To demonstrate the effects of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) on baroregulatory function by using heart rate recovery (HRR) parameters. Materials and methods: Fifty-four moderate and severe OSAS patients were included in the study. HRR was defined as the difference in heart rate between peak exercise and 1 min later; a value of 18 beats/min was considered abnormal. OSAS patients were enrolled in the study as group 1 (normal HRR; n = 12) and group 2 (abnormal HRR, n = 42). Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF, %) and other parameters were also measured by echocardiography in both groups. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between group 1 and group 2 with regard to resting heart rate, or basic clinical and echocardiographic features (P > 0.05). The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was negatively correlated with the value of maximal heart rate during exercise (P < 0.05). In group 1, the mean age and coronary artery disease were significantly lower (respectively, 55.68 ± 10.05, 60.50 ± 9.00 years; 47.2% (n = 34), 80% (n = 24): P < 0.05), whereas the mean values of LVEF and maximal heart rate during exercise were significantly higher in comparison to group 2 (respectively 52.13 ± 11.95%, 45.13 ± 11.74%; 141.42 ± 19.70, 121.17 ± 19.01/min). Conclusion: These results indicate that in OSAS baroregulatory function was impaired. This may show that baroreflex dysfunction is correlated with OSAS. The routine inclusion of HRR in the prognostic assessment of patients with OSAS may be warranted.


AIM
This paper describes the central themes nurses identify as important to their overall evaluation of their work. In particular, this paper highlights how the context of the nursing shortage interacts with what nurses understand to be satisfying about their work.

BACKGROUND
On the brink of a current and enduring nursing shortage in the US, this study provides Nurse Managers with an understanding of the dimensions of work satisfaction which they can then utilize to improve retention of incumbent nurses.

METHOD
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 currently employed nurses to explore the concepts that shape their work satisfaction. The nurses, 25 to 55 years old, were predominantly female and Associate Degree or Baccalaureate prepared.

RESULTS
Nurses have both intrinsic and extrinsic satisfiers in their work. The traditional satisfiers (pay and benefits) are not the principle satisfiers of today's nurses. In the context of shortage, the aspects of nursing that are the most rewarding are the aspects that are most often sacrificed in the interest of 'getting the job done'. Nurses are finding it difficult to continue to do 'more with less' and are frustrated they are not able to provide the care they were educated to be able to deliver.

CONCLUSIONS
The description of the dimensions of work satisfaction can provide insight for Nurse Managers and administrators who are interested in improving both recruitment and retention of nurses. Areas identified worthy of focus in retention efforts include: increasing autonomy; reallocating work in a more patient-centred way; creating systems to recognize achievement in the areas of mentoring nurses, educating patients and personal growth in practice; creating meaningful internal labour markets; and enhancing supervisor and administrative support.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT
Managers and administrators should focus on the satisfiers nurses identify if they wish to retain nurses. The traditional focus on extrinsic rewards will not likely be sufficient to retain today's nurses. Retention activities aimed at improving satisfaction with the organization of nursing care, support for professional development and recognition of nurses' intrinsic satisfiers are recommended to nurse managers.


Purpose We describe a case of subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by a high grade dural arteriovenous fistula (dAVF) with an identifiable venous rupture site on CT Angiography (CTA) in a patient with a remote history of recurrent severe dural sinus thrombosis requiring lifelong anticoagulation. The fistula was completely shut down by transarterial Onyx embolization with documented angiographic thrombosis of the downstream rupture site allowing restoration of her anticoagulation regimen. A completely independent, contralateral dAVF with isolated pial supply and cortical drainage was embolised electively. CTA has replaced conventional angiography as a first line vascular imaging study in cases of acute intracranial haemorrhage and if the imaging appearance is consistent with dAVF, a careful search should be made for a potential rupture site which may modify the treatment approach and objective. Case report Case presentation: A 52-year-old right-handed female presented with sudden onset thunderclap headache, mild drowsiness. Her past medical history was significant for superior sagittal sinus and left transverse sinus venous thrombosis diagnosed in 2008 with repeat sinus venous thrombosis after discontinuing warfarin. Routine coagulopathy screening was negative and she was placed on lifelong warfarin for a presumed coagulopathy. At this presentation, her International Normalised Ratio (INR) was 3.6, which was rapidly reversed. Noncontrast CT brain demonstrated left sylvian subarachnoid haemorrhage and adjacent small discrete left temporal parenchymal haemorrhage. Subsequent CTA showed "arterialized" opacification of an ectatic left superficial middle cerebral vein harbouring a prominent saccular outpouching, with a narrow neck favoring pseudoaneurysm over varix. Conventional angiography confirmed a Cognard 2b dAVF centerd on the wall of a previously thrombosed and isolated left transverse sinus (TS) segment and draining via the left vein of Labbé and the sylvian vein with a patent pseudo aneurysm. The main arterial supply was from the left middle meningeal artery (MMA) but with contributions also from the left occipital artery, contra lateral MMA and occipital arteries as well as posterior and falx cerebelli meningeal supply arising from the left vertebral artery. A Marathon Micro Catheter (EV3 Irvine, CA) was advanced via the left MMA close to the fistulous network on the dural surface and a total of 4 ml of Onyx-34 (EV3, Irvine CA) was injected with complete penetration of the fistulous network and filling of the isolated fistulised segment of the left TS. A follow-up angiogram two months later showed no recurrent fistula. She subsequently underwent elective embolization and obliteration of the unruptured right orbitofrontal fistula. She will continue surveillance with time-resolved MR angiography (MRA) and time-of-flight (TOF) MRA. Conclusion In the setting of dAVF and SAH, careful analysis of the emergent CTA may reveal the exact rupture site as represented by a pseudoaneurysm arising from an arterialised vein. The treatment goal should be to disconnect the arterializations of the ruptured vein but does not require casting of the rupture site itself. Disclosures V. Daruwalla: None. B. Patel: None. A. Honarmand: None. S. Sherazi: None. S. Ansari: None. A. Shaibani: None. B. Bendock: None. M. Hurley: None.


OBJECTIVE
In Spain, water pipe is a common device for substance abuse. It is the second most widespread way of cannabis abuse (11.9%) between young people from 14 to 23 years old. This use has become a public health problem, because of an intensive consumption in young people is considered as a predictor of excessive consumption in adulthood, and it causes health problems and increases the health costs. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between water pipe use, lifestyle (diet, physical activity and sleep) and psychological distress, also considering unexpected effects, in university students.

METHODS
An observational and cross-sectional study was carried out, on a sample of 825 students from the University of Huelva, selected by random sampling stratified by conglomerates. The instruments used were extracted from a larger study called "Health Behavior in University". SPSS 26.0 software was used for statistical analysis and statistical analysis was performed on the data collected.

RESULTS
The use of water pipe was associated with less adherence to the Mediterranean diet (t=1.64; p=0.04; d=0.12), a lower number of hours of sleep during weekends (t=2.12; p =0.03; d=0.14) and with intense physical activity (t=-1.80; p=0.07; d=0.13). On the contrary, it was not associated with psychological distress.

CONCLUSIONS
The use of water pipe seems to be inversely related to some aspects of a lifestyle that could be associated with long-term metabolic and respiratory diseases.


Summary: Synthesis of alkaline phosphatase in Candida utilis, unlike that of the two molecular forms of acid phosphatase, is not controlled by inorganic phosphate in the culture medium. The nature of the carbon source seems to play an important role in the regulation of this enzyme. Growth on a fermentable carbon source such as glucose, fructose or mannose leads to a constitutive synthesis of the enzyme which stops as soon as the sugar is exhausted, even though the yeast continues to grow on the products of the sugar fermentation. On transfer of cells from a glucose-containing to an ethanol-containing medium alkaline phosphatase synthesis stops immediately, whereas synthesis of the enzyme starts immediately on transfer of cells from an ethanol-containing to a glucose-containing medium. Transfer to growth on a different carbon source has no effect on the synthesis of the two forms of acid phosphatase. Thus, it seems that synthesis of acid and alkaline phosphatase in Candida utilis is regulated by completely different mechanisms.


Cytokines are believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of lymphomas. This study was conducted to investigate the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and their relationships with clinicopathological characteristics. These serum factors were measured in 57 NHL patients in comparison with 30 healthy controls using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). There were significant differences in the serum IL-6 and IL-10 levels between NHL patients and controls (p=0.0001and p=0.001, respectively). None of the analyzed parameters; age, sex, B symptoms, stage, grade and LDH was significantly related with the serum IL-6 concentrations except for CRP. Serum IL-6 levels were elevated in the group of patients with high level CRP compared with the group of patients with a normal level (p=0.05). Serum IL-10 levels also showed no significant relationships with analyzed parameters. In addition there was no significant correlation between the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 in patients with NHL (r=0.002, P=0.99).


This work presents an angular and polarization multiplexing technique for synthetic aperture (SA) imaging in digital holographic microscopy by using a pair of phase-type spatial light modulators (SLMs) to achieve resolution enhancement through a single hologram acquisition. Angular multiplexing is applied to adjust the incident wave propagation at different specific deflection angles by modulating a SLM panel as a binary phase grating. The other SLM panel is introduced to control the polarization of the propagating object beams and thus ensure orthogonal polarization between these waves to avoid mutual interference of the conjugated first-order diffracting beams derived from the same phase grating. Experimental results indicate that the spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed image are efficiently improved. Furthermore, an electrically addressed SLM pair creates the possibility to perform a dynamic and precise manipulation for realizing angular-polarization multiplexing SA imaging without the use of mechanical scanning mirrors.


