Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT) solvers and equality saturation engines must generate proof certificates from e-graph-based congruence closure procedures to enable verification and conflict clause generation. Smaller proof certificates speed up these activities. Though the problem of generating proofs of minimal size is known to be NP-complete, existing proof minimization algorithms for congruence closure generate unnecessarily large proofs and introduce asymptotic overhead over the core congruence closure procedure. In this paper, we introduce an O($n$5) time algorithm which generates optimal proofs under a new relaxed "proof tree size" metric that directly bounds proof size. We then relax this approach further to a practical O($n$ log(n)) greedy algorithm which generates small proofs with no asymptotic overhead. We implemented our techniques in the egg equality saturation toolkit, yielding the first certifying equality saturation engine. We show that our greedy approach in egg quickly generates substantially smaller proofs than the state-of-the-art Z3 SMT solver on a corpus of 3760 benchmarks.


We assessed socioeconomic position and hearing loss in a Norwegian population of 17 593 men and women aged 30–54 years in 1984 to 1986 who were followed for 11 years. We used analysis of variance, logistic regression, and population-attributable fraction analyses to examine associations. Significant socioeconomic inequalities in hearing loss were found among men. Adjusted odds ratios for hearing loss were approximately 1.3 to 1.9 for semi- and unskilled manual workers compared with participants with high occupational class. (Am J Public Health. 2009;99:1376– 1378. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.133215)


This paper explores the role of deterrence in contests. As a general rule, we show that for a deterrence strategy to be played by rational agents, it is necessary that the contest be destructive. We show for a very general class of functions that pure strategy deterrence equilibria where contestants deter one another do not exist. A corollary of this finding is that under fairly general conditions, agents should always be expected to engage in contests. Applied to international relations, our results imply that war is always a potential outcome despite deterrence attempts.


Using a broad set of national industry trade shocks, I employ a novel approach to estimate agglomeration effects by exploiting within industry variation in indirect exposure to the other local industries' (national) trade shocks across local labour markets. This variation stems from differences in local industry composition and allows to test for the existence of heterogeneous agglomeration effects across industries. I find considerable employment spillovers from other tradable industries' trade shocks and even stronger effects within the same broad sector. Spillovers are larger for industries employing similar workers and are triggered predominantly by shocks to high-technology industries.


Complexins (CPXs I–IV) presumably act as regulators of the SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) complex, but their function in the intact mammalian nervous system is not well established. Here, we explored the role of CPXs in the mouse auditory system. Hearing was impaired in CPX I knock-out mice but normal in knock-out mice for CPXs II, III, IV, and III/IV as measured by auditory brainstem responses. Complexins were not detectable in cochlear hair cells but CPX I was expressed in spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) that give rise to the auditory nerve. Ca2+-dependent exocytosis of inner hair cells and sound encoding by SGNs were unaffected in CPX I knock-out mice. In the absence of CPX I, the resting release probability in the endbulb of Held synapses of the auditory nerve fibers with bushy cells in the cochlear nucleus was reduced. As predicted by computational modeling, bushy cells had decreased spike rates at sound onset as well as longer and more variable first spike latencies explaining the abnormal auditory brainstem responses. In addition, we found synaptic transmission to outlast the stimulus at many endbulb of Held synapses in vitro and in vivo, suggesting impaired synchronization of release to stimulus offset. Although sound encoding in the cochlea proceeds in the absence of complexins, CPX I is required for faithful processing of sound onset and offset in the cochlear nucleus.


Middle managers' shared understanding of organizational priorities is a key determinant of successful goal implementation. In this paper, we analyze whether involving middle managers in the strategic planning process and communicating the agreed-upon goals to them afterwards reduce the bias of their managerial role and thus increase the convergence on their assessments of operational priorities. In a sample of 164 manufacturing plants from five different countries and three industries, in which we asked three middle managers about the organizational priorities, we find that the managerial position bias is strong and that communication but not involvement reduces it.


89Zr (half-life, 78.41 h) is a positron-emitting radionuclide that displays excellent potential for use in the design and synthesis of radioimmunoconjugates for immunoPET. In the current study, we report the preparation of 89Zr-desferrioxamine B (DFO)-J591, a novel 89Zr-labeled monoclonal antibody (mAb) construct for targeted immunoPET and quantification of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expression in vivo. Methods: The in vivo behavior of 89Zr-chloride, 89Zr-oxalate, and 89Zr-DFO was studied using PET. High-level computational studies using density functional theory calculations have been used to investigate the electronic structure of 89Zr-DFO and probe the nature of the complex in aqueous conditions. 89Zr-DFO-J591 was characterized both in vitro and in vivo. ImmunoPET in male athymic nu/nu mice bearing subcutaneous LNCaP (PSMA-positive) or PC-3 (PSMA-negative) tumors was conducted. The change in 89Zr-DFO-J591 tissue uptake in response to high- and low-specific-activity formulations in the 2 tumor models was measured using acute biodistribution studies and immunoPET. Results: The basic characterization of 3 important reagents—89Zr-chloride, 89Zr-oxalate, and the complex 89Zr-DFO—demonstrated that the nature of the 89Zr species dramatically affects the biodistribution and pharmacokinetics. Density functional theory calculations provide a rationale for the observed high in vivo stability of 89Zr-DFO–labeled mAbs and suggest that in aqueous conditions, 89Zr-DFO forms a thermodynamically stable, 8-coordinate complex by coordination of 2 water molecules. 89Zr-DFO-J591 was produced in high radiochemical yield (>77%) and purity (>99%), with a specific activity of 181.7 ± 1.1 MBq/mg (4.91 ± 0.03 mCi/mg). In vitro assays demonstrated that 89Zr-DFO-J591 had an initial immunoreactive fraction of 0.95 ± 0.03 and remained active for up to 7 d. In vivo biodistribution experiments revealed high, target-specific uptake of 89Zr-DFO-J591 in LNCaP tumors after 24, 48, 96, and 144 h (34.4 ± 3.2 percentage injected dose per gram [%ID/g], 38.0 ± 6.2 %ID/g, 40.4 ± 4.8 %ID/g, and 45.8 ± 3.2 %ID/g, respectively). ImmunoPET studies also showed that 89Zr-DFO-J591 provides excellent image contrast, with tumor-to-muscle ratios greater than 20, for the delineation of LNCaP xenografts between 48 and 144 h after administration. Conclusion: These studies demonstrate that 89Zr-DFO–labeled mAbs show exceptional promise as radiotracers for immunoPET of human cancers. 89Zr-DFO-J591 displays high tumor–to–background tissue contrast in immunoPET and can be used to delineate and quantify PSMA-positive prostate tumors in vivo.


Background/Aims: An endothelial dysfunction has been described in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) before the development of hypertension and renal impairment. The aim of this work was to verify the existence of a microvascular reactivity in the early stages of ADPKD. Methods: Fifteen ADPKD normotensive patients with normal renal function underwent laser Doppler examination of the cutaneous microcirculation in basal conditions and after the warm test, as well as evaluation of plasma concentrations of some endothelial activation parameters [total cholesterol and fractions, fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, Lp(a)]. The results were compared with those in 15 healthy subjects, 15 essential hypertensive patients and 15 hypertensive ADPKD patients with normal renal function. Results: Both basal and post-warm-test values were significantly lower in normotensive ADPKD subjects than controls (3.2 ± 1 vs. 5.8 ± 1.3 AU, p = 0.0001; 35.2 ± 10.9 vs. 50.5 ± 10.8 AU, p = 0.005, respectively). All evaluated parameters were within normal limits and comparable between normotensive ADPKD subjects and controls, except for LDL cholesterol (125 ± 18 vs. 101 ± 22 mg/dl, p = 0.01) and Lp(a), which was significantly higher in the ADPKD subjects (52.2 ± 36 vs. 6.0 ±4 mg/dl, p = 0.0006). Conclusion: Our study confirms the existence of a systemic microcirculation defect in ADPKD. The presence of high levels of Lp(a) could contribute to causing the high incidence of cardiovascular events in ADPKD.


The aimed of study to analyze theinfluenced of puzzle game stimulation on socialization and independence development in preschoolers.This research was a quantitative research with Quasi experimental one group pre test post test design. The samples were 5 years old 60 months children with development in doubt on socialization and independence aspects which amounted to 17 people by purposive sampling technique. The instrument of this research was using a puzzle and Pre-screening Children Development Questioner. The statistical test used wilcoxon test for the children development status before and after the intervention showed a significant value 0,000 pvalue smaller than 0,05 so it can be concluded that there is a significant effect between puzzle stimulation to socialization and independence development.
Keywords: Development Area, Puzzle, Quasi eksperimental


STUDY of the basic sciences as applied to the eye gives promise of becoming a regular part of the prospective ophthalmologist's training. Some institutions already require such a study before accepting a candidate for a clinical residency; presumably, an increasing number of others will do so in the future. In the belief that experience in organizing and conducting such a course at the Harvard Medical School may be of use to others, the aims of the course as it is now given and certain of the laboratory technics which have been found most practicable 1 are presented in this paper. The writing of it has been prompted by inquiries from those who are proposing to set up basic science courses in ophthalmic institutions elsewhere. AIMS A basic science course in ophthalmology should aim primarily to lay a foundation for the appreciation of clinical ophthalmology. It should be to the ophthalmic


