The paper, starting with some preliminary considerations about the new mobile media ecology, in which today's children live, and with some data about the diffusion of mobile internet and smartphones among children, aims to focus on three main points. I first ponder the new opportunities and new risks arising for children from the diffusion of such technologies, and the related usage practices, looking at some preliminary empirical findings, coming from qualitative researches I conducted with some of my colleagues from OssCom (Giovanna Mascheroni and Maria Francesca Murru), about the domestication of smartphones, mobile social networking and location-based practices in the Italian youth context. Then, I explore the new challenges in parental mediation, starting from qualitative evidence gathered from Italian parents. I finish illustrating the contribution of the new European project Net Children Go Mobile towards filling the current knowledge gap regarding European children's mobile internet and convergent mobile media use, risks and online safety


Five patients suffering from cancerous lesions in oral and pharyngeal areas, were studied in this research and in comparing with two normal cases. The major salivary glands were indirectly exposed to irradiation where the patients receiving a radiation therapy which is Cobalt(60). Scintigraphy was performed for both patients and normal cases to visualize the functional capacity and activity of the salivary glands following the high radiation doses. It was found from the results that the dynamic and static scintigrams of the salivary glands which were in the field of irradiation appeared faint in visualization and delayed in perfusion. Also an increase in concentration of the radiotracer 99m Tc-pertechnetate in the gland after physiologic stimulation. This attributed to fibrosis and dysfunction in the glands as a results of the previous irradiation.


A prospective study on the British and Japanese BCG vaccines in newborn infants was carried out in which 317 and 285 infants were randomly allocated and vaccinated with the British and Japanese BCG vaccines, respectively. Four follow-up examinations were carried out with an average of 98% of the study cohort attending all sessions. About half the infants did not produce any visible response at the end of the first week. All, by the end of the third month, had characteristic BCG scars with an average diameter of 4.6 mm. A Mantoux test was carried out at six months. A mean skin induration of 7.2 mm (SD 5.3 mm) was recorded. Significantly higher proportions of infants given Japanese BCG were found to be tuberculin convertors (74.7%) when compared to those given British BCG (51.4%). Breast-feeding practices and the mothers' tuberculin status did not influence markedly their infants response to tuberculin.


Lateral load transfer ratio (LTR) is a criterion that is often used for designing ground vehicle rollover warning technologies to indicate the vehicles rollover status. Generally, LTR index depends on road geometry and vehicle characteristics. However, crosswind loads have the potential to influence the roll stability and therefore the safety of road vehicles particularly large commercial units. This study provides improved methodology for the computation of the LTR index for a high-sided tractor semitrailer vehicle under crosswind conditions. For this purpose, since experiments on real vehicles for active safety technology are difficult to carry out, a coupled simulation of transient crosswind aerodynamics and multi-body vehicle dynamics has been proposed. Based on CFD method, a large-eddy simulation (LES) technique was employed to predict the transient crosswind aerodynamic forces. Then, the predicted aerodynamic forces were input into multi-body dynamic simulations of the tractor semi-trailer vehicle that were performed through ADAMS/Car software. Simulation results show that comparing to the traditional LTR index, the LTR under crosswind is more efficient to detect manoeuvre-induced rollovers. This trailer rollover indicator that has been improved by the proposed methodology can provide more reliable information to the warning or control system in the presence of wind conditions.


The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) includes approximately 316,000 acres of National Forest System (NFS) lands managed by the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Clark and Nye Counties, Nevada (see fig. 1-1). The Spring Mountains have long been recognized as an island of endemism, harboring flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Conservation of the species endemic to and resident in the Spring Mountains is a goal described in the Organic Act for the SMNRA (Public Law 102-63, August 4, 1993).


Many power wheelchair control interfaces are not sufficient for individuals with severely limited upper limb mobility. The majority of controllers that do not rely on coordinated arm and hand movements provide users a limited vocabulary of commands and often do not take advantage of the user's residual motion. We developed a body-machine interface (BMI) that leverages the flexibility and customizability of redundant control by using high dimensional changes in shoulder kinematics to generate proportional control commands for a power wheelchair. In this study, three individuals with cervical spinal cord injuries were able to control a power wheelchair safely and accurately using only small shoulder movements. With the BMI, participants were able to achieve their desired trajectories and, after five sessions driving, were able to achieve smoothness that was similar to the smoothness with their current joystick. All participants were twice as slow using the BMI however improved with practice. Importantly, users were able to generalize training controlling a computer to driving a power wheelchair, and employed similar strategies when controlling both devices. Overall, this work suggests that the BMI can be an effective wheelchair control interface for individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries who have limited arm and hand control.


A guide to assist students enrolled in PSY 132 with links to databases, books, APA citation, and other helpful resources.


In this study, we performed a statistical analysis of 500 Ni Schottky diodes distributed across a 2-inch, n-type 4H-SiC wafer with an epilayer grown by chemical vapor deposition. A majority of the diodes displayed ideal thermionic emission when under forward bias, whereas some diodes showed 'double-barrier' characteristics with a 'knee' in the low-voltage log I vs. V plot. X-ray topography (XRT) and polarized light microscopy (PLM) revealed no correlations between screw dislocations and micropipes and the presence of double-barrier diodes. Depth resolved cathodoluminescence (DRCLS) indicated that certain deep-level states are associated with the observed electrical variations.


This paper presents the review of the ergonomic on workstation for disable student in higher education. Most of disable especially in term of physically disable student has limitation in their study area, which highlighted here as workstation. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the significant role of ergonomic workstation for disable students, which will create an enjoyable learning environment for these students thus enhancing their selfmotivation to learn. This review was conducted by referring on the published journal articles, conference papers, legislation, standards and other reports available on the internet sources. Data from the literature review shows that the number of disabled persons in Malaysia was on the rise from year 2009 till 2012 and they are facing many challenges in obtaining good education to prepare for their future work life. Many students with disabilities drop-out from high school before graduating, leaving them even more unprepared for and less likely to obtain a job. Therefore, implementation lifelong learning programs could provide them the opportunity to learn and equipped them with the appropriate skills and enhanced their survival in this challenging world.


Molecular methods have been progressing at a noticeably rapid rate recently. Obtaining the DNA required for most of these methods is also trying to catch up with this progress. Although many different kits and processes are utilized for DNA extraction, bacterial isolation is still accepted as a gold standard in the diagnosis of brucellosis. This study aims to create a novel way that can be used as an extraction method including bacteriophages. Bacteriophages that are specific to Brucella (B.) genus and species are used commonly in conventional identification and biotyping. However, using bacteriophages in the extraction of the DNA of the target bacteria has not been tried so far. In this study, DNA was extracted from Brucella culture and milk samples through the use of Izat Nagar (Iz) phage with 102–104 routine test dilution. These milk samples were artificially infected by Brucella suis bacteria with the amounts changing between 3.68×109 and 0.44×107 cfu/ml. Positive results were obtained from multiplex PCR by observing the B. suis profile with 7 bands. The methodology of the study consisted of 4 main phases; namely, first centrifugation, phage addition, incubation and the second centrifugation. When the effects of phages on viable bacteria are considered, it might be said that a method, which could be named 'Phage-Exsen', and which supports the gold standard, has been suggested. This method combines the advantages of the conventional method and molecular ones and forms a basis for prospective studies. Moreover, it illustrates the use of bacteriophages for DNA extraction in an unusual way, which might form a new perspective.


Wave energy has the potential to play an important role in the UK's electricity mix in the coming years and it is important to understand the interactions of wave energy converters (WECs) with the environment before considering them viable alternatives for other technologies. The aim of this study was to identify the environmental impacts of the deployment of the Oyster WEC to the EMEC test site at Orkney, UK over its lifetime across three general categories: resource use, human healt h and ecological consequences. A full life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed on two differe nt models of the Oyster WEC: Oyster 1 and Oyster 800. It was found that the latter is a fitting upgrade for its predecessor as it has lower environmental impacts in all categories; howe ver, the high infrastructural needs of the Oyster technology makes its environmental performan ce worse than most other wave energy converters. Key sustainability indicators for energ y converters include carbon footprint and energy payback period, and these were found to be 7 9 and 57 gCO2 eq/kWh and 45 and 42 months for the Oyster 1 and Oyster 800 respectively . Although these are significantly higher than most estimates for other types of renewable en ergy converter, the carbon impacts are still significantly lower than for conventional fos sil-fuelled power generation.


The detection and recognition of events is a challenging problem in video databases. It involves cross-linking and combining information available in multiple modalities such as audio, video and associated text metadata. CueVideo is a system designed for the discovery and recognition of specific events called topics of discussion through advanced video summarization and cross-modal indexing. It supports search for relevant video content through several modes of video summarization including storyboards, moving storyboards and time-scale modified audio summarization. It also enables the recognition and indexing of topical events through cross-model search of audio and video content based on text and image queries respectively.