Sustainable meal choices in the out-of-home catering market are essential to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. This study investigated consumers' acceptance of different features that help service providers to work more sustainably. For this purpose, data of a choice experiment and a supporting online questionnaire were analyzed using latent class analysis (LCA) and the data of n = 373 employees. Examined attributes in the choice experiment were menu variety, menu type, ordering system, ingredients and price. LCA led to four consumer segments: variety seekers (27.6%), spontaneous decisionmakers—vegetarian (25.7%), spontaneous decisionmakers—meat (24.1%) and vegetarians/vegans (22.6%). Results showed that consumers in all four segments expected to have the choice between different menus in company canteens. Moreover, they preferred spontaneous choice to preordering. Both preferences hamper sustainable production and consumption in the catering sector.


Patella ferruginea is an endangered marine gastropod, distributed on the western Mediterranean coasts, whose range has progressively contracted, due to intense human exploitation. A genetic analysis was performed on two unidentified young individuals belonging to the genus Patella found attached to the shell of an adult of P. ferruginea, with a twofold aim: (i) to achieve their correct taxonomic attribution by means of the DNA barcoding; and (ii) to shed some light on the hypothesized larval philopatry and/or juveniles phoresis in P. ferruginea. The survey was carried out comparing the sequences of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) Folmer region obtained for the two juveniles with those obtained for adults of P. ferruginea, P. caerulea, P. rustica, and P. ulyssiponensis, from different sites of the western Mediterranean, by means of maximum likelihood cluster analysis and a Bayesian-based assignment test. Results obtained evidenced that: (i) COI may be used with confidence as DNA barcoding in the genus Patella; and (ii) the two juveniles studied are not conspecific: one belonged to P. ferruginea, the other to P. rustica. The latter finding raises doubts about the juvenile phoresis and about the occurrence of larval philopatry in P. ferruginea, suggesting that an extensive use of a molecular approach for a better evaluation of the recruitment features of this endangered species should be adopted.


Pica is an eating disorder associated with ingestion of variety of non-food substances. A postpartum patient who presented with acute flaccid quadriparesis was detected to have severe hypokalemia. After extensive investigations for cause of hypokalemia, history of geophagia (clay-eating) was obtained. Approach to hypokalemia and health hazards of pica are discussed.


Past literature has shown that job segregation by gender is one major cause of the widely observed gender pay gap and that there is also a gender difference in developmental job assignments for broader job experience. This paper examines how gender differences in job assignments are associated with the gender gap in pay and promotion using the personnel records of a Japanese manufacturing company. One of the major findings is that broader work experience through job transfers across establishments are associated with a higher promotion probability and future wages for employees of both genders, but this relationship is especially strong for women, which is consistent with the existence of statistical discrimination against them. Furthermore, according to our fixed effects model estimation of wage function, broader work experience leads to higher wages for men but not for women, implying that women accept promotions without pay raises much more often than men.


The concept of Islamic banking is not new. Islamic banking is very easily getting recognition in the financial market. The conventional banking industry is a well established rival for the Islamic banking industry (IBI). Now for this competition, IBI must consider their customer's approach, satisfaction and awareness level towards it. This study analyzes the customer's satisfaction and awareness level towards the IBI. It further investigates the relationship between different demographic variables and the satisfaction and awareness of customers. A sample of 156 respondents from different cities of Pakistan was selected. For the analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA was adopted to check the relationship between demographic variables and satisfaction and awareness. The respondents expressed their satisfaction to some of the services and expressed dissatisfaction with few. Customers indicate that they are aware of different products but do not adopt these products.

 Key words: Islamic banking, customer satisfaction, awareness, dissatisfaction, Kruskal-Wallis, conventional banking.


In the present research Archaeobotany has been applied to the study of some organic materials of Pace di Chiavenna, that are the wooden plate, the wooden cross beneath the central golden cross and the beeswax compound beneath one enamel. The palaeobotanical analyses of the wooden elements could not clarify the geographical origin of the cross, probably black alder wood, while a subalpine or Mediterranean origin seems plausible for the walnut plate. The species found in pollen preserved in the beeswax currently have a very wide altitudinal distribution, extending from the hill to the mountain belt. All the species found were widespread during the Middle Ages in almost all of Western Europe, so it is not possible to identify or completely exclude a specific region in which the wax could have been produced. However, it seems more likely that the area of origin is Northern Italy and in particular a territory near the Pre-Alps. The palynological evidence indicates a strongly anthropized environment, that probably surrounded a city or a large inhabited center.


This article addresses a specific type of boundary conditions in plane elastic boundary value problems, BVP. An elastic plane composed of two dissimilar isotropic materials is considered. It is assumed that the displacement vector orientations are known on both sides of the contour that separates the entire plane into interior and exterior domains. The stress vector is assumed to be continuous across the contour. The aim of this study is the investigation of solvability of this BVP and the development of appropriate numerical methods for solving the corresponding singular integral equation. The latter is necessary as the integral equation is homogeneous. It is shown that depending on the behaviour of the displacement vector orientations the solution of the problem may include a certain number of arbitrary linear parameters. A numerical approach is proposed based on the solution of the homogeneous Riemann BVP to form a non-homogeneous right hand side of the integral equation.


We present a general result which shows that the winding of the branches in a uniform spanning tree on a planar graph converge in the limit of fine mesh size to a Gaussian free field. The result holds true assuming only convergence of simple random walk to Brownian motion and a Russo-Seymour-Welsh type crossing estimate. As an application, we prove universality of the fluctuations of the height function associated to the dimer model, in several situations. This includes the case of lozenge tilings with boundary conditions lying in a plane, and Temperleyan domains in isoradial graphs (recovering a recent result of Li). The robustness of our approach, which is a key novelty of this paper, comes from the fact that the exactly solvable nature of the model plays only a minor role in the analysis. Instead, we rely on a connection to imaginary geometry, where the limit of a uniform spanning tree is viewed as a set of flow lines associated to a Gaussian free field.


The radio astronomy community is currently building a number of phased array telescopes. The calibration of these telescopes is hampered by the fact that covariances of signals from closely spaced antennas are sensitive to noise coupling and to variations in sky brightness on large spatial scales. These effects are difficult and computationally expensive to model. We propose to model them phenomenologically using a non-diagonal noise covariance matrix. The parameters can be estimated using a weighted alternating least squares (WALS) algorithm iterating between the calibration parameters and the additive nuisance parameters. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method using data from the low frequency array (LOFAR) prototype station.


In Southeast Asia, the rapid expansion of boom crops like hybrid maize, rubber, oil palm, or banana, has brought about daunting environmental and socioeconomic impacts such as deforestation, land degradation, and indebtedness. Why do farmers engage in and keep on pursuing this farming strategy despite the adverse effects on local landscapes and livelihoods? In the context of the northern uplands of Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), we developed an innovative approach to understanding the decisions that lead to the emergence of the maize boom. We successively studied the adoption, expansion, intensification, diversification, and abandonment of intensive maize practices in locations in which these phases were ongoing at the time of study. To better contextualize decision making, we designed and applied local, serious games with farmers in seven different villages that were going through a maize boom. Then we designed a metagame that summarized our findings across all decision phases and local games in a generalized form. National agricultural experts validated the structure of the metagame by taking on the role of farmers and they witnessed that their cumulative decision making within the metagame lead to a maize boom too. Core findings include: (1) the maize boom and bust can be reproduced in a game environment that simulates the change of six factor combinations; and (2) Farmers in northern Laos reinvest maize profits into their long-term, socioeconomic goals. The approach presented combines micro- and macrolevel analysis of land-use change. On the one hand, it allows the exploration of the local, social-ecological contexts of land-use decisions. On the other hand, it provides a systematic procedure to scale up, generalize, and test the contextual knowledge and systemic understanding of a complex, large-scale land-use change process.


In the last year alone, a surge of new benchmarks to measure compositional understanding of vision-language models have permeated the machine learning ecosystem. Given an image, these benchmarks probe a model's ability to identify its associated caption amongst a set of compositional distractors. Surprisingly, we find significant biases in all these benchmarks rendering them hackable. This hackability is so dire that blind models with no access to the image outperform state-of-the-art vision-language models. To remedy this rampant vulnerability, we introduce SugarCrepe, a new benchmark for vision-language compositionality evaluation. We employ large language models, instead of rule-based templates used in previous benchmarks, to generate fluent and sensical hard negatives, and utilize an adversarial refinement mechanism to maximally reduce biases. We re-evaluate state-of-the-art models and recently proposed compositionality inducing strategies, and find that their improvements were hugely overestimated, suggesting that more innovation is needed in this important direction. We release SugarCrepe and the code for evaluation at: https://github.com/RAIVNLab/sugar-crepe.


Weakly-supervised text classification has received much attention in recent years for it can alleviate the heavy burden of annotating massive data. Among them, keyword-driven methods are the mainstream where user-provided keywords are exploited to generate pseudo-labels for unlabeled texts. However, existing methods treat keywords independently, thus ignore the correlation among them, which should be useful if properly exploited. In this paper, we propose a novel framework called ClassKG to explore keyword-keyword correlation on keyword graph by GNN. Our framework is an iterative process. In each iteration, we first construct a keyword graph, so the task of assigning pseudo labels is transformed to annotating keyword subgraphs. To improve the annotation quality, we introduce a self-supervised task to pretrain a subgraph annotator, and then finetune it. With the pseudo labels generated by the subgraph annotator, we then train a text classifier to classify the unlabeled texts. Finally, we re-extract keywords from the classified texts. Extensive experiments on both long-text and short-text datasets show that our method substantially outperforms the existing ones.