Reasoned Judgment and Physician-Assisted SuicideIn Washington v. Glucksberg, the Supreme Court held that, even as applied to persons who are terminally ill and mentally competent, substantive due process liberty does not include a right to commit suicide with a physician's assistance. The majority opinion in Glucksberg reached that result by applying what it claimed was the Court's "established method," under which an unenumerated fundamental right will be recognized only if, when carefully described, it can be said to be "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition." The Court's same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, however, pointedly refused to use the tradition-centric Glucksberg method. Instead, the Obergefell standard "requires courts to exercise reasoned judgment in identifying interests of the person so fundamental that the State must accord them its respect." Contra Glucksberg, "[h]istory and tradition guide and discipline this inquiry but do not set its outer boundaries." Although Obergefell unquestionably limits Glucksberg's applicability in future cases, it remains to be seen whether it "effectively overrule[s] Glucksberg," as Chief Justice Roberts suggested in dissent. The Obergefell majority declared that Glucksberg's approach "is inconsistent with the approach this Court has used in discussing other fundamental rights, including marriage and intimacy," but it also said that the Glucksberg approach "may have been appropriate for the asserted right there involved (physician-assisted suicide)." If – for reasons of stare decisis or otherwise -- the Court adheres to the Glucksberg approach in the context of physician-assisted suicide, we can be confident it will not recognize that right as fundamental.But what if the Court were to re-examine physician assisted-suicide using Obergefell's "reasoned judgment" approach? Would that make it likely, as some have suggested, that the Court will constitutionalize physician-assisted suicide under at least some circumstances? This essay argues that the reasoned-judgment approach lends little support to a fundamental right to physician-assisted suicide. Obviously, the reasoned-judgment standard does not rule out a fundamental right to physician-assisted suicide in the straightforward way the Glucksberg test does. Nevertheless, there are powerful arguments that should impel the Court to a "reasoned judgment" against establishing a fundamental right to physician-assisted suicide. Given the legality and availability of aggressive palliative care, the individual interests of terminally ill, competent patients are not weighty enough to warrant prima facie recognition of such a right. Even more clearly, countervailing state interests such as protecting vulnerable patients from "abuse, neglect, and mistakes" would in any event justify the states in overriding it.


The wicked nature of software architecture calls for educational methodologies that deviate from the traditional active lecturer-passive student relation.  In this paper we present our experiences with applying a Community of Learners approach, in which students are treated as partners in the knowledge development process, to software architecture education.  In our course the students are actively involved, either as architects or as stakeholders, in the design of an architecture for a large and realistic system.  In this Community of Learners, the students not only learn about but also experience the important issues in software architecture. Students indicate that, although the workload is high, the required effort is outweighed by the learning effect of their active involvement.


Synopsis Diffusion-Weighted MRI often suffers from signal attenuation due to long TE, sensitivity to physiological motion, and dephasing due to concomitant gradients (CGs). These challenges complicate image interpretation and may introduce bias in quantitative diffusion measurements. Motion moment-nulled diffusion-weighting gradients have been proposed to compensate motion, however, they frequently result in high TE and suffer from CG effects. In this work, the Optimal Diffusion-weighting Gradient waveform Design method that overcomes limitations of state-of-the-art waveforms is revisited and validated in phantom and in-vivo experiments. These diffusion-weighting gradient waveforms reduce the TE and increase the SNR of state-of-the-art waveforms without and with CG-nulling.


Methotrexate (MTX) is an important anticancer drug and the most efficient chemotherapy component in primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL). A typical side effect of intravenous high-dose MTX is the occurrence of confluent CNS white matter changes (WMC). Since MTX directly interferes with methionine metabolism, we analyzed the impact of genetic variants of methionine metabolism on the occurrence of WMC as a model of MTX toxicity. In a retrospective analysis of 68 PCNSL patients treated with MTX-based polychemotherapy with (n=42) or without (n=26) intraventricular treatment, ten genetic variants influencing methionine metabolism were analyzed. Pearson's Chi-square test and multinominal regression analysis were used to define the relevance of these genetic variants for the occurrence of WMC. In this patient sample, the occurrence of WMC was significantly predicted by the TT genotype of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase c.677C>T (chi(2)=8.67; p=0.013; df=2), the AA genotype of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase c.1298A>C (chi(2)=13.5; p=0.001; df=2) and the GG genotype of transcobalamin 2 c.776C>G (chi(2)=19.73; p<0.001) in addition to male gender (chi(2)=11.95; p=0.001). These data strengthen the hypothesis that MTX effects are influenced by methionine metabolism which may offer new strategies to improve MTX-based therapies.


Migrant and seasonal farmworkers constitute a major portion of the labor force in the American agricultural industry. By harvesting and processing farm crops, they contribute positively to farm communities and the American economy.
 In 1988, the Office of Migrant Health estimated that nationwide migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their dependents numbered between 3 and 5 million.1 The majority of farmworkers are married and/or have children. Only 10% to 25% of farmworkers are estimated to be unauthorized workers. The average annual income for migrant and seasonal farmworkers is well below the poverty level despite the prevalence of families with two wage earners. Although most farmworker families qualify for some type of public assistance, only 18% actually receive it.2 Because health care insurance is invariably beyond the reach of farmworker family budgets, and employers of farmworkers rarely provide health care benefits for their employees, these families are usually uninsured. In some cases, these families lack US citizenship or are in this country illegally, further limiting access to health care for their children. Medicaid eligibility is complicated by migration, because different eligibility requirements must be met in each state.
 Because of their income level, lack of insurance, and mobile lifestyle, families of farmworkers often find that comprehensive child health care (health maintenance, anticipatory guidance, and preventive medicine) is essentially unavailable. Additionally, recent changes in immigration policy and economic developments have resulted in a rapid growth of population that is not parallelled by the growth of health care facilities. Other problems that delay or prevent access to health care for the children of farmworker families include language barriers and differences in culture.


Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930) was an extremely accomplished Meiji Christian convert who emphasized a Christianity he considered in tune with traditional Japanese religiosity and free of Western influence. When a child, he observed his family's distress as Meiji rulers dismantled the Tokugawa political system. Then he assumed responsibility for their support when he turned sixteen. Though thus burdened by family responsibility, he finished a Japanese undergraduate degree in fisheries science, studied further in the United States, and then returned home to encourage Bible study among the Japanese. He became a respected essayist. The result: a complete works of more than twenty thousand pages and many loyal followers who helped form the new democratic Japanese society after 1945. Samples of his writings cover such themes as these: Old Testament-style prophecy; Japan's role to emphasize Christianity's Asian roots; the Christian believer's utter dependence on God; Christian morality; and churchless Christianity as Japan's contribution to world Christianity. KEYWORDS: Christianity - Japan - Bible study - theology - missionaries - prophecy - pacifism - Uchimura Kanzo (ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) THE AUTHOR AND evangelist Uchimura Kanzo ... (1861-1930) is one of Japan's most outstanding essayists and Christians. This article first outlines the events of his life and then provides an introduction to his thought through a consideration of representative selections from Uchimura's own writings. The changes brought about by the Restoration have been frequently used to divide discussions of Japanese history into "modern" or "premodern," so decisive are they considered. Little snippets in Kanzo's recollections indicate he knew how the changes affected his family. Kanzo was born a samurai in 1861. He remembers the troops of the Tokugawa shogunate as they passed his home northbound en route to ultimate defeat. He also remembers that his father shortly thereafter was appointed governor of one of the new provinces. The father turned down the appointment to continue with his daimyo. His income declined as the new government phased out the institutions of the old one. Kanzo, the eldest son but only sixteen, became legal head of the household. From then on he had to provide for his parents. Fortunately, Kanzo excelled at languages. His parents encouraged him to study English. Kanzo, along with another lad who would become Kanzo's lifelong friend, Nitobe Inazo ... (1862-1933),1 was studying English when both were recruited in 1877 to study in the rude new northern settlement of Sapporo. Government leaders needed administrators for Hokkaido. Students in training for this task received everything they needed plus a good stipend. This enabled Kanzo defray his family's costs in Tokyo. Students received all their education, with the exception of mathematics and classical Chinese, in English. They became very able in it. Once they graduated, they corresponded in English. They thus became part of a very small group of Japanese whose members dealt with foreigners effectively. Kanzo finished as valedictorian of the second class and entered the bureaucracy as a fisheries researcher. His early publications in the field reflected great promise. He could have contributed greatly to the development of Japanese biology had not his experience led him in other directions. As a student, he had been converted to Christianity under the influence of the American instructors. They shared the conviction of many contemporary Americans that faith in Christianity formed an important part of the curriculum. The school principal, at once a devout Christian, inspired scientist, and a charismatic teacher, encouraged them to accept Christianity and invited a Protestant missionary to Sapporo to baptize them. Kanzo and his friend Inazo joined the group. Christianity had been prohibited and ruthlessly suppressed in Japan for more than two hundred and fifty years. …


It was recently shown that the problem of decoding messages transmitted through a noisy channel can be formulated as a belief updating task over a probabilistic network [14]. Moreover, it was observed that iterative application of the (linear time) belief propagation algorithm designed for polytrees [15] outperformed state of the art decoding algorithms, even though the corresponding networks may have many cycles.

This paper demonstrates empirically that an approximation algorithm approx-mpe for solving the most probable explanation (MPE) problem, developed within the recently proposed mini-bucket elimination framework [4], outperforms iterative belief propagation on classes of coding networks that have bounded induced width. Our experiments suggest that approximate MPE decoders can be good competitors to the approximate belief updating decoders.


