A number of studies on digestion of the ruminants have shown the process of synthesis of all the essential amino acids in the rumen  (Abu Fadel, 2004; Trukhachev, V., Zlidnev, N. 2008). However, according to some researches, microbial protein is deficient in methionine and lysine. This assumption also proves the need for further study of the influence of balanced amino acids to these diets on the growth, development and productive performance of the ruminants. Scientific approbation of the issues related to establishing the requirements of young sheep in lysine and methionine with cystine and development of recommendations for their proper balance in animal rations have been conducted along with a series of physiological, scientific and practical experiments. For this purpose, we used the following research methods: preparative, analytical, measuring and calculating. Zootechnical evaluation of young sheep's diet with different levels of lysine and methionine with cysteine has been conducted, and influence of these components on growth, development, metabolism, the use of amino acids and wool productivity have been studied. The importance of studying the content of amino acids in plasma is evident because they are the indicators of protein metabolism in the animals' organism and represent themselves the exchange fund when used in the biochemical transformations in the process of updating the protein of the body tissues and the synthesis of animal products. Increase in young sheep's diet of lysine and methionine can improve their productivity, reduce the cost of feed energy and improve biochemical indexes of meat, taking into account the optimization of its amino acid composition. Efficiency increase of young sheep during the process of the individual development is linked to conditions of feeding and in particular the usefulness of a protein food, which is primarily determined by sufficient intake of essential amino acids - lysine and methionine with cystine. Thus, the inclusion in the diet of growing young sheep some amount of synthetic amino acids – 6–8 grams of lysine and 3–4 g of methionine per 1 fodder unit, enhances oxidation-reduction processes, increase productivity, i.e. wool yield and other indicators. The content of free amino acids in plasma directly depends on their availability in feed. The use of synthetic amino acids (lysine, methionine and cystine) contributed to the increase of their content in a free state in the blood serum, indicating their increased demand in sheep. With the use of different doses of synthetic amino acids (lysine, methionine, cystine) in the diets of young sheep it has been found that the organization of optimum conditions of feeding, care and management of sheep in winter season help to avoid abrupt changes in the structure of the skin, to ensure the normal development of the histological structure and morphogenetic processes.) Keywords: amino acid metabolism, young sheep, diet, productivity Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.125


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a vital role in brain damage after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, and ROS scavengers have been shown to exert neuroprotective effects against ischemic brain injury. We have recently identified 8-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-((2E)-3-phenyl-2-propenoyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine (FR210575) as a novel, powerful free-radical scavenger. In the present study, the neuroprotective efficacy of FR210575 was evaluated in two neuronal death models in vitro as well as rat focal cerebral ischemia models in vivo. In the first model, primary cortical cultures were exposed to a high oxygen atmosphere (50% O2) for 48 h to induce cell death with apoptotic features. Treatment with FR210575 (10–7–10–5 M) significantly inhibited neuronal death. The second model used a growth-factor withdrawal paradigm. Withdrawal of TIP (transferrin, insulin, putrescine and progesterone)-supplemented medium induced apoptotic cell death after 2 days, but treatment with FR210575 exhibited dramatic protection against neuronal death. In two models of cerebral ischemia [photothrombotic occlusion of middle cerebral artery (MCA) for transient model and by permanent MCA occlusion for permanent model], rats received 3-h intravenous infusion (1–10 mg/kg/3 h) of FR210575, with brain damage determined 24 h later. FR210575 (3.2 mg/kg/3 h) significantly reduced the volume of focal damage in the cortex by 36% in the transient model and also reduced the size of ischemic brain damage in the permanent model. These findings indicate that the powerful radical scavenger FR210575 has potent neuroprotective activity and that FR210575 could be an attractive candidate for the treatment of stroke or other neurodegenerative disorders.


This article reports the effects of natural plant proteins on the morphology of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) prepared via a precipitation method. Green synthesised ZnONPs have a wide range of uses such as biomedical applications, water purification, optical devices and gas sensors. The non-toxic and economical technique described in this article is favourable for large-scale production too. ZnONPs were produced from a zinc acetate precursor with dye extract of Ixora Coccinea (IC) leaves as a capping agent. The as-prepared ZnONPs were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-visible (UV-vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) techniques. The XRD analysis showed an average crystallite size of 23 nm. The SEM analysis revealed a reduction in aggregation of ZnO crystallites due to addition of dye extracts of IC. EDX and UV-vis results confirmed the formation of pure ZnONPs. Finally, the gas sensing properties of ZnO films, prepared by doctor blade method, were used to detect ethanol vapour. The results showed gas response ratios of 28.7 and 5.4 at 800 ppm and 40 ppm exposure, respectively. Furthermore, the response time and recovery time were found to be 24 sec and 47 sec, respectively at 200 ppm exposure of ethanol vapour.


The symptomatology, diagnosis and treatment of perforating rectal injuries are discussed. An analysis is presented of the data concerning 24 patients with intra- and extraperitoneal penetration of the rectum. Factors that contribute to the continuing high mortality rate of rectal perforation are its rarity, the highly infectious character of faecal contamination of the abdominal cavity or perirectal tissue, and the fact that examination often reveals little or no external trauma. The treatment of choice would appear to be an aggressive approach based on faecal diversion and drainage, supplemented with peroperative irrigation of the injured rectum.


The identification of predictor variables that meaningfully contribute to group differences in Descriptive Discriminant Analysis (DDA) has had conflicting guidance in the historical quantitative psychological literature. Early simulation results that tested the bias and power of the standardized coefficients and the structural coefficients were ambiguous, yet a consensus still emerged that the structural coefficients were preferred. This study reviews the historical debate and known statistical weaknesses of both standardized coefficients and structure coefficients, summarizes relevant research and proposes a Monte Carlo study that will test whether the inclusion of standardized coefficients in interpreting DDA results for both the two-group and three-group cases can assist applied researchers in meaningfully ranking variables contributing to group differences.


The Portulacaceae, Basellaceae, Cactaceae, and Didiereaceae form a monophyletic group within the Caryophyllales, and evidence exists that the first may be paraphyletic by exclusion of the latter three. Several taxonomic treatments of the Portulacaceae based on morphological features have failed to produce consensus regarding infrafamilial relationships. The present paper employs sequences of the chloroplast gene ndhF to produce a molecular phylogeny of the portulacaceous cohort, focusing on the relationship among major lineages of the Portulacaceae and the three putatively derived families. Results of this analysis supported two major clades within the monophyletic cohort. The first included Portulaca, Anacampseros and its relatives, much of Talinum, Talinella, and the Cactaceae; the second, weakly supported, included the remaining genera of Portulacaceae, the Basellaceae, and the Didiereaceae. This phylogeny also implied that several generic circumscriptions remain inadequate, particularly that of Talinum, which appeared to be polyphyletic, and that all present classifications of the family include demonstrably nonmonophyletic tribes.


Bulimia nervosa is characterized by disturbed body image, repetitive binge eating, and compensatory behaviours such as self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse, or fasting. Body image dissatisfaction and eating disordered behaviours (e.g. food restriction, purging, and binge eating) can affect men and women of varied ages, races, and cultural backgrounds. Body dissatisfaction is defined as a negative subjective evaluation of the weight and shape of one's own body. Body dissatisfaction predicts the onset, severity, and treatment outcomes of eating disorders. A core component of body dissatisfaction is appearance-based social comparisons. In this context a study on self-perception of body image of women in Riyadh in 2018 revealed that a sudden spurt in obesity after marriage is leading to shift of higher percentage of women from positive to negative perception. Overall, an underestimation of body weight in terms of BMI was found among the participants. Such misconceptions should be addressed in view of the high obesity prevalence. It was also evident that positive and negative body image perception will lead to eating disorders in adolescents.


Utilizing social norms is gaining momentum as a cost-effective mechanism to promote sustainable behavior. We analyze household water data from multiple pilot programs for a company that provides information campaigns containing social comparisons of water use and personalized conservation recommendations in order to reduce household water consumption. We find significant treatment effect heterogeneity across the distribution of consumption and environmental attitudes. In the two pilots with a full year of data one utility achieves savings of 6.5%; while the other in aggregate achieved limited conservation gains. Heterogeneity based on the distribution of consumption is more important in the utility with significant savings, with the highest users saving the most water. In contrast ideology appears to be more important in the utility with an insignificant average treatment effect with dis-savings for those with very low environmental preferences and strong savings for the most environmentally-conscious. Inter-regional ideology may play an critical role since the utility with significant savings is in a much "greener" community, whereas intra-utility ideology is influential in conservative areas. We caution interpretation of the results, particularly for Utility B, as the data are still incomplete.


Evidence based studies have proved the efficacy of plant derived bioactives against lifestyle oriented disorders as they can be incorporated in to the diet or diet based supplements. Phyllanthin is one such lignan from Phyllanthus amarus as well as different Phyllanthus species. Phyllanthin was evaluated as a chronic intervention (12 weeks) in mice, at a daily dose of 2 and 4 mg kg−1 of body weight along with a lard based high fat diet (HFD). Phyllanthin protected against HFD induced weight gain and adiposity. Phyllanthin supplementation reduced mRNA expression of adipogenic genes and increased expression of lipolytic genes in white adipose tissue. Treatment also showed reduction in liver triglyceride accumulation. HFD induced serum lipid disturbances were found to be restored by phyllanthin. Treatment reduced serum triglycerides and free fatty acids in HFD fed mice. Phyllanthin counteracted coexisting low grade inflammation and oxidative stress in adipose tissue and liver. Along with serum proinflammatory cytokines, expression of NF-κB and F4/80 was decreased by phyllanthin. Supplementation of phyllanthin accelerated glucose clearance along with alleviation of insulin resistance in terms of HOMA-IR. Furthermore, mRNA expression of the insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-1 was elevated by phyllanthin in liver and adipose tissue. The present study confirmed the protective effects of phyllanthin against HFD induced metabolic changes. Daily consumption of phyllanthin in the diet as a nutraceutical can ameliorate the development of metabolic disorders.


