Low temperature absorption and hole burning spectroscopies were applied to the D1-D2-cyt b{sub 559} and the CP47 and CP43 antenna protein complexes of Photosystem H from higher plants. Low temperature transient and persistent hole-burning data and theoretical calculations on the kinetics and temperature dependence of the P680 hole profile are presented and provide convincing support for the linker model. Implicit in the linker model is that the 684-nm-absorbing Chl a serve to shuttle energy from the proximal antenna complex to reaction center. The stoichiometry of isolated Photosystem H Reaction Center (PSII RC) in several different preparations is also discussed. The additional Chl a are due to 684-nm-absorbing Chl a, some contamination by the CP47 complex, and non-native Chl a absorbing near 670 nm. In the CP47 protein complex, attention is focused on the lower energy chlorophyll a Q{sub y}-states. High pressure hole-burning studies of PSII RC revealed for the first time a strong pressure effect on the primary electron transfer dynamics. The 4.2 K lifetime of P680*, the primary donor state, increases from 2.0 ps to 7.0 ps as pressure increases from 0.1 to 267 MPa. Importantly, this effect is irreversible (plastic) while the pressure induced effect on the low temperature absorption and non-line narrowed P680 hole spectra are reversible (elastic). Nonadiabatic rate expressions, which take into account the distribution of energy gap values, are used to estimate the linear pressure shift of the acceptor state energy for both the superexchange and two-step mechanisms for primary charge separation. It was found that the pressure dependence could be explained with a linear pressure shift of {approximately} 1 cm{sup -1}/MPa in magnitude for the acceptor state. The results point to the marriage of hole burning and high pressures as having considerable potential for the study of primary transport dynamics in reaction centers and antenna complexes.


ABSTRACT A widespread paleosol in the Galesburg Formation (Kansas City Group, Missourian) in the northern Midcontinent Upper Pennsylvanian cyclothem (MUPC) outcrop belt exhibits prominent features, including repeating sets of synformal slickensides and mukkara or "chimney" structures, which characterize it as a paleo-Vertisol. The Galesburg paleosol has pervasive low-chroma grayish to greenish coloration, an organic-matter profile, and geochemical characteristics with regard to S, Fe2O3, MnO, SiO2, and Al2O3 that indicate wetter soil conditions than those indicated by equally widespread high-chroma paleosols higher in the local stratigraphic succession (particularly a high-chroma paleo-Vertisol in the upper Lawrence Formation). The predominance of low-chroma (i.e., wetter) paleosols throughout the Kansas City Group in the northern Forest City Basin (southeastern Nebraska and southwestern Iowa), as exemplified by the Galesburg paleosol, compared to the greater frequency of high-chroma (i.e., drier) paleosols in overlying Pennsylvanian (especially Virgilian) strata, implicates decreasing rainfall in the interior of North America during the late Missourian. The variability in rainfall through this Missourian-Virgilian shift need not have exceeded the range of rainfall (400-1400 mm/a) associated with modern soil analogs in subtropical to warm-temperate North America. Thus, there is an indication of climate change on a longer-term time scale ( 105-106 a) than the intra- or inter-eustatic-cycle climate change proposed by other authors for late Paleozoic cyclothems in the North American interior. Regional differences in the nature of transgressive marine strata directly above the Galesburg further suggest: (1) that important information relevant to reconstruction of the sea-level curve is probably missing from the interval between regressive paleosols and subsequent regressive limestones in MUPCs, and (2) that there were probably appreciable differences in the overall mechanism of deposition of MUPC transgressive shales and black "core" shales within any particular interval of MUPC transgressive deposition.


Abstract Various tropical wood species are abundantly available in Southeast Asia, especially in Borneo Island. In this study, selected tropical wood species, Eugenia spp., Artocarpus rigidus, Artocarpus elasticus, Koompassia malaccensis and Xylopia spp., were chemically treated with sodium meta periodate to convert them into wood polymer composites (WPCs). Manufactured WPCs were characterised using microstructural analysis (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and SEM) and dynamic Young's modulus measurement. The dynamic Young's modulus was calculated using vibrational testing E d and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis E′. Spectroscopic analysis results indicated the absorption band of raw wood at 1635 cm–1 due to carbonyl stretching and WPCs showed increased absorption band near 1718 cm–1. The manufactured WPCs yielded higher Young's modulus compared with raw woods. A. elasticus WPC had the highest Young's modulus compared with the other composites.


Climate change in the Russian Arctic is more pronounced than in any other part of the country. Between 1955 and 2000, the annual average air temperature in the Russian North increased by 1.2°C. During the same period, the mean temperature of upper layer of permafrost increased by 3°C. Climate change in Russian Arctic increases the risks of the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases. This review presents data on morbidity rates among people, domestic animals and wildlife in the Russian Arctic, focusing on the potential climate related emergence of such diseases as tick-borne encephalitis, tularemia, brucellosis, leptospirosis, rabies, and anthrax.


Background: Forest ecosystems have important environmental and ecological dimensions which provide livelihoods to Millions of people globally. Forest provides services that are directly link to micro and macro climate, water and soil resources, plants and animals' diversity, food production and food securities and energy resources This study was undertaken to identify and assess climate change vulnerabilities and impacts on the livelihoods of forest dependent communities in Mambioko community forest in the Centre Region of Cameroon. Methods: Primary data was collected from 120 households; key informants, focus group discussions and was supplemented with secondary data from desk review of relevant literature. Results: Forest resources were generally perceived by forest dependent communities as declining. Climate Change was observed to have impacted on their major livelihood's activities/resources of forest dependent communities by way of prolonged drought, erratic rainfall pattern, and variability in rainfall intensity. These trends have consequently led to drying of rivers and streams, shift in cropping season, reduced yield, frequent and extreme warm conditions among others. The use of irrigation, crop diversification, household income diversification through alternative livelihood activities and increase in size of cultivated farms are among the different measures being adopted by communities to cope up with the effects of climate change. Using socio-economic indicators, the bimodal agro ecological zone is vulnerable to climate change impact. The zone has relatively higher dependency on climate sensitive livelihood activities/resources, limited diversified income sources and moderate access to climate change information. Conclusions: This study conclude that in an attempt to help forest dependent communities cope up with climate change impacts, fundamental issues such as non-climate dependent alternative livelihood activities, access to climate, sustainable agricultural practices and sustainable forest resources management are key areas for various multidisciplinary intervention.


Introduction This module computes the sample size and power of the one-sample logrank test which is used to compare the survival curve of a single treatment group to that of a historic control. Such is often the case in clinical phase-II trials with survival endpoints. Accrual time, follow-up time, and hazard rates are parameters that can be set. Several authors have presented sample size formulas for this situation. We have adopted those of Wu (2015) because his paper included an extensive simulation study that showed that his formulation is the most accurate.


Soft Skills are a set of skills of fundamental importance in the performance of work activities; they are not technical or specific skills but are strongly related to personal qualities and attitudes and social and management skills. Due to their intangibility, some of them are difficult to recognize, quantify, evaluate and develop. The acquisition of such skills for teachers is indispensable to successfully address different contextual situations (Schulz, 2008). Soft Skills are necessary to interpret and understand complex situations, also in order to design training courses that enhance the personal qualities of the students. (Ngang, Yie , & Shahid, 2015). Our study aims to develop a tool capable of measuring the Soft Skills needed to effectively carry out the teaching profession, in order to promote activities aimed at strengthening them in the training courses: initial and in itinere. This paper presents the structure of the instrument, the sample to which it was administered, the descriptive statistics and indices of normality relating to the subdimensions of the questionnaire and, therefore, the analysis of the items and reliability.


Horses have been identified as the major cause of animal-related farm injuries. Interaction with horses may cause severe dental and orofacial trauma, mostly caused by falls, collision with branches when riding in forests or by horse kicks. Children are uniquely prone to animal-related injuries because of inexperience, incomplete physical and cognitive development and a lack of proper training. Horse-related injuries account for a large percentage of injuries of head/maxillofacial trauma in pediatric farm populations. Although soft tissue contusions, lacerations and abrasions are the most common horse-related injures, head/maxillofacial trauma remains the predominant cause of death, especially in pediatric farm populations. The objective of this case report is to describe a case of severe maxillofacial injuries due to a horse hoof kick.


We prove the existence of a polynomial time computable pseudorandom generator that $\epsilon$-fools constant width regular read-once branching programs of length $n$ using a seed of length $O(\log n \cdot \log(1/\epsilon)) $. The previous best pseudorandom generator for regular branching programs used a seed of length $O(\log n \cdot (\log \log n + \log (1/\epsilon) )$, and was due to Braverman et. al. and Brody and Verbin (FOCS 2010). Our pseudorandom generator is the INW generator due to Impagliazzo et. al. (STOC 1994). Our work shares some similarity with the recent work of Kouck\'{y} et. al. (STOC 2011)who get similar seed length for permutation branching programs. However, our work proceeds by analyzing the eigenvalues of the stochastic matrices that arise in the transitions of the branching program which arguably makes the technique more robust. As a corollary of our techniques, we present new results on the ``small biased spaces for group products'' problem by Meka and Zuckerman (RANDOM 2009). We get a pseudorandom generator with seed length $ \log n \cdot (\log |G|+ \log (1/\epsilon))$. Previously, using the result of Kouck\'{y} et. al., it was possible to get a seed length of $\log n \cdot (|G|^{O(1)} + \log (1/\epsilon))$ for this problem.


This paper concerns the eavesdropping attacks in wireless ad hoc networks under a shadow fading environment. Most of previous studies have only concentrated on protecting the confidential communications at both the transmitters and the receivers and little attention has been paid on investigating the eavesdropping behaviors done by the malicious nodes. We therefore investigate the eavesdropping success rate of eavesdroppers equipped with various antenna models under various channels conditions, such as the path loss effect and the shadow fading effect. In particular, we formulate the eavesdropping attack problem with consideration of both simplistic directional antenna models and realistic antenna models. We then conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the eavesdropping success rate with different eavesdroppers. Our simulation results show that the eavesdropping success rate heavily depends on both the antenna models and the channel conditions.