Cooperating Organizations AAPM—American Association of Physicists in Medicine (United States) • APS—American Physiological Society (United States) • CARS—Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (Germany) • Medical Image Perception Society (United States) • Radiological Society of North America (United States) • Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (United States) World Molecular Imaging Society • The DICOM Standards Committee


The last webinar, titled 'EAP: Telecollaboration with the Global South' took place on 14th March. The speakers were Bill Guariento and Anna Rolinska:
Glasgow's telecollaborative project-based pre-sessional English course enables our students to link up each summer with peers in Palestine and Chile, enhancing language / problem-solving / team-working skills and intercultural awareness. It has also brought broader institutional benefits, namely relationship-building, and the arrival of 30 fully-funded Erasmus+ students from Gaza last year. We hope this webinar may help other pre-sessional providers who are interested in setting up similar links to the Global South.

And Will Hutton and Daniela Nogueira de Moraes Garcia:

Students from Queen Mary University of London and UNESP-Assis (Sao Paulo State University) have worked together on a structured intervention using a tandem learning approach on five occasions since 2016. Underpinned by the principles of reciprocity and autonomy which inform Teletandem Brasil, the project has sought to bring university students who are geographically dispersed together in order to develop both their skills in English as an Academic Lingua Franca (ELFA) and their global awareness. It is hoped that this webinar will be of interest to those who are interested in designing effective telecollaborative learning collaborations in a higher education context.


The Freedom of Information Act 2000 prompted the Government to evaluate how public understanding about the use of animals in scientific research can be improved and how animal experimentation is regulated within the UK. This resulted in the publication of anonymous project licence abstracts. Here, the abstracts published between December 2004 and October 2005 have been evaluated, by using a scoring system which takes into account their content and format, in order to assess whether they provide information that will facilitate the increased implementation of reduction, refinement and replacement strategies. The potential impact of freely-available Home Office project licence abstracts on public attitudes to animal testing and on the quality of animal-based research, is also discussed. Although some abstracts scored well, in general, the abstracts were found to be severely lacking in detail about the welfare of experimental animals. Thus, the abstracts tend to present a distorted picture of animal-based research. Many abstracts lack the details which would reveal how the licensing criteria had been met. It is concluded that, in their current form, the project abstracts are not sufficiently informative. A number of recommendations are made, which address this problem.


Abstract Over several years, the construction industry in the UK, including the housebuilding sector, has had many opportunities to modernize and innovate supply chain practices. This paper presents a national survey of major UK private housebuilders in 2003 that assesses and evaluates the current status of supply chain awareness in the housebuilding industry. The survey examined a range of recognized indicators of supply chain sophistication, based on practices in other industries, including relationships, partnering, supplier selection, levels of integration and supply chain strategies. It also determined the main problems encountered by housebuilders in their supply chains, such as what improvement methods, tools and techniques they were aware of and what improvements were being made. It concluded that awareness within the housebuilding industry was still low and that much inefficiency remains. The findings are a basis for further research into tools and techniques for supply chain improvement in the housebuilding sector.


In this paper, we theoretically investigate the high-order harmonic generation and attosecond pulse generation when a two-electron He atom is exposed to the intense laser pulse. It shows that due to the two-electron double recombination mechanism, an extended plateau beyond the classical single-electron harmonic has been obtained on the two-electron harmonic spectrum. Further by using this two-electron harmonic extension scheme combined with the two-color field, two supercontinuum bandwidths with 200 eV have been obtained. As a result, a series of sub-60 as extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses have been directly generated.


On the other hand, we are reliably informed that a teaching hospital not a hundred miles from Leeds with which Professor Miller is connected employs the calorimetric method described by Papadopoulos et al.' for the estimation of C.S.F. gamma-globulin. Hass and Hochwald' have conclusively shown that Papadopoulos et al.' were in fact estimating a mixture of proteins (albumin and globulins) and not solely gamma-globulin. Tourtellotte' confirmed these findings, and further, using the zinc-sulphate-turbidity test, which is similar to that described by Papadopoulos et al.,' reported that 75% of his patients with definite clinical multiple sclerosis had an abnormal zinc-sulphate turbidity, whereas only 50% of his patients had abnormal C.S.F. gamma-globulin when specific immunochemical methods were used for the estimation of gamma-globulin. The clinical findings support the view that the zinc-sulphate-turbidity test is to some extent non-specific. Should Professor Miller not be referring to the practice at his own teaching hospital, we would like to know the identity of the hospital concerned. Nevertheless, if Professor Miller would turn to page 255 of the book he reviewed, he would find that Professor Lumsden had, indeed, referred to the non-specific method for the estimation of C.S.F. proteins described by Papadopoulos et al.'-We are, etc., HUGH GARLAND. COLIN TOOTHILL. C. J. VAS. Departments of Neurology and Chemical Pathology, The General Infirmary at Leeds, Leeds 1.


The objective of this task force report is to provide an explanation of the phenomena of very fast transients which can occur in gas-insulated substations (GIS). The simulation of the GIS for this type of transient should be suitable for frequencies from 100 kHz up to 50 MHz. The corresponding equivalent circuits developed in previous work of CIGRE have been reported. The accuracy of the simulation of this phenomenon and verification with field measurements are given. An example of a GIS calculation with detailed input data is presented which could be used for the recalculation of the results.


Nanoetchpit arrays (NEPAs) with a density of 1.56 T(1012)pit/in2 were artificially fabricated on Si surfaces. The key to the success of high-density-NEPA fabrication is through utilization of ultrathin SiO2 layer as an Si etching mask and N2H4 (hydrazine) solution as an Si etchant. The NEPAs were fabricated in only three steps: (1) focused electron-beam (EB) irradiation onto SiO2 mask, (2) SiO2 mask development using an HF-based solution, and (3) Si etching using hydrazine. The enhanced etching phenomenon of EB-exposed SiO2 in an HF-based solution was applied to pattern the SiO2 mask. Thin SiO2 layers with a thickness of 8 nm at the initial stage (4 nm after the development) were used as Si etching mask to suppress both spreading of the EB-exposed region by the forward scattering of the electrons and lateral extension of the SiO2 etching region during the development. Si substrates were etched through 4-nm-thick SiO2 mask by dipping in a hydrazine solution with an extremely high etching selectivity for Si/SiO2. By using this simple process, 8-nm-diameter NEPAs with a 20 nm pitch were successfully arranged on Si surfaces.


Much hinges on the outcome of the World Trade Organization's Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in mid-December. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is marking the 20th anniversary of its establishment during the Uruguay Round, almost half a century after 23 countries set up its predecessor for trade in goods, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Yet the mood is far from celebratory. The downbeat feeling is more related to the question of the WTO's relevance, now and in future. The WTO was established in 1995 by 123 countries to seek freer and fairer trade by performing three main functions: 1) to serve as a permanent platform for negotiating on rules and market access issues; 2) to monitor implementation of the WTO Agreements, the legal ground-rules for international trade; and 3) to assist members to resolve disputes under the Dispute Settlement Mechanism. Its inability to shake off the shadow of the widely perceived 'failure' of the Doha Round (launched in November 2001) explains this sense of impotence and tests the 162 members' resolve to make the WTO work for all.


The offshoring of manufacturing has been the most visible ingredient of economic globalization in recent years. However, the rapid change in the global division of manufacturing has overshadowed another and perhaps even more significant phenomena namely the internationalization of the R&D and inventive activities of firms. In concrete terms this means that researchers and inventors increasingly tend to be located outside the domestic country of origin of firms, as captured in numerous empirical studies. This paper revisits the Žcase for non-globalizationŽ in the context of strategically important technologies in a truly global industry, namely the wireless telecommunications industry. It analyses, in comparative set-up, the evolution of the notified essential patent portfolios of four leading incumbents to assess to what degree and how R&D and inventive activity of this technological core of the industry is globalizing. Contrary to expectations the results clearly support the case for non-globalization. They thereby raise a range of important issues and research avenues related to the organization of R&D, locational advantages and IPR management of firms.


WITH THE advent of microsurgery, an increasing number of middle ear anomalies are being recognized. This case presents congenital deformities of both the stapes and horizontal portion of the facial nerve. This 15-year-old white boy was noted to have a hearing loss in infancy by his parents. He spoke his first words at 16 months. Speech has developed fairly well and intelligibility is fair to good. He began wearing a hearing aid at the age of 6. At present, he functions best with a binaural aid. Despite his speech and hearing handicap, he has been able to keep up with his class and maintain satisfactory grades. Initial examination showed normal structures of the auricle, external auditory meatus, and tympanic membrane. The nose, throat, and general physical examination showed no other abnormalities. Pure tone audiograms showed the bone conduction at 0 db and 60 db air conduction loss across-the-board. Differential diagnosis


Modern low pressure turbines (LPT) are designed in order to fulfil a various number of requirements such as high endurance, low noise, high efficiency, low weight, and low fuel consumption. Regarding the reduction of the emitted noise, different designs of LPT exit guide vanes (aerodynamically and/or acoustically optimized) of the turbine exit casing (TEC) were tested, and their noise reduction capabilities and aerodynamic performance were evaluated. In particular, measurements of TEC-losses were performed, and differences in the losses were reported. Measurements were carried out in a one and a half stage subsonic turbine test facility at the engine relevant operating point approach. This work focuses on the study of the unsteady flow field downstream of an unshrouded LPT rotor. The influence on the upstream flow field of a TEC design including acoustically optimized vanes (inverse cut-off TEC) is investigated and compared with a second TEC configuration without vanes (Vaneless TEC), by means of fast response aerodynamic pressure probe (FRAPP) measurements. The second configuration served as a reference concerning the influence of turbine exit guide vanes (TEGVs) onto the upstream located LPT rotor. The interactions between the stator and rotor wakes, secondary flows, and the TEGVs potential effect are identified via modal decomposition according to the theory of Tyler and Sofrin. The main structures constituting the unsteady flow field are detected, and the role of the major interaction effects in the loss generation mechanism and in the acoustic emission is analyzed. This study based on the modal analysis of the unsteady flow field offers new insight into the main interaction mechanisms and their importance in the assessment of the aerodynamic and aeroelastic performance of modern LPT exit casings.


