Since late 2010 and continuing into 2011, price volatility, in relation to basic agricultural commodities, has occupied center stage on the agendas of decision makers. An additional concern has been uncertainty about a new global economic crisis in the wake of the macroeconomic difficulties experienced in the economies of several European countries and the United States. In recent months, this situation has been compounded by the food crisis in the Horn of Africa --a reminder of the extremely vulnerable conditions under which broad segments of the world population continue to live. This third edition of Outlook for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Americas: a Perspective on Latin America and the Caribbean is an informational and analytical tool that is intended to promote a better understanding of these phenomena and their effects for purposes of regional public policy-making. The document was prepared jointly by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Regional Oice for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). The report underscores the need for the countries to adopt differentiated policy instruments to mitigate the effects of severe price volatility (including exchange rates) on society, production and the macro-economic context. It also suggests the need to institute comprehensive policies to address the effects of acute climate variability in agriculture, since in a context of climate change, it becomes an additional contributing factor in escalating agricultural price volatility. The long-term trend of higher agricultural commodity prices affords Latin America and the Caribbean an opportunity for its agriculture, given the region's availability of land, which can be incorporated into production, and its relative abundance of water, biodiversity and human resources on which it could capitalize. The report recommends exploiting this potential through productive development policies aimed at promoting food production, increasing the role of family agriculture in the process and fostering the sustainable use of natural resources. he objective must be to improve the contribution made by agriculture and its related activities to income generation and job creation. It further recommends promoting ranching, aquaculture, and community forest development in the context of family agriculture by designing alternative schemes that guarantee sustainable food production and contribute to food and nutritional security. T he report emphasizes that countries benefiting from rising agricultural commodity prices should seize the moment to promote structural change as a means of diversifying the productive structure of the economies. It further recognizes that bridging the technological gaps that persist in the region in the agricultural arena will release the significant potential it has to enhance productive performance and, thereby, food production. Additional resource allocation for research, development and innovation and an improved investment climate for agriculture and related activities are therefore considered to be of the essence. We consider the reduction of price volatility and the prevention of recurring food crises to be an issue that engages global responsibility. Certain decisions must be taken in international fora. Examples are the proposed establishment of a world emergency reserve and a virtual reserve, which have not been addressed up to now. Similarly, the response to the proposal to regulate the basic commodities market and cushion the effect of speculation on food price increases has been slow. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has recommended a Special Safeguard Mechanism for developing countries to enable them to address situations where there are sudden downturns in agricultural prices or substantial rises in imports, which have a negative impact on rural development. Discussion of this mechanism is, however, at a standstill. It is extremely important to avoid punishing food importing countries by aggravating their vulnerability or introducing major distortions on world food markets. he countries of the region should ensure more coordinated participation in international fora and act in unison with respect to initiatives that integrate policy tools for regional benefit. As in the two previous editions, the document includes a special report. he special report in this edition covers the use of information and communication technologies in agriculture. To enhance their impact, the countries should increase rural connectivity and promote access to these technologies and their use in their national institutional framework (e-government, digital agenda, etc.). These measures are essential in bringing down the costs of the technologies and attenuating the resistance of rural agents to introducing them in agribusiness management and production. The document maintains that enhancing the potential of information and communication technologies to narrow the technological gap and improve operating working conditions, production and market access in the rural milieu must also be an imperative in public policies aimed at shoring up the development of agriculture and furthering its contribution to the development of the countries of the region.


In this work, a method to compute the radio interference (RI) lateral profiles generated by corona discharge in high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines is presented. The method is based on a transmission line model that considers the skin effect, through the concept of complex penetration depth, in the conductors and in the ground plane. The attenuation constants are determined from the line parameters and the bipolar system is decoupled by using modal decomposition theory. As application cases, ±500 and ±600 kV bipolar transmission lines were analyzed. Afterwards, parametric sweeps of five variables that affect the RI levels are presented. Both the RI and the maximum electric field were calculated as a function of sub-conductor radius, bundle spacing, and the number of sub-conductors in the bundle. Additionally, the RI levels were also calculated as a function of the soil resistivity, and the RIV (radio interference voltage) frequency. Following this, vector optimization was applied to minimize the RI levels produced by the HVDC lines and differences between the designs with nominal and optimal values are discussed.


PURPOSE
Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are members of a family of pleiotropic growth factors that play a critical role during renal development as well as maintaining kidney homeostasis. In the present study, we investigated the potential role of BMP receptors (BMPRs) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the expression of BMPRs in human RCC tissues. As an in vitro model of RCC, three cell lines were used: 112, 117, and 181. Northern blot, immunoblot, and reverse transcription-PCR were used to study the expression of BMPRs in the cell lines. Finally, cells were transfected using LipofectAMINE.

RESULTS
Normal human kidney tissues express the three BMPRs: types RIA, RIB, and RII. In contrast, human RCC cells frequently exhibit a loss of expression of BMP-RII. In tissue culture, BMP-6 inhibits in a dose-dependent manner the proliferation of 112 cells but not of 117 and 181 cells. Assays for BMPRs demonstrated that 117 and 181 cells express low levels of BMP-RII RNA. When these two BMP-6 resistant cell lines were infected with the adenovirus containing the constitutively active form of BMP-RIA or -RIB in combination with a BMP-6-responsive luciferase reporter construct, luciferase activity increased. Finally, when these cell lines were transfected with BMP-RII, BMP-6-sensitivity was restored.

CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrate that human RCC tissues frequently have decreased levels of expression of BMP-RII and that the human RCC cell lines 117 and 181 are resistant to the growth-inhibitory effect of BMP-6 because they have decreased levels of expression of BMP-RII.


Register windowing has become a common sight in high speed processors, reducing the memory traffic required to preserve register contents over subroutine invocations. However, approaches to register windowing have changed little since their introduction. In this article, the current windowing schemes (namely fixed-sized and variable-sized) are presented, along with methods of implementation. A number of disadvantages with these systems are identified, and the requirements for an improved register windowing mechanism defined. A new register windowing paradigm is presented, known as Shifting Register Windows, which is designed to meet these requirements. This windowing system is first given in overview, followed by a more detailed description of the underlying model. Finally, a performance analysis of the model is presented, and conclusions drawn on speed and efficiency.


Purpose – This study attempts to compare and contrast workaholism and work engagement in terms of their dispositional antecedents. Although both concepts are perceived as heavy work investment, workaholism is associated with negative consequences such as burnout, counterproductive behavior, work-family conflict, psychosomatic symptoms, and declining work performance. Work engagement, on the other hand, is associated with positive aspects that include superior performance, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, physical and mental health. To distinguish a workaholic from a work engaged employee, this study offers a bird's eye view using the Big Two, the higher order traits of the Big Five.
Design/Methodology/Approach – The study is conducted on a sample of 250 full-time teachers (male: 154, female: 96; mean age:33.38 years) who were working at a higher education institution or a K-12 school in Istanbul, Turkey. The response rate was 90.9%. The convenience sampling method was used in data collection procedures. The data obtained by the survey method were analyzed using the structural equation modeling and common method variance techniques.
Finding – According to the results, stability was positively and significantly correlated with work engagement but negatively and significantly correlated with workaholism. Plasticity, on the other hand, was correlated strongly and positively with workaholism yet had no statistically significant correlation with work engagement. The negative and weak correlation between Stability and workaholism became a stronger path in the structural regression model, indicating the presence of a suppressor effect. Discussion – The results of this research reveal that if an organization prefers work engaged employees rather than workaholics, then during the selection process, the hiring decision makers should look for the trait Stability as well.


PurposeThis study aimed to identify the discriminating kinematic gait characteristics between individuals with acute and chronic patellofemoral pain (PFP) and healthy controls. MethodsNinety-eight runners with PFP (39 male, 59 female) and 98 healthy control runners (38 male, 60 female) ran on a treadmill at a self-selected speed while three-dimensional lower limb kinematic data were collected. Runners with PFP were split into acute (n = 25) and chronic (n = 73) subgroups on the basis of whether they had been experiencing pain for less or greater than 3 months, respectively. Principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis were used to determine the combination of kinematic gait characteristics that optimally separated individuals with acute PFP and chronic PFP and healthy controls. ResultsCompared with controls, both the acute and chronic PFP subgroups exhibited greater knee flexion across stance and greater ankle dorsiflexion during early stance. The acute PFP subgroup demonstrated greater transverse plane hip motion across stance compared with healthy controls. In contrast, the chronic PFP subgroup demonstrated greater frontal plane hip motion, greater knee abduction, and reduced ankle eversion/greater ankle inversion across stance when compared with healthy controls. ConclusionsThis study identified characteristics that discriminated between individuals with acute and chronic PFP when compared with healthy controls. Certain discriminating characteristics were shared between both the acute and chronic subgroups when compared with healthy controls, whereas others were specific to the duration of PFP.


In this work we present Scalable Attestation, a method which combines both secure boot and trusted boot technologies, and extends them up into the host, its programs, and up into the guest's operating system and workloads, to both detect and prevent integrity attacks. Anchored in hardware, this integrity appraisal and attestation protects persistent data (files) from remote attack, even if the attack is root privileged. As an added benefit of a hardware rooted attestation, we gain a simple hardware based geolocation attestation to help enforce regulatory requirements. This design is implemented in multiple cloud test beds based on the QEMU/KVM hypervisor, Open Stack, and Open Attestation, and is shown to provide significant additional integrity protection at negligible cost.


