Alongside with Cu2ZnSnS4 and SnS, the p-type semiconductor Cu2SnS3 also consists of only Earth abundant and low-cost elements and shows comparable opto-electronic properties, with respect to Cu2ZnSnS4 and SnS, making it a promising candidate for photovoltaic applications of the future. In this work, the ternary compound has been produced via the annealing of an electrodeposited precursor in a sulfur and tin sulfide environment. The obtained absorber layer has been structurally investigated by X-ray diffraction and results indicate the crystal structure to be monoclinic. Its optical properties have been measured via photoluminescence, where an asymmetric peak at 0.95 eV has been found. The evaluation of the photoluminescence spectrum indicates a band gap of 0.93 eV which agrees well with the results from the external quantum efficiency. Furthermore, this semiconductor layer has been processed into a photovoltaic device with a power conversion efficiency of 0.54 %, a short circuit current of 17.1 mA/cm 2 , a open circuit voltage of 104 mV hampered by a small shunt resistance, a fill factor of 30.4 %, and a maximal external quantum efficiency of just less than 60 %. In addition, the potential of this Cu2SnS3 absorber layer for photovoltaic applications is discussed.


Current European Union legislation relating to the use of laboratory animals, such as Directive 86/609/EEC, was implemented before the full implications of transgenesis were recognised. An analysis of selected existing cost-benefit guidelines has shown that they do not provide for an adequate evaluation of the use of transgenic animals. In this paper, a proposal is made for a new ethical scheme, comprising a specific cluster of questions dealing with transgenic animals and the wider implications of their use. It is suggested that this scheme could be used at the European level in reviewing project proposals involving animal experimentation.


Classroom teaching methodologies are gradually changing from masterclasses to active learning practices, and peer collaboration emerges as an essential skill to be developed. However, there are several challenges in evaluating collaborative activities more objectively, as well as to generate valuable information to teachers and appropriate feedback to students about their learning processes. In this context, multimodal learning analytics facilitate the evaluation of complex skills using data from multiple data sources. In this work, we propose the use of beacons to collect geolocation data from students who carry out collaborative tasks that involve movement and interactions through space. Furthermore, we suggest new ways to analyze, visualize, and interpret the data obtained. As a first practical approach, we carried out an exploratory, collaborative activity with sixteen undergraduate students working in a library, with bookshelves and work tables monitored by beacons. From the analysis of student movement dynamics, three types of well-differentiated student roles were identified: the collectors, those who go out to collect data from the bookshelves, ambassadors, those who communicate with other groups, and the secretaries, those who stay at their work desk to shape the requested essay. We believe these findings are valuable feedback for the enhancement of the learning activity and the first step towards MMLA-driven Teaching Process Improvement method.


Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosome 3p and inactivation of the VHL gene are associated with the development of conventional renal cell carcinomas (RCCs). Recently, it was suggested that LOH at the FHIT gene at 3p14.2 is an early event in the development of RCC and is characteristic for all types of RCC. We have analyzed 88 conventional, 30 papillary, and 22 chromophobe RCCs for LOH at the VHL and FHIT regions and at other loci on chromosome 3p. A continuous deletion of 3p14.2-p25 harboring the VHL and FHIT genes occurred in 96% of the conventional RCCs but only in 10% of the papillary RCCs and 18% of the chromophobe RCCs. Our data indicate that LOH at chromosome 3p14.2-p25 is specific for conventional RCC and that loss of one allele of both the VHL and FHIT genes occurs in early stage of tumorigenesis.


Part I:

The leaves of nec rd (a single gene necrotic maize mutant) become necrotic when they are exposed to light for a few days. Extensive analysis has failed to reveal any difference in chemical composition between leaves of normal plants and of homozygous nec rd plants before any necrotic symptoms are visible (prenecrotic leaves). Treatment of nec rd seedlings with various metabolites (B vitamins, purines, pyrimidines, amino acids, etc.) did not prevent the appearance of necrosis. The rate of photosynthesis of prenecrotic leaves is normal at low light intensities but 20 to 50% of normal at saturating light intensity. C14O2 feeding experiments indicate that the carbon fixing reactions function normally in the mutant. Hill reaction rates are also similar in mutant and normal plants, as is the metabolism of labelled inorganic phosphate. CMU, which specifically inhibits photosynthesis to the extent of about 90%, delays the onset of visible necrotic damage and reduces the severity of subsequent necrotic symptoms. It is suggested that the nec rd lesion is in some reaction associated with photosynthesis and that it causes the accumulation of one or more toxic substances. These lower rate of photosynthesis and damage cell membranes. The necrotic phenotype would appear to be the result of the breakdown of cell compartmentalization.

Part II:

The kinin, 6-benzylaminopurine (benzyladenine), is converted to a number of low molecular weight materials by senescing leaves of Xanthium pensylvanicum Wall.(cocklebur). A major product is the riboside, benzyladenosine, which has been identified by comparison of its properties with those of benzyladenylic synthesized enzymatically using E. coli nucleoside phosphorylase and by degradative studies. The ribotide, benzyladenylic acid, also appears to be present. Labelled adenylic, guanylic and inosinic acids are produced, as are small amounts of adenine and guanine. Substantial amounts of label are also found in urea and in a ureide. Small amounts of labelled adenylic and guanylic acids are found in the RNA of the leaf, but benzyladenylic acid itself does not appear to be incorporated into RNA in measurable amounts.

Part III:

Low molecular weight material obtained from excised accessory glands of Pontania pacifica (gall-wasp) promotes the growth of Pontania galls on Salix alba (willow). Paper chromatographic analysis has indicated that uridine, uric acid and two unidentified adenine containing compounds are prominent constituents of this mixture. Uric acid and the two adenine containing compounds substantially increase the growth rate of small galls from which the larva has been removed while uridine has slight growth promoting activity. Various related compounds (e.g. adenosine, adenine and guanosine) also have growth-promoting activity. It appears likely that such compounds play an important role in the growth and development of Pontania galls.


We present a methodology to simulate the mechanics of knots in elastic rods using geometrically nonlinear, full three-dimensional (3D) finite element analysis. We focus on the mechanical behavior of knots in tight configurations, for which the full 3D deformation must be taken into account. To setup the topology of our knotted structures, we apply a sequence of prescribed displacement steps to the centerline of an initially straight rod that is meshed with 3D solid elements. Self-contact is enforced with a normal penalty force combined with Coulomb friction. As test cases, we investigate both overhand and figure-of-eight knots. Our simulations are validated with precision model experiments, combining rod fabrication and X-ray tomography. Even if the focus is given to the methods, our results reveal that 3D deformation of tight elastic knots is central to their mechanical response. These findings contrast to a previous analysis of loose knots, for which 1D centerline-based rod theories sufficed for a predictive understanding. Our method serves as a robust framework to access complex mechanical behavior of tightly knotted structures that are not readily available through experiments nor existing reduced-order theories.


Asserts that educators who advocate lifelong learning too often support a narrow and arbitrary system of nomenclature, which implies that learning and thus education are terminal concepts. The need for administrative structure and socially recognized reward has plagued educators, and their clients, with learning near-sightedness. The question before the professional facilitator of lifelong learning should be: "What must be done to modify existing systems or implement new infrastructure that can more appropriately respond to lifelong learning needs of all community members?" Before a new structure can be designed, a change in thinking must come about. If we were to concentrate more on the skills desired by a . lifelong learner and the relevance of the learning experience, such practices as chronological segmentation, nomenclature, and stages could be dismissed. But in order to be responsive we must consider a different structure--a new model. Community colleges are by their very nature adult educators who are positioned to serve as educational brokers. To reach the status of a true broker of lifelong learning one needs to combine the elements of citizen participation, resource utilization, and organizational partnerships along with the concept of lifelong learning. (VWC) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. The Community College's Challenge of Facilitating a New Model for Lifelong Learning


PURPOSE
To introduce current and emerging approaches that are being utilized in the field of genomics so the reader can conceptually evaluate the literature and appreciate how these approaches are advancing our understanding of health-related issues.

ORGANIZING CONSTRUCT
Each approach is described and includes information related to how it is advancing research, its potential clinical utility, exemplars of current uses, challenges related to technologies used for these approaches, and when appropriate information related to understanding the evidence base for clinical utilization of each approach is provided. Web-based resources are included for the reader who would like more in-depth information and to provide opportunity to stay up to date with these approaches and their utility.

CONCLUSIONS
The chosen approaches-genome sequencing, genome-wide association studies, epigenomics, and gene expression-are extremely valuable approaches for collecting research data to help us better understand the pathophysiology of a variety of health-related conditions, but they are also gaining in utility for clinical assessment and testing purposes.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Our increased understanding of the molecular underpinnings of disease will assist with better development of screening tests, diagnostic tests, tests that allow us to prognosticate, tests that allow for individualized treatments, and tests to facilitate post-treatment surveillance.