Incidental pelvic node malignant B-cell lymphomas diagnosed at the time of radical prostatectomy are rare. Their clinical outcome has not been studied. We studied thirteen such cases with long-term clinical follow-up. Patients were followed between 9 and 94 months after surgery. Of 13 cases, 9 were chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), 3 marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (MZL) and 1 mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). All 13 patients did not receive radiation or chemotherapy; and five of 13 cases showed hematologic evidence of lymphoma progression between 1 and 5 months after radical prostatectomy. After progression, the mantle cell lymphoma patient received aggressive chemotherapy and had systemic dissemination. Two of 13 cases had recurrent prostate carcinoma. None of 13 patients had died from lymphoma or prostate carcinoma at the last follow-up. In conclusion, most incidental pelvic node lymphomas (8/13) showed no evidence of systemic dissemination to peripheral blood or bone marrow after a mean 42.8 weeks of follow-up despite the fact that no additional treatment was given. Strong consideration should be given to withholding further treatment in patients diagnosed with pelvic low-grade B-cell lymphoma at the time of radical prostatectomy until disease progression occurs.


The study carried out an assessment of agricultural land management practices in food crops production among small scale farmers in Kwara Sate, Nigeria. Specifically, the study determined the socio economic characteristics of crop farmers in Kwara State; ascertained the cropping patterns common among them; highlighted the soil conservation methods adopted by the farmers; examined the relationship between selected socio-economic characteristics of the farmers and their adoption of major agricultural land management practices; and investigated the constraints to adoption of sustainable agricultural practices among crop farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria A three stage random sampling technique was used in selecting a total of one hundred and forty four small scale food crops farmers. Descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression model and four point Likert-type scale were used to analyse the data for the study. The study revealed that food crops production in Kwara State is dominated by middle aged men who are poorly educated and have poor access to agricultural extension services. Half of the respondents (48.60%) adopted cereal-based cropping systems. 48.6% of the farmers adopted a minimum of three management practices. Crop rotation was mostly adopted by all the farmers while irrigation was the least adopted by only 29.3% of the respondents. Furthermore, the study revealed that farm size, age, education status, number of contacts with extension agents, household size and number of farm plots of the respondents were the significant factors affecting their adoption of land management practices. The study also revealed that the major constraints to the use of sustainable crop management practices among the farmers included inadequate supply of fertilizer, inadequacy of labour and credit, poor knowledge of improved agricultural practices, poor transportation, low produce prices and high cost of production. The study recommended the need for training programme on the use of appropriate sustainable practices that will take into account the cropping systems adopted by the farmers.


Bone tissue degeneration is an urgent clinical issue, making it a subject of intensive research. Chronic skeletal disease forms can be prevalent, such as the age-related osteoporosis, or rare, in the form of monogenetic bone disorders. A barrier in the understanding of the underlying pathological process is the lack of accessibility to relevant material. For this reason, cells of non-bone tissue are emerging as a suitable alternative for models of bone biology. Fibroblasts are highly suitable for this application; they populate accessible anatomical locations, such as the skin tissue. Reports suggesting their utility in preclinical models for the study of skeletal diseases are increasingly becoming available. The majority of these are based on the generation of an intermediate stem cell type, the induced pluripotent stem cells, which are subsequently directed to the osteogenic cell lineage. This intermediate stage is circumvented in transdifferentiation, the process regulating the direct conversion of fibroblasts to osteogenic cells, which is currently not well-explored. With this mini review, we aimed to give an overview of existing osteogenic transdifferentiation models and to inform about their applications in bone biology models.


To date, automatic handwring recognition systems are far from being perfect and heavy human intervention is often required to check and correct the results of such systems. In order to achieve correct transcriptions, human knowledge can be integrated into the transcription process, following an Interactive Predictive paradigm. We have recently proposed Mouse Actions as a significant feedback information source for the underlying interactive system to improve the productivity of the human transcriptor. In this paper we review this way to interact with the system and report comparative results using the publicly available IAMDB dataset.


Modern smartphones and ubiquitous computing systems collect a wealth of context data from users. Conditional action rules, as popularized by the IFTTT (If-This-Then-That) platform, are a popular way for users to automate frequently repeated tasks or receive smart reminders, due to the intelligibility and control that rules provide to users. A key drawback of IFTTT systems is that they place the burden of manually specifying action rules on the user. While multiple rule mining algorithms have been proposed in existing work to automatically discover action rules, they generate hundreds of action rules, and the problem of how to present a small subset of rules to smartphone users and allow them to interactively select action rules remains unsolved. In this work, we take the first step towards solving this problem by designing and implementing RuleSelector, the first interactive rule selection tool to allow smartphone users to browse, modify, and select action rules from a small set of summarized rules presented to the user. We propose novel rule selection metrics to address the needs of smartphone users, and analyze the performance of RuleSelector using data from 200 users. We also perform a qualitative user study in order to evaluate how users use the RuleSelector tool and perceive the selected rules, and present the insights gained and design recommendations for future rule selection systems. Our users rated the selected rules from useful to very useful, and an important finding of our study is that users prefer an interactive rule selection system such as RuleSelector that automatically suggests rules, but allows users to select and modify the suggested rules. Finally, we examine the promise of RuleSelector in other ubiquitous computing systems such as smart homes and smart TVs by applying our tool to public context datasets from these domains.


The aim of this project is to analyze the future of the most relevant emerging technologies until today, relating them to the world of marketing and studying their possible success in the coming years.
For this, it has been considered convenient to associate the concepts explained to a time scale where past, present and future are analyzed as follows:
Firstly, it starts with the "past". The most important aspects of marketing and innovation are mentioned separately, for example, by going deeper into what both mean and observing their evolution to this day.
Secondly, it continues with the "present". It is intended to reflect the union of both concepts explaining the most promising technological innovations in the world of marketing, accompanied by creative and poignant examples.
Finally, it finishes with the "future". This third block resembles the creation of a start-up of a product related to the concepts learned through the previous two blocks. In order to do this, an initial idea of the feasibility of the project is drawn up and also a first outline of the "next steps" that should be carried out to launch this innovative product related to marketing innovation


Branding relies on coherence, which is in turn based on conceptual agreement. The various elements that make up a brand must work together, as must the brand respond satisfactorily to the expectations of its addressees. This article examines the case of Camper shoes, considering it a positive example of how a brand, when structured by metaphorical mappings within an adequate source domain, meets the expectations of its addressees and ensures the desired coherence in brand communication. Camper's communication strategy is influenced by two conceptual metaphors—LIFE IS PLAY and THE WORLD IS A STAGE—mapped within one of the dominant metaphors in this market segment: CLOTHING IS SPORTS. Though many clothing brands are guided by the super-ordinate metaphor of sports, the sub-domains vary: tennis in the case of Lacoste, sailing for Gant, aerobics for Uniqlo, chess for G Star Raw and horse riding for Barbour. Camper is related to circus acrobats and performing clowns. Hence, the conceptual domain of CIRCUS is systematically mapped onto that of CAMPER, and the metaphorical entailment of the source domain CIRCUS constructs the target domain CAMPER. This study analyses the lexical, visual and spatial metaphorical entailments employed by Camper in order to demonstrate how these create a consistent chain that tightly binds its entire discourse and makes the brand discourse coherent.


When looking for federal statistics, finding the right table, chart or report can be a daunting task for anyone not thoroughly familiar with the federal statistical system. Search tools help, but differing terminologies within the statistical agencies and a lack of familiarity of terms by information seekers limit their effectiveness. The FedStats Browser is a design for visually browsing federal agency statistical products and publications, using techniques that allow users to reformulate queries and iteratively refine results via simple, reversible actions with immediate feedback. This paper also discusses the characteristics of metadata needed for such a browser and the challenges inherent in acquiring that metadata.


This book provides an alternate vantage point for understanding the variegated forms and trajectories of revolution across the Philippines, Indonesia, and Việtnam, a perspective that is de-nationalized, internationalized, and transnationalized. The book positions this new vantage point against the conventional framing of revolutions in modern Southeast Asian history in terms of a nationalist template, on the one hand, and distinctive local cultures and forms of consciousness, on the other. The book's comparative analysis shows how — in very different, decisive, and often surprising ways — the Philippine, Indonesian, and Việtnamese revolutions were informed, enabled, and impelled by diverse cosmopolitan connections and international conjunctures. It addresses the role of Freemasonry in the making of the Philippine revolution, the importance of Communism and Islam in Indonesia's Revolusi, and the influence that shifting political currents in China and anticolonial movements in Africa had on Việtnamese revolutionaries. Through this assessment, the book tracks how these forces, rather than nationalism per se, shaped the forms of these revolutions, the ways in which they unfolded, and the legacies which they left in their wakes.


In 2010, 171 million children under 5 years old were estimated to be stunted globally, with 98% being from low- and middle-income countries. Low birthweight including fetal growth restriction is also common in these regions and may contribute to childhood undernutrition. As part of the Child Health Reference Group (CHERG) and using 14 longitudinal birth cohorts and anthropometric measurements taken at 24 months of age, pooled odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to examine the relationship between small for gestational age (SGA) and preterm birth and subsequent stunting and wasting in children. Relative to term adequate size for gestational age (AGA), the OR (95% confidence interval) for stunting associated with AGA-preterm, SGA-term and SGA-preterm was 1.94 (1.59-2.36), 2.82 (2.40-3.32) and 4.98 (3.79-6.55), respectively. A similar magnitude of risk was also observed for wasting and underweight. This analysis indicates that childhood undernutrition may have its origins, in part, in the fetal period, suggesting a need to intervene during an earlier life stage during pregnancy and even preconceptionally, but also putting emphasis on maternal nutrition in general and adolescent nutrition. Interventions shown to impact fetal growth include antenatal supplementation with balanced calorie and protein, iron-folic acid, and multiple micronutrients. Nutrition-sensitive interventions such as delaying the first pregnancy, antimalarials and smoking cessation in some settings may be important.


