Introduction The development of discrimination scales is an emerging field of enquiry in the area of social determinants of health. However, published scales cannot distinguish health consequences of discrimination as a result of the exposure to differential treatments of any kind from the strict attribution of these events to discrimination. We report the development of a scale that may clarify the relative importance of the effects of these cognitive mechanisms for health outcomes. Methods Successive versions of the instrument were developed based on a systematic review of racial discrimination scales, focus groups and an evaluation by a panel of experts. Instrument refinement was achieved via cognitive interviews and pilot-testing, so that the final scale version was administered to 424 university students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Structural dimensionality, two types of reliability and construct validity were assessed. Results Exploratory factor analysis corroborated the hypothesis of unidimensionality, and the experts indicated that scale items were face and content valid. Internal consistency, estimated by Cronbach's α, was 0.8, and test-retest reliability was higher than 0.5 for 14 out of the 18 items, according to the weighted κ statistics. The scale's score was statistically higher among socially disadvantaged individuals and correlated with adverse health behaviours and outcomes. Nevertheless, the low test-retest reliability and the observed invariance of specific items indicate that the scale should be assessed in other population domains. Conclusion The proposed scale will enable the investigation of aspects of the relationship between discrimination and health not previously documented in the literature.


Abstract. An evaluation of the global ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis ERA-Interim (with a 0.5° grid) is performed over France, based on the high resolution (8 km) SAFRAN atmospheric reanalysis. The ERA-Interim precipitation, Incoming Solar Radiation (ISR), air temperature, air humidity, and wind speed, are compared with their SAFRAN counterparts. Also, interpolated in situ ISR observations are used in order to consolidate the evaluation of this variable. The daily precipitation estimates produced by ERA-Interim over France correlate very well with SAFRAN. However, the values are underestimated by 27%. A GPCP-corrected version of ERA-Interim is less biased (13%). The ERA-Interim estimates of ISR correlate very well with SAFRAN and with in situ observations on a daily basis. Whereas SAFRAN underestimates the ISR by 6 Wm−2, ERA-Interim overestimates the ISR by 10 Wm−2. In order to assess the impact of the ERA-Interim errors, simulations of the ISBA-A-gs land surface model are performed over the SMOSREX grassland site in southwestern France using ERA-Interim (with and without GPCP rescaling) and SAFRAN. Latent and sensible heat fluxes are simulated, together with carbon dioxide fluxes. The rescaled ERA-Interim performs better than the original ERA-Interim and permits to achieve flux scores similar to those obtained with SAFRAN.


The constituents of the roots bleeding sap are an important index characteristic of roots activity and roots-shoots relationship. To compare the differences between the constituents of roots bleeding sap from maize and soybean plants, roots bleeding saps were collected from maize (Zea mays L. cultivar 3138) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. cultivar Ludou 11] plants at different growth and development stages under field condition, and the inorganic elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The results indicated that both the constituents of inorganic elements and flow intensities were various between roots bleeding saps from maize and soybean plants at different growth and development stages. The flux of inorganic elements in roots bleeding sap showed different trends with progress in plants growth and development. In the roots bleeding sap from maize, the predominant inorganic elements were K, Ca, Mg, P, Na, Si, Zn, Mn and Fe, with flux ranging from 1 to 1 851.5 microg x h(-1) x plant(-1). The flux of B, Cu and Mo was relatively lower and less than 1 microg x h(-1) x plant(-1), while none of the elements of Co, Cd, Ba, Pb, Sr and As could be detected, and was estimated to be lower than 0.01 microg x h(-1) x plant(-1) based on the detection limit. The flow of most inorganic elements showed decreasing trends with plant development progressing from booting to grain filling stage. In the roots bleeding sap from soybean, Ca, Mg, K, P, Na, Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu were found as predominant inorganic constituents, ranging from 1 to 1 158 microg x h(-1) x plant(-1). The flow of both B and Mo was found lower than 1 microg x h(-1) x plant(-1), and none of Si, Co, Cd, Ba, Pb, Sr and As could be found. With the growth and development, different inorganic elements showed various changing pattern.


This article discusses the potentials of 3D virtual worlds as tool for science fiction prototyping in education. Science fiction prototyping has become an important resource for creating, discussing, and assessing the impact of future scenarios. Introducing this creative process into education and training can help students understand societal and contextual implications of future technologies, scenarios, and environments. We discuss traditional SFP processes, such as storywriting, movies, or computer games that require different talents from their creators. Based on our findings we will introduce 'Interactive Science Fiction Prototyping (ISFP)' as a simplified creation approach in virtual world environments. ISFP enables students to create to reflect on science fiction scenarios in an interactive and collaborative way. As an example of ISFP a science fiction prototype of a future city was created and discussed in the virtual world framework Open Wonderland.


The basis of the requirement for a net negative charge on phospholipid dispersions able to re-activate lipid-depleted (Na++K+)-dependent adenosine triphosphatase was studied. The origin and density of the charge in phospholipid dispersions were varied before interaction with the adenosine triphosphatase protein, and the charge density on restored phospholipid-adenosine triphosphatase complexes was changed after interaction. The results indicated that: (a) re-activation requires a lamellar arrangement of the lipid molecules with sufficient density of negative charge, but not necessarily negatively charged phospholipid molecules; (b) the net charge appears to be necessary for the correct interaction between the enzyme protein and the phospholipids, although the amount of phospholipid that binds to the protein is also a function of the nature of the acyl chains; (c) it is not possible on the basis of these findings and those in the literature to decide unequivocally if the charge is also required for the enzyme reaction itself. The possible relevance of the findings to the situation in vivo is discussed in terms of the charge being concerned only with lipid-protein interaction.


The efficacy of 40 h of perceptual-motor training among a group of culturally disadvantaged kindergarten children was investigated. The training procedures produced a significant improvement in perceptual-motor abilities such that each group was raised to a "non-dysfunctioning" level as evaluated by the Rosner-Richman Perceptual Motor Survey. In terms of the design of this study, the effects observed and the differences obtained cannot be attributed either to maturation or to attendance in school per se.


Stories have been recognized for their power of communication & persuasion for centuries and we need to operate at that intersection of data, visual and stories to fully harness the power of data. Online journalism has already started to show the path but we need to develop the science of data-story to get them widely adopted in business. We used a case study based approach to map the four different layers in a data-story: See - Show - Tell - Engage. We developed a framework of key dimensions within each of these layers and then rigorously analyzed 25 carefully selected case-studies to see which elements were being employed in the data-story. We focused not only on the dimensions of data abstraction and visual representation, framing and transition but also on the dimensions of story structure, point-of-view, relatability and engagement through emotions, takeaways and interaction. Our framework indicates generic strategies that can be used for effective data-stories using exploratory and explanatory visualization in personal and presentation context.


Jewelry's anecdotes have been growing up since kingdom times. Getting acceptation day by day, women are using jewelry  cutturely, etiquette  generation and acquiesce. Passion of jewelry in women has trending now a days, another trending of young generation to become more attractive and beautiful with the help of jewelry. Everyone use jewelry for their capacity like, Diamon, Gold, Silver, Pearls and other materials. Time is changed and the importance of jewelry has been increased, Gold and Silver's values are different but getting expensive of Gold other material take  place here some other introduction of jewelry.


THINC is a new virtual and remote display architecture for desktop computing. It has been designed to address the limitations and performance shortcomings of existing remote display technology, and to provide a building block around which novel desktop architectures can be built.
THINC is architected around the notion of a virtual display device driver, a software-only component that behaves like a traditional device driver, but instead of managing specific hardware, enables desktop input and output to be intercepted, manipulated, and redirected at will. On top of this architecture, THINC introduces a simple, low-level, device-independent representation of display changes, and a number of novel optimizations and techniques to perform efficient interception and redirection of display output.
This dissertation presents the design and implementation of THINC. It also introduces a number of novel systems which build upon THINC's architecture to provide new and improved desktop computing services. The contributions of this dissertation are as follows: (1) A high performance remote display system for LAN and WAN environments. This system differs from existing remote display technologies in that it focuses on the architecture of the system as a mechanism to improve performance, and not just on the remote display protocol and compression techniques. (2) A novel mechanism to natively support multimedia content in a remote display system in a way that is both transparent to applications and format independent. (3) pTHINC, a system to deliver improved remote display support for mobile devices, both in terms of performance and usability, and provide a competitive, and in some cases superior, alternative to native mobile applications. (4) MobiDesk, a desktop utility computing infrastructure that enables service providers to host desktop sessions in fully virtualized environments. Hosted sessions can be remotely accessed using THINC, they can be migrated across computers to provide high-availability, and can be effectively and efficiently protected from denial of service attacks. (5) Moving beyond remote display, we show how THINC's architecture can be used to provide continuous, low overhead recording of a desktop. Alongside, we introduce a novel way to leverage desktop accessibility services to allow users to search their recording based on captured text content.
We have implemented prototypes for these systems, and evaluated their performance in a number of scenarios, and compared it to representative alternatives whenever possible. Our results demonstrate that THINC can provide superior remote display performance, and can be successfully used as a fundamental building block for new and improved desktop applications and services.


