In the little-seen but critically praised 2003 movie, The Cooler, Bernie Lootz (played by William H. Macy) is the quintessential loser: he is estranged from his son and is all alone and recently his marriage fell apart and his cat died. Whatever Bernie does turns bad, and he is soon forced by casino-boss Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin) to work the gambling floor as a "cooler." Because he is such a loser, Bernie only has to stand next to a winning player to cool the player down, stop the winning streak, and, in effect, turn a winner into a loser. Although the concept of the gambling casino cooler seems strange, it works as a useful metaphor for lots of communication situations. For example, there are audience coolers who make public speakers wish they had never walked to the podium, interviewing coolers who make applicants feel like they have no chance of employment--ever, and small-group coolers who make the normally pleasant group interaction a boring and unproductive experience. But, it is the conversational cooler that is perhaps the most easily recognized. The conversational cooler makes the conversation awkward, unpleasant, unsatisfying, and, all-in-all, a not very enjoyable experience--one you want to get over with as soon as possible and not repeat anytime soon. To extend the metaphor just a bit, the conversational warmer, on the other hand, makes the conversation smooth, pleasant, and mutually satisfying--an enjoyable experience and one you would likely want to extend and experience again real soon. And the communication question is how. How do coolers and warmers do what they do? Here is a starter list of ten conversational coolers and the corresponding warmer types. The Critic This conversational cooler is critical and frequently finds fault with something or someone. The problem with this is that you never know when you are going to come under attack, and so you are on guard, almost defensive. Conversational warmers, on the other hand, are supportive. They make you feel good and enable you to drop your guard, so you may self-disclose more freely, knowing you are in a supportive atmosphere. Conversational coolers are negative and often echo the voice of doom, and often at the most inappropriate times. Conversational warmers are positive; they don't have their head in the sand but they can see, talk about, and take joy in the positive side. The Disconfirmer This conversational cooler is disconfirming, and rarely acknowledges the contributions or value of what others say. They make little or no nonverbal contact, avoiding eye contact or touching. They might ignore the other person's requests, not respond appropriately to questions, or ignore phone calls or e-mails. Conversational warmers are confirming; they acknowledge the presence and the contributions of other persons and try their best to understand what others are saying. They are responsive to the other's communication, whether the interaction is face-to-face or computer-mediated. The Egoist This conversational cooler is self-focused, and engages in conversation without concern for the other participants. This is the author in the old joke who talked incessantly about his book and then, finally, said, "Enough about what I think of my book, what do you think of my book?" Conversational warmers are other-focused and engage the other person in real dialogue; they really want to hear what you have to say, and you can tell from their facial expressions, focused eye contact, and learning posture. Egotistic coolers are usually monologuists; they give speeches. They are the talkers and believe others should remain listeners. Conversational warmers, in contrast, are dialoguers; they talk and they listen. They are interested in the other person and in the person's ideas and feelings. They respond to what the other person says and always give others the opportunity to speak. Dialoguers see conversation as a back-and-forth process, with short rather than long speech sequences and frequent feedback cues. …


Introduction In France, many maternity hospitals have been closed as a result of hospital restructuring in an effort to reduce costs through economies of scale. These closures have naturally increased the distance between home and the closest maternity ward for women throughout the country. However, studies have shown a positive correlation between this increase in distance and the incidence of unplanned out-of-maternity deliveries (OMD). This study was conducted to estimate the frequency of OMD in France, to identify the main risk factors and to assess their impact on maternal mortality and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Materials and methods We conducted a population-based observational retrospective study using data from 2012 to 2014 obtained from the French hospital discharge database. We included 2,256,797 deliveries and 1,999,453 singleton newborns in mainland France, among which, 6,733 (3.0‰) were OMD. The adverse outcomes were maternal mortality in hospital or during transport, stillbirth, neonatal mortality, neonatal hospitalizations, and newborn hypothermia and polycythemia. The socio-residential environment was also included in the regression analysis. Maternal and newborn adverse outcomes associated with OMD were analyzed with Generalized Estimating Equations regressions. Results The distance to the nearest maternity unit was the main factor for OMD. OMD were associated with maternal death (aRR 6.5 [1.6–26.3]) and all of the neonatal adverse outcomes: stillbirth (3.3 [2.8–3.8]), neonatal death (1.9 [1.2–3.1]), neonatal hospitalization (1.2 [1.1–1.3]), newborn hypothermia (5.9 [5.2–6.6]) and newborn polycythemia (4.8 [3.5–6.4]). Discussion In France, OMD increased over the study period. OMD were associated with all the adverse outcomes studied for mothers and newborns. Caregivers, including emergency teams, need to be better prepared for the management these at-risk cases. Furthermore, the increase in adverse outcomes, and the additional generated costs, should be considered carefully by the relevant authorities before any decisions are made to close or merge existing maternity units.


Baseline data on the hematology of White Fulani and Muturu breeds of Cattle have been reported. However, very few documented studies have been carried out with regards to the reproductive hormonal profile of these breeds. Satisfactory reproductive performance is important to effective management and production as a whole in cattle production. Provision of data representing the male reproductive profile is imperative in view of the increasing importance of assisted reproduction and genetic selection in livestock farming. In the present study, the total  erythrocyte values were similar in the male and female animals of both breeds. PCV and reticulocyte count in males were significantly higher than in females of the White Fulani breed while erythrocyte and leucocyte parameters obtained for the Muturu cattle were also similar for the males and females, except the reticulocyte values which were significantly higher in the females. Testosterone concentrations obtained for the Muturu bulls were similar to those earlier reported for Brown Swiss bulls (Thun et al., 1980) while values reported for the White Fulani breed are also similar to those for Nguni bulls (Kay, 1984). Average plasma FSH concentrations of the White Fulani breed were higher than those for the Muturu breed in this study. However, the mean plasma LH concentrations were higher in the Muturu breed. These data provide a baseline from which to compare hematological and male reproductive hormonal values in White Fulani and Muturu cattle and will be especially valuable in future in designing therapeutic protocols for the managements of abnormalities in these breeds of cattle. Key words : Hematology, reproductive, hormones and cattle


Advances in wireless communications technologies (e.g., 3G, 4G and beyond) entail demands for higher data rates. A well-known popular solution to fulfill this requirement was to allocate additional bandwidth, which unfortunately is not anymore viable due to radio-frequency (RF) spectrum scarcity. Nonetheless, spectrum measurements around the globe have revealed the fact that the available spectrum is under-utilized. One of the most remarkable solutions to cope with the under-utilization of spectrum is the concept of cognitive radio (CR). In CR systems, the main implementation issues are spectrum sensing because of the uncertainties in propagation channel, hidden primary user (PU) problem, sensing duration and security issues. Hence, the accuracy and reliability of the spectrum sensing information can be suspicious and questionable inherently. There has been no study to date that investigates the impacts of absence of spectrum sensing information in CR networks. In this work, due to the imprecise and unreliable spectrum sensing information, we investigate the performance of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based (4G and beyond) CR spectrum sharing communication system that assumes random allocation and absence of the PU's channel occupation information, i.e., no spectrum sensing is employed to acquire information about the availability of unused subcarriers or the PU's activity. The results show that due to the lack of information of the PUs' activities, the SU randomly allocates the subcarriers of the primary network and collides with the PUs' subcarriers with a certain probability. The number of subcarrier collisions is found to be following hypergeometric distribution. The SU's capacity with subcarrier collisions is employed as a performance measure to investigate the proposed random allocation scheme for both general and Rayleigh channel fading models. To avoid the subcarrier collisions at the SUs due to the random allocation and to obtain the maximum sum rate for SUs based on the available subcarriers, an efficient centralized sequential algorithm is proposed and analyzed. The performance of such a communication set-up can provide various insights into the studies in the CR literature, and it these be utilized as a valid candidates for performance comparison benchmarks in CR spectrum sharing systems with the availability of spectrum sensing information.


The genus Bradyporus Charpentier is taxonomically revised using information obtained from numerous recently collected specimens. Bradyporus is divided into two subgenera Bradyporus Charpentier s.str. and Callimenus Fischer von Waldheim. Five species groups are distinguished in the latter subgenus. Sixteen species and subspecies are listed. Bradyporus (Callimenus) multituberculatus multituberculatus (Fischer von Waldheim, 1833) and Bradyporus (Callimenus) multituberculatus montandoni (Burr, 1898) are designated subspecies for the first time. Previously synonymized Bradyporus (Callimenus) macrogaster skopjensis Karaman, 1961 is reinstated as a valid species. A new species, Bradyporus (Callimenus) gocmeni Ünal, sp. nov. from Eastern Turkey and the previously unknown female of Bradyporus (Callimenus) skopjensis Karaman, 1961 are described. A Neotype for Bradyporus (Callimenus) macrogaster longicollis (Fieber, 1853) is designated. Nomenclatural and taxonomical problems are discussed under the relevant taxa. Phylogenetic relationships based on morphology of the subgenera, species groups, and the species and subspecies of each species group are proposed. Morphological derived and ancestral characters are discussed. A key to the lower taxa of the genus is provided with 207 original figures including 3 distributional maps. A check-list of the lower taxa of the genus is given. Additionally the IUCN Red List statuses of the species and subspecies are included.


Modern summarization models generate highly fluent but often factually unreliable outputs. This motivated a surge of metrics attempting to measure the factuality of automatically generated summaries. Due to the lack of common benchmarks, these metrics cannot be compared. Moreover, all these methods treat factuality as a binary concept and fail to provide deeper insights on the kinds of inconsistencies made by different systems. To address these limitations, we devise a typology of factual errors and use it to collect human annotations of generated summaries from state-of-the-art summarization systems for the CNN/DM and XSum datasets. Through these annotations we identify the proportion of different categories of factual errors and benchmark factuality metrics, showing their correlation with human judgement as well as their specific strengths and weaknesses.


