Structural equation modelling (SEM) has evolved into two domains, factor-based and component-based, dependent on whether constructs are statistically represented as common factors or components. The two SEM domains are conceptually distinct, each assuming their own population models with either of the statistical construct proxies, and statistical SEM approaches should be used for estimating models whose construct representations correspond to what they assume. However, SEM approaches have often been evaluated and compared only under population factor models, providing misleading conclusions about their relative performance. This is partly because population component models and their relationships have not been clearly formulated. Also, it is of fundamental importance to examine how robust SEM approaches can be to potential misrepresentation of constructs because researchers may often lack clear theories to determine whether a factor or component is more representative of a given construct. Addressing these issues, this study begins by clarifying several population component models and their relationships and then provides a comprehensive evaluation of four SEM approaches - the maximum likelihood approach and factor score regression for factor-based SEM as well as generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) and partial least squares path modelling (PLSPM) for component-based SEM - under various experimental conditions. We confirm that the factor-based SEM approaches should be preferred for estimating factor models, whereas the component-based SEM approaches should be chosen for component models. Importantly, the component-based approaches are generally more robust to construct misrepresentation than the factor-based ones. Of the component-based approaches, GSCA should be chosen over PLSPM, regardless of whether or not constructs are misrepresented.


Abstract. A catastrophic flowslide occurred at the Hongao dumpsite on 20 December 2015 in the Guangming New District of Shenzhen, China. The flowslide caused 77 causalities and damaged 33 buildings. In the absence of extreme weather conditions and seismic activity, the causes of the failure were analyzed on the basis of multi-temporal remote-sensing images, site investigation, in situ tests, laboratory tests, and numerical analyses. Site investigations showed that the volume of the displaced material was 2.32  ×  106 m3 and the volume of the pre-failure waste filling was 6.27  ×  106 m3. The flowslide was characterized by high travel velocity and long runout distance. The displaced material was primarily a mixture of silty soil and construction and demolition waste with water content of 17.3–42.4 %. The primary causes of the failure were concluded to be the following: (1) groundwater flow had stagnated in the dumpsite due to drainage system failure and the underlying impermeable granite stratum; (2) the accumulation rate and total volume of the waste filling was in exceedance of the design capacity. The flowslide may be ascribed to the development of excess pore-water pressure as evidence of liquefaction was observed at several locations, and it is postulated that such phenomena were related to the surcharge loads imposed by the unregulated disposal activities.


This descriptive study explores the reasons for integration of the personal selling function, i.e., the use of employee ("direct") salespeople rather than manufacturers' representatives ("reps"). A hypothesized model is developed based on both transaction cost analysis and the sales force management literature. Data from 13 electronic component manufacturers covering 159 U.S. sales districts are used to estimate a logistic model of the probability of "going direct" in a given district. Results are shown to be stable across specification and estimation methods and to fit the data well. The transaction cost model is generally supported. The principal finding is that the greater the difficulty of evaluating a salesperson's performance, the more likely the firm to substitute surveillance for commission as a control mechanism, i.e., to use a direct sales force. Among other findings, direct sales forces are also associated with complex, hard-to-learn product lines and with districts that demand considerable nonselling activities. Several factors prove unrelated, including company size, the amount of travel a district requires, and the importance of key accounts.

This article was originally published in Marketing Science, Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 234--254, in 1985.


One of the important parts in human face recognition is detecting face position. In this paper a implement face position detection experiment using (Artificial Neural Network, ANN) to give outputs of human face number, position and dimension as found in a digital image. The system is trained using available ace samples. Quickprop algorithm and active learning method are used to speed the system training process up. And also indicate the comparison of the training time with standard Backpropagation algorithm and the training with Quickprop algorithm. The experiment is conducted using 200, 300 and 400 data. For each of the trainings, the iteration is stopped when the error value reaches 0.05. It is observed that the bigger number of the training data of the Quickprop algorithm causes significant increase in the training rate. Based on the results of the experiment with 14 files containing 273 face images, the face detection system gives 70.24% detection rate and 62 false positives.


A total of 117 persons were studied: 60 patients with isolated systolic arterial hypertension (ISAH) (22 males, 38 females; mean age 68.7 +/- 4.2 years), 22 males with ISAH (mean age 20.1 +/- 2.7 years), 15 healthy elderly subjects and 20 healthy young males. The analysis of heart rhythm variability and the results of 24-h arterial pressure monitoring specified an individual 24-h profile of arterial pressure and effects of vegetative regulation on this profile.


The objectives of this paper are to present the dynamic of organic food and farming (OFF) research and innovation, to outline challenges in deploying programs and accessing funding, and to define key actions to foster the development of tailored quality research on organic farming in Italy. The baseline starts from the main outcomes that emerged during the World Café held in the frame of the Salone Internazionale del biologico e del naturale (SANA Expo) in 2018, where the Italian OFF research community met to build a convergence on scope and modus operandi in the research endeavor. These outcomes were examined in the light of the key features of the research and innovation projects funded in Italy in the last 10 years, respectively by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and the regional administrations through the innovation support instruments in the Rural Development Plan programming periods. In the period 2009–2018, 70 research projects for a total funding of 21.081 million € (<0.1% of the value of the sector) were launched, addressing nine different topic areas. Over a similar period (2007–2019), 53 regional innovation projects addressing organic farming were activated for a total budget of 14.299 million € (<10% of the entire available funding). The implementation of interventions in the research and the innovation areas were often scattered in terms of the topics, disciplines, and types of supply chain/network addressed. The relatively high share of multi/interdisciplinary research and innovation projects as well as the acknowledgement of the multi-actor approach as a fundamental step toward co-research and co-innovation were upshots that emerged from our analysis. The outcomes of this study can be used by competent national and the regional authorities to design their future research and innovation policies and interventions.


We hypothesized that brain regions showing neuronal activation after refeeding comprise major nodes in a satiety network, and tested this hypothesis with two sets of experiments. Detailed c‐Fos mapping comparing fasted and refed rats was performed to identify candidate nodes of the satiety network. In addition to well‐known feeding‐related brain regions such as the arcuate, dorsomedial, and paraventricular hypothalamic nuclei, lateral hypothalamic area, parabrachial nucleus (PB), nucleus of the solitary tract and central amygdalar nucleus, other refeeding activated regions were also identified, such as the parastrial and parasubthalamic nuclei. To begin to understand the connectivity of the satiety network, the interconnectivity of PB with other refeeding‐activated neuronal groups was studied following administration of anterograde or retrograde tracers into the PB. After allowing for tracer transport time, the animals were fasted and then refed before sacrifice. Refeeding‐activated neurons that project to the PB were found in the agranular insular area; bed nuclei of terminal stria; anterior hypothalamic area; arcuate, paraventricular, and dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei; lateral hypothalamic area; parasubthalamic nucleus; central amygdalar nucleus; area postrema; and nucleus of the solitary tract. Axons originating from the PB were observed to closely associate with refeeding‐activated neurons in the agranular insular area; bed nuclei of terminal stria; anterior hypothalamus; paraventricular, arcuate, and dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei; lateral hypothalamic area; central amygdalar nucleus; parasubthalamic nucleus; ventral posterior thalamic nucleus; area postrema; and nucleus of the solitary tract. These data indicate that the PB has bidirectional connections with most refeeding‐activated neuronal groups, suggesting that short‐loop feedback circuits exist in this satiety network. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:2803–2827, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


We analyzed the transcriptome of the C57BL/6J mouse hypothalamus, hippocampus, neocortex, and cerebellum to determine estrous cycle‐specific changes in these four brain regions. We found almost 16,000 genes are present in one or more of the brain areas but only 210 genes, ∼1.3%, are significantly changed as a result of the estrous cycle. The hippocampus has the largest number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (82), followed by the neocortex (76), hypothalamus (63), and cerebellum (26). Most of these DEGs (186/210) are differentially expressed in only one of the four brain regions. A key finding is the unique expression pattern of growth hormone (Gh) and prolactin (Prl). Gh and Prl are the only DEGs to be expressed during only one stage of the estrous cycle (metestrus). To gain insight into the function of the DEGs, we examined gene ontology and phenotype enrichment and found significant enrichment for genes associated with myelination, hormone stimulus, and abnormal hormone levels. Additionally, 61 of the 210 DEGs are known to change in response to estrogen in the brain. 50 of the 210 genes differentially expressed as a result of the estrous cycle are related to myelin and oligodendrocytes and 12 of the 63 DEGs in the hypothalamus are oligodendrocyte‐ and myelin‐specific genes. This transcriptomic analysis reveals that gene expression in the female mouse brain is remarkably stable during the estrous cycle and demonstrates that the genes that do fluctuate are functionally related.


High‐frequency stable isotope data are useful for validating atmospheric moisture circulation models and provide improved understanding of the mechanisms controlling isotopic compositions in tropical rainfall. Here, we present a near‐continuous 6‐month record of O‐ and H‐isotope compositions in both water vapour and daily rainfall from Northeast Australia measured by laser spectroscopy. The data set spans both wet and dry seasons to help address a significant data and knowledge gap in the southern hemisphere tropics. We interpret the isotopic records for water vapour and rainfall in the context of contemporaneous meteorological observations. Surface air moisture provided near‐continuous tracking of the links between isotopic variations and meteorological events on local to regional spatial scales. Power spectrum analysis of the isotopic variation showed a range of significant periodicities, from hourly to monthly scales, and cross‐wavelet analysis identified significant regions of common power for hourly averaged water vapour isotopic composition and relative humidity, wind direction, and solar radiation. Relative humidity had the greatest subdiurnal influence on isotopic composition. On longer timescales (weeks to months), isotope variability was strongly correlated with both wind direction and relative humidity. The high‐frequency records showed diurnal isotopic variations in O‐ and H‐isotope compositions due to local dew formation and, for deuterium excess, as a result of evapotranspiration. Several significant negative isotope anomalies on a daily scale were associated with the activity of regional mesoscale convective systems and the occurrence of two tropical cyclones. Calculated air parcel back trajectories identified the predominant moisture transport paths from the Southwest Pacific Ocean, whereas moisture transport from northerly directions occurred mainly during the wet season monsoonal airflow. Water vapour isotope compositions reflected the same meteorological events as recorded in rainfall isotopes but provided much more detailed and continuous information on atmospheric moisture cycling than the intermittent isotopic record provided by rainfall. Improved global coverage of stable isotope data for atmospheric water vapour is likely to improve simulations of future changes to climate drivers of the hydrological cycle.


