Recently, the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: a Second Notice was issued in response to ongoing and largely unabated environmental degradation due to anthropogenic activities. In the warning, humanity is urged to practice more environmentally sustainable alternatives to business as usual to avoid potentially catastrophic outcomes. Following the success of their warning, the Alliance of World Scientists called for discipline-specific follow-up papers. This paper is an answer to that call for the topic of wildland fire. Across much of Canada and the world, wildfires are anticipated to increase in severity and frequency in response to anthropogenic activities. The world scientists' second warning provides the opportunity for wildland fire researchers to raise the profile of the potential impacts that anthropogenic activities are likely to have on future fire regimes and, in return, what impacts future fire regimes may have on humanity. We discuss how wildfire is related to several issues of concern raised in the world scientists' second warning, including climate change, human population growth, biodiversity and forests, and freshwater availability. Furthermore, we touch on the potential future health impacts and challenges to wildfire suppression and management in Canada. In essence, our wildfire scientists' warning to humanity is that we, as a society, will have to learn to live with more fire on the landscape. We provide some recommendations on how we might move forward to prepare for and adapt to future wildfire regimes in Canada. Although this paper is primarily Canadian in focus, the concepts and information herein also draw from international examples and are of relevance globally.


The literature on the relationship between exchange rate and investment mainly focus on the devaluation argument, which evidences that a devaluation may affect positively investment spending. The goal of this paper is to extend the analysis to how exchange rate variability can influence firm's innovation process.
Employing a large panel of Italian firms we estimate the impact of exchange rate on investment. Combining an ECM model specification with a model of signal extraction we find that exchange rate volatility reduces investment, with a decreasing sensitivity the greater is firm
market power. A stable exchange rate is then an incentive to investment as it allows more reliable estimation of its marginal productivity. To this extent, an economic system may benefit from a stable exchange rate in terms of investment and profit, provided it is able to strengthen its firm market power.


The objective of this study is to provide evidence on the efficiency of the stock options market of the European Options Exchange. `Riskless' spreading and hedging strategies using the Black-Scholes call option pricing model with the Merton dividend adjustment, are used to test market efficiency. The results show that, although for the zero transactions costs case above-normal returns are possible, these returns become negative when the bid-ask spread cost is taken into account. These results persist over the two sample periods studied. Two variations of the trading rule that compute model prices by using the same model but with two different estimators of the standard deviation of the underlying stock's return as inputs to the model, also produce similar results. The study concludes that, with respect to the trading rules used and the sample periods studied, there were no inefficiencies on the stock options market of the European Options Exchange.


There exist two concepts of open resonators that can be combined into a device for acoustic non-destructive testing. The device is non-contact and based on the fact that an airgap between a transducer surface and the test object can be set into resonance. This occurs for the conditions that makes this an open resonator (open because the air volume is not closed), and the wave field is amplified so that a larger amplitude is reached at the object surface. Let us assume that the object is a plate. When the acoustic wave enters the plate, one can let the frequency be the resonant frequency for one of the modes for the plate thickness. A limited part of the plate may be seen as a resonator, open to the sides. When the conditions for an open resonator is fulfilled for the plate thickness, the wave field will be greatly amplified within a region close to the insonified plate surface, and thus the linear or nonlinear response from this excitation is local. The device may then be used to scan the plate for material parameter changes.


Abstract:This article clarifies Nietzsche's notion of lying. The notion needs clarification because it is at odds with widespread definitions of lying. The first section compares Nietzsche's notion of lying in Beyond Good and Evil (BGE) 192 with a widespread definition of lying, highlighting the former's oddity. The second section argues that "On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense" (TL) helps to clarify Nietzsche's notion of lying as he wants to allow for unconscious lies—an expression that can be found only in TL. The third section explains Nietzsche's notion of lying as a form of intellectual dishonesty that involves making something seem real that is not. The fourth section applies the notion of lying to make sense of BGE 192 and answer additional questions. The fifth section ends the article by bringing to bear Nietzsche's notion of lying on passages on lying by Nietzsche in his late work The Antichrist. The last section thus makes a case for Nietzsche's sticking to this notion throughout his writing. The present study aims at rehabilitating TL in certain respects by highlighting the explanatory potential of Nietzsche's notion of lying as laid out there.


In this study, we report a phospholipase C (PLC)-mediated mechanism for the redistribution of interendothelial adherens junctions in response to melanoma cell contacts with the endothelium. We demonstrated that contact of melanoma cells to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) triggered rapid endothelial [Ca2+]i response through PLC-IP3 pathway. In addition, alternation of endothelial adherens junctions following contact of melanoma cells was evidenced by the changes in immunological staining patterns of vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin. A PLC inhibitor, U73122 was shown to significantly diminish [Ca2+]i response and reduce the occurrence of melanoma cell-induced VE-cadherin reorganization. Moreover, inhibition of PLC attenuated melanoma cell transendothelial migration. However, melanoma cell-associated VE-cadherin breakdown was not sensitive to Ly294002, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), whereas inhibition of PI3K resulted in a reduction of melanoma cell transmigration. Taken together, our findings implicate that by inducing the PLC-Ca2+ signaling pathway, melanoma cells disrupt EC junctions to breach the endothelium and promote transvascular homing of tumor cells.


by the fourth reading. There was no significant difference in MAP readings between the groups with five repeated BP readings versus that in which the BP was measured at the end of the scan. Conclusions: Maternal pulse readings indicate that women are least anxious during their scans. The maternal MAP stabilises in > 90% of cases by the fifth reading during the scan. Measuring the BP at the end of the scan is the most accurate and cost-effective way of assessing MAP in early pregnancy.


Let K be a compact Hausdorff space and let E be a Banach space. We denote by C(K, E) the Banach space of all E-valued continuous functions defined on K, endowed with the supremum norm. Recently, Talagrand [Israel J. Math. 44 (1983), 317–321] constructed a Banach space E having the Dunford-Pettis property such that C([0, 1], E) fails to have the Dunford-Pettis property. So he answered negatively a question which was posed some years ago. We prove in this paper that for a large class of compacts K (the scattered compacts), C(K, E) has either the Dunford-Pettis property, or the reciprocal Dunford-Pettis property, or the Dieudonné property, or property V if and only if E has the same property. Also some properties of the operators defined on C(K, E) are studied.


Audience Response Systems are widely used in various events as a media to gather information, to collect data, and to know the opinions of the general public towards particular issues, topics, news. Audience Response System can also be used to find out the client or customer satisfaction to the quality of products or services. Unfortunately most of the audience response systems that exist today are in the form of a physical (or remote) device which is severely limited in use. Along with the development of technology, almost all people have a smartphone to support their daily activities. The physical remote device called a clicker can be replaced with an application or program that can be installed on smartphones, while the polls are created through the website. In this research, the Audience response system was built using Node.js, PhoneGap platform, and the WebSocket Socket.IO as Javascript library to support bi-directional data communications. Based on testing result, this application can run properly all the functionalities that have been mentioned such as login to the system, create a poll, join a poll, and give a vote. The realiability of the system is 93%..


This study politicizes the mixed relationship in Israeli-Palestinian literature. I examine Arab-Jewish and interethnic Jewish intimacy in works by Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, canonical Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua, select anthologized Anglophone and translated Palestinian and Israeli poetry, and Israeli feminist writer Orly Castel-Bloom. I also examine the material cultural discourses issuing from Israel's textile industry, in which Arabs and Jews interact. Drawing from the methodology of twentieth-century Brazilian miscegenation theorist Gilberto Freyre, I argue that mixed intimacies in the Israeli-Palestinian imaginary represent a desire to restructure a hegemonic public sphere in the same way Freyre's Brazilian mestizo was meant to rhetorically undermine what he deemed a Western cult of uniformity. This project constitutes a threefold contribution. I offer one of the few postcolonial perspectives on Israeli literature, as it remains underrepresented in the field in comparison to its Palestinian counterparts. I also present the first sustained critique of the hetero relationship and the figure of the hybrid in Israeli-Palestinian literature, especially as I focus on its representation for political options rather than its aesthetic intrigue. Finally, I reexamine and apply Gilberto Freyre in a way that excavates him from critical interment and advocates for his global relevance.


From Oct. 1986 to Jan. 1987, a total of 74 patients presenting for endoscopy were studied. These included 30 cases of active chronic gastritis and 44 cases of peptic ulcer. Biopsy specimens were taken during the endoscopy and sent to the laboratory for Campylobacter pyloridis culture within 2 hours. The culture was done by inoculated with chocolate agar, Brucella agar and 0.2% urea broth for urease activity. Results showed that, 53% (16/32) of active chronic gastritis, 77% (10/13) of gastric ulcer and 84% (26/31) of duodenal ulcer were positive for Campylobacter pyloridis. The specificity and sensitivity of urease positive rate are 64% and 90% respectively. It is higher as compared with bacteria culture. In addition, we found that 10 days would be needed for the routine culture and identification of this organism. But it took only 30 minutes to 6 hours for urease activity test. Therefore, we suggested that urease activity test could be a rapid diagnostic method for detecting Campylobacter pyloridis.