Evaluation of large areas requires a different approach from that used to develop prospects. Regional cross-section networks generally ignore minor correlation problems. We examined and related all potentially significant parameters, and used reduced scales to subdue nonessentials and to cover a large area. Organization and planning must permit free interchange of ideas and close cooperation among those working on the project. Regional structural and stratigraphic analysis of Trans-Pecos Texas strongly suggests that widespread trap-destruction by faulting and erosion led to hydrocarbon leakage and induction of fresh water into prospective zones, which reduced the likelihood of accumulation and preservation of economic reserves. At least 4 major periods of tectonism, pervasive fresh water, mineralization, basic igneous intrusives and extrusives, high heat-flow regime, increasing percentage of carbon dioxide southwestward from the Delaware basin, and contemporaneous vertical movement suggest that the opportunity for major reserves is minimal. A review of 1,000 mi of CDP seismic data from 4 areas disclosed 65 structural leads or traps, of which 45 had significant tests. All these tests were failures; many gave indications of sizable amounts of fresh water. None of the areas have been completely condemned. However, only relatively small reserves can be anticipated for nearshore to continental Jurassic and Cretaceous sections in the Chihuahua Trough, Pennsylvanian and Permian reefs formed on a shelf environment or on the flanks of major uplifts, or in areas such as the Marfa basin. End_of_Article - Last_Page 249------------


A maximum a posteriori algorithm for reduction of metal streak artifacts in X-ray computed tomography is presented. The algorithm uses a Markov random field smoothness prior and applies increased sampling in the reconstructed image. Good results are obtained for simulations and phantom measurements: streak artifacts are reduced while small, line-shaped details are preserved.


Dan Brown's thriller "The Da Vinci Code" has created an extraordinary Christian controversy, with its sub-plots of the sacred feminine in religion, the bloodline of Christ, the legend of the Holy Grail, and the role of sects like Opus Dei within the church. This updated second edition explores and explains the context of the novel, from how the early Christian Church 'edited' "The Bible" to the true history of the holy grail, and to what art historians make of Leonardo Da Vinci's symbolism in the "Last Supper" and other works. There is a brand-new chapter on the making of the eagerly anticipated "Da Vinci Code" movie, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard. The guide includes information on all the "Da Vinci Code" sites in Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, New York, London and Edinburgh. There are reviews of "Da Vinci Code" sources and a glossary of everything from the Templars to the Fibonaccci Sequence. Whatever you think of Dan Brown's novel, this "Rough Guide" has the key to help you understand the world it inhabits.


Decision to extract or not and the type of tooth must be analyzed carefully in orthodontic treatment. Preferable tooth to be extracted was the tooth with large caries or restoration. Usually the type of tooth to be extracted was second molar (if the third molar appears), incisor, first molar, and combination of several teeth. Orthodontic treatment with molar extraction is more difficult to treat and the result is usually compromise. There are several considerations in extracting first molar such as tooth with large caries or restoration, hypoplasia, periapical disease, large discrepancy, high maxilla-mandibular plane angle, and cases with anterior open bite. Nowadays, orthodontic cases with molar extraction do not prolong the treatment time compared to premolar extraction case, but the anchorage system must be considered carefully. The present case was treated with extraction of first molar to solve anterior crowding with maximum anchorage at the upper jaw and using Nance Holding Appliance.


The energy crisis and the current world food situation have both drawn attention to the importance of off-farm inputs in high-technology agricultural systems. Plant pesticides are one of the most important of these off-farm inputs. The correct use of chemical pesticides requires a high level of managerial competence since the issues involved are extremely complex. The development of an integrated approach to the management of plant pests offers an alternative to the increasingly expensive chemical control techniques. Cotton production illustrates both the complexities of the management involved in plant pest control and the feasibility of developing integrated control strategies. Plant pesticides, especially insecticides, also create externalities. The policy issues surrounding the use of cotton insecticides demonstrates the need for careful analysis before political action is taken. A feasible package of policy measures for the control of the use of insecticides in Australian cotton-growing areas is suggested.


This special issue of Arboriculture & Urban Forestry contains a series of papers related to urban tree growth and longevity. Research and new information on urban tree growth and longevity is important for improved management of our urban trees and forests, as well as assessing their function and value. The papers in this issue were presented at the Urban Tree Growth & Longevity Conference held on September 12–13, 2011 at The Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois, U.S.). This international conference brought together researchers and practitioners to discuss the current state of knowledge concerning urban tree growth and longevity. The conference covered four topic areas: 1) Descriptive studies of tree growth, longevity, and mortality, 2) Roles of tree production and sales on tree growth and longevity, 3) Roles of site design and tree selection on tree growth and longevity, and 4) Roles of tree and site management on tree growth and longevity. The objectives of the conference and these papers are to: develop collaboration among professionals and researchers to help identify important gaps in our knowledge, foster discussions about promising new methodologies, prioritize research and education needs, and outline a course of action for future research and outreach on urban tree growth and longevity. A few additional papers from the conference will be published in a special section of a future issue of this journal.


To address comprehensive system innovations that may occur in a future transition, a suitable ex ante assessment method is required. The technological innovation system approach is useful for the retrospective study of the conditions for success or failure of innovation trajectories, and the multilevel framework helps to understand transition dynamics. Drawing on these concepts and on the hypercube of innovation, we suggest, as an ex ante approach, the assessment method for system innovation and transition (AMSIT). This method not only helps to anticipate the requirements for a system innovation and transition, but it also provides an indication if these requirements are being met. The method helps to assess innovation system initiatives that not only face technological challenges in the niche in which it operates, but also challenging factors related to the sociotechnical regime and the political and societal landscape in which the niche is located. This paper describes the construction of the anticipatory AMSIT and illustrates its application in a case linked to the Dutch railway network involving a transition to a system operating at an increased voltage.


We report on prototype fiber endoscopes with tunable-focus liquid microlenses integrated at their distal ends and actuated through infrared (IR) light. Tunable-focus microlenses allow minimal back-and-forth movements of the scopes themselves and different depths of focus (DOFs), thus having spatial depth perception in the obtained images. The liquid microlens was formed by a water-oil meniscus pinned at a hydrophobic-hydrophilic boundary at an aperture. IR light-responsive hydrogel microstructures were formed by photopatterning thermo-responsive N-isopropylacrylamide hydrogel with entrapped IR light absorbing gold nanoparticles. The volumetric change in the hydrogel microstructures regulated the pressure difference across the water-oil interface and thus varied its focal length. The operations of the microlenses were realized through light transmitted via optical fibers. The images obtained from the microlenses were transferred via image fiber bundles. For two alignments between the hydrogel structures and the fibers, the response times of the microlenses are 65 and 20 s, respectively. Images of the simulated polyps in simulated colons were obtained. The range of focal length of a typical microlens was from 52 to 8 mm. The angle of view of an endoscope was from 77° to 128°. A microlens array could potentially be utilized to simultaneously obtain different DOFs and to increase the field of view.


High serum cholesterol is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. This cross-sectional study (n = 102) investigated the levels of total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG) in Egyptian girls aged 11 to 16 years attending a middle-class public school. The mean TC level was 194.27 ± 21.97 mg/dl, and 33.33% of girls had TC levels > 200 mg/dl. The mean TG level was 160.07 ± 30.83 mg/dl, with 3.92% of the girls showing TG levels > 2 00 mg/dl. Most of the girls (65.69%) were overweight, with body mass index (BMI) >25. Univariate analyses revealed an association of TC and TG with all anthropometric measures. Using stepwise regression analyses, the best model for prediction of TC was with BMI and central body fat (explaining 24.76% of TC variance); the final model for TG was with BMI, central body fat, and abdominal skinfold thickness (explaining 47.49% of TG variance). Our data show that these adolescent Egyptian girls were heavier and had higher blood lipid concentrations than subjects in the Bogalusa study and other studies worldwide. Further studies are needed to determine the factors associated with these higher lipid levels and to develop appropriate intervention programmes.


Purpose: To compare clinical and radiological outcomes, complications, and hospital stay in laparoscopic and open pyeloplasty. Materials and Methods: From February 2002 to February 2003, 69 patients with ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) were assigned into two groups. Thirty-seven patients underwent transperitoneal laparoscopic pyeloplasty and 32 underwent open surgical pyeloplasty. Clinical symptoms were assessed before and after surgery, subjectively. Radiological assessment was also done three months postoperatively. Results: Mean operative time was 3.2 hours and 2.2 hours in laparoscopic and open pyeloplasty groups, respectively. Intraoperative bleeding was trivial in both groups and no complication or conversion to open surgery occurred. Postoperative complication rates were 24% and 6% in laparoscopic and open pyeloplasty groups, respectively. Mean hospital stay was similar (6.2 days) in the two groups. Mean follow-up was 16.5 months versus 11.4 months. Clinical and radiological success rates were 89% and 83.8% for laparoscopy group versus 96.5% and 87% for open pyeloplasty group. Due to recurrence of stricture, repeated surgery was performed in 4 patients of laparoscopy and 1 of open pyeloplasty groups. Conclusion: Laparoscopic pyeloplasty is a less invasive method with less pain, cosmetic advantages, no long incision, and outcome comparable with open surgery. Hospital stay is also not longer than that in open surgeries. Hence, laparoscopic pyeloplasty can be a substitute for skilled surgeons.