The lymphotropic lentiviruses feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) enter cells by sequential interaction with primary receptors CD134 or CD4, respectively, and subsequently with chemokine receptors. The host-cell range for FIV is broader than that for HIV, but whether this is a function of receptor expression is unknown. Lack of reagents specific to feline molecules has limited detection and analysis of receptors and their interaction with viral components. Here, the expression of CD134 and CXCR4 on feline T and B lymphocytes, dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages was examined and the kinetics of FIV replication were assessed. Quantification of CD134 mRNA by real-time PCR indicated expression in all leukocytes, with significantly more transcripts in CD4(+) lymphocytes than in other leukocytes. Antibodies against human CD134 bound inconsistently to feline leukocytes. CXCR4 was detected with antibody clone 12G5 on the surface of monocyte-derived cells only, but gene transcripts were present in all cells, with the highest copy number in lymphocytes. CXCR4 expression decreased and CD134 expression increased with cell activation in lymphocytes. A subtype B biological isolate of FIV infected DCs, macrophages and lymphocytes, with the highest replication in CD4(+) lymphocytes, whilst cloned FIV P14 infected all cells, but replicated less efficiently. Although viral replication was lower in DCs and macrophages than in lymphocytes, DCs expressed specific receptors and were infected productively with FIV, as indicated by viral ultrastructure and DNA detection. These results may implicate altered function of DCs in the induction of specific immunity against FIV.


Among the most important factors limiting the active life of animal organisms in Martian conditions are low atmospheric pressure and insignificant amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere (no more than 0.15% of the Earth's atmosphere). The experiments with aerobic protozoon C. maupasi have shown that in conditions of hermetically sealed chambers, for instance in 2.5 liter anaerostats, the protozoon can survive for a long time and reproduce in an atmosphere of air or nitrogen containing 1 or 0.0005% oxygen at a pressure from 15 mm Hg and higher. At the atmospheric pressure 10 mm Hg we observed a considerable decrease in the survival percentage and no reproduction. The exposure to 5 mm Hg resulted in a 100 per cent mortality of the protozoon. In a specially-constructed chamber "Photostat", in which current atmosphere pressure were automatically maintained during an experiment of many days, the reaction of the infusoria was somewhat different: they reproduced and existed not only at the pressure of 10-15 mm Hg, but also at 5 mm Hg, in an atmosphere of both air and nitrogen containing from 1 to 0.0005% O2. This indicates not only low-oxygen consumption of unicellular animals but also the capability of cells to extract some traces of this gas from the atmosphere. Low pressure and some traces of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere are not an impediment for the existence of some of the Earth's animals, such as the protozoon C. maupasi for example.


CONTEXT
Medication resistance is the leading indication for use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in major depression. The practice of stopping antidepressant medications prior to ECT derived from studies in the 1960s and 1970s in nonresistant samples. There is also continuing controversy regarding the relative efficacy and adverse effects of right unilateral and bilateral ECT.

OBJECTIVE
To test the hypotheses that, compared with placebo, concomitant treatment with nortriptline or venlafaxine during the ECT course enhances short-term efficacy without a meaningful effect on adverse effects and reduces the rate of post-ECT relapse, and to test the hypotheses that high-dose, right-sided, unilateral ECT is equivalent in efficacy to moderate-dosage bilateral ECT and retains advantages with respect to cognitive adverse effects.

DESIGN
Prospective, randomized, triple-masked, placebo-controlled study conducted from 2001 through 2005.

SETTING
Three university-based hospitals.

PATIENTS
Of approximately 750 consecutive patients referred for ECT, 319 with a major depressive episode consented, were randomized to pharmacological or ECT treatment conditions, and received at least 1 ECT treatment.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Scores on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, remission rate following completion of ECT, and selective measures of cognitive adverse effects.

RESULTS
Treatment with nortriptyline enhanced the efficacy and reduced the cognitive adverse effects of ECT relative to placebo. Venlafaxine resulted in a weaker degree of improvement and tended to worsen cognitive adverse effects. High-dosage right unilateral ECT did not differ or was superior to bilateral ECT in efficacy and resulted in less severe amnesia.

CONCLUSIONS
The efficacy of ECT is substantially increased by the addition of an antidepressant medication, but such medications may differ in whether they reduce or increase cognitive adverse effects. High-dose, right-sided, unilateral ECT is at least equivalent to moderate-dosage bilateral ECT in efficacy, but retains advantages with respect to cognitive adverse effects.


Since 1998 IMF economic crisis, hotel companys have made an operation innovation in generally to reinforce a competitive power. Never ther less. a structural depression with high expense of costs-low degree of efficiency and high price of commodities-low degree of growth during the last few years. And hotel companys were doing endeavor for conquer this depression with reshuffle of the personnel system and that systematizing an enterprise and production control. Hotel has more increased personnel expenses percents than increase sold price percents so that hotel reducing cook and as result, hotel has a problem from production selling of foodservice because that is insufficient of cook man power. On studying this research, an importancy of cusine department in inquire hotel and an efficiency man power control of cusine department influence on hotel marketing were made use of analysis for hotel kitchen management. The result of this study is like that. First, the quality of a hotel employee is directly related to that of hotel service, which is functioned as a principle factor on which success or failure of the hotel very largely depends. Second, fair evaluation of merits. Third, cognition for job as expert. Fourth, the roles and competences of the employees were affected much by the inner or outer environmental changes surrounding the hotel enterprises. Fifth, do not underestimate an intelligent ability and will power of employee, and hotel company have to manage that the employees consult themselves about their things of department and improve with the master sense for job. Sixth, pay increase and intensive system. This system can raise the will to achievement for employee`s job, and company can get many benefits from government. Seventh, the employees should be encouraged to have memberships of academic organizations, to actively participate in academic meetings, workshops, conferences, and forms in the area of job performance.


The results of four independent complete drag-swab samplings of a 31-farm broiler-production complex are described. Samplings of vacant poultry farms (i.e., between flocks) and occupied farms (i.e., containing chickens) were completed in four 3-day intervals beginning in July 1992 and ending in May 1993. During the first two sampling periods, two drag-swab assemblies were dragged through each individual house and pooled into one sample to evaluate overall incidence of Salmonella detection among vacant and occupied houses. During the second two sampling periods, four drag-swab assemblies were dragged through houses to evaluate frequency of Salmonella detection on individual assemblies within each house. Over the four sampling periods, mean isolation frequencies were 42.2% for vacant poultry farms and 76.2% for occupied poultry farms. When four assemblies were dragged in vacant houses and cultured separately, the probability of detecting salmonellae contamination increased with increasing numbers of assemblies, indicating that multiple drag-swab assemblies should be used for sampling either vacant or occupied broiler houses for the presence of Salmonella. On vacant farms, 89.5% of the total isolations occurred in only one house of two-house farms; the remaining 10.5% of farms were positive in both houses. Salmonella isolation from occupied farms occurred in 54.2% of the samplings in only one house, whereas 45.8% of occupied farms were positive in both houses. These data show a higher frequency of Salmonella isolation on multiple swabs in occupied poultry houses, possibly indicating a quantitatively greater presence of Salmonella in these houses.


DCL1 is the ribonuclease that carries out miRNA biogenesis in plants. The enzyme has two tandem double stranded RNA binding domains (dsRBDs) in its C-terminus. Here we show that the first of these domains binds precursor RNA fragments when isolated and cooperates with the second domain in the recognition of substrate RNA. Remarkably, despite showing RNA binding activity, this domain is intrinsically disordered. We found that it acquires a folded conformation when bound to its substrate, being the first report of a complete dsRBD folding upon binding. The free unfolded form shows tendency to adopt folded conformations, and goes through an unfolded bound state prior to the folding event. The significance of these results is discussed by comparison with the behavior of other dsRBDs.


This report provides an analysis of the function of polyadenylation sites from six different genes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These sites were tested for their ability to turn off read-through transcription into the URA3 gene in vivo when inserted into an ACT-URA3 fusion gene. The 3' ends of all polyadenylation sites inserted into the test system in their natural configuration are identical to the 3' ends of the chromosomal genes. We identified two classes of polyadenylation sites: (i) efficient sites (originating from the genes GCN4 and PHO5) that were functional in a strict orientation-dependent manner and (ii) bidirectional sites (derived from ARO4, TRP1, and TRP4) that had a distinctly reduced efficiency. The ADH1 polyadenylation site was efficient and bidirectional and was shown to be a combination of two polyadenylation sites of two convergently transcribed genes. Sequence comparison revealed that all efficient unidirectional polyadenylation sites contain the sequence TTTTTAT, whereas all bidirectional sites have the tripartite sequence TAG...TA (T)GT...TTT. Both sequence elements have previously been proposed to be involved in 3' end formation. Site-directed point mutagenesis of the TTTTTAT sequence had no effect, whereas mutations within the tripartite sequence caused a reduced efficiency for 3' end formation. The tripartite sequence alone, however, is not sufficient for 3' end formation, but it might be part of a signal sequence in the bidirectional class of yeast polyadenylation sites. Our findings support the assumption that there are at least two different mechanisms with different sequence elements directing 3' end formation in yeast.