In this narrative of teacher educator action research, the idea for and the context of the lesson emerged as a result of conversations between Shelly, a mathematics teacher educator, and Lisa, a quilter, about real-life mathematical problems related to Lisa's work as she created the templates for a reproduction quilt. The lesson was used with early childhood preservice teachers in a mathematics methods course and with K-2 teachers who participated in a professional development workshop that focused on geometry and measurement content. The goal of the lesson was threefold: (a) to help the participants consider a nonstandard real-world contextual problem as mathematical activity, (b) to create an opportunity for participants to mathematize (Freudenthal, 1968), and (c) to unpack mathematical big ideas related to measurement and similarity. Participants' strategies were analyzed, prompting conversations about these big ideas, as well as an unanticipated one.


Precise knowledge of crop water consumption is essential to better manage agricultural water use, particularly in regions where most countries struggle with increasing water and food insecurity. Approaches such as cloud computing and remote sensing (RS) have facilitated access, process, and visualization of big geospatial data to map and monitor crop water requirements. To find the most reliable Vegetation Index (VI)-based evapotranspiration (ETa) for croplands in drylands, we modeled and mapped ETa using empirical RS methods across the Zayandehrud river basin in Iran for two decades (2000–2019) on the Google Earth Engine platform using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index 2 (EVI2). Developed ET-VI products in this study comprise three NDVI-based ETa (ET-NDVI*, ET-NDVI*scaled, and ET-NDVIKc) and an EVI2-based ETa (ET-EVI2). We (a) applied, for the first time, the ET-NDVI* method to croplands as a crop-independent index and then compared its performance with the ET-EVI2 and crop ET, and (b) assessed the ease and feasibility of the transferability of these methods to other regions. Comparing four ET-VI products showed that annual ET-EVI2 and ET-NDVI*scaled estimations were close. ET-NDVIKc consistently overestimated ETa. Our findings indicate that ET-EVI2 and ET-NDVIKc were easy to parametrize and adopt to other regions, while ET-NDVI* and ET-NDVI*scaled are site-dependent and sensitive to image acquisition time. ET-EVI2 performed robustly in arid and semi-arid regions making it a better tool. Future research should further develop and confirm these findings by characterizing the accuracy of VI-based ETa over croplands in drylands by comparing them with available ETa products and examining their performance using crop-specific comparisons.


This research investigates how the amount of trust a consumer has in an electronic commerce intermediary and the amount of expertise that consumer needs to acquire in order to be able to use the intermediary affect the intention to adopt the electronic commerce intermediary. The paper analyzes both the direct effects of trust and expertise on adoption intention, as well as the indirect effects through two mediating variables widely used in adoption studies, usefulness and ease of use. These effects are hypothesized to be further moderated by the level of transaction complexity. The results partially support both the direct effects model and the indirect effects model, pointing out that trust and expertise are, as hypothesized by academicians and practitioners alike, important in encouraging adoption of electronic commerce technologies. In addition, the results show that trust and expertise become more important in determining the adoption intention as transaction complexity increases.


Objective: To compare the sensitivity and specificity of Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) levels to assess the response of radiation therapy. Method: The study was conducted by the method of analytic observational cohort study in 24 patients with cervical cancer stage II-B and III-B in RSCM that met inclusion criteria. Examination of VEGF and SCC in serum samples was performed in the Prodia Laboratory Jakarta. The examination was conducted twice before and after radiation therapy. The subjects were treated by radiation therapy/ chemoradiation according to standard procedures. After the completion of radiation was declared, the response of radiation therapy was conducted by clinical assessment. Result: Of the 24 subjects, we obtained a mean level of SCC pre-radiation was 23.43 ± 5.84 ng/ml and post-radiation was 2.19 ± 0.68 ng/ml. The mean VEGF pre-radiation was 790.41 ± 111.06 pg/ml and post-radiation was 497.47 ± 79.26 pg/ml. ROC curves of each tumor marker obtained SCC pre-radiation AUC 40%, p 0.53 (CI 0.180.68) and SCC post-radiation AUC 48.1%, p 0.91 (CI 0.21-0,75) can not be used as a diagnostic and prognostic factors of response to radiation therapy. VEGF pre-radiation produced an AUC of 17.5%, p 0.04 (CI 0.00-0.36), thus cannot be used as a prognostic factor for response to radiation therapy. VEGF after radiation produced an AUC of 92.5%, p 0.01 (CI 0.81-1.00), thus can be a diagnostic factor for response to radiation therapy. VEGF post-radiation with cut-off point 614.75 pg/ml had a sensitivity 80%, specificity 75%, NDP 94.12%, NDN 42.86%; RKP 3.2; RKN 0.26 and accuracy 79.16%. There is a significant correlation between the decrease of serum VEGF level post-radiation and a positive response of radiation therapy (p 0.01, CI 1.00-3.23). Conclusion: Examination of VEGF levels can be used to assess the response of radiation therapy with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 75%. [Indones J Obstet Gynecol 2014; 2-1: 40-45]


Recently, as a new information technology (IT) paradigm, cloud computing has become one of the hottest topics in both academia and industry. Cloud computing is a model for enabling on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable resources (e.g., servers, storage, applications, services, etc.). The essential characteristics of cloud computing include on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service [26]. Several service models are supported, including cloud software as a service, cloud platform as a service, and cloud infrastructure as service [24]. Cloud computing has attracted significant attention, and several commercial clouds, including Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, and Google App Engine, have been providing services to users.


I suggest that to decolonize conservation we must also decolonize our way of seeing land and nature-society relations inscribed in it as landscapes. I proceed in three parts. First, drawing on insights from post- and decolonial studies, critical geography, environmental history and political ecology, I highlight three problems that underpin a landscape way of seeing nature-society relations: depoliticization, simplification/decomplexification, and representation. Second,to illustrate the colonial legacy of the contemporary landscape approach to nature conservation, I revisit the global history of landscapism – the double movement of colonizing landscapes/landscapingcolonies. This double movement began with the internal colonization of European landscapes (autonomous political communities), and continued through the landscaping of (settler-)colonies by Europeans outside of their homelands. Third, through the contemporary case of a landscape conservation initiative in Tanzania (the so-called "Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem"), I illustrate the implications of the double movement in the colonial present of African conservation. I conclude with a few remarks on what decolonization of conservation would have to entail in scientific research and practice.


Behavioral pharmacology research has made important contributions to the conceptualization of addictions and to the treatment and prevention of substance abuse. It has its intellectual roots in the experimental analysis of behavior and close ties with experimental and clinical pharmacology. Because substance abusers self-administer drugs repeatedly, this presents the opportunity for learning to occur. The application of learning theory to the laboratory study of drug effects in both animals and humans has been a major contribution of behavioral pharmacology research. Principles derived from over 40 years of behavioral pharmacology research are now widely accepted in the addiction field and have contributed to the development of both pharmacological and behavioral treatments. Drug abuse prevention through the assessment of the abuse liability of new medications has also been an important applied area of research in the field. Personal reflections of three behavioral pharmacologists provide examples of important influences in the field.


The incidence of pedestrian-vehicle accidents is so minimal and scattered that a general policy for installing guiderail or other devices to protect pedestrians adjacent to roadways is unwarranted. This is especially true involving vehicles that run off the roadway. Run-off-road accidents occur more frequently at intersections in urban areas than anywhere else, but guiderail is inappropriate at these locations, because its protective qualities are reduced when it is impacted at large angles of impact. Guiderail and other appropriate devices could be installed at locations exhibiting hazardous geometric conditions and/or engineering judgment advocates the usage of such devices. The establishment of improved pedestrian control could possibly eliminate a major portion of the pedestrian-vehicle conflicts that occur on the roadway. A comprehensive pedestrian safety program and strict enforcement of existing pedestrian regulations could achieve such control. /Author/


We demonstrate theoretically that photoassociated molecules can be stabilized to deeply bound states. This process is achieved by transferring the population from the outer well to the inner well using the optimal control theory, the Cs 2 molecule is taken as an example. Numerical calculations show that weakly bound molecules formed in the outer well by a pump pulse can be compressed to the inner well via a vibrational level of the ground electronic state as an intermediary by an additionally optimized laser pulse. The positively chirped pulse can enhance the population of the target state. With a transform-limited dump pulse, nearly all the photoassociated molecules in the inner well of the excited electronic state can be transferred to the deeply vibrational level of the ground electronic state.


An analytic procedure for calculating the critical temperature and estimating the size of the critical region for a cell fluid model is developed. Our numerical calculations are illustrated by the case of the Morse potential parameters characterizing the alkali metals (sodium and potassium). The critical temperatures found for liquid sodium and potassium as solutions of the resulting quadratic equation agree with experimental data. The expression for the relative temperature determining the critical region size is obtained proceeding from the condition for the critical regime existence. In the cases of sodium and potassium, the value of this temperature is of the order of a few hundredths.


