Gram-negative bacteria belonging to the Enterobacter cloacae complex are increasingly implicated in difficult-to-treat nosocomial infections, as exemplified by a recently characterized highly carbapenem-resistant clinical Enterobacter roggenkampii isolate with sequence type (ST) 232. While mechanisms of carbapenem resistance are well-understood, little is known about the responses of highly drug-resistant bacteria to these antibiotics. Our present study was therefore aimed at charting the responses of the E. roggenkampii ST232 isolate to the carbapenem imipenem, using a 'stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture' approach for quantitative mass spectrometry. This unveiled diverse responses of E. roggenkampii ST232 to imipenem, especially altered levels of proteins for cell wall biogenesis, central carbon metabolism, respiration, iron–sulfur cluster synthesis, and metal homeostasis. These observations suggest a scenario where imipenem-challenged bacteria reduce metabolic activity to save resources otherwise used for cell wall biogenesis, and to limit formation of detrimental reactive oxygen species at the cytoplasmic membrane due to respiration and Fenton chemistry. We consider these observations important, because knowing the adaptive responses of a highly resistant bacterium of the E. cloacae complex to last-resort antibiotics, such as imipenem, provides a 'sneak preview' into the future development of antibiotic resistance in this emerging group of pathogens.


This manifesto stems from a transmedia initiative for collective research designed to shape – from the bottom-up – a socially responsive and responsible culture of inquiry, in observing, recording, sharing and reflecting on the changes to communication and interaction caused by the COVID-19 crisis and their enduring effects post-pandemic. The objectives of the manifesto are (a) to identify key changes in communication and interaction practices during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and (b) to offer a blueprint for an innovative methodology involving academics and nonacademics in collective research into these and any future changes to the communication landscape across different socio-cultural contexts. The manifesto presents: (1) the factors that make changes in communication and interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic topical for research; (2) the coordinates of these changes; (3) questions that these changes raise; (4) a proposal for a methodology that complements established research methods to understand these changes; and (5) preliminary data on the activities that the research collective PanMeMic has conducted in its first two months of existence.


Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) documents set the requirements and expectations of software development projects. This textual information is considered as a guideline for identifying various requirements for the developers. The content of an SRS document is concentrated around software requirement specific entities which can be used to improve software-based information retrieval systems. In this paper, we consider Named Entity Recognition (NER) over SRS documents and classify the software requirement specific entities using ML-based methods. Existing NER methods are typically restricted to four basic sets of entities that are not pertinent to NER in the software requirement domain. We define ten software requirement-based entities which cover the essence of the SRS documents. In order to predict the appropriate entity tags, we first create a limited feature set and experiment with various NER models including ML- based probabilistic models and DL models. We conduct a detailed numerical study to evaluate the effectiveness of the NER models over the SRS datasets. NER models with a basic feature set demonstrate promising performance with an F1-macro score of 81%. Our analysis shows that the entities can be extracted with high accuracy from the SRS documents, which then can be used for various purposes in practice such as extractive summarization of large SRS documents and effectively grouping the requirements.


Judging the quality of a laboratory is not easy, but that does not mean it should not be done. The author of this article sets forth criteria--subjective and objective--for judging a quality laboratory, and for evaluating your own image as others might perceive it. The discussion presented here is vital to residents and junior members.


The authors propose rating as a new instrument providing objective comparability criteria to classify the residential market. Nowadays we face the growing popularity of various support systems, but comprehensive and effective information systems that facilitate the real estate market continue to be in short supply. The rating methodologies from the capital markets cannot be simply copied to the real estate market. The specificity of the real estate market is totally different. The main aim of this study was the development of a rating procedure for residential markets as a specific instrument to help in the making of reliable decisions within urban development. The classification was conducted on the basis of factors that can have the most important influence on property market decision-making for demand and supply relating to residential, economic and political, social, spatial and location market conditions. The crucial stage in this methodology was the establishing of the benchmark point (BB) distinguished by stimulants or destimulants of the markets. This point might represent the level of similarities (or indiscernibilities, as in rough set theory) of the features in the set. The results demonstrate that the rating of residential markets depends on the expectation of further area development and quality of life rather than the richness of a region.


The silica xerogel is prepared using copper source; 0.02 mol of Cu(NO3)2.3H2O that has been added to 1 mol TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate). The Copper ions are doped to silica matrix by the sol gel method and determination of total molar ratio of components with a reported molar ratio of H2O /TEOS(R) = 6.2. In this method, the acidity the of reaction (pH) depends on the catalyst type in the hydrolysis step and the molar ratio of H2O /TEOS (R) that is studied with gelation time (tg). In this reaction, acidity varies between 2.4 and 3.5. Average size and molecular structure of this nanocomposite were analyzed using TEM, FTIR and XRD. Copper oxide can be produced from the decomposition of copper nitrate and is doped on the silica matrix by thermal treatment.


Scale invariant theories which contain maximal rank gauge field strengths (of D indices in D dimensions) are studied. The integration of the equations of motion of these gauge fields leads to the scale symmetry breaking of scale invariance. The cases in study are (i) the spontaneous generation of r-1 potentials in particle mechanics in a theory that contains only r-2 potentials in the scale invariant phase, (ii) mass generation in scalar field theories, (iii) generation of nontrivial dilaton potentials in generally covariant theories, and (iv) spontaneous generation of confining behavior in gauge theories. The possible origin of these models is discussed.


TO THE EDITOR: Thank you for your comments, Dr. Lee. Gastric scintigraphy is a noninvasive, simple to perform, and quantitative method. This study tried to increase the objectivity and reproducibility by examination and interpretation according to the guidelines. We also tried to obtain our own data on gastric emptying (GE) times in our hospital, because we thought it was important to collect unique data in an individual institute. As Dr. Lee pointed out, functional dyspepsia (FD) and control group of this study showed delayed GE compared to previous studies. We already mentioned about that in the discussion. This might be because there was relatively large proportions of young female subjects enrolled in the FD and control group to match gender and age with the migraine group. Actually, females and premenopausal status showed more delayed GE than males and postmenopausal status, and a previous study found that female sex is the independent factor related to delayed GE in the patients with FD. Secondly, there was no significant correlation between GE and symptoms in our study as pointed out by Dr Lee. A tendency of delayed GE was shown in FD patients complaining postprandial fullness and early satiety. Regarding the association between GE parameters and dyspeptic symptoms in patients with FD, larger studies have shown the association of postprandial fullness and nausea with delayed GE. Our study had the limitation of a single-center study targeting a small number of patients, because we had selected the age and gender matched groups from the FD population who had undergone GE scintigraphy. However, the migraine and normal control groups were enrolled prospectively to perform gastric scintigraphy during the interictal period. Lastly, the relationship between migraine and GE is still controversial, and inaccurate evaluation of gastric symptoms during interictal period was the limitation in previous studies. Therefore, we enrolled the migraine patients without gastric symptoms during interictal period in order to minimize overlaps with FD. As pointed out by Dr. Lee, it could be better to perform scintigraphy in the ictal period to find the correlation with nausea and vomiting that occurs in the ictal period, but it should not allowed because of an ethical reason. Gastric symptoms, including nausea and vomiting, found in the ictal period might be caused by the central and peripheral nervous mechanisms. Nausea and vomiting in migraine patients during ictal period may be known to be not related to delayed GE, but other mechanisms.


This paper examined the nature and extent of informal savings and credit among women micro-entrepreneurs in five rural communities of Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Nigeria. It is a household study of 275 women engaged in various rural on-farm and off-farm activities. Our study has shown that informal savings in form of Ajo Esusu in its various forms (fixed fund and rotating fund) is popular among the rural women of Ado-Odo/Ota Local government of Ogun State. Participation rate is as high as 78% while average monthly savings mobilized is about N708,500 from our respondents. In addition to own savings, some of our respondents are able to source credit in form of loans from their savings associations. These savings and credit are applied to various developmemtal and consumption uses. Participants in these informal saving schemes reported improved business development and incomes. Our recommendation that necessary environment be created for the intervention of private, not-for-profit semi-formal financial intermediatries, will go a long way in facilitating domestic credit mobilization, just like Grameen bank in Bangladesh. This initiative, unlike the past corrupt-ridden and ineffective government-operated organizations, is expected to support the activities of informal savungs associations, create a better link with formal financial system and hence, help to improve rural women-owned enterprises, as well as their status in Nigeria.


Manycore shared memory architectures hold a significant premise to speed up and simplify SOCs. Using many homogeneous small-cores will allow replacing the hardware accelerators of SOCs by parallel algorithms communicating through shared memory. Currently shared memory is realized by maintaining cache-consistency across the cores, caching all the connected cores to one main memory module. This approach, though used today, is not likely to be scalable enough to support the high number of cores needed for highly parallel SOCs. Therefore we consider a theoretical scheme for shared memory wherein: the shared address space is divided between a set of memory modules; and a communication network allows each core to access every such module in parallel. Load-balancing between the memory modules is obtained by rehashing the memory address-space. We have designed a simple generic shared memory architecture, synthesized it to 2,4,8,,..1024-cores for FPGA virtex-7 and evaluated it on several parallel programs. The synthesis results and the execution measurements show that, for the FPGA, all problematic aspects of this construction can be resolved. For example, unlike ASICs, the growing complexity of the communication network is absorbed by the FPGA's routing grid and by its routing mechanism. This makes this type of architectures particularly suitable for FPGAs. We used 32-bits modified PACOBLAZE cores and tested different parameters of this architecture verifying its ability to achieve high speedups. The results suggest that re-hashing is not essential and one hash-function suffice (compared to the family of universal hash functions that is needed by the theoretical construction).


