Despite two decades of rapid economic growth in Vietnam, child
poverty remains a sizeable problem. This article investigates the distribution
of child poverty and the existence of horizontal inequalities over
a variety of groups in Vietnam using a multitude of poverty measures.
Findings suggest that the burden of child poverty is unequally shared
by demographic and socio-economic groups. Conclusions about the
degree of inequality and the groups that are disproportionately affected
depend on the poverty indicator used for analysis. The set of poverty
indicators provides complementary information to gain an in-depth understanding
of the distribution of child poverty in Vietnam.


In rats and rabbits, endogenous opioid peptides participate in ischemic preconditioning. However, it is not known which endogenous opioid(s) can trigger cardioprotection. We examined preconditioning-induced and opioid-induced limitation of cell death in isolated, calcium-tolerant, adult rabbit cardiomyocytes. Cells were subjected to simulated ischemia by pelleting and normothermic hypoxic incubation. Preconditioning was elicited with 15 min of simulated ischemia followed by 15 min of resuspension and reoxygenation. All cells underwent 180 min of simulated ischemia. Cell death was assessed by trypan blue permeability. Morphine protected cells, as did preconditioning; naloxone blocked the preconditioning-induced protection. Exogenous Met5-enkephalin (ME) induced protection, but exogenous beta-endorphin did not. ME-induced protection was blocked by the delta-selective antagonist naltrindole. Additionally, two other proenkephalin products, Leu5-enkephalin and Met5-enkephalin-Arg-Phe, provided protection equipotent to ME. These data suggest that one or more proenkephalin products interact with delta-opioid receptors to endogenously trigger opioid-mediated protection.


BACKGROUND
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, surgical operations have been drastically reduced in South Africa (SA). Guidelines on surgical prioritisation during COVID-19 have been published, but are specific to high-income countries. There is a pressing need for context-specific guidelines and a validated tool for prioritising surgical cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the South African National Surgical Obstetric Anaesthesia Plan Task Team was asked by the National Department of Health to establish a national framework for COVID-19 surgical prioritisation.

OBJECTIVES
To develop a national framework for COVID-19 surgical prioritisation, including a set of recommendations and a risk calculatorfor operative care.

METHODS
The surgical prioritisation framework was developed in three stages: (i) a literature review of international, national and local recommendations on COVID-19 and surgical care was conducted; (ii) a set of recommendations was drawn up based on the available literature and through consensus of the COVID-19 Task Team; and (iii) a COVID-19 surgical risk calculator was developed and evaluated.

RESULTS
A total of 30 documents were identified from which recommendations around prioritisation of surgical care were used to draw up six recommendations for preoperative COVID-19 screening and testing as well as the use of appropriate personal protective equipment. Ninety-nine perioperative practitioners from eight SA provinces evaluated the COVID-19 surgical risk calculator, which had high acceptability and a high level of concordance (81%) with current clinical practice.

CONCLUSIONS
This national framework on COVID-19 surgical prioritisation can help hospital teams make ethical, equitable and personalised decisions whether to proceed with or delay surgical operations during this unprecedented epidemic.


Lateral migration of cells in the bloodstream is affected by the material properties of the constituent cells. In blood vessels, red blood cells migrate to the center of the vessel, leading to the formation of a cell-free layer near the vessel wall; on the other hand, less deformable cells such as white blood cells and platelets are more likely to be found near the blood vessel wall. [1]Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Professor John Boyages, MB, BS (Hons), FRAZNC, PhD (Figure 1), is a leading breast cancer specialist who has pioneered innovative approaches in the detection and treatment of women with breast cancer. He is the director of Breast Oncology at Macquarie University Cancer Institute, Macquarie University, Sydney, the founder of Westmead Breast Cancer Institute (BCI) and BreastScreen NSW Sydney West. Nominated as one of four finalists for "NSW Australian of the Year 2013", he and his team have contributed in decreasing the mortality from breast cancer in the West of Sydney with a massive fall of almost 35% since 1992.


In order to accurately calculate the braking efficiency factor of drum brake shoe of heavy truck, virtual prototyping of a heavy truck's brake is demonstrated. The requirements for brakes include not only its performance but also its comfort, serviceability and working lifetime, which must be high. The finite element analysis software ANSYS and the multi-body system simulation software MSC.ADAMS were used to establish the drum brake nonlinear 3D simulation model. The model was built by developing joint program module between the rigid shoe and the flexible lining and nonlinear contact force program module between the lining and the rigid drum. Using this model, the simulation was executed for the drum brake of 32t heavy duty truck. The results show that the simulated braking efficiency factor coincides with experimental results of the braking efficiency factor of the heavy truck drum brake.


Queensland legislation requires Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) maintain a steady state voltage of 240V ± 6% at customer premises. With use of sensitive electronic equipment and embedded generation, traditional voltage management solutions may no longer be appropriate. This paper proposes Closed Loop Voltage Control (CLVC) that utilises real time data feedback from substation Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Power Quality (PQ) meters to dynamically set the optimal Zone Substation (ZS) OLTC transformer tap. The algorithm acts to reduce 'out of limits' voltages at PQ meter locations and hence provide tighter voltage regulation at the network extremities. A software GUI was developed to test CLVC on a distribution network in Regional Queensland, Australia. The OLTC transformer was switched to manual mode and tap actions were initiated on SCADA based on real time CLVC.


Oxygenation of lipids during the processing soybeans affects the flavor properties of soy products. We prepared tofu under anaerobic conditions and then evaluated its sensory properties and the compositions of volatiles and oxidized lipids. Anaerobic processing resulted in tofu with less intense richness (kokumi) concomitant with reductions in the amounts of oxidized lipids and volatile compounds.


During the last ten years, research linking the constructs of resilience and leadership style has begun to emerge, with a small number of research papers investigating a combination of these factors (Garbowski, 2010; Offutt, 2011; Sylvester, 2009; Wasden, 2014). This thesis extends the current research in the field by proposing and validating a model of leader resilience that has been developed to align with leadership in an organisational context. The thesis also explores and defines the relationship between resilience and transformational leadership, providing essential insights into the impact of resilience training on leadership capability.

A multidisciplinary review of the extant research on the constructs of leadership style and resilience was conducted. The relationship between these research areas was explored and hypothesised links in previous research from a range of disciplines were investigated. Based on this multidisciplinary review, a model of leader resilience was developed, and three dimensions of resilience were proposed. The dimensions identified aligned with an organisational and leadership context and included self-concept well-being, locus of control and constructive thinking. Each of these dimensions has been independently shown to enhance a leader's ability to bounce back and remain optimistic, as well as ensuring that the individual can consistently deliver a transformational leadership style.

This organisational model of leader resilience informed the design of two field-based studies devised to add to the research linking these constructs. Study 1 was designed to investigate the relationships between resilience and the transformational leadership style and to validate the proposed model of leader resilience. These relationships were examined using a field-based non-experimental design with a sample of 110 leaders. The participants were leaders from a range of private and public-sector organisations across Western Australia. The results of Study 1 showed statistical support for the three-factor model of leader resilience proposed in previous studies. The structural equation modelling (SEM) of the relationships confirmed the proposed model of leader resilience with its dimensions—self-concept well-being, internal locus of control and constructive thinking. SEM also validated the proposed relationships between leader resilience and leadership style, confirming that leader resilience significantly predicted a transformational style and did not significantly predict a transactional style of leadership.

Study 2 examined two key aspects: First, whether leader resilience could be enhanced using a developmental intervention designed to build the three dimensions of resilience; and second, whether improving leader resilience could have a positive impact on an individual's leadership style. The studies reported in Study 2 utilised a before-and-after quasi-experimental design with quantitative data analysis, based on a sample of 27 leaders from two organisations based in Perth. The results showed a significant and positive shift in the self-assessed scores across the three dimensions and the measure of resilience. Statistical analysis also confirmed a significant and positive shift in participants' levels of transformational leadership as measured by self-assessed and boss-assessed scores. The results of both Study 1 and 2 confirmed the hypothesised relationships.


Unmanned autonomous vehicles are proving themselves to be effective means for conducting underwater mine hunting missions. The resulting efficiency, reduced search time, and covert search possibilities will facilitate larger mission areas requiring many agents searching for significant lengths of time (e.g., many weeks or months). In search areas of this scale, complete area coverage may not always be feasible. Therefore, this research investigates a path planning scheme for incomplete coverage. This scheme divides the search area into cells and surveys each cell using a conventional line-sweep pattern with a row spacing that is larger than the sensor footprint. The rows of the line-sweep pattern are randomly spaced near the boundaries of each cell to decrease the probability of missing a line of evenly spaced mines. The spacing of the rows near the center of each cell are specifically determined from estimated possible mine locations. Bounds placed on the row spacing limits the amount of uncovered area to maintain an acceptable probability of detection. This method results in a probability of missing a mine that is less than the percent of unsearched area.


A unique treatise by a poet, written for poets, on the art of poetry, "La Vita Nuova" is elaborately and symbolically patterned, consisting of a selection of Dante's early poems, interspersed with his own prose commentary. The poems themselves tell the story of his love for Beatrice, from their first meeting at a May Day party in her father's house, through Dante's sufferings and his attempts to conceal the true object of his devotion by the use of 'screen-loves', to his overwhelming grief at her death, ending with the transformative vision of her in heaven. These are some of the richest love poems in literature and the movement from self-pitying lament to praise for the beloved's beauty and virtue, illustrate the elevating power of love.


