Background: Drug addiction is an ever-increasing problem in the United States. Though many people seek treatment for their addiction, many return to their addiction post treatment exposing an inadequacy of current treatment methods. This research hypothesizes that the inclusion of yoga with traditional treatment of addiction benefits current treatment programs a form of complementary therapy.
Methods: Peer-reviewed journal articles within the past ten years were used in this systematic literature review. The articles were taken from the following databases: PubMed, ProQuest, and Science Direct.
Results: A total of 15 peer reviewed journal articles were included in this systematic review. Each article focused on yoga as treatment for drug addiction. Many of the articles cited positive associations between the inclusions of one or all disciplines of yoga with traditional treatments for drug addiction.
Conclusion: Yoga has shown to have positive effects in the treatment of drug addiction as a supportive tool to keep individuals from relapsing into substance abuse. Further research is required to confirm these results.


Motion capture is a commonly used technique in the movie and computer gameindustries to record animation data. The systems used in these industries areexpensive high end systems that often use markers on the actor together withseveral cameras to record. Reasonable results can be achieved using no markersand a single webcam. In this report we will take a look on such a system andthen use it together with our own animation software. The final product willbe placed in an exhibition environment, restricting the level of interaction withthe user that is practical.


The Lake Victoria Basin is home to largest freshwater lake (Lake Victoria; LV) in Africa and second largest in the world. Each year on the order of 1,000 fisherman are lost on LV during intense night-time thunderstorms. Despite this, until recently, understanding of the processes contributing to heavy rainfall events was very limited. In this study we present a 10-year (2006-2015) convection permitting (3km grid-spacing) simulation (CPS) of the Lake Victoria Basin using the RegCM version 4.7.0. A lake model is utilized in order to couple the lake regions with RegCM, which has been shown to be of great importance for simulating a realistic lake surface temperature (LST) over LV. The simulated LST from the CPS shows a general warm bias when comparing to ARC Lake observations, however the annual cycle of LST is well represented by the CPS. In the coarser simulation the LST has a large cool bias because of the absence of any lake coupling and this contributes to a large dry bias over LV. The CPS shows a much-improved seasonal rainfall pattern over LV, however there is a general overestimation of the rainfall by the CPS during the peaks in the rainy seasons (March-May; October-December). The CPS shows an improved ability to produce extreme rainfall (>100mm/day) over the western portion of the lake which is consistently found in satellite and in-situ observations. The distribution of rainrates over LV in the CPS is much closer to satellite derived rainfall observations compared to the coarse simulation, demonstrating the improvements made to the simulation of cloud microphysics processes when moving to convection permitting grid-spacing. Mesoscale circulations associated with the diurnal cycle over LV are an important driver of intense night-time thunderstorms. An analysis of the diurnal rainfall cycle over LV shows that the CPS well represents the timing of nocturnal rainfall over the lake which is associated with a strong landbreeze, however the daytime peak in rainfall over the land surrounding the lake is too early. Extreme nocturnal rainfall events over the lake in satellite observations show a clear migration from the previous daytime peak in rainfall westward onto the lake during the night. This suggests a connection between extreme rainfall events at night and the preceding daytime peak in rainfall over land. In the CPS these daytime peaks over the land occur too early and the lakebreeze circulation appears weak compared to the nocturnal landbreeze which is very prominent. The coarse resolution lake coupled simulation shows a surprisingly robust ability to simulate seasonal and annual rainfall associated with mesoscale lake circulations compared to the CPS. The improvement over the coarser simulation seems to be in the CPS’s ability to capture convection scale interactions which may be important for extreme rainfall events.


A data mule is a mobile device that can traverse a wireless sensor network field to move near stationary sensor nodes that are spatially dispersed for collecting data from them. Use of the data mule can significantly reduce energy consumption of sensor nodes compared to common multihop forwarding schemes. However, it also increases the latency of gathering data of all nodes. In this paper, under the assumptions that the data mule can sequentially move from a specific location to another specific location and that sensor nodes can adjust their radios to different power levels, we study the data mule path planning optimization (DMPPO) problem to achieve two goals under one constraint. The two goals are (1) to plan the path for the data mule to move near every sensor node to collect data so that the data mule traversal time (or latency) is minimized, and (2) to adjust the sensor nodes transmission ranges so that the total sensor node energy consumption is minimized. The constraint is that the data mule must move near each sensor node at least once for gathering data. The DMPPO problem is a multi-objective optimization problem; it is challenging since a sensor node can shrink its transmission range to reduce energy consumption but the range shrinking requires the data mule to move more for data gathering, which incurs longer latency. We propose a genetic algorithm using heuristics to find Pareto optimal solutions to this problem. We also simulate the proposed algorithm to show its effectiveness.


Abstract : In this research we have submitted seven elements in order to identify the most powerful elements that increases the chances of detecting fraud or tax evasion, from retroactive control. Elements that have submitted in the research are:Professionalism of the officer who realizes control or tax audit; Integrity of  Officer  that realizes control or audit; Information from their competitor, with the aim of informing about tax evasion; Information from a dissatisfied employee or former employee; Information from freight forwarding; Informatat from accountant; Information from the data exchange with the export country. Elements that we presented, are the most powerful elements that increases the chances of detection of tax evasion, such as: professionalism of the officer who implements control or audit, which follows two other elements, which are: Integrity of official that realizes control or audit and the information are data exchange with the export country, these are the three most powerful elements until four other elements outlined in the survey have less impact compared with the three elements mentioned. The purpose of the paper is to Find the most powerful elements that increase the probability of detecting of tax evasion or tax fraud from retroactive controls. Methodology: Survey was realize through questionnaires, which were distributed 232 questionnaires. Questionnaires were distributed mainly to the importing companies, officers that realize controls to businesses, customs agents, accountants and international transport companie. Key words: probability of detecting, tax evasion, control or audit


Recently attempts have been made to extend the Dolev-Yao security model by allowing an intruder to learn weak secrets, such as poorly-chosen passwords, by off-line guessing. In such an attack, the intruder is able to verify a guessed value g if he can use it to produce a value called a verifier. In such a case we say that g is verifier-producing. The definition was formed by inspection of known guessing attacks. A more intuitive definition might be formed as follows: a value is verifiable if there exists some computational process that can somehow recognise a correct guess over any other value. We formalise this intuitive definition, and use it to justify the soundness and completeness of the existing definition. Specifically we show that a value is recognisable if and only if the value is either Dolev-Yao deducible or it is verifier-producing. In order to do this it was necessary to clarify the definition of verifier production slightly, revealing an ambiguity in the original definition.


There is plenty of evidence across the EU to suggest that young people from poorer backgrounds are less likely to attend tertiary education than their better-off peers. This correlation is often used to justify monetary transfers to families with students. It is not clear, however, that these differences in attendance are caused by income itself rather than by parental ability, motivation, education, and other aspects of the young person's experience which differ between families, but are not a direct result of income. Controlling for observable family characteristics is a useful first step. But further developments are needed as families potentially differ in unobservable ways that are correlated with both income and attendance. In this paper we use families with several children to correct for unobserved time-invariant family fixed effects. Our results, based on the exploitation of micro data from the mid 1990s, suggest the absence of short-term parental income effects in Belgium and Germany, small positive effects in Poland and in the UK, and sizeable positive effects in Hungary, though the latter are probably not very representative due to a small sample size.


In order to study the capability of amplifying the input optical signal of certain materials, we investigate the Helmholtz equation which describes a system of inhomogeneous media. After exploring its SU(1,1) algebraic structure, we obtain the exact solutions of this Helmholtz equation by means of the algebraic dynamical method. Based on the exact solutions, we analyse the capability of optical amplifiers, which is an important issue in modern optical communication. We take the wave number k0(z) and the expansion coefficient k2(z) to be the trigonometric functions, exponential functions and power functions of variable z, respectively. It is found that the material following the exponential functions is the best one for optical amplifiers.


The Qaidam basin is the largest topographic depression inside the Tibetan plateau. Because of its central position, understanding the tectonic origin of the Qaidam basin has important implications for unraveling the formation mechanism and growth history of the Tibetan plateau. In order to achieve this goal, we analyzed regional seismic-reflection profiles across the basin and a series of thickness-distribution patterns of Cenozoic strata at different time slices. The first-order structure of the basin is a broad Cenozoic synclinorium, which has an amplitude ranging from >16 km in the west to 48% in the west to −15 s −1 to 1.3 × 10 −17 s −1 . The eastward decrease in upper-crustal shortening requires a progressive shift in crustal-thickening mechanisms across Qaidam basin, from dominantly upper-crustal shortening in the west to dominantly lower-crustal shortening in the east. Although sedimentation began synchronously at 65–50 Ma across the entire basin, the initiation ages of the southern and northern basin-bounding structures are significantly different; deformation started at 65–50 Ma in the north and at 29–24 Ma in the south. This information and the existing inference that the uplift of the Eastern Kunlun Range south of Qaidam basin began after 30–20 Ma imply that the Paleogene (65–24 Ma) Qaidam and Hoh Xil basins on both sides of the Eastern Kunlun Range may have been parts of a single topographic depression, >500 km wide in the north-south direction between the Qilian Shan and Fenghuo Shan thrust belts in the north and south. The development of this large Paleogene basin in central Tibet and its subsequent destruction and partitioning by the Neogene uplift of the Eastern Kunlun Range requires a highly irregular sequence of deformation, possibly controlled by preexist-ing weakness in the Tibetan lithosphere.