Intracellular hydrogen peroxide levels have the potential to be exploited in cancer therapy. We have synthesized uniform and size-controlled copper-impregnated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (Cu–MSN) containing a catalase inhibitor, 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (AT) for ROS-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells. Copper species in the framework and aminotriazole loading were confirmed by electron spin resonance (ESR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies, respectively. The metal–ligand binding between the copper and AT are sensitive to the endosomal environment (pH = 5.5) for the release of AT to inhibit cytosolic catalase activity. The subsequent enhanced level of intracellular hydrogen peroxide, after catalase inhibition, is transformed into toxic, reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the catalysis of Cu(II) on MSN. The intracellularly delivered Cu–MSN–AT exhibited significant activity against colon carcinoma (HT-29 cell line) substantiated by increased levels of ROS, where AT drove up the hydrogen peroxide concentration and also the level of free radicals through a Fenton-like reaction. The trigger of cell apoptosis was induced from ROS attack to lipid membranes in order for further radical propagation to cause lipid peroxidation and eventually, a decrease in the membrane fluidity and mitochondrial membrane potential. As a result, an increase in the membrane permeability caused the release of cytochrome c into the cytoplasm and further activation of apoptotic cascades to trigger DNA fragmentation. The design of the Cu–MSN–AT system takes advantage of a synergistic effect to inhibit antioxidant defenses and catalyze the activation of lethal ROS by the framework of copper ions to kill cancer cells which represents a novel chemotherapeutic strategy for ameliorating the toxic side effects from non-specific ROS generation in traditional chemotherapeutic agents.


The increasing demand for virtual reality applications in several scientific disciplines feeds new research perspectives dealing with robotics, automation, and computer science. In this context, one of the topics is the design of advanced force-feedback devices allowing not only kinesthetic interaction with virtual objects but also locomotion and navigation inside virtual worlds. This has the main advantage to stimulate human vestibular apparatus, thus increasing the overall realism of simulation. Particularly, this paper deals with mobile haptic interfaces (MHIs), built by combining standard force-feedback devices with mobile platforms. We investigated which factors may affect the transparency of this kind of devices, identifying in mobile robot dynamics a possible cause of loss of transparency. Hence, in this paper, we present a method to analyze dynamic performance of an MHI and some basic guidelines to design controller in order to meet desired specifications. Experimental validation of the theoretical results is reported.


Artificial lift methods typically drive Coal Seam Gas (CSG) wells, and Progressive Cavity Pump (PCP) is the preferred method of lift with Australian CSG operators. CSG wells in Australia are typically equipped with necessary instrumentation and automation systems to provide real-time data gathering for monitoring and control purposes. Real-time data gathered from CSG wells presents an opportunity to better understand PCP performance by identifying anomalous pump behavior.
 However, before undertaking any real-time analytics exercise, it is pertinent to carry out Exploratory Data Analytics (EDA) to understand time series data behavior and extract relevant features; and this exercise is particularly important with multi-variate data sets. Obtaining significant data features from multivariate time series data can help define which analytics and machine learning methods could be exploited to analyze PCP performance in near real time.
 This paper will discuss EDA methodologies that can help streamline time-series data normalization and feature extraction techniques. A three (3) year time-series dataset, gathered from forty-two (42) CSG wells, will be used to showcase EDA methodologies utilized as part of this research. All EDA activities covered in this paper are based on the Python programming language and its supporting libraries.


Advanced Planning Systems (APS) are important for production companies that seek the optimization of its operations. However there are gaps between the companies' needs and its implementation in the Enterprise Systems, such as the lack of a commonly accepted definition, the short insight on its software architecture, and the absence of Software Engineering (SE) approaches to this type of system. Consequently, it is important to study APSs from a SE point of view. The motivation of this work is to present a Reference Architecture for APS, providing a standard-based characterization and a framework to simplify the design, development and implementation of APS. Therefore, two views are presented, which are based on the "4+1" View Model endorsed by the international standard ISO/IEC 42010:2011; those Views are represented using UML diagrams and they are described including variation points for a number of possible situations.


In this work, Eu3+-doped CdS nanocrystals embedded in a SiO2 matrix were synthesised by a sol-gel method since this method confers a great chemical homogeneity, and allows in-situ generation and controlled growth of CdS nanocrystals within the silica glass. The influence of the sol-gel conditions on the Eu3+ optical response has been investigated. The synthesis conditions can be varied to modify the structure of the material, and the dispersion of the rare earth ion, within the silica matrix. From the optical analysis an energy transfer appears from CdS nanoparticles to Eu3+ ions but also a back transfer Eu3+ to CdS nanoparticles is evidenced.


This report presents a model in a mobile health care environment and uses a combination of existing technologies to build a privacy protection scheme. This work covers security issues in both the wireless and wired network, and proposes solutions to these issues. A framework using PKI to distribute digital certificates combined with strong encryption using the AES algorithm is described. Using this framework in combination with a RBAC model using location control we present some principles that will ensure privacy in a mobile wireless biomedical information collection service.


Usually resistant to salt water corrosion of concrete prepared with fly ash and slag grinding fine admixture, however, such mixed concrete frost resistance is bad, resistant to seawater freeze-thaw performance is worse, usually with higher air-entraining, can overcome the defects. In the project, even if the liquidity of concrete is very good, the difference in bubble size and its distribution is very complicated. In order to prepare the concrete with high resistant to seawater freezing-thawing and corrosion, this paper studied on the relationship of the high air content of concrete with high resistance to sea water freezing-thawing and chloride ion diffusion coefficient. It was found that concrete air content, bubble fractal dimension and electric flux has good correlation, concrete anti-chloride ion diffusion ability can introduce bubbles cluster fractal dimension and bubbles distribution fractal dimension to characterization. With the increase of fractal dimension, the concrete resistance to chloride ion diffusion capacity enhanced. the complexity of the bubble was reflected from the bubble distribution fractal dimension, which objectively describes the gradation of bubbles, bubbles gradation improved greatly improve the concrete anti-chloride ion diffusion capacity.


This paper describes the submission of LMU Munich to the WMT 2020 unsupervised shared task, in two language directions, German↔Upper Sorbian. Our core unsupervised neural machine translation (UNMT) system follows the strategy of Chronopoulou et al. (2020), using a monolingual pretrained language generation model (on German) and fine-tuning it on both German and Upper Sorbian, before initializing a UNMT model, which is trained with online backtranslation. Pseudo-parallel data obtained from an unsupervised statistical machine translation (USMT) system is used to fine-tune the UNMT model. We also apply BPE-Dropout to the low resource (Upper Sorbian) data to obtain a more robust system. We additionally experiment with residual adapters and find them useful in the Upper Sorbian→German direction. We explore sampling during backtranslation and curriculum learning to use SMT translations in a more principled way. Finally, we ensemble our best-performing systems and reach a BLEU score of 32.4 on German→Upper Sorbian and 35.2 on Upper Sorbian→German.


This paper empirically investigates the impact of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on its export sophistication. Using a provincial‐level panel dataset and applying fixed effects and instrumental variable regression techniques, the study finds that, on average, OFDI has no significant impact on China's export sophistication. However, after the full sample is divided into different regions, the study finds that OFDI has a positive and significant impact on export sophistication in the developed coastal region, but no such impact is observed in the less developed inland regions. Further investigation using a panel threshold model reveals that only when GDP, per capita GDP, human capital, and the research and development intensity of a home economy reach a certain level can OFDI promote export sophistication. The findings suggest that accelerating eco nomic development and increasing absorptive capacity can facilitate the contribution of OFDI to China's export sophistication.


This paper presents the design of a system-level simulator for radio receivers, including receiver circuits, in Matlab. The system level outlook offers a better characterization of circuit design, as the signal processing in the digital receiver is asymmetric across topologies. Also, circuit models in the simulator make it more precise and realistic compared to baseband models, which assume a single-step error-free down conversion. This interpretation is especially relevant in the design of energy-constrained wireless sensor network solutions. The simulator results for binary FSK in AWGN confirm the importance of system level simulation.


Driven by a deluge of data, biology is undergoing a transition to a more quantitative science. Making sense of the data, building new models, asking the right questions and designing smart experiments to answer them are becoming ever more relevant. In this endeavour, nonlinear approaches can play a fundamental role. The biochemical reactions that underlie life are very often nonlinear. The functional features exhibited by biological systems at all levels (from the activity of an enzyme to the organization of a colony of ants, via the development of an organism or a functional module like the one responsible for chemotaxis in bacteria) are dynamically robust. They are often unaffected by order of magnitude variations in the dynamical parameters, in the number or concentrations of actors (molecules, cells, organisms) or external inputs (food, temperature, pH, etc). This type of structural robustness is also a common feature of nonlinear systems, exemplified by the fundamental role played by dynamical fixed points and attractors and by the use of generic equations (logistic map, Fisher–Kolmogorov equation, the Stefan problem, etc.) in the study of a plethora of nonlinear phenomena. However, biological systems differ from these examples in two important ways: the intrinsic stochasticity arising from the often very small number of actors and the role played by evolution. On an evolutionary time scale, nothing in biology is frozen. The systems observed today have evolved from solutions adopted in the past and they will have to adapt in response to future conditions. The evolvability of biological system uniquely characterizes them and is central to biology. As the great biologist T Dobzhansky once wrote: 'nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution'.