Spur dike is one of the conventional structures in organizing and controlling erosion on the river side slopes. It causes the strong flows to be taken away of coastal and flow is guided towards river axis. On the other hand, changes in the flow pattern cause scour around spur dike. This study tries to evaluate the effect of increasing length in spur dike wing on the scour depth. Experiments were performed in the 90 degree meander with three different wing length, three different discharges and fixed depth. In addition L- shape spur dike was compared with ordinary spur dike. The result indicates that the scour depth and volume decreases with increase in wing length of spur dike. Comparing L-shape spur dike to ordinary spur dike show to be increase 3.25% up to 23.85%. Finally, an experimental predictor is presented for scouring in L-shape spur dike. This predictor has shown significant correlation with observation data in scour depth prediction.


There are several unaddressed problems in the taxonomy of bumblebees which motivate researchers to look for alternative methods. The morphological characters of the male genitalia are reliable and also distinctive for bumblebee taxonomy as in most of the other insect groups. However, it is always used to identify species of bumblebees but not used in its higher classification. Maybe because of the complex morphology, quantitative analysis such as geometric morphometrics on the male genitalia have been neglected so far. The structure of this organ is not proper for 2D-landmark based morphometrics. Therefore, we aimed to make an Elliptic Fourier shape Analysis (EFA) to explore the shape differences of male genitalia among the members of four different subgenera (Megabombus Dalla Torre, Melanobombus Dalla Torre, Subterraneobombus Vogt and Thorachobombus Dalla Torre) of Bombus (s. lato) Latreille distributed in Turkey. Nineteen species were used for analysis and their Elliptic Fourier Descriptors (EFDs) for dorsal view were described. Ordination methods, such as Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA) and Principle Component Analysis (PCA), were used to discriminate the different subgenera based on the male genitalia shape. As a result of these analyses all the methods gave us promising results in discriminating the subgeneric boundaries between previously assigned groups. This is the first study in which male genitalia of bumblebees were defined quantitatively. The results suggest an alternative methodology in establishing higher classification of bumblebees.


GMRES(k) is widely used for solving nonsymmetric linear systems. However, it is inadequate either when it converges only fork close to the problem size or when numerical error in the modified Gram–Schmidt process used in the GMRES orthogonalization phase dramatically affects the algorithm performance. An adaptive version of GMRES( k) which tunes the restart value k based on criteria estimating the GMRES convergence rate for the given problem is proposed here. This adaptive GMRES( k) procedure outperforms standard GMRES( k), several other GMRES-like methods, and QMR on actual large scale sparse structural mechanics postbuckling and analog circuit simulation problems. There are some applications, such as homotopy methods for high Reynolds number viscous flows, solid mechanics postbuckling analysis, and analog circuit simulation, where very high accuracy in the linear system solutions is essential. In this context, the modified Gram–Schmidt process in GMRES can fail causing the entire GMRES iteration to fail. It is shown that the adaptive GMRES( k) with the orthogonalization performed by Householder transformations succeeds whenever GMRES( k) with the orthogonalization performed by the modified Gram–Schmidt process fails, and the extra cost of computing Householder transformations is justified for these applications. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The popularity and appeal of learning and assessment through the medium of simulation is now so widespread within undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare education that it has become a ubiquitous pedagogy (Berragan, 2014). A body of research attests to the capacity of simulation to improve learners' technical and non-technical skills through direct and active participation in immersive experiences. However, in programmes where there may be large numbers of students, resource limitations often lead to simulations being conducted as group activities. Evidence suggests that when this happens, learners who take on an observer role instead of being an actual participant in the simulation, can lose interest and disengage from the learning experience (Kettlewell, 2012; Harder et al., 2013). As a new and small team of nurse educators, in order to engage learners in both learning and assessment and to address resourcing and sustainability, we have developed an innovative approach offering students an engaging and focussed group learning and assessment experience.
A level 4 nursing module focusing upon assessment and skills development requires students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in peer pairs through an Observed Structured Clinical Experience (OSCE). Each student works through an assessment framework for deteriorating or critically ill patients with a peer observing the full patient assessment. Feedback following the OSCE is managed and conducted by the peer observer guided by a set of nationally recognised criteria for the specific skill performed. Students are then given a period of time for reflection upon their experience during which they are required to answer a number of reflective questions (introduced at the beginning of the module) drawing upon the feedback received from their peer. Students are then invited to attend an oral examination where they will address a number of the reflective questions and have an opportunity to articulate different elements of their learning.
Students report that this approach facilitates support and interactivity between students addressing different learning styles and offering opportunities for the development and use of critiquing, questioning, challenging and reflecting skills as well as nursing assessment skills (Hwang et al., 2014; Gervais, 2006). Participants also suggest that using this assessment design, feedback is timely following on directly from student activity supporting the notion of collaborative working to achieve a common goal. Students describe the value of working together to manage the feedback process and identify learning points which will be taken into clinical practice on their next placement, engendering a sense of professional identity and development as students begin to perform as nurses (Berragan 2013).
This approach to assessment offers a reflective opportunity to consider not only what has occurred during assessment and what has been learned, but also how this might be transferred to practice both in relation to direct patient care and also in relation to future achievement of learning outcomes. It is our intention that learning and assessment through this module will support nursing students to deliver safe, responsive and effective patient care.


During the past 30 years, I enjoyed not only the practice of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) but also teaching it. Back in the late 1970s, FNA was a totally new addition to general surgical pathology. At that time, I tended to get 2 common questions. The first was generally from the senior member of the pathology group who is happy with the traditional practice of surgical pathology and wanted to know why his practice should include FNA. The second question was generally from a younger member, often in the same group, who wanted to know how he could ''sell'' the idea of FNA to his reluctant senior colleagues. After introducing ultrasound-guided FNA into my Sacramento private practice in 2003, I enjoyed the irony of getting exactly the same questions but now with an ultrasound twist. Again, the senior members of the pathology group wanted to know why it was necessary at ultrasound guidance to establish manual FNA practice, and the junior member of the group wants to know how to convince his senior colleagues to do exactly that. In this review, I provide very practical, practice-tested answers to those 2 questions plus 3 other practical questions as follows: how to evaluate an ultrasound machine, what books and courses are the most cost-effective, and how does one market ultrasound-guided FNA to doctors and patients.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to observation the possible visceralization tendency and dissemination of L. major amastigotes in gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) using a classic smear technique, inoculated into enriched Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle (NNN) culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for diagnosis of infection.

METHODS
In this study, L. major isolated from a man who 18 years old, living in Bitlis province of Turkey. This strain also was utilized to infect gerbils. A total of 1 × 10(8)/mL promastigotes were inoculated to 10 gerbils. Necropsy was performed on infected gerbils for monitoring the visceralization tendency of the parasites. Tissue samples were prepared from each animal and stained by Giemsa and inoculated into NNN culture. However, a real-time PCR assay was performed to confirm the infection the clinical material.

RESULTS
Examination of Giemsa-stained tissue smears showed that infected animals with L.major were positive for Leishmania amastigotes in all tissues at the first month post infection and Leishmania promastigotes were cultured at 26°C in culture flasks containing NNN. Melting curve analyses of ribozomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1) PCR showed the peak concordant with L. major.

CONCLUSION
As a result, the present study confirmed by both Giemsa-stained smears and PCR, visceralization and dissemination of L. major amastigotes, the principal cause of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in gerbils.


In the era of big data, the construction of university libraries cannot be separated from the support of big data technology. The collection and analysis of data can improve the management efficiency and service quality of university libraries. On the basis of explaining the characteristics of big data and big data related technologies, our study puts forward the application framework of big data technology in university libraries based on the characteristics of university libraries. Based on the perspective of the context, we explore the effects of the application form of big data technology in university libraries on students 'perception of the context, and establish a theoretical model of how it will affect students' perceived service quality, perceived value and satisfaction the library. Our research can give suggestions to the service innovation practice of university libraries.


Abstract We describe development from fertilization to metamorphosis of the enteropneust hemichor-date Balanoglossus misakiensis. This is the first report to describe the complete development of an indirect-developing hemichordate under laboratory conditions. Mature adults were induced to spawn by shifting the temperature of seawater from 23 to 28°C. Eggs (200 μm diameter) were enclosed within a nonmucilaginous membrane, and dispersed readily in seawater. After artificial insemination, a fertilization envelope was elevated from the egg surface beneath the egg membrane; this was followed by the formation of the first and second polar bodies within the envelope. Zygotes cleaved at 20-min intervals to form blastulae, and gastrulation started 9 h after fertilization. Embryos hatched 1 day after fertilization to become typical feeding tornaria larvae. The larvae metamorphosed 7–10 days after fertilization without undergoing the first (Müller) or forth (Krohn) stage of indirect-developing hemichordate development. Larvae that were not fed failed to metamorphose. Juveniles completed adult body formation within a week of settling in sand at the bottom of the culture tube. We discuss heterochronical modifications of B. misakiensis development, and make the case for this species as a potential model organism for the investigation of indirect-developing hemichordates.


Law360, New York (January 29, 2014, 5:11 PM ET) -Following the introduction of new pharmaceuticals, reports of adverse events often surface in the news media. Some drugs, particularly blockbusters, eventually become the subject of lawsuits. Attorneys involved in these cases need to be fully informed about the quality and limitations of the spontaneous adverse event data used by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, pharmacovigilance researchers and activist groups in monitoring post-marketing drug safety. Ignoring the limitations of this data may result in erroneous inference about the causal relationship between drug use and reported adverse events.