When evaluating genetic resources and forming core subsets, gene bank accessions are classified into homogeneous and well-separated groups. The modified location model (MLM) is used in the context of a two-stage clustering strategy in which initial groups are first defined using a hierarchical clustering method (such as Ward) and then the MLM is applied to the groups that are formed (Ward-MLM). The MLM allows assuming correlations (between attributes) and variances (of the attributes) among subpopulations (SPs) to be equal (homogeneous, HOM) or different (heterogeneous, HET). The objectives of this study were (i) to compare the effect of assuming homogeneity with the effect of assuming heterogeneity of variance-covariance matrices on the classification of two simulated data sets using the Ward-MLM strategy; and (ii) to make the same type of comparison using data from maize (Zea mays L.) accessions from nine countries. When simulated HOM data were analyzed with the HOM model and the simulated HET data were analyzed with the HET model, some of the original SPs were represented in the resulting clusters but others changed and formed more separated groups. The HET model always formed the most compact and separated clusters, even for HOM data. Classification of 10 real data sets showed that the HET model produced more compact and well-separated groups than the HOM model. However, only the HOM model identified and grouped a small number of observations with very peculiar attributes. Although the HET model may suffice in most situations, the recommended strategy when classifying genetic resources would be to use both models.


Within a fairly short period of time, traffic congestion has eclipsed virtually every other concern -- be it crime, unemployment, or air pollution -- as America's number one urban problem. Public opinion polls in San Francisco, Atlanta, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and at least a dozen other urbanized areas show citizens are more fed up with congestion than with anything else. In the Bay Area, congestion has been pegged by areawide residents as the number one public menace for four years straight, outdistancing its closes rival -- air pollution -- by more than two-to-one. Such widespread dissatisfaction reflects, in part, the fact that congestion now afflicts nearly all commuters to some degree, whether headed downtown, reverse-commuting, or traveling on a secondary road. While only a decade ago congestion was the scourge of downtown commuters, today it pervades the freeway networks of most large and medium-sized cities. Within limits, congestion is desirable -- a sign that a region is socially and economically vibrant and has not overinvested in highways. Recent public outcries, however, suggest that congestion has exceeded acceptable limits and may be approaching the intolerable. Just how bad have things gotten? In 1975, 41 percent of rush-hour freeway traffic in the nation's urbanized areas flowed under 35 mpg, what traffic engineers define as congested; by 1984, the share had catapulted to over 56 percent. Houston had the worst congestion in 1984 when expressed in delay per mile of travel, followed by New Orleans, New York, Detroit, and San Francisco (see Table 1). Los Angeles experienced the most overall delay on its freeways, 78.3 million hours, which translates into roughly one-half billion dollars of lost time, or about $67 per capita per year. Statistics aside, perhaps as good a barometer of just how serious congestion has become has been the wide media attention it has received: one observer documented over a twofold increase in the amount of newspaper space devoted to traffic congestion just in the last three years. Citizens are also lashing out against congestion, underscored by this letter-to-the-editor of the Washington Post from a reader who no doubt had reached wit's end, warning others that "if they must travel to Tysons Corner (in Northern Virginia) in the near future, they should carry adequate food and water to last until rescue parties can reach them"


Citizenship education has become the focus of renewed interest internationally as governments are struggling with issues of national identity in an era of globalisation where there is much 'talk' of threats to the legitimacy of nation states. Within this context, the Australian Commonwealth Government took another step in an accelerating trend of becoming involved in curriculum policy with the introduction of its citizenship education curriculum package, Discovering Democracy, in the late 1990s. Legally, education in Australia is a State government responsibility. However, over the last half century, the Commonwealth Government has increasingly set education agendas, justified in terms of'the national interest' and has achieved them using financial levers which result from the vertical fiscal imbalance between the Commonwealth and the States. This article examines citizenship curriculum policy processes and practices associated with the enactment of the Commonwealth's Discovering Democracy curriculum package in the State of Western Australia (WA). The study employed a framework of a policy trajectory extending from the Commonwealth Government (macro level) through State (WA) policy enactment (meso level) to individual classrooms (micro level). Documents and interviews with key players, including the Commonwealth Minister for Education, were the main data sources. Analysis of the policy process revealed the emergence of power struggles as a result of the provision of a national curriculum on citizenship education by the Commonwealth Government, and these struggles occurred at national, State and local levels. These power struggles resulted in extensive transformation of Commonwealth and State level policy intent as the policy enactment proceeded at the classroom level. The study demonstrates the need for better alignment of conceptualisations and discourses in the processes of curriculum development if a greater congruence is to be achieved between expectations and realities in curriculum renewal. Meta‐level issues to emerge from the data, in particular the nature of policy consultative processes and the construction of teacher professional identity, have broader implications for education policy processes in other domains and in other countries.


In this paper, nonlinear oscillators under quadratic nonlinearity with stochastic inputs are considered. Different methods are used to obtain first order approximations, namely; the WHEP technique, the perturbation method, the Pickard approximations, the Adomian decompositions and the homotopy perturbation method (HPM). Some statistical moments are computed for the different methods using mathematica 5. Comparisons are illustrated through figures for different case-studies.


This quality improvement project aimed to improve routine well-child exam rates in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics and Texas Health Steps recommendations through the implementation of a parental notification system. Missed well-child appointments impact health care by disturbing continuity of care and complicating preventive care services. Implementation of the parental notification system during June 2017 to August 2017 consisted of 100 patients from birth to 18 years of age for scheduled well-child visits in a pediatric clinic with a large Hispanic and Medicaid population. Interventions consisted of staff training, reminder phone calls 24 to 48 hours prior to the appointment, distribution of appointment reminder cards, follow-up on missed appointments, and a parental caregiver questionnaire. Overall, 88% received an appointment reminder with 65% having spoken directly to a staff member and 23% receiving a voicemail. The well-child completed rate was at 64% with a well-child no-show rate of 21%, a cancellation rate of 9%, a reschedule rate of 6% and a recall rate of 62%. The parental notification system was found to not have an effect on scheduled well-child delivery (p = .243), however well-child visits were more likely to be completed when a parent spoke directly to a clinical staff member versus voicemail (p = .004). The increase in the well-child cancellation and reschedule rates provided the clinic with opportunities to schedule additional appointments. Parents found the reminders to be helpful, would like to continue receiving them, and recommend them.


"… the street is my Vatican" – Painter Ernst Meyer in Rome Painter Ernst Meyer (1797-1861) belongs to a group of Danish artists commonly known as 'the Golden Age Painters'. Their painting techniques differ, but most of them spent periods of varying length in Rome, mostly during the 1830s and 1840s where they experienced and rendered the people and scenery of Italy. Ernst Meyer was born in the Holsteinian city of Altona and came from a Jewish family. He trained as an artist in Copenhagen with the help of his cousin, the well-known merchant Mendel Levin Nathanson, who was the driving force behind the Jewish emancipation in Denmark. After a number of years in the artistic milieu of Munich, Meyer arrived in Rome in 1824, at a time when sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen had achieved his fame and was now the centre of attention in the German and Danish artistic groups. Thanks to his Danish-German background, Ernst Meyer was on good terms with both nationalities, but he also acquired good contacts with the Italian population of the small mountain villages around Rome. Among Ernst Meyer's works, he is especially remembered for his genre paintings depicting life in the streets of Rome. In addition, he produced a large number of drawings and watercolours of landscapes and monuments. Ernst Meyer's Jewish descent had little influence on his art and his life. Only one of his paintings contains a 'Jewish' element, being painted outside the ghetto of Rome. Writers such as H.C. Andersen and Aron Meir Goldschmidt, on the other hand, were significantly affected by their meeting with the ghetto Jews of Rome. Although Ernst Meyer, too, reflected on his Jewish ancestry, his thoughts did not manifest themselves in his artwork, which remained influenced more by his Italian impressions than by his Danish-Jewish background. Despite being seriously ill, Ernst Meyer was a lively encounter for the group of travelers to Rome all his life, but he was prone to depression at times. Ernst Meyer seems to have found spiritual refuge in Italy, which he sometimes considered leaving, but never did. Apart from occasional journeys to Denmark and other European countries, Ernst Meyer remained in Italy until his death in 1861.


As technology advances, wafer-level packages have emerged in many different varieties. Computing has evolved significantly over the years. Chips integrated with additional functionalities to improve performance, processing challenges, storage and networking has become standard. The development of the packages such as SiP, fcBGA, PoP, 2.5D, etc. which utilizes multiple or larger die sizes, increased bump counts, lower standoff height and a large variety of components on the packages have reduced the effectiveness of cleaning. The common packaging interconnect is using solder and die attached to a substrate by a solder reflow process. The flux residues after soldering pose a cleaning challenge, especially underneath these extremely low-profile components. As standoff height reduces, flux residues have less area to outgas during reflow. Typically, the standoff height is <100μm and it continues to shrink further. For some components such as QFNs, LGAs, the large thermal pad at the center of the component body poses barriers to the complete removal of the flux residues. Partially removed or untouched residues can lead to reliability failures as consequences of electrochemical migration and dendrite growth as well as electrical leakage currents. Effective cleaning improves product reliability by ensuring optimal condition for subsequent processes, such as wire bonding, underfill and molding. This presentation discusses the breakthrough in cleaning challenges for advanced packaging, especially when addressing factors like high density assemblies, latest flux formulation and low standoff heights. The most common cleaning system used for cleaning advanced packaging substrate is a conveyorized spray-in-air inline cleaning system. The discussion extends to how effectively the cleaning process needs to be balanced, in terms of chemical, mechanical and thermal energies. We will also explore the key cleaning parameters that lead to successful removal of flux residues from underneath the low-profile components. For example: nozzle types, spray pressure, chemical exposure time, cleaning temperature and type of cleaning agent. We will conclude with several customer case studies to validate the above findings.