Background and aims Tracheostomy is performed in infants with airway anomalies or requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV). Risks and outcomes are described only in small studies. We report risk factors for mortality following tracheostomy in a large cohort of infants. Methods We identified all infants discharged from 348 NICUs managed by Pediatrix Medical Group who underwent tracheostomy between 1997 and 2012. We only included infants cared for at a single site. We performed multivariable logistic regression with random effects for site to evaluate association between death after tracheostomy and risk factors: diagnosis, gestational age, small for gestational age (SGA), age at tracheostomy, and days exposed to fraction of inspired oxygen >40%, inotropes and MV prior to tracheostomy. Results 532 infants required tracheostomy (0.06% of infants). Median gestational age and birth weight were 26 weeks (IQR; 25, 30) and 780 g (610, 1400). The most common diagnoses were bronchopulmonary dysplasia, 465/532 (85%), airway anomalies, 237/532 (45%) and pulmonary anomalies, 88/532 (17%). Tracheostomy was performed on median postnatal age of 87 days (36,128). Of the 532 infants, 344 (65%) were weaned off MV prior to discharge at a median of 6 days (3, 12) after tracheostomy. Mortality was 14%. On multivariable regression, the following were associated with mortality: days of oxygen exposure, OR = 1.01 (95% CI; 1.00, 1.02); inotrope exposure, OR = 1.04 (1.00, 1.09); SGA, OR = 2.40 (1.32, 4.35). Conclusion While tracheostomy is rarely performed, mortality after the procedure is high and is associated with increased by pre-tracheostomy oxygen and inotrope exposures and SGA status.


A widely wavelength-tunable ultrashort-pulse fiber-laser source has been demonstrated using a high-power mode-locked ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber laser and a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The Yb-doped fiber laser produces 66-fs ultrashort pulse at the wavelength of 1.05 mum. The pulse energy and the peak-power are 2 nJ and 20 kW, respectively. By injecting this pulse into the highly nonlinear PCF, soliton and anti-Stokes pulses are generated in the wavelength regions of 1.05-1.69 and 0.6-0.7 mum, respectively. The generated soliton pulse is 100-150-fs transform-limited sech2-shaped pulse


The low production rate of electrospinning process may limit the industrial use of single needle system. To meet high yield requirement and uniform fibers, a bottom-up multiple jets electrospinning nozzle was designed. The influence of electric field interference on jet path, membrane shape and fiber morphology was investigated. Experiment finds that electrical field strength in the closer part of two nozzles is weakened due to electric field interference when the distance between two nozzles is close. Electric field, jet path, fiber web shape and fiber morphology of three nozzles electrospinning with linear arrangement, equilateral triangle arrangement and isosceles right triangle arrangement were also compared. Results show that electric field and spun fibers of three nozzles electrospinning with equilateral triangle arrangement is the most uniform.


Background: In general, laparoscopic resection for gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) >5 cm is not recommended. However, there is a lack of evidence to support this recommendation. Patients and Methods: This study included 108 patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for gastric GISTs. Of the 108 patients, 23 had GISTs>5 cm. The aim of this study is to evaluate the oncological safety of laparoscopic surgery for large gastric GISTs. In addition, we performed a rapid systematic review of laparoscopic surgery for large gastric GISTs. Results: In our cases, all patients were performed R0 resection without capsular rupture and surgical margins were negative on pathologic examination. In all studies, en bloc resection was achieved without capsular rupture in all patients. The average positive surgical margins rate was 1.6% in total reports. Conclusions: The laparoscopic approach for large gastric GISTs>5 cm has been proposed as safe when performed by experienced surgeons.


Structure of the adrenal cortex of the lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus vinogradovi Ognev, 1948) from the Wrangel Island has been studied light optically and electron microscopically. Histological investigation of the adrenals has revealed some peculiar features in the gland demonstrating a moderate development of the reticular zone in both sex in the Dicrostonyx torquatus, as well as certain sex dimorphism in the organ's structure. A smaller specific gravity of the female glomerular zone, division of the female glomerular zone into two morphologically heterogenous layers and more distinctive medullary capsule in the males should be mentioned as the distinctive features. During pregnancy the glomerular zone undergoes certain reduction, while the glomerulo-reticular zone hypertrophizes. Electron microscopically it has been revealed: lack of the specific vesicular structure in the mitochondrial crists in the fascicular zone cells, an increased contents of myelin-like and vascular formations in mitochondria of the fascicular and reticular zones, a large amount of dark degenerating cells in the reticular zone, as well as a moderate amount of liposomes in corticocytes. Owing to these factors, it is possible to suggest an increased level of steroid processes in the lemming adrenal cortex.


Background: There are very few studies from South India about the epidemiology and clinical features of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) exclusive to the region. This hospital based study was aimed to determine the clinical and epidemiological profile of IBD patients who had undergone in an apex tertiary gastroenterology centre in Madurai, South India. Material and Methods: 63 consecutive IBD patients were included in this cross sectional prospective observational study over a period of 18 months. Participants demographic and clinical profiles, disease activity, severity, extra intestinal manifestation, medical and surgical interventions and response to therapy were evaluated. Results: Of the 63 Inflammatory bowel disease cases, 24 had Crohn's disease(CD) (38%) and 39 had Ulcerative colitis(UC) (62%). Most common age group of UC was in fourth decade while CD had bimodal incidence. Systemic symptoms in both groups were by and large the same with few exceptions. Most of the patients with IBD had low normal Body mass index(BMI) with evidence of nutritional deficiency in form of low haemoglobin and serum albumin. Extra-intestinal manifestations, though uncommon were seen in both groups, Most UC had left sided colitis(E1&E2) while ilecolonic disease was most common in CD (L3) patients. Most of patients achieved remission with initial treatment, [UC (82%) & CD (67%)]. However, a significant minority (8% of UC & 20% of CD) patients required surgical intervention. The use of biologicals and novel interventions still remains in the nascent stage. Conclusion: There is rise in prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in south India. The clinical profile of IBD here concurs more European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine (EJMCM) ISSN: 2515-8260 Volume 07, Issue 09, 2020 3606 or less with similar studies published from other parts of the country. Though most of the patients responded well to the initial treatment, there is definite lacunae in the acceptance of novel medical and surgical interventions.


The paper suggests axiomatic characterization of general equilibrium for a situation where each consumer has a fixed income. Not using any concept of price, we formulate four natural requirements to "fair" or "substantiated" rule of resource allocation , and prove that only equilibrium allocations can meet all the requirements. In fact, it takes place under very restrictive assumptions on consumers' utility functions. Thus, our results include an impossibility theorem.


Gene therapy using Fas ligand (FasL) for treatment of tumours and protection of transplant rejection is hampered because of the systemic toxicity of FasL. In the present study, recombinant replication-defective adenovirus vectors (RAds) encoding FasL under the control of either the neuronal-specific neuronal-specific enolase (NSE) promoter or the astrocyte-specific glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter have been constructed. The cell type-specific expression of FasL in both neurons and glial cells in primary cultures, and in neuronal and glial cell lines is demonstrated. Furthermore, transgene expression driven by the neuronal and glial promoter was not detected in fibroblastic or epithelial cell lines. Expression of FasL driven by a major immediate early human cytomegalovirus promoter (MIEhCMV) was, however, achieved in all cells tested. As a final test of the stringency of transgene-specific expression, the RAds were injected directly into the bloodstream of mice. The RAds encoding FasL under the control of the non-cell type-specific MIEhCMV promoter induced acute generalized liver haemorrhage with hepatocyte apoptosis, while the RAds containing the NSE or GFAP promoter sequences were completely non-toxic. This demonstrates the specificity of transgene expression, enhanced safety during systemic administration, and tightly regulated control of transgene expression of highly cytotoxic gene products, encoded within transcriptionally targeted RAds.


A numerical investigation is conducted to search for the optimal flow rate for a rotating-disk chemical vapor decomposition reactor operating at a high temperature and a low pressure. The flow of a gas mixture supplied into the reactor is modeled by a laminar flow of an ideal gas obeying the kinetic theory. The axisymmetric two-dimensional flow in the reactor is simulated by employing a CFD package FLUENT. With operating pressure and temperature fixed, numerical computations are performed by varying rotation rate and flow rate. Examination of the structures of flow and thermal fields leads to a flow regime diagram illustrating that there are a stable plug-like flow regime and a few unfavorable flow regimes induced by mass unbalance or buoyancy. The criterion for sustaining a plug-like flow regime is discussed based on a theoretical scaling argument. Interpretation of the flow regime map suggests that a favorable flow is attainable with a minimum flow rate at the smallest rotation rate guaranteeing the dominance of rotation effects over buoyancy.