This paper estimates the effect of market structure on hospital days and ambulatory visits in independent practice associations (IPAs) and group-model health maintenance organizations (HMOs) where market structure is measured by HMO penetration and the number of HMOs operating in a market. There was a steady decline in inpatient use in HMOs during the study period and a steady increase in use of ambulatory care. In multivariate analyses, inpatient use is significantly higher in IPAs, but there is no difference in ambulatory use. As HMO penetration increases and the number of HMOs increases, group-model HMOs have lower hospital use and greater ambulatory use. In contrast, use of both inpatient and ambulatory care decreases in IPAs but only at high levels of penetration and numbers of competitors.


Abstract : The Emerging Materials program provides the aerospace industry with typical properties of emerging materials and other materials of interest that have not met all the criteria for inclusion in the MIL-HDBK-5. Materials included in this report are standardized with regard to composition and processing methods and are described by industry, government, or company specifications.


ABSTRACT Between 1968 and 2011, over 150 undercover police officers (spycops) covertly infiltrated more than 1000 political groups in the UK, a large majority of which were left leaning . Undercover officers perpetrated a range of harmful practices including deceiving women into sex; fathering children whilst undercover ; active participation in criminality & acting as agent provocateurs; appearing in court under false identities thus contributing to potential miscarriages of justice, as well as using the identities of dead children without obtaining consent from families. Based on qualitative, biographical interviews with spied-on environmentalists, this article explores the impact of undercover policing on the lives of UK activists. It argues that, in addition to the documented harm and trauma caused by spycops, three further dimensions of impact can be identified. These are ontological uncertainty, whereby activists conceptions of a fixed and stable external reality are fundamentally challenged; derailing, whereby activists were diverted away from environmentalism in a number of different ways both pre and post-exposure of spycops, including diversions into anti-state surveillance activism; and finally, resilience, whereby the agency of activists in the face of egregious human rights abuses is evident. The article argues that the concept of derailing can help to conceptualise the chilling effect of state incursions into activism, whilst also accounting for those who maintained their activism following the revelations.


Frameworks that seek to understand how knowledge restructuring occurs and how to build a learning environment that facilitates this restructuring raise important philosophical, psychological and pedagogical questions and issues about how conceptual change occurs and what characteristics of knowledge growth ought to be a part of curricula and learning environments. Implicit in emphasizing the how is a shift in science educations' perspective from one that embraces "scientists' ways of knowing" as the dominant objective towards one that favors "positioning the learner for the next step." This change in perspective and approach represents a radical and complex departure from common practice. This article advances a piecemeal model of the character and mechanism of restructuring and then describes a model of educational practice designed to facilitate this form of restructuring. We argue that a piecemeal developmental perspective of conceptual change would offer quite different criteria for deciding what to teach and how to teach. The adoption of conceptual change teaching models implies teacher empowerment of a kind we have yet to fully understand. Empowering teachers with appropriate philosophical and psychological models for the selection and the sequencing of instructional tasks would aid in their describing and prescribing effective or meaningful learning strategies. Central to this educational model is a broadened and integrated view of assessment and instruction that we are calling a portfolio culture. The essential characteristic of this culture is that it creates opportunities for teachers and students to confront and develop their scientific understanding and to equip students with the tools necessary to take increased responsibility for their own restructuring, to assess for themselves what might be the next steps.


Home automation in modern smart home platforms is often facilitated using trigger-action routines. While such routines enable flexible automation, they also lead to an instance of the integrity problem in these systems: untrusted third-parties may use platform APIs to modify the abstract home objects (AHOs) that privileged, high-integrity devices such as security cameras rely on (i.e., as triggers), thereby transitively attacking them. As most accesses to AHOs are legitimate, removing the permissions or applying naive information flow controls would not only fail to prevent these problems, but also break useful functionality. Therefore, this paper proposes the alternate approach of home abstraction endorsement, which endorses a proposed change to an AHO by correlating it with certain specific, preceding, environmental changes. We present the HomeEndorser framework, which provides a policy model for specifying endorsement policies for AHOs as changes in device states, relative to their location, and a platform-based reference monitor for mediating all API requests to change AHOs against those device states. We evaluate HomeEndorser on the HomeAssistant platform, finding that we can derive over 1000 policy rules for HomeEndorser to endorse changes to 6 key AHOs, preventing malice and accidents for less than 10% overhead for endorsement check microbenchmarks, and with no false alarms under realistic usage scenarios. In doing so, HomeEndorser lays the first steps towards providing a practical foundation for ensuring that API-induced changes to abstract home objects correlate with the physical realities of the user's environment.


The rapid proliferation of roads and vehicles in North America over the past several decades has made the problem of roadkill so acute that, setting aside the meat industry, automobile collisions now surpass hunting as the leading human cause of vertebrate mortality. Unfortunately, roadkill is still a largely overlooked problem that has not been seriously taken up by major animal-rights or environmental organizations. In the absence of any coherent moral or political discourse addressing the problem, commodity culture itself has effectively been delegated the task of reckoning with the carnage, generating a huge array of roadkill novelty goods that offer the animal's desecrated body up for consumption as a comic spectacle of abasement and domination. Attempting to rectify this absence, this paper employs the notion of commodity fetishism to examine roadkill both as the flashpoint for collective anxieties surrounding the status of animals in consumer culture, and as a window onto broader structural problems arising from the spread of automobile-oriented transportation systems over the past century.


Architects use media such as drawings and models to test and better understand their designs. These media are frequently scaled for convenience and reduced to two dimensions for clarity; however, in relying on these methods, the direct and visceral experience of inhabiting space is neglected. Phenomenologists such as Juhani Pallasmaa point out that this problem is exacerbated by the picture plane. The flat page or screen acts as an impenetrable window, excluding the viewer from a truly embodied appreciation of the designed spatial qualities.  This research investigates the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for conceiving architecture without alienating the designer from the user's perspective. It is suggested that the holistic and subjective approach of immersive media is a necessary complement to the more abstracted and objective views of architectural tradition: plan, section, and elevation. The recent availability of consumer-grade VR allows the testing of this opportunity without many of the technological limitations of research done in the 1990's. This research aims to describe tendencies of VR design and thus guide the incorporation of immersive technologies into contemporary practice.  To study the impact of VR, a real-time engine is used to develop an interactive program which allows the modelling of conceptual designs while immersed within them. Its efficacy is studied with three groups (architecture students, architects, and members of the public) from which quantitative and qualitative data is collected. By identifying the unique benefits of such tools, it is proposed how each group could make good use of the technology and extend the abilities of their existing workflows.


The protein disulfide isomerases (PDIs) family has a central function in the folding of proteins synthetized through the secretory pathway. ERp57, also known as Grp58 or PDIA3, is one of the main studied members of this family. ERp57 catalyzes the formation, disruption and isomerization of disulfide bonds of glycoproteins mediated by a cooperative interaction with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperones calnexin and calreticulin (Turano et al., 2002) (Figure Figure1A,1A, ,BB). In the past years, several studies have linked ERp57 and its closest homologue PDI (also known as PDIA1) to diseases affecting the central nervous system, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), among others (Andreu et al., 2012). These neurodegenerative conditions are characterized by the presence of abnormal protein aggregates containing specific proteins, which are now classified as protein misfolding disorders (PMDs) (Hetz and Mollereau, 2014).


Urban open spaces are considered as spatial residuals of the expansion of built areas. The environmental impact of the resulting land-cover pattern and associated ecosystem services are frequently evaluated at a crude spatial resolution only. However, wild animals use remaining interconnected fine-grain open spaces as an infrastructure for movement. In this paper, we traced the evolution of an open-space system in Haifa, Israel, and examined the impact of urban morphology on size and distribution of open spaces at different spatial resolutions. At a 30 m resolution, our analysis indicated fragmentation and increasing partial elimination of open spaces. Over time the connectivity declined at a diminishing rate, yet the network did not disintegrate into separate components. The evolution analysis implied that in crude resolution, the open space network is threatened. At a 5 m resolution, our analysis showed that Haifa remains porous to animal movement. Using combined multiple least-cost paths through the urban landscape of heterogeneous permeability, we illustrated extensive connectivity among open spaces. Backyards and other urban in-between spaces complemented the seminatural open-space network connectivity, enabling wildlife movement between habitat patches and thus survival in an urbanized environment.


The densified α-sialon ceramics with the compositions RE0.333Si10Al2ON15 (RE= Yb,Y, Dy, Sm and Nd) were prepared by a two-step hot-pressing sintering. The ceramics doped with smaller cations (Yb3+, Y3+ and Dy3+) are fully composed of α-sialon, while the larger cation-doped ceramics (Sm3+ and Nd3+) exist a few M′ (RE2Si3-xAlxO3+xN4-x) phases. A small amount of β-sialon phases are also found in the Nd-doped sialon. Microstructure observation indicates that Yb-α-sialon consists of equiaxial grains, but when increasing the radius of the doped cations, the elongated α-sialon grains form and the aspect ratio of grain increases slightly. TEM observation indicated that almost no intergranular phases exist in the α-sialon doped with smaller cations, but a few exist in Sm- and Nd-doped α-sialon. Some elongated α-sialon grains with grain core were found. EDX results suggest that the compositions of the grain shell and that of the core are different. Surrounding the grain core, some misfit dislocations were seen.