Transition metal complexes capable of photo - induced spin crossover have been widely investigated because of their potential to enable ultrafast optical control of information processing. However, any real application of photo-switchable molecules requires that spin crossover be paired with additional functionality such as long-range magnetic order. Important advances combining these functions are notably reported for a number of bimetallic Prussian Blue analogues; however, to date PBA-based magnetic photo-switches can only operate be-low 150 K due to loss of magnetic order. In contrast, cobalt ferrite is a ferrimagnetic semiconductor with a Curie temperature of 790 K and extremely favorable magnetic properties by comparison to state-of-the-art PBAs. The mixed valence electronic structure of cobalt ferrite is reminiscent of cobalt-iron PBA, which is a well-known photo-switch. To investigate the potential for photo-switching in this material, we employ transient XUV spectroscopy to probe charge and spin dynamics with element-speci fic resolution on the femtosecond time scale. Results show that 400 nm light excites a metal-to-metal charge transfer transition, which drives the crossover of high-spin Co2+ to low-spin Co3+ with a time constant of 405 ± 29 fs and an internal quantum efficiency of unity. This result establishes the existence of efficient photo-switching in a new class of robust ferrimagnetic spinel ferrites.


Abstract Corporate Real Estate (CRE) is the fifth corporate resource after the capital, people, technology, and information. As per the views of the industry experts CRE is identified as the second most expensive cost after labor in many occurrences. The contribution of CRE for overall business activities cannot be restricted to one specific business function where inter-functional use is evident in the overall business setting. To this end, CRE is identified as a diversified resource. The academic discussion on CRE began with scholarly works of Zeckhauser and Silverman (1983) and later CRE developed as a strategic business discipline with the pioneering erudite work on strategic CRE of Nourse and Roulac (1993), De Jonge, (1996) and Lindholm and Levainen (2006). However, all these CRE strategies were tested and reviewed in the European context ignoring the diversity of Asian business practices, nature of the industry and the level of CRE holding. Thus, adopted CRE strategies are required for contemporary management applications in the Asian region. In this context, the aim of this study is to review expert opinion on CRE strategies for hotel industry in Sri Lanka. The expert opinion used to evaluate possible CRE strategies and its dimensions for Sri Lankan hotel industry. The expert panel includes senior and middle-level managers of hotels, senior academics specializing in the hotel industry, representatives of Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority and retired veterans of the hotel industry. The Analytic Hierarchical Model (AHP) was used as the main analytical tool to identify criteria weights of identified CRE strategies for hotel industry in Sri Lanka. The finding contributes CRE literature of hotel industry in Sri Lanka and makes empirical validation of CRE strategies for hotels in real world scenario. Keywords: Corporate Real Estate, Strategies, Hotel, Expert Review


Thrombocytopenia is a common feature in severe infection and the extent of the thrombocytopenia has been correlated to the clinical prognosis. However the pathophysiology behind this phenomenon is not completely understood. Research in the last decade has shown that thrombocytes possess several antimicrobial properties, suggesting that they might play a still unknown role in innate immunity. Moreover platelets are known to sequestrate out into lung tissue in response to stimuli like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and septicaemia. Streptococcus pneumoniae is a common cause of severe community aquired pneumonia and septicaemia. In this project I show that platelets in vitro are activated by S. pneumoniae and can release antimicrobial peptides in response to thrombin. This occurs independent of interactions with other cells. In vivo, I show that platelet deficiency results in increased bacterial numbers within the lungs in a mouse model of S. pneumoniae pneumonia. Histopathological examination of the lungs indicates that platelets co-localise with the bacteria –and may "trap" them within lung tissue. I conclude that platelets contribute to innate immunity to S. pneumoniae pneumonia identifying a potential therapeutic target for patients with severe infection.


Background: Compression gloves are used in Hand Osteoarthritis (HOA) to reduce pain (day and/or night), stiffness and improve hand function. A systematic review identified only two trials (sample sizes n= 2 and 5), with inconclusive results [1]. The commonest compression gloves provided in the UK are Isotoner gloves. The aim was to evaluate effects of compression gloves on hand pain, stiffness and function.
Methods: A pre-post-test study was conducted. Participants were recruited from 10 Rheumatology Occupational Therapy (OT) departments; had a doctor diagnosis of HOA and no steroid injections or new/changed medication within the previous 4 weeks. Assessments at 0 and 4 weeks included: hand pain on activity and at night, hand stiffness (all 0-10 numeric rating scales: none to very severe); Measure of Activity Performance of the Hand [MAP-HAND, 2]; Grip Ability Test [GAT, 3]; and composite finger flexion to distal wrist crease (CFF). OT assessors were trained in standardised hand assessment procedures. Assessor inter-rater reliability (ICC,10) was good : CFF (0.76-0.93); GAT (0.98) [4]. All participants received Isotoner ¾ finger gloves. Data were analysed using paired t-tests and effect sizes calculated using eta-squared (values of 0.14+ = large effect, 5).
Results: 30 people with HOA participated: 28 women, 2 men); average age = 61.23(SD 8.35) years; time since diagnosis 4.71(SD 6.47) years.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates, for the first time, that compression gloves used by people with HOA led to significant improvements in: pain during the day and night, stiffness, hand function and finger motion, with moderate to large effect sizes. A limitation was the lack of a control group meaning we cannot be certain benefits were due to compression gloves. A randomised controlled trial needs to be conducted, including longer follow-up.


Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) is the initial, rate-limiting enzyme in the catabolism of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). DPD has an important role in regulating the availability of 5-FU for anabolism. It is now clear that DPD also accounts for much of the variability observed with the therapeutic use of 5-FU, including variable drug levels during 24-hour infusion, erratic pharmacokinetics, variable bioavaialability, inconsistent toxicity, and variability in drug response (resistance). The use of DPD inhibitors has been explored as a means to improve 5-FU pharmacology. This article describes how drugs that modulate DPD activity have been used to develop a new class of orally administered fluoropyrimidines, now referred to as DPD-inhibiting fluoropyrimidine (DIF) drugs. The biochemical basis for using four DIF drugs--uracil and tegafur (UFT), ethynyluracil, S-1, and BOF-A2--currently in clinical evaluation in the United States, is hereby reviewed. Early clinical data suggest that these drugs may achieve antitumor efficacy equivalent to that of conventional intravenously administered 5-FU therapy, with the additional advantages of reduced toxicity, less expense, and improved quality of life.


Triassic–Jurassic sedimentary successions (Baluti and Sarki formations) in northern Iraq record a variety of environmental changes that may be related to global Triassic–Jurassic (Tr/J) boundary events. The diversity of some benthic fauna decreases through the transitional boundary beds. The coastal marine environment of the lower part of the Baluti Formation is followed by shallower tidal flat and supratidal marginal marine environments at the transitional boundary with the Jurassic‐age Sarki Formation. The alternating calcareous mudrocks and dolomitic limestones of the transitional succession are overlain by a succession of calcareous mudrocks and dolomicrites that form a dolocrete bed in the latest Triassic. The early Jurassic carbonates (lower part of Sarki Formation) were deposited in a shallow‐marine to lagoonal environment. Geochemical evidence supports this interpretation. TOC% increases towards the Tr/J boundary and the lower part of the Sarki Formation. This increase can be interpreted as resulting from the primary precipitation of dolocrete as palaeosol horizons. The variations in the oxygen isotope ratios mainly reflect the facies and diagenetic effects. Th/K ratio is generally constant and shows an increase in the calcareous mudrock beds of the upper part of the Baluti Formation, possibly related to the degradation of K‐bearing clay minerals. Low Th/U ratios are due to the depletion in thorium, typical of many marine carbonates rather than to an increase in authigenic uranium. This explanation is also corroborated by the presence of abundant fossils in some of the studied carbonates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In an academic administrator's role, writes Kathy Roberts, one's day-to-day responsibilities involve the management of a wide variety of administrative matters; however, no amount of training totally prepares one for the sudden death of a resident physician and the consequences thereof. Roberts describes just such an incident and how her organization dealt with it.


Conflict between livestock producers and wild predators is a central driver of large predator declines and simultaneously may imperil the lives and livelihoods of livestock producers. There is a growing recognition that livestock–predator conflict is a socio‐ecological problem, but few case studies exist to guide conflict research and management from this point of view. Here we present a case study of coyote‐sheep predation on a California ranch in which we combine methods from the rapidly growing field of predation risk modeling with participatory mapping of perceptions of predation risk. Our findings reveal an important selection bias that may occur when producer perceptions and decisions are excluded from ecological methods of studying conflict. We further demonstrate how producer inputs, participatory mapping, and ecological modeling of conflict can inform one another in understanding patterns, drivers, and management opportunities for livestock–predator conflict. Finally, we make recommendations for improving the interoperability of ecological and social data about predation risk. Collectively our methods offer a socio‐ecological approach that fills important research gaps and offers guidance to future research.


The multi-modal information presentation integrated into the virtual environments can stimulate different senses, increase the user's sense of immersion, and the amount of information accepted and processed by the operator. The increase of information volume may reduce the error and time taken to complete a task. This paper presents our integration of 3D sound into virtual assembly environment for the investigation of the effect of visual and 3D auditory feedback on assembly task performance within virtual environments. A responsive workbench-based experiment platform integrated with a 3D sound workstation and other interaction facilities has been set-up. Several experiments are being conducted to explore and evaluate the effect of neutral, visual, auditory, and integrated feedback mechanism on the sense of presence and task performance in the context of assembly simulation within virtual environments.


