OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the anatomic distribution and electrophysiologic properties of accessory pathways (APs) in dogs.

DESIGN
Case series.

ANIMALS
10 dogs with tachyarrhythmias associated with an AP.

PROCEDURES
Each dog underwent electrophysiologic testing to determine the inducibility of documented and undocumented arrhythmias and to identify location, conduction properties, and antegrade and retrograde effective refractory periods of the APs. Radiofrequency catheter ablation was then performed.

RESULTS
15 APs were identified; 7 dogs each had a single AP, and 3 had multiple APs. Fourteen of the 15 APs were right-sided (6 right free wall, 4 posteroseptal, 3 midseptal, and 1 anteroseptal), and 1 was left-sided (left free wall). All APs conducted in an all-or-none fashion. Unidirectional retrograde conduction was observed in 11 APs, and bidirectional conduction was observed in 4. All documented tachyarrhythmias could be induced during electrophysiologic testing; atrial fibrillation was also inducible in 2 dogs. Mean +/- SD cycle duration of orthodromic atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia was 215.80 +/- 44.87 milliseconds. Mean shortest R-R interval during atrial fibrillation was 247.33 +/- 83.17 milliseconds.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that in dogs, most APs are right-sided, had unidirectional retrograde conduction, and are associated with various arrhythmias, including orthodromic atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia and atrial fibrillation without evidence of pre-excitation.


Titik Harliza, Merri Anitasari:The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of DAK, DAU and PAD on regional expenditure in Bengkulu. Analysis tools used in this study is Pooled Data Regression with common effect model. The result shows that the variables of Special Allocation Fund (DAK), General Allocation Fund (DAU) and District Original Income (PAD) have significant and positive effect on regional expenditure in Bengkulu. Key Words : Special Allocation Fund (DAK), General Allocation Fund (DAU), District Original Income (PAD), Regional Expenditure, Pooled data regression


A large body of research is dedicated to model sequence evolutionary dynamics. The evolutionary process may vary within groups of genes, among sites within a gene, between populations and among diverged species. Evolutionary models aiming to describe these dynamics must account for base pair substitutions as well as insertion and deletion (indel) events. Here, we explain the fundamental of continuous time Markov models used to describe sequence evolution. We begin by describing discrete Markov models, and slowly progress towards more realistic and more computationally complicated continuous time Markov models. Among other topics, we discuss nucleotide, amino acid, and codon models, among site rate variation, model reversibility, stationary distributions, rate matrix normalization, mixture models, indel models, and models of gene family evolution. Understanding the concepts presented here is vital for various phylogenom-ics analyses such as the inference of positive selection, alignment and phylogeny reconstruction, ancestral sequence reconstruction, and molecular dating.


ABSTRACT A preliminary assessment of Miocene sea-level fluctuations is presented based on the integration of Sr-derived ages and sequence-stratigraphic concepts applied to subsamples of 12 cores that transect the Hawthorn Group on the northeast Florida Platform. The Hawthorn Group section includes phosphorite nodules, peloids, and crusts as well as dolosilt and dolostone nodules and beds formed during early burial diagenesis of organic-rich sediments deposited during periods of intensified and persistent upwelling associated with rising and maximum sea level. The 87Sr/86Sr composition of phosphorite and dolomite is used to determine the age of in-place phosphorite crusts and dolostone beds (condensed sections) and reworked phosphorite and dolostone sand and gravel (unconformities and transgressive surfaces). Regional correlation of unconformities and condensed sections provides the basis for a sequence-stratigraphic framework from which the age and relative amplitude of sea-level fluctuations are constructed. Seven depositional sequences are identified from the data. Depositional sequences correspond to local sea-level fluctuations with maximum water depths at approximately 25-24, 21-20, 19-18, 17-15, 14-12, 11-9, and 8-6 Ma. Greatest water depth apparently occurred at 17-15 Ma.


The breeding success of the Lapwing at the ICI Brinefields, Teesside, was studied in comparison to three other species - the Ringed Plover, Redshank and Skylark. Environmental data was recorded and pitfall traps were set up to study the available food. Clutch losses were low in comparison with other studies for all four species, there being no significant difference between species. Predation accounted for most losses. Growth rates of chicks varied widely between species. Lapwing chicks grew slowly - at a rate significantly lower than a study in Teesdale this year. Ringed Plover chicks grew slowly too, though at a slightly faster and more steady rate. The growth of the Skylark chicks was quick and unrestricted. Differences in growth rates were probably attributable to differences in the availability of food to the species. Many Lapwing chicks grew up by channel edges where their food was, although relatively easy to find, not very abundant. Dry weather and saline water may have caused the chicks to dehydrate. Brooding of Lapwing chicks was shown to decrease with age and be extremely rare in direct sunlight. Lapwing chick mortality was very high - there being a calculated zero survival rate. Ringed Plovers faired much better, (54% of chicks fledging); Skylark chicks had even better survival rates. Predation was not thought to be the major cause of the Lapwing's low survival rate - partially because of the high survival of other species and partially because of the low clutch predation rate. The mortality of Lapwing chicks was positively correlated to their growth rates and this suggested that poor growth and the problems of dehydration were probably the major causes of mortality.


This paper outlines an analysis-centered research project undertaken by a group of second-year architecture and interior design students in a recent introductory building technology course. In this semester-long project, fifteen buildings were examined through a series of linked exercises that slowly built for the students an understanding of the complexities involved in the process of designing and constructing architectural works.


Tanah Laut Regency is endowed coastal areas along the 200 km, has the potential to become a tourist destination. There are several beaches, waterfalls, and other attractions. Although the government issued Regulation No. 5 in 2015, nevertheless, this area has not become a significant tourist destination, because the regulation made yet implemented optimally. Nowadays the tourism sector is including businesses that give economic improvement to the community. The technique used in this study is a qualitative descriptive. The consequences of this study are as follows; that the Implementation of Tourism Development Policy in Tanah Laut Regency is not optimal. Provincial Regulation on tourism development has not run optimally, the Department of Tourism, which has the authority to formulate resources, have not been many results for the advancement of tourism. Inhibiting factor is that regents have not been severe in developing the potential of tourism in Tanah Laut Regency. In order to realize the objectives and purposes of the development of tourism in Tanah Laut, decree needs to formulated as the basis for realizing consensus-collaborative models of policy planning. Policy planning with the principle of citizen participation, all parties is in the same position and proportional considering the dominant actors and professional competence in order to develop a more integrated, independent necessary implementing agency, resulting in a synergy of all stakeholders in realizing a superior tourism development goal. Keywords : Tourism Development, Policy, Planning Model, Tanah Laut DOI : 10.7176/PPAR/9-3-11 Publication date :March 31 st 2019


Electrochromic windows can play an important role for energy saving as well as for controlling the visual and thermal conditions inside a room. This paper starts with a critical review and the state-of-art regarding the products today commercially available as well as the studies conducted on full scale electrochromic windows. The analysis allows to define the main parameters characterizing the electrochromic windows with particular regard to their optical, thermal and electrical characteristics, while assuming that the physical quantities, generally used to evaluate the behaviour of standard glasses, are not sufficient to evaluate the performances of the smart windows. In addition the experimental studies conducted on full scale electrochromic windows are analysed highlighting the measured physical quantities and the applied measurement methodologies considering both field and laboratory tests. Taking into account the need to accurately predict the operating characteristics and optimum design of electrochromic windows, a review of the theoretical studies available in the scientific literature as well as the developed theoretical models are presented. Finally, an experimental station for evaluating the on-site performances of different types of full scale smart windows and the layout of sensors used for the acquisition of internal and external physical quantities was described.


Severely burned adults increase their metabolic energy expenditure (MEE) to levels approaching twice the normal resting metabolic rate (RMR). There are no available measurements of MEE for severely burned infants and toddlers, however, and nutritional support relies on published estimates of MEE that range from 200% to 400% of RMR. We determined the actual calories provided to 10 infants and children ages 3-33 mo during acute care for severe burns (59 +/- 5% total-body-surface burn). Our standard protocol emphasizes the delivery of amino acids at 3 g.kg-1.d-1 in conjunction with prompt excision and grafting. An anabolic state characterized by weight maintenance and healing was supported with far fewer calories than predicted by four published formulas for MEE. We conclude that when greater than 2.5 g.kg-1.d-1 protein is provided, efficient protein utilization for recovery is achieved with calorie provision at 120-200% RMR in severely burned infants and toddlers.


We study the efficacy of horizontal versus vertical social learning processes in a public goods game. In one treatment, subjects about to play the game can make nonbinding common knowledge announcements about their intentions while, in another, subjects do not communicate directly with group members but receive common knowledge advice from the previous generation of players. A third treatment has subjects play with neither communication nor advice. We find that groups that engage in peer communication achieve much lower levels of contribution to the public good than do groups that receive advice. We attribute this finding in part to the fact that some subjects in the communication treatment opted to make no announcement during the communication phase of play.


: Besides various clinical manifestations and made of spread of Salmonella infections, isolation of S. senftenberg a rare serotype from patients hospitalised for surgical procedures indicates nosocomial infection. A prolonged stay in hospital with surgical trauma facilitated the organism to cause infection in the compromised host.


Monitoring structural health of historical heritage buildings may be a daunting task for civil engineers due to the lack of a pre-existing model for the building stability, and to the presence of strict constraints on monitoring device deployment. This paper reports on the experience maturated during a project regarding the design and implementation of an innova-tive technological framework for monitoring critical structures in Sicily, Italy. The usage of Wireless Sensor Networks allows for a pervasive observation over the sites of interest in order to minimize the potential damages that natural phenomena may cause to architectural or engineering works. Moreover, the system provides real-time feedback to the civil engineer that may promptly steer the functioning of the monitoring network, also remotely accessing sensed data via web interfaces.