The present study deals with variations in markups between and within cities in the Japanese manufacturing sector using the markups estimated at the establishment level. Recent models on monopolistic competition with endogenous price-cost markups show that markups in larger cities are lower since competition is tougher in larger cities. With respect to the withincity variation in markup, firms producing differentiated products at lower costs charge higher markups. This empirical study supports these theoretical predictions. The findings suggest that markups are partly balanced between establishment and regional factors when highly productive, large establishments are located in large cities. Furthermore, this study finds that exporting establishments face global competition in export markets, similar to large domestic markets. Therefore, highly productive, large establishments can export their products by charging high markups. JEL classification: D24, F14, L11, L60, R32


Weak snow of interest to avalanche forecasting often forms and changes as thin layers. Thermometers, the current field technology for measuring the temperature gradients across such layers – and for thus estimating the expected vapour flux and future type of crystal metamorphism – are difficult to use at distances shorter than 1 cm. In contrast, a thermal imager can provide thousands of simultaneous temperature measurements across small distances with better accuracy. However, a thermal imager only senses the exposed surface, complicating its methods for access and accuracy of buried temperatures. This paper presents methods for exposing buried layers on pit walls and using a thermal imager to measure temperatures on these walls, correct for lens effects with snow, adjust temperature gradients, adjust time exposed, and calculate temperature gradients over millimetre distances. We find lens error on temperature gradients to be on the order of 0.03 °C between image centre and corners. We find temperature gradient change over time to usually decrease – as expected with atmospheric equalization as a strong effect. Case studies including thermal images and visual macro photographs of crystals, collected during the 2010–2011 winter, demonstrate large temperature differences over millimetre-scale distances that are consistent with observed kinetic metamorphism. Further study is needed to use absolute temperatures independently of supporting gradient data.


Jatropha multifida Linn. latex has been reported in many study for its activities to treats wound. Preparation of hydrogels containing 3% of  Jatropha multifida Linn. latex with variety of base polymers kappa carrageenan and iota carrageenan  was conducted and met good characteristics. This study aimed to evaluate effect of both hydrogels to promote wound healing in Wistar rats. Tests carried out on five groups of rats with 1.5 cm diameter of wound in the back area, consisting of a control group, two test groups were each treated by 2% kappa carrageenan-based hydrogel (kappa-hydrogel group) and 2% iota carrageenan-based hydrogel (iota-hydrogel group) of the latex, and two groups were each given a different hydrogel base according to type of hydrogel tested. Effect on wound healing was assessed by parameters including wound drying period, scab forming period, and the change in diameter of the wound. Results show kappa-hydrogel group achieve the most rapid wound healing compare to the control group significantly (p<0,05) and the iota-hydrogel group on wound drying period (16.6 ± 2.2 hours) and scab forming period (92.6 ± 2.2 hours). Kappa-hydrogel group also show best changes in diameter of the wound at day 21 which is reduced to 0.02 ± 0.03 cm, compare to the control group and iota-hydrogel group. As a conclusion, the 2% kappa carrageenan-based hydrogel containing 3% of  Jatropha multifida Linn. latex produce better effect to promote wound healing than iota carrageenan-based hydrogel in this study.


Previously we showed that a substantially misaligned viscous accretion disk with pressure that orbits around one component of a binary system can undergo global damped Kozai–Lidov (KL) oscillations. These oscillations produce periodic exchanges of the disk eccentricity with inclination. The disk KL mechanism is quite robust and operates over a wide range of binary and disk parameters. However, the effects of self-gravity, which are expected to suppress the KL oscillations for sufficiently massive disks, were ignored. Here, we analyze the effects of disk self-gravity by means of hydrodynamic simulations and compare the results with the expectations of analytic theory. The disk mass required for suppression in the simulations is a few percent of the mass of the central star and this roughly agrees with an analytical estimate. The conditions for suppression of the KL oscillations in the simulations are close to requiring that the disk be gravitationally unstable. We discuss some implications of our results for the dynamics of protoplanetary disks and the related planet formation.


Prominins (proms) are transmembrane glycoproteins conserved throughout the animal kingdom. They are associated with plasma membrane protrusions, such as primary cilia, as well as extracellular vesicles derived thereof. Primary cilia host numerous signaling pathways affected in diseases known as ciliopathies. Human PROM1 (CD133) is detected in both somatic and cancer stem cells and is also expressed in terminally differentiated epithelial and photoreceptor cells. Genetic mutations in the PROM1 gene result in retinal degeneration by impairing the proper formation of the outer segment of photoreceptors, a modified cilium. Here, we investigated the impact of proms on two distinct examples of ciliogenesis. First, we demonstrate that the overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant variant of human PROM1 (i.e. mutation Y819F/Y828F) significantly decreases ciliary length in Madin–Darby canine kidney cells. These results contrast strongly to the previously observed enhancing effect of WT PROM1 on ciliary length. Mechanistically, the mutation impeded the interaction of PROM1 with ADP-ribosylation factor–like protein 13B, a key regulator of ciliary length. Second, we observed that in vivo knockdown of prom3 in zebrafish alters the number and length of monocilia in the Kupffer's vesicle, resulting in molecular and anatomical defects in the left-right asymmetry. These distinct loss-of-function approaches in two biological systems reveal that prom proteins are critical for the integrity and function of cilia. Our data provide new insights into ciliogenesis and might be of particular interest for investigations of the etiologies of ciliopathies.


This study discusses the perceptions, practices and challenges of African entrepreneurs in the currently dynamic andinterconnected global business environment. In doing so, it develops a conceptual framework taking into account the objectiveof the paper, the African context as well as anecdotal facts based recommendations that are intended to help Africanentrepreneurs how to react and function within the interactions of the international business environment. Implications of thesefindings and future research directions are discussed


The proper regeneration of intestinal muscle for functional peristalsis is the most challenging aspect of current small intestine tissue engineering. This study aimed to fabricate a hydrogel scaffold for the proliferation of intestinal smooth muscle cells (ISMCs). Tubular porous scaffolds of 10–20 wt% gelatin and 0.05–0.1 wt% poly(ε-caprolactone)-block-poly(γ-glutamic acid) blending hydrogel were cross-linked by carbodiimide and succinimide in an annular space of a glass mold. The scaffolds with higher gelatin contents degraded slower in the phosphate buffer solution. In rheological measurements, the hydrated scaffolds were elastic (all tangent delta <0.45); they responded differentially to frequency, indicating a complete viscoelastic property that is beneficial for soft tissue regeneration. Isolated rat ISMCs, with the characteristic biomarkers α-SMA, calponin and myh11, were loaded into the scaffolds by using either static or centrifugal methods. The average cell density inside the scaffolds increased in a time-dependent manner in most scaffolds of both seeding groups, although at early time points (seven days) the centrifugal seeding method trapped cells more efficiently and yielded a higher cell density than the static seeding method. The static seeding method increased the cell density from 7.5-fold to 16.3-fold after 28 days, whereas the centrifugal procedure produced a maximum increase of only 2.4-fold in the same period. In vitro degradation data showed that 50–80% of the scaffold was degraded by the 14th day. However, the self-secreted extracellular matrix maintained the integrity of the scaffolds for cell proliferation and spreading for up to 28 days. Confocal microscopic images revealed cell–cell contacts with the formation of a 3D network, demonstrating that the fabricated scaffolds were highly biocompatible. Therefore, these polymeric biomaterials hold great promise for in vivo applications of intestinal tissue engineering.


The effects of weld current, voltage, frequency and duty cycle on weld forming performance were investigated in SAW (Submerged Arc Welding) with square wave AC mode. The results showed that the penetration increased with the decrease of frequency and increase of duty cycle, but weld width showed the opposite change tendency. Furthermore, some experiments were implemented to analyze the effect of wire extension length and arc voltage on bead appearance. All of these experimental data could provide proper parameters for the lead arc and the trail arc in tandem SAW using square wave AC and also testified square wave AC was preferred over DC and traditional 50Hz AC. The square wave AC power source could be applied widely in tandem SAW.


Abstract Many global health institutions, including the World Health Organization, consider primary health care as the path towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC). However, there remain concerns about the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach in low-resource countries. Ethiopia has been implementing the primary health-care approach since the mid-1970s, with primary health care at the core of the health system since 1993. Nevertheless, comprehensive and systemic evidence on the practice and role of primary health care towards UHC is lacking in Ethiopia. We made a document review of publicly available qualitative and quantitative data. Using the framework of the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative we describe and analyse the practice of primary health care and identify successes and challenges. Implementation of the primary health-care approach in Ethiopia has been possible through policies, strategies and programmes that are aligned with country priorities. There has been a diagonal approach to disease control programmes along with health-systems strengthening, community empowerment and multisectoral action. These strategies have enabled the country to increase health services coverage and improve the population's health status. However, key challenges remain to be addressed, including inadequate coverage of services, inequity of access, slow health-systems transition to provide services for noncommunicable diseases, inadequate quality of care, and high out-of-pocket expenditure. To resolve gaps in the health system and beyond, the country needs to improve its domestic financing for health and target disadvantaged locations and populations through a precision public health approach. These challenges need to be addressed through the whole sustainable development agenda.


