A deep-living, open-sea population of Monoporeia affinis from the northern Baltic Sea was studied for seasonal variations in the gross biochemical, lipid class and elemental composition during 1991 to 1993. The seasonal cycle in the composition of this benthic, deposit-feeding amphipod was largely determined by the brief period of spring phytoplankton bloom sedimentation and the longlasting deficiency of good-quality nutrition during late autumn-early spring. The level (% dry wt) of lipid was lowest in March-April (21 to 30%, range: interannual variation), increased rapidly in early summer (27 to 43%) and peaked in the autumn (38 to 44 %). Reciprocal to lipid, the level of protein was highest in the spring (19 to 29%) and lowest in the autumn (17 to 23%). Carbon and nitrogen levels followed closely the patterns of lipid and protein, respectively. Triacylglycerols were invariably the main lipid class (67 to 95% of total lipids), while phospholipids formed 4 to 23% and other classes <7 % each. Due to high variability in biochemical composition, the energetic value of the body matter of M. affinis showed great seasonal variation. Using body composition and previously determined metabolic rates, calculations showed distinct seasonal and life-cycle variability in the bioenergetic strategy of the amphipods. Interannual variability in the body composition of the amphipods was noted, especially between 1991 and the 2 follo.wing years. Previously recorded long-term oscillations in the abundance and biomass of M. affinis populations and the relation of these oscillations to pelagic events and sedimentation is discussed in the light of the present results.


High-temperature anti-oxidation coating was prepared by a milling process, which mainly composed of flake graphite and hexagonal BN (hBN). The coating was brushed on the sliding plate surface and dried in air for 24 h, The surface of the sliding plate painted was smooth and without peeling, suggesting a strong bonding strength. The samples were heated at 1200 °C for 20 min to evaluate the mass-loss rate. The mass-loss rate of the slide gate painted is 3.7%, less than the un-painted 5.1%. XRD and SEM techniques were used to characterize the as-heated samples. The results showed that the surface of the slide plate painted was skin rolling. And the graphite reacted with oxygen at an elevated temperature to reduce oxygen concentration. In addition, hBN also reacted with oxygen to form B2O3, which also has an oxygen-resistant role in the sliding plates. These coatings exhibited unique oxidation-resistant properties, and the service life of the coated sliding plates was obviously improved.


Rat umbilical cord matrix stem cells (UCMSC) have been shown to exhibit a remarkable ability to control rat mammary adenocarcinoma (Mat B III) cell proliferation both in vivo and in vitro. To study the underlying mechanisms and genes involved in Mat B III growth attenuation, total RNA was extracted from the naive rat UCMSC alone and those cocultured with Mat B III in Transwell culture dishes. Gene expression profiles of naive rat UCMSC alone and those cocultured with Mat B III cells were investigated by microarray analysis using an Illumina RatRef-12 Expression BeadChip. The comparison of gene expression profiles between untreated and cocultured rat UCMSC identified five upregulated candidate genes (follistatin (FST), sulfatase1 (SULF-1), glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI), HtrA serine peptidase (HTRA1), and adipocyte differentiation-related protein (ADRP)) and two downregulated candidate genes (transforming growth factor, beta-induced, 68 kDa (TGFβI) and podoplanin (PDPN)) based upon the following screening criteria: (1) expression of the candidate genes should show at least a 1.5-fold change in rat UCMSC cocultured with Mat B III cells; (2) candidate genes encode secretory proteins; and (3) they encode cell growth-related proteins. Following confirmation of gene expression by real-time PCR, ADRP, SULF-1 and GPI were selected for further analysis. Addition of specific neutralizing antibodies against these three gene products or addition of gene-specific siRNA's individually in cocultures of 1:20 rat UCMSC:Mat B III cells significantly increased cell proliferation, implying that these gene products are produced under the cocultured condition and functionally attenuate cell growth. Immunoprecipitation followed by Western blot analysis demonstrated that these proteins are indeed secreted into the culture medium. Individual overexpression of these three genes in rat UCMSC significantly enhanced UCMSC-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation in coculture. These results suggest that ADRP, SULF-1 and GPI act as tumor suppressor genes, and these genes might be involved in rat UCMSC-dependent growth attenuation of rat mammary tumors.


The craniosynostoses are not common conditions but as plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons, and others get together to form craniofacial teams more cases are being seen who might not otherwise have been considered candidates for surgical treatment for either cosmetic reasons alone or to avert neurodevelopmental problems due to cerebral compression. This book achieves a remarkable balance, not only providing an excellent and comprehensible overview of the subject but also by going into certain technical areas (surgery, and genetics, for example) in such depth that even an expert will have much to learn. This must be due in great measure to the skill of the editor, Professor M Michael Cohen Jr. Already well known in neurosurgical circles for his articles on the genetic syndromes associated with craniosynostosis, here he provides almost half the text himself, while the remainder is entrusted to a highly selected and prestigious group of contributors. Among these I would pick out Ronald J Lemire (Embryology), Thomas P Naidich (Radiology), John A Jane (Neurosurgical treatment), and, the doyen of craniofacial surgeons, Paul Tessier. But this list should not lead one to assume that the other chapters are not of a high calibre and I would select Sven Kreiborg on the 'post natal growth and development of the craniofacial complex in premature craniosynostosis' as an excellent review of this thorny subject, where the possibility that early surgical intervention to the skull base sutures will allow the face to grow forwards normally in the future is still hotly debated. Dr Kreiborg's view (and I would agree with him here) is that the growth of the facial structures is more dependent on the patient's syndrome and the primary impairment of facial growth that implies than to any restriction placed on it by the prematurely fused sutures of the skull base and vault. Overall, I would call this a model textbook. The production with regard to its photographs and drawings is excellent. Where knowledge is scanty and opinions count for more than facts its views are moderate. Yet where order must be imposed on areas of chaos (as in Professor Cohen's dealings with the syndrome hunters) it has the ring of true authority.


Obesity in Chinese children I do not wish to add fuel to the fire by entering into a discussion on food advertising versus physical inactivity as the culprit for childhood obesity that was prompted by Dr Ashton's editorial (February 2004 JRSM1). I always tell my overweight or obese patients that body fat does not grow on the tree; it has to come from an external source, either overeating or underexertion. The best example comes from China. China used to be known for her slender people; I never saw a fat person in China until very recently.2 Now China is fighting obesity, especially childhood obesity, just like the rest of the world. According to the latest statistics from China, the proportion of obesity among children under the age of 15 increased from 15% in 1982 to 27% today.3 Among the predisposing factors for increasing prevalence of childhood obesity in China, fast food and physical inactivity are the two most important. Because of the efficient advertisements of such fast food giants in the United States as McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chinese children are devouring the American fast food faster than ever.2,4 All of the children in China recognize the image of Ronald McDonald, even though they might not be able to read English.4 That physical inactivity is the other important risk factor for obesity in Chinese children is illustrated by three observations. First, the effect of television on childhood obesity in China has been documented: each hourly increment of television viewing is associated with a 1–2% increase in the prevalence of obesity in urban China.5 Second, childhood obesity is more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas, not only because children in rural China are physically more active6 but also because urban boys consume more fat than rural boys—23–30% versus 16– 20%.7 Third, urban children in China are engaged in more homework because they are under pressure to achieve scholastically, whereas rural Chinese children are engaged more in field work because of economic necessity.8


Cutaneous metastases are an uncommon feature of solid organ malignancies. The cost of multiple investigations and prolonged processing time of biopsies may lead to diagnostic delays especially in resource limited practice settings. Dermoscopy can provide useful clues and has been found to be useful in the diagnosis of cutaneous metastases. Dermoscopic findings of skin lesions may limit unnecessary investigations and shorten time to diagnosis. There are limited data on dermoscopic features of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in the literature. We report dermoscopic features of cutaneous metastasis of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma seen in a black African child.


Pyrolytic biofuels have technical advantages over conventional biological conversion processes since the entire plant can be used as the feedstock (rather than only simple sugars) and the conversion process occurs in only a few seconds (rather than hours or days). Despite decades of study, the fundamental science of biomass pyrolysis is still lacking and detailed models capable of describing the chemistry and transport in real-world reactors is unavailable. Developing these descriptions is a challenge because of the complexity of feedstocks and the multiphase nature of the conversion process. Here, we identify ten fundamental research challenges that, if overcome, would facilitate commercialization of pyrolytic biofuels. In particular, developing fundamental descriptions for condensed-phase pyrolysis chemistry (i.e., elementary reaction mechanisms) are needed since they would allow for accurate process optimization as well as feedstock flexibility, both of which are critical to any modern high-throughput process. Despite the benefits to pyrolysis commercialization, detailed chemical mechanisms are not available today, even for major products such as levoglucosan and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Additionally, accurate estimates for heat and mass transfer parameters (e.g., thermal conductivity, diffusivity) are lacking despite the fact that biomass conversion in commercial pyrolysis reactors is controlled by transport. Finally, we examine methods for improving pyrolysis particle models, which connect fundamental chemical and transport descriptions to real-world pyrolysis reactors. Each of the ten challenges is presented with a brief review of relevant literature followed by future directions which can ultimately lead to technological breakthroughs that would facilitate commercialization of pyrolytic biofuels.


