre-conception and 49% had no flare during the pregnancy. 31 women had an elective caesarean section (CS), 17 an emergency CS and 7 instrumental deliveries. The commonest indications for elective CS were obstetric or maternal choice and in emergency CS, fetal distress. 8 (10%) deliveries were preterm (32–36 weeks), 2 spontaneous, 6 planned. There were 5 births with fetal growth restriction, 1 stillbirth and 2 cardiac congenital anomalies in this cohort, which is not statistically different (Fisher's exact test, p=0.54 and 0.77) from a 2016 large Australian population study1. Haemoglobin, platelets, albumin and C-reactive protein were not predictive of preterm delivery or stillbirth. Most women were seen at least three times during the pregnancy, co-ordinating clinic appointments with scans at 20, 28 and 32 weeks, with an average of 100 appointments per year and a rising trend with time. Investigations: 9 women had small bowel ultrasound performed by a single experienced Radiologist, 4 non-gadolinium pelvic/small bowel MRIs and 2 sigmoidoscopies. All 15 investigations aided management decisions. Conclusion This study shows that an experienced combined IBD-Obstetric service improves adherence to guidelines with outcomes that compare favourably to existing published data of IBD care in pregnant patients. Reference . Shand AW, et al. BJOG2016;123(11):1862–70. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


A proposal is made for the definition, functions, architecture, and components of security management. The proposal addresses the need for security management from the perspectives of the security administrator, the security architect, and the product vendor. The emphasis is on the protection of information rather than the protection of systems. Fundamental concepts are offered for the security management of globally distributed systems that support multiple security policies. The relationships between security management, system management, communications network management, and security infrastructure management are explained.


Although Monte Carlo calculations using Importance Sampling have matured into the most widely employed method for determining first principle results in QCD, they spectacularly fail for theories with a sign problem or for which certain rare configurations play an important role. Non-Markovian Random walks, based upon iterative refinements of the density-of-states, overcome such overlap problems. I will review the Linear Logarithmic Relaxation (LLR) method and, in particular, focus onto ergodicity and exponential error suppression. Applications include the high-state Potts model, SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills theories as well as a quantum field theory with a strong sign problem: QCD at finite densities of heavy quarks.


Background: Screening of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in children is strongly recommended to detect and treat renal diseases like urinary tract infections, obstructive uropathy, reflux nephropathy, hereditary nephritis and End stage renal disease . Culture is the gold standard method to detect ASB but cannot be adopted everywhere as it is available in few major cities is time consuming and expensive. The objective of this study was to see the accuracy of Griess test as a screening test to detect nitrates reducing bacteria in urine.
Method: In this study asmptomatic school children of both sexes aged between 5 to 14 yrs selected from schools of Mysore city. Urine was collected as midstream voided specimen and immediately transported to the laboratory, where the specimens were processed for Griess test and culture. The results were recorded and calculated for sensitivity and specificity of the test.
Results: The specimen of 1000 cases were examined for bacteriuria with Griess test and also inoculated on media. There were 8 cases positive for bacteriuria with Griess test. Culture was positive in 25 cases and in the culture positive , 14 cases were found mixed growth (contaminants) and 11 cases were culture positive. sensitivity and specificity of griess test was 76.6% and 100% respectively.
Conclusion: Although Griess test cannot be compensatory for culture it can be applied as a screening test due to good sensitivity and specificity in resorce constrain settings. It is easy to perform with instant results and to interpret without going special training for it.


BACKGROUND: Population-based studies have reported conflicting findings on the relationship between physical activity and pain, and most studies reporting a relationship are cross sectional. Temporal relationships are therefore difficult to infer and associations may be subject to confounding from a variety of other factors. The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between exercise and pain longitudinally and to use within subjects analyses to remove between subjects confounding.METHODS: In the population-based HUNT 3 study, participants reported both pain and level of exercise. A random sub-sample of 6419 participants was in addition invited to report their last week pain and exercise every three months over a 12 month period (five measurements in total). We used multilevel mixed effects linear regression analyses to prospectively estimate the association between regular levels of exercise (measured in HUNT 3) and subsequent longitudinal reporting of pain. We also estimated within-subjects associations (i.e. the variation in pain as a function of variation in exercise, over time, within individuals) to avoid confounding from between subject factors.RESULTS: Among those invited to participate (N = 6419), 4219 subjects returned at least two questionnaires. Compared with subjects who reported no or light exercise, those who reported moderate levels of exercise or more at baseline, reported less pain in repeated measures over a 12 month period in analyses adjusted for age, sex,education and smoking. Adjusting for baseline level of pain distinctly attenuated the findings. Within subjects, an increase in exercise was accompanied by a concurrent reduction in intensity of pain. However, we found no indication that exercise level at one occasion was related to pain reporting three months later.CONCLUSION: This longitudinal population-based study indicates that exercise is associated with lower level of pain and that this association is close in time.