Summary The history of the chemical analysis of minerals is shortly reviewed. Following rapid developments between 1770 and 1810, few important changes took place for close on 130 years; new procedures led to simpler and more convenient separations but not, on the whole, to greater accuracy. The older analyses are, in general, neither worse nor better than modern ones, and analyses can only be assessed on internal evidence, if available, or on the reputation of the analyst. The development of microchemical and colorimetric techniques in the last 40 years has resulted in a great reduction in the amount of material required for a mineral analysis; 5 to 20 mg is usually sufficient, and in favourable cases a complete analysis may be possible on less than I mg. Some modern instrumental methods are considered, and it is concluded that they cannot wholly replace the classical wet-chemical methods in their modern developments. W. F. Hillebrand (1894) deplored the tendency of some petrologists to demand large numbers of very incomplete rock analyses, and his remarks are considered apposite today.


We present experimental data of acoustic emission (AE) induced by dislocation motion during "pure" viscoplastic (ductile) deformation of singlecrystals and polycrystals of ice which provide opportunity to revisit collective dislocation dynamics as a critical phenomenon, as recently proposed for brittle fracturing. The data were recorded during compression and torsion creep experiments. AE statistics of power law type were systematically obtained under different experimental conditions. Among the possible candidates for such a system with threshold dynamics exhibiting power law statistics, critical points, disordered first-order transitions, and self-organized criticality should be considered. The revisitation of dislocation dynamics as a critical phenomenon allows rationalization of collective effects as well as of the heterogeneity and complexity of viscoplastic deformation of crystalline materials. Such critical behavior implies that dislocation avalanches and strain localizations are unpredictible, in a deterministic sense, in space, time, and energy domains and that large plastic instabilities account for most of the viscoplastic deformation.


We assess the extent to which Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and R&D on this abatement technology are part of a socially efficient solution to the problem of climate change. For this purpose, we extend the intertemporal model of climate and directed technical change developed by Acemoglu et al. (2012) [The environment and directed technical change. American Economic Review, 102(1), 131–166] to include a sector responsible for CCS. We show that two types of solutions exist: a renewable energy regime where current CCS technology is only temporarily used but never further developed; and a fossil energy regime where CCS is part of a long-term solution and is further developed at about the same rate as fossil energy technology. Our computations show that for current estimates of the marginal cost of CCS, the renewable energy regime clearly dominates the fossil fuel energy regime.


I. INTRODUCTION The Oasis Hotel and Convention Center lies approximately fifteen miles south of Tijuana, Mexico.2 What once was a booming beach resort favorite among Americans looking to spend money and soak up the sun3 is now "crippled."4 "Upkeep on the grounds is slipping; paint is chipping and bathroom fixtures are leaking; and lights throughout the complex flicker with increasing frequency."5 By September 2002, the full-time Oasis staff dropped to about half its normal size.6 United States Customs agents passed fliers to U.S. citizens crossing the Mexican border warning them not to patronize or visit the Oasis.7 It behooved Americans to heed this warning. U.S. citizens who spent any money at the Oasis were subject to a maximum fine of one million dollars by the U.S. government.8 Shockingly, this exorbitant fine could be slapped on a U.S. citizen "for each violation, even if the violation was inadvertent and the individual . . . tried in good faith to comply with the law."9 The Oasis is currently "blacklisted" by the U.S. government under the authority of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act of 1999 (KDA).10 The KDA is a type of economic "smart" sanction employed in the United States' ongoing war on drugs.11 What makes these economic sanctions "smart" is their precision. Smart sanctions "narrowly target" individuals and entities by identifying (i.e., "blacklisting") and blocking (i.e., "freezing") access to assets.12 Blacklisting an individual or entity under smart sanctions generally requires all "U.S. persons"13 to freeze "all such property and interests in property within the United States, or within the possession or control of any United States person" which are owned or controlled by the target.14 Smart sanctions generally forbid any and all unlicensed "transaction [s] or dealing [s] by a United States person, or within the United States, in property or interests in property" of any target designated.15 Draconian criminal and civil penalties may ensue for violations of smart sanctions.16 The KDA targets significant drug traffickers identified by the president as "direct and immediate"17 threats to U.S. national security, foreign policy, or the economy.18 The KDA has a global application, and has been vilified by some as one of the most "horrific attack [s]" upon private ownership of property in the history of the United States,19 and as an unjust and oppressive example of unbridled executive power.20 Conversely, supporters of the legislation laud the KDA as a clear signal that the United States remains committed to the war on drugs.21 This Note seeks to expose the KDA to further public scrutiny and academic comment. As a controversial piece of legislation, surprisingly little legal scholarship has been directed at the statute, even though it was passed nearly five years ago. Much of the recent scholarship discussing the economic war on terrorism focuses on the USA PATRIOT ACT.22 Meanwhile, the KDA, which is in several respects a precursor to the broad powers exercised under the USA PATRIOT ACT, is largely ignored. Part II of this Note examines the KDA in its historical context by briefly contrasting the traditional and contemporary uses and purposes of economic sanctions by the U.S. government. Part III closely examines the KDA itself and highlights its particularly controversial provisions. Part III also identifies the findings and recommendations of the Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control (the Commission), which was created by the KDA.23 Part IV of this Note analyzes the issue of foreign nationals' standing to challenge actions taken pursuant to authority under the KDA. Specifically, Part IV argues that a statutory grant of limited foreign standing, despite a lack of minimum contacts, to challenge the constitutionality of agency action under the KDA would be consistent with current judicial precedent, would further U.S. foreign policy and national security goals, and would serve to protect the interests of U. …


A review is presented for analysis of problems in engineering & the sciences, with the use of the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method. The success of the meshless methods lie in the local nature, as well as higher order continuity, of the trial function approximations, high adaptivity and a low cost to prepare input data for numerical analyses, since the creation of a finite element mesh is not required. There is a broad variety of meshless methods available today; however the focus is placed on the MLPG method, in this paper. The MLPG method is a fundamental base for the derivation of many meshless formulations, since the trial and test functions can be chosen from different functional spaces. In the last decade, a broad community of researchers and scientists contributed to the development and implementation of the MLPG method in a wide range of scientific disciplines. This paper first presents the basics and principles of the MLPG method, the meshless local approximation techniques for trial and test functions, applications to elasticity and elastodynamics, plasticity, fracture and crack analysis, heat transfer and fluid flow, coupled problems involving multiphase materials, and techniques for increasing the accuracy and computational effectiveness. Various applications to 2-D planar problems, axisymmetric problems, plates and shells or 3-D problems are included. An increased number of published papers in literature in the recent years can be considered as a measure of the growing research activity in the general scope of the MLPG method, and thus, several trends and ideas for future research interest are also outlined.


This letter introduces a communication-free control scheme that allows wind generators connected by an HVDC-link providing inertia and primary frequency control services to the mainland system. The scheme consists of making the offshore and onshore frequency deviations proportional. It relies on frequency regulation at the offshore converter and dc voltage control with power and frequency droops at the onshore converter. This letter provides a mathematical formulation of the system and a discussion on application challenges related to the control scheme.


The Catholic Church in Ireland is Patron of over 92% of national primary schools. In
the context of postmodern, pluralist Irish society, this situation is becoming ever more
challenging, ever more unsustainable and ever more untenable.
This thesis examines the implications - both practical and moral - of the multi-faith,
multi-cultural and increasingly secular context of Irish society for the Catholic
Church's control and management of the Irish primary school sector. Drawing on the
theoretical framework of the concept of authenticity, the work proposes a renewed
conception of authentic Catholic education for contemporary Ireland.
At the outset, the enterprise of Catholic education in Ireland is located in relation to
the social and political environment in which Catholic primary schools developed and
the contemporary cultural and political climate in which they now operate. Then,
through an analysis of the literature on Catholic education in general, and the official
documents of the Magisterium in particular, the research draws out the commended
principles, defining characteristics and philosophical underpinnings of Catholic
education in the modern world. It attempts to articulate an authentic understanding,
for postmodern society, of three key constructs of Catholic education viz. -
evangelisation, commitment to the common good and the relationship between faith
and culture.
In presenting a clear picture of the authentic principles of Catholic education, the
thesis ultimately proposes a model of transforming Catholic primary school for
contemporary Irish society. The espoused model is based on a fundamental
expression of Catholic values but is explored in terms of how the model may interface
authentically with crucial socio-cultural issues facing Catholic education in Ireland
today, particularly in relation to school ethos, admissions policy, curriculum content
and staff appointments.
It is argued that the Catholic Church must respond to the challenges of postmodern
society in ways which serve both the Catholic school community and the wider Irish
society rather than out of a concern for control or self-preservation. A key conclusion
of the work is that the lack of alternative school places, along with Catholic
education's fundamental commitment to the common good, make it imperative that
non-Catholic pupils can secure places in Catholic schools on an equal footing with
their Catholic neighbours. It is argued that this does not mean abandoning core
Catholic principles but rather is an example of where social context and authentic
Catholic school identity actually meet.
A further conclusion of the work is that maintaining the status quo in Irish primary
education is no longer an option. It is argued that the Catholic Church must
acknowledge the difficulties resulting from its majority control of the primary school
system and must move beyond a rhetoric of plurality of patronage to actively address
the urgent need for a diversity of school types to serve the needs of a religiously and
culturally diverse Irish society.
Ultimately, the thesis concludes that the Catholic Church in Ireland must consider
radical proposals for changes to its control, management and running of Catholic
primary schools as to neglect to do so would be the very antithesis of authenticity.