Introduction Infusion pumps play a key role in the life of patients on home parenteral nutrition. In addition to ensuring the accurate delivery of fluid, pre-set alarms alert patients to potential infusion or catheter related problems. Pumps have typically not permitted analysis of this information meaning that the nature and frequency of alarms is not known. Industry collaboration allowed the development of a unique system which would record details of the type and time of all pump alarms and send a notification email via a secure server to named healthcare professionals caring for the patient. The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics and rate of infusion alarms in a group of patients receiving home parenteral nutrition. Method 20 patients consented to have their infusions monitored. Any non intentional pump alarm (downstream occlusion, upstream occlusion, air in line or "other", such as low battery, door open) generated a real time email alert outlining the time and nature of alarm to the secure email address of the lead investigator. Results 20 patients were monitored for 3 months. Patients infused an average of 5.3 ± 1.7 (2–7) nights per week. During the assessment period 922 email alerts were received, mean 46 ± 41.9 per patient, range 3–160. Adjusting for the number of nights patients infused this equated to a mean of 0.6 ± 0.6 alarms per infusion night. Patients experienced alarms on an average of 27 ± 0.21% of their infusion nights, range 4–76%. Only 1 patient (5%) experienced alarms on more than 75% of their infusion nights. 4 patients (20%) had alarms on less than 5% of their infusion nights. All patients had nights with no alarms. There was considerable variation in the largest number of alarms experienced per single infusion, mean 13.5 ± 19.8, range 1–93. There were significantly more downstream occlusions (n = 622) vs. upstream occlusions (n = 223), air in line (n = 37) or "other" (n = 35) alarms, p = 0.05. Of the "other" alarms, the most frequent was low battery (n = 25), followed by door open (n = 6) and an internal error code requiring maintenance (n = 4). The 2 patients with the highest occurrence of downstream alarms were the only patients that had ports. Conclusion This is the first time that the type and frequency of pump alarms in patients on home parenteral nutrition has been quantified. It demonstrates variation in the number of alarms patients receive, with some patients experiencing very few alarms. The technology provides valuable real time monitoring which could permit early intervention in identifying pump or infusion related problems. Disclosure of interest M. Small: None Declared, M. Kallis Paid Instructor for: Micrel Medical Devices, A. Tsoukalis Employee of: Micrel Medical Devices, J. Cascailh Employee of: Micrel Medical Devices, S. Gabe: None Declared.


By this work, it has been concluded that through halogenated functionalizing of Sulfonamide, Triclosan, Baxdela, Ticarcillin, Ampicillin, and Clavulanic acid we are able to control the treatment of those antibiotics against Gram-positive or negative bacteria of various ecologies. The efficiency of Sulfonamide, Triclosan, Baxdela, Ticarcillin, Ampicillin and Clavulanic acid in viewpoint of NMR shielding and S-NICS methods have been studied as a drug delivery approach. We exhibit some halogenated compounds of those antibiotics, specific chemical derived produced, which are primarily against "gram positive" bacteria (due to higher percentage of "peptidoglycan protein" in the cell membranes). Since Gram-positive bacteria which made of peptidoglycan has a very thick cell wall, some of the antibiotics can penetrate gram (+) and some others cannot. In this work, a list of antibiotics and their halogenated deviated have been set-upped due to the Gram-positive bacteria. A list of halogenated compounds had been reported based on mechanism of the S-layer with two different attachments; for gram (+) it is attached to the peptidoglycan and for gram (-) directly to the outer layers of bacteria.


Stable genotype is necessary for long-term grain security to the farmers. Developing site specific variety is a good way of maintaining diversity and getting potential yield. Simple parameters were estimated based on nine rice genotypes evaluated under low temperature at three different altitudinal environments of Jumla, Lumle and Khumaltar. The genotypes were influenced by the varying conditions and G x E interaction which was highly significant for maturity, bearing tiller, and plant height and grain yield indicating responses of the rice genotype in different environments. These traits are very important for adoption of genotypes in farmers' field. It can be inferred that there is a possibility of developing site-specific variety which are stable and adoptable across these environments. Cold environment rice genotypes of NR10288-015J-15J-7, Chhommrong and NR10293 are most stable and ideally adapted in cold stress environment. NR 10346 is the site-specific genotype adapted to favorable environments. Hence, these genotypes could be used in breeding programs for increasing the productivity of rice in cold environment and for general cultivation as well. Agronomy Journal of Nepal (Agron JN) vol. 4, Page: 1-8, 2016


Shock compaction of Al2O3-ZrO3 binary and ternary powder compositions resulted in dense, one-piece samples without visible cracks for pressures ≤12.6 GPa. Dynamic pressures were achieved by using a 6.5-m-long two-stage gas gun. It is believed that plastic deformation by dislocation slip of α-Al2O3 partially accommodates the tensile stresses created during the release of shock pressures. A fine and narrow particle size distribution is necessary to achieve high bulk densities, but the bulk structural integrity was not strongly related to the distribution. A high-pressure phase of ZrO2, which was formed from the monoclinic polymorph, was found at and above shock pressure of 6.3 GPa. No evidence of the orthorhombic cotunnite structure was observed. Compaction of glassy and submicrocrystalline rapidly solidified starting materials showed good structural integrity, although the bulk density was relatively low. It is not clear what the densificationhonding mechanism is in these materials, although it appears not to be plastic deformation. Microstructural analysis showed that fine and uniform microstructures are retained after compaction at appropriate dynamic pressures for all compositions, with some interparticle cohesion present.


The study analysed the perception of organic manure use among arable crops farmers in Jalingo Local Government Area Taraba State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from 114 respondents who were proportionately and randomly selected. The data were analyzed using descriptive and logit regression model. The results reveal that 86% of the respondents were males, 67.6% were between the ages of 32-50 years, 74.6% were married, 72.8% have house hold size of between 1-10 persons, 88.7% had one form of education or the other, 57%, had 1-5 hectares of land, 51.8% have 1-10 years of farming experience and 52.6% have access to extension service. The findings also revealed that 92% of the arable crops farmers used organic manure. It also revealed that arable crop farmers in the study area have diverse perceptions on organic manure usage. Logit regression results revealed that farming experience, level of education, farm size, extension contacts and distance of farm from home contributed significantly to the use of organic manure in the study area. The findings also shows that odour, encouragement of high growth of weeds by the organic manure, preparation of the compost manure were the very serious constraints to the use of organic manure. Application of organic manure, transportation to farm, accessibility and availability of the organic manure are the serious constraint to the use of organic manure by the respondents. The study concluded that majority of the farmers in the study area were male, youth, married and educated. They are small holder farmers with ample farming experience. They have favourable perception toward the use of organic manure. The more the farmers increase their farm size, the more the tendency of using organic manure. So also, high level of education of farmers and extension contacts tends to influence their organic manure usage. The study recommended that Government should support farmers and introduce policies that will enable the farmers to own and cultivate large scale farms. Extension agents should intensify effort on educating the arable crops farmers on organic manure utilization.


: Fine structure of the subepidermal tissue was investigated in the adult predatory mite Hypoaspis miles (Gamasina: Laelapidae) and bloodsucking mite Dermanyssus gallinae (Gamasinae: Dermanyssidae) of both sexes. This tissue is analogous to the fat body of other arthropodes. The subepidermal tissue of females consists of two types of cells: cells containing a synthetic apparatus and secretory granules; cells containing storage substances. In the subepidermal tissue of H. miles, cells being similar to hemocytes were also observed. As the males of both species have only one cell type in this tissue--the storage one and the females have the secretory cells, it is suggested that the subepidermal tissue of females could probably take part in the vitellogenesis.


A rapid and simple analytical procedure was developed for the determination of aluminium and gallium at ultra-trace concentrations in marine waters. Pre-concentration and matrix removal was achieved via Solid Phase Extraction (SPE), using the Chelex-100 ion exchange resin. Extraction conditions such as sample and column pH (pH 5.5 ± 0.1), sample flow rate (4.00 mL.min-1), as well as the column rinsing solution (1.0 M ammonium acetate) were optimised to ensure quantitative recovery, while minimising sample preparation times. Quantification was conducted using an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) equipped with a collision/reaction cell. Instrumental conditions were optimised specifically for aluminium and gallium detection. Optimisation of the hydrogen and helium collision/reaction cell flow rates enabled polyatomic and doubly charged interferences to be minimised, allowing for accurate quantification at the ng.L-1 level of aluminium in hydrogen or helium cell gas modes, and gallium in hydrogen or no gas modes. The newly developed SPE method was applied to a number of coastal marine samples collected off the coast of Sydney, New South Wales. Dissolved aluminium concentrations ranged from 1.2 μg.L-1 in the Port Hacking estuary, to 7.3 μg.L-1 in Botany Bay. Dissolved gallium concentrations shared a similar trend to aluminium concentrations with the lowest concentrations found in the Port Hacking estuary (1.3 ng.L-1), increasing in both Sydney Harbour and up to a maximum of 110 ng.L-1 in Botany Bay. All samples contained dissolved aluminium concentrations above the current ANZECC marine Environmental Concern Level (ECL) of 0.5 μg.L-1. The method detection limits for aluminium (10 ng.L-1) and gallium (0.1 ng.L-1) are sufficiently low, and the method itself is simple and fast enough to be applied in routine water quality monitoring programs to determine dissolved aluminium at and below the current ANZECC marine Environmental Concern Level (ECL) of 0.5 μg.L-1, as well as dissolved gallium concentrations at and below the current ANZECC freshwater ECL for gallium of 18 μg.L-1 (used in place of a marine ECL due to lack of data).


ABSTRACT The authors analyze the impact of individuals' degree of extraversion and neuroticism on their decision making in an experimental asset market. To establish this link between research on experimental asset markets and social psychology the authors use a unique approach that combines a questionnaire designed to assess individuals' degree of extraversion and neuroticism and an experimental asset market to assess individual financial decision making. The dataset combines 364 undergraduate business students' questionnaire responses and their trading behavior in the asset market. The authors find that extraversion and neuroticism significantly influence individuals' behavior in the experimental asset market. Specifically, more extraverted individuals pay higher prices for financial assets and they buy more financial assets when assets are overpriced than less extraverted individuals do. More neurotic individuals hold less risky assets in their financial portfolios than less neurotic individuals do. Although a large part of the explanatory power appears to be driven by gender differences, the authors still find significant impact of extraversion and neuroticism after controlling for gender effects. The study findings suggest that further research on financial markets could benefit from including personality of market participants as a crucial explanatory factor.