The uprisings that erupted unexpectedly in the Middle East between 2010 and 2011 propelled this region's youth to the forefront of the political and media scene. To some scholars, we are witnessing a re-politicisation of the Middle Eastern youth, which stands in marked contrast to their "depoliticisation" and "apathy" of recent years. Yet, although the participation of the youth "by the way the 'majority' of the population in the region" to popular protests is an undeniable fact, student unions seem to be out of the picture so far. From a macro-level perspective, the marginal role of student associations may appear "natural". Whilst nationalist and revolutionary leaders encouraged students to actively participate in politics "for the sake of the nation" until the 1960s, revolutionary as well as conservative regimes progressively sought to "depoliticize" them. In that respect, the university field became a privileged site of experimentation of methods of repression which would then be expanded to be used in all sectors of society. However, though scholars must take into consideration the political context of a given society "authoritarian or semi-authoritarian in most of Middle Eastern countries", what the meso and micro levels of analysis reveal us about the complex and multi-layered phenomena of collective demobilization and individual disengagement? This special issue offers some responses to that central question while analyzing different case studies within the university milieu from Turkey to Egypt, Morocco, and Mexico over the last forty years.


This paper provides estimates of the effects of in utero exposure to contaminated drinking water on fetal health. We examine the universe of birth records and drinking water testing results for the state of New Jersey from 1997 to 2007. Our data enable us to compare outcomes across siblings who were potentially exposed to differing levels of harmful contaminants from drinking water while in utero. We find small effects of drinking water contamination on all children, but large and statistically significant effects on birth weight and gestation of infants born to less educated mothers. We also show that those mothers who were most affected by contaminants were the least likely to move between births in response to contamination.


Traditional approaches to credit risk evaluation have looked at a portfolio's obligors as separate elements. However, daily bank practice suggests that there can be contagion effects between obligors, a fact that through the current normative has been explicitly acknowledged by EU regulation authorities. The "group of connected clients" is the key-concept for this revolutionary change: EBA requires banks firstly to identify such groups according to a set of different criteria and then to treat each of them as a single risk unit. This normative challenges banks to adopt concepts and methods rather new with respect to its professional background and practice. Here, its conceptual and practical implications are discussed, and some of its main flaws are evidenced: its framework remains static instead of dynamic, local instead of systemic, threshold-based instead of continuous variations. Therefore, if on one side this normative introduces the revolutionary concept of the groups of connected clients among risk evaluation criteria, on the other side it remains still entrapped into the traditional view and leaves untouched the risk evaluation of "non-dominated" clients. Hence, it should be considered as a step towards a full new paradigm, which had to look at portfolios as inter-organizational networks, more or less subjected to "failure cascades" depending on its specific structures. To this aim, it is required to design a new rating system with which single obligor's risk evaluation should be measured precisely and in relation with the position they cover within the whole portfolio.


Diurnal refuge-site selection was studied in eleven free-ranging brown tree snakes ( Boiga irregularis ) in tropical forest on the island of Guam. These nocturnal and mostly arboreal snakes were tracked using implanted radio-transmitters. A vegetation survey of the study site was performed to determine if brown treesnakes non-randomly select certain plants for refuge-sites, and thermal profiles of representative refuge sites were obtained with Hobo data loggers. Brown treesnakes preferentially used Pandanus crowns for refuge-sites. Although Pandanus represents a small proportion (3.6%) of the forest, most snakes used Pandanus most of the time for refuge. The thermal characteristics of Pandanus were comparable to those of other refuge-sites. We speculate that features of Pandanus that provide basking opportunities and moist microhabitats may be important for brown treesnakes. As Pandanus is widely distributed throughout the natural range of the brown treesnake, this genus may represent an important refuge-site for this species.


Archaeotourism can take place in two main forms: i) on site or locations of discoveries; and ii) assembling the discoveries into museums or exhibitions. Given that the first option in Kosovo has not proven viable, a marketing strategy went on to be explored for the latter in broad terms by taking into account Bronze Age artifacts with engravings from the sacred geometry discovered by the Author of this paper during 2013-14, which were the work of ancient Illyrians. Yet, the results suggesta third alternative of archaeotourism development, and that is the interest by respective foreign scholars, institutions, and foundations by using Long Tail marketing approach. The paper interprets some astrological metaphors of sacred geometry in literature review, but draws conclusions from archeological discoveries.


In recent years, the FRP-concrete composite bridge deck system has been introduced because of its light-weight and durability. The FRP-concrete composite bridge deck is composed of FRP module and concrete, and they are connected with shear connectors. In order to insure the composite action between FRP module and concrete, appropriate types of shear connector need to be installed. In this study, new type of FRP shear connector was suggested and the experimental investigations are conducted based on the studies of Perfobond. In the experimental study, the push-out test was conducted and the load carrying mechanism was analyzed including the friction effect of sand coating. Considering the load carrying mechanism of perforated shear connector under shear force, the empirical equation for the prediction of shear strength of perforated FRP shear connector was suggested.


: The accessibility to trypsin of 125I-labeled latrotoxin bound to rat brain synaptosomes was investigated. It was shown that latrotoxin bound to synaptosomes in the cold can be practically completely removed by trypsin treatment. The resistance of latrotoxin to proteolysis increases during its incubation with synaptosomes (37 degrees C). Concanavalin A (10(-6) M) decreases toxin binding by 30%, but fully prevents internalization (incorporation). Moreover, latrotoxin is not incorporated into synaptosomal membrane fragments irrespective of duration and temperature of incubation. Latrotoxin incorporated into synaptosomal membranes undergoes degradation by endogenous proteases resulting in the formation of TCA-soluble products.


Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 is one of the potential candidates for non-lead piezoelectric materials to replace existing lead-based ones. Properties of BNT could be enhanced by reactive templated grain growth (RTGG) technique through induction of grain orientation with crystals of Bi4Ti3O12. Controlling the size of Bi4Ti3O12 crystals during the synthesis with molten salt is a major factor in optimizing RTGG. It was found that molten salt synthesis of Bi4Ti3O12 crystals with NaCl-KCl yielded larger particles, compared with Na2SO4-3K2SO4. Varying the proportion of chloride salt did not produce noticeable changes in crystal size. Bi4Ti3O12 crystals were significantly affected by raw materials treatment. Non-milling of starting powders could approximately double the crystal size


In current literature, the genus Coxiella is monospecific with Coxiella burnetii as the only described member. Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of Q-fever, a virulent disease found worldwide spread through inhalation, tick bites and occasionally through the ingestion of contaminated milk products (Center for Disease Control, 2010). Recent research suggests that there are emergent pathogenic members of Coxiella to be described. In 1990, heavy losses in the Australian redclaw crayfish industry led to the discovery of a potential disease pathogen closely related to Coxiella causing up to 80% mortality in crayfish. The previously unrecognized disease was described histologically, revealing an aetiological organism similar to Rickettsia known to cause disease (Owens et al. 1992; Ketterer et al. 1992). An additional genetic study via 16S rRNA analysis revealed that this new pathogen had a 95.6% similarity to Coxiella burnetii, effectively indicating the organisms are of the same genus (Tan and Owens 2000; Cooper et al. 2007). The bacterium was designated Coxiella cheraxi by Tan and Owens (2000) and due to its phylogenetic similarity to Coxiella we are proposing further research to understand it and its infection potential.

This study seeks to compare Coxiella burnetii and Coxiella cheraxi with respect to infectivity, pathogenicity, histopathology and subsequent implications for biosecurity and public health. This was achieved in two parts, the first of which illustrates a novel method and experiment whereby the first known aquatic invertebrate (C. quadricarinatus) was infected with three doses of C. burnetii, a Level 3 pathogen. Twenty crayfish in four replicate dose groups (control, 10⁴, 10⁵, 10⁶ cells/ml) of five animals each were infected and monitored for twenty one days and mortality, histopathology, PCR, qPCR and sequencing assessments were made post-trial. The laboratory design and ensuing experiment were the first of their kind and were successful in illustrating a novel, risk-averse laboratory design for monitoring and maintaining aquatic invertebrates within a Physical Containment Level 3 (PC3/BSL-3) facility. This design is a potential model for future experiments seeking alternatives to vertebrate hosts. The subsequent infection experiment successfully demonstrated the initial host potential of C. quadricarinatus for C. burnetii, with results indicating that crayfish may be less susceptible to C. burnetii exposure and act only as carriers of the pathogen in doses as low as 1 to 2 organisms. These results differed significantly from observed Coxiella cheraxi infections within Australian redclaw which are known to cause high mortality and morbidity.

The second part of this thesis explores the clinical manifestation and origin of a 2012 presumptive C. cheraxi outbreak in Australian redclaw crayfish at the Marine and Aquaculture Research Facilities Unit (MARFU) at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. Cytoplasmic inclusion bodies, strong Gram negative bacteraemia and heavy mortalities observed in initial screening histopathology were strongly suggestive of previously observed C. cheraxi incidents (Owens et al. 1992, Ketterer et al. 1992). Resultant 16S rRNA sequencing indicated an 86% identity match to C. cheraxi and no other known pathogens thus tentatively suggesting the re-emergence of this pathogen within redclaw stock at MARFU and elsewhere. The work goes on to outline the consequent biosecurity response and diagnostic steps taken, and the successful tracking of the outbreak origin to one of three supplying commercial crayfish farms in northern Queensland. Finally the thesis illustrates the implications of the comparisons between C. cheraxi and C. burnetii as they relate to the fields of aquaculture, biosecurity and public health.