In the context of QoE management, network and service providers commonly rely on models that map system QoS conditions (e.g., system response time, paket loss, etc.) to estimated end user QoE values. Observable QoS conditions in the system may be assumed to follow a certain distribution, meaning that different end users will experience different conditions. On the other hand, drawing from the results of subjective user studies, we know that user diversity leads to distributions of user scores for any given test conditions (in this case referring to the QoS parameters of interest). Our previous studies have shown that to correctly derive various QoE metrics (e.g., Mean Opinion Score (MOS), quantiles, probability of users rating "good or better", etc.) in a system under given conditions, there is a need to consider rating distributions obtained from user studies, which are often times not available. In this paper we extend these findings to show how to approximate user rating distributions given a QoS-to-MOS mapping function and second order statistics. Such a user rating distribution may then be combined with a QoS distribution observed in a system to finally derive corresponding distributions of QoE scores. We provide two examples to illustrate this process: 1) analytical results using a Web QoE model relating waiting times to QoE, and 2) numerical results using measurements relating packet losses to video stall pattern, which are in turn mapped to QoE estimates.


Objective The purpose of this evaluation is to characterize the relationship between a patient's initial hospital emergency room chief complaint potentially related to a heat-related illness (HRI) with final primary and secondary ICD-9 diagnoses. Introduction The NJ syndromic surveillance system, EpiCenter, developed an algorithm to quantify HRI visits using chief complaint data. While heat advisories are released by the National Weather Service, an effective HRI algorithm could provide real-time health impact information that could be used to provide supplemental warnings to the public during a prolonged heat wave. Methods Data on NJ hospital emergency room visits were evaluated using two data sources: 1) the EpiCenter syndromic surveillance system of emergency room visits; and 2) the Uniform Bill-Patient Summaries (UB) system containing diagnosis data on all hospital visits. Three years of data (2009–2011) were selected, for the time window of May 1 to September 30. The UB data used for matching with the EpiCenter data were limited to facilities participating in EpiCenter during the evaluation period. (EpiCenter facilities captured about 1/3 of all heat-related diagnoses in 2009, increasing to about 2/3 in 2011.) The ICD-9 codes of interest included 992.0–992.9 and external cause of injury codes E900.0 and E900.9. We evaluated the sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of the EpiCenter algorithm in relation to the patients' eventual diagnoses coded in the UB data. Results During the 15 months of data examined, there were a total of 871 people identified with HRI visits based on the EpiCenter algorithm. Over the same time period in the same emergency room facilities, there were a total of 2,146 people with a primary or secondary HRI diagnosis in UB. The algorithm for the EpiCenter's HRI definition had a sensitivity of 16% (348/2,146) when any primary or secondary ICD or E-code matched; the PPV was 40% (348/871). When data during a major heat event (July 21–23, 2011) was examined separately, both sensitivity (23%) and PPV (59%) improved. Graph 1 presents the 2011 daily number of HRI visits from EpiCenter data and the subset of UB data from facilities also reporting to EpiCenter. The pattern in the EpiCenter data tracked with the UB data for HRI visits and correctly identified several major episodes in 2011. The major heat-related illness episode of July 2011 was selected to evaluate the non-matched EpiCenter and UB data. A total of 210 (95%) of the non-matched UB cases were able to be matched to EpiCenter chief complaint data. The EpiCenter information displayed a diverse range of general complaints, including syncope, dizziness, weakness, and headache. Similarly, non-matched EpiCenter data were compared to UB data to examine diagnoses, and 22 (48%) of the EpiCenter HRI cases were matched to UB diagnostic data. Diagnosis codes for these cases were for a variety of conditions classified under "general symptoms"; fluid balance disorders; asthma; diabetes; and unspecified hypertension. Conclusions The evaluation found that using chief complaint data to monitor HRI was relatively insensitive in comparison to the UB diagnosis codes, with a sensitivity of just over 16% for any UB HRI diagnosis. Sensitivity and PPV improved during a peak heat event. The evaluation of the non-matched data (both EpiCenter and UB) provided little guidance for modifying the algorithm. While expanding the algorithm to include complaints such as syncope, dizziness, or weakness may capture a few more HRI cases, it would also likely result in a greater number of false positive cases (i.e., higher background noise). Though not especially sensitive, EpiCenter data did identify all major episodes of HRI in 2011. The degree of correspondence indicates that the EpiCenter HRI algorithm provides a useful real-time gauge of the daily HRI trends.Graph 1. 2011 HRI visits identified by EpiCenter data and UB data subset for the same EpiCenter reporting facilities.


This paper will evaluate the outcomes of the economic and sectoral development policies of Turkey in terms of investigating the socio-economic and spatial resilience of Kayseri city-region. In Turkey, economic development was mainly based on the manufacturing sector with a significant rise during the period of 1980-1990s. In recent decade, however, the main economic activity has shifted toward the construction sector. Depending on the limitations of the construction industry in the near future, however, the cities need to develop ?resilience plans?, which consider the sectoral potentials and challenges as well as their influences on physical development and/or settlement patterns by comprising both the urban and rural areas of their regions. In this context, this paper focused on the Kayseri city-region. Indeed, Kayseri, which is known with its innovative entrepreneurship in business, has witnessed certain developments in the manufacture industry, i.e. automotive and furniture sectors during 1980-1990s. Although this change addressed a significant shift toward the new regional policies that can lead success in the competitiveness and global integration, there is seen a sectoral decline in the automotive industry since 2000s. Simultaneously, the construction and service sectors increased, when Kayseri has experienced a significant rural-to-urban migration. That is, the influence of the rise in the construction sector does not only lead a decline in the urban manufacturing sectors, but also a decrease in the rural sectors that accompany to the migration. Moreover, the peripheries of Kayseri metropolitan area that had agricultural character with a contribution into the industry have also been threatened with the speculative activities of the construction industry. Regarding the limitations of the construction industry in the next years, Kayseri needs to define the way of resilient development by means of economic sectors. Thus, the paper will evaluate the resilience of Kayseri city-region in terms of Multi-Criteria Analysis Approach, which provides using several criteria, i.e. limits and potentials in the economic sectors as well as in the social and physical development, and different scales, i.e. regional and metropolitan levels. The data on the economic sectors and spatial development of Kayseri are obtained from local authorities such as regional development agency and metropolitan and district municipalities. Regarding both the characteristics of urban and rural areas, the paper will present firstly a sub-regional zoning, which is based on the existing and potential economic activities with the reasons of migration, proposals for rural development and integration of rural sectors into metropolitan sectors. Then, the paper will focus on the metropolitan area by investigating the potentials of urban economic sectors in association with rural sectors? integration, urban growth patterns and main macro-form decisions.


This article applies the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach to the data supplied by Value Line to estimate the implied long-term growth rate of the firm's equity cash flows. This rate is then contrasted with various subjective expected rates in the form of a sensitivity analysis. If the implied growth rate is lower than what an investor would have expected, the stock may be underpriced, or, alternatively, the current price does not truly reflect the long-term growth rate in the firm's cash flows. Conversely, if implied rate is greater than the expected growth rate, the stock may be considered overpriced. Application of the proposed methodology to MCI's stock produces intriguing and promising results.


Introduction With an increased longevity achievable with current therapeutic strategies for persons with HIV infection, Quality of Life (QoL) has emerged as a significant medical outcome, and its enhancement has an important goal. Though lacking clarity of definition, assessment of QoL assumes significant as a constellation of HIV-related symptoms negatively affect it. Nevertheless present literature has focused on the various domains of QoL in different setting, an analysis of their pattern of publication and their impact on the vertical transmission of knowledge is vital for a holistic approach in the management of HIV. Hence this study was aimed to analyse the trends of such articles using a new article level metric measure, the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) which has been published in peer-reviewed journals. Methods Publications during 1993–2013 were collected using appropriate search words, their RCR and associated factors like total citations, citations per year were calculated. Results The trend of publications seems to increase from a mere 69 publications in 1995–97 to 423 articles between 2010–2013. However the mean RCR seems to be constant throughout the study period, with an overall mean RCR value of 1.42. Further only 9.5% of the published articles had an RCR value of above 3. Conclusion Though not designed to be an indicator of long-term impact, citation rates have the potential to track patterns of scientific productivity over time. Data from the present findings sheds light that though the publication trend is increasing, the relative citation of the articles published on QoL is constant, well below the acceptable average. Hence efforts should be directed to improve the quality of research in this field, as this information could be used by various professional societies, individual scientists, and funding organisations to frame essential policies regarding the improvement of the QoL and thus promote positive health amongst this population.


PURPOSE: To assess the accuracy of the Nike+ FuelBand for estimating energy expenditure and steps taken during exercise. METHODS: Twenty subjects (age = 22.8 ± 2.4 yrs; body mass index = 24.9 ± 2.6 m/kg2) performed a progressive, three-interval treadmill test at three different speeds (2.0, 3.5, and 5.0 mph) with a 0% grade. Each stage lasted 8 min, with 3-min rest between intervals. Subjects wore the Nike+ FuelBand on the left wrist. Energy expenditure and steps were estimated by using its proprietary algorithm, and then compared with energy expenditure determined from indirect calorimetry and manual step count, which served as criterion measures. RESULTS: The Nike+ FuelBand significantly overestimated total energy expenditure by 31.1 kcal during the 5.0 mph interval (108.2 ± 29.4 kcal versus 77.0 ± 18.1 kcal, respectively; p < .001). No differences were found between the Nike+ FuelBand and indirect calorimetry at 2.0 mph stage (26.8 ± 8.3 kcal versus 26.1 ± 6.2 kcal, respectively; p ≥ .05) or 3.5 mph stage (37.0 ± 10.5 steps versus 39.26 ± 8.80 steps, respectively; p ≥ .05). Concerning steps taken, the Nike+ FuelBand significantly underestimated steps compared to a manual count at the lower speed of 2.0 mph (321.8 ± 235.4 steps versus 760.3 ± 44.8 steps, respectively; p < .001) No differences (p ≥ .05) were found at 3.5 mph (845.0 ± 210.5 steps versus 952.6 ± 60.44 steps, respectively) or 5.0 mph (1222 ± 61.5 steps versus 1239 ± 143.5 steps, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The Nike+ FuelBand appears to provide an accurate assessment of energy expenditure at 2.0 mph and 3.5 mph, a common self-selected walking intensity range, but overestimates at a higher speed of 5.0 mph. The Nike+ FuelBand also appears to provide an accurate assessment of steps at speeds of 3.5 mph and 5.0 mph, but underestimates at 2.0 mph, most likely due to variation in arm swing motion during walking.