Every scientist, research Institute and all research publications are connected to one another by means of affiliations, co-authorships and citations. The objective of the present study was to visualize linkages among researchers and institutes in environment related publications in Sri Lanka, aiming to identify special patterns and trends. This Webometric and Bibliometric study had three main sections: co-citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, and hyperlink analysis. In addition, an author keyword analysis and a co-citation analysis was conducted to identify different areas within the environmental science field and their relative popularity. The analysis was conducted using data gathered from the abstract and citation database "Scopus", which were published during the 10-year time period from 2006 to 2015.VOSviever was used to generate maps. Gathered data revealed that a total of 10,367 authors were involved in environment related publications. It has been observed that even though the study was conducted using Sri Lankan publications, collaboration between foreign and domestic scientists was higher than Sri Lankan scientists themselves. From subject related linkages within environment related publications, the study revealed 24 different subject areas of interest among scientists based on author keyword analysis and co-citation analysis. Out of that 13.3% and 11.9% of the publications are related to 'Ecology' and 'Agriculture' respectively. It was found that 45 institutes were involved in environment related publications. Analysis revealed that 42.0% of total citation links (Citation Analysis) and 30.9% of total co-authorship links (Co-authorship Analysis) belong to the University of Peradeniya. Citation analysis of authors revealed 3,116 authors (30.1%) with at least one citation link, and 7,251 (69.9%) authors with zero citation links. Highest (10.1%) non-domestic citation links were with United States scientists. Followed by India (6.5%) and Australia (6.3%).Hyperlink analysis revealed a low connectivity between institute web domains with only 11 out of 45 domains that contain more than 10 outgoing 'url citations' to one another. It was evident that the research output in subject areas such as Wildlife Management, Climate Change and Waste Management are much lower in comparison. These institutes and researchers need to keep a much higher web activity and connectivity in order to obtain a better online visibility. Keywords: Webometrics, Bibiliometrics, Co-citation, Co-authorship, Hyperlink analysis


Economists and policymakers have long believed that access to electricity is essential for industrial development, and ultimately growth. Despite this consensus, there is limited evidence of this relationship. In this thesis, I ask whether electrification causes industrial development. I study the effect of the extensive margin of electrification (grid expansion) on the extensive margin of industrial development (firm entry and exit). I combine newly digitized data from the Indonesian state electricity company with rich manufacturing census data. To deal with endogenous grid placement, I build a hypothetical transmission grid based on colonial incumbent infrastructure and geography. The main instrumental variable is the distance to this hypothetical grid. I examine the effect of electrification on local industrial development. To understand when and how electrification can cause industrial development, I shed light on an important economic mechanism - firm turnover. I find that electrification causes industrial development, represented by an increase in the number of manufacturing firms, manufacturing workers, and output. Electrification
increases firm entry rates, but also exit rates. Overall, electrification creates new industrial activity, as opposed to reorganizing it across space. I then evaluate the impact of electrification on firm-level performance. I find that connected firms are larger, more likely to exit, and younger. This is consistent with higher turnover at the market level. I look at the implications of the previous results on industry productivity. Higher turnover rates lead to higher average productivity and induce reallocation towards more productive firms. This is consistent with electrification lowering entry costs, increasing competition and forcing unproductive firms to exit more often. Without the possibility of entry or competitive effects of entry, the effects of electrification are likely to be smaller. I use detailed product-level production data to structurally estimate a quantity-based production function, which when combined with price data, allows me to estimate marginal cost. Electrification substantially reduces the cost of production of existing products and their prices. While mark-ups don't change for incumbent firm-product pairs, the average markup increases in the market. This is due to a selection effect where products produced post access have higher mark-ups. These products are "new" and are more likely to be differentiated.


PURPOSE
To study the effect of insulin therapy on the concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) in the intraocular fluid of rats with alloxan model of diabetes mellitus.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The experiment was conducted on 80 mongrel rats. In 65 rats, the alloxan model of diabetes mellitus was simulated by a single intraperitoneal injection of 100 mg/kg alloxan hydrate saluted in 0.4 ml of citrate buffer. 72 hours after intraperitoneal administration of alloxan monohydrate, these animals were divided into 2 groups. The main group (group 1) consisted of animals with alloxan model of diabetes mellitus, who started daily single intraperitoneal administration of prolonged-acting insulin at a therapeutic dose of 0.9 U/kg Body weight. The comparison group (group 2) consisted of animals with alloxan model of diabetes mellitus who did not receive specific therapy. 15 healthy rats constituted the control group (group 3). Experimental animals were removed from the study on day 31 of insulin therapy. The concentration of VEGF-A was determined in 80-90 μl of intraocular fluid collected from both eyes of each animal.

RESULTS
In the main group, the median of VEGF-A concentration [25th; 75th percentiles] in the intraocular fluid was 140 [136; 210] pg/ml, which is 1.94 times higher than in the comparison group (72 [58; 86] pg/ml) and 1.84 times higher than in the control group (76 [62.5; 88] pg/ml). The concentration of VEGF-A in the intraocular fluid in the main group was statistically significantly higher, as compared with the comparison group (pm-u<0.0004), and compared with the control group (pm-u=0.0045). The comparison group had no statistically significant differences when compared with the control group (pm-u=0.9979).

CONCLUSION
Insulin therapy for 31 days increases the concentration of VEGF-A in the intraocular fluid of rats with alloxan model of diabetes mellitus.


Fixed size without replacement sampling designs with probability functions that are linear or quadratic functions of the sampling indicators are defined and studied. Generality, simplicity, remarkable properties, and also somewhat restricted flexibility characterize these designs. It is shown that the families of linear and quadratic designs are closed with respect to sample complements and with respect to conditioning on sampling outcomes for specific units. Relations between inclusion probabilities and parameters of the probability functions are derived and sampling procedures are given.


Difficult and long-term process of transition which the Republic of Serbia went through in the last more than twenty years, globalization, wars and embargo in the nineties of the 20th century and finally, world economic crisis that began in 2008 have contributed to changes in standard of living, unemployment rate and migration. Under the given circumstances, fruit production represents a potential for mitigating and perhaps even overcoming the unemployment crisis, rural depopulation and increase of income of rural population. Accordingly, there is a need to consider the condition realistically and to identify existing problems, their causes, some possibilities and further tendencies of resources and activities in the fruit production sector in order to develop a highly profitable agricultural branch in our country. Data bases of the Statistical Bureau of the Republic of Serbia, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistical Office of the European Union (Faostat) as well as scientific and research literature from the areas directly or indirectly related to the topic will be used as the sources of data for writing the work. Several methods will be used in the work: content analysis method, descriptive statistics, comparation method and hypothetical-deductive method.


Intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS) may provide a means for improving motor function in people suffering from spinal cord injuries, head trauma, or stroke. The goal of this study was to determine whether microstimulation of the mammalian spinal cord could generate locomotor-like stepping and feedback-controlled movements of the hindlimbs. Under pentobarbital anesthesia, 24 insulated microwires were implanted in the lumbosacral cord of three adult cats. The cats were placed in a sling leaving all limbs pendent. Bilateral alternating stepping of the hindlimbs was achieved by stimulating through as few as two electrodes in each side of the spinal cord. Typical stride lengths were 23.5 cm, and ample foot clearance was achieved during swing. Mean ground reaction force during stance was 36.4 N, sufficient for load-bearing. Feedback-controlled movements of the cat's foot were achieved by reciprocally modulating the amplitude of stimuli delivered through two intraspinal electrodes generating ankle flexion and extension such that the distance between a sensor on the cat's foot and a free sensor moved back and forth by the investigators was minimized.. The foot tracked the displacements of the target sensor through its normal range of motion. Stimulation through electrodes with tips in or near lamina IX elicited movements most suitable for locomotion. In chronically implanted awake cats, stimulation through dorsally located electrodes generated paw shakes and flexion-withdrawals consistent with sensory perception but no weight-bearing extensor movements. These locations would not be suitable for ISMS in incomplete spinal cord injuries. Despite the complexity of the spinal neuronal networks, our results demonstrate that by stimulating through a few intraspinal microwires, near-normal bipedal locomotor-like stepping and feedback-controlled movements could be achieved.


Insulin, as measured by C-peptide, is produced for decades after onset of type 1 diabetes, and even very low levels of C-peptide have clinical significance. In this chapter we show that two distinct pathophysiological subtypes of type 1 diabetic subjects can be distinguished. Early-onset diabetic subjects (≤20 years) have rapid loss of C-peptide, whereas late-onset diabetic subjects (>20 years) have slower C-peptide declines over decades. Early-onset diabetics have significantly lower levels of persistent autoreactive CD8+ T cells than do late-onset diabetic subjects. In late-onset disease, robust production of autoreactive T-cells occurs even in the absence of C-peptide. Metabolomics analysis reveals frequent differences between the two subtypes of subjects in the levels of amino acids, carbohydrates, cofactors, lipids, peptides, and xenobiotics. There are statistically significant differences related to protective islet functions, islet health, development, blood sugar control, and regulation of exocrine pancreas function. Taken together these findings suggest that pancreas pathobiology, as well as durability of abnormal T-cell response should be considered in immune targeting treatments. Therapies aimed at immune defects alone are likely to work best in late-onset diabetics. Therapies aimed at islet cell preservation in early-onset diabetic subjects likely have greater efficacy if administered shortly after disease onset.