This paper addresses the issue of how a given piece of information should be transmitted from a better-informed doctor to an ill-informed patient. The information to be transmitted is expressed as a probability distribution on a space of the patient's possible health states. For a formal analysis of the issue we develop a two-person dynamic game, in which the doctor sends a sequence of messages to the patient to inform him of his health state, and the patient, after receiving each message, chooses an action in an attempt to improve upon his current health status. We study some standard properties of the equilibria of this game; in particular, we show that it has a subgame perfect equilibrium.


This article proposes a communication-efficient decentralized deep learning algorithm, coined layer-wise federated group ADMM (L-FGADMM). To minimize an empirical risk, every worker in L-FGADMM periodically communicates with two neighbors, in which the periods are separately adjusted for different layers of its deep neural network. A constrained optimization problem for this setting is formulated and solved using the stochastic version of GADMM proposed in our prior work. Numerical evaluations show that by less frequently exchanging the largest layer, L-FGADMM can significantly reduce the communication cost, without compromising the convergence speed. Surprisingly, despite less exchanged information and decentralized operations, intermittently skipping the largest layer consensus in L-FGADMM creates a regularizing effect, thereby achieving the test accuracy as high as federated learning (FL), a baseline method with the entire layer consensus by the aid of a central entity.


Although a variety of neurologic and systemic disorders are associated with abnormal gastroesophageal motility, little is known of gut involvement in patients with idiopathic orthostatic hypotension. To assess upper gastrointestinal motility, five patients with idiopathic orthostatic hypotension underwent esophageal manometry and esophageal and gastric radionuclide transit studies. Three patients had abnormal esophageal manometric studies, and two had abnormal gastric transit. The esophageal emptying study was abnormal in one of two patients. These results and the diversity of findings suggest that the upper gastrointestinal tract is involved in idiopathic orthostatic hypotension, although further work is needed to delineate the extent and the site of the abnormality. Esophageal manometry and gastroesophageal transit studies provide a means of diagnosing patients with idiopathic orthostatic hypotension.


In modern nutrition, bioactive materials of different vegetables are especially important to be researched. The experiment was carried out on March 30, 2016 (sowing date). Mineral element content (B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P, S, Zn) was evaluated on the 60th, 85th and the 105th day of the vegetation period. The data are presented as the mean of five varieties which can give the real state of these parameters of beetroot grown on lowland chernozem soil.
In the young beetroot leaves (60 days) the mineral element content was higher than in the older ones (85 days). The calcium and magnesium content of the leaves was much more favourable (10 times higher) than in the root. The potassium content of leaves has reached the amount of 5000 mg kg-1, but at the same time more than 3000 mg kg-1 was detected in the improved root. This value is favourable for the potassium supply of the human organism.
The sulphur content (1300 mg kg-1) of the leaves was the highest on the 85th day of vegetation period. Similar tendency was detected for boron content (2.45 mg kg-1), while for iron content it was higher (28.23 mg kg-1) in the younger leaves (60 days).
Finally, it can be concluded that the increased element content of beetroot leaves will be a favourable source of mineral element supply of the human organism.


The laser and nanoparticles representing biological science with physical science and considering modern method that used as an antibacterial instead of conventional antibiotics. The present study is an attempt to illustrate how the use of laser or silver nanoparticles each of them individually, as an antibacterial agent against Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) as well as study the effective result from the absorption of Diode laser energy by these nanoparticles to kill or inhibition bacterial growth. The silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are prepared by biological method E. coli were isolated and identified by use MacConkey agar and biochemical tests. Nanoparticles are tested against E. coli cultured on Muller Hinton agar but Diode laser or laser with nanoparticles are tested against E. coli that cultured in Nutrient broth. E. coli are irradiating by Diode laser with different times. Different concentrations of silver nanoparticles have been employed for killing and inhibition bacterial growth. Results showed E. coli was effected by nanoparticles (mainly highest concentration of nanoparticles) also detected that decrease bacterial availability with increase time of exposure to Diode laser.


Research, especially in the field of Classroom Management, has shown that the relational context that schools provide carries importance for student learning. Thus, students 'peer relationships become part of the teacher's responsibilities, as far from all relationships in schools are supportive of learning. A case study consisting of two interviews with the teacher Maria is analyzed using Young's political theory of oppression. The concepts of cultural imperialism and violence are used in order to understand classroom relationships which are oppressive, and Maria's innovative means for counteracting these relationships are described as an equalizing move in power relations in the classroom. Conclusions highlight the complexity of the classroom and the opportunities for using political theory in research the field of Classroom Management.


Light use efficiency (LUE) determines biomass production based on interception energy during photosynthesis. The product of photosynthesis is allocated to the plants organs based on the partitioning of carbohydrates. The LUE and carbohydrate partitioning are two important parameters in crop modelling. The research was conducted at Cikabayan experimental station of IPB, Bogor from July to November 2015. The experiment was designed according to a randomize block design with five replications. The fertilizer treatments rate were 0%, 50%, 100%, 150%, and 200% of reference N fertilization of 120 kg ha-1.  The  value  of  light use efficiency and the partition coefficient of sorghum were not affected by N fertilization. The value of light use efficiency is 1.41 g MJ-1. The carbohydrates partitioning was developed based on plant growth stage. The partition from the planting to the emergence stage (0 ≤ s ≤ 0.25) was 0.81 x s/0.25 root, 0 stem, 0.19 x s/0.25 leaves, and 0 panicle. The partition from the emergence to the maximum vegetative stage (0.25 < s ≤ 0.5) was 0.81-(0.59 x s/0.5) root, 0.14 x s/0.5  stem, 0.19 + (0.45 x s/0.5) leaves, and 0 panicle. The partition from the maximum vegetative stage to the flowering stage (0.5 < s ≤ 0.75) was 0.22 - (0.09 x s/0.75) root, 0.14 + (0.39 x s/0.75) stem, 0.64 - (0.46 x s/0.75) leaves, and 0.16 x s/0.75 panicle. The partition from flowering to the harvest stage (0.75 < s ≤ 1) was 0.13 - (0.13 x s) root, 0.53 - (0.52 x s) stem, 0.18-(0.18 x s) leaves, and 0.16 + (0.84 x s) panicle. Keywords: crop modelling, light use efficiency, N fertilizer, partitioning carbohydrates


Inappropriate applications of phosphorus (P) in agricultural production lead to the leaching loss of P, which subsequently contributes to the eutrophication of water bodies. A leaching experiment using unsaturated intact soil columns was conducted to study the influence of fertilizer application on leaching of phosphorus in a gley meadow soil at different fertility levels (low-, medium and high fertility levels). The soil column at each fertility level received three fertilization treatments (control [CK], manure [M] and chemical fertilizer [F]). The results indicated that the leaching loss of total P (TP) from the soil column was induced by the P input from either manure or chemical fertilizer application, and the extent of leaching loss of P was also positively related to the soil fertility level. In addition, the TP concentrations in the leachates from all fertilization treatments exceeded the critical value for water eutrophication (0.02 mg P/L). This suggests that applications of manure and chemical fertilizer at proper rates with close consideration of the soil fertility level are essential to reduce the leaching loss of TP to the environment.


Doll phobia revisited imagination. Caldwell (1972) has drawn our atten tion to the fact that the final movement ofthe sixth of the Opus 18 quartets (written in 1799) was entitled by Beethoven "¿ La Malinconia―. The movement con sists ofsix alternating slow and fast sections, the slow sections inhibited, unelaborated, the fast sections bristling with energy, leaps and trill-like figures. That Beethoven recognised what he was portraying is con firmed in a later letter to a friend about another piece contemporaneous with "¿ La Malinconia―: "¿ everyone at that time sensed . . . the mental state of melancholia and its phases―. That this notion was not new in 1800 can also be seen in Pondourus's description (fourth century AD) that mania is "¿ an intermittent disease which proceeds through a period ical variant ... it repeats itself once a year or more often ... melancholia occurs in autumn, whereas mania in summer― (source of quote unlocated). Good, careful observation is not a recent inven tion. While theory can determine what we are aware of seeing, through the millennia family and friends of individuals with manic—depressive disease must have been aware of its alternation, its circularity, aware of each phase's characteristic thought contents, feeling states, and activity patterns, aware of the continuity between the phases. The shamans and physicians involved in their care must also have known these facts. We should not delude ourselves that our un assisted senses and reasoning powers are better than those of our ancestors. Changing social structure and new data, real or imagined, lead to newly organised observations and to new explanations, to new theories. Berrios's paper properly directs us to this level of historical inquiry.


There are no objective means of verifying a psychiatric diagnosis. Some patients appear to exploit this inherent uncertainty by claiming to be mentally ill when they are not. Occasional exaggeration or feigning of illness may be normal, but persistent, severe or recurrent simulation is rare, is associated with major character disorder and has a poor prognosis.