This letter proposes a blind image restoration method for the deblurring of remote sensing images. A simple but robust identification method of point spread function (PSF) support is proposed, and a joint estimation method is presented to simultaneously solve the PSF coefficients and restoration image. To narrow the solution space for the best possible definition, the Huber-Markov (Huber-Markov random field) prior model is employed to regularize the two series of unknowns. Experiments were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


A technique for measuring microfibril angle in chemical pulp fibers using polarized light is described. Pit apertures are used as windows so that measurements can be made on single cell walls behind the pit in the absence of pit membranes. Typical data are presented using two neutral sulphite anthraquinone pulps as examples. Problems in data analysis are discussed with respect to sample size and heterogeneity of the pulp. The technique can be used on unrefined softwood chemical pulp fibers.


In this paper, a type of three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) composite of Sn4+-doped titanium dioxide (Sn–TiO2) was synthesized by the colloidal crystal template technology, and Pt metal particles were successfully supported on the composite by the photoreduction method (3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2). The crystal structure, morphology, composition and surface physicochemical properties of 3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2 were characterized by various analytical methods. The characterization data showed that 3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2 had the typical anatase and rutile mixed phase as well as a well-ordered three-dimensional macroporous structure. After photoreduction, Pt in the composites was present mainly in the form of a simple substance, and it was evenly distributed on the surface of the 3DOM composite. Meanwhile, the local surface plasmon resonance effect (SPR) of the noble metal increased visible-light absorption of the composite. Multi-mode photocatalytic experiments showed that 3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2 exhibited significantly higher activity in photodegradation and photolysis for hydrogen evolution than pure anatase TiO2. In photodegradation experiments, 3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2 showed the highest photodegradation activity and degradation rate. Simultaneously, the hydrogen evolution ability of 3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2 significantly improved in the water hydrogen production experiment. Compared with the result of P25, the hydrogen evolution capacity of 3DOM Pt/Sn–TiO2 increased by 40 times.


Traditional societies place especial value on marriage and having children, and marriages are often arranged. A series of situations and dilemmas associated with arranged matches and their consequences are described in the course of mental health work with ultra-orthodox Jewish people with severe mental illness. Issues of confidentiality may arise with parents and matchmakers; on the other hand, respectful cooperation with religious authorities, counselors in the community, and family members is important. Information on genetic counseling, contraception, medication during pregnancy, and breastfeeding are considered and interact with communal structures and practices. There is a need for close support and evaluation during the process of marriage, childbearing, and parenthood.


Smallholder or informal or small scale irrigation is one of the three broad categories into which irrigation is put in Ghana. Faced with climate change and variability resulting in extreme events, irrigation serves as insurance against crop failure and permits all-year-round production. The study was carried out to underscore the challenges and prospects of small scale irrigation in the face of climate variability in Ghana and to propose the way forward. The key source of data for this study was secondary data which were collected mainly by reviewing published reports, policy documents, articles, online sources and official web sites of relevant state and international institutions. A number of challenges confront small scale irrigation development including high cost of energy, encroachment on irrigation lands, illegal mining activities and lack of technological know-how among others. Small scale irrigation has a promising future owing to renewed collaborative spirit GIDA has with major stakeholders. To forestall encroachment on irrigation lands, we recommend amendment of Irrigation Development Authority Act to empower GIDA to exercise absolute control over irrigation lands. It is also recommended that the Authority collaborates with relevant stakeholders to develop effective programmes for building capacity of contractors involved in development of irrigation infrastructure. To overcome the challenge of high cost of energy, it is recommended that government makes long-term investment into conversion of electric and diesel/petrol powered irrigation pumps to solar powered ones.


Historical fragmentation and a current annual deforestation rate of 1.2% in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot have resulted in a human‐dominated landscape of plantations, agriculture, and developed areas, with embedded rainforest fragments that form biodiversity refuges and animal corridors. On private lands in the Anamalai hills, India, we established restoration sites within three rainforest fragments (5, 19, and 100 ha) representing varying levels of degradation such as open meadow, highly degraded sites with dense Lantana camara invasion, abandoned exotic tree plantations (Eucalyptus grandis and Maesopsis eminii), and sites with mixed‐native and exotic tree canopy. Between 2000 and 2004, we planted annually during the southwest monsoon 7,538 nursery‐raised seedlings of around 127 species in nine sites (0.15–1.0 ha). Seedlings monitored at 6‐monthly intervals showed higher mortality over the dry season than the wet season and survival rates over a 2‐year period of between 34.4 and 90.3% under different site conditions. Seedling survival was higher in sites with complete weed removal as against partial removal along planting lines and higher in open meadow and under shade than in sites that earlier had dense weed invasion. Of 44 species examined, survival across sites after 24 months for a majority of species (27 species, 61.4%) was higher than 50%. Retaining regenerating native species during weed clearing operations was crucial for rapid reestablishment of a first layer of canopy to shade out weeds and enhance survival of shade‐tolerant rainforest seedlings.


Any emitter can be positioned using three or more receivers in two dimensional planes and four or more receivers in three dimensional planes. The transmitter signal reaches at the receivers that synchronized each other's in different times. Using this time differences of arrival (TDOAs) hyperbolic lines of positions (LOPs) are defined and target is positioned at the intersection of LOPs. It is well known that in the absence of noise, the sum of the TDOAs which produces a closed loop considered as zero. This rule is the basic idea of the TDOA Averaging (TDOAA) method. TDOAA significantly decreases the estimation error and improves the accuracy of positioning. In this study a different perspective has been introduced for TDOAA by proposing a simple graph traversal algorithm in order to produce coefficient matrix. The effect of TDOAA on the TDOAs estimation error is also investigated.


The analysis of IS implementation and lifecycle management theories concludes that, ERP systems or for that matter any information system is a socio-technical system; and the social, cultural, organisational and competitive context of their implementation cannot be ignored. Various institutional pressures are exerted on ERP initiation, adoption, and routinization by organisations to achieve competitive, economic, social, environmental and organisational legitimacy and authority. There are theoretical supports available for environmental isomorphic mechanisms; however, comparing to tremendous amount of studies on coercive, normative, and mimetic, there are little studies that actually look at other organisational and internal institutional elements which are influencing technology implementation, assimilation and institutionalisation process. This research aims to fill this gap by introducing perceptive, confirmative, and configurative mechanisms as new forms of institutional isomorphism, i.e., organisational isomorphism.


Osteoarthritis is a source of chronic pain and disability. Dietary supplements have been shown to be a more secure option than NSAIDS. Particularly, the eggshell membrane has demonstrated efficacy in relieving joint pain and stiffness. A clinical trial was designed in which three groups were assigned to two different doses of this supplement and compared to a placebo control group. The primary outcome variable was knee pain, which was assessed using a visual analogue scale. Secondary outcome variables were knee functional ability, quadriceps muscle strength (assessed by isometric and isokinetic trials), and quality of sleep. All groups showed a significant decrease in pain perception, although maximum values were obtained in the high-dose group. Isokinetic and isometric trials showed a significant increase in strength in the high-dose group. Eggshell membrane showed the potential to reduce pain and stiffness symptomatology. Here, for the first time, two quantitative variables (mobility and strength of knee joint) were used to accurately evaluate changes in the quality of life of subjects affected by knee joint pain. The results of this study indicate a dose-dependent response, which should be taken into account for later use in therapeutics to establish the correct dosage.


In this paper, we study the interconnect layout optimization problem under a higher order resistance-inductance-capacitance model to optimize not only delay, but also waveform for interconnects with nonmonotone signal response in the context of multichip-module global routing. We propose a unified approach that considers topology optimization and waveform optimization simultaneously. Using a new incremental moment-computation algorithm, we interleave topology construction with moment computation to facilitate accurate delay calculation and evaluation of waveform quality. Our algorithm considers a large class of routing topologies, ranging from shortest path Steiner trees to bounded-radius Steiner trees and Steiner routings. We construct a set of required arrival-time Steiner (RATS) trees, providing smooth tradeoffs among signal delay, waveform, and routing area. When combined with the MINOTAUR MCM global router (Cong and Madden, 1998), (Madden, 1998) that we have developed, the RATS-tree solutions prove to be effective in reducing overall routing congestion.


The paper deals with a problem of innovation in social sector on the level of social services. The experience of a Day Care centre for the elderly was investigated as a case study. There is evidence to suggest that it is innovation and the investigation aimed to light characteristics of innovation process. The data was gathered by interviewing twelve participants of a Day Care centre (e.g. service consumers/end-users) and eight administrators of social care and services at the level of municipality (service managers). The results confirmed that the Day Care centre represents innovation of social service due to its organizational and conceptual characteristics. Four stages of innovation process and factors that influenced the development of the innovation were described. A study has been done in a framework of EC project PUBLIN.