We analyzed the nature of the thyroid hormone-binding proteins in bullfrog plasma using N-bromoacetyl-[125I]T3 as an affinity labeling probe. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under nondenaturing conditions of the bullfrog N-bromoacetyl-[125I]T3-labeled plasma proteins revealed two proteins with specific binding to T3. A labeled protein that migrated faster than albumin (T-T3BP) was detected only in plasma obtained from tadpoles at stages earlier than, but not at the end of, metamorphic climax. Another protein that migrated more slowly than albumin appeared in the plasma at the late climax stage and was present in the adult stage. To study the function of T-T3BP during metamorphosis, it was purified from tadpole plasma to the single protein. The molecular mass of this protein was estimated to be 56 kilodaltons by gel filtration, but only 16 kilodaltons by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, which indicates that the molecule comprised four identical subunits. The amino acid composition of T-T3BP and the amino acid sequence of its N-terminal portion were highly homologous with those of mammalian transthyretins. These molecular features indicate that T-T3BP is a homolog of mammalian transthyretins. However, in contrast to mammalian transthyretins, the affinity of bullfrog transthyretin for T3 was 360 times higher than that for T4. Scatchard analysis revealed that T-T3BP possessed a single class of T3-binding site, with a Kd of 0.67 nM at 0 C. These results suggest that bullfrog transthyretin may play an important role in transporting T3 in the blood during metamorphosis.


Dome-building volcanoes, where long-term eruptive episodes can be interspersed with periods of intra-eruptive repose, are particularly challenging for volcanic hazard assessment. Defining the end of eruptive episodes is vitally important for the socioeconomic recovery of affected communities but highly problematic due to the potential for rapid transition from prolonged, seemingly low-risk repose to dangerous effusive or explosive activity. It is currently unclear what constitutes the end of repose and an eruptive episode. We show that analysis of surface deformation can characterize repose and help define an eruptive episode. At Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat, the long-term post–2010 deformation at 12 continuous GPS stations requires the pressure in the magma system to have increased with time; time-dependent stress relaxation or crustal creep cannot explain the deformation trends alone. Continued pressurization within the magmatic system during repose could initiate a renewed eruption, qualifying as sustained unrest and therefore continuation of the eruptive episode. For Soufrière Hills volcano, persistent magma pressurization highlights the need for sustained vigilance in the monitoring and management of the volcano and its surroundings, despite the last eruptive activity ending in 2010. Our results show promise for application to other dome-building volcanoes.


Liquid crystalline cholesteric blue phases (BPs) continue to attract interest due to their fast response times and quasi-polarization-independent phase modulation capabilities. Various approaches have recently been proposed to control the crystal orientation of BPs on substrates; however, their basic orientation properties on standard, unidirectionally orienting alignment layers have not been investigated in detail. Through analysis of the azimuthal orientation of Kossel diagrams, we study the 3D crystal orientation of a BP material—with a phase sequence of cholesteric, BP I, and BP II—on unidirectionally orienting surfaces prepared using two methods: rubbing and photoalignment. BP II grown from the isotropic phase is sensitive to surface conditions, with different crystal planes orienting on the two substrates. On the other hand, strong thermal hysteresis is observed in BPs grown through a different liquid crystal phase, implying that the preceding structure determines the orientation. More specifically, the BP II–I transition is accompanied by a rotation of the crystal such that the crystal direction defined by certain low-value Miller indices transform into different directions, and within the allowed rotations, different azimuthal configurations are obtained in the same cell depending on the thermal process. Our findings demonstrate that, for the alignment control of BPs, the thermal process is as important as the properties of the alignment layer.


In the last few years, the study of coupling of chemical reactions has gained immense importance because of the dynamics arising from such a set up is analogous to that of biological processes. In the present study we have made an attempt to characterize the dynamics observed during the electrical coupling of two Belousov Zhabotinskii (BZ) oscillators in batch condition. One BZ oscilla tor is catalysed by cerium and the other by manganese. The coupling strength is varied by using external resistances. The possibility of existence of detenninistic chaos in this reaction is examined by nonlinear dynamical techniques such as the estimation of Lyapunov exponent and correlation dimension, fol lowed by false nearest neighbourhood method, surrogate data and predictability analyses. All the above methods of analysis show that due to coupling the oscillator catalysed by cerium undergoes more changes in its dynamics from the limit cycle behaviour than the other oscillator, i .e., the fast oscillating manganese system affects the dynamics of the slow oscillating cerium system. Chaos is observed in time series representing the potential difference between the two coupled oscillators. The degree of chaos is a function of the external resistance.


A novel CCD has been commercially produced by Marconi Applied Technology, UK under the trade name of L3Vision, and by Texas Instruments, USA under the trade name Impactron, both of which incorporate an all solid-state electron multiplying structure based on the Impact Ionisation phenomenon in silicon. This technology combines the single photon detection sensitivity of ICCDs with the inherent advantages of CCDs. Here we compare the electron multiplying CCD (EMCCD) with scientific ICCDs. In particular we look at the effect of the Excess Noise Factors on the respective S/N performances. We compare QEs, spatial resolution, darksignal, EBI and Clock Induced Charge (CIC), with the latter two as the ultimate limitations on sensitivity. We conclude that the electron multiplying CCD is a credible alternative to ICCDs in all non-gated applications.


The structural organization of the upstream regulatory regions of the apolipoprotein genes is discussed in relation to tissue-specific gene expression. Comparison of the sequences of the regulatory and coding parts of the genes that make up this multigene family shows that some members of the family with homologous coding regions may differ in the organization of their regulatory regions (apoE compared with apoA-IV, apoC-III, or apoC-II). On the other hand, some apolipoprotein genes with different primary structures of their coding regions and different intron-exon organization show similarities in the structural organization of their regulatory regions (e.g. apoC-III and apoB).


THE EFFECTS OF OLFACTORY STIMULI ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THE FAR EASTERN/AMUR LEOPARD (PANTHERA PARDUS ORIENTALIS) IN CAPTIVITY by Marks Stimson Me Whorter May 2014 Two Amur leopards from the Jackson Zoological Park were observed under continuous surveillance while on exhibit over 21 days to better understand the activity budget of leopards in captivity, and what effects olfactory stimuli may have on those activity patterns. Behaviors were observed through surveillance systems located around their enclosure and scored using an ethogram, and proportions of behaviors shown were calculated for each day, and by 15-minute increments throughout the day. Over the course of this study, leopards received three olfactory stimuli on separate occasions, where we then compared behaviors before stimuli presented to behaviors expressed during and after enrichment was presented. Overall, leopards were active on average around two hours, 30 minutes each day, with pacing accounting for approximately 30 minutes to one hour of that time. Leopards interacted with stimuli; however, their use was extremely short-lived, primarily only the first two hours of the first day, with use dropping between 85% and 90% from the first to second day. Animals were also selecting certain areas of their exhibit, using 51% of their exhibit 83% of the time. Ultimately, some stimuli may have positive effects on modifying captive leopards, but those effects may not last to a second day. Zoos should continually modify stimuli and account for almost immediate habitation for an enrichment program to be effective.


Mobile learning applications support traditional indoor lectures with outdoor activities using mobile devices. An example scenario is a team of students that use triangulation techniques to learn properties of geometrical figures. In previous work, we developed an agent-based mobile learning application in which students use GPS-enabled phones to calculate distances between them. From practical experience, we learned that the required level of GPS accuracy is not always guaranteed, which undermines the use of the application. In this paper, we explain how we have extended the existing application with a self-adaptation layer, making the system robust to degrading GPS accuracy. The self-adaptive layer is conceived as a set of interacting MAPE loops (Monitor-Analysis-Plan-Execute), distributed over the phones. To guarantee the robustness requirements, we formally specify the self-adaptive behaviors using timed automata, and the required properties using timed computation tree logic. We use the Uppaal tool to model the self-adaptive system and verify the robustness requirements. Finally, we discuss how the formal design supported the implementation of the self-adaptive layer on top of the existing application.


Diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma is in urgent need for new complementary biomarkers for early stage detection. In order to find an alternative procedure to replace an uncomfortable conventional method in detecting cervical cancer, a proteomic approach in screening the urinary proteins were employed. Proteins that are aberrantly excreted in the urine of cancer patients are excellent biomarker candidates for development of new non-invasive protocol for early diagnosis and screening purposes. In the present study, urine samples from patients with ovarian carcinoma and cervical cancer were analysed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and the profiles generated were compared to those similarly obtained from age-matched cancer negative women. These samples were also subjected to SELDI-TOF-MS as a complimentary technique for 2-DE especially on screening of aberrantly expressed of low molecular weight proteins.
Significant reduced levels of CD59, kininogen-1 and a 39 kDa fragment of inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain H4 (ITIH4), and enhanced excretion of a 19 kDa fragment of albumin, were detected in the urine of patients with ovarian carcinoma compared to the control subjects. These proteins, with exception of kininogen-1, were also detected in the urine of patients with cervical cancer as compared to the control subjects. The different altered levels of the proteins were confirmed by Western blotting using antisera and a lectin that bind to the respective proteins. When the samples were analysed with SELDI-TOF-MS, one protein peak with m/z of 15802 was detected in ovarian cancer cohort, but not in cervical cancer and control. The peaks m/z 7528.78 and m/z 8828.8 were found to be significantly absent in ovarian cancer and cervical cancer, respectively. Interestingly, protein peak at m/z 15802 with a p-value less than 0.05 had a potential to be a good biomarker with 100% sensitivity and 89.4% specificity for the learning set obtained from the classification tree in the Biomarker Pattern Software (BPS).
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This study clearly demonstrated that the combined technology of 2-DE and SELDI-TOF-MS is effective in distinguishing urinary protein expression between control, ovarian carcinoma and cervical cancer cohorts. The identified proteins CD59, kininogen-1 and fragments of ITIH4 and albumin may be used as complementary biomarkers in the development of new non-invasive protocols for diagnosis and screening of ovarian carcinoma and cervical cancer. The identified peaks may be candidate biomarkers for early detection and could be utilised to distinguish between ovarian and cervical cancer in the future. Furthermore, the classification tree generated by the Biomarker Pattern Software (BPS), has a potential to be used in classifying the three cohorts.


