201 Background: "MijnAVL" is an interactive portal for cancer patients that includes patient education, an overview of appointments, access to the electronic medical record, patient-reported outcomes and related feedback, and tailored physical activity support. The aim of this study was to evaluate MijnAVL's feasibility and preliminary efficacy among lung cancer patients.

METHODS
We included individuals currently or recently treated for lung cancer with curative intent (surgery or radiotherapy). At baseline, they completed a questionnaire on sociodemographics, expectations of MijnAVL and three effect measures: patient activation (PAM), quality of life (SF-36), and physical activity (IPAQ). MijnAVL could be used noncommittally for 4 months. After this period, log data were collected retrospectively and participants completed questions on satisfaction and the effect measures.

RESULTS
We included 37 patients (mean age 59.6 years). The mean number of logins was 11.2 with a mean duration of 12.9 minutes. Eighty-nine percent of patients indicated that MijnAVL was easy to use and 82% was positive about using it. Many patients (69%) indicated that MijnAVL was a valuable addition to the care they received and 56% indicated that it helped them to have more control over their health. All features were frequently used and rated 7 or higher on a 10 point scale. Website user satisfaction was rated, on average, 3.9 on a 5 point scale. Patient activation decreased over time from 64.8 to 59.4 (p= 0.049), meaning patients felt less activated. For the SF-36, we found no significant changes over time. In general, levels of physical activity did not change, although vigorous physical activity tended to increase over time (from median of 0 to 360 MET-minutes per week (p= .053)).

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that using MijnAVL is feasible in lung cancer patients. Most users indicated that MijnAVL was useful and easy to use. The efficacy of the patient portal could not be substantiated, which could be due to small sample size, the intervention itself, the (insensitivity of) outcome measures, or a combination of these. Further research is needed to find effective ways to improve and adequately measure patient empowerment in lung cancer survivors.


In this sophisticated study of power and resistance, Jean Comaroff analyzes the changing predicament of the Barolong boo Ratshidi, a people on the margins of the South African state. Like others on the fringes of the modern world system, the Tshidi struggle to construct a viable order of signs and practices through which they act upon the forces that engulf them. Their dissenting Churches of Zion have provided an effective medium for reconstructing a sense of history and identity, one that protests the terms of colonial and post-colonial society and culture.


In 2015, pepper black spot disease became seriously prevalent in Guangdong Province, China. The stem and petioles of diseased plants were strewn with black, circular to oval and bulged spots. A bacterium was isolated from black spots on stem. The bacterium could cause same symptoms on pepper plants by sprinkling inoculation. 16S rDNA sequences of bacterium shared 99-100% identity with Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense strain 1033. The 322 bp specific fragment could be amplified from the five bacterial isolates using primers Br1f/L1r specific for P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense. Characteristics of the bacterium were consistent with those of P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense reported. Thus, the causal bacterium identified was P. carotovorum subsp. 2 brasiliense. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of pepper black spot disease caused by P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense in China.


In today's global market system innovation is the driver for economic development and wealth creation. Developing a competitive advantage now requires a business culture of rapid innovation, collaborative strategies, a systematic methodology, and a culture of concurrent change. This is the reality in today's innovation economy and particularly relative to developing alternative energy systems and materials. With the ever-increasing requirements for energy in a growing economy and the political, environmental, and resource constraints prevalent in today's world, new, more efficient energy systems are mandatory. The U.S. has experienced inadequate energy generation capacity in key geographic regions further emphasizing the need to enhance our energy generation capacity through a multitude of energy sources. A viable capacity additive to this supply and demand dilemma is the development of alternative energy sources such as fuel cells, photovoltaics, and wind. To achieve this capacity additive will require significant advancement in key engineering materials combined with innovation stimulants to leap-frog the current performance and cost barriers for competitive energy producing alternatives. The energy demand curve experienced globally over the past few years illustrates unmet market needs where opportunity exists to develop innovative key materials to enable the projected growth for renewable and biomass markets. To accelerate advanced materials to market in the energy arena requires a system of enabling innovation combined with the development of a collaborative approach to optimize available resources. Collaborative partnerships between multiple companies incorporating technology, market/distribution, and financial investors are essential to optimize innovation and successful commercialization of technology. Higher value disruptive innovations meet new market needs while pushing a company to new technology and/or capability requirements. Competitive success for innovative technology increasingly depends on speed to market and speed to profits.


In the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent the United States, an inter vivos gift, once given, cannot be reclaimed by the giver's heirs. In civil law countries the situation is quite different: Not only spouses, but issue and in some cases even ascendants, are entitled to a forced share of a decedent's estate, and these forced shares are assessed against a notional "estate" that includes the testator's inter vivos gifts. If the total of these forced shares exceeds the amount actually available in the decedent's estate at death, the recipients of the gifts, or their successors, may be forced to make up the missing amount.Clawbacks of this nature might have remained relatively insignificant, but last year the European Union undertook, indirectly, to expand their reach dramatically. The EU proposal, in theory, addresses only conflict of law rules; in practice, if adopted, it will threaten not only existing trusts and charitable gifts in the US and UK, but may also reduce future philanthropic giving. The UK, to date, has opted out of the proposal, and the US is not directly affected; given the large number of US and UK citizens with assets in continental Europe, however, and vice versa, it remains a concern.The recent European Union proposal to bring about a more uniform body of law governing choice of law and related issues in international inheritance cases is, perhaps, a necessary response to the increasingly international nature of the EU's (and the world's) inhabitants and their assets. As written, though, it is rather heavily tilted toward the civil law values of continental Europe and threatens to collide jarringly with common law traditions, in particular the Anglo-American fondness for trusts and charitable giving. This article provides a look at these different traditions, and then examines the relevant inheritance law provisions of EU member states, the UK, and the US before looking at the proposal itself.


We report Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network, Very Large Array, One-Centimetre Radio Array, Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), Effelsberg and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations beginning 4.5 days after the discovery of RS Ophiuchi undergoing its 2006 recurrent nova outburst. Observations over the first 9 weeks are included, enabling us to follow spectral development throughout the three phases of the remnant development. We see dramatic brightening on days 4 to 7 at 6 GHz and an accompanying increase in other bands, particularly 1.46 GHz, consistent with transition from the initial 'free expansion' phase to the adiabatic expansion phase. This is complete by day 13 when the flux density at 5 GHz is apparently declining from an unexpectedly early maximum (compared with expectations from observations of the 1985 outburst). The flux density recovered to a second peak by approximately day 40, consistent with behaviour observed in 1985. At all times the spectral index is consistent with mixed non-thermal and thermal emission. The spectral indices are consistent with a non-thermal component at lower frequencies on all dates, and the spectral index changes show that the two components are clearly variable. The estimated extent of the emission at 22 GHz on day 59 is consistent with the extended east and west features seen at 1.7 GHz with the VLBA on day 63 being entirely non-thermal. We suggest a two-component model, consisting of a decelerating shell seen in mixed thermal and non-thermal emission plus faster bipolar ejecta generating the non-thermal emission, as seen in contemporaneous VLBA observations. Our estimated ejecta mass of 4 ± 2 × 10 -7 M ⊙ is consistent with a white dwarf (WD) mass of 1.4 M ⊙ . It may be that this ejecta mass estimate is a lower limit, in which case a lower WD mass would be consistent with the data.


Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy affecting the entire visual system. The worldwide prevalence of glaucoma is estimated to be 60.5 million people. The visual disorder caused by glaucoma can reach complete blindness if untreated. Various treatment approaches exist that can largely prevent the visual disability and limit the vision loss due to glaucoma if the disease is diagnosed in its early phases. Nevertheless, the slow progression of the disease along with the lack of clear symptoms results in the late identification of glaucoma. Moreover, the pathophysiology of glaucoma, and its biological foundation and factors are not yet fully determined or understood. Therefore, novel directions are essential for improving the diagnostic flow and the understanding of the glaucoma mechanism. Most of the glaucoma diagnostic methods analyze the eye with a main focus on the retina, despite the transsynaptic nature of the fiber degeneration caused by glaucoma. Thus, they ignore a significant part of the visual system represented by the visual pathway in the brain. The advances in neuroimaging, especially diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), enable the identification and characterization of white matter fibers. It has been reported that glaucoma affects different parts of the visual system. Optic nerve and optic radiation were shown to have abnormalities measured by DTI-derived parameters in the presence of glaucoma. These outcomes suggest the significance of visual pathway analysis in the diagnosis. In this work, we propose visual pathway analysis using DTI in glaucoma diagnosis to complement the existing retina-based techniques. A system is proposed to automatically identify the optic radiation on the DTI-images. The segmentation algorithm is applied to healthy and glaucoma subjects and showed high accuracy in segmenting such a complicated fiber structure. The automation eliminates the necessity of medical experts' intervention and facilitates studies with large number of subjects. This algorithm was incorporated in a framework for the determination of the local changes of the optic radiation due to glaucoma using DTI. The framework can aid further studies and understanding of the pathophysiology of glaucoma. Moreover, the framework is applied to normal and glaucoma groups to provide localization maps of the glaucoma effect on the optic radiation. Finally, we propose a system that extracts different aspects of the visual pathway fibers from the diffusion tensor images for detecting and discriminating different glaucoma entities. The classification results indicate the superior performance of the system compared to many state of the art retina-based glaucoma detection systems. The proposed approach utilizes visual pathway analysis rather than the conventional eye analysis which presents a new trend in glaucoma diagnosis. Analyzing the entire visual system could provide significant information that can improve the glaucoma examination flow and treatment.