We analyse the net impacts and the coherence of the ecological focus area (EFA) in Germany. The empirical results show that farmers prefer productive EFA options and refrain from those EFA options that focus on for biodiversity. Empirical results show that simplicity is an important argument for the selection of EFA options, and that larger farms tend to use fallow more frequently. In some German federal states, farmers can combine EFA with Agri Environmental and Climate measures (AECM). However, this option is not predominantly selected. Finally, we provide suggestions to raise the effectiveness of the EFA regulation through better policy integration and simplification.


There has been resurgence in the social significance of sustainability with the recent concerns of global warming, although sustainability is not a new idea. Environmental concerns began on a national level in 1970, but it is again a 'hot' topic, and businesses want the appearance of being ecologically friendly. It has become fashionable to be "green" or to give the appearance of being "green." Environmental problems have stimulated people's attention to monitoring environmental impacts and developing new technologies for preventing or at least relieving the expanding burdens. Therefore a framework for enhancing the implementation of environmentally conscious design and manufacturing is important to designers and manufacturers. Environmentally conscious design and manufacturing is important to designers and manufacturers. The growing environmental regulations and consumers' environmentally conscious buying behavior has obliged manufacturers to improve their environmental, technical and economic performance to survive the global competing market. The industrial experience in the past 30 years has proven that the design for environment (DFE) is one of the most effective strategies for manufacturers to address the challenges. The current trend of production and operations management, which emphasizes the management of the entire supply chain from raw materials extraction, to manufacturing, to the delivery of final products, to customers, presents new opportunities in preventing and resolving the problems of environmental pollution through product and process innovations. The purpose of this study is to create a process for designers to use when creating "green" industries. These identities should be unique and memorable .So the main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between demographic and individual differences factors and purchasing behavior in green product design development in Malaysian consumers. Individual differences factors are defined as some personal characteristics and resources that are indentified as factors that influence consumer decision-making, based on Engel, Kollat, Blackwell model (EKB model). Individual differences factors for this study consist of income, time that consumers are trend to use for finding green product, additional amount of money that consumers are trend to pay, knowledge about the environment and green products, green attitudes and green values. A model is developed to guide the research and is based on supporting existing literature. The scope of this study is Malaysia (Selangor), and targeted population as all people who live in this location. Besides, sample of this study was 200 of consumers were randomly selected. The Pearson correlation coefficient analysis showed that all factors significant and positive relationships with purchasing behavior of green products. Besides multiple Regression analysis showed all variables except Time have significant impact on Green Purchasing Behaviors


Written in 1782, Memoirs of Swedenborg by Carl Robsahm is without doubt the most compelling eyewitness account of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) to be published in any language. Drawing on reminiscences from his own long-standing friendship with and years as a neighbor to Swedenborg, Robsahm offers a fascinating picture of the Swedish philosopher and mystic as a man of gentleness and integrity.Rich in detail and generosity, this memoir is a classic in its own right and a primary resource for all subsequent biographies. This edition has been selected and edited by Stephen McNeilly featuring revised translations, an introduction, and annotations by the renowned Swedish scholar Anders Hallengren. It also contains eight other historical documents concerning Swedenborg's day-to-day life, three of which are from the hand of Swedenborg himself, all in new annotated English versions by Hallengren.


Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) is a symbiotic association between plant roots and fungi. Their major role is to enhance nutrient and water uptake by the host plants. The objective of this research was to study the role of AMF in enhancing productivity, nutritional quality and tolerance mechanism of Stylosanthes seabrana in drought conditions. This research used a completely randomized design with four treatments: A0 (without AMF), A1 (without AMF in drought), A2 (with AMF), and A3 (with AMF in drought) in S. seabrana . Parameters observed were the soil moisture content, water potential of shoot, relative water content of leaf (RWC), root length, shoot and root dry weight, proline, soluble sugars, crude protein, gas production, and digestibility of organic matter. The data were analyzed with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the differences between treatments were analyzed with Duncan Multiple Range test. Results showed that inoculation of AMF could enhance  leaf water potential, shoot and root dry weight, crude protein, gas production, digestibility of organic matter, but decreased  proline and soluble sugars significantly (PS. seabrana seems likely through accumulating organicosmolytes such as prolines and soluble sugars.


BACKGROUND
The pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis largely depends on the secretion of the 6-kD early secreted antigenic target ESAT-6 (EsxA) and the 10-kD culture filtrate protein CFP-10 (EsxB) via the ESX-1/typeVII secretion system. Although gene products from the core RD1 region have been shown to be deeply implicated in this process, less is known about proteins encoded further upstream in the 5' region of the ESX-1 cluster, such as the ESX-1 secretion-associated proteins (Esps) EspF or EspG(1).

METHODS
To elucidate the role of EspF/G(1), whose orthologs in Mycobacterium marinum and Mycobacterium smegmatis are reportedly involved in EsxA/B secretion, we constructed 3 M. tuberculosis knockout strains deleted for espF, espG(1) or the segment corresponding to the combined RD1(bcg)-RD1(mic) region of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and Mycobacterium microti, which also contains espF and espG(1).

RESULTS
Analysis of these strains revealed that, unlike observations with the model organisms M. smegmatis or M. marinum, disruption of espF and espG(1) in M. tuberculosis did not impact the secretion and T cell recognition of EsxA/B but still caused severe attenuation.

CONCLUSIONS
The separation of the 2 ESX-1-connected phenotypes (ie, EsxA/B secretion and virulence) indicates that EsxA/B secretion is not the only readout for a functional ESX-1 system and suggests that other processes involving EspF/G(1) also play important roles in ESX-1-mediated pathogenicity.


Different extraction and clean-up protocols, based on either the dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) and the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) approach, were optimized and compared for the determination of selected bisphenols such as bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS) in breast milk samples. QuEChERS-based sample preparation procedure was optimized by evaluation of different clean-up sorbents including zirconium-based sorbents (Z-Sep and Z-Sep Plus) and primary secondary amine. Negligible matrix interference was observed for most of the analytes due to application of 45 mg Z-Sep or 45 mg Z-Sep + 5 mg Z-Sep Plus sorbents in d-SPE clean-up step. Acceptable analytical performance for the BPA and BPS was observed with recoveries percentage in the range of 70-92% and RSD less than 15%. The pilot study was performed by applying HPLC with diode-array detection, and optimized procedures were transferred to the LC triple-quadrupole MS system. LC with electrospray ionization and tandem MS operating in the multiple reaction monitoring mode provide high sensitivity and selectivity for trace analysis. The LODs were 0.10 and 0.54 ng/mL, and the LOQs were 0.20 and 1.35 ng/mL for BPS and BPA, respectively. The developed procedures were evaluated in terms for material collection obtained from women (inhabitants of Lublin, Poland). In 20 samples, bisphenol residues were detected at concentrations from 0.09 to 11.56 ng/mL.


We have studied the diffuse reflection properties of ceramics in the presence of dielectric thin films on the surface. A simple optical model was proposed in which interference effects in a thin film were considered for light scattered out of a ceramic in various directions. Measurements were performed on angle-resolved reflection spectra of a thin-film-coated alumina ceramic in the case of normal incidence. They showed that the presence of the thin film on the ceramic's surface modified the angular distributions of scattered radiation from that of a bare ceramic, which suggested a way to tailor the scattering properties of a diffuse reflector as needed.


Background: Two Japanese prospective trials of active surveillance (AS) for adult patients with low-risk papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) ≤1 cm (cT1aN0M0 PTMC) have verified the safety of AS in oncological control and its superiority over immediate surgery with respect to unfavorable outcomes. Thus, AS has been accepted as an alternative to immediate surgery for asymptomatic papillary thyroid microcarcinomas (PTMCs). However, the real-world clinical approach for PTMC is unknown. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the current state of management of asymptomatic PTMCs in Japan. Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey on the actual treatment patterns for adult patients with low-risk PTMCs. The subjects were member institutions of the Japan Association of Endocrine Surgery (JAES) or Japanese Society of Thyroid Surgery (JSTS), including the departments of surgery and head and neck surgery (HNS). Results: Responses were obtained from 134 institutes, where 72.4% of Japanese thyroid cancer cases operated by surgeons were treated. For suspicious tumors on ultrasound, 18 responders (13.4%) conducted cytological examination routinely, while 69 (51.5%) and 40 (27.8%) conducted it only for tumors >5 and >10 mm, respectively. After the diagnosis, 42 responders (31.3%) recommend AS, 35 (26.1%) recommend immediate surgery as the management, and 52 (38.8%) allowed patients to decide the treatment course. The present responders tended to recommend surgery for PTMCs that were located adjacent to the dorsal surface of the thyroid, were multiple, or measured almost 10 mm in size. At these institutions, 1176 patients with PTMC underwent surgery in 2017, accounting for 18.1% of surgeries for PTC. During the succeeding three months, 310 of 576 (53.8%) PTMC patients underwent AS. The treatment strategies did not differ between the departments (Surgery or HNS). The institutions that have six or more surgeons, that were located in metropolitan areas, or that were certified by JAES or JSTS performed AS more actively. Conclusion: More than 50% of low-risk PTMCs are on AS in Japan. However, the indication and recommendation for AS vary significantly between institutions. To improve the implementation of this management modality, physicians and patients should be further educated, and the sociomedical environment should be improved.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relationship between impairments in cardiopulmonary hemodynamics and renal functional activity in patients with circulatory failure, by applying radionuclide studies.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Sixty-nine patients with coronary heart disease (mean age 53.23 +/- 0.87 years) with the development of NYHA functional classes II-III chronic HF were examined. To calculate cardiopulmonary hemodynamic parameters, all the patients underwent 99mTc pertechnetate radiocardiopulmonography. Their renal functional activity was assessed by dynamic radionuclide renal scintigraphy using 99mTc-DTPA.