Morvan J-B, Gempp E, Rivière D, Louge P, Vallee P, Verdalle P. Perilymphatic fistula after underwater diving: a series of 11 cases. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine. 2016 June;46(2):72-75.) Introduction: Onset of cochleovestibular symptoms (hearing loss, dizziness or instability, tinnitus) after a dive (scuba or breath-hold diving) warrants emergency transfer to an otology department. One priority is to investigate the possibility of the development of decompression sickness with a view to hyperbaric oxygen treatment of bubble-induced inner-ear damage. If this injury is ruled out, inner-ear barotrauma should be considered together with its underlying specific injury pattern, perilymphatic fistula. Methods: We report on a series of 11 cases of perilymphatic fistula following ear barotrauma between 2003 and 2015, eight after scuba diving and three after free diving. All patients underwent a series of laboratory investigations and first-line medical treatment. Results: Seven patients had a perilymphatic fistula in the left ear and four in the right. Eight cases underwent endaural surgical exploration. A fistula of the cochlear fenestra was visualised in seven cases with active perilymph leakage seen in six cases. After temporal fascia grafting, prompt resolution of dizziness occurred, with early, stable, subtotal recovery of hearing in seven. Of six patients in whom tinnitus occurred, this disappeared in two and improved in a further two. Two patients were not operated on because medical treatment had been successful, and one patient refused surgery despite the failure of medical treatment. Median follow-up time was 7.4 years (range 0.3 to 12). Conclusion: The diagnosis of perilymphatic fistula is based on clinical assessments and various laboratory findings. When there was strong evidence of this condition, surgery yielded excellent functional outcomes in all patients treated early.


In autonomous exploration a mobile agent must adapt to new measurements to seek high reward, but disturbances cause a probability of collision that must be traded off against expected reward. This paper considers an autonomous agent tasked with maximizing measurements from a Gaussian Process while subject to unbounded disturbances. We seek an adaptive policy in which the maximum allowed probability of failure is constrained as a function of the expected reward. The policy is found using an extension to Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) which bounds probability of failure. We apply MCTS to a sequence of approximating problems, which allows constraint satisfying actions to be found in an anytime manner. Our innovation lies in defining the approximating problems and replanning strategy such that the probability of failure constraint is guaranteed to be satisfied over the true policy. The approach does not need to plan for all measurements explicitly or constrain planning based only on the measurements that were observed. To the best of our knowledge, our approach is the first to enforce probability of failure constraints in adaptive sampling. Through experiments on real bathymetric data and simulated measurements, we show our algorithm allows an agent to take dangerous actions only when the reward justifies the risk. We then verify through Monte Carlo simulations that failure bounds are satisfied.


This paper analyzes the impact of information processing cost on the quality of public information production by managers and analysts in the presence of product market competition. Using the staggered adoptions of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) as a natural experiment, we identify and estimate the impact of XBRL's lower information processing cost. The evidence shows that both managers and analysts are more consistent and accurate in forecasting earnings and that stock prices incorporate more firm-specific information, after XBRL implementations, especially in less competitive industries. These results are consistent with prior theoretical and empirical findings (Peress (2010), Kurlat and Veldkamp (2015), Gaspar and Massa (2006), Dong et al. (2016)).


Two decades of economics research has repeatedly made the assertion that organizations as well as individuals do not have adequate incentive to invest in cybersecurity. Absent security, associated costs are imposed on third parties rather than producers of insecurity. Cybersecurity is thus a private good with externalities, one that will require regulation to prevent market failure. Underlying this body of research is the assumption that all organizations have the same business drivers, a similar attack surface, and a uniformly informed consumer base. This paper questions these assumptions and outlines seven naturally occurring incentives for organizations to invest in cybersecurity. Furthermore, I provide examples of how these incentives have driven investment in cybersecurity across different sectors. While the applicability of these incentives differs both across and within sectors, any cybersecurity public policy interventions must consider the resulting nuances. Cybersecurity covenants established absent the sword of regulation may be both more effective and sustainable, as they evolve with the experience and exposure of the stakeholders.


The left atrium plays an integral role in cardiac performance. Data regarding the left atrial size, volume, function, and structure are clinically important in the management of patients with different diagnoses. Moreover, left atrial size and function were recognized as robust predictors of poor outcome across a broad range of cardiac diseases. These data are usually obtained using echocardiography. MRI can be used as an alternative tool or in clinical or experimental situations when more exact and detailed assessment is required. In the left atrial functional analysis, MRI is considered to be a gold standard technique that overcomes many of the limitations associated with echocardiographic assessment. In comparison with the other techniques, late gadolinium enhancement provides a unique opportunity to assess left atrial myocardial tissue in vivo. Complex cardiac magnetic resonance data may help to make a diagnosis, determine a prognosis and provide an impact on therapeutic actions. This review summarizes the potential role of cardiac magnetic resonance in left atrium assessment, with special emphasis on recent data and the potential future research directions.


: Pelvic lymphadenectomy with stripping technique--Gao's stripping pelvic lymphadenectomy (GSPL) was introduced. From January to December 1989, this operation was performed on 43 patients (36 patients with cervical carcinoma, 5 endometrial carcinoma and 2 ovarian carcinoma). The mean time of the operation was 12.56 minutes for the left side, and 13.33 minutes for the right side. No severe complications were found. The bleeding during operation was minimal. The main advantages of GSPL include high-speed operation, clean and integral lymphnodes stripped, less bleeding and complications, and easy performance of operation.


The aim of this study was to compare the short-term performance of substitute players to starting players during International Rugby Union matches and determine how this performance was influenced by playing position, the timing of the substitution and the score margin between teams. Individual player performances (n = 298) for substitutes and the starters they replaced were observed across 17 matches played between tier 1 rugby nations. Performance was categorised as the total number of involvements, the number of attacking and defensive involvements, as well as the effectiveness of a player's performance for each of the above involvement categories. Results revealed forward substitutes performed more total (p = 0.001, ES = 0.61), attacking (p = 0.026, ES = 0.32) and defensive (p = 0.023, ES = 0.31) involvements than forward starters; however, there were no differences found for backs (p = 0.819–0.911). In addition, it was observed that an increase in score margin at the time of substitution led to a decrease in the total and attacking involvements per minute that a substitute performed, but an increase in defensive involvements for both forwards and backs. These findings provide a platform for coaches to make tactical decisions regarding substitution patterns during International Rugby matches. Specifically, coaches should prioritise forward substitutions over back substitutions, and implement tactical changes earlier in the second half to gain an advantage over the opposition.


1 IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology aims to contribute to the field of Learning Technology by serving the needs of professionals working in this field. It sponsors multiple international conferences and workshops, such as International Conference on Wireless, Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies in Education (WMUTE) and International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E). International Conference on Advanced Learning Technology (ICALT) is one of the most important conference organized by the technical committee and the annual meeting of the committee is hosted in the conference to listen to community's words. The Early Career Researcher Award in Learning Technologies is also announced in ICALT every year in order to encourage more young researchers contribute their works in the area of learning technology. We are honored to invite the award winner in 2020 – Dr. Ahmed Tlili – to write an article in this issue describing the path of his research career. His work focuses on collecting students' personality traits – including subjective and objective factors – to understand how students' personalities affect their learning path. He also encourages young researchers to build their research network as early as possible by contacting the researchers whose research works that they are interested in. This article can help young researchers understand how people success in their early career path. Besides the letter from the award winner, there are two articles in Emerging Learning Technologies, one article in Report from Developing Countries, one article in Collaboration Opportunities, and one article in Book & Report Reviews section. The first article, entitled "Project OSCAR: Open-source animations repository to foster selfregulated learning," in the Emerging Learning Technologies section was written by Iyer, Sharma, Sahasrabudhe, Garg, and Lokhande. This article presents the design of an online repository of learning objects (LOs) consisting of 2D and 3D's audio-visual animations and simulations for STEM concepts; and are available in multiple Indian languages. This repository allows educators to publish and manage educational resources effectively and allows learners to access anytime online for viewing and downloading. The design of each LO with a STEM concept is based on the theory of self-regulated learning (SRL), where specific SRL strategies such as goal settings and self-assessment are integrated with the interface design. The authors evaluated the usability of the website and the effectiveness in terms of cost, time, and quality of the LOs' production time. The second article in the Emerging Learning Technologies section is "BR∀CE: A tool for supporting the teaching and learning of database theoretical query languages through composing tiles," written by Kawash and Meston. The article presents a web-based tool called BR∀CE, where learners can construct visual and tiled-based queries of Relational Algebra (RA) and Calculus (RC). The article demonstrates the steps of using BR∀CE, which allows learners to snap the tile-based operators together, working with the relational database schema, constructing RA and RC queries, and later generating their equivalent RA/RC expression and Structured Query Language (SQL) code. Both articles provide innovative applications for learning through interactive web-based design, and the detailed illustration of design processes can be useful for relevant researchers. The article published in Report from Developing Countries, entitled "Distance Higher Education Paradigm in Brazil", addressed distant higher education (DHE) in the Brazilian context. The analysis from a bibliographic review and official data provided by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP) between 2008 and 2018 revealed the substantial increase in DHE undergraduate enrollments in comparison with the little growth in face-to-face learning. The students' performance in distance education was similar to that in the face-to-face mode, suggesting its positive effects. The author, nevertheless, cautioned the need of examining the quality of distance education pedagogies before the genuine effects of distance education could be validated. In line with the rapid adoption of the open education movement, the study in the Collaboration Opportunities section, entitled "Operationalizing the Learner-Centric MOOC model using Communities of Practice", investigates how to design efficient Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that could engage students for better learning outcomes. Specifically, this study describes the MOOC design process based on the Learner-Centric MOOC (LCM) model and the theory of 'Communities of Practice' (CoPs). It then moves to talk about possible collaborations in this field, including design instructional activities based on the LCM model, as well as data analysis to evaluate 'learner-centricity' in MOOCs. In the Book & Report Review section, Chen, Duan, and Wang in the article "Using Digital Technologies in Museum Learning Activities to Enhance Learning Experience: A Systematic Review" systematically reviewed the literature of technology-assisted museum learning. To carry out the review, PRISMA guidelines were practiced and to analyze the collected articles, the authors employed Activity Theory which helped to investigate the state of the literature through seven dimensions of subjects, instrument, object, rules, community, division of labors, and outcome. Briefly, with regard to subjects, authors found that comprehension test can be used to make the impact of the prior knowledge clearer when analyzing the result, decreasing the impact of prior knowledge on experiments. Regarding instruments, it was found that different cognitive levels and characteristics of participants should be taken into account with the aim of providing personalized experiences according to individual's needs. Concerning object, the authors reported that creating more technology-assisted workshops that involve cooperation is one way that allows learners to learn from each other with the help of digital tools or technologies, making more positive impacts on the learning process and outcomes. With regard to rules, it was found that having more participants would help to set control groups with different conditions, removing the interferences and find more support for the results. As for community, authors recommended to keep schoolchildren's parents informed about activities and have them involved in the learning process with children with the aim of keeping Editorial