This dissertation uncovers a variety of mutually beneficial reasons for Germany's interactions with Iran. A genealogical study starting with Germany's efforts as part of World War One, traces a long lineage of cultural work (Kulturarbeit), and cultural transfer (Kulturtransfer), which unfolded throughout parts of the twentieth century. A German sponsored Persian-Committee was created in Berlin to concretize the favorable reputation of Germany in Iran, in contrast to Great Britain and Russia's imperialist ambitions as part of the Great Game. The power grab of the Nazis constituted an ideological highpoint in which a common Aryan identity was used by the Nazis to differentiate themselves racially from lower races. Iranians utilized a self-identification as Aryans, based on their pre-Islamic history, in order to create a renewed sense of historical importance. Another ideological affinity between Iran and Germany can be traced to Martin Heidegger and Ernst Junger's experimental critique of modernity, which was adapted into an anti-Western ideology in the service of political Islam. Parts of their work, critical of a nihilistic West, was misappropriated by Iranian intellectuals of the 1960 and 70s into a critique of colonialism and the destructive consequences of Western imperialism to Iranian nationhood and culture. This led to the coining of the term Gharbzadegi, most often translated as Westoxification or Weststruckness to indicate an inauthentic relationship between Iran and its Western counters. This study of the convergences of thought between Iranians and Germans reveals that they were as much rooted in geopolitical as in ideological preoccupations. The chapters of this dissertation review and analyze the historical roots of affinities between the two nations and their transformation from the beginning of the twentieth century to the decades before the Iranian revolution. If at different historical junctures Germans attempted to carve out a favorable cultural relationship with Iranians, Iranians in turn used and adapted German concepts in their own national self-configuration


Purpose: The thrust of this paper is to present a method for improving the accuracy of automatic indexing of Chinese-English mixed documents. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the inherent characteristics of Chinese-English mixed texts and the cybernetics theory, we proposed an integrated control method for indexingn documents. It consists of qfeed-forward controlq, qin-progress controlq and qfeed-back controlq, aiming at improving the accuracy of automatic indexing of Chinese-English mixed documents. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of our proposed method. Findings: This method distinguishes Chinese and English documents in grammatical structures and word formation rules. Through the implementation of this method in the three phases of automatic indexing for the Chinese-English mixed documents, the results were encouraging. The precision increased from 88.54% to 97.10% and recall improved from 97.37% to 99.47%. Research limitations: The indexing method is relatively complicated and the whole indexing process requires substantial human intervention. Due to pattern matching based on a bruteforce (BF) approach, the indexing efficiency has been reduced to some extent. Practical implications: The research is of both theoretical signifi cance and practical value in improving the accuracy of automatic indexing of multilingual documents (not confined to Chinese-English mixed documents). The proposed method will benefit not only the indexing of life science documents but also the indexing of documents in other subject areas. Originality/value: So far, few studies have been published about the method for increasing the accuracy of multilingual automatic indexing. This study will provide insights into the automatic indexing of multilingual documents, especially Chinese-English mixed documents.


Complex parameters in the MSSM lead to mixing and interference between the two heavier neutral CP-even and CP-odd Higgs bosons.
These effects can become very large in the case of almost degenerate states. In a CP-violating benchmark scenario, we investigate phenomenological implications of such interferences in view of the LHC searches for heavy Higgs bosons decaying to a pair of tau-leptons and produced in gluon fusion and in association with b-quarks. Strongly destructive effects leave parameter regions unconstrained that would be regarded as excluded if no interference terms were taken into account.


Previous quantitative research on ethnic civil war relies on macro-level proxies in an attempt to specify the conditions under which ethnic minorities rebel. Going beyond an exclusive focus on minorities, the present study employs Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a way to model ethnic center—periphery dyads that confront governments with excluded groups. We construct and analyze a new dataset of geo-referenced politically relevant ethnic groups, covering the entire world during the period from 1951 through 2005. Our results show that the conflict probability of marginalized groups increases with the demographic power balance compared to the group(s) in power. Furthermore, the risk of conflict increases with the distance from the group to the capital, and the roughness of the terrain in the group's settlement area. We also find that while the results for demographic group strength hold for all ethnic civil wars, the geographic factors apply for territorial ethnic conflicts only.


AbstractIn Le Corbusier's urban plans, the conventional public space of the city is gradually dismembered until it coalesces with the natural surroundings, giving rise to the concept of tapis-vert. Its ultimate expression is found in the Athens Charter. By investigating Le Corbusier's formative years, this article aims to clarify issues of form and meaning involved in this process. The focus on this early period reveals that the territorial scale of the alliance between city and nature is a central theme of Le Corbusier's concerns with urban planning, preceding the influence of Latin America in the 1930s which is often seen as its underlying momentum. The focus on form and meaning reveals the inextricable links between this alliance and Le Corbusier's existential idea of unity. The tapis vert of the Athens Charter will thus be seen as a conceptual argument of the holistic world-view of Le Corbusier's urban visions: the binding element of meaningful architectural forms and natural world ultimately rooted i...


There are vascular risk factors known to be associated with stroke. These risk factors have been shown to either directly or indirectly lead to stroke. The risk factors include hypertension (HT), diabetes mellitus (DM), smoking, hyperlipidaemia, ischemic heart disease (IHD) and atrial fibrillation (AF). Studies have shown that carotid atherosclerosis is a cause of stroke. Extracranial carotid atherosclerosis accounts for up to 40% of the ischemic strokes in the Western countries. The latest stroke guidelines recommend the routine use of Ultrasound Carotid Doppler to assess for extracranial carotid artery ath- erosclerotic diseases (carotid intima media thickness, plaques, carotid stenosis) in these patients. A previous study emphasized the value of carotid ultrasonography in the detec - tion of early extracranial carotid atherosclerosis.


Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM) has taken the emergency medicine and critical care worlds by storm in the past decade. This article represents one perspective on the stages of transition for FOAM from its humble beginnings as a grassroots movement to the more recent multiauthor blogs that are described in the peer-reviewed literature. In this article, the authors describe the following four distinct waves of people within the movement, with each wave creating a new stage in the evolution of the FOAM community: Creation by the Founders, Adoption by the Enthusiasts, Structure and Formalization by the Structuralists, and Engagement and Activity by the End Users. The authors contextualize some of the phenomena that have been observed within this field and highlight challenges for the field moving forward.


In recent decades, the creation of conservation areas has been a significant and contested trend in resource peripheries around the globe, embracing the "remapping" of resource extents, tenures, and values and thereby land use patterns and regional development trajectories. Environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) have emerged as key actors in the conflicts underlying this remapping, as advocates of environmental values and opponents of vested economic and political interests engaged in large-scale resource commodification. Remapping is contentious because it is inescapably normative, rendering moral judgments and alterations of property rights and the meaning of sustainable development. The outcomes of remapping are highly contingent, driven by environmental bargaining processes that describe the formal and informal interactions among ENGOs, industrial interests, different levels of government, and other actors with conflicting interests, strategies, and alliances. This article explores how conflicts were resolved in the creation of the Great Bear Rainforest on British Columbia's central coast. Conceptually, the stakeholder model approach to resource conflict is elaborated by emphasizing the roles of ENGOs as advocates and representatives of environmental values within scientific boundary organizations created specifically to be key facilitators in the bargaining process. The study draws on forest policy documents, records of negotiation, surveys of the region's ecological and socioeconomic structures, and field visits. The analysis reveals the Coast Information Team as the multirepresentative scientific boundary organization that developed a shared, accepted multilayered geographic information system of the region. This map provided a "shared currency" and the basis for agreement regarding (1) land use zoning at multiple scales, (2) ecosystem-based management, and (3) conservation mapping.


Glucocorticoids exert their effects on gene transcription through ubiquitous receptors that bind to regulatory sequences present in many genes. These glucocorticoid receptors are present in all cell types, yet glucocorticoid action is controlled in a tissue-specific way. One mechanism for this control relies on tissue-specific transcriptional activators that bind in the vicinity of the glucocorticoid receptor and are required for receptor action. We now describe a gene-specific and tissue-specific inhibitory mechanism through which glucocorticoid action is repressed by a tissue-restricted transcription factor, hepatocyte nuclear factor-6 (HNF-6). HNF-6 inhibits the glucocorticoid-induced stimulation of two genes coding for enzymes of liver glucose metabolism, namely 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. Binding of HNF-6 to DNA is required for inhibition of glucocorticoid receptor activity. In vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that this inhibition is mediated by a direct HNF-6/glucocorticoid receptor interaction involving the amino-terminal domain of HNF-6 and the DNA-binding domain of the receptor. Thus, in addition to its known property of stimulating transcription of liver-expressed genes, HNF-6 can antagonize glucocorticoid-stimulated gene transcription.