Dual Phase (DP) steels are widely replacing the traditional forming steels in automotive industry. Advanced damage models are required to accurately predict the formability of DP steels. In this work, Lemaitre's anisotropic damage model has been slightly modified for sheet metal forming applications and for strain rate dependent materials. The damage evolution law is adapted to take into account the strain rate dependency and negative triaxialities. The damage parameters for pre-production DP600 steel were determined. The modified damage models (isotropic and anisotropic) were validated using the cross die drawing test. The anisotropic damage model predicts the crack direction more accurately.


The idea that we are moving to a more technologically-aware era of learning and teaching is, by now, well-established. More lecturers will say, if asked, that there is far more tech being used today than there was "in their day." Some will paint this as a wonderful, shining example of a fully-connected future society, and others will point to disturbed sleep patterns, shorter attention spans, and an inability to communicate in person.
The Teaching Excellence Framework aims to recognise and reward excellent learning and teaching and, regardless of the views of some organisations and people about the need for, or design of, the TEF, it will be the measure used to assess Universities for the foreseeable future.
This session will explore the extent to which the use of, and reliance on, technology drives excellence in learning and teaching, and whether, in fact, excellence in learning and teaching drives the evolution of technology.


Author(s): Schuster, Patricia Frances | Advisor(s): van Bibber, Karl | Abstract: Organic scintillator materials have long been used as radiation detectors. They offer simultaneous detection of fast neutrons and gamma rays for applications in nuclear nonproliferation, international safeguards, and national security. The recent development of high quality stilbene crystals with excellent neutron-gamma pulse shape discrimination (PSD) has generated renewed interest in using crystalline materials. However, crystal organic scintillators are subject to a directional dependence in their response to heavy charged particle interactions, degrading their energy resolution for neutron measurements and worsening their PSD performance. This dissertation presents several studies that experimentally characterize the scintillation anisotropy in organic crystal scintillators. These include measurements of neutron, gamma-ray and cosmic muon interactions in anthracene, a historical benchmark among organic scintillator materials, to confirm and extend measurements previously available in the literature. The gamma-ray and muon measurements provide new experimental confirmation that no scintillation anisotropy is present in their interactions. Observations from these measurements have updated the hypothesis for the physical mechanism that is responsible for the scintillation anisotropy concluding that a relatively high dE/dx is required in order to produce a scintillation anisotropy. The directional dependence of the scintillation output in liquid and plastic materials was measured to experimentally confirm that no scintillation anisotropy correlated to detector orientation exists in amorphous materials. These observations confirm that the scintillation anisotropy is not due to an external effect on the measurement system, and that a fixed, repeating structure is required for a scintillation anisotropy.The directional dependence of the scintillation output in response to neutron interactions was measured in four stilbene crystals of various sizes and growth-methods. The scintillation anisotropy in these materials was approximately uniform, indicating that the crystal size, geometry, and growth method do not significantly impact the effect. Measurements of three additional pure crystals and two mixed crystals were made. These measurements showed that 1) the magnitude of the effect varies with energy and material, 2) the relationship between the light output and pulse shape anisotropy varies across materials, and 3) the effect in mixed materials is very complex. These measurements have informed the hypothesis of the mechanism that produces the directional dependence. By comparing the various relationships between the light output and pulse shape anisotropy across materials, these measurements indicate that the preferred directions of singlet and triplet excitation transport may be the same in some materials and different in other materials. The measurements performed in this work serve as a resource to groups who aim to correct for the scintillation anisotropy or employ it as a directional detection modality. Additionally, this work has advanced the understanding of what physical processes and properties dictate the magnitude and behavior of the scintillation anisotropy in a given material. It has added new information to the body of knowledge surrounding the scintillation mechanism in organic crystal scintillator materials. This information may be used to construct models to predict the scintillation anisotropy effect in materials that have not been experimentally characterized. Such work can contribute to work in producing a new generation of organic scintillator materials, advancing many applications in nuclear science and security.


Two-metre-deep soil profiles at 10 acid sulfate soil (ASS) scalds along the coast of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, were examined for salinity indicators. At 5 of the sites, permanently vegetated areas adjacent to the ASS-scalded land were also tested. Throughout the profiles, most sites had high soluble chloride (Cl−) concentrations (≤17 mg/g soil) and high soluble sulfate (SO42−) concentrations (≤17 mg/g soil). Very low Cl− : SO42− ratios (≤3) indicated active pyrite oxidation. Soil salinity (measured as electrical conductivity, EC) was extremely high in the top 2 m of most of the ASS scalds when related to the growth requirements of the typical introduced pasture species that were planted in these areas following drainage. This allows salinity, in addition to the extremely low pH of the surface soils, to contribute to land denudation, which can instigate or perpetuate pyrite oxidation and ASS-related land scalding. Although the sites had shallow watertables and soil-moisture content was high, the surface soil (top 0.10 m) of the scalds had consistently higher soluble Cl− and SO42− concentrations and EC than adjacent vegetated areas. All coastal ASS areas investigated, typically freshwater backswamps used for cattle grazing, were underlain by estuarine-derived sediments containing saline ground water. The results demonstrate that revegetation of ASS scalds must include investigation and management of salinity, in addition to acidity, within the soil profile and at the soil surface.


The continued expansion in the use of bioenergy is vital if the EU is to achieve its targets for renewable energy in 2020 and 2030. Several Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) are candidates for accession to the EU and this potential enlargement of the Union could extend the production of bioenergy to this region. This research explores the impacts of policies, regulatory frameworks, legislative environment and the role of civil society organizations in shaping the biofuel investment climate in CEECs. Specifically, we bring to light aspects that could hinder the potential introduction and development of bioenergy in the CEECs by using the Republic of Macedonia as the case study. We find the predominant resisting factors to bioenergy projects in the CEECs to be – legislative vacillations, regulatory reservations in EU policies, uncertainties in biofuel targets for the post–2020 phase and aggressive lobbying by the civil society on grounds of sustainability of biofuels. We believe that, for advanced biofuel projects to succeed in the CEECs, the challenge does not lie in commercialization of an unproven, new–to–market technology; the real test will be to see if relevant stakeholders can shape the narratives adopted by the EU for its post–2020 phase of the Renewable Energy Directive and ensure that the Government of Macedonia complies with its provisions.


Invasive squamous cell cancer of the vulva is predominantly a disease of older women. Current standard treatment entails a radical local excision with bilateral groin node dissection through separate incisions. In individual patients with superficially invasive small tumors the groin dissection can be omitted and in patients with well lateralized tumors a contralateral groin dissection is not always necessary. In the past the 'en bloc' resection of the vulva and groin nodes was the standard treatment for every patient. With the introduction of the above mentioned modifications, resulting in less morbidity, more older patients can now get the standard treatment. A retrospective analysis of all patients with vulvar cancer registered in a region in the Netherlands was carried out. The objective was to determine the referral pattern and the number of patients who received standard treatment. Sixty-seven of the 138 patients were not referred to a gynecological oncology center. Of this group the patients with squamous cell cancer (n = 36) 80% did not get standard treatment. Compared with the group of patients who did get standard treatment, these patients were older (median 81 years) and had an earlier stage of the disease. A higher than expected recurrence rate of 46% and a lower than expected survival rate of 68% was found. During follow-up several patients were found to be medically fit enough to undergo extensive salvage surgery for this recurrence. From the results of this study it can be concluded that deviation from standard treatment in early vulvar cancer only on the basis of old age results in decreased survival. Only the performance status of the patient combined with clinical and pathological prognostic variables should be used to decide what treatment is best for which patient.


In this paper, the two-dimensional renormalization group model for the failure process of a locked patch is designed according to the locked patch concept and renormalization group theory. The stress transfer among the blocks is defined with the conditional probability method. The critical probability P* of locked patch is obtained. By analysis the possible linkage between the failure mechanism of locked patch and evolution of landslides, it is found that the critical instability displacement of landslides has a dependency on the displacement at the onset point of accelerating creep, the number and the homogeneity of locked patches. At displacement less than the critical displacement, virtually no locked patch fails on a large scale. Above the critical displacement, the locked patch fails. After the failure of the last patch, the landslide would occur.


Anode erosion is a common concern in dc plasma spray torches. It depends largely on the heat flux brought by the arc and the dimensions, residence time, and mode of the arc attachment to a given location on the anode wall. This paper compares anode arc attachment modes predicted by LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) and 2-T (two-temperature) arc models that include the electrodes in the computational domain. The analysis is based on a commercial cascaded-anode plasma torch operated at high current (500 A) and low gas flow rate (60 NLPM of argon). It shows that the LTE model predicted a constricted anode arc attachment that moves on the anode ring while the 2-T model predicted a diffuse and steady arc attachment. The comparison between the predicted and measured arc voltage indicated that the 2-T prediction is closer to the actual voltage. A post-mortem observation of a new anode ring on a plasma torch operated under the same conditions confirmed the diffuse arc attachment predicted by the 2-T arc model.