In this study, atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging has been used to reveal the preferential deposition of organic thin-films on patterned nanoantenna array surfaces identifying the localised formation of both monolayer and multilayer films of octadecanethiol (ODT) molecules, depending on the concentration of the solutions used. Reliable identification of this selective deposition process has been demonstrated for the first time, to our knowledge. Organic thin-films, in particular films of ODT molecules, were deposited on plasmonic resonator surfaces through a chemi-sorption process using different solution concentrations and immersion times. The nanoantennas based on gold asymmetric-split ring resonator (A-SRR) geometries were fabricated on zinc selenide (ZnSe) substrates using electron-beam lithography and the lift-off technique. Use of the plasmonic resonant-coupling technique has enabled the detection of ODT molecules deposited from a dilute, micromolar (1 M) solution concentration with attomole sensitivity of deposited material per A-SRR – a value that is three orders of magnitude lower in concentration than previously reported. Additionally, on resonance, the amplitude of the molecular vibrational resonance peaks is typically an order of magnitude larger than that for the non-resonant coupling. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy shows molecule specific spectral responses – with magnitudes corresponding to the different film thicknesses deposited on the resonator surfaces. The experimental results are supported by numerical simulation. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license


Abstract. For more than two decades, research groups in hydrology, ecology, soil science, and biogeochemistry have performed cryogenic water extractions (CWEs) for the analysis of δ2H and δ18O of soil water. Recent studies have shown that extraction conditions (time, temperature, and vacuum) along with physicochemical soil properties may affect extracted soil water isotope composition. Here we present results from the first worldwide round robin laboratory intercomparison. We test the null hypothesis that, with identical soils, standards, extraction protocols, and isotope analyses, cryogenic extractions across all laboratories are identical. Two standard soils with different physicochemical characteristics along with deionized (DI) reference water of known isotopic composition were shipped to 16 participating laboratories. Participants oven-dried and rewetted the soils to 8 and 20 % gravimetric water content (WC), using the deionized reference water. One batch of soil samples was extracted via predefined extraction conditions (time, temperature, and vacuum) identical to all laboratories; the second batch was extracted via conditions considered routine in the respective laboratory. All extracted water samples were analyzed for δ18O and δ2H by the lead laboratory (Global Institute for Water Security, GIWS, Saskatoon, Canada) using both a laser and an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (OA-ICOS and IRMS, respectively). We rejected the null hypothesis. Our results showed large differences in retrieved isotopic signatures among participating laboratories linked to soil type and soil water content with mean differences compared to the reference water ranging from +18.1 to −108.4 ‰ for δ2H and +11.8 to −14.9 ‰ for δ18O across all laboratories. In addition, differences were observed between OA-ICOS and IRMS isotope data. These were related to spectral interferences during OA-ICOS analysis that are especially problematic for the clayey loam soils used. While the types of cryogenic extraction lab construction varied from manifold systems to single chambers, no clear trends between system construction, applied extraction conditions, and extraction results were found. Rather, observed differences in the isotope data were influenced by interactions between multiple factors (soil type and properties, soil water content, system setup, extraction efficiency, extraction system leaks, and each lab's internal accuracy). Our results question the usefulness of cryogenic extraction as a standard for water extraction since results are not comparable across laboratories. This suggests that defining any sort of standard extraction procedure applicable across laboratories is challenging. Laboratories might have to establish calibration functions for their specific extraction system for each natural soil type, individually.


ABSTRACT An overview of the European requirements on fire safety in buildings is presented based on the construction products regulation and its essential requirements. These requirements are mandatory, to be used in all countries. They include classification systems for reaction to fire of building products, fire resistance of building elements and structural Eurocodes. The reaction-to-fire performance of wood products in accordance with the European classification system is given. Euroclass D is usually achieved. Higher classes can be reached by chemical treatments, but the durability of the reaction-to-fire performance needs to be fulfilled according to a new European system. The fire resistance of building elements can be either tested according to the European standards or calculated using design methods according to Eurocode 5, EN 1995-1-2. Both separating and load-bearing structures are included. Timber structures can obtain high fire resistance, e.g. REI 60, REI 90 or even higher.


What is the proper relationship between law and American foreign policy? Can or should law and legal institutions shape international relations? Although today these questions have become the source of considerable debate, there was a time in American history when a relationship between law and foreign policy was actually assumed. Lawyers dominated American foreign policy at the turn of the twentieth century; every Secretary of State from 1889 to 1945 was a lawyer, and the chief foreign policy thinker in the Republican Party, Elihu Root, was also the foremost lawyer in the country. In this article, Professor Jonathan Zasloff argues that this relationship between law and foreign policy had real consequences for the shape of American diplomacy during that period. Focusing on Elihu Root, Professor Zasloff argues that classical legal ideology - the prevailing ideological framework among elite lawyers in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries - profoundly influenced the direction and nature of American foreign policy. Classical legal ideology taught that law does not derive its effectiveness from the coercive state but rather from popular custom, social norms, and the gradual development of consensual arbitration mechanisms. Moreover, it held that law could be effective without state coercion because it stood as a neutral, apolitical source of order that could find solutions satisfying widely varying social groups. These two beliefs implied that international law could form a basis for a legally-regulated world order and that traditional balance-of-power methods were either unnecessary or harmful. As policymakers debated the shape of the post-World War I world order, classical legal ideology told lawyer-statesmen like Root that they did not need to make strategic commitments to ensure global stability. Lawyers imbued with classical legal ideology concentrated on international law and institutions and neglected realpolitik foreign policy. In doing so, they unwittingly contributed to global catastrophe.


Many high-performance models suffer from a lack of interpretability. There has been an increasing influx of work on explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) in order to disentangle what is meant and expected by XAI. Nevertheless, there is no general consensus on how to produce and judge explanations. In this paper, we discuss why techniques integrating connectionist and symbolic paradigms are the most efficient solutions to produce explanations for non-technical users and we propose a reasoning model, based on definitions by Doran et al. [2017] (arXiv:1710.00794) to explain a neural network's decision. We use this explanation in order to correct bias in the network's decision rationale. We accompany this model with an example of its potential use, based on the image captioning method in Burns et al. [2018] (arXiv:1803.09797).


Background Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have increased resistance to cancer chemotherapy. They can be enriched as drug-surviving CSCs (D-CSCs) by growth with chemotherapeutic drugs, and/or by sorting of cells expressing CSC markers such as aldehyde dehydrogenase-1 (ALDH). CSCs form colonies in agar, mammospheres in low-adherence cultures, and tumors following xenotransplantation in Scid mice. We hypothesized that tranilast, a non-toxic orally active drug with anti-cancer activities, would inhibit breast CSCs. Methodology/Findings We examined breast cancer cell lines or D-CSCs generated by growth of these cells with mitoxantrone. Tranilast inhibited colony formation, mammosphere formation and stem cell marker expression. Mitoxantrone-selected cells were enriched for CSCs expressing stem cell markers ALDH, c-kit, Oct-4, and ABCG2, and efficient at forming mammospheres. Tranilast markedly inhibited mammosphere formation by D-CSCs and dissociated formed mammospheres, at pharmacologically relevant concentrations. It was effective against D-CSCs of both HER-2+ and triple-negative cell lines. Tranilast was also effective in vivo, since it prevented lung metastasis in mice injected i.v. with triple-negative (MDA-MB-231) mitoxantrone-selected cells. The molecular targets of tranilast in cancer have been unknown, but here we demonstrate it is an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) agonist and this plays a key role. AHR is a transcription factor activated by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other ligands. Tranilast induced translocation of the AHR to the nucleus and stimulated CYP1A1 expression (a marker of AHR activation). It inhibited binding of the AHR to CDK4, which has been linked to cell-cycle arrest. D-CSCs expressed higher levels of the AHR than other cells. Knockdown of the AHR with siRNA, or blockade with an AHR antagonist, entirely abrogated the anti-proliferative and anti-mammosphere activity of tranilast. Thus, the anti-cancer effects of tranilast are AHR dependent. Conclusion/Significance We show that tranilast is an AHR agonist with inhibitory effects on breast CSCs. It is effective against CSCs of triple-negative breast cancer cells selected for anti-cancer drug resistance. These results suggest it might find applications in the treatment of breast cancer.


Chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) represents the main obstacle to patient survival after lung transplantation [1]. Previous "in vitro" results have shown that innovative biocompatible nanoparticles (NP) loaded with the inhibitor everolimus [2] and functionalized with anti CD44 MoAb, are able to stop proliferation of mesenchymal cells obtained from lung transplant patients, and responsible of CLAD [3]. In this study we tested "in vivo" the potentiality of these nanoparticles to reach lungs and eventually to block the fibrotic process. Two different approaches were used to deliver 50μg of labeled NP in mice, direct instillation and aerosol spray. Preliminary results demonstrate that the former method caused serious pulmonary edema followed by rapid death of mice, while the second seems to be more feasible, permitting a continued treatment well-tolerated by mice and consequently more similar to an eventual treatment on patients.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of management accounting and control systems (MACS) on environmental innovation practices and operational performance. Specifically, this study relies on Simons' levers of control (LOC) framework to investigate how managers implement environmental innovation practices. This paper hypothesizes that a forward-looking use of MACS (i.e. interactive use) triggers the implementation of environmental innovation practices, resulting in higher operational performance. Furthermore, the authors argue that the monitoring role of MACS (i.e. diagnostic use) combined with environmental training improves the effect of environmental innovation practices on operational performance.

Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses are examined through a questionnaire survey. The analyses are based on responses in an empirical study from 89 Brazilian hotels.