In Taking Sides Heidi Armbruster and Anna Laerke present nine firsthand accounts of conducting anthropology in various geographical locations and in different socio-political contexts including Syria, England, Bangladesh, Turkey and Austria. The importance of taking sides is the key premise of the book, it reveals how even if the researcher 'does nothing' a choice has been made. As becomes clear throughout the volume, this is not unproblematic; it can cause tension and ethical dilemmas as it tends to raise difficult choices for the researcher. Consequently the book is premised on the impossibility of the anthropologist ever remaining impartial and so the politics and ethics of conducting participant research are examined throughout the volume. While the authenticity of this particular stance on impartiality may be debated at length, it nonetheless provides a platform for analysis. Rather than considering the way in which those in the field may be represented by others speaking on their behalf, the starting point here is to speak with them. Through critical analysis the researchers reveal how they are embedded in the field and are politically engaged; they are not set apart from the research, instead they inhabit it and they help to shape it. Researchers develop relations with individuals; even so their activities are bounded by wider social structures. This power relations; positionality; and


Large scale digital sky surveys have produced an unprecedented volume of
uniform data covering both vast proportions of the sky and a wide range of wavelength,
from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. The challenge facing astronomers
today is how to use this multitude of information to extract trends, outliers and
and rare objects. For example, a large sample of single white dwarf stars has the
potential to probe the Galaxy through the luminosity function.
The aim of this work was to study stellar and planetary remnants in these
surveys. In the last few decades, it has been shown that a handful of white dwarfs
have remnants of planetary systems around them, in the form of a dusty disc.
These are currently providing the best constraints on the composition of extra-solar
planetary systems. Finding significant numbers of dusty discs is only possible in
large scale digital sky surveys.
I ultilised the SDSS DR7 and colour-colour diagrams to and DA white dwarfs
from optical photometry. This nearly doubled the number of spectroscopically con-
armed DA white dwarfs in the SDSS compared with DR4 [Eisenstein et al., 2006],
and introduced nearly 10; 000 photometric-only DA white dwarf candidates. I further
cross-matched our white dwarf catalogue with UKIDSS LAS DR8 to carry out
the currently largest and deepest untargeted search for low-mass companions to,
and dust discs around, DA white dwarfs. Simultaneously, I analyzed Spitzer observations
of 15 white dwarfs with metal-polluted atmospheres, all but one having
helium-dominated atmospheres. Three of these stars were found to have an infrared
excess consistent with a dusty disc. I used the total sample to estimate a typical
disc lifetime of log[tdisc(yr)] = 5:6+1:1, which is compatible with the relatively large
range estimated from different theoretical models.
Subdwarf population synthesis models predicted a vast population of subdwarfs
with F to K-type companions, produced in the effcient RLOF formation
channel. I used a cross-match of ultraviolet, optical and infrared surveys to search
for this unseen population. I select a complementary sample to those found from
radial velocity surveys, offering direct tests of binary evolution pathways.
Finally, I present a method to use common proper motion white dwarf pairs
to constrain the initial-final mass relation, which is extremely uncertain at low
masses. In the example I show, one of the stars is a magnetic white dwarf with
B ' 6 MG, making this a rare and intriguing system from a magnetic white dwarf
formation point of view.


Temperature cycling tests, and statistical analysis of the results, for various high‐density packages on printed‐circuit boards with Sn‐Cu hot‐air solder levelling, electroless nickel‐immersion gold, and organic solder preservative finishes are investigated in this study. Emphasis is placed on the determination of the life distribution and reliability of the lead‐free solder joints of these high‐density package assemblies while they are subjected to temperature cycling conditions. A data acquisition system, the relevant failure criterion, and the data extraction method will be presented and examined. The life test data are best fitted to the Weibull distribution. Also, the sample mean, population mean, sample characteristic life, true characteristic life, sample Weibull slope, and true Weibull slope for some of the high‐density packages are provided and discussed. Furthermore, the relationship between the reliability and the confidence limits for a life distribution is established. Finally, the confidence levels for comparing the quality (mean life) of lead‐free solder joints of high‐density packages are determined.


The technology and CAD tools employed by industry to design digital hardware evolve quickly and continuously. Well prepared engineers, who are able to produce actual designs and adapt themselves to the global world, are in demand. Educational programs must keep pace with technologies in common use in order to produce graduates who are competitive in the marketplace. Studies conducted at two different universities, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and Washington State University measure changes in student performance when all students have unlimited access to state of the art design tools and hardware systems. Data are collected from surveys, exams, and course assignments. Quantitative data are analyzed by comparison to historical data gathered from student groups that did not have unlimited access to hardware systems, and qualitative data are used to determine the subjective quality of each student's experience. Outcomes include: assessing whether the overall learning process is improved; whether students have a better knowledge of modern technologies and design methods; whether their comprehension of founding concepts has improved or faltered.


Considers the problem of control of generalized contact forces with a manipulator controller that has traditionally been regarded as a noncontact task trajectory controller. The open-loop control of generalized forces, suitable for tasks in which only crude force control is required, is achieved through the manipulation of the generalized position inputs of the robotic manipulator. An algorithm is proposed which determines the appropriate manipulator generalized inputs, the only input signal available to the position controller, in order to generate prescribed generalized force and position trajectories during contact with the robot work environment. During noncontact motion of the manipulator, the robot is operated in the more usual generalized position control mode. The use of such a method to control generalized contact forces, although in an open-loop manner, permits a single control to be utilized for both noncontact and contact tasks. Thus, issues of stability during the transition to and from contact, as well as stability during sustained contact are avoided. Hence, the utilization of a single control for both noncontact and contact phases of a single task is seen to be advantageous. The stability of the robotic manipulator during object contact, implicitly assumed by the proposed control strategy, is established using the theory of singular perturbations. Experimental results of a two-degree-of-freedom direct drive manipulator during contact with a one-degree-of-freedom linear mechanical impedance illustrate the usefulness of the proposed method. >


Book synopsis: The Oxford Handbooks series is a major new initiative in academic publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and up-to-date survey of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences.

Ernie Lepore and Barry Smith present the definitive reference work for this diverse and fertile field of philosophy. A superb international team contribute more than forty brand-new essays covering topics from the nature of language to meaning, truth, and reference, and the interfaces of philosophy of language with linguistics, psychology, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics. It will be an essential resource for anyone working in the central areas of philosophy, for linguists interested in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and for psychologists and cognitive scientists working on language.


As a result of immense industrialisation and high population growth, groundwater is heavily relied on in Lagos metropolis to serve as an alternative source of water where surface water is seriously polluted. The continued reliance on ground water has resulted in its decline in quantity and quality. In this study, the coastal aquifers of Lagos metropolis were selected for an assessment of its groundwater quality and impact of saline intrusion.
Water samples collected along the coastal region were subjected to various physicochemical analyses. Results obtained were compared with permissible values for drinking water stated by Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) and World Health Organization (WHO). The results revealed that all the water samples were significantly hard (range 522.14 – 1233.34mg/L). The salinity was delineated by conductivity measurements. Three samples had specific conductance above the stated limits for fresh water. The samples however met the stipulated limits for drinking water for the other tested parameters.


BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS
In 38-80% patients with suspicion to choledocholithiasis were no stones in common bile duct (CBD) after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). ERCP is not safe procedure and has a risk of complications ranging 4-15%. The aim of our study was to estimate the diagnostic value and safety of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in CBD stones diagnosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
In patients with medium probability of CBD stones (i.e. CBD ≤ 10 mm and/or bilirubin ≤ 2 times upper normal) was performed BUS with Pentax EG-3870UTK and Hitachi EUB-7000HV. From September 2012 till December 2013 it were done 72 investigations in patients with suspicion of CBD stones.

RESULTS
After EUS suspicion for CBD stones were in 21 patients. Average size of hyperechoic defects was 5.6 ± 3.3 (2-12) mm. ERCP was performed in 20 of them. Stones were confirmed and removed in 18 patients, in 2 patients without stones it was found a stricture of terminal part of CBD. In 9 patients absence of stones was confirmed during laparoscopic cholecystectomy with IOC. Patients without indications to cholecystectomy were followed for six months and there were no additional investigations. It were no complications after EUS. EUS sensitivity was 100%, specificity--96.2%, PPV--90%, NPV--100%.

CONCLUSION
EUS is effective tool for diagnosis of CBD stones in patients with medium probability of choledocholithiasis. It could be recommended as a first diagnostic step in these patients because the risk of complications is negligible.


This paper presented a face detection system using Radial Basis Function Neural Networks With Fixed Spread Value. Face detection is the first step in face recognition system. The purpose is to localize and extract the face region from the background that will be fed into the face recognition system for identification. General preprocessing approach was used for normalizing the image and Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Network was used to distinguish between face and non-face. RBF Neural Networks offer several advantages compared to other neural network architecture such as they can be trained using fast two stages training algorithm and the network possesses the property of best approximation. The output of the network can be optimized by setting suitable value of center and spread of the RBF. In this paper, fixed spread value will be used. The Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) used to distinguish faces and non-faces and the evaluation of the system will be the performance of detection, False Acceptance Rate (FAR), False Rejection Rate (FRR) and the discriminative properties.