Abstract. Least-squares reverse-time migration (LSRTM) attempts to invert for the broadband-wavenumber reflectivity image by minimizing the residual between observed and predicted seismograms via linearized inversion. However, rugged topography poses a challenge in front of LSRTM. To tackle this issue, we present an unstructured mesh-based solution to topography LSRTM. As to the forward/adjoint modeling operators in LSRTM, we take a so-called unstructured mesh-based "grid method". Before solving the two-way wave equation with the grid method, we prepare for it a velocity-adaptive unstructured mesh using a Delaunay Triangulation plus Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (DT-CVT) algorithm. The rugged topography acts as constraint boundaries during mesh generation. Then, by using the adjoint method, we put the observed seismograms to the receivers on the topography for backward propagation to produce the gradient through the cross-correlation imaging condition. We seek the inverted image using the conjugate gradient method during linearized inversion to linearly reduce the data misfit function. Through the 2D SEG Foothill synthetic dataset, we see that our method can handle the LSRTM from rugged topography.


Introduction: The prevalence of pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) ranges between 0.2%-4.1%. Adenotonsillar hypertophy is the main cause and its treatment is surgical. The primary objective of this paper is to describe the pediatric population that is admitted to our Multidisciplinary Sleep Unit (MSU) for study of suspected OSA. Methods: Observational retrospective study in which a Polysomnography (PSG) was performed to 87 children derived from Pediatric Pulmonology consult for suspected OSA between December2009-January. Contingency tables and Fisher9s P were used for data analysis. Results: In our studied population: 34.5% female and 65.5% male; median age: 6.42 years; 7.2% overweight and 27.7% obese. OSA was diagnosed in 37.9% (72.72% male,27.27% female); 3.4% mild, 12.36% moderate,21.8% severe OSA. Their symptoms were: snoring 100%, observed apneas 97%, restless sleep 72.7%, labored breathing 45.5% and enuresis 40.6%. Significant association was found between OSA and obesity, observed apneas, enuresis, adenoid and tonsillar hypertrophy (p 0.04, p 0.02, p 0.024, p 0.027, p 0.040 respectively). Mean PSG parameters: sleep efficiency: 79.32%, AHI: 19/hour, Oxygen desaturation index (IDO): 14.35/hr, time under 90% oxygen saturation (T90): 3.97% and mean microarousal index: 19.56/hr. Surgically treatment performed in 60% (75% adenotonsillectomy, 20% adenoidectomy, 5% tonsillectomy) Conclusions: 1. Enuresis, observed apneas, adenotonsillar hypertrophy and BMI had a significant association with OSA in our pediatric population.


Africa's continued dependency on foreign medicines and intellectual property (IP) is increasingly becoming a serious concern. This is compounded by an upsurge in drug resisting diseases like N1H1 and Tuberculosis that have been witnessed in the past years. A threat posed by the safety-concerned is that some of these diseases are potential agents of weapons of mass destruction. Of notable significance is that even though the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement has provided opportunities for African countries to review and adjust their intellectual property systems so as to migrate towards producing their own medicines. African countries have failed to capitalise on these opportunities. This is due to various reasons. First being a possibility that most African countries are still dependent on donor funds for their health systems, thus reviewing IP policies might upset funding arrangements. Second, being that some African countries lack capabilities to develop their own technologies, due to financial constraints and limited research activities. In the face of these challenges it is here argued that African states need to consider a possibility of harmonising their approach towards strengthening intellectual property development as well as their stance in international agreements such as TRIPS, so that the position of one country complements that of the region or the continent. This paper, with reference to TRIPS, further discusses how African countries fail to openly express their positions in IP development and management at international stage.


This paper draws on data collected in a wider study of national testing and grading policies for school year six that were introduced in Sweden 2012. The research project focuses specifically on elementar y students' experiences of receiving grades and taking the national tests. In this paper we direct the interest towards the positions given to parents in the student's stories about talking about grades with their parents. The purpose of the paper is to ex plore how 'territories of agency' take shape in student's stories in relation to discursive narratives of performative pressure within global and national education systems. The now stronger focus on grades in Sweden is considered a part of the delivery chain -stressing learning outcomes as the main issue for everyone involved in education – reaching from global actors such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to the individual students (Ball, et al. 2012). The performativ e pressure on schools, teachers, and students aiming to improve results and schools' ranking positions affects the local actor's actions and identities. As subjects to policy their agency is limited but in their stories student's make claims of having some degree of freedom to act. These 'claims of territories of agency' are understood as expressed through narrative performances of individual and collective identities in student's stories about experiences of talking about grades with parents. This narrativ e approach lets us focus on the links between how students position themselves relation to their parents and vis - a - vis discourses of performativity (Ball, 1997) in their stories and through their storytelling (Bamberg, 1997). Students from eleven differen t schools in five different municipalities were interviewed with the purpose of obtaining a great variety of student experiences. In total we have conducted 80 interviews with 195 students and some of them have been interviewed twice. Students were intervi ewed in groups (n= 2 - 5). The analysis in this paper is based on what students told us about their experiences of talking to parents about grades. In a thematic analysis we found three different themes regarding how the students described their parent's att itudes towards grades and the student's efforts related to grades. The first theme is about parents that do not talk about grades with their children. The second is about parents that put pressure on their children to get good grades often without engagin g -or knowing how to engage -in how this is done. The third theme is about parents that focus on their children's wellbeing by putting the grades in different perspectives – e.g. by downplay the importance of grades or emphasize the importance of having one's own agenda. In this paper we further investigate how the positions are given to parents in the "story - world" (Bamberg, 1997) and how the students position themselves as students when telling the stories. Preliminary results suggest that students 'cla im territories of agency' for themselves by positioning their parents in different ways in the story - worlds.


. This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of establishing the main factors that determine the parameters and dynamics of investment activity in the country based on sources of investment financing. The main purpose of the research is to study the formed in post-socialist countries features of investment management and to develop proposals for the introduction of innovative approaches to investment management considering the experience of developed countries and current trends in digitalization of the economy. Investigation of the topic of investment management in post-socialist countries in terms of resources of investment financing is carried out in the paper in the following logical sequence. First, the literature review and theoretical analysis of the issue allowed identifying the main sources of investment financing such as own funds of enterprises, household savings, banking sector loans, capital market financing, budget funds, foreign direct and portfolio investment, funds of international organizations. The second stage of the study held a comparative analysis of the role of each of the factors on the parameters and dynamics of investment activity in post-socialist countries. Methodological tools of the research methods are correlation and regression analysis. The statistical base of the study is the World Bank data on gross capital formation, gross savings, foreign direct and portfolio investment, long-term commercial bank loans, taxes on income, profit and capital gains. The third component of the research is the study of the experience of developed countries in the use of innovative investment financing tools, analysis of the dynamics of digital capital management tools such as WealthTech. Based on the study findings, the authors proposed recommendations for improving the efficiency of investment management in post-socialist countries and options for adapting digital tools to attract investment and manage them.


This is a study protocol for a pilot three-armed randomized controlled trial on nonsurgical integrative Korean medicinal treatment for symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). Thirty-six participants who have been diagnosed with (LSS) and recommended for spinal surgery by neurosurgeons or orthopedics and have had spinal symptoms such as severe low back pain and neurological claudication regardless of at least three months of conservative treatments will be recruited. Participants will be randomly assigned to be one of the three intervention groups, including the Mokhuri treatment program group 1 or 2 or usual care group. All treatments will be administered in inpatient units over a period of 4 weeks. The primary outcomes are 0 to 100 Visual Analogue Scales for low back pain and leg pain and the secondary outcomes are Oswestry Disability Index; EQ-5D; Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire; Oxford Claudication Score; physical function test, including treadmill test, walking duration, and distance assessment for free leg pain; radiologic testing; and adverse events which will be assessed during the 4-week treatment period as well as after 3 and 6 months of follow-up. Then, we will assess the feasibility of the clinical trial design as well as a nonsurgical integrative treatment program. This trial is registered with CRIS registration number: KCT0001218.


ABSTRACT Single-cell profiling techniques create opportunities to delineate cell fate progression in mammalian development. Recent studies have provided transcriptome data from human pre-implantation embryos, in total comprising nearly 2000 individual cells. Interpretation of these data is confounded by biological factors, such as variable embryo staging and cell-type ambiguity, as well as technical challenges in the collective analysis of datasets produced with different sample preparation and sequencing protocols. Here, we address these issues to assemble a complete gene expression time course spanning human pre-implantation embryogenesis. We identify key transcriptional features over developmental time and elucidate lineage-specific regulatory networks. We resolve post-hoc cell-type assignment in the blastocyst, and define robust transcriptional prototypes that capture epiblast and primitive endoderm lineages. Examination of human pluripotent stem cell transcriptomes in this framework identifies culture conditions that sustain a naïve state pertaining to the inner cell mass. Our approach thus clarifies understanding both of lineage segregation in the early human embryo and of in vitro stem cell identity, and provides an analytical resource for comparative molecular embryology. Highlighted Article: A comprehensive analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data from human pre-implantation embryos resolves cell-type ambiguities and defines consensus transcriptomes for emergent embryonic lineages.


Synthesis of some novel tricyclic compounds bearing thienodipyrimidine moiety by the reaction of ethyl 6-amino-1,3-dimethyl-2,4-dioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine-7-carboxylate (1) with different types of aromatic amines to give the corresponding carboxamide derivatives 2-11, which cyclized with triethyl orthoformate in acetic anhydride to afford thieno[2,3-d:4,5-d']dipyrimidine derivatives 12-15 is described. Similarly, thieno[2,3-d:4,5-d']dipyrimidine derivative 17 was also prepared via the reaction of carboxamide derivative 2 with chloroacetyl chloride in chloroform to give thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine-7-carboxamide derivative 16, followed by a cyclization in boiling acetic anhydride. The structure of these compounds was confirmed on the basis of their spectral and analytical data such as IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR spectroscopy and mass spectral data. The synthesized compounds were screened for their cytotoxic activity.