Background and Purpose Cerebral small vessel disease (SVDs) are related with large artery atherosclerosis. However, the association between aortic atheroma (AA) and cerebral small vessel disease has rarely been reported. This study evaluated the relationship between presence and burden of AAs and those of SVDs in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods We included 737 consecutive patients who underwent transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for evaluation of acute stroke. AA subtypes were classified as complex aortic plaque (CAP) and simple aortic plaque (SAP). Presence and burden of SVDs including cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), perivascular spaces (PVSs), asymptomatic lacunar infarctions (ALIs), and total SVD score, were investigated. Results AA was found by TEE in 360 (48.8%) patients including 11.6% with CAP and 37.2% with SAP. One or more types of SVDs was found in 269 (36.4%) patients. In multivariable analysis, presence of CMBs (odds ratio [OR] 4.68), high-grade WMHs (OR 3.13), high-grade PVSs (OR 3.35), and ALIs (OR 4.24) were frequent in patients with AA than those without AA. Each 1-point increase in total SVD score increased the odds of presence of CAP (OR 1.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.44-1.85) and SAP (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.35-1.75). Conclusions In this study, patients with AA frequently had cerebral SVDs. Larger burden of AA was associated with advanced cerebral SVDs. Our findings give an additional information for positive relationship with systemic atherosclerosis and coexisting cerebral SVDs in acute ischemic stroke patients.


This study investigated the antimicrobial mechanism of phytic acid (PA) and its antibacterial effects in combination with ethanol. The MIC of PA on Escherichia coli ATCC 11229, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538P, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, and Salmonella Typhimurium CICC 27483 were 0.24, 0.20, 0.26, and 0.28% (w/w), respectively. E. coli ATCC 11229 and S. aureus ATCC 6538P were selected to investigate the mechanism of PA by analyzing its effects at 1/2MIC and at MIC on the cell morphology, intracellular ATP, and cell membrane integrity. Environmental scanning electron microscope images revealed that PA was able to change the cell morphology and disrupt the intercellular adhesion. PA retarded bacterial growth and caused cell membrane dysfunction, which was accompanied by decreased intracellular ATP concentrations. Flow cytometry analysis further revealed that almost all the bacterial cells were damaged after treatment with PA at its MIC for 2 h. Moreover, PA has a synergistic antimicrobial ability when used in combination with ethanol. These results suggested that PA is effective in inhibiting growth of foodborne pathogens mainly by the mechanism of cell membrane damage and to provide a theoretical basis for the development of natural antimicrobial agents in the food industry.


Recent antigliadin antibody (AGA) determination has become an important diagnostic tool in coeliac disease (CD). Although this test has high sensibility for the disease, it is less specific, especially for IgG class, because of its having been found in some acute and chronic common intestinal childhood diseases. We studied the behaviour of AGA, IgA and IgG, in 234 children affected by various gastrointestinal diseases, comparing the results with those obtained in 125 coeliac children and 788 normal children. The intestinal diseases were as follows: irritable bowel syndrome, cow's milk protein intolerance, acute infectious diarrhoea, parasitosis, lactase deficiency, recurrent abdominal pain, cystic fibrosis, chronic constipation, gastroesophageal reflux, intestinal lymphangiectasia, chronic intractable diarrhoea and nodular lymphoid hyperplasia. Our results showed that while AGA-IgA were absent in all children studied, with the exception of 3 cases of acute diarrhoea, a moderate percentage of AGA-IgG was observed in subjects with cow's milk protein intolerance, acute diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome, lactase deficiency, chronic intractable diarrhoea and in a low percentage of children with parasitosis, intestinal lymphangiectasia and nodular lymphoid hyperplasia. There was no antibody movement in subjects with cystic fibrosis, gastroesophageal reflux, recurrent abdominal pains and chronic constipation. The different behaviour of the two antibody classes could be explained by the fact that AGA-IgG were detected in diseases where scattered areas of mucosal damage could allow the permeability of the macromolecules inducing passage of gliadin through the mucosal barrier and immune system-induced antibody stimulation.


Workload control (WLC) is a leading production planning and control (PPC) concept for manufacturing environments subjected to high levels of uncertainty, such as in the make-to-order (MTO) industry. Despite the importance of this concept, few case study applications of WLC have been presented in the literature. This paper takes advantage of a rare opportunity to explore two independent longitudinal empirical WLC projects recently undertaken in Portugal and the United Kingdom. Uniquely, the projects were conducted in parallel and both chose to incorporate the exact same influential WLC methodology in the development of a decision support system (DSS), thus providing an ideal platform for cross-case comparison. The paper focuses primarily on theoretical refinements which ultimately had to be made to the WLC methodology applied to the two cases. Reasons for the refinements can be broadly split into two groups: (1) refinements due to the time that has elapsed since the development of the original methodology; and (2) refinements due to company specific characteristics. The paper also reflects upon a number of implementation difficulties common to both case studies, providing insight into how these could be avoided in the future. Finally, eight future research challenges are presented.


This thesis examines the process of industry evolution through a comparative analysis of three Irish wholesaling industries. In doing so it responds to a pressing need for research that examines the structural evolution o f non-manufactunng mdustnes. The focus is on identifying the drivers of industry change and examining the patterns of process. It has been earned out primarily within a strategic management perspective.

The research design is multi-level and multi-modal m the tradition of the Warwick studies on industrial and corporate change. The approach is inductive, qualitative and longitudinal-processual, using a comparative case-based method.

The thesis makes a number of contributions at both the empirical and analytical levels. At the empincal level it adds three new case studies to the limited pool of published material on industry evolution in general, and Irish wholesaling in particular. Nine empirical drivers of industry change are identified and related to the three main theoretical change motors highlighted in the strategy and related literatures (efficiency, differential power, and institutional power) A five-phase pattern of industry evolution is revealed and examined.

The analysis highlights the limitations of single-dnver theories o f change. It also identifies an additional theoretical motor ( 'thymos') not prominent in the literature and examines its implications. The five-phase pattern of industry evolution is a punctuated equilibrium model and highlights the limitations of industry hfe-cycle theory. It also questions the sharpness of the revolutionary cycle that is a central element in most mainstream punctuated equilibrium perspectives. At a more philosophical level, the study challenges the level of determinism evident in most of the mam theoretical frameworks. The analysis also makes a contribution to the substantive literatures on three o f the mam empirical drivers of change identified, government, trade associations and leadership.


We have been using a phone-based cepstral system with polynomial features in NIST evaluations for the past two years. This system uses three broad phone classes, three states per class, and third-order polynomial features obtained from MFCC features. In this paper, we present a complete analysis of the system. We start from a simpler system that does not use phones or states and show that the addition of phones gives a significant improvement. We show that adding state information does not provide improvement on its own but provides a significant improvement when used with phone classes. We complete the system by applying nuisance attribute projection (NAP) and score normalization. We show that splitting features after a joint NAP over all phone classes results in a significant improvement. Overall, we obtain about 25% performance improvement with polynomial features based on phones and states, and obtain a system with performance comparable to a state-of-the-art SVM system.


Objective Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory event-related potential (ERP) used to study schizophrenia and psychosis risk. MMN reliability from a multisite, traveling subjects study was compared using different ERP referencing, averaging, and scoring techniques. Methods Reliability of frequency, duration, and double (frequency+duration) MMN was determined from eight traveling subjects, tested on two occasions at eight EEG laboratory sites. Deviant-specific variance components were estimated for MMN peak amplitude and latency measures using different ERP processing methods. Generalizability (G) coefficients were calculated using two-facet (site, occasion), fully-crossed models and single-facet (occasion) models within each laboratory to assess MMN reliability. Results G-coefficients calculated from two-facet models indicated fair (0.4<G<=0.6) duration MMN reliability at electrode Fz, but poor (G<0.4) double and frequency MMN reliability. Single-facet G-coefficients averaged across laboratory resulted in improved reliability (G>0.5). Reliability of MMN amplitude was greater than latency, and reliability with mastoid referencing significantly outperformed nose-referencing. Conclusions EEG preprocessing methods have a significant impact on the reliability of MMN amplitude. Within site MMN reliability can be excellent, consistent with prior single site studies. Significance With standardized data collection and ERP processing, MMN can be reliably obtained in multisite studies, providing larger samples sizes within rare patient groups.


Current massive datasets demand light-weight access for analysis. Discrete hashing methods are thus beneficial because they map high-dimensional data to compact binary codes that are efficient to store and process, while preserving semantic similarity. To optimize powerful deep learning methods for image hashing, gradient-based methods are required. Binary codes, however, are discrete and thus have no continuous derivatives. Relaxing the problem by solving it in a continuous space and then quantizing the solution is not guaranteed to yield separable binary codes. The quantization needs to be included in the optimization. In this paper we push for quantization: We optimize maximum class separability in the binary space. We introduce a margin on distances between dissimilar image pairs as measured in the binary space. In addition to pair-wise distances, we draw inspiration from Fisher's Linear Discriminant Analysis (Fisher LDA) to maximize the binary distances between classes and at the same time minimize the binary distance of images within the same class. Experiments on CIFAR-10, NUS-WIDE and ImageNet100 demonstrate compact codes comparing favorably to the current state of the art.


The use of a single vertical screen to obstruct the propagation of noise from source to receiver over hard and soft flat ground is well known. However, in addition to considerations of acoustical efficiency, the design of road traffic noise barriers depends on many other factors. Site conditions, planning restraints and visual considerations will affect the final selected design, as will engineering considerations related to the construction materials, the weather loading due to wind and precipitation. The aim of this article is to show both the acoustical benefits and drawbacks of using a screen adjacent to a highway located in a cutting dip in otherwise flat ground topography.


New arcid species belonging to the genera Paranadara gen. nov., Acar and Asperarca (new record) are described for the western Atlantic Ocean based on shell morphology. Paranadara taludae sp. nov., Acar naturezae sp nov., Acar oliveirae sp. nov. and Asperarca tarcylae sp. nov. were collected off north-eastern Brazil between depths of 70 and 690 m, whereas Acar lepidoformis sp. nov. was dredged off the State of Rio Grande do Sul (southern Brazil) at a depth of 141 m. There are no species along the Brazilian coast that are morphologically similar to Paranadara taludae sp. nov. Acar naturezae sp. nov., Acar lepidoformis and Acar Acar oliveirae sp. nov. are similar to this genus due to shape, ligament, presence of concentric lamellae cut by radial threads, a broad dorsal area and a markedly narrowed anterior region in comparison to the posterior region, which is strongly expanded. Asperarca tarcylae sp. nov. is similar to this genus due to the presence of a small edentulous region below the umbo and smooth inner margin.