This dissertation introduces the construct of worthwhileness as an important aspect of students' practical epistemologies of science (Sandoval, 2005). Specifically, it examines how students conceptualize what makes a scientific research question worthwhile, through a close analysis of the criteria they use for evaluating scientific research questions. Elementary (n=21) and high school students (n=21) participated in this study. As part of semi-structured interviews, students engaged in three novel tasks designed to elicit the epistemic criteria they use to evaluate scientific research questions in a variety of contexts. Findings indicate that elementary and high school students alike could engage in the practice of evaluating the worth of scientific questions. The criteria they employed included degree of interest, difficulty, and the contribution of questions to knowledge or to solving a problem. The criteria students considered varied by context. Several key differences emerged between the reasoning of the two grade cohorts. High school students tended to place more weight on the contribution of the research question. Also, the criteria reflected in the high school students' judgments of the scientific value of individual questions more closely accorded with the criteria they identified retrospectively as the basis of their judgments. Furthermore, the older cohort more often rationalized the selection and sequence of research questions within a single domain on the basis of epistemic contingency between questions.How students conceptualize what makes a scientific research question worthwhile constitutes a key aspect of students' epistemic reasoning. It is particularly important to understand how students judge the worthwhilness of scientific research questions given the central epistemic role of research questions in scientific inquiry.


Populism is on the rise with various movements having electoral breakthroughs. Most social-science research on populism has focused primarily on party tactics and rhetoric, and a definition for the term itself; only recently has populism emerged as a psychological construct. We contribute to this growing literature with two studies (n = 456 and n = 5,837) that investigated the cultural worldviews underpinned in populist attitudes. Using the social axioms model, an etic framework for assessing people's generalized social expectations, we linked populist attitudes to universal dimensions of culture. We found that higher levels of social cynicism and social flexibility, and to a lesser extent, lower levels of fate control and reward for application predicted populist attitudes. These findings indicate that people who endorse populist attitudes, across a range of contexts, are cynical regarding the social world, believe in alternative solutions to social dilemmas, but may also perceive a world that is difficult to control and potentially unfair. The discussion focuses on the cultural forces that may drive or facilitate populist attitudes across context and time.


Indirect signal analysis (pH, ORP and DO) are often used in monitoring and control of SBRs (Sequencing Batch Reactors), where operating conditions can be clearly identified during the various cyclic phases. Only few studies applied this methodology to control continuous flow plants, as it is much more difficult to identify operating conditions because of continually variable inflow characteristics. This work applied indirect signal analysis to control pre-denitrification in continuous-flow activated sludge processes: (i) a laboratory-scale plant, fed with synthetic wastewater, simulating real municipal wastewater and (ii) a pilot-scale plant, fed with real sewage. Three different ranges of ORP values identify three operational conditions of the denitrification process. (1) ORP > 0 mV means that nitrates and/or nitrites are present, possibly due to a low C/N ratio. (2) –50 < ORP < –200 mV is typical of normal operating conditions, that is with a balanced C/N ratio. (3) ORP < –350 mV means that oxidized nitrogen load is too low or that C/N exceeds the stoichiometric ratio. The trend of pH, instead, points out if and how the process is evolving from one to another operating condition. The correlation between pH and ORP signals (as well as their derivatives) allows to restore normal operating conditions by acting on the internal recycle flow-rate. Improved denitrification process ensures lower effluent nitrate concentration, and reduce external carbon dosage to achieve stricter nitrogen limits.


SUMMARY Glucose kinetics were studied in a group of nonobese humans with endogenous hypertriglyceridemia before, during, and after an infusion of graded increments of glucagon. The tracer methods employed permitted glucose turnover to be quantitated under non-steady state conditions. The rates of glucose production, disappearance, and fractional disappearance were related to the range of glucagon and insulin levels in each individual. The findings in hypertriglyceridemics were compared with those in lean normals of the same relative body weight and the same extracellular fluid volume per kg, as reflected by their apparent glucose space. Glucose production and serum insulin were each positively correlated to plasma glucagon concentrations in both hypertriglyceridemics and normals. Thus, with respect to these parameters, the hypertriglyceridemics were not resistant to glucagon. During the glucagon infusion, the glucose concentration rose more in the hypertriglyceridemics than in the normals because of a reduced total rate of glucose disappearance in the hypertriglyceridemics. In the normals the fractional disappearance rate of glucose was positively related to serum levels of insulin, whereas in the hypertriglyceridemics it was lower than normal and did not change in relation to insulin concentration. This demonstrated that, at least with respect to glucose utilization, lean hypertriglyceridemics can be resistant to insulin even in the absence of obesity.


There is considerable attention in the literature to concepts including corporate branding, corporate identity, corporate image, corporate social responsibility, and corporate reputation. Nevertheless, it is not known how the terms are associated with one another in news documents about corporations. This research tests hypotheses about these concepts in natural language discourse in the press in relation to corporate reputation. From the Reputation Institute's 2009 Global Pulse ratings of 600 world corporations the top 30 and the bottom 30 in reputation are examined by mapping semantic networks containing crisis, corporate communication terms, and the corporation names. News documents are compared to see whether the top corporation names are closer to these communication terms and further from the crisis term, compared to the bottom-ranked corporations.


The resolution of a digital camera is defined as its ability to reproduce fine detail in an image. To test this ability methods like the Slanted Edge SFR measurement developed by Burns and Williams1 and standardized in ISO 122332 are used. Since this method is - in terms of resolution measurements - only applicable to unsharpened and uncompressed data an additional method described in this paper had to be developed. This method is based on a Sinusoidal Siemens Star which is evaluated on a radius by radius or frequency by frequency basis. For the evaluation a freely available runtime program developed in MATLAB is used which creates the MTF of a camera system as the contrast over the frequency.


Large‐scale species comparisons at genome and expressed sequence tag (EST) levels have revealed that early branching metazoans such as sponges and cnidarians share many if not most of their genes with the allegedly advanced vertebrates including man. The ancestor of all animals may thus have been much more complex than anticipated. To facilitate and support analysis of genomic and transcriptomic resources in early branching metazoans, we have established a local bio‐computational platform, Compagen (http://www.compagen.org). The platform contains searchable databases with selected raw genomic and EST sequence datasets from sponges and cnidarians up to the lower vertebrates. In addition to the public datasets, Compagen also provides processed data like CAP3 assembled ESTs or predicted peptides. Evaluating the efficacy of the platform by screening for genes reported to be essential in controlling stem‐cell behavior in higher organisms uncovered ancient origins for some but not all components of the vertebrate stem‐cell system. BioEssays 30:1010–1018, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This paper has reviewed the techniques used for recording evoked potentials in the premature infant and the early developmental changes. The maturational changes in the evoked potentials, including morphological changes, and the very rapid latency changes within the first months of life, provide an invaluable means for assessing and monitoring development within the central nervous system. The maturational changes are such that normative values are requisite, and the norms must take into account both the infant's gestational age at birth as well as the postnatal age. These norms can then be used to aid in the assessment of gestational age, and whether there has or has not been normal maturational development, either in utero or during the postnatal preterm period. Evoked potentials are of increasing value clinically in preterm neonates, primarily because of the difficulty in obtaining reliable neurological evaluation of these infants. Median nerve SEPs may provide reliable information in preterm infants at risk of PVL, and when recorded in the second week of life, predict cerebral palsy. PTN SEPs seem to be even more reliable indicators of outcome, but the difficulty in obtaining them in preterm infants needs to be taken into consideration. Further study is needed in some areas, such as in apnoeic preterm babies clearly to establish the role that evoked potentials (in this case BAEPs) may have in understanding both the aetiology and the clinical course of this dysfunction. In other conditions, such as delayed intrauterine growth, that may lead to neurological sequelae, evoked potentials can provide objective CNS assessment. Evoked potentials may also prove useful in the monitoring of treatment modalities for preterm infants. The evoked potentials are a valuable adjunct in the assessment of preterm neonates and, as their value is recognised, we expect their use to increase.


With rapid advances in technology, biometric control systems have become part of the contemporary world. Wrist pattern is a biometric that is unique to the individual and can be seen on the skin of most individuals. This study focuses on the left wrist vein images of 20 people, in a visible light band, using a simple smartphone 5 MP camera. Selecting a reference line on wrist wrinkle, the wrist vein regions are cropped as square. The red layer of the RGB vein image has been filtered with Gaussian Low Pass Filter to eliminate any high frequency noise. Sharpening and contrast stretching operations have been used on the filtered images. Sub-pixel correspondence matching, using phase-only correlation method, can yield efficient results for biometric image matching. In this paper, phase-based correspondence matching pattern recognition method is used in order to perform person recognition from wrist vein patterns, which have been captured by a smartphone camera. It is argued that, the experiments this study has conducted demonstrates that phase-based correspondence matching provides an effective means for wrist vein recognition.