The demography of United States graduates from science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degree programs is well-understood; however, data particularly describing the gender and ethnic diversity of graduates of neuroscience programs has not been analyzed, limiting our knowledge of specific areas where diversity and fair representation are lacking. Using over 30 years of data from the National Center for Education Statistics, we documented the demography of neuroscience graduates from bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs. Recent graduation trends indicate greater numbers of female graduates from bachelor's and graduate degree programs. White (non-Hispanic) males and females represent the largest group of graduates while Asian/Pacific Islanders represent the largest non-White group of graduates. Although the number of underrepresented minorities graduating from neuroscience degree programs at every level has increased in recent years, they still lag compared to White (non-Hispanic) and Asian/Pacific Islanders. These data provide valuable information that can be used to promote greater diversity among neuroscience graduates by higher education faculty and administrators and federal funding agencies.


Biological models of osseous tissue and periosteum have been developed. Biocompatible materials from titaniumnickel as an organic part of implant - tissue composites have been already functioning for five years, replacing injured osteal fragments. The defects of skeletal kinematic sections of the mandible of experiment animals were replaced by biomechanical models of implant - tissue composites of the osseous tissue and periosteum. The composites were formed by joining the models of extracellular matrices of osseous tissue and periosteum and natural tissues. The validity of methodological propositions and optimum technological solutions have been proved by the absence of life-time signs of biochemical, biomechanical, hysteresis, and thermodynamic incompatibility on tissue and skeletal levels.


The studies reported in this thesis sought to explore two major areas of concern in the care of the obese patient with type 2 diabetes: 1) the development and evaluation of a brief, effective intervention to improve lifestyle self-management in patients with type 2 diabetes and 2) differences in diabetes-related attitudes and beliefs of health care professionals and patients with type 2 diabetes that may have a negative impact on diabetes-related outcomes and intervention implementation and effectiveness. To address these issues, two studies were conducted. The first was a randomised controlled trial of a brief intervention to improve lifestyle self-management in patients with type 2 diabetes. One hundred patients aged between 40-70 years were recruited at a Diabetes Centre. Participants completed full questionnaire and physiological assessments at four time points, baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. A personalised self-management plan was developed with participants in the intervention group who also received follow-up telephone calls at 1 week, 3 weeks and 7 weeks post initial assessment. The second study was a comparison of patients' and health care professionals' diabetes beliefs and attitudes. One hundred and four health care professionals and 100 of their patients completed questionnaires assessing diabetes-related beliefs and attitudes. In addition, the 100 patients in the lifestyle intervention study also participated in this study, in order to test the hypothesis that patients with type 2 diabetes will regard their own diabetes as less serious compared to diabetes in general. Key findings from the randomised controlled trial suggest that the intervention was successful in helping patients in the intervention group to reduce their fat intake and increase their lifestyle physical activity levels. These self-reported changes in behaviour were reflected in the objective data with weight maintenance in the intervention group compared to the control group, together with a reduction in waist circumference but did not translate into improvements in the other physiological measures. A striking finding from the comparison of patients' and health care professionals' diabetes beliefs and attitudes study was that health care professionals viewed type 2 diabetes as more serious than their patients, and participants in the intervention study viewed their own diabetes as a less serious condition compared to the seriousness of type 2 diabetes in general. A majority of the health care professionals considered diabetes harder to treat compared with other chronic conditions and felt that they did not have adequate time and resources to treat their patients with diabetes effectively. The implications of the above for future research and practice were discussed.


A one-year birth cohort was studied in Jimma town, South West Ethiopia, in 1992-93. We report here on the design and on the methods used in the study and describe the principal health outcomes. Infants were visited bimonthly until their first birthday. Background data on the physical, cultural and economic environment of the home were collected at the first visit, and data on nursing and weaning on traditional surgical and other practices, and on vaccination at the first visit and at each subsequent visit. Length, weight and mid upper arm circumference were measured, and details of the mother's handling of illness episodes recorded. Of 1563 children born, 86% were successfully followed to the end of their first year or to an earlier death. There were 141 deaths, indicating an infant mortality of 115/1000 (estimated probability of surviving to 1 year 0.8851, with s.e. 0.0101). The mean length and weight of the singleton infants at the end of their first year was -1.41 and -1.52 SD from the median of the NCHS/WHO reference population. Weights throughout the first year were analysed in more detail using a Reed model, fitted as a random coefficient regression model in ML3-E. There were clear differences in growth across the different ethnic groups, with the best growing group weighing on average about 1 kg more at the end of the first year than the groups growing least well.


We study an infinite family of lower and upper bounds on the modulus of zeros of complex polynomials derived by Kalantari. We first give a simple characterization of these bounds which leads to an efficient algorithm for their computation. For a polynomial of degree n our algorithm computes the first m bounds in Kalantari's family in O(mn) operations. We further prove that for every complex polynomial these lower and upper bounds converge to the tightest annulus containing the roots, and thus settle a problem raised in Kalantari's paper.


Ionomers with short ethylene oxide side chains are synthesized by free radical polymerization; to systematically test effects of solvating anion and cation, including directly substituting the ion attached to the polymer with its counterion, without solvent. Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy is used to measure the conductivity and dielectric constant in these ionomers, and the electrode polarization at very low frequencies is used to assess the number density of simultaneously conducting ions and their mobility. Conducting ion content and room temperature conductivity are larger for polyanions than their corresponding polycation because the cationic counterion can be more effectively solvated by the ether oxygen atoms compared to the sterically hindered polycation. Changing ester linkages to amide linkages in polycations boosts conducting ion content and static dielectric constant at high ion content by –NH solvating the anionic counterion. Such findings point a clear path toward design of superior single-ion conductors for a myriad of energy materials applications.


Language models (LMs) trained on vast quantities of unlabelled data have greatly advanced the field of natural language processing (NLP). In this study, we re-visit the widely accepted notion in NLP that continued pre-training LMs on task-related texts improves the performance of fine-tuning (FT) in downstream tasks. Through experiments on eight single-sentence tasks and eight sentence-pair tasks in both semi-supervised and fully-supervised settings, we find that conventional continued pre-training does not consistently provide benefits and can even be detrimental for sentence-pair tasks or when prompt-based FT is used. To tackle these issues, we propose Prompt-based Continued Pre-training (PCP), which combines the idea of instruction tuning with conventional continued pre-training. Our approach aims to improve the performance of prompt-based FT by presenting both task-related texts and prompt templates to LMs through unsupervised pre-training objectives before fine-tuning for the target task. Our empirical evaluations on 21 benchmarks demonstrate that the PCP consistently improves the performance of state-of-the-art prompt-based FT approaches (up to 20.1% absolute) in both semi-supervised and fully-supervised settings, even with only hundreds of unlabelled examples. Additionally, prompt-based FT with the PCP outperforms state-of-the-art semi-supervised approaches with greater simplicity, eliminating the need for an iterative process and extra data augmentation. Our further analysis explores the performance lower bound of the PCP and reveals that the advantages of PCP persist across different sizes of models and datasets.


ABSTRACT With the increased frequency of natural hazards and disasters and consequent losses, it is imperative to develop efficient and timely strategies for emergency response and relief operations. In this paper, we propose a cyberGIS-enabled multi-criteria spatial decision support system for supporting rapid decision making during emergency management. It combines a high-performance computing environment (cyberGIS-Jupyter) and multi-criteria decision analysis models (Weighted Sum Model (WSM) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution Model (TOPSIS)) with various types of social vulnerability indicators to solve decision problems that contain conflicting evaluation criteria in a flood emergency situation. Social media data (e.g. Twitter data) was used as an additional tool to support the decision-making process. Our case study involves two decision goals generated based on a past flood event in the city of Austin, Texas, U.S.A. As our result shows, WSM produces more diverse values and higher output category estimations than the TOPSIS model. Finally, the model was validated using an innovative questionnaire. This cyberGIS- enabled spatial decision support system allows collaborative problem solving and efficient knowledge transformation between decision makers, where different emergency responders can formulate their decision objectives, select relevant evaluation criteria, and perform interactive weighting and sensitivity analyses.


Till today, flashover because of pollution of insulators of overhead transmission lines (OHTL) is a major source of trouble in the electrical power transmission system. The importance of this problem can be assessed from fault statistics of high-voltage transmission lines. In Egypt, for example, about 82% of the total faults of transmission and distribution OHTL  are because of pollution. This study deals with laboratory tests, which have been carried out on polluted insulators of the OHTL that simulate desert environments. In this study, the effect of the variation of conductivity of the polluted layer by means of equivalent salt deposit density on flashover voltage (FOV) is investigated. The effect of variation of conductivity of the polluted, layer along the time required by the procedure needed to form dew, on FOV is also studied. This study is useful for indicating the worst period after the formation of dew, where the probability of flashover is increased.


BACKGROUND
Early arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation is necessary to curb the use of central venous catheters (CVCs) and reduce their complications. We sought to examine patient characteristics that may influence persistent CVC use 90 days after dialysis therapy initiation among patients using a CVC.

METHODS
Data from the 1999 to 2003 Clinical Performance Measures Project was linked to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medical Evidence (2728) form.