Lettuce is one of the most common raw foods worldwide, but occasionally also involved in pathogen outbreaks. To understand the correlative structure of the bacterial community as a network, we studied root microbiota of eight ancient and modern Lactuca sativa cultivars and the wild ancestor Lactuca serriola by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries. The lettuce microbiota was dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacteriodetes, as well as abundant Chloroflexi and Actinobacteria. Cultivar specificity comprised 12.5% of the species. Diversity indices were not different between lettuce cultivar groups but higher than in L. serriola, suggesting that domestication lead to bacterial diversification in lettuce root system. Spearman correlations between operational taxonomic units (OTUs) showed that co-occurrence prevailed over co-exclusion, and complementary fluorescence in situ hybridization-confocal laser scanning microscopy (FISH-CLSM) analyses revealed that this pattern results from both potential interactions and habitat sharing. Predominant taxa, such as Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium and Sphingomonadaceae rather suggested interactions, even though these are not necessarily part of significant modules in the co-occurrence networks. Without any need for complex interactions, single organisms are able to invade into this microbial network and to colonize lettuce plants, a fact that can influence the susceptibility to pathogens. The approach to combine co-occurrence analysis and FISH-CLSM allows reliably reconstructing and interpreting microbial interaction networks.


In this paper we study the influence of using hub nodes to relay messages in human-based delay tolerant networks (DTNs), by analyzing empirical traces obtained by human mobility monitoring experiments. Four traces known in literature have been considered. We exploit a measure of centrality (or betweenness) over underlying graphs associated to temporal networks, in order to establish (in probability) the ability to forward information using a restricted number of active relay nodes (hubs). The proposed analyses are carried out by introducing time-dependent networks associated to real traces. The empirical cumulative distribution of the node betweenness and the shortest paths length (or geodetic) are derived and characterized. The analysis shows that the geodetic path length follows a lognormal (skewed) distribution. It is also observed that the measures of betweenness on the nodes, if ordered decreasingly and interpreted as probability distribution, exhibit an exponential-like decay, with very high betweenness for few nodes and much lower for all the others. Based on this knowledge, we study the probability of successful delivery when a set of nodes with low betweenness are deactivated as forwarding nodes. Under these assumptions, we give the probability that a k-length path connecting an arbitrary source-destination pair belong to the set of the activated hub nodes. The results show how a trade-off can be found between the number of relay nodes (hubs) activated in a temporal network and the network's delivery rate, when message forwarding is allowed only for these hubs.


Thermal electronic excitations in metal crystals are calculated by starting with a reference structure for the nuclei: the crystal structure of the appropriate phase. Here we explain the corresponding theory for metal liquids, starting with an appropriate reference structure for a liquid. We explain the significance of these structures, and we briefly review how to find them and calculate their properties. Then we examine the electronic densities of states for liquid structures of Na, Al, and Cu, comparing them to their crystal forms. Next we explain how to calculate the dominant electronic thermal excitation term, considering issues of accuracy that do not arise in the crystal theory. Finally we briefly discuss the contribution from the interaction between excited electrons and moving nuclei.


We study American swaptions in the linear-rational (LR) term structure model introduced in Filipović et al. [J. Finance., 2017, 72, 655–704]. The American swaption pricing problem boils down to an optimal stopping problem that is analytically tractable. It reduces to a free-boundary problem that we tackle by the local time-space calculus of Peskir [J. Theoret. Probab., 2005a, 18, 499–535]. We characterize the optimal stopping boundary as the unique solution to a non-linear integral equation that can be readily solved numerically. We obtain the arbitrage-free price of the American swaption and the optimal exercise strategies in terms of swap rates for both fixed-rate payer and receiver swaps. Finally, we show that Bermudan swaptions can be efficiently priced as well.


For those learning a new language or needing help with translation and grammar. Also lists resources for media, film, music, and literature in all languages.


This paper describes an alternative process for chloroform decomposition via nonthermal plasma polymerization at atmospheric pressure and investigates the effect of methane and hydrogen addition on the process. The effect of both additives was assessed separately, where experiments were conducted in a double dielectric barrier discharge reactor under nonoxidative conditions. The most profound impact of the additives was a significant increase in the yield of non-cross-linked polymer produced compared to that in their absence. The addition of methane resulted in a 120% increase in polymer yield, while in hydrogen the increase was 31%. Critical parameters such as effect of the methane and hydrogen concentration on the conversion of chloroform at various applied voltages, the product distribution, mass balance, and polymer characterization are elucidated in this paper. Single pass conversions of 61% and 68% (with corresponding mass balances of 98% and 95%, respectively) were achieved for CHCl3 + CH4 and CHCl3 + H2 feed scenarios, respectively. Furthermore, a polymerization mechanism which explains the formation of major chain structures as well as structural defects in the polymer is expounded upon in the paper.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine the influence of velopharyngeal (VP) inadequacy on respiratory speech compensations.

DESIGN
The pressure-flow technique was used to measure pressure, airflow, and timing variables associated with VP closure during the production of the initial plosive consonant /p/ in a series of the utterance "papa."

SETTING
The study was conducted in the speech and breathing laboratory of the UNC Craniofacial Center.

PARTICIPANTS
Eighty-two subjects with cleft lip and/or palate were assessed. The subjects were divided into two groups, those with adequate VP closure (VP size <.010 cm2) and those with inadequate VP closure (VP size >0.10 cm2). The adequate group was comprised of 62 subjects, and 20 subjects were categorized as inadequate.

RESULTS
Peak intraoral pressure decreased in the inadequate group, but the difference was not significant. Nasal airflow increased (p < .01), but duration of the pressure pulse was the same for both groups. The area under the pressure curve decreased for the inadequate group (p = .04).

CONCLUSION
These data contrast with previously reported published data using /p/ in the utterance "hamper." This suggests that phonetic context influences the compensatory response to velopharyngeal inadequacy. Additionally, while the findings are somewhat similar to studies that involved noncleft subjects whose oral airway was suddenly vented during the production of /p/, there is enough difference to suggest that learning also affects the compensatory outcome.


Background Shoulder pain is a common problem and disorders of the rotator cuff are considered to be the commonest cause of this pain. Despite this, there is a paucity of high-quality research upon which to base practice. There is a clear need to determine the range of current practice as a basis upon which to inform future research. Objectives To describe current physiotherapy practice in relation to the assessment and management of rotator cuff disorders and to gain an insight into the perceived research needs of physiotherapists in the UK. Methods An electronic survey was developed and responses were sought in relation to a case report considered to represent a patient with a typical rotator cuff disorder. Results A total of 110 surveys were completed. The respondents stated that they would undertake a range of diagnostic tests, offer a wide variety of interventions and offer a broad prediction of prognosis. Conclusion Current physiotherapy practice in relation to rotator cuff disorders is variable, which might reflect the lack of high-quality evidence available. There is a clear need for high-quality research to inform physiotherapy practice in this burdensome area.


The research of fatigue crack threshold is an issue in fatigue research. Though there are many research methods, calculation formulae and test data, most of the formulae are evaluated by experiments and have test constants in them, which lead to inconvenient application. Based on displacement fields around crack tip and fatigue theory, A formula that can describe fatigue crack threshold related to material properties is proposed. Each parameters in the formula has definite physical meaning. And it is convenient to use this formula. Using this formula, the material threshold is primarily calculated before design. At last, using existing data to verify, it is shown that the formula is reliable.


Hemochromatosis is a disorder of excess iron deposition in tissues that may cause multiorgan dysfunction. Because the early symptoms of hemochromatosis are nonspecific, the diagnosis is frequently overlooked until significant organ failure has developed. The primary cause of death in these patients is usually liver cancer related to cirrhosis. Patients who are candidates for liver transplantation should be referred for evaluation. For patients with severe cardiomyopathy, in addition to end-stage liver disease, combined transplantation may be performed. Although there is a limited number of combined heart-liver transplantations that have been performed, successful outcomes can be achieved with close monitoring and a multidisciplinary team approach. In this case report, we will discuss the prevalence, pathophysiology, and treatment of hemochromatosis and potential complications of combined heart-liver transplantation.


Anecdotal evidence and academic research show that judges' subjective feelings toward litigants have undue influence on their judgments. This article suggests a simple debiasing procedure, namely, requiring judges to write their reasons before making a decision. I conduct experiments on incumbent Chinese judges to test its effectiveness. Study 1 uses a between-subjects design to explore the interaction of reason writing and a stimulus that induces a judge to have negative feelings toward a defendant. Judges who are required to write down their reasons before they decide a case are significantly less affected by the stimulus than those who directly enter the decision-making stage. Study 2 provides evidence that a forced deliberation period achieves a similar debiasing effect. Study 3 examines the opposite of reason writing— the delegation of reason writing, which resembles the delegation of opinion writing by judges to law clerks. I find that delegation serves to reinforce biases.


Background: It has been demonstrated in previous studies that elderly with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergo more complications than the young with AMI. ObjectiveThe present study was undertaken to analyse the risk factors, clinical features, outcomes and complications of AMI in elderly. The material and methodsWe enrolled 180 patients and divided them into 2 groups of 90 each belonging to one group of less than 60 yrs and another group of more than 60 yrs of age. To study the various complications in the above age group of patients with AMI in 30 days follow up. Result: It was seen that the elderly with MI presented with more risk factors and more atypical presentations. Higher morbidity and mortality was observed on 30 days follow up. Conclusion: It was seen that all the complications were more in elderly as compared to young.