Author(s): Lau, Janet | Advisor(s): German, Michael S | Abstract: Current studies of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in the pancreas have demonstrated that Hh signaling regulates expansion of pancreas area and must be excluded from the early developing pancreas during embryogenesis. However, contraindicating evidence suggests that there may be some possible functional activity and requirement in the developing pancreas and postnatal islet. Thus the role of Hh signaling in the pancreas remains unclear. In this dissertation, we investigate the role of Hh signaling specifically within the pancreatic epithelium during development and in the postnatal islet. First, we characterized Patched1–lacZ mice to identify Hh active cells in the pancreatic epithelium. Characterization of Patched1–lacZmice showed that Hh active cells reside in the developing pancreatic epithelium as early as embryonic day 10.5, predominate in ductal and endocrine regions, and postnatally have increased Hh activity. Secondly, we analyzed mice that have downregulated Hh function in the pancreatic epithelium. To accomplish this, we generated mice that carried a floxed-over-null allele of Smoothened (Smo), a key upstream activator of Hh signaling, in Pdx1–Creearly mice. Pdx1–Creearly;Smolox/null mice have downregulated Smoothened expression and Hh activity, and show a temporary early loss of pancreatic epithelial and insulin area. Furthermore, adult Pdx1–Creearly;Smolox/null mice are deficient in insulin production resulting in impaired insulin secretion and glucose intolerance. Finally, we analyzed activated Hh signaling in the pancreatic epithelium. To accomplish this, we generated mice that conditionally overexpress a transgene, CLEG2, that is a constitutively active form of Gli2 in Pdx1–Creearly mice. Surprisingly, Pdx1–Creearly;CLEG2 mice showed only low level Hh activation. Recent studies have shown that primary cilia are modulators of Hh signaling. Thus, we generated Pdx1–Creearly;CLEG2 mice in combination with a conditional model of cilia ablation (Kif3alox/lox) to achieve high levels of Hh activation in the pancreas epithelium. Pdx1–Creearly;CLEG2; Kif3alox/lox mice show strong Hh activation, development and expansion of an unusual population of cells that express foregut progenitor markers, and loss of endocrine epithelium. Thus, this body of work furthers the understanding of Hh signaling in the pancreas epithelium by demonstrating its role in regulating expansion of early pancreas epithelium and modulating postnatal epithelial activity.


This collection explores the proposition that state constitutions reflect distinctive state peoples. In the American system, state governments have no ability to control who their citizens are and, given the constraints of the First Amendment, very little ability to control the cultural production that typically defines peoples. Utah, however, continues to have a distinctive population, with a majority of its population belonging to a single church that understands itself in quasi-national terms as having a distinctive history and culture. Strikingly, however, the distinctive Utah history generated a quite normal state constitution, different only in unusually strong language protecting religious liberty (and simultaneously banning the most controversial local religious practice, polygamy) and its early protection of women's rights. The language of the original Utah constitution was largely borrowed from contemporary state constitutions and subsequent changes have reflected largely national rather than particularistically local concerns. To find the distinctive Utah heritage in the Utah constitution, one must listen to the silences rather than parse the written words.


We consider the Heisenberg spin triangle with general coupling coefficients and general spin quantum number s. The corresponding classical system is completely integrable. In the quantum case the eigenvalue problem can be reduced to that of tridiagonal matrices in at most 2s+1 dimensions. The corresponding energy spectrum exhibits what we will call spectral symmetries due to the underlying permutational symmetry of the considered class of Hamiltonians. As an application we explicitly calculate six classes of universal polynomials that occur in the high temperature expansion of spin triangles and more general spin systems.


Significant impacts on cave microclimate from large populations of the bat Rousettus aegyptiacus have been documented in three simple caves in pyroclastic rock of Mount Elgon National Park, Kenya, one of which, Kitum Cave, with few bats, acts as a control, indicating microclimatic variations in the absence of significant biological activity. Seven days of temperature logger records, and on-site mapping of rock and air temperature, humidity, and air flow provide the basis for modeling of heat, water, and CO2 production and dispersion. Internal temperatures in the presence of bats in Mackingeny Cave and Ngwarisha Cave rise to ∼18 °C above ambient (from ∼12 °C to ∼30 °C), but in the control site by only ∼2 °C. Excess bat-generated energy is dissipated by conduction to rock and by ongoing air circulation, the strongest of which accompanies bat entry and exit flights. In Kitum Cave, temperatures that are substantially lower than bat thermo-neutral zone raise concern for Allee effects on long-Term colony fitness: Modeling indicates that a population of at least 100,000 bats should promote colony vitality. Metabolic outputs were modeled to yield corrosional potential: At these population densities, were the caves in limestone, rates of surface denudation caused directly by metabolic outputs would be 1 m in ∼80,000 yr. These results confirm that tropical bats can be effective niche constructionists, by optimizing microclimatic roost conditions, by longer-Term bioerosional optimization of rock surfaces for roosting, and by long-Term niche engineering through zoo-speleogenetic enlargement of roost volume.


We have examined whether the lateral abdominal muscle activity during expiratory loading can be noninvasively evaluated using ultrasonography. This study included 12 healthy adult men, and measured the thicknesses of their lateral abdominal muscles at the end of inspiration and the end of expiration, and the thickness differences when 5%, 10%, and 15% of the maximal expiratory pressure were loaded as expiratory threshold loads. Tidal volume, inspiratory reserve volume and expiratory reserve volume were also measured at the same time. Obtained data were compared by expiratory threshold load, and correlation between muscle thickness and the thickness difference was assessed. Muscle thickness at the end of expiration and thickness difference significantly increased in proportion to the expiratory threshold load, and were accompanied by increase of tidal volume. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between muscle thickness and the thickness difference. The results of this study indicate that expiration activities of the lateral abdominal muscles can be evaluated by ultrasonography, and that the thickness difference reflects expiration activities.


This study was completed to examine the differences in experience of first-generation and non-first-generation college students both before and during college. The purpose focused on retention-related risk factors as well as potential resources. The study was conducted through an online survey system called Qualtrics. There were 246 participants from the psychology department of the University of NebraskaLincoln, and participants received research credits for completing the survey. The study included measures for stress, depression symptoms, anxiety, perceived support as well as questions regarding academic practices and biographical information. The results of the study were analyzed using SPSS software, and they indicated that high-achieving first-generation and non-first-generation students do not significantly differ across many academic practices during college; however, implications do exist for firstgeneration college students in preparation for college as well as their attainment of social and cultural capital upon arriving on a college campus.


Using a financial literacy survey of Swedish pension investors matched to actual retirement savings decisions, we argue that respondents can be broken into three groups: those who are financially literate, those who mistakenly believe they are financially literate, and those who know that they are not. We examine how these groups respond differently to informational nudges encouraging them to take charge of their own investments. Investors with mistaken beliefs responded to the nudge, and were more likely to work with mass-market advisors who steer them into high-fee funds. They underperform as a result. By comparison, those who either possess financial literacy or else understand that they do not possess financial literacy were less likely to respond to the nudge. They avoided advisors, stayed with the low-cost default fund, and therefore accumulated retirement savings more quickly.


An adaptive reconfiguration controller is proposed to improve the power performance of thermoelectric module (TEM) arrays when the heat source temperature profile is not uniform and/or a portion of the TEMs in the system is degraded. Distributed control algorithms are also implemented by using wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where remotely deployed temperature and voltage sensors as well as latching relays can be organized as a whole to intelligently identify and execute the optimal interconnection of TEM strings. A reconfigurable TEM array with a WSN controller and a maximum power point tracking load is presented, and experimental results demonstrate that a significant amount of power can be recovered through the proposed reconfiguration.


Internet of Things (IOT) has found broad applications and has drawn more and more attention from researchers. At the same time, IOT also presents many challenges, one of which is node localization, i.e. how to determine the geographical position of each sensor node. Algorithms have been proposed to solve the problem. A popular algorithm is Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) because it is simple to implement and needs relatively less computation. However, PSO is easily trapped into local optima and gives premature results. In order to improve the PSO algorithm, this paper proposes the EHPSO algorithm based on Novel Particle Swarm Optimization (NPSO) and Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO). The EHPSO algorithm applies the principle of best neighbor of each particle to the HPSO algorithm. Simulation results indicate that EHPSO outperforms HPSO and NPSO in evaluating accurate node positions and improves convergence by avoiding being trapped into local optima.


This chapter is concerned with standardisation within the perfume industry. How and when did the names of perfumes change from registering their contents or place of manufacture to the narrative, fantasy titles prevalent today? Did mid-Victorian discoveries in chemical synthesis result in naming changes? Data is taken from electronically-searchable London and Paris newspaper corpora. The shift from Lavender Water to Kiss Me, You Dare! is found to have been the work of a small group of closely-networked London perfumers who all had French (and German) connections. The Great Exhibition of 1851 (and subsequent exhibitions) were the main catalysts in naming shifts, and novelty became increasingly important as a marketing device. Perfume names which evoked love and romance developed rather late in the period, with allusion to flirtation the innovation of one specific perfume house. Discoveries in chemical manufacture had no linguistic effect at all on the names used for marketing.


To address climate change and other are sustainability imperatives, the private sector has launched various initiatives that are aimed to evaluate and reduce the impact throughout the life cycle of consumer products. Recently, multi-national retailers and manufacturers have initiated a unified approach in creating sustainable indexing programs for the products they make and sell. Often overlooked in addressing pressing sustainability imperatives such as climate change are the consumptive patterns and impact of consumer goods during the consumer use phase. This article presents an empirical study of the consumer use phase of laundry care with a specific focus on electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. By understanding the climate change impact associated with the consumer use phase, innovations in the manufacturing phase as well as life cycle benefits of different technologies and consumer actions can be explored. Incentives offered to consumers on appropriate technologies used in this phase can be examined to identify the effectiveness of change-agents. Our results indicate that a carbon dioxide reduction of 105 MMT and electricity savings of 142 thousand GWh can be obtained by optimizing and modifying technological and consumer behavior strategies. This is roughly equivalent to removing 12.1% of the 135.4 M passenger cars in the United States per year or taking 23 coal power plants off the grid. In addition, more than 60% of water consumption (512 billion gallons) while laundering can be reduced through these strategies.