Since Herodotos says that the playwright Phrynichos was fined by "the Athenians," historians have often inferred that he was condemned by a popular tribunal. The context of the statement shows however that this formulation of Herodotos is of no avail in identifying the authority which meted out justice to Phrynichos. The amount of the fine and the outlawry of the play are better indications of popular involvement in the affair.


The Monte-Carlo simulation technique and appropriate software has been developed to analyze the switching overvoltages occurring at the interruption of 6 and 10 kV motors by vacuum circuit breakers (VCB) with CuCr contacts. VCB parameters have been determined experimentally. A comparison has been provided between VCB switching behaviour at the interruption of 6 and 10 kV motors. Voltage escalation has been shown to be the most important process for 6 kV motors with respect to switching overvoltages generation. In contrast to 6 kV motors, three-phase virtual current chopping predominates for 10 kV motors. It has been deducted that for the majority of the real field applications, the VCB with the most popular contact material (CuCr base) can create dangerous overvoltages. Switching surge analysis conducted with the aid of the Alternative Transients Program (ATP) proved a metal oxide surge arrester connected in parallel to VCB contacts to be the most effective way to suppress phase to ground overvoltages. Turn-to-turn overvoltages induced at interruption of medium voltage motors by VCB with the described protection have also been studied. These overvoltages have been compared with the turn-to-turn overvoltages induced by an "ideal" breaker that does not interrupt high frequency current at all. The authors' analysis revealed that the maximum turn-to-turn overvoltages induced by VCB with adequate protection do not exceed overvoltages induced by an "ideal" circuit breaker for more then 15% and are lower then similar overvoltages induced by conventional breakers under the same conditions.


What Crumpling a Polychronic Materials map can reveal… is a reflection on the Research Through Design Conference that was held at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK in 2015. It focuses on the issues involved in offering a design methodology as a collaborative experience within the environs of a research through design conference. In considering the use of an interactive research exercise, such as crumpling maps of materials and time to communicate tacit knowledge and the process of designing, this reflection explores some of the constraints involved both in communicating in conferences and the process of research through design itself.


Outdoor spaces and their thermal condition is becoming a controversial issue in modern architecture and urbanism. It has a great effect on people who use the open spaces like campuses where many students from different cities spend most of their time. This research investigated the effect of SVF, MRT and PET in the two campuses namely: Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) and Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT). Thermal condition of campuses has diverse states due to their different level of shaded open spaces. PET is calculated via Rayman for thermal-comfort assessment in spring and summer, 2015. Subsequently, it was determined that by decreasing SVF to 0.4, Tmrt declines to 3.04°C. The variations of MRT's influence PETs drop. PET comparison in two campuses illustrates that in an average value of PET, there is 0.86°C dissimilarity between campuses in the warmest time of the year (July). IUST campus is 1.39°C cooler on the PET measure. In conclusion, increasing shaded spaces by increasing green spaces and trees can create cooler campuses. Integrated design of shaded open spaces with their architectural forms is recommended as a design strategy for the designers to create a responsive environment in terms of thermal comfort. By this means, cooler campuses are more prone to be used by students and their activities.


Tumor necrosis factor‐α, (TNF)‐α, a proinflammatory cytokine, is produced by activated granulocytes and monocytes (GMs) and implicated as a major factor in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis. Reduction of TNF‐α should improve IBD pathology. GM adsorptive apheresis (GMA) is an effective therapy for inflammatory disorders including IBD. GM adsorption to cellulose acetate (CA) beads induces anti‐inflammatory cytokine release, although these effects on TNF‐α release are not clarified. We hypothesized that GMA may inhibit TNF‐α release. The aim of the present study was to clarify the effects of GM adsorption to CA beads on TNF‐α release in vitro. Peripheral blood was incubated with and without CA beads and TNF‐α was measured. For comparison, TNF‐α was measured in another lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐containing peripheral blood sample incubated similarly. The amount of TNF‐α in blood samples incubated with CA beads was significantly higher than in those incubated without beads, although it was significantly lower than TNF‐α incubated with LPS‐containing sample without beads. The amount of TNF‐α after incubation with CA beads positively correlated with GM adsorption ratio. GM adsorption to CA beads induced a small amount of TNF‐α release. This is the first report on TNF‐α release induced via GM adsorption stimuli. The biological effects of TNF‐α release during GM adsorption need to be clarified.


As we move from a Web of data to a Web of services, enhancing the capabilities of the current Web search engines with effective and efficient techniques for Web services retrieval and selection becomes an important issue. Traditionally, the relevance of a Web service advertisement to a service request is determined by computing an overall score that aggregates individual matching scores among the various parameters in their descriptions. Two drawbacks characterize such approaches. First, there is no single matching criterion that is optimal for determining the similarity between parameters. Instead, there are numerous approaches ranging from using Information Retrieval similarity metrics up to semantic logic-based inference rules. Second, the reduction of individual scores to an overall similarity leads to significant information loss. Since there is no consensus on how to weight these scores, existing methods are typically pessimistic, adopting a worst-case scenario. As a consequence, several services, e.g., those having a single unrelated parameter, can be excluded from the result set, even though they are potentially good alternatives. In this work, we present a methodology that overcomes both deficiencies. Given a request, we introduce an objective measure that assigns a dominance score to each advertised Web service. This score takes into consideration all the available criteria for each parameter in the request. We investigate three distinct definitions of dominance score, and we devise efficient algorithms that retrieve the top-k most dominant Web services in each case. Extensive experimental evaluation on real requests and relevance sets, as well as on synthetically generated scenarios, demonstrates both the effectiveness of the proposed technique and the efficiency of the algorithms.


It has been said by members of past generations that computer gaming is destroying the minds of young people who have become addicted to playing games on their desktop computers. The number of games available through the average computer is increasing on a regular basis, and computer gaming has become a favored activity by youth and business around the world. For this reason, I have combined today's gaming technology with brain wave research to create an intelligent gaming environment, that functions as a neurological learning tool for all ages.Concepts discussed in this paper are based on fourteen years of research using the IBVA, Interactive Brain Wave Visual Analyzer, a brain wave interface system designed to facilitate the interactive brain wave control of multimedia. The research includes monitoring and analyzing brain waves of hundreds of conference attendees in exhibition settings, as well as participants in controlled environments. Concepts presented in the paper relate to evolutionary change that will move us from our current perception of reality to a broader understanding of multiple realities.Survival in the future may require us to actualize latent capabilities that have not been taught in traditional education programs, that is, the capability for nonverbal communication, remote viewing, and self-healing. In order to effectively deal with issues that arise in the future, we need to draw upon these skills. Doing so requires more complete use of the brain to expand the human potential. This expansion will enable human intelligence to effectively deal with problem solving for the future. [Paras Kaul, "Brain Wave Interactive Learning: Where Multimedia and Neuroscience Converge", 2005]The ability to perceive objects and events, beyond what is understood as our ordinary senses has been explored by physicists and metapbysicians, as well as by the federal government. Institutes as the Institute for Noetic Sciences, Consciousness Research Laboratory, Monroe Institute, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the International Remote Viewing Association, to name a few, have been formed to research these capabilities. Though the research is ongoing, it seems that some ideas are so paradigm shattering that they remain hidden in plain sight for many years. [D. Radin, Noetic Institute, 2001]


Background: Clinicians commonly fail to use cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) adequately, but the reasons for such omissions are not well understood. Aims: The objective of this study was to create and validate a measure to assess clinicians' attitudes towards CBT – the Negative Attitudes towards CBT Scale (NACS). Method: The participants were 204 clinicians from various mental healthcare fields. Each completed the NACS, measures of anxiety and self-esteem, and a measure of therapists' use of CBT and non-CBT techniques and their confidence in using those techniques. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factor structure of the NACS, and scale internal consistency was tested. Results: A single, 16-item scale emerged from the factor analysis of the NACS, and that scale had good internal consistency. Clinicians' negative attitudes and their anxiety had different patterns of association with the use of CBT and other therapeutic techniques. Conclusions: The findings suggest that clinicians' attitudes and emotions each need to be considered when understanding why many clinicians fail to deliver the optimum version of evidence-based CBT. They also suggest that training effective CBT clinicians might depend on understanding and targeting such internal states.


An Annington-type trade model is estimated to determine the effects of government-subsidized export promotion on the demand for U.S. cotton in the Pacific Rim. Results show a significant relationship between promotion expenditures and U.S. market share in four of the six countries examined. One of the two countries exhibiting a non-significant effect had very low promotion expenditures, suggesting that a minimal level of funding may be necessary to achieve a market response. The hypothesis that export promotion has a carryover period lasting beyond one year in general is supported by the data. The question of the economic impacts of export promotion on domestic producers and taxpayers must await additional research.


Systematically examining current methods and strategies, this ready reference covers a wide range of molecular structures, from organic-chemical drugs to peptides, Proteins and nucleic acids, in line with emerging new drug classes derived from biomacromolecules. A leader in the field and one of the pioneers of this young discipline has assembled here the most prominent experts from across the world to provide first-hand knowledge. While most of their methods and examples come from the area of pharmaceutical discovery and development, the approaches are equally applicable for chemical probes and diagnostics, pesticides, and any other molecule designed to interact with a biological system. Numerous images and screenshots illustrate the many examples and method descriptions. With its broad and balanced coverage, this will be the firststop resource not only for medicinal chemists, biochemists and biotechnologists, but equally for bioinformaticians and molecular designers for many years to come. From the content: * Reaction-driven de novo design * Adaptive methods in molecular design * Design of ligands against multitarget profiles * Free energy methods in ligand design * Fragment-based de novo design * Automated design of focused and target family-oriented compound libraries * Molecular de novo design by nature-inspired computing * 3D QSAR approaches to de novo drug design * Bioisosteres in de novo design * De novo design of peptides, proteins and nucleic acid structures, including RNA aptamers and many more.