RESULTS
The examinees had most abnormal systemic and pulmonary hemodynamic parameters. Renal dysfunction was detected in 74% of the examinees and reflected by decreased glomerular filtration rates in one or both kidneys and/or a longer tracer elimination half-life from the renal parenchyma. Stepwise regression analysis established a strong inverse correlation between impaired pulmonary circulation, on the one hand, and reduced renal filtration, on the other, and a direct correlation of impairments in renal filtration and evacuation with both left and right ventricular contractility.

CONCLUSION
Radionuclide studies are the methods of choice for diagnosis of the cardiorenal continuum.


Abstract Vibrational strong coupling (VSC) has recently emerged as a completely new tool for influencing chemical reactivity. It harnesses electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations through the creation of hybrid states of light and matter, called polaritonic states, in an optical cavity resonant to a molecular absorption band. Here, we investigate the effect of vibrational strong coupling of water on the enzymatic activity of pepsin, where a water molecule is directly involved in the enzyme's chemical mechanism. We observe an approximately 4.5‐fold decrease of the apparent second‐order rate constant k cat/K m when coupling the water stretching vibration, whereas no effect was detected for the strong coupling of the bending vibration. The possibility of modifying enzymatic activity by coupling water demonstrates the potential of VSC as a new tool to study biochemical reactivity.


This guide is intended to help you know more about Library and Internet resources in the area of English Literature.


ABSTRACT The maintenance and reproduction of prevailing hegemonic norms have been well explored in physical education teacher education (PETE). A related problem has been the exclusion of Indigenous knowledges around health and physical education (HPE) in students' experiences of HPE and PETE. The danger is that certain ways of being and becoming a PE teacher, other than the sporty, fit, healthy (and white) teacher, are excluded, positioning other preservice teachers' experiences, knowledges and ways to teach as deficient. In this paper, we discuss findings from an investigation (Australian Office for Learning and Teaching CG10-1718) into the HPE practicum experiences of Indigenous Australian preservice teachers, illustrating the resources they bring to Australian HPE and PETE through the lens of John's Dewey's notion of growth and Todd's [(2014). Between body and spirit: The liminality of pedagogical relationships. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 48(2), 231–245] ideas of liminality of pedagogical relations. This enables us to discuss Indigenous preservice teachers' capacity in disrupting norms in HPE and fostering the liminality of the pedagogical relations in PETE.


With rapid spread of acceptance and usage of Social Network Service (SNS, e.g., Facebook, Renren, Myspace), concerns about online information privacy have arisen. This paper explores the instruments of users' privacy concerns in the context of SNS. First, based on the relevant literature review, comparisons among four scales are discussed and necessities of new items are proposed. Then a pilot test with an open question is carried out collecting 28 samples through interviews. Several reliable and specific new items are added through qualitative content coding. And this is followed by an integrated questionnaire survey. Analyses of 115 respondents' data indicate that SNS user's concerns about privacy are covering a wider range than previous scales. Quantitative result illustrates the new items are acceptable. Finally requirement for further factor analysis is suggested.


This paper presents a fully automated 3D face authentication (verification) and recognition (identification) method and recent results from our work in this area. The major contributions of our paper are: (a) the method can handle data with different facial expressions including hair, upper body, clothing, etc. and (b) development of weighted features for discrimination. The input to our system is a triangular mesh and it outputs a matching % against a gallery. Our method includes both surface and curve based features that are automatically extracted from a given face data. The test set for authentication consisted of 117 different people with 421 scans including different facial expressions. Our study shows equal error rate (EER) at 0.065% for normal faces and 1.13% in faces with expressions. We report verification rates of 100% in normal faces and 93.12% in faces with expressions at 0.1% FAR. For identification, our experiment shows 100% rate in normal faces and 95.6% in faces with expressions. From our experiment we conclude that combining feature points, profile curve, and partial face surface matching gives better authentication and recognition rate than any single matching method.


Function of the hepatobiliary system was studied in 33 patients with thyroid diseases (11 with diffuse euthyroid goiter, 15 with diffuse toxic goiter, of them 7 with thyrotoxicosis of a mild degree and 8 with thyrotoxicosis of an average severity, and 7 patients with primary hypothyrosis) and in 14 healthy persons of the control group by a radionuclide method using a gamma-chamber and 99mTc-HIDA, a hepatotropic radiopharmaceutical. It was established that absorptive-excretory liver function and the concentration ability of the gall bladder decreased in noticeable thyrotoxicosis and moderate hypothyrosis. Hypermotor dyskinesia of the gall bladder and hypertension of the biliary tract sphincters were revealed in more than half of the patients. Similar changes though quantitatively less pronounced were noted in the patients with euthyroid goiter. Thyrotoxicosis of a mild degree was characterized by the affection of motor function of the gall bladder (hypermotor dyskinesia) and frequent hypertension of Oddi's sphincter. Possible mechanisms of the development of the above changes were discussed.


UNLABELLED
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE: To provide first- and second-year medical students with stimulating learning experiences in the community.

SETTING
Three hundred placements representing a broad array of urban community agencies providing both general and specialized health care services.

PARTICIPANTS
All first- and second-year medical students at the University of Toronto (n = 354). Other participants include staff of community agencies and tutors from the Faculty of Medicine and from the community.

PROGRAM
The Health, illness and the Community course is mandatory and consists of 3 components. The first, in the first semester of first year, emphasizes the provision of health care in the community for individuals and populations. The second, in the second semester of first year, introduces a health promotion paradigm. The third component, throughout second year, allows students to engage in an in-depth study of the interconnection between a health problem and a social issue in a community agency setting.

OUTCOMES
Students have expressed high levels of satisfaction with the community agency placements. The feedback from agencies has also been enthusiastic. Patients in the home care program have reported that visits by medical students are a positive experience.

CONCLUSION
It is possible to recruit and maintain large numbers of urban community agencies as learning sites for medical students. It is hoped that this approach will help to produce socially responsive medical practitioners.


: The purpose of this research is to know and analyze the effects of perceivedservice quality, relationship quality, and service delivery process on service value, and it'simplication on institutional image. The population in this research were business customers(companies) NSW system users. The research method employed in this research isdescriptive survey method and explanatory survey with sample size of 300 respondents, andthe data analysis method employed is SEM (Structural Equation Modeling). The researchfindings are as follows: the perceived service quality does not affect on the service value. Therelationship quality has positive and significant effects on the service value. The servicedelivery process has positive and significant effect on the service value. The perceivedservice quality, the relationship quality and the service delivery process have positive andsignificant effect on the service value. Partially, the service delivery process has the mostdominant effect on the service value. The perceived service quality, relationship quality,service delivery process and service value have positive and significant effects on theinstitutional image. Partially service value has the most dominant effects on the institutionalimage.


Dynamic simulation of complex cardiac excitation and conduction requires high
computational time. Thus, the hardware techniques that can run in the real-time
simulation was introduced. However, previously developed hardware simulation
requires high power consumption and has a large physical size. Due to the
drawbacks, this research presents the adaptation of Luo-Rudy Phase I (LR-I) cardiac
excitation model in a rapid prototyping method of field programmable gate array
(FPGA) for real-time simulation, lower power consumption and minimizing the
size. For the rapid prototyping, a nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE)-
based algorithm of the LR-I model is implemented by using Hardware Description
Language (HDL) Coder that is capable to convert MATLAB Simulink blocks
designed into a synthesisable VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL)
code and verified using the FPGA-In-the Loop (FIL) Co-simulator. The Xilinx
FPGA Virtex-6 XC6VLX240T ML605 evaluation board is chosen as a platform for
the FPGA high performance system which is supported by the HDL Coder. A fixedpoint
optimisation has been successfully obtained with Percentage Error (PE) and
Mean Square Error (MSE) which are -1.08% and 2.28%, respectively. This result
has given better performance for the hardware implementation in terms of 27.5%
decrement in power consumption and 5.35% decrement in utilization area with
maximum frequency 9.819 MHz. By implementing the constructed algorithm into
the high performance FPGA system, a new real-time simulation-based analysis
technique of cardiac electrical excitation has been successfully developed.


Phoenix is the largest city in the Southwest and one of the largest urban centers in the country, yet less has been published about its minority populations than those of other major metropolitan areas. Bradford Luckingham has now written a straightforward narrative history of Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans, and African Americans in Phoenix from the 1860s to the present, tracing their struggles against segregation and discrimination and emphasizing the active roles they have played in shaping their own destinies. Settled in the mid-nineteenth century by Anglo and Mexican pioneers, Phoenix emerged as an Anglo-dominated society that presented formidable obstacles to minorities seeking access to jobs, education, housing, and public services. It was not until World War II and the subsequent economic boom and civil rights era that opportunities began to open up. Drawing on a variety of sources, from newspaper files to statistical data to oral accounts, Luckingham profiles the general history of each community, revealing the problems it has faced and the progress it has made. His overview of the public life of these three ethnic groups shows not only how they survived, but how they contributed to the evolution of one of America's fastest-growing cities.


Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is an experimental network technology that enables the construction of very high capacity routers using optical data paths and electronic control. In this dissertation, we study the design of network components that are needed to build an OBS network. Specifically, we study the design of the switches that form the optical data path through the network.
An OBS network that switches data across wavelength channels requires wavelength converting switches to construct an OBS router. We study one particular design of wavelength converting switches that uses tunable lasers and wavelength grating routers. This design is interesting because wavelength grating routers are passive devices and are much less complex and hence less expensive than optical crossbars. We show how the routing problem for these switches can be formulated as a combinatorial puzzle or game, in which the design of the game board determines key performance characteristics of the switch. In this dissertation, we use this formulation to facilitate the design of switches and associated routing strategies with good performance.
We then introduce time sliced optical burst switching (TSOBS), a variant of OBS that switches data in the time domain rather that the wavelength domain. This eliminates the need for wavelength converters, the largest single cost component of systems that switch in the wavelength domain. We study the performance of TSOBS networks and discuss various design issues. One of the main components that is needed to build a TSOBS router is an optical time slot interchanger (OTSI). We explore various design options for OTSIs.
Finally, we discuss the issues involved in the design of network interfaces that transmit the data from hosts that use legacy protocols into a TSOBS network. Aggregation and load balancing are the main issues that determine the performance of a TSOBS network and we develop and evaluate methods for both.


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of overweight and to identify associations with sociodemographic, biological and lifestyle factors in adolescents from Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

METHODS
Cross-sectional study carried out in 2007 with a probabilistic sample of 1,590 schoolchildren aged from 11 to 14 years old. The prevalence of overweight, based on body mass index, was estimated by the Brazilian reference and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Multivariate analysis expressed as odds ratios were used to identify associations with sociodemographic, biological and lifestyle factors among adolescents.

RESULTS
The prevalence of overweight was 19.3% (24.5% in boys and 14.5% in girls) using the IOFT reference, and 25.8% (31.8% in boys and 20.5% in girls) by the Brazilian reference. Among male adolescents, overweight was positively associated with unbalanced food consumption and inactive commuting to school. Among girls, the factors associated with overweight were: mother's overweight, unbalanced food consumption and discordance between stages for sexual maturity indicators.

CONCLUSIONS
The consumption of foods with high nutritional value was a protective factor against overweight among adolescents. This finding reinforces the importance of actions aimed at changing behaviors related to the family environment by encouraging the incorporation of healthy eating and active leisure time.


This study provides high-resolution modeling of daily water budget components at Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)-12 resolution for 50 watersheds of the South Atlantic Gulf (SAG) region in the southeastern U.S. (SEUS) by implementing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in the form of a near real-time, semi-automated framework. A near real-time hydrologic simulation framework is implemented with a lead time of nine months (March–December 2017) by integrating the calibrated SWAT model with National Centers for Environmental Prediction coupled forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) weather data to forecast daily water balance components. The modeling exercise is conducted as a precursor for various future hydrologic studies (retrospective or forecasting) for the region by providing a calibrated hydrological dataset at high spatial (HUC-12) and temporal (1-day) resolution. The models are calibrated (January 2003–December 2010) and validated (January 2011–December 2013) for each watershed using the observed streamflow data from 50 United States Geological Survey (USGS) gauging stations. The water balance analysis for the region shows that the implemented models satisfactorily represent the hydrology of the region across different sub-regions (Appalachian highlands, plains, and coastal wetlands) and seasons. While CFSv2-driven SWAT models are able to provide reasonable performance in near real-time and can be used for decision making in the region, caution is advised for using model outputs as the streamflow forecasts display significant deviation from observed streamflow for all watersheds for lead times greater than a month.


To improve the social protection of its population, Burkina Faso adopted a national policy in 2012. This paper analyses the process whereby this policy was formulated, looking at the issue from the standpoint of 'policy design' (Howlett and Mukherjee, 2014). Conducted in accordance with an inductive qualitative approach, the collection and analysis of the data show that this process of formulation has led neither to reflecting on the problem to be solved nor to identifying the specific needs of the beneficiaries. Nor has it led to evaluating the potential outcomes of the proposed solutions in order to choose the most appropriate ones. The authors are thus led to an empirical observation of 'non-design'. This policy boils down to a document whose all-encompassing content brings together every conceivable action of social protection, without any arbitration. Three factors have contributed to this non-formulation: (1) the lack of clear government direction to guide discussions; (2) a weakness of support and of political will, resulting in a low degree of involvement in the process on the part of high-level decision makers; and (3) conceptual and technical misunderstandings on the part of national stakeholders in social protection—so much so that they have simply relied on the advice of international bodies. The government announced its intention of playing a leading role in the process of formulating this policy, but this was a purely rhetorical declaration. The study shows that leadership and political will have been lacking, particularly when it has come to channelling the respective interests of the stakeholders and managing the contradictions that hinder the formulation of a coherent policy adapted to the needs of the population.


A widely held view is that the strength and form of natural selection varies in time and space in response to varying ecological forces; however, adequate quantitative evaluations of this are relatively scarce. In this study, we measured the strength and form of sexual selection acting on a suite of male morphological traits in a wild ambush bug (Phymata americana) population at 10 sampling dates over 2 years. We tested the prediction that the strength and direction of sexual selection would be associated with one or more important ecological variables. We found that patterns of multivariate selection varied considerably over time, and even within a season. Yet, for this population, a sexually dimorphic color pattern trait was consistently a target of directional selection. The strength of sexual selection on this trait was related to both sex ratio and density, which is consistent with the idea that ecological factors can play an important role in generating patterns of sexual selection. We also demonstrate that the median strength of linear selection obtained from replicated cross‐sectional methods was qualitatively similar to the estimates obtained from longitudinal methods, providing multiple lines of evidence that the evolution of sexual color dimorphism in this species is attributable to sexual selection.


Neural networks and rational functions efficiently approximate each other. In more detail, it is shown here that for any ReLU network, there exists a rational function of degree $O(\text{polylog}(1/\epsilon))$ which is $\epsilon$-close, and similarly for any rational function there exists a ReLU network of size $O(\text{polylog}(1/\epsilon))$ which is $\epsilon$-close. By contrast, polynomials need degree $\Omega(\text{poly}(1/\epsilon))$ to approximate even a single ReLU. When converting a ReLU network to a rational function as above, the hidden constants depend exponentially on the number of layers, which is shown to be tight; in other words, a compositional representation can be beneficial even for rational functions.


CONTEXT
It remains to be established which surrogate marker is the most predictive of insulin resistance.

OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the incremental value of the Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI) to homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) for detecting insulin resistance.

DESIGN AND SETTING
This was a cross-sectional analysis of the EUGENE2 Kuopio cohort.

PARTICIPANTS
Participants included 266 nondiabetic Finnish offspring of type 2 diabetic individuals (aged 24-50 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Insulin resistance (the lowest whole-body glucose uptake quartile) was measured by the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, an insensitive method to model improvement. Reclassification was assessed by the net reclassification improvement and integrated discrimination improvement. We generated four strata using, as cut points, the 0.05, 0.25, and 0.70 probabilities of having insulin resistance. These were observed probabilities at body mass index of 20, 27, and 35 kg/m(2), respectively.

RESULTS
The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the Matsuda ISI based on 5 time points (0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes) did not differ statistically from that of HOMA-IR (0.897 and 0.875, P = .080). However, the Matsuda ISI added incremental value to HOMA-IR for the detection of insulin-resistant individuals (net reclassification improvement, 26.2%, P < .001; integrated discrimination improvement, 6.3%, P < .001). A modified Matsuda ISI based on 4 time points (0, 30, 60, and 120 minutes) yielded similar results.

CONCLUSION
The Matsuda ISI has additional value for the detection of insulin resistance beyond the ability of HOMA-IR. The Matsuda ISI reclassifies a net of 26% of individuals more appropriately.


Small house design, sometimes ignoring comfort factors such as air circulation and direct sunlight that can make humidity increase and higher temperature inside the house. Giving a controll system at the part of the house can make the air circulation better. In this paper, the prototype design of automatic roof canopy drive using a light sensor, rain sensor, and an ATMega16 microcontroller based temperature sensor is used to solve the problem. This prototype uses the programming language in BASCOM AVR software and PROTEUS software for circuit simulation. Light sensor in the form of LDR will detect changes in light intensity, that is when dark produces a voltage of 1.17V and logic 0 and when light produces a voltage of 4.30V and logic 1. Rain sensor is used to detect the presence of water in the event of rain, that is in conditions the rain produces a 1.83V voltage and logic 0, whereas in the absence of rain it produces a voltage of 4.70V and logic 1. The LM35 temperature sensor is used to detect temperature changes that occur, namely when temperatures less than 29ºC will logic 0 and when the temperature is over from 29ºC will logic 1. All conditions generated by the three sensors will be converted through the ADC so that it can provide logic input to the microcontroller to drive the servo motor to close or open the canopy roof.


While it should be obvious on moral grounds that abusing children in any shape or form is wrong, biological, medical and economic arguments have been necessary to bring attention to the long-standing impact of early childhood trauma. In particular, stemming from the mental health field, a trauma-informed approach seems to have become a privileged way to understand and attend to children exposed to an array of traumatic experiences. However, the introduction of such an approach is relatively recent and its implementation still needs to be explored. In this article, the authors describe some of the possible contributions and limitations of a trauma-informed approach to early childhood educators' practice. They highlight the risks involved in privileging children's socialization to the detriment of their subjectification and underscore the need to broaden dominant approaches to early childhood trauma by assuming an ethical responsibility towards children. To guide educators in the necessary endeavour of encountering each child as an infinite Other, the authors found inspiration in the work of Lithuanian-French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.