This essay was written for No Other Gospel, the Book of Concord anniversary book published by the WELS in 1980.


Lexicons are of core importance for the translator. As a result, we have conducted this study about the development of the Arabic lexicon in Lebanon and the developments devised by the lexicographers in this concern. This research tackles the efforts of the Lebanese lexicographers in authoring and the development of the lexicons in the modern age. It examined the vocabulary lexicons as well as semantics lexicons which appeared in the nineteenth century till mid-twentieth century. The research also underpins the additions they made to the modern Arabic lexicons. In fact, we in our time desperately need making use of these outstanding efforts by working seriously and sincerely in this direction. The research further showed the criticism movement to the ancient lexicons and the solutions proposed for authoring modern lexicons.


Experiments and numerical simulations were carried out in order to contribute to a better understanding and prediction of high-pressure injection into a gaseous environment. Specifically, the focus was put on the phase separation processes of an initially supercritical fluid due to the interaction with its surrounding. N-hexane was injected into a chamber filled with pure nitrogen at 5 MPa and 293 K and three different test cases were selected such that they cover regimes in which the thermodynamic non-idealities, in particular the effects that stem from the potential phase separation, are significant. Simultaneous shadowgraphy and elastic light scattering experiments were conducted to capture both the flow structure as well as the phase separation. In addition, large-eddy simulations with a vapor-liquid equilibrium model were performed. Both experimental and numerical results show phase formation for the cases, where the a-priori calculation predicts two-phase flow. Moreover, qualitative characteristics of the formation process agree well between experiments and numerical simulations and the transition behaviour from a dense-gas to a spray-like jet was captured by both.


nine papers included the phrase in their titles with a further 59 using it in the abstract. During 198791 these figures jumped to 35 and 373 respectively. These figures do not include other papers that use the phrase elsewhere in the text. A close inspection of these 35 recent publications indicates that the use is subject to considerable criticism. In 19 cases the designation gold standard is questioned in such varied conditions as depression,' left ventricular function,4 osteoporosis,5 and gastro-oesophageal reflux.! This is not surprising, I suppose, as these are clinical conditions that are not amenable to the certainty implied in the term. Because the phrase smacks of dogma its use should be discontinued in medical science. After all, the financiers gave up the idea of a gold standard decades ago.


The interaction of actin with a synthetic peptide which corresponds to one of the repeated tubulin-binding sites present in tau and MAP-2 (microtubule-associated protein 2) proteins has been analysed. The analysis, which uses affinity chromatography of G-actin on a column containing the synthetic peptide, and the co-sedimentation and co-localization of F-actin and the peptide (as determined by immunoelectron microscopy), indicates that the part of the amino acid sequence of tau involved in the binding of tubulin is also involved in actin binding.


Cephalopods are pivotal components of marine food webs, but biodiversity studies are hampered by challenges to sample these agile marine molluscs. Metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) is a potentially powerful technique to study oceanic cephalopod biodiversity and distribution but has not been applied thus far. We present a novel universal primer pair for metabarcoding cephalopods from eDNA, Ceph18S (Forward: 5′-CGC GGC GCT ACA TAT TAG AC-3′, Reverse: 5′-GCA CTT AAC CGA CCG TCG AC-3′). The primer pair targets the hypervariable region V2 of the nuclear 18S rRNA gene and amplifies a relatively short target sequence of approximately 200 bp in order to allow the amplification of degraded DNA. In silico tests on a reference database and empirical tests on DNA extracts from cephalopod tissue estimate that 44–66% of cephalopod species, corresponding to about 310–460 species, can be amplified and identified with this primer pair. A multi-marker approach with the novel Ceph18S and two previously published cephalopod mitochondrial 16S rRNA primer sets targeting the same region (Jarman et al. 2006 Mol. Ecol. Notes. 6, 268–271; Peters et al. 2015 Mar. Ecol. 36, 1428–1439) is estimated to amplify and identify 89% of all cephalopod species, of which an estimated 19% can only be identified by Ceph18S. All sequences obtained with Ceph18S were submitted to GenBank, resulting in new 18S rRNA sequences for 13 cephalopod taxa.


The video performance of a 155-Mbps wireless asynchronous transfer mode (WATM) proposal and that of a 2-Mbps Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) concept is evaluated for a range of low- to high-quality video application scenarios, various propagation conditions, and video bit rates using the H.263 video codec, assisted by a novel packetization and packet acknowledgment scheme. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing is invoked over the highly dispersive channels for conveying high-rate video signals. Various binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hochquenghem and turbo codes are investigated comparatively, with the conclusion that due to the high error resilience of the video packetization and acknowledgment scheme, the increased power of the higher complexity turbo codec does not translate to substantially improved overall system robustness, although the bit error rate and acknowledgment flag error rate are significantly reduced. The whole range of video resolutions and system parameters is summarized in a number of tables. The required channel signal-to-noise ratio for near-unimpaired video quality is about 16 dB for the inherently lower quality, lower resolution video frame formats, but slightly higher, about 18 dB, for the high-definition formats, where the error-induced subjective video degradations become more objectional over the highly dispersive worst case channels used.


Higher magnetic field strength in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems offers higher signal-to-noise ratio, contrast, and spatial resolution in magnetic resonance (MR) images. However, the wavelength in ultrahigh fields (7 T and beyond) becomes shorter than the human body at the Larmor frequency with increasing static magnetic field (B0) of the MRI system. At short wavelengths, an interference effect appears, resulting in nonuniformity of the RF magnetic near-field (B1) over the subject and MR images may have spatially anomalous contrast. The B1 near-field generated by the transverse electromagnetic RF coil's microstrip line element has a maximum near the center of its length and falls off towards both ends. In this study, a double trapezoidal-shaped microstrip transmission line element is proposed to obtain uniform B1 field distribution by gradual impedance variation. Two multi-channel RF head coils with uniform and trapezoidal shape elements were built and tested with a phantom at 7-T MRI scanner for comparison. The simulation and experimental results show stronger and more uniform B1+ near-field with the trapezoidal shape.


Abstract– We measured cosmogenic radionuclides and noble gases in the L3–6 chondrite breccia Northwest Africa (NWA) 869, one of the largest meteorite finds from the Sahara. Concentrations of 10Be, 26Al, and 36Cl in stone and metal fractions of six fragments of NWA 869 indicate a preatmospheric radius of 2.0–2.5 m. The 14C and 10Be concentrations in three fragments yield a terrestrial age of 4.4 ± 0.7 kyr, whereas two fragments show evidence for a recent change in shielding, most likely due to a recent impact on the NWA meteoroid, approximately 105 yr ago, that excavated material up to approximately 80 cm deep and exposed previously shielded material to higher cosmic‐ray fluxes. This scenario is supported by the low cosmogenic 3He/21Ne ratios in these two samples, indicating recent loss of cosmogenic 3He. Most NWA samples, except for clasts of petrologic type 4–6, contain significant amounts of solar Ne and Ar, but are virtually free of solar helium, judging from the trapped 4He/20Ne ratio of approximately 7. Trapped planetary‐type Kr and Xe are most clearly present in the bulk and matrix samples, where abundances of 129Xe from decay of now extinct 129I are highest. Cosmogenic 21Ne varies between 0.55 and 1.92 × 10−8 cm3 STP g−1, with no apparent relationship between cosmogenic and solar Ne contents. Low cosmogenic (22Ne/21Ne)c ratios in solar gas free specimens are consistent with irradiation in a large body. Combined 10Be and 21Ne concentrations indicate that NWA 869 had a 4π cosmic‐ray exposure (CRE) age of 5 ± 1 Myr, whereas elevated 21Ne concentrations in several clasts and bulk samples indicate a previous CRE of 10–30 Myr on the parent body, most probably as individual components in a regolith. Unlike many other large chondrites, NWA 869 does not show clear evidence of CRE as a large boulder near the surface of its parent body. Radiogenic 4He concentrations in most NWA 869 samples indicate a major outgassing event approximately 2.8 Gyr ago that may have also resulted in loss of solar helium.


Canada has experienced the development of suburban ethnic enclaves by established immigrant diaspora groups surrounding major metropolitan centres. However, less is known regarding the housing and location preferences of their maturing offspring population, known as the second-generation. This paper seeks to explain the housing preferences and location choices of second-generation South Asians residing in Brampton's ethnic enclaves, a suburban city on the periphery of Toronto. This research draws on the home leaving process and integrates the theoretical perspectives of ethnic enclaves and the life cycle. A telephone survey conducted in Brampton's ethnic enclaves suggests a dominant preference of low-density, detached-style dwellings in suburban areas. The life cycle perspective has proven to be a powerful explanatory tool during the household-formation phase, but does not appear to be valuable during the independent-living stage, since ethnic enclave residency seems to persist. The importance of familial ties in the South-Asian culture, the growth of ethnic enclaves, traditional ideas of socioeconomic success and life cycle values during family-formation shape preferences for second-generation South-Asian-Canadians.


Lyme borreliosis is chronic spirochetal infection with phasic course. Lyme disease can be recognised as early or late stage of disease. A case report of patient with acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans in the course of chronic (late) Lyme borreliosis is presented. As it is described, the lack of uncognition of infection of B. burgdorferi and typical signs of erythema migrans as well as a lack of proper therapy in this time may be a reason of passing into chronic phase of the disease like ACA and Lyme arthritis.