High-energy synchrotron diffraction offers great potential for experimental study of recrystallization kinetics. A fine experimental design to study the recrystallization mechanism of Interstitial Free (IF) steel was implemented in this work. In-situ annealing process of cold-rolled IF steel with 80% reduction was observed using high-energy X-ray diffraction. Results show that, the diffraction intensity of {001}<110> and {112}<110> belong to α-fiber texture component decreased with the annealing temperature increased while {111}<110> did nearly not change and {111}<112> increased; the FMTH decreasing and d-space changing with annealing temperature increasing indicated that the residual stress relaxed completely during recovery.


The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is well established as a computationally efficient method for separable signal parameter estimation. Here, a new geometric derivation and interpretation of the EM algorithm is given that facilitates the understanding of EM convergence properties. Geometric considerations lead to an alternative separable signal parameter estimator based on successive cancellation. The new generalized successive interference cancellation (GSIC) algorithm is then applied to multiuser delay and channel estimation for code-division multiple access (CDMA) radiolocation and communication. The radiolocation application uses a handshaking protocol in which multiple reference nodes transmit acknowledge (ACK) CDMA packets to a master node, which then computes round-trip travel times (RTTs). Simulation results comparing EM and GSIC are presented for the CDMA channel-estimation problem.


We present a novel dataset for evaluation of object matching and recognition methods in surveillance scenarios. Dataset consists of more than 23,000 images, depicting 15 persons and nine vehicles. A ground truth data - the identity of each person or vehicle - is provided, along with the coordinates of the bounding box in the full camera image. The dataset was acquired from 36 stationary camera views using a variety of surveillance cameras with resolutions ranging from standard VGA to three megapixel. 27 cameras observed the persons and vehicles in an outdoor environment, while the remaining nine observed the same persons indoors. The activity of persons was planned in advance, they drive the cars to the parking lot, exit the cars and walk around the building, through the main entrance, and up the stairs, towards the first floor of the building. The intended use of the dataset is performance evaluation of computer vision methods that aim to (re)identify people and objects from many different viewpoints in different environments and under variable conditions. Due to variety of camera locations, vantage points and resolutions, the dataset provides means to adjust the difficulty of the identification task in a controlled and documented manner. An interface for easy use of dataset within Matlab is provided as well, and the data is complemented by baseline results using a basic color histogram-based descriptor. While the cropped images of persons and vehicles represent the primary data in our dataset, we also provide full-frame images and a set of tracklets for each object as a courtesy to the dataset users.


According to the master commemorative narrative of the EU, the European integration project represents a break with the violent European past characterised by fragmentation and nationalism, which culminated in World War Two and the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. However, recent scholarship has criticised the omission of 19th and 20th-century European colonialism from the memory narratives advanced by the EU. In this article, I use the permanent exhibition in the House of European History (HEH) in Brussels to take this insight one step further and make two arguments. Firstly, I show that it is not only colonialism that is erased from official memory but, more broadly, empires and imperialism, although most European history over the past 2000 years was imperial. Secondly, I understand this "imperial amnesia" as an anxiety-controlling mechanism aimed at reducing the dissonance between the self-proclaimed image of a normative and civilian power on the one hand and imperial-like tendencies in its behaviour on the other.


. Perovskite solar cells have emerged as a promising and highly efficient solar technology. Despite efficiencies continuing to climb, the prospect of industrial manufacture is in part hampered by concerns regarding the safety and sustainability of the solvents used in lab scale manufacture. In this paper, we aim to present a methodology for green solvent selection informed by EHS considerations from the CHEM-21 solvent guide for succesful methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI 3 ) precursor dissolution. Through the use of this methodology we present a N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)-free alternative solvent system for deposition of MAPbI 3 precursors (MAI and PbI 2 ) consisting of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylpropyleneurea (DMPU), 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) and ethanol (EtOH). We have investigated 3 candidate solutions with slightly different compositions of these four solvents, all of which produce dense, uniform and pinhole-free perovskite films via spin coating. All three candidate solutions (A-C) match the average device efficiencies of the DMF/DMSO control devices (12.4%) with candidate A, which consists of 40% DMSO, 30% DMPU, 20% 2-MeTHF and 10% EtOH (vol%), producing a champion PCE of 16.1% compared to 16.2% for DMF/DMSO (80/20 vol%). Perovskite films cast from the three candidate solutions show improved crystallinity, higher fluorescence emission, and improved crystal size uniformity than those cast from DMF/DMSO. This work aims to: highlight the key solvent parameters which determine effective MAPbI 3 precursor dissolution; provide a set of criteria for appropriate alternative solvent selection; and demonstrate the application of green chemistry principles to solvent selection for perovskite photovoltaic manufacturing.


The study of collaborative learning has a relatively brief history, yet there have been notable changes in the nature of the research being undertaken in this field. Initially, the primary aim was to determine whether and when collaborative learning was more effective than learning alone and there is a substantial body of empirical evidence demonstrating that, whilst not an educational panacea, it can have positive effects of social interaction for learning. More recently, however, interest has shifted away from considering just the outcomes and products of collaborative work, towards analyzing the interactions themselves. This shift to a more process-oriented account of productive group-work has brought with it an interest in understanding the nature of productive talk and joint activity and researchers have attempted to identify interactional features which are important for learning and cognitive change. Researchers with different theoretical backgrounds and different methodological approaches have emphasized different facets of interaction with some highlighting the important role of conflict, others that of planning, negotiation, exploratory talk, transactive dialogue and so on.
The book brings together contributions from researchers, working across Europe and North America, who have interests in collaborative learning. The work presented here is united through the contributors' shared desire to understand and promote educationally productive collaborative work, whilst investigating this in diverse ways, for example with respect to the particular contexts, learning communities and the age of the learners being studied…from Introduction
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction (Karen Littleton and Dorothy Miell); Chapter 2. Collaborative Story Telling in Friendship and Acquaintanceship Dyads (Dorothy Faulkner and Dorothy Miell); Chapter 3. Reading Together: Computers and Collaboration (Karen Littleton, Clare Wood and Pav Chera); Chapter 4. Peer Collaboration and Individual Learning: Incubation, Contradiction and Collective Insight (Christine Howe, Donna McWilliam and Gillian Cross); Chapter 5. "You can see it as you wish!" Negotiating a Shared Understanding in Collaborative Problem Solving Dyads (Kristiina Kumpulainen, Sinikka Kaartinen); Chapter 6. Developing the Capacity to Collaborate (Lyn Dawes and Claire Sams); Chapter 7. Explanations and Modes of Collaboration in Tutor-Tutee Interactions at School (Karin Bachmann and Michele Grossen); Chapter 8. Musical Collaborations (Raymond MacDonald and Dorothy Miell); Chapter 9. Conflict as a Challenge to Productive Learning during Long-Term Collaboration (Jaana Lahti, Anneli Etelapelto and Sanni Siitari); Chapter 10. Prerequisites for CSCL: Research Approaches, Methodological Challenges and Pedagogical Development (Paivi Hakkinen, Maarit Arvaja and Kati Makitalo); Chapter 11. Undergraduate Students' use of Course Related Web-Conferences (Sarah Brown, Nigel Wilson and Clare Wood); Chapter 12. Learning Communities, Communities of Practice: Principles, Technologies, and Examples (Curtis Bonk, Robert Wisher and Maria Luisa Nigrelli); Index.


This paper explores social capital's integrative and facilitative roles in organizations' socio-economic life. Based on literature review, it leans on existing literature on social capital dimensions and its two measurement approaches: synthetic based approach and outcome based approach. The main argument of the paper is that social capital is an enabler and integrator of other forms of organizational resources, processes and systems; and that without it; it is difficult to acquire financial, physical, human, intellectual, cultural and technological capital/resources which are important for socio-economic endeavours. Moreover, the paper shows how social capital plays a role in the creation of synergy and elimination of exclusivity, hence improving welfare and managing diversity in organizations. It concludes that reform and transformation in organizations would have impact if done concurrently with social capital institutionalization to promote economic synergy, hierarchical linkage and honest exertion of energy in production functions in all types and sizes of organizations. The paper recommends elevating social capital as a one-stop conceptualized multi-dimensional solution for managing organizations.Keywords: social capital, social structure, social relations, organizations


We consider the problem of provably optimal exploration in reinforcement learning for finite horizon MDPs. We show that an optimistic modification to value iteration achieves a regret bound of $\tilde{O}( \sqrt{HSAT} + H^2S^2A+H\sqrt{T})$ where $H$ is the time horizon, $S$ the number of states, $A$ the number of actions and $T$ the number of time-steps. This result improves over the best previous known bound $\tilde{O}(HS \sqrt{AT})$ achieved by the UCRL2 algorithm of Jaksch et al., 2010. The key significance of our new results is that when $T\geq H^3S^3A$ and $SA\geq H$, it leads to a regret of $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{HSAT})$ that matches the established lower bound of $\Omega(\sqrt{HSAT})$ up to a logarithmic factor. Our analysis contains two key insights. We use careful application of concentration inequalities to the optimal value function as a whole, rather than to the transitions probabilities (to improve scaling in $S$), and we define Bernstein-based "exploration bonuses" that use the empirical variance of the estimated values at the next states (to improve scaling in $H$).