1. - Introduction. The considerable tides and currents in the Rance estuary caused a number of delicate problems as regards the construction of the tidal power plant, for as the cofferdamming of the estuary progressed, the water level difference across the structures gradually increased due to the continually decreasing size of the opening available to the tidal flow. One of the most important of these problems, how to ensure the stability of these structures, was studied on an undistorted 1:150 scale model at Saint-Malo near the actual site (fig. 1), which was also used to investigate the various damming schemes for the estuary. II. - Electricite de France scheme. The 800 m long power plant section with thirty-eight 9,000 kW units, ten gated sluiceways and a navigation lock on the left-bank side were to be built on dry land behind three cofferdams, which were to be erected in six phases (fig. 2). The model was used to check the stability of the rock fill platforms, to ascertain the water level differences across the barrage, and to see whether the closure could be carried out according to the proposed programme (fig. 3). III. - Alternatives suggested by various groups of firms. ALTERNATIVE 1 (Fig. 4). This provided for the construction of the power plant section inside a single extensive area protected by prefabricated concrete blacks. The mode tests served to determine the hydraulic conditions to be expected at various stages of work progress and ta design a suitable structural profile. ALTERNATIVE 2 (Fig. 5). This provided for the construction of the power plant section in three separate protected areas. The purpose of the model tests was to investigate the construction of the rock fill dyke and to ascertain the tensile stresses affecting the cables used to tow and anchor the caissons in position. ALTERNATIVE : 1 (Fig. 6). This provided for either two or three cofferdammed areas across the Rance. In the former case, the middle area was to be closed off by a dyke made up of caissons stranded on a rock fill foundation structure, the closure then being completed by filling up the openings between the caissons. The model was used to measure water level differences and currents and to investigate the behaviour of the rock fill foundation structure. In the layout featuring two cofferdammed areas, total closure was to be achieved by means of an articulated caisson, the handling conditions for which were studied on the model. ALTERNATIVE 4 (Fig. 7). This provided for the closure of the estuary by two sites protected by circular gabion cofferdams. The model tests served to measure water level differences under various conditions and to study the stability of the rock fill at the foot of the pile driving platforms. ALTERNATIVE 5 (Fig. 7). In this alternative, the closure was to start with gabions from both banks outwards, the remaning opening then being plugged by tipped rock fill between steel panels. The model tests featured the closure of the final opening in horizontal layers. ALTERNATIVE 6 (Fig. 8). This provided for damming by means of three successive cofferdammed areas and the construction of a submerged dyke with a top rock fill protecting layer before the opening-up of the left-bank area. This was to be followed either by tipping rock fill to progressively complete the closure, or by stranding caissons for the porpose.The possibility of replacing the dyke by four big caissons was also considered. The model tests served to check rock fill stability and how easily the caissons could be brought into position. ALTERNATIVE 7 (Fig. 9). This provided for the construction of part of the power plant section on a site protected by an initial gabion cofferdam, and further construction on a second similar site protected by a preliminary closure dyke. Currents and loads on the outermost gabions were determined at various conditions on the model. ALTERNATIVE 8 (Fig. 9). This scheme featured three areas protected by gabion cofferdams, the problem being to find out whether it would be worth while completing the right-bank cofferdams in the shelter of a rock fill dyke. The model was used to determine currents, loads acting on the gabions and conditions for the construction of the dyke. ALTERNATIVE 9 (Fig. 10). Successive stages provided for in this scheme were : 1) construction of a gabion cofferda on the right bank side, 2) construction of a gabion dyke, and 3) construction of a rock fill dyke to complete the closure. The model was used to determine thrust forces on the gabions, how far to build the initial right-bank gabion structure out into the river, also currents and flow reversal duration near the structures. ALTERNATIVE 10 (Fig. 10). This provided for a lock construction site on the left bank side, a cofferdam at the + 14 m level cutting the estuary off from the sea, and the construction of the dyke on the south side at the + 9 m level. The interesting part of this scheme is the north dyke formed of prefabricated reinforced concrete caissons with sheet piling gabions between them. The plan was to first sink the reinforced concrete caissons so as to partly block the estuary and then to build the interconnecting gabions so as to form a crenelated dyke, after which the final closure would be achieved by installing the sluiceways. Conditions for the stranding of the caissons were investigated on the model. ALTERNATIVE 11 (Fig. 11). In this alternative, the lock cofferdam was to be erected first, followed by the initial cofferdam structures. With the latter under construction and the caisson stranding operations in progress, the rock between the two initial cofferdam structures was to be levelled off with the aid of a caisson, and a concrete sill built in the estuary channel up to the - 10 m level. Twenty-eight 9m diameter reinforced concrete cylindrical caissons were then to be stranded in the positions prepared with the aid of the rock-levelling caisson, the gaps between them being plugged at slack water by reinforced concrete planks. This structure was to enable sheet piling cells to be erected in a position sheltered from the flow. The model was used to determine how far to extend the initial gabion cofferdam structures, slack water duration, water level differences across the dam, and flow velocities in the gaps between the caissons. IV. - The 1960 project (Fig. 12). This has been described in a paper by Mr. Duhoux. The model served an important purpose in the designing of this project by enabling the following to be determined : (i) A construction programme for the gated sluiceway cofferdam. (ii) How far out to build the initial gabion structures for the main cofferdammed area. (iii) A programme for the positioning of the reinforced concrete caissons and the construction of the cells. (iv) Stresses likely to affect the cofferdam structures due to waves propagating in the estuary. It is very interesting to compare observations on site with the corresponding model data. This point is also discussed in Mr. Duhoux's paper.


ABSTRACT Learners with poor reading skills are less able to acquire knowledge through text. Graphic novels may enhance reading comprehension skills owing to fewer words, more pictures, and an engaging storyline. This study considered the reading skills of 188 Chinese–English bilingual undergraduates, comparing their reading comprehension performance after reading pure texts and graphic novels. Results showed that students exhibited greater reading comprehension performance after reading graphic novels regardless of their varying cognitive styles and prior English reading abilities. In addition, students who read the graphic novels expressed a greater interest in exploring the topic further, as indicated by the number of further references they selected. Taking all of the findings together, the present study demonstrates that presentation mode plays an important role in 2nd language reading comprehension development. Therefore, educators need a more systematic way of educating preschool through Grade 12 students for visual literacy training.


We review the scientific goals of SPICA for galaxy formation and evolution in the early Universe, along with Japanese activities defining the goals and the specification of the relevant instruments. The main targets are: (1) discovery of first generation objects (Pop III stars) at the reionization epoch, (2) the origin of the cosmic farinfrared background and its fluctuation, (3) the star formation history of dusty galaxies and their contribution to stellar-mass assembly over the cosmic time, (4) the role of super-massive black holes in galaxy evolution, and (5) the effects of environment on galaxy evolution in cluster of galaxies and large scale structures at the high-z Universe. The Japanese community for optical and infrared astronomy has organized a dedicated team for SPICA (SPICA Task Force, SFT). STF is playing a central role in defining the scientific capabilities of SPICA and in supporting the development of SPICA instruments: a large-format MIR camera, MIR spectrometers, and a high contrast photometric and spectroscopic MIR coronagraph.


Abstract The present study attempts to analyze the essential characteristics of the global problems in the development of human society at the present stage and to highlight the place of the demographic problem as an objective factor for the existence of modern civilization. It clarifies the criteria for determining a problem as a global one and makes classification from a geographic point of view. It identifies the causes for the demographic problem, analyses and specifies its different dimensions at the global, regional and national levels.


This article reviews the principal features of structured finance instruments. Key to understanding the risk properties of these products is the evaluation of the risks associated with their contractual structure, in addition to the modelling of the credit risk of the underlying asset pools. It is argued that structured finance ratings, though useful, have intrinsic limitations in fully gauging the risk of these products, even as their complexity creates incentives to rely more heavily on ratings than for other rated securities. Market participants and public authorities need to take account of this in their assessments of structured finance instruments and their markets.


The paper is concerned with a two-dimensional Landau-Lifshitz
equation which was first raised by A. DeSimone and F. Otto, and so fourth, when studying thin film micromagnetics. We get the existence of a local weak solution by approximating it with a higher-order equation. Penalty approximation and semigroup theory are employed to deal with the higher-order equation.


Australia faces more frequent and more severe weather events if it fails to make deep and swift cuts to carbon emissions, according to a recent report from the Climate Commission (Steffen et al., 2013), an independent advisory group set up by the Australian Government. The extreme heatwaves, flooding and bush fires that have befallen Australia in recent years have already been intensified by climate change and are set to get even worse in future. Only fast and deep cuts to carbon emissions can start to reverse the trend, conclude the climate scientists, as well as policy and business leaders behind the report.


Marine biofouling communities, including biofilms, are composed of many eukaryotes with high taxonomic and functional diversities. However, molecular characterization of eukaryotic diversity of marine biofouling has been barely developed due to the only recent interest in research areas such as marine renewable energies, antifouling technologies, or plastic pollution. The aim of this study was to compare the diversity and taxonomic composition of biofouling through different metabarcoding approaches used to detect the widest range of taxa from samples collected in several contrasted marine environments (French Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts). Thus, we assessed four DNA extraction methods and six primers pairs targeting the 18S rDNA gene (including the V1-V2, V4TAR, V4UNI, V7 and V9 regions) and the COI gene, the latter with two databases (BOLD and MIDORI). In addition the influence of primers selection was analyzed at three sites to compare geographic variations in eukaryotic diversity. Although none of the extraction methods greatly altered the community diversity or composition. we have observed that eukaryotic biofouling community diversity and structure varied depending on primers pairs, reference databases and sites. 18S rDNA regions allowed the detection of more taxa at the species level, including microeukaryotes, while the COI recovered more ASVs, but with a large proportion that remained taxonomically unassigned probably because BOLD and MIDORI specifically targeted metazoans. Interestingly, the spatial pattern obtained with both COI and 18S rDNA markers were similar showing that spatial selection occurred throughout a wide diversity of eukaryotic taxa. These results encouraged the use of these two complementary markers for future metabarcoding investigations but also highlighted the relevance of completing databases to enhance the identification of biofouling eukaryotes.