A356 and A380 alloys are two well-known hypoeutectic Al-Si casting alloys in the non-ferrous casting industry and drew significant attention for semi-solid applications. The cooling slope casting method for producing materials with non-dendritic microstructure is one of the simplest liquid route techniques. In the beginning, microstructural differences of both alloys produced with 30° and 60° tilt angles were examined. It was observed that the angle change has a limited effect on A380 and it is almost non-effective for A356 as-cast structures. The samples were then subjected to the reheating processes for different times and the effects were investigated by measuring the average shape factor and the grain size values. In addition to the natural grain growth, it is understood that the changes in the eutectic are also effective on the properties. The rapid solidification of the melted eutectic by quenching the reheated samples modified the eutectic structure and improved the hardness. On the other hand, grain growth reduces hardness naturally. Additionally, it was observed that the increase in sphericity was supported by the liquid phase formation and it was determined that A356 alloy was more sensitive to reheating and formed larger grains than A380 alloy for the same reheating periods.


During the perinatal period, oligodendroglial precursor cells proliferate rapidly, then cease dividing and differentiate into oligodendroglia. Many of these newly formed oligodendroglia are destined to die. We now demonstrate that oligodendroglia generated in passaged cultures of rat forebrain oligodendroglial precursor cells after removal of basic fibroblast growth factor (basic FGF) from the medium often undergo internucleosomal DNA nicking and nuclear fragmentation, features characteristic of apoptosis. These alterations are rare in cultures maintained continuously in basic FGF. As in many other cellular lineages susceptible to apoptosis, these degenerative changes can be prevented by treatment with the endonuclease antagonist, aurintricarboxylic acid, or by inhibiting de novo RNA or protein synthesis. Supplementation of the basic FGF‐free medium with insulin, insulin‐like growth factor‐1, platelet‐derived growth factor, or ciliary neuronotrophic growth factor also diminishes DNA nicking. Both oligodendroglial differentiation and DNA nicking are induced in basic FGF‐treated cultures by inhibiting DNA synthesis with aphidicholin or excess thymidine, thus suggesting a close linkage between the anti‐apoptotic, anti‐differentiation, and mitogenic effects of basic FGF on the oligodendroglial lineage. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In this paper, we present a novel robust zero- sum game framework for pool-based active learning grounded on advanced statistical learning theory. Pool-based active learning usually consists of two components, namely, learning of a classifier given labeled data and querying of unlabeled data for labeling. Most previous studies on active learning consider these as two separate tasks and propose various heuristics for selecting important unlabeled data for labeling, which may render the selection of unlabeled examples sub-optimal for minimizing the classification error. In contrast, the present work formulates active learning as a unified optimization framework for learning the classifier, i.e., the querying of labels and the learning of models are unified to minimize a common objective for statistical learning. In addition, the proposed method avoids the issues of many previous algorithms such as inefficiency, sampling bias and sensitivity to imbalanced data distribution. Besides theoretical analysis, we conduct extensive experiments on benchmark datasets and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed active learning method compared with the state-of-the-art methods.


Local surrogate models, to approximate the local decision boundary of a black-box classifier, constitute one approach to generate explanations for the rationale behind an individual prediction made by the back-box. This paper highlights the importance of defining the right locality, the neighborhood on which a local surrogate is trained, in order to approximate accurately the local black-box decision boundary. Unfortunately, as shown in this paper, this issue is not only a parameter or sampling distribution challenge and has a major impact on the relevance and quality of the approximation of the local black-box decision boundary and thus on the meaning and accuracy of the generated explanation. To overcome the identified problems, quantified with an adapted measure and procedure, we propose to generate surrogate-based explanations for individual predictions based on a sampling centered on particular place of the decision boundary, relevant for the prediction to be explained, rather than on the prediction itself as it is classically done. We evaluate the novel approach compared to state-of-the-art methods and a straightforward improvement thereof on four UCI datasets.


Effect of silicon content on the creep properties of Ti-6Al-4Fe-xSi was studied. Creep resistance of Ti-6Al-4Fe-xSi alloys was superior to that of Ti-6Al-4V. Ti-6Al-4Fe-0.5Si alloy exhibited the highest rupture strength and creep resistance among the Ti-6Al-4Fe-xSi alloys investigated. The minimum creep rate of the alloys decreased with increasing silicon content up to 0.5wt.% and then it increased again when the silicon content was higher than 0.5wt.%. TiFe precipitates were formed mainly at the β phase area of Ti-6Al-4Fe-xSi alloys by consuming titanium and iron in β phase, when the alloys were thermally exposed at 500 and 600°C during the creep test. During the creep test, microvoids were induced at the TiFe/α phase interfaces and the cracks were formed along the TiFe/α phase interfaces by the coalescence of the voids. Those cracks were finally connected each other through the α phase.


This paper provides an integrated view of globally engaged U.S. firms by exploring a newly developed dataset that links U.S. international trade transactions to longitudinal data on U.S. enterprises. These data permit examination of a number of new dimensions of firm activity, including how many products firms trade, how many countries firms trade with, the characteristics of those countries, the concentration of trade across firms, whether firms transact at arms length or with related parties, and whether firms import as well as export. Firms that trade goods play an important role in the U.S., employing more than a third of the U.S. workforce. We find that the most globally engaged U.S. firms, i.e. those that both export to and import from related parties, dominate U.S. trade flows and employment at trading firms. We also find that firms that begin trading between 1993 and 2000 experience especially rapid employment growth and are a major force in overall job creation.


Background 50–100 babies are born per year to drug using mothers in Leeds. Local guidelines state maternal or neonatal urine toxicology (UT) should be sent if the mother is known to use illicit substances (with the mother's verbal consent). A local audit was conducted alongside a national survey of the use of UT in drug exposed newborn infants. Methodology Survey: Representatives from all UK neonatal networks were asked about their use and local indications for UT. Audit The case notes of infants born to drug using women in 2012 were reviewed. UT results for infants during this period were obtained from biochemistry. Results Survey 32 health professionals responded in total representing 19 of the 24 UK networks. 22% sent maternal UT and 28% sent UT from the baby. Audit 49 cases were reviewed. Maternal toxicology results were documented in 2 cases. 30 infant urine samples were received by the laboratory. 25 cases had documentation of urine being sent. 19 had documented consent. UT results identified more concerning drug use than that reported in 5/19 cases. 31 cases had discharge planning documented and urine results documented in 13/31 cases. Discussion/Conclusions National practice is variable with the majority of units discontinuing testing. Locally, despite sending UT, documentation is poor and testing does not alter management. There is a need for accurate, quick and reliable testing for infants, where drug exposure is known or suspected. The use of bedside meconium testing is being piloted locally and may provide an alternative to UT.


This paper examines the effect of corrosion exposure on the flexural response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with a powder-actuated fastened (PAF) composite system. Twenty-one RC beams were constructed and tested to failure under four-point bending. The corroded beams were subjected to 30, 60, and 100 days of accelerated corrosion that corresponded to measured tensile steel mass losses of 6, 11, and 18%, respectively. Other test parameters included width of the fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite strip, fastener length, and number of fastener rows. For the undamaged beams, the PAF-FRP system resulted in up to 24% increase in flexural capacity and 20% average reduction in beam ductility. The strengthening effectiveness reduced with increased level of corrosion damage. Nevertheless, the flexural strength of the strengthened specimens at all levels of corrosion was either higher or almost same as that of the control specimen. Increasing the fastener length increased the gain in flexural capacity of the undamaged beams but had no noticeable effect on the flexural strength gain of the corroded beams. Doubling the width of the FRP strip or number of fastener rows had insignificant effect on the flexural strength gain. An analytical model that can predict the flexural capacity of corroded RC beams strengthened with a PAF-FRP system has been introduced. The model accounts for the nonlinear behavior of materials and strain incompatibility between the PAF-FRP strip and concrete. The validity of the model has been demonstrated by comparing its predictions with the experimental results.


Phenylthiocarbamide tastes intensely bitter to some individuals, but others find it completely tasteless. Recently, it was suggested that phenylthiocarbamide elicits bitter taste by interacting with a human G protein-coupled receptor (hTAS2R38) encoded by the PTC gene. The phenylthiocarbamide nontaster trait was linked to three single nucleotide polymorphisms occurring in the PTC gene. Using the crystal structure of bovine rhodopsin as template, we generated the 3D structure of hTAS2R38 bitter taste receptor. We were able to map on the receptor structure the amino acids affected by the genetic polymorphisms and to propose molecular functions for two of them that explained the emergence of the nontaster trait. We used molecular docking simulations to find that phenylthiocarbamide exhibited a higher affinity for the target receptor than the structurally similar molecule 6-n-propylthiouracil, in line with recent experimental studies. A 3D model was constructed for the hTAS2R16 bitter taste receptor as well, by applying the same protocol. We found that the recently published experimental ligand binding affinity data for this receptor correlated well with the binding scores obtained from our molecular docking calculations.