In this paper, differential phase imaging (DPC) with transmitted light is implemented by adding a suitable detection system to a standard commercially available scanning confocal microscope. DPC, a long‐established method in scanning optical microscopy, depends on detecting the intensity difference between opposite halves or quadrants of a split photodiode detector placed in an aperture plane. Here, DPC is compared with scanned differential interference contrast (DIC) using a variety of biological specimens and objective lenses of high numerical aperture. While DPC and DIC images are generally similar, DPC seems to have a greater depth of field. DPC has several advantages over DIC. These include low cost (no polarizing or strain‐free optics are required), absence of a double scanning spot, electronically variable direction of shading and the ability to image specimens in plastic dishes where birefringence prevents the use of DIC. DPC is also here found to need 20 times less laser power at the specimen than DIC.


The ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments are generally taken to be the major classical theistic arguments; however, a case can be made for also including the argument from religious experience, since within each of the great extant theistic religions there is a mystical tradition for making claims about God's existence and nature on the basis of apparent direct nonsensory perceptions of God. Each of these four arguments is discussed in turn. THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT There are many different versions of this argument. What they have in common is an attempt to deduce God's existence from a mere analysis of the concept of God. Furthermore, they are a priori arguments, because all of their premises are supposed to be knowable independently of sense experience. They are the darlings of theists who are enamored of the mathematical style of reasoning. In response to critics, such as Hume and the logical positivists, who deny that existence can ever be deduced from an analysis of concepts, they could say that this is just what happens in mathematics when, for example, the existence of a number meeting certain conditions is deduced from axioms, definitions, and postulates, all of which are knowable a priori. And given that God resembles numbers in respect to not being in space or time, the possibility of deducing God's existence a priori must not be dismissed out of hand.


This study employs the customer-centric model of brand communities (including fan-fan, fan-management, fan-team, and fan-product relationships) to examine sports fans through the two lenses of team identification and fan loyalty and explore the effect of these constructs on fans' behavior. The study used an online panel-based survey to collect data from 742 football fans. Also, the study utilized exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and nomological network analysis to establish the validity and reliability of a new scale of fan-centric relationships of team sports clubs (TSCs). Utilizing structural equation modelling, it was demonstrated that all four levels of fan relationships significantly predicted both team identification and fan loyalty. Furthermore, both team identification and fan loyalty significantly predicted intention to attend games. Identifying and classifying the different levels of fan-centric relationships may provide TSCs with the potential to strengthen fans' identification with and loyalty to the team and, consequently, increase consumption.


This paper describes the application of the code generated by the CAMPARY software to accelerate the solving of linear systems in the least squares sense on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), in double double, quad double, and octo double precision. The goal is to use accelerators to offset the cost overhead caused by multiple double precision arithmetic. For the blocked Householder Q R and the back substitution, of interest are those dimensions at which teraflop performance is attained. The other interesting question is the cost overhead factor that appears each time the precision is doubled. Experimental results are reported on five different NVIDIA GPUs, with a particular focus on the P100 and the V100, both capable of teraflop performance. Thanks to the high Compute to Global Memory Access (CGMA) ratios of multiple double arithmetic, teraflop performance is already attained running the double double QR on 1,024-by-1,024 matrices, both on the P100 and the V100. For the back substitution, the dimension of the upper triangular system must be as high as 17,920 to reach one teraflops on the V100, in quad double precision, and then taking only the times spent by the kernels into account. The lower performance of the back substitution in small dimensions does not prevent teraflop performance of the solver at dimension 1,024, as the time for the Q R decomposition dominates. In doubling the precision from double double to quad dou-ble and from quad double to octo double, the observed cost overhead factors are lower than the factors predicted by the arithmetical operation counts. This observation correlates with the increased performance for increased precision, which can again be explained by the high CGMA ratios.


Summary Sediment filled bedrock depressions in the Carboniferous Limestone were revealed during construction of a supermarket in Chepstow. They were interpreted as swallets. An initial site investigation did not reveal the features, which were less than 10 m across and about 8 m deep. They were not suspected at the desk study stage since the site was on a valleyside location and did not lie on an obvious abandoned drainage route. The features were investigated in less than one week and the investigation and redesign of foundations did not incur any delay to the contract.


Summary
Inflammatory lesions in bone marrow, observed during a 2 year period at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, were reviewed. Of 24 bone marrow specimens with evidence of inflammation, six were classified as acute inflammation, nine as fibrinous inflammation, five as chronic inflammation/hyperplasia, three as granulomatous inflammation and one as nodular lymphoid hyperplasia. Acute inflammation commonly accompanied bacterial sepsis. Two patterns of acute inflammation were identified. One pattern consisted of multifocal microabscesses. The other pattern of acute inflammation consisted of perivascular infiltrates of neutrophils, fibrin, edema, and hemorrhage. The most common disorder associated with fibrinous inflammation was disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Chronic inflammation was difficult to differentiate from chronic immune stimulation. Discrete granulomas were identified in the marrow of animals with systemic mycotic disease, idiopathic systemic granulomatous disease, and serous atrophy of fat. This study indicates that a broad variety of inflammatory disorders occur in animal bone marrow and that these disorders can be classified based on general categories of inflammation described in other tissues.


Service function chaining (SFC) allows the instantiation of an ordered
set of service functions and subsequent "steering" of traffic through
them. In order to set up and maintain SFC instances, a control plane
is required, which typically is centralized. In certain environments,
such as fog computing ones, such centralized control might not be
feasible, calling for distributed SFC control solutions. This document
describes a general framework for distributed SFC operation.


Multinuclear copper hydride complexes were synthesized by using a triphosphine, bis(diphenylphosphinomethyl)phenylphosphine (dpmp). The reaction of [Cu(MeCN)4]PF6 with dpmp in 2 : 1 ratio in the presence of Me4NBH4 or NaBH4 yielded a hexanuclear complex, [Cu6(μ3-H)5(μ-dpmp)3]PF6 (1), together with a minor product [Cu8(μ-H)2(μ4-H)4(μ-dpmp)4](PF6)2 (2) in a very low yield. Complex 1 was also prepared from [CuH(PPh3)]6, [Cu(MeCN)4]PF6, and dpmp in 87%, but the yield of 2 could not be improved presumably due to its instability in solution. A tetranuclear complex, [Cu4(μ-H)(μ3-H)2(μ-dpmp)3]PF6 (4), was obtained from the reaction of [Cu(MeCN)4]PF6 with dpmp in 4 : 3 ratio, or that of [Cu3(μ-dpmp)2(MeCN)4](PF6)3 (3) and dpmp, in the presence of Me4NBH4 for both cases. The structures of 1, 2, and 4 were determined by X-ray crystallography, and the positions of hydride ligands were elucidated by DFT optimization. Complex 1 consists of a distorted trigonal anti-prismatic Cu6 core bridged by three L-shaped dpmp ligands and five μ3-hydrides, and 2 is composed of three edge-shared tetrahedral Cu4 units supported by four L-shaped dpmp ligands and two μ2-hydrides in the two outer Cu4 units and four μ4-hydride ligands in the central Cu4 units. The structures of two outer Cu4 units in 2 resemble those of 4, where a Cu4 tetrahedron is supported by two L-shaped dpmp ligands and one dpmp-κ2P,P' bridge, in addition to one μ2- and two μ3-hydrides. Natural bond orbital analyses suggest that the hydrides act as glue between the multinuclear copper centres through electron-deficient delocalized bonding interactions, which result in partial electron migration from hydrides to CuI centres.


Charges that geographical redlining is widely practiced by mortgage lenders and is associated with racial discrimination have received much attention. However, empirical research in this area has yet to document a convincing answer to the question of whether redlining even exists. Much of the previous research in this area has suffered from failure to account for variations in risk and/or failure to adequately control for geographical differences in demand. This study addresses these problems in an effort to determine whether the disparity in the flow of mortgage credit can be explained by differences in risk and demand. Copyright 1994 by American Finance Association.


Aim: The aim of this study is to critically evaluate the bond strength (BS) of Glass-Ionomer Cements (GIC) to dentin with microtensile (μTBS) and microshear (μSBS) BS tests by assessing their rankings and failure patterns. Methods: Samples were made on flat dentin surfaces and submitted to μTBS and μSBS. The materials tested were: high viscosity GIC (KetacTM Molar Aplicap-KM), resin-modified GIC (Fuji II-FII), nano-filled resin-modified GIC (KetacTM N100-N100) and an etch-and-rinse adhesive system with a composite resin (AdperTM Single Bond 2 and Z100TM-Z100). All tests were performed with a Universal Testing Machine (24 h water storage, crosshead speed of 1 mm/min). Debonded surfaces were examined with a stereomicroscope (X40) to identify the failure mode. The data was analyzed with Two-way ANOVA (p<0.05) and LSD test. Results: Means were statistically different regarding the tests and materials, indicating that values for BS obtained for each material depend on the test performed. Failure analysis revealed that failures produced by μTBS were mainly cohesive for KM and FII. μSBS failures were mainly adhesive or mixed for all materials. For the μTBS, the rank was Z100>FII>KM=N100, whereas for the μSBS it was Z100=FII=KM>N100. Conclusion: It may be concluded that distinct micro-mechanical tests present different failure patterns and rankings depending on the material to be considered.