Abstract A new genus, Wallabicoris, is described from Australia with 37 included species, all described as new. Host plants for 29 species of Wallabicoris are recorded in the families Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Fabaceae (Papilionoideae), Lamiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Thymelaeaceae. Maps organized on the basis of host association are presented. A phylogenetic analysis based on 53 morphological characters is presented for all species and seven outgroups. An additional analysis for 25 in-groups and the seven outgroups is presented in which the morphological characters are combined with about 470 bases of 16S mtDNA. These analyses show Wallabicoris to be monophyletic, as are several species groups within the genus. Monophyletic groups of species feeding on the Rhamnaceae and Lamiaceae received strong support, suggesting radiations on those plant lineages. Distributional patterns are examined within the context of the larger Australian fauna and with regard to the distributions of host taxa.


Summary The differentiation of roles, tasks and responsibilities in health care has gradually increased because of efforts to decentralize, specialize and professionalize our health-care systems. These development approaches can on the one hand be regarded as successful, although there is also a negativeflipside. Increased differentiation has concurrently fragmented the delivery of health care, which, in turn, can be divided into structural, clinical and cultural fragmentation. Patients are lost as a result of these conditions of fragmentation. This phenomenon can metaphorically be described as a'Patient Bermuda Triangle'. Actions to dissolve the Patient Bermuda Triangles are commonly termed 'Integrated health care', a global buzzword that includes integrated care pathway as well as other integrated health-care strategies. Moreover, integrated care is a means to an end: improved patient outcome. To achieve this, it is crucial to have necessary prerequisites in place: both functional and interactional conditions. This procedure seems to be an organic process where the stakeholders go through gradual changes until the optimum level of integration, as well as mutualistic interactions, is established. If these conditions are concealed or impossible to achieve, developmental work should be ended to avoid the evolvement of antagonistic relations between the stakeholders concerned. This state will likely establish a Patient Bermuda Triangle or reinforce an existing one.


ABSTRACT Bed sediments in a three-mile reach of the Ottawa River are largely composed of sand-sized mineral grains and wood chips, with finer, organic-rich sediments segregated towards channel margins. The amount of leachable mercury in the bed sediment correlates strongly with leachable iron content, and less well with mean () grain size and organic content. These results are best explained by surface adsorption of mercury on grain coatings of hydrated iron oxide and complexing with organic particles. Mercury concentration therefore increases with decreasing grain size and/or increasing content of wood chips. Bedload transport occurs mainly by dune migration; the rate was about 4 105 kg/day in early June, 1974, yielding a mercury discharge of about 10 g/day in bed sediment. The main sources of pollution were controlled in 1971, and mercury levels are now declining about 66% per year in the coarser mid-channel sediment, and about 40% annually in the finer channel-margin sediments. The differential rate is thought to be due to the greater influence of mechanical transport in areas with coarser sediment, whereas chemical desorption is the principal means of mercury loss from finer deposits.


Insulator becomes wet partially or completely, and the pollution layer on it becomes conductive, when collecting pollutants for an extended period during dew, light rain, mist, fog or snow melting. Heavy rain is a complicated factor that it may wash away the pollution layer without initiating other stages of breakdown or it may bridge the gaps between sheds to promote flashover. The insulator with a conducting pollution layer being energized, can cause a surface leakage current to flow (also temperature-rise). As the surface conductivity is non-uniform, the conducting pollution layer becomes broken by dry bands (at spots of high current density), interrupting the flow of leakage current. Voltage across insulator gets concentrated across dry bands, and causes high electric stress and breakdown (dry band arcing). If the resistance of the insulator surface is sufficiently low, the dry band arcs can be propagated to bridge the terminals causing flashover. The present paper concerns the evaluation of the temperature distribution along the surface of an energized artificially polluted insulator string.


ABSTRACT In this study, we demonstrate that killer cell lectin-like receptor subfamily G member 1 (KLRG1), a transmembrane protein preferentially expressed on T cells, is highly expressed on CD56+ NK cells, which are significantly reduced in their numbers and functions in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection compared to subjects without infection. KLRG1 expression is also upregulated on healthy NK cells exposed to Huh-7 hepatocytes infected with HCV in vitro. Importantly, the expression levels of KLRG1 are inversely associated with the capacity of NK cells to proliferate and to produce gamma interferon (IFN-γ) but positively associated with apoptosis of NK cells in response to inflammatory cytokine stimulation. KLRG1+ NK cells, including CD56bright and CD56dim subsets, exhibit impaired cell activation and IFN-γ production but increased apoptosis compared to KLRG1− NK cells, particularly in HCV-infected individuals. Importantly, blockade of KLRG1 signaling significantly recovered the impaired IFN-γ production by NK cells from HCV-infected subjects. Blockade of KLRG1 also enhanced the impaired phosphorylation of Akt (Ser473) in NK cells from HCV-infected subjects. Taken together, these results indicate that KLRG1 negatively regulates NK cell numbers and functions via the Akt pathway, thus providing a novel marker and therapeutic target for HCV infection.


The presence and the establishment of Idotea hectica is reported for the first time in the Hellenic seas on the basis of three adult specimens and a juvenile collected from Posidonia oceanica meadows close to the main town of Rhodes Island, Aegean Sea. Common and contrasting characters between this and other species of the genera Idotea and Pentidotea are briefly discussed. Furthermore, following a westward expansion along the eastern Mediterranean coasts, Matuta victor was discovered for the first time in Hellenic waters on the basis of a single specimen from the northeast of Rhodes Island.


Mechanical metamaterials, with designs typically containing mesoscale features, are under increasing investigation due to their ready fabrication using additive manufacturing techniques such as digital light processing (DLP). However, applications with demanding weight and size limitations require material formulations with lower densities and higher moduli and which are not readily available. Here, we present an effort to fuse resin formulations, characterization, and error compensation approaches to enhance the performance of these mechanical metamaterial structures. First, a design map for mechanical metamaterial performance based on analytical and finite element models is created in order to provide directional predictions for material formulations that maximize performance. Based on these predictions, an open-source acrylatebased photopolymer resin is filled with hollow glass microspheres to reduce the formulation density and to increase the modulus. A rule of mixtures relationship between volume fraction fillers and density is verified. The volume fraction fillers is maximized to reduce density while maintaining sufficient flow for re-coating the DLP window between each layer through viscosity modification, dispersants, and agglomeration prevention. This novel formulation is able to reduce density by over 30% and increase the modulus by 85%, thereby increasing the metamaterial performance metric of modulus-to-density ratio a factor of 2.7. This metric value has not been reached in previously reported DLP resin formulations. The structures are characterized in order to validate performance and to provide a feedback loop for improved formulations and future prints. Details of defects – both geometric (i.e., feature dimensions) and – are measured by microscopy and Computed Tomography. The data are analyzed to modify the additive manufacturing process for error correction. These data will form the basis for future machine-learning efforts to identify significant processing characteristics and minimize defects. Finally, mechanical metamaterial modeling indicates multi-material printing will provide a step-change increase in performance. Initial efforts to produce these multi-material structures will be presented.


Vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid (RA) plays important roles in cell growth, differentiation, organogenesis, and reproduction and a key role in mucosal immune responses. RA promotes dendritic cells to express CD103 and to produce RA, enhances the differentiation of Foxp3+ inducible regulatory T cells, and induces gut-homing specificity in T cells. Although vitamin A is crucial for maintaining homeostasis at the intestinal barrier and equilibrating immunity and tolerance, including gut dysbiosis, retinoids perform a wide variety of functions in many settings, such as the central nervous system, skin aging, allergic airway diseases, cancer prevention and therapy, and metabolic diseases. The mechanism of RA is interesting to explore as both a mucosal adjuvant and a combination therapy with other effective agents. Here, we review the effect of RA on innate and adaptive immunity with a special emphasis on inflammatory status.


In this study we have analyzed outcome during the early rehabilitation period phase following two different methods of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction: ligamentum patellae (LP) and semitendonosus/gracilis tendon (SG) based reconstruction. This study included 40 patients treated by each method, examined 6 weeks and 3, 6 and 12 months after surgery. Patients in the SG group showed significantly better Lysholm scores at 6 and 12 months, Tegner Activity Scale scores at 3 months, and pain profile assessments at 6 weeks and 3 months than those in the LP group. Significant differences were observed in LP group in range-of-motion at 6 weeks and 3 and 6 months post-surgery. Stability tests revealed no significant differences between patients in the two groups. SG-based reconstruction of the ACL thus demonstrated advantages over LP-based reconstruction regarding pain and function, while LP-based reconstruction was associated with an earlier return of motion.


In this personal reflection and analysis, I, as a Catholic theologian, grapple with the haunting theological question of Jewish scholars, David Patterson and David Berger: Is Jesus, for Jews, "superfluous to salvation?" In light of major advances in Christian-Jewish relations and dialogue, most recently in the 2015 Vatican document, "The Gifts and Callings Are Irrevocable," I seek to follow and assess where the (theologically rich) breadcrumbs lead me. Context and personal narrative become the first path as I trace how and why I reached their question—and my deep need to try to answer it, amidst a wounded, if not broken Church, still reeling from the child abuse scandal, among other ills. I then turn to Peter Phan's interfaith Christology as presented in The Joys of Religious Pluralism—an important touchstone book—to acknowledge how a change in the papacy from Benedict to Francis can be seen as opening up, if not momentarily avoiding, the over-policing of certain theological pathways. I then return to Berger and Patterson's question in the conclusion which they ask in "fear and 'trembling."