An issue of critical importance to both robots and biological creatures is the efficient use of the limited resources available for survival. One strategy employed by higher animals is the focusing of attention onto the few items, e.g., percepts, salient to reaching the current goals, and ignoring distracting input. In these animals, the pre-frontal cortex working memory plays a significant role in the focus of attention. A recently developed Working Memory Toolkit (WMtk) is based on a computational neuroscience model of working memory. We apply this model/toolkit to two perceptual learning problems from robot vision related to navigation and landmark detection. Our system is described along with two perceptual learning experiments. The results of these experiments are given and show impressive performance both in terms of accuracy and speed of learning. To our knowledge, this is the first such application of a computational neuroscience model of working memory to a robot.


ABSTRACT Research indicates benefits to psychophysiological wellbeing from walking in urban green space compared to other built settings. This study builds on research in older adults extending the protocol to healthy adults (n = 40, mean age = 42 years) exploring the impacts of walking in varying environmental conditions on psychophysiological outcomes (mood, working-memory and heart rate variability (HRV)). Participants undertook a short (20–30 minute) walk in both an urban green and gray setting, one week apart, with varying levels of air pollution and heat. Walking in the urban green setting increased positive mood and HRV (suggesting positive impact on physiological stress) and decreased self-reported stress and arousal. Thermal sensation in the urban green setting was lower compared to the urban gray setting. Our results build on evidence that there are potential beneficial effects of urban green settings with respect to heat and particulate matter (PM2.5). These results show psychophysiological benefits of short walks within urban green settings, during the pandemic, which has implications for public health and how we engage with our local environments for physical activity.


A process for coating carbon fibers with platinum has been developed. The process may also be adaptable to coating carbon fibers with other noble and refractory metals, including rhenium and iridium. The coated carbon fibers would be used as ingredients of matrix/fiber composite materials that would resist oxidation at high temperatures. The metal coats would contribute to oxidation resistance by keeping atmospheric oxygen away from fibers when cracks form in the matrices. Other processes that have been used to coat carbon fibers with metals have significant disadvantages: Metal-vapor deposition processes yield coats that are nonuniform along both the lengths and the circumferences of the fibers. The electrical resistivities of carbon fibers are too high to be compatible with electrolytic processes. Metal/organic vapor deposition entails the use of expensive starting materials, it may be necessary to use a furnace, and the starting materials and/or materials generated in the process may be hazardous. The present process does not have these disadvantages. It yields uniform, nonporous coats and is relatively inexpensive. The process can be summarized as one of pretreatment followed by electroless deposition. The process consists of the following steps: The surfaces of the fiber are activated by deposition of palladium crystallites from a solution. The surface-activated fibers are immersed in a solution that contains platinum. A reducing agent is used to supply electrons to effect a chemical reduction in situ. The chemical reduction displaces the platinum from the solution. The displaced platinum becomes deposited on the fibers. Each platinum atom that has been deposited acts as a catalytic site for the deposition of another platinum atom. Hence, the deposition process can also be characterized as autocatalytic. The thickness of the deposited metal can be tailored via the duration of immersion and the chemical activity of the solution.


Background High mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) is a DNA-binding protein that is released from injured cells during inflammation. Advances in targeting HMGB1 represent a major challenge to improve the treatment of acute/chronic inflammation. Aim This study is aimed at verifying whether the inhibition of HMGB1 through dipotassium glycyrrhizate (DPG) is a good strategy to reduce intestinal inflammation. Methods Human colon adenocarcinoma cell line, HT29, human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma, Caco2, and murine macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7, were cultured to investigate the effect of DPG on the secretion of HMGB1. Acute colitis was induced in C57BL/6 mice through administration of 3% dextran sodium sulphate (DSS); a combined treatment with DSS and 3 or 8 mg/kg/day DPG was used to investigate the effects of DPG on intestinal inflammation. Animals were euthanized at seventh day and colonic samples underwent molecular and histological analyses. Results DPG significantly reduces in vitro the release of HMGB1 in the extracellular matrix as well as expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6, by inhibiting HMGB1. Moreover, DPG significantly decreases the severity of DSS-induced colitis in mice. Murine colonic samples show decreased mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6, as well as HMGB1 receptors, RAGE and TLR4. Finally, HMGB1, abundantly present in the feces of mice with DSS-induced colitis, is strongly reduced by DPG. Conclusions HMGB1 is an early pro-inflammatory cytokine and an active protagonist of mucosal gut inflammation. DPG exerts inhibitory effects against HMGB1 activity, significantly reducing intestinal inflammation. Thus, we reason that DPG could represent an innovative tool for the management of human intestinal inflammation.


The tumor suppressor gene TP53 is implicated in the majority of all human cancers, thus pivotal to genomic integrity. There are more than 72,000 scientific publications describing p53's function, yet, due to the complexity of its interactions we are still far from fully elucidating p53's role in tumorigenesis. Computational methodologies are novel tools to depict and dissect complex disease networks. The Boolean PKT206 p53 – DNA damage model has previously demonstrated good predictive capability for p53 wild-type and null tumors in various in silico knockouts. Here, we have expanded PKT206 to generate a more clinically robust representation of p53 dynamics. The new PMH260 model incorporates 260 nodes representing genes, with 980 interactions between them representing inhibitions and activations. Additional biological outputs, including angiogenesis, cell cycle arrest and DNA repair were also amalgamated into the model. Three in silico knockouts of highly connected nodes (p53, MDM2 and FGF2) were generated and logical steady state analysis and dependency relationships applied. 71 % of predictions were considered true from superimposition of human osteosarcoma and HCT116 microarray profiles. In silico knockout analysis revealed 98 potential novel predictions, of which 13 were validated by literature; 83 % of them were overlapping with PKT206. Thus the expanded Boolean PMH260 model offers a promising platform for clinical potential in targeted cancer therapeutics.


Abstract Nutria (Myocastor coypus) are an important part of the Louisiana (USA) fur industry, but high densities of nutria cause extensive damage to coastal marsh ecosystems. Hence, there is a need to develop improved methods for targeted management of nutria. We screened 14 olfactory cues as potential lures for nutria, first in controlled settings and then in the field, to see if nutria capture rates using foothold traps would increase. In Y-maze trials, nutria most frequently selected olfactory cues of a synthetic formulation of nutria anal-gland secretion and nutria fur extract. We examined the 3 most selected attractants in Y-maze trials and female nutria urine under field conditions to compare trapping success over untreated traps. Capture probability was nearly 2.5 times greater for fur wash than control and 2 times greater for urine than control (relative risk  =  2.43 and 2.01, respectively). The results suggest that use of semiochemicals and synthetic formulations of semiochemicals increased nutria trapping success. Development and use of effective synthetic semiochemicals could benefit resource managers nationwide who are responsible for reducing damage caused by this invasive herbivore.


Absenteeism is an issue that has grown in importance over the past few years; however, little has been done to explore the impact of presenteeism on individual and organisational performance and well-being. This article is based on interviews collected in nine case study organisations in the UK. Two sector organisations (one private and one public) were studied to examine absence management and a conceptual model of presenteeism, with further illustration provided using data from the other seven case studies. This enabled a pattern of presenteeism to emerge, along with the contextual and individual factors which impact on it. In addition to previous research, we found that presenteeism is a complex 'problem' and that it is not a single one-dimensional construct, but is continually being shaped by individual and organisational factors. In addition, we found that performance and well-being are more closely related to the organisational reaction to presenteeism and absenteeism, rather than the act itself.


Various PWM methods for multi-phase (n>3) two-level voltage source inverters (VSIs) have been developed recently. Relatively little work has however been done in relation to switching harmonic properties of these PWM methods and their impact on current ripple. The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of the flux harmonic distortion factor (HDF) associated with the space vector PWM (SVPWM) for a five-phase VSI. The applied approach utilises multiple polygon connections and is analytical in nature. Verification of the developed analytical theory is provided by simulation and experimentation on a five-phase induction motor drive.


There is a growing demand for a system that allows users to go online and work at anytime anywhere, as the smart phone is widely distributed and the technology is developing. In line with such a trend, this thesis has developed a system using a display with OS and bluetooth to help check and manage facilities of various industries as well as producing and delivering various contents. The system is based on the Internet of Things which supports the function of inspecting and maintaining facilities while providing various contents on display devices. This also receives from a service provider and displays advertisement contents real time. Therefore in short, the system manages facilities of a building including cleaning service management and displays various contents.


The research interest on plant biostimulant applications in vegetable crop production is gradually increasing and several reports highlight the beneficial effects that such products may have not only on crop performance but also on the quality of the final product. Moreover, numerous products with biostimulatory activity are being developed which need further evaluation under variable growing conditions and different crops. Plant hydrolysates which contain amino acids and peptides have been acclaimed with several positive effects on crop performance of diverse horticultural crops, while macro-algae are also considered effective biostimulants on plants grown under stress conditions. A recent study evaluated the use of protein hydrolysates and brown macro-algae (Ascophyllum nodosum and Ecklonia maxima) as innovative and cost effective approaches for sustainable vegetable production. The present editorial provides an overview of the main findings of that study, while discussing the practical applications that biostimulants may have in the greenhouse production of vegetable crops, aiming to increase the yield and the quality of the final produce and improve crop tolerance to abiotic stressors.