Even the behavior problems in pre-school children might be considered as a transitional problem which may disappear by their transition into elementary school; it is an issue that needs a lot of attention because of the fact that the behavioral patterns are adopted in the children especially in this age. Common issue in the process of elimination of the behavior problems in the group of preschool children is a difference in the perception of the importance and gravity of the symptoms. The underestimation of the children's problems by parents often result into conflicts with kindergarten teachers. Thus, the child does not get the support that his/her problems require and this might result into a school failure and can negatively influence his/her future school performance and success. The research sample consisted of 4 children with behavior problems, their teachers and parents. To determine the most problematic area in the child's behavior, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) filled by parents and Caregiver/Teacher Form (CTF-R) filled by teachers were used. Scores from the CBCL and the CTR-F were compared with Pearson correlation coefficient in order to find the differences in the perception of behavior problems in pre-school children. Keywords—Behavior problems, child behavior checklist, caregiver/teacher form, Pearson correlation coefficient, pre-school age.


Twenty-one 25 acutely overdosed heroin addicts had abnormalities noted on their admission electrocardiograms. The most common findings were nonspecific ST-T changes in 17 patients, sinus tachycardia in 11, and left or right atrial enlargement in 8. Five patients had more serious arrhythmias (4 atrial fibrillation and 1 ventricular tachycardia). For the entire group the initial PaO2 was 74.8 +/- 48.2 torr. This degree of oxygenation was only achieved with the use of high dose supplemental oxygen. The 5 patients with the more serious arrhythmias had comparable PaO2s but this was only achieved with higher supplemental oxygen concentrations. We conclude that electrocardiographic alterations (other than arrhythmias) are very common in acute heroin overdosage and may be related to hypoxemia. The abnormal cardiac rhythms may be due to the direct effects of heroin or its metabolites. Heroin addiction is associated with a multitude of medical complications which can affect various organ systmes including the heart (1). Within the last six years several reports have appeared documenting electrocardiographic abnormalities in heroin users (2-5). These studies dealt with either a small series of patients or patients who used methadone or heroin in a chronic fashion. No one, to our knowledge, has extensively studied the electrocardiographic changes which occur in patients with acute heroin overdosage. This retrospective analysis of the electrocardiograms (ECG), arterial blood gases and selected electrolytes in 25 consecutively hospitalized patients acutely overdosed on heroin is an attempt to correct this deficiency.


Abstract : This is one of eight reports produced to document the 1986 Army Research Institute Survey of U.S. Army Recruits, also known as the New Recruit Survey (NRS). This is volume 1 of a two-volume set of crosstables describing the attitudes, demographics, and service-related characteristics of non-prior- service Army Reserve recruits during the summer of 1986. Tabulation volumes contain an introduction to the 1986 NRS reports series and project overview; an explanation of how to read and interpret tabulations; a set of two-way tables of NRS items crossed with five banner variables; and in a technical appendix the survey instrument used in the summer of 1986. Separate tabulation volumes were produced for each of the three Army components: the regular active Army (RA); the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR); and the Army National Guard (ARNG). Tabulations reflect data gathered during the summer administration of the survey. The crossings variables used in each tabulation volume include demographic and service-related characteristics that vary across components. Other reports in this series provide more extensive documentation of the background and approach to the 1986 NRS administration. Other reports are also available for the 1982, 1983, 1984 (summer and winter), and 1985 survey administrations.


In tank bioleaching, decreasing particle size of milled concentrates has been shown to improve leaching performance owing to increased mineral surface area and mechanical activation effects of fine mineral particles. However, evidence suggests a critical lower limit of particle size distribution exists below which the performance of the thermophilic iron and sulfur oxidizer Sulfolobus metallicus is compromised and complete culture death may result. This paper proposes an explanation for these observations at fine fractions through identifying a relationship between mineral composition of six sulfide concentrates, their extent of milling and the generation of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) in slurries. The effect of oxidative stress induced in the absence of minerals on growth and bioleaching performance of S. metallicus is studied.


Glycemic index lowering effect of chicken solids was studied using a model system approach. Experimental samples were prepared by adding chicken powder at varying levels (10 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, 40 mg) to 50 mg of corn starch as carbohydrate base. The chicken powder had a proximate protein content of 81.1 per cent, fat 9.1 per cent, ash 6 per cent and moisture 3.7 per cent. In vitro starch digestibility and estimated glycemic index (eGI) of the samples were estimated. It was found that only sample B and C could reduce the eGI of the sample by 22.8 per cent and 21.8 per cent respectively, with an eGI value of 68.05 and 68.9 respectively. Samples containing 30 mg and 40 mg chicken powder did not affect the eGI significantly and values were close to eGI values for the control (corn starch alone). It is concluded that chicken solids exhibit a significant (p < 0.05) glycemic index lowering effect at a level of 17 per cent to 29 per cent of the formulation, and not linearly with an increase in protein content.


Gerbera hybrid 'Festival Light Eye Pink' plants were grown in silica sand culture to induce and photograph nutritional disorder symptoms. Plants were grown with a complete modified Hoagland's all nitrate solution: (macronutrients in mM) 15 NO 3 -N, 1.0 PO 4 -P, 6.0 K, 5.0 Ca, 2.0 Mg, and 2.0 SO 4 -S, plus μM concentrations of micronutrients, 72 Fe, 18 Mn, 3 Cu, 3 Zn, 45.0 B, and 0.1 Mo. The nutrient deficiency treatments were induced that included a complete nutrient formula and a complete minus one of the nutrients. Reagent grade chemicals and deionized water of 18-mega ohms purity were used to formulate treatment solutions. Boron toxicity symptoms were also induced by increasing the element 10× higher than the complete nutrient formula. The plants were automatically irrigated every 2 hours and the solution drained from the bottom of the pot and recaptured for use. A complete replacement of nutrient solutions was done weekly. Plants were monitored daily to document and photograph sequential series of symptoms as they developed. Typical symptomology of nutrient disorders and critical tissue concentrations are presented.


We propose a novel design of integrated polarization splitter/combiner with ultra wide bandwidth. The proposed design utilizes the electro-optic (Pockels) effect in GaAs for splitting the polarizations. It also exploits the self imaging phenomenon in MMI couplers with a parabolic index distribution in the vertical direction to significantly increase the bandwidth. We also propose a novel approach for design optimization of the proposed structure. This approach is capable of extracting the propagation constants and their gradient with respect to all the design parameters. This allows for using gradient-based optimization. The computational time of this optimization procedure is only a fraction of that for other recently proposed approaches.


The understanding of entrepreneurship in Turkey has transformed into a concept, which plays significant role in the development of business sectors, generates an impact over economic and social structures, influences the policy making process of governmental institutions and revealing decision making mechanisms in public and private sector. A continuum has been initialized, which educates entrepreneurs in terms of risk taking, establishing their own businesses and claiming their ideas, discoveries or products, while at the same time, acknowledging activities of entrepreneurs, established ventures and projects that are desired to be implemented is supported with economic development. This study analyzes the conflicts between actors in the entrepreneurship ecosystem of Turkey. Besides analyzing conflicts, and providing a literature review in the area, the importance of Conflict Analysis and Resolution is established as conflicts are experienced between parties who have incompatible interests and goals at the end. This paper aims to reveal the dynamics between entrepreneurs and enterprisers (angel investors, venture capital investors, owners of private equity firms and public and private sector actors), while highlighting main reasons of conflicts that influence the development of ecosystem in Turkey. The goal of the paper is to contribute entrepreneurship studies in academic level through conflicts between entrepreneurs and enterprisers as stating current developments and categorizing ongoing problems in the entrepreneurship in Turkey.


This article identifies the major problems currently facing our world and raises pertinent questions. The issues discussed are population dynamics, urbanization and land occupancy, water and food, energy and climate, technology and society, info‐rich and info‐poor, unchecked or uncheckable markets, affluence and poverty, and world governance or domination. Because we live in a world system, these issues are all interconnected and cannot be tackled independently. The article suggests a systemic approach using prospective studies to anticipate the future more effectively than our natural inclination to extrapolate. One of the simplest methods for this is the trend scenario which leads from the past and present along logical paths throwing light on possible futures. However, this leads to unacceptable situations in a not too distant time frame, and so a shared and sustainable development scenario is proposed which would emphasize the non‐material aspects of economic growth in order to handle natural resources wisely and establish the stable and equitable wellbeing of the human race. The main conclusion is that a real paradigm shift in current economic, social and environmental practices is necessary both at the individual level in terms of the perception of the limits, constraints and values of the world system, and at the world level with respect to the political will to build consensus around the new goals, with the major powers taking the lead.


We explore the relationship between observable socio-demographic consumer characteristics, consumers' unobservable human values as measured by Schwartz' Portrait Values Questionnaire, and consumers' preferences for extrinsic credence attributes on their purchases of new potatoes in two countries, Italy and Germany. Parallel marketing studies were conducted in each of the two markets, with the intention of comparing the impact of human values on purchases of new potatoes with several attributes (price, country of origin, carbon footprint certification, ethical certification, method of production, and packaging). Motivation for the study comes from the declining market share of the domestic early potato due to international competition. Applied methods include Principal Component Analysis and Latent Class Analysis.