Abstract To characterize the shape, the quality, and the roughness of microshells, digital holographic microscopy technology is used because it offers an appropriate ability to these studies. It captures holograms to reconstruct a double image, one for the intensity and another one for the phase. Using rotation axis, bump counting for the complete microshell surface is possible with a very high speed. Using image stitching and three-dimensional surface rebuilding software, mapping can be done in a few minutes. Each bump can then be characterized on the map by its position, diameter, and height.


New developments in the treatment of oligozoospermia are discussed and critically considered. In particular, the necessity of performing double blind studies to test the efficacy of a drug is stressed. Generally, there is a great need for clinically orientated basic research in andrology since new approaches to scientifically orientated therapy are only possible if our current knowledge on physiology and pathophysiology of male reproductive functions is improved. In addition, a rational therapy can only be performed if sufficient selection criteria are available. The variety of new therapeutic means indicate that in the near future different approaches will be investigated to improve the success of andrological treatment, thus rendering therapy more effective for patients and doctors.


Abstract Capital cities play a significant role in interpreting a country's past and charting its future. In the aftermath of the First World War nine new European states, Finland and Ireland among them, were confronted with the question of how to create a capital city befitting their new status and national identity. Instead of designing and constructing an entirely new capital city which would have marked a clean break from the past, all these states chose an existing city as the capital. This article will examine processes through which two capitals, Helsinki and Dublin, were renewed physically and symbolically to make the political change 'real' to people, but also to reinterpret the past and create a 'teleology for the present'. The aim is to discuss the ways in which the changes, planned and implemented, both reflected and reinforced new interpretations of the history of the city and the nation, and the continuities and discontinuities the changes created between the past and the present. Some elements and versions of the past were chosen over others, preserved and reinvented in the cityscape, while others were ignored, hidden or denied.


Background and purpose: Doxorubicin (DOX) as a chemotherapeutic agent has been widely used in the treatment of various types of cancer. However, DOX exerts a toxic effect on normal tissues such as the brain. Furanocoumarins reduce the risk of cardiovascular and brain diseases because of their antioxidant activities. This study has been designed, for the first time, to evaluate the effect of known furanocoumarins oxypeucedanin and isoimperatorin extracted from Prangos ferulacea (L.) Lindl on oxidative stress and apoptosis induced by DOX toward pheochromocytoma cell line (PC12). Experimental approach: NMR and MASS spectrometers were used to characterize the isolated compounds. The protective effects of isolated compounds on DOX-induced cytotoxicity in PC12 cells were examined by MTT assay. PC12 cells were pretreated with oxypeucedanin and isoimperatorin for 2 and 21 h, respectively, subsequently exposure to DOX at IC50 concentration. Then, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), Bax and Bcl2 mRNA expressions, caspase-3 activation, and the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured after 24 h. Findings/Results: Pretreatment with oxypeucedanin and isoimperatorin significantly decreased DOX-induced apoptosis through reduction of caspase-3 activity and ROS generation and an increase in MMP. In addition, our finding showed pretreatment with these compounds leads to regulation of Bcl-2. Conclusion and implications: Taken together our observation indicated that oxypeucedanin and isoimperatorin have a protective effect against apoptosis induced by DOX in PC12 cells by inhibition of ROS production.


Mining the sentiment of the user on the internet via the context plays a significant role in uncovering the human emotion and in determining the exactness of the underlying emotion in the context. An increasingly enormous number of user-generated content (UGC) in social media and online travel platforms lead to development of data-driven sentiment analysis (SA), and most extant SA in the domain of tourism is conducted using document-based SA (DBSA). However, DBSA cannot be used to examine what specific aspects need to be improved or disclose the unknown dimensions that affect the overall sentiment like aspect-based SA (ABSA). ABSA requires accurate identification of the aspects and sentiment orientation in the UGC. In this book chapter, we illustrate the contribution of data mining based on deep learning in sentiment and emotion detection.


Despite its power as a transactions network, scant attention has been given to incorporating an electronic call into a major market center such as the NYSE or Nasdaq. An electronic call clears the markets for all assets at predetermined points in time. By bunching many transactions together, a call market increases liquidity, thereby decreasing transaction costs for public participants. After describing alternative call market structures and their attributes, we propose that an open book electronic call be held three times during the trading day: at the open, at 12:00 noon, and at the close. We discuss the impact of this innovation on an array of issues, including order flow and handling, information revelation, and market transparency. We also discuss the proposed changes from the perspectives of investors, listed companies, exchanges, brokers, and regulators.


A Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation study was carried out to characterise a novel silicon strip detector, the Dose Magnifying Glass (DMG), for use in proton therapy Quality Assurance. We investigated the possibility to use DMG to determine the energy of the incident proton beam. The advantages of DMG are quick response, easy operation and high spatial resolution. In this work we theoretically proved that DMG can be used for QA in the determination of the energy of the incident proton beam, for ocular and prostate cancer therapy. The study was performed by means of Monte Carlo simulations Experimental measurements are currently on their way to confirm the results of this simulation study.


: Advances in the rational therapy epilepsy require: 1) an accurate diagnosis and classification, based upon the clinical manifestations of the attacks electroencephalographic pattern, 2) a selective pharmacotherapy adjusted to the particular type of epilepsy, 3) a correct mode of administration based on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the drugs, and 4) to follow the guide-lines for a safe therapy control. The international classification of epileptic seizures is presented. The practical consequences of the pharmacokinetics of the antiepileptic drugs and their interactions between them as well as with other drugs are discussed. The need of administering single, pure drugs, as much as possible is emphasized. Special recommendations are given to attain a good blood level control of antiepileptic therapy. On the basis of such drug blood monitoring, a particular consideration is given to the interpretation of therapeutic concentrations and to the discussion of the many variables that account of achieving either subtherapeutic or toxic blood levels.


The Research Unit in Bioinformatics at Rhodes University (RUBi), South Africa, offers a Masters of Science in Bioinformatics. Growing demand for bioinformatics qualifications results in applications from across Africa. Courses aim to bridge gaps in the diverse backgrounds of students who range from biologists with no prior computing exposure to computer scientists with no biology background. The programme is evenly split between coursework and research, with diverse modules from a range of departments covering mathematics, statistics, computer science and biology, with emphasis on application to bioinformatics research. The early focus on research helps bring students up to speed with working as a researcher. We measure success of the programme by the high rate of subsequent entry to PhD study: 10 of 14 students who completed in the years 2011-2013.


In this paper, top-down and bottom-up processing were studied regarding their effect on speech-in-noise. Three cognitive functions were also studied (divided attention, executive functioning, and semantic comprehension), and the effect they have on the speech processing and on each other. The research questions asked were if a difference in speech-in noise perception can be observed regarding the different levels of top-down and bottom-up support, if speech-in-noise is related to any of the researched cognitive abilities, and if there exists any correlation between these abilities. The method is a within-subject experimental design, consisting of four different tests: PASAT, to measure attention, LIT, to measure semantic comprehension, TMT, to measure executive functioning and SIN, to measure speech-in noise. The results showed a significant difference between top-down and bottom-up processing, a significant difference between top-down processing in decreasing and increasing conditions could also be seen. A negative correlation between the benefit of top-down support and the semantic comprehension task was found. Regarding the cognitive abilities a few correlations were found; the semantic comprehension task had a positive correlation to both the central executive task and the attentional task, the attentional task had a negative correlation to the central executive task, and both of the central executive subtasks had a positive correlation to each other. Most of the findings were expected, built on earlier cognitive hearing theories and studies.


SUMMARY The tectonics of central Chile and Argentina have been greatly affected by the shallow dips of the subducting Nazca plate, which controlled patterns of magmatism and deformation nearly 1000 km away from the plate boundary. We calculate receiver functions from data recorded by the CHARGE array, which transected the Andes and Sierras Pampeanas in central Chile and Argentina, to better constrain the crustal structure of this region. Beneath the northern transect of the CHARGE array, where the Nazca slab flattens near 100 km, we find the crust is over 60 km thick beneath the Andes and thin to the east. The thick crust, however, extends ∼200 km to the east of the high elevations. Estimates of VP/VS obtained from receiver functions vary along ancient terrane boundaries exhibiting higher values to the west. Interestingly, we observe that the amplitude of the phase corresponding to the Moho on receiver functions diminishes to the west, complicating our images of crustal structure. We proposed that the observations presented here of thickened crust within a region of low elevations, diminished receiver function arrivals, and reports of high shear-wave speeds atop of the mantle wedge overlying the shallowly subducted Nazca slab, can be explained by partial eclogitization of the lower crust. The Moho appears simpler across the southern transect where it can be identified near 50 km depth at its deepest point beneath the Andes and shallows eastwards. Volcanism remains active near the latitudes of our southern transect and we observe multiple crustal lowvelocity zones indicative of regions of partial melt near the centres of volcanism. Signals related to the Nazca slab remain more elusive, suggestive of a small impedance contrast between the slab and overlying mantle.