Findings
Empirical findings from a hierarchical moderated regression analysis support the hypothesized links.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the environmental management and management control literature by providing novel evidence on the roles MACS play in the field of sustainable development. Based on the LOC framework, the authors shed light on the understanding of how managers introduce and monitor environmental innovation practices, as well as also outlining the key effects of environmental training in enabling the novel abilities of managers and employees to better understand environmental data and identify novel potential environmentally friendly solutions in the case of deviations. This paper also adds to Wijethilake et al. (2017), providing new empirical evidence on how firms design, implement and use MACS that capture institutional pressures for sustainability from multiple stakeholders.


As part of a university course activity, one group of Canadian and one group of Iranian students were randomly partnered to exchange e-mail messages via the Internet for seven weeks. Before beginning their correspondence, all students completed a questionnaire measuring their stereotypes, attitudes, and knowledge about the people and culture of their prospective e-pals. Students from both countries then exchanged messages and photos. In addition, students within each country met with one another to discuss their e-pal exchanges each week. At the end of seven weeks of e-mail exchange, all students again completed the original questionnaire. Pre-posttest changes in attitude, stereotypes, and knowledge about the culture of e-pals show that attitudes of participants towards people from the other country became more favourable, even though their judgments of the similarities between two cultures remained unchanged. Negative stereotypes changed towards more realistic ones. Attitude change was affected by the quality, topic, and frequency of e-mail exchange. Knowledge of participants about different aspects of the other culture became more complex and realistic over time. However, for many aspects of each culture, there was no consistent relationship between raising the level of knowledge and a change in attitude.


Chatbots have received significant attention in the last years. These systems have improved operational efficiency by reducing the cost of customer service and more and more are used in customer service channels. More recently, with the addition of speech capabilities added to those systems, bot language modifications have to be done in order to improve user experience. In this paper, we analyze the language used in those systems using datasets collected from real chatbots. For that, we first propose models that are able to identify the language style (writing, speech, and computer-mediated) using as linguist features syntactic (Biber's dimensions) and sentence embeddings as well as state-of-art datasets. Our results show that our models were able to distinguish among the three classes with an accuracy of up to 66%. Finally, we evaluate real chatbots systems, either speech- and text-based ones, using our proposed models. We found that these real chatbots are generally using a computer-mediated style, but there is indication that their developers tend to adapt the language style to be more speech-like when text-to-speech is used.


Around the globe, the gradual move from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution pensions has increased the need for individual retirement planning. Examples of this include U.S. savings rates at historic lows, poor retirement prospects for citizens in developed countries, and the disparaging gap between investor returns and market returns. Research indicates that individuals working with a financial advisor generally receive better results than those who do not. Working with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) gives an added level of security because a CFP takes an oath to keep the client's interests ahead of his or her own. This chapter puts describes giving nudges to help individuals close the savings, investing, and behavior gaps that will improve their total wealth and wealth-transfer picture.


This paper forms the first stage of a research project for the Department for Transport (DfT) that will inform the DfT's new post-2010 road safety strategy. The paper presents the findings from a critical review of 72 recent research papers, reports and journal articles examining public attitudes to road user safety, concentrating mainly on evidence from the UK dating from the year 2000 onwards.

The critical review exercise found that at the aggregate level there is high support from the public that behaving in a safe manner on the roads is important and that increasing safety through various interventions, including enforcement, engineering and education, is seen as generally acceptable. For example, there is generally a high level of understanding that faster speeds are linked to collisions and high support for drink-driving laws, 20mph zones in residential areas, traffic calming and speed cameras. However, closer inspection of the literature suggests some subtle differences both between and within individuals. Overwhelmingly, there seems to be a consensus that drivers and pedestrians see themselves as safe road users and other users of the road environment as more risky and dangerous. Hence, support for interventions is largely accepted as necessary for "other" road users rather than for themselves.

In addition, the public's conceptualisation of road user safety shows the social nature of appraising risk and the road user environment and consequently the impact of normative pressure, especially the influence of others, is evident in much of the research. Hence, distorted views on the behaviour of others towards safety and risk influence the public's own behaviour.

There are differences in road user safety attitudes amongst different segments of the population. Older and female road users have more safety orientated attitudes almost across all road user domains than younger and male road users. In addition, attitudes vary depending upon the context of the research and of the researched. Hence, findings are different when investigating attitudes towards road user safety between a pedestrian and a driver. Implications for interventions are also discussed.


We consider the laminar viscous channel ow over a porous surface. It is supposed, as in the experiment by Beavers and Joseph, that a uniform pressure gradient is maintained in the longitudinal direction in both the channel and the porous medium. After studying the corresponding boundary layers, we obtain rigorously Saaman's modiication of the interface condition observed by Beavers and Joseph. It is valid when the pore size of the porous medium tends to zero. Furthermore, the coeecient in the law is determined through an auxiliary boundary-layer type problem.


RATIONALE
Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) has demonstrated utility in differentiating tumor from adjacent normal tissue in both urologic and neurosurgical specimens. We sought to evaluate if this technique had similar accuracy in differentiating oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from adjacent normal epithelium due to current issues with late diagnosis of SCC in advanced stages.

METHODS
Fresh frozen samples of SCC and adjacent normal tissue were obtained by surgical resection. Resections were analyzed using DESI-MS sometimes by a blinded technologist. Normative spectra were obtained for separate regions containing SCC or adjacent normal epithelium. Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Analysis (PCA-LDA) of spectra were used to predict SCC versus normal tongue epithelium. Predictions were compared with pathology to assess accuracy in differentiating oral SCC from adjacent normal tissue.

RESULTS
Initial PCA score and loading plots showed clear separation of SCC and normal epithelial tissue using DESI-MS. PCA-LDA resulted in accuracy rates of 95% for SCC versus normal and 93% for SCC, adjacent normal and normal. Additional samples were blindly analyzed with PCA-LDA pixel-by-pixel predicted classifications as SCC or normal tongue epithelial tissue and compared against histopathology. The m/z 700-900 prediction model showed a 91% accuracy rate.

CONCLUSIONS
DESI-MS accurately differentiated oral SCC from adjacent normal epithelium. Classification of all typical tissue types and pixel predictions with additional classifications should increase confidence in the validation model.


Abstract Herbaceous plants are often under-studied in tropical forests, despite their high density and diversity, and little is known about the factors that influence their distribution at microscales. In a 25-ha plot in lowland Amazonian rain forest in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador, we censused six species of Heliconia (Heliconiaceae) in a stratified random manner across three topographic habitat types. We observed distribution patterns consistent with habitat filtering. Overall, more individuals occurred in the valley (N = 979) and slope (N = 847) compared with the ridge (N = 571) habitat. At the species level, Heliconia stricta (N = 1135), H. spathocircinata (N = 309) and H. ortotricha (N = 36) all had higher abundance in the valley and slope than ridge. Further, H. vellerigera (N = 20) was completely absent from the ridge. Conversely, H. velutina (N = 903) was most common in the drier ridge habitat. The two most common species (H. stricta and H. velutina) had a reciprocal or negative co-occurrence pattern and occurred preferentially in valley versus ridge habitats. These results suggest that taxa within this family have different adaptations to the wetter valley versus the drier ridge and that habitat partitioning contributes to coexistence.


Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of intertidal microphytobenthos (MPB) communities were obtained in the laboratory with a 532 nm pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The laser-induced chlorophyll (chl) fluorescence emission spectra of MPB in mud and sand sediments were characterized by a band in the red region with a maximum at ca. 685 nm. Biomass accumulation on the surface of the mud due to cell migration caused a shift to longer wavelengths (up to 5 nm) of the red emission maximum and the development and increase of an emission shoulder at the far-red region (maximum at ca. 732 nm), probably owing to increased re-absorption of chl fluorescence within the denser microalgae biofilm. Direct relations were observed between MPB biomass proxies (normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI] and phytobenthos index [PI]) and fluorescence intensity. LIF was used to track migratory rhythms of epipelic benthic microalgae in muddy sediments, which are absent in epipsammic communities in sand: progressive accumulation of biomass occurred at the sediment surface during diurnal low tide periods and was followed by a rapid downward migration before tides began to cover the sampling site. When exposed to high light, surface biomass decreased in migratory biofilms, indicating that diatom cells avoid photoinhibitory light levels. This phenomenon is known as behavioral photoprotection. For the first time, LIF was applied to study intertidal MPB communities to adequately describe surface biomass, which included changes due to migration.


Decisions taken at the start of one's career have long-term consequences and one important decision graduates have to make is whether to be regionally mobile when looking for the first job. We investigate whether being regionally mobile for the first job following graduation rather than to stay in the place of graduation pays off. Existing research on regional mobility mostly focuses on job-to-job mobility. We analyse the determinants of early career mobility and estimate a bivariate probit model to account for the dependency between the migration decisions for tertiary education and for the first job. In order to account for self-selection with respect to migration decisions, we exploit variation in the availability of university places at the regional level. Our results show that there is significant dependency between migration decisions made before and after tertiary education. Secondly, using an IV estimation strategy, we find significantly positive wage returns to regional mobility for the first job.