AIM: TO REVIEW THE VARIOUS MATERIALS USED FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ORBIT IN MAXILLOFACIAL TRAUMA CASES. BODY: Orbital bone fractures are in fact very often associated with trauma to the maxillofacial region due to road traffic accidents, assaults, war injuries, resulting in either a blowout fracture or a blow in fracture of the floor, fracture of the lateral wall of orbit, medial wall of orbit, posterior wall of orbit, roof of orbit, infraorbital and supraorbital rim of orbit. These defects cause various forms of morbidity to the patients and thus need to repaired without much complications. There are various materials that have come to be in use in the reconstruction of the orbit which fall into the three main categories of autologous, allogenic and alloplastic materials. We shall in this review literature delve into the deeper aspects of most of the commonly available and some of the newer materials being used, so as to understand the benefits and complications of using them. CONCLUSION: We can conclude that there is no single grafting material which is suitable for all cases every time without any complications. Thus, traditional materials are to be used until a more viable


Abstract We examined scavenging on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) carcasses by puma (Puma concolor) in the Peninsular Ranges of San Diego County, California. Between January 2001 and October 2003, we placed 44 deer carcasses at 23 sites and used them to examine scavenging events. We also documented 2 additional deer carcasses, not placed as bait, that were scavenged by puma. Eight to 12 puma (6 males, 2 to 5 females, and 1 of unknown sex) scavenged 20 of 46 deer carcasses (43.5%) at 12 of the 25 sites. Six puma (4 males, 2 females) were captured 7 times at scavenging sites. We identified 7 scavenging puma (5 males, 2 females) through captures and telemetry, and 1 unmarked, scavenging male from a camera trap. The 7 telemetered puma that scavenged ranged in age from 11 months to 9 years, and each individual scavenged on 1 to 6 deer (mean = 2.3). Deer carcasses were found and scavenged by puma from 1 to 14 days (mean = 5 days) after deposition, when carcass conditions ranged from frozen and fresh to rotting and maggot-infested. Puma treated scavenged carcasses as they would their own kills, dragging carcasses to preferred sites, caching, depositing scats, and making scrapes in the area. However, puma did not always attempt to cache tethered carcasses. During fieldwork, we also discovered that 1 telemetered puma repeatedly visited a domestic livestock graveyard and scavenged on surface-discarded horse and cattle carcasses. Puma are known to be opportunistic predators, but our results indicate that they are opportunistic scavengers as well. Due to the propensity of puma to scavenge, it is likely that some perceived kills might be scavenging events. Frequent monitoring and timely field investigation of mortality signals detected from telemetered prey species will help investigators identify those events. Scavenging behavior should be considered when evaluating or predicting the effects of puma predation on prey species.


In the past the value of any company lay principally in its tangible assets, such as stock, plant and property. Over recent years this has changed considerably and a large proportion of the market capitalisation of any company is now likely to consist of intangible assets, such as its brand name. The value of names like Coca Cola, Microsoft, BMW and IBM is immense.
However, although analysts and accountants are aware of the value of brands, many company managers still underestimate the importance of their brand. Careful management of a company's brand and reputation has become essential to its success. It takes time and effort to build a successful brand but this can become tarnished in days, with consequential damage to the value of the company.
Brands: Visions and Values features contributions from leading experts on brands, ranging from the image that brands convey to their valuation. This book is a clear and informative look at the importance of brands to corporations and their investors.


Nicole Loraux has devoted much of her writing to charting the paths of the Greek "imaginary," revealing a collective masculine psyche fraught with ambivalence as it tries to grasp the differences between nature and culture, body and soul, woman and man. "The Experiences of Tiresias," its title referring to the shepherd struck blind after glimpsing Athena's naked body, captures this ambivalence in exploring how the Greek male defines himself in relationship to the feminine. In these essays, Loraux disturbs the idea of virile men and feminine women, a distinction found in official discourse and aimed at protecting the ideals of male identity from any taint of the feminine. Turning to epic and to Socrates, however, she insists on a logic of an inclusiveness between the genders, which casts a shadow over their clear, officially defined borders.The emphasis falls on the body, often associated with feminine vulnerability and weakness, and often dissociated from the ideal of the brave, self-sacrificing male warrior. But heroes such as the Homeric Achilles, who fears yet fights bravely, and Socrates, who speaks of the soul through the language of the body, challenge these representations. The anatomy of pain, the heroics of childbirth, the sorrows of tears, the warrior's wounds, and the madness of the soul: all these experiences are shown to engage with both the masculine and the feminine in ways that do not denigrate the experiences for either gender.Originally published in 1995.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Understanding the genomic processes underlying local adaptation is a central aim of modern evolutionary biology. This task requires identifying footprints of local selection but also estimating spatio-temporal variation in population demography and variation in recombination rate and diversity along the genome. Here, we investigated these parameters in blue tit populations inhabiting deciduous versus evergreen forests and insular versus mainland areas, in the context of a previously described strong phenotypic differentiation. Neighboring population pairs of deciduous and evergreen habitats were weakly genetically differentiated (FST = 0.004 on average), nevertheless with a statistically significant effect of habitat type on the overall genetic structure. This low differentiation was consistent with the strong and long-lasting gene flow between populations, inferred by demographic modeling. In turn, insular and mainland populations were moderately differentiated (FST = 0.08 on average), in line with the inference of moderate ancestral migrations, followed by isolation since the end of the last glaciation. Effective population sizes were overall large, yet smaller on the island than on the mainland. Weak and non-parallel footprints of divergent selection between deciduous and evergreen populations were consistent with their high connectivity and the probable polygenic nature of local adaptation in these habitats. In turn, stronger footprints of divergent selection were identified between long isolated insular versus mainland birds, and were more often found in regions of low recombination as expected from theory. Lastly, we identified a genomic inversion on the mainland, spanning 2.8Mb. These results provide insights into the demographic history and genetic architecture of local adaptation in blue tit populations at multiple geographic scales.


Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is growing at epidemic proportions world wide and associated with this is an increase in incidence of diabetic foot ulcers. For better understanding and ease of management, diabetic foot ulcer severity is often classified using the Wagner system. In recent times, various treatment modalities have been put to test for getting early wound healing, including growth factors like human epidermal growth factor. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted in the Department of Surgery, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. The patients were divided into two groups of 25 patients each. Group 1 was the study group and patients in this group received topical application of beta urogastrone (rhEGF) gel. Group 2 was the control group and patients in this group received betadine dressing. The patients were followed up after every two weeks for eight weeks. Results: The age and sex were comparable in both groups. Mode of onset was either spontaneous or posttraumatic or following debridement. Initially in group A, 12 patients each had serous and seropurulent discharge respectively. I patient did not have any discharge. In group B, 15 patients had sero purulent discharge, 9 patients had serous discharge and 1 patient had purulent discharge. Initially, 13 patients in group A and 15 patients in group B had granulation tissue. Mean size at the beginning of the study in-group A was 19.56 sq cm and 21.20 sq cm in group B. Two patients from group A had incomplete healing at the end of the study as compared to 14 patients from group B. Conclusions: The application of rhEGF shortens the wound healing time significantly and the mean closure was significantly higher in the EGF group compared with placebo.


Discovery of mugineic acids as phytosiderophores has shown that some graminaceous monocotyledonous plants have a different iron acquisition strategy (strategy II) from dicotyledonous and nongraminaceous monocotyledonous plants (strategy I). The process of iron acquisition by strategy II plants can be divided into four main steps: biosynthesis, secretion, solubilization, and uptake, all of which are effectively regulated by different systems. The biosynthesis of mugineic acids is controlled by an on-off system which is operated under the control of iron demand in the plant. All mugineic acids share the same biosynthetic pathway from L-methionine to 2'-deoxymugineic acid, but the subsequent steps differ among plant species and even cultivars. The biosynthesis of mugineic acids is associated with the methionine recycling pathway. The secretion of mugineic acids shows a distinct diumal rhythm. Mugineic acids solubilize sparingly soluble inorganic iron by chelation and possess a high chelation affinity for iron, but not for other polyvalent ions such as Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Al 3+ . The iron uptake process is regulated by a specific uptake system that transports the mugineic acid-Fe(III) complex as an intact molecule. This system specifically recognizes the mugineic acid-Fe(III) complexes, but not other mugineic acid-metal or synthetic chelator-Fe(III) complexes, suggesting that binding sites with strict recognition for stereostructure of the complex are located on the plasma membrane. All these regulatory systems are considered to represent an efficient strategy to acquire adequate amounts of iron and to avoid factors unfavorable for iron acquisition such as high pH, high concentrations of bicarbonate, Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ , microbial degradation, and uptake of other metals that are common in calcareous soils.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether FTAs cause the income levels of member economies to converge or diverge. Although previous studies predicted the possibility of convergence among FTA members to a certain degree, they failed to provide definitive evidence. By using the concept of accelerating convergence, this study aims to estimate the pure convergence effects of FTAs separate from the conventional notion of income convergence, so-called β-convergence. The neoclassical model of economic growth has been extended to incorporate varying steady states for an open economy framework. Applying the system GMM method to a dynamic panel of data consisting of major FTAs including the European Union, NAFTA, Mercosur, and AFTA, and encompassing the cases of launching an FTA, expanding membership, or deepening FTA integration we find considerable evidence for the income convergence effect of FTAs.