In accordance with the classic – developmental – approach to identity originated by Marcia (1966), there are two basic identity formation processes: exploration and commitment. The first step on the way to mature identity is exploration. The aim of the present study was to analyze the dynamics of exploration in the period when it begins: in early adolescence. The participants in the longitudinal study (with three measurements at half-year intervals) were 327 adolescents aged 11 to 15 ( M = 13.26, SD = 1.20) – elementary and middle school students. The sample was balanced in terms of gender (45% were girls). The instrument we used was the Early Identity Exploration Scale (EIES; Klym & Cieciuch, 2015), enabling the measurement of identity exploration in 12 domains: physical appearance, free time, family of origin, work, boyfriend–girlfriend relationships, own opinion formation, perception of own place in the life cycle, self-reflection, future, future family, outlook on life, and attitude toward rules. The analysis was performed using a latent growth curve model. It turned out that in some domains (physical appearance, work, boyfriend–girlfriend relationships, and outlook on life) the level of exploration systematically increased, despite the relatively short time of the study; the domain of boyfriend–girlfriend relationships was the only one in which we found no interpersonal differentiation in the intensity of this increase. It also turned out that there was interpersonal differentiation in the level of exploration at the outset in all the domains analyzed.


The bio-inactive C-6 isomer, [6R]-5-formyl-tetrahydrofolate (5-HCO-H(4)F), is not found in Nature. An oral dose of 13.5 micromol of [6R]-5-HCO-H(4)F in humans results in the appearance of the naturally occurring [6S]-5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate and relatively large amounts of other bioactive folates in plasma. The removal of the asymmetry at C-6 could account for these results. Two oxidized cytochrome c [cyt c (Fe3+)] molecules oxidize one 10-formyl-tetrahydrofolate (10-HCO-H(4)F) with second-order kinetics and a rate constant of 1.3 x 10(4) M(-1) x s(-1). The folate product of this oxidation reaction is 10-formyl-dihydrofolate (10-HCO-H(2)F), which has no C-6 asymmetric centre and is therefore bioactive. The folate-requiring bacterium, Enterococcus hirae, does not normally biosynthesize cytochromes but does so when given an exogenous source of haem (e.g. haemin). E. hirae grown in haemin-supplemented media for 3 days utilizes both [6R]- and [6S]-5-HCO-H(4)F in contrast to that grown in control medium, which utilizes only the [6S] isomer. Since known chemical reactions form 10-HCO-H(4)F from 5-HCO-H(4)F, the unusually large rate constant for the oxidation of 10-HCO-H(4)F by cyt c (Fe3+) may account for the unexpected bioactivity of [6R]-5-HCO-H(4)F in humans and in E. hirae grown in haemin-containing media. We used an unnatural C-6 folate isomer as a tool to reveal the possible in vivo oxidation of 10-HCO-H(4)F to 10-HCO-H(2)F; however, nothing precludes this oxidation from occurring in vivo with the natural C-6 isomer.


In the present study, traditional and hybrid composites were prepared by Hand lay-up molding and investigated. The composites constituents were unsaturated polyester resin as the matrix, 3% and 6% volume fractions of carbon fibers as reinforcement and 3% of Al2O3, Al, Cement and local Gypsum (calcium sulfate anhydrate CaSO4) as filler particles. The investigated physical properties were density, porosity while the mechanical properties were tensile properties, bending modulus of elasticity . The experimental results showed that increased volume fraction of carbon fibers to (6%) led to increase in physical properties (density, porosity. As for the mechanical properties, carbon fiber composites and (3% carbon fibers/Al2O3)-contained hybrid composites gave the higher tensile and fracture strength, carbon fiber then gypsum composites gave the higher bending modulus.


Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA that persists in the lymphoid tissue of patients despite treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may represent extracellular virions or intracellular RNAs residing within HIV-infected cells. To further characterize residual viral transcription, tonsil biopsy specimens from patients receiving long-term HAART, untreated patients, and patients undergoing 2 weeks of structured treatment interruption were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction quantification of virion-encapsidated RNA, intracellular unspliced HIV RNA (HIV UsRNA), multiply spliced HIV RNA encoding tat and rev (HIV MsRNA), and HIV DNA. Tonsil biopsy specimens from viremic patients harbored high amounts of virions, which primarily stemmed from local production, as indicated by a strong correlation of extracellular tonsillar RNA with intracellular HIV-1 nucleic acid levels but not with plasma viremia, and as shown by phylogenetic analysis of clonal env sequences from lymphoid tissue and plasma. In patients receiving HAART, intracellular HIV UsRNA persisted at significantly decreased levels, whereas HIV MsRNA and lymphoid virion levels were depleted. Thus, residual lymphoid HIV-1 RNA in patients receiving HAART indicates attenuated viral transcription in HIV-1-infected cells that lack virion production.


This paper provides a commentary and analysis on the half-century development of social work in Hong Kong, from its origins in the twin roots of Christian ideology accompanying British colonialism and Chinese family values, the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the Asian financial crisis and subsequent economic recession and major cuts in government funding for social welfare. We pointed out that the government had tried to co-opt social work for ideological ends. This aim was not achieved in the 1980s, but the government has succeeded in doing so by imposing the new financial control on the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) after 1997. We argue that the four major political challenges ahead for social workers in Hong Kong relate to social integration, urban maladies, social justice and indigenisation. We propose that a process of re-politicisation of social work by both agencies and practitioners, seeking to reclaim social workers' political and professional role, is necessary in order to ensure a more equitable distribution of community resources in Hong Kong to ensure that all citizens share in its prosperity.


This paper is concerned with a study of the analytic structure of a family of hyperboloidal beams introduced by Bondarescu and Thorne which generalizes the nearly-flat and nearly-concentric mesa beam configurations of interest for advanced LIGO. Capitalizing on certain results from the applied optics literature on flat-top beams, a physically-insightful and computationally-effective representation is derived in terms of rapidly-converging Gauss-Laguerre expansions. A generalization (involving fractional Fourier transform operators of complex order) of some recently discovered duality relations between the nearly-flat and nearly-concentric mesa configurations is obtained. Possible implications for the advanced-LIGO optical cavity design are discussed.


For efficient acquisition of three-dimensional (3-D) subsurface information, quasi-continuous georadar and coordinate data are recorded simultaneously as the georadar antennas are continuously transported across survey areas. A self-tracking laser theodolite with automatic target recognition capabilities has been adapted to serve as a real-time positioning system for the acquisition of the 3-D data. This surveying system provides complete coordinate information with high accuracy. To take advantage of advanced processing procedures the georadar data must be transferred on to a regular grid. A fast two-dimensional Fourier transform technique has been designed for this task. The system has been tested successfully across a number of geological targets in Switzerland. For example, 3-D georadar data were recently collected and processed across a glaciofluvial environment of 25 m x 25 m within a single day. Using the full 3-D information of the data set, channel sediments as well as surface reflections could be clearly identified with the help of time slices.


This paper studies the relationship between the two main dimensions of early-life environment, namely disease burden (measured by infant mortality) and economic conditions (measured by income or consumption per capita), and height and body-mass index (BMI) of recent cohorts of young adult males in Italy. By combining high-quality micro-level data on height and weight with regional- and province-level information, we are able to link individual height and BMI at age 18 to regional and provincial averages of environmental variables in the year of birth.Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that, in rich low-mortality setting, the scarring effects of childhood disease dominate selection. We also show that both income and disease matter, and their relative importance differs depending on the outcome considered and the available background information. In particular, we find that income matters more than disease for height, while the opposite is true for BMI. Finally, using detailed province-level information, we show that income per capita is a proxy for a variety of environmental indicators that are highly correlated with economic conditions.


Every year many European universities actively recruit students from non-European markets, with considerable success. The number of non-European students coming to Ireland each year for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes continues to increase across a variety of disciplines. This paper will focus on doctoral supervision. A considerable amount has been written in other countries on the issue of cross-cultural PhD supervision. Valimaa (1998) argues that all new postgraduate students encounter two new cultures when embarking on graduate study – which he identifies as the discipline-based culture, and the institution-based culture. Chen, Absolom and Holbrook (2003) argue that in addition international students must cope with the differences between the home and host cultures. Their study focuses on Chinese PhD students studying in Australia and indicates these students often experience a considerable change in culture when, as evidenced by their comments: They expected a hierarchical distance to be maintained between student and supervisor They believed that students should never challenge the supervisor's ideas Their experience was that supervisors did not realize the difficulties students faced and co-operation was a new form of learning for Chinese students. Robinson-Pant (2009) identifies the wide variations in cultural attitudes to the concept of critique, and discusses the differing cultural attitudes to the acceptability of questioning the views of supervisors, and established authorities. A further point many authors have in common is the debate on the extent to which language barriers result in supervisors taking on an additional role as editor for international students, and whether or not this is appropriate. This paper presents a review of this literature and then reflects on the particular experiences of supervising international students in an Irish setting.


Comparative international tests of students' achievements have become increasingly popular over the past decade. An outcome of this widespread practice is the tendency of various countries to evaluate their national status according to their pupils' international ranking in such achievement tests, partly due to the common belief that high ranking is an indication of the nation's future ability to compete in the global market. Using PISA 2000 and PISA 2006 data, the present study aims to show that the low achievements of Israeli pupils were to be expected, and that their average scores are a reflection of the economic and demographic characteristics of their country. Our findings suggest that the public debate in Israel on school achievements has been magnified out of all proportion. We also discuss the educational policy which derives proposals for educational reform from a conception of globalisation of education. This policy focuses on the setting of standards for educational achievements aimed at improving pupils' place on the international scale. Finally, we claim that the focus on the international grading of educational achievements deflects public attention from an understanding of the significance of inequalities within the country.