Background: Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) is a valuable option in aggressive relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), but its efficacy in secondary progressive (SP)-MS is still controversial. Objective: Assessing efficacy of aHSCT in SP-MS by clinical-radiological outcomes. Methods: Open-label monocentric retrospective study enrolling consecutive SP-MS patients treated with BEAM-aHSCT in the period 1999–2016. Results: In total, 26 SP-MS patients with moderate–severe disability were included. Progression-free survival (PFS) at years 5 and 10 after aHSCT were, respectively, 42% and 30%. Out of 16 patients who worsened, only 6 patients (23% overall) maintained continuous disability accrual (CDA), whereas 10 patients stabilized following one single-step Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) worsening. CDA-free survival was 74% at 5–10 years. No relapses or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) activity were reported, thus no evidence of disease activity (NEDA)-3 corresponded to PFS. Annualized rate of brain atrophy (AR-BVL) normalized after 1 year in 55% of the cases analysed (12/22). Conclusion: BEAM-aHSCT halted CDA and normalized AR-BVL in most of the treated patients, inducing long-term remission of inflammatory activity at a median follow-up of 99 months (range 27–222). These data suggest that CDA might still be mainly driven by inflammation in a subgroup of SP-MS and could therefore be reversed by treatments. CDA should be analysed independently from any isolated disability worsening.


In this study, carried out by fka, the hood of the VW Golf V is taken as an example to analyze the potential of a hybrid construction of aluminum and steel. Structural stiffness, oil canning and dent resistance behavior are analyzed using Abaqus/Standard. With the objective of reducing the total hood weight, the performance of the hood is compared to reference values of the series production steel hood. The generated finite element model contains all components of the Golf hood, but most important are the outer and the inner panel, which are designed both in steel and aluminum. Three static load cases are defined to analyze the structural stiffness of the different hood versions. The hood is bended in the lateral and transversal stiffness tests and distorted in the torsional stiffness test. The criterion for all structural tests is the elastic deflection due to the applied load. The dent load cases cover the analysis of the elastic and plastic buckling behaviour. Two different tests are executed, the examination of the oil canning and the dent resistance. The indenter for the oil canning test is modeled by several single point loads, which are set up circular (corresponding to the indenter's diameter) in the area of the test locations. The Riks mode is used in this simulation. The hemispherical indenter for the dent resistance test is modeled as an extra component. Due to that contact definitions are required. The simulated variations show different lightweight potentials. Taking the material costs into account, a first attempt for an improved hood is made.


We identified greeting and conversation deficits based on a parent interview and semistructured direct assessment for one child and two adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. We taught the greeting and conversation skills using behavioral skills training and within-session corrective feedback. A multiple baseline across conversation and greeting skills demonstrated experimental control over the effects of the teaching on acquisition and generalization to novel adults. We also conducted embedded reversals to assess maintenance of the acquired skills. Teaching produced robust acquisition, generalization, maintenance, and treatment extension for 15 of the 16 targeted skills across participants. Participant and parent reports indicated high levels of social validity for the intervention and outcomes. The results support individualized assessment and intervention for improving greeting and conversation skills during unscripted interactions, which are requisite for more extended and complex social interactions.


Abstract This paper addresses the problem of time-dependent dielectric breakdown of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films. It is shown by using constant-current breakdown measurements, that for PZT film capacitors with Pt and SrRuO3 (SRO) electrodes thebreakdown onset is controlled by charge to breakdown (QBR) rather than the voltage applied to the capacitor. The QBR value for the asymmetrical Pt/SrRuO3/PZT/Pt capacitors is found to be much higher that for the Pt/PZT/Pt system. Polarization fatigue caused by bipolar voltage stress provokes a substantial decreasein charge to breakdown. These results can be interpreted in terms of percolation modelused for breakdown in SiO2, where the QBR is associated with injected-carrier-assisted creation of the critical concentration of defects required for formation of the breakdown paths. The observed variation of the QBR values depending on the electrode material (i) and polarization fatigue (ii) are inteipreted in terms of current redistribution across the area of the capacitor, specifically current redistribution between grains and grain boundaries (case (i)) or current redistribution between fatigued and nonfatigued areas (case(ii)).


Abstract Bridge inspectors work for the safety of our infrastructure and mobility. In regular intervals, they conduct structural inspections – a manual task with a long-lasting and firmly normed analogue tradition. In our collaborative research project, we developed Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) prototypes to support that work digitally. We propose a mixed analogue and digital workflow using Building Information Modeling (BIM) data that can be ready-to-hand for bridge inspectors during their work on-site at a bridge. In this paper, we describe the system and the evaluation results of our final MR demonstrator at a autobahn-bridge in Germany. We identified a need for a digital MR tool to support the bridge inspection in-situ. In general, this matches with the trend to bring the computer-supported office-work out into the real world. However, there are also challenges to consider, like lacking BIM data for existing bridges and structures, appropriate user-interfaces in this new application domain, or the need to adopt norms and guidelines for public tender. We argue to consider a user-centered design approach for future developments to best profit from the bridge inspectors', as well as the MR- and CSCW-researchers expertise, and ultimately increase the acceptance of the developed information systems.


Feedbacks between woody plants and fluvial morphodynamics result in co-development of riparian vegetation communities and channel form. To advance mechanistic knowledge regarding these interactions, we measured the response of topography and flow to the presence of riparian tree seedlings with contrasting morphologies in an experimental, field-scale, meandering stream channel with a mobile sand bed. On a convex point bar, we installed seedlings of Tamarix spp. (tamarisk) and Populus fremontii (cottonwood) with intact roots and simulated a bankfull flood, with each of eight runs varying sediment supply, plant density, and plant species. Vegetation reduced turbulence and velocities on the bar relative to bare-bed conditions, inducing sediment deposition when vegetation was present, regardless of vegetation density or species. Sediment supply also played a dominant role, and eliminating sediment supply reduced deposition regardless of the presence of vegetation. Unexpectedly, plant density and species architecture (shrubby tamarisk versus single-stemmed cottonwood) had only a secondary influence on hydraulics and sediment transport. In the absence of plants, mobile bedforms were prominent across the bar, but vegetation of all types decreased the height and lateral extent of bedforms migrating across the bar, suggesting a mechanism by which vegetation modulates feedbacks among sediment transport, topography, and hydraulics. Our measurements and resulting insights bridge the gap between laboratory conditions and real dryland sand-bed rivers and motivate further morphodynamic modeling.


ABSTRACT Introduction Although osteoporosis-exercise recommendations have been established, implementation of the information remains a challenge for people with osteoporosis. This study aimed to understand how participants integrate osteoporosis management advice into their lifestyle and the challenges they might face. Methods Integrative descriptive methods were used for this qualitative study. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 Canadian participants (age range 51–90) that knew they had osteoporosis. Participants were asked to participate in one-on-one interviews; discussing exercise, nutrition and falls prevention for people with osteoporosis. Results The following themes emerged from this study: understanding fragility fractures and fall risk, knowledge acquisition through personal and vicarious experience over the lifespan, awareness of environmental risks and opportunities, understanding the effect of exercise on the bones and in life, challenges managing exercise expectations, attitude towards non-pharmacological management. Conclusion Participants recognized the benefit of non-pharmacological management for managing osteoporosis, but sometimes found it difficult to integrate into their daily activities due to lack of time or knowledge. Participants weren't always clear on which component of their osteoporosis management should be prioritized.


Sequestration of liquid CO2 into the intermediate depth ocean has been considered as a means to reduce atmospheric concentration of this greenhouse gas and mitigate global warming. A number of CO2 droplets are released and diluted into the intermediate ocean. The behavior of CO2 dissolution is very important in order to control the concentration of CO2 and to keep the environmental impact minimum.
 Under conditions in the intermediate ocean, that is, high pressure and low temperature, the CO2 clathrate hydrate film was formed on the CO2 droplet surface. The hydrate film has been considered to decrease the dissolution rate and the CO2 concentration near the droplet surface.
 The authors applied a LIF technique with a new kind of the dye as a pH indicator. The new dye in the CO2 dissolved water emitted intense fluorescence dependent on its pH. The visualized images showed the two dimensional distribution of the pH, i.e., CO2 concentration, around the CO2 droplet with or without the hydrate film.


A prospective phase II trial was initiated in previously untreated patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The goal was to achieve improvement in locoregional control, disease-free interval and overall survival using induction chemotherapy and to compare conventional fractionation (CF) with an accelerated hyperfractionation (AHF) regimen. Fifty patients were treated (5 AJCC Stage III, 45 Stage IV) with induction chemotherapy consisting of two cycles of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil. Patients were then randomized between CF and AHF therapy. A clinical response to induction chemotherapy was reported in 86% of patients prior to radiotherapy (44% complete response, 42% partial response). Patients with complete or major partial responses to induction chemotherapy had a significantly better 5-year overall survival (60%) and disease-free interval (59%) than those with no response or minor partial response (15% and 18% p = 0.009 and 0.0009). Acute radiation reactions were more pronounced in the AHF group (p = 0.0002), and the incidence of late normal tissue injury was more frequent (p = 0.08). At 5 years, the locoregional control rate was higher in the AHF arm (76%) than in the CF group (54%), but the difference was not significant (HR, 0.52; 95%, Cl, 0.15-2.83; p = 0.186). With a median follow-up period of 55 months (range 4-120), the 5-year disease-free interval and overall survival rates were more favorable in the AHF group than in the CF group, but the differences were not significant (59% and 54% vs. 34% and 36%, respectively, HR for disease-free interval = 0.71; 95% CI, 0.27-1.88; p=0.198 and HR for overall survival = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.37-1.78; p=0.433). The overall treatment failure rate was 48%. Locoregional failures occurred in 12 patients (24%) and the incidence of distant metastases reached 30%. Response to induction chemotherapy is strongly predictive for locoregional control, disease-free interval and overall survival. Accelerated hyperfractionation was associated with high incidence of acute and late toxicity without significant improvement in locoregional control rate. The optimal chemotherapy dose and sequencing with radiotherapy needs to be investigated in future studies. Distant metastases remain the main cause of treatment failure in NPC.