In attempt to resolve the controversial issue of the influence of the anxiety state on analogy-making this paper presents a replication of the original Tohill and Holyoak study extending it with a new factor – the complexity of the mapping. It turns out that the anxiety influence interacts with the complexity of the mapping task. This has certain implications for the models of analogy and for the further study of the role anxiety plays in analogy-making.


Certain photosynthetic bacteria (PSB), for example, Rhodopseudomonas capsulata, evolve hydrogen when placed in an anaerobic environment with light and a suitable organic substrate. An engineering effort to use such bacteria for large-scale hydrogen production from sunlight is described. A system to produce 28,000 m/sup 3//day (1 x 10/sup 6/ ft/sup 3//day) of hydrogen has been designed on a conceptual level and includes hydrogen cleanup, substrate storage, and waste disposal. The most critical component in the design is the solar bacterial reactor. Several designs were developed and analyzed. A large covered pond concept appears most attractive. Cost estimates for the designs show favorable economics.


The calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) found in chondritic meteorites are probably the oldest solar system solids, dating back to 4567.30 ± 0.16 million years ago. They are thought to have formed in the protosolar nebula within a few astronomical units of the Sun, and at a temperature of around 1300 K. The Stardust mission found evidence of CAI‐like material in samples recovered from comet Wild 2. The appearance of CAIs in comets, which are thought to be formed at lower temperatures and larger distances from the Sun, is only explicable if some mechanism allows the efficient transfer of such objects from the inner solar nebula to the outer solar nebula. Such mechanisms have been proposed such as an X‐wind or turbulence. In this work, particles collected from within the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are examined for compositional evidence of the presence of CAIs. COSIMA (the Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer) uses secondary ion mass spectrometry to analyze the composition of cometary dust captured on metal targets. While CAIs can have a radius of centimeters, they are more typically a few hundred microns in size, and can be smaller than 1 μm, so it is conceivable that particles visible on COSIMA targets (ranging in size from about 10 μm to hundreds of microns) could contain CAIs. Using a peak fitting technique, the composition of a set of 13 particles was studied, looking for material rich in both calcium and aluminum. One such particle was found.


Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plays a role in cell protection, antiapoptosis, antifibrosis, and angiogenesis. However, the role of HGF in the immune system is not well defined. We examined the influence of HGF on T cells and the effects of HGF therapy in acute myocarditis. Lewis rats were immunized on day 0 with cardiac myosin to establish experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM). Human HGF gene with hemagglutinating virus of the Japan-envelope vector was injected directly into the myocardium on day 0 or on day 14 (two groups of treated rats). Rats were killed on day 21. Expression of c-Met/HGF receptor in splenocytes and myocardial infiltrating cells was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining or FACS analysis. Myocarditis-affected areas were smaller in the treated rats than in control rats. Cardiac function in the treated rats was markedly improved. An antigen-specific T cell proliferation assay was done with CD4-positive T cells isolated from control rats stimulated with cardiac myosin. HGF suppressed T cell proliferation and production of IFNand increased production of IL-4 and IL-10 secreted from CD4-positive T cells in vitro. Additionally, TUNEL assay revealed that HGF reduced apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. HGF reduced the severity of EAM by inducing T helper 2 cytokines and suppressing apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. HGF has potential as a new therapy for myocarditis. (Circ Res. 2005;96:823-830.)


The cysteine-rich repeats in the stalk region of integrin β subunits appear to convey signals impinging on the cytoplasmic domains to the ligand-binding headpiece of integrins. We have examined the functional properties of mAbs to the stalk region and mapped their epitopes, providing a structure-function map. Among a panel of 14 mAbs to the β2 subunit, one, KIM127, preferentially bound to αLβ2 that was activated by mutations in the cytoplasmic domains, and by Mn2+. KIM127 also bound preferentially to the free β2 subunit compared with resting αLβ2. Activating β2 mutations also greatly enhanced binding of KIM127 to integrins αMβ2 and αXβ2. Thus, the KIM127 epitope is shielded by the α subunit, and becomes reexposed upon receptor activation. Three other mAbs, CBR LFA-1/2, MEM48, and KIM185, activated αLβ2 and bound equally well to resting and activated αLβ2, differentially recognized resting αMβ2 and αXβ2, and bound fully to activated αMβ2 and αXβ2. The KIM127 epitope localizes within cysteine-rich repeat 2, to residues 504, 506, and 508. By contrast, the two activating mAbs CBR LFA-1/2 and MEM48 bind to overlapping epitopes involving residues 534, 536, 541, 543, and 546 in cysteine-rich repeat 3, and the activating mAb KIM185 maps near the end of cysteine-rich repeat 4. The nonactivating mAbs, 6.7 and CBR LFA-1/7, map more N-terminal, to subregions 344–432 and 432–487, respectively. We thus define five different β2 stalk subregions, mAb binding to which correlates with effect on activation, and define regions in an interface that becomes exposed upon integrin activation.


We study the determinants of biases in subjective performance evaluations in an MTurk experiment to test the implications of a standard formal framework of rational subjective evaluations. In the experiment, subjects in the role of workers work on a real effort task. Subjects in the role of supervisors observe subsamples of the workers' output and assess their performance. We conduct 6 experimental treatments varying (i) whether workers' pay depends on the performance evaluation, (ii) whether supervisors are paid for the accuracy of their evaluations, and (iii) the precision of the information available to supervisors. In line with the predictions of the model of optimal evaluations we find that ratings are more lenient and less accurate when they determine bonus payments and that rewards for accuracy reduce leniency. When supervisors have access to more detailed performance information their ratings vary to a stronger extent with observed performance. In contrast to the model's prediction we do not find that more prosocial supervisors always provide more lenient ratings, but that they invest more time in the rating task and achieve a higher rating accuracy.


The evaluation of recurrent embryopathy in man is one of the most difficult tasks. The physician must clearly recognize which couples are experiencing recurrent euploidic abortion and which couples are experiencing recurrent aneuploidic abortion. A firm knowledge of the cytogenetic character of the abortion material enables one to make the next step, namely to determine the source of error in gametogenesis. Techniques are gradually becoming available to identify the source of the parental gametogenic area. In addition, new methods to detect molecular mutation in euploidic abortion are gradually evolving. The establishment of normal protein profiles by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in normal abortions should enable one to screen recurrent embryopathy in man for abnormal proteins. Abnormal proteins, once identified, can enable us to identify the specific DNA mutation that may be at the heart of the problem.


The significance of measuring non-cognitive skills of school children and understanding its importance in predicting academic performance is an area of research that has become increasingly prominent over the years. The objective of this paper is to measure the noncognitive skills of students and also to examine its impact on the cognitive learning outcomes. Our methodology for constructing an index for non-cognitive skills is broadly divided into two parts. In the first part, eight sub-indices viz. consistency, perseverance of effort, growth mindset, conscientiousness, academic behaviour, self-regulated learning, self-control, school climate have been constructed for each of the aforementioned parameters using the technique of Polychoric-Principal Component Analysis. In the second stage, an overall index for noncognitive skills has been constructed using these eight sub-indices. Further, cognitive learning outcomes have been measured on a test performed for the students of Standard IV on their mathematics competency. Results show that an overall non-cognitive skills index is a responsible factor behind a gloomy picture of Mathematics learning outcomes. Moreover, five indicators of non-cognitive skills, such as Perseverance of Effort, Growth Mindset, Conscientiousness, Academic Behaviour and Consistency show a significant positive correlation with the Mathematics test scores. Hence, an argument can be made for inculcating policy directives that aid in the development of non-cognitive skills and promote non-cognitive skills among children that shape their cognitive learning outcomes.


Context - Diagnosis and early treatment of MDR-TB in contact cases is a major challenge in hope to reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality due to this condition. Objectives - The objective was to assess the prevalence of drug-resistant TB and to compare the phenotypic and genotypic profile of the contact case with that of the index. Material and Methods - Prospective cohort study of 240 household contacts of 59 MDR-TB cases diagnosed and having a positive Ziehl at Elonga, St Alphonse and CUK CSDT was carried out from July 1, 2011 to August 28, 2013. Two sputum specimens were examined in each suspected tuberculosis contact for Ziehl-Neelsen's Koch bacillus and cultured for susceptibility testing on Lowensten-Jensen medium. The tuberculin test was performed on each contact and the spoligotyping of the index of contact cases was performed to determine whether the strains were epidemiologically linked. Results - Twenty-nine contacts out of 240 (12.1%) had symptoms suggestive of tuberculosis and 29 strains of Mycobacterium were isolated from 18 HIV-positive and 11 HIV-negative patients. The identification of these strains shows 26 Mycobacterium. tuberculosis and 6 Mycobacterium africanum. Of these contacts, 23 had a positive Ziehl and 6 had a negative IDR and Ziehl with positive HIV status. The antibiogram performed shows 16 resistant strains at least to one antituberculosis drug. MDR-TB (6.3%) and among them 4.2% preXDR (10) and 0.4% XDR-TB were detected. The phenotypic profile of 15 strains of the contacts corresponded to that of the index case and among the 8 typed strains, six were identical to the source case and 2 had a different profile. Conclusion - The survey determined the prevalence of TB and MDR-TB among the index case contacts. The high proportion reported in this survey is reminiscent of the WHO's alarm bell for early detection to halt the spread of the disease in the population.