The objective of the study was to determine the value of metabolic indicators characterising the energy and acid-base metabolism of dairy cows for predicting the risk of retained placenta (RP). The connection between RP and different factors analysed, and the effect of RP on the development of puerperal metritis (PM) as well as on reproduction and milk production was studied. A total of 105 Holstein-Friesian cows were included and sampled between days -14–0 prepartum and then on days 4, 10–14, 28–35, 56–63 and 84–91 postpartum, for metabolic tests. From day 4, at times coinciding with the days of metabolic sampling, uterine involution and metritis were monitored by clinical examination, and from days 28–35 ovarian activity was monitored by ultrasonography. On days -14–0, the plasma non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) concentration showed a positive Odds Ratio (OR) 102.1, P < 0.05; while urinary net acid-base excretion (NABE) exhibited a negative correlation (OR 0.99; P < 0.05) with the odds of RP. NEFA and NABE were negatively correlated (Pearson's coefficient: -0.24; P < 0.05). Ketonuria of grade ≥ 2+ increased the probability of RP (OR: Infinite; P < 0.05). On day -14–0 prepartum, elevated plasma NEFA concentration, decreasing urinary NABE and grade ≥ 2+ ketonuria indicates a higher risk of RP. The odds of RP were not influenced by parity, sex and viability of the calf, and the calving assistance. RP increased the risk of PM (OR: 27.3; P < 0.0001). The RP alone did not exert an influence on the metabolic status, reproductive performance or milk production of cows.


Turrialba volcano, the southeasternmost volcano in the Central American arc, is constructed of medium to high-K calcalkaline basalts, andesites, and dacites, plus rare basalts with unusually high Nb concentrations. The compositions of these high-Nb basalts are more similar to those of intraplate basalts than they are to typical calcalkaline or arc-tholeiitic basalts. The association of calcalkaline and high-Nb basalts is rare in arc front volcanoes, seemingly being restricted to volcanoes that overlie Oligocene or younger subducting crust or that overlie the edges of subducting plates. The calcalkaline and high-Nb basalts at Turrialba have generally similar major element, trace element, and isotopic compositions but differ significantly in their Ba/La and La/Nb ratios. The geochemical similarities imply that they were derived from similar ocean island basalt sources. Their geochemical differences suggest that residual rutile stabilized by a large ion lithophile element bearing slab-derived fluid was present during calcalkaline basalt genesis but not during high-Nb basalt genesis. To explain the stability of rutile in a calcalkaline melt with a relatively low TiO2 concentration, we use a model that involves two stages of melting for both basalt types. Silica saturated high degree melts with mid-ocean ridge basalt like incompatible element concentrations generated by upwelling mantle are used as mixing end-members for both the calcalkaline and the high-Nb basalts. The calcalkaline basalts represent mixtures of the high-degree melts and oxidized small-degree melts generated by amphibole breakdown in mantle overlying the subducting slab. This small-degree melt has high incompatible element concentrations and is saturated in rutile. Arc-related lamprophyric rocks have compositions that are appropriate for these small-degree melts. High-Nb basalts are mixtures of the high-degree melts and more reduced small-degree melts that are undersaturated in rutile. These reduced melts may migrate around or through the subducting slab into the wedge to become involved in arc magma genesis.


Background and Hypothesis:  Implant design in revision total hip arthroplasty (rTHA) has evolved such that tapered, fluted titanium (TFT) femoral stems have become the gold standard. However, there is a paucity of data on TFT stem subsidence rates following aseptic rTHA. Subsidence can lead to stem loosening, hip instability, leg length discrepancy, and gait impairment in which patients experience great physical challenges requiring undesirable repeat revision surgery. This study assessed the incidence of subsidence in aseptic rTHA performed with TFT stems.

Design/Methods:  102 TFT femoral stems implanted between 2011 and 2020 at a single center were retrospectively reviewed. Stem subsidence was measured on digital radiographic images taken immediately after surgery, at 4-weeks and 1-year postoperatively, and at subsequent follow-up clinic visits. Patient characteristics and risk factors for subsidence, revision etiology, and surgical details (stem type, size, etc.) also were extracted from the electronic medical record.

Results:  102 aseptic rTHAs were analyzed. 21.8% (22/101) of stems subsided between the immediate postoperative and 4 week follow-up period. 43.1% (22/51) of stems subsided between 4 weeks and 1 year postoperatively, and 39.3% (11/28) of stems subsided between 1 year and latest follow-up (>12 months post-op).  At all three time periods, the amount of subsidence was <3 mm in a majority of cases (77% to 96%) which is considered to be an acceptable amount of stem subsidence or "settling." Only seven TFT stems had subsided more than 3 mm. Two of these stems subsided 10 or more mm but had not required revision at latest follow-up of 4 and 8 years.

Conclusion and Potential Impact:  The incidence of significant TFT stem subsidence requiring repeat revision surgery was relatively low in this cohort. Further research is warranted to identify specific risk factors for subsidence of TFT femoral stems.


This paper describes results of a dynamic model of aspectual composition that demonstrates how features necessary for planning and controlling actions can also motivate and ground simple analyses of a number of as-pectual phenomena. A novel feature of the model is an active computational representation for verb semantics called x-schemas , an extension of the Petri net formalism that can encode goals, resources and other features a(cid:11)ecting aspect. Vexing problems of aspectual composition lend themselves to simple analyses in terms of the context-sensitive interaction between verb-speci(cid:12)c x-schemas and a controller x-schema that captures important regularities in the evolution of events. The resulting x-schemas can be elaborated and constrained by such factors as tense, temporal modi(cid:12)ers, nominals and pragmatic context, providing a rich representation that supports simulative inference in language understanding.


During the course of many centuries the problem of the impact of music on human beings has aroused interest in philosophers and thinkers, generating numerous theories and conceptions. A serious stage of development of musical therapy occurred in the Baroque era. During that period for the fi rst time scholars made the attempt to provide a systematization of the means of musical expressivity according to the principle of their perception, while the musical compositions created during that period are also broadly used in present-day musical therapy. Baroque instrumental music taken as a principle for the method of the directed fi gurative perception is seminal for working with elderly people with Alzheimer's disease. Figurative perception and directed apprehension of music are traditionally considered to be the initial stage of a group psychotherapeutic process and is used for preparation of the participants for a session of psychodrama. On the basis of existing systems (those of Helen Bonny and Joseph Moreno) the author of the article developed an independent methodology, the aim of which is to establish and expand verbal communication with patients at an intermediate (moderate) stage of the Alzheimer disease. In addition to the main goals the achievement of which is pursued by activities in directed fi gurative perception, the music chosen in consideration of the patient's individual characteristic features arouses a therapeutic impact on him, being conducive to the rehabilitation of personal memories and the optimization of the human being's psycho-emotional state.


Background: The application of natural compounds including green tea extract (GTE) in food and pharmaceutical industries is limited. Encapsulation in nanoliposomes could be used as a delivery system to protect these compounds during processing and storage. Objective: In this study encapsulation of green tea extract in nanoliposomes and evaluation of its antibacterial, antioxidant and prebiotic properties were evaluated. Methods: GTE was encapsulated in liposomes by thin film layer method and reached to nanoscale with sonication. The prebiotic activity of 1% nanoliposomal GTE was evaluated on the growth of lactobacillus casei and bifidobacterium lactis in MRS broth medium. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity of nanoliposomal GTE was estimated by DPPH assay. The antibacterial activity of nanoliposomal GTE against Bacillus cereus (ATCC11778), Salmonella typhimurium 138 phage type 2, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes (ATCC19118) was determined using well diffusion technique. Results: The mean diameter of nanoliposomes was about 44.7± 1.9 nm and had 0.203 ±0.014 polydispersity index. Entrapment efficiency of nanoliposomal GTE under the optimum conditions was 97%. Antibacterial activity of GTE was significantly increased after encapsulation in nanoliposomes. The strongest antibacterial activity of nanoliposomal GTE was seen against listeria monocytogenes with an inhibition zone of 16.2 mm while E. coli was the most resistance strain with an inhibition zone of 14 mm. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity of GTE was significantly increased after nanoliposome encapsulation since the IC50 value of nanoliposomal GTE was decreased to 1.78 μg ml -1 . Moreover, addition of 1 % nanoliposomal GTE enhanced the growth rate of Lactobacillus casei and Bifidobacterium lactis to a significant extent. Conclusion: Nanoencapsulation effectively enhanced beneficial properties of GTE.


Nowadays, there is a growing need to develop appropriate methods to acquire, process and interpret large amounts of data in real time to assist the decision making process for optimal drinking water distribution systems management. The presented wireless AMR methodology, which was piloted in Talsi city, is designed as warning systems to prompt the appropriate response to eliminate or mitigate leaks, client's fraud and to ensure customers and water supply companies with reliable and timely data. One of the main benefits of the methodology presented here is that it enables operators to become more effective and efficient in emergency conditions.