This study concerned the development and validation of a hardware and software biomeasurement system, which was designed to be used by physiotherapists, general practitioners and other healthcare professionals. The purpose of the system is to detect and assess gait deviation in the form of reduced post-operative range of movement (ROM) of the replacement hip joint in total hip arthroplasty (THA) patients. In so doing, the following original work is presented: Production of a wearable, microcontroller-equipped system which was able to wirelessly relay accelerometer sensor data of the subjects key hip-position parameters to a host computer, which logs the data for later analysis. Development of an artificial neural network is also reported, which was produced to process the sensor data and output assessment of the subjects hip ROM in the flexion/extension and abduction/adduction rotations (forward and backward swing and outward and inward movement of the hip respectively). The review of literature in the area of biomeasurement devices is also presented. A major data collection was carried out using twenty-one THA patients, where the device output was compared to the output of a Vicon motion analysis system which is considered the ˜gold standard in clinical gait analysis. The Vicon system was used to show that the device developed did not itself affect the patients hip, knee or ankle gait cycle parameters when in use, and produced measurement of hip flexion/extension and abduction/adduction closely approximating those of the Vicon system. In patients who had gait deviations manifesting in reduced ROM of these hip parameters, it was demonstrated that the device was able to detect and assess the severity of these excursions accurately. The results of the study substantiate that the system developed could be used as an aid for healthcare professionals in the following ways: · To objectively assess gait deviation in the form of reduced flexion/extension and abduction/adduction in the human hip, after replacement, · Monitoring of patient hip ROM post-operatively · Assist in the planning of gait rehabilitation strategies related to these hip parameters.


ABSTRACT In this study, we compared the LiDAR filtering performances of unsupervised machine learning methods, such as linkage, K-means, and self-organizing maps, for urban areas to provide a practical guide to researchers. The input parameters (x-y-z and intensity) were normalized and weighted using a chi-squared independence test to improve the classification accuracy. The best successful results were obtained using the weighted linkage method in terms of the total error of 13.53%, 3.96%, and 1.07% for the three samples, respectively. In comparison with other approaches, methods weighted by chi-squared have significant potential for classification and filtering and outperform many popular approaches.


Introduction Extracorporeal membrane carbon dioxide removal may have a role in treatment of patients with hypercapnic respiratory failure and refractory hypoxaemia and/or hypercapnia. Methods We report on the use, outcomes and complications in United Kingdom intensive care units reporting patients on the Extracorporal Life Support Organisation register. Results Of 60 patients, 42 (70%) had primarily hypoxic respiratory failure and 18 (30%) primarily hypercapnic respiratory failure. Use of veno-venous procedures increased compared to arterio-venous procedures. Following extracorporeal membrane carbon dioxide removal, ventilatory and blood gas parameters improved at 24 h. Twenty-seven (45%) of patients died before ICU discharge, while 27 (45%) of patients were discharged alive. The most common complications related to thrombosis or haemorrhage. Discussion There is limited use of extracorporeal membrane carbon dioxide removal in UK clinical practice and outcomes reflect variability in indications and the technology used. Usage is likely to increase with the availability of new, simpler, technology. Further high quality evidence is needed.


The cellular Cl content and concentration ([Cl]cell) and the cellular uptake of 36Cl have been measured in the rat left ventricle in vivo. The in vitro efflux of 36Cl from perfused contracting ventricles preequilibrated with 36Cl in vivo was also determined at 22, 30, and 38 degrees C. [Cl]cell was 8.2 +/- 0.5 mmol/kg cell water, corresponding to a calculated equilibrium potential of Cl of -70 to -80 mV. This figure for [Cl]cell is significantly lower than previous estimates in the literature, which were subject to an analytical error leading to overestimation of muscle Cl content obtained coulometrically. At 38 degrees C, Cl exchange under quasi-steady-state conditions was 31.2 mumol . (g dry ventricle . min)-1 or 42.5 pmol . (cm2 plasma membrane . s).-1 Apparent activation energy of the flux was 10.4 kcal/mol. At 22 degrees C, no dependence of the exchange on contraction frequency was detectable over a range of 80-160 contractions/min. The Cl exchange flux is among the fastest, if not the fastest. known for myocardial ion transport.


As we celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the idea of human rights endures. The human rights idea was honored at a conference organized by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, held at Fordham Law School on December 10-12, 1999, to commemorate the first fifty years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The four pieces that follow were presented at the conference as part of a panel addressing one of the central philosophical concerns regarding the human rights project: its universality. While the panel's title, "What is a Human Right? Universals and the Challenge of Cultural Relativism," provided the framework for discussion, all four papers discard cultural relativism as a serious challenge, and instead attempt to locate ways in which the human rights system either accommodates or fails to respond to cultural difference. In providing an overview to the four papers contained herein, this Introduction investigates notions of culture and relativism by mapping the geography of human rights. In contending that individuals everywhere, regardless of location, are simultaneously bearers of rights and engaged with culture, this overview locates culture and identity within the human rights paradigm, rather than in opposition to it. By positing that we are all holders of rights and agents of culture, this overview also challenges the twin assumptions that (1) nation-states which are geographically located in the West are culturally neutral, and (2) Western states are therefore not susceptible to relativist behavior.


This volume provides insights in to some of the recent developments in empirical research of environmental and resource economics in India. It shows how the very difficult problem of measurement of environmental externalities has to be dealt with in a developing country in which the environmental data base is weak. The topics covered include the designing of environmental policy instruments, valuation of environmental services, environmental cost benefit analysis, and the sustainable development and measuring Green GDP for India. Using data both from secondary and primary sources, the author provides a number of case studies in environmental economics: measuring environmental efficiency and designing pollution taxes for water and air polluting industries in India; household valuation of urban air quality in three important cities of India using sophisticated methods of environmental valuation; two useful case studies of environmental benefit-cost analysis of Metro rail in Delhi and the cleaning of river Ganges.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus and mizoribine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS
Adult patients with RA with an insufficient response to at least one disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) were randomized to receive 28 weeks of double-blind treatment with tacrolimus 3 mg once daily or mizoribine 50 mg three times daily. The primary efficacy endpoint was the American College of Rheumatology 20% (ACR20) response. Safety was evaluated by adverse events.

RESULTS
A total of 204 patients were enrolled for study (103 in the tacrolimus group, 101 in the mizoribine group). Significantly more patients receiving tacrolimus achieved an ACR20 response compared with mizoribine (48.5 vs 10.0%, respectively; p = 0.001). Tacrolimus was also superior to mizoribine in ACR50 and ACR70 response rate, tender and painful joint counts, swollen joint counts and patient and physician assessments of pain, disease activity, and patient's physical function assessment based on the Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (p < 0.001). Adverse events were more frequent in the tacrolimus group than the mizoribine group (65.0 vs 59.4%); however, there were no statistically significant differences between treatment groups.

CONCLUSION
Tacrolimus improves RA symptoms to a significantly greater extent than mizoribine in patients with RA inadequately controlled with at least one prior DMARD. Tacrolimus has the potential to be a useful and highly effective treatment for RA.


In order to enhance the independence of auditors, a new European directive governing the mandatory rotation of auditors will become binding in Ireland on the 16th of April 2016. The purpose of the regulations is to improve audit quality by removing any natural danger to the independence of auditors (Council Regulation No 537/2014 EU). There are two main types of auditor rotation: mandatory audit-firm rotation as was introduced in Spain, and mandatory audit-partner rotation as is practiced in the US, Australia and in other countries. This study will compare the experiences of mandatory rotation in those countries in order to provide an indication as to whether the rotation of auditors will prove effective in Ireland. The research will also explore the different components that impact on auditor independence such as: audit tenure, auditor-client closeness, client-specific knowledge, the provision of non-audit fees, and low-balling. Using these components as a proxy for independence, the study will seek to assess the effects of mandatory rotation on auditor independence. To gauge the attitude of accountants in Ireland and in countries where mandatory auditor rotation was introduced, an online questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 192 accountants. A nonparametric One-Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to analyse the data and the results indicate that the accountants neither agreed nor disagreed with the view that mandatory audit-firm rotation improves audit quality. However, they agreed with the statement that mandatory audit-partner rotation improves audit quality and they also agreed with the statement that client-specific knowledge is lost as a result of audit-firm rotation.


When entrepreneurs are searching for more information to develop their business ideas, they generally do not have enough time to do extensive research and thus are inclined to take shortcuts. This could undermine the rationality of their decisions, depending on what information is not found. However, one popular shortcut offers an interesting opportunity. By consulting experts, entrepreneurs can save time and, if they apply the search principles identified in this study, they can further avoid search obstacles, such as cognitive biases and poor decision framing. For example, by consulting skeptics of a technology, entrepreneurs can counteract their own optimism. While the right mitigation techniques for bias may seem obvious once the bias has been identified, acting pro-actively is not obvious and seems to require experience or prior learning. The results of this study were obtained by applying grounded theory on data obtained from semi-structured interviews. Nine interviews were done in Stockholm, Sweden. The interviewees included founders of companies, a business developer and a business coach for entrepreneurs.