The binding characteristics of 125I-labelled staphylococcal enterotoxin A (125I-SEA), a T-cell mitogen, to murine lymphoid cell subpopulations were analyzed. Both T- and B-lymphocytes from murine spleens possess specific binding sites for SEA, as do T-lymphocytes from thymus. B-lymphocytes appear to have a greater capacity for binding of 125-SEA than do T-lymphocytes from either thymus or spleen. Enterotoxin did not specifically bind to thioglycollate-induced peritoneal exudate cells (PECs), used as a source of macrophages. Adherent PECs however, incorporated 125-ISEA by fluid phase endocytosis. When exposed to SEA and thoroughly washed, macrophages stimulate lymphocyte mitogenesis in spleen or thymus cell cultures not directly exposed to toxin. Maximum mitogenic stimulation took place only when both PECs and lymphocytes were exposed to SEA. The presence of splenic B-lymphocytes enhanced the mitogenic response of thymus derived T-cells to SEA. Thus, B-lymphocytes appear to contribute to SEA mitogenesis. These data suggest that mitogenic stimulation and possibly other immunological phenomena associated with SEA occur as a result of complex interactions between cellular components of the immune system.


The aim of this study was to deepen the understanding of female adolescents' daily living with chronic arthritis. Tape-recorded open interviews were conducted once with six teenage girls (14–17 years), who also wrote diaries for a 12-month period. In addition, 12 interviews of female adolescents diagnosed with chronic arthritis selected from another sample in an earlier study by the authors were included in the data. The Grounded Theory (GT) method was used for analysing the diaries and the transcribed interviews. A core category, labelled Fitting into the prevailing teenage culture, and four related categories labelled (1) mastering a body in pain; (2) living one day at time; (3) using social support; and (4) fighting for health emerged. The categories formed a substantive theory illuminating living with chronic arthritis during adolescence. The theory explains and provides a deeper understanding of the main concern of these female adolescents and their strategies in managing their situation.


This article provides a methodology for the economic analysis of the potential consequences of a simulated anthrax terrorism attack on real estate within the Seattle metropolitan area. We estimate spatially disaggregated impacts on median sales price of residential housing within the Seattle metro area following an attack on the central business district (CBD). Using a combination of longitudinal panel regression and GIS analysis, we find that the median sales price in the CBD could decline by as much as $280,000, and by nearly $100,000 in nearby communities. These results indicate that total residential property values could decrease by over $50 billion for Seattle, or a 33% overall decline. We combine these estimates with HUD's 2009 American Housing Survey (AHS) to further predict 70,000 foreclosures in Seattle spatial zones following the terrorism event.


In this contribution the electromechanical effects in II–VI group semiconductor finite length embedded nanowires (NWs) are analysed with fully coupled models of electroelasticity. First, strain distributions are obtained using analytical expressions derived from the Eshelby formulation with an assumption of isotropy. These results are then compared with general three-dimensional model based calculations, accounting for anisotropy and piezoelectricity. Next, as representatives of group II–VI NW systems we take zincblende CdTe/ZnTe and wurtzite CdSe/CdS crystal structured materials. The detailed analysis of strain relaxation along with electromechanical distributions are presented for common cross-sectional shapes of NWs such as triangular, square and crescent. Comparative results for both models, analytic and numerical, are presented and their applicability is discussed. The effects of the finite length of the NWs on electromechanical distributions are also discussed.


Objective: To investigate the effect of an antioxidant, palm vitamin E (Tri-E) on fetal growth and birth weight. Methods: This randomized double blind placebo-controlled clinical trial involved 113 primigravidae seen at the Antenatal Clinic of Hospital UKM. Supplementation of Tri-E (100 mg daily) was given from 12 to 16 weeks' gestation onwards until delivery of the baby. Ultrasound measurement of fetal biometry was performed every four weeks from 20 weeks onwards. The head over abdominal circumference ratio (HA ratio) was calculated to indicate the fetal growth from 28 weeks' gestation onwards. At delivery, birth weight was recorded. Statistical test using the independent samples t-test was performed for analysis. Results: Out of 113, 46 were in the study group and 67 were in the placebo group. There were no statistically significant differences in the HA ratio between the two groups at 32 weeks (mean 1.04 for study and mean 1.05 for placebo) and 36 weeks' gestation (mean 1.00 for study; mean 1.01 for placebo) respectively. As for the birth weight, there were also no statistically significant differences between the study (mean birth weight: 2992 grams) and placebo group (mean birth weight: 3267 grams). Conclusion: Early supplementation with Tri-E starting from the first trimester did not result in acceleration of fetal growth and delivery of bigger babies at birth.


The School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University is home to one of the largest academic Mechanical Design groups in the country. As a leader in undergraduate design education, we have been able to keep in touch with a large group of mechanical design graduates, and as such are capable of assessing how students retain information learned in undergraduate coursework to see how this understanding is employed in real-world engineering practice. However, the principles governing the design of sustainable products and processes are relatively novel and are only now being integrated into the undergraduate and graduate mechanical design curriculum. It is our hypothesis that particular means of learning and understanding sustainable design — via lectures, homework assignments, design projects, and the use of various sustainability-related LCA tools — will enable the highest retention of sustainable design understanding, and a higher likelihood that this sustainable design knowledge will be propagated into design practice in industry. Multiple curricular studies that explore dissemination and retention of sustainable design skills are being explored, including a junior-level introductory mechanical design course and a graduate level sustainable product development course. In the junior-level course, baseline sustainability knowledge is tested by allowing students to make sustainable design decisions by applying varied skill sets, including general principles, a list of sustainable design guidelines, and an innovative online survey (The GREEn Quiz). The graduate-level course, which employs sustainable design principles within a larger product development architecture, will capitalize on more "expert" knowledge. Future work will also be discussed, including planned validation studies and curriculum improvements, as well as the means of quantifying the retention of sustainable design information.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Women in situations of distress receive a disproportionate amount of news coverage. As survivors (or perpetrators) of crime, violence, or natural disasters, they are naturally "newsworthy"—a newsroom term for the subjective lens with which truthtellers define and select their news frames. These frames, which govern the identification and coverage of what is "newsworthy," box women into specific, patriarchal roles. Women who do not fall within the traditional feminine archetypes are labeled as dissidents or insurgents, and are excluded, dismissed, rejected, or worse persecuted, until the news recasts them into more familiar molds. This is exemplified in the Philippine Daily Inquirer's news coverage of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia and sentenced to death in 2010. An examination of the Inquirer's coverage of the Veloso case unearthed the gender biases that are inherent in the subjective rules that govern the patterns of selection and depiction in mainstream newsrooms.


Dynamic rupture simulations have been performed in order to generate a physically consistent slip distribution. In these simulations, an attempt has been made to investigate the governing parameters, called dynamic parameters, of historical earthquakes. However, it has been reported that the parameters are not estimated accurately when only the ground motion records are employed; this is because of the trade-offs existing between the parameters, for example, between the strength excess and the slip-weakening distance. In this article, we apply a dynamic source inversion to 2D synthetic tests in order to discuss parameter trade-offs. Sensitivity tests, which consist of numerous sets of inversions including a fixed stage and a released stage, are conducted such that a particular set of estimation parameters is not estimated in the fixed stage; then all of the parameters are estimated in the released stage. The results imply trade-offs between the rupture time and other parameters. From detailed comparisons between slip rates and waveforms, it is observed that the shapes of the slip-rate profiles between the rupture time and the peak time do not contribute well to the generated waveforms. From a simple 1D assumption, a gradient of the slip-weakening friction law, namely, a weakening gradient, is analytically related to the peak-to-rupture time with a -1 slope in the log–log plot. The values estimated from the synthetic tests almost mirror the values of the -1 slope. The results imply the trade-offs between the weakening gradient and the peak-to-rupture time.


The increase in the number of people with dementia in the coming years will be significant and could be as high as 132,000 people by 2041. There is a growing need for enhanced post diagnostic supports for patients living with dementia and their families. We identified the need for a localised educational resource for families and supportive others attending our specialist memory service

 Staff from the Integrated Care Team, Specialist Memory Service and Primary Care were trained by the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland to deliver a 6 week 'Insights Into Dementia' carers course. Tutors and dementia advisors from the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland provided in-depth training prior to course delivery and feedback to the facilitators on a weekly basis. The course included advice and education on Dementia; Changing Relationships, Communication; Responding to changes in behaviour; Nutrition; Engaging in activities; Assisting with personal care and Safety in the home. Families gained advice regarding their self-care needs and learned how to access information and support.  All services involved worked together to identify, refer and support families with dementia in the local area. The group took place in an accessible location at a time which accommodated families to attend. Each course attendee completed a questionnaire prior to and after commencing the group.