An exposure-effects model is described for calculating copper effect concentrations for benthic organisms in sediments with varying copper-binding properties. It is based on a bioenergetic-based kinetic model that describes the rate of assimilation of copper by benthic organisms from dissolved and particulate phases. During acute exposures, the total copper assimilated by the organisms was used as a measure of the organisms' exposure to bioavailable copper, and toxicity occurs when the copper exposure exceeds a threshold value. Exposure-effects models were developed for nine benthic organisms and were used to predict the effect of sediment-water partitioning (Kd) and copper assimilation from ingested solids on toxic effects and how these factors will influence derived sediment quality guideline (SQG) concentrations. Species sensitivity distributions were used to calculate SQG concentrations for copper for sediments of varying copper binding properties. The modeling indicated that "single value" SQG concentrations would be ineffective for predicting the toxicity of metals in sediment. It is proposed that, for all contaminants (not just metals), a better approach would be to have SQG concentrations, or ranges, that are applied to different sediment types. SQGs should account for contaminant exposure from both water-filtration and particulate-ingestion exposure routes, as can be achieved by models of sediment-water contaminant partitioning (Kd) and the contaminant assimilation efficiency (AE) of ingested particles. The study indicates that improved mechanistic models of contaminant exposure, as influenced by both organism physiology and sediment properties, are needed to predict toxic effects in sediments.


AIM
Exenatide therapy is indicated in type 2 diabetes after failure of oral antidiabetic agents (OAD). The aim of this observational prospective study was to assess efficacy of exenatide, in improving HbA1c of at least of 1% (responders) in type 2 diabetic patients treated previously with insulin.

METHODS
Thirty-six patients (HbA1c >7.5%), with chronic bad glycemic control, were hospitalized to improve glycemia using transient continuous insulin infusion followed by administration of exenatide and OAD agents. In these patients, insulin had been introduced previously because of OAD failure without any sign of severe insulin deficiency.

RESULTS
On the 27 patients analyzed at 3 months, 19 patients were responders (HbA1c: M0: 9.9±1.7%; M3: 7.6±1.2%). Among the 8 non-responders, only 4 deteriorated their HbA1c. After 9 months, 10 patients remained Responders (HbA1c: 7±0.9%). Predictive factors for an improvement of glycemic control were: diabetes duration shorter than 12 years, ratio fasting glycemia/C-peptide less than 1, fasting C-peptide higher than 2.0 µg/L and mean capillary blood glucose after 3 days of exenatide lower than 200 mg/dL. These criteria remained valid in case of a high HbA1c at baseline.

CONCLUSION
In patients with no signs of insulin dependence and in case of insulin failure, exenatide associated to OAD may be tried in order to improve glycemic control, this objective was reached by 70% of our patients. Predictive factors for good response, easily available in clinical practice, may help therapeutic choices.


Abstract Double-armed and tetra-armed cyclen-based cryptands (1a–1d and 2) that bridge two aromatic rings by diethyleneoxy and triethyleneoxy units were prepared. The CSI-MS of 1:1 mixtures ([Ag+]/[ligand]) indicated that these new cryptands form 1:1 complexes with Ag+. The log K values for the interaction between Ag+ and 2 was greater than those of 1a–1d, double-armed cyclens (3a–3c and 4), and tetra-armed cyclen (5). The Ag+-ion-induced 1H NMR spectral changes suggest that the Ag+–π interactions of the Ag+ complexes with the cryptands (1a–1d and 2) are stronger than those in Ag+/double-armed and tetra-armed cyclens. To visualise the Ag+−π interactions, the isosurfaces of the LUMO and HOMOs of the Ag+ complexes were calculated at the B3LYP/3–21G(*) theoretical level. The LUMO of the Ag+ ion is distorted by interaction with the HOMOs of the aromatic side arms. The calculations reveal Ag+−π interactions between the Ag+ ion and the aromatic side arms, and these are shown graphically.


This research is descriptive research at PT. PG Kebon Agung Malang with headline Applying of Model Balanced Scorecard as a Means of Management Performance Measure at PG Kebon Agung Malang. Intention of this research is to know applying of Balanced Scorecard in assessing performance at PT. PG Kebon Agung Malang Technique applied to know method Balanced Scorecard in assessing company performance, if it is applied at PT. PG Kebon Agung Malang in range of time 2007-2009 that is monetary in perspective applies indicators indikator Return On Investment, Return On Asset, Growth. In perspective of customer applies indicators Customer Retention, Customer Acquisition, Customer Complain. In perspective, processed internal business applies indicator Minimize Error Rate and Rework. At in perspective processed learning and grows applies Employee Retention, Employee Training and Absenteeism. Result of calculation with method Balanced Scorecard, indicates that performance in PT. PG Kebon Agung Malang at in perspective of standard is unfavorable which caused by level of weather causing quality and sugar cane capacity declines. This thing shown by third of indicators applied. At other in perspective third told to be good enough, but company need to pay attention to existence of sigh from customer and damage of product causing lowering of quality of commodity exchange incorporated. Training performed requires increasing matter about way of better production. Now at PT. PG Kebon Agung Malang has not applied Balanced Scorecard. Based on result of analysis at each in perspective in method Balanced Scorecard enables to apply of method Balanced Scorecard in assessing company performance. Based on above conclusion, implication writer can that in assessing the performance, better at PT. PG Kebon Agung Malang applies method Balanced Scorecard. This thing caused in appraisal of performance with method Balanced Scorecard is not only sees just result but also process in yielding the result. Keyword: Equipment, Measure


This study was designed to compare outcome in terms of disease-free survival (DFS) in women with histologically negative axillary lymph nodes and documented low proliferative rate cancer to other well-defined prognostic factors including type of adjuvant treatment. Between 1988 and 1998, we studied 669 patients with invasive node-negative breast cancer up to 5 cm in size and low proliferative rate measured by flow cytometry to determine S-phase fraction (SPF) or by histochemistry (Ki67/MIB1). At a median follow-up of 53 months, 5-year DFS for the entire group was 94% and did not differ significantly by type of systemic adjuvant treatment: none (133 patients, 95% DFS), tamoxifen (441 patients, 94% DFS), or chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (95 patients, 92% DFS). In a multivariate prognostic factor analysis, only tumor size was significant; 5-year DFS was 96% for T1N0 cancer versus 89% for T2N0 cancer (P = 0.01). We have prospectively confirmed that a low rate of proliferation as measured by SPF or MIB1 determination confers an excellent prognosis in invasive node-negative breast cancer up to 5 cm in size, regardless of adjuvant treatment.


The dynamical properties of finite dynamical systems (FDSs) have been investigated in the context of coding theoretic problems, such as network coding, and in the context of hat games, such as the guessing game and Winkler's hat game. The instability of an FDS is the minimum Hamming distance between a state and its image under the FDS, while the stability is the minimum of the reciprocal of the Hamming distance; they are both directly related to Winkler's hat game. In this paper, we study the value of the (in)stability of FDSs with prescribed interaction graphs. The first main contribution of this paper is the study of the maximum stability for interaction graphs with a loop on each vertex. We determine the maximum (in)stability for large enough alphabets and also prove some lower bounds for the Boolean alphabet. We also compare the maximum stability for arbitrary functions compared to monotone functions only. The second main contribution of the paper is the study of the average (in)stability of FDSs with a given interaction graph. We show that the average stability tends to zero with high alphabets, and we then investigate the average instability. In that study, we give bounds on the number of FDSs with positive instability (i.e fixed point free functions). We then conjecture that all non-acyclic graphs will have an average instability which does not tend to zero when the alphabet is large. We prove this conjecture for some classes of graphs, including cycles.


This survey highlights the major issues concerning privacy and security in online social networks. Firstly, we discuss research that aims to protect user data from the various attack vantage points including other users, advertisers, third party application developers, and the online social network provider itself. Next we cover social network inference of user attributes, locating hubs, and link prediction. Because online social networks are so saturated with sensitive information, network inference plays a major privacy role. As a response to the issues brought forth by client-server architectures, distributed social networks are discussed. We then cover the challenges that providers face in maintaining the proper operation of an online social network including minimizing spam messages, and reducing the number of sybil accounts. Finally, we present research in anonymizing social network data. This area is of particular interest in order to continue research in this field both in academia and in industry.


We studied immunoglobulin variable heavy-chain (IGHV) repertoire and mutational status in 553 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) from the Mediterranean area to gain insight into the potential pathogenetic role of antigenic stimulation. The most commonly represented IGHV genes mirrored the usage of normal B cells, with the exception of IGHV1-18, IGHV3-30.3, and IGHV4-59 that were underrepresented. The IGHV3-21 gene, frequently expressed in Northern European CLL, was present only in 16 cases (2.9%). Based on HCDR3 cluster analysis, cases using IGHV3-21 could be grouped in 2 subsets of similar frequency. The first one (7 of 16 cases) carried a similar HCDR3 amino acid sequence (common-HCDR3 subset), virtually identical to the Scandinavian IGHV3-21 CLL. These cases used the IGHJ6 gene; 4 of 7 were unmutated; 6 of 7 carried the V(lambda)2-14 (IGLV3-21) light-chain gene with a similar LCDR3. All expressed CD38 and had a progressive disease. The second subset (9 of 16) was characterized by heterogeneous HCDR3 rearrangements (nonhomogeneous-HCDR3 subset), diverse IGHJ and IGV light-chain gene usage, variable IGHV mutational status (5 of 9 unmutated), variable CD38 expression, and variable clinical course (4 of 9 progressed). The first subset suggests a potential antigenic element rarely encountered in the Mediterranean area, possibly responsible for a negative outcome. The second subset may reflect the physiologic heterogeneity of expression of IGHV3-21 rearrangements in the normal repertoire and is characterized by a variable clinical outcome.