We present deep Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph South (GMOS-S)/Gemini optical broad-band images for a complete sample of 46 southern 2 Jy radio galaxies at intermediate redshifts (0.05 <z <0.7). Based on them, we discuss the role of galaxy interactions in the triggering of powerful radio galaxies (PRGs). The high-quality observations presented here show for the first time that the overall majority of PRGs at intermediate redshifts (78-85 per cent) show peculiarities in their optical morphologies at relatively high levels of surface brightness (?; ?). The observed morphological peculiarities include tails, fans, bridges, shells, dust lanes, irregular features, amorphous haloes and multiple nuclei. While the results for many of the galaxies are consistent with them being observed at, or after, the time of coalescence of the nuclei in a galaxy merger, we find that more than one-third of the sample are observed in a pre-coalescence phase of the merger, or following a close encounter between galaxies that will not necessarily lead to a merger. By dividing the sample into Weak-Line Radio Galaxies (WLRGs; 11 objects) and Strong-Line Radio Galaxies (SLRGs; 35 objects) we find that only 27 per cent of the former show clear evidence for interactions in their optical morphologies, in contrast to the SLRGs, of which at least 94 per cent appear interacting. This is consistent with the idea that many WLRGs are fuelled/triggered by the Bondi accretion of hot gas. However, the evidence for interactions and dust features in a fraction of them indicates that the accretion of cold gas cannot always be ruled out. Of the 28 per cent of the sample that display evidence for significant starburst activity, we find that 92 per cent present disturbed morphologies, following the same general trend as the total and SLRG samples. By comparing our PRGs with various samples of quiescent ellipticals from the literature, we conclude that the percentage of morphological disturbance that we find here exceeds that found for quiescent ellipticals when similar surface brightnesses are considered. Overall, our study indicates that galaxy interactions are likely to play a key role in the triggering of active galactic nuclei (AGN)/jet activity.


Formal languages are usually defined in terms of set theory. Choosing type theory instead gives us languages as type-level predicates over strings. Applying a language to a string yields a type whose elements are language membership proofs describing how a string parses in the language. The usual building blocks of languages (including union, concatenation, and Kleene closure) have precise and compelling specifications uncomplicated by operational strategies and are easily generalized to a few general domain-transforming and codomain-transforming operations on predicates. A simple characterization of languages (and indeed functions from lists to any type) captures the essential idea behind language "differentiation" as used for recognizing languages, leading to a collection of lemmas about type-level predicates. These lemmas are the heart of two dual parsing implementations—using (inductive) regular expressions and (coinductive) tries—each containing the same code but in dual arrangements (with representation and primitive operations trading places). The regular expression version corresponds to symbolic differentiation, while the trie version corresponds to automatic differentiation. The relatively easy-to-prove properties of type-level languages transfer almost effortlessly to the decidable implementations. In particular, despite the inductive and coinductive nature of regular expressions and tries respectively, we need neither inductive nor coinductive/bisimulation arguments to prove algebraic properties.


In the year of 2009 the conditions for managing primary healthcare in the region of Vastra Gotaland
changed. The decision was taken by the regional assembly and resulted in that the citizens since then
have had the o
pportunity to choose whic
h health care provider they prefer
to stay with. Along with this
decision a new market for private health care
providers was established, which resulted in
increased
competition between the providers.
In order t
o manage the competi
tion, the health care providers are
now forced to be more efficient in their operations and
also to be
even more focused on their patients.
Backa Lakarhusgruppen is an example of a private healthcare provider in the region of Vastra Gotaland
.
I
n the same w
ay it is also an example of an
organization
in need of analys
ing their operations to see
how
it can be further optimized to meet patient needs and expectations.
The aim of this study is to analys
e Backa Lakarhusgruppen's organization and its operations
i
n the hope
of
find
ing suggestions which
will improve the patient flow.
To allocate and solve the problems that
Backa Lakarhus suffer from
,
an approach inspired by Lean Healthcare is used throug
hout the report.
Some of the
most significant problems that wer
e identified within the organization are:
●
The synchronization of demand and capacity is inadequate.
●
Absence of standardized routines.
●
Absence of present leadership.
To be able to improve the patient flow Backa Lakarhus needs to handle these identified p
roblem areas.
By synchronizing the staffing level in relation to the trends in demand a reduction in the patient's
waiting times and throughput time will be possible. Creating clear responsibilities and routines for the
staff will contribute to a higher de
gree of patient focus and thus lead to a more efficient patient flow. A
proposal to the leaders
within the organization
is to be
come
more present in the daily operations and
thereby obtain a greater understanding for their own organization.
The report is
written in Swedish.


Due to the spread of Visceral leishmaniasis in Brazilian territory, this research was undertaken with the objective to identify the sandfly fauna and aspects of the species behavior in forest and anthropic environments in Paraná State, Brazil. The sandfly captures were sporadically carried out in 37 municipalities of the Paraná state, during the period from March 2004 to November 2005. Each municipality was once visited, when Falcão traps were installed during three consecutive nights in forested fragments and anthropic environments; captures with Shannon traps installed in forests and edge of forests, inspection of walls and electric aspiration in domiciles and forested areas were sporadically undertaken. The data analysis was based on estimates of frequency and abundance of the species, by five native landscapes. A total of 38,662 specimens belonging to 23 species were captured. Nyssomyia neivai (Pinto) (75.6%), Ny. whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho) (10.1%), Migonemyia migonei (França) (7.8%), Expapillata firmatoi (Barreto et al.) (2.1%) and Pintomyia fischeri (Pinto) (1.6%) together constituted 97.2% of the phlebotomine collected. High frequencies of sand flies were found in forests, henhouses, pig-pens and domiciles. The three most frequent species have been implicated in transmission of tegumentary leishmaniasis in Paraná and in the Brazilian Southeastern and Southern Regions. Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva), the visceral leishmaniasis vector, was not found, however Lutzomyia gaminariai (Cordero et al.), female of which is similar to that of Lu. longipalpis was captured, raising the need to investigate its behavior, including as regard to the vectorial competence.


Abstract Aim The Royal College of Surgeons of England published guidance on consent during COVID-19. Through this study, we aimed to assess our local consent adherence to these guidelines on the resumption of elective activity after the first wave of COVID-19. Method This prospective review of consecutive elective surgical consent forms was conducted from 20 July 2020 to 16 August 2020 at the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, England. The primary outcome was evidence of COVID-19 risk documentation on the consent forms. Results A total of 116 patients' consent forms were reviewed. Most patients were American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) grade 2 (n = 70; 60.34%). Only 25 consent forms (21.55%) had COVID -19 and its associated risks documented, with registrars being the most compliant (19/46; 41.3%) followed by consultants (6/51; 11.7%). With regards to the surgical sub-specialities, general surgery, orthopaedics and ENT had the highest compliance with the guidance. Conclusions As the elective activity resumes, peri-operative risks of COVID-19 should be weighted in during the informed consent process, as mentioned in the latest international guidelines on consent to avoid litigation and negligence claims.


This book, the first study of verbal syntax to address the entire Greek Pentateuch, investigates the value of these translations as evidence for the history of the Greek language. The nature and degree of Hebrew interference are assessed, including analysis of Hebrew text components underlying all Greek verbal forms in the Pentateuch. This data allows new conclusions to be drawn on natural Greek usage of aspect, tense, and mood. Their implications extend well beyond the special issues of translation Greek, casting significant light on the development of the verbal system in the Koine period, the period in which a non-dialectic form of the Greek language was used, post-Alexander the Great.


Ultrasound Guided Procedures and Radiologic Imaging for Pediatric Anesthesiologists is intended as a ready resource for both experts and novices. It will be useful to those with extensive training and experience as well as beginners and those with distant experience or training. A wealth of knowledge in the human factors of procedure design and use has been applied throughout to ensure that desired information can be easily located, that steps are clearly identified and comprehensible, and that additional information of high relevance to procedure completion is co-located and salient. This book begins with the basics but quickly progresses to advanced skill sets. It is divided into four parts. Part I starts with a primer on ultrasound machine functionality as well as procedural chapters on lung ultrasound to detect a mainstem intubation or pneumothorax and gastric ultrasound to assess gastric contents in incompletely fasted patients. Part II covers ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous line placement through the incremental advancement method, ultrasound guided arterial line placement, and ultrasound guided central line placement. Part III details several ultrasound guided regional anesthesia techniques. Part IV covers radiology of the pediatric airway and mediastinum, lungs, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, and neurologic systems.