Purpose High calorie intake leads to obesity, a global socio-economic and health problem, reaching epidemic proportion in children and adolescents. Saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids from animal (lard) fat are major components of the western-pattern diet and its regular consumption leads to obesity, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, no clear evidence exists whether consumption of diet rich in saturated (SFAs) and monounsaturated (MUFAs) fatty acids has detrimental effects on cardiac structure and energetics primarily due to excessive calories. We, therefore, sought to determine the impact of high calories versus fat content in diet on cardiac structure and mitochondrial energetics. Methods Six-week-old C57BL/6J mice were fed with high calorie, high lard fat-based diet (60% fat, HFD), high-calorie and low lard fat-based diet (10% fat, LFD), and lower-calorie and fat diet (standard chow, 12% fat, SCD) for 10 weeks. Results The HFD- and LFD-fed mice had higher body weight, ventricular mass and thickness of posterior and septal wall with increased cardiomyocytes diameter compared to the SCD-fed mice. These changes were associated with a reduction in the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes I and III activity compared to the SCD-fed mice without significant differences between the HFD- and LFD-fed animals. The HFD-fed animals had higher level of malondialdehyde (MDA) than LFD and SCD-fed mice. Conclusions We assume that changes in cardiac morphology and selective reduction of the OXPHOS complexes activity observed in the HFD- and LFD-fed mice might be related to excessive calories with additional effect of fat content on oxidative stress.


Abstract Objectives. The H1-Coil is a novel transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device capable of inducing a magnetic field with a deeper and wider distribution than standard coils. This pilot study evaluated the safety and feasibility of the H1-Coil as adjuvant treatment for bipolar depression (BPD). Methods. Nineteen patients diagnosed as having BPD and under treatment with psychotropic medication were enrolled in the study. They received daily prefrontal repetitive TMS (rTMS: 20 Hz, 2 s on, 20 s off, totaling 1680 stimuli) every weekday for four consecutive weeks. The primary outcome measure was the change from baseline in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-24) score a week after the last treatment session. Results. A significant mean decrease of 12.9 points in the HDRS-24 scale (P< 0.001) was found. Response rate was 63.2% and remission rate was 52.6%. Treatment was well tolerated in terms of headache and overall discomfort, and there were no significant change in cognitive functioning or mood switches. One patient had a short induced generalized seizure without complications. Conclusions. An add-on H-coil rTMS treatment protocol in BPD subjects indicated improvement in bipolar depression symptoms. Sham-control studies to further determine the efficacy and safety of the H-Coil for BPD are warranted.


Abstract
Emotional Contagion is the unconscious converging of one's emotional state with another, suggesting that one can "catch" the emotions of another through vocal, postural, and facial expressions (Hatfield et al., 1993). This phenomenon can be observed in infancy as early as the first 24 hours following birth. While negative emotional contagion has been studied in the form of contagious crying at various ages of infancy, positive emotional contagion has received very little attention. The purpose of the present study was to observe the emotional reactions of infants at 5 and 10 months of age when presented with a stimulus of their peers displaying positive affect. We hypothesized that infants would react to the stimuli of positive emotions with expressions of positive affect, including laughter. Additionally, we hypothesized that the intensity and duration of both the facial and vocal expressions would increase with age between assessments at 5 and 10 months. Results indicated that infants responded with positive emotions to the positive emotional stimuli more often than neutral stimuli, but emotional responsiveness did not increase between the two ages of assessment. This occurrence provides an initial platform for exploration of positive affect in infancy and its development into early childhood.


The objective of this research paper is to study behaviour of urban and rural educated senior citizens about e banking services. The government of India provides various concessions and facilities to its senior citizens. The banking industry is also providing various schemes to senior citizens like senior citizens savings scheme, senior citizens club account, tax saving schemes, senior citizens fixed deposits schemes etc. Banks are also marketing themselves as best bank for senior citizens. Banking institutions started providing online services to their customers but these services cannot be said to be user-friendly for senior citizens. It is also possible that websites will be designed for easy use by the elderly in the future. As educated senior citizens are the major segment using banking services it becomes necessary to study the awareness, usage, ease of using and satisfaction level of e banking services among them. The researcher has used descriptive research design and non-probability convenience sampling method for this study. Survey method is used to collect the data from 160 respondents by using well-structured questionnaire. This research will help the banking system to know awareness, usage, ease of using and level of satisfaction about e banking services for urban and rural educated senior citizens. And this will lead to develop specific schemes and strategies for this group of customers.

Keywords: E-banking, Internet banking, Senior citizen, Awareness, Usage, Ease of use, Satisfaction.


The downward export of organic material was assessed during the productive period (late spring to early autumn) in the North Water polynya area (NOW; northern Baffin Bay). Free- drifting short-term particle interceptor traps were deployed at 3 depths below the euphotic zone (50, 100 and 150 m) for 12 to 24 h at 19 stations from June to July in 1998 and at 12 stations during August and September in 1999. The sinking material was analyzed for particulate organic carbon (POC) and pigments (chlorophyll a and pheopigments), and for phytoplankton and fecal pellet enumerations. POC and pigment sinking fluxes at 50 m averaged 337 and 8 mg m -2 d -1 , respectively. The maximum sinking fluxes of organic matter (ca. 554 mg C m -2 d -1 and 14 mg pigments m -2 d -1 ) were observed in June, after which they decreased and remained relatively constant (ca. 219 to 240 mg C m -2 d -1 and 3.9 to 4.1 mg pigments m -2 d -1 ). Phytoplankton carbon flux decreased while fecal carbon flux increased during the study. In June, intact diatom cells and fecal pellets made up 50 and 4% of the total POC sinking flux, respectively. During the following months, they made up ≤10% (diatoms) and 30 to 50% (fecal pellets) of the total POC flux. A rapid increase in sinking cell numbers and fecal pellets at the end of the sampling season points to a late summer-early autumn bloom in the NOW. The dominant pathway of carbon cycling changed during the study, from export in spring to reten- tion afterwards. From July on, the retention of particulate organic matter in the upper 100 m of the water column was favored by the low sinking velocities of POC and chlorophyll a, which averaged ≤1. 3md -1 . Over the whole sampling period, 35% of the particulate phytoplankton production was exported through sinking, while 65% was recycled or remained suspended in the euphotic zone. The organic carbon produced in the euphotic zone was, thus, mainly available to pelagic grazers rather than being exported to the benthic community. These results are in agreement with the abundance of higher trophic level pelagic organisms observed in this region.


Central to the study of the criminal law of necessity are the nineteenth century "lifeboat" cases Holmes v. United States and Regina v. Dudley and Stephens, both being the trials of seamen forced to kill boatmates to ensure the survival of the others on the lifeboat. The seamen were convicted, although ultimately their punishment was not severe. However, in both cases public sentiment was on their side -- the general view seems to have been that the "custom of the sea" required actions consistent with the principle of the greatest good of the greatest number. In this essay I reconcile the general perception that sacrificing one individual in such circumstances to save the many is a socially good thing to do with the economist's intuition that because a person would not voluntarily contract to be sacrificed, such sacrifices are necessarily involuntary and therefore not Pareto-optimal. Using a version of the original state-dependent preferences model of Eisner and Strotz, in which the alternative state, death, is represented in the present by a "bequest function," I show that as the probability of surviving in a lifeboat dwindles to zero, the minimum price a person puts on his life also dwindles to zero. Therefore, a custom of waiting until the last minute to sacrifice a person, and then making no payment to his estate, is Pareto-optimal. I further argue that the nautical custom (dating back to Old Testament times) of drawing lots to select the victim has an explanation consistent with economic rationality, in that when a lifeboat or other vessel is in such bad straits as to require a sacrifice, any deterministic selection method invites strategic behavior on the part of the victim, such as killing someone else, that would undermine the whole point of the sacrifice and actually increase the hazards faced by the lifeboat's company.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Patient Continuity of Care Questionnaire (PCCQ) to see whether the Patient Continuity of Care Questionnaire can be applied in Chinese context.

BACKGROUND
The rapid increase in the number of older adults with chronic diseases has made caring for this vulnerable population a priority healthcare issue in Taiwan. The PCCQ has been widely used in international studies. However, research has not yet assessed the suitability and applicability of the PCCQ in Taiwan.

DESIGN
A cross-sectional survey design was applied for the psychometric testing of the scale.

METHODS
A total of 314 older Taiwanese adults with chronic diseases receiving discharge planning intervention were pooled from a hospital in Central Taiwan. After receiving permission from the author of the PCCQ, a Chinese translation and back translation were made.

RESULTS
The scale was first rated by eleven experts with a Content Validity Index of 0·93. Two factors were extracted with the exploratory factor analysis, namely 'information transfer to patients' and 'relationships with providers during hospitalisation', with a total of 70·34% of the variance explained.

CONCLUSIONS
The PCCQ - Chinese can be used to assist professionals to fully understand the continuity of care of the discharged patients under consideration.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
A PCCQ - Chinese version can be used as a guide for discharging preparation that enables patients to receive high-quality continuity of care and further to self-manage their conditions.


First, the image Jacobian matrix (IJM) for GRB-400 robot was established. Then an augmented design plant model was formed using the GRB-400 plant model and the inverse IJM. And then a control algorithm was applied to the augmented design plant to form a steady visual servo motion feedback control system. The main effort was made to develop a new nonlinear strategy of direct path planning for the robot, which is a new hybrid-coding genetic algorithm. Using this strategy, a least-energy cost path was designed in a certain timeout, and simulation and experiment results were given.


A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER DEGREE IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA


In vitro CD4+ T cell differentiation systems have made important contributions to understanding the mechanisms underlying the differentiation of naive CD4+ T cells into effector cells with distinct biological functions. Mature CD4+ T cells expressing CD8αα homodimers are primarily found in the intestinal mucosa of men and mice, and to a lesser extent in other tissues such as peripheral blood. Although CD4+CD8α+ T cells are easily identified, very little is known about their development and immunological functions. It has been reported, however, that CD4+CD8α+ T cells possess regulatory properties. In this report, we present a novel in vitro differentiation system where CD4+ T cells are stimulated to become CD4+CD8α+ T cells in the presence of TGF-β, IL-7 and IFN-γ, resulting in cells with very similar features as CD4+CD8α+ intraepithelial lymphocytes. This novel in vitro differentiation culture should provide a powerful and tractable tool for dissecting the differentiation and biological functions of CD4+CD8α+ T cells.