Abstract. An established rainfall-streamflow modelling methodology employing a six-parameter unit hydrograph-based rainfall-runoff model structure is developed further to give an improved model-fit to daily flows for the River Teifi at Glan Teifi. It is shown that a previous model of this type for the Teifi, which (a) accounted for 85% of the variance in observed streamflow, (b) incorporated a pure time delay of one day and (c) was calibrated using a trade-off between two model-fit statistics (as recommended in the original methodology), systematically over-estimates low flows. Using that model as a starting point the combined application of a non-integer pure time delay and further adjustment of a temperature modulation parameter in the loss module, using the flow duration curve as an additional model-fit criterion, gives a much improved model-fit to low flows, while leaving the already good model-fit to higher flows essentially unchanged. The further adjustment of the temperature modulation loss module parameter in this way is much more effective at improving model-fit to low flows than the introduction of the non-integer pure time delay. The new model for the Teifi accounts for 88% of the variance in observed streamflow and performs well over the 5 percentile to 95 percentile range of flows. Issues concerning the utility and efficacy of the new model selection procedure are discussed in the context of hydrological studies, including regionalisation. Keywords: unit hydrographs, rainfall-runoff modelling, low flows, regionalisation.


In the present paper, an extensive decision-making problem of scheduling in flexible environment has been discussed. The novelty of the research is to allocate the machines to the operations on the basis of the priority. The highly prioritised machines are allocated first but least prioritised machines are also allocated for on-time delivery. The priority-based schedule provides a tradeoff approach between the utilisation and lead time. The problem has been tested on make-span as performance measure along with the sum of priority of all selected machines. To unravel the complexities of this problem, a heuristic based on a new approach, called artificial immune system (AIS) has been proposed. To strengthen AIS, a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) has been incorporated in the AIS heuristic. FLC changes the hypermutation rate adaptively at iteration. A numerical example has been taken for showing the efficacy of the proposed algorithm. The supremacy of the problem has been shown by the randomly generated data-set with increased complicacy of the problems. The results are also validated by statistical analysis using analysis of variance.


Decentralized wireless networks are gaining increasing popularity as they do not need a fixed infrastructure. Simultaneously, multiple research initiatives have led to different findings at the PHY layer of the wireless communication systems, which include Multi-Packet Reception (MPR) techniques that enable a receiver to decode multiple packets that are transmitted simultaneously. However, the distributed nature of decentralized wireless networks demands different network control policies that should take into account the MPR capabilities to increase the network performance. This work studies the performance of a wireless network composed of multiple transmitters that are willing to transmit to a single receiver. This receiver has MPR capability and adopts an Energy-based Sensing (EBS) technique to enable uplink users' transmissions without interfering with the ongoing transmissions from other transmitters. The first remark to be made is that the MPR technique performance depends on the channel propagation conditions and on the amount of time the receiver needs to detect the spectrum's occupancy state. However, it is shown that by increasing the number of samples needed to increase the sensing accuracy, the receiver may degrade its throughput, namely if the receiver is equipped with a single radio, that is sequentially used for sensing and transmitting (split-phase operation). The results presented in the paper show the impact of the channel propagation condition and EBS parameterization on wireless network throughput and the cases where the receiver MPR capture performance is greatly improved by the use of a spectrum sensing technique.


Title of Dissertation: TRAJECTORIES OF FRESHMEN ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF DRINKING REFUSAL SELFEFFICACY Keisha Lynn Watson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Bradley Boekeloo School of Public Health The misuse of alcohol is a major social and health issue for college students in the United States. Specifically, first-year students are at a higher risk of consuming alcohol than the rest of the college population. Considerable data suggest heterogeneity in how alcohol use changes during adolescence. New statistical procedures, such as latent class growth analysis (LCGA), are now available that are better suited to study behavior change than earlier applied traditional methods such as regression analysis and structural equation modeling. This study aimed to reveal alcohol consumption patterns of college freshmen using secondary data and LCGA. A second aim of this study was to examine the influence of drinking refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) on potential trajectories of alcohol use among college freshmen. Data used for this study was collected by a federally funded NIH grant entitled "Peers as Family: Preventing Problem Drinking" and includes longitudinal self-reported data of freshmen alcohol use and DRSE. Results revealed four distinct types of drinking trajectories among college freshmen. Growth patterns identified had the following characteristics: 1) "Light-stable" drinkers reported drinking very little or no alcohol use across time assessments; 2) "Escalating" drinkers gradually increased alcohol consumption across time assessments; 3) "Moderate increase-decrease" drinkers increased alcohol use between first and second time points and decreased consumption between second and third time assessments; and 4) "Heavy increase-decrease" drinkers shared an identical pattern of consumption as the moderate increase-decrease group only levels of alcohol use were significantly higher at each time assessment. DRSE was found to significantly (p < .0006) predict membership in all trajectories described above. The light-stable trajectory reported higher levels of DRSE than all other growth patterns, while the heavy increase-decrease trajectory reported the lowest levels of DRSE when compared to all other growth patterns. Study results illustrated that DRSE plays a significant role in explaining why some college freshmen abstain from alcohol use, while others escalate use or drink at high levels over time. Ultimately, this knowledge may facilitate the development of more tailored and consequently effective interventions designed to reduce alcohol consumption on college campuses. TRAJECTORIES OF FRESHMEN ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF DRINKING REFUSAL SELF-EFFICACY By Keisha Lynn Watson Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2008


The current research aimed to explore the direct and indirect influences of self-compassion (SC) on alcohol consumption (AC), being mediated by stress and depression among Thai businessmen in Bangkok, Thailand. This research investigation employed quantitative methods based on data derived from a self-report survey questionnaire on a population of 266 Thai businessmen (N=266). This study used the correlation approach via path analysis to determine if the targeted population's level of SC can predict their level of AC, both directly and indirectly, being mediated by their levels of stress and depression. The findings demonstrated significant direct influence of SC on AC. It was also found that SC has negative direct influence on stress and depression, indicating that the more self-compassionate the participants are, the lower is their level of depression and stress. Surprisingly, this research did not find an indirect influence of SC on AC, being mediated by stress and depression. The findings, conclusions, limitations, and recommendations of the study were discussed accordingly.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa harbours virulence and antibiotic resistance genes that contribute to life-threatening infections. In silico PCR amplification detected both virulence and antibiotic resistance genes of eighteen Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. L lipoprotein (oprL) gene was found in 72.22% of the isolates and is used usually to rapidly identify Pseudomonas aeruginosa species. Alkaline protease (apr) was detected in 66.67% of the isolates. Protein biosynthesis inhibited by exotoxin A (exoA), was found in 55.56% of the isolates. Fifty percent (n=9) of the isolates had the exoenzyme S (exoS) and elastase (lasB) genes. Thirteen isolates (72.22%) which harboured the phospholipid C (plcH) genes, were also found to be positive for rhamnolipid AB (rhlAB) genes. Thirteen isolates (72.22%) were found to possess alginate (algD) and neuraminidae (nan2) genes, respectively. Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA7 harboured both aph(3") and aph(6)-1d genes. Only sulfonamide resistance gene, sul1 was present in 11.11% (n=2) of the isolates. Beta-lactamase gene, blaTEM was present in only one isolate and no tetracycline resistance gene was found. Fluoroquinolone resistance-determining region of the gyrA and parC genes were present in fourteen (77.78%) and thirteen (72.22%) isolates, respectively. Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCGM2.S1 is a multidrug resistant bacterium since it harboured class 1 integrase gene. In silico pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis was able to group eighteen isolates into three genotypes. Gene distribution pattern within genotypes was almost similar and not dependent on genotypes. The data generated here helps to predict virulence and antibiotic resistance profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosaspecies based on genotype.


Responsible gambling is an area of research and industry which seeks to understand the pathways to harm from gambling and implement programmes to reduce or prevent harm that gambling might cause. There is a growing body of research that has used gambling behavioural data to model and predict harmful gambling, and the industry is showing increasing interest in technologies that can help gambling operators to better predict harm and prevent it through appropriate interventions. However, industry surveys and feedback clearly indicate that in order to enable wider adoption of such data-driven methods, industry and policy makers require a greater understanding of how machine learning methods make these predictions. In this paper, we make use of the TREPAN algorithm for extracting decision trees from Neural Networks and Random Forests. We present the first comparative evaluation of predictive performance and tree properties for extracted trees, which is also the first comparative evaluation of knowledge extraction for safer gambling. Results indicate that TREPAN extracts better performing trees than direct learning of decision trees from the data. Overall, trees extracted with TREPAN from different models offer a good compromise between prediction accuracy and interpretability. TREPAN can produce decision trees with extended tests rules of different forms, so that interpretability depends on multiple factors. We present detailed results and a discussion of the trade-offs with regard to performance and interpretability and use in the gambling industry.