EDITOR,-We agree with J M F Temple and A M Sykes that there is widespread public concern about industrial emissions and that the health effects of major industrial developments should be assessed.' It is important that such studies should be epidemiologically sound, and we have grave misgivings concerning both the design of this study and the conclusions drawn from it. There are many aspects of design and analysis on which comment could be made, but we shall restrict ourselves to two fundamental areas. To say that a hypothesis has been proved in a study one must first exclude bias. The authors dismiss observer bias as impossible as they were unaware of the opening date of the open cast mine, but bias could have arisen in other ways. The authors may have been blind to the starting ofopen cast operations, but it is difficult to believe that the entire local population was unaware of such a major operation. The a priori hypothesis of the study was that the weekly number of new episodes of asthma treated by the town's general practitioners would increase when the new mine started. In view of the fact that the practice had stated, at a public inquiry, that open cast mining would aggravate its patients' asthma, it is not surprising that the weekly number ofnew episodes increased. The second issue is that of statistical association and inference of causation. Although there seems to be a statistical association between the start of mining and an increase in asthma, this does not mean that the two are causally related. Some of the more pertinent issues such as dose-response relation cannot be estimated because of a lack of information. Although the diagnosis ofasthma was made using a "standard definition," no details are given of what the definition was, or whether cases included patients with newly diagnosed asthma or exacerbation of asthma in existing patients. Also, although the environmental effects of the open cast mine are likely to change from day to day and week to week depending on the operations and prevailing weather, the increase in asthma remained remarkably constant. The lack of direct environmental measurements is a flaw in the study that cannot easily be overcome, and without such measurements exposure cannot simply be assumed. Finally, the authors are quite wrong in suggesting that there are few studies of the effect of industries on the general community. A recent study by Symington et alofrespiratory symptoms in children at schools near a foundry2 is one of many environmental studies which have been performed using adequate epidemiological methods. There are also more recent cancer studies than those cited.34 In environmental exposures, which are generally associated with small increases in risk, adequacy of study design and unbiased reporting are essential, neither of which is a feature of this study. DAVID McBRIDE


The aim of this paper is to present a new methodology for the evaluation of the statistical proprieties of the response of structures, based on The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) coupled with the Probabilistic Transformation Method (PTM). Uncertainty modelling with random variables motivates the adoption of advanced PTM for reliability analysis to solve problems of mechanical systems. The PTM is readily applicable in the case where the expression between input and output of structures are available in explicit analytical form. However, the situation is much more involved when it is necessary to perform the evaluation of implicit expression between input and output of structures through numerical models. For this we propose technique that combines the FEA software, and the PTM program to evaluate the Probability Density Function (PDF) of the response where the expression between input and output of structures is implicit. This technique is based on the numerical simulations of the FEA and the PTM by making an interface between Finite Element software and Matlab. Some problems of structures are treated in order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed technique.


Phylogenetic studies suggest that ZIKV may have been introduced to Brazil, and therefore to the Americas, in 2014 during the World Spring Canoe Championship held in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Since then the virus has spread across Latin America, Caribbean, and North America. It seems clear that Aedes aegypti and, to a lesser extent, Aedes albopictus are the main vectors of the pathogen. ZIKV infection symptoms are similar to other flaviviruses such as a dengue infection and therefore can be easily confounded. Currently, the ZIKV maintains two life cycles. The first, and the original one is the sylvatic/enzootic cycle that occurs in Africa. The second life cycle is the suburban-urban transmission cycle that emerged through natural evolution. ZIKV has gained the ability to maintain this human-endemic cycle in urban and suburban areas. ZIKV has never been isolated from non primates, so it is not clear whether other species can act as reservoir hosts. Several reports have been made of non-vector ZIKV transmission including breast-milk feeding, blood transfusion, sexual intercourse, saliva, urine, and physical contact (sweat, tears). A major global concern with ZIKV infection is the reported increase in cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) in the Americas after the recent ZIKV outbreak. Currently, there is no available vaccine for ZIKV. Therefore, prevention of ZIKV infection must be emphasized by local public health authorities promoting collective responsibility and engagement for integrated vector management through environmental management, biological control, and as a last resource chemical control.


removal of foliage and branches once (T-12) or twice a year (T-6) and 50% removal every 2 months (P-2)—on growth and biological dinitrogen fixation of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp were studied under subhumid tropical conditions in Guadeloupe, French Antilles. Gliricidia sepium was grown in association with the perennial C4 grass Dichantium aristatum (Poir) C.E. Hubbard in a two-storied fodder production system. The medium-term effects of pruning on N2 fixation were assessed by the N natural abundance method. Gmelina arborea Roxb. was used as the non-fixing reference. The trees in the T-12 regime followed the natural phenological cycle, and flowering and podfilling at the beginning of the dry season reduced both foliage and nodule biomass. The T-6 regime impeded flowering, and only a few flowers, on older branches, were produced in the P-2 regime. In trees in the T-12, T-6, and P-2 regimes, fixed N comprised 54–87, 54–92, and 60–87%, respectively, of the total N in aboveground biomass, depending on sampling date. Total annual accumulation of N in harvestable aboveground biomass was highest in trees in the T-6 regime at 313 kg ha−1, of which 204 kg ha−1 of N was fixed from the atmosphere. In all treatments, about 70% of the N exported per year from the plot in the fodder harvest came from N2 fixation. Thus, N2 fixation makes an important contribution to the N economy of the G. sepium–D. aristatum forage production system, and greatly reduces the need for fertilizer application.


Five chemical fixatives were evaluated for their ability to accurately preserve bacterial ultrastructure during freeze-substitution of select Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis strains. Radioisotopes were specifically incorporated into the peptidoglycan, lipopolysaccharide, and nucleic acids of E. coli SFK11 and W7 and into the peptidoglycan and RNA of B. subtilis 168 and W23. The ease of extraction of radiolabels, as assessed by liquid scintillation counting during all stages of processing for freeze-substitution, was used as an indicator of cell structural integrity and retention of cellular chemical composition. Subsequent visual examination by electron microscopy was used to confirm ultrastructural conformation. The fixatives used were: 2% (wt/vol) osmium tetroxide and 2% (wt/vol) uranyl acetate; 2% (vol/vol) glutaraldehyde and 2% (wt/vol) uranyl acetate; 2% (vol/vol) acrolein and 2% (wt/vol) uranyl acetate; 2% (wt/vol) gallic acid; and 2% (wt/vol) uranyl acetate. All fixatives were prepared in a substitution solvent of anhydrous acetone. Extraction of cellular constituents depended on the chemical fixative used. A combination of 2% osmium tetroxide-2% uranyl acetate or 2% gallic acid alone resulted in optimum fixation as ascertained by least extraction of radiolabels. In both gram-positive and gram-negative organisms, high levels of radiolabel were detected in the processing fluids in which 2% acrolein-2% uranyl acetate, 2% glutaraldehyde-2% uranyl acetate, or 2% uranyl acetate alone were used as fixatives. Ultrastructural variations were observed in cells freeze-substituted in the presence of different chemical fixatives. We recommend the use of osmium tetroxide and uranyl acetate in acetone for routine freeze-substitution of eubacteria, while gallic acid is recommended for use when microanalytical processing necessitates the omission of osmium.


Abstract A descriptive study was conducted in Al-Bashir teaching hospital in Amman city from 15th May 2004 to 15th August 2004 , in order to "Assess the adult asthmatic patients' quality of life (QOL). Objective: This study aimed at identifying the domains of (Environmental, Physical, Daily Living Activity, Drug and Medication, Psychological , and Social), Methodology : A Purposive (Non-Probability) sample of (100) adult asthmatic patients visited the emergency department and outpatient clinic of chest department in Al-bashir hospital .A Questionnaire was constructed for the purpose of the study, and comprised of (2) parts, consist of ( 108 ) items, that include (1) demographic characteristics form,(2) the assessment of adult asthmatic patients' QOL domains. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire was determined through internal consistency through a pilot study, content validity of the questionnaire was determined through panel of experts . Data was collected by the investigator who interviewed those patients and filled out the constructed questionnaire forms. Data analysis by using (Percentage, Frequencies, Mean of scores) and inferential statistical analysis [Pearson correlation, T-Test, One way analysis of variance (ANOVA)]. Results : The findings of the study indicated that the quality of life for patients had greatly effected during the items, respiratory system cardio vascular system as a part of physical domains, also psychology domains and social domains. Recommendations : The study recommended that the Jordan Ministry of Health would be helpful in providing, building or developing the places and centers of chest departments or it's hospitals that provide care, also an educational program to be developed, and implemented for adult asthmatic patients in order to increase their actual knowledge . Key words : Adult Asthmatic, Quality of life


In this paper, I concentrate on court cases with litigants in person (lay people who act on their own behalf in legal proceedings without a counsel or solicitor) and discuss the challenges of building a corpus of courtroom discourse where it is crucial to distinguish between speakers due to their distinct institutional roles. The corpus incorporates seven sub-corpora of verbatim transcripts from different court cases with litigants in person and comprises over eleven-million tokens. The focus of this paper is on the interplay between the legal and lay discourse types and how judges project their institutional roles through well-initiated turns directed at litigants in person and counsels. As a versatile discourse marker, well provides a good opportunity to explore how judges have to adapt their roles to ensure lay litigants in person receive the necessary support and that their lack of competence does not impede on the fairness of the proceedings. Given the breadth and importance of the topic of litigation in person, I discuss how the tools and approaches of corpus linguistics can be helpful in this multi-disciplinary area where multiple functions and uses of individual linguistic features need to be explored in depth.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the utility of HOMA-IR in assessing insulin resistance in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and compare it with fasting insulin for assessing insulin resistance (IR).

STUDY DESIGN
Observational study.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY
Section of Clinical Chemistry, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from January 2009 to September 2012.

METHODOLOGY
Medical chart review of all women diagnosed with PCOS was performed. Of the 400 PCOS women reviewed, 91 met the inclusion criteria. Insulin resistance was assessed by calculating HOMA-IR using the formula (fasting glucose x fasting insulin)/405, taking normal value <2 in adults and hyperinsulinemia based on fasting insulin levels ≥12 µIU/ml.