1.
Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral) and Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral), once common features of shallow Caribbean reefs observed growing as large stands or thickets, are now found mainly as remnant pockets or isolated colonies at a fraction of their historical areal extent.

2.
In February 2010, a large, surviving population of A. cervicornis was surveyed at Cabezos del Cayo, Punta Rusia, Dominican Republic to document its present condition and potential threats to its persistence.

3.
The A. cervicornis surveyed at Cabezos del Cayo provides a rare glimpse of the habitat structure that these keystone components of coral reefs once provided. The staghorn population covers an area of 2 ha and is formed by interlocking skeletons of unusually large and thick A. cervicornis colonies.

4.
The large size of its colonies (maximum branch length 250 cm; average linear length of live tissue 471 cm; maximum number of branch tips 141 per colony; maximum branch diameter 5 cm) and the complex open canopy of these colonies, have not been described, to our knowledge, in the recent literature.

5.
The site is within Montecristi National Park but there is no active protection in this area and signs of overfishing are evident based on low fish abundance and complete lack of fish >20 cm in length.

6.
The stressors associated with this population include significant predation by gastropods and fireworms, overgrowth by macroalgae, damselfish 'gardening' activities, and white band disease.

7.
The management priority for the staghorn population at Cabezos del Cayo, Dominican Republic, should be to enforce the legal framework that is already in place for the protection of Montecristi National Park, limiting unsustainable and damaging fishing practices, and limiting land-based sources of pollution associated with increasing population numbers and future coastal development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Cervical abrasion/erosion lesions were restored without any form of mechanical cavity preparation with an anhydrous glass ionomer cement. To study the effect of dentin pretreatment on the bonding between dentin and glass ionomer cement three cleaning methods were tested: 1) mechanical cleaning with a prophylaxis paste, 2) scrubbing with a surface active cavity cleanser (Tubulicid) for 60 seconds, or 3) a 10-15 s application of a 40% polyacrylic acid solution. During a 3-yr period, 193 restorations were evaluated every 6 months. Cumulative loss rates after 3 yr were 11.6%, 12.3%, and 17.9% respectively. One restoration showed secondary caries during the evaluation period.


Non-discrimination is a recognized objective in algorithmic decision making. In this paper, we introduce a novel probabilistic formulation of data pre-processing for reducing discrimination. We propose a convex optimization for learning a data transformation with three goals: controlling group discrimination, limiting distortion in individual data samples, and preserving utility. Several theoretical properties are established, including conditions for convexity, a characterization of the impact of limited sample size on discrimination and utility guarantees, and a connection between discrimination and estimation. Two instances of the proposed optimization are applied to datasets, including one on real-world criminal recidivism. Results show that discrimination can be greatly reduced at a small cost in classification accuracy and with precise control of individual distortion.


Background: The use of "triggers" to identify Adverse Drug reactions (ADRs) is a novel emerging method for measuring the overall level of harm from medications in a health care organization. Our main objective is to determine the incidence of adverse drug reactions in the hospitalized patients and to compare Global Trigger Tool (GTT) with conventional method to identify ADRs. Methodology: A Prospective observational study was conducted over a period of six months during November 2016-April 2017. Modified Global Trigger Tool was used to identify triggers. 16 triggers were used to identify ADRs. Causality assessment of ADRs was done using Naranjo scale and severity and harm categorization of ADRs were assessed using NCC MERP. Results: A total of 244 patient profiles were analyzed. The results reveal that 193 triggers were identified in 125 patients and 93 ADRs were found in 81 patients. Out of which, 64 (68.81%) ADRs were found by triggers and 29(31.18%) ADRs were found spontaneously without the presence of a trigger. There is a remarkable improvement in the identification of ADRs using trigger tool in comparison to traditional approach. Of 93 ADRs identified, 69 (74.19%) were probable and 24 (25.81%) were possible. Similarly, 65 (69.89%) were determined to be NCC-MERP harm category E and 28 (30.11%) were category F. Conclusion: The study results suggest that IHI global trigger tool could be useful to identify ADRs in hospitals twice as more efficiently when compared to traditional ADR identification methods. It is an effective method to enable clinical pharmacists to identify ADRs and management of the same.


Telemetered heart rate (fH) was examined as an indicator of activity and oxygen consumption rate (VO2) in adult, cultivated, Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L. Heart rate was measured during sustained swimming in a flume for six fish at 10° C [mean weight, 1114 g; mean fork length (f. l.), 50·6 cm] and seven fish at 15° C (mean weight, 1119 g; mean f. l., 50·7 cm) at speeds of up to 2·2 body lengths/s. Semi–logarithmic relationships between heart rate and swimming speed were obtained at both temperatures. Spontaneously swimming fish in still water exhibited characteristic heart rate increases associated with activity. Heart rate and Vo2 were monitored simultaneously in a 575–1 circular respirometer for six fish (three male, three female) at 4° C (mean weight, 1804 g; mean F. L., 62· cm) and six fish (three male, three female) at 10° C (mean weight, 2045 g; mean f. l., 63·2 cm) during spontaneous but unquantified activity. Linear regressions were obtained by transforming data for both fH and Vo2 to log values. At each temperature, slopes of the regressions between fH and Vo2 for individual fishes were not significantly different, but in some cases elevations were. All differences in elevation were between male and female fish. There were no significant differences in regression slope or elevation for fish of the same sex at the two temperatures and so regressions were calculated for the sexes, pooling data from 4 and 10° C. There was no significant difference in the mean ± S. D. Vo2 between the sexes at 4° C (male, 66·0 ± 59·6 mgO2 kg−1 h−1; female, 88·0 ± 60·1 mgO2 kg−1 h−1) or 10° C (male, 166·2 ± 115·4 mgO2 kg−1 h−1; female, 169·2 ± 111–1 mgO2 kg−1h−1). Resting Vo2 (x± s. d.) at 4°C was 36·7 ± 8.4 mgO2 kg−1 h−1, and 10° C was 72·8 ± 11·9 mgO2 kg−1 h−1. Maximum Vo2 (x± S. D.) at 4° C was 250·6 ± 40·2 mgO2 kg−1 h−1, and at 10° C was 423·6 ± 25·2 mgO2 kg−1 h−1. Heart rate appears to be a useful indicator of metabolic rate over the temperature range examined, for the cultivated fish studied, but it is possible that the relationship for wild fish may differ.


Protein phosphorylation represents a rapid and reversible post-translational regulation that enables a fast control of protein activation that play key roles in cell signaling. For instance, Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) pathways are activated upon sequential phosphorylations, resulting in phosphorylation of cytosol and nuclear targets. We focus here on MAPK ERK1/2 signaling that accounts for diverse cellular responses such as cell cycle progression, proliferation, differentiation, senescence, migration, formation of GAP junctions, cell adhesion, cell motility, survival and apoptosis. We review the role of protein phosphorylation in MAPK ERK1/2 activation, in its regulation in time and space and how its dysregulation can lead to tumorigenesis.


Department of Education's mantra is to produce learners who are literate, able to read, write, can comprehend and equipped with skills needed to be globally competitive. This generation of globalization and technological revolution, education is premeditated as a vital step in every human endeavor. In school, learners need to pass numerous levels of standardized national level of examination like the the National Achievement Test (NAT) that serves as an instrument to test pupil's achievement level. In a standardized test conducted in the Division of Lipa City the results showed that some schools performed low and that was evident in the exam's mean scores. This study determined the effective strategies applied on the factors affecting the performance of pupils in selected public elementary schools in the Division of Lipa City. The research design used in the study was the descriptive correlation as it considered most appropriate in assessing the current phenomena. Results were based from the pupil's report card and from the answers reflected in the questionnaire which served as the data gathering tool. Data gathered were analyzed and interpreted through the use of frequency count, weighted mean, ranking, and Pearson R as the statistical tools of the study. The manifestation of low academic performance is one of the major problems that the Department of Education is facing, which hinders the implementation of the bureaus' vision and mission appropriately. In connection to this problem, there were factors that affect pupils' performance in school and in exploring these factors teachers can devise and apply effective strategies that will help improved pupils' performance.


Two cases of septicaemia on endocavitary cardiac pacemaker probes lead the authors to discuss the aetiological and therapeutic aspects of this type of infection. In both cases, the pacemaker had been in situ for a long time and had been replaced on several occasions, there was infection in the site of implantation and an attempt at removal of all of the pacemaker material failed, leaving a probe incarcerated in the right ventricle by one of its extremities with the other extremity floating free. The endocarditis associated with this septicaemia can, theoretically, be due to two mechanisms: metastatic implantation of infection form a distant site which must be detected or infection developing in contact with the pacemaker and propagated along the probe. The treatment of this type of septicaemia consists of appropriate antibiotics, which are only rarely sufficient to sterilize the infection. In most cases, all of the pacemaker material must be removed, which is easily achieved in the majority of cases. After cleansing of the site, the pacemaker has been successfully replaced. Sometimes, the probe is buried in the myocardium: surgical removal by cardiotomy, with or without extracorporeal circulation, seems to be preferable to the techniques of continuous traction which carry certain risks (tricuspid and myocardial lesions). Persistent floating probes must be removed surgically.


As the demand for refrigeration and Air conditioning has been increased during the last decade, the cool storage systems can be used to the economic advantage over conventional cooling plants. Cool storage system using phase change materials can be used for peak load shifting if they are installed in the building. In the case of sensible heat storage system, energy is stored or extracted by heating or cooling a liquid or a solid, which does not change its phase during the process. A variety of substances like water, heat transfer oils and certain inorganic molten salts, and solids like rocks, pebbles, and refractory are used. The choice of the substances used largely depends upon the temperature level of the application. Phase change material (PCM) are one of the latent heat materials having low temperature range and high energy density of melting – solidification compared to the sensible heat storage. The tests on transient heat transmissions across different roof structures were conducted. It was found that when installing PCM in the withering course (WC-mixture of broken bricks and lime mortar) region nearly uniform roof bottom surface temperature was maintained.