ABSTRACT Detailed descriptions of the acoustic signals of European cicadas are available only for a few species. In this paper the acoustic signals and biomechanics of the timbals in nine species of cicadas from Portugal have been examined. Those species are Cicada barbara lusitanica (Boulard, 1982), C. orni (Linnaeus, 1758), Tettigetta argentata (Olivier, 1790), T. atra (Gomez-Menor, 1957), T. estrellae (Boulard, 1982), T.josei (Boulard, 1982), Tibicina quadrisignata (Hagen, 1855), Tympanistalna gastrica (Stal, 1854), and one unidentified species of Tettigetta. A qualitative and quantitative description of the sound is given in the time domain and the frequency domain. An acoustic male-to-male interaction signal that ceases the courtship was identified in C. barbara lusitanica. Some evolutionary aspects related to the biomechanics of the timbals and to the sounds produced are discussed.


The peripheral blood neutrophils from 17 kidney transplant recipients were studied for their ability to phagocytose and kill Pseudomonas aeruginosa in vitro. Practically all of the percent phagocytosis values were within the normal range but many of the neutrophil samples demonstrated a reduced ability to kill ingested P. aeruginosa, particularly within the 3 month period immediately after transplant. Of the 17 patients studied, ten were found to have neutrophils with a reduced capacity to kill the test bacteria. These defects in bactericidal capacity were found in patients who received antihuman-lymphocyte globulin (ALG), large doses of methylprednisolone for rejection, and mostly in subclinical infection with Pseudomonas or other gram-negative bacterial species.


Introduction: Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is a group of symptoms caused by a continuous computer usages. This disease could affect everybody who are active on using computers such as the college students. This syndrome has multifactorial risk factors. Objective: The purpose of this research is to know the result of CVS symptoms screening on the medical student of Medical Faculty of Udayana University. Method: This research is a descriptive study with a crosssectional data collection method. This research was conducted in April 2016 at the Faculty of Medicine Udayana University. The samples were consisted of 600 people who had met the inclusion and exclusion criterias. The data were collected using questionnaires. The data were presented in the form of frequency tables and cross tabulation to determine the prevalence ratios and the factors related to the results of this study. Result: The prevalence of CVS was 58.8% (353/600). The most common complaints was tense or tired eyes which was 72.8% (437/600). The factors which was statistically valued with CVS was the use of eyeglasses while using computer (P=0.003), the use of contact lens while using computer (P=0.022), the duration of computer usage in one day less than 4 hours (P=0.041), the distance between eye and the center of monitor between 3070 cm (P=0.05), and the usage of anti-glare screen (P=0.033). The prevalence of CVS in medical students was 58.8%. The most complaints was tense or tired eyes. The factors which was statistically significant with CVS was history of eyeglasses usage while using computer, history of contact lens usage while using computer, the duration of computer usage in one day less than 4 hours, the distance between eye and the center of monitor between 30-70 cm did not reduce the CVS prevalence. Conclusion: The usage of anti glare screen was important statistically and without it, CVS prevalence was found to be higher.


Abstract The foundation of any activity of all state bodies must primarily be based on state legislation. The military field, which is narrower than the defense field, with all the characteristics and properties of the largest collection of kinetic energy and at the same time the integrated energy of state institutionalized coercion, is even more dependent on the meaning and purpose of state legislation. It would be recommended that in the future Slovenian legislation in the military field would more effectively and above all more successfully follow international developments in the field of military legislation, science and military research and development. It should be emphasized that interdisciplinary content in the military field requires special attention, caution and, above all, far-reaching predictability, which is extremely difficult in the modern world, but not impossible. The predictability of future military events requires clear, target-specific and unambiguous legislative content.


In this paper, a novel transformer-less adjustable voltage quadrupler dc–dc converter with high-voltage transfer gain and reduced semiconductor voltage stress is proposed. The pro-posed topology utilizes input-parallel output-series configuration for providing a much higher voltage gain without adopting an ex-treme large duty cycle. The proposed converter cannot only achieve high stepup voltage gain with reduced component count but also reduce the voltage stress of both active switches and diodes. This will allow one to choose lower voltage rating MOSFETs and diodes to reduce both switching and conduction losses. In addition, due to the charge balance of the blocking capacitor, the converter features automatic uniform current sharing characteristic of the two interleaved phases for voltage boosting mode without adding extra circuitry or complex control methods. The operation principle and steady analysis as well as a comparison with other recent exist-ing high step-up topologies are presented. Finally, some simulation and experimental results are also presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed converter.


The tin-rich polymetallic epithermal deposit of Poopó, of plausible Late Miocene age, is part of the Bolivian Tin Belt. As an epithermal low sulfidation mineralisation, it represents a typological end-member within the "family" of Bolivian tin deposits. The emplacement of the mineralisation was controlled by the regional fault zone that constitutes the geological border between the Bolivian Altiplano and the Eastern Andes Cordillera. In addition to Sn and Ag, its economic interest resides in its potential in critical elements as In, Ga and Ge. This paper provides the first systematic characterisation of the complex mineralogy and mineral chemistry of the Poopó deposit with the twofold aim of identifying the mineral carriers of critical elements and endeavouring to ascertain plausible metallogenic processes for the formation of this deposit, by means of a multi-methodological approach. The poor development of hydrothermal alteration assemblage, the abundance of sulphosalts and the replacement of löllingite and pyrrhotite by arsenopyrite and pyrite, respectively, indicate that this deposit is ascribed to the low-sulphidation subtype of epithermal deposits, with excursions into higher states of sulphidation. Additionally, the occurrence of pyrophyllite and topaz has been interpreted as the result of discrete pulses of high-sulphidation magmatic fluids. The δ34SVCDT range in sulphides (−5.9 to −2.8‰) is compatible either with: i. hybrid sulphur sources (i.e., magmatic and sedimentary or metasedimentary); or ii. a sole magmatic source involving magmas that derived from partial melting of sedimentary rocks or underwent crustal assimilation. In their overall contents in critical elements (In, Ga and Ge), the key minerals in the Poopó deposit, based on their abundance in the deposit and compositions, are rhodostannite, franckeite, cassiterite, stannite and, less importantly, teallite, sphalerite and jamesonite.


An event that is rarely considered by technical users and laymen alike is that of a domain name expiration. The massive growth in the registration of domain names is matched by massive numbers of domain expirations, after which domains are made available for registration again. While the vast majority of expiring domains are of no value, among the hundreds of thousands of daily expirations, there exist domains that are clearly valuable, either because of their lexical composition, or because of their residual trust. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of domain dropcatching where companies, on behalf of users, compete to register the most desirable domains as soon as they are made available and then auction them off to the highest bidder. Using a data-driven approach, we monitor the expiration of 28 million domains over the period of nine months, collecting domain features, WHOIS records, and crawling the registered domains on a regular basis to uncover the purpose for which they were re-registered (caught). Among others, we find that on average, only 10% of the expired (dropped) domains are caught with the vast majority of the re-registrations happening on the day they are released. We investigate the features that make some domains more likely to be caught than others and discover that a domain that was malicious at the time of its expiration is twice as likely to be caught than the average domain. Moreover, previously-malicious domains are significantly more likely to be reused for malicious purposes than previously benign domains. We identify three types of users who are interested in purchasing dropped domains, ranging from freelancers who purchase one or two domains to professionals who invest more than $115K purchasing dropped domains in only three months. Finally, we observe that less than 11% were used to host web content with the remaining domains used either by speculators, or by malicious actors.


An integral equation that takes into account the absolute and relative refractory periods of cortical cells was added to the earlier obtained integral equations describing the cooperation of excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the cerebral cortex, and its substantiation was suggested. The steady states and the stable region of oscillations of the mean membrane potential of excitatory neurons were investigated depending on the mean afferent influx value on the assumption of the normal threshold distribution of cells. The existence of a parameter multitude in the region of stability was shown when a suppression of the delta-rhythm and an enhancement of the theta-rhythm up to its dominance take place increasing nonspecific afferent influx, which shows up a white noise, and decrease of the theta-rhythm during further increase in nonspecific activation. Simultaneously the frequencies of the major cerebral rhythms increase. The conformity of the theoretically calculated dependences of changes of the spectrum upon increasing nonspecific afferent influx to the experimental data obtained during the electrical stimulation of the rabbit midbrain reticular formation was demonstrated.