RESULTS
Most patients (59.4%) starting dialysis with a CVC failed to transition to permanent access within 90 days, whereas 25.4% received a graft and only 15.2% received an AVF. Older patients (>75 years) were more than 2-fold more likely to remain CVC dependent at 90 days (P = 0.0.001) compared with those younger than 50 years. In addition, race and sex were highly predictive of CVC dependence at 90 days; black females, white females, and black males were 75% (P < 0.001), 61% (P < 0.001), and 35% (P = 0.023) more likely than white males to maintain CVC use, whereas patients with ischemic heart disease and peripheral vascular disease were 35% (P = 0.023) and 39% (P = 0.007) more likely to remain CVC dependent at 90 days, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Prolonged CVC dependence is more likely to occur among patients of older age, females, blacks, and those with cardiovascular comorbidity, suggesting inadequate or late access referral or greater primary access failure. Our findings suggest possible missed opportunities for early conversion of patients to permanent vascular access that may vary by race and sex.


Relationships between matrix permeability and depth in shallow-buried (< 500 m) Cenozoic limestones of Florida were investigated using more than 12,000 minipermeameter measurements on 1210 m of slim-hole core. These data are considered representative of the matrix permeability reduction that accompanies early burial of shallow-water, subtidal to peritidal, nonreefal carbonates of sta ble cratonic margins, platforms, shelves, and ramps. Measured matrix permeabilities range from less than 4.0 to 6450 md for both limestones and dolostones, although the median permeability of limestones (88 md) exceeds that for dolostones (15 md). Sucrosic dolostones, which have high intercrystalline po rosities, have median matrix permeabilities of 1000 md. Non sucrosic dolostones, which are much less porous, have median matrix permeabilities of only 13 md. Neither population of dolostones exhibits a permeability-with-depth trend. Low-permeability limestones consist of mudstones, wackestones, (tidal) laminites, pedogenetically altered limestone, lime mud-rich breccia, and well-cemented grain-supported rocks. These low-permeability limestones all exhibit median matrix permeabilities less than 35 md, and none exhibit permeability-with-depth trends. In contrast, high-mud packstones, low-mud packstones, very low mud packstones, and grainstones exhibit larger median matrix permeabilities (69, 129, 181, and 418 md, respectively) and a systematic reduction with depth in their mean and maximum permeabilities. Least-squares exponential regressions indicate that burial depth explains 22-31% of the permeability variance in these grain-supported rocks; the balance of the variability within each textural class is attributed to variation in facies (grain types, grain sizes, sorting, etc.) and the amount of early, preburial cementation. In the absence of permeability enhancement by deep subsurface diagenesis or fracturing, extrapolation of the permeability-with-depth trends suggests that the limestones that have the best reservoir potential in the deeper subsurface are grain-supported limestones that have higher than (Begin page 1254) average matrix permeabilities in the near-surface realm. Petrographic analyses and consideration of diagenetic histories suggest that matrix permeability of the dolostones and low-permeability limestones was determined by early near-surface dolomitization and cementation, respectively, and has yet to be affected by burial processes. Petrographic observations also suggest that the depth signal in grain-supported limestones results from mechanical compaction and the onset of grain-to-grain pressure solution. Extrapolation of the matrix permeability data indicates that permeability loss with burial occurs faster than the documented burial-related porosity loss for the same group of rocks. This indicates that limestone permeability is more sensitive to burial compaction than limestone porosity. Thus, preservation of reservoir-quality rock during burial is more dependent on permeability preservation than on porosity preservation.


Technology is developing and changing in every moment that all domains are patchy without it. Our research utilizes the current trends and technology to design and develop a mobile application for the all members of the college. The students are the fundamental members in the college and they are our targets. Mobile notification system is an emerging technology, which influence in solving various dimensions of life. The college announcements and events are disseminated to students and staff through circulars, notice boards, emails, etc. Our research was to employ mobile affinity of especially students who ignore the circulars and notifications in notice board. The tool may be installed from play store mobile. The tool supports the widely used mobile operating system like android and iphone. This tool helps and provides a flexible way for communication. It list all events and news at AlBuraimi University College (BUC) like announcement of training courses and scientific workshop or classes cancel and others events. It also helps in easy access of college portal for both students and staff. The evaluation held finds positive response towards the need of this mobile application. The result shows the interest and satisfaction of users with BUC NEWS mobile application tool


Background The number of advanced practice providers (APPs) in pediatric critical care has increased dramatically over recent years, leading to increased opportunities to lead resuscitation teams during pediatric emergent events. Objectives The aim of this study was to better understand the emergency leadership experience, training, and education that pediatric cardiac intensive care unit APPs receive. Methods This study was a cross-sectional descriptive studying using survey responses. The self-administered survey was administered to APP and attending physician members of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society. Survey results were analyzed. Results One hundred seven pediatric cardiac intensive care unit APPs (n = 53) and attending physicians (n = 54) responded to the survey. Half of APPs felt that attendings allowed APPs to lead emergent events, and 50.9% had never functioned in the team leader role. Most respondents (77.5%) rated their comfort functioning in the role during emergent situations as moderate or lower. Increased APP experience level was associated with a higher number of codes led, increased comfort leading codes, and improved mental model sharing (all Ps < .0001). The number of codes an APP had previously led was associated with increased comfort leading codes (P < .0001) and mental model sharing (P = .0002). One-third of attendings said they allow APPs to lead codes in their unit. Half of attendings who do not allow APPs to function as the team leader would follow formal training. Discussion Opportunities for APPs to function as team leaders during emergent events continue to increase. A leadership educational program would be beneficial to pediatric critical care APPs. It may also have the additional benefit of improving physician comfort with APPs leading code events and patient outcomes.


Abstract: Measles infection remains a serious threat to child survival in the developing world despite vaccination and treatment with vitamin A. This report reviews the epidemiology of measles in HIV‐infected children in Africa. In hospitalized infants, the rate of malnutrition before measles and the rate of death after measles are both higher in HIV‐positive than in HIV‐negative infants. However, the rates of pneumonia and diarrhea in infants hospitalized with measles are the same in HIV‐positive as in HIV‐negative infants. In an autopsy study, measles was associated with death in HIV‐positive children, only for those over 15 months of age. A cohort study found that infants of HIV‐positive women were more likely than infants of HIV‐negative women to have measles before 9 months of age, although the rates of complications did not differ between the two groups. The HIV status of the infants and the measles serology were too incomplete to draw firm conclusions, though only 1 of 54 infants tested was seropositive for measles at 6 months of age. In the context of the HIV epidemic, further work is needed to determine the risk of measles and its complications in HIV‐positive infants and the optimal age of measles immunization.


Systemic corticosteroids are recommended in clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of acute asthma exacerbation based on evidence demonstrating reduced hospitalizations and improved outcomes after administration in the emergency department. Although prednisone and related oral preparations have been recommended previously, researchers have assessed dexamethasone as an alternative based on its longer biologic half-life and improved palatability. Systematic reviews of multiple small trials and 2 larger trials have found no difference in revisits to the emergency department compared to prednisone for dexamethasone given either as an intramuscular injection or orally. Studies of oral administration have found reduced emesis for dexamethasone compared to prednisone both in the emergency department and for a second oral dose, typically given 24 to 48 hours later. Studies assessing a single dose of dexamethasone have found equivalent improvement at follow-up but with some evidence of increased symptoms and increased need for additional corticosteroids compared to multiple doses of prednisone. Future research could further assess dexamethasone dose, formulation, and frequency and measure other related adverse effects such as behavior change. Consideration of baseline differences within the heterogeneous population of children requiring acute care for asthma may also guide the design of an optimal dexamethasone regimen.


Fibroadenosis also known as fibrocystic breast disease constitutes the most frequent benign disorder of the breast causing constant breast pain. The only known treatment in conventional medicine is anti-inflammatory medicines which give temporary relief or surgical excision which results in scarring of breast tissue. The homoeopathic literature shows that cases related to breast lump, mastitis, etc. have been treated successfully; however, no case study/research trial has been documented till date in any peer-reviewed journal. The case reported here is of fibroadenosis in 31-year-old female who was treated successfully with individualised homoeopathic medicine within 6 months with no recurrence. Phytolacca was prescribed as a constitutional remedy on the basis of totality of symptoms and after repertorisation. Investigatory procedures such as mammography and ultrasonography were done before and after to record resolution of cysts. The patient has been observed for more than 1 year without recurrence which can be considered as near permanent cure through individualised homoeopathic treatment. Resolution of cysts in this case of fibroadenosis with Homoeopathy can be considered a lead to explore the utility of alternative modes of treatment such as Homoeopathy to give a better therapeutic option for such surgical conditions.


For a pervasive system to function effectively in a world in which the user is surrounded by a large number of heterogeneous computing devices and communication systems, it is essential to provide adequate support for the user. For this personalisation is the key element, both for improving the user experience and for enabling it to function without the need for unnecessary interaction with the user. In pervasive systems personalisation can take a number of different forms, and four different forms of personalisation that have been incorporated into the pervasive system developed in the Daidalos project are described. The paper also describes two different approaches used to protect the privacy of the user in the two phases of Daidalos. However, there is an interaction between personalisation and privacy and some of the issues involved are discussed. These also affect proactive behaviour of the system. They are currently being used to plan the development of the second phase of the Daidalos pervasive system.


Bone Joint J 2017;(4 Supple B):3–10. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infection. The WHO guidelines, if implemented worldwide, could have an immense impact on our practices and those of the CDC have implications for healthcare policy in the United States. Our aim was to review the strategies for prevention of periprosthetic joint infection in light of these and other recent guidelines.