This chapter welcomes the reader to the study of social media in education. It begins with a description of the background, ranging from general use of social media in today's society to the importance of social media in education. The study of social media in education will inevitably draw on interdisciplinary concepts and networks of relationships among ideas and people. Furthermore, social media can help researchers and educators cross current boundaries, such as the organizational boundary of the school, and the domains of teachers and leaders. Social media also reveals boundaries that have been reinforced or are emergent with social media, such as intergenerational and cross-cultural boundaries, and standard boundaries of chronology. The contributors themselves come from interdisciplinary backgrounds (all focused on education, but from computer science, technology, sociology, policy, psychology, etc.), and they consider their own agency in shaping the field of study of social media in education. This includes generating theory, raising ethical issues, and providing practical advice. After describing the organization of the yearbook, most importantly, this introduction directs readers to opportunities to engage the field (#cloud2class).


Organic-inorganic hybrids composed of organic polymer and apatite is quite attractive as novel bone-repairing materials since it has mechanical performance analogous to those of natural bone as well as bone-bonding ability, i.e. bioactivity. To fabricate such an apatite-polymer hybrid, biomimetic process has been recently paid much attention. In this process, bone-like apatite is deposited on the surfaces of organic substrates in simulated body fluid (SBF, Kokubo solution) having ion concentrations analogous to those of human extracellular fluid or more concentrated solutions. Previous studies showed that the apatite deposition is triggered by a catalytic effect of carboxyl groups (COOH) on the surfaces of the organic substrates. In this study, we examined apatite deposition on natural polypeptides derived from crops in a biomimetic solution. We selected gluten derived from wheat and zein derived from corn. Both of gluten and zein formed bone-like apatite on their surfaces in a solution that has inorganic ion concentrations 1.5 times those of simulated body fluid, when they were treated with 1 mol/L calcium chloride solution. High content of acidic amino acids such as glutamic acid and aspartic acid in gluten and zein would give large amount of carboxyl groups effective for the apatite nucleation.


Circular entrepreneurship is becoming a new, promising reality, in the manner of needed radical paradigmatic change in the era of Anthropocene. Circular entrepreneurs intend to create social and environmental value while they build financially viable businesses. They are embedded in multiple institutionalised value systems that they are expected to adhere to. Those institutionalised systems provide circular entrepreneurs with different, in many cases, contradictory norms, values and guiding principles. Substantial amount of research has been done to date to examine the impact of institutions on entrepreneurial endeavours. And yet, research lacks sufficient insights into how circular entrepreneurs engage with the institutional structures in designing business models on a financially feasible ground while creating social and environmental value. To address this, this paper investigates how circular entrepreneurs respond to the value systems of surrounding institutions in business modelling and how two fundamental aspects of embeddedness, namely resource integration and value cocreation, are achieved within a circular business model that is coherent in itself and with the entrepreneur's ambitions. Both the institutional context and the institutional logics surrounding entrepreneurs are examined to comprehend the surrounding institutional systems more in-depth and extensively. By analysing a longitudinal in-depth case study, this article aims to develop better insights into circular business modelling and underlying mechanisms of embeddedness. The case is a born-circular small cidermaker in Cornwall (UK), namely Wasted Apple. The findings show that the circular entrepreneur is surrounded by dominant normative institutions forming the principles of business model design. circular entrepreneurs mark fidelity to the institutional norms to obtain a range of microcompetencies and to manage integrated hybrid tensions within the value creation system. And therefore, a circular business model is a more holistic and inclusive structure as compared to a typical conventional linear business model. And yet, paradoxically embeddedness facilitates business survival but hinders strategic business planning as well as business profitability and growth.


This guide aims to help students find statistical information to enhance their research papers and projects through web sources and database articles.


Background: Doxorubicin causes damage to the heart, which may present as cardiomyopathy. However, the mechanisms by which doxorubicin induces cardiotoxicity remain not fully understood and no effective prevention for doxorubicin cardiomyopathy is available. Calpains, a family of calcium-dependent thiol-proteases, have been implicated in cardiovascular diseases. Their activities are tightly controlled by calpastatin. This study employed transgenic mice over-expressing calpastatin to investigate the role of calpain in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Methods and Results: Doxorubicin treatment decreased calpain activities in cultured neonatal mouse cardiomyocytes and in vivo mouse hearts. Over-expression of calpastatin or incubation with pharmacological calpain inhibitors enhanced caspase-3 activity and DNA fragmentation in both neonatal and adult cardiomyocytes induced by doxorubicin. Inhibition of calpain also induced down-regulation of phosphorylated protein kinase B (AKT, Thr308), and a concomitant reduction in glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3β) phosphorylation (Ser9) in doxorubicin-treated cardiomyocytes. Blocking AKT further increased doxorubicin-induced cardiac injuries, suggesting the effects of calpain inhibition may be mediated by inactivating the AKT/GSK-3β signaling. In an in vivo model of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity, over-expression of calpastatin decreased calpain activities and exacerbated myocardial dysfunction as assessed by echocardiography and hemodynamic measurement in transgenic mice (C57BL/6) 5 days after doxorubicin injection. The five-day mortality was higher in transgenic mice (29.16%) compared with their wild-type littermates (8%) after doxorubicin treatment. Conclusions: Over-expression of calpastatin enhances doxorubicin-induced cardiac injuries through inhibiting calpain and compromising AKT survival signaling. Thus, calpains may protect cardiomyocytes against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.


During the 2007–08 growing seasons we conducted an outcrossing reciprocity study with ramets from 5 big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) populations from North and South Carolina. We established 15 treatments each at 4 garden sites. Seed germination was low and not significantly different for outcrossed (4.6%) and selfed (2.4%) treatments. However, germination was significantly higher for both outcrossed and selfed seeds from ramets from the Suther Prairie population. The overall mean percent seed set for the outcrossed treatments was 5.9%, and 3.6% for the selfed treatments. There were no significant differences in seed set (maternal effect) for the 5 populations. In addition, there were no significant differences in parental effect in either seed germination or seed set among the 5 populations. Ramets from the BlackJacks Heritage Preserve population ( paternal) x Suther Prairie population (maternal) and its reciprocal SP x BJ had the highest combined percent seed germination (21.3% and 5.8%, respectively). Ramets from the Suther Prairie population ( paternal) x Buck Creek Serpentine Barren (maternal), and its reciprocal BC x SP, had the highest combined percentage of seed set (22.7% and 9.6%, respectively). Results from this study suggest that viable seed production is low or absent in big bluestem populations in the Carolinas, particularly in smaller populations. We recommend vegetative material or seeds from the Suther Prairie big bluestem population for potential restoration and establishment of local big bluestem populations.


Our previous experiments have suggested the hypothesis that conjoint active neuronal outgrowth may be necessary for formation of new electrical synapses between identified neurons of adult Helisoma buccal ganglia. This growth dependence hypothesis now has been tested by examining the responses of individual pairs of neurons in isolation from the influences of the ganglionic environment. Isolated cell culture of identified neurons (neuron 5) showed that: (i) neurons growing in cell culture undergo a predictable sequence of morphological changes culminating in a stable morphological state (i.e., growth stops); (ii) contact between actively growing neurons in cell culture results in the formation of electrical connections, just as in ganglia; and (iii) when an actively growing neuron encounters a neuron that is morphologically stable, electrical connections do not form or are very weak, even though strong connections are made between pairs of actively growing neurons in the same culture. These results establish that processes closely associated with growth are required for formation of electrical synapses between these neurons.


Micro-strip line is a kind of transmission line that is the most widely used in microwave integrated circuit. With the development of microwave integrated circuits and the increasing work frequency of the micro-strip line, a higher requirement for its electromagnetic compatibility has been raised. Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method has characteristics of good adaptability in the analysis of electromagnetic compatibility issues and superiority in complexity of the structure modeling. For these reasons, this Article uses FDTD method which is widely used in electromagnetic field calculation to analyze the time-domain of micro-strip line, calculates its current and voltage induced in ports and discuss the response feature under different radiation conditions.


For more than 25 years, the hot-mix asphalt paving industry has been searching for a device that can produce accurate, real-time asphalt density readings during the compaction process. A system was developed using data gathered from department of transportation (DOT) paving projects in five states and validated through testing on DOT projects in two other states. The results indicate that through a system of sensors, an onboard computer, and radio transmissions, the onboard density-measuring system provides accurate asphalt density readings in real time and transmits the information to remote locations while building and maintaining a file of all pertinent data on the asphalt compaction process. Insight into the asphalt paving process and results showing the relationship between the vibratory signature of a vibratory asphalt compactor and the density of the asphalt mat compacted are provided.