AN INVESTIGATION OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL APPROACHES FOR SYNDROMIC SURVEILLANCE OF CATTLE HEALTH USING ONTARIO CONDEMNATION DATA Gillian Denise Alton Advisors: Dr. O. Berke & Dr. D.L. Pearl University of Guelph, 2014 This thesis is an investigation of quantitative methods for food animal syndromic surveillance utilizing bovine abattoir condemnation data as a case study to illustrate approaches to using Ontario provincial abattoir data. There has been little investigation into the suitability of bovine abattoir condemnation data in Ontario for its use in a food animal syndromic surveillance system and the quantitative methods necessary for this type of system. Overall, it was found bovine condemnation data from provincially inspected abattoirs to be useful for food animal syndromic surveillance since they provided a more regionally detailed picture of emerging diseases in Ontario than data from federal abattoirs. Disease-related and nondisease factors such as season and sales price were shown to have an impact on condemnation rates, and accounting for relevant predictable factors considerably affects the results of quantitative cluster detection methods. This was demonstrated by comparison of various spacetime scan statistics with distinct options to control for covariate information. The results from this study found that model-adjusted approaches for controlling for covariates in scan statistics appeared to perform best in terms of ability to include all important covariates and suitability for use with bovine abattoir condemnation data. Furthermore, the efficiency of syndromic surveillance was investigated by comparing various sentinel abattoir selection approaches to reduce the number of sample sites while still maintaining the overall trends in the full dataset. The most effective sentinel selection approach utilized data from abattoirs in operation all weeks of the year, and this approach shows promise for the integration of sentinel sites into a sentinel syndromic surveillance system. While these findings suggest that bovine abattoir condemnation data would be suitable for integration into a food animal syndromic surveillance system, there are some limitations including data quality issues and current methodological approaches. Future research is recommended to focus on the following before formalizing a food animal syndromic surveillance system in Ontario: (i) developing an improved meat inspector training program; (ii) finding ways to harmonize the condemnation process by standardizing definitions for reasons for condemnation; and (iii) validating methodological findings from this thesis by studying simulated and/or documented historical outbreak data.


The issue of transition for higher education institutions of Russia from traditional distance learning to mass electronic education on the basis of the online open courses is considered, its relevance is proved. Analysis of the major prerequisites for transition success is carried out (a demand for the educational Internet resources from mobile devices; existence of a large number of various electronic resources which are successfully used in practice by higher education institutions in remote educational technologies; maintaining experience for electronic magazines of students' progress for planning and estimation of training results; essential growth of material costs in the world online training market). Key issues of transition are defined and the basic principles of electronic online courses development are formulated. A technique for electronic online course development aimed at the result is given. The technique contains the following four stages: planning of expected training results, course electronic content structuring and training scenarios creation, development of the tests plan and electronic estimated means for automatic control of the planned training results; course realization by means of game mechanics and technologies of network communication between students. Requirements to various forms of control planned in the course of learning results are defined. Two kinds of electronic online courses are assigned (knowledge-intensive and technological courses). Examples of their realization in the authors' online courses "Wave Optics", "Theory of Graphs ", "Development of Web Interfaces on the Basis of HTML and CSS" created and practically used in NRU ITMO in 2013 are given. Finally, the actual tasks of mass open education development in the leading higher education institutions of Russia are set forth.


1Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia; 2Department of Reproductive Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia; 3Department of Public Health, PHARMA College Wolaita Sodo Campus, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia; 4African Populations and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya Background: Healthcare providers play a critical role in the provision of sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents. In Ethiopia, due to different reasons, including healthcare providers associated reasons, most unmarried adolescents are not accessing the services. However, little is known about healthcare providers' perception towards the provision of SRH services for unmarried adolescents. This study aimed to explore healthcare provider perception towards the provision of SRH services to unmarried adolescents in Gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological research design was used in May 2021. Fifteen healthcare providers (HCPs) working in adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health centers were involved in this study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select healthcare providers assuming they are "information-rich" regarding the phenomenon of interest. Inclusion of the study participants was continued until data saturation is reached. To analyze the data, we used inductive thematic analysis, method, and main themes, which captured the diverse views and feelings of the participants. To maintain the trustworthiness of the data, we used dependability, transferability, conformability, and credibility. Results: In this study, individual-level attributes such as healthcare provider's personal belief, attitude, and motivation; community-level influences like socio-cultural norms, religious reasons, and lack of parental support; and health system setbacks like shortage of essential medical supplies and lack of training are identified as major obstacles in the provision of sexual and reproductive health services for unmarried adolescents. Conclusion: Provision of sexual and reproductive health services for unmarried adolescents is constrained by the interplay of factors acting at an individual level, community level, and health system level. The Ministry of Health (MOH), program planners and policymakers are recommended to give due attention to fulfill the necessary inputs, improving healthcare provider's attitude and skill and engagement of religious and community leaders to create a safe and supportive environment for providing sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried adolescents.


We synthesized highly exfoliated graphite fluoride of approximate composition C2F by treating highly exfoliated graphite with ClF3. The formed material was found to be dispersible in solvents giving 1–5 layered fluorinated graphene. Dispersions successfully formed in polar organic solvents capable of establishing hydrogen bonds. The highest stability is achieved in branched alcohols such as tert-butanol. The dispersions may be further processed into thin films by vacuum filtration technique. Also, composite multilayered films of graphene fluoride and graphene may be prepared.


Vyana Vata is described as Mahajava which is highly powerful. Therefore it keeps the Rasa Dhatu in circulation continuously and always throughout the life. Vyana Vata with its swift action performs all the functions in the body. All the three Doshas residing in Hrdaya contribute directly or indirectly to the functioning of the body; but vyana vata has a unique role in carrying out the functions throughout the body while residing in hrdaya . Any obstruction to vyana vata leads to a disease that affects the whole body. Vitiation of vyana vata hampers its functions as well as nutrition and movements of the body. Therefore treatment should aim at understanding vyana vata and to correct the root cause. The paper describes the physiological, pathological and treatment aspects of vyana vata in accordance with the contemporary view. The physiological aspect includes the location, functions and dependency of other sub types of Vata to Vyana Vata which is discussed along with its contemporary understanding. The pathological aspect deals with causes for vitiation and symptoms seen and the general line of treatment modality applied. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE


The current study investigates the possibility that the cerebellum may be involved in the regulation of mean arterial pressure (MAP) during endotoxin shock in the anesthetized dog. The effect of intravenously injected Escherichia coli endotoxin on MAP in the cerebellectomized dog was compared to that observed in the intact animal. Even though removal of the cerebellum did not significantly affect MAP in a control group, the cerebellectomized animal (unlike the intact animal) was unable to recover from the initial hypotension typically seen immediately following an intravenous endotoxin injection. Previous investigators have demonstrated that stimulation of fastigial nuclei in the cerebellum increases MAP via beta-adrenergic activation of the renin-angiotensin system. Captopril (SQ 14,225, an angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitor) was used to determine whether this system could be responsible for the maintenance of MAP during endotoxin shock. When continuously infused into the intact dog given endotoxin, captopril suppressed MAP to a level similar to that of the cerebellectomized group. A similar response pattern to endotoxin was also observed in animals with a spinal transection at C2.


Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), 4 wk of age, were treated with antihypertensive agents for 40 wk. The treatment was withdrawn for 2 wk so that the animals experienced hypertension for about 1 wk. The aortic arch was then perfused and aortic nerve activity was recorded. The threshold pressure was 140 mmHg in these SHR. This threshold pressure was less than that observed in age-matched untreated SHR (160--180 mmHg) but greater than that observed in age-matched Kyoto-Wistar rats (80--120 mmHg), indicating partial baroceptor resetting. No significant changes were observed in the vascular wall in these SHR, and partial baroceptor resetting was completely reversed when short duration of hypertension was reversed. On the other hand, baroceptor resetting in untreated SHR was always accompanied by significant changes in vascular wall, and reversal of baroceptor resetting was contingent upon regression of vascular wall hypertrophy. Partial baroceptor resetting in absence of significant changes in vascular wall may be explained by adaptation of baroceptors to persistent high blood pressure.


The primary intent of this thesis was to determine if and how the practice of Art of Hosting, a dialogue–based, participatory process architecture, could foster social capital in communities and other large, complex social systems working to address a variety of complex challenges, in order to draw conclusions that could contribute, in a meaningful way, to the advancement of strategic sustainable development (SSD). We hoped to gain useful insights by examining and interpreting the results from two case study systems existing within very different social contexts and with very different organizational structures: Columbus, Ohio and the European Commission. Based on the results of our research, strategic recommendations, guidelines and tools were developed for SSD practitioners wishing to assess the level of social capital in the systems in which they operate and take strategic steps to increase it. These same recommendations, guidelines and tools should also be helpful for Art of Hosting practitioners working to address complex societal challenges in general. Overall, the authors of this thesis believe that these results hold particular significance for any collaborative or multi-stakeholder effort to build support for adoption, and ensure the successful implementation, of sustainability goals and programs. This could include Eco-Municipalities, Transition Towns, Agenda 21 Communities, Smart Cities, and large complex organizations such as multi-national corporations or universities, to mention but a few.


: Purpose: The study aims to show the effect of capital structure on banks' profitability in developing countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study is conducted on 28 commercial banks from 2009 to 2016 of panel data to infer the concurrent relationship between capital structure and profitability. The preliminary diagnoses picked up the Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) method to address the endogeneity issue in dynamic panel data. Findings: The study found that the bank's capital structure is negatively associated with profitability and vice versa. Moreover, asset tangibility and regulatory capital harm banks' current capital structure, whereas tax shield and 1-year lagged capital structure have a positive influence. On the contrary, a bank's profitability is positively associated with bank growth, and 1-year lagged profit, while credit risk and liquidity are negatively affected. The study implies that banks should use an appropriate mixture of debt and equity; otherwise, immature decisions in capital structure may demise banks' profitability, which will ultimately turn into bank failure. Practical Implications: Adherence to the adoption of stringent capital structure allures banks in maximizing profit to cope with market competition. Beyond the theoretical aspects, the study extends its scope in the practical implications of adopting a profit-maximizing capital structure in a developing country context. However, capital structure choice differs from bank to bank based on their performance and position in the market. The study clearly addressed some of the relevant issues which affect banks' performance adversely in practice. Originality/Value: The study contributes to the existing literature and tries to explain the role of capital structure in banks' performance, mostly in submerge economies.


Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects a considerable proportion of adults globally and is associated with elevated morbidity and mortality. Given the lack of epidemiologic data on the burden of OSA in Kuwait, this study sought to estimate its prevalence, associated risk factors, and comorbid conditions among a working population in Kuwait. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of a sample of working adults (n = 651) from public institutions in Kuwait. High/low risk for OSA was ascertained according to the Berlin Questionnaire criteria. Participants self-reported their coexisting health conditions. Associations were assessed using Poisson regression with robust variance estimation; adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated. Results: Overall, 20.0% (130/651) of participants were classified as being at high risk for OSA, with more male than female subjects being at high risk (24.0% [56/233] vs. 17.7% [74/418], P = 0.053), though this difference did not gain statistical significance. Moreover, a high risk for OSA was more common among older and obese subjects. Factors associated with increased prevalence of a high risk for OSA included current smoking status (aPR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.02–2.06), longer hours spent watching television (1.76, 1.10–2.81), and lower self-perceived physical health (2.11, 1.15–3.87). However, decreasing trends in the prevalence of high risk for OSA were observed with frequent engagement in vigorous physical activity and longer nightly sleep duration. Compared to those at a low risk for OSA, the subjects at high risk for OSA were more likely to have insomnia disorder (2.83, 1.81–4.41), diabetes (1.94, 1.15–3.27), hypertension (3.00, 1.75–5.16), and depression (4.47, 1.80–11.08). Conclusion: This study estimated that 1/5 of working adults in Kuwait were at high risk for OSA, and the prevalence varied according to personal characteristics and lifestyle factors. Also, a high risk for OSA classification was associated with multiple comorbid health conditions.


OBJECTIVES
This study focused on PTEN and Livin expression and associations with malignancy in human renal clear cell carcinomas (RCCC).

METHODS
PTEN and Livin expression was assessed in 100 RCCC tissue samples, 50 paracarcinoma cases, and 20 normal renal tissue samples using the immunohistochemical Streptavidin proxidase (SP) method. The relationships between binding and corresponding biological characteristics, such as histological grade, lymph node metastases, and clinical stages were analyzed.

RESULTS
Positive PTEN expression in RCCC was significantly lower than in renal tissue adjacent to carcinoma tissue and normal renal tissue (P<0.01). Livin expression in the renal tissue adjacent to the carcinoma and normal renal tissues exhibited only low levels, whereas overall Livin expression in RCCC was statistically significant (P<0.01). In RCCC, PTEN expression rate gradually decreased with an increase in clinical stage, whereas that of Livin increased to statistically significant levels (P<0.01), PTEN and Livin levels being negatively correlated (r=-0.395, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
PTEN and Livin are important in RCCC development. The two factors combined are expected to provide indices for estimating RCCC malignancy and progression levels, as well as references for RCCC diagnosis and treatment.


The authors describe types of drug addiction, behavior of the drug addict patient and the role of nursing personnel in dealing with them. They also mention some prophylactic measures in the fight off drug addiction.


Objective: To review the pathophysiology, diagnosis, current treatment, and prognosis of heatstroke.

Etiology: Heatstroke can be a life-threatening condition occurring because of an imbalance of heat dissipation and production. Certain factors may predispose some animals to heatstroke. The pathophysiology and sequelae of heatstroke share similarities with that of sepsis; thus, multiple organ dysfunction often ensues. The pathophysiological derangements that occur with heatstroke result from a complex series of events associated with direct cytotoxicity of heat and initiation of the acute-phase response by endotoxin, inflammatory cytokines, and chemokines. Activation of endothelial cells, coagulation factors, and fibrinolysis (with ensuing microvascular thrombosis) leads to hypoxia and organ dysfunction. Heat shock proteins produced secondary to sudden heating act as protein chaperones or molecular guardians to provide protection against future heatstroke and may be implicated as a possible genetic component of heatstroke.

Diagnosis: A history of recent exercise or being confined in a hot and/or humid environment, combined with clinical signs such as body temperature above 40°C (104°F), panting, tachycardia, hyperemia, dry mucous membranes, and depression to prostration is consistent with a diagnosis of heatstroke. A complete blood count performed during the initial examination of dogs with suspected heatstroke often includes nucleated red blood cells.

Therapy: The mainstays for treating heatstroke include rapid evaporative cooling, volume replacement to provide cardiovascular support, and management of secondary complications.

Prognosis: The prognosis is multifactorial. There is a significant negative correlation between comatose mental status, decreased temperature, and hypoglycemia with mortality.


Bridge-approach guardrail provides protection for vehicles from collision with bridge components, such as the blunt end of the bridge rail or abutment, and other types of run-off-the-road collisions. The primary objective of this research was to determine the average daily traffic (ADT) at which the benefit/cost ratio for the installation of approach guardrail at county-state-aid (CSAH) bridges in Minnesota becomes greater than 1.0. A survey of state transportation agencies found that 26 of 35 responding agencies have policies or guidelines requiring placement of approach guardrail on any bridge if the bridge was built using state funds. Results of the research analyses showed that bridge-approach guardrail was effective at reducing the severity of run-off-the-road crashes occurring on the approach or departure to CSAH bridges. Fatalities and A-injury crashes accounted for only 6 percent of the crashes occurring at bridges with approach guardrail compared to 28.5 percent at bridges without approach guardrail. The subsequent benefit/cost analysis showed that bridge-approach guardrail is cost-effective (i.e., B/C > 1) for CSAH bridges with ADT greater than or equal to 300 vehicles per day (vpd). Overall, approach guardrail has a benefit/cost ratio of approximately 3.5 to 5.5. The researchers recommended that the ADT threshold for approach guardrail on CSAH bridges be set at 400 vpd, which is consistent with previous Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) standards and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) low-volume local road guidelines. Approach guardrail should be considered on a case-by-case basis for bridges with ADT between 150 and 400 vpd, especially those between 300 and 400 vpd. Placement of approach guardrail at bridges with ADT less than 150 vpd is not cost-effective in most cases.


This paper takes the form of an account of the emergence of the field of psychoanalytically informed parent-infant/child psychotherapy in South Africa. It traces the origins and the development of the South African field by locating local practice within the international field. The influential links between international approaches and local practice and services are described. The historical account is based on a review of published parent-infant/child literature, including South African authored texts. Interviews with key local stakeholders and practitioners supplement the literature review. This paper endeavours to locate parent-infant/child psychotherapy more clearly on the map of mental health work in South Africa, and in so doing to promote the work as both a relevant and valuable intervention.


Aging is associated with an increase in the frequency of medical screening tests. Bayesian inference is used to estimate posterior probabilities of medical tests such as positive or negative predictive values (PPVs or NPVs). Both laypeople and experts are typically poor at estimating PPVs and NPVs when relevant probabilities are communicated descriptively. Decision making research has revealed dissociations between described and experience-based judgments. This study examined the accuracy of posterior probability estimates of 80 younger and 81 older adults when statistical information was presented through description or experience. Results show that both younger and older adults can make more accurate posterior probability estimates if they experience probabilities compared to when probabilities are described as either natural frequencies or conditional probabilities. Results also indicate that most people prefer to rely on physicians to make their medical decisions regardless of how confident they are in their judgments of probabilities.


Sarhaddi Balochi dialect, a language variety of Western (Rakhshani) Balochi, employs derivation through affixation as one of its word formation processes. The purpose of this article is to present a synchronic description of the way(s) different derivational affixes function in making complex words in Sarhaddi Balochi as spoken in Granchin[1] district located about 35Kms to the southeast of Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan Province of The Islamic Republic of Iran. The linguistic corpus was gathered through fieldwork. The data were collected from the free speech of 10 uneducated native speakers including 5 males and 5 females of about 5o-80 year old living in Granchin with various social backgrounds. The findings of the research signify that complex words of this dialect are derived via derivational prefixes, infixes and suffixes, among which derivational suffixes are more active or productive. The research also shows that the main derivatives of this dialect are derived verbs, derived nouns, derived adjectives, and derived adverbs.


Under the development of the Digital Society and with the aim of achieving a true transition from the Information Society to the Knowledge Society, ICTs play a capital role in educational and knowledge management processes in any kind of entity, from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to the Public Administration. The Spanish Public Administration is composed by a huge amount of the heterogeneous public organisms that range from research centres to public companies. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis about the knowledge management in the Spanish Public Administration through several real study cases developed in different public organisms. The analysis shows how the case studies follow the Suricata Architecture in order to identify success factors to replicate them in other public contexts.