Although the web browser has become a standard interface for information access on the Web, the mobile web browser on the smartphone does not hold the same interest to mobile users. A survey with 11 mobile users shows that only 18% of the participants like mobile web browsers, whereas 82% of them like other mobile applications. This research focuses on understanding mobile users' difficulties and proposes innovative ideas to enhance mobile web browsing. This research enhances mobile browsing and reading in three directions: (1) dynamically generating mobile web sites for browsing (2) using orientation sensor information to detect natural interactions and text-to-speech (TTS) to continue reading between different activities, and (3) providing a speech interface to ease web navigation and supporting dialog programming for repetitive tasks. The Read4Me Browser is a prototype system built to demonstrate the proposed ideas.


Active nematics contain topological defects which under sufficient activity move, create and annihilate in a chaotic quasi-steady state, called active turbulence. However, understanding active defects under confinement is an open challenge, especially in three-dimensions. Here, we demonstrate the topology of three-dimensional active nematic turbulence under the spherical confinement, using numerical modelling. In such spherical droplets, we show the three-dimensional structure of the topological defects, which due to closed confinement emerge in the form of closed loops or surface-to-surface spanning line segments. In the turbulent regime, the defects are shown to be strongly spatially and time varying, with ongoing transformations between positive winding, negative winding and twisted profiles, and with defect loops of zero and non-zero topological charge. The timeline of the active turbulence is characterised by four types of bulk topology-linked events --- breakup, annihilation, coalescence and cross-over of the defects --- which we discuss could be used for the analysis of the active turbulence in different three-dimensional geometries. The turbulent regime is separated by a first order structural transition from a low activity regime of a steady-state vortex structure and an offset single point defect. We also demonstrate coupling of surface and bulk topological defect dynamics by changing from strong perpendicular to inplane surface alignment. More generally, this work is aimed to provide insight into three-dimensional active turbulence, distinctly from the perspective of the topology of the emergent three-dimensional topological defects.


This study will examine how branded games in the LEGO Ninjago franchise communicate the brand narrative through their mechanical, semiotic and referential design. Digital games as communicative tools facilitate a new paradigm of marketing focusing on experience creation through integrated marketing communication plans. The LEGO brand creates highly successful games that communicate the brand effectively. To explore the possibilities and counteract the simplistic use of branded games, this study introduces an innovative framework to formally analyze branded games and their communication of a brand narrative through mechanical, semiotic and referential layers. This framework introduces formal game design to advertising studies, while dragging game studies into branded ecosystems. Using the framework, we analyze LEGO Ninjago the Movie – The Videogame, to identify how this paid digital game expands the Ninjago universe and fulfills specific marketing purposes oriented to LEGO toy sets. Our analysis shows that on a mechanical and semiotic layer, the game presents a standalone experience catering to the universe of the Ninjago movie and the values of the Ninjago brand narrative. However, by framing the whole game as LEGO– in its materiality and interactable objects – the LEGO brand narrative of creative construction informs the act of play. The referential design in these games makes use of playful disruption of rules to instill additive comprehension in the player related to purchasable sets and content.


The problem that underlies the Augmented Reality-based teaching material development assistance program for teachers in remote areas is located in the gap in the progress of the quality of education between remote and urban areas caused by demanding access to cities, and the lack of knowledge and understanding of teachers in developing materials innovative teaching by utilizing current technological advancements. Community service activities aim to produce innovative teaching materials based on Augmented Reality at Muhammadiyah 4 Daun Vocational School and MTs Muhammadiyah 5 Daun Sangkapura, Bawean Island. Bawean Island is located 80 miles or 135 km north of Java. The geographical location and transportation conditions connecting Bawean and Gresik islands are the main obstacles for teachers on Bawean island to follow the development of science and technology which results in the low quality of the learning process so that it lags behind the development of information technology.
Form of implementation of the program as a realization troubleshooting manifest in periodic and scheduled activities through a strengthening phase followed the concept of mobile learning needs analysis workshop, workshop material development, and implementation with the assistance of a team of stewards and continued application independently by the school in the implementation phase of using the steps Lesson Study as much as two cycles. The method used in the implementation of this activity is the method of discussion, workshops, and direct practice in class. Increased knowledge and ability of teachers teaching materials related to the development of innovative Augmented Reality-based and capable of producing the best practices in the implementation report the development of innovative teaching materials based Augmented Reality in learning in SMK Muhammadiyah 4 Daun and MTs Muhammadiyah 5 Daun Sangkapura, Bawean


ABSTRACT Analyzing the effects of compaction and differential compaction can give "wholesale returns of conjecture. One kind of analysis depends on calculating a "decompaction number" which, when multiplied by present thickness of a compacted interval, will yield the original thickness. The simplest parameter for this is grain proportion (complement of porosity, or dry bulk density divided by solid grain density), because thickness times grain proportion remains constant during compaction of a bed. The decompaction number for clayey sediments is the present grain proportion divided by earlier or initial grain proportion. Initial grain proportion averages 0.22 (78 percent porosity), and solid grain density averages 2.66 gm/cc. Other kinds of analysis are aided by a graph of porosity versus depth of burial. The graph is a composite of published data on compaction tests, drill cores, and cores of unlithified clayey sediments. Differential compaction lends itself to empirical analysis, especially where compacted coat or shale inter-tongues with noncompacted sand. Tentative decompaction numbers for coal are cited from unpublished data. Several conjectures are drawn from compaction features in southwest Vermont, involving Cambro-Ordovician argillites and distal sandy interbeds of an inferred submarine fan. Shallow scouring is revealed by restoring initial geometry. The decompaction number argues against tectonic thinning. Porosity of the argillites was perhaps 30 percent during gravity sliding of this slice of the Taconic klippe, was reduced by tectonic overburden, and was eliminated by mild Acadian metamorphism.


No disease-modifying compounds are available to halt disease progression in Alzheimer's
disease (AD). Immunotherapy offers promising possibilities for the manipulation of Aβ levels
which the amyloid cascade hypothesis proposes as the causative factor in AD. However, antiAβ antibodies have caused inflammation in vivo. An alternative antibody (2B3) which targets
the β-secretase cleavage site of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) from which Aβ is cleaved
has been shown to downregulate Aβ in human cell lines. The approach is thought unlikely to
cause inflammation as the immune system is not relied upon for Aβ clearance. It was
hypothesised that the administration of 2B3 to aged transgenic APP mutation mice would
lower Aβ levels through the inhibition of Aβ production, with an associated lowering of
cognitive deficits. Two murine APP mutation models [London APP(V717I) and Indiana
PDAPP(V717F)] were characterised in order to identify cognitive deficits against which the
ability of 2B3 to reduce deficits could be assessed. APP(V717I) mice were assessed in the
marble burying task, the elevated plus maze and a foraging task assessing spatial working
memory at 3, 6 and 19 months of age. The radial arm water maze was carried out at 10
months, before the T-maze non-matching to position task was administered at 11 months.
Object recognition memory was assessed at 18 months. Similarly, PDAPP mice were assessed
using the marble burying and elevated plus maze (9.5months), the T-maze (9-10 months), the
foraging task (11 and 14 months) and the object recognition task (12 months). Whilst aged
transgenic PDAPP mice displayed disrupted spatial working memory, no evidence of agerelated cognitive decline was observed in APP(V717I) transgenic mice despite increases in Aβ
pathology with age. 2B3 did not alter Aβ levels or spatial working memory in PDAPP(V717F)
mice in a pilot study, whilst the in vitro downregulation of Aβ was successfully replicated in
primary murine neurons. The findings indicate that transgenic models of neurodegenerative
disease require thorough characterisation to optimise their use in pre-clinical research.
Furthermore, the use of alternative immunotherapy in the treatment of AD remains a
promising, but early stage avenue of study.


Hyperglycemia induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation is believed as major factors leading to diabetic nephropathy (DN). DangGui (Angelica sinensis) is mentioned to show renal protective effect in combination with other herbs. Bone morphogenetic proteins-7 (BMP-7) is produced merit in protection of DN. The role of BMP-7 in DangGui-induced renal improvement is not clear. The present study investigated the effects of DangGui on renal functions, BMP-7 expression and the levels of ROS in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats and high glucose-exposed rat mesangial cells (RMCs). After 1- or 4-week treatment, DangGui improved renal functions and increased renal BMP-7 expression in diabetic rats. The BMP-7 expression in RMCs was reduced by high glucose treatment and this could be reversed by DangGui. Moreover, RMCs exposed to high glucose were expired by BMP-7 RNAi transfection but those cells remained alive by scramble transfection. Thus, we employed regular RMCs to knock down BMP-7 with RNAi and we found that DangGui increased BMP-7 expression in these RMCs. Direct activation of BMP-7 expression by DangGui could be considered. The results of DPPH assay, DHE stain and lucigenin assay indicated that DangGui could inhibit high glucose-induced ROS in RMCs. These results suggest that DangGui has an ability to improve renal functions in STZ-diabetic rats through increasing endogenous BMP-7 expression and decreasing oxidative stress in kidney. The present study suggest that DangGui could be applied to improve renal functions in diabetic disorders.


The thermally-induced deformations of package-on- package (POP) are investigated theoretically, numerically and experimentally in this paper. An analytical model of POP is newly proposed for prediction of the warpage of POP, which can be achieved by solving a few linear multiple polynomial equations rather than building a complex model in ANSYS, and leads to satisfying results. All the parameters needed for the analytical model are temperature-dependant material properties, and geometrical parameters. Measurements of the the warpage of POP under various temperature loads are made with a Profilometer Altisurf 500. Moreover, a 3-D linear finite element model was built. Both measurements and simulation validate our analytical model. The results from the experiments are presented and compared in detail with those from the 3-D linear finite element and theoretical analysis. The good agreements in the experimental and modelling results reveal the validation of 3-D linear finite element model in mechanics sense and the effectiveness of the numerical and theoretical models in physics predictions. The interest lies in a very easy use of this theoretical model to quickly obtain the warpage information for deciding whether the design is suitable and/or comparing the different POP circuits design.