The aim of this research is to examine the organisational commitment (OC) of temporary agency workers (TAWs) to their employing agency. This thesis draws on theory and research relevant to nonstandard work and commitment, and uses a cross-¬sectional, mixed-method research design. In the preliminary study, (study 1), semi¬structured interviews are conducted with agency managers and consultants (N=24) to explore TAW OC from the employers' perspective. In the main study (study 2), mail questionnaires (N= 187) are completed by clerical TAWs, as this occupation continues to be a major area for agency and nonstandard work arrangements (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009b; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005). The theories underpinning the three¬-component model of OC (N.J. Allen & Meyer, 1990a) and subsequent modifications, inform this study's conceptual framework and hypotheses. The findings of this thesis provide five main contributions to research and practice. Firstly, this research shows clerical agency work often involves characteristics typically associated with low level, secondary segment jobs as per dual labour market theorising (Doeringer & Piore, 1971; Piore 1975), although TAWs do not necessarily have low skill or education levels or a transitory relationship with the agency. Secondly, it uncovers a limited range of management policies and practices used by agencies to positively inf1uence TAW OC to agency. Thirdly, this research shows that TAWs report varying levels of OC to agency. Fourthly, the research findings show support for the use of the three-component model of OC in the TAW-agency employment context. The results from the regression analysis indicate support for seven of the 14 hypothesised relationships, and the findings from the content analyses confirm and extend these results. The findings support the theoretical propositions which relate organisational support, job satisfaction, side bets, socialisation experiences, and psychological contracts to the development of TAW OC. The unsupported hypotheses indicate the associations between volition, organisational justice, transferability of skills/experiences, alternative employment opportunities, and the respective components of OC warrant investigation in future research. Finally, there are practical implications for TAW s seeking to proactively manage the TAW-agency employment relationship and agencies seeking to strengthen TAW ~C. The findings could also inform future public policy debates regarding the regulatory approach most suitable for the Australian employment services industry.


In plant evolution, polyploidization and hybridization are important forces that both effectively contribute to developmental alterations. Asexual seed formation, known as apomixis, is mainly found in polyploid and/ or hybrid species but how these factors trigger the functional activation of apomictic reproduction remains elusive. The Ranunculus auricomus complex is worldwide distributed and consists almost exclusively of polyploid apomictic and a very small number of diploid and tetraploid sexual species. Due to the presence of sexual and apomictic species, this complex is an adequate model system to study the establishment and evolution of apomixis in natural plant populations.
In this study, synthetically derived young diploid and polyploid Ranunculus hybrids, including their parental species were used for detailed microscopic investigations of their flow of male and female gametophyte development. In both, micro- and megasporogenesis multiple abnormalities were discovered. Female development in diploid F2 hybrids showed significantly enhanced frequencies of aposporous initial cell formation, which is associated with strong genomic dosage effects. These effects are considered to be the consequence of both F1 parent plants being aposporous. Analyses of seed formation revealed beside sexually formed seeds, several intermediate BIII seeds as well as a few completely apomictic ones. In agree with this, male development showed severe irregularities in meiotic cell division and in sporogenesis. Especially, allopolyploid plants performed significantly more abnormal than homoploids. The error frequency in diploid F2 Ranunculus hybrids was significantly higher as in the F1 or in the parental generation. Furthermore, meiosis in female plant organs was significantly more prone to severe alterations than in male.
All these results indicate that hybridization, rather than polyploidization, is the apomixis-triggering factor in synthetic Ranunculus plants. In addition, the disturbed course of meiosis in micro- and megasporogenesis caused major implications in the female development, while on the male side only minor consequences were observed. These observations indicate strong, selective pressure acting on female development, whereas male gametophyte formation appears to be more or less unaffected. The switch to asexual seed formation in young, diploid Ranunculus hybrids is a rescue from imminent hybrid sterility, which is assumed to be caused by disturbed female meiosis.


Recently, joint video-language modeling has been attracting more and more attention. However, most existing approaches focus on exploring the language model upon on a fixed visual model. In this paper, we propose a unified framework that jointly models video and the corresponding text sentences. The framework consists of three parts: a compositional semantics language model, a deep video model and a joint embedding model. In our language model, we propose a dependency-tree structure model that embeds sentence into a continuous vector space, which preserves visually grounded meanings and word order. In the visual model, we leverage deep neural networks to capture essential semantic information from videos. In the joint embedding model, we minimize the distance of the outputs of the deep video model and compositional language model in the joint space, and update these two models jointly. Based on these three parts, our system is able to accomplish three tasks: 1) natural language generation, and 2) video retrieval and 3) language retrieval. In the experiments, the results show our approach outperforms SVM, CRF and CCA baselines in predicting Subject-Verb-Object triplet and natural sentence generation, and is better than CCA in video retrieval and language retrieval tasks.


Our paper presents natural environment functions in a systemic approach. Its main principle is to consider a problem as a whole and to perceive reality in the same way. This approach is implicated by the crisis of reductionism in explaining natural, social and economical processes and phenomena, as well as by still rising and intensifying consequences of human interference in the environment. The synthesis of ecology rules and the most important features of complex dynamic systems implicate the statement that balance in the environment is a special state rather than a destination state because natural systems undergo continuous evolutional changes. The existence of feedback makes the changes either run gently and die out or take a catastrophic course and leave the control of societies interfering in the environment. The systemic approach to natural enviroment functioning presented in this paper suggests taking care in its economical application and forming. In theoretical consideration it has been pointed out how economical societies should shape their relations with the environment so that they become the basis for sustainable development.


To determine the effect of breed on growth performance and carcass characteristics in Mexican hair sheep, 48 lambs (average 38.9 ± 1.56 kg body weight, BW) were used in a completely randomized experimental design. The breed types assessed were 16 Pelibuey (PB), 16 Pelibuey x Katahdin (PB-KT) crossbred and 16 Pelibuey x Dorper (PB-DP) crossbred lambs. The lambs were fed a maize grain-based diet (88% concentrate and 12% forage) containing 155 g CP and 12.13 MJ ME/kg DM. The growth performance trial lasted 45 days. The average daily gain was significantly higher for the PB breed than for the PB-KT and PB-DP cross-breds. Feed intake in the PB and PB-KT was significantly higher than in the PB-DP. The feed conversion ratio was lower for the PB than for PB-KT and PB-DP lambs. Hot carcass dressing and leg perimeters were significantly lower for the PB than for the PB-DP lambs, and similar to that of the PB-KT lambs. The lowest dorsal fat values were measured in the PB breed, compared with both the PB-KT and PB-DP cross-breds. Mesenteric fat (as % of BW) in the PB was significantly higher than in PB-KT and PB-DP lambs. Empty rumen and small intestine weights (as % of BW) in the PB lambs were significantly higher than in the PB-DP lambs, but their large intestine was significantly smaller than in the other two breeds. It was concluded that the PB lambs have a better growth performance and carcass characteristics than the PB-DM lambs, but similar to that of the PB-KT lambs.


The aim of the present study was to compare the cardioprotective properties of long-acting calcium channel antagonist pranidipine with amlodipine in rat model of heart failure induced by autoimmune myocarditis. Twenty-eight days after immunization the surviving rats were randomized for the oral administration of low-dose amlodipine (1 mg/kg/day), high-dose amlodipine (5 mg/kg/day), pranidipine (0.3 mg/kg/day) or vehicle (0.5% methylcellulose). After oral administration for 1 month, the animals underwent echocardiography and hemodynamic analysis. Histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and Western immunoblotting were carried out in the heart samples. Both pranidipine and high-dose amlodipine increased survival rate. Although the heart rate did not differ among the four groups, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure was significantly decreased and ±dP/dt was increased in the pranidipine- and high-dose amlodipine-treated rats, but not in low-dose amlodipine-treated rats. In comparison to amlodipine treatment, pranidipine treatment significantly reduced myocyte size and central venous pressure. Furthermore, both pranidipine and high-dose amlodipine treatment significantly reduced myocardial protein levels of atrial natriuretic peptide and inducible nitric oxide synthase, whereas pranidipine only significantly decreased tumor necrosis factor-α, and improved sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ATPase2 protein levels. We conclude that pranidipine ameliorates the progression of left ventricular dysfunction and cardiac remodeling in rats with heart failure after autoimmune myocarditis in a lower dose when compared to amlodipine and which may be a clinically potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of heart failure.


A simplified, rapid protocol for screening maize genotypes for grain weevil resistance is required, therefore some modifications to the standard method (Dobie 1974) were appraised. The optimum oviposition period and minimum number of randomly selected weevils (Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky) from a laboratory culture (without the procedure of sexing) to achieve similar progeny emergence to the standard method were determined under laboratory conditions. While results confirmed the effectiveness of the standard method in discriminating genotypes according to resistance, some modifications significantly reducing labour and level of skill required in implementing a rapid screening protocol were identified. Sex ratios in random samples of 10–50 weevils from a large laboratory culture were not significantly different from the 1:1 expected ratio (P >0.05) and therefore sexing of the populations was discarded. Infestation of grain with 32–50 weevils resulted in progeny emergence and kernel damage similar to the standard. Therefore, 32 weevils were recommended to infest grain for 10 days, without prior conditioning of insects to the test grain. Standard control hybrid varieties were also effectively validated. The modified procedure took 45–56 days to complete compared to about 90 days for the standard and did not sacrifice selection efficiency.


: characterize the olive cultivars to the application adopted by the International Olive Council, and to study the most important technological characterization (size of fruits and stones, their weight and pulp / stone ratio). Morphological characteristics the field tours demonstrated that 19 olive cutivars (Abadi Abou Ghabra, Abadi Hlou, Abadi Khinfsi, Abadi Shelal, Abou Anakeed, Abou Akfa, Abeid Men Umu, Abou Chouka, Adkam, Izmerli, Bnt Al Kadi, Jlot, Herqtani, Mhati, M- Hazam Abou Satel, Um Qanani, Rsasi, Shami, Tuffahi) were planted in Palmyra, and the two cultivars "Jlot" and "M-hazam Abou Satel" are the dominant in Palmyra. The results of the morphological study, which included the fruits and stones of the olive cultivars, showed that a great diversity among them, so in term of their technological characterization the varieties distributed in five groups according to the size fruits and seeds stones, and four ones according to each parameter of weight of fruits and stones and pulp / stone ratio. The cultivars "Jlot", "M-hazam Abou Satel" and "Abeid Men Umu" were distinctive cultivars (according to their productivity and technological properties), making them important table olive cultivars for propagation and cultivation in the central regions of Syria, as a prelude to achieve the surplus production prepared for high quality export.