P-glycoprotein is an efflux transporter belonging to the ATP Binding Cassette (ABC) family of transporters and is encoded by Multidrug resistance (MDR1) gene. It is primarily involved in efflux of xenobiotics that permeate the external boundaries into the tissues. Chemotherapeutics are target oriented drugs for destruction of malgrowing cells to combat critical illness (viz., cancer, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, etc.) which are thus interpreted as harmful by the MDR system. This might cause overexpression of p-glycoprotein in such organs. Overexpression of p-glycoprotein rather than up-regulation of ABC-transporters are associated with resistance of  tumours  to multiple chemotherapeutic agents, thus reducing their bioavailability in the specific organs. The present review thus attempts to coalesce this expression data in solid tumors which maybe intrinsic to the organ or an after-effect of chemotherapy, thus altering the pharmacodynamics of drug permeation. For this purpose, peer reviewed publications have been analysed to delineate the range of fluctuation in p-glycoprotein expression in different organs after therapeutic intervention. It is extensively distributed and highly overexpressed in all neural tumors, reproductive and genito-urinary cancer, sarcomas, oral squamous cell carcinoma, NSCLC, hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic tumor, etc. On the other hand, p-glycoprotein expression in cancer of the larynx, small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), osteosarcoma, rhabdosarcoma, often show substantial decrease in expression, though not in all studies. There was no consistent increase or decrease in p-glycoprotein expression in all the tumors.


In a study sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Pacific Northwest Laboratory has developed and applied a methodology for deriving plant-specific risk-based inspection guidance for the auxiliary feedwater (AFW) system at pressurized water reactors that have not undergone probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). This methodology uses existing PRA results and plant operating experience information. Existing PRA-based inspection guidance information recently developed for the NRC for various plants was used to identify generic component failure modes. This information was then combined with plant-specific and industry-wide component information and failure data to identify failure modes and failure mechanisms for the AFW system at the selected plants. H. B. Robinson was selected as one of a series of plants for study. The product of this effort is a prioritized listing of AFW failures which have occurred at the plant and at other PWRs. This listing is intended for use by NRC inspectors in the preparation of inspection plans addressing AFW risk-important components at the H. B. Robinson plant.


In the black helping tradition, spirituality is the sense of the sacred and divine. It is a critical value deeply rooted in the African worldview and used by African Americans as a tool for survival. Provocative and well-written, Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition in Social Work is the first book to draw a relationship between social work, spirituality, and the helping tradition among African Americans. Offering a wealth of historical detail and narrative, Elmer and Joanne Martin explore spirituality as a foundation for understanding people of African descent and as a skill to evoke self-help. This groundbreaking book raises compelling questions about the limitations and strengths of mainstream social work in issues of black spirituality and its role in strengthening the black community today.


Decision and policymakers need urban footprint data for monitoring human impact on the urban ecosystem for politics and services. Deriving urban footprint is a challenging work since it has rapidly changing borders. The existing methods for deriving urban footprint map based on raster images have several steps such as determination of indicators and parameters of image classification. These steps limit the process by an operator since they require human decisions. This paper proposes a new rule-based approach for obtaining urban footprint based on Delaunay triangulation among selected centroids of roads and dead-end streets. The selection criterion is determined as maximum road length by using standard deviation operator. To produce urban footprints, this method needs no other data or information apart from road network geometry. This means that the proposed method uses only intrinsic indicators and measures. The experimental study was conducted with OpenStreetMap road data of Washington DC, Madrid, Stockholm, and Wellington. The comparisons with authority data prove that the proposed method is sufficient in many parts of urban and suburban lands.


Several fertile pinnules with abaxially borne sporangia have been discovered in calcareous marine nodules from the Middle or Late Eocene Appian Way locality on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Fertile pinnules are attached in groups of two or three. They are deeply lobed, with each lobe rolled toward the abaxial surface and the entire pinnule rolled toward the abaxial surface to form an irregularly globose structure. Sporangia occur abaxially and form two rows over the entire surface of each pinnule lobe. The midrib of each pinnule lobe is thickened, forming a receptacle from which broadly attached sporangia and numerous paraphyses diverge. As is characteristic of many schizaeaceous ferns, sporangia of the fossil are flask shaped with a short stalk and have a uniseriate, transverse annulus at the apex. Spores are tetrahedral and trilete, like those of the type species for the extinct genus Paralygodium. The new specimens are described as Paralygodium vancouverensis sp. nov. and are compared to both living genera of schizaeaceous ferns and the extinct species Paralygodium yezoense and Anemia poolensis. The unique combination of characters displayed by each of the fossil species reveals the presence of several extinct schizaeaceous lineages and supports interpretations that the diversity of Schizaeaceae s.l. was greater during the Cretaceous and Paleogene than it is today.


P-ferrocene-SA/acetylferrocene-CS Bipolar Membrane (BPM) was prepared with phosphorylated agent as the cation exchange layer, and chitosan (CS) modified with acetylferrocene as the anion exchange layer. Zinc/Nickel alloy layer was placed on the surface of cation exchange layer to realize zero polar distance in the cathode chamber. The 2, 3, 5, 6-tetrachlopyridine (2,3,5,6-TCP) was electro-synthesized by reducing of pentachloropyridine(PCP). At the current density of 30mA·cm-2, the current efficiency was 70.1% and the yield of 2, 3, 5, 6-TCP was up to 96%. Compared with the traditional method, the electro-generation technology greatly eliminated the environmental pollution.


Historically, research into the role of the brand in fashion has been influenced by general marketing management interpretations, focused mainly on the brand's commercial function as related to market performance and as a promotional tool. Some established research, informed by design and fashion-specific interpretations of the brand, has explored the relationship between fashion branding and fashion design. However, a review of the fashion branding literature demonstrates that the entire scope of the brand in fashion and its diversity of roles for a fashion company has not been fully explored or applied within an industry-specific context. This commentary explores the scope and roles of the fashion brand within the parameters of a selection of the author's past publications and provides a new critical and holistic account of the brand, incorporating the corporate and creative functions it plays within fashion businesses. In turn, the commentary informs the emergence of branding as a dedicated sub-set of fashion studies research.

Various qualitative methods are employed within this investigation, including the use of focus groups, interviews and observational and action-based research. A consideration of alternative means of branding research in context of the wider study of fashion provides an additional critical perspective to the work. The findings confirm the significance of the brand within fashion practice and theory and could arguably serve to inform the corporate and creative aspects of fashion branding practice. In terms of contributing to academic understanding, the commentary proposes a new and more holistic account of the fashion brand incorporating its creative and corporate functions, and identifies opportunities for the further study of the fashion brand.


This dissertation is concerned with the relationship between humans and animals. In particular, it explores human relations to farm animals, and especially cattle. The empirical and theoretical work is concerned with how animals appear in discourses and how they form part of human life worlds.

Three debates about recent animal-related issues are examined: the introduction of the cattle breed Belgian Blue in Sweden, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as the ?mad cow disease?), and the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001. These issues are primarily described from a Swedish perspective and the material is mainly taken from Swedish news media. This material is used to discuss animals in discourse. A qualitative interview study with cattle farmers in southern Sweden has been carried out in order to discuss the relations between humans and animals that become possible when the animals are part of everyday human life.

Subjects like what processes and factors affect our understanding of animals, how different attitudes and behaviours toward animals are justified, and how we perceive and acquire knowledge about them are investigated.

The theoretical framework of the empirical study and the subsequent discussion are inspired by social constructivism and discourse theory on the one hand, and existential phenomenology on the other.


The heavy rain that hit Western Japan in July 2018 triggered the worst rain-related disaster in the Heisei era, with the total of dead and missing persons exceeding 230, mainly in the Hiroshima and Okayama Prefectures. At several locations along Oda River (of the Takahashi river system) and its tributaries, dikes were breached due to large-scale flood, leaving 51 persons dead. This paper aims to shed light on the scale of inundation along Oda River and its tributaries and identify the characteristics of and critical factors for human damage. Field surveys were conducted to measure flood marks in flooded areas and river channels, and gauge the extent of damage to people and property. The surveys found that a large area was inundated on the north side of Oda River, with an inundation depth exceeding 5 m for 1 km in the south-north direction and 3.5 km in the east-west direction, which made vertical evacuation of residents difficult. The findings that about 80% of the dead were found on the first floor of their houses, with those who had lived in a one-story house and those who had lived in a two-story house accounting for 50% each of the deceased, indicate how difficult even vertical evacuation was. The findings appear to be related to the considerable inundation depth and high rate of water level increase, along with the fact that the majority of the deceased were elderly people.


This study reviewed the concept of electronic banking (e banking), examined its prospects for Nigerian banks and discussed associated risks. It discovered that the increased application of e banking worldwide is a function of improvement in information and communications technology (ICT). E banking, it also observed, holds enormous potentials for the banking industry in Nigeria. To achieve these potentials, the paper advocated engendering confidence in the e banking mechanism by addressing security concerns and providing necessary infrastructure like steady electric power supply.


We extend counterfactual imaging to polarimetry of a polarising object. This allows imaging of these samples with far less absorbed energy - a key concern when imaging with high-frequency radiation.