Airborne wind energy is an emerging technology that uses tethered unmanned aerial vehicles for harvesting wind energy at altitudes higher than conventional towered wind turbines. To make the technology competitive to other renewable energy technologies a reliable control system is required that allows autonomously operating the system throughout all phases of flight. In the present work a cascaded nonlinear control scheme for reliable pumping cycle control of a rigid wing airborne wind energy system is proposed. The high-level control strategy in the form of a state machine as well as the flight controller consisting of path-following guidance and control, attitude, and rate loop is presented along with a winch controller for tether force tracking. Amathematical model for an existing prototype will be derived, and results from a simulation study will be used to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed concept in the presence of turbulence and wind gusts.


The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is impacting
engineering education (EE) in diverse with several changes from
the effects of the previous three industrial revolutions.
Remarkable industrialization has been recorded in the fourth
industrial revolution. However, certain skill gaps has been
identified missing in engineering courses and curriculum as
employers seek skills development aligned with the fourth
industrial revolution (4IR). This paper was guided by Lifelong
Learning Theory which explain that the paradigm shift from the
first three industrial revolutions to 4IR has led to EE
transformation of acquiring not only technical skills but also soft
skills. This has led to critical EE curriculum review to
extrapolate its impacts of soft skills on 4IR emerging workforce.
This paper takes a broad look at the EE and soft skills in the era
of 4IR in Africa, while examining the EE in previous revolutions
and, exploring the impacts and implications of soft skills on EE.
The possibilities of adequate investments in EE and soft skills
programmes becomes an imperative to address skill gaps and
prepare engineering graduate students for future work. The
importance of soft skills, values, and improvement of soft skills in
engineering education in 4IR era are discussed among others.
Thus, to address soft skills gaps in EE, industrial cooperation
and educational partnership is significant to centre on EE
curriculum future-oriented skills development to consolidate with
4IR workforce demands. A number of policy recommendations
for 4IR compatibility with EE polices are made.


This Paper Focuses on the concrete industry and programs that prepare college students for their future in it and to try and implement some sort of concrete program at Cal Poly. The idea to make Concrete Industry Management first came along at Middle Tennessee State University in 1996, but only a few other programs have started at other schools since then. These programs focus on skills for graduates to enter the concrete industry in production, project management, sales, and marketing. They are structured similar to the way Construction Management programs are structured and have similar courses like estimating, sustainability, and project management as well. Data on program curriculum, industry support, and entry level jobs after graduation was collected from the four schools around the country that have Concrete Industry Management programs. A survey was given to Cal Poly Students in Construction Management. Their responses helped conclude the research that was needed to lay out the structure of a concrete program that could be implemented for Cal Poly students.


Data is the main subject of enterprise resource planning. It is an important way to enhance economic efficiency and competitiveness, by taking advantage of information technology to implement the data/information management and ensure their objectivity, accuracy and efficiency. In product design and manufacture process, the life time of data resources are divided into production, collection, arrangement, inputting, transmission, using, etc. If data resources information management system and management platform is established, it can record, share and manage data timely and accurately. At the beginning of data management, the clear and reasonable planning is an important foundation to achieve data information management. So, the concrete problems of planning were discussed about management objective, content and mode. In the course of design and manufacture, the data types, data management user and management basic conditions were summarized, and then it was discussed about framework and process of data resource management. Finally, the concrete operation and management measures were discussed on each link of data life cycle. The paper's idea has a great impact for reference to integration and compromise of product's data resources, establishment data resources management platform and taking management measures.


The challenge in preserving data privacy is how to protect attribute values without jeopardizing the similarity between data objects under analysis. In this paper, we further our previous work on applying matrix techniques to protect privacy and present a novel algebraic technique based on iterative methods for non-negative-valued data distortion. As an unsupervised learning method for uncovering latent features in high-dimensional data, a low rank nonnegative matrix factorization (NNMF) is used to preserve natural data non-negativity and avoid subtractive basis vector and encoding interactions present in techniques such as principal component analysis. It is the first in privacy preserving data mining in our paper that combining non-negative matrix decomposition with distortion processing. Two iterative methods to solve bound-constrained optimization problem in NMF are compared by experiments on Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset. The overall performance of NMF on distortion level and data utility is compared to our previously-proposed SVD-based distortion strategies and other existing popular data perturbation methods. Data utility is examined by cross validation of a binary classification using the support vector machine. Our experimental results on data mining benchmark datasets indicate that, in comparison with standard data distortion techniques, the proposed NMF-based method are very efficient in balancing data privacy and data utility, and it affords a feasible solution with a good promise on high-accuracy privacy preserving data mining


The great spread of the phenomenon of MeToo, a global movement promoting the publicity of the facts of sexual harassment, has also received a response in Lithuania: anonymous stories in blogs have grown into a provocative discourse that has attracted a great deal of attention. The aim of the research presented in this article is to characterise the discourse of MeToo in terms of rhetorical expression that has not been discussed yet: to identify and elicit the dominant elements of rhetorical argumentation.
The empirical research was conducted using the method of rhetorical analysis that allows distinguishing and defining in rhetorical categories the models characteristic to rhetoric appeals. The method of rhetorical analysis combined with directed content analysis, as well as with critical discourse analysis. Following the methodology of provocative narrative research, it was analysed the material published at the time of maximum intensity and involvement in the discourse, such as testimonies, publications, interviews, and comments of women who have been subjected to sexual harassment.
The results of rhetorical discourse analysis allow us to discuss the culture of accusation in which the normalization of victim condemnation is prevalent, and logical reasoning gives way to prejudice-based emotional appeals.


The research is devoted to the verification of hypothesis that positive dynamics of personal maturity is more expressed in students of psychology as compared to students of other professions during the university education. Some factors of personal growth are discussed: motivational support, information and skills equipment and student activity due to the facilitated transformation of self. In the empirical investigation there were 483 university students of different professions and years of study involved. The results show that the period of university education is associated with the personal development of students. Students of psychology show more changes in the direction of personal maturity than students of other professions. Psychology students in different universities show varying degrees of changes in the time of university education in the direction of personal maturity that are conditioned by different cultural contexts of the universities, different concepts of training, specific teacher qualification.


We studied consumer demand for more and less healthy breakfast cereals. Using ACNielsen Homescan database and USDA food nutrition data, we developed three cereal nutrition indexes for each household in the data. In addition to the standard demographic characteristics of households and prices, we included variables representing differences between private labels and national brands. We found that the structure of the industry, through its effect on the product mix produced, affects consumer choice of nutritious foods. Some households buy fewer healthy cereals simply through reluctance to trust private labels. Among all factors expected to influence consumer purchases, the prices appear to have the strongest effect on the healthiness of the choice of breakfast cereals, which is a relatively inexpensive product. Households with children and teens buy less healthy cereals, while older and more educated households make healthier choices.


Traditional MAC protocols for mobile communication systems were originally designed to deal only with voice and rudimentary data services. With the advent of third generation communication systems, new services are being designed and offered to the communication system community. These new services, like e.g. Web browsing and real time VOD, impose different packet traffic patterns on the existent MAC protocols when compared with traditional personal communication services. This work analyzes the behavior of one of the most well-known MAC protocols, the PRMA protocol, when submitted to a packet traffic pattern generated by Web browsing services. A series of analyses is presented, where the impact of the presence of Web packets (packets generated by Web browsing services) is discussed. In addition, the Pr-PRMA protocol, a new variant for the PRMA protocol, is presented and analyzed. This new protocol contains a set of improvements on the original protocol, aiming to increase its performance when dealing with Web packet traffic. Finally, a description of the MacSim environment, a simulation environment created to support the MAC and LAC protocol analysis process, is also provided.


We explore the effects of domestic environmental standards when a domestic firm and a foreign rival compete in the domestic market. We focus on a situation where the introduction of environmental standards forces the foreign product out of the domestic market because it does not meet the standards. Such prohibitive standards may induce the foreign firm to produce an environmentally friendly good through R&D or licensing obtained from the domestic firm. However, this does not guarantee that the product, which now complies with the environmental standards, will improve the environment. In the case of licensing, governments may intervene to shift the rent from the domestic firm. In certain circumstances, the shifted rent could exceed the amount paid by the foreign firm for licensing.


ABSTRACT Lactobacilli represent components of the commensal mammalian gastrointestinal microbiota and are useful as probiotics, functional foods, and dairy products. This study includes systematic polyphasic analyses of murine intestinal Lactobacillus isolates and correlation of taxonomic findings with data from cytokine production assays. Lactobacilli were recovered from mice with microbiota-dependent colitis (interleukin-10 [IL-10]-deficient C57BL/6 mice) and from mice without colitis (Swiss Webster and inducible nitric oxide synthetase-deficient C57BL/6 mice). Polyphasic analyses were performed to elucidate taxonomic relationships among 88 reference and murine gastrointestinal lactobacilli. Genotypic tests included single-locus analyses (16S ribosomal DNA sequencing and 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region PCR) and genomic DNA profiling (repetitive DNA element-based PCR), and phenotypic analyses encompassed more than 50 tests for carbohydrate utilization, enzyme production, and antimicrobial resistance. From 20 mice without colitis, six Lactobacillus species were recovered; the majority of the mice were colonized with L. reuteri or L. murinus (72% of isolates). In contrast, only, L. johnsonii was isolated from 14 IL-10-deficient mice. Using an in vitro assay, we screened murine isolates for their ability to inhibit tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) secretion by lipopolysaccharide-activated macrophages. Interestingly, a subpopulation of lactobacilli recovered from mice without colitis displayed TNF-α inhibitory properties, whereas none of the L. johnsonii isolates from IL-10-deficient mice exhibited this effect. We propose that differences among intestinal Lactobacillus populations in mammals, combined with host genetic susceptibilities, may account partly for variations in host mucosal responses.