We consider the proposal that partitives always contain two positions for nouns which may be filled by silent material from the perspective of Japanese. We argue that it provides a novel account for cases of quantificational expressions that are frequently marked with genitive case in Japanese. Genitive case attached to nouns marks possession or partitivity, but on quantifiers it has been previously regarded as purely morphological. We show that genitive case on quantifiers can be analyzed as regular genitive case, and identify two distinct structures based on the two noun partitive structure. Specifically, we claim that the genitive suffix can be stranded by NP ellipsis, but when it can attach to a preceeding quantifier the structure remains grammatical. Our analysis therefore supports an analysis of partitives assuming two noun positions where ellipsis can target one or both of those two nouns. This article is part of Special Collection: Partitives


ABSTRACT Hfq is a global small RNA (sRNA) chaperone that interacts with Hfq-regulated sRNAs and functions in the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. In this work, we identified Hfq to be a virulence regulator in the Gram-negative fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora. Deletion of hfq in E. amylovora Ea1189 significantly reduced bacterial virulence in both immature pear fruits and apple shoots. Analysis of virulence determinants in strain Ea1189Δhfq showed that Hfq exerts pleiotropic regulation of amylovoran exopolysaccharide production, biofilm formation, motility, and the type III secretion system (T3SS). Further characterization of biofilm regulation by Hfq demonstrated that Hfq limits bacterial attachment to solid surfaces while promoting biofilm maturation. Characterization of T3SS regulation by Hfq revealed that Hfq positively regulates the translocation and secretion of the major type III effector DspE and negatively controls the secretion of the putative translocator HrpK and the type III effector Eop1. Lastly, 10 Hfq-regulated sRNAs were identified using a computational method, and two of these sRNAs, RprA and RyhA, were found to be required for the full virulence of E. amylovora.


This study employed a novel combination of data (winter cover crop [WCC] cost-share enrollment records, satellite remote sensing of wintertime vegetation, and results of Soil and Water Assessment Tool [SWAT] water quality simulations) to estimate the environmental performance of WCC at the watershed scale, from 2008 through 2017, in the Tuckahoe Creek watershed, located within the Choptank River basin. The Choptank River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, and, as a focus watershed for the USDA's Conservation Effects Assessment Project, has been the subject of considerable study assessing linkages between land use and water quality. Farm enrollment data from the Maryland Agricultural Cost Share (MACS) program documented a large increase in the use of WCC within the Tuckahoe Creek watershed during the study period, rising from 27% of corn (Zea mays L.) fields and 9% of soybean (Glycine max L.) fields in 2008 to 89% of corn fields and 46% of soybean fields in 2016. Satellite remote sensing of wintertime ground cover detected increased wintertime vegetation following corn crops, in comparison to full season and double cropped soybean, consistent with patterns of cover crop implementation. Although interannual variation in climate strongly affected observed levels of vegetation, with warm winters resulting in increased vegetative cover, a 30-year analysis of wintertime greenness revealed significant increases in wintertime vegetation associated with increased adoption of WCC. The MACS WCC enrollment data were combined with output from the SWAT model, calibrated to streamflow and nutrient loading from the Upper Tuckahoe watershed, to estimate water quality impacts based on known distribution of cover crop species and planting dates (2008 to 2017). Results indicated a 25% overall 10-year reduction in nitrate (NO3−) leaching from cropland attributable to cover crop adoption, rising to an estimated 38% load reduction in 2016 when 64% of fields were planted to cover crops. Results suggest that increased environmental benefits would be achieved by shifting agronomic methods away from late-planted wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), which comprised 34.7% of all WCC planted between 2008 and 2017.


Liquidity supply by a Lender of Last Resort (LOLR) can be pivotal for both the conduct of monetary policy and safeguard of financial stability. During the financial crisis, the importance of liquidity provision significantly increased at both the macro-level – through the European Central Bank – and also for individual credit institutions in the guise of Emergency Liquidity Assistance through the National Central Banks (NCBs). This article examines the legal framework in which the ECB and the NCBs carry out their respective roles as LOLR. The question of who holds competence for liquidity supply is discussed in light of the LOLR functions pertaining to financial stability and monetary policy, as are the availability of effective measures and the legal prerequisites and limitations, particularly with regard to the prohibition of monetary State financing, the imperative of price stability and State aid rules. In view of recent reforms of banking supervision in the eurozone, the question of centralizing Emergency Liquidity Assistance within the ECB also arises.


The researchers investigated the effect of the token economy on low academic self- concept of secondary school students in Enugu North, Enugu state, Nigeria. The pre test, post test, control group quasi-experimental design was adopted for this study. Two research questions and two null hypothesis tested at a 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The population of this study comprised 10,032 senior secondary school students II in Enugu North, Nigeria. The researchers sampled 60 students using purposive and cluster sampling techniques. Two instruments developed by the researchers were used for data collections, namely Students Low Academic Self- concept Identification Scale (SLASCS) and Low Academic Self-Concept Dictating Scale (LASCDS). The instruments were validated by experts in departments of measurement and valuation as well as Guidance and Counselling. The reliability of the instruments was ascertained through test-retest method using Cronbach Alpha Statistics which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.83 and 0.85 for SLASCS and LASCDS respectively. Data collected were analyzed using mean score and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The hypothesis was tested using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at 5% level of significance. The findings revealed among others that TERS (Token Economy Reinforcement) is significantly effective in the reduction of low academic self- concept among students at post-test and follow-uptests. From the above findings, it was recommended among others, that Teachers, educators and instructors should make use of token economy reinforcement system in the reduction of low academic self- concept among students to enhance their academic performance for greater productivity.  Article visualizations:


Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria was measured from ketoprak and gado-gado which sold in food retailer in the area of University of Indonesia. The research was conducted to know the level of contamination of E. coli bacteria in two type of food that easily find in the food retailer in the area of the University of Indonesia. The Total Plate Count (TPC) method was applied to measure the level of the E. coli bacteria from each type of the food, which are gado-gado and ketoprak, from local registered cafeteria in each faculty, stationary and not stationary, using carriage or moveable unregistered food retailer around the University. The measurement was performed for the plate, spun and the sanitation water used by the retailers. Questioners were also used to collect information about the knowledge and practice, in related to the personal and environmental hygiene, along with observation to the observe the way the retailer to prepare, make and serve the food to the customers, and also to clean and store the utensils. The seventyfour retailers around the University were surveyed and observed. The result showed that the educational level of the respondents quite high, they were mostly graduated from Senior high school, sanitation facility were poor, the food server mostly had little knowledge and practice on healthy and good sanitation, since preparation to serving the food to the costumers and also clean the utensils. E. coli bacteria found above the healthy level from almost to the food retailer around the University, it found from the food, the utensils such as plates and spun, and also in the water used for cleaning the utensils. The research suggests a periodic microbiology monitoring for foods and drinks sale in the campus, to assure the quality of food that served for the civitas accademica for maintaining health. Is also need to develop a good sanitation facility used by the food retailers in the campus.


Fluorescent proteins are intrinsically fluorescent, genetically encodable tags that can be expressed in many heterologous organisms. Originally cloned from jellyfish and corals, these proteins and their engineered derivatives have become ubiquitous tools in molecular and cell biology. While wild-type fluorescent proteins sometimes possess sufficiently beneficial properties to be used unmodified, many applications require improvements in brightness or photostability, reduction of oligomerization, or other specific properties that require additional engineering of the wild-type protein. This dissertation presents experiments drawn from the entire spectrum of fluorescent protein science, from the cloning of novel wild-type fluorescent proteins to the engineering of wavelength-shifted, photostable, and photoactivatable variants of existing fluorescent proteins. The previously engineered monomeric red fluorescent protein, mRFP1, was engineered through a combination of rational design and directed evolution into a set of monomeric fluorescent proteins spanning from yellow-green through far-red. Far- red fluorescent proteins were studied in further detail after the discovery that certain variants exhibited the novel property of reversible photoactivation. A systematic analysis of the photostability and spectral properties of the most commonly used fluorescent proteins led to greater insight into the best proteins to use for specific types of experiment. Novel screening methods were developed to select for highly photostable variants, resulting in the evolution of substantially more photostable red and orange monomers. Finally, novel fluorescent proteins were cloned from a cold-water anemone and a tropical large-polyp stony coral, providing additional insights into the evolution of color in wild-type fluorescent proteins. The central issue in all of these studies is the examination of the origin of the widely varied photophysical properties of these fluorescent proteins. In the course of this work, the relationship between chromophore chemistry and interaction with the protein scaffold and the photophysical properties of the fluorescent protein have been further elucidated, and several novel tools with wide applicability to cell and molecular biology research have been developed


Here Professor Hengel argues with a wealth of documentation that the traditional views of the origin and content of the Gospel of Mark have far more to be said for them than has been usually allowed by modern New Testament scholars. He argues that the tradition contained in the Gospel is that handed down by Peter through Mark, and that the Gospel was written in Rome in AD 69. The famous note by Papias quoted in Eusebius' Church History is not to be dismissed, but has every appearance of being reliable. Further evidence in support of this view can be found in a detailed consideration of the titles of the Gospels, which must have been attached to the Gospels at a very early stage, if only to identify them. An appendix, by the distinguished classical philologist Wolfgang Schadewaldt, on 'The Reliability of the Synoptic Tradition', is used to add further weight to the case. With his customary learning, Professor Hengel has produced a powerful argument which those who have held more radical views than his own will have to consider very carefully indeed if they are to continue to carry conviction. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.