While co-located social media previously has been employed to enhance interaction in community building activities in previous work, its range of effects have not been quantitatively described. In this study we introduce a co-located social media app called SpeakUp to a community building project in the Za'atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. To overcome issues such as the lack of Internet access, we purposefully adapted the design of the application and ported its server to a low cost single board computer on a Raspberry Pi. We explore the effects of SpeakUp through field experiments with one control and two treatment groups, as well as with interviews and observations. Our results show that SpeakUp significantly increases refugees' level of participation and sense of community. Importantly, with the use of the application, female and male participants demonstrate no significant differences in participation, showing that the use of such applications can be equalizing. We also found that co-located social media supports asynchronous interaction when outside-the-classroom activities are involved.


If you want to convey something's size, try a familiar comparison. There was a story about a hapless biology teacher who had reached the birds and bees lesson. Faced with a class of pubescent girls and needing to tell them how big the testicles were, she ventured that they were about the size of a peewit's egg. 'Well, now we know how big peewits' eggs are,' came a stage whisper from the back. Doctors usually go for fruit. Tumours are the size of almonds, grapes, tangerines, oranges or grapefruit. These sizes are a bit inexact: would those be the small delicious green seedless grapes, or the big black seeded grapes with tough bitter skins?

We also like sports fields, comparing the alveolar surface area to a football pitch, and the total surface area of the nephrons to three cricket pitches. I have no idea if these are even vaguely correct, but you get the idea.

It's not just in medicine that we need comparisons. How else can anyone convey how much rain forest is lost each year or how much of the UK has turned into car parks since Labour came into power? Most land areas used for comparison are, like the Isle of Wight (380 sq km) or Belgium (30 500 sq km), roughly rectangular. This probably explains why Wales, which at 20 800 sq km is a bit less than a Belgium, is a standard unit of measurement, whereas England and Scotland are almost never used. England has too many awkward bits, and Scotland's islands make it useless.

Frankly, in the scale of these things, there isn't much difference between 20 000 and 30 000, and I bet there are a fair number in Britain who don't have a clue how big Belgium is, so we might just as well stick with Wales. The next order of magnitude takes us to France, which is 547 000 sq km. The US has enough states for quite a range of units. For all I know, Americans use the full range, but there's little point our measuring things in Marylands (25 000 sq km) instead of Waleses. The Texas is universal currency; at 695 000 sq km it is considerably bigger than France.

So how about a comparison I saw for the Venus Express, a European spacecraft launched in November. It is apparently 'little bigger than a fridge'. So once you've decided what sort of fridge — dinky job for a student bedsit or enormous American thing with double doors that spits ice cubes — it's then a bit bigger. An ovarian tumour the size of a melon is much more imaginable.


The oil-water of alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding separation in Daqing oil field is difficult, which result in excessive oil in waste water. Aiming at this problem, the oil remover QP888 was used in the pilot experiment. The addition dosage and technologic operating parameters were gained. The research indicated that when the stirring intensity, stirring time, addition dosage, inflow and outflow, adsorbing time were 130 rpm, more than 6 min, 75 mg•L-1, 50-240 L•h-1 and 15 min respectively, the oil content of waste water was reduced from 125-156 mg•L-1 to less than 50 mg•L-1 which met to the influent water standard of filter equipment by using absorbing tank in continuous running. The technology adding oil remover and stirring was feasible under the water quality at present. The waste water treatment handling cost was less than 4.83 ¥•m-3 and could be reduced in production.


We apply a turbulence-regulated model of star formation to calculate the star formation rate (SFR) of dense star-forming clouds in simulations of jet-ISM interactions. The method isolates individual clumps and accounts for the impact of virial parameter and Mach number of the clumps on the star formation activity. This improves upon other estimates of the SFR in simulations of jet–ISM interactions, which are often solely based on local gas density, neglecting the impact of turbulence. We apply this framework to the results of a suite of jet-ISM interaction simulations to study how the jet regulates the SFR both globally and on the scale of individual star-forming clouds. We find that the jet strongly affects the multi-phase ISM in the galaxy, inducing turbulence and increasing the velocity dispersion within the clouds. This causes a global reduction in the SFR compared to a simulation without a jet. The shocks driven into clouds by the jet also compress the gas to higher densities, resulting in local enhancements of the SFR. However, the velocity dispersion in such clouds is also comparably high, which results in a lower SFR than would be observed in galaxies with similar gas mass surface densities and without powerful radio jets. We thus show that both local negative and positive jet feedback can occur in a single system during a single jet event, and that the star-formation rate in the ISM varies in a complicated manner that depends on the strength of the jet-ISM coupling and the jet break-out time-scale.


An increasing number of children are consulting for various problems or disorders that are based on mistreatment at school. Bullying is defined as persistent physical or emotional violence by a school-aged child or group of children against another school-aged child who is unable to defend himself in this situation, which takes place in the school area. This type of behavior involves the aggressor, the victim, the group of classmates, the institution (teachers, the psychopedagogic team, the management team) and the families (those of the aggressor and victim, and the parents association). Bullying is a type of disorder that can be included in some of the typologies described by Terr in Postraumatic Stress Disorder in childhood, specifically in type II or chronic disorder and in type III or mixed disorder (chronic with phases of acute reactivation). Longitudinal studies have reported an association between having been bullied at school and the possibility of suffering from mobbing, mostly in the form of work harassment. Surprisingly, there can be a "pact of silence" between classmates. Schools are perceived as being more tolerant with the aggressors than with the victims of bullying.


Objectives: In the present work, the effect of CuO-water based nanofluids on the performance of flat plate solar collector was studied using computational fluid dynamics. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The computational analysis was carried out for both water and nanofluids at varying mass flow rates of 0.00255 kg/sec, 0.0029 kg/sec and 0.00323 kg/ sec. Comsol 5.2 software has been used for the simulating the performance of solar collector. The performance of flat plate solar collector is evaluated in terms of outlet fluid temperature by providing various inlet parameters such as inlet fluid temperature, ambient temperature, inlet pressure, solar irradiance, etc. Findings: The study was conducted for two volume fraction of CuO as 0.1% and 0.2% in base fluids. It has been found that the efficiency of solar collector increases with the use of nanofluids in comparison with water as nanofluids have better thermal properties. Also the efficiency of collector increases with the increase in mass flow rate for both water and nanofluids as working fluids. The efficiency is found to be slightly higher when the volumetric concentration of nano particles in a base fluid is higher. The temperature difference between inlet and outlet decreases as the inlet temperature increases. The maximum efficiency was found to be 55.3% using water whereas the maximum efficiency with CuO-water nanofluids was 73.4%. The maximum efficiency increase is found to be 25.9% with the use of nanofluids in comparison to water at a mass flow rate of 0.00255 kg/sec. Application/Improvements: Nan fluids are highly useful as heat transfer fluids due to enhanced thermal properties. The application areas of nanofluids are power generation, heating, cooling, air-conditioning, ventilation, etc.


Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is guided by the tumour stage. The Barcelona clinical liver cancer (BCLC) score endorsed by the European Society of the Liver EASL divides patients into five prognostic categories, each with a distinct treatment indication. Hepatic resection, orthotopic liver transplantation and percutaneous local ablation are strongly indicated in accurately selected patients with very early (BCLC 0) and early stage (BCLC A) tumours providing a survival rate of between 50 and 75% at year five. In patients with a large tumour burden such as those with intermediate stage BCLC B, repeated treatments with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) are advocated with clinical benefits (from 16 to 22 months). Survival may also improve in patients who are in poor condition or who do not respond to TACE and those with an advanced HCC (BCLC C), following oral therapy with the multikinase inhibitor, sorafenib. However, most recommendations are based on uncontrolled studies and expert opinions rather than well‐designed controlled trials, and up to one‐third of patients do not fit recommendations because of advanced age, the presence of significant comorbidities or a strategic location of the nodule. For these patients, treatment of HCC beyond guidelines is often advocated.


This paper examines an institution called Review and Selection, which facilitated the tasks of tax collection and military conscription in early modern Vietnam. Through a comparative examination of this institution's history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Lê/Trịnh realm of Đàng Ngoài in the north and the Nguyễn domain of Đàng Trong in the south, this paper challenges ideas in extant English-language scholarship that claim that Đàng Trong was less bureaucratic, less Confucian, and more militarized than that of the Lê north. In the process, it offers some new characterizations of early modern Vietnam.


Recent advances in internet architecture have led to the advent and subsequent explosion of cloud computing technologies, providing businesses with a powerful toolbox of collaborative digital resources. These technologies have fostered a more flexible, decentralized approach to IT infrastructure, enabling businesses to operate in a more agile fashion and on a globalized scale.Enterprise Management Strategies in the Era of Cloud Computing seeks to explore the possibilities of business in the cloud. Targeting an audience of research scholars, students, software developers, and business professionals, this premier reference source provides a cutting-edge look at the exciting and multifaceted relationships between cloud computing, software virtualization, collaborative technology, and business infrastructure in the 21st Century.