 The group has delivered education and support to 48 families to date. Feedback from participants was very positive with self-reported increase in confidence, knowledge and awareness about dementia. Waiting time to access support has significantly decreased. Every course has led to a support group who meet up on a regular basis in their community.

 This novel collaboration has become a key part of the integrated care pathway we have developed to support people living with dementia and their supportive others in our catchment area. The Integrated Care approach has served to enrich the programme and allow for timely signposting to localised supports.


Traditionally developers and testers created huge numbers of explicit tests, enumerating interesting cases, perhaps biased by what they believe to be the current boundary conditions of the function being tested. Or at least, they were supposed to. A major step forward was the development of property testing. Property testing requires the user to write a few functional properties that are used to generate tests, and requires an external library or tool to create test data for the tests. As such many thousands of tests can be created for a single property. For the purely functional programming language Haskell there are several such libraries; for example QuickCheck [CH00], SmallCheck and Lazy SmallCheck [RNL08]. Unfortunately, property testing still requires the user to write explicit tests. Fortunately, we note there are already many implicit tests present in programs. Developers may throw assertion errors, or the compiler may silently insert runtime exceptions for incomplete pattern matches. We attempt to automate the testing process using these implicit tests. Our contributions are in four main areas: (1) We have developed algorithms to automatically infer appropriate constructors and functions needed to generate test data without requiring additional programmer work or annotations. (2) To combine the constructors and functions into test expressions we take advantage of Haskell's lazy evaluation semantics by applying the techniques of needed narrowing and lazy instantiation to guide generation. (3) We keep the type of test data at its most general, in order to prevent committing too early to monomorphic types that cause needless wasted tests. (4) We have developed novel ways of creating Haskell case expressions to inspect elements inside returned data structures, in order to discover exceptions that may be hidden by laziness, and to make our test data generation algorithm more expressive. In order to validate our claims, we have implemented these techniques in Irulan, a fully automatic tool for generating systematic black-box unit tests for Haskell library code. We have designed Irulan to generate high coverage test suites and detect common programming errors in the process.


A fundamental problem in wireless networks is determining the broadcast capacity, i.e., the maximum data transfer rate from a given node to every other node in a relay network. This paper studies the scaling of the broadcast capacity for a network with a single source and N destinations, of which f(N) are randomly selected to also act as relays. In high-density networks (i.e., the node density goes to infinity; the network area is fixed), it is shown that the broadcast capacity is upper bounded by Θ(log f(N)). Schemes are provided that achieve i) Θ(log f(N)) throughput if the channel fading is spatially continuous; ii) Θ(log log f(N)) throughput if the channel fading is spatially i.i.d.. For extended networks (i.e., the node density is fixed; the network area goes to infinity), the broadcast capacity is upper bounded by Θ(1) under channel models with fading and path-loss exponent α > 2. A multistage cooperative broadcasting scheme, which achieves Θ(1) broadcast rate for the high-density extended networks with pathloss channel model is proposed. These results quantifies the gains obtained due to cooperation compared to multihop noncooperative broadcasting, which has a maximum rate that scales as Θ(1) for high-density and Θ(1/(log f(N))α/2) for extended networks.


Power quality is one of the most important issues in present systems. Power quality problems like voltage sag, swell and harmonics are major concern of industrial and commercial electrical consumers this is due to large number of sophisticated electrical and, simple operation and variable switching electronics equipment such as computers, adjustable speed drives, programmable logic controllers and so forth. This equipment often requires high power supplies with high quality. Some devices are sensitive to the load voltage disturbances if these take up to several periods the circuit does not work. Various solutions are presented for this problem. One of the most effective methods is the use of Dynamic Voltage Restorer. The efficiency of the DVR is depends upon the control techniques involved in switching the inverter .In this paper hysteresis voltage control of DVR is used to improve the power quality problems. Hysteresis control has very fast transient response frequency. The performance of the proposed method and achievement of desired compensation are confirmed by the results of the simulation using MATLAB/simulink.


This paper presents an efficient implementation of space-time coding for broadband wireless communications. A user-friendly menu-driven space time (ST) trellis coding simulator with a graphical user interface (GUI) is developed. The simulator is used to predict the improved performance and diversity gains of a ST coding system through a number of parameters including type of trellis codes and channel fading. Results are presented to demonstrate the versatility of the developed simulator for predicting the performance of a ST coding system under different coding and channel conditions.


The high rate of global urbanization has resulted in a rapid increase in informal settlements, which can be defined as unplanned, unauthorized, and/or unstructured housing. Techniques for efficiently mapping these settlement boundaries can benefit various decision making bodies. From a remote sensing perspective, informal settlements share unique spatial characteristics that distinguish them from other types of structures (e.g., industrial, commercial, and formal residential). These spatial characteristics are often captured in high spatial resolution satellite imagery. We analyzed the role of spatial, structural, and contextual features (e.g., GLCM, Histogram of Oriented Gradients, Line Support Regions, Lacunarity) for urban neighborhood mapping, and computed several low-level image features at multiple scales to characterize local neighborhoods. The decision parameters to classify formal-, informal-, and non-settlement classes were learned under Decision Trees and a supervised classification framework. Experiments were conducted on high-resolution satellite imagery from the CitySphere collection, and four different cities (i.e., Caracas, Kabul, Kandahar, and La Paz) with varying spatial characteristics were represented. Overall accuracy ranged from 85% in La Paz, Bolivia, to 92% in Kandahar, Afghanistan. While the disparities between formal and informal neighborhoods varied greatly, many of the image statistics tested proved robust.


A method to increase the throughput of static recursive algorithms is presented. The signal-flow graph is transformed by first minimizing the number of summation points in the computational loops. A second transformation to rewrite the fixed coefficient multiplications as a sum of weighted signals is then followed by a reordering of the summations. It is how a sum of products can be implemented in this way. Sharing of sub-expressions are also discussed. A bit-serial implementation of a third order bireciprocal lattice WDF is used to illustrate the transformations and sharing of sub-expressions.


The increasing penetration of renewable energy resources and volatility of energy prices cause huge challenges in planning and regulating energy generation, transport, and distribution. A possible solution can be a paradigm change of employing control actions from the demand side in addition to the conventional generation control. To realize such shifts, the primary stage should be a proper and robust analysis of the energy flexibility on the demand side. Recently, demand side control in buildings has become a major research issue because buildings share a substantial portion of the total electricity consumption. The increasing use of controllable devices in buildings combined with the advent of smart metering system has paved the way to exploit the potential flexibility of managing the energy generation and demand of buildings for optimal energy trading. In this paper, we investigate the benefits of demand resources in buildings for optimal energy trading in day-ahead and real-time energy markets. The building flexible demand resources considered are electric vehicles and batteries. The paper examines the combined optimization of EVs and batteries in the day-ahead and regulation electricity markets with the objective of maximizing the total profit of the building microgrid. It takes EVs driving pattern into consideration. The major contribution of the paper is the exploitation of the energy flexibility of buildings using EVs as dynamic energy storage device and batteries as manageable demand facility. The devised optimization problem is formulated as a double-stage mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem, and solved using the CPLEX solver. Several numerical results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the devised optimization framework using actual data of building electricity demand and local renewable generation in the Otaniemi area of Espoo, Finland. We demonstrate that the proposed optimization solution can achieve considerable increase in profit, reduce renewable energy curtailment and decrease power demand in peak hours, compared to uncontrolled or non-optimized operation.


The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in India resulted in women informal economy workers being out of jobs and with no social security blanket to rely on. Women community leaders therefore worked with the state to reach out to the most vulnerable and marginalised populations. This resulted in decentralised units where decisions are made at the community level in a collective fashion including critical and diverse stakeholders, in collaboration with state authorities. This model works best where locally developed networks with high levels of community trust exist that enable community leaders to reach communities in distress quickly and effectively, ensuring that relief and aid is delivered to those who need it the most. Additionally, women coming together to advocate for themselves as women workers allows for us to build back better with a key focus on marginal populations such as women at the bottom of the pyramid.


How will this molecule smell? We still do not understand what a given substance will smell like. Keller et al. launched an international crowd-sourced competition in which many teams tried to solve how the smell of a molecule will be perceived by humans. The teams were given access to a database of responses from subjects who had sniffed a large number of molecules and been asked to rate each smell across a range of different qualities. The teams were also given a comprehensive list of the physical and chemical features of the molecules smelled. The teams produced algorithms to predict the correspondence between the quality of each smell and a given molecule. The best models that emerged from this challenge could accurately predict how a new molecule would smell. Science, this issue p. 820 Results of a crowdsourcing competition show that it is possible to accurately predict and reverse-engineer the smell of a molecule. It is still not possible to predict whether a given molecule will have a perceived odor or what olfactory percept it will produce. We therefore organized the crowd-sourced DREAM Olfaction Prediction Challenge. Using a large olfactory psychophysical data set, teams developed machine-learning algorithms to predict sensory attributes of molecules based on their chemoinformatic features. The resulting models accurately predicted odor intensity and pleasantness and also successfully predicted 8 among 19 rated semantic descriptors ("garlic," "fish," "sweet," "fruit," "burnt," "spices," "flower," and "sour"). Regularized linear models performed nearly as well as random forest–based ones, with a predictive accuracy that closely approaches a key theoretical limit. These models help to predict the perceptual qualities of virtually any molecule with high accuracy and also reverse-engineer the smell of a molecule.