In this study, in situ synthesis of oil-based polymer–silver nanocomposites was achieved by using photoinduced free radical polymerization processes in which silver nanoparticles were formed by electron transfer reaction. An oil-based macromonomer was prepared and then copolymerized with styrene in the presence of AgNO3. Copolymerization was started with free radicals formed by photolysis of 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenyl acetophenone and simultaneously silver nitrate was reduced to metallic silver in nanosize by electron transfer reaction. The amount of photoinitiator influenced the size of silver nanoparticles formed within the polymer films. Nanocomposite films were characterized by TEM and TGA analysis. The obtained polymer nanocomposite film was also examined in respect of surface coating material that would have an antibacterial effect against Gram-positive, Gram-negative and spore-forming bacteria. It was demonstrated that suitably coated nanocomposite samples exhibited an antibacterial effect against these bacteria.


The morphology and electronic structure of Pd clusters grown on oxidized yttrium surfaces are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. The hydrogen sorption mediated by the Pd clusters is determined from the optically monitored switching kinetics of the underlying yttrium film. A strong thickness dependence of the hydrogen uptake is found. The electronic structure of the as-grown Pd clusters depends only weakly on their size. Strong changes of the photoemission spectra are found after hydrogenation, in particular the oxide peak shifts and the Pd peaks vanish. Both phenomena are due to a strong metal-support interaction ( SMSI ) state, characterized by a complete encapsulation of the clusters by a reduced yttrium oxide layer. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy confirms the SMSI state of small Pd clusters after hydrogen exposure. The SMSI effect is less important with increasing Pd thickness. This explains the critical thickness for the catalyzed hydrogen uptake by the Pd/YO x /Y system. The results shed light on the mechanism of hydrogen absorption at the triple point gas-catalyst-oxide, which also plays an important role in today's fuel cell technology.


A fundamental aspect of human cognition is that we construe the environment as including unique individuals that belong to various categories. An individual dog, for example, could simultaneously be a living being, a mammal or a poodle, but when it comes to things that are important to us - our dog Fido, our favorite restaurant, our spouse - we also represent the individuals themselves, not just the categories they belong to. Cognitive psychologists have made an extensive study of categories of objects but have had less to say concerning conceptions of individuals, i.e. singular concepts, and how they support our ability to uniquely identify individual entities in different situations.
The primary goal of this work is to investigate the nature and the functioning dynamics of singular concepts and explore how these concepts underlie singular cognition, i.e. the ability to identify a known entity, through perceptual or epistemic access to its memorial representation, and trace it as the same unique entity over time and change.
To perform such a process the cognitive system is confronted with a uniqueness problem. It needs to pick an individual entity out, secure a unique mental referential link with the entity and maintain that link over time and change.
We argue that singular concepts are the cognitive devices that are specialized for this function and we propose a model of singular cognition that has the notion of singular concept at its core. The main assumption of this model is that conceptual representations about individuals (i.e. singular concepts) represent a networks of unique files in memory which mediate the direct access to individual-specific knowledge and provide a unique mechanism of identification and reference for unique individuals. According to our model, the access to this system is not mediated by higher level representations (i.e. general concepts), neither is internally organized by these representations. On the contrary, it is
subjected to its own functioning dynamics and it is organized through associative links which connect different individual concepts and causal links which maintain the conceptual history of an entity, by linking different states of the same singular concept, across time and change.
We can distinguish four main phases of our investigation about singular concepts which led to the proposed model of singular cognition.
1) In the first phase we investigated what is the preferential level of abstraction at which an individual entity is first identified (i.e. the entry point of recognition). Since any individual object can be identified at multiple levels of abstraction (e.g. a dog can be Identified as a "dog", more generally as "animal" or more specifically as "poodle" or "Fido"), the aim was to test the hypothesis that the singular concept of an object acts as the access node to the knowledge that the agent has about the object and this access is direct and not mediated by higher level concepts. Results from three experiments on visual recognition provided evidences in favor of this hypothesis, indicating that the entry level of identification of unique individuals is shifted to the most subordinate level of abstraction, i.e. the level of unique identity.
2) The second phase of this work explored how our semantic representations of individual things are accessed and how these representations are inter-linked with those of other individual things. This issue has been investigated through a priming experiment which provided evidence in favor of a model in which singular concepts are organized by means of horizontal associative links instead of by vertical links with higher level representations.
3) In the third phase of our investigation we looked inside a singular concept and we explored which attributes people consider more relevant to uniquely identify entities belonging to different categories and determine the cognitive importance that individual attributes have in identifying these entities. We also explored which are the most relevant attributes that people use to identify entities in a specific task, i.e. the search for information about individual entities by means of keyword queries on the Web.
4) The last phase of the investigation concerned with the problem of how people judge the identity of entities over time and change. An experiment was conducted which explored how people evaluate the identity of entities over changes in their descriptions. The results of the study have been interpreted in the light of a causal model of the functioning of singular concepts in keeping the unique referential link with the entity across change.
Beyond the cognitive issues, this work is also motivated by the recent development of technological approaches to the problem of entity identification.
Since many identification problems which are addressed by a cognitive system have a counterpart in information systems which manage information about individual entities (e.g. to represent or extract information about unique individuals and manage individual-specific knowledge across time and change), the last goal of our work is to make an investigation of possible contributions that a cognitive study on the problem of individual identification can provide to technological applications. In particular we focused on the problem of entity identification in search systems. A model and an application for a specific technological problem, i.e. entity type disambiguation in Web-search queries, is described and its beneficial impact is evaluated.
In summary, the contribution of this work is twofold. On one hand, we provide new evidence on the nature of high-level cognitive mechanisms involved in entity representation and identification, revealing new research issues on this topic in cognitive psychology. On the other hand, we show how a better understanding of these processes at a cognitive level can improve the development of entity identification approaches in information systems, suggesting a middle ground where cognitive models and technological models developed in other research fields can find the opportunity for communication and integration.


In the last decades, the applications of structural monitoring are moving toward the field of civil engineering and infrastructures. Nevertheless, if the structures have damages, it does not mean that they have a complete loss of functionality, but rather that the system is no longer in an optimal condition so that, if the damage increases, the structure can collapse. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), a process for the identification of damage, periodically collects data from suitable sensors that allow to characterize the damage and establishes the health status of the structure. Therefore, this monitoring will provide information on the structure condition, mostly about its integrity, in a short time, and, for infrastructures and civil structures, it is necessary to assess performance and health status. The aim of this work is to design an Internet of Things (IoT) system for Structural Health Monitoring to find possible damages and to see how the structure behaves over time. For this purpose, a customized datalogger and nodes have been designed. The datalogger is able to acquire the data coming from the nodes through RS485 communication and synchronize acquisitions. Furthermore, it has an internal memory to allow for the post-processing of the collected data. The nodes are composed of a digital triaxial accelerometer, a general-purpose microcontroller, and an external memory for storage measures. The microcontroller communicates with an accelerometer, acquires values, and then saves them in the memory. The system has been characterized and the damage indicator has been evaluated on a testing structure. Experimental results show that the estimated damage indicator increases when the structure is perturbed. In the present work, the damage indicator increased by a maximum value of 24.65 when the structure is perturbed by a 2.5 mm engraving.


In this paper, the shell element with drilling degree of freedom (DOF) is applied to springback analysis, which possesses most satisfactory robustness and accuracy by describing complicated bending deformation precisely. At each node, six DOF make the element easy to connect to space beams or intersecting shells. The locking phenomena are controlled. We conducted implicit finite element method (FEM) analysis for springback simulation with this element in which the results show as good quality as BT shell, and in a few cases even better performance. As a result, this element is integrated in our stamping analysis software platform King Mesh Analysis System.


Although an alternative pathway has been suggested, the prevailing view is that starch synthesis in cereal endosperm is controlled by the activity of the cytosolic isoform of ADPglucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase). In rice, the cytosolic AGPase isoform is encoded by the OsAGPS2b and OsAGPL2 genes, which code for the small (S2b) and large (L2) subunits of the heterotetrameric enzyme, respectively. In this study, we isolated several allelic missense and nonsense OsAGPL2 mutants by N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU) treatment of fertilized egg cells and by TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes). Interestingly, seeds from three of the missense mutants (two containing T139I and A171V) were severely shriveled and had seed weight and starch content comparable with the shriveled seeds from OsAGPL2 null mutants. Results from kinetic analysis of the purified recombinant enzymes revealed that the catalytic and allosteric regulatory properties of these mutant enzymes were significantly impaired. The missense heterotetramer enzymes and the S2b homotetramer had lower specific (catalytic) activities and affinities for the activator 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA). The missense heterotetramer enzymes showed more sensitivity to inhibition by the inhibitor inorganic phosphate (Pi) than the wild-type AGPase, while the S2b homotetramer was profoundly tolerant to Pi inhibition. Thus, our results provide definitive evidence that starch biosynthesis during rice endosperm development is controlled predominantly by the catalytic activity of the cytoplasmic AGPase and its allosteric regulation by the effectors. Moreover, our results show that the L2 subunit is essential for both catalysis and allosteric regulatory properties of the heterotetramer enzyme.