This thesis analyses how normative behaviour is negotiated within Murmurs, an online community for fans of rock band R.E.M. Undertaken as a cyber-ethnography, I examine the manner in which normative identity is constructed in Murmurs through masculinised Liberal intelligentsia "central values" of the R.E.M. fan's subcultural homology, such as tolerance, good will and equality, the rejection of which works to define the Other in the community. I demonstrate how the object of fandom as the "thinking fan's rock band" works to reflect and reinforce these "central values" and the processes through which they are explicitly enforced by the community hierarchy through strategies of power. My findings therefore show that normative behaviour in Murmurs is not a given, but requires continuous maintenance and governance. In conjunction with compliance to the homologous values, I identify in Murmurs how normativity can be achieved by strict adherence to four other key practices: reading in the "right way," assuming the correct gendered discourse, participating in the exchange of knowledge with other fans and maintaining a focus on the object of fandom. To analyse the processes of negotiation further, and in an effort to redress the inadequacies in the field of literature surrounding online communities and fan cultural norms regarding oppositional intra-communal fan identities, I examine through case studies the activities of three non-normative groups within Murmurs (Trobes, Droolers and Pointless Posters), determining how the community negotiates different types of fan behaviour that are seemingly a threat to normative conduct. However, quite notably, my analysis is conducted from a unique "insider" position in that, in addition to being an ethnographic researcher in the virtual field, I am both an R.E.M. fan and member of Murmurs' subcultural police, an official role which involves my active participation in the enforcement and governance of this non-normative Other in Murmurs. By doing this, I challenge the assumed existence of a consistently singular, or cohesive, identity in an online fan community. My conclusion in the thesis therefore rests upon a recommendation that future studies in this field should move away from assumptions of singularity and instead attempt to understand oppositional fan identities by examining the power relations surrounding them, and the processes through which fans negotiate normative identity within a community.


One of the major disadvantages of the current cancer therapy is the suppression of the immune system. Brazilian flora is considered one of the most diverse in the world and many plants were found to contain active constituents that can be valuable sources of new drugs. The plant Indigofera suffruticosa was studied to determine its potential to stimulate the immune system and also to be effective against tumour cells. We investigated the effects of the alkaloidal fraction and the pure alkaloid indigo obtained from I. suffruticosa on macrophage activation by measuring nitric oxide (NO) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) production. Cytotoxic activity was also evaluated against the two tumour murine cells lines, LM2 (breast adenocarcinoma) and LP07 (lung adenocarcinoma). The alkaloidal fraction induced a high NO production and a moderated TNF-α release. The pure indigo demonstrated an elevated NO and TNF-α production. The fraction and the pure compound also exhibited cytotoxic activity against both adenocarcinoma cell lines and indigo showed the strongest cytotoxic activity with IC50 value of 0.89 µg mL−1 against LM2 and 1.44 µg mL−1 against LP07. Our results presented the immunostimulatory and cytotoxic activity of I. suffruticosa, enhancing macrophage function and therefore contributing to the host defence against tumours.


Trade theory consists of a portfolio of models. What elements might be useful in modeling the offshoring of white-collar services, or do these issues call for an entirely fresh approach? I try to identifying some of the important aspects of this phenomenon and then argue that modeling could focus on (a) vertical fragmentation of production, (b) expansion of trade at the extensive margin, (c) fragments that differ in factor intensities and countries that differ in endowments, and (d) knowledge or capital stocks of countries or firms that are complementary to skilled labour, and create missing inputs for countries otherwise well suited to skill-intensive fragments. I argue that we can make good progress by selecting a number of 'modules' from existing theory. I use these to formulate a series of simple 'template' models which capture many of the characteristics of offshoring, and then use those models to identify the effects of technological or institutional changes which allow offshoring of white-collar services to occur.


Abstract This article analyzes the landmark deal between the Italian automobile corporation Fiat and the Soviet government to build and operate the Volga Automobile Factory (VAZ). Drawing on formerly closed corporate records and declassified Soviet documents, the article traces how the Cold War helped shape the strategy of a West European multinational corporation in its attempts to manipulate the national and international political context in which it was acting. In Fiat's strategy toward the uncertain Soviet market, car production represented more of a bridgehead than an ultimate objective. Fiat's Ostpolitik was carefully planned and coordinated with the U.S. government and with other large Italian businesses. Italian-Soviet cooperation in building VAZ, the symbol of material well-being and peaceful industrial reconstruction, facilitated the requests of Soviet officials and Western corporations to lift East-West trade restrictions on non-strategic goods, thus conferring political legitimacy on trade with the Soviet Union.


We assessed the occurrence of early bronchial response and late bronchial response after the tread mill and free running exercise tests in 46 mild and moderate extrinsic asthmatics. On the treadmill 24 asthmatic subjects (52.1%) had an early post-exercise fall in PEF greater than ten percent and they were considered to have exercise induced asthma. In the free running 30 asthmatic patients (65.2%) had exercise induced asthma no asthmatic subjects showed a fall in PEF equal to or more than 20 percent during late response period. On control day PEF levels during this time were similar 4 to 13 hours post-exercise PEF values. We reported no significant correlation between early post-exercise PEF values and PEF levels during late response period after the treadmill and free running exercise tests. This study demonstrates the absence of a late response in EIA after the treadmill and free running exercise tests, at least in young people with mild or moderate extrinsic asthma.


Volume 62, no. 9, e00280-18, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00280-18. The Acknowledgments section was incomplete and should appear as shown below. At the time the study was conducted, E.G.R., M.L.R., N.C., M.N., M.S.S., E.M., K.B., P.B., F.C.-G., P.J., Y.L., and J.R.B. were employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA (MSD), and they may own stock and/or stock options in the company. S.J.W. is an employee of Hammersmith Medicines Research Ltd., London, UK. Funding for this research was provided by MSD. All authors are responsible for the work described in this paper. All authors were involved in at least one of the following: study conception and design of work or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and drafting the manuscript and/or revising/reviewing the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors provided final approval of the version to be published. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Medical writing and/or editorial assistance was provided by Stephanie Doerner and Alanna Kennedy of The Lockwood Group, Stamford, CT, USA. This assistance was funded by MSD.


Computing the similarity between two protein structures is a crucial task in molecular biology, and has been extensively investigated. Many protein structure comparison methods can be modeled as maximum weighted clique problems in specific k-partite graphs, referred here as alignment graphs. In this paper we present both a new integer programming formulation for solving such clique problems and a dedicated branch and bound algorithm for solving the maximum cardinality clique problem. Both approaches have been integrated in VAST, a software for aligning protein 3D structures largely used in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, an original clique solver which uses the well known Bron and Kerbosch algorithm (BK). Our computational results on real protein alignment instances show that our branch and bound algorithm is up to 116 times faster than BK.


Abstract Fertility problems are known to exert a negative impact on psychological health. Meanwhile, individuals with fertility challenges often view adoption as a positive healing experience. Yet, a dearth of work has examined the long-term impact that fertility problems have on adoptive parents and their childrearing stress. Here, we investigated how fertility problems related to parenting daily hassle (PDH) trajectories among adoptive mothers and fathers in the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 333). When adopted children were 9 months old, adoptive parents reported whether they had fertility problems prior to their decision to adopt and rated their PDH frequency and intensity on six occasions over the next 7 years. Multilevel models revealed inverse U-shaped curves for PDH among both fertile and infertile parents, such that PDH increased from child age 9 months until about 5 to 6 years and decreased thereafter. Mothers with fertility problems exhibited a steeper PDH incline from 9 months to the peak at child age 5 to 6, but also incurred a swifter subsequent decline. There were no significant differences in fathers' PDH trajectories based on fertility problems. We discuss why fertility problems appear to impact PDH trajectories for mothers rather than fathers.


Introduction: Being able to drive is an important parameter of independence and self-sufficiency. The continued use of cars, which plays an important role in maintaining the mobility of the older individuals, is very important for the protection of the individual's activity performance.
Methods: Driving skills of 31 participants were tested with the help of a driving simulator and cognitive tests were applied to each participant. The study was aimed to reveal the relationship between the cognitive functions and safe driving skills of older patients using the driving simulator and to determine the cognitive test that predicts the safe driving skill best.
Results: 31 participants was included in the study. All participants were male. The average age was 72.5±6.The median of MMSE was 29 (IQR; 28-30),the mean of MOCA was 25.52±2.6,the mean value of QMCI was 62.68±9.57, the median of trail making test A was 42.5 sec(22-97), and the median of trail making test B was 98.31 sec(38-313).MOCA test score correlated positively with "the skills expected before starting the vehicle "and driving parameters on the highway("p: 0.0024, r:0.46";"p:0.0024, r:0.46",respectively).The QMCI test was found to have a statistically positive and significant correlation with operational skills and the skills expected before starting the vehicle("p:0.041, r:0.43"; "p:0.015 r:0.50",respectively).When the factors affecting operational skills and safe driving skills were analyzed by linear regression analysis, both skills were influenced by the QMCI-orientation step(p:0.001;CI:1.59-3.9).
Conclusion: In our study, it is shown that driving skills decrease with aging. QMCI and MOCA, which are easy to apply in clinical practice, will be useful in patients driving vehicles aged 65 and over with the demonstration of a significant relationship with total driving score, safe driving and operational skills.