This qualitative study examines the fatherhood experience of 20 divorced men who are raising children on their own. The findings were gathered from semistructured in-depth interviews. The interviewees' depictions revealed a process of making place for oneself in a multiparticipant arena facing social systems, the mother of the children, and the children themselves. The main findings concern the circumstances of single fatherhood: a constraint and a choice stemming from the mother's incapacity, the nature of the relationships created between mother and children and between father and mother, and the burden and pleasure contained within single parenthood. The discussion looks at the findings through the prism of Baxter and Montgomery's (1996) dialectic theory. It sheds light on the ongoing, contrast-filled process of establishing a perception of fatherhood, and the experiences of divorced fathers raising their children on their own.


We will improve the context of the study and highlight key knowledge gaps this work addresses in both the introduction and conclusions. Streams are not explicitly considered in the Earth System Models because fluxes of C transport, removal and emission in headwater streams are highly inaccurate (IPCC 2022). This uncertainty partly reflects the fact that DOC concentrations and cycling vary greatly at small spatial scales (i.e. meters to kilometers) (Lupon et al. 2019). Given that these fine-scale spatial heterogeneities can change global C fluxes by 15-folds (Rocher-Ros et al. 2019), resolving the factors that generate them is a top priority for better understanding the role of headwater streams in current and future global biogeochemical cycles.


Anti-TNF therapy is still the most frequently used first-line biologic treatment in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This study aimed to determine length of treatment persistence and to describe reasons for discontinuation of first-line anti-TNF therapy used in the standard care of IBD patients.

 A single-center, real-world, retrospective study including IBD patients (Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), IBD unclassified (IBD-U)), who received an anti-TNF therapy in the last 20 years at the study center, was conducted. Length of first-line anti-TNF therapy, differences in treatment duration between infliximab (IFX) and adalimumab (ADA) and between CD and UC, reasons for discontinuation, side effects leading to cessation, treatment following first-line anti-TNF therapy, rates of surgery and death, and factors being associated with treatment failure were assessed.

 586 patients were identified as having received first-line anti-TNF therapy at the study center. 48 patients were excluded due to shortness of available data. 538 patients (CD: 367, UC: 147, IBD-U: 24) with a median follow-up of 8.1 years were included in the analysis. Median (IQR) treatment persistence was 21.0 (6.0, 57.0) months in the total cohort. Treatment withdrawal arose frequently (40%) within the first year of therapy and treatment persistence was longer in CD compared to UC (CD: 27.0 (8.0, 71.0) months, UC: 11.0 (3.0, 34) months, p<0.001). Treatment failure (51%) and side effects (24%) were the most commonly noticed reasons for withdrawal from therapy. 14% withdrew from therapy due to remission. The diagnosis of UC, female sex, the absence of prior intestinal resections, lower hemoglobin and albumin levels at anti-TNF initiation predicted treatment failure. Patients with CD continued ADA treatment longer than IFX treatment (ADA: (40.5 (14.2, 80.5) months, IFX: 18.0 (4.8, 65.0) months, p<0.001). Within the follow-up period, 17% of UC patients underwent colectomy and 34% of CD patients had at least one intestinal resection after start of first-line anti-TNF therapy. 2% of all patients died due to various reasons.

 Treatment persistence of first-line anti-TNF therapy is limited in IBD patients due to a large proportion of treatment failures and side effects.


The calmodulin (CaM)-binding regions in bovine endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and murine inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) are identified in this study as eNOS residues 493-512 and iNOS residues 501-532. Peptides corresponding to eNOS 493-512 and iNOS 501-532 produce a Ca-dependent, electrophoretic mobility shift of CaM on 4 M urea gels. The two peptides are also potent inhibitors of the CaM-mediated activation of neuronal nitric oxide synthase and have dissociation constants for CaM binding of 4.0 and 1.5 nM, respectively. Substitution of eNOS and iNOS CaM-binding domains in eNOS/iNOS chimeric proteins produces major alterations in the Ca and CaM dependence of the intact enzymes expressed and purified from a baculovirus/Sf9 insect cell system. Replacement of aligned iNOS sequence with eNOS 493-512 creates a functional, chimeric iNOS that is both Ca- and CaM-dependent. Replacement of aligned eNOS sequence with iNOS 501-532 creates a functional, chimeric eNOS that is CaM-independent but that remains Ca-dependent. Specific amino acid residues critical for CaM binding by eNOS are also identified in this study as Phe-498, Lys-499, and Leu-511 in the bovine eNOS sequence.


Municipalities are important actors in the field of local climate change adaptation. Stakeholders need scientifically sound information tailored to their needs to make local assessment of climate change effects. To provide tailored data to support municipal decision-making, climate scientists must know the state of municipal climate change adaptation, and the climate parameters relevant to decisions about such adaptation. The results of an empirical study in municipalities in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in Southwestern Germany showed that adaptation is a relatively new topic, but one of increasing importance. Therefore, past weather events that caused problems in a municipality can be a starting point in adaptation considerations. Deduction of tailored climate parameters has shown that, for decisions on the implementation of specific adaptation measures, it also is necessary to have information on specific parameters not yet evaluated in climate model simulations. We recommend intensifying the professional exchange between climate scientists and stakeholders in collaborative projects with the dual goals of making practical adaptation experience and knowledge accessible to climate science, and providing municipalities with tailored information about climate change and its effects. View Full-Text


It is important whether Emperor Gojong approved the signing of the Treaty of 1905(乙巳條約), but not that complicated to confirm a fact. Four documents are required for emperor's approval. These are the proposal with the emperor's signature(御押) and seal(御璽), the power of attorney for treaty conclusion, instruments of ratification, and the proposal of publication in the official gazette. However, there is none of 4 documents for the Treaty of 1905. Because it directly came up to the signing step without domestic law procedure. According to legislation of Daehan Empire("Euijeongbu Bureaucracy"(議政府官制) and "Euijeongbu Conference Regulation"(議政府會議規程)), the proposal for treaty should go through seven stages, ①receiving at the Foreign Ministry ②Foreign Ministry's discussion request to Euijeongbu ③ passing at the Euijeongbu conference ④ consultation of Joongchoowon(中樞院) ⑤ writing of the adress to the throne ⑥ emperor's approval ⑦ delegation, signing, ratification. The treaty proposal was received at the Foreign Ministry, but it jumped over the following procedure. Right after the treaty was concluded, on the 19th November, elder statesmen and government officials continued to devote appeals which claim the invalidity of the treaty and their resignation, also they directly tell the emperor their opinions staying at the palace day and night. Even foreign press reported the defect of the treaty. Some killed themselves in despair over their country's ruination. Japan oppressed people who are appealing against the treaty calling the army, but it could not make the movement stop. Therefore, Japan had to come up with the remedy for the situation. Ito Hirobumi arranged the whole procedure of the treaty(伊藤特派大使復命書). Furthermore, Japan made "five-ministers (5-thieves) of Daehan Empire" write a refutation appeal about the full account of the treaty conclusion to the emperor for it's own sake. However, the refutation appeal from five-ministers of Daehan Empire actually gave unfavorable evidence toward Japan as a result. The evidence are as follows. Japan neglected the Daehan Empire's regulation for the treaty conclusion. Emperor Gojong didn't command the approval of the treaty but the amendment. Emperor ordered in secret for opposition to the treaty. Ito threatened emperor Gojong not to decline to approve the treaty.


Interest into the history of child health and disability has intensified over the years. However, it is a relatively recent and unresearched area and still in its early development. Care available to poor, "crippled children" in Victorian England is a generally unexplored subject. Before the introduction of universal free access to healthcare, there was little available for those unable to afford it, beside voluntary organisations. One such example was the Northampton Crippled Children's Fund (NCCF), which from 1893 to 1925, provided care to the "crippled children" of the town. It funded medical and surgical care for children with deformities. Besides operations (which were rare), it also provided surgical boots, carriages and nourishment as well as providing an annual holiday to its seaside "colony" in Llandudno. Primary sources concerning disabled people in history are difficult to find and the study of disability history is challenging. However, this presentation using primary sources from the Archive, Northampton General Hospital will reconstruct such voluntary healthcare provided to "Crippled Children in straightened circumstances living in the town of Northampton under 17 years of age." NCCF annual reports from 1905 to 1925 include records of treatments, their costs and their dates given to each named child. Within the record books, some individual cases also include early x-rays, hand drawn vignettes pre and post treatment, together with relevant newspaper cuttings. The 1911 census online is also used. In a consecutive case series of twenty children randomly taken from a NCCF record book, the recorded pathologies were: nine rickets (45%), four spinal pathology (20%), three tuberculosis (15%), two paralysis (10%), one hemiplegia (5%), and one carcinoma (5%). Treatments were mainly medical, involving surgical boots but rarely surgical. The NCCF material provides insight into child health and disability and shows considerable potential for further exploration by social and medical historians. Lastly, the NCCF material will also be examined alongside that of other contemporary Charities such as the Birmingham's Cripples Union, which was founded in 1896. Although there have been considerable advances in clinical science since the early nineteenth century, many of these conditions remain considerable therapeutic challenges in the early twenty-first century.