A flame calorimeter, designed to measure the heats of combustion of gaseous chloroalkanes, is described and the following heats of combustion to give products CO2(g) and HCl (600 H2O)(l) at 25°C and 1 atm are reported: ΔH°c(chloromethane, g)=–764.01±0.50 kJ mol–1, ΔH°c(chloromethane, g)=–1413.05±0.59 kJ mol–1, ΔH°c(1-chloropropane, g)=–2072.11±0.79 kJ mol–1, ΔH°c(2-chloropropane, g)=–2059.62±0.79 kJ mol–1. The derived heats of formation agree with those obtained from studies of equilibria involving alkenes, hydrogen chloride and chloroalkanes, but disagree with those obtained by other calorimetric methods. The heats of formation of chloroalkanes are discussed in terms of the Allen bond-energy scheme.


The Greek word nomos is usually taken to mean a law or a convention governing human conduct. The concept has been developed to understand social and economic order comprising three aspects: appropriation, production and distribution. In the present paper, I focus on appropriation and define it as the knowledge claims being made and circulated in science-policy-society interactions. Three general rationales are identified: the linear (speaking truth to power), the co-production of knowledge (making sense together) and the post-truth (inventing facts for friends). The objective of the present paper is to examine how the environmental coalition has attempted to ease the problems of climate change and biodiversity loss and how the economic coalition has responded to these strategies as well as how both coalitions have used the three science-policy-society rationales. I will identify and discuss five game-theory inspired strategies that the environmental coalition has used as well as outline some examples on how the economic coalition has responded to the knowledge claims by the environmental coalition. The knowledge claims are not static but rather evolve dynamically in interactions between competing coalitions. This highlights the relevance of the recent idea that actors working at the science-policy-society nexus need to consider their opponents and tailor their knowledge claims not only based on science or on their own objectives but also in a way that counters and anticipates the opposite coalition's knowledge claims and decisions. Based on the analysis, I propose that the interactions between environmental and economic coalitions can be understood as a "Contested Emergency". This paper highlights the relevance of knowledge claims in shaping the complex landscape of environmental governance and the challenges for movement towards a post-fossil future. The knowledge claims regarding the contested emergency end up grounding certain visions of future spatial orders and imply fundamentally different possible nomoi ranging from sustaining the status quo build on economic growth through technological solutions to radical transformative measures seeking to avoid social-ecological collapse.


Six seed characteristics, in a diverse sample of 23 soya bean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes, were subjected to correlation and multiple regression analysis. Seed longevity was found to be significantly and positively correlated (r = 0.68) with hull percentage [100 × (seed coat weight/seed weight)] whereas it was significantly but negatively correlated with seed weight, seed volume, and seed coat weight. Path-analysis revealed that the seed coat weight had the maximum direct effect towards seed longevity followed by hull percentage. Through stepwise regression analyses, a subset consisting of hull percentage and seed weight was selected for prediction of seed longevity. Hull percentage emerged as the most important determinant of seed longevity in soya bean and could serve as a selection criterion in breeding programmes.


We use robust control techniques to study the effects of model uncertainty on monetary policy in an estimated, semi-structural, small-open-economy model of the U.K. Compared to the closed economy, the presence of an exchange rate channel for monetary policy not only produces new trade-offs for monetary policy, but it also introduces an additional source of specification errors. We find that exchange rate shocks are an important contributor to volatility in the model, and that the exchange rate equation is particularly vulnerable to model misspecification, along with the equation for domestic inflation. However, when policy is set with discretion, the cost of insuring against model misspecification appears reasonably small.


Fires produce land cover changes that have consequences for surface energy balance and temperature. Three eddy covariance towers were setup along a burn severity gradient (i.e. Severely, Moderately, and Unburned tundra) to determine the effect of fire and burn severity on arctic tundra surface energy exchange and temperature for three growing seasons (2008–2010) following the 2007 Anaktuvuk River fire. The three sites were well matched before the fire, experienced similar weather, and had similar energy budget closure, indicating that the measured energy exchange differences between sites were largely attributable to burn severity. Increased burn severity resulted in decreased vegetation and moss cover, organic layer depth, and the rate of postfire vegetation recovery. Albedo and surface greenness steadily recovered with Moderately matching Unburned tundra by the third growing season. Decreased albedo increased net radiation and partly fueled increased latent and ground heat fluxes, soil temperatures, and thaw depth. Decreases in moss cover and the organic layer also influenced the ground thermal regime and increased latent heat fluxes. These changes either offset or decreased the surface warming effect from decreased albedo, resulting in a small surface warming in Severely and a small surface cooling in Moderately relative to Unburned tundra. These results indicate that fires have a significant impact on surface energy balance and highlight the importance of moss and permafrost thaw in regulating arctic surface energy exchange and temperature.


It has been stated in the literature that the case of maximal mixing angle for \nu_e leads to no day-night effect for solar neutrinos and an energy independent flux suppression of 1/2. While the case of maximal mixing angle and \Delta m^2 in the MSW range does lead to suppression of the electron neutrinos reaching the earth from the sun by P_S=1/2, the situation is different for neutrinos that have passed through the earth. We make the pedagogical point that, just as with smaller mixing angles, the earth regenerates the |\nu_1> state from the predominantly |\nu_2 > state reaching the earth, leading to coherent interference effects. This regeneration can lead to a day-night effect and an energy dependence of the suppression of solar electron neutrinos, even for the case of maximal mixing. For large mixing angles, the energy dependence of the day-night asymmetry depends heavily on Delta m^2. With a sufficiently sensitive measurement of the day-night effect, this energy dependence could be used to distinguish among the large mixing angle solutions of the solar neutrino problem.


Conservation and fisheries managers require models that describe the abundance and distribution of fishes in order to protect and manage exploited fish stocks in the face of anthropogeni- cally induced habitat loss and exploitation. In this study, models describing environmental preferences were developed for juvenile spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus within 3 Florida estuaries: the Indian River Lagoon, Tampa Bay, and Charlotte Harbor. A generalized additive model (GAM) was developed to describe the environmental preferences, spatial distribution, and temporal fluctuations of juvenile seatrout in each estuary based on a 4 yr time-series of fisheries-independent catches. All 3 models indicated similar environmental preferences for all populations examined and were also qualitatively consistent with the findings from other studies. Consequently, habitat-preference models based on GAMs are useful tools to predict fish abundances in estuaries lacking fisheries-independent data, given knowledge of the local environmental conditions. These initial findings were further sup- ported by quantitative analyses of the models' abilities to predict abundance in independent datasets, despite complications with multicollinearity of independent variables and temporal differences in the recruitment periodicity between the 3 Florida populations. Estimates of environmentally based habitat value on a relative scale will aid conservation managers in protecting vital nursery habitats in estuaries currently lacking fisheries-independent information and in predicting the effects of future environ- mental change. Finally, assuming similar environmental conditions between years, the year effect from these models can serve as an index of relative abundance for fisheries managers to predict future recruitment strength and to tune catch-at-age stock-assessment models.


The main purpose of this study is to contribute to maintain the
current Modular coordination system of Building design and assembly
component in KS(Korea Indust-rial Standard)based on the following
two objectives of the study:
1. To indentify the principle for dimensional system of KS reviewing
the whole phase of Building Design; and
2. To analayze MC system of the other contries in order to create
Korean Standard


The aim of this research is to present the guideline for building a mobile robot that can detect and catch the target object by using the CCD camera with an embedded system. The image processing techniques used were Histogram, Image Spatial Resolution and Connectivity (Neighboring Pixels). These techniques are simply practical to be used with the embedded system for detecting the target object. Moreover, they can be applied to the embedded system mobile robots to perform small task with high flexibility, low cost, ease of construction and energy saving.


SUMMARY: Twenty-one soil samples from sites in West Scotland where alder (Alnus glutinosa) has not grown for many years were examined for the presence of the alder root-nodule endophyte by observing the production of nodules on test plants which were grown (a) in water culture and their roots inoculated with an aqueous suspension of a soil sample, or (b) in the soil itself. Twelve of the samples gave positive results, most of the remaining samples were at pH < 4. Ten samples from sites free from bog myrtle (Myrica gale) were similarly tested for the corresponding endophyte; 8 of these gave positive results. To explain these results it seems necessary to assume either that infective bodies of the endophyte can survive in soils for long periods, though not grow; or that the endophytes can grow saprophytically in soils and thus are not near-obligate symbionts.


The aim of this study was to investigate effects of calmodulin antagonist (W-7) on the contractile response of the rat aorta induced by activation of protein kinase C (PKC) by phorbol ester. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) produced biphasic contraction i.e., a sustained contraction (initial contraction) and 17.9 ± 1.7 min later, this progressively developed contraction was changed to a delayed contraction superimposed on the initial contraction. The delayed contraction was completely inhibited by treatment with nicardipine. The onset of the delayed contraction was significantly delayed by treatment with W-7, whereas same concentration of W-7 showed a weak relaxant effect (10%) on the PMA-induced maximal contraction of aorta. Higher concentration of W-7 strongly inhibited PMA-induced sustained contraction. These results suggest that PMA-induced biphasic contractile response may be regulated by calmodulin.


Accurate determination of the flow of nutrients at the omasum requires the use of a triple marker system. Typically, a system based on ruminal administration of the lithium salt of CoEDTA, ytterbium acetate (Yb-Ac), and chromium-mordanted straw (Cr-S) has been used. However, there is evidence to suggest that product:substrate ratios for stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase (Delta(9)-desaturase) are lower in milk fat from cows administered a combination of CoEDTA, Yb-Ac, and Cr-S, indicating reduced Delta(9)-desaturase activity. To evaluate this hypothesis, samples of milk were collected 1 d before, and on d 2, 6, and 9 of administering the CoEDTA, Yb-Ac, and Cr-S triple marker system into the rumen of 4 cows. A 4 x 4 Latin square with 28-d experimental periods was used to assess the effects of 0, 75, 150, and 300 g/d of fish oil in the diet on ruminal and mammary lipid metabolism. Irrespective of the amount of fish oil in the diet, concentrations of all milk fatty acids containing a cis-9 double bond were reduced after markers were given. Milk fatty acid pairs dependent on Delta(9)-desaturase were decreased over time, with responses reaching a nadir within 6 d of marker administration. Overall, administering markers into the rumen was associated with a mean decrease in milk cis-9 10:1/ 10:0, cis-9 12:1/12:0, cis-9 14:1/14:0, cis-9 16:1/16:0, cis-9 17:1/17:0, cis-9 18:1/18:0, and cis-9,trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid/trans-11 18:1 concentration ratios of 44.6, 52.7, 58.7, 36.8, 37.2, 44.3, and 43.0%, respectively. In conclusion, one or more of the markers administered altered milk fatty acid composition and may act as an inhibitor of Delta(9)-desaturase in the bovine mammary gland.