Natural herbs are nothing more than plants made by the God, with infinite intelligence. Therefore herbal medicines may contain various ingredients other then active component which may be chemically similar or able to enhance the potency of active component. In light of above view the extraction method is also play an important role in effect of herbal drug. Furthermore experiences show that for the same drug people may respond well, badly, or not at all. Currently doctors diagnosis the disease and prescribe medicine on the basis of external symptoms and blood report of the patient. It some times results adverse effect, overdose of medicine. Adverse drug reaction accounted for 2.2 million hospitalizations and over 1,00,000 deaths in USA in 19941. Currently there is no simple way to determine whether people will respond well, badly, or not at all to a medication. Pharmacogenomics2 deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single nucleotide polymorphism with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. Therefore it provides a revolutionary pathway to diagnosis the disease and prescribes "Personalized" medicine on the basis patient's genotype. Genetic variation in drug receptors can have a profound effect on drug efficacy. It has been already reported that variation in sequence of amino acid in DNA directly affects the response of β2 – adrenoreceptor to β2 – agonists3-4.
In this paper, we discussed polymorphism in DNA and its effect on synthesis of drug metabolizing enzymes in human beans and other organism and it's use to determining the doze of alternative herbal drugs for patient along with benefits, challenges and various research scope in pharmacogenomics


We implement a low temperature (LT) growth technique for achieving abrupt n-type doping profiles in order to match the vertical scaling of modulation doped field effect transistor fully depleted structures. We use strain engineering of Ge rich Si1−xGex layers at LTs to suppress dopant segregation and to fully incorporate antimony in ultrathin Si1−xGex layers. We show that, only in the LT terrace-mediated kinetically limited regime, segregation is controlled by strain. At higher temperatures, in the step-edge mediated kinetically limited regime, segregation becomes independent of strain and at even higher temperatures, segregation follows the classical equilibrium behaviour mainly controlled by reduction of surface energy and not by strain.


Spontaneous brain activity, as observed in functional neuroimaging, has been shown to display reproducible structure that expresses brain architecture and carries markers of brain pathologies. An important view of modern neuroscience is that such large-scale structure of coherent activity reflects modularity properties of brain connectivity graphs. However, to date, there has been no demonstration that the limited and noisy data available in spontaneous activity observations could be used to learn full-brain probabilistic models that generalize to new data. Learning such models entails two main challenges: i) modeling full brain connectivity is a difficult estimation problem that faces the curse of dimensionality and ii) variability between subjects, coupled with the variability of functional signals between experimental runs, makes the use of multiple datasets challenging. We describe subject-level brain functional connectivity structure as a multivari-ate Gaussian process and introduce a new strategy to estimate it from group data, by imposing a common structure on the graphical model in the population. We show that individual models learned from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data using this population prior generalize better to unseen data than models based on alternative regularization schemes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a cross-validated model of spontaneous brain activity. Finally, we use the estimated graphical model to explore the large-scale characteristics of functional architecture and show for the first time that known cognitive networks appear as the integrated communities of functional connectivity graph.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
This study sought to investigate demographic, clinical, and procedural determinants of outcomes in patients treated with percutaneous veno-arterial (VA) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) initiated in the cardiac catheterization laboratory with a portable system.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective review of patients treated with percutaneous VA-ECMO during the study period at our institution. A logistic regression model was applied to investigate the association between sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score and survivor status. Fisher's exact test was used to examine the association between survivor status and cannula size (15 Fr vs >15 Fr).

RESULTS
Percutaneous VA-ECMO was initiated in 25 patients. At 30 days, 10 patients were alive (40%). Fifteen patients had cardiac arrest (CA) prior to ECMO initiation, of which 5 were alive at 30 days (33%). Survivors had a lower baseline median SOFA score (9 vs 16; P=.02; odds ratio, 0.577). Use of a smaller cannula was associated with survival (P=.01). There was an association between the size of the arterial cannula and increased blood transfusions (P<.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Lower presenting SOFA score and smaller cannula size were associated with increased survival in patients with cardiogenic shock (CS) or CA who underwent percutaneous VA-ECMO placed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory using a portable system. Calculation of the SOFA score at presentation may help physicians determine which patients may derive benefit from ECMO. Smaller cannula size, while decreasing the amount of flow, may result in decreased bleeding and increased survival.


Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) were first described in the medical literature in the 19th century, as seizure-like attacks not related to an identified central nervous system lesion, and are currently classified as a conversion disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). While a universally accepted and unifying etiological model does not yet exist, several risk factors have been identified. Management of PNES should be based on interdisciplinary collaboration, targeting modifiable risk factors. The first treatment phase in PNES is patient engagement, which is challenging given the demonstrated low rates of treatment retention. Acute interventions constitute the next phase in treatment, and most research studies focus on short-term evidence-based interventions. Randomized controlled pilot trials support cognitive–behavioral therapy. Other psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological interventions have been less well-studied using controlled and uncontrolled trials. Within the discussion of acute interventions, we present a preliminary evaluation for feasibility of a mindfulness-based psychotherapy protocol in a very small sample of PNES patients. We demonstrated in 6 subjects that this intervention is feasible in real-life clinical scenarios and warrants further investigation in larger scale studies. The final treatment phase is long-term follow-up. Long-term outcome studies in PNES show that a significant proportion of patients remains symptomatic and experiences continued impairments in quality of life and functionality. We believe that PNES should be understood as a disease that requires different types of intervention during the various phases of treatment.


ABSTRACT Liu, W. and Cao, Z., 2018. Positive role of marine tourism on economic stimulus in coastal area. In: Liu, Z.L. and Mi, C. (eds.), Advances in Sustainable Port and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 83, pp. 217–220. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. A new analysis model of simulative effect of marine tourism for economy in coastal area was proposed. This model used the grey relational method to quantitatively analyze the correlation between marine tourism and economic industry in coastal areas according to the marine tourism economic impact theory. The Grainger causality test strategy was introduced in the empirical analysis. The research shows that the stimulating effect of marine tourism on the economic development in coastal areas is obvious, the proposed model has high precision of analysis on stimulating effect.


Iodine-bromine water from pit-hole of naphthalene layer was used in the daily water-bath treatment course of 22 rats within 10 days; after decapitation of these animals content of malonic dialdehyde and lipid hydroperoxides was estimated in homogenates of heart, lung, liver, kidney and spleen tissues. Simultaneous increase in the rate of lipoperoxidation was observed in the tissue homogenates of experimental animals. The treatment course with iodine-bromine water appears to activate the prostacyclin synthesis in vessel endothelium, thus suggesting the promising efficiency of the water in treatment of some blood rheology-related pathological states.


In this work we develop and analyze optical layers for use in Micromorph solar cells, a tandem configuration with an amorphous silicon top cell and a microcrystalline silicon bottom cell. The morphology of the front electrode has a decisive role in maximizing the efficiency of a solar cell. To reach a better understanding of the requirements for the front electrode surface, we present a wide range of morphologies that can be obtained with as-grown rough zinc oxide (ZnO) and post-deposition argon plasma surface treatments. We correlate the morphological parameters to light scattering in transmission and reflection, and identify the inclination angles of ZnO pyramids as the most pertinent parameter for thin-film silicon solar cells. We show that there are no reflection losses at the interface between as-grown rough ZnO and silicon, and we quantify the reflection losses for smoother interfaces. With titanium dioxide, produced by reactive magnetron sputtering, we demonstrate that for flat interfaces reflection losses of up to 7.4% can be canceled at 550 nm wavelength. We show that in microcrystalline silicon cells p-type silicon sub-oxide (SiOx) can also be used to reduce reflection losses, and at the same time can act as field-creating window layer. We develop a wide range of mixed-phase SiOx layers and with energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy we reveal the filamentous nanostructure of films produced with high hydrogen dilution of the precursor gas mixture. A partial decoupling of electrical and optical parameters is achieved for such films, where the transparency and the refractive index are determined mostly by the silicon oxide matrix, while sufficient transverse conductivity for the use in solar cells is maintained by few-nanometer-wide silicon filaments. In thin-film silicon solar cells, p-type SiOx 0.5 shows the best results as a window layer with enhanced transparency, while strongly phosphorous-doped n-type SiOx 1 is best suited for use as an intermediate reflecting layer in tandem cells due to a low refractive index of 1.8 with sufficient transverse conductivity. The tunable resistance of doped SiOx layers can be used at various locations in a Micromorph cell to quench shunts or bad diodes in spatially non-uniform devices. Implementation of SiOx with these three functionalities in Micromorph cells has significantly contributed to increasing the best initial efficiency from 11.8% in 2006 to 13.5% in 2010. While rough ZnO front electrodes and SiOx-based intermediate reflecting layers both help to improve Micromorph cell efficiencies, they render the devices more sensitive to water-vapor-induced degradation. With lock-in thermography measurements we demonstrate that water contamination affects mainly the cell borders resulting in non-uniform distribution of the local open circuit voltage. Finally we show how free-carrier absorption and surface plasmon polariton absorption can reduce the reflectivity of the back reflector, and we present preliminary results aimed toward the realization of an absorption-free back reflector making use of polished ZnO and sputtered silver layers.


This paper examines gender differences in the participation of university life science faculty in commercial science. In part based on interviews, we develop hypotheses regarding how scientists' career achievements—their productivity, co-authorship networks, and institutional affiliations—have different effects on whether male and female faculty will become "academic entrepreneurs". We then statistically examine this framework in a case cohort dataset containing the career histories of 6,000 life scientists. We find that participation in for-profit ventures, which we measure as the hazard of joining the scientific advisory board (SAB) of a biotechnology firm, is a new arena in which gender differences are sharp: compared to men, women life scientists are far less likely to receive compensated advisory roles at for-profit biotechnology companies. Moreover, the gap in participation rates persists after conditioning on numerous measures of human and social capital. We also find that this gender difference is contoured by a number of factors, such as co-authorship network structure and the level of institutional support for commercial science. Surprisingly, we find that the (conditional) gender gap is largest among scientists employed at high prestige institutions.