Heredity as a factor influencing suicide is in the realm of the probable. The present paper is an attempt to probe the probability of considering heredity as a factor influencing suicide. Effort is made to juxtapose the two divergent views on heredity – one acknowledging the possibility and the other rejecting the possibility- as a cause for suicide. Authors who lay greater emphasis on the individual and who consider suicide as an individual act tend to hold the view that suicide can be hereditary. Durkheim who establishes suicide as a social fact negates the role of race and heredity in the suicidal act. The paper looks at these two views based on a review of literature. Without being naive and dodgy on this issue the paper further attempts with two narratives from the field to nudge the point that in the search for the causes of suicide nothing should be left unconsidered. All causes (even if they are not proved beyond doubt), even the apparently paltry; need to be considered to arrive at a more encompassing understanding of the tantalizing phenomenon of suicide.


Acute hemolytic transfusion reaction due to hemolytic anti-Lea is a rare phenomenon. We present here a case report of an acute hemolytic transfusion reaction, and demonstrated that an additional procedure of incubation at 30˚C facilitated the identification of a hemolytic anti- Lea in this diagnostic challenged case. A 46 year old man with a history of AIDS and dementia presented with symptomatic anemia. During transfusion of the 2nd unit of packed RBCs, the patient experienced high fever, back pain and dark brown urine. The blood bank and laboratory workup revealed evidence of a quickly resolved acute intravascular hemolysis. Other causes of intravascular hemolysis were ruled out with various laboratory tests. Initial blood bank antibody workup revealed a cold auto-anti-I, and a cold allo-antibody of undetermined specificity. Tests at 30˚C were described by Lawrance Petz and George Garratty for workup of cold autoantibodies at 30˚C. We extrapolated their method to clearly identify a hemolytic anti-Lea with broad thermal amplitude. Phenotyping and crossmatching at 30˚C revealed that the 1st unit was implicated in the acute hemolytic transfusion reaction. This is the first report to successfully identify a hemolytic antiLea using the method at 30˚C for cold allo-antibody workup. [N A J Med Sci. 2012;5(2):131-134.]


PURPOSE
To analyze the effect of temporal and nasal lid-parallel conjunctival folds (LIPCOF) on the central tear meniscus height (TMH).

METHODS
Tear meniscus height of 40 eyes of 20 subjects (15 female, median age: 39 years) was evaluated by the Tearscope Plus. Temporal and nasal LIPCOF scores were observed by slit lamp (SL) examination. The cross-sectional LIPCOF area (LA) was measured by a modified Scheimpflug camera. Tear meniscus was colored by fluorescein and TM fluorescence (TMF) was evaluated by SL using a 5-grade pictorial scale. Tear meniscus fluorescence was defined by its intensity, height, and regularity at the LIPCOF area in comparison to the central TMF. Correlations between variables were analyzed by Pearson correlation for parametric data or Spearman rank for nonparametric variables.

RESULTS
Inferiorly, central TMH was significantly correlated to temporal LA (Pearson: r = 0.519, P = 0.001) and nasal LA (r = 0.567, P = 0.002). Superiorly, central TMH was significantly correlated with temporal LA (r = 0.352, P = 0.033), but not with nasal LA (r = 0.355, P = 0.075). Temporal LA was significantly correlated with temporal TMF (Spearman rank: r = 0.789, P < 0.001), and nasal LA was significantly correlated to nasal TMF (r =0.415, P = 0.008). Scores of LIPCOF were significantly correlated with TMF scores (Spearman rank: temporal, r = 0.837, P < 0001; nasal, r = 0.609, P < 0.001). Subjective LIPCOF grading was significantly correlated with LA (Spearman rank: temporal, r = 0.707, P < 0.001; nasal, r = 0.515, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Lid-parallel conjunctival folds impact TMH evaluation. In patients with LIPCOF, the real tear film volume may be smaller than the TMH measurement suggests.


The international investment regime is experiencing a legitimacy crisis. One of the central questions in the debate is: To what extent can states' dictate the outcomes of the bilateral investment treaties (BITs) they sign? Through the use of novel text-as-data analysis, this paper leverages states' public regulatory preferences as expressed through Model BITs to examine what drives success in BIT negotiations. Building on negotiation theory, we make the case for how bargaining power in BIT negotiations is more likely to derive from expertise in states' bargaining institutes, rather than economic resources and force. When comparing the verbatim distance within a large sample of Model BIT-concluded BIT pairs, we find that effective and meritocratic bureaucracies, and the ability to shield special interest from access to the negotiations, drive negotiating success. Our analysis also shows that economic resources, when controlling for expertise, has little or no effect on negotiation outcomes. Our findings have significant implications for how future studies of international economic negotiations should be structured, and how we think about power in economic diplomacy.


The origin of cosmic rays (CRs) is a long standing problem in astrophysics.
CRs spectrum breaks at $10^{15.5}$ eV which is called the knee energy.
A perpendicular shock acceleration has been considered an efficient acceleration mechanism candidate to reach CRs up to the knee energy. It is suggested that the escape process is important to determine the maximum energy and a CRs spectral index. However, the escape process from a perpendicular shock region is still unknown. In this study, we investigate the acceleration time at perpendicular shock and the escape process from this region. Using a test particle simulation, we shows the rapid acceleration at the perpendicular shock and that the diffusion approximation is not valid in the case that the magnetic fluctuation is weak in an upstream stream region and is strong in a down stream region. In addition, we perform the three dimensional global test particle simulation to investigate the escape process from a perpendicular shock region.
We will perform more simulations in the cases of other parameters to understand the escape from a perpendicular shock region.


This article presents a novel method for boundary extraction of photovoltaic (PV) plants using a fully convolutional network (FCN). Extracting the boundaries of PV plants is essential in the process of aerial inspection and autonomous monitoring by aerial robots. This method provides a clear delineation of the utility-scale PV plants' boundaries for PV developers, operation and maintenance service providers for use in aerial photogrammetry, flight mapping, and path planning during the autonomous monitoring of PV plants. For this purpose, as a prerequisite, the "Amir" dataset consisting of aerial imagery of PV plants from different countries, has been collected. A Mask-RCNN architecture is employed as a deep network with VGG16 as a backbone to detect the boundaries precisely. As comparison, the results of another framework based on classical image processing are compared with the FCN performance in PV plants boundary detection. The results of the FCN demonstrate that the trained model is able to detect the boundaries of PV plants with an accuracy of 96.99% and site-specific tuning of boundary parameters is no longer required.


Background: Lowered eye blink rate may be a clinically useful indicator of acute, imminent, and severe suicide risk. Diminished eye blink rates are often seen among individuals engaged in heightened concentration on a specific task that requires careful planning and attention. Indeed, overcoming one's biological instinct for survival through suicide necessitates premeditation and concentration; thus, a diminished eye blink rate may signal imminent suicidality. Aims: This article aims to spur research and clinical inquiry into the role of eye blinks as an indicator of acute suicide risk. Method: Literature relevant to the potential connection between eye blink rate and suicidality was reviewed and synthesized. Results: Anecdotal, cognitive, neurological, and conceptual support for the relationship between decreased blink rate and suicide risk is outlined. Conclusion: Given that eye blinks are a highly observable behavior, the potential clinical utility of using eye blink rate as a marker of suicide risk is immense. Research is warranted to explore the association between eye blink rate and acute suicide risk.


The distinct effects of the estrogen and progestin components of hormonal therapy on the metabolism of apolipoprotein (apo) B-containing lipoproteins have not been studied. We enrolled eight healthy postmenopausal women in a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind crossover study. Each subject received placebo, conjugated equine estrogen (CEE, 0.625 mg/day) and CEE plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA, 2.5 mg/day) for 8 weeks in a randomized order, with a 4-week washout between phases. Main outcomes were the fractional catabolic rate (FCR) and production rate (PR) of apo B100 in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRL), intermediate-density lipoproteins (IDL) and low -density lipoprotein (LDL) and of apo B48 in TRL. Compared to placebo, CEE increased TRL apo B100 PR (p = 0.04). CEE also increased LDL apo B100 FCR (p = 0.02), but this effect was offset by a significant increase in LDL apo B100 PR (p = 0.04). Adding MPA to CEE negated the CEE effects resulting in no significant changes in TRL apo B100 PR and LDL apo B100 FCR and PR relative to placebo. Relative to placebo, during CEE there was a trend toward a reduction in plasma apo B48 concentrations and PR (p = 0.07 and p = 0.12, respectively). Compared with CEE, CEE + MPA significantly increased TRL apo B48 FCR (p = 0.02) as well as apo B48 PR (p = 0.01), resulting in no significant changes in apo B48 concentration. Estrogen and progestin have independent and opposing effects on the metabolism of the atherogenic apo B100- and apo B48-containing lipoproteins.


ABYSS (a basic Yorktown security system) is an architecture for protecting the execution of application software. It supports a uniform security service across the range of computing systems. The use of ABYSS in solving the software protection problem, especially in the lower end of the market, is discussed. Both current and planned software distribution channels are supportable by the architecture, and the system is nearly transparent to legitimate users. A novel use-once authorization mechanism, called a token, is introduced as a solution to the problem of providing authorizations without direct communication. Software vendors may use the system to obtain technical enforcement of virtually any terms and conditions of the sale of their software, including such things as rental software. Software may be transferred between systems, and backed up to guard against loss in case of failure. The problem of protecting software on these systems is discussed, and guidelines to its solution are offered. >


The duty of the burden of proof has been traditionally used in the legal doctrine of the civil procedure, court practice, and in the Code on Civil Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania. This concept is firmly established in both the legal doctrine of civil procedure and in court practice; however, the legitimacy of using the duty of the burden of proof in civil procedure processes remains the object of discussion. The study aims to assess if the usage of the concept is compatible with party disposition and competition principles, and if the understanding of the concept is the same under substantive and procedural law due to the specific nature of the legal procedures. The article also addresses the influence on the burden of proof of the duty not to hinder the implementation of the civil procedure process and the prohibition to abuse the procedural rights. The analysis shows that the requirement for the party to provide sufficient evidence in support of its position must be defined by the concept of the "burden of proof". The use of coercion in the averment procedure is rare, because each party has the right to define the extent of the realization of the burden of proof duty, while procedural sanctions are not imposed for the improper usage of the burden of proof.