Chinese Communist Party doctrine promotes the Confucian belief that the environment should be subjugated to man's will, and modern policies have been identified as compounding environmental degradation caused by historical agricultural practices. In this context, social scientists report massive increases in erosion throughout China, an assertion variously supported and questioned by daily sediment yield data in the Yellow and Yangtze River basins. In this study we used up to twenty-seven-year records of daily sediment yield for stations in southwest China and southeast Tibet to calculate annual and average annual sediment yields over the period of record. We also calculated coefficients for annual sediment rating curves as a way to determine interannual changes in sediment transport, that are insensitive to variations in rainfall. We found no systematic changes in annual sediment yield or rating curve parameters through time. Sediment yield is correlated with upstream area, mean annual rainfall, fraction of land under cultivation, population density, and mean monsoon rainfall but not with mean local relief, basin relief ratio, fraction of cropland from satellite data, or drainage density. Variability in mean annual sediment yield decreases as basin area increases, suggesting that larger basins store sediment more effectively and buffer against extreme events. We propose that anthropogenic changes to sediment yields have been smaller than the magnitude of interannual variability and might be comparable to the effect of the regional rainfall gradient across the basins. In basins with substantial anthropogenic activity, sediment storage might be affecting any signal we might otherwise see.


Ab s t r Ac t Background and objective: Technology is an important part of today's scenario. In the healthcare department, many technological advancements took place that make it easy for patients as well as healthcare providers. This study was designed to assess the effectiveness of the mobile app-based non-surgical nursing management on reducing the problems of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients attending physiotherapy OPD, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Materials and methods: This randomized control trial was conducted at physiotherapy OPD, PGIMER, Chandigarh. A total of 80 participants attending physiotherapy OPD from July 15, 2019, to August 30, 2019, were involved in the study and randomized into two groups (experimental and control groups) using a random number table. Problems of KOA patients were assessed by interviewing them. The protocol was in the form of a mobile app (Jiyyo app)-based non-surgical nursing management of KOA patients. This app contained the patient's information, audio call and messages option, medical record-keeping, bills, appointments. Follow-up can also be done through this app. Through this app exercise pdf file was sent to the patient's app that contained exercises related to the KOA. After baseline assessment, a mobile app was installed in the mobile of the experimental group. Weekly motivational telephonically call was done to participants of the experimental group. Monthly two follow-ups were done to motivate the participants. The control group was asked to carry out the instructions given to them. Post-assessment was done after 3 months in both groups by using the same interview schedule. Results and analysis: There was a significant improvement in physical function and movement of the knee. Knee movement, physical functions improved and there was decreased joint stiffness (p ≤ 0.01) and level of pain (p ≤ 0.01). The experimental group had significantly better adherence to treatment and exercises. The control group had no significant improvement after 3 months. Conclusion: Mobile-based non-surgical nursing management for KOA patients was effective in improving the adherence to the prescribed exercises, treatment and helped in reducing pain and improving activities of daily living among patients with KOA.


The study examines issues that affect users' way-finding behavior in any built environment, and explains how this issue affectsthe built environment legibility. The methodology based on reviewing the comprehensive literature, and then a questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain the required data. Faculty of Hajjawy for Engineering Technology at the Yarmouk University was chosen as a case study to launch the survey, the participants were the students who were studying at the faculty. The results show that there are two main groups of factors that affect the way-finding behavior are; Individual factors and Built environment Legibility factors. Moreover, the individual's way-finding behaviour is affected by the built environment legibility factors. The built environment legibility contains several factors as, architectural elements; visual communication elements (graphical); audible communication (verbal) elements and tactile elements.


The studies described in this thesis investigated the factors that can affect the fertility of stallions. The introduction describes the male gamete and the processes that occur during maturation of sperm and fertilization. Methods to evaluate the quality of sperm and ova are then discussed. Fertility can be expressed in various ways and is also affected by many factors such as the stallion, the mare and management factors. The fertility of stallions is usually assessed a good year after they have served mares, because then the number of foals is known. However, it would be preferable to be able to predict a stallion's fertility before he is put to stud. To this end, it was investigated whether there is a relationship between a number of sperm parameters and the percentage of non-return after the first cycle. The endocrine control of reproduction is briefly described because hormonal factors can also influence the reproductive potential of stallions. The venereal diseases that are important for regulations concerning the international trade in sperm are also described. The relevance of this diseases to reproduction deserves further investigation. The minimum requirement for a stud stallion is that the stallion should produce sperm of adequate quality and should be able to fertilize mares.


High quality face editing in videos is a growing concern and spreads distrust in video content. However, upon closer examination, many face editing algorithms exhibit artifacts that resemble classical computer vision issues that stem from face tracking and editing. As a consequence, we wonder how difficult it is to expose artificial faces from current generators? To this end, we review current facial editing methods and several characteristic artifacts from their processin pipelines. We also show that relatively simple visual artifacts can be already quite effective in exposing such manipulations, including Deepfakes and Face2Face. Since the methods are based on visual features, they are easily explicable also to non-technical experts. The methods are easy to implement and offer capabilities for rapid adjustment to new manipulation types with little data available. Despite their simplicity, the methods are able to achieve AUC values of up to 0.866.