PROLOGUE The goal of this educational strategy is preparation of pharmacy students to care for patients at the highest level possible in terms of a complete and comprehensive pharmaceutical care practice. Pharmacy students' abilities to provide direct patient care utilizing the pharmaceutical care process are evaluated. This educational strategy is designed for third professional year pharmacy students, although other pharmacy students also participate in the patient care process as care plan team members. A university dental clinic model has been adapted to create a functional structure for the egress of patients through this Pharmaceutical Care Clinic. Patient care process criteria developed by experienced pharmaceutical care practitioners are an important focus of students' performance evaluation. Patients receiving care in this clinic also evaluate student performance with a patient-as-the-expert strategy utilized in medicine. Patients receiving care in this clinic have, on average, 5.2 medical conditions, take 7.8 active medications/remedies, and have 2.6 drug therapy problems per patient (level four on the resource-based relative value scale). Patient care process criteria utilized to assess student performance can also be applied to evaluation of a student's performance in experiential clerkship rotations. Future plans include utilizing this clinic strategy to also define pharmaceutical care compensation standards.


A new luminescent mesoporous metal-organic framework (PCN-604) was successfully synthesized from trimetric clusters, Al3(O)(CH3COO)6, and pyridine-based tritopic linkers, 4,4',4''-(pyridine-2,4,6-triyl)tribenzoate (PTB), via a solvothermal reaction. The MOF with an MTN topology possesses remarkable aqueous and thermal stabilities. Due to the efficient binding sites rendered by the pyridyl-based linkers, PCN-604 shows a fast fluorescence response towards trace amounts of Fe3+ ions in water in a fluorescence-quenching mode. The Stern-Volmer quenching constant is calculated to be 8.53 × 103 M-1 and the limit of detection is 6.2 μM, which convincingly demonstrate the ability of the MOF for Fe3+ detection.


The aim of this study is to determine the nanocrystalline size by using Williamson-Hall method of Fe80Cr20 powder which prepared by mechanical alloying process. X-rays diffraction line profile analysis was adopted to analyze the crystallite size and microstrains of Fe80Cr20 alloys powder. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was used to examine the microstructure morphology of the nanosized of Fe80Cr20 alloys. The crystallite size, microstrain, and lattice parameters were estimated by Williamson–Hall plot. The results showed that the mechanical alloying processes resulted the final product in nanocrystalline size range (below 12 nm) which confirmed by TEM observation and XRD line profile analysis.


This paper aims to uncover the benefits of crowdfunding among Event Entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The study reviews literature on the definition, discussion and its revolution related to capital -raising, networking, investment, and crowdfunding among Event Entrepreneurs. The method used for this paper is based on literature reviews from journal articles, conference proceedings, newspaper, books and internet search related to this research area. The conceptual framework is recommended in the end of the paper as it allows reader to understand how the benefits will affect towards crowdfunding among Event Entrepreneurs. Hence, it will provide more research interest in crowdfunding in the future.


Abstract:Recent scholarship increasingly defines Islamophobia as a form of racism. The possibility that Islamophobia could also manifest itself as religious or cultural bigotry is generally overlooked. This article argues that although anti-Islam bigotry is intertwined with anti-Muslim racism, the two are conceptually distinct. Making this distinction allows us to better analyze, unmask, and critically assess Islamophobia. The article conceptually explores the similarities and differences between anti-Muslim racism and anti-Islam bigotry. It finds that although anti-Islam bigotry implies a prejudicial rejection of an essentialized idea of Islam, it understands religion or culture to be an individual choice and allows for the possibility that Muslims convert or assimilate. As such, it differs from anti-Muslim racism, which implies that the Muslim identity and the negative characteristics associated with Islam are innate and unchangeable. The article argues that contemporary Islamophobic political discourse in Europe is predominantly racist, although it hides behind a cloak of anti-Islam bigotry.


This paper offers critical reflections on the construction and propagation of 'best practice': a concept which has become increasingly important in the business world and in civic life more generally. Focusing upon the activities of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), we offer an analysis of the awards process instituted to applaud 'best practice' in the arena of consulting. Departing from existing academic representations of the advice industry which generally exclude this trade body from the analytical frame, we consider the role that the MCA performs in the field of consulting. Situating the MCA's attempt to constitute best practice within the work of Bruno Latour, we argue that this construct depends upon the mobilization of an extended network of allies, advocates and spectators whose interactions have been written out of academic analysis. The paper concludes by proposing the need for further research designed to explore, both, the heterogeneity and the porosity of the networks that construct, convey and applaud key knowledge products such as 'best practice'.


This paper provides a review of both Rent's rule and the placement models derived from it. It is proposed that the power-law form of Rent's rule, which predicts the number of terminals required by a group of gates for communication with the rest of the circuit, is a consequence of a statistically homogeneous circuit topology and gate placement. The term "homogeneous" is used to imply that quantities such as the average wire length per gate and the average number of terminals per gate are independent of the position within the circuit. Rent's rule is used to derive a variety of net length distribution models and the approach adopted in this paper is to factor the distribution function into the product of an occupancy probability distribution and a function which represents the number of valid net placement sites. This approach places diverse placement models under a common framework and allows the errors introduced by the modeling process to be isolated and evaluated. Models for both planar and hierarchical gate placement are presented.


T-cell precursors that undergo productive rearrangements at the T-cell receptor (TCR) beta locus are selected for proliferation and further maturation, before TCRalpha expression, by signaling through a pre-TCR composed of the TCRbeta chain paired with a pre-TCRalpha (pTalpha) chain. Such a critical developmental checkpoint, known as beta-selection, results in progression from CD4(-) CD8(-) double negative (DN) to CD4(+) CD8(+) double positive (DP) TCRalphabeta(-) thymocytes. In contrast to mice, progression to the DP compartment occurs in humans via a CD4(+) CD8(-) intermediate stage. Here we show that the CD4(+) CD8(-) to CD4(+) CD8(+) transition involves the sequential acquisition of the alpha and beta chains of CD8 at distinct maturation stages. Our results indicate that CD8alpha, but not CD8beta, is expressed in vivo in a minor subset of DP TCRalphabeta(-) thymocytes, referred to as CD4(+) CD8alphaalpha(+) pre-T cells, mostly composed of resting cells lacking cytoplasmic TCRbeta chain (TCRbeta(ic)). In contrast, expression of CD8alphabeta heterodimers was selectively found on DP TCRalphabeta(-) thymocytes that express TCRbeta(ic) and are enriched for cycling cells. Interestingly, CD4(+) CD8alphaalpha(+) pre-T cells are shown to be functional intermediates between CD4(+) CD8(-) TCRbeta(ic)(-) and CD4(+) CD8alphabeta(+) TCRbeta(ic)(+) thymocytes. More importantly, evidence is provided that onset of CD8beta and TCRbeta(ic) expression are coincident developmental events associated with acquisition of CD3 and pTalpha chain on the cell surface. Therefore, we propose that the CD4(+) CD8alphaalpha(+) to CD4(+) CD8alphabeta(+) transition marks the key control point of pre-TCR-mediated beta-selection in human T-cell development.


Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) bound specifically to particulate fractions prepared from the vagina and uterus (shell gland) portions of the hen oviduct in a time and temperature dependent fashion. Scatchard analysis indicated a single class of high-affinity binding sites in the vagina (Kd congruent to 1 nM), whereas the myometrium exhibited two kinds of binding site populations (Kd1 congruent to 1 nM, Kd2 congruent to 20 nM). It is suggested that these binding sites represent specific PGE2 receptors mediating the effects of PGE2 in oviductal smooth muscle. Vaginal particulate fractions produced approximately four times more prostanoids from [3H]-arachidonate than did uterine preparations. In the presence of epinephrine both tissues synthesized mainly thromboxane (TxB2), PGE2, and significantly less prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha). Addition of glutathione (GSH) or cytosol prepared from the oviduct markedly increased the yield of PGE2 at the expense of TxB2. Of the five morphologically discrete regions of the oviduct the vagina, infundibulum, and uterus contained the highest amounts of PGE and PGF, whereas the magnum and isthmus portions contain the least. TxB2 and 6-keto PGF1 alpha could not be detected in significant quantities in either region. These studies support the notion that PGE2 play a key role in the physiology of oviposition.


This study elucidates how professional intervention can influence children's abilities to report accurately about abuse experiences. Based on knowledge acquired through previous research and the present case study, the study shows how methods of information acquisition used during preliminary investigations can negatively affect child reports. The case study emanates from a larger study of 193 allegedly sexually abused children. Examination of these police interviews shows that 55 children were interviewed more than once and their reports were exposed to possible professional influences before and during the preliminary investigation. The case study reveals the inadequate management of a child witness. The findings indicate that police officers and psychologists should avoid suggestive interventions and co-ordinate their efforts during the preliminary investigation in order to safeguard the children's as well as the suspects' legal interests. This paper points out the need for implementing interview interventions that can enhance children's abilities to report accurately about abuse experiences.


The non-identity problem is the problem of grounding moral wrongdoing in cases in which an action affects who will exist in the future. Consider a woman who intentionally conceives while on medication that is harmful for a fetus. If the resulting child is disabled as a result of the medication, what makes the woman's action morally wrong? I argue that an explanation in terms of harmful rights violations fails, and I focus on Peter Markie's recent rights-based defense. Markie's analysis rests on the notion of an indirect harm, and I show that the calculation of an indirect harm relies on an improper baseline for the determination of whether or not an action adversely affects a patient's interests. I also defend an impersonal duty-based analysis of the wrongdoing in non-identity cases against an objection by Markie. I close by arguing that the rights-based analysis is insensitive to context and that context is morally relevant in the determination of the moral valence of actions in cases of non-identity. This failure provides a pro tanto reason to favor an impersonal duty-based analysis of the wrongdoing in non-identity cases.