The raising need for e-government applications leads to many new approaches in this sector. To fulfill the requirement for a flexible government-to-government (G2G) software system being adaptable for the usage in many sectors of e-government applications we introduce the reference architecture for e-government (RAfEG) in this paper. The key features of the system are flexibility, security, adaptability and interoperability between authorities. The efficient usage of heterogeneous systems and heterogeneous hardware platforms, respectively, allows the execution of large interactive applications in e-government. Because security is a critical issue in e-government applications our solution uses different types of authentication and authorization methods and also supports secure communication between the interoperating heterogeneous systems. Due to the fact that the electronically supported execution of government procedures is the main aspect of the RAfEG system, an approach where these procedures are modeled as workflows and executed by an underlying workflow management system (WfMS) is the solution we present in this paper. Although many e-government applications exist at present, the RAfEG system is a new approach because it is able to cope with a wide range of internal official procedures and also highly adaptable to new procedures within e-government.


Despite the recent success of video object detection on Desktop GPUs, its architecture is still far too heavy for mobiles. It is also unclear whether the key principles of sparse feature propagation and multi-frame feature aggregation apply at very limited computational resources. In this paper, we present a light weight network architecture for video object detection on mobiles. Light weight image object detector is applied on sparse key frames. A very small network, Light Flow, is designed for establishing correspondence across frames. A flow-guided GRU module is designed to effectively aggregate features on key frames. For non-key frames, sparse feature propagation is performed. The whole network can be trained end-to-end. The proposed system achieves 60.2% mAP score at speed of 25.6 fps on mobiles (e.g., HuaWei Mate 8).


This study examines how public relations can be understood, perceived, and ultimately constructed as a profession through professionals' everyday discourses. The article explores what it means for public relations practitioners to be considered professionals in the field that is actively developing in many parts of the world. The goal was to expand the understanding of what constitutes the profession of public relations through a qualitative analysis of workcentered discourses of practitioners. The results demonstrated that, specifically in Russia, similar to many other countries, public relations is often seen as a profession that is better suited for women than men due to historical, socio-economic, and societal factors as well as due to pre-conceived notions about public relations. This study contributes to a new theoretical understanding of public relations as a socially constructed profession and demonstrates how construction of this profession can both propel and slow down the development of the


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Anterior communicating artery (AcomA) aneurysm is the most frequent form of aneurysm. Stent placement is particularly difficult and of limited use for AcomA aneurysms. We report our experience with stent-assisted embolization for wide-neck AcomA aneurysms in 21 patients. Particular attention is given to the morphologic characteristics and strategy of stent deployment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2005 and February 2008, stent-assisted coiling was performed in 21 patients with wide-neck AcomA aneurysms. Patient demographics, aneurysm morphology, procedures, and clinical and angiographic outcomes were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Successful deployment of the stent in the targeted artery was achieved in all patients. Nineteen Neuroform 2 or Neuroform 3 stents and 2 LEO stents were used. The distal segment of the stent was positioned in the ipsilateral A2 in 12 patients, in the contralateral A2 across the AcomA in 5 patients, and into the aneurysm sac in 4 patients. Complete occlusion was achieved in 18 patients; near-complete occlusion, in 2 patients; and partial occlusion, in 1 patient. Intraoperative perforation of the aneurysm developed in 1 patient, which was secured by subsequent coiling. Angiographic follow-up in 12 patients for 6.9 months showed 1 recanalization and no in-stent stenosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results suggest that stent-assisted embolization for wide-neck AcomA aneurysms is technically feasible and safe. Further follow-up is needed for long-term efficacy of stent placement.


Buried in the bewildering details and proposals of the recent National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) Interim Report (December 2008) was a simple sentence that stressed the centrality of the personal electronic health record to coordinated health care. Indeed, the Commission's Chairwoman, Dr Christine Bennett, claims: "An electronic health record . .. is arguably the single most important enabler of truly person-centred care."* But its utility reaches beyond this. The efficiency and effectiveness of e-health will undoubtedly cut expenditure, as its multiplier effects improve continuity of care, reduce both errors and duplication of services, and ultimately promote health care. Understandably, both the profession and the public have become increasingly cynical about the continual talk fests generated by federal government commissions and inquiries. As a consequence, the Prime Minister and his Ministers are seen as shadowy figures, hiding behind the seeming busyness of endless inquiries. The resounding image is one of "all talk and no action". Consider e-health as an example. E-health has been the subject of serious state and federal attention since at least 1993! Add to the NHHRC report the National E-Health Strategy report (also released in December 2008), and it could be said that drowning in reports is all that has been achieved. Is it not time to stop the talk and walk the talk? The Prime Minister appears to be in search of an infrastructure project that mirrors the iconic status of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme in Australian folklore. Bringing e-health personal records on stream would be such a project. Given that we spend about 9.5% of our gross domestic product on health, the cost of instituting such a scheme would be comparatively negligible. Let's settle on a definite delivery date and a dedicated budget for the e-health personal record. Now, that would be an incisive and iconic move forward!


To explore the mechanism by which morphine promotes the incidence of HIV infection, we evaluated the regulatory role of morphine on the interferon-γ (IFN-γ) promoter in activated T cells from wild type and μ-opioid receptor knockout mice. Our results show that morphine inhibited anti-CD3/CD28-stimulated IFN-γ promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner. Chronic morphine treatment of T cells increased intracellular cAMP. To evaluate the role of cAMP in morphine's modulatory function, the effects of dibutyryl cyclic AMP and forskolin were investigated. Both dibutyryl cyclic AMP and forskolin treatment inhibited IFN-γ promoter activity. Treatment with pertussis toxin, but not with a protein kinase A inhibitor, antagonized morphine's inhibitory effects. Morphine inhibited phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK; in addition, morphine treatment in the presence of either ERK1/2 or p38 MAPK inhibitor (PD98059 or SB203580) resulted in an additive inhibition of IFN-γ promoter activity. The transcription factor activator protein-1, NF-κB, and nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) were negatively regulated by morphine. Overexpression of NF-κB p65 rescued the inhibitory effect of morphine on IFN-γ promoter activity. However, only when NFATc1 was co-overexpressed with c-fos was the inhibitory effect of morphine on IFN-γ promoter counteracted. The inhibitory effects of morphine were not observed in T cells obtained from μ-opioid receptor knockout mice, suggesting that morphine modulation of IFN-γ promoter activity is mediated through the μ-opioid receptor. In summary, our data indicate that morphine modulation of IFN-γ promoter activity is mediated through two distinct cAMP-dependent pathways, the NF-κB signaling pathway and the ERK1/2, p38 MAPK, AP-1/NFAT pathway.


Preoperative EEGs were quantitatively analyzed by means of a multidimensional autoregressive model (AR model) in order to predict postoperative EEGs. Recorded preoperative EEGs were digitized at an interval of 10 msec. The AR model fitting was executed on each digitized data. As this model described a multichannel feedback system having a peculiar activity in each site under observation, the interstructural relations could be described distinctly in the direction. Namely, the independent and the projected activities through the feedback circuits could be separately described for each brain site. Therefore, postoperative EEG could be simulated by elimination of the component in the AR model corresponding to each operative region. In this report, we presented three cases and discussed usefulness of this method. Case 1 was a patient with post-traumatic epilepsy, who was treated with focal resection. Preoperative EEGs revealed spike and wave discharges mainly in the right frontal region. Simulated postoperative EEGs based on elimination of component from the right frontal region in the AR model, corresponding to focal resection, revealed disappearance of spike and wave discharges. These findings were quite similar to observed postoperative EEGs. Case 2 was a patient with posttraumatic epilepsy, who was treated with anterior callosotomy. Preoperative EEGs revealed diffuse multifocal slow spike and wave discharges. Simulated postoperative EEGs, based on elimination of interhemispheric feedback pathways in the AR model, corresponding to anterior callosotomy, revealed marked lateralization of diffuse spike and wave discharges to the left hemisphere. These findings were qualitatively similar to observed postoperative EEGs. These results suggested that postoperative EEG changes could be well predicted by multidimensional autoregressive analysis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This article discusses the recent emergence of adult male fans of Korean pop (K-pop) music who openly engage themselves in fan activities typically associated with teenagers (particularly teenage girls) and the significance of their adoration of young female celebrities. The recent appearance of the "samchon (uncle) fans" in the Korean pop culture discourse marks the first instance since the early 1990s, when teenagers became the primary target audience of South Korea's entertainment industry, in which male adults reclaimed a significant position as a demographic group of fans. The samchon fans differ from the traditional ajossi (middle-aged, patriarchal men) listeners of adult contemporary music in numerous ways, not only in what singers and musical genres they listen to, but also in their self-identification as fans, participation in fan activities and mass media portrayals. In this article, I investigate the implications of the men's consumption pattern and their representation in South Korean mass media within the contexts of the history of the construction of hegemonic masculinity in South Korea and of recent developments in East Asian popular culture; explore possible ways to apply, complicate and question existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks to explain the phenomenon; and argue for the possibility of politically potent, alternative masculinities constructed and manifested through the men's conspicuous consumption of cultural commodities.