Area-time efficient custom instructions are desirable for maximizing the performance of reconfigurable processors. Existing data path merging techniques based on resource sharing can be deployed to improve area efficiency of custom instructions. However, these techniques lead to large increase in the critical path delay. In this paper, we propose a novel strategy that takes into account the architectural constraints of the FPGA device in order to realize custom instructions with low-area delay product. The proposed strategy is based on partitioning the custom instruction data paths into a set of basic clusters such that they can be combined using a heuristic-based cluster merging process to maximize the utilization of FPGA logic blocks. Unlike the resource sharing method, the proposed cluster merging process does not maximize sharing of common resources and this leads to lesser reliance on multiplexers for implementing custom instructions. Resource sharing is only applied sparingly at the final stage to increase utilization of logic blocks. We show that the proposed technique leads to more than 34 percent, 34 percent, and 42 percent average reduction in area costs for Spartan-3, Virtex-4, and Virtex-5 architectures, respectively, when compared to optimizations achieved through commercial synthesis tool. We have also shown that the proposed technique leads to more than 18 percent, 17 percent, and 13 percent average reduction in area costs for Spartan-3, Virtex-4, and Virtex-5, respectively, when compared to results obtained using one of the most efficient resource sharing-based method reported in the literature. In addition, the proposed technique outperforms the resource sharing-based method in terms of area-delay product, with average reductions of more than 27 percent, 34 percent, and 19 percent for Spartan-3, Virtex-4, and Virtex-5, respectively.


Practical autonomous robotic vehicles require dependable methods for accurately identifying course or roadway boundaries. The authors have developed a method to reliably extract the boundary line using simple dynamic thresholding, noise filtering, and blob removal. This article describes their efforts to apply this procedure in developing an autonomous vehicle.


In September 1988, U.S. Generating Company, LLC (USGEN) completed its & 1.6 billion acquisition of 4,700 MW generating capacity from New England electric system. The financing structure used for the acquisition diversifies lender risk across the newly acquired New England portfolio and also takes advantage of the credit profile of USGEN's existing assets. The two tiers of commercial bank debts as well as 144A bonds issued as part of a leverage lease obtained investment-grade ratings ad resulted in oversubscribed bond issues and attractive terms and pricing. While dependent on the quality of the acquired portfolio, USGEN's approach provides an innovative model for financing merchant power in a deregulated industry.


Healthcare systems and organisations are continually exposed to change, and medical educators are increasingly expected to manage change, such as curriculum transformations and educational reforms. However, leading change can often be challenging, and medical educators often lack the resources, knowledge, and skills to successfully manage change initiatives. In managing change, it is important to recognise that organisations do not change, rather it is people that change, one person at a time. However, change can have a destabilising effect on individuals and an approach to support individuals through change is strongly advocated. This article offers twelve tips for managing change using the Prosci ADKAR model for achieving individual change. The article explores how ADKAR can be used as a systematic framework to guide the formulation of change management plans. Finally, the article considers the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and offers an appraisal of such frameworks and models during a time of unprecedented change and transform.


This paper notes the emergence of peer review as a means of quality assurance regarding the work of legal professionals. The peer review system used for public funding in England and Wales and Scotland has focused on a range of factors including inputs, structure, process and outcomes. The paper reviews different approaches to assessment, showing up the difficulties of direct observation, model clients, assessment of the management of cases and approaches which look at outcomes only in statistical terms. Specific criteria need to be generated for evaluating quality of performance and they have to be agreed by the professional groups concerned as an accurate representation of the necessary work. The paper goes on to discuss the optimum amount of such criteria, systems for assessment on a Likert scale and approaches in order to maintain consistency. The article then compares peer review in Scotland with England and Wales. The experience of the peer review studies in England and Scotland suggest that peer review based on files, an agreed set of criteria and trained reviewers can deliver an effective quality assurance programme.


Summary Opportunity youth (i.e. ages 16–24 who are neither working nor in school) are difficult to engage in services. Population-level data and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology play a critical role in helping social work practitioners understand where target populations reside and which characteristics are most salient to their service needs. This case study of the Opportunities for Youth Coalition demonstrates the use of population-level data and GIS technology in social work research and practice. We describe the collective impact approach, extant methods of youth outreach, and the Coalition's efforts to address youth disconnection. We used American Community Survey data, ArcGIS software, and hot spot analysis to answer three research questions. Findings In the Phoenix Metro Area, there are 75,200 opportunity youth. Greater percentages of youth of color are opportunity youth in comparison with White youth. One in three individuals who have limited English proficiency and who have a disability are opportunity youth. Nearly one in five individuals living in poverty is an opportunity youth. We identify the top five high population density areas for opportunity youth. Further, we highlight three ways that the Coalition's use of data and GIS technology has enhanced youths' and service providers' engagement: (1) increased referrals, (2) increased involvement of organizations, and (3) increased understanding of special populations. Applications We discuss the benefits and challenges of using population data and GIS technology to guide youth engagement. We conclude with strategies for community practitioners to replicate in other geographic areas and with other hard-to-reach populations.


This study examines the work of children's writers from the 19th and 20th centuries in order to expose the persuasive power of language. Looking at the work of 19th century English writers of juvenile fiction, Knowles and Malmkjaer expose the colonial and class assumptions on which the books were predicated. In the modern teen novel and the work of Roald Dahl the authors find contemporary attempts to control children within socially established frameworks. Other authors discussed include, Oscar Wilde, E. Nesbit, Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis.


In this Letter, we report a new mass for 11Li using the trapping experiment TITAN at TRIUMF's ISAC facility. This is by far the shortest-lived nuclide, t_{1/2}=8.8 ms, for which a mass measurement has ever been performed with a Penning trap. Combined with our mass measurements of ;{8,9}Li we derive a new two-neutron separation energy of 369.15(65) keV: a factor of 7 more precise than the best previous value. This new value is a critical ingredient for the determination of the halo charge radius from isotope-shift measurements. We also report results from state-of-the-art atomic-physics calculations using the new mass and extract a new charge radius for 11Li. This result is a remarkable confluence of nuclear and atomic physics.


BACKGROUND
Folliculitis decalvans (FD) and lichen planopilaris (LPP) are classified as neutrophilic and lymphocytic cicatricial alopecias according to the North American Hair Research Society. Recently, a clinical phenotype combining concomitant or sequential features for both was described as a FD LPP phenotypic spectrum (FDLPPPS).

OBJECTIVES
To review the most common phenotypic presentation of FDLPPPS with a main focus on histopathology.

METHODS
We reviewed retrospectively series of 7 patients with a similar phenotypic presentation with special focus on the histologic pattern. All patients presented with concomitant features for FD and LPP and recalcitrant course unresponsive to topical and systemic immunomodulatory/anti-inflammatory agents.

RESULTS
The most common clinical phenotype was that of hairless patches on the vertex with lost follicular ostia and perifollicular scale and the following diagnostic findings: (1) polytrichia; (2) positive bacterial culture for Staphylococcus in over 50% of the samples isolated from pustules and hemorrhagic crusts; (3) "mixed" histologic features for primary cicatricial alopecia including multicompound follicular structures of average 2-5 follicles (follicular packs), atrophy of the follicular epithelium, lymphohistiocytic infiltrate with granulomas, and prominent plasma cells, but absence of neutrophilic infiltrate in all cases except scarce neutrophils in one; and (4) clinical improvement with adjuvant systemic antimicrobials.

CONCLUSIONS
The FDLPPPS may be underreported and should be considered in all cases of LPP recalcitrant to treatment. Dermatologists and dermatopathologists should recognize this phenotypic spectrum to guide optimal clinical management consisting of immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory agents along with systemic antimicrobials.


A 27-year-old male patient was admitted to Dokuz Eylul University Hospital (Izmir, Turkey) with complaints of constipation and weight loss for a period of 4 months. His history was not significant, except for the early age at which he started to smoke, resulting in a smoking habit of one pack of cigarettes per day for 12 years. There was no history or evidence of cancer in any of his close relatives.


The techniques of discrete field mechanics are used to perform an elastic stability analysis of planar X-braced columns. Closed-form analytical formulas are derived that are independent of the number of joints in the system; thus, the solution of large, simultaneous equations is avoided. The explicit formula derived is used to develop a series of curves showing the critical-buckling-loads for various planar, x-braced, truss configurations and geometries. A comparison of critical buckling loads for the x-braced truss indicates that the modified Euler critical load may vary up to 85% from the loads obtained by the discrete field analysis method. The study also shows that as the number of panels increases from four to 32, the buckling-load ratios also increase. The x-braced truss depth has a direct relationship to the shearing force, which in turn will affect the buckling load of the truss system. Variations in chord member areas create variations in buckling-load ratios. The effects on the buckling ratios of the last two factors tend to diminish as the number of panels increases.


BACKGROUND Current treatments for acne scars and enlarged facial pores have shown limited efficacy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the fractional photothermolysis system (FPS) with dynamic operating mode on acne scars and enlarged pores. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve patients with mild to moderate atrophic acne scars and enlarged pores were included in this study. Three sessions of FPS treatment were performed for acne scars and facial pores monthly. Two blinded dermatologists who compared before and after photos based on a quartile grading scale conducted objective clinical assessments of acne scar– and facial pore–treated areas. We took a biopsy immediately after one treatment with the laser from one of the authors to assess the histologic effects of the laser on facial pores. RESULTS Follow-up results at 4 months after the last treatment revealed that, of the 12 patients, for acne scars, five demonstrated clinical improvements of 51% to 75% and three demonstrated improvements of 76% to 100%, and for facial pores, five demonstrated moderate clinical improvements of 26% to 50% and three demonstrated improvements of 76% to 100%. Side effects, including pain, post-treatment erythema, and edema, were resolved within 1 week. CONCLUSION We suggest that the FPS may provide a new treatment algorithm in some cases with acne scars and enlarged pores. Considering the lack of placebo-controlled, split-face design of our study, optimized, prospective studies should be conducted to fully assess the efficacy of FPS with dynamic operating mode.