Disc degeneration is strongly associated with back or neck pain, sciatica, and disc herniation or prolapse. It places an enormous economic burden on society and can greatly affect quality of life. Alternative treatment approaches, such as genetic therapies, are urgently needed to slow or reverse the disc degeneration process. We downloaded gene expression data from Gene Expression Omnibus during various stages of disc degeneration and identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) as well as dysfunctional pathways through comparisons with controls. We identified 2 significant DEGs between grade II and III discs and 8 significant DEGs between grade II and IV discs. By constructing an interactive network of the DEGs, we found that mitogen-activated protein family genes and Ras homologous (Rho) family genes - in particular, MAP2K6 and RHOBTB2 - may play important roles in the progression of degeneration of grade III and IV discs, respectively. MAP2K6 and RHOBTB2 may be specific therapeutic molecular targets in the treatment of disc degeneration. However, further experiments are needed to confirm this result.


Polysaccharide monooxygenases (PMOs) catalyze oxidative degradation of recalcitrant carbohydrate chains in cellulose, starch, and chitin. In biofuel industry, the conversion of rich lignocellulose source to fermentable sugars by hydrolytic cellulases can be synergistically boosted by cellulose-active PMOs (AA9 PMOs) found in a vast number of fungi that grow on biomass. Aspergillus nidulans, a filamentous fungus, possess a dozen of PMO-encoding genes, but only the AN3860 is expressed at a high level when cultured with wheat straw as the sole carbon source. Bioinformatic analysis indicates that AN3860 belongs to type 3 AA9 PMO subfamily that is capable of hydroxylating both C1 and C4 of the glycosidic linkages. Therefore, AN3860 may be a potential enzyme to improve cellulose hydrolysis efficiency, which has not been characterized. In this study, we describe the AN3860 cloning into Aspergillus oryzae AUT1-PlD. To facilitate the purification of AN3860, we added a CBM20 tag to its C-terminal. The recombinant vector was designed and constructed successfully. Simultaneously, we have obtained the clone of A. oryzae carrying the target gene by the ATMT method. Further expression optimization and characterization of AN3860 by both activity assays and spectroscopic techniques are underway.


This study investigates the effects of job insecurity on four organizationally important outcomes: in-role behaviour, organizational citizenship behaviour, turnover intention, and absenteeism. A model is tested in which job insecurity is simultaneously a hindrance and a challenge stressor. In particular, job insecurity is proposed to have a predominantly harmful effect on performance, turnover intention, and absenteeism, and it is argued that these effects are mediated by (reduced) work attitudes. In addition, job insecurity is also assumed to affect these behaviours in the opposite way (i.e. a suppressor effect) because job insecurity might motivate employees to make themselves more valuable to the organization by working harder and being less absent. The model is tested with a sample of 136 German non-managerial employees. Data from supervisors (i.e. in-role behaviour and organizational citizenship behaviour), the company's personnel files (i.e. absenteeism), and self-reports (i.e. job insecurity, work attitudes, turnover intention, in-role behaviour, and organizational citizenship behaviour) were used. Structural equation modelling showed that a model that included both negative and positive effects fitted the data best. The negative effect was stronger than the positive effect. The results show that the effects of job insecurity are more complex than previously assumed. In addition, the results also extend previous research into hindrance and challenge stressors because they show that stressors should not be categorized as either hindrance or challenge. Instead, it might be more appropriate to conceptualize hindrance and challenge as two dimensions.


The experimental substantiation and clinical approbation of the absorbable antimicrobial threads "Capromed A" and "Caproiod" in the surgery of the extrahepatic bile-ducts were carried out. The complications caused by the use of suture material were not revealed. A high effectiveness of the "Caproiod" thread in the emergency surgery of the extrahepatic bile ducts was noted.


Abstract Bigler (2012) and Larrabee (2012) recently addressed the state of the science surrounding performance validity tests (PVTs) in a dialogue highlighting evidence for the valid and increased use of PVTs, but also for unresolved problems. Specifically, Bigler criticized the lack of guidance from neurocognitive processing theory in the PVT literature. For example, individual PVTs have applied the simultaneous forced-choice methodology using a variety of test characteristics (e.g., word vs. picture stimuli) with known neurocognitive processing implications (e.g., the "picture superiority effect"). However, the influence of such variations on classification accuracy has been inadequately evaluated, particularly among cognitively impaired individuals. The current review places the PVT literature in the context of neurocognitive processing theory, and identifies potential methodological factors to account for the significant variability we identified in classification accuracy across current PVTs. We subsequently evaluated the utility of a well-known cognitive manipulation to provide a Clinical Analogue Methodology (CAM), that is, to alter the PVT performance of healthy individuals to be similar to that of a cognitively impaired group. Initial support was found, suggesting the CAM may be useful alongside other approaches (analogue malingering methodology) for the systematic evaluation of PVTs, particularly the influence of specific neurocognitive processing components on performance. (JINS, 2014, 20, 873–886)


Spurred on by the Trump administration's aggressive deportation policies and open hostility to immigrants, the "sanctuary" movement has seen rapid growth across a variety of sectors. With a clear religious foundation, churches, synagogues, and individuals associated with the sanctuary movement have pledged to offer housing, support, and assistance to vulnerable individuals at risk for deportation. Some businesses have publicly expressed their support for undocumented people; we now see sanctuary restaurants, sanctuary homes (for domestic workers), and sanctuary unions. But what happens if these businesses run afoul of immigration laws? Can they claim religious freedom as a defense for their actions? Following the logic of Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, we argue that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could provide a shield for businesses, provided they act out of a sincere religious belief. Given this conclusion, we discuss the expanded role religion has begun to play in business today, and how this may ultimately be a dangerous result for civil society.


Electrical current mismatching is a well-known limitation of triple junction solar cells that lowers the final conversion efficiency. Several solutions have been proposed to face this issue, including the insertion of a multiple quantum well structure as the intermediate junction's active material. With a better matching in the current among the junctions, the total current increases, thus modifying the working conditions of the overall device. In this way, the InGaP top junction needs to be optimized to such new condition. In this work, numerical simulations were carried out aiming the enlargement of the electrical current density of an InGaP pn junction to achieve the proper current matching in triple junction solar cell for spatial applications. The optimized structure has been grown in a GaAs substrate and characterized as a single junction solar cell. Although the measured short circuit current density and conversion efficiency are still well below the theoretically predicted values, processing improvement should lead to adequate cell performance.


More than 9000 laparoscopic liver resections (LLR) are performed worldwide for benign lesions, malignancy (mainly for hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal cancer liver metastasis), and living donor hepatectomy. Although there is no absolute size criterion, smaller, peripheral lesions (<5 cm) of the anteriolateral segments, that lie far from major vessels and anticipated transection planes are most amenable to LLR, but nowadays lesions of the less ideal posterosuperior segments are feasible for LLR too. Centers with extensive experience in hepatobiliary surgery and laparoscopy have performed laparoscopic major hepatic resections with satisfactory outcomes. Patient benefits from LLR include less intraoperative blood loss, less postoperative pain and painkiller requirement, early mobilization and shorter length of hospital stay, with comparable postoperative morbidity and mortality to open liver resection. Comparison studies between open resection and LLR have revealed no differences in width of resection margins or overall survival after resection for hepatocellular cancer or colorectal cancer liver metastases. Other advantages of LLR for HCC are avoidance of collateral vessel ligation, decreased postoperative hepatic insufficiency and fewer postoperative adhesions, all of them facilitates a possible subsequent liver transplantation.


Recent increases in the volume of labour migration from South-east Asia – and in particular the feminisation of these movements – suggest that millions of children are growing up in transnational families, separated from their migrant parents. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data collected in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the study seeks to elucidate care arrangements for left-behind children and to understand the ways in which children respond to shifts in intimate family relations brought about by (re)configurations of their care. Our findings emphasise that children, through strategies of resistance, resilience and reworking, are conscious social actors and agents of their own development, albeit within constrained situations resulting from their parents' migration.


Wireless sensor networks are often designed to perform two tasks: sensing a physical field and transmitting the data to end-users. A crucial design aspect of a WSN is the minimization of the overall energy consumption. Previous researchers aim at optimizing the energy spent for the communication, while mostly ignoring the energy cost of sensing. Recently, it has been shown that considering the sensing energy cost can be beneficial for further improving the overall energy efficiency. More precisely, sparse sensing techniques were proposed to reduce the amount of collected samples and recover the missing data using data statistics. While the majority of these techniques use fixed or random sampling patterns, we propose adaptively learning the signal model from the measurements and using the model to schedule when and where to sample the physical field. The proposed method requires minimal on-board computation, no inter-node communications, and achieves appealing reconstruction performance. With experiments on real-world datasets, we demonstrate significant improvements over both traditional sensing schemes and the state-of-the-art sparse sensing schemes, particularly when the measured data is characterized by a strong intra-sensor (temporal) or inter-sensors (spatial) correlation.