Activity‐dependent long‐term synaptic changes were investigated at glutamatergic synapses in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the rat hypothalamus. In acute hypothalamic slices, high frequency stimulation (HFS) of afferent fibres caused long‐term potentiation (LTP) of the amplitude of AMPA receptor‐mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) recorded with the whole‐cell patch‐clamp technique. LTP was also obtained in response to membrane depolarization paired with mild afferent stimulation. On the other hand, stimulating the inputs at 5 Hz for 3 min at resting membrane potential caused long‐term depression (LTD) of excitatory transmission in the SON. These forms of synaptic plasticity required the activation of NMDA receptors since they were abolished in the presence of d‐AP5 or ifenprodil, two selective blockers of these receptors. Analysis of paired‐pulse facilitation and trial‐to‐trial variability indicated that LTP and LTD were not associated with changes in the probability of transmitter release, thereby suggesting that the locus of expression of these phenomena was postsynaptic. Using sharp microelectrode recordings in a hypothalamic explant preparation, we found that HFS also generates LTP at functionally defined glutamatergic synapses formed between the organum vasculosum lamina terminalis and SON neurons. Taken together, our findings indicate that glutamatergic synapses in the SON exhibit activity‐dependent long‐term synaptic changes similar to those prevailing in other brain areas. Such forms of plasticity could play an important role in the context of physiological responses, like dehydration or lactation, where the activity of presynaptic glutamatergic neurons is strongly increased.


Leakage was detected in a malleable iron elbow (ASTM A 47, grade 35018) after only three months in service. Life expectancy for the elbow was 12 to 24 months. The piping alternately supplied steam and cooling water to a tire-curing press. The supply line and elbow were subjected to 14 heating and cooling cycles per hour for at least 16 h/day, or a minimum of 224 cycles/day. Steam and water pressure were 1035 kPa (150 psi) and 895 kPa (130 psi) respectively, and water-flow rate was estimated to be 1325 L/min (350 gal/min) based on pump capacity. Water-inlet temperature was 10 to 15 deg C (50 to 60 deg F) and outlet temperature was 50 to 60 deg C (120 to 140 deg F). The pH of the water was 6.9. Investigation (visual inspection, chemical analysis, and 67x nital etched micrographs) supported the conclusion that the elbows had been given the usual annealing and normalizing treatment for ferritizing malleable iron. This resulted in lower resistance to erosion and corrosion than pearlitic malleable iron. Recommendations included replacing the elbows with heat-treated fittings with a pearlitic malleable microstructure.


Many spherical viruses encapsulate their genomes in protein shells with icosahedral symmetry. This process is spontaneous and driven by electrostatic interactions between positive domains on the virus coat proteins and the negative genomes. We model the effect of the nonuniform icosahedral charge distribution from the protein shell instead using a mean-field theory. We find that this nonuniform charge distribution strongly affects the optimal genome length and that it can explain the experimentally observed phenomenon of overcharging of virus and viruslike particles.


Many image registration methods use the surface of the head or brain to estimate rotation and translation parameters. The surface is usually characterized by a set of edge or contour points extracted from cross-sectional images. Automatic extraction of contour points is complicated by discontinuity of edges in the back of eyes and ears and sometimes by an inadequate field of view. We have developed an automated method for contour extraction that connects discontinuities using a multi-scale pyramid. Steps of the method are: (1) contour points are found by an edge-tracking algorithm; (2) a multi-scale pyramid of contour points is constructed; (3) contour points of reduced images are found; (4) from the continuous contour found at the lowest scale, contour points at a higher scale are found; (5) step 4 is repeated until contour points at the highest resolution (original image) are found. The method runs fast and has successfully been used for MRI and CT image registration. We illustrate the method and its performance using MRI and CT images of the human brain.


SUMMARY
An aerobiological monitoring programme was carried out for over a year on Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica. Collections were made using arrays of rotorod samplers at three sites. Lichen soredia were found to be the most abundant air borne propagules, more so than ascospores, the sexual propagules of lichen fungi. The dominance of soredia over ascospores appeared to decrease with increasing maturity of fellfield sites. No correlations were found with temperature, relative humidity or wind speed. Collections at 1 m above ground level were shown not to be significantly different to those at 0·15 m at two of the sites. Size range distribution also differed at two of the sites. Soredial clumps in excess of 100 μm in diameter were collected at 1 m above ground level and at some distance from potential source plants, though most fell in the range 30–60 μm. Peaks in numbers of air borne soredia were found after winter snow melt, demonstrating that soredial production continues at subzero temperatures.


A coding technique for deep submicron address buses with interwire capacitances dominating the wire-to-ground capacitances is presented. This code is similar to Gray codes, in the sense that it defines an ordering of the binary space, such that adjacent codewords dissipate little energy when sent consecutively. The ordering is shown to be close to optimal, as to the energy dissipation, when sending the whole sequence in order. A circuit diagram realizing the coder is presented, using only n-1 two-input gates, where n is the bus width. Simulations show an improvement in energy dissipation of more than 50% over an uncoded bus in several cases, depending on the data being coded.


Nearly everyone involved in the education system is new to blended learning. While teachers have to navigate around the new environment, they have to ensure that their learners are not left behind. Teachers' awareness of students' experiences during the pandemic, be it school-related or personal helps them adjust their approaches to the teaching-learning process. This study employed the qualitative research, specifically the multiple case study design. Informal interview transcripts, school documents, call transcripts, and validation statements were the main source of data for the study. The result of the study revealed three themes in the pursuit to answer the research questions presented in this research. These themes were student experiences in the new normal modality of education, factors that affect student participation rate in blended learning, and school and teacher interventions that learners seek. In this research, the videos were simplified by the teacher through explaining the lesson in a simpler language without compromising the substantial content. Students' consistent response that simplified lesson videos helped them learn in their own pace must encourage teachers to include such support in planning for their synchronous and asynchronous classes. Another vital support that teachers and the school can provide during these challenging times is to look after the well-being of their students. Constant and enhanced follow-up of learners done in a subtle and encouraging manner will increase learner motivation to continue their studies despite the challenges and struggles they encounter in their life and in their studies.


BACKGROUND
 The term "data science" encompasses several methods, many of which are considered cutting edge and are being used to influence care processes across the world. Nursing is an applied science and a key discipline in health care systems in both clinical and administrative areas, making the profession increasingly influenced by the latest advances in data science. The greater informatics community should be aware of current trends regarding the intersection of nursing and data science, as developments in nursing practice have cross-professional implications.

OBJECTIVES
 This study aimed to summarize the latest (calendar year 2020) research and applications of nursing-relevant patient outcomes and clinical processes in the data science literature.

METHODS
 We conducted a rapid review of the literature to identify relevant research published during the year 2020. We explored the following 16 topics: (1) artificial intelligence/machine learning credibility and acceptance, (2) burnout, (3) complex care (outpatient), (4) emergency department visits, (5) falls, (6) health care-acquired infections, (7) health care utilization and costs, (8) hospitalization, (9) in-hospital mortality, (10) length of stay, (11) pain, (12) patient safety, (13) pressure injuries, (14) readmissions, (15) staffing, and (16) unit culture.

RESULTS
 Of 16,589 articles, 244 were included in the review. All topics were represented by literature published in 2020, ranging from 1 article to 59 articles. Numerous contemporary data science methods were represented in the literature including the use of machine learning, neural networks, and natural language processing.

CONCLUSION
 This review provides an overview of the data science trends that were relevant to nursing practice in 2020. Examinations of such literature are important to monitor the status of data science's influence in nursing practice.


ABSTRACT Approximately half of the nosocomial aspergillosis outbreaks in hospitals have been associated with renovation activities. When disturbed, spores encapsulated in building materials can be aerosolized and transported throughout the healthcare facility causing potentially fatal complications, particularly among elderly and immunocompromised patients. Thus, a series of experiments were conducted in an actual hospital to observe containment and removal of airborne particulates with respect to ventilation arrangement and directional airflow. Computational models were then developed to further study the spread of contamination during a hospital renovation project. Results of this study suggest that although directional airflow (negative pressure) was effective in containing particulates across an open doorway between patient and contaminated spaces, turbulence caused by door motion and the location of the exhaust grilles affected the transport of particulates in the work zone. A new source-control ventilation strategy is proposed where the arrangement of supply and exhaust air ventilation is optimized to more effectively contain and remove airborne particulates within hospital work zones. Results indicate that the location of supply and exhaust air relative to the contaminant source can increase particulate removal by an additional 26%, or roughly the effect of doubling work zone air changes – without added operations and maintenance (O&M) costs.