D&AR Sm, In their article, Moody and Allsopp (Journal, August, 1969, p. 923—8)reported water and electro lyte circadian rhythm changes in twelve female manic-depressive subjects, and concluded that, although there was a tendency for the water rhythm to be associated with the depressive phase of the illness, †̃¿ no c nstant pattern of change' could be determined, the water rhythm being advanced in six subjects and delayed in six. Although the authors note that †̃¿ seven ofthe group were pre-menopausal whilst five were post menopausal' there is no indication that this significant difference in endocrine status was considered a factor influencing the inconclusive results from this study. The effects of sex hormones upon water and electrolyte balance and the implication of sex hormone imbalance in certain depressions (Rees ig66, Hamilton 1962) and in other psychiatric conditions (Torghele 1957, Taylor 1969) suggest that a re-evaluation of the data from this study with consideration for the endocrine status of each subject, might clarify Moody and Allsopp's inconsistent findings.


The electro-stimulated luminescence spectrum of a rare-earth ion added to zirconia (ZrO2) lattice was investigated with the aim of using it as a sensor for nano-scale stress (fluorescence piezo-spectroscopy) and phase transformation assessments in a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). In this paper, the selected rare-earth fluorescent ion Eu, added to ZrO2 as a raw oxide powder (Eu2O3) before sintering (in the amount of 1.0 wt. %). Spectroscopic results indicated that the spectral shift of some fluorescent band of the selected rare-earth ion was sensitive to residual stress and that the electron-stimulated spectra of Eu2O3-doped ZrO2 in its tetragonal and monoclinic polymorphs were different to each other. Based on these findings, the luminescent substance can be useful as a "stress and phase transformation sensor", in order to clarify the elementary mechanisms behind synthetic ZrO2.


We investigated the possible involvement of H3 receptor in the control of gastric acid secretion in the conscious cat provided with a gastric fistula [main stomach (MS)] and a denervated Heidenhain pouch (HP). Intravenous infusion of the selective H3 agonist (R)-alpha-methylhistamine at 3, 10, and 30 nmol.kg-1.h-1 induced a dose-related inhibition of pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acid output. Maximal inhibition in MS (48 +/- 3%, P less than 0.01) and HP (36 +/- 5%, P less than 0.01) was obtained with 30 nmol.kg-1.h-1. This dose also significantly inhibited peptone meal-induced gastric acid output by 38 +/- 4 and 46 +/- 8% (P less than 0.01) in MS and HP, respectively. These inhibitions were completely prevented by 10 nmol.kg-1.h-1 iv of the selective H3 receptor antagonist thioperamide. On the other hand, (R)-alpha-methylhistamine was without any effect on histamine-stimulated gastric acid output, whereas thioperamide produced a slight but not significant increase of this output in contrast to the H2 receptor antagonist ranitidine, which showed a strong inhibitory effect. These findings suggest that pentagastrin- or meal-induced gastric acid secretion involves an H3 receptor pharmacologically distinct from the H2 receptor.


Water pixel extraction and correction of the atmospheric signal represent prerequisite steps prior to applying algorithms dedicated to the assessment of water quality of natural surface water bodies. The recent multiplication of medium spatial resolution sensors (10-60 m) provides the required constellation to monitoring bio-optical and biogeochemical parameters of surface waters at the relevant spatial-temporal scales. Here we present a new approach to identify water pixels and to extract the atmospheric contribution to the top of atmosphere signal measured by the NAOMI sensor on board the first Vietnamese satellite, VNREDSat-1. After verifying the TOA calibration of NAOMI through a vicarious calibration exercise, we adapt a recent water pixel extraction algorithm (WiPE) to NAOMI, and develop a new atmospheric correction algorithm (referred to as red-NIR) based on the use of the red and NIR bands (the only bands available for that purpose on NAOMI) and spectral relationships. The evaluation of red-NIR with a match-up data set gathering remote sensing reflectance, Rrs, measurements performed at the AERONET-OC stations in moderately turbid waters indicates excellent performance in the blue and green part of the spectrum (similar to the performances reached by the SeaDAS NIR-SWIR algorithms) and lower accuracy in the red. Intercomparison of simultaneous images collected by NAOMI and OLI over a more turbid water body shows an excellent agreement between the NAOMI-Rrs estimated by the present processing, and the OLI-Rrs estimated from the ACOLITE algorithm. This approach will allow sensors that do not have SWIR bands, such as SPOT-6 and -7, to be processed, making their data exploitation available for long-term temporal analyses.


Ten years after completing his work The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, Bolognese painter Domenichino was accused by his rival Giovanni Lanfranco of stealing the idea for the painting from an altarpiece crafted by Lanfranco's teacher, Agostino Carracci. The resulting scandal reverberated through the centuries, drawing responses by artists and critics from Poussin and Malvasia to Fuseli and Delacroix. Why was Domenichino attacked in this way when other related paintings--including Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin and Perugino's painting of the same subject--aroused no such negative response? In this fast-paced book, Elizabeth Cropper investigates the Domenichino affair and addresses the perennial debate regarding the precise nature of originality and of imitation. She offers close readings of the paintings involved in the story, detailed analysis of attitudes toward imitation, emulation, and plagiarism, and a fascinating discussion of what Domenichino's plight signifies in art history.


CONTEXT
Asthma symptoms that occur at night may signal worse asthma control, but the nighttime occurrence may have additional clinical significance. To date, however, there have been few studies of the impact of nocturnal awakening from asthma on children with the disease, including problems with daytime functioning.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if school absenteeism and school performance in children and work absenteeism in their parents are associated with nocturnal awakenings from asthma.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey during the winter of 1997 through 1998.

SETTING
Three managed care organizations in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS
Parents of 438 children with asthma, aged 5 to 17 years, who were enrolled in managed care organizations.

INTERVENTION
None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Parent's reports of number of days their child missed school and parent missed work and how often the child's education suffered because of asthma in the past 4 weeks.

RESULTS
Overall, more than 40% of children had nocturnal awakenings from asthma in the past 4 weeks. Multivariate analyses were performed that adjusted for child age, race, overall symptom severity, and use of reliever medications. Compared with children who did not awaken from asthma, there were greater odds of missed school days in children who awakened 1 to 3 nights (odds ratio [OR], 3.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.1-6.2), 4 to 7 nights (OR, 4.4; 95% CI, 2.0-10.0), and more than 7 nights (OR, 14.7; 95% CI, 5.9-37.0). Similarly, there were greater odds of education suffering in children who awakened 1 to 3 nights (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.4-3.7), 4 to 7 nights (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 0.9-4.6), and more than 7 nights (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1. 0-5.4), and parents missing work in children who awakened 1 to 3 nights (OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 2.2-7.1), 4 to 7 nights (OR, 6.5; 95% CI, 2.7-16), and more than 7 nights (OR, 3.2; 95% CI, 1.3-7.9). Greater overall symptom severity and high use of reliever mediation were also associated with missed school, education suffering, and parent absenteeism.

CONCLUSIONS
Nighttime awakenings in children with asthma may affect school attendance and performance, as well as work attendance by parents. Nighttime symptoms have independent prognostic value, even when overall asthma symptom severity is accounted for. By addressing whether there are nighttime awakenings in children with asthma, clinicians may be able to tailor the therapeutic regimen to counter these symptoms.


Gold nanorod-based gene delivery system potentially represents a powerful nanotechnology for cancer therapy. Here we for the first time reported the use of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer modified-gold nanorods (dGNR) as a high efficient gene delivery system for the targeted silencing of survivin via RNA interference for breast cancer therapy. Gold nanorods were functionalized with thiol-terminated polyamidoamine dendrimer; survivin shRNA plasmid was constructed and conjugated with dGNR. The resultant survivin-shRNA-GNR nanocomposites were incubated with human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, irradiated with 140 mJ/pulse of laser light of 1,064 nm for 15 s, and then continued to culture for 1 to 3 days. These cells were collected and analyzed by MTT, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, Western blotting, fluorescent microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. 25 nude mice models with breast cancer were established; the nanocomposites of survivin-shRNA-dGNR were injected into the tumor tissues at gradually increased dose, and then were irradiated with 140 mJ/pulse of laser light of 1,064 nm for 15 s one time per week. The nude mice were raised for two months, and then were sacrificed. The tumor tissues were picked out, and their sizes were measured. Results showed that PAMAM dendrimer-functionalized gold nanorods were successfully synthesized; they could enter into MCF-7 cells within 30 min, release survivin shRNA plasmids with high efficiency, enhance the expression of transferred survivin genes in tumor cells under near-IR laser irradiation, and cause remarkable down-regulation of survivin gene and protein, inhibite cell growth in dose-and time-dependent means, and induce cell apoptosis. EGFP fluorescent signals in the tumor localization of nude mice. The tumor sizes in nude mice became smaller and smaller as the dose of the injected nanocomposites increased. In conclusion, PAMAM dendrimer-functionalized gold nanorods may be a high efficient gene delivery release system for survivin-shRNA vector under near-infrared light irradiation; the constructed survivin-shRNA-dGNR composites can effectively inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells, and have potential applications in breast cancer therapy and molecular imaging.