Introduction Information transfer is critical in evaluating the efficiency of health and social care systems. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a useful tool to evaluate technical efficiency when a range of comparable decision making units (DMU) are involved in an uncertain system. DEA models, based on expert knowledge, must be carefully fitted to represent the framework under study. Theory and methods We designed a Monte-Carlo DEA model based on adjusted expert knowledge. The model has been applied to the assessment of technical efficiency of small mental health areas (SMHA), composed by a complex array of social and health services. The DMUs Input/Output algebraic behaviour was adjusted to an Expert-driven Model of Community Care (B-MHCC). A preliminary version of the model has been applied to the assessment of divergent SMHA in Spain and in Chile. The probability of being efficient of 71 SMHA were analysed in Andalusia (Spain) using large health databases. Results The model has shown its usability to identify both efficiency and inefficiency under uncertainty of highly complex DMUs. For all non-efficient SHA, I/O improvements needed to reach efficiency were also evaluated. Results show significant differences between SHA in Andalusia. Conclusions Expert-driven Monte-Carlo DEA is a powerful tool to evaluate relative technical efficiency. Algebraic models need to be carefully fitted by expert knowledge and information transfer strategies should be included in model development. Discussion Due to the system complexity, there are many SHA that can be considered efficient and many I/O profiles can be used for benchmarking.


Objective : The bladder urothelium is comprised of basal, intermediate, and apical urothelial cells.  Ability to functionally study an individual urothelial cell while preserving its in situ location would represent an advance in bladder urothelial biology.  Materials and Methods :   Mice were euthanized and cardiac perfused with phosphate-buffered saline.  Bladders were then excised.  Urothelial sheets were dissected off the lamina propria using forceps with a microscope (5x magnification).  Sheets were stained with H&E.  In separate experiments, cell-attached electrophysiology was performed by placing urothelial sheets in Ringer's bath solution, with either basal or apical surface down. Using 40x magnification, individual urothelial cells from different layers were identified.  Potassium currents on these cells were measured in situ using single channel patch-clamp technique. Results :  Histology revealed that urothelial sheets were free of lamina propria and smooth muscles.   The proportion of apical cells, compared to proportion of intermediate and basal cells, with measureable potassium currents was considerably higher in apical cells (69% of apical versus 16% of intermediate and 18% of basal cells).  Of the active patches detected in apical cells, 100% of these patches showed a 43 pS current conductance.  For intermediate and basal cells, 75-83% demonstrated a 43 pS current and 17-25% demonstrated a 22 pS current.  Single cells, from all 3 layers, could also be individually microdissected completely off the urothelium.  Conclusions : A novel approach was developed in which individual urothelial cells within the multi-layered urothelium were identified and functionally studied in situ . Electrophysiologic characterization revealed different phenotype between the cells from different layers.  Single cells from an identified layer can be harvested off the urothelium allowing for other studies. This technique allows investigators to study various cellular functions while preserving cellular location within the urothelium.


Biomedical engineering (BME) finds itself at the intersection of the emerging disciplines of humanitarian engineering and global health, through its role in developing sustainable technological solutions to improve health and addressing health disparities. It provides a framework within which to educate future leaders to design and implement health technologies that are appropriate and useful in their social context, particularly because of its multidisciplinary and design-oriented nature. Some universities in the United States have included an engineering component in their global health programs or included global health and development components in their BME curricula.


Introduction In the preceding memoir the whole succession of the inferior crystalline and stratified rocks having been indicated, the triple arrangement of the Old Red Sandstone in an ascending order was shown to consist of a lower red sandstone and conglomerate, of a central deposit—the grey Caithness Flags, and of certain overlying sandstones, occasionally red, but of prevailing yellowish colour. In this manner the whole of the Old Red series (or the equivalent of the Devonian rocks of other countries) is exhibited in the Orkney Islands, Caithness, and Easter Ross. The lower division of the series in those tracts has not (see above, p. 400) afforded any of those fossils (the Pterygotus, Cephalaspis, Pteraspis, or Parka decipiens) which characterize the lowest Old Red of Forfarshire, Perthshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire: the middle division (or Caithness Flags) is abundantly characterized by ichthylites and the small crustacean Estheria: the third, as known to the north of the Moray Firth, has afforded, as yet, certain terrestrial plants only, which, approaching to the Carboniferous types, are forms hitherto unknown in any true Carboniferous deposit. In following this natural physical group westwards along the north coast from Caithness into Sutherland, or northwards from the Orkneys into the Shetland Isles, its bituminous flagstone or central portion is seen to thin out. Such is also particularly the case in the southern extension of the group; which we proceed to consider. Thus, after passing along the east coast of Sutherland, where the lower member only is visible, it is already


Image segmentation is the fundamental approach of digital image processing. Among all the segmentation methods, Otsu method is one of the most successful methods for image thresholding because of its simple calculation. Otsu is an automatic threshold selection region based segmentation method. This paper studies various Otsu algorithms.


The first Holocene marine transgression reached the inner fiords of King George Island
approximately at 9.5 ka BP according to Sugden and John (1973). This age marks today the
minimum age of the end of the last glacial period obtained on land and the start of the Holocene
in this Antarctic sector. Following the first Holocene marine transgression, Watcham et al.
(2011) reconstructed a relative sea level curve for the South Shetland Islands with a relative
sea level rise of 15.5 m amsl for Fildes Peninsula between 8 and 7 ka BP. The curve shows that
a delay occurred in the isostatic uplift after 7.2 ka BP related to a glacier still-stand resulting in
a relative sea level rise. This is followed by a drop of the relative sea level after 7 ka BP due to
the rate of glacial unloading and isostatic rebound exceeding the rate of eustatic sea level rise.
The aim of this presentation is to show new evidence, which will help to understand the postglacial
paleoenvironmental changes on King George Island. Our chrono-stratigraphical and
geomorphological studies in Potter Peninsula suggest, that the Holocene post-glacial marine
transgression was not just initiated before 7.7 ka BP but also reached 14 m amsl, and was
locally interrupted by a glacier advance after 7.3 ka BP. This glacier advance can be correlated
to Watcham´s et al (2011) curve, showing a drop of relative sea level between 7.2 and 7 ka BP.
In conclusion, we consider that a glacier readvance took place between 7.2 and 7 ka BP in the
Southern sector of King George Island. Additionally our findings show that the age of 9.5 ka BP
as a minimum age of the onset of the Holocene transgression in the South Shetland Islands
has to be reconsidered.
References
Sugden, D. and John, B., 1973. The age of glacier fluctuations in the South Shetland Islands,Antarctica.
In: van Zinderen Bakker, E.M. (Ed.), Palaeoecology of Africa, the Surrounding Islands, and Antarctica.
A.A. Balkema, 139-159 p., Cape Town.
Watcham, E. P., Bentley, M. J., Hodgson, D. A., Roberts, S. J., Fretwell, P. T., Lloyd, J. M., Larter, R. D.,
Whitehouse, P. L., Leng, M. J., Monien, P. and Moreton, S. G., 2011. A new Holocene relative sea
level curve for the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3152–3170.


Several known functional disorders of the upper airway are associated with playing wind instruments. Some of these problems have been known for hundreds of years. Subcutaneous emphysema of the head and neck and parotid, palate paralysis, patulous eustachian tubes, laryngocele, and pharyngocele are some of the more common problems. In evaluating disorders of wind instrumentalists, it is important to obtain a history that is unique to the individual, including information about the work environment, playing technique, and length of time playing. Physicians should understand the differences in wind instruments, mouthpieces, and reeds to understand the pathologic problems that occur in wind instrumentalists. This paper serves as an introduction to some of the signs and symptoms of these problems and how they are unique in wind instrumentalists.


Research discussed for the entreaty petition in proposed public prosecutor to prevent district court padangsidimpuan number 63/ Pid.Sus/2014/ PN.Psp On the basis of judex factie any judge in the matter of the felling of trees in the forest production owned by pt toba pulp lestari tbk . With the defendant samsul bahri simatupang and adam harahap in accordance with the provisions of article 253 kuhap. The judge in padangsidimpuan district court stated that the defendant was found guilty of committing the criminal act he was accused of, but the act is not a crime and release the defendant from all lawsuits. The method used is a normative legal research. The approach used in case approach. Sources of legal materials used are primary and secondary legal materials. An appeal to the fling by prosecutors against decisions out of all lawsuits or in forestry is in accordance with the provisions of article 253 kuhap paragraph (1) of KUHAP about examination in the cassation level done by Supreme Court, Because the district court judge padangsidimpuan on the basis of judex factie wrong judge said in its consideration do not judge or applied as proof should be particularly law allows and the right to do the tree legally. Keywords: Cassation, Freelance Decision, Any apply the law.


Datacenter systems and I/O devices now run at single-digit microsecond latencies, requiring ns-scale operating systems. Traditional kernel-based operating systems impose an unaffordable overhead, so recent kernel-bypass OSes [73] and libraries [23] eliminate the OS kernel from the I/O datapath. However, none of these systems offer a general-purpose datapath OS replacement that meet the needs of μs-scale systems.' AB@This paper proposes Demikernel, a flexible datapath OS and architecture designed for heterogenous kernel-bypass devices and μs-scale datacenter systems. We build two prototype Demikernel OSes and show that minimal effort is needed to port existing μs-scale systems. Once ported, Demikernel lets applications run across heterogenous kernel-bypass devices with ns-scale overheads and no code changes.


The American Academy of Pediatrics and its members recognize the importance of improving the physician's ability to recognize intimate partner violence (IPV) and understand its effects on child health and development and its role in the continuum of family violence. Pediatricians are in a unique position to identify abused caregivers in pediatric settings and to evaluate and treat children raised in homes in which IPV may occur. Children exposed to IPV are at increased risk of being abused and neglected and are more likely to develop adverse health, behavioral, psychological, and social disorders later in life. Identifying IPV, therefore, may be one of the most effective means of preventing child abuse and identifying caregivers and children who may be in need of treatment and/or therapy. Pediatricians should be aware of the profound effects of exposure to IPV on children.