Empirical research is an inescapable part of responsible congregational analysis. The first question pertains to the value and contribution that empirical research has made to the process of congregational analysis. This article will briefly refer to such contributions. Such analysis can be approached from many different angles and in many different ways. The question remains: Which principles and guidelines should be taken into account when we do such an analysis? On top of all of this is the challenge to do it within the South African context. What should a congregational analysis which will help South African congregations look like? In the search for some methodological guidelines for congregational analysis for the South African context there will, firstly, be a discussion of a number of theological points of departure for a congregational analysis. Following on that will be the methodological guidelines for congregational analysis and, thirdly, guidelines for the South African context will be discussed. The argument in the article ends with a critical reflection of the markers discussed, and a look at the road ahead.


To investigate the significance of applying continuous epidural anaesthesia in painless delivery anaesthesia, 125 cases of full-term delivery parturients who were admitted to the hospital's Obstetrics Department between November 2015 and June 2016 were selected and randomly grouped. Sixty four cases who opted for continuous epidural anaesthesia during delivery were divided into Group I, 61 cases not opted for analgesia were divided into Group II and results of delivery and the delivery course were compared between the two groups. There were 3 caesarean deliveries (4.69 %) of 64 cases in Group I, 18 (29.51 %) of 61 cases in Group II (p<0.05) and the first and second stages of labor in Group I were shorter than those in Group II (p<0.05). The technique of continuous epidural anaesthesia in parturient delivery is helpful to improve the quality of anaesthesia and shorten the delivery course, which shall be prioritized.


Introduction and objective. The prevalence of Molar-Incisors Hypomineralization (MIH) and difficulties in diagnosing the disease make it is necessary to determine the exact diagnostic and therapeutic patterns of management. Because of the higher requirements of patients affected by MIH, restorative management of such teeth is a challenge, both for the physician and for the suffering patient. Brief description of state of knowledge. Many long-term randomized studies and meta-analyses clearly indicate that the etiology of occurrence of molar-incisor hypomineralization is multifactorial. Most often it is a combination of systemic and genetic factors. Currently, one of the widely-discussed factors is deficiency of vitamin D as a key factor in the process of enamel development. The study describes current information about Molar-Incisor Hypomineralization, and presents a clinical approach after diagnosis according to protocol which facilities planning of the subsequent stages. Conclusions. The preventive or treatment procedure of MIH should also engage the guardians / parents of the children. The disease undiagnosed in time, due to its pain implications, can lead to problems in dental treatment. Often, the lack of awareness of dentists having no knowledge about the prevalence of MIH, leads to drawing erroneous conclusions and determining therapeutic solutions harmful to the patient, including extraction of the teeth affected by the disease.


Obesity increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Physical activity can reduce T2DM and CVD risk, and increase aerobic capacity, a significant predictor of all-cause mortality and morbidity. High intensity interval training (HIIT) produces similar improvements in aerobic capacity to continuous moderate exercise (CME). Different genotypes of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) have been implicated in improving aerobic capacity and therefore predicted health. This study investigated the effects of different ACE genotypes on the impact of 6 weeks of HIIT on aerobic capacity, and thus health status. 20 young adults were recruited for this study; test subjects completed 6 weeks of HIIT 3 times a week. VO2max was tested to determine aerobic capacity pre- and post-HIIT and DNA collected from saliva for determination ACE genotype. After 6 weeks of HIIT there was no significant change in VO2max; when subjects were separated into responder categories, high responders significantly increased their aerobic capacity whilst there was a large but non-significant decrease in non-responders. Subjects carrying a D-allele showed a significant increase in VO2max following HIIT indicating specific ACE genotypes may be associated with differing VO2max responses. These preliminary results suggest that HIIT can significantly reduce the time required for exercise whilst still achieving notable improvements in aerobic capacity in high responders; they also indicate that ACE D-allele carriers who would not usually be expected to show large VO2max responses following CME may yield equivalent aerobic capacity improvements following HIIT, and thereby reduce their overall morbidity and mortality disease risk.


A knowledge-based instrument fault detection and isolation (IFDI) technique is proposed and described. It is based on the "duplication" of measurement devices by means of suitable mathematical relationships and is implemented on an expert system. The latter allows a mathematical model to be substituted by integrating qualitative models with empirical knowledge, thereby reducing overall computer effort without any corresponding decrease in diagnostic capabilities. This technique is particularly efficient when applied to detect and isolate faults in measurement systems integrated in control architectures. It is applied to an automatic measurement station for induction motor testing to illustrate its characteristics and performance. The experimental results are also reported, illustrating IFDI performance mainly in terms of promptness, sensitivity, and selectivity. >


Electron microscopy and single-particle averaging were performed on isolated reaction centre (RC)—antenna complexes (RC–LH1–PufX complexes) of Rhodobaca bogoriensis strain LBB1, with the aim of establishing the LH1 antenna conformation, and, in particular, the structural role of the PufX protein. Projection maps of dimeric complexes were obtained at 13 Å resolution and show the positions of the 2 × 14 LH1 α- and β-subunits. This new dimeric complex displays two open, C-shaped LH1 aggregates of 13 αβ polypeptides partially surrounding the RCs plus two LH1 units forming the dimer interface in the centre. Between the interface and the two half rings are two openings on each side. Next to the openings, there are four additional densities present per dimer, considered to be occupied by four copies of PufX. The position of the RC in our model was verified by comparison with RC–LH1–PufX complexes in membranes. Our model differs from previously proposed configurations for Rhodobacter species in which the LH1 ribbon is continuous in the shape of an S, and the stoichiometry is of one PufX per RC.


A multivariate binary choice model is used to examine the climate effects on cattle breed selection across Texas counties. Angus, Brangus, and Brahman are considered in the model. Results suggest that it is more efficient to estimate the binary choice equations jointly than separately. Counties having higher summer temperatures are more likely to choose Brahman and warmer winters increase the likelihood of adopting Brangus and Brahman. Angus price imposes positive effects on both Angus and Brangus. In general, the marginal probability of selecting Angus is much higher than that of Brangus or Brahman.


A The examination of the quality of life on societal and individual level is emphasized increasingly in the social researches. The quality of life has subjective and objective components as well and we can get the complete view of the consumers' perceived wellbeing by the measurement of these components. The objective of this article is to explore how the young people have the evaluation mechanism to their perceived quality of life and how they evaluate their health. According to the aim of this research, first we gain insight into the literature of the topic and after then we analyse the results of the empirical research. Unfortunately in respect of the evaluation to health our hypotheses were justifiable. The health does not have of high priority value for the members of 14-18 years old pupils. According to our research results we conclude that health and healthy lifestyle as an approach can be strengthened within the public and higher educational sectors. But it must become clear, that dissemination of knowledge, information is not sufficient, as without actively involving those of concerned, the problem can not be solved.


Previously, we described a highly conserved nonessential African swine fever virus (ASFV) right variable region gene, NL. Deletion of NL from the European pathogenic isolate E70 resulted in almost complete attenuation of the virus in domestic swine. To study gene function further, NL gene deletion mutants were constructed from two pathogenic African ASFV isolates, Malawi Lil-20/1 (Mal) and Pretoriuskop/96/4 (Pr4). Unexpectedly, both Mal (Mal-deltaNL) and PR4 (Pr4deltaNL) null mutants remained highly virulent when inoculated in swine. Mal-deltaNL exhibited a disease and virulence phenotype indistinguishable from its revertant, Mal-NLR, which caused 100% mortality. Mortality among Pr4deltaNL-infected animals was also high; however, a significant delay in onset of fever and viraemia and in time to death was observed. These data indicate that NL gene function is not required for ASFV virulence and that other yet-to-be identified viral determinants perform significant virulence functions in these African field isolates.


A combined Maquet and proximal tibial valgus osteotomy has been used to treat patients presenting with anterior and medial compartmental degenerative arthritis. Patients with clinically symptomatic lateral compartmental disease, gross instability, or a nonfunctional range of motion were excluded. Thirty-four knees in 31 patients whose average age was 59.6 years were studied. Followup periods range from six to 36 months (mean, 16 months). Results have been tabulated with respect to the patient's preoperative radiographs and clinical knee ratings. The surgical technique has been the same throughout the series and is notable for the absence of metallic fixation and for the division of the tibiofibular joint proximally without an associated fibular osteotomy. Neither nonunion nor peroneal nerve dysfunction was encountered postoperation. To date, 68% of the results have been graded as good to excellent, 20% as fair, and 12% have failed. No correlation was found between preoperative radiographic rating and postoperative result.