In modern days, users in the wireless networks are increasing drastically. It has become the major concern for researchers to manage the maximum users with limited radio resource. Interference is one of the biggest hindrances to reach the goal. In this paper, being deep apprehension of the issue, an efficient dynamic channel borrowing scheme is proposed that ensures better Quality of Service (QoS) with interference declination. We propose that if channels are borrowed from adjacent cells, cell bifurcation will be introduced that ensures interference declination when the borrowed channels have same frequency band. We also propose a scheme that inactivates the unoccupied interfering channels of adjacent cells, instead of cell bifurcation for interference declination. The simulation outcomes show acceptable performances in terms of SINR level, system capacity, and outage probability compared to conventional scheme without interference declination that may attract the considerable interest for the users.


Technologies for real-time continuous measurement of the flow rates of outdoor air (OA) into HVAC systems are now available commercially. Our prior papers reported on laboratory-based evaluations of these measurement technologies and this document describes the methods and results of a field study of the accuracy of three of these technologies. From the field study data, we determined that neither wind speed nor wind direction have an important adverse impact on measurement accuracy. The field study confirmed that these three measurement technologies can provide reasonably accurate measurements of outdoor air intake rates in field settings, if the pressure signals are measured with high accuracy. Some of the pressure transducers marketed for use with commercial HVAC systems were determined to be sufficiently accurate for this application. Given the significant impact of OA flow rates on both energy use and occupant health, more widespread use of technologies that provide for real time measurements of OA flow rates seems warranted.


In a field study carried out in 2011 and 2014 adult dragonflies were identified as a rapid and easy-to-use means of assessing habitat quality and biological integrity of Mediterranean streams and rivers in the province of Barcelona (Region Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). The study included sampling sites from five different river catchments: Besòs, Foix, Llobregat, Ter and Tordera. Multivariate statistical procedures and indicator species analysis were used to investigate the relationship between river ecological status, study sites and dragonfly species or species assemblages' occurrence. The dragonfly association identified with western Mediterranean permanent streams, i.e. Cordulegaster boltonii, Boyeria irene, Onychogomphus uncatus and Calopteryx virgo meridionalis, was found only at the sites with the highest status. All these taxa were identified as indicator species of sites with the best scores for the macroinvertebrate based IBMWP index and for the combined IASPT index, which reflects the sensitivity of the macroinvertebrate families present to environmental changes; besides, B. irene and C. virgo meridionalis also proved to be indicator species of the riparian forest quality index and C. boltonii of the more inclusive ECOSTRIMED, which assesses the overall conservation status of the riverine habitats. The information obtained on habitat preferences and indicator value showed that adults of these taxa may constitute a valuable tool for preliminary or complementary cost-effective monitoring of river status and restoration practices as part of a broader set of indices reflecting biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.


This paper investigates the nature of port-city relationships in two major port regions of the world, Europe and Asia. Although this issue is well analyzed through either isolated case studies or general models, it proposes a complementary approach based on urban and port indicators available for 121 port cities. In terms of demographic size and container traffic, it shows the decline of port-urban dependence, stemming from changes in global transportation and urban development. However, European and Asian port cities are not identically confronted to the same challenges, notably in terms of their hinterlands. A factor analysis highlights a regional differentiation of port-city relationships according to their insertion in both urban and port systems, with a core-periphery dualism in Europe and a port-city hierarchy in Asia. Thus, the distance to inland markets for European ports and the size of coastal markets for Asian ports are the main factors to explain the nature of port-city relationships in the two areas. It helps to evaluate which European and Asian port cities are comparable beyond their cargo volumes, by putting together micro (local environments) and macro (regional patterns) factors


Internet of things (IoT) refers to an intelligent network of connected objects for the purpose of communication, actuation,data aggregation and information processing. Currently in Africa there is a slow rate of adoption of IoT compared with other continents. Nigeria, as the biggest mobile market and most populous African country, has enormous prospects in IoT, which if effectively implemented, is likely to bring about increased productivity across all economic sectors and an improved standard of living for the people. This paper looks at the current state of IoT deployment in Nigeria, the challenges faced and the opportunities that abound.


This article builds from scholarship in Environmental and Sustainability Education and Critical Global Citizenship Education calling for more explicit attention to how teaching global issues is embedded in the colonial matrix of power (Mignolo, 2018). It reports on findings from a small exploratory study with secondary and upper secondary school teachers in England, Finland, and Sweden who participated in work-shops drawing on the HEADSUP (Andreotti, 2012) tool. HEADSUP specifies seven repeated and inter-secting historical patterns of oppression often reproduced through global learning initiatives. Teachers discussed the tool and considered how it might be applied in their practice. The paper reviews two of the key findings from their discussions: a) the mediation of charity discourses and global-local relations and b) emerging evidence of how national policy culture and context influence teachers' perceptions in somewhat surprising ways.


We are glad that our article [1], as we aimed, opened a new field of scientific discussion in asthma research. Furthermore, we are honoured that our paper has raised the interest of the group headed by P.J. Barnes, who also works in the field of exhaled air temperature in asthma [2] and who was an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine when we submitted the same manuscript with the title "Temperature of exhaled air is related to exhaled NO levels in allergic asthmatic children: a new marker for airway inflammation in asthma?" in autumn 2000. On that occasion, we could not reply to the comments of P.J. Barnes, since the manuscript, after a careful review lasting some months, was rejected. In addition, at that time and even when we submitted our article to the European Respiratory Journal in April 2001, we could not comment about the methods used in the study by PAREDI et al. [2], which was submitted to the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in March 2001 and published at the beginning of 2002, and not, as erroneously reported in reference 2 of their comment letter, in 2001. As we clearly state in our article, from the very first to the published version of the manuscript, this was a preliminary study testing the hypothesis that the temperature of exhaled air could be increased in asthmatic patients as one of the Celsus9 cardinal signs of inflammation, which has also been mentioned by PAREDI et al. [2]. We deliberately employed this experimental design because we wanted to start this research from the less advantageous but the more natural condition, which meant measuring the temperature of the air exhaled during a slow expiratory act and evaluating the correlation of this rough value with the level of exhaled nitric oxide (NO) obtained by a standardised measurement. We agree that we failed to recognise the fact that exhaled breath temperature and plateau are dependent on the exhalation flow rate, but it should be considered that the study by PAREDI et al. [2] was only published at the beginning of this year and, therefore, we had no opportunity to learn from their report at the time of our study. We feel that our results are not unreliable, as stated by P. Paredi and colleagues in their comment letter, as the within subject coefficient of variation was v3%. However, we agree that the relationships between exhaled air temperature and both flow and pressure need to be investigated further, as we repeatedly stated in our paper. In addition, we also commented on the necessity of exploring the influence of environmental factors to obtain more conclusive results. Nevertheless, in our opinion, when excluding the disturbing factors in our study, i.e. the lack of a standardised flow, the observed results should be expected to be even more consistent. It is indeed hard to imagine that the lack of flow standardisation could be advantageous to either the reproducibility of the measurement or the correlation with other markers of inflammation, as it was observed in 52 asthmatic children. Conversely, a possible reason for the failure to observe a correlation between plateau temperature (PLET) and exhaled NO in the study by PAREDI et al. [2] could be due to the low number of patients they evaluated (18), which could be responsible for a type II statistic error, a fact that was not considered by the authors. Furthermore, we still believe that PLET can have a more physiological significance than exhaled breath temperature increase (De T), which is a mathematic extrapolation predominately reflecting the changes in temperature of exhaled air during the first part of the expiratory manoeuvre (y3 s over an exhalation period of 12 s) [2]. At an exhalation flow rate of 10–11 L?min, approximately one-third of the air exhaled in the first 3 s comes from the anatomical dead space, and although this could be the more reproducible parameter to characterise the curve, it is hard for us to understand why this value should be clinically related to the exhaled NO values that are representative for the end of the expiratory manoeuvre. A further point raised by P. Paredi and colleagues in their comment letter was that the lack of standardisation of the method may explain some of the unexpected findings in our paper, such as the failure of steroids to decrease exhaled breath temperature. However, PAREDI et al. [2] were unable to show any difference in DeuT in corticosteroid-treated compared with untreated asthmatic patients and therefore, we cannot understand why our results, in this regard consistent with theirs, should represent an unexpected finding. In conclusion, we would like to stress again that our study was a very preliminary one, aimed to open a new field of research rather than to be conclusive. When we performed the study, and, to the best of our knowledge, even today, no standardised method for the measurement of exhaled air temperature to evaluate airway inflammation in asthma has been approved. We hope that the observation by two independent groups that exhaled air temperature is somehow related to the degree of airway inflammation in asthma will encourage other research groups to further investigate our hypothesis so that more conclusive results can be obtained and, eventually, standardisation of the method can be proposed.