This is a collection of published papers assembled as a reference for those involved in characterizing and specifying high-performance clocks and oscillators. It is an interim replacement for NBS Monograph 140, Time and Frequency: Theory and Fundamentals, an older volume of papers edited by Byron E. Blair. This current volume includes tutorial papers, papers on standards and definitions, and a collection of papers detailing specific measurement and analysis techniques. The discussion in the introduction to the volume provides a guide to the content of the papers, and tables and graphs provide further help in organizing methods described in the papers.


OBJECTIVE
Our experience with the treatment of large incisional hernias (IH) was reviewed comparing mesh repair alone vs. mesh repair plus pedicle flaps.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A retrospective study was performed on patients treated between 2001 and 2005 that underwent component separation technique (CST) repair with polypropylene mesh alone or with polypropylene mesh and local "pedicle" dermal flaps. The primary outcome evaluated was the recurrence rate, secondary outcomes the complication rate, hospital stay and reoperation rate.

RESULTS
Forty-eight patients were reviewed. Six patients (13%) developed an IH recurrence, two of them (4%) required secondary repair. CST combined with prosthetic mesh repair and pedicle flap was performed in 19 patients (39.6%) while CST combined with mesh repair alone in 29 patients (60.4%). The duration of surgery, hospitalization, postoperative complications as well as long-term results were similar.

CONCLUSIONS
Dermal pedicled flaps obtained through deepithelization of redundant skin following corrections of large incisional hernias are a safe, relatively easy and effective technique that allows reliable soft tissue coverage of the abdominal submuscular mesh.


Nowadays the market is becoming increasingly competitive, factories are required not only to enhance the product quality but also to reduce manufacturing and maintenance times. In an industrial context, modern factories are composed by many automated systems, such as industrial robots, which can perform different tasks. Although industrial robots are becoming more powerful and efficient, human workers are still required to accomplish different operations, such as training and maintenance procedures. The proposed research aims to assess a remote interaction system in an industrial training collaborative mixed-reality (CMR) environment. A remote expert user is capable of explaining a training procedure to an unskilled local user. Remote and local users interact using different interaction systems: the remote operator gives assistance using an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) device, whereas the local user interacts using a wearable Augmented Reality (AR) device. A comparison between an interaction based on the presence of a virtual human and one based on the use of abstract icons is proposed. In the first case, a virtual 3D representation of the remote technician is shown to the local user by using AR: the remote technician can pinpoint the components involved in the training procedure and the local user can visualize the instructions through some animations of the virtual avatar. In the second case, the local user cannot see a 3D representation of the remote technician; on the other hand, different 3D models, such as animated icons, are displayed to the local operator through AR depending on the component pinpointed by the remote technician in the virtual environment. Each 3D icon should suggest to the local user which component has to be manipulated at the current step of the procedure. Preliminary results suggest that the interface that requires less resources to be developed and managed should be preferred. Although in no audio condition the virtual avatar may improve the sense of presence of the remote technician, the use of abstract metaphors seems to be of primary importance to successfully complete an industrial task.


a theology of communion via the excellent film Babette's Feast. The difficulty with any hermeneutical activity which is essentially audience-based (an understandable extension of so-called reader-response criticism) is that it fights a battle for legitimacy and can appear trivial and light-weight, operating more on the level of feelings and sensations rather than on solid, well-argued opinion which is rooted and grounded in theological reflection. Impression cannot be allowed to substitute for analysis, and sadly, that is what occasionally happens in the discussion. Still, this is a welcome contribution to an area


Seed growth and accumulation of storage products relies on the delivery of sucrose from the maternal to the filial tissues. The transport route is hidden inside the seed and has never been visualized in vivo. Our approach, based on high-field nuclear magnetic resonance and a custom made (13)C/(1) H double resonant coil, allows the non-invasive imaging and monitoring of sucrose allocation within the seed. The new technique visualizes the main stream of sucrose and determines its velocity during the grain filling in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Quantifiable dynamic images are provided, which allow observing movement of (13)C-sucrose at a sub-millimetre level of resolution. The analysis of genetically modified barley grains (Jekyll transgenic lines, seg8 and Risø13 mutants) demonstrated that sucrose release via the nucellar projection towards the endosperm provides an essential mean for the control of seed growth by maternal organism. The sucrose allocation was further determined by structural and metabolic features of endosperm. Sucrose monitoring was integrated with an in silico flux balance analysis, representing a powerful platform for non-invasive study of seed filling in crops.


The introduction of each new muscle relaxant has advanced anaesthetic practice by trying to meet some perceived deficiency in the existing therapeutic armamentarium. Anaesthesiologists need agents which are appropriate to the duration of surgery: they prefer agents which are not subject to drug interaction, have no effect on cardiovascular function, which do not depend significantly on renal excretion, which are easy to reverse, and which have a rapid onset of action. In certain circumstances one of these requirements becomes overridingly important. The latest new addition, rocuronium, fills the gap for an agent with rapid onset while lacking the potentially adverse features of suxamethonium, retaining a medium duration of action and meeting the other requirements set out above as well as any existing agent.


Background: Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) in patients with malignancies are common and frequently have serious consequences. These infections are caused by a wide range of microorganisms with variable anti-microbial susceptibilities. Objectives: To analyse skin and soft tissue infections in cancer patients at Apeksha Hospital with regard to causative agents, antibiotic susceptibility and associated factors. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out for 18-month period. Specimens from adult cancer patients admitted to Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama with SSTIs were analysed. Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial culture, fungal culture, species identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing were performed. Clinical data were obtained from patient records. Results: A total of 85 patients were included with a male: female ratio of 1:1.1.Majority (75%) were >50 years old. Out of the 80 aerobic bacterial isolates most (69%) were Gram negatives, majority being Enterobateriaceae (42/80) followed by Pseudomonas (11/80). Escherichia coli was the commonest bacterial species. Staphylococcus aureus was the commonestGram positive organism (22/80). No strict anaerobic bacteria were yielded however, 3 fungi (two Candida albicans, one Fusarium species) were isolated. Enterobacteria showed lowest resistance to amikacin (7%) and meropenem (10%). Pseudomonas species had highest resistance to ticarcillin-clavulanate (64%). Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rate was 61%. None had resistance to anti-MRSA agents. Gram-negative bacteria caused 74% of wound infections while 54% of the abscesses were caused by Gram positives. Gram negatives were prevalent (73%) in patients with solid organ cancers and Gram positives in haematological malignancies (83%). Gram-negative infections (69%) predominate in patients on radiotherapy while chemoptherapy had similar rates of infections by the two types of organisms. Conclusion: SSTIs in the cancer patients at Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama are mainly caused by Gram negative bacteria however, Gram positives predominate in haematological malignancies. Multi-drug resistance is prevalent in all commonly isolated pathogens. Acknowledgements: University of Sri Jayewardenepura research grant ASP/01/R/MED/2016/61 (Centre for Cancer Research)


With the spread of COVID-19, many rumors, conspiracy theories, and discourse of fear came into existence. The mainstream media was one of the main sources to educate the masses against such idiosyncrasies and made them save themselves from the disease and its other harmful impacts. In line with this, the study aims at examining COVID-19 awareness campaigns on Pakistani TV channels critically. To evaluate the appropriateness of 24 campaigns/commercials, which were selected through a purposive sampling, a critical multimodal discourse analysis of the campaigns was carried out, using Systemic Functional Grammar proposed by Halliday (2013) (for linguistic resources) along with Kress and van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar (for nonlinguistic resources). The analysis of campaigns revealed that a few campaigns (e.g., the campaigns of SAMAA TV, PTV, and ISPR) contain sociosemiotic resources (e.g., language, signs, sound, color, picture, animation, actions, etc.) that were more appropriate socio-psychically for Pakistani context, but most campaigns (e.g., the campaigns of Geo TV, ARY, etc.) lack the action-implicative discourse. The study suggests that TV campaigns be culturally and psychologically fit to the context and be action-implicative.


Exact average symbol error probability (SEP) of the general order rectangular quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity over L independent and identically distributed Nakagami-m fading channels with arbitrary fading index m is derived in this letter. The average SEP expression is given in terms of the Appell and Gauss hypergeometric functions and is then used to study the impact of diversity reception on the performance of general order rectangular QAM with different values of the quadrature-to-in-phase decision distance ratio. It is shown that the derived expression includes some existing results as special cases.


River systems and their catchments are important for ecological, social and economic reasons. However, the increased and changing usage of these natural environments and resources for anthropogenic benefit have led to degradation in water quality, which has led to severe declines in aquatic species populations and their suitable habitats, as well as presenting health concerns with regards to drinking water standards. As a result of this, the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) has been introduced, which is an EU legislation that requires "good ecological status" of freshwaters by 2015, providing a driver for management and conservation for UK river systems. One example of declines in species populations are freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera), which are under extreme threat of extinction. Combining species revival with water quality improvements provides a method for testing effectiveness of implemented measures. This study analyses water quality, hydrological characteristics and hyporheic zone chemistry of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, through a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Changing water quality through storm events showed that general water quality of the Esk is of little concern, however, higher flows bring acidification to the upper part of the network, which presents a serious threat to freshwater pearl mussel survival. The hyporheic zone displayed interesting results in that chemical concentrations were far higher, whilst dissolved oxygen levels and redox potential were lower. Nitrate values were also lower, suggesting that reducing conditions were supporting oxygen demanding chemical reactions such as denitrification, creating undesirable habitats for aquatic invertebrates. This study concludes that there is a lack of vertical connectivity between the channel and zones of interaction.