Schools are recognised as key settings for health promotion. This has resulted in resources being allocated specifically for the development of Health Promoting Schools. If the existing level of resourcing is to continue, mechanisms for monitoring the effectiveness of Health Promoting Schools need to be designed that are appropriate for the concept. Currently, there is an emphasis on evidence‐based practice, but the difficulty lies in determining what is acceptable as evidence in the context of Health Promoting Schools, and what are the most appropriate methods for collecting this evidence. The disease‐prevention approach, with its emphasis on controlled trials and discrete outcomes is not appropriate. New models must be developed that reflect the multi‐variant and dynamic nature of the processes involved. Outlines principles that could guide this work and includes consideration of the some key health‐promotion principles, including equity, consultation, collaboration, ownership and sustainability, linking these with some newer concepts, such as capacity building and social capital, which are proving useful in the development, monitoring and evaluation of Health Promoting Schools.


Buildings are the most important part of development activities, consumed over one-thirds of the global energy. Household used the maximum energy around the world, likewise in Pakistan residential buildings consumed about half of total energy (45.9% per year). The study aims to analyze the impact of building design on climate of Metropolitan City Karachi, Pakistan and to evaluate the change in urbanization patterns and energy consumption in the buildings. To have better understanding of the issues correlations was established amongst population, urbanization patterns, green area, number of buildings (residential and commercial), building design, energy consumption and metrological records (climate change parameters) by collecting the data from the respective departments. With the help of the collected data amount of carbon dioxide was estimated. The results reveled that during last 36 years the urban population of Karachi increased exponentially from 5,208,000 (1981) to 14,737,257 (2017) with increase in urbanized area from 8.35 km2 (1946) to 3,640 km2 (2017) that may led to reduce the green area of the city from 495,000 hectors (1971) to 100,000 hectors (2015). Moreover, the building's design and numbers are being changed from 21 high-rise buildings (2009) to 344 (2017). It may be concluded that change in temperature pattern and climatic variability of the city may be due to increase in population and change in lifestyle that lead to high energy consumption that is prime source of increased in CO2 emission in the environment of Karachi city, However, Greenhouse Gases (GHG) releases are much lower than the levels reported from metropolitan cities around the world.


Clavigeritae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) comprise a supertribe of specialized myrmecophile rove beetles that display numerous behavioural, chemical and anatomical modifications associated with a socially parasitic lifestyle. Due to the extreme morphological diversity of clavigerites, their systematic relationships, patterns of character evolution and host ant use have been challenging to infer. Here, we resolve deep divergences within Clavigeritae by assembling a molecular dataset encompassing the breadth of tribal diversity. We classify Clavigeritae into six tribes: extinct Protoclavigerini, and recent Tiracerini, Mastigerini sensu nov., Clavigerini sensu nov., Lunillini sensu nov. and Disarthricerini stat. nov. The previously recognized subtribes Clavigerodina, Apoderigerina, Dimerometopina, Hoplitoxenina, Miroclavigerina, Theocerina and Thysdarina are demonstrated as polyphyletic or highly derived internal clades of Clavigerini and are hereby synonymized with the latter. Colilodion – a highly enigmatic taxon proposed to be the earliest‐branching lineage of recent Clavigeritae – is revealed to be unrelated to Clavigeritae and is transferred to Pselaphitae. We provide a systematic treatment of newly‐discovered endemic genera from New Caledonia and infer their phylogenetic affinity to the Australian tribe Tiracerini. The zoogeographic distribution of early‐branching Clavigeritae lineages in India and the Australian region indicates a possible Gondwanan origin of the supertribe. Extant clades diversified from the Eocene onwards, correlated with the rise of modern ants. We present evidence for island radiations of Clavigeritae in both Madagascar and New Caledonia during the Oligocene‐Miocene. Using a newly‐created morphological dataset, we analyse patterns of character evolution and demonstrate widespread convergence in morphology that extends to virtually all traits. Counterintuitively, however, characters postulated to be involved in beetle‐ant communication are amongst the most invariant, and least convergent. The host ant spectrum of many Clavigeritae genera and species is broad, contradicting co‐cladogenesis with hosts and instead implying widespread host switching. We speculate whether morphological variability in Clavigeritae is truly adaptive, as opposed to the product of 'morphological drift' of body parts under weak selection inside ant colonies, in species with potentially very small effective population sizes.


Comorbid psychiatric disorders, frequent hospitalization, multiple outpatient treatment, prior history of hypertension, obesity and lipid dysregulation are associated with higher risk of metabolic syndrome in children. Side effects of antipsychotic drugs and their management have recently become a major subject of research due to enhanced antipsychotic drug usage in child and adolescents. Prevention strategies are usually preferred to secondary or tertiary strategies in the management of metabolic syndrome associated with antipsychotic drugs. Clinicians should present multidisciplinary approach to endocrine and metabolic side effects due to antipsychotic use in pediatric patient groups and avoid multiple drug use in such patients. In this paper, we briefly reviewed metabolic side effects of second generation antipsychotic drugs in child and adolescent population, possible mechanisms of susceptibility to metabolic syndrome and pharmacological and non pharmacological treatment approach to prevention of weight gain.


Mansfield's travels in Europe after 1909, make her resemble the figure of the postcolonial woman writer who, in Elleke Boehmer's terms, is ' more likely to be a cultural traveler, or an "extra-territorial" than a national. Ex colonial by birth […] cosmopolitan in almost every other way, [she] works within the Western metropolis, while at the same time retaining thematic and /or political connections with a national, ethnic or regional background' (Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, OUP, 2005, p. 227) . This paper examines Mansfield as a post/colonial, mobile writer, who in travelling and writing, occupies different spaces which demand new points of identification and referencing, because they lie outside culturally coded norms. Referring to the types of journey she made I will identify her as both an obsessional and a melancholic traveller (with reference to Stephen M. Levin, The Contemporary Anglophone Travel Novel (Routledge 2008)), drawing a comparison between first person travel narratives set in Europe, and stories with female travellers as in 'The Little Governess', and the later New Zealand stories, like 'Prelude' and 'The Garden Party' where journeys are represented in symbolic and mythological terms. The paper will suggest that journeys and travel are potent metaphors by which to read Mansfield's work, because they offer ways of articulating the self, and show how restlessness and movement enabled her to adopt many guises, yet also to shape her search for and eventual articulation of 'home'


This study assessed the factors influencing the attainment of household food security in Ikwuano Local Government Area (LGA) of Abia State, Nigeria. The study specifically examined the socioeconomic characteristics of women in the study area; ascertained income generating activities embarked upon by women in the area and examined factors influencing the role of women in achieving food security in the area. A total of one hundred and twenty respondents were sampled using simple random sampling procedure. Data collection was facilitated by the use of structured questionnaire, designed and validated for the purpose. Data analysis utilized descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages as well ordinary least squares regression analysis. Results revealed that majority of the respondents(58.4%) were within their active  and innovative years,aged between 40-59 years. Only a small proportion of the respondents (12.5%) had no formal education. Results further showed that majority of the respondents (80%) were engaged in farming as their primary occupation and income generating activity. Majority of the respondents (93.3%) were married. Furthermore, results showed that majority of the respondents (68.3%) did not belong to cooperative societies. While 65% of the respondents had no access to credits, 71.7% had no contact with extension service. Results of the regression analysis indicate that age, which was linked to years of practical experience in farming as well as the status of the women were positively related to the attainment of household food security among the respondents and were significant at 5% level. In like manner access to credit as well as access to extension services were also positively related to the achievement of household food security and were significant at 1% and 10% levels respectively. It was recommended that constraints that limit women's access to credit as well as extension services be removed as a means of encouraging the women increase their agricultural production capacities. This will enable them contribute much more meaningfully towards achieving household food security. Keywords: Food security, gender, food availability, food affordability


: A cell line designated HO-8910 was established in vitro from the ascitic fluid of a patient with poorly-differentiated ovarian papillary serous cyst-adenocarcinoma. The cell line grew well through 130 passages and showed malignant epithelial morphology under light and electron microscopes. The chromosome number varied widely from 45 to 300 and its model was 54(42%); The DNA index was 1.45 as measured by FCM method; Both of them showed aneuploidy. The cell line has the ability to secrete steroid sex hormones and also has hormone receptors. When transplanted into nude mice, the xenograft has similar pathological characteristic to the original. It is expected that this cell line would be of great help in the future study on ovarian carcinoma.


The theory of unamendability identifies a simple yet fundamental distinction between primary constituent (constitution-making) power and secondary constituent (constitution-amending) power. The latter is limited by unamendability and the former – perceived as the people's democratic constitution-making power – is unlimited by unamendability. This article develops the distinction by supplementing it with a further one, between various shades of secondary constituent powers along a 'spectrum'; a theoretical construct that links constitutional amendment procedures and limitations which ought to be imposed upon constitutional amendment powers. According to this spectrum theory, constitutional systems are polymorphic: the more similar the democratic characteristics of the amendment powers are to those of the primary constituent power, the less it should be bound by limitations; and vice versa: the closer it is to a regular legislative power, the more it should be fully bound by limitations. This examination is an important step towards a theory of unamendability.