In South Africa, land/housing is a finite non-shareable type of property that must yield to stringent constitutional control to meet land reform and housing objectives, which is high on our constitutional agenda to redress injustices of the past and allow the previously dispossessed to take their rightful place in society. This article considers the normative framework that underlies the types of property that must be regulated for the purposes of section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, since very few cases have been decided in such a way as to consider, from a normative perspective when land/housing should be subject to greater governmental control and when not. Even in the context of expropriation without compensation, certain types of land/buildings are being flagged for this purpose, but the normative reasons for such propositions remain unclear. The purpose of this article is to offer a theoretical perspective, based on work done by progressive-property scholars, on the normative foundation of some property rights, with the object of initiating a dialogue concerning whether or not such rights should be regulated. The notion of human flourishing, as developed by Alexander, should arguably be essential in determining whether land/housing rights should be subject to greater constitutional scrutiny; the more property contributes to the individual's autonomy and ability to partake in social relations, the more sceptical we should be of severe governmental interference; whereas the lesser the notion of human flourishing appears, the greater governmental interference should be. An approach of this kind adheres to the systemic purpose of section 25 of the Constitution, because the property clause is intended to regulate established rights just as much as it is intended to meet certain societal needs


Abstract Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) is a clinically available osteogenic growth factor. In its current form, approved for clinical use, however, the growth factor is delivered in excessively high doses, resulting in unpredictable bone growth and unwanted clinical side effects. In this study, we evaluated a novel system, slow-release hybrid delivery system for PLGA- rhBMP-2 microcapusles in combination with BM MSC spheroids, and assess if it can lead to improved BMP-derived bone formation. The first aim of this study is to evaluate the osteogenicity of 3D cell spheroids as compared to 2D cultured cells, as we used primary cells that harvested from transgenic GFP mice. Second, we evaluated the effect of rhBMP2/PLGA microcapsules embedded within 3D cell spheroid constructs. Lastly, we combined the delivery of rhBMP2/PLGA microcapsule-containing spheroids and Matrigel to assess the bone formation in an in vivo model, as the combined effect of BMP microcapsules and spheroids has not been studied before. We found that by culturing BM MSCs in the spheroid form increases the osteogenic potential versus culturing the cells in a 2D monolayer both in vitro and in vivo. Further we concluded that incorporating BMP microcapsules in our BM MSC spheroid construct further increases the osteogenic potential compared to spheroid constructs which did not contain rhBMP-2 microcapsules. Our results suggest that the BM MSC spheroid constructs containing microfluidic BMP2-PLGA microcapsules were effective in bone regeneration even when rhBMP-2 was used at a low dosage in the construct and therefore this model could be a viable model for bone tissue engineering. ABSTRACT Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) is a clinically available osteogenic growth factor. In its current form, approved for clinical use, however, the growth factor is delivered in excessively high doses, resulting in unpredictable bone growth and unwanted clinical side effects. In this study, we evaluated a novel system, slow-release hybrid delivery system for PLGA- rhBMP-2 microcapusles in combination with BM MSC spheroids, and assess if it can lead to improved BMP-derived bone formation. The first aim of this study is to evaluate the osteogenicity of 3D cell spheroids as compared to 2D cultured cells, as we used primary cells that harvested from transgenic GFP mice. Second, we evaluated the effect of rhBMP2/PLGA microcapsules embedded within 3D cell spheroid constructs. Lastly, we combined the delivery of rhBMP2/PLGA microcapsule-containing spheroids and Matrigel to assess the bone formation in an in vivo model, as the combined effect of BMP microcapsules and spheroids has not been studied before. We found that by culturing BM MSCs in the spheroid form increases the osteogenic potential versus culturing the cells in a 2D monolayer both in vitro and in vivo. Further we concluded that incorporating BMP microcapsules in our BM MSC spheroid construct further increases the osteogenic potential compared to spheroid constructs which did not contain BMP microcapsules. Our results suggest that the BM MSC spheroid constructs containing microfluidic BMP2-PLGA microcapsules were effective in bone regeneration even when BMP was used at a low dosage in the construct and therefore this model could be a viable model for bone tissue engineering


The modification and outfitting of a 125,000-liter liquid hydrogen tank was performed to provide integrated refrigeration and storage capability. These functions include zero boil-off, liquefaction, and densification and therefore require provisions for sub-atmospheric tank pressures within the vacuum-jacketed, multilayer insulated tank. The primary structural modification was to add stiffening rings inside the inner vessel. The internal stiffening rings were designed, built, and installed per the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section VIII, to prevent collapse in the case of vacuum jacket failure in combination with sub-atmospheric pressure within the tank. For the integrated refrigeration loop, a modular, skeleton-type heat exchanger, with refrigerant temperature instrumentation, was constructed using the stiffening rings as supports. To support the system thermal performance testing, three custom temperature rakes were designed and installed along the 21-meter length of the tank, once again using rings as supports. The temperature rakes included a total of 20 silicon diode temperature sensors mounted both vertically and radially to map the bulk liquid temperature within the tank. The tank modifications were successful and the system is now operational for the research and development of integrated refrigeration technology.


North Korea pursued a highly confrontational strategy vis-à-vis South Korea and the United States throughout the 1960s. This article places Pyongyang's strategy into the context of the Vietnam War. Recently declassified evidence reveals that certain North Korean actions, including the Blue House raid in January 1968 and a series of belligerent acts committed in 1970, were considerably influenced by the military operations in Vietnam and Cambodia. But in some other incidents, such as the seizure of the USS Pueblo intelligence-gathering vessel, the Vietnam War played a far more marginal role. In any case, North Korean actions seem not to have been motivated by an intention to lessen U.S. and South Korean pressure on Hanoi. In 1969 Pyongyang disapproved of, rather than welcomed, the start of de-escalation in Vietnam. Mainly, the North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung, sought to achieve his own aims by taking advantage of America's preoccupation with the Vietnam War.


Employing a blend of poly (N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and 5-biphenyl-2-(4-tert-butyl)phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole) (PBD) as host matrix and a novel bicyclometalated Pt-complex containing 1,3,4-oxadiazole moiety as guest matrix with 2 wt.% doping concentration, we have demonstrated efficient phosphorescence-based polymer light-emitting devices (PLEDs). The devices emitted intense green–yellow electrophosphorescence. No emission from either PVK or PBD was observed for the devices. The electroluminescence spectrum exhibited three primary peaks at 525 nm, 568 nm and 608 nm. A maximum external quantum efficiency of 2.3% ph/el and a luminous efficiency of 3.8 cd/A were achieved at a current density of 3.4 mA/cm2. The results demonstrate that highly efficient electrophosphorescence can be achieved from platinum complex-based polymer light-emitting devices.


This study aimed to test the hypothesis that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use their knowledge of complement syntax as a means of "hacking out" solutions to false belief tasks, despite lacking a representational theory of mind (ToM). Participants completed a "memory for complements" task, a measure of receptive vocabulary, and traditional location change and unexpected contents false belief tasks. Consistent with predictions, the correlation between complement syntax score and location change task performance was significantly stronger within the ASD group than within the comparison group. However, contrary to predictions, complement syntax score was not significantly correlated with unexpected contents task performance within either group. Possible explanations for this pattern of results are considered.


OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND
The decision regarding elective cholecystectomy in older patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis is complicated. We developed and validated a prognostic nomogram to guide shared decision making for these patients.

METHODS
We used Medicare claims (1996-2005) to identify the first episode of symptomatic cholelithiasis in patients older than 65 years who did not undergo hospitalization or elective cholecystectomy within 2.5 months of the episode. We described current patterns of care and modeled their risk of emergent gallstone-related hospitalization or cholecystectomy at 2 years. Model discrimination and calibration were assessed using a random split sample of patients.

RESULTS
We identified 92,436 patients who presented to the emergency department (8.3%) or physician's office (91.7%) and who were not immediately admitted. The diagnosis for the initial episode was biliary colic/dyskinesia (65.3%), acute cholecystitis (26.6%), choledocholithiasis (5.7%), or gallstone pancreatitis (2.4%). The 2-year emergent gallstone-related hospitalization rate was 11.1%, with associated in-hospital morbidity and mortality rates of 56.5% and 6.5%. Factors associated with gallstone-related acute hospitalization included male sex, increased age, fewer comorbid conditions, complicated biliary disease on initial presentation, and initial presentation to the emergency department. Our model was well calibrated and identified 51% of patients with a risk less than 10% for 2-year complications and 5.4% with a risk more than 40% (C statistic, 0.69; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.75).

CONCLUSIONS
Surgeons can use this prognostic nomogram to accurately provide patients with their 2-year risk of developing gallstone-related complications, allowing patients and physicians to make informed decisions in the context of their symptom severity and its impact on their quality of life.