Changes in food consumption and expenditures of households in developing country have been a topic for research throughout the twentieth century. Consumption expenditure patterns and estimates of expenditure elasticities can give an indication of the potential for demand-led growth in a particular economy and also helps in assessing the food security-related policy issues. This study uses the recent household survey data of NSSO (round 68) to estimate a complete demand system for Cauvery Delta Zone (CDZ) of Tamil Nadu State, with special emphasis on the food commodity group. A Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) specification was employed for this study. The QUAIDS model is an example of the empirical demand systems that have been developed to allow expenditure nonlinearity. Price and expenditure elasticities were computed for seven food aggregates which includes cereals, pulses, milk, edible oil, meat, fruits and vegetables and other foods. The results revealed that the most of food groups considered for this study were demand inelastic implies that they are staple foods and the magnitude of the cross-price elasticities suggesting the limited possibilities of substitution among food groups. The estimated expenditure elasticities suggested that the expenditure share on these food groups would increase with an increase in real income, prices held constant. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that the QUAIDS model which allows for more flexibility is superior to the traditional AIDS model.


At sufficiently high temperatures PLD deposited TaC films can be grown epitaxially on 4H-SiC (0001) substrates; at lower temperatures the films recrystallize and ball up forming a large number of pinholes. The growth temperature for epitaxy was found to be 1000°C, and it was facilitated by the epitaxial growth of a thin (2 nm) transition layer of hexagonal Ta2C. High temperature annealing produced changes in the surface morphology, caused grain growth, and created pin holes through a recrystallization process in the films deposited at the lower temperatures, while the films deposited at the higher temperatures remained virtually unchanged. Using TEM it is shown that the (0001) basal planes of the hexagonal 4H-SiC and Ta2C phases are aligned, and they were also parallel to the (111) plane in the cubic TaC with the [101] cubic direction being parallel to the hexagonal [2110] hexagonal direction. The Ta2C interlayer most likely is formed because its lattice parameter in the basel plane (3.103 Ǻ) is intermediate between that of the 4H-SiC (3.08 Ǻ) and the TaC (3.150 Ǻ). Given that Al.5Ga.5N is lattice matched to TaC, it could be an excellent substrate for the growth of GaN/AlGaN heterostructures.


To compress research and development (R&D) cycle times of high-tech mechatronic products with conformance performance metrics, managing R&D projects to allow engineers from electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing disciplines receive real-time design feedback and assessment are essential. In this paper, we propose a systems design procedure to integrate mechanical design, structure prototyping, and servo evaluation through careful comprehension of the servo-mechanical-prototype production cycle commonly employed in mechatronic industries. Our approach focuses on the Modal Parametric Identification of key feedback parameters for fast exchange of design specifications and information. This enables efficient conduct of product design evaluations, and supports schedule compression of the R&D project life cycle in the highly competitive consumer electronics industry. Using the commercial hard disk drive as a case example, we demonstrate how our approach allow inter-disciplinary specifications to be communicated among engineers from different backgrounds to speed up the R&D process for the next generation of intelligent manufacturing. This provides the management of technology team with powerful decision-making tools for project strategy formulation, and improvements in project outcome are potentially massive because of the low costs of change.


Financial world is crucial as people assume more responsibility for their own financial security. For that reason, financial literacy play a critical role in helping individual to manage their money wisely. Moreover, the needs to study into a national wide strategy to enhance Malaysians personal financial literacy and improve the necessary abilities to keep their personal financial health in the proper insightful are significantly important. Hence, the objectives of this paper is to identify the understanding level of financial literacy in Malaysia and strategies to enhance financial literacy level among Malaysian. Qquestionnaires were distributed to 2500 Malaysian in Peninsular Malaysia, age ranging from 18 to 45 years old in 2014. The survey shows that Malaysian consider themselves good in financial literacy but in reality they are still weak in mastering financial literacy knowledge. This study also shows that, in Malaysia context, financial literacy among young men who earn below RM1500 and certificate qualification holders need to be targeted as focus group to increase their financial literacy awareness and financial knowledge. Therefore, strategies to create awareness and improve financial literacy knowledge among Malaysian has been identified in this study. Moreover, a good knowledge in financial literacy will make an important contribution to the soundness and efficiency of the financial system and to the performance of the country's economy. Keywords: Financial literacy, Financial education, Strategies and Malaysia. JEL Classifications: D14, D18, D31, D83, D91


Space Electronic: Then and Now is the result of an invitation received to curate an installation for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, the world's leading architecture exhibition. This year directed by Rem Koolhaas and entitled Fundamentals, the installation will feature in the section Monditalia, which is housed in the Arsenale building and is devoted examining the current state of Italy.

Space Electronic: Then and Now tells the story of a disco at the heart of Italy's celebrated Radical Architecture movement. Space Electronic was opened in Florence 1969 by Gruppo 9999, one of the lesser-known members of the Radical avant-garde but who created one of its most important spaces. In the 1970s Space Electronic was a hotbed of multimedia experimentation in architecture, live music and theatre visited by everyone from Alessandro Mendini to Superstudio. The disco is still going today and is still run by one of the original architects; only now its radicalism has been replaced by a more commercial vibe.

The installation is deliberately ambiguous: it attempts to avoid any nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, increase the mythologization of the Radical avant-garde or impose a moralising message on today's generation. Instead poses a series of questions, and invites visitors to make up their own mind on these and other issues it raises. Is the story of Space Electronic a symptom of what has happened to Italy more generally? Is what happens in, or outside, of Space Electronic more or less political or progressive in the 1970s or today? What was the legacy of the Radical Avant-Garde and where could radical activity be seen, or be encouraged to emerge, today?

Drawing on original research, the installation reimagines the disco to tell the story of Space Electronic then and now. Curated by Dr Catharine Rossi, a design historian based at Kingston University, the installation has come together with a team of collaborators. Behind the installation is the studio of Ben Kelly, the interior designer best known for the legendary Hacienda nightclub. It features a film directed by Gilly Booth, an internationally exhibited London-based artist, with the contribution of Paul Plowman (graphics), Dominic Robson (audio visual consultant) and Mickey Moonlight (soundtrack). The installation was realised by Jack Neville, a London-based designer.


The D∅ experiment enjoyed a very successful data-collection run at the Fermilab Tevatron collider between 1992 and 1996. Since then, the detector has been upgraded to take advantage of improvements to the Tevatron and to enhance its physics capabilities. We describe the new elements of the detector, including the silicon microstrip tracker, central fiber tracker, solenoidal magnet, preshower detectors, forward muon detector, and forward proton detector. The uranium/liquid-argon calorimeters and central muon detector, remaining from Run I, are discussed briefly. We also present the associated electronics, triggering, and data acquisition systems, along with the design and implementation of software specific to D∅.


Seven dredge hauls on seamounts, and nine cores of the sea floor show that glacial marine drift was deposited over several hundred thousand square miles of the northeastern Pacific during Pleistocene time. Some ice-rafted pebbles are covered by as much as 50 mm of manganese dioxide, suggesting a minimum age of 50,000 years.

Since glacial marine sedimentation ceased, blue mud has spread out from shore. The drift is covered by at least 127 cm of blue mud at a distance of 250 miles from shore. Southeast of Kodiak, Alaska, blue mud is covered by a thin layer of ash from the 1912 eruption of Katmai Volcano.

Ice-rafted pebbles surrounded by envelopes of well-sorted coarse sand are incased in pieces of a thick manganese crust from Gilbert Seamount. The pebbles settled on the relatively smooth surface of the manganese crust and were incased by the slow upward growth of the crust. Finer sediment, which settled from icebergs, was swept off the smooth crust except for well-sorted coarse sand which collected in the pockets in the crust surrounding the larger pebbles. The formation of the pockets and the envelopes of coarse sand is ascribed to the action of weak currents although the specimens were dredged from a depth of at least 3600 feet.


The Florida earthquake of October 27, 1973 had a macroseismic location at 28.1 °N,81.25 °W, about 30 kilometers south of Orlando. It occurred at 06:22 GMT and its magnitude (m b ) was 4.0. The early morning occurrence prevented evaluation of the intensity I–II felt areas. However, it was felt with intensity III–V over 25,000 square kilometers of central and eastern Florida. A single possible aftershock which was recorded on a smoked-paper microearthquake recorder supports the macroseismic epicenter. A correlation of historic epicenters with Bouguer anomaly trends implies that earthquakes in Florida occur near the extensions of the edges of crustal blocks.


It is crucial for polarimetric imaging to accurately calibrate the polarizer angles and the camera response function (CRF) of a polarizing camera. When this polarizing camera is used in a setting of multiview geometric imaging, it is often required to calibrate its intrinsic and extrinsic parameters as well, for which Zhang's calibration method is the most widely used with either a physical checker board, or more conveniently a virtual checker pattern displayed on a monitor. In this paper, we propose to jointly calibrate the polarizer angles and the inverse CRF (ICRF) using a slightly adapted checker pattern displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor. Thanks to the lighting principles and the industry standards of the LCD monitors, the polarimetric and radiometric calibration can be significantly simplified, when assisted by the extrinsic parameters estimated from the checker pattern. We present a simple linear method for polarizer angle calibration and a convex method for radiometric calibration, both of which can be jointly refined in a process similar to bundle adjustment. Experiments have verified the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed calibration method.