We investigated mechanisms resulting in low bone mineral density (BMD) and susceptibility to fracture by comparing noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in biopsies of non–weight‐bearing (NWB) iliac (n = 84) and weight bearing (WB) femoral (n = 18) postmenopausal bone across BMDs varying from normal (T‐score > −1.0) to osteoporotic (T‐score ≤ −2.5). Global bone ncRNA concentrations were determined by PCR and microchip analyses. Association with BMD or fracture, adjusted by age and body mass index, were calculated using linear and logistic regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) analysis. At 10% false discovery rate (FDR), 75 iliac bone ncRNAs and 94 femoral bone ncRNAs were associated with total hip BMD. Eight of the ncRNAs were common for the two sites, but five of them (miR‐484, miR‐328‐3p, miR‐27a‐5p, miR‐28‐3p, and miR‐409‐3p) correlated positively to BMD in femoral bone, but negatively in iliac bone. Of predicted pathways recognized in bone metabolism, ECM‐receptor interaction and proteoglycans in cancer emerged at both sites, whereas fatty acid metabolism and focal adhesion were only identified in iliac bone. Lasso analysis and cross‐validations identified sets of nine bone ncRNAs correlating strongly with adjusted total hip BMD in both femoral and iliac bone. Twenty‐eight iliac ncRNAs were associated with risk of fracture (FDR < 0.1). The small nucleolar RNAs, RNU44 and RNU48, have a function in stabilization of ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), and their association with fracture and BMD suggest that aberrant processing of rRNAs may be involved in development of osteoporosis. Cis‐eQTL (expressed quantitative trait loci) analysis of the iliac bone biopsies identified two loci associated with microRNAs (miRNAs), one previously identified in a heel‐BMD genomewide association study (GWAS). In this comprehensive investigation of the skeletal genetic background in postmenopausal women, we identified functional bone ncRNAs associated to fracture and BMD, representing distinct subsets in WB and NWB skeletal sites. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


Thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) are cellular homologues of the viral erythroblastic leukemia oncogene (v-erbA). TRs (c-crbA isoforms) are derived from two separate gene loci in mammals: α and β. Through a series of knockout experiments in mice in which one or several of the TR isoforms were deleted, it has been demonstrated that the TR-β isoforms control central regulation of thyroid-stimulating hormone. Of these isoforms, TR-β2 is the most important in mediating negative feedback control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. Further analysis of TR knockout animals revealed, however, that they exhibited a much milder overall phenotype than hypothyroid animals, indicating that receptor loss was not equivalent to ligand loss in vivo. To understand this apparent paradox, we generated animals expressing a non-T3 binding receptor (Δ337T) from the TR-β allele. These mice displayed a complete hypothyroid phenotype, demonstrating that the unliganded TR mediates the effect of hypothyroidism. Because this mutant TR constitutively binds to nuclear coreprssors, it also suggests that this class of proteins is essential for mediating hypothyroidism in vivo.


The relationships between patterns and processes lie at the core of modern landscape ecology. These dependences can be quantified by using indices related to the patch-corridor-matrix model. This model conceptualizes landscapes as planar mosaics consisting of discrete patches. On the other hand, relief variability is a key factor for many ecological processes, and therefore these processes can be better modeled by integrating information concerning the third dimension of landscapes. This can be done by generating a triangle mesh which approximates the original terrain. The aim of this methodological paper is to introduce two new constructions of triangulations which replace a digital elevation model. These approximation methods are compared with the method which was already used in the computation of 3D-landscape metrics (firstly for parameterized surfaces and secondly for two landscape mosaics). The statistical analysis shows that all three methods are of almost equal sensitivity in reflecting the relationship between terrain ruggedness and the patches areas and perimeters. In particular, either of the methods can be used for approximating the real values of these basic metrics. However, the two methods introduced in this paper have the advantage of yielding continuous approximations of the terrain, and this fact could be useful for further developments.


The Unreliability of the C language has been in the forefront due to multiple memory access violations. Various methods have been devised to detect memory errors at runtime but are unable to detect all of them. These hurdles give rise to a various problems such as manual code modification, usage of metadata which is unsuited and high runtime outlays. This type of overwhelming conditions give rise to various compiler analysis tools which ensures the memory safety of C programs at runtime while avoiding any possible shortcomings and also help to lower the runtime cost of attaining memory safety.


Thomas Nagel is widely recognized as one of the top American philosophers working today. Reflecting the diversity of his many philosophical preoccupations, this volume is a collection of his most recent critical essays and reviews. The first section, Public and Private, focuses on the notion of privacy in the context of social and political issues, such as the impeachment of President Clinton. The second section, Right and Wrong, discusses moral, political and legal theory, and includes pieces on John Rawls, G.A. Cohen, and T.M. Scanlon, among others. The final section, Mind and Reality, features discussions of Richard Rorty, Donald Davidson, and the Sokal hoax, and closes with a substantial new essay on the mind-body problem. Written with characteristic rigor, these pieces reveal the intellectual passion underlying the incisive analysis for which Nagel is known.


Crowd-based requirements engineering (CrowdRE) is promising to derive requirements by gathering and analyzing information from the crowd. Setting up CrowdRE in practice seems challenging, although first solutions to support CrowdRE exist. In this paper, we report on a German software company's experience on crowd involvement by using feedback communication channels and a monitoring solution for user-event data. In our case study, we identified several problem areas that a software company is confronted with to setup an environment for gathering requirements from the crowd. We conclude that a CrowdRE process cannot be implemented ad-hoc and that future work is needed to create and analyze a continuous feedback and monitoring data stream.


Projecting onto irregular textured surfaces found on buildings, automobiles and theatre stages calls for the development of radiometric and geometric compensation algorithms that require no user intervention and compensate for the patterning and colourization of the background surface. This process needs a projector–camera setup where the feedback from the camera is used to learn the background's geometric and radiometric properties. In this thesis, radiometric compensation, which is used to correct for the background texture distortion, is discussed in detail. Existing compensation frameworks assume no inter– pixel coupling and develop an independent compensation model for each projector pixel. This assumption is valid on background with uniform texture variation but fails at sharp contrast differences leading to visible edge artifacts in the compensated image. To overcome the edge artifacts, a novel radiometric compensation approach is presented that directly learns the compensation model, rather than inverting a learned forward model. That is, the proposed method uses spatially uniform camera images to learn the projector images that successfully hide the background. The proposed approach can be used with any existing radiometric compensation algorithm to improve its performance. Comparisons with classical and state-of-the-art methods show the superiority of the proposed method in terms of the perceived image quality and computational complexity. The modified target image from the radiometric compensation algorithm can exceed the limited dynamic range of the projector resulting in saturation artifacts in the compensated image. Since the achievable range of luminance on the background surface with the given projector is limited, the projector compensation should also consider the contents of the target image along with the background properties while calculating the projector image. A novel spatially optimized luminance modification approach is proposed using human visual system properties to reduce the saturation artifacts. Here, the tolerance of the human visual system is exploited to make perceptually less sensitive modifications to the target image that in turn reduces the luminance demands from the projector. The proposed spatial modification approach can be combined with any radiometric compensation models to improve its performance. The simulated results of the proposed luminance modification are evaluated to show the improvement in perceptual performance. The inverse approach combined with the spatial luminance modification concludes the proposed projector compensation, which enables the optimum compensated projection on an arbitrary background surface.


This paper utilizes a joint (ordered probit) occupational attainment and wage determination model to examine the channels through which occupational segregation and pay discrimination affect the overall gender wage gap in different sectors of ownership in Egypt. Using a large data set drawn from a survey of Egyptian establishments in the organized sector, the model estimates confirm that gender-based pay discrimination is small in the government sector in Egypt and quite high by international comparisons in the private sector. Yet, even prior to the large-scale privatization in 1990s, occupational segregation was quite prevalent in state owned enterprises, amounting to half of the discrimination component. These findings highlight that any expected disproportionate impact of economic liberalization on women is more likely to come from civil service reform as opposed to privatisation of public enterprises in Egypt.


To the Editor.— I wish to clarify minor inaccuracies in an interesting report entitled "Caustic Burns From Contact With Wet Cement."1The wordcementin the title and case studies should probably be replaced withconcrete, since cement per se is unlikely to be used in construction without the addition of sand and gravel. Furthermore, as concrete hardens, the calcium hydroxide reacts with the admixed sand to form calcium silicate, which is noncaustic. This reaction is highly exothermic and can easily add thermal injury to the chemical injury. Finally, the solubility of calcium hydroxide in water is remarkably low, and the presence of a slurry in contact with the liquid is almost certainly a prerequisite for denaturing of protein and for the wounds pictured in this article.


The objective of this investigation was to develop and test an automated selective fruit-thinning system for blossom removal in peach tree orchards. The proposed system needed to visualize the tree fruit canopy, discriminate targets (blossoms), mechanically reach the canopy from a stable platform, and remove unwanted targets. The system consisted of kinematic targeting and heuristic programming, a robotic arm, and a pomologically designed end-effector. A quarter-scale robotic arm based on a Fanuc M-16iL manipulator model and rotating brush end-effector were designed and constructed for this study. The normal and tangential force requirements to remove a peach blossom from a shoot were also evaluated. The resultant blossom force tests yielded a range of 0.44 to 0.57 N for the normal force and 0.49 to 0.71 N for the tangential force. The precision and accuracy of the robotic arm and end-effector placement were then examined. A kinematic positioning test for the robotic arm consisting of 120 repetitions fell within the first standard deviation of a proposed ±2.54 cm precision standard. With a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of ±8.96%, the robotic arm had a consistent range of -1.26 cm to +1.57 cm vector magnitude per target location. For the end-effector positioning test, the brushes reached the proposed ±2.54 cm target area 100% of the time. The deviation from the target to the center of the brushes was within the first standard deviation with a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of ±10.33%, and the end-effector brushes had a consistent range of -2.97 cm to +3.04 cm per target location. The selective spatial thinning heuristic algorithm was also tested. The heuristic test consisted of a series of branches that varied in length from 10, 15, and 20 cm spanwise across the branch, with three artificial blossoms placed every 5 cm. The end-effector successfully removed the unwanted blossom in each case.