The ex vivo effects of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) on antifungal and antibacterial activities of human elutriated monocytes were studied. Cells were isolated prior to the initiation of therapy, on day 3 and at week 7, in six patients with an advanced malignancy receiving M-CSF in a phase I study. Superoxide anion production by monocytes in response to N-formyl methionyl leucyl phenylalanine was enhanced at day 3 of therapy (P = 0.011). In addition, at day 3, fungicidal activity against blastoconidia of Candida albicans was enhanced by M-CSF treatment (P = 0.026), whereas antifungal activity against hyphae of Aspergillus fumigatus was not significantly changed. Bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus was increased at day 3 (P = 0.004). By Northern blot analysis, M-CSF does not upregulate the expression of components of the NADPH-oxidase, the multicomponent enzyme system responsible for generation of superoxide radicals by monocytes. Instead, the predominant effect of M-CSF on circulating monocytes is probably a post-transcriptional effect. In conclusion, these findings suggest that administration of M-CSF to patients may enhance microbicidal activities and thus may provide a useful adjunct to conventional antimicrobial therapy.


PCT No. PCT/EP96/01137 Sec. 371 Date Sep. 24, 1997 Sec. 102(e) Date Sep. 24, 1997 PCT Filed Mar. 15, 1996 PCT Pub. No. WO96/30558 PCT Pub. Date Oct. 3, 1996The invention concerns an aqueous corrosion-protective cleaning solution for tin-plated steel, in particular for tin-plated steel cans, the solution containing complex fluorides of the elements boron, titanium, zirconium, and hafnium; non-ionic surfactants; and corrosion inhibitors and having a pH within the range from 3 to 6. The invention also concerns an aqueous concentrate for preparing the solution by dilution with water and a method of cleaning tin-plated cans using the solution.


How does ageing influence the profitability of firms? This study uses an analysis of corporations listed on the NYSE and TSE between 1978 and 2015 to highlight clear differences between US and Japanese firms with respect to the relationship between age and profitability. It shows that US firms lose efficiency, as measured by total asset turnover as they age, whereas Japanese firms' ability to generate profit from sales declines. This study explores the factors underlying these national differences in the relationship between ageing and profitability, focusing on rigidity of resource allocation. By examining the technological distance, we calculate resource allocation rigidity of the firms. The results show at all ages, Japanese firms are more rigid than their US counterparts, although the slope is steeper in the case of US firms. These observations suggest that Japanese firms' operating profit margins decline as they age because they are less likely to change how they allocate resources and tend to stay in their existing business sectors, even if they are underperforming. In other words, these findings suggest that being flexible about allocation of resources mitigates the negative effect of ageing on profitability. The results suggest that changing patterns of resource allocation retards learning in the business domains in which a firm is already active.


PURPOSE
To quantitatively assess the advantages of energy-layer specific dynamic collimation system (DCS) versus a per-field fixed aperture for spot scanning proton therapy (SSPT).

METHODS
Five brain cancer patients previously planned and treated with SSPT were replanned using an in-house treatment planning system capable of modeling collimated and uncollimated proton beamlets. The uncollimated plans, which served as a baseline for comparison, reproduced the target coverage and organ-at-risk sparing of the clinically delivered plans. The collimator opening for the fixed aperture-based plans was determined from the combined cross sections of the target in the beam's eye view over all energy layers which included an additional margin equivalent to the maximum beamlet displacement for the respective energy of that energy layer. The DCS-based plans were created by selecting appropriate collimator positions for each row of beam spots during a Raster-style scanning pattern which were optimized to maximize the dose contributions to the target and limited the dose delivered to adjacent normal tissue.

RESULTS
The reduction of mean dose to normal tissue adjacent to the target, as defined by a 10 mm ring surrounding the target, averaged 13.65% (range: 11.8%-16.9%) and 5.18% (2.9%-7.1%) for the DCS and fixed aperture plans, respectively. The conformity index, as defined by the ratio of the volume of the 50% isodose line to the target volume, yielded an average improvement of 21.35% (19.4%-22.6%) and 8.38% (4.7%-12.0%) for the DCS and fixed aperture plans, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The ability of the DCS to provide collimation to each energy layer yielded better conformity in comparison to fixed aperture plans.


Panchromatic cathodoluminescence (CL) maps were collected in a scanning electron microscope equipped with an EDX (energy dispersive x‐ray analysis) detector. These CL maps can readily be correlated with elemental maps obtained by EDX. Although EDX detectors are designed to be insensitive to light and therefore not optimized for high sensitivity CL measurements, high‐resolution images can be obtained from luminescent materials without the need for additional hard‐ or software. The method was tested on highly luminescent BaAl2S4 : Eu2+ thin films that have a potential use in flat panel displays. The spectral response and linearity of the overall system was determined by means of monochromatic light sources, illuminating the sample through an optical fibre. We studied the response of the EDX detector to the intensity of the incoming light as well as the influence of the detector settings. The observations were explained by numerical simulations.


The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of premade characters and visual aids on character connection in the analog role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Four participants gathered together to play the game of Dungeons & Dragons once a week for one month in May 2015. After the in-game research in-person interviews were conducted and the data was then coded in NVivo for major themes in relation to character connection. Research was also pulled from auto-ethnographic reflections to round out the data. The results of the data suggest that the participants felt that character customization, narrative, character backstory, as well as visuals played an important role in their ability to build a strong connection to their gaming avatar. Join the journey of four warriors building connection to their characters as they look to close the rift in the Shadowfell of the Keep.


ABSTRACT. Castro J.R., Silva C.B., Souza M.A., Salaberry S.R.S., Guimaraes E.C., Mundim A.V. & Lima-Ribeiro A.M.C. [Hematologic changes in dogs naturally infected Leptospira spp., Brucella abortus and Brucella canis.] Altera- coes hematologicas em caes naturalmente infectados por Leptospira spp., Brucella abortus e Brucella canis. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinaria, 36(1):49-54, 2014. Laboratorio de Doencas Infectocontagiosas, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Av. Ceara s/n, Bloco 2D, Sala 33, Campus Umuarama, Uberlândia, MG 38400-902, Brasil. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com The investigations of leptospirosis and brucellosis canine act as sanitary control in public health and zoonoses because they were established by close contact between dog and human. The aim was to determine the main hematological reagents in asymptomatic dogs against Leptospira spp. Brucella abortus and Brucella canis naturally infected, living in urban areas in the city of Uberlandia, Minas Gerais. We examined 140 blood samples from clinically healthy dogs, males and females and different ages. Leptospirosis was diagnosed by microscopic agglutination test (MAT), with a collection of twelve serovars, whereas, brucellosis was identified through the tests of Agar Gel Immunodiffusion (AGID) for B. canis and buffered acidified antigen (TAA) confirmed 2-Mercaptoethanol (2-ME) for B. abortus. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the calculation of simple percentages, mean and standard deviation. He applied and short sample t test for two independent samples to assess whether there were significant differences (p<0.05) between hematological parameters obtained. Dogs evaluated, 15% (21/140) and 2.85% (4/140) were reactive to Leptospira spp. and B. abortus, respectively. There was no sample reagent against B. canis. It was concluded that although no specific thrombocytopenia may be a significant finding in dogs with leptospirosis and brucellosis.


How do citizens' experiences of corruption affect their political trust and voting behavior? By analyzing a nationally representative survey of Russian citizens conducted a few months after the 2018 presidential election, we find that citizens who engaged in street-level bureaucratic corruption in the preceding two years assess the national leadership as more corrupt and express lower trust in them. This association between corruption engagement and a worsening of people's views remains even when citizens gained benefits by providing officials with an incentive. We also show that higher perceptions of elite corruption and lower trust in the political leadership are important factors in reducing pro-Kremlin voting. Our findings indicate that even in an authoritarian country citizens' negative experiences with bureaucracy reduce political support for the national political regime.


This article critically addresses the varied ways in which political parties can be said to represent. Three important ideal-typical modes of party representation are outlined: the popular, the statal, and the reflexive. Arguments are offered for countering the common view that, for example, popular modes are the most democratic, and statal modes the least democratic. Statal modes in particular are often taken to be an indicator of a decline in parties' representative functions; however, shifting modes of party representation often have more to do with strategic choices and contextual pressures than democratic ideals. No one ideal-typical mode is intrinsically more democratic than others. Further, there is evidence that a new mode of party representation, the reflexive, may be emerging; parties may be transforming into something they never were in order to continue to do the things they have always sought to do. Whether democracy is unthinkable save for political parties is no longer the question we need to ask. Rather, we need to ask: what kinds of representative democracy are thinkable? And what forms of party claims, if any, are appropriate to them?


In every sphere of life, whether it is education, academic or personal, adolescents feel lots of obstacles on the way to their goals in life. Sometimes they are able to deal with them rationally but sometimes they deal with them emotionally. If they are incapable of dealing with these obstacles, they become frustrated. To cope with frustration, the adolescents need time to develop their social and emotional skills. This means that they should have flexibility, optimistic thoughts and skills to control impulses. The present study willexamine the reactions of adolescents in situations of frustration and the general level of aggressive tendencies, as well as the presence of a link between reactions of frustration and aggressive behavior. During the period of 2018-2020 we have consulted with 212 adolescents and their parents in our practice. Informed agreement for inclusion in the study of the characteristics and dynamics of reactions in situations of frustration was obtained from the parents of 109 adolescents, who were all male – 57 (52.3%) aged 12-14 years and 52 (47.7%) ) aged 15 -17 years. The results showed that the adolescents are focused on their inner world and believe that the world should be what they want it to be. They lack enough experience to judge and accept opinions that differ from their own. They try to hide the uncertainty in their abilities and skills, relying on protective mechanisms.