In this paper we report a high dynamic range CMOS image sensor (CIS) with in-pixel floating-node analog memory for pixel level integration time control. Each pixel has different integration time based upon the amount of its previous frame illumination. We can implement true CDS technique to reduce reset noise without any additional hardware because we use a floating-node parasitic capacitor as an analog memory. In the fabricated test sensor, we could achieve the extended dynamic range by more than 42dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of pixel-node parasitic capacitor as an analog memory for the extension of dynamic range


Docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6, n-3, DHA) is a polyunsaturated fatty acid highly enriched in the brain. This fatty acid can be easily oxidized yielding hydroperoxides as primary products. Cu, Zn-Superoxide dismutase (SOD1) aggregation is a common hallmark of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and the molecular mechanisms behind their formation are not completely understood. Here we investigated the effect of DHA and its hydroperoxides (DHAOOH) on human SOD1 oligomerization in vitro. DHA induced the formation of high-molecular-weight (HMW) SOD1 species (>700 kDa). Aggregation was dependent on free thiols and occurred primarily with the protein in its apo-form. SOD1 incubation with DHA was accompanied by changes in protein structure leading to exposure of protein hydrophobic patches and formation of non-amyloid aggregates. Site-directed mutagenesis studies demonstrated that Cys 6 and Cys 111 in wild-type and Cys 6 in ALS-linked G93A mutant are required for aggregation. In contrast, DHAOOH did not induce HMW species formation but promoted abnormal covalent dimerization of apo-SOD1 that was resistant to SDS and thiol reductants. Overall, our data demonstrate that DHA and DHAOOH induce distinct types of apo-SOD1 oligomerization leading to the formation of HMW and low-molecular-weight species, respectively.


: Bowel obstruction often is a sign of progression of ovarian carcinoma and is a major cause of death in this disease. Its treatment is still being debated. Options range from long tube decompression of the GI tract to bowel surgery. The authors review the management of bowel obstruction associated with ovarian carcinoma and provide guidelines helpful in selection of patients for surgical or medical management. Practical aspects of patient care are described in detail and the old adage "Never let the sun set or rise on a bowel obstruction" is examined in light of current surgical and medical management techniques.


In the present paper we describe the design of a fuzzy gain scheduler for tracking a reference trajectory of a nonlinear autonomous system. The proposed fuzzy gain scheduling method has two major advantages over the existing crisp gain scheduling methods. First, it provides a general and formally motivated method for the interpolation of available local control laws into a global gain scheduling control law. Second, the method for determining the weights of the local control laws in the global gain scheduling control law is general and computationally efficient. It is shown that a fuzzy gain scheduler can be designed such that robust asymptotic stability is met. Finally, an LQR control design based method is presented.


This paper analyses the classroom reading behaviours and literacy culture of 19 low SES students, aged 11-14, who scored between 0-30 percent on their primary school exit examinations, and were placed in an English-and-Math-intensive Form 1 Remedial class at a junior secondary school in Trinidad. Although there were large differences in reading abilities within the group, poor phonics, syntactic, and semantic competencies impeded decoding and meaning-making for the majority of the students. A reading interview, the students' reading journals, and a variety of authentic reading stimuli formed a backdrop for surveying six issues. An exploratory analysis of 8 two-hour sessions over a period of eight weeks suggests that isolating the students in a concentrated English-and-Math-intensive programme would increase their stigmatization and encourage reading fossilization. A blend of interactive, transactional, sociocultural, and engagement approaches seems likely to promote the best outcomes. It is also sugested that given the students' lack of access to the potential literacy benefits of high-end technology, that they be at least exposed to a wider range of sign system literacies for making meaning from text.


Author(s): Guarino, Joseph L. | Abstract: Since 1964, when the effectiveness of methiocarb for preventing pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) from damaging sprouting corn was proven in South Dakota, an aggressive program has been carried out by personnel of the Denver Wildlife Research Center and many cooperators to develop methiocarb as a broad-spectrum avian repellent. The successful use of methiocarb for preventing damage caused by several species of birds to sprouting corn in several states and to sprouting soybeans in South America is reviewed. Recent results obtained from spraying methiocarb on ripening rice in California, ripening sorghum in Colorado and Oklahoma, cherries in Michigan, and grapes in New Hampshire are summarized.


This study involved analyzing the reliability of two types of III-V solar cells: (1) III-V solar cells grown on new and recycled gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates and (2) the III-V solar cells transferred onto an electroplated nickel (Ni) substrate as III-V thin-film solar cells by using a cross-shaped pattern epitaxial lift-off (CPELO) process. The III-V solar cells were grown on new and recycled GaAs substrates to evaluate the reliability of the substrate. The recycled GaAs substrate was fabricated by using the CPELO process. The performance of the solar cells grown on the recycled GaAs substrate was affected by the uneven surface morphology of the recycled GaAs substrate, which caused the propagation of these dislocations into the subsequently grown active layer of the solar cell. The III-V solar cells were transferred onto an electroplated Ni substrate, which was also fabricated by using CPELO technology. The degradation of the III-V thin-film solar cell after conducting a thermal shock test could have been caused by microcracks or microvoids in the active layer or interface of the heterojunction, which resulted in the reduction of the external quantum efficiency response and the increase of recombination loss.


Abstract: The improvement of business processes is considered important to support companies' competitiveness and sustainability, therefore, being highlighted in the academic community. In this way, the improvement of the organizational processes can be achieved through the business process redesign (BPR), which is considered the most value-added phase in a business process management (BPM) project. However, despite the existence of an extensive literature on the subject of BPR, methodologies or structured procedures that aim to understand the transformation from the "as-is" to the desired "to-be" processes are still scarce. Within this context, to fill this gap in the literature, this study presents the empirical findings and the lessons learnt from an action research with the objective of redesigning the logistic processes of a cultural production enterprise. The empirical study lasted nine months. A synthesis conceptual model for redesigning organizational business processes was proposed based on the literature. This model incorporated three levels (i.e., organizational, business processes and implementation) and provided guidance for conducting the empirical study. Different critical success factors and barriers have been identified and analysed with a focus on organizational, social, and technical dimensions, resulting in contributions to scholars and to practitioners in redesigning business process approaches.


Quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) occur in galaxies in which supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are growing substantially through rapid accretion of gas. Many popular models of the co-evolutionary growth of galaxies and black holes predict that QSOs are also sites of substantial recent star formation (SF), mediated by important processes, such as major mergers, which rapidly transform the nature of galaxies. A detailed study of the star-forming properties of QSOs is a critical test of these models. We present a far-infrared Herschel/PACS study of the mean star formation rate (SFR) of a sample of spectroscopically observed QSOs to z ∼ 2 from the COSMOS extragalactic survey. This is the largest sample to date of moderately luminous QSOs (with nuclear luminosities that lie around the knee of the luminosity function) studied using uniform, deep far-infrared photometry. We study trends of the mean SFR with redshift, black hole mass, nuclear bolometric luminosity, and specific accretion rate (Eddington ratio). To minimize systematics, we have undertaken a uniform determination of SMBH properties, as well as an analysis of important selection effects of spectroscopic QSO samples that influence the interpretation of SFR trends. We find that the mean SFRs of these QSOs are consistent with those of normal massive star-forming galaxies with a fixed scaling between SMBH and galaxy mass at all redshifts. No strong enhancement in SFR is found even among the most rapidly accreting systems, at odds with several co-evolutionary models. Finally, we consider the qualitative effects on mean SFR trends from different assumptions about the SF properties of QSO hosts and from redshift evolution of the SMBH-galaxy relationship. While currently limited by uncertainties, valuable constraints on AGN-galaxy co-evolution can emerge from our approach.


Despite the lure of Alpine landscapes, Frankenstein hasn't been taken up at length by many ecocritics. This article will examine monstrosity and acculturation in the context of Western culture's objectification of nonhuman nature, circling back to bodies of water and the extraordinary environmental conditions of the novel's production. Alongside explicit references to and representations of the natural world, human responses to nonhuman nature are often negatively inscribed, inversely articulated or unconscious, in culture. Reading dialectically foregrounds both types of inscription. A dialectical ecocriticism, what I am calling ecocultural materialism or an ecocultural approach, as a critical position and methodology, suggests that nonhuman nature not only encompasses and impacts human cultures, in ways that we can and cannot see, but that it also might serve as an intervention in human cultures, in ways that we both can and cannot understand.


Children with epilepsy are at risk of having their anticonvulsant regimens disrupted during the home-to-hospital transition. We sought to estimate the frequency of anticonvulsant medication errors during transition into the hospital in children with epilepsy hospitalized for reasons other than seizures, and to examine factors associated with the occurrence of such errors. We examined the medical records to identify errors related to anticonvulsant administration during the transition into the hospital and we examined potential risk factors for error occurrence. Errors were classified as relating to dosing quantity or missing a dose. Among 120 children, 29 (24%) experienced an anticonvulsant medication error. In a multivariable model, the risk factors of changes in responsibility for anticonvulsant administration and frequency of anticonvulsant administration were strongly associated with increased odds of errors. Anticonvulsant medication errors during the home-to-hospital transition may be unacceptably common in children with epilepsy hospitalized for reasons other than seizures. DOI


Legendre curves are smooth plane curves which may have singular points, but still have a well defined smooth normal (and corresponding tangent) vector field. Because of the existence of singular points, the usual curvature concept for regular curves cannot be straightforwardly extended to these curves. However, Fukunaga, and Takahashi defined and studied functions that play the role of curvature functions of a Legendre curve, and whose ratio extend the curvature notion in the usual sense. Going into the same direction, our paper is devoted to the extension of the concept of circular curvature from regular to Legendre curves, but additionally referring not only to the Euclidean plane. For the first time we will extend the concept of Legendre curves to normed planes. Generalizing in such a way the results of the mentioned authors, we define new functions that play the role of circular curvature of Legendre curves, and tackle questions concerning existence, uniqueness, and invariance under isometries for them. Using these functions, we study evolutes, involutes, and pedal curves of Legendre curves for normed planes, and the notion of contact between such curves is correspondingly extended, too. We also provide new ways to calculate the Maslov index of a front in terms of our new curvature functions. It becomes clear that an inner product is not necessary in developing the theory of Legendre curves. More precisely, only a fixed norm and the associated orthogonality (of Birkhoff type) are necessary.