The objective of the authors is to develop an intelligent robot workstation capable of integrating data from multiple sensors. The investigation is based on a Unimation PUMA 560 robot and various external sensors. These include overhead vision, eye-in-hand vision, proximity, tactile array, position, force/torque, cross-fire, overload, and slip-sensing devices. The efficient fusion of data from different sources will enable the machine to respond promptly in dealing with the 'real world'. Towards this goal, the general paradigm of a sensor data fusion system has been developed, and some simulation results, as well as results from the actual implementation of certain concepts of sensor data fusion, have been demonstrated. >


Based on the current concept of the obvious prevalence of surgical treatment of vascular angiodysplasias over low-invasive methods of interventional radiology, the author assesses the capacities of sclerotic therapy performed by the improved visual controlling procedure. By using the well-known semiotics of ultrasound studies of angiodysplasias, the author has made significant methodological amendments to the techniques of sclerotic therapy. The principle of the proposed procedure is a result of complex use of the potentialities of ultrasound visualization and interventional X-ray contrast studies of the vascular system. The procedure was successfully used in 9 patients. It is concluded that that the study of soft tissue angiodysplasias via direct puncture performed under ultrasound guidance, followed by mass contrasting and sclerotic therapy.


Conventional tracking filter in marine radar only concerns the position or shape of the object. When the target encounters the clutter interruption or ship occlusion, the tracker is easy to drift away due to the wrong target association. Since in short-range maritime surveillance, the X-band marine radar captures the object in an extended region with varying intensities, in this paper, combining position, shape, and appearance of the target together, multiple kernelized correlation filters (MKCF) are proposed to conduct a single object tracking in the real marine radar. By automatic initializing KCF on a target in different time steps and fusing these multiple KCFs via the maximum likelihood, the proposed tracker implicitly uses multiple instances of the target to improve the robustness of the long-term tracking. Bounding rectangles of the multiple trackers also enhance the reliability of ship segmentation via a voting procedure. In the real ship tracking experiment, the proposed tracker performs favorably against the conventional radar tracker and top-ranked visual tracker in the cases of clutter interruption, ship occlusions, and scale changing. We believe that our proposal sheds light on that the intensity distribution of the extended object could be valuable for target association in marine radar data. To encourage further research, our tracking framework is made open-source.


Do customers increase or decrease their spending in response to the introduction of an informational website? To answer this question, this study considers the effects of the introduction and use of an informational website by a large national retailer on offline customer buying behavior. More specifically, we study a website's effects on the number of shopping trips and the amount spent per category per shopping trip. The model is calibrated through the estimation of a Poisson model (shopping trips) and a type-II tobit model (the amount spent per category per shopping trip), with effect parameters that vary across customers. For the focal retailer, an informational website creates more bad than good news; most website visitors engage in fewer shopping trips and spend less in all product categories. The authors also compare the characteristics of shoppers who exhibit negative website effects with those few shoppers who show positive effects and thus derive key implications for research and practice.


1. The fusion of human erythrocytes into multicellular bodies that is induced by microdroplets of oleoylglycerol was investigated by optical and electron microscopy, and by gel electrophoresis of membrane proteins. 2. At the highest concentrations of oleoylglycerol and Ca(2+) used, at least 80% of the cells fused after 30min at 37 degrees C and only about 5% of the cells had completely lysed; the shapes of fused multicellular bodies were usually retained in ;ghosts' prepared by hypo-osmotic lysis. 3. The rate of cell fusion was related to the concentration of Ca(2+), although some cells fused when no exogenous Ca(2+) was present. 4. Interactions of microdroplets of oleoylglycerol with the cells led to abnormalities in the structural appearance of the erythrocyte membrane; subsequent membrane fusion occurred, at least in some instances, at the sites of the microdroplets. 5. The intramembranous particles on the P-fracture face of the treated cells were more randomly distributed, but not significantly increased in number by comparison with the control cells. 6. Gel electrophoresis of the proteins of ;ghosts' prepared from fused human erythrocytes showed a production of material of very high molecular weight, the development of a new component in the band-3 region, an increased staining of bands 4.3 and 4.5, and a new component moving slightly faster than band 6. 7. Bands 2.1-2.3 were altered, band 3 was decreased and band 4.1 was lost. 8. Most, but not all, of the changes in the membrane proteins appeared to result from the entry of Ca(2+) into the cell. 9. 1-Chloro-4-phenyl-3-l-toluene-p-sulphonamidobutan-2-one partially inhibited both cell fusion and the associated decrease in band-3 protein. 10. The possibility that proteolytic degradation of membrane proteins may be involved in cell fusion induced by oleoylglycerol is considered, and some implications of this possibility are discussed.


Individuals typically traverse several life phases before forming a family. We analyse whether changing the duration of one of these phases, the education phase, affects the timing of marriage and childbearing. For this purpose, we exploit the introduction of short school years in Germany in 1966-67, which compressed the education phase without affecting the curriculum. Based on difference-in-differences regressions and German Micro Census data, we find that earlier graduation due to short school year exposure affects the timing of marriage for individuals in all secondary school tracks and shifts forward the birth of the first child mainly for academic-track graduates. This highlights that education policies might not only affect family formation through human capital accumulation, but also through changing the duration of earlier life phases. This is important as not only age at marriage and first birth increases in many countries, but also the duration of the education phase.


Women and Knowledge in Early Christianity offers a collection of essays that deal with perceptions of wisdom, femaleness, and their interconnections in a wide range of ancient sources, including papyri, Nag Hammadi documents, heresiological accounts and monastic literature.


The Constant Market Share Analysis of export growth is used here to capture the world trade effect, the commodity composition effect, the market distribution effect and the competitiveness effect for the periods: 1984-85–1988-89 and 1988-89–1992-93. The results show that Pakistan has maintained her export share in the world market. The market distribution and competitiveness of Pakistani exports have improved significantly between the two periods under study. However, the concentration of Pakistani exports into traditional commodities, whose world demand remained sluggish, has offset the positive contribution of effective market distribution and improved competitive strengths to a large extent. A restructuring of exports (from traditional to non-traditional), an increase in the variety of exports, search for new fast growing markets and an improvement in the economic and political environment are suggested to enhance the export growth of Pakistan in future.


ABSTRACT Furfural is an inhibitory side product formed during the depolymerization of hemicellulose with mineral acids. In Escherichia coli, furfural tolerance can be increased by expressing the native fucO gene (encoding lactaldehyde oxidoreductase). This enzyme also catalyzes the NADH-dependent reduction of furfural to the less toxic alcohol. Saturation mutagenesis was combined with growth-based selection to isolate a mutated form of fucO that confers increased furfural tolerance. The mutation responsible, L7F, is located within the interfacial region of FucO homodimers, replacing the most abundant codon for leucine with the most abundant codon for phenylalanine. Plasmid expression of the mutant gene increased FucO activity by more than 10-fold compared to the wild-type fucO gene and doubled the rate of furfural metabolism during fermentation. No inclusion bodies were evident with either the native or the mutated gene. mRNA abundance for the wild-type and mutant fucO genes differed by less than 2-fold. The Km (furfural) for the mutant enzyme was 3-fold lower than that for the native enzyme, increasing efficiency at low substrate concentrations. The L7F mutation is located near the FucO N terminus, within the ribosomal binding region associated with translational initiation. Free-energy calculations for mRNA folding in this region (nucleotides −7 to +37) were weak for the native gene (−4.1 kcal mol−1) but weaker still for the fucO mutant (−1.0 to −0.1 kcal mol−1). The beneficial L7F mutation in FucO is proposed to increase furfural tolerance by improving gene expression and increasing enzyme effectiveness at low substrate levels.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the effects of acupuncture anesthesia (AA) and local anesthesia (LA) on the blood pressure (BP) and the heart rate (HR) in chronic rhinitis patients accompanied inferior turbinate hypertrophy in low temperature radiofrequency ablation (RFA).

METHODS
Totally 61 chronic rhinitis patients accompanied inferior turbinate hypertrophy were randomly assigned to the AA group (31 cases) and the control group (30 cases). All patients received RFA respectively under AA and RA. Their heart rate (HR), systolic pressure (SP), diastolic pressure (DP), and mean pressure (MP) were recorded and compared at 10 minutes after their entry into the operating room, immediately before surgery, intraoperation, and 5 min after operation.

RESULTS
When compared with the control group at the same time points, the SP, DP, MP, and HR all decreased at intraoperation and 5 min after operation in the AA group. There was statistical difference in the SP on the right side at the 2nd melting point and the HR on the left side at the 2nd melting point between the two groups (P < 0.05). Compared with the same group at 10 min after entry into the operating room, the SP on the right side at the 1st melting point, the SP, DP, and MP on the right side at the 2nd melting point, the SP, DP, and MP on the left side at the 1st melting point, and the SP on the left side at the 2nd melting point all obviously increased with statistical difference (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). When compared with the same group at 10 min after entry into the operating room and immediately before surgery, there was no statistical difference in the SP, DP, MP, or HR of the AA group at intraoperation and 5 min after operation (P > 0.05). When compared with the same group at 10 min after entry into the operating room and immediately before surgery, there was no statistical difference in HR of the control group at intraoperation and 5 min after operation (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Patients undergoing AA had less fluctuation of the BP and the HR, indicating AA had better analgesic effects.