Abstract. The term "cultural heritage" has been enriched with multiple contents in the last decades, partly thanks to the protection instruments developed by UNESCO. Despite the past, the cultural heritage is not limited to monuments and collections of objects. The term nowadays includes tangible and intangible cultural heritage (ICH). ICH includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. Within this context, the Museum of "Passione di Sordevolo" preserves and spreads the cultural and social value of the largest representation of popular Christian theatre in Italy, called "La Passione di Sordevolo". The paper presents the results of the research of the reconstructive modelling and visual storytelling project called "Digital historical scenic design". The project explores the use of digital technologies to create new content compatible with the Museum's mission: dissemination, communication and valorization of the documentary heritage (photographs, sketches, drawings) and the systematic collection of the oral tradition of this theatrical tradition.


In this paper, basing on Hu haichang's theory and using Fourier transformation, the problem is changed into solving fourth-order and second-order linear ordinary differential equations. The eigenvalue method is used for solving these equations, and then both displacement and stress with undetermined coefficients can be received. Considering the boundary conditions, the exact displacement and stress of the transversely isotropic foundation can also be gotten. Especially on the transversely isotropic elastic half space, with the aid of computer software, a more simple vertical displacement is presented. When the foundation is degenerated into isotropic elastic half space, the displacement is also degenerated into elastic half space displacement in a rectangular coordinate system which is given in the reference. And this exactly proves the result which is received from this paper is right. On this basis, we can analyze a settlement of transversely isotropic foundation and the static characteristics of rectangular plate on the transversely isotropic foundation.


Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of fatal trauma cases presenting to the Emergency Department of XXX Training and Research Hospital in Turkey. Methods: In this retrospective study, the forensic cases of fatal trauma patients admitted to the emergency department between 15.06.2017 and 15.06.2019 were obtained from the hospital's automation system, and the patient files and hospital police records were evaluated. Results: The most common cause of forensic trauma cases was pedestrian accidents (n=18; 25%), and the least common cause was crush injuries by a heavy object (n=2; 2.8%). The most common site of trauma was the cranial region (n=45; 62.5%). Forty-six patients died (63.9%) in the emergency room and 26 (36.1%) at various clinics. The average duration of active dying was 3.7 ± 17.9 hours. Fifty-four cases (75%) were found to be ethanol-negative and 18 (25%) were ethanol-positive. Conclusion: The most common forensic trauma cases are pedestrian accidents and seen in male patients. Most of these patients die in the emergency room, where they are first admitted. The most important factor in reducing mortality is preventing the occurrence of trauma. In addition to giving the person adequate and appropriate treatment, physicians also have the responsibility of writing clear and intelligible forensic reports in accordance with the laws and hospital rules.


Authentic leadership is an emerging concept in the field of leadership which draws on positive psychology and focuses on leaders" values and beliefs. It places development at the forefront of the theory and strives to develop sustainable, socially responsible organizations where the paramount concern is the wellbeing of the employees, the organization and their communities. The aim of the present research was to examine the relationship between authentic leadership and the outcomes of job satisfaction, team performance and follower authentic leadership. Participants in the study were 40 employees of two midsized New Zealand companies. The respondents rated their own levels of authentic leadership (follower) and their leader"s levels of authentic leadership using the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ). Other measures surveyed respondents levels of job satisfaction, their perception of team performance and the development opportunities provided by their leader. The results showed leaders" authentic leadership was related to followers" authentic leadership and to development opportunities. There was no significant relationship between leaders" authentic leadership and the outcomes of follower job satisfaction and team performance. However job satisfaction and leaders" authentic leadership together increased levels of team performance; followers" authentic leadership and leaders" authentic leadership interacted to show increased levels of job satisfaction; and leaders" authentic leadership and development opportunities interacted to increase levels of followers" authentic leadership. The study makes an important contribution to the research on authentic leadership by making the link between leaders" authentic leadership and followers" authentic leadership; a major premise of the theory. This research has drawn attention to the complexities of the leader-follower process and the process of authentic leadership development. The research establishes that development opportunities are not the mechanism through which followers become authentic leaders. Further research to explore the outcomes that authentic leadership is associated with and the mechanisms that are involved in authentic leadership development is recommended. iii Authentic leadership


Aim: The 2020 pandemic motivated the appearance and usage of many e-learning platforms. Despite this boom, the academic medium hosts very few research articles analyzing the user's satisfaction with e-learning systems. This study meets the challenge and evaluates the satisfaction that asynchronous e-learning systems generate in their end-users. The evaluation is done by using the ELS (e-learner satisfaction) scale. This scale contains four factors: Learner interface, Learning community, Content of the system, and Personalization.
Method: 394 tech undergrads (Mage = 19,27; S.D. = 0.65; 132 females and 262 males) participated in this study. They responded in both physical and digital mediums. The study used the Maximum Likelihood - Exploratory Factor Analysis (including Varimax rotation) statistical model for 39% of the subjects and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis model for 61% of the subjects. The study also used descriptive and correlational analyses.
Results show that the number of factors remains rather constant when reducing items and that it explains 62,83% of the scale's total variation, given the scale's Romanian version and that is it used in a different cultural setting than that for which the ELS was initially created. The Personalization factor is split into items that influence the Content factor and items which do not. The new Romanian version scale showcases useful psychometric properties (??/df = 2,09; GFI =0,92; CFI = 0,95; RMSEA = 0,058; SRMR=0.0512). The internal consistency for the newly obtained subscales is adequate, given that it displays Cronbach's ? factors with values between 0,73 and 0,82. The Cronbach's ? total scale value is 0.87 (CI95% - 0,85-0,89). Out of 16 items, 15 have a corrected item-to-total correlation factor of over 0,52. The last item has a corrected item for a total correlation factor of 0,48.
Conclusion: E-learner satisfaction scale is a valid instrument for the Romanian context.


The continuous-time service network design problem (CTSNDP) occurs widely in practice. It aims to minimize the total operational cost by optimizing the schedules of transportation services and the routes of shipments for dispatching, which can occur at any time point along a continuous planning horizon. In order to be cost effective, shipments often wait to be consolidated, which incurs a holding cost. Despite its importance, the holding cost has not been taken into account in existing studies on the CTSNDP, since introducing it significantly complicates the problem and makes the solution development very challenging. To tackle this challenge, we develop a new dynamic discretization discovery algorithm, which can solve the CTSNDP with holding cost to exactly optimum. The algorithm is based on a novel relaxation model and several new optimization techniques. Results from extensive computational experiments validate the efficiency and effectiveness of the new algorithm, and also demonstrate the benefits that can be gained by taking into account holding costs in solving the CTSNDP. In particular, we show that the significance of the benefits depends on the connectivity of the underlying physical network, and on the flexibility of the shipments' time requirements.


1. Cerebral-cortex synaptosomes were shown to synthesize (14C)acetylcholine after incubation with (14C)choline, and 25mM-KCl released (14C)acetylcholine (but not (14C)choline) into the medium by a Ca2+-dependent and Mg2+-sensitive process. 2. The K+-stimulated release of (14C)acetylcholine was inhibited by more than 80% after preincubation of the synaptosomes with 10(5) mouse lethal doses of botulinum toxin/ml. (14C)choline uptake, (14C)acetylcholine synthesis, intrasynaptosomal K+ and occluded lactate dehydrogenase were unaffected by the toxin. It also failed to prevent the K+-stimulated release of (3H)noradrenaline and (14C)glycine from synaptosomes. 3. Fractionation of hypo-osmotically shocked synaptosomes revealed that more than 75% of the radioactive acetylcholine was in the cytoplasmic compartment, although the vesicle pellet contained more total acetylcholine than the cytoplasmic pool. Consequently the specific radioactivity of acetylcholine in the cytoplasmic pool was almost 5 times that of the vesicles. This distribution was unaffected by preincubation with botulinum toxin. It is concluded that the toxin acts directly on the release of acetylcholine, rather than influencing its storage. 4. After K+-stimulation, toxin-inhibited synaptosomes contained increased amounts of total acetylcholine, which suggests that its rate of synthesis is controlled by depolarization rather than release.


A multiscale polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip is presented, which provides an array of mesoscale open wells for cell culturing and, as unique feature, an array of microscale 1 µm deep channels to fluidically connect neighboring wells. As demonstrated with SH‐SY5Y cells, the small dimensions of the channels prevent migration of the cell soma but allow physical contacts established by the outgrowth of protoplasmic protrusions between cells in adjacent wells. Another important feature is the chip's mountability on solid substrates, such as glass. This enables the use of substrates previously patterned with biomolecules, as demonstrated by DNA‐directed immobilization of proteins inside the reactor wells. Given the versatile addressability of cells, whether through surface‐bound or inkjet‐based administration of bioactive substances, it is believed that the reactor could be used for research in cell–cell communication networks, for example, in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.