We used a recently developed ELISA format to test the hypothesis that inhibin B is the physiologically active form of inhibin in men. We measured and compared inhibin A, inhibin B, and pro-alpha-C-related immunoreactive peptides (pro-alpha-C-RI) in normal men before and after perturbations of their gonadotropin levels and baseline values in normal men and men with various disturbances of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis including men with idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, infertile men with elevated FSH, men with Klinefelter's syndrome, and orchidectomized men. Mean serum inhibin concentrations were significantly higher in normal men than untreated men with idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, infertile men with elevated FSH, untreated men with Klinefelter's syndrome, and orchidectomized men (187 +/- 28 vs 45 +/- 11, 37 +/- 6, 11 +/- 3, and < or = 10 pg/mL, respectively; P < 0.05). Inhibin B levels were below the limit of detection in all of the orchidectomized men. Pro-alpha-C-RI levels were detectable in all men studied including the orchidectomized men, and no significant differences in the pro-alpha-C-RI levels were noted between the normal men and men with various testicular diseases were noted except that orchidectomized men had significantly lower pro-alpha-C-RI levels than all other groups (P < 0.05). Inhibin A was undetectable in all men tested in this study. Six normal men who were administered exogenous levonorgestrel and testosterone had significantly lower serum gonadotropin, inhibin B, and pro-alpha-C-RI levels during the treatment period than the control and recovery periods (P < 0.05). Ten normal men who were administered human recombinant FSH had significantly higher peak serum FSH (21.85 +/- 3.23 IU/L vs. 3.01 +/- 0.51 IU/L), inhibin B (311 +/- 88 pg/mL vs. 151 +/- 23 pg/mL) and pro-alpha-C-RI (646 +/- 69 vs. 402 +/- 38 pg/mL) levels during the treatment period than the baseline values (P < 0.05). We conclude that inhibin B is a unique testicular product that is not detectable in the sera of orchidectomized men, is responsive to FSH stimulation, and has a reciprocal relationship with serum FSH levels in men with various forms of testicular disease. Therefore, inhibin B is likely to be the physiologically important form of inhibin in men.


Comparable complement-fixing antigens of type 1 and type 2 herpes simplex virus were produced by extraction of infected African green monkey cells with 0.85% NaCl which was buffered at pH 9.0 with 0.05 m glycine-NaOH. The optimal antigen dilutions were higher in titrations against hyperimmune animal sera than in titrations against human sera. Complement-fixing antibody to type 2 herpes antigen was detected in 5 of 17 sera from healthy humans.


Background: The learning process in Ophthalmology emphasizes visual disease manifestations, which can be traced to aspects such as epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations and management. However, contemporary teaching methods of lecturing are often insufficient for facilitating learning. Additionally, instructors find it difficult to evaluate the knowledge and understanding of students after lectures. Method: Fifteen residents from three years of training were randomized and divided into five groups to compete in a quiz and discuss different aspects of the disease depicted in the photo. Qualified ophthalmologist instructors score the team's performance on quality and completion of discussion and provide feedback on the conformity, rationale and omissions of the discussion as a team. Result: Ophthalmology residents participating in Photo Challenges favored the activity and benefited from engaging in the learning experiences as well as being given opportunities to practice clinical thinking processes by verbally approaching the clinical diagnosis from important findings and management of the disease. Instructors are able to assess their students' degree of success in learning outcomes and provide instant feedback. Conclusion: Photo Challenge is an educational innovation is suitable for Ophthalmology learning and is effective for students to achieve learning outcomes as well as gain straightforward assessment from instructors. This teaching method can also be applicable to other studies where photographs are an important element in the learning process. Conflicts interest: The authors


A restrictive anti-abortion law is in force in Poland. However, many people terminate pregnancy in cases other than those specified in the Act. Public discourse on this subject is dominated by philosophical and legal issues, and it lacks the voices of those who terminated the pregnancy. Abortion is often presented as a sad necessity, as always difficult or traumatic. I conducted research on describing own abortion experiences by people from Facebook pro-choice groups. 99 respondents who had 102 abortions completed an anonymous online questionnaire. From the material of answers, I selected categories that were used to analyze the results of the study: positive emotions, negative emotions, pregnancy as a burden, good experience, difficulty experience, stigmatization, support. It turned out that the experiences of termination of pregnancy were diverse. Respondents, describing their experiences, discussed topics rarely present in the discourse, such as the fact that abortion can be a good experience.


A quantitative approach to plant taphonomy focusing on preservation type and fragment size is tested by comparing 3338 Weichselia reticulata fragments from 25 Lower Cretaceous localities of different ages and depositional environments. Moreover, palaeobiological insights are also obtained from the taphonomic analyses. In the case of the specimens of Weichselia reticulata included in this work, charred remains are the most frequent preservation type, and are the smallest and most homogeneous in size, probably due to the fragmentation of the fronds while burning and to the fact that burnt fragments are more fragile and break easily during the initial abrasion and attrition produced by transport. The size of charred fragments varies depending on the depositional environment, suggesting that biostratinomic processes, and not fire temperature, are the main cause for size differences, and providing valuable insight into the distance the remains might have travelled from production to final deposition. The taphonomic analysis suggests that Weichselia reticulata is allochthonous in all the localities analysed, and that its habitat would have been prone to fire and not far from freshwater systems. This case study shows promising results that can be implemented on different plant groups and chronostratigraphic ages, allowing for the proposal of a taphonomic model.


Knowing the age structure of endangered species is important in order to contribute to future conservation studies for such species. In this context, we investigated age structure, age at sexual maturity, potential reproductive lifespan and longevity in a population of the Charnali lizard, Darevskia dryada , an endangered species from Turkey. The results show that the Charnali lizard has a longer life span than other lizards of the genus Darevskia that live in the same region. We estimated that these lizards attain their sexual maturity at the age of one or two years and the potential reproductive life span for males and females is six and five years, respectively. As in many other lizards, the Charnali lizard exhibited a low-level male-biased sexual dimorphism in terms of increased size. We believe that this study, in which prior information related to the Charnali lizard is shared, will contribute to future conservation activities for this critically endangered species.


In the present review piece, we analyze the formation of free radicals as a consequence of the cellular metabolism in aerobe organism, and the beneficious and harmful actions thereof on cellular structures. The balance existing between free radicals and the so-called antioxidant defenses, is a key factor for preventing the development of noxious processes at the cellular and tissue level. In accordance with the present scientific knowledge, the excessive production of free radicals in the organism, and the imbalance between the concentrations of these and the antioxidant defenses, may be related to processes such as aging and several diseases, among which we find cancer, ischemic processes, senile dementia, diabetes, pulmonary and pancreatic diseases, lupus erythematosus, cirrhosis, intestinal inflammatory disease, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, arteriosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, diseases of the central nervous system and the brain. According to the results of numerous research works conducted with the administration of several molecules with an antioxidant activity, one is beginning to see what their role will be in the pharmacological therapeutics for the treatment of a large number of patients such as those with burns, traumas, septics, shock, surgery, transplantation, radiation or chemotherapy, respiratory distress syndrome, AIDS, etc. We may possibly be facing a therapeutic tool which is of great interest in the clinical area, which shall be developed in the near future, as clinical trials which permit confirmation of their efficacy are conducted.


Variable geometry turbines are more and more widely used in diesel engines to meet the requirements of the stringent emission standards. The VGTs mostly operate at off-design conditions. At highly off-design conditions, there exist complex secondary flow structures and severe flow separation in the rotor passage, which deteriorate the turbine performance largely.The influence of rotor blade leading edge geometries on the VGT performance was studied by CFD simulations. The blade angle distribution along the leading edge was varied while keeping the radial-fiber rotor construction. The effects of inlet sweep angle distribution and lean angle of the blade leading edge on the turbine flow fields and performance were investigated under different operating conditions.Results show that the turbine with backswept leading edge has better performance at low U/C, while the turbine with forward swept leading edge has a higher efficiency under high flow rate conditions. With the same sweep angle distribution, the leading edge lean affects the flow fields in the rotor passage as well as the turbine performance significantly. The influence of blade lean on the turbine performance varies according to different swept blading and operating conditions.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Elevated productivity in the northwest Pacific is suggested as a new possible control driving past intervals of low-O2 intermediate water along the western continental margin of North America. According to this mechanism, O2 consumption would occur near the site of formation of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW), due to increased respiration of organic carbon in response to a high-productivity event. Evidence is provided for such a productivity increase during the Bolling-Allerod interval (14.7–12.9 ka), a time when laminated sediments were deposited along the northern California margin. By this mechanism, low-O2 events in intermediate waters off the western North American margin could occur without significant changes in the rate of NPIW ventilation.