Numerical model of friction welding between ceramic and metal rods are established to predict temperature rises during the initial phase of the process. In this study alumina(ceramic) and mild steel(metal) rods are used and joined with aluminium sacrificial interlayer. The workpieces are welded together by holding alumina still, while rotating the steel attached with aluminium piece under influence of an axial load which creates frictional heat in the interfaces. The transient thermal response in welding is hard to model analytically. Generally, heat is dissipated over time scales of less than two seconds. For the thermal model, an explicit one dimensional (1-D) finite difference (FD) method is utilized to approximate the heating and cooling temperature distribution of the joined dissimilar rods. The preliminary predictions are compared to actual thermocouple data from welds conducted under identical conditions and are shown to be in fair agreement. Even though the FD method proposed in this study cannot replace a more accurate numerical analysis, it does provide guidance in weld parameter development and allows better understanding of the friction welding process.


Badagry Creek runs through Nigeria and Republic of Benin with access to the Atlantic Ocean. Physicochemical parameters of the creek were studied from 2003 to 2004 to generate baseline data in view of its increasingly importance in economic life and developmental issues. Two important sites, with highest human activities, Akarakumo and Topo, were chosen for monthly analyses of water samples following methods and procedures of APHA. Colour, surface temperature, pH, salinity, turbidity, phenol, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, conductivity, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total hardness (calcium and magnesium), nitrates, phosphates, sulphates, chlorides, free carbon dioxide, acidity, oil and greese were analysed. There were significant difference in monthly variations (P 0.05). The mean concentration of the parameters showed significant variation with mean values of 27.51 ± 1.17 °C for temperature, biological oxygen demand 18.38 ± 8.14 mg/l, free carbon dioxide, 4.00 ± 2.07 mg/l and ammonia 0.18 ± 0.15 mg/l. Values were within those reported for most estuaries globally. It was revealed that variations in the water quality of the creek are largely influenced by season and intrusion from the ocean at different tide levels.


Upon examination of the Church of England during the period after the Great War, one cannot help but notice the internal division which existed amongst Churchmen. This discord was especially apparent as the Church attempted to aid in the mitigation of the social problems created by industrialism in the nineteenth century, and highlighted by the political divisions and economic depression of the post-war years. This study examines the Church's struggle to answer the social questions of the period. It traces the development of prevailing social thought from the mid-nineteenth century through the First World War and examines the movements within the Church which attempted to aid in the cure of the ills experienced by the industrial working-classes. It then studies the Church as it emerged from the war and dissects the programmes and policies which best reflected dominant social thinking. More specifically, this study examines one Churchman, Hensley Henson, and his criticisms of the prevailing social thought within the Church. Henson's criticisms of specific programmes are studied in depth in order that we might better understand the assumptions behind his views as they had developed into a manifesto for dissenting social attitudes in the 1920s. It is in such a study that we are able to uncover the theological, ecclesiastical, and intellectual contributions of one of the most prominent leaders of dissenting thought within the Church during the post-war period. Most importantly, this thesis examines the range of internal division in a specific area within the Church of England as it struggled with the pressures placed upon it by the external post-war world.


This study is a preliminary report on the use of freeze-dried-collagen eye patches in the treatment of a selected group of inflammatory eye conditions. The early responses to treatment have been encouraging in cases of allergic conjunctivitis, blepharitis, and pterygium. In addition, the collagen patches have exhibited a significant beneficial effect in the resolution of ectropion.


New closeness and betweenness based centrality measures have been evaluated in this paper. Power grid is modeled as a directed graph. The graph is analyzed in terms of complex network theory to identify influential nodes which control power flow pattern throughout the whole grid and as a result can create cascade if removed unintentionally or targetedly. Various measures of impacts have been analyzed to show that power grid has scale-free network characteristics, i.e., it is very much vulnerable to targeted node removal. Measures of impacts include characteristic path length, connectivity loss and blackout size. Rank similarity analysis have been carried out to show that nominal condition of power system gives critical nodes which remain critical with changes in system operating conditions as well.


In its 125th anniversary edition (6 May 2005), the magazine Science posed the 25 most important unresolved scientific questions for the next quarter century. Several of these are related to the Earth system, comprising the deep Earth together with its oceans and atmosphere; a non-equilibrium system driven by heat fluxes from both the interior of the Earth and the Sun. It is now understood that the individual parts of this system are tightly coupled, so that even small changes in one can have major influences on others. The complex coupling of physical, chemical and mechanical processes presents some serious challenges to the implementation of modern non-equilibrium thermodynamic concepts. In particular, there are insufficient means to describe conceptually the patterns formed as a result of these processes, and the interaction of processes occurring at different scales is, as yet, poorly understood. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is an overarching discipline that enables rigorous coupling of diverse phenomena that have hitherto been seen as independent. Although non-equilibrium thermodynamics began has had something of a resurgence in the physical sciences in recent years, embracing ideas from classical solid mechanics (Ziegler 1983) and stimulated by advances in computer performance. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics has now advanced to a stage where it is beginning to offer a unifying approach to understanding and modelling coupled phenomena and complex systems as a whole. Here, we are extending the phrase 'Earth system' to mean more than the coupling between the surface of the Earth and the hydrosphere–atmosphere, to include coupling with the deep Earth as well. Many of the patterns formed from these processes are in need of good descriptions, and there is a serious lack of understanding of the interactions between processes on different scales, both physical and temporal. Progress is often hampered either by the absence of specific theoretical formulations or by their coupling through efficient numerical models.


Author(s): Bolotin, Eugene Leonidovich | Advisor(s): Sladek, Frances M | Abstract: This thesis describes the investigation of binding rules and DNA binding sequences for several transcription factors (TFs). We develop Protein Binding Microarrays (PBMs) to study the interactions between TFs and in vitro and we use a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to capture these interactions in silico. We then apply this methodology to study the binding of TFs to promoters and repetitive sequences in a genomewide fashion. In Chapter 2, we thoroughly investigate HNF4α DNA binding interactions using PBMs. We investigate binding specificities for various isoforms and species of HNF4α. We then use PBMs to rank ~ 4,000 HNF4α binding sequences in order of binding affinity. Using this training set we identify/predict novel HNF4α binding sequences and rules, and from these rules we generate a model for HNF4α binding. We then use this large dataset, in combination with ChIP-on-chip and RNAi followed by an expression profiling to identify hundreds of novel HNF4α direct target genes. In Chapter 3, we identify HNF4α association with Alu repeats, a novel finding. We investigate HNF4α binding to Alu sequences in in vitro and in vivo in the promoters of HNF4alpha-regulated genes, and thus reveal a novel association between HNF4α and Alu repeats.Finally in Chapter 4, we leverage the PBM technology to investigate the binding properties of transcription factors COUP-TF2 and TCF-1. We identify many sequences that bind both HNF4αand TCF-1 and those bind both HNF4α and COUP-TF2. This finding suggests competition between these TFs on the promoters of their target genes. Additionally, we investigate the effect of coregulator PGCα and the effect of the endogenous ligand linoleic acid HNF4α DNA binding. This study significantly advances our knowledge of binding sequences, binding motifs, target genes, and transcriptional regulation for several transcription factors, HNF4α, COUP-TF2 and TCF-1. It also sheds light on evolution of HNF4α binding sequences through Alu repetitive elements. It suggests a strong framework for comprehensive investigation of transcriptional regulation in mammalian systems for other transcription factors.


This study aims to investigate the organizational factors affecting knowledge concealment in scientific contexts. This study has taken a mixed approach to identify these factors, so what makes it unique is the pluralism of data collection methods. Also, using the "Delphi" method, a conceptual model of organizational factors affecting knowledge concealment in scientific contexts is presented. The statistical sample included 314 employees of the Islamic Azad University of Khorasan Razavi who were selected through the random sampling method. They filled knowledge concealment questionnaire by Demirkasimoglu (2016) and a scholar-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the structural equation method (SEM) in AMOS software. Findings revealed that the coefficient correlation of organizational culture, reward system, organizational structure, organizational support, organizational justice, quality of work-life, and leadership style with knowledge concealment was -0.62, -0.27, -0.49, -1.30, -0.77, -0.39, and -0.88, respectively. The results indicate that organizational factors have an inverse and significant relationship with knowledge concealment.


The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of the results of the photovoice evaluation of a robotics, programming,
and problem solving curriculum to form a theoretical framework for the curriculum designed for 4- to 5-year-old children. Concept
maps of the photovoice evaluation indicated that the teachers thought the most important themes of the 3-month project
were when children were engaged, worked independently of the teachers and cooperatively with classmates, were persistent,
learned academic knowledge and skills, and developed problem solving skills when using KIBO. A comparison of the project
evaluation plan and the teachers' academics theme found that the evaluation plan predominantly assessed the teachers' statements
about academics. Researchers reviewed the research bases of the remaining themes and used concept mapping to combine
the new research bases with the academic knowledge and skills theme to form a theoretical framework for the project. The
framework combined the robotics, programming, and problem solving curriculum and a learning curriculum emphasizing the development
of children's productive dispositions towards learning. The addition of the learning curriculum reinforces that the key
to successful implementation of this STEM initiative was the classroom teachers' integration of the RAPP lessons into the established
prekindergarten curriculum within the morning center rotations. With the addition of the teachers' voice we can add a vibrant
description of the learning curriculum rather than the short statement, a positive, authentic classroom environment that we
now use. The discussion presents possible next steps and uses of the new theoretical framework for the robotics, programming,
and problem solving curriculum.