The role of the paracellular interspace in solute-coupled water transport was investigated in isolated perfused salamander (Ambystoma) proximal tubules using a null-point technique to estimate interspace NaCl concentrations. Constant composition of luminal fluid was maintained by rapid (200 nl/min) perfusion of tubules 600,micron or less in length. Inhibition of active transport by a decrease in bath temperature from 22 to 0 degrees C in 400 ms produced rapid depolarizations of both the transepithelial (Vte) and basolateral (Vbl) potential, followed by slower changes in potential that occurred at low temperature. During this period, the time course of Vbl was independent of small changes in bath NaCl concentration, whereas the time course of Vte at low temperature varied from a slow depolarization to a slow repolarization depending on whether the concentration of NaCl in the bath equaled or exceeded that in the perfusate. Absence of a slow change in Vte at low temperature indicated a match between the NaCl concentration of the interspace and the test concentration of NaCl in the bath. Using this technique with 12 tubules, the normal interspace NaCl concentration appeared to be approximately 4% above the NaCl concentration of either the lumen or bath, demonstrating that the interspace of the salamander proximal tubule can function as a local hyperosmotic compartment to facilitate fluid transport between solutions of identical composition.


PurposeThe economic theory of the firm apparently concurs with Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems with regard to the primary function of the firm to be complexity reduction, i.e. the alleviation of the cognitive burden on agents whose cognitive capacities are limited. At the same time, however, the theory of the firm ignores the attendant issues of societal sustainability emphasised by Luhmann. The paper aims to fill this gap.Design/methodology/approachTaking a theoretical approach, the paper builds on the conceptual construct of "the complexity-sustainability trade-off", which combines two contrasting aspects of the relationship between a system and its environment, namely, the precariousness highlighted by Luhmann and the embeddedness highlighted by open systems theory. These themes are respectively reflected in the principles of complexity reduction and environmental dependence which constitute the trade-off.FindingsDrawing inspiration from the classic Marshallian presentation of supply and demand in modern economics, the paper argues that the principles of complexity reduction and critical dependence translate into the demand for and supply of social systems. In the proposed systems-theoretic interpretation of the theory of the firm, demand and supply refer to the imperatives of achieving coordination and securing cooperation within the firm, respectively. Thus, in the theory of the firm, the complexity-sustainability trade-off manifests itself as a trade-off between coordination and cooperation.Originality/valueThe implicit focus of the theory of the firm on complexity reduction disregards the nature, importance and fragility of cooperation in real-world firms. In so doing, it impedes the authors' understanding of unconventional types of business organisation, such as cooperatives. These defects can be corrected by reorienting the theory of the firm according to the proposed systems-theoretic approach, which holds that firms should not be governed or studied in isolation from their environment, as they too often are – and, accordingly, that apparently anomalous forms of organisation should be taken seriously, as they too often are not.


Just as laws may create entitlements to the use of information, they may also be written to distribute information and to encourage information production. This Article discusses the ways in which law affects the generation and distribution of information related to chemical exposure and toxicity. It describes the economic impact of recently enacted right-to-know laws and proposes that better and more abundant data could be produced if the law paid greater attention to basic economic principles that influence research and information systems.Toxicity information is necessary for intelligent private choices, as well as for the protection of public health. Yet the manufacturers and industrial users of commercial chemicals have little incentive to produce and distribute data about chemicals' adverse side effects and, indeed, even the identity of theses chemicals. Because generic product trade names have been substituted in the public domain for more specific and informative chemical names, it has been difficult for those who use chemicals, or for third parties, to undertake the task of data collection. As a result, the nature and extent of human exposure to chemicals have been masked.The relative invisibility of chemicals hampers the market's ability to screen chemicals for toxicity and has hindered the development of chemical information services. The lack of data has also handicapped the scientific study of the health and environmental effects of industrial chemicals; and it has profoundly affected the law's attempt to deter and to compensate for chemical harms.


Research on cross-cultural management has suggested that employee attitudes and values differ across cultures. This stream of research suggests that managerial practices that are successful in one culture may not be successful in another culture. Hofstede's (1980) study on cultural values suggests that Indians tend to be more collectivist, whereas the Irish tend to be more individualistic. However, both Ireland and India tended to be similar in terms of weak uncertainty avoidance. In this study, consistent with the suggestion that Irish are more individualistic and Indians are more collectivists, we hypothesized and found significantly higher levels of normative and affective communitment, and willingness to expend extra effort on the job for the Indian employees, compared with the Irish employees. Yet, contrary to our expectation, Irish employees reported greater intent to stay with the current organization than Indian employees.


In an effort to attract new audiences, a number of art museums have turned to participation-building programming as a mechanism for getting new audiences in the door (Harlow et al., 2011). Music programming is a widespread and well attended programmatic offering in art museums. While there has been ample research into visitor experience at art museums, there is a dearth of information about the visitor experience at music programming in art museums specifically. We do not know who attends art museum music programs, why people come to an art museum for music programming, or how music programming in the galleries influence visitors' perceptions of their art museum experience. This research study used the Art of Jazz event at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) as context for exploring these questions. A questionnaire was distributed to adult participants at the Art of Jazz over 3 program offerings in February, March, and April 2013. Participants were largely white, older adults who came to hear the jazz and not necessarily to view the art. Results suggest that interest may be a dominant factor in visitors' decision to attend music programming in art museums. Participants indicated that the music program complemented the museum experience and was the motivating factor to come for others. Future research into music programming in art museums should ascertain if specific groups of people experience the music programming in art museums differently and also include further in-depth qualitative research to get an in-depth picture of how people view music programming in the context of their overall museum experience.


To many readers the title of this article may pre‐suppose that there has been a time when literary condictions were economically good. That would be an incorrect supposition. The grim truth is, that literature, like all other concerns of the spirit and the mind, has always had to take a second, perhaps even a tenth place, behind the material interests of mankind. This is not a cynical statement by a tired and angry writer, and I am not blaming anybody. The battle of life, as I know from our common human experience, tends to drive us all to that prime anxiety, the desire for physical safety; the sufficient food, the sound roof, the money in reserve, the assurance of creature comforts and even luxuries. After those capital provisions, we begin to think about our souls, and the sustenance thereof, amongst which is literature.


(Pb1-xSrx)TiO3 (PST) (x=0.25, 0.50) powders were synthesized by a mixed oxide solid-state reaction method under various calcination temperatures (600-1100oC). Powder samples were characterized using thermogravimetric (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), x–ray diffractrometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that a single-phase of PST for x=0.25 and 0.50 powders was successfully obtained with a calcination condition of 950 oC for 2 h with a heating/cooling rate of 5oC/min. The TGA-DTA results corresponded to the XRD investigation. The lattice parameter a increased whilst the lattice parameter c decreased with increasing calcination temperatures. The tetragonality of powders decreased with an increase of calcination temperatures. The average particle size of the powders increased with the increase of calcination temperature.


Primary intracellular symbiotes of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), when fixed with potassium permanganate, revealed a distinctly staining area between the cytoplasmic membrane and the outer cell-wall envelope. This area is thought to be analogous to the peptidoglycan complex of the Eubacteriales. In addition, the diagnostic bacterial peptidoglycan amino compounds, muramic acid and diaminopimelic acid, were detected in a hydrochloric acid hydrolyzate of isolated symbiotes.


The ubiquitous and oncogenic human herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) establishes a latent infection and promotes the long-term survival of the infected host cell by targeting the molecular machinery that controls cell fate decisions (apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation). These host-virus interactions are likely to play a crucial role in the development of EBV-associated malignancies mcludmg African endemic Burkitf s lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin's disease and lymphoprohferative disorders in immunodeficient individuals We have previously shown that (1) EBVmfected Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines exhibit elevated levels of expression of the antiapoptotic bfl-\ gene (also known as A l) compared to their uninfected counterparts, (11) ectopic expression of Bfl-1 can protect a Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell line from apoptosis induced by serum deprivation (D'Souza, B , Rowe, M and Walls, D 2000 J Virol, 74, 6652) and (m) the EBV Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP1) stimulates bfl-1 promoter activity through interactions with components of the cellular Tumour Necrosis Factor Receptor (TNFR/CD40)-signallmg pathway by a mechanism which includes an essential role for the transcription factor NFkB (D'Souza et al, submitted) Bfl-1 is an anti-apoptotic protein of the Bcl-2 family, whose preferential expression in hematopoietic and endothelial cells is controlled by inflammatory stimuli. This study reports the novel finding that the EBV nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2), a second major effector of phenotypic change m EBV-infected cells, can independently upregulate bfl-1 mRNA levels m BL cell lines. This thesis presents the novel finding that EBNA2 regulates bfl-1 promoter activity through interactions with components of the cellular Notch signalling pathway EBNA2-mediated /ram-activation of bfl-1 is dependent upon its ability to bind CBF1 (a nuclear component of the Notch signalling pathway) and involves a novel CBF-l-hke binding site on the bfl-1 promoter This EBNA2-mediated effect on bfl-1 is modulated by other EBV latent proteins that are known to co-operate with EBNA2 (EBNA-LP) or which have been shown to interact with the CBF1 -co-repressor complex (EBNA3A, 3B, 3C and RPMS) These findings are relevant to our understanding of EBV persistence, its role m malignant disease, and the B cell developmental process


Thermal and visual comfort significantly influence the perception of an indoor environment and the subjective well-being of people. In this context, the present research focuses on the evaluation of the indoor comfort in a healthcare facility in Vienna, Austria. Short and long-term monitoring of air/globe temperatures, relative humidity, air velocity, lighting levels has been performed. Additionally, both patients and employees have been asked to assess indoor environment by means of questionnaires. Combining answerers' activity and clothing levels with measurements, Fanger's Predicted Mean Vote and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied have been calculated according to the European standard (ISO 7730). Furthermore, the comfort indexes have been compared with the collected votes from the survey. Both approaches for the assessment of indoor thermal comfort highlight differences between the two categories of occupants. However, for this case, Fanger's model over-predicts the percentage of dissatisfied and gives larger sensitivity to changes of the activity level because of patients' therapies. Lighting levels are found generally lower than recommended, but they have been rated acceptable by both patients and employees.