This paper is an attempt to explain devaluation expectations in the ERM with macroeconomic fundamentals. Two different measures of devaluation expectations are used; expectations estimated using the drift-adjustment method of Bertola and Svensson [1993] and the directly observable interest rate differential. The interest rate differential seems more closely connected to macroeconomic fundamentals than the estimates stemming from the drift- adjustment metod. For the ERM as a whole, an expanded theoretic model of exchange rate determination explains a considerable part of the devaluation expectations, whereas for individual countries additional variables are important, and the relationships are ambiguous and country specific.


Background: Since 1987, when (M)ACI was first mentioned, the technique have been used all over the world to treat osteochondral lesions in the knee. Nevertheless, the actual effectiveness of this relatively new treatment option is under question: clinical evidence based on controlled trials and long-term follow-up are still missing. For these reasons (M)ACI is being reimbursed in most countries only under research conditions. Methods: systematic literature search in Medline via Ovid, Embase, Cochrane Library, NHS-CRD-HTA (INAHTA), ISI WEB of Science, WHO Health Evidence Network and Clinicaltrials.gov was complemented by a hand search. Inclusion criteria: Controlled clinical studies with more than 20 patients and a follow-up period of at least one year. Results: The effectiveness analysis is based on 9 comparative clinical trials and 6 systematic reviews. Within the studies all together 566 patients were treated with mosaicplasty vs. ACI, microfracture vs. ACI, and ACI vs. ACI. The result show consistency and confirm earlier (international) reviews. There is no evidence that ACI or MACI leads to better outcomes in the treatment of osteochondral lesions than any of the alternative treatments. ACI is not superior; at best equal, at much higher cost. The short term (1-2 years) and mid-term (5 years) non-inferiority in highly selected active patients is proven. Long-term data are lacking. Conclusion: (M)ACI methods must be considered – though often applied - as experimental techniques. The risks of cultivated chondrocyts cannot be ignored, and have to be seen as a risk.


The primary aim of this research was to determine how mindfulness and psychological well-being relate to the propensity to use Performance-Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in a sample of talented young athletes. A secondary aim was to determine how mindfulness and psychological well-being are related. This was a survey study with a quantitative research approach. South African Academy athletes at a high performance centre and competitive high school athletes from four private high schools participated in the survey. In the survey, two validated questionnaires (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire [FFMQ] and Ryff's Psychological Well-being Scale), and a self-constructed questionnaire to establish the propensity of athletes to use PEDs were employed. 346 athletes (208 boys, 138 girls) aged M=16.0, SD=1.4 years participated. There was a significant correlation ( r =0.32, p=0.00) between overall mindfulness and psychological well-being as measured by the FFMQ and Ryff's Psychological Well-being Scale respectively. Two possible predictors of propensity to use PEDs were identified by means of logistic regression and cross tabulation. It is concluded that mindfulness and psychological well-being were inversely related to the propensity to use PEDs. Key words: Anti-doping; Performance-enhancing drugs; Psychological well-being; Mindfulness.


High-temperature metamorphic reaction rates were measured using strontium isotopic ratios of garnet and whole rock from a field site near Simplon Pass, Switzerland. For metamorphic conditions of cooling from 612° ± 17°C to 505° ± 15°C at pressures up to 9.1 kilobars, the inferred bulk fluid-rock exchange rate is 1.3−0.4 +1.1 × 10−7 grams of solid reacted per gram of solid per year, several orders of magnitude lower than laboratory-based estimates. The inferred reaction rate suggests that mineral chemistry may lag the evolving conditions in Earth's crust during mountain building.


School financial administration explains how to manage finances that exist in schools, so as not to be misused by certain parties. Correct financial administration also creates a conducive atmosphere in school. The role of the teacher is very important in financial administration to manage the income and expenses of the school.


This paper describes the scholarly metadata collected and made available by Crossref, as well as its importance in the scholarly research ecosystem. Containing over 106 million records and expanding at an average rate of 11% a year, Crossref's metadata has become one of the major sources of scholarly data for publishers, authors, librarians, funders, and researchers. The metadata set consists of 13 content types, including not only traditional types, such as journals and conference papers, but also data sets, reports, preprints, peer reviews, and grants. The metadata is not limited to basic publication metadata, but can also include abstracts and links to full text, funding and license information, citation links, and the information about corrections, updates, retractions, etc. This scale and breadth make Crossref a valuable source for research in scientometrics, including measuring the growth and impact of science and understanding new trends in scholarly communications. The metadata is available through a number of APIs, including REST API and OAI-PMH. In this paper, we describe the kind of metadata that Crossref provides and how it is collected and curated. We also look at Crossref's role in the research ecosystem and trends in metadata curation over the years, including the evolution of its citation data provision. We summarize the research used in Crossref's metadata and describe plans that will improve metadata quality and retrieval in the future.


When a participant is asked to evaluate a stimulus, the judgment is based on the remembered experience, which might be different from the actual experience. This phenomenon happens according to the theory that some moments of an experience such as the beginning, peak and the end of the experience have more impact on the memory. These moments can be recalled with a higher probability than the other parts of the experience, and some minor bad moments of experience might be forgotten or forgiven due to the rest of the good experiences. This paper, using a subjective study and emulating an artificial delay on participants' gameplay investigates the influence of these serial-position effects on the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ). The result shows that GEQ does not suffer from either recency, primacy or peak effects. However, when users are asked about the controllability and responsiveness of the games, the recency effect exists. The paper also shows that GEQ has the forgiveness effect and participants forgive or may forget a bad experience if it coincides with a considerable duration of a good experience.


The aggregation of distributions, composed of the number of occurrences of each element in a set, is an operation that lies at the heart of several large-scale distributed applications. Examples include popularity tracking, recommendation systems, trust management, or popularity measurement mechanisms. These applications typically span multiple administrative domains that do not trust each other and are sensitive to biases in the distribution aggregation: the results can only be trusted if inserted values were not altered nor forged, and if nodes collecting the insertions do not arbitrarily modify the aggregation results. In order to increase the level of trust that can be granted to applications, there must be a disincentive for servers to bias the aggregation results. In this paper we present the CADA auditing mechanisms that let aggregation servers collaboratively and periodically audit one another based on probabilistic tests over server-local state. CADA differs from the existing work on accountability in that it leverages the nature of the operation being performed by the node rather than a general and application-oblivious model of the computation. The effectiveness of CADA is conveyed by an experimental evaluation that studies its ability to detect malevolent behaviors using lightweight auditing oracles.


The growing number of children diagnosed with autism, in congruency with the expansion of research supporting the effectiveness of applied behaviour analysis has lead to a global demand for competent professionals with expertise in applied behaviour analysis as it applies to autism. There are to date only a handful of university programs internationally recognized as meeting content criteria for certification in BA. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the outcome of a summit held at The University of North Texas in which professionals with expertise in areas of significance to higher education met and produced a series of articles published in a special edition of EOJBA. The relevance of the articles as a source for faculty and administration for developing effective courses in applied behaviour analysis and autism will be discussed in relation to curricula content, instructional methods, and issues pertinent for developing innovative, socially relevant programs.


Abstract: A newJy developed enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) protein was combined with conventional measures of enzyme activity in a study of 15 brain regions from six control cases (non‐neurological deaths), six cases of Alzheimer's disease, and six cases of Huntington's disease. In the control brains, the mean AChE activity varied 100‐fold from region to region (cortex lowest, striatum highest). The variation in enzyme activity was exactly paralleled by a variation in protein immunoreactivity. Overall, the homospecific activity of AChE averaged 0.26 ± 0.007 mU/pg, close to the value for electrophoretically homogeneous enzyme isolated from red blood cells. Similar homospecific activities were observed in samples from Huntington's and Alzheimer's brains. Evidently, AChE that is immunoreactive but enzymatically inactive does not accumulate in any of the three conditions examined. Huntington's brain samples showed normal total contents of AChE, but Alzheimer's brains showed significant decreases of both enzyme activity and immunore‐activity in all seven cortical regions and in two out of the eight subcortical structures examined, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens.


This paper builds on the ability to produce a comprehensive automated set of component fault– observation relations for vehicle on-board systems using qualitative model based reasoning techniques. Observations are typically expensive (in the broadest sense) and the problem addressed by this paper is how to allow selection of a set of observations that fulfils the detectability/diagnosability requirements of the system. This paper documents a tool that provides an engineer with easy access to information about diagnostic capability via a matrix visualisation technique. The focus of the work was for the fuel system of an Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) although the tool has also been used on automotive electrical systems, and is applicable to a wide range of schematic and component based


Superelastic 0.1mm diameter Ti-Ni filaments are used to manufacture braided orthopedic cable for bone fixation. Biomechanical conditions for this application generally have a cyclic nature, and therefore it becomes important to evaluate the influence of the installation (mean) strain on the fatigue life of these filaments. Uniaxial tension cyclic testing of Ti-Ni filaments is performed in a water bath at 37°C with a 2Hz frequency of to 100 000 cycles. Strain-controlled testing conditions are as follows: alternating strain magnitude varies between 0.64 and 3.64% with mean strain range between 1.32 and 7.1%. Based on the premises that the minimum strain should be high enough to prevent any loss of tension in the tested specimen and that the maximum strain should not bring the specimen to failure during the first loading cycle, the total strain magnitude is encompassed between 0.68 and 8.94%. The results obtained provide a better understanding of the impact mean strain has on the fatigue life of superelastic Ti-Ni alloys.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the ability of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) gene therapy to provide neuroprotection to cells of the outer nuclear layer (ONL) of the retina after retinal detachment.