Following the report by the World Commission on Environment and Development, research efforts devoted to sustainable development were promoted by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research (FRN). With its fifteen essays by Swedish scholars on different aspects of society environment interface, giving various analyses of and propsects for the concept of sustainable development this book is a result of those efforts. The authors represent a spectrum on interand multidisciplinary approaches in the field of ecology, economy and environment. They are economists, ecologists, engineers, anthropologists, physicists, geographers, political scientists, science theorists and educationalists discussing sustainable development and the future of society and the environment. The question is also raised whether there is a special Swedish 'touch' with a 'responsibility for the world' ethos to the approach to environmental issues, especially as seen through the efforts of the research community.


Relationship was studied between the polymorphism of alpha 1-antitrypsin (Pi), haptoglobin (Hp) and transferrin and the development of chronic unspecific impairment of children lungs. Combination of protein isoforms PiM3M3 and Hp 1-1 was found to increase the risk of the lungs unspecific impairments in persons with lingering pneumonia and caused more severe development of the disease. Relatively low activity of the isoform PiM3M3, as compared with other forms of the PiMM system, and more intensive and nonadequate rate of lipid peroxidation in patients containing HP 1-1 appear to be responsible for aggravation of these impairments.


: Multimodal medical image fusion approaches have been commonly used to diagnose diseases and involve merging multiple images of different modes to achieve superior image quality and to reduce uncertainty and redundancy in order to increase the clinical applicability. In this paper, we proposed a new medical image fusion algorithm based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) to obtain a weight map for multiscale transform (curvelet/ non-subsampled shearlet transform) domains that enhance the textual and edge property. The aim of the method is achieving the best visualization and highest details in a single fused image without losing spectral and anatomical details. In the proposed method, firstly, non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) and curvelet transform (CvT) were used to decompose the source image into low-frequency and high-frequency coefficients. Secondly, the low-frequency and high-frequency coefficients were fused by the weight map generated by Siamese Convolutional Neural Network (SCNN), where the weight map get by a series of feature maps and fuses the pixel activity information from different sources. Finally, the fused image was reconstructed by inverse multi-scale transform (MST). For testing of proposed method, standard gray-scaled magnetic resonance (MR) images and colored positron emission tomography (PET) images taken from Brain Atlas Datasets were used. The proposed method can effectively preserve the detailed structure information and performs well in terms of both visual quality and objective assessment. The fusion experimental results were evaluated (according to quality metrics) with quantitative and qualitative criteria.


Forced expression of core cardiogenic transcription factors can directly reprogram fibroblasts to induced cardiomyocyte-like cells (iCMs) in vitro and in vivo. This cardiac reprogramming approach provides a proof of concept for induced heart regeneration by converting a fibroblast fate to a cardiomyocyte fate. However, it remains elusive whether chamber-specific cardiomyocytes can be generated by cardiac reprogramming. Therefore, we assessed the ability of the cardiac reprogramming approach for chamber specification in vitro and in vivo. We found that in vivo cardiac reprogramming post-myocardial infarction exclusively induces a ventricular-like phenotype, while a major fraction of iCMs generated in vitro failed to determine their chamber identities. Our results suggest that in vivo cardiac reprogramming may have an inherent advantage of generating chamber-matched new cardiomyocytes as a potential heart regenerative approach.


The action of insulin on the resting membrane potential (Em) and intracellular sodium and potassium activities (aNa, aK) of rat soleus muscle fibers was determined by direct intracellular measurements of aNa, aK, and Em using Na-selective, K-selective, and conventional microelectrodes. The use of these microelectrodes allowed us to continuously monitor these parameters in the same fiber. Although we were able to accurately measure aNa and aK and continuously monitor their levels throughout periods of insulin stimulation of up to 20 min duration, we were unable to detect any significant change in Em, aNa, or aK. Varying the concentration of insulin or extracellular glucose failed to alter our observations. These results indicate that the action of insulin on the sarcolemma and subsequent increase in glucose transport must result from some mechanism independent of a change in membrane potential or intracellular sodium or potassium activity.


This paper presents the basis of a new system for making detailed 3D models of underground tunnels. The system is to be used for automated control of mining vehicles. We describe some alternative methods for matching several partial scans, and their applicability for making a complete model of a mine environment


Root distribution during rice cultivation is a governing factor that considerably affects soil water content (SWC) and root water uptake (RWU). In this study, the effects of activating root growth (using growth function) and assigning a constant average root depth (no growth during simulation) on SWC and RWU for rice cultivation under four deficit drip irrigation treatments (T90, T80, T70, and T60) were compared in the HYDRUS-2D/3D model version 3.03. A secondary objective was to investigate the effect of applied deficit irrigation treatments on grain yield, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), and growth traits of rice. The simulated DI system was designed to reflect a representative field experiment implemented in El-Fayoum Governorate, Egypt, during two successive seasons during 2017 and 2018. The deficit treatments (T90, T80, T70, and T60) used in the current study represent scenarios at which the first irrigation event was applied when the pre-irrigation average SWC within the upper 60 cm of soil depth was equal to 90%, 80%, 70%, and 60% of plant-available water, respectively. Simulation results showed that as water deficiency increased, SWC in the simulation domain decreased, and thereby, RWU decreased. The average SWC within the root zone during rice-growing season under different deficit treatments was slightly higher when activating root growth function than when considering constant average root depth. Cumulative RWU fluxes for the case of no growth were slightly higher than for the case of root growth function for T90, T80, and T70 accounting for 1289.50, 1179.30, and 1073.10 cm2, respectively. Average SWC during the growth season (24 h after the first irrigation event, mid-season, and 24 h after the last irrigation event) between the two cases of root growth was strongly correlated for T90, T80, T70, and T60, where r2 equaled 0.918, 0.902, 0.892, and 0.876, respectively. ANOVA test showed that there was no significant difference for SWC between treatments for the case of assigning root growth function while the difference in SWC among treatments was significant for the case of the constant average root depth, where p-values equaled 0.0893 and 0.0433, respectively. Experimental results showed that as water deficiency decreased, IWUE increased. IWUE equaled 1.65, 1.58, 1.31, and 1.21 kg m−3 for T90, T80, T70, and T60, respectively. Moreover, higher grain yield and growth traits of rice (plant height, tillers number plant−1, panicles length, panicle weight, and grain number panicles−1) were obtained corresponding to T90 as compared with other treatments. Activating the root growth module in HYDRUS simulations can lead to more precise simulation results for specific dates within different growth stages. Therefore, the root growth module is a powerful tool for accurately investigating the change in SWC during simulation. Users of older versions of HYDRUS-2D/3D (version 2.05 and earlier) should consider the limitations of these versions for irrigation scheduling.


The author considers the problem of estimating the parameters of a general (possibly asymmetric noncausal and/or nonminimum phase) two-dimensional autoregressive moving average random field model driven by an independent and identically distributed two-dimensional non-Gaussian sequence. Several inverse filter criteria were recently considered for parameter estimation of the system parameters given only the output measurements (image pixels). These criteria were shown to yield strongly consistent parameter estimates. The focus is on the computational aspects. A computer simulation example is presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed approach.<<ETX>>


This study aims to empirically examine the underlying cultures of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities contributing toward employee: compensation and benefits (CB); diversity and labor rights (DLR); and training, safety and health (TSH), with a view of supporting both business corporations and policymakers in effectively designing and implementing employee-related CSR strategies in the global market.,The proposed empirical model, namely, pooled ordinary least square (OLS) regression, is tested against a novel proprietary data set of 8,940 corporations from 48 countries across nine different regions. The prototypical models of cultural configurations are benchmarked against Hofstede's country cultural scores on six dimensions to categorize the lists of countries in which the three specific employee-related CSR activities would appear to be culturally appropriate, as well as difficult to implement.,The study offers the cultural configuration models to identify the potential nature and range of cultural values that seem to support CSR activities contributing toward employee: CB – high power distance, high individualism, low masculinity, low uncertainty avoidance, medium long-term orientation and either relatively medium or low indulgence; DLR – medium power distance, medium individualism, low masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, either relatively medium or low long-term orientation and medium indulgence; TSH – medium power distance, medium individualism, low masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, medium long-term orientation and medium indulgence. The study further categorizes countries (cultural areas) in which these three specific employee-related CSR activities would appear to be culturally appropriate, as well as difficult to implement.,The findings provide both the motivation and a starting point for further academic inquiries. First, future research should further explore how specific industry and firm size have an impact on firms' employee-related CSR activities. Second, the dynamic relationship of national culture and employee-related CSR activities over time should also be examined. Finally, appropriate management techniques or interventions to overcome the cultural constraints that prevent business corporations from promoting employee physical and mental fineness should also be fruitful area for further investigation.,The study offers meaningful strategic implications of employee-related CSR activities for business corporations and policymakers. Specifically, the cultural configuration models, together with the practical framework, should serve as a benchmark for evaluating a likelihood of successful implementation on a particular employee-related CSR activity in a given context and for customizing business corporations' CSR strategies and activities to fit within a cultural environment of the host country in which they operate. For policymakers dealing with employee rights and labor standards, the findings can be applied to assess foreign investor's preferences regarding employee-related CSR engagement and activities.,This is the first study to develop the cultural configuration models that provide business corporations culturally meaningful insights into how to effectively design and implement their employee-related CSR strategies in the global market. The study also offers a practical framework – a set of countries in the global marketplace where employee-related CSR activities are likely to be implemented successfully, or encounter challenges and difficulties.