The importance of statistics in empowering the agricultural research process and sharpening interventions cannot be over-emphasized. Undocumented evidence points to misconceptions, misuse or underuse of statistics among agricultural researchers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); pointing to the possibility that the subject has been part of the causes the unfulfilled targets in the agricultural sector in the region. The objective of this study was to analyse and document weaknesses in statistical practice in agricultural research, with a view to identifying entry points for strengthening the performance of the sector for SSA to be able to achieve its set goals. A desk study involving 165 research articles published in the African Crop Science Journal over the period of 17 years (2000 to 2017) was conducted through a rigorous SWOT analysis for issues related to the use of statistics in the implementation of agricultural research in SSA. A checklist consisting of key elements related to study design; data collection, analysis and exploitation; and presentation, was used to guide the interrogation. Findings indicated that researchers generally made explicit description of treatment structures that fairly matched the study objectives and hypotheses (in the few cases where they were stated), with a few weaknesses in the description of factorial treatment structure. The Randomised Complete Block Design was most commonly used among the designs, with 3-4 replicates. However, there was hardly any justification for its use, as the blocking factors were never mentioned and thus their role in determining the precision of the results was difficult to determine. Analysis of Variance was the main method for data analysis, followed by correlations. The F-test and the associated P-values were the basis for decisions on treatment differences. Most researchers had problems with presentation and interpretation of P-values and significance level. Post adhoc tests mostly used the Least Significant Difference (LSD) for pairwise mean comparisons, with little consideration for the treatment structure, the number of treatments and the nature (qualitative or quantitative). Generally, estimates of treatment means were presented together with various measures of precision, in both tables and graphical forms. In several cases, LSD was used or misused interchangeably with standard error (SE) or standard error of difference (SED). Several statistical software were used for data analysis and presentation, with the main ones being SAS, Genstat and MSTAT-C. Key entry points for improvement heavily lie in human and infrastructural resource capacity improvement, most specifically in (i) periodic review of university and other tertiary institutions' curricula to provide sufficient time allocation, physical space and relevant infrastructure for true hands on practice; (ii) more effective utilisation of the few statisticians available in the region, (iii) short term staff in-service retooling courses, (iv) sustained statistical service units wherever necessary, and (v) provision for periodic interactive statistician-researcher platforms (such as conferences and workshops) for sharing notes on challenges and achievements during implementation of their research programmes. Key words: Experimental design, P-values, SWOT analysis


In this study, the formation of aluminum nitride via carbothermal reduction and nitridation by using Seydişehir Al(OH)3 as the raw material has been investigated. Experiments have been performed in a horizontal tube furnace. Initially, Al(OH)3 with carbon black has been calcined to Al2O3 in an argon atmosphere at 600°C, and then carbothermal reduction and nitridation have been performed in nitrogen atmosphere. The effect of temperature (1400 -1600 °C), time (0240 min) and stoichiometric ratio of carbon black and aluminum hydroxide (2 and 2.83) have been selected as experimental parameters. The phase analyses and the microstructural observation of the products have been investigated by X-ray diffractometry and electron microscopy technique (SEM), respectively.


Authors have long woven supernatural elements into their fiction for a variety of reasons: to heighten suspense, enhance setting, or complicate plot. The use of the supernatural, however, can also reveal alternative experiences that formal realism can neither portray nor contain sufficiently, and while present in both male- and female-authored texts, the use of the supernatural by women may also serve as a specific rhetorical strategy both to expose and counter the androcentric social and literary scripts that circumscribe "acceptable" behavior. In the Eurocentric canon, however, the presence of the supernatural as a plot device has traditionally marginalized the work -- whether male or female authored -- reflecting the dominant values of Western culture, which privilege formal realism, the understandable and ordinary rather than the unexplained and fantastic. In The Rise of the Woman Novelist, Jane Spencer analyzes this privileging of formal realism against the romantic and fantastical qualities of much women's writing (181-82), asserting that it "has meant that much of women's fiction has been devalued as unrealistic" (183). Similarly Terry Lovell, in Consuming Fiction, addresses this coupling of women's fiction with the unrealistic, arguing that with the nineteenth century, fiction became male dominated and returned to realism (74). What happens, though, when the female writer produces supernatural fiction within a culture that embraces the other-worldly? How is that fiction received not only in her own culture but in terms of the Western literary canon? Does she find her writing doubly marginalized -- first because it articulates female experience and then because it reproduces that which seems "unrealistic"? Maxine Hong Kingston and Isabel Allende are two such writers who establish significant connections between the supernatural and female voice; more specifically, The Woman Warrior (1975) and The House of the Spirits (1985) explore the authority provided by ghosts and spirits to articulate an alternative story from those endorsed by patriarchal cultures. Whether reclaiming suppressed histories like that of the "no name woman" (Kingston 3) or bearing "witness to life" (Allende 115) through Clara's notebooks, both authors narrate and preserve authentic female experience. Kingston produces a multivoiced narrative reflective of her girlhood among ghosts -- both American and Chinese. In The Woman Warrior Kingston balances her childhood experiences against those of female ancestors and Chinese legends. In this narrative, ghosts challenge tradition (established "good manners" [199]) and culturally inscribed gender roles by resurrecting women and their stories that have been silenced. Like the songs that Ts'ai Yen composed to compete with her captor's flutes, songs which graft together Chinese language and phrases thought by the barbarians to be in their tongue, Kingston weaves together the secret life of her "forerunner" aunt, her mother's talk-stories, and her own severed tongue to produce a talk-story memoir. Chronicling the Trueba family through the public and private transitions of Chilean society in The House of the Spirits, Allende explores three generations of female experience: Clara, Blanca, and Alba -- grandmother, daughter, and grandchild. In this novel, she examines both the empowering quality of spirits for women and their threat to the Chilean society which, while in transition, remains nonetheless patriarchal. Alba survives her torturous captivity by the "saving idea of writing" the spirit of her Grandmother provides (414); earlier Clara's powers provoke and disturb her priest (who pronounces her "possessed by the devil" [7]), her father (who anticipates "damage to his political career...caused by having a bewitched child" [9]), and her husband. Allende, like Kingston, explores the tension between silence and voice, authentic experience and that constructed for a patriarchal ideology, folklore and sanctioned history. …


This paper presents a hybrid approach, which integrates an example-pattern-based method and a rule-based method, to the design and implementation of an English-Chinese machine translation system. It focuses discussion on language model, knowledge base, design ideas and implementation strategies. Our system has been tested based on requirement details listed in the Outlines for Automatic Evaluation of Machine Translation constituted by National Hi-Tech Project 863, and compared with the Huajian system. Experiment results indicate that our system has high translation speed and accuracy.


BACKGROUND: Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) is a potentially devastating disease that may lead to intracranial hemorrhage in the fetus or neonate, often with death or major neurologic damage. There are no routine screening programs for NAIT, preventive measures are taken only in a subsequent pregnancy. To estimate the population incidence of NAIT and its consequences, we conducted a review of the literature. Our results may aid in the design of a screening program. METHODS: An electronic literature search included Medline, Embase, Cochrane database and references of retrieved articles. Eligible for inclusion were all prospective studies aimed at diagnosing NAIT in a general, nonselected newborn population, with sufficient information on platelet count at birth, bleeding complications, and treatment. Titles and abstracts were reviewed, followed by review of full text publications. Studies were independently assessed by 2 reviewers for methodologic quality. Disagreements were resolved by consensus, including a third reviewer. RESULTS: From the initial 768 studies, 21 remained for full text analysis, 6 of which met the inclusion criteria. In total, 59 425 newborns were screened, with severe thrombocytopenia in 89 cases (0.15%). NAIT was diagnosed in 24 of these 89 newborns (27%). In 6 (25%) of these cases, an intracranial hemorrhage was found, all likely of antenatal origin. CONCLUSIONS: NAIT is among the most important causes of neonatal thrombocytopenia. Intracranial hemorrhage due to NAIT occurs in 10 per 100 000 neonates, commonly before birth. Screening for NAIT might be effective but should be done antenatally.


ABSTRACTPrevious studies have been arguing that the movie revenue is affected by the volume or the valence or both of electronic word of mouth (Liu, 2006; Chintagunta et al., 2010, Bae et al. 2010). Those studies analyzed the effect of the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the film industry with the assumption that the volume of eWOM unilaterally affects revenue. However, they overlooked that box-office revenue, in turn, can influence the volume of eWOM. Therefore, in this study, a simultaneous equation that considers the influence of box-office revenue on eWOM as well is formulated. The authors found that the valence of eWOM affects box-office revenue and the volume of eWOM is not cause of the revenue except the first week. The volume of eWOM is affected by the revenue on the contrary.The authors also found that eWOM effect in the result above does not work on the successful movie. Because the audiences have a lot of information sources about the successful movie, they don't have to check out the eWOM on the website before going to movie theater. But, in the case of the unsuccessful movie the audiences don 't have enough sources to gather the information about the movie except eWOM on the website, so that eWOM is critical to them. The authors conclude that the movie companies have to use the eWOM as an important communication channel especially if it is expected to be the unsuccessful movie.INTRODUCTIONWord-of-mouth(WOM) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), which are forms of customer-to-customer information exchange, have become subjects of interest for companies and marketing researchers as possible alternatives for traditional mass-media commercial advertisements, which have been losing their appeal due to increased competition.WOM is distinct from traditional sources of information, such as commercial advertisements, in two ways. First, WOM provides more credibility to customers than other sources of information. Beck (1992) explained the uniquely credible status of WOM as an information source, by arguing that WOM has a stronger influence on the purchasing decisions of customers because it is perceived as advices from other customers faced with similar circumstances. In particular, WOM has been found to be especially influential when customers make purchasing choices about newly-released products that they are aware of but are not well-informed about (Mahajan, Miller, and Kerin, 1984). Films, by nature, exhibit characteristics that are largely similar to those of newly-released products, and it has also been well established that WOM generally has a significant effect on the movie-going choices of customers (Austin, 1989; Bayus, 1985; Faber and O'Guinn, 1984; Neelamegham and Chintagunta, 1999).Second, unlike advertisements, which are transmitted to customers via mass-media, WOM information is easily accessible for customers via social networks (Benerjee, 1992; Brown and Reingen, 1987; Murray, 1991). The accessibility of eWOM has vastly expanded due to the rapid growth of the Internet population and is now available via various channels and forms such as Internet messengers, online forums, communities, or purchase reviews posted on shopping websites. The resulting eWOM is exerting an even larger influence on the information searching and purchase decision-making actions of customers than the offline WOM of the past (Bussiere, 2000; Chatterjee, 2001). Many websites are being used not only as providers of product information, but also as forums for information exchange, and heavily influence the purchasing decisions of customers. A few marketing studies that have been conducted on the subject of WOM data include: one study on the effect of WOM information from Usenet newsgroups on television shows (Godes and Mayzlin, 2004); one study on the effect of eWOM information on revenue, which analyzed the customer review data accumulated in the two online bookstores of Amazon.com and BarnesandNobles. …


The Japanese tea ceremony is generally identified with "chanoyu" and its bowls of whipped, powdered green tea served in surroundings influenced by the tenets of Zen Buddhism. This is a study of the alternative tea tradition of "sencha", at which gatherings steeped green leaf tea is prepared in an atmosphere indebted to the humanistic values of the Chinese sages and the materialistic culture of elite Chinese society during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This illustrated volume explores sencha's philosophy and arts from the 17th century to the end of the 20th century.