METHODS
Subretinal injections of a recombinant adenoassociated virus (rAAV) encoding either XIAP or green fluorescent protein (GFP; injection control) were performed in the left eye of Brown Norway rats. Two weeks later, retinal detachments were created at the site of viral injection by delivering sodium hyaluronate into the subretinal space. Retinal tissue was harvested at 24 hours after retinal detachment and was analyzed for caspase 3 and 9 activity. Histologic analysis was conducted on samples taken at 3 days and 2 months after detachment to confirm the presence of XIAP or GFP expression and to assess levels of apoptosis and changes in retinal thickness.

RESULTS
Caspase assays performed 24 hours after detachment confirmed an expected increase in caspase 3 and 9 activity in the detached regions of GFP-treated retinas, whereas XIAP-treated detached retinas behaved comparably to attached controls. TUNEL analysis of 3-day tissue samples showed fewer apoptotic cells in XIAP-treated detachments than in GFP-treated detachments. At 2 months after the detachment, histology and immunohistochemistry confirmed the preservation of the ONL at sites of XIAP overexpression, whereas the GFP-treated detached retinas had significantly deteriorated.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that XIAP confers structural neuroprotection of photoreceptors for at least 2 months after retinal detachment.


Outside of western countries, the study of the local food environment and evidence for its association with dietary behavior is limited. The aim of this paper was to examine the association between the local retail food environment and consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV) among adults in Hong Kong. Local retail food environment was measured by density of different types of retail food outlets (grocery stores, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants) within a 1000 m Euclidean buffer around individual's homes using a geographic information system (GIS). The Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) was calculated based on the relative density of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores. Logistic regressions were performed to examine associations using cross-sectional data of 1977 adults (18 years or older). Overall, people living in an area with the highest RFEI (Q4, >5.76) had significantly greater odds of infrequent FV consumption (<7 days/week) after covariates adjustment (infrequent fruit consumption: OR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.04–1.78; infrequent vegetable consumption: OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.11–2.68) in comparison to the lowest RFEI (Q1, <2.25). Highest density of fast food restaurants (Q4, >53) was also significantly associated with greater odds of infrequent fruit consumption (<7 days/week) (unadjusted model: OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.04–1.73), relative to lowest density of fast food restaurants (Q1, <13). No significant association of density of grocery stores or convenience stores was observed with infrequent FV consumption regardless of the covariates included in the model. Our results suggest that the ratio of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores near people's home is an important environmental factor in meeting fruit and vegetable consumption guidelines. "Food swamps" (areas with an abundance of unhealthy foods) rather than "food deserts" (areas where there is limited access to healthy foods) seems to be more of a problem in Hong Kong's urban areas. We advanced international literature by providing evidence in a non-western setting.


Data privacy demands a reunified theory of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Data technologies allow personal information to be disembodied from physical bodies and "possessed" simultaneously by both first persons and third parties. As a result, the government has been able to use a divide-and-conquer strategy to obtain incriminating evidence alternately from the data intermediary or from the suspect himself.Currently, Fourth Amendment doctrine and Fifth Amendment doctrine work at cross purposes. The privacy community has already sounded the alarm on the "third party doctrine," which allows the government to sidestep the Fourth Amendment when demanding evidence from third parties. But few have noted the equally potent "required records doctrine," which allows the government to circumvent the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when demanding evidence directly from first persons. Taken together, the two exceptions swallow the rule, allowing the government to evade both Fourth and Fifth Amendment review at every turn.This Article argues that juxtaposing the two exceptions together offers clues for how to resolve the reciprocal line-drawing problems. The first clue is that one excludes only "third parties" from constitutional protection, while the other excludes only "first parties." The second is that the third-party doctrine grew out of cases upholding the moral autonomy of natural persons, whereas the required-records doctrine drew its authority from the need to regulate commercial activities of business entities. Reframing the jurisprudence along those two axes offers a more coherent construction of the case law and acknowledges the vital interdependencies between the two Amendments.


ABSTRACT Objectives: The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night for adults ≥ 65 years of age. Sleep duration below 7h per night has been associated with negative health consequences, so enabling older adults to obtain at least 7 hours per night is important for health and wellbeing. However, little is known about behavioral factors that support sleep duration (≥ 7h/24h) in this group. Our aim was to determine factors associated with sleep duration in older adults, and evaluate the utility of sleep schedule regularity in particular, given the relationship between lifestyle regularity (of which sleep is an important component) and health in this population. Methods: A sample of 311 Australian adults (≥ 65 years old; 156 male, 155 female) completed a telephone survey assessing sleep history over the prior 24 hours, sleep schedule regularity, demographic and health factors as part of a larger study of the Australian population. Results: Sleep schedules with variability in bed and rise times of > 60 minutes were associated with increased odds of reporting sleep duration below 7 hours per night (< 7h/24h; OR = 2.38, CI = 1.26–4.48, p = .007). No other behaviors were associated with meeting sleep duration recommendations. Conclusions: Sleep schedule regularity may be associated with sleep duration (≥ 7h/24h) in older adults. Clinical implications: Empowering older adults to maintain sleep schedule regularity may be a practical and efficacious strategy to support sleep durations that are in line with recommendations (≥ 7h/24h).


The purpose of this text is to introduce Legal Sociology in Switzerland. In a first step, Legal Sociology is located as a discipline within legal science and its methodology is explained. In a second step, a case study exemplifies how legal sociology can be used to analyse the interrelationship between society, technology and the law with regard to the functioning of the specific form of direct democracy that exists in Switzerland and the constitutional safeguards that are in place to secure its prerequisites. Against the background of recent techno-economic developments in the media sector the question is how the use of artificial intelligence technologies by the Swiss Radio and Television Corporation (SRG) to personalise news reporting would relate to the public service broadcaster's constitutional duties. This question arises as a potential consequence of the formation of Admeira, a joint venture between SRG, Ringier (a media company) and Swisscom (the incumbent Swiss telecom company). Admeira allows SRG to benefit from Swisscom's large customer data volumes and broad experience in the use of targeting technologies.


Alan Wilton is not included in the author byline. He should be listed as the 23rd author and affiliated with School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. The contributions of this author are as follows: sample collection. The following sentence should also be included in the acknowledgements. "The authors also wish to thank the Australian Native Dog Conservation Society and the Dingo Sanctuary Bargo for generously providing the dingo sample used in this study."


In the recent decades, in Haiti, a growing propensity to accept new technologies is observed. More than ever, the national market represents a potential advantage, as well as the cheapness of the labor force. Meanwhile, the country cannot take plenty advantage of its technological development potential in order to stimulate the economic growth. The paper analyzes the disadvantage factors. The conclusion show that in addition to the low level of education and the expatriation of skilled human resources, institutional characteristics may help to understand the ineffectiveness of economic development strategies implemented in Haiti in recent years. Then, we propose institutional innovation as both an analytical framework and a challenge to understand and foster economic development through technology in Haiti.


Purpose: To examine the association between self-awareness of cognitive impairment and age, selected mood disorders, and type and severity of cognitive impairment in a sample of individuals with HIV/AIDS and at risk for HIV. Method: 75 subjects, 52 HIV+ and 23 at risk for HIV completed a psychosocial interview, the Patient's Assessment of Own Functioning (PAOF) questionnaire, and a battery of neuropsychological tests. Based upon the differences between their clinical impairment and self-reported impairment, subjects were classified as being "Underestimators", "Good Awareness", or "Impaired Awareness" with regard to self-awareness. Results: Those with more severe cognitive impairment were less aware than those with normal or borderline cognitive impairment. A one-way ANOVA suggested that the Impaired Awareness group differed significantly from the Underestimators on the Rey Figure Immediate and Delayed Recall tasks, and from both the Underestimators and Good Awarenesss groups on the Digit Symbol Substitution Task. There were significant differences among all awareness groups on the test of Simple Reaction Time. Furthermore there is some suggestion that age may contribute to impaired self-awareness. The role of HIV in self-awareness remains unclear, as both, individuals with HIV and at risk, demonstrated impaired self-awareness. Conclusions: Overall, impaired awareness was associated with poorer test performance, suggesting a relationship between awareness and sustained complex attention and visual spatial processing. This research has implications for understanding factors contributing to poor awareness among individuals with cognitive impairment. Implications for Rehabilitation Impaired self-awareness is associated with poor rehabilitation outcomes in populations with cognitive impairment. Individuals with and at risk for HIV/AIDS demonstrate cognitive impairments often associated with impaired self-awareness. Individuals with or at risk for HIV/AIDS have a critical need that could be addressed by rehabilitation professionals with expertise in assessing and treating impairments in self-awareness.


An abstract simulator design problem is formulated as follows: we are given a dynamic system Sa called the actual system and another dynamic system SS called a simulator for Sa. Furthermore, we are given an input signal which drives the actual system Sa. The problem is to find an operator, properly constrained, which generates the input to the simulator Ss on the basis of the input to Sa so that the discrepancy between the output of Sa and Ss is as small as possible. This abstract simulator design problem is brought to the form of an optimal control problem and then solved for the linear-quadratic-Gaussian special case. Next the soluiion of the abstract simulator problem is applied to the design of motion generators for flight simulators. A fairly elaborate mathematical model of the vestibular organs is used. The optimization criterion that is selected is the mean-square difference between the physiological outputs of the vestibular organs for the pilot in the airplane and for the pilot in the simulator. The dynamical equations are linearized, and the input signal is modeled as a random process with a rational power spectral density. Subject to the above assumptions, the optimal structure of the motion generator for the simulator, also called a "washout filter," is derived. This method stands in contrast to existing design schemes for motion generators which generally assume a certain fixed structure for the motion generator and concentrate on optimizing its parameters.