RESULTS
A total of 91 premenopausal women diagnosed with PCOS were included. Mean age was 30 ±5.5 years. Mean HOMA-IR of women was 3.1 ±1.7, respectively with IR in 69% (n=63) women, while hyperinsulinemia was present in 60% (n=55) women (fasting Insulin 18.5 ±5.8 µIU/ml). Hyperandrogenism was present in 53.8% (n=49), whereas 38.5% (n=35) women had primary infertility or subfertility, while 65.9% (n=60) had menstrual irregularities; and higher frequencies were observed in women with IR. Eight subjects with IR and endocrine abnormalities were missed by fasting insulin.

CONCLUSION
Insulin resistance is common in PCOS and it is likely a pathogenic factor for development of PCOS. HOMAIR model performed better than hyperinsulinemia alone for diagnosing IR.


Adaptive polymersome systems have gained much interest in a wide variety of research fields, ranging from cell mimics to nanomedicine, because of their high stability, tuneable shape and size. Furthermore, polymersomes can be effectively transformed into nanoreactors via the incorporation of catalytic species. By employing polymersomes which are adaptive in structure and function the features of polymersome nanoreactors can be even further extended. In this review, we focus on recent impressive developments of smart polymersomes as functional nanoreactors with an emphasis on the type of adaptivity that is installed, which includes intrinsic permeability, stimuli‐responsiveness and self‐adaptivity. Moreover, particular attention is given to the utility of polymersome nanoreactors in vitro and in vivo, which paves the next step forward towards the engineering of artificial organelles as therapeutic materials.


Chemical and petrographic observations on mantle-derived xenoliths and xenocrysts define a fundamental distinction between Archean cratonic mantle and Phanerozoic circumcratonic mantle. Archean xenoliths are more depleted on average, and those from South Africa and Siberia, the best-studied areas, have higher Si/Mg than Phanerozoic xenoliths of similar Mg#; subcalcic harzburgites are wellrepresented in Archean xenolith and xenocryst suites, but rare in younger ones.
Analysis of >13,000 garnet xenocrysts from volcanic rocks worldwide shows a correlation of garnet composition with the tectonothermal age of the crust penetrated by the volcanic rocks. Typically, garnet suites from volcanics penetrating Archean crust have higher Cr#, lower Y, Y/Ga and HREE/Sc, and higher Zr/Y than those from volcanic rocks in Proterozoic and Phanerozoic terranes. These differences, and the rarity of subcalcic garnets in mantle beneath Proterozoic and Phanerozoic crust, are consistent with a decrease in mean modal cpx/gnt and (cpx+gnt) from Archean to Proterozoic to Phanerozoic mantle.
Temperatures calculated from the Ni content of peridotitic garnets (TNi) can be referred to a local paleogeotherm to map the distribution of garnet types with depth. These maps show that Archean mantle sections are typically strongly stratified, with concentrations of harzburgitic rocks and depleted lherzolites in the middle to lower parts of the sections, and more fertile lherzolites at depth. Proterozoic mantle sections are less depleted and typically less strongly stratified, while the garnet-facies parts of Phanerozoic sections are still less depleted and essentially homogeneous. Inversion of TNi and composition data on garnets allows mapping of the vertical distribution of the XFo of coexisting olivine in mantle sections. Archean sections typically show decreasing XFo with depth; Proterozoic sections are less regular, and many show the lowest XFo in the upper parts of the sections. These differences imply changes in the processes that have produced subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) at different times in Earth history.
In xenolith suites, the Cr content of peridotitic garnet correlates well with the Al content of the host peridotite, and Al is closely related to the contents of other major and minor elements. These correlations allow calculation of the mean composition of a mantle section, given the Cr content of garnet xenocrysts from that section. The calculated mean composition of SCLM beneath Archean, Proterozoic and Phanerozoic terrains shows a secular evolution in all measures of depletion, such as Al, Ca, Mg#, and Fe/Al; Proterozoic SCLM is intermediate in composition between Archean and Phanerozoic SCLM. Cenozoic SCLM, exemplified by garnet peridotites from young extensional areas (China, Siberia, Australia) is only mildly depleted (²10% melt extraction) relative to Primitive Mantle.
Similar compositions are found in some exposed spinel lherzolite massifs in extensional settings, such as Zabargad Island. Shallow spinel-facies SCLM beneath some Phanerozoic terrains, especially in Europe (both xenolith suites and exposed massifs), is more depleted and may represent reworked Proterozoic SCLM; this is consistent with some Re- Os depletion ages. Archean xenolith suites show positive correlations between Al, Fe and Cr that are not present in younger mantle samples; these correlations indicate that no Cr-Al phase was present on the liquidus during the melting event that produced Archean mantle.
We suggest that most Archean SCLM was derived by high-degree melting at depths ³150 km, and that subduction processes have not been significant in its genesis. Phanerozoic circumcratonic xenolith suites are typically much less depleted than ophiolitic and abyssal peridotites; this suggests that subducted oceanic mantle is not a major component of Phanerozoic SCLM. Instead, the fertile composition of circumcratonic xenolith suites, and comparison with the Zabargad situation, suggests that most existing Phanerozoic SCLM probably has been generated in extensional post-orogenic environments.
Density modelling shows that Phanerozoic SCLM, once it has cooled to typical conductive geotherms, will be gravitationally unstable with respect to the asthenosphere. This instability provides a mechanism for removing such lithosphere and replacing it with upwelling fertile material on a short time scale. In contrast, typical sections of Archean and Proterozoic SCLM are gravitationally stable, allowing their long-term preservation. The broad correlation of SCLM composition with crustal age implies quasi-contemporaneous formation of crustal volumes and their underlying SCLM, and crust-mantle coupling over periods of aeons beneath Archean and Proterozoic terranes; it also requires an evolution in fundamental processes involved in the formation of continents and their roots. This evolution may be related to the secular cooling of Earth, and a consequent decrease in the melting temperature and depth of melting in mantle plumes.


The key to solving fine-grained image categorization is finding discriminate and local regions that correspond to subtle visual traits. Great strides have been made, with complex networks designed specifically to learn part-level discriminate feature representations. In this paper, we show that it is possible to cultivate subtle details without the need for overly complicated network designs or training mechanisms – a single loss is all it takes. The main trick lies with how we delve into individual feature channels early on, as opposed to the convention of starting from a consolidated feature map. The proposed loss function, termed as mutual-channel loss (MC-Loss), consists of two channel-specific components: a discriminality component and a diversity component. The discriminality component forces all feature channels belonging to the same class to be discriminative, through a novel channel-wise attention mechanism. The diversity component additionally constraints channels so that they become mutually exclusive across the spatial dimension. The end result is therefore a set of feature channels, each of which reflects different locally discriminative regions for a specific class. The MC-Loss can be trained end-to-end, without the need for any bounding-box/part annotations, and yields highly discriminative regions during inference. Experimental results show our MC-Loss when implemented on top of common base networks can achieve state-of-the-art performance on all four fine-grained categorization datasets (CUB-Birds, FGVC-Aircraft, Flowers-102, and Stanford Cars). Ablative studies further demonstrate the superiority of the MC-Loss when compared with other recently proposed general-purpose losses for visual classification, on two different base networks. Codes are available at: https://github.com/dongliangchang/Mutual-Channel-Loss.


During the last decades, weakly coordinating anions (WCAs) have become a field of great interest both in basic and applied chemistry, as – if compared to "normal" classical anions like Cl- or SO42- – they have a lot of unique and unusual properties, such as high solubility in low dielectric media (like CH2Cl2 or toluene), "pseudo gas phase conditions" in condensed phases and the stabilization of strong electrophilic cations as well as of weakly bound and low charged complexes. Within the present thesis, several contributions to the chemistry of WCAs were made: Based on quantum chemical calculations, the stability of the most widely used WCAs have been investigated, using parameters such as the fluoride ion affinity (FIA), partial charges or frontier orbital energies. One class of the WCAs, the poly- and perfluorinated alkoxyaluminates of the type [Al(ORF)4]- and [(RFO)3Al-F-Al(ORF)3]-, has been used to investigate weakly bound Ag(P4S3) Lewis acid-base adducts and electrophilic cations: When the silver salts of fluorinated alkoxyaluminates are reacted with P4S3, different structure types are found for the adducts, depending on the anion used. The dynamics of these complexes has been explored by different spectroscopic methods (IR, Raman, MAS-NMR, NMR in solution) and X-ray diffraction. The first structurally characterized trihalocarbenium ions CI3+ as salts of different aluminates have been prepared and fully characterized using various spectroscopic techniques, e.g. NMR and vibrational spectroscopy, as well as single-crystal diffraction. The Lewis acidities of the halocarbenium ions have been investigated both on experimental and theoretical grounds and they have been compared to those of the isoelectronic haloboranes. The NO2+ salt of the [Al(OC(CF3)3)4]- anion has been synthesized by a metathesis reaction. It has been reacted with P4 in order to obtain naked phosphorus cations Px+. Another project was the synthesis and characterization of the tetraalkylammonium salts of the [Al(ORF)4]- anions, a promising class of substances for the use in electrochemical applications in non-polar solvents. All subjects treated experimentally within this thesis have been accompanied by quantum chemical calculations.


Analysis of available literature on the design and control of a doctoral research project has led to the updating of a certain number of "constants" concerning the difficulties PhD students encounter during this process. These "constants" revolve around the crucial yet arduous issue of what comprises a "good thesis". The present article offers a response to this question. It begins by highlighting the characteristics of the institutional context in which a doctoral study is carried out before offering three topics for thought (definition of the research project, deployment and evaluation of results). It concludes by focusing on the tension underlying all scientific research between "dissidence" (i.e., the ability to question "normal science") and "conformity" (the study's fit in an institutional context).