The recent Covid-19 outbreak has caused severe disruption of the global supply chain, which tests firms' ability to survive and build resilience. The concept of adaptive supply chain management (A-SCM) has never been tested against a severe supply chain disruption, such as a pandemic. Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine how firms in Indonesia develop resilience through the implementation of components of adaptive supply chain management, namely risk management, resource reconfiguration and supply chain flexibility, in order to survive severe supply chain disruption. Research design, data and methodology: A qualitative method and PLS-SEM were used to analyze 120 data collected from Indonesian manufacturing firms in various industries. Results: The findings show that risk management, resource reconfiguration, and supply chain flexibility are important components that make up A-SCM. However, only risk management contributes to help build firm resilience in the presence of severe supply chain disruption. Conclusions: The components of A-SCM have been empirically tested. The implication is that managers should carefully use RM to prepare firms for different scenarios to develop contingency strategies. This research contributes to the supply chain management body of knowledge in the context of pandemic-level disruption and broadens the dynamic capabilities perspective.


the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 pandemic changed the way of teaching methods at universities in Slovakia. In a very short time, the traditional lectures had to be replaced by on-line lessons, often without any preparation of teachers to such a form of lectures. Although teachers were able to teach at the faculty, the students watched their lessons in the comfort of their homes. In the present paper, we focus on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the level of students' knowledge from the subject Manipulative Geometry. We analyse the results of the experiment, which was conducted on a sample of 249 students of the Pre-School and Elementary Pedagogy at Trnava University, Faculty of Education. We compare the results of three groups of students: external students taught by a blended learning, daily students taught by a combination of video-lessons and e-learning course, and external students taught by a combination of video-lessons and e-learning course. The way of teaching of the second and the third group was influenced by a ban of a face-to-face lessons as a result of the pandemic situation in Slovakia. Using statistical hypothesis testing, we prove that there is no significant difference in the results of the groups in the final test, from which follows that the restrictions connected with the COVID-19 had no negative impact on the level of students' knowledge. Thus, the results of our research reveal that thanks to a proper use of digital technologies it is possible to eliminate the negative effect of the ban of face-to-face lessons.


Citrus bioflavonoids are polyphenolic plant-derived pigments found in high levels in oranges, lemons, grapefruits and other citrus fruits. The three most abundant types of citrus bioflavonoids are hesperidin, naringenin and eriocitrin. Citrus bioflavonoids have long been known to possess powerful free radical-scavenging properties and cardioprotective effects. The study involved the analysis of 10 commercially available citrus bioflavonoid supplements from three different countries: Australia, the United States and Canada. The supplements were tested for their citrus bioflavonoid content which varied from 0.8 to 33.3% w/w. The daily bioflavonoid dose varied from 19 mg to 560 mg. Hesperidin was the major citrus bioflavonoid in nine out of ten supplements. One supplement was found to contain less than 10% of the quantity of rutin claimed to have been added. The DPP-4 inhibitory potential, compared through an estimation of rutin equivalence, ranged from 1.9 mg to 400 mg per day. This data highlights the variability between the supplements in their potential to inhibit DPP-4 for subsequent health benefits.


The enhancement of stability of light sensitive CoQ10 was achieved by preparation of coenzyme Q10-loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers through High Pressure Homogenization (HPH). Well-dissolved lipids of CoQ10 were selected, optimized ratio of emusifiers and lipids were determined for the formulation. Obtained by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), the mean particle size of CoQ10-NLC was 112 ± 7 nm within 60 days after preparation. In terms of centrifugal stability, results of laser diffraction (LD) analysis eliminated the existence of aggregated particles with micrometers and showed almost no size growth before and after centrifugation. Zeta potential values were from -50 to -55 mV with pH in the range of 6.56–6.72. The concentration of CoQ10-NLC measured by UV-Vis spectroscopy was as high as 8.13 mg/mL.


This study examined whether sleep quality is associated with hand function above and beyond what can be explained by the effect of pain and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) severity on hand function in clients with CTS. The sample included 53 adults ages 30-86 yr. The Manual Ability Measure-20, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, visual analog scale for pain, and electromyography for CTS diagnosis and severity level were used to measure outcomes. Sleep quality was significantly associated with manual ability after controlling for CTS severity and pain. In CTS care, attention to sleep is significant because it may promote hand function.


The low salinity water injection (LSWI) is one of the most studied techniques applied to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from carbonates reservoirs. Wettability alteration and dissolution reaction are mechanisms that support the understanding of this technique. However, the dissolution behavior of Brazilian pre-salt carbonates rocks when treated by LSWI is not yet known. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to evaluate the dissolution effects provided by low salinity water injection in carbonate rocks from a Brazilian pre-salt reservoir using two different injection flow rates in core flooding tests at reservoir conditions. Porosity variation along the length was determined by Computerized Tomography scan analysis. Permeability was determined through pressure drop data. Ions identification and concentration were determined by ions chromatography. The experiments consisted in carrying out two core flooding tests assembled in series at 8100 psi of injection pressure and 65°C. It was performed two different injection flow rates (1 mL/min and 0.1 mL/min) of 16 times diluted synthetic seawater. It was possible to observe three different porosity behaviors along the sample length in both flow rates tested and for both core holder samples. However, the porosity behavior intensity is different from each case. There are regions of predictable behavior, regions of random behavior and inert regions. According to the porosity plots, the sample from the second core holder of the series presented more interaction with the injection fluid. Probably, the mineralogical heterogeneity has influenced in the dissolution phenomenon. The permeability profile remained almost constant for both samples. The ion chromatography analysis revealed a huge variation of magnesium and calcium ions concentration in the first injected porous volume and, subsequently, a constant trend towards the base-line values.


There has been a growing interest in interpreting the underlying dynamics of Transformers. While self-attention patterns were initially deemed as the primary option, recent studies have shown that integrating other components can yield more accurate explanations. This paper introduces a novel token attribution analysis method that incorporates all the components in the encoder block and aggregates this throughout layers. Through extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments, we demonstrate that our method can produce faithful and meaningful global token attributions. Our experiments reveal that incorporating almost every encoder component results in increasingly more accurate analysis in both local (single layer) and global (the whole model) settings. Our global attribution analysis significantly outperforms previous methods on various tasks regarding correlation with gradient-based saliency scores. Our code is freely available at https://github.com/mohsenfayyaz/GlobEnc.


lunnela j, kaariainen m & kyngas h (2011) Journal of Nursing and Healthcare of Chronic Illness3, 119–129 Web-based intervention for improving adherence of people with glaucoma

Aim.  To assess the effects of web-based patient-centred education and support on the adherence of people with glaucoma.

Background.  Glaucoma is a worldwide chronic ophthalmic illness with the symptoms of increased intraocular pressure which causes blindness. One problem is the poor adherence of people with glaucoma. Patient-centred approach should be the aim of patient education. Patient education of people with glaucoma focuses on symptoms, treatments, prognosis and medication.

Design.  A non-randomised experimental design with intervention of test (n = 34) and control (n = 51) groups.

Method.  The test group received web-based patient education and support intervention, which consist of several informational links concerning treatments, medication and self-care of glaucoma. The control group received the traditional patient education and support. The data were collected from adult people with glaucoma by self-reported ACDI instrument at baseline and follow ups (two and six months) between December 2008–May 2009.

Results.  Participants in both the test and the control groups showed improvement in their adherence. No statistical significant differences were found between the test and control group. Adherence to care (SUM9), support from nurses and physicians (SUM1) and care planning (SUM8) improved more in the test group than in the control group.

Conclusion.  The adherence of people with glaucoma in the test group improved on receiving this web-based patient education and support. However, the results of the control group also improved during the intervention. It is possible to improve chronically ill people's adherence and self-care by developing new, time-saving and patient-centred methods using technical equipment.

Relevance to clinical practice.  These results are useful in developing new patient education and support methods for people with glaucoma as well as other people with chronic illness.


Research on biodegradable polymers with the intention of fast, complete degradation in industrial compost (i‐compost) for organic recyclability is paramount to identifying solutions to the problem of excessive plastic waste originating specifically from packaging. Conventional biodegradable polymers, such as polylactide (PLA), are far from optimum for this application due to the poor gas barrier properties and slow degradation. In the paper, a new concept (triggered degradation by delayering) is shown in which exfoliated, self‐assembled sodium‐hectorite (Hec) arranged in a layer‐by‐layer manner alternating with electrospun hot‐pressed PLA provides strong gas barrier properties at high humidity and simultaneously accelerates the degradation of PLA, as tested in an enzymatic solution and i‐compost. A thin composite film (thickness 56 µm) shows a tensile strength and modulus 58 and 2000 MPa, respectively, whereas oxygen permeability is as low as 0.0064 cm3 cm m−2 day−1 bar−1. Furthermore, the delayering of the composite film by swelling of Hec layer led to accelerated degradation of PLA, as shown in detail by enzymatic and compost degradation. Since such concepts for enhanced degradability are urgently needed for sustainable utilization of biodegradable polymers in plastic waste management, the present work is an important step ahead.