The development of high-performance and cost-effective catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is essential for the advancement of fuel cells. In this work, three different functionalized cobalt porphyrins, meso-tetraphenylporphyrinatocobalt(II) (CoTPP), meso-tetrakis(4′-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrinatocobalt(II) (CoTHPP) and meso-tetrakis(4′-carboxy-phenyl)porphyrinatocobalt(II) (CoTCPP), are prepared. These porphyrins are immobilized non-covalently on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and used for the ORR in 0.1 M HClO4, 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.0) and 0.1 M KOH media. The composite materials are characterized by using spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques and their oxygen reduction efficiencies are compared in different media. Kinetic interpretations and hydrodynamic voltammetry (in three media) studies demonstrated that the MWCNT–CoTPP, MWCNT–CoTHPP and MWCNT–CoTCPP composite materials exhibit significant efficiency with decreased overpotential, considerable methanol tolerance and long term operational stability (up to 3000 cycles) for the ORR similar to commercially available platinum carbon (Pt–C) catalysts. These results reveal that the new MWCNT–cobalt porphyrin composite materials can be a potential alternative to the expensive Pt–C catalysts or other commercial cathode materials in fuel cells.


Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a heterogenous class of aggressive lymphoma and is considered as the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). Several genetic anomalies such as point mutations, numerical alterations, and, more rarely, translocations and gene amplifications play a role in the pathogenesis of this class of B-cell lymphoma and have been related to specific histological and immunophenotypic subtypes. On the other hand, the treatment protocol in DLBCL did not witness significant changes during the last two decades. The widespread adoption of rituximab as an important adjuvant to standard chemotherapy protocol in CD20+ cases was a notable exception, which provided significant improvement in disease-free survival and overall survival, with limited toxicity. However, no less than 20% of patients diagnosed with DLBCL exhibit relapse after the initial response to R-CHOP regimen, while more than 15% of the patients exhibit primary refractory disease. This is the reason why a review of all the morphological, clinical, and therapeutic particularities of DLBCL is required.


Parkinson's disease, which affects the basal ganglia, is known to lead to various impairments of motor control. Since the basal ganglia have also been shown to be involved in learning processes, motor learning has frequently been investigated in this group of patients. However, results are still inconsistent, mainly due to skill levels and time scales of testing. To bridge across the time scale problem, the present study examined de novo skill learning over a long series of practice sessions that comprised early and late learning stages as well as retention. 19 non-demented, medicated, mild to moderate patients with Parkinson's disease and 19 healthy age and gender matched participants practiced a novel throwing task over five days in a virtual environment where timing of release was a critical element. Six patients and seven control participants came to an additional long-term retention testing after seven to nine months. Changes in task performance were analyzed by a method that differentiates between three components of motor learning prominent in different stages of learning: Tolerance, Noise and Covariation. In addition, kinematic analysis related the influence of skill levels as affected by the specific motor control deficits in Parkinson patients to the process of learning. As a result, patients showed similar learning in early and late stages compared to the control subjects. Differences occurred in short-term retention tests; patients' performance constantly decreased after breaks arising from poorer release timing. However, patients were able to overcome the initial timing problems within the course of each practice session and could further improve their throwing performance. Thus, results demonstrate the intact ability to learn a novel motor skill in non-demented, medicated patients with Parkinson's disease and indicate confounding effects of motor control deficits on retention performance.


BACKGROUND:
 The obesity epidemic has been associated with a surge in diagnoses of diabetes and pre-diabetes in the general population, but a high proportion of individuals are unaware that they have these conditions, which confer higher vascular risk, yet are amenable to treatment. Given the adverse effects of hyperglycemia on post-stroke outcomes and recurrent vascular risk, we investigated the burden of undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes among stroke survivors.

 METHODS:
 We assessed prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes (HbA1c ≥6.5% and HbA1c 5.7-6.4% without self-reported physician-diagnosis) among 1070 non-pregnant adult (≥20 years) stroke survivors who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 1999-2010. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between race-ethnicity and odds of undiagnosed diabetes/prediabetes, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and medical comorbidities.

 RESULTS
 Among an estimated 5,102,279 adult stroke survivors in the US, 3.7% had undiagnosed diabetes, while 32.3% had undiagnosed pre-diabetes. Prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 7.5% in non-Hispanic blacks (NHBs), 4.4% in Hispanics, and 3.1% in non-Hispanic whites (NHWs). Prevalence of undiagnosed pre-diabetes was highest in NHBs (37.8%), followed by NHWs (31.6%) and Hispanics (26.3%). Compared to NHWs and Hispanics, NHB stroke survivors with undiagnosed diabetes/pre-diabetes were younger (mean age 59 years vs. 70 and 67 years), more likely to be on antihypertensive medications (73% vs. 66% and 58%), and more likely to smoke (30% vs. 22% and 11%). After multivariate analysis, NHBs were more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes/pre-diabetes than NHWs (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.31-3.44; p=0.002).

 CONCLUSIONS:
 A high proportion (one in 3) of stroke survivors in the US has undiagnosed pre-diabetes and the highest rates of diabetes and pre-diabetes are seen among NHBs, even after adjusting for confounders. Systematic screening and treatment at the time of the index stroke may boost overall clinical outcomes and bridge these racial disparities.


Diacylgycerol acyltransferase2 (DGAT2) is an important enzyme in many organisms. DGAT2 catalyzes the final step of triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis by converting diacylgycerol (DAG) and fatty acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) into TAG. This enzyme is encoded by both DGAT2 and DGAT1 genes. This paper reviews the discovery of the DGAT2 gene, its structure, chromosomal location and biological effect. The relationship between its genetic polymorphisms and animal performance traits is also discussed. The review ends with future prospects.


Abstract This article revisits a paper and from an autoethnographic/critical reflective biographical approach re-examines seven cultural notions or myths, which may encourage ageism. It is framed within my experiential knowledge of caring for my ageing parents, with the tensions and challenges around problematising the value of expertise based on experience, communication, grief, and autonomy and freedom versus safety. The commentary emphasises that by analysing the impact of our personal life experiences, we can start to understand both the intended and unintended consequences of policy and practice affecting those in the fourth age. As a social work educator, I wanted to reflect upon how my tacit experiential knowledge, if made explicit, could impact upon my own and others' learning. The recent death of my father has allowed for a period of reflection on my own caring and indeed my professional social work experience, knowledge, skills and practice. It is argued that the ageing process is unequal as class and socio-economic factors, i.e. geography, age, gender, religion and ethnicity, all play parts in determining how someone ages, and indeed upon the care an individual older person receives. A fuller understanding of negotiating the role of one stakeholder, that of a family carer in the ageing process, is elicited in this paper.


The Provincial Health Office of Southeast Sulawesi in 2014 in Southeast Sulawesi stated that in South Konawe the case of malaria is still very high with the number of cases as many as 1,339 cases alkaloids, Flavonoids, Saponins, and Tanins contained in leaves C. Papaya can be used as an An larvicidal. Aconitus causes malaria. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of papaya leaf extract (C. Papaya) as Larvasida to larvae of mosquito Anopheles aconitus with contact time 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours and 48 hours. This type of research is purely experimental with post test design only control group design. The sample is an An mosquito larvae Anopheles aconitus Instar III / IV of 25 in each of 4 treatment units and 1 control with 4 repetitions.The results showed that concentration of 0ppm (control), 125ppm, 250ppm, 500ppm, and 1000ppm, papaya leaf extract (Carica Papaya L) respectively caused larvae deaths of 0%, 8%, 16%, 40%, and 56% for 24 hours treatment, and 0%, 16%, 28%, 68%, and 96%, for 36 hours of treatment. Result of probit test obtained value of LC50 and LC90 at 24 hours equal to 657,278 ppm and 1209,82 ppm. at 36 hours at 424,086 ppm and 837,754 ppm. Kruskall-wallis test results show p <0.05 so that it can be concluded there is a significant difference in the number of dead larvae between groups compared.The conclusion in this research is papaya leaf extract effective as larvasida to larvae of Anopheles aconitus.


PURPOSE
This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL).

METHODS
The MENQOL was translated into Korean according to algorithm of linguistic validation process. A total of 308 menopausal women were recruited and assessed using the Korean version of MENQOL (MENQOL-K), the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF), and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-K). In estimating reliability, internal consistency reliability coefficients were calculated. Validity was evaluated through criterion validity and construct validity with confirmatory factor analyses using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 25.0 software.

RESULTS
In item analyses, the "increased facial hair" symptom was excluded because of the low contribution of MENQOL-K. The confirmatory factor analysis supported good fit and reliable scores for MENQOL-K model, and the four-factor structure was validated (χ²=553.28, p<.001, NC=1.84, RMSEA=.05, AGIF=.85, AIC=765.28). The MENQOL-K consists of 28 items in 4 domains, including vasomotor (3 items), psychosocial (7 items), physical (15 items), and sexual subscales (3 items). There was an acceptable criterion validity with moderately significant correlation between MENQOL-K and WHOQOL-BREF. The Cronbach's α for the 4 subsacles ranged from .80 to .93.

CONCLUSION
The MENQOL-K is a valid and reliable scale to measure condition-specific quality of life for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. It can be used to assess the impact of menopausal symptoms on the quality of life of Korean women in clinical trials.