Biological systems exhibit complex behaviour emerging from non-linear interactions among system components. A system can be specified in terms of an ODE (ordinary differential equations) model typically containing parameters which can significantly affect system behaviour. In general, it is difficult to obtain exact parameters values from experimental data. The number of parameters and their interdependence make the identification of parameters values a hard task. A common approach is to use parameter estimation from time-series data. Such data might be of low resolution or even unavailable. Instead of estimating parameters from data, an alternative approach is to specify global hypotheses on system behaviour in terms of temporal properties and to use parameter synthesis methods based on model checking, a verification technique proven by decades of use in computer science. We present a new high-performance tool Pithya that implements state-of-the-art parameter synthesis methods. For a given ODE model, it allows to visually explore model behaviour with respect to different parameter values. Moreover, Pithya automatically synthesises parameter values satisfying a given property. Such property can specify various behaviour constraints, e.g., maximal reachable concentration, time ordering of events, characteristics of steady states, presence of limit cycles, etc.


The panel data analysis of the influence of change in real public debt, real private debt, and deflated house prices on the GDP in selected European countries is performed. Least squares and autoregressive AR(p) model was used with cross-section and period both fixed by dummy variables. The research has confirmed strong negative influence of public debt with zero, one and two year's lags as an independent variable on the GDP as the dependent variable. This is not surprising having in mind limited functionality of the European central bank as a lender of the last resort for the countries of the monetary union, that is, for the most of the analysed countries. This finding also confirms the necessity of the transformation of the European Monetary Union to the European Financial Union. Private debt has definite positive influence on the GDP as the dependent variable. It was confirmed by measuring this influence with zero, one and two and three years lags, but this positive influence was 2-3 times lower than the negative influence of public debt on the GDP. House prices unlagged have similar absolute value of positive influence on the GDP coefficient as the absolute value of the negative influence of lagged public debt, according to the regression coefficients received. However, house prices, leading by 2 years, have negative influence on the GDP, but this influence is almost 5 times weaker than the negative influence of unlagged public debt.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.2.20000


The analysis of the codon usage pattern of Porcine Cytomegalovirus (PCMV) DPOL gene has both theoretical and practical value in understanding the basics of molecular biology and selecting appropriate expression systems to improve the expression level. In this study, the codon usage pattern of PCMV DPOL gene and other 36 reference herperviruses were analyzed, the results showed that the codon of PCMV DPOL gene was strong bias toward the synonymous codons with G or C at the third codon position, and was closer relatively to these viruses which were classified in Betaherpesvirinae. Correlation analysis indicated that there was no obvious correlation between PCMV DPOL gene and it's host swine, and 13 codons showed distinct usage preference between PCMV DPOL gene and H.sapiens, whereas 16 in the E.coli and 27 in the yeast. Thus the mammal expression system may be more appropriate for the expression of PCMV DPOL gene.


The first structural characterization of a mononuclear, EPR-active, oxosulfido-Mo(V) compound related to the very rapid form of xanthine oxidase (VR-XnO) is reported. The compound, [CoCp2][Tp(iPr)Mo(V)OS(2-OC6H4CO2Et)] [Cp = cyclopentadienyl; Tp(iPr) = hydrotris(3-isopropylpyrazol-1-yl)borate], exhibits a distorted octahedral geometry with Mo═O and Mo=/--S distances of 1.761(5) and 2.215(2) Å, respectively, and an O═Mo=/--S angle of 107.33(14)°. Significantly, the Mo(V)=/--S distance is much shorter than the value of 2.36 Å reported for oxosulfido-Mo(V) compounds (Singh, R.; et al. Inorg. Chem. 1989, 28, 8) but close to the range established for VR-XnO by protein crystallography. The methyl and phenyl esters were also prepared but the latter is highly reactive and undergoes an intramolecular, radical-based cyclization/elimination reaction to form [CoCp2][Tp(iPr)Mo(IV)O{2-OC6H4C(O)S-κO,κS}]. This study provides the first definitive measurement of the Mo(V)=/--S bond distance in an unambiguously characterized oxosulfido-Mo(V) compound and supports the presence of a short (ca. 2.22 Å) Mo=/--S bond in VR-XnO. It also demonstrates that the Mo(V)=/--S moiety participates in radical-based reactions that are facilitated by the facile redox interplay of Mo and S and by substrates susceptible to radical eliminations.


A series of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and proteinuria were studied to determine whether nephrotic-range proteinuria was associated with diffuse epithelial cell foot process effacement in the absence of peripheral glomerular immune aggregate deposition. Biopsies from patients with known or suspected SLE and a histologic diagnosis of (1) normal by light microscopy, (2) mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis, or (3) focal segmental glomerulosclerosis were studied. Biopsies were excluded when they demonstrated endocapillary proliferation or necrosis by light microscopy or electron-dense glomerular basement membrane deposits by electron microscopy. Patients were required to fulfill four of 11 American Rheumatologic Association criteria for the diagnosis of SLE, and proteinuria could not be associated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use. Eighteen biopsies were studied, eight from patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria (>/=3 g/d) and 10 from patients with non-nephrotic proteinuria. The time from diagnosis of SLE to biopsy was shorter for nephrotic patients that for nonnephrotic patients. Seven of eight biopsies from nephrotic patients demonstrated at least 80% foot process effacement, whereas no biopsy from a nonnephrotic patient exhibited >20% effacement. There were no other significant pathologic differences between the nephrotic and nonnephrotic patients. The single common morphologic feature associated with nephrotic proteinuria was diffuse visceral epithelial cell foot process effacement. It is concluded that the development of nephrotic-range proteinuria in patients with SLE without peripheral immune aggregate deposition or endocapillary proliferation on renal biopsy is more likely a manifestation of SLE than the coexistence of idiopathic minimal-change glomerulopathy and SLE.


ABSTRACT This analysis considers the phenomenon of citizen diplomacy in European Union [EU]–China relations. It begins by engaging with the global discourse about "new" diplomacy and outlines how society-centric citizen diplomacy differs from state-centric public diplomacy. After revealing that European policy-makers are only reluctantly acknowledging the role of laymen in foreign policy-making vis-à-vis China, it shows that whilst citizen diplomacy may be a new concept in EU–China relations, it is actually not a new practice. The empirical part of the exegesis traces the experiential learning amongst 12 European citizen diplomats who have engaged China in the activity fields of disability; psychoanalysis; non-governmental organisation twinning; human rights; climate change mitigation; welfare of orphans, abandoned disabled children and young people; youth dialogue; public participation; animal welfare; and inclusive performing arts. The final part makes use of the newly developed hexagon of intercultural communication and collaboration competence to reveal how the European citizen diplomats have managed to navigate the sometimes-treacherous political-administrative landscape in mainland China. European citizen diplomats have made manifold and often surprising contributions to China's multifaceted development.


For many scalable parallel applications, the input/output (I/O) barrier rivals or exceeds that of computation and interprocessor communication. Consequently, scalable parallel secondary and tertiary storage systems are necessary to satisfy the resource demands of many national challenge problems. At present, one major challenge facing the designers of such storage systems is the wide range of I/O access patterns and the lack of general purpose file system policies that achieve high performance for variable I/O requirements. We analyze the I/O behavior of two scientific applications on the Intel Paragon XP/S. Although the two applications solve the same scientific problem and their I/O access patterns are qualitatively similar, their interactions with the file system are decidedly different. Our results show that appropriate tuning of file system policy parameters to I/O demands can significantly increase I/O throughput.


Pausinystalia johimbe (K.Schum) Pierre ex Bielle is a tree native to coastal forests of Central-Africa, with a range extending from southeast Nigeria to Gabon (Vivien & Faure 1985) and possibly to the Democratic Republic of Congo (Stoffelen et al. 1996). It is a late-secondary tree species of tropical forests that does not attain a large diameter. The bark of P. johimbe has long been used in traditional health care and cultural systems for its aphrodisiac properties. Indeed, the efficacy of the bark in treating organic male impotence has led to the development of a worldwide market for yohimbe-based products (Fig. 4.lA, B). These products are distributed through both pharmaceutical channels and the less regulated herbal medicine markets. Cameroon supplies the majority of the raw bark entering the commercial trade, and recent increases in harvest levels of have led to concerns about the sustainability of this exploitation (Sunderland et al. 1997, 1999, 2000; Tchoundjeu et al. 2004). Although P. johimbe is not listed as threatened (Oldfield et al. 1998), it is likely that current levels and methods of exploitation will result in considerable local scarcity, if not long-term endangerment, of the species.