Monetary policy has changed in a number of ways in the last two decades. Along with other characteristics, modern monetary policy is forward-looking and today central banks, to maintain credibility, respond contemporaneously to structural shocks that might make inflation deviate from the target in future. This study aims at investigating this aspect of monetary policy for Pakistan. Using the modified version of Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) developed by Enders and Hurn (2007), the authors have found a weak policy response to supply side shocks as the correlation coefficient between demand and supply shocks is only 0.041. Moreover, the results show that the demand shocks have no significant contribution in output variability. On the other hand, both demand and supply shocks, along with foreign supply shocks, significantly contribute to inflation variability.


Cities in Africa are experiencing fast urbanization with growing demand for basic services. The city of Dar es Salam, one of the fastest growing cities in the region and the world, is likely to guide the urban future in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam is the former capital city of Tanzania and retains its importance as most of the government offices were located. However, the whole process of complete relocation of government offices to the present capital city of Dodoma might affect the dynamics in Dar es Salaam in the near future. Nevertheless, it is the leading commercial centre and economic hub in Tanzania and is expected to be a mega city by 2030. The growth of the city is construed by both natural increase and high rate of migration. However, the city's organic growth was affected by racial-based residential segregation under the colonial regime, whose imprints are evident to date. In this profile, an overview of Dar es Salaam's colonial, post-colonial, social, economic and location factors that led to urbanization is provided. This profile highlights the previous, current and future challenges, and explores the pathways to enhance sustainability and transformation of Dar es Salaam to be a smart city. Poor implementation of master plans led to minimal guidance of city growth, but the current land and and human settlement policy emphasizes on sustainable approach in urban planning including low costs but sustainable settlements even for the urban poor. Such transformation requires government and city management to invest in better planning implementation, creation of database that will inform future planning, improvement in social services such as infrastructure, access to quality and affordable housing, water and electricity supply. This paper contributes to the existing literature on nature of cities in developing countries, which had been affected by colonialism and poor implementation of policies, and suggest ways in which cities can to become smarter and sustainable.


On Ashura, the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram, Hararis celebrate Wirshato, a gourd-smashing ceremony that commemorates the prohibition of alcohol indicated by the Prophet Muhammad. During the ceremony, young boys run around the city holding sticks and singing the Wirshato song; when they enter the house compounds, they are given traditional gourds, habitually employed to contain liquids. The boys hence smash the gourd with their sticks and make toys out of the broken pieces, to symbolize the benefi ts that derive by breaking bad habits. Other members of the community take part in the festivities by donating gourds and by feasting on porridge to usher in abundance for the coming year. This brief paper will show how the activities surrounding the Wirshato ceremony in Harar are concerned with the concept of renewal and are derived from Islamic and customary sources.


The work is devoted to the assessment of gastric carcinoma spread using the method of spiral CT. It is established that CT is highly effective at carcinoma advanced stages (II-IV), that's why this method should be the main one in determining the disease spread. Besides the CT possibilities in determining the depth of tumor invasion into gastric wall are not unequivocal. The method is more informative at the advanced tumor (pT2-pT4). Without contrast amplification the CT doesn't allow to conduct differentiation according to T1-T2 invasion degree. At the same time the method gives great opportunities in revealing the tumor spread to gastric serous membrane, i.e. in detection of T3 invasion degree that is of great significance for disease prediction. The use of bolus contrast amplification widens the CT possibilities in detection of tumor invasion into gastric wall and in some cases it permits to differentiate T1 and T2 degrees.


The development of resistance of collection and freshly isolated S. aureus and C. albicans strains to the antiseptic decamethoxim and an original diarylcyclohexane derivative was studied comparatively in vitro. It was shown that the rate of the resistance development was low. After 20 subcultures in the presence of increasing concentrations of decamethoxin, its sensitivity of S. aureus and C. albicans decreased 16-32 and 16-fold respectively. After 20 subcultures in the presence of increasing doses of the diarylcyclohexane derivative, its sensitivity S. aureus and C. albicans decreased 4- and 4-8-fold, respectively. It was found that in the hospital strains of S. aureus and C. albicans, the antibiotic resistance and sensitivity to decamethoxin and the diarylcyclohexane remained high, which indicated that there was no cross resistance to these compounds in the strains studied.


Literature is the mirror of society. India is enriched with two great epics –theRamayana and the Mahabharata. The epic Mahabharata is mainly based on heroic warswith less room for women in home or religion. Yet some lady ascetics are portrayed tobe not only enriched with perfect knowledge of Vedic education and religious thoughtsbut also as established participants in debates and discussions with their malecounterparts. It is the object of this paper to project these female seers with gender identityand equality based on the debates and discussions with male seers, putting focus on thesocio-philosophical aspects. These lady-seers may be classified as "Munivrata"- thesolitude hermit, "Yoga-siddha"- proficient in Yoga, "Brahmacharini"-life-long asceticsand "Sannyasini"- renouncers. Arundhati, Brahmajna-Gautami and Brahmani in the Kaushika-vyadha legendare Brahmavadini. Siddha Siva and Shandilyaduhita- the daughter of sage-KunigargaareBrahmacharini. YogasiddhaSulabha has a meticulous discussion on yoga, samadhi,moksa and philosophy of emancipation with the king Janaka, wining the debate. Truthseekers, sages, deities and ancestors have come to listen and learn the secrets of religionfrom Arundhati and Siddha-Siva. The discussions, debates and interactions made bythese enlightened women seers have demonstrated that there are no fundamentaldifferences in achieving the ultimate truth through renunciations due to gender.Furthermore, women can also reach heaven by the yoga of pativratya (imagnanimous-Shandili) without performing any rigorous emancipation. In this paper, I have discussed the socio-religious issues for analyzing thesubject matter through the epic Mahabharata, attempting to clarify these issues with theobjective of evaluating, appreciating and exploring the identity of women seers whohave participated in a variety of asceticism in the age of Mahabharata. Key words: Women ascetics, Mahabharata, Religion, Gender issues


This article is intended to assist researchers in implementing several important aspects of audio technology in the field, studio, and research lab. It presents a set of best practices in the recording, processing, and analysis of acoustic speech signals. The author has no commercial interest in recommending particular pieces of hardware or software. Some brand names and manufacturers have been mentioned to help researchers find appropriate tools more easily.


Author(s): Givens, Jarvis Ray | Advisor(s): Taylor, Ula Y | Abstract: While Black educational history generally centers the infamous debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, this dissertation re-conceptualizes this framing through an innovative exploration of the work of Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950). Culture, Curriculum, and Consciousness analyzes Woodson's argument that the ideological foundations of schools relied on a human history of the world that centered Whiteness and distorted the humanity of Black people. He not only advocated for a transformation that would supplant the ideological stronghold White supremacy had on Black education, but he simultaneously created an alternative model that centered Black humanity and cultural achievements. Coupling archival methods with critical text analysis and coding schemes, I examine how Woodson institutionalized his educational praxis through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), self-published textbooks, and his close relationship with Black teacher networks. Most importantly, the dissertation exposes the theoretical, pedagogical, and curricular insights Woodson's model of education offers for contemporary challenges in Black schooling.I analyze letters between Woodson and key educational figures, sales documents regarding his textbooks and publishing company, annual reports published in Woodson's Journal of Negro History, reflections by his past students and mentees, and pamphlets he disseminated amongst Black teachers. In building on these materials and more, the project utterly unmasks Woodson's educational praxis and the findings present him as a pioneering scholar in Black educational reform. Woodson's absence in the historical narrative, despite his prominence amongst Black teachers, is evidence of the failures of the prevailing frameworks. To address this elision, Culture, Curriculum, and Consciousness writes Woodson and his iconic educational model directly into the historical narrative and, in doing so, reimagines the Black educational trajectory. The pinnacle of this study lies in the "Black Educational Heritage," a new analytical framework for studying schooling and Black life. This more expansive framing of Black educational history is born at the intersection of education, freedom, and affect. Culture, Curriculum, and Consciousness presents Woodson as an educational theorist. His philosophy offers a counterweight against contemporary discourse on "the Black educational crisis," which largely fails to engage the role of power, hegemonic culture, and racial ideology in facilitating what has been termed African American underachievement. This rigorous historical and theoretical engagement with Woodson's educational model urges us to deal with the most pressing moral and intellectual challenges as it pertains to American schooling. The first step in any purposeful education is the recognition of a people's humanity—the failure to do so only sustains schools as a site of Black suffering.


Cultivated soybean (Glycine max) suffers from a narrow germplasm relative to other crop species, probably because of under-use of wild soybean (Glycine soja) as a breeding resource. Use of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array is a promising method for dissecting cultivated and wild germplasms to identify important adaptive genes through high-density genetic mapping and genome-wide association studies. Here we describe a large soybean SNP array for use in diversity analyses, linkage mapping and genome-wide association analyses. More than four million high-quality SNPs identified from high-depth genome re-sequencing of 16 soybean accessions and low-depth genome re-sequencing of 31 soybean accessions were used to select 180,961 SNPs for creation of the Axiom(®) SoyaSNP array. Validation analysis for a set of 222 diverse soybean lines showed that 170,223 markers were of good quality for genotyping. Phylogenetic and allele frequency analyses of the validation set data indicated that accessions showing an intermediate morphology between cultivated and wild soybeans collected in Korea were natural hybrids. More than 90 unanchored scaffolds in the current soybean reference sequence were assigned to chromosomes using this array. Finally, dense average spacing and preferential distribution of the SNPs in gene-rich chromosomal regions suggest that this array may be suitable for genome-wide association studies of soybean germplasm. Taken together, these results suggest that use of this array may be a powerful method for soybean genetic analyses relating to many aspects of soybean breeding.