: The article deals with the findings of the complex estimate of the new synbiotic product "Life Harmony" to treat acute intestinal infection among children. The authors show that application of this product, containing B. bifidum, B. longum and L. casei strains, in the diet therapy of the acute intestinal infections of "the watery" type among children contributes to the reduction of the duration of anorexia, flabbiness and diarrhea syndrome, as well as provides a complete recovery of the intestinal microflora balance.


The aim of our work is to assess the local lymphatic vasculature within the tumor microenvironment as a possible biomarker for response to immunotherapy. Targeting the immune checkpoint molecules CTLA-4 and PD-1 is showing unprecedented clinical impact in human melanoma patients. However, a significant subset of patients does not respond to therapy. Therefore efforts have been made to identify biomarkers predictive of survival and response to immunotherapy, and evaluation of the immune microenvironment was shown to have high prognostic power. Characterization of tumor-infiltrating T cells with respect to density, phenotype and location has been demonstrated to predict survival and metastasis in retrospective studies and might be superior to classical TNM staging. Despite these promising results current strategies are not 100% predictive and additional cell populations within the tumor microenvironment are likely to affect the overall anti-tumor immune response. Interestingly, the density of tumor-associated lymphatic vessels was found to be decreased in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer compared to non-metastatic patients. In addition, our recent work using metastatic melanoma samples from the Broad Institute9s TCGA database demonstrated that expression of lymphatic genes (LYVE-1 and podoplanin) correlates with expression levels of immune cell markers. In mice lacking dermal lymphatic vessels immune infiltration into experimental melanoma was significantly decreased. At the same time these tumors displayed decreased immune suppression and improved tumor control by transferred cytotoxic T cells. These results suggest that lymphatic vessels are essential for establishment of an efficient anti-tumor immune response, but have a role in negatively regulating anti-tumor immunity during tumor progression. We therefore hypothesize that local lymphatic vessel density within the tumor microenvironment predicts immune infiltrate and response to immunotherapy. To simultaneously evaluate immune and vascular components in human formalin-fixed samples of melanoma we are using a multiplex-immunohistochemistry-based approach, which allows for examination of up to twelve markers by sequential staining of a single marker at a time. Tissue regions that include tumor/stroma borders and show high CD8 + T cell infiltrates are selected for analysis. This is followed by tissue segmentation based on the presence of a tumor marker and automated detection of cell populations within intra-tumoral regions and the invasive margin at the tumor border. Analysis using image cytometry allows us to quantify and correlate presence and location of multiple cell types within the tumor and the surrounding stroma. Our work will contribute to improved stratification of cancer patients with respect to possible response to immunotherapy. Citation Format: Julia Femel, Takahiro Tsujikawa, Guillaume Thibault, Jamie Booth, Amanda W. Lund. Lymphatic vessels as a biomarker in human melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy; 2016 Oct 20-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2017;5(3 Suppl):Abstract nr A19.


This study sought to demonstrate the potential applications of the solar chimney for the naturally ventilating a building. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to model various room configurations to assess ventilation strategies. A parametric study of the solar chimney system was executed, and three-dimensional simulations were compared and validated with experiments. A new definition for the hydraulic diameter that incorporated the chimney geometry was developed to predict the flow regime in the solar chimney system. To mitigate the cost and effort to use experiments to analyze building energy, a mathematical approach was considered. A relationship between smalland full-scale models was investigated using non-dimensional analysis. Multiple parameters were involved in the mathematical model to predict the air velocity, where the predictions were in good agreement with experimental data as well as the numerica l simulations from the present study. The second part of the study considered building design optimization to improve ventila t ion using air changes per hour (ACH) as a metric, and air circulation patterns within the building. An upper vent was introduced near the ceiling of the chimney system, which induced better air circulation by removing the warm air in the building. The study pursued to model a realistic scenario for the solar chimney system, where it investigated the effect of the vent sizes, insulat ion, and a reasonable solar chimney size. It was shown that it is critical to insulate the backside of the absorber and that the ratio of the conditioned area to chimney volume should be at least 10. Lastly, the application of the solar chimney system for basement ventilation was discussed. Appropriate vent locations in the basement were determined, where the best ventilation was achieved when the duct inlet was located near the ceiling and the exhaust vent was located near the floor of the chimney. Sufficient ventilation was also achieved even for scenarios of a congested building when modeling the presence of multiple people. The Application of the Solar Chimney for Ventilating Buildings


We report a case of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) in a young man diagnosed 13 days after Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen) vaccination. He presented to us with five days of progressive left leg pain, thrombocytopenia, hypofibrinogenemia, and markedly elevated D-dimers, but without radiographically-demonstrable thrombosis. Despite negative imaging, we initiated treatment for presumptive VITT given the striking clinical picture that included the timing of his recent adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine, leg symptoms, marked thrombocytopenia, and consumptive coagulopathy. He received intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), prednisone, and argatroban and was discharged seven days later much improved. His positive Platelet Factor 4 (PF4) ELISA antibody test returned after treatment was initiated. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of VITT following Ad26.COV2.S vaccination presenting without radiographically-demonstrable thrombosis. Our patient highlights the importance of knowing vaccine status and initiating treatment as soon as possible in the right clinical setting, even in the absence of radiographic evidence of thrombus. Early VITT recognition and treatment provides an opportunity to prevent serious thrombotic complications.


This chapter describes the evolution of the history of the case concerning Kasikili/Sedudu Island (Botswana/Namibia) and advisory opinions that has been dealt by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case is organised with the final question made by the parties, basis of jurisdiction, proceedings, orders rendered by the Court, head notes and operative paragraphs of the judgments, orders and advisory opinions, names of judges and ad hoc judges who have appended declaration, separate opinion, dissenting opinion individually with other judges, each source of law the Court has cited and information on the litigation teams. The chapter covers four patterns of analysis: duration of cases and advisory opinions of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) and the ICJ; records of states as applicant(s) and/or respondent(s); records of states and authorized organisations on written and oral statements; and records of declarations and opinions of judges and judge ad hoc . Keywords: advisory opinions; Botswana; International Court of Justice (ICJ); Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ); Sedudu Island case


Excoecaria lucida Sw. is an evergreen shrub widely distributed in Cuba and throughout the Caribbean region. In spite of its extended traditional use as antiasthmatic and antimicrobial by the local population, scientific reports on the species are almost nonexistent. This paper focuses on the isolation and characterization of compounds present in the crude extract of E. lucida Sw. leaves through the combined use of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques (medium pressure liquid chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance 1H, and mass spectrometry). A total of 15 nonpolar substances were identified in the four main fractions obtained; some of these substances could be related with the antimicrobial properties attributed to the species.


Economic growth is an increase in the production of goods and services over a specific period. Gross domestic product (GDP) is the best way to measure economic growth. It takes into account the country's entire economic output. It includes all goods and services that businesses in the country produce for sale. It doesn't matter whether they are sold domestically or overseas. Of more importance is the growth of the ratio of GDP to population (GDP per capita), which is also called per capita income. An increase in per capita income is referred to as intensive growth.The current study tried to examine contribution of four major sectors (agriculture, industrial and services sector and labor force participation rate) of the economic growth in the Republic of North Macedonia, using Pearson test for correlation and hypothesis testing. The study used the time series data set from 1996 to 2019. As a indicator of economy performance we used GDP growth per capita (annual%). From the hypothesis testing we can conclude that there is significant correlation between GDP per capita growth as a dependent variable with agriculture and services, while there is not statistical significant correlation between dependent variable and variables labor force and industry. In order to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between GDP per capita and agriculture and services we use the correlation coefficient, ρ (rho). Estimations confirmed that relationship between GDP per capita and agriculture is moderate and positive, while correlation between GDP per capita and services is weak and positive, which means, increasing in agriculture and service will result in increase in GDP per capita, and vice versa.


Ensuring continued success against malaria depends on a pipeline of new antimalarials. Antimalarial drug development utilizes preclinical murine and experimental human malaria infection studies to evaluate drug efficacy. ABSTRACT Ensuring continued success against malaria depends on a pipeline of new antimalarials. Antimalarial drug development utilizes preclinical murine and experimental human malaria infection studies to evaluate drug efficacy. A sequential approach is typically adapted, with results from each stage informing the design of the next stage of development. The validity of this approach depends on confidence that results from murine malarial studies predict the outcome of clinical trials in humans. Parasite clearance rates following treatment are key parameters of drug efficacy. To investigate the validity of forward predictions, we developed a suite of mathematical models to capture parasite growth and drug clearance along the drug development pathway and estimated parasite clearance rates. When comparing the three infection experiments, we identified different relationships of parasite clearance with dose and different maximum parasite clearance rates. In Plasmodium berghei-NMRI mouse infections, we estimated a maximum parasite clearance rate of 0.2 (1/h); in Plasmodium falciparum-SCID mouse infections, 0.05 (1/h); and in human volunteer infection studies with P. falciparum, we found a maximum parasite clearance rate of 0.12 (1/h) and 0.18 (1/h) after treatment with OZ439 and MMV048, respectively. Sensitivity analysis revealed that host-parasite driven processes account for up to 25% of variance in parasite clearance for medium-high doses of antimalarials. Although there are limitations in translating parasite clearance rates across these experiments, they provide insight into characterizing key parameters of drug action and dose response and assist in decision-making regarding dosage for further drug development.