Abstract Objectives: To evaluate whether a course teaching flexible intensive insulin treatment combining dietary freedom and insulin adjustment can improve both glycaemic control and quality of life in type 1 diabetes. Design: Randomised design with participants either attending training immediately (immediate DAFNE) or acting as waiting list controls and attending "delayed DAFNE" training 6 months later. Setting: Secondary care diabetes clinics in three English health districts. Participants: 169 adults with type 1 diabetes and moderate or poor glycaemic control. Main outcome measures: Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), severe hypoglycaemia, impact of diabetes on quality of life (ADDQoL). Results: At 6 months, HbA1c was significantly better in immediate DAFNE patients (mean 8.4%) than in delayed DAFNE patients (9.4%) (t=6.1, P<0.0001). The impact of diabetes on dietary freedom was significantly improved in immediate DAFNE patients compared with delayed DAFNE patients (t=−5.4, P<0.0001), as was the impact of diabetes on overall quality of life (t=2.9, P<0.01). General wellbeing and treatment satisfaction were also significantly improved, but severe hypoglycaemia, weight, and lipids remained unchanged. Improvements in "present quality of life" did not reach significance at 6 months but were significant by 1 year. Conclusion: Skills training promoting dietary freedom improved quality of life and glycaemic control in people with type 1 diabetes without worsening severe hypoglycaemia or cardiovascular risk. This approach has the potential to enable more people to adopt intensive insulin treatment and is worthy of further investigation.


The objective of this work was to demonstrate the feasibility of nonlinear vibration/acoustic/ultrasonic diagnostic tools to be implemented in a structural health monitoring system for imaging damage. In particular, the sensitivity a second harmonic imaging technique (SHIT) based on material nonlinear elastic effect known as second harmonic generation (SHG) was investigated. Examples of the capability and limitations of the proposed damage detection process to detect and image barely visible impact damage (BVID) due to low velocity impact (<12J) are presented for various composite laminated. The presence of microcracks, debonding, delamination, etc… could induce the material to behave in a nonlinear elastic fashion and it is highlighted by the presence and amplitude of harmonics in the spectrum of the received signal. The results showed that the proposed SNIT methods appear to be highly accurate in assessing the presence and magnitude of damage with very promising future NDT and structural health monitoring applications. Moreover the technique was validated with two conventional NDT techniques: pulse thermography and thermosonic. The first failed in detecting the damage on the impact face, but delamination on back surface was localized. The second technique was capable of localising and quantifying the damage on the impacted surface agreeing well the results obtained using non linear method.


In this paper, we propose an autonomous UAV path planning framework using deep reinforcement learning approach. The objective is to employ a self-trained UAV as a flying mobile unit to reach spatially distributed moving or static targets in a given three dimensional urban area. In this approach, a Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) with continuous action space is designed to train the UAV to navigate through or over the obstacles to reach its assigned target. A customized reward function is developed to minimize the distance separating the UAV and its destination while penalizing collisions. Numerical simulations investigate the behavior of the UAV in learning the environment and autonomously determining trajectories for different selected scenarios.


The appearance of a stoma and the potential for contact with stool may negatively affect postoperative teaching effectiveness, especially for patients with cultural and religious backgrounds that consider stool untouchable. Instruction that involves the use of a physical stoma simulator for practice may help address this problem.

PURPOSE
The aim of this pilot study was to determine the effects of simulation in ostomy self-care training on self-efficacy and adjustment.

METHODS
A randomized clinical trial was conducted among patients at 2 public medical center surgical units in eastern Iran from April 2015 to December 2015 using consecutive sampling. Patients who spoke Persian, were 18 to 65 years of age, had a temporary or permanent intestinal stoma, and did not have comorbidities that might interfere with self-care teaching were invited to participate and randomly allocated to the simulation (SG) or the control group (CG). Both groups were provided 4 training sessions; the first and fourth session was the same for each group, but in sessions 2 and 3, the SG group used a wearable stoma simulator, whereas the CG group used the demonstration-return method. Demographic and stoma variables were collected, and the Stoma Self-Efficacy Scale (SSES) and Ostomy Adjustment Inventory-23 (OAI-23) were administered at baseline (following surgery), after 4 instructional sessions, and 45 days following the last education session. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared, Fisher's exact, Mann-Whitney U, repeated measure, and least significant difference tests were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS
Of the 53 patients enrolled, 46 (23 in each group) completed the study. Mean age for SG and CG patients was 45.91 ± 10.40 and 53.78 ± 9.15, respectively (P = .009). The majority of patients were female (SG: 11 [47.8%]; CG: 14 [60.9%]), married (SG: 20 [87.0%]; CG: 19 [82.6%]), and had a diagnosis of cancer (SG: 20 [87.0%]; CG: 21 [91.3%]). The mean SSES score for stoma self-efficacy was 103.82 ± 15.81 in the SG and 89.91 ± 13.41 in the CG after the fourth session. Results indicated an improvement in self-efficacy in both groups from baseline to final follow-up visit (P <.0001). SSES in the SG was significantly different from baseline to final follow-up visit during the study (F = 3.183, P = .008). Mean OAI-23 scores were 51.04 ± 13.37 in the SG and 50.82 ± 13.84 in the CG at baseline and after the intervention (fourth session) were 60.56 ± 16.41 in the SG and 53.95 ± 13.22 in the CG group. The repeated measure test results indicated significant increases in adjustment scores from baseline to final follow-up visit in both groups (P = .000).

CONCLUSION
The results of this pilot study suggest that using simulation to teach ostomy self-care improves self-efficacy after 3 and 9 weeks. Further randomized controlled trials that expand the sample size and demographic should be conducted.


Abstract This paper presents an algorithm intended to quantify the diachronic stability of linguistic characteristics. It is argued that a linguistic feature whose presence or absence is best predicted by language families is a stable feature. Conversely, a feature that correlates better with geographical areas than with families is one that is sensitive to diffusion. Contrasting the structural heterogeneity within families with that found within geographical areas, it is thus possible to make a statement regarding the varying diachronic stability of specific features. While the main aim of the paper is methodological exploration, and while the method certainly not devoid of problems, I propose that the current approach can be useful in studies of language contact and long-range historical comparison.


Dengue vaccines are currently in development and policymakers need appropriate economic studies to determine their potential financial and public health impact. We searched five databases (PubMed, EMBASE, LILAC, EconLit, and WHOLIS) to identify health economics studies of dengue. Forty-three manuscripts were identified that provided primary data: 32 report economic burden of dengue and nine are comparative economic analyses assessing various interventions. The remaining two were a willingness-to-pay study and a policymaker survey. An expert panel reviewed the existing dengue economic literature and recommended future research to fill information gaps. Although dengue is an important vector-borne disease, the economic literature is relatively sparse and results have often been conflicting because of use of inconsistent assumptions. Health economic research specific to dengue is urgently needed to ensure informed decision making on the various options for controlling and preventing this disease.


Barriers to students' academic achievement have gained importance in educational research. The primary goal of this study was to determine the level of barriers to effective family involvement in education and student achievement of the 5 selected public elementary schools. The researcher used descriptive-correlational method using a standardized and validated questionnaire. The respondents of the study were the 86 B'laan parents of 5 public elementary schools of Kiblawan in Davao, Philippines using universal sampling. Employing mean and Pearson r as statistical tools, results showed that the level of barriers to effective family involvement to education and to the level of student achievement were both moderate. Moreover, results indicated that there is a significant relationship between the barriers to effective family involvement to education and student achievement in government primary institutions. Students had the confidence on their parents' ability to assist them in their studies. However, there is a need to train students to be academically inspired through parental involvement in school activities since some of them avoid their parents' engagement in school programs. Likewise, parents outside the cultural mainstream such as the B'laan may feel that they are not capable of contributing to their children's education. Thus, they are less likely to become involved in school activities. Keywords:


Today, the nonprofit sector plays an increasingly important role in the provision of vital services in fields such as health, social services, and education. However, the sector has been experiencing dwindling funding in the recent past due to the economic slowdown in the donor nations and the increased demand from the many organizations that have come up during the period. The effectiveness of non-governmental organizations as actors in development and change depends on successful engagement with both internal and external management questions and also on the successful articulation between issues of internal and external management. The objective of the study was to determine the role of strategic positioning as a source of sustainable competitive advantage at Norwegian Refugee Council, Dolo Ado- Ethiopia. The research design was a case study. The study used primary data which was collected using an interview guide. Content analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The study found out that product differentiation involves differentiating wide range of housing units produced by the organization and other humanitarian providers. NRC was found to have worked with all local institutions, opinion leaders and beneficiaries as determined by the ever changing situation on the ground. The study found out that the factors considered by NRC in pursuit of strategic positioning were the emergencies that occurred in the region of its operations, stakeholders and the strategic planning process. The study achieve competitive advantage through working relationship with the local communities in organizational projects to ascertain progress, challenges, successes and other issues around implementation. NRC was found to have documented organizations strategic capability which has ensured, resources were examined for their full potential. The study recommends that for success in strategic position of the organization it should develop further its ability to marshal resources needed to support its strategies as well as introduction new products and services to create a sense of value which guarantees better performance.


Introduction—
 Site-1 protease (S1P) is a proprotein convertase involved in activation of transcription factors from their membrane-bound precursors in a process known as Regulated Intramembrane Proteolysis. These factors include Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Proteins (SREBPs) and CRE Binding Protein-H. SREBPs are the transcriptional master regulators of
 de novo
 cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthetic genes, and also positively regulate Low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) and Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) expression. Inhibition of PCSK9 is a promising drug targeting strategy for treatment of dyslipidemia since the major function of PCSK9 is to degrade LDLR.

 Hypothesis—
 S1P controls PCSK9 expression and function in the liver.

 Results—
 Inducing Cre-LoxP mediated DNA recombination in the liver of S1P flox mice by three different approaches, we consistently observed that S1P knockdown significantly decreases PCSK9 mRNA expression in the liver and reduces plasma PCSK9 concentrations compared to S1P flox control mice. This effect is largely due to a decrease in PCSK9 mRNA synthesis without a change in its mRNA stability. The reduction of PCSK9 mRNA correlates with downregulation of the SREBP pathways and has a positive effect on hepatic LDLR protein levels as evident in mice after food entrainment. Also, we found that S1P differentially regulates PCSK9 and LDLR mRNA levels in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Finally a constitutively active form of SREBP, but not CREBH, almost restores PCSK9 expression in isolated hepatocytes from S1P knockdown mice to that of S1P flox control. Hence, S1P regulates PCSK9 expression through SREBPs.