ABSTRACT The present study assessed the social media use behavior of luxury hospitality facilities and offers suggestions to improve organic post effectiveness. All five-star tourism facilities operating in Turkey were incorporated into the study and publicly available post data on Facebook accounts of 441 facilities (out of a total of 612) were examined in the high tourist season (August) for one month. Data on 2,012 Facebook posts were obtained manually and filtered down to 1,847. The collected post data were subsequently coded using a content analysis form and analyzed via ordinal regression. The results highlighted the positive effects of interactive content and vivid content as well as the significance of the content type in achieving higher interaction among followers. The facility location and category (hotel, holiday village, thermal hotel) also emerged as significant factors affecting follower interactions.


Quokkas (Setonix brachyurus) are small macropodid marsupials from Western Australia, which are identified as of conservation concern. Studies on their blood analytes exist but involve small sample sizes and are associated with very little information concerning the health of the animals. Blood was collected from free-ranging quokkas from Rottnest Island (n = 113) and mainland (n = 37) Western Australia, between September 2010 and December 2011, to establish haematology and blood chemistry reference intervals. Differences in haematology and blood chemistry between sites (Rottnest Island v mainland) were significant for haematology (HMT, p = 0.003), blood chemistry (BLC, p = 0.001) and peripheral blood cell morphology (PBCM, p = 0.001). Except for alkaline phosphatase, all blood chemistry analytes were higher in mainland animals. There were also differences with time of year in HMT (p = 0.001), BLC (p = 0.001) and PBCM (p = 0.001) for Rottnest Island quokkas. A small sample of captive animals (n = 8) were opportunistically sampled for plasma concentrations of vitamin E and were found to be deficient compared with wild-caught animals. Fifty-eight of the 150 quokkas were also tested for the presence of Salmonella, microfilariae, Macropodid herpesvirus-6, Theileria spp., Babesia spp., trypanosomes, Cryptococcus spp. and other saprophytic fungi. All eight infectious agents were detected in this study. Infectious agents were detected in 24 of these 58 quokkas (41%), with more than one infectious agent detected for all 24 individuals. Salmonella were detected concurrently with microfilariae in 8 of these 24 quokkas, and this mixed infection was associated with lower values across all haematological analytes, with Salmonella having the greater involvement in the decreased haematological values (p < 0.05). There was no evidence for an effect of sex on HMT, BLC and PBCM. Our data provide important haematological and blood chemistry reference intervals for free-ranging quokkas. We applied novel methods of analyses to HMT and BLC that can be used more broadly, aiding identification of potential disease in wildlife.


Abstract To investigate the characteristics of biological decomposition in a municipal solid waste landfill, laboratory simulated samples and full‐scale actual samples excavated from landfills in Taiwan were used. Nitrogen gas was produced continuously in the simulated samples. Although nitrate or nitrite could not be detected in the leachate, this did not indicate that nitrate or nitrite was not available in the solid waste. Landfills both produce and consume H2 under anaerobic conditions. In the suspension experiment, where H2/CO2 were used as substrate, significant acetate concentration accumulated concomitantly along with hydrogen consumption. Relatively low production of methane was observed in both the simulated sample and actual samples. Collectively, acetate synthesis was the dominant reaction in the simulated sample and actual samples for hydrogen consumption. This study was the first paper reporting that the homoacetogenesis was the significant process in the landfill for hydrogen utilization, which was validated by the consumption of 4.01–5.43 moles of hydrogen per mole acetate formed. The significant acetate accumulation indicated that the homoacetogens outcompeted the hydrogentrophic methanogens in the landfill samples. Metabolically versatile homoacetogens can use many more substrates simultaneously than their competitor which is bound only to a very few substrates. The metabolic versatility of homoacetogens could be the main reason for their success in the landfill


Base map from USGS Northwood 7.5' Digital Raster Graphic (IGS GIS file DRGB29.TIF) which was scanned from the Northwood 7.5' Topographic Quadrangle map, published by US Geological Survey in 1972 Topographic contours and land features based on 1971 aerial photography, field checked in 1972 Land elevation contours (10' interval). Iowa Geological and Water Survey digital cartographic file Northwood_BedrockGeology2011.mxd, version 9/28/11 (ArcGIS 10.0) Map projection and coordinate system based on Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 15, datum NAD83. The map and cross section are based on interpretations of the best available information at the time of mapping. Map interpretations are not a substitute for detailed site specific studies. 0 1 2 3 4 0.5 Kilometers 1:24,000 ± Dcv Dlc 0 1 2 3 4 0.5 Miles Dlgc Kw


The discovery that extrapair copulation (EPC) and extrapair paternity (EPP) are common in birds led to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the evolution of mating systems. The prevalence of extrapair matings in pair-bonded species sets the stage for sexual conflict, and a recent focus has been to consider how this conflict can shape variation in extrapair mating rates. Here, we invert the causal arrow and consider the consequences of extrapair matings for sexual conflict. Extrapair matings shift sexual conflict from a simple two-player (male vs. female) game to a game with three or more players, the nature of which we illustrate with simple diagrams that highlight the net costs and benefits of extrapair matings to each player. This approach helps identify the sorts of traits that might be under selection because of sexual conflict. Whether EPP is driven primarily by the extrapair male or the within-pair female profoundly influences which players are in conflict, but the overall pattern of conflict varies little among different mating systems. Different aspects of conflict are manifest at different stages of the breeding cycle and can be profitably considered as distinct episodes of selection caused by conflict. This perspective is illuminating both because conflict between specific players can change across episodes and because the traits that evolve to mediate conflict likely differ between episodes. Although EPP clearly leads to sexual conflict, we suggest that the link between sexual conflict and multiple paternity might be usefully understood by examining how deviations from lifetime sexual monogamy influence sexual conflict.


Background: Infections are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. The immunosuppressed patients might be at risk for serious influenza-associated complications. In this case report, a man with severe novel H1N1 pneumonia with no mortality and a good prognosis is introduced.

Case Report: A 37-year-old man with a medical history of SLE, antiphospholipid syndrome, cerebrovascular accident and recurrent deep venous thrombosis presented with complaints of the rapid progressive fever, severe dyspnea, productive cough and progressive hemoptesis admitted to Kashan Shahid-Beheshti hospital in November 2009. The chest x-ray revealed a bilateral alveolar infiltration. Based on epidemiological evidence among some hospitalized patients compatible with H1N1 influenza as well as their unresponsiveness to antibiotic therapy, a nasopharyngeal specimen was obtained for RT–PCR and treatment with broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents and Oseltamivir was started. After 4 days of antiviral treatment, fever was removed and dyspnea was decreased. Moreover, RT-PCR was positive for H1N1 and after 10 days the patient was discharged with a good condition.

Conclusion: According to the results, prompt diagnosis and treatment of H1N1 pneumonia in an immunosuppressed condition can prevent the morbidity and mortality of disease.
Keywords: Systemic lupus erythematosus, Pneumonia, H1N1 influenza,


Higher Education Institutions shifted from the traditional face-to-face delivery of instruction to online classes to cope with the situation we are in right now, the global pandemic COVID-19. This shift in the educational landscape sustains the continuity of the teaching and learning process, and this change led the students to new experiences and perceptions towards learning Physics. This qualitative study used Active Interviewing and followed a Straussian grounded theory design to collect and code interview data to identify emergent themes and generate a theory. The research participants exposed four emergent themes and the main category regarding their experiences and perceptions in Learning Modern Physics in an Online Class. "Students' Resilient Mechanism in Learning Modern Physics" emerged as the core category, and the entailedfour4 essential themes were: (1) Positive Outlook towards Learning Modern Physics Online, (2) Challenge to Overcome, (3) Efforts to address challenges, and (4) Adaptation to the online learning of Modern Physics. The grounded theory of Positivity-Persistence-Adaptation: Students' Resilient Mechanism in learning modern physics in the new normal of delivering instruction reveals that in this trying time, students are trying to be optimistic towards learning (Positivity), manage to adapt to changes and challenges (Adaptation) and keep the determination in this trying time to sustain and continue learning during this time of pandemic (Persistence). In summary, the theory highlights students' positive attitudes as they continue the quest to learn modern physics in this new normal educational setup. Students' persistence towards learning in this time of pandemic is very important since this is a propelling mechanism that will enable learners to succeed in their learning and studies despite the challenges they are facing.


Achievement testing is the centerpiece of the state accountability systems mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The public attention directed toward achievement scores, however, has largely eclipsed the crucial role that graduation rates play in NCLB accountability. As a result, we are only now beginning to appreciate the complexities of several key issues. Those include the origins of the law's concern about graduation rates, the status of graduates and dropouts for NCLB accountability, the consequences of using different ways to define and measure graduation rates, and state strategies for incorporating graduation rates into their federal accountability plans. Drawing on recent research at the Urban Institute, this brief clarifies these issues and offers a foundation of knowledge upon which to ground ongoing discussions and analyses of the law.


In our environment, a manufacturer procures material from a supplier and the supplier brings it in bulk to a warehouse. This material is then consigned to the plant area, where it is utilized as an input of the production process. This consignment process is outsourced by the manufacturer and a transportation company is selected via a bidding mechanism. Primarily, we consider the problem of designing parameters of a given contract for the transportation activity. We define three subproblems within the contract design problem that interact with each other to a certain extent. These subproblems are the vehicle dispatching problem, inventory control problem, and contract value problem. We define these problems, exploit their interactions, and propose solution methods. Moreover, we present an approach to design such transportation contracts, which is based on solving these subproblems in an order for an adequate number of contract parameter combinations and selecting the one that minimizes expected total costs for the manufacturer.