Transformation optics can be used to design media with unique properties that alter the behavior of electromagnetic waves in passive space and recently in space containing source distributions. We present source transformations where current from a linear radiator is spread over a cylindrical shell with various cross sections. The semianalytic transformations are based on superellipse equations. Finite-element full-wave simulations of transformations from a dipole to a cylinder, diamond-shaped cylinder, and flattened cylinder are presented. The radiation pattern of the dipole seen by an outside observer is replicated in all cases demonstrating the potential applicability of source transformations to conformal antenna design.


Ultraviolet (UV) micro-Raman measurements are reported of diamond grown on GaN using chemical vapor deposition. UV excitation permits simultaneous investigation of the diamond (D) and disordered carbon (DC) comprising the polycrystalline layer. From line scans of a cross-section along the diamond growth direction, the DC component of the diamond layer is found to be highest near the GaN-on-diamond interface and diminish with characteristic length scale of ∼3.5 μm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the diamond near the interface confirms the presence of DC. Combined micro-Raman and TEM are used to develop an optical method for estimating the DC volume fraction.


Background: The first rate-limiting step for primary indicated prevention of psychosis is the detection of young people who may be at risk. The ability of specialized clinics to detect individuals at risk for psychosis is limited. A clinically based, individualized, transdiagnostic risk calculator has been developed and externally validated to improve the detection of individuals at risk in secondary mental health care. This calculator employs core sociodemographic and clinical predictors, including age, which is defined in linear terms. Recent evidence has suggested a nonlinear impact of age on the probability of psychosis onset. Aim: To define at a meta-analytical level the function linking age and probability of psychosis onset. To incorporate this function in a refined version of the transdiagnostic risk calculator and to test its prognostic performance, compared to the original specification. Design: Secondary analyses on a previously published meta-analysis and clinical register-based cohort study based on 2008–2015 routine secondary mental health care in South London and Maudsley (SLaM) National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust. Participants: All patients receiving a first index diagnosis of non-organic/non-psychotic mental disorder within SLaM NHS Trust in the period 2008–2015. Main outcome measure: Prognostic accuracy (Harrell's C). Results: A total of 91,199 patients receiving a first index diagnosis of non-organic and non-psychotic mental disorder within SLaM NHS Trust were included in the derivation (33,820) or external validation (54,716) datasets. The mean follow-up was 1,588 days. The meta-analytical estimates showed that a second-degree fractional polynomial model with power (−2, −1: age1 = age−2 and age2 = age−1) was the best-fitting model (P < 0.001). The refined model that included this function showed an excellent prognostic accuracy in the external validation (Harrell's C = 0.805, 95% CI from 0.790 to 0.819), which was statistically higher than the original model, although of modest magnitude (Harrell's C change = 0.0136, 95% CIs from 0.006 to 0.021, P < 0.001). Conclusions: The use of a refined version of the clinically based, individualized, transdiagnostic risk calculator, which allows for nonlinearity in the association between age and risk of psychosis onset, may offer a modestly improved prognostic performance. This calculator may be particularly useful in young individuals at risk of developing psychosis who access secondary mental health care.


RNA polymerase III transcription has been found to be abnormally elevated in many types of transformed and tumour cells. These rapidly growing cells demonstrate an increase in pol III transcripts and hence, an accumulation of protein above normal levels. The accretion of protein may lead to uncontrolled cell growth, a hallmark of cancer. Thus, the ability of pol III to increase a cell's biosynthetic capacity links it with malignant growth. Therefore, experiments were conducted to assess whether pol III transcription could be regulated by decreasing transcription in mammalian cells. Homo sapien and Mus musculus cell lines were investigated to consider three different methods for decreasing pol III transcription; targeting a subunit of the transcription machinery, Brf1, by small interfering RNA, targeting the polymerase with the specific drug tagetitoxin, and inducing a negative effector of pol III transcription, Maf1. Levels of pol III transcripts were decreased in response to transfection of Brf1 siRNA, which also had a decreased effect on proliferation rates. When cells were treated with tagetitoxin during electroporation, pol III transcription also decreased. Induction of the pol III suppressor Maf1 decreased pol III transcripts to varying degrees, although faults were found within this system. More significant data was obtained by the application of siRNA against Maf1, as well from the analysis of samples acquired from heterozygous Maf1 cells. These results showed that decreasing Maf1 allows for the deregulation of pol III and an increase in pol III transcription.


The techniques based on fractals show promising results in the field of image understanding and visualization of high complexity data. In the aim to give an introduction to the theory of fractals the following topics will be summarised in this paper: the definition and analysis of fractals based on self-similarity and self-affinity behaviours, definitions for fractal dimension, fractal synthesis, multiresolution approach in the analysis and synthesis of fractals, fractals and hierarchic stochastic processes. The derived techniques with applications in geo-information processing and understanding will be underlined: generation of synthetic DEMs , fractal resampling of actual DEMs, algorithms for computation of the fractal dimension, unknown information modelling and data fusion, multiresolution synthesis and analysis of fractal images, multiresolution analysis and fractal dimension estimation. The paper presents also several experiments using fractals to generate accurate models for landforms and cover types, generation of synthetic images for model based picture processing, and image processing techniques for the analysis of remotely sensed images. The techniques have been applied both for optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image interpretation.


Barwon Health is Victoria's largest regional health service. Alan David Lodge (ADL) is an Aged Care Facility providing high level care for approximately 105 residents. Advance care planning (ACP) is included in the goals of care for residents at ADL but had not been fully implemented due to staff limitations, in particular the availability of time, for trained staff to facilitate the ACP process. The Respecting Patient Choices (RPC) program at Barwon Health provided funding for a dedicated 4 h per week over a 6-month period to allow staff that had previously completed RPC training/workshops to facilitate ACP at ADL. RPC program provided education sessions and support for staff and this together with dedicated time to facilitate the process, produced a significant increase in participation of residents and families in ACP through consultation with familiar staff whereby there is an established rapport. It was anticipated that improved quality of care for residents and a reduction in the incidence of family/staff conflict would result by ensuring medical treatment and personal wishes were known prior to a health crisis. The potential improvement in resource allocation through reduced acute admissions, dislocation and medical interventions was also highly probable but not measurable during the project period. Overall there was a marked increase in ACP uptake and the outcomes of the project demonstrated that with a moderate amount of dedicated funding and allocated hours a sustainable model for ACP in aged care facilities is achievable.


We investigated exterior and interior subsamples from the Martian shergottite meteorites Allan Hills (ALH) A77005 and Roberts Massif (RBT) 04261 for secondary minerals, oxygen isotopes, Ar‐Ar, and noble gas signatures. Electron microprobe investigations revealed that RBT 04261 does not contain any visible alteration even in its most exterior fractures, whereas fracture fillings in ALHA77005 penetrate into the meteorite up to 300 μm, beyond which the fractures are devoid of secondary minerals. Light noble gases seem to be almost unaffected by terrestrially induced alteration in both meteorites. Thus, a shock metamorphic overprint of 30–35 GPa can be deduced from the helium measurements in RBT 04261. Oxygen isotopes also seem unaffected by terrestrially weathering and variations can easily be reconciled with the differences in modal mineralogy of the exterior and interior subsamples. The measurements on irradiated samples (Ar‐Ar) showed a clear Martian atmospheric contribution in ALHA77005, but this is less apparent in our sample of RBT 04261. Exterior and interior subsamples show slight differences in apparent ages, but the overall results are very similar between the two. In contrast, krypton and xenon are severely affected by terrestrial contamination, demonstrating the ubiquitous presence of elementally fractionated air in RBT 04261. Although seemingly contradictory, our results indicate that RBT 04261 was more affected by contamination than ALHA77005. We conclude that irrespective of on which planet the alteration occurred, exposure of Martian rocks to atmosphere (or brine) introduces noble gases with signatures elementally fractionated relative to the respective atmospheric composition into the rock, and relationships of that process with oxygen isotopes or mineralogical observations are not straightforward.


Value-of-time is a critical willingness-to-pay indicator in many transportation applications. In this paper, we discuss the computation of this measure in the case of discrete choice models allowing for random taste heterogeneity. We first present the theoretical assumptions associated with models using randomly distributed travel-time coefficients, and highlight several important issues that must not be neglected when such an approach is adopted in practice. We then look in detail at the issue of models producing a non-zero probability of positive travel-time coefficients, and discuss the consistency of such estimates with theories of rational economic behaviour. We note that by using an unbounded statistical distribution, positive travel-time coefficients are postulated empha priori by the researcher, rather than being emphrevealed by the data. We then illustrate how to compute the value-of-time from randomly distributed travel-time coefficients, using various experiments. Finally, we present a simple application to illustrate some concrete difficulties associated with estimating such models. Our results show that the model providing the best estimation results (in terms of recovering the true distribution of the value-of-time) is not necessarily the model giving the best fit to the data. Furthermore, our results show that the use of distributions whose behaviour in the tails is inconsistent with the intuitive understanding of the associated coefficients may sometimes lead to better estimates of the moments of the emphtrue distribution of the value-of-time savings.