 Conclusion—
 Taken together, our study reveals the physiological role of liver S1P in regulating hepatic and plasma PCSK9 levels and influencing its function. This may provide a novel strategy to inhibit PCSK9.


Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is an important tool for the analysis of bone minerals at implant surfaces. Most studies have been performed with monoatomic primary ion sources such as Ga(+) with poor secondary molecular ion production efficiency and only elemental distributions and minor fragments of bone minerals have been reported. By using cluster ion sources, such as Au(1-3) (+) and Bi(1-3) (+), identification of larger hydroxyapatite species at m/z 485, 541, 597 and 653, identified as Ca(5)P(3)O(12), Ca(6)P(3)O(13), Ca(7)P(3)O(14) and Ca(8)P(3)O(15), respectively, became possible. The ions appear to be fragments of the hydroxyapatite unit cell Ca(10)(PO(4))(6)(OH)(2). Each ion in the series is separated by 55.9 m/z units, corresponding to CaO, and this separation might reflect the columnar nature of the unit cell.


We present an extension of a Redfield approach for calculating spin–spin relaxation rates of zero-field nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) coherences, which was published in [Kruk et al., PCCP, 2018, 20, 23414–23426]. The oversimplification of the secular approximation made in the recent paper makes the calculation invalid for zero-field NQR and has led to partially large deviations between predicted and experimental data from Bi-containing molecular crystals. Furthermore, these deviations led to speculations about an additional dipole–dipole relaxation mechanism besides the main electric field gradient (EFG) fluctuations. Here, we demonstrate how a complete application of the Redfield relaxation expression eliminates the deviation from experimental data without the need for additional assumptions. In particular, we point out the important role of off-diagonal elements in the Redfield relaxation matrix within the 3/2–1/2 block appearing due to degenerate energy levels. The resulting coupling between single and double coherence spin density elements leads to a faster coherence decay than for all other transitions. The pseudo rotational model for EFG fluctuations, as proposed in the earlier publication and usually applied for isotropic liquids, is extended in a second analysis by introducing a vibrational mode to account for the case of crystalline solids. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Why Is It important for Students and Teachers to Share Goals? Zhong Qi Shi Teachers often use instructional goals to guide students' learning and to track their performance. Typically, teachers develop these instructional goals before they meet students and then hand over their list of goals to students during their first class session. Prior research shows that students do not necessarily understand the underlying principles of those broader terms and how they are to be assessed—they don't truly understand what is expected of them, nor how a teacher sets out to help them learn. The inadequacy in students' understanding about instructional goals has been shown to be related to student underachievement, disengagement in classes, and poor student-teacher relationships. The effectiveness of goal-driven learning is dependent on the learner's ability to make informed decisions about what to learn and what strategies to use to achieve the desired objectives. Given that, I hypothesize that helping students understand their teacher's rationale behind the goal creation process will help students make better decisions with their study, demonstrate stronger motivation, develop better student-teacher relationships, and eventually improve their academic performance. To test these hypotheses, I created an intervention that required students to have a discussion with their teacher about how the instructional goals were prioritized. Eighty-nine students from an introductory Microbiology class were randomly assigned into three conditions: (1) Goal Listing (GL) condition, in which students read a list of instructional goals as they were in the syllabus; (2) Goal Ranking (GR) condition, in which students read a list of instructional goals that had been ranked according to their importance by their teacher; and (3) Goal Ranking + Discussing (GRD) condition, in which students read the ranked goals and discussed them with their teacher in a one-on-one meeting. The measures I used to test the effects of the intervention include study-time allocation, accuracy of self-assessment for an upcoming exam, help-seeking tendency toward the teacher, attitude toward the class and the teacher, and class performance. Results showed that the GRD group performed significantly better than the other two groups on every behavioral measure, but no significant difference was found between the GR and GL group. Specifically, students in the GRD condition scored significantly higher, planned their study more strategically, predicted their final grade more accurately, and demonstrated stronger tendency to seek help from their teacher. Mediation analyses were conducted to test whether students' metacognitive strategies causally contributed to their better performance. Results show that both study-time planning and self-assessment mediated exam performance for the GRD group, but not for the GR group. This suggests that a discussion on the ranked goals is more powerful in affecting students' learning process than simply showing them the goals without an explanation. In addition to the behavioral measures, we also examined students' attitudes toward their teacher and the course. The results show that the GRD group gave a more positive evaluation of their teacher and perceived the course as more interesting and valuable than the other two groups. This suggests that a discussion of goals can bring about motivational benefits such as improving student-teacher relationships. This study made unique theoretical and practical contributions to our understanding of how teachers can best communicate goals to their students. First, most previous research on students' goals focused on what goals might be beneficial to learning, but did not address how to enable students to strategically arrive at those goals. Our study suggests that having teachers explain how their instructional goals were set can be a promising step toward that end. Second, our findings add to past research on metacognitive training, which largely focused on teaching strategies to students. Our study suggests that we can improve students' use of metacognitive strategies by helping them gain a clear understanding of the instructional goals. Moreover, the study points to the important role of social interaction in enhancing students' self-regulating abilities such as planning and self-assessment. Metacognition is not just about understanding one's own thinking. Understanding the goals of those who are important to one's learning can be helpful to improving one's metacognition. Finally, the study offers clear guidance in how to make teachers' office hours more productive. Goal discussion provides an implementable tool that can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their communication and their relationship.


Owing to the failure of familial and communitarian ecclesial models in their current condition to adequately clarify the concept of Christian unity, revamping them becomes necessary. While the Luo of Kenya's concept of jo-kang'ato is familial and communitarian, it presents a departure from the contemporary understanding of these two models which are filled with the individualistic elements of Western culture. The terminus a quo is brought forward through the ideals embedded in the concept which enrich the understanding of unity and mitigate the causes of disunity. The study on jo-kang'ato as a model for Christian unity in the ecclesial life of the Church in Africa is advantageous for the Church as it presents the potential to help Christians in Africa to discover deeper relationships with one another. It also contributes to scholarship by presenting jo-kang'ato as another way of addressing ecclesial disunity. The mission of the Church is enhanced when Christian unity is adequately understood and practiced. The concept did not lose significance in the past despite the changes which affect social life among the Luo. Jo-kang'ato binds people together in the present time too. Its strengths by far exceed its weaknesses. The analysis of interview data gathered in Kenya's four counties that are inhabited by the Luo established that the concept of jo-kang'ato could inform the understanding of unity among Christians in the ecclesial life of the Church in Africa on account of its potential to bring people together through the sibling relationship which it fosters. On this basis, jo-kang'ato is recommended as an ecclesial model to the Church in Africa.


Traditional artist-in-science-residency schemes have tended to focus on artists using scientific tools and technology as a medium for their art. What kind and quality of work might occur, however, between scientists working on cutting-edge solar energy research and a visual artist (a sculptor) when they are integrated in a truly collaborative environment? Is it good for the art? Is it good for the science? The authors describe a new methodology for art-science interactions whereby they have integrated arts practice within a scientific environment. A critical aspect of the methodology for the residency was the development of an interaction framework that ensured that both artist and scientist had equal voice in discussions involving the art and science of the project within an environment of mutual respect. The integration led to the development of outcomes that would not have occurred otherwise.


INTRODUCTION
Supervisors of occupational therapists play a key role facilitating reflective practice with their supervisees. Through reflective practice, supervisees can optimise their skills in professional reasoning and decision making. The aim of this study was to describe to what degree reflective practice is facilitated within occupational therapy supervision processes.

METHODS
A mixed methods study design was used, collecting data via online surveys and focus groups. Quantitative data were initially analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative and quantitative data were then thematically analysed to identify hindering and enabling mechanisms to reflective practice facilitation.

RESULTS
Eighteen supervisees and 17 supervising occupational therapists completed the surveys and 14 supervisors participated in a focus group. Half of the supervisees reported that reflective practice was facilitated through supervision only "rarely" or "sometimes." A hindering mechanism to reflective practice facilitation was the awareness of reflective practice models. Enabling mechanisms for reflective practice facilitation included understanding the benefits of reflective practice; recognising the attributes of a reflective practice practitioner; setting up an optimal supervision environment; and flexibly facilitating reflective practice.

CONCLUSION
Findings suggest that reflective practice is not always regularly facilitated through supervision. This may limit opportunities for supervisees to optimise the development of their professional reasoning and clinical skills in the early stages of their careers.


ABSTRACT What factors explain majority members' anti-Muslim prejudice? This is an increasingly important question to ask, but to date only relatively few studies have sought to provide answers from a cross-national comparative perspective. This study aims to help fill this gap. Using data from the seventh round of the European Social Survey (ESS) linked with country-level characteristics, our results indicate that (a) a larger Muslim population size, (b) more liberal immigrant integration policies and (c) greater state support of religion are all associated with lower levels of majority members' negative attitudes towards Muslim immigration – our indicator of anti-Muslim prejudice. Such attitudes, however, prove to be unrelated to (d) cross-national differences in the frequency of negative immigration-related news reports as measured by the ESS media claims data. Collectively, these findings bring us one important step closer towards a better understanding of interethnic relations between majority members and Muslim immigrants in European host societies.