The carboxy-terminal tail domains of neurofilament subunits neurofilament NF-M and NF-H have been postulated to be responsible for the modulation of axonal caliber. To test how subunit composition affects caliber, transgenic mice were generated to increase axonal NF- M. Total neurofilament subunit content in motor and sensory axons remained essentially unchanged, but increases in NF-M were offset by proportionate decreases in both NF-H and axonal cross-sectional area. Increase in NF-M did not affect the level of phosphorylation of NF-H. This indicates that (a) in vivo NF-H and NF-M compete either for coassembly with a limiting amount of NF-L or as substrates for axonal transport, and (b) NF-H abundance is a primary determinant of axonal caliber. Despite inhibition of radial growth, increase in NF-M and reduction in axonal NF-H did not affect nearest neighbor spacing between neurofilaments, indicating that cross-bridging between nearest neighbors does not play a crucial role in radial growth. Increase in NF- M did not result in an overt phenotype or neuronal loss, although filamentous swellings in perikarya and proximal axons of motor neurons were frequently found.


This new chapter examines the sometimes fraught relationship between authors, publishers and distributors, and fans. While copyright law protects authors and creators, and while publishers and distributors benefit from either assigned copyright or specific copyright protection of distribution and transmission of content, fans are sometimes 'shut out'. A flourishing online community of fan creators who produce written fanfiction, remixed music, and fan videos sometimes feel copyright law is designed to keep them at a distance from the creators and characters they love. This chapter examines where the balance should be drawn between copyright protection for original content and the interests of fans and other users in creating non-commercial derivative works. It concludes with a short discussion of computer-generated works as a form of original creation.


This paper presents a power tracking Doherty power amplifier (DPA) for high linearity and high efficiency. To achieve maximum linearity while preserving high efficiency of the DP A, the drain bias voltage of the carrier amplifier and the gate and drain bias voltages of the peaking amplifier are adaptively controlled using the power tracking method. For experimental verification, a 2-way DPA has been implemented at the wide-band code division multiple access (WCDMA) band of 2.11-2.17 GHz and tested using one-tone, two-tone, and 4-carrier WCDMA signals. Two-tone and WCDMA test results show notable cancellation of the IM3 components and significant improvement in adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) over a wide range of output power levels, while obtaining high efficiency.


1. Hemorrhage with immediate saline infusion causes the appearance in the peripheral blood of a slightly increased number of normoblasts provided normoblasts are already present in the blood stream. Marrow hyperplasia does not intensify this reaction and the cells found probably do not leave the marrow pulp but are in the blood stream at the time of the experiment. 2. The slight increase in cells occurring immediately after hemorrhage and infusion is designated a pseudocrisis. True crises are much more extensive; they tend to occur just before rapid increase in the erythrocyte count and usually towards the end of the 1st week following hemorrhage. 3. Red cells and white cells tend to move from the marrow together, but this association is not invariable. 4. After repeated hemorrhages regeneration occurs independently of the appearance of nucleated red cells in the peripheral blood. 5. Repeated hemorrhages associated with extension of erythrocyteproducing marrow lead to polycythemia but not to a conspicuous increase in speed of regeneration.


Recent literature shows that RT has been misunderstood and sometimes perceived as inferior to other treatment services in the health care arena (e.g., Chen & Chippendale, 2018; Harkins, 2010; Harkins & Bedini, 2013; Hinton, 2000). Although the field of RT has made significant advances in demonstrating its value, there is a lot of work yet to be done. Over three decades ago, Thorn (1984) stated that marketing is more than just selling a product and encouraged the field of RT to survey its own "…reputation and image, quality and types of service, accreditation and certification, status, availability and accessibility of services, and service philosophy" (p. 44) to determine effective marketing strategies. To that point, Bedini's (2017) national study on marketing among Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (CTRSs) found only moderate efforts and understanding regarding how to market their own programs. This current analysis delved deeper into these data, examining the narrative responses to the open-ended question on identified marketing needs in RT. Results present patterns and themes among the responses regarding CTRSs' perceptions of their marketing needs. From these results, recommendations for practice and further research were identified. Subscribe to TRJ


Objective To develop and evaluate a written prescribing test for new paediatric doctors at St Mary's Hospital, London. Methods To address the rise in paediatric prescribing errors reported in March and September (six errors/month, compared with an average of 2.2 errors/month throughout the year), which coincides with the arrival of new doctors, a practical pharmacy induction session was introduced. The format and concepts from the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Mandatory Medicines Management Training module1 were used, together with the London Deanery paediatric safe prescribing presentation.2 A senior paediatric pharmacist and two senior paediatric trainees designed the session, a fictitious case scenario. Doctors were given copies of the local drug chart, and a BNFC, and asked to prescribe the medication required. The case covered important prescribing principles, such paediatric prescribing, drug interactions and the prescribing of fluids. Charts were identified by the doctor's name, and were collected for review and marking. This allowed an introduction to the local drug chart as well as individual doctor assessment. A feedback questionnaire was sent to participants after the session. Results 22 doctors attended the session. Any incorrect, illegible or unclear prescriptions were identified. Only 2/22 (9%) of prescriptions had no errors; two major problems were identified. First, 11/22 (50%) intravenous aciclovir prescriptions were incorrect, due to wrong selection of dose and failure to identify the dose increase required in immunocompromised patients. Second, 13/22 (60%) of doctors prescribed intravenous fluids unclearly. In 11/13 (85%) cases, there was no documentation explaining the fluid calculation, resulting in an unclear instruction regarding infusion duration. There were two drug charts with a number of errors. A consultant spoke to these individuals separately, and they were given additional training. An email was also circulated to the department giving feedback from the session. Of 13/22 (59%) responses to the questionnaire, 12 (92%) felt the session had been helpful and 11 (85%) felt it was valuable to have both doctor and pharmacist input. 5/13 (39%) doctors had participated in similar prescribing exercises of which 3/5 (60%) included a written test. 12 (92%) felt it was useful to have the introduction to the local drug chart, and that it was useful to teach the prescribing of intravenous fluid; 7 (54%) felt the session had subsequently improved their prescribing. Conclusion The pharmacy induction session offered a good opportunity to improve the prescribing of new doctors starting at the Trust. It covered a number of paediatric prescribing principles, introduced local prescribing stationary and was well received by participants. The assessment of individual doctors meant that additional support could be given early where needed. Future audits will assess the error rate over the next few intakes of junior doctors to see if the number of reported errors decreases.


Power consumption continues to be a challenge for designers as the complexity of NoC increases. The scaling down of technology towards the deep nanometer era will only cause an increase in the amount of power NoC components will consume. Therefore, low power design solution is one of the essential requirements of future NoC-based System-on-Chip (SoC) applications. Several techniques have been proposed over the years to improve the performance of the NoCs, trading-off power efficiency; particularly power hungry elements in NoC routers. Power dissipation can be reduced by optimizing the router elements, applying architecture saving techniques and communication links. This paper presents recent contributions and efficient saving techniques at the router, NoC architecture and Communication link level.


In a conventional and lean operating engine, the state of mixture is very important in the combustion and emission characteristics. Lean operation is known to decrease the formation while maintaining a good fuel economy, but the unstable operation due to misfire and erratic combustion prevents engines from being operated at very lean mixtures, so both combustion rates and exhaust emission formation need to be satisfied comparablely. In this study, it is designed and experimented the modified engine, and analyzed the combustion and exhaust emission according to the change of engine speed and with adding ozone. The conclusions were drawn out and enumerated as a following. 1. At the experimental result of automobile diesel engine, it has been verified that the formation of particulate matter(PM) gas is able to be lower with the addition of optimum quautities of ozone. 2. Carbon monoxide(CO) was formed by the lack of oxygen and the thermal dissociation in the combustion process. Therefore, with the change of swirl valve's position and addition of oxygen and ozone, CO formation was decreased by the increasing of excess O2, and increased by the combustion gas temperature higher. As a result of the two effects, CO formation was decreased in this study. 3. Hydrocarbon(HC) was formed by the lack of 02, and the flow of mixture in cylinder. According to opening of the swirl valve and adding the oxygen and ozone, hydrocarbon gas was decreased by respectively 20%, 9%, and 27.5%. 4. Nitric oxides(NO x ) was strongly affected by the combustion gas temperature. As a result of respectively experimental conditions, NO x formation was increased about 20% due to be the higher combustion gas temperature.


Determining the pre-impact velocities of vehicles is of prime importance when investigating road traffic collisions. Two types of impact-phase model are in common use to achieve this purpose: those based on the conservation of linear and angular momentum as exemplified by the models presented by Brach and Brach and by Ishikawa, and those based on the computer reconstruction of automobile speeds on the highway (CRASH) program which explicitly includes the conservation of energy. A summary of the various models is provided to show how the models are related to each other, together with a brief discussion of their strengths and weaknesses. Of particular significance is the fact that, although there are differences between these models, it is shown that they are equivalent provided that certain conditions are satisfied, namely that the crush or impact plane is oriented perpendicular to the impulse. In addition, it is shown that they produce identical results from consistent input data. Explicit conversion factors between the models are provided, together with a novel method to transform the coefficients of restitution between various orientations of the crush plane. This facilitates comparison and movement between the models and it is shown that the choice of model utilised for an individual collision depends largely on the availability of particular data.