We explore the use of instrumental variables (IV) analysis with a multisite randomized trial to estimate the effect of a mediating variable on an outcome in cases where it can be assumed that the observed mediator is the only mechanism linking treatment assignment to outcomes, an assumption known in the IV literature as the exclusion restriction. We use a random-coefficient IV model that allows both the impact of program assignment on the mediator (compliance with assignment) and the impact of the mediator on the outcome (the mediator effect) to vary across sites and to covary with one another. This extension of conventional fixed-coefficient IV analysis illuminates a potential bias in IV analysis which Reardon and Raudenbush refer to as "compliance-effect covariance bias." We first derive an expression for this bias and then use simulations to investigate the sampling variance of the conventional fixed-coefficient two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimator in the presence of varying (and covarying) compliance and treatment effects. We next develop two alternate IV estimators that are less susceptible to compliance-effect covariance bias. We compare the bias, sampling variance, and root mean squared error of these "bias-corrected IV estimators" to those of 2SLS and ordinary least squares (OLS). We find that, when the first-stage F-statistic exceeds 10 (a commonly used threshold for instrument strength), the bias-corrected estimators typically perform better than 2SLS or OLS. In the last part of the article, we use both the new estimators and 2SLS to reanalyze data from two large multisite studies.


Abstract Background/Aim: Advanced/recurrent breast cancer (ARBC) still has a poor prognosis; therefore, new treatment strategies are required. In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of immune-cell therapy using T lymphocytes activated in vitro with or without dendritic cell vaccination in combination with standard therapies in terms of the survival of patients with ARBC. Patients and Methods: A total of 127 patients with ARBC were enrolled in this study. The correlation between overall survival and various clinical factors of each ARBC subset was examined by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Multivariate analysis demonstrated that performance status (PS) 0, the absence of prior chemotherapy, liver/pleural metastasis, and the presence of combined surgery in ARBC and PS 0 or the absence of liver metastasis in the HR+/HER− subset are indications for immune-cell therapy. Conclusion: A survival benefit could be potentially obtained by a combination of immune-cell therapy with other therapies in ARBC patients.


The possibility to store energy, to exchange power and information on demand and production among grids allows us to achieve an active distribution which is of major interest for cooperative smart power grids, that are grids which can forecast demand and production and are able to exchange power in order to enhance the quality of the service. In this paper, a model to support optimal decisions in a network of cooperative grids is formalized as an original discrete and centralized problem here defined as cooperative network of smart power grids (CNSPG) problem. In the CNSPG problem, the control variables are the instantaneous flows of power in the network of grids, which can be obtained from the solution of a linear quadratic Gaussian problem on a fixed time horizon. A simple case study showing the enhancement which may be obtained from the introduction of direct connections among microgrids according to a lattice network is shown and finally discussed.


2 Expanded populations of CD8 (cid:2) T lymphocytes lacking CD28 expression are associated with a variety of deleterious clinical outcomes, including early mortality in the elderly, more rapid progression to AIDS, cardiovascular disease, and enhanced tumor cell growth. In cell culture, irreversible loss of CD28 expression correlates with increased production of TNF- (cid:1) as CD8 (cid:2) T cells are driven to the nonproliferative end stage of replicative senescence by multiple rounds of Ag-driven cell division. Interestingly, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inhibition or neutralization of TNF- (cid:1) reduces the proportion of T cells lacking CD28 in the disease joints, consistent with studies showing a direct involvement of this cytokine in CD28 gene transcription. Here, we show that modulation of TNF- (cid:1) levels in long-term cultures of human CD8 (cid:2) T lymphocytes, by chronic exposure either to a neutralizing Ab or to an inhibitor of the TNF- (cid:1) receptor-1, increases proliferative potential, delays loss of CD28 expression, retards cytokine profile changes, and enhances telomerase activity. We also show that constitutive caspase-3, one of the downstream effectors of TNF- (cid:1) R1 binding, increases in parallel with the loss of CD28 in long-term cultures, but this effect is blunted in the presence of the TNF- (cid:1) inhibitors. Consistent with the in vitro culture data, CD8 (cid:2) CD28 (cid:3) T lymphocytes tested immediately ex vivo also show significantly higher levels of caspase-3 compared with their CD28 (cid:2) counterparts. These findings help elucidate the complex nature of CD28 gene regulation, and may ultimately lead to novel therapeutic approaches for diseases associated with increased proportions of CD28 (cid:3) T lymphocytes. The Journal of


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate numerically the free convective heat transfer efficiency inside a rectotrapezoidal enclosure filled with Al2O3–Cu/water hybrid fluid. The bottom wall of the cavity is uniformly heated, the upper horizontal wall is insulated, and the remaining walls are considered cold. A new thermophysical relation determining the thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluid has been established, which produced results those match with experimental ones.

Design/methodology/approach
The governing partial differential equations are solved using the finite element method of Galerkin type. The simulated results in terms of streamlines, heat lines and isotherms are displayed for various values of the model parameters, which govern the flow.

Findings
The Nusselt number, friction factor and the thermal efficiency index are also determined for the pertinent parameters varying different ratios of the hybrid nanoparticles. The simulated results showed that thermal buoyancy significantly controls the heat transfer, friction factor and thermal efficiency index. The highest thermal efficiency is obtained for the lowest Rayleigh number.

Practical implications
This theoretical study is significantly relevant to the applications of the hybrid nanofluids electronic devices cooled by fans, manufacturing process, renewable energies, nuclear reactors, electronic cooling, lubrication, refrigeration, combustion, medicine, thermal storage, etc.

Originality/value
The results showed that nanoparticle loading intensified the rate of heat transfer and thermal efficiency index at the expense of the higher friction factor or higher pumping power. The results further show that the heat transmission in Al2O3–Cu/water hybrid nanofluid at a fixed value of intensified $\phi_{hnf}$ compared to the Al2O3/water nanofluid when an amount of higher conductivity nanoparticles (Cu) added to it. Besides, the rate of heat transfer in Cu/water nanofluid declines when the lower thermal conductivity Al2O3 nanoparticles are added to the mixture.


Vascular responses to the addition of arachidonic acid (AA) were characterized in rings of rabbit thoracic aorta. In preparations which were precontracted to a stable plateau by 10(-7) M phenylephrine, AA (10-100 microM) elicited transient relaxation if the endothelium was intact. The same concentrations of AA only contracted tissues in which the endothelium was purposely disrupted. Indomethacin pretreatment (14 microM, 30 min) potentiated the relaxation response in intact rings. Under these conditions, relaxation in response to 100 microM AA was 32(+/- 3)% of the tension stimulated by 10(-7) M phenylephrine. Preincubation with 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid (50 microM) or nordihydroguaiaretic acid (25 microM) completely prevented AA-induced relaxation. Contractile responses to AA were examined in rings lacking pre-existing active tension. AA (3-100 microM) elicited rapidly developing and somewhat transient contractions in rings with endothelium. Slow developing contractions which were significantly smaller in magnitude were observed in rings lacking endothelium. Indomethacin or 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid pretreatment inhibited AA-stimulated contractions both in intact and de-endothelialized tissues. Nordihydroguaiaretic acid pretreatment had no effect on contractile responses in rings lacking endothelium and slightly potentiated responses in intact rings. We conclude that endothelium-dependent relaxation of rabbit aorta by AA is mediated by a noncyclooxygenase metabolite(s). Contractile responses are mediated by cyclooxygenase metabolites, which in intact rings are derived largely from the vascular endothelium.


Learning Labs and Makerspaces provide informal learning spaces in which teens can create, invent, socialize, and work with mentors and peers. These innovative learning spaces facilitate teens' authentic and social learning experiences, promoting their twenty-first-century skills and multiple literacies. Little research has focused on the challenges, achievements, or goals of professionals in these spaces. This study addresses this gap by studying the experiences and perceptions of learning space professionals. The research question is: What are the challenges, achievements, and goals perceived by professionals of learning spaces in libraries and museums? We discovered the following challenges: having enough personnel, obtaining necessary funding, changing the perceptions of library and teen learning, being able to develop a vision, and providing consistent access to the space. Achievements included: increased teen engagement, staff developing necessary skills, and changing the perception of what a learning space can provide. Goals emphasized the desire to sustain and expand learning space programming, as well as other professional goals. Evaluation approaches included mainly outcome measures, though some output measures continue to be used. Lastly, implications for practice and LIS education are discussed.


Accurately determining the properties of stars is of prime importance for characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy. The field of asteroseismology has been thought to be particularly successful in such an endeavor for stars in different evolutionary stages. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the results is mandatory. With this purpose, we present a new technique to obtain stellar properties by coupling asteroseismic analysis with the InfraRed Flux Method. By using two global seismic observables and multi-band photometry, the technique allows us to obtain masses, radii, effective temperatures, bolometric fluxes, and hence distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. We apply our method to 22 solar-like oscillators in the Kepler short-cadence sample, that have accurate Hipparcos parallaxes. Our distance determinations agree to better than 5%, while measurements of spectroscopic effective temperatures and interferometric radii also validate our results. We briefly discuss the potential of our technique for stellar population analysis and models of Galactic Chemical Evolution.