The structure of the equine chorionic girdle between days 28 and 42 of gestation was examined. Of particular interest were differentiation of trophoblastic cells within the girdle, adhesion between girdle and endometrium, invasion and displacement of the uterine epithelium, and the nature of the endometrium when girdle cells migrate into it to form endometrial cup cells. The chorionic girdle, identified initially as a band of tall columnar cells, becomes a stratified columnar epithelium indented by clefts and pits. Adhesion to and penetration through the endometrial luminal epithelium are rapid and occur initially in very limited areas. Stromal invasion occurs as strands of contiguous trophoblast cells invade through the basal lamina. Only girdle cells that are adjacent to the basal lamina or have entered the endometrial stroma undergo hypertrophy and differentiate into cup cells. At the initiation of trophoblastic invasion, the luminal epithelium contains numerous, large, intraepithelial, granular lymphocytes; small lymphocytes then accumulate in the stroma, but by day 42 lymphocytes are largely confined to the periphery of the cup. Although adhesion of trophoblast to the endometrial surface is initiated by small groups of girdle cells on restricted areas of the endometrial folds, the area is then increased by new areas of adhesion and by expansion of the initial invasion. Areas of girdle cells that do not attach undergo necrosis, as do superficial portions of areas of invasion. Consequently the girdle cells that form cups may be a minority of the original population. It is suggested that the differentiation of girdle cells is closely programmed and that cells that do not reach the stroma become necrotic at the same time that endometrial cup cells are differentiating.


At very high energies (VHE), the emission of γ rays is dominated by discrete sources. Due to the limited resolution and sensitivity of current-generation instruments, only a small fraction of the total Galactic population of VHE γ-ray sources has been detected significantly. The larger part of the population can be expected to contribute as a diffuse signal alongside emission originating from propagating cosmic rays. Without quantifying the source population, it is not possible to disentangle these two components. Based on the H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey, a numerical approach has been taken to develop a model of the population of Galactic VHE γ-ray sources, which is shown to account accurately for the observational bias. We present estimates of the absolute number of sources in the Galactic Plane and their contribution to the total VHE γray emission for five different spatial source distributions. Prospects for CTA and its ability to constrain the model are discussed. Finally, first results of an extension of our modelling approach using machine learning to extract more information from the available data set are presented.


1. The haematology of winter, summer, and autumn populations of carp has been investigated as a function of acclimation temperature. 2. Red-cell number, packed-cell volume, and haemoglobin tend to vary directly with temperature. Mean erythrocyte volume is increased at very low temperatures but, like mean erythrocytic haemoglobin and mean haemoglobin/unit erythrocytic volume, tends to be stable at moderate to high temperatures. 3. Although the data suggest a temperature-correlated increase in blood oxygen capacity, it is apparent that the animals must invoke other forms of cardiovascular-respiratory adjustment as well. 4. On a seasonal basis increases in oxygen capacity are seen at low, but not high, acclimation temperatures. It is suggested that this form of response may be related to the pattern of capacity acclimation typical of cyprinid fishes.


In the years 2012-16 the technical-scientific Commission of the Segretariato della Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana promoted a research project aimed at the implementation, with innovative methods, of the forest inventory and the program of silvicultural operations of the Presidential Forest of Castelporziano. This forest heritage is located in the homonymous estate between Rome and the Lazio coast and is extended on approximately 5000 hectares. The study, based on a wide use of ALS-LiDAR methods and data, led to the setting up a forest information system (inventorial and silvicultural) of the estate. The system, called SIFTeC, allows the forest managers to know and manage the heritage through fully computerized support of applications. The SIFTeC data are also available in real time in the field on smartphone and tablet.


Mechanical properties of Q345 steel used for industrial structure under high strain rate and high temperature loading conditions such as rocket launching are required to provide appropriate safety assessment to these mechanical structures. The split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) technique with a special experimental apparatus can be used to obtain the material behavior under high strain rate loading conditions. In this paper, dynamic deformation behaviors of Q345 steel under both high strain rate compressive and high temperature loading are determined using the SHPB technique.


Trigger strategist-s may be defined as act-ors in asset markets who buy or sell when the price reaches a predetermined level ; t-hey include participants in portfolio insurance schemes in equity markets and central banks who intervene to defend an exchange rate target zone. This paper presents an approach to modeling the effects of trigger strategists, with emphasis on how target zones affect market expectations. It is shown that a commitment to defend a target zone will generate stabilizing expectations within the band, which may generate a "target zone honeymoon" . an extended period in which the announcement of a target. zone stabilizes exchange rates without any need for action on the part of authorities. However, an imperfectly credible target zone is vulnerable to crises in which the market tests the authorities' resolve.


The information explosion makes it easier to ignore information that requires social attention, and news games can make that information stand out. There is also considerable research that shows that people are more likely to remember narrative content. Virtual environments can also increase the amount of information a person can recall. If these elements are blended together, it may help people remember important information. This research aims to provide directional results for researchers interested in combining VR and narrative, enumerating the advantages and limitations of using text or non-text plot prompts in news games. It also provides hints for the use of virtual environments as learning platforms in news games. The research method is to first derive a theoretical derivation, then create a sample of news games, and then compare the experimental data of the sample to prove the theory. The research compares the survey data of a VR game that presents a story in non-text format (Group VR), a game that presents the story in non-text format (Group NVR), a VR game that presents the story in text (Group VRIT), and a game that presents the story in text (Group NVRIT) will be compared and analyzed. This paper describes the experiment. The results of the experiment show that among the four groups, the means that can make subjects remember the most information is a VR news game with a storyline. And there is a positive correlation between subjects' experience and confidence in recognizing memories, and empathy is positively correlated with the correctness of memories. In addition, the effects of "VR," "experience," and "presenting a story from text or video" on the percentage of correct answers differed depending on the type of question.


Apocalyptic hopes for an imminent millenial new age have taken a wide variety of forms in European history, from the earlier religious manifestations to the more secular and, hence, more activist ones of the modern world. Although none of these apocalyptic expectations has been accurate, and many have had disastrous immediate consequences for those involved, they have set in motion powerful social dynamics. Western science and technology, revolutionary politics, dreams of global peace, and the realities of world wars all derive peculiar inspiration from the terrible hopes of the millennial vision.


The paper examines the relationship between research and practice. Its starting point is a consideration of the difference between policy science and scholarship. This leads to an analysis of the current importance attached by the state to evidence‐informed practice and systematic review. Such research strategies will, it is claimed, lead to enhanced educational practice. This is to be facilitated through the incorporation of best practice as well as the dissemination of research findings that can be used to inform practice in general. The paper suggests that these claims are overstated as they fail to recognise the complexity of educational practice. They also neglect the politics of educational research and draw upon a limited understanding of practice, one that is tied to teacher practice.


Legal protection of the Bajapuik marriage tradition needs to be done as an effort to preserve and sustain Indonesian culture and in order to realize the cultural resilience of the Pariaman community. The protection referred to here is the substance and form of legal protection provided by the Regional Government in accordance with the mandate of the Regional Government Law and the Law on the Promotion of Culture. Globalization can have a negative impact on the Bajapuik marriage tradition. This happens because of the development of human thought, increasingly rapid technology, and economic principles that are used by the Pariaman community in their lives in West Sumatra. That is why it is necessary to build the concept of protection to maintain the existence of the Bajapuik marriage tradition so that it does not disappear as the local wisdom of the Pariaman community. The law studied is ius constitendum. The data used are primary and secondary data, data collection techniques such as in-depth interviews and participatory observation. Coordination and interaction between ninik mamak, pious clerics and cendik (tungku tigo sajarangan, tali tigo sapilin) must be harmonious and one voice in efforts to protect cultural traditions especially marriages in the Pariaman community.


While it is becoming increasingly evident that environmental problems such as climate change and global warming constitute existential threats to human societies, these problems will very likely persist and even intensify unless governments enact effective and potentially costly environmental policies. However, government policies and spending ultimately rely on public support, thus underscoring the need to increase present knowledge about the processes underlying citizens' policy attitudes. In this study, we focus on the relationship between citizens' normative views about government responsibility and their support for government spending on the environment. While people who think that, as a general principle, it ought to be the government's responsibility to protect the environment should be more likely to support increasing government spending on the environment, we argue that this relationship is dependent on the quality of government. Using multilevel analysis and data from the most recent ISSP "Role of Government" module, we show that people who think that it is the government's responsibility to protect the environment are more likely to support increasing government spending on the environment in countries where government institutions are fair, effective, and non-corrupt. This suggests that the role of government in protecting the environment stretches far beyond designing effective environmental policies, since an overall ineffective and corrupt government appears to undermine public support for critical environmental policymaking.


This paper describes the development of a coding guide that was used to evaluate the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in student assignments. Instrument design and pilot-testing was conducted in a Hong Kong Chinese primary government-subsidised school (I