This Article examines how the legality of governmentally compelled decryption can be surprisingly sensitive to technological nuances. It overviews the reasoning behind a collection of cases that have shaped the doctrine to date on compelled decryption and the Fifth Amendment, and categorizes past cases into four archetypal patterns. Building upon this, the Article examines the sensitivity of the doctrine to technological change by means of "technological hypotheticals:" that is, by identifying assumptions implicit in courts' analyses to date regarding the nature of the encryption technology involved, and considering the potential impact of realistic variant technologies (such as special types of encryption) that could challenge those assumptions. Next, the Article revisits the doctrine and the ongoing challenge faced by courts of reaching robust decisions whose underlying reasoning will remain unequivocal and relevant in the face of future technological developments. Towards addressing this challenge, some specific analytical approaches and technical considerations are distilled. Then, inspired by the importance of the concept of existence in Fifth Amendment doctrine as influentially set forth in Fisher v. United States, discusses the nature of existence of encrypted data and passwords as distinct from that of more tangible objects, accentuating some challenges of applying precedent set in the physical domain to digital information. The Article concludes with a brief reflection on the long-term desirability of technological sensitivity as found in compelled decryption cases.


Although theological librarianship occurs most often at seminaries or graduate level theology programs, there are also librarians working with theology on an undergraduate level.  In many cases, these librarians are responsible for additional subject areas and may or may not have any theological expertise or training. While the two groups do the same types of work, they are doing so in different ways. To explore these commonalities and differences, a study was conducted among undergraduate theology liaisons and those results were compared with the literature and data regarding graduate level theological librarianship. One hundred ten undergraduate librarians responded to a survey regarding theological liaison activities, and the results indicate both the need for more research and the need for further emphasis on undergraduate subject-area liaison duties in theology and adjacent areas.


An important research target is improving the health benefits of traditional Mediterranean, durum wheat-based foods using innovative raw materials. In this study, we characterised wholemeal flours obtained from a traditional durum wheat cv. Svevo, two innovative durum wheat varieties (Svevo-High Amylose and Faridur), the naked barley cv. Chifaa and the elite lentil line 6002/ILWL118/1-1, evaluating them for targeted phytochemicals, untargeted metabolomics fingerprints and antioxidant capacity. To this aim, individual phenolic acids, flavonoids, tocochromanols and carotenoids were identified and quantified through HPLC-DAD, and the antioxidant capacities of both the extracts and whole meals were detected by ABTS assays. An untargeted metabolomics fingerprinting of the samples was conducted through NMR spectroscopy. Results showed that the innovative materials improved phytochemical profiles and antioxidant capacity compared to Svevo. In particular, Svevo-HA and Faridur had higher contents of ferulic and sinapic acids, β-tocotrienol and lutein. Moreover, Chifaa is a rich source of phenolic acids, β-tocopherols, lutein and zeaxanthin whereas lentil of flavonoids (i.e., catechin and procyanidin B2). The NMR profiles of Svevo-HA and Faridur showed a significant reduction of sugar content, malate and tryptophan compared to that of Svevo. Finally, substantial differences characterised the lentil profiles, especially for citrate, trigonelline and phenolic resonances of secondary metabolites, such as catechin-like compounds. Overall, these results support the potential of the above innovative materials to renew the health value of traditional Mediterranean durum wheat-based products.


The contractile vacuole is an organelle found in most freshwater Protozoa. In ameba, as studied with the light microscope, it is usually described as spherical, with a rather thick limiting membrane and surrounded by a layer of mitochondria (Fig. 1). The contractile vacuole undergoes a continuous series of cyclic changes. I t enlarges gradually (diastole), collecting water until it reaches a critical size, and then suddenly contracts (systole), expelling its contents to the outside of the cell, whereupon a new diastole begins. Although the precise function of the contractile vacuole is not known, it is believed to be primarily an osmoregulatory organelle (7). The limiting membrane of the contractile vacuole of Amoeba proteus was estimated by Mast (11) to be as much as 0.5 micron thick--much thicker than the membrane of any other organelle. The cytoplasm surrounding the vacuole wall in Pelomyxa carolinensis has been described as being in a gel state (17), having a higher optical density (1), and extending for a depth of about 2 microns, with a layer of mitochondria embedded in this gel. With the higher resolving power offered by the electron microscope, it seemed likely that the so called thick limiting membrane and its surrounding gelated cytoplasm would show evidence of specialized structures not seen with the light microscope. Three species of fresh water amebas were studied, Amoeba proteus, Pelomyza carolinensis (Chaos chaos), and Hartmannella rysodes. P. carolinensis has numerous contractile vacuoles, whereas A. proteus and H. rysodes have only one.


Shape Memory polymers (SMPs) is a novel class of smart polymeric materials that have been attracted tremendous scientific interest within the last decades. SMPs have the ability to "remember" their original shape even after undergoing significant deformation into a temporary shape. For most first generation of SMPs, the shape memory effect was accomplished by a thermally induced process, triggered in many different ways, such as heating/cooling, electromagnetic field and infrared light. The transient shape in thermally induced SMPs is due to a glassy phase or a semi-crystalline phase. The thermally induced SMPs which temporary shape is fixed through crystallization is called crystallizable shape memory polymers (CSMPs). For traditional CSMPs, their original shape is predefined and is not able to be reprogrammed. This limits the applications of the CSMPs. Recently, a new class of CSMPs has been developed. These materials can perform a typical thermally induced shape memory cycle, but their original shape can be reprogrammed through exposing to UV light. The shape reprogramming effect is governed by light induced covalent bonds exchange reaction, while the shape memory effect-as typical CSMPs-is due to solid-phase crystallization. In this work, we focus on modeling the mechanical behavior of this new class of structurally dynamic CSMPs. The framework used in developing the model is built upon the theory of multiple natural configurations[1]. The model has been applied to solve a specific boundary condition problem, namely uni-axial tension. Furthermore, we implement our model through Abaqus (commercial finite element package) subroutine UMAT to simulate 3D behavior of this attractive material.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


The recent publication of the 'Hunt' report (2010) has articulated a vision for higher education which recognises the importance of active engagement, learner-feedback, technology- enhanced learning and generic skills development. A National study on graduate competences (NAIRTL, 2009) also highlighted the importance of integrating global generic competences into the curriculum. The challenge, however, for many higher education institutions will be in devising a coordinated roadmap to achieve this learning environment. This paper describes a science programme's experiences of embracing and implementing this vision through an outcomes-led, enquiry based learning strategy. This has required investment from management and staff in designing new learning environments with round tables, computer hubs, flip charts as well as the administrative task of coordinating timetables to enable interdisciplinary team teaching. The paper explores using examples how the science team radically restructured its programme to include a capstone enquiry based learning module each semester which empowers the learners to integrate and apply interdisciplinary concepts. The programme devised and aligned scenarios to embed and facilitate the cognitive load and generic skills development levels of the National Framework of Qualifications. First year learners engage as co-creators of knowledge through weekly repetition of a BASE (Brainstorm, Action Plan, Solve and Evaluate) model of learning. This aims to transition and empower first year learners to work in teams to integrate discipline specific concepts such as Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology to applied contexts. As learners progress through the levels, scenarios encourage employability skills development through working with real companies and community projects. The programme team has collated data through an action research iterative cycle of development for the last four years with the view to closing the feedback loop and enhancing the learning experiences. Evidence of the impact of this learning strategy is reflected in course work achievements as well as success at national level in winning national competitions and securing competitive work placements and internships.


Terrorist actions of the last decade obviously determine a reconsideration of the buildings safety, especially for those with special destinations (embassies, military facilities, nuclear plants etc.). Thus, the conception phase should include nowadays scenarios with exceptional actions, other than seismic loads: impact, explosion, failure of supports. It is well-known that, after earthquakes, the most situations of structural collapse are determined by the terrorist attack using explosive. Even more, it has been assessed that the main reason of loss of life is not the explosion itself, but th e partial or total collapse of the exposed building. In order to secure the structural integrity, collapse analysis should be taken into account as a complex phenomenon, composed of many processes that could be studied separately or as an ensemble. These processes are: the extreme action causes, design requirements, vulnerability of the structure, starting and development of the collapse, its final effects. Study of these processes leads to additional special measures for design stage and, on the other hand, to valuable knowledge for controlled demolition of tall buildings, as part of bold urbanism projects in densely populated zones. Considering the above mentioned facts, this paper presents the results of a thorough analysis of a frame structure under explosive loads. The first part of the paper refers to the analysis of a phenomena assembly related to explosion and to the effects resulting from a terrorist attack using explosives (structural elements deterioration and failure, collapse initiation and eventual total failure). The second part of the paper presents an original approach to analyze a building structure under extreme loads, using both classical (pushover) and modern (applied element