Competence of the pedagogues, their individual qualities, motivation, creativity, the desire to constantly develop their skills and grow, and the ability to share the best practices are the main factors of success in education. In view of this, assistance to a young teacher is given great importance, as well as favourable conditions for a career-building. According to the Lithuanian and foreign research, major and sustainable changes in the area of education are possible only when teachers themselves are engaged in the implementation of changes (Ingersoll, Smith, 2004; Kennedy, 2008; Tatto, 2007; Review of the Lithuanian Education System, 2013). It means, that teacher's profession requiring high level responsibility and altruism is the central axis in creating well-being of the country (Watt, 2012; Taylor, 2006). Yet, in Lithuania, as well as in the entire Europe, there is still a problem of ageing teachers, and it becomes more and more topical, since the number of young people selecting profession of a pedagogue is continuously decreasing. Thus, we have to solve a complicated task – to motivate young people to select profession of a teacher. The Article analyses the factors in selecting pedagogical studies and their links with further selection of a profession. In pursuance of these goals, the research applied the methods of the literature and document analysis, a questionnaire survey and mathematical statistics. Quantitative research and questionnaire survey were carried out in March-April 2014. The research involved 117 respondents from 4 Lithuanian universities. The respondents were 2nd–4 th year students: social pedagogues, special pedagogues and career education pedagogues. Pursuant to the research findings, selection of pedagogical studies was determined by the internal factors (interests, predisposition, values), the perceived value of social services, the possibility to be useful for the society), understanding of own teaching abilities depending on the acquired experience (e.g. delivered lessons, taking care of small children). The majority of respondents intended to relate their life to the selected profession of a pedagogue. Mainly these were the persons who have selected the studies as the first or one of the first priorities; selected the studies individually, inspired by this profession as calling and after gaining experience in school. The motives fostering connection of the career with the selected profession are also very important, e.g. desire to grow and take care of other people, quest for independence at work, used pedagogical practices, an interesting profession meeting the expectations and a desire to ensure successful future. Keywords: pedagogue, pedagogical studies, selecting profession, factors in selecting profession, motivation. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/p.2015.020


Natural bone consists of calcium phosphate with nanometer-sized needle like crystals of approximately 5-20 nm width by 60 nm length. Nanophase calcium phosphate ceramics like hydroxyapatite can mimic the dimensions of constituent components of natural tissues; can enhance osteoblast adhesion and resorption with long-term functionality of tissue engineered implants. Nanosized hydroxyapatite (HA) possesses exceptional biocompatibility and bioactivity properties with respect to bone cells and tissues. Polymer-ceramic nanocomposites fabricated from electrospun nanofibrous scaffold coated/incorporated with nanoceramic material prove to be an excellent scaffold for bone tissue engineering. The morphology of nanofibres mimics the extracellular matrix of natural tissue organization which further increases the adhesion and proliferation of bone cells. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a bioresorbable polymer with potential applications for bone and cartilage repair. Nanocomposites can also be prepared by sintering polymeric nanospheres to make a scaffold and then coat it with the hydroxyapatite. In the present study nanofibrous scaffolds of polycaprolactone are prepared with electrospinning technique with 10wt%, 15 wt% concentration using chloroform as organic solvent. The characterization was done with scanning electron microscope (SEM). The polycaprolactone microspheres were prepared using water in oil-in-water emulsions. The characterization was carried out using scanning electron microscopy. Nanophase hydroxyapatite was prepared by wet precipitation route with calcium hydroxide and orthophosphoric acid as precursors. Characterization was done using transmission electronmicroscope (TEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The combination of (PCL-nHA) nanocomposite will prove to be an excellent scaffold for bone regeneration and repair.


Cloud storage brokerage systems abstract cloud storage complexities by mediating technical and business relationships between cloud stakeholders, while providing value-added services. This however raises security challenges pertaining to the integration of disparate components with sometimes conflicting security policies and architectural complexities. Assessing the security risks of these challenges is therefore important for Cloud Storage Brokers (CSBs). In this paper, we present a threat modeling schema to analyze and identify threats and risks in cloud brokerage brokerage systems. Our threat modeling schema works by generating attack trees, attack graphs, and data flow diagrams that represent the interconnections between identified security risks. Our proof-of-concept implementation employs the Common Configuration Scoring System (CCSS) to support the threat modeling schema, since current schemes lack sufficient security metrics which are imperatives for comprehensive risk assessments. We demonstrate the efficiency of our proposal by devising CCSS base scores for two attacks commonly launched against cloud storage systems: Cloud sStorage Enumeration Attack and Cloud Storage Exploitation Attack. These metrics are then combined with CVSS based metrics to assign probabilities in an Attack Tree. Thus, we show the possibility combining CVSS and CCSS for comprehensive threat modeling, and also show that our schemas can be used to improve cloud security.


Five-membered rings are found in a myriad of molecules important in a wide range of areas such as catalysis, nutrition, and drug and agrochemical design. Systematic insight into their largely unexplored chemical space benefits from first principle calculations presented here. This study comprehensively investigates a grand total of 764 different rings, all geometry optimized at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p) level, from the perspective of Quantum Chemical Topology (QCT). For the first time, a 3D space of local topological properties was introduced, in order to characterize rings compactly. This space is called RCP space, after the so-called ring critical point. This space is analogous to BCP space, named after the bond critical point, which compactly and successfully characterizes a chemical bond. The relative positions of the rings in RCP space are determined by the nature of the ring scaffold, such as the heteroatoms within the ring or the number of π-bonds. The summed atomic QCT charges of the five ring atoms revealed five features (number and type of heteroatom, number of π-bonds, substituent and substitution site) that dictate a ring's net charge. Each feature independently contributes toward a ring's net charge. Each substituent has its own distinct and systematic effect on the ring's net charge, irrespective of the ring scaffold. Therefore, this work proves the possibility of designing a ring with specific properties by fine-tuning it through manipulation of these five features.


An oral press-coated tablet was developed by means of direct compression to achieve the time-controlled disintegrating or rupturing function with a distinct predetermined lag time. This press-coated tablet containing sodium diclofenac in the inner core was formulated with an outer shell by different weight ratios of hydrophobic polymer of micronized ethylcellulose (EC) powder and hydrophilic excipients such as spray-dried lactose (SDL) or hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC). The effect of the formulation of an outer shell comprising both hydrophobic polymer and hydrophilic excipients on the time lag of drug release was investigated. The release profile of the press-coated tablet exhibited a time period without drug release (time lag) followed by a rapid and complete release phase, in which the outer shell ruptured or broke into 2 halves. The lag phase was markedly dependent on the weight ratios of EC/SDL or EC/HPMC in the outer shell. Different time lags of the press-coated tablets from 1.0 to 16.3 hours could be modulated by changing the type and amount of the excipients. A semilogarithmic plot of the time lag of the tablet against the weight ratios of EC/SDL or EC/HPMC in the outer shell demonstrated a good linear relationship, withr=0.976 andr=0.982, respectively. The predetermined time lag prior to the drug release from a press-coated tablet prepared by using a micronized EC as a retarding coating shell can be adequately scheduled with the addition of hydrophilic excipients according to the time or site requirements.


There is continuous debate about whether Wegener's granulomatosis (WG), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and Churg–Strauss syndrome (CSS) represent one disease entity—'antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV)' (eg, as presented by Hogan et al 1) or whether they constitute separate diseases which share common features but are otherwise heterogeneous—a view held, for example, by Hoffman and Langford.2 ANCA are a common finding in AAV, yet the majority of patients with CSS are ANCA negative. Several clinical and histopathological features unique to one disease (eg, asthma for CSS) support Hoffman's opinion. Analysis of the genetic background of the three disorders may help to differentiate between both concepts. The strongest genetic association for WG pertains to the HLA-DPB1 region,3 4 an association not seen in CSS.5 For MPA HLA-DPB1 association …


In a world with high variations and uncertainties, the traditional material requirement planning is no longer sufficient. This planning system relies on fixed schedules and do not consider deviations. Therefore, a new demand driven material requirement planning (DDMRP) methodology has been introduced. This method enables companies to control variability using buffer levels to achieve high service level and low inventory costs. That said, companies are currently facing numbers of internal and external challenges when using this new method. The challenges are divided into four areas; external supply chain transparency, internal forecast methods, demand and production planning as well as setup of the DDMRP system. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate what is required externally from the supply chain and internally in the organization in order to use the DDMRP method for generating orders towards production and suppliers. Further, the study also aims to investigate the potential ways to incorporate forecast in sizing the DDMRP buffers.
One company that has met these challenges is AeroCo, which is currently in an implementation phase of DDMRP. Semi-structured interviews with 23 company representatives from various department, along with historical demand, production and delivery data, have been the foundation of the data collection. The qualitative data was gathered and analyzed using influences from a systematic approach presented by Gioia, Corley, and Hamilton. The quantitative data was compiled in excel and compared to find the best forecast method. Moreover, the literature review was used to obtain a better understanding of supply chain transparency, different forecast methods, overall demand and production planning, as well as the DDMRP method. Altogether, the theoretical framework combined with the empirical findings led to conclusions concerning the research questions.
Firstly, it can be concluded that DDMRP goes hand in hand with reaching full supply chain integration and the implementation of collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment. Secondly, it has been shown that relying only on the qualitative or quantitative forecast is not sufficient. For this reason, an integration method with both qualitative and quantitative approaches should be included. Thirdly, regarding the internal demand and product planning processes, it can be noted that the sales and operations planning process does not have to go through major changes in order to use the DDMRP method. However, the master production scheduling process will need to be further adjusted. Lastly, when incorporating the forecast into DDMRP, quality errors do not need to be incorporated since it is handled by a variability factor. Instead, the forecast used for DDMRP should reflect the general forecast but include a demand adjustment factor in order to take vacations and other capacity constraints into consideration.