Abstract Objective: Caregivers of patients with advanced cancer experience physical and emotional strain that can raise their own risk for morbidity and mortality. This analysis was performed to determine whether ENABLE II, a patient-focused palliative care intervention that increased patients' quality of life, reduced symptom intensity, and lowered depressed mood compared to usual care, would affect caregiver burden. Method: Caregivers of patients with advanced cancer from the parent study completed a caregiver burden scale and patients completed quality of life, symptom intensity, and depressed mood measures. Data were collected at baseline, 1 month, and every 3 months thereafter until patient death or the study ended. Decedents' caregivers were asked to complete an after-death interview regarding the quality of care that the patient received. Results: There were no significant differences in caregiver burden between intervention and usual care conditions. Follow-up analyses showed that higher caregiver objective burden and stress burden were related to lower patient quality of life, higher symptom intensity, and higher depressed mood. Caregivers who perceived that patients had unmet needs at end of life reported higher objective burden, and those who perceived that patients were not treated with respect reported higher demand burden. Significance of results: The results indicate that a successful patient-focused intervention did not have a similar beneficial effect on caregiver burden. Future interventions should focus on caregivers as well as patients, with particular attention to caregivers' perceptions of patient care, and seek to change both negative and positive effects of informal caregiving.


The modern discipline of urban morphology gives us a ground for the comparative analysis of cities, which increasingly includes specific quantitative elements. In this paper, we make a further step forward towards the definition of a general method for the classification of urban form. We draw from morphometrics and taxonomy in life sciences to propose such method, which we name 'urban morphometrics'. We then test it on a unit of the urban landscape named 'Sanctuary Area' (SA), explored in 45 cities whose origins span four historic time periods: Historic (medieval), Industrial (19th century), New Towns (post-WWII, high-rise) and Sprawl (post-WWII, low-rise). We describe each SA through 207 physical dimensions and then use these to discover features that discriminate them among the four temporal groups. Nine dimensions emerge as sufficient to correctly classify 90% of the urban settings by their historic origins. These nine attributes largely identify an area's 'visible identity' as reflected by three characteristics: (1) block perimeterness, or the way buildings define the street-edge; (2) building coverage, or the way buildings cover the land and (3) regular plot coverage, or the extent to which blocks are made of plots that have main access from a street. Hierarchical cluster analysis utilising only the nine key variables nearly perfectly clusters each SA according to its historic origin; moreover, the resulting dendrogram shows, just after WWII, the first 'bifurcation' of urban history, with the emergence of the modern city as a new 'species' of urban form. With 'urban morphometrics' we hope to extend urban morphological research and contribute to understanding the way cities evolve.


In this paper, we study a gradient based method for general cone programming (CP) problems. In particular, we first consider four natural primal-dual convex smooth minimization reformulations for them, and then discuss a variant of Nesterov's smooth (VNS) method recently proposed by Auslender and Teboulle [1] for solving these reformulations. The associated worst-case major arithmetic operations costs of the VNS method for them are estimated and compared. We show that for a class of CP problems, the VNS method based on the last reformulation generally outperforms that applied to the others. Finally, we discuss the application of the VNS method [1] to some large-scale CP problems arising in compressed sensing, which are highly challenging to simplex and/or interior point (IP) methods. The performance of this method is compared with the IP method [5] that is specially implemented for these problems. Our computational results demonstrate that for these CP problems, the VNS method [1] applied to the mostly suitable reformulation mentioned above substantially outperforms the IP method [5].


be-Abstract The first cases of general anesthesia were already cases with awareness. Until today, case reports of patients with awareness are published. These published cases are likely to be the top of the iceberg, as most patients with postoperative recall do not inform their anesthesiologist. Incidence of awareness with recall is between 0.1 and 0.2%. In a large multicenter-study, incidence of recall was 0.1% without, and 0.18% with the use of muscle rela-xants. The risk is increased with decreased doses of anesthetics, e.g. in patients with hemodynamic instability (trauma cases), patients undergoing cesarean section or cardiac surgery. Intraoperative awareness does not necessarily cause explicit (conscious) memory. Even in the absence of explicit memory, implicit (un-conscious) memory can still have consequences for the patient. In the worst case, it can cause post-traumatic stress disorder. There is doubt whether patients may profit from positive suggestions given during intraoperative awareness. Recommendations to administer benzodiazepines to prevent explicit memory must be reconsidered. Complete neuromuscular block should be avoided whenever possible. If a patient is thought to be aware, he should be contacted , his situation should be explained and af-firming comments should be given until consciousness is lost again. Postoperative visit should include questions about awareness and recall. The anesthetist should not disbelieve reported recall. Explanation of what had happened and referral to an experienced psychologist must be offered. Thus, the incidence of severe sequelae should decrease.


The fuel ion temperature in inertial confinement fusion can be determined from the neutron energy spectrum. For the implosion experiment with low neutron yield, and thus low signal-to-noise ratio, a new technique to unfold the neutron energy spectrum from the observed neutron time-of-flight signal is presented in this paper. This method uses a low-pass filter to remove noise from the signal with a threshold value determined by power spectrum analysis. This technique has been applied to the analysis of the observed neutron time-of-flight signals in the indirect drive implosion experiment conducted on Shenguang III prototype laser facility, and fuel ion temperatures of about 1.0 keV are obtained.


The ultrafine glassy powder of Al-Si-Ca-P-O-F polynary system was prepared by liquid precipitation method with several inorganic compounds as reactants containing the ions such as Al3+, SiO32-, P3O105-, Ca2+, F-, respectively. The powder was heat-treated in the range of temperature from 773 to 1173K and its crystallized processes were ascertained. The morphology, composition, bonding state and structure, crystallized behavior of the glassy powder were characterized by means of TEM, XRD, EDAX, IR, DSC etc methods. The results show that the powder containing Al, Si, Ca, P, O, F elements belongs to typical amorphous state, and the particles appeared hollow and near spherical morphology with the size from 30 to 70nm. The hollow particles collapsed as plate like conglutination state and a series of crystallized phases CaF2, Al2SiO5, Ca2SiO4, and Ca3(PO4)2 were separated sequentially during heat treatment in the range of temperature above. The characteristics of the glassy powder are similar to those of popular melting-quenched glass of the system. The network structure of the glass was mainly formed by the tetrahedrons of [SiO4], [AlO4] and [PO4], which were linked by the oxygen atoms of the angle in the tetrahedrons.


The purpose of this study was to test the model of diagnostic assessment of the level of formedness of the competency of pedagogical staff to use teaching technologies when applied in the settings of formal and non-formal education and to see whether the model creates opportunities for designing a strategy for professional lifelong development of teaching staff. A convergent (computer-oriented and traditional) methodology was used in this study including: the methodology for examination of the motivation drivers of professional activity (K. Zamfir); "Square of Values" methodology by O. Murzina; methodology of self-assessment of vocational and pedagogical motivation, Bass's questionnaire on orientations entitled "Personality orientations", Henning's methodology called "Structure of Interests", Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test. It has been proved that the majority of teaching staff demonstrated the imitative and reproductive level of formedness of the professional competency consistent with all criteria. It seems that educators strive for self-improvement and self-development in using teaching technology in formal and non-formal education settings. This study results can be well used either to develop the structure and content of the professional development or post-graduation programs for the teaching personnel at the instructional institutions or to assess of the level of formedness of the professional competence of pedagogical staff to use teaching technologies in the settings of formal and non-formal education. The study attempts for the first time ever to assess professionalism-related competency in using teaching technology in formal and non-formal education settings and to specify the value orientations, motives, needs, spectrum of knowledge, skills, and abilities comprising the level of proficiency in this area as it is viewed through the needs of the labour market.


The recruitment of FtsZ to the septum and its subsequent interaction with other cell division proteins in a spatially and temporally controlled manner are the keys to bacterial cell division. In the present study, we have tested the hypothesis that FtsZ and FtsW of Mycobacterium tuberculosis could be binding partners. Using gel renaturation, pull-down, and solid-phase assays, we confirm that FtsZ and FtsW interact through their C-terminal tails, which carry extensions absent in their Escherichia coli counterparts. Crucial to these interactions is the cluster of aspartate residues Asp367 to Asp370of FtsZ, which most likely interact with a cluster of positively charged residues in the C-terminal tail of FtsW. Mutations of the aspartate residues 367–370 showed that changing three aspartate residues to alanine resulted in complete loss of interaction. This is the first demonstration of the direct interaction between FtsZ and FtsW. We speculate that this interaction between FtsZ and FtsW could serve to anchor FtsZ to the membrane and link septum formation to peptidoglycan synthesis in M. tuberculosis. The findings assume particular significance in view of the global efforts to explore new targets in M. tuberculosis for chemotherapeutic intervention.


We use the data from the National Supported Work Demonstration to study performance of non-propensity-score-matching estimators, and to compare them with propensity score matching. We find that all matching estimators we studied here are sensitive to the choice of data set. Propensity score methods are sensitive to smoothing parameters, and they usually have larger standard error. Difference-in-differences and bias-corrected matching improve the performance of the matching estimators considered here. Our results suggest that the 1974 earnings are important for Dehejia and Wahba's PSID data but not for their CPS data in replicating experiment results. After decomposing the selection bias, we find that a sizable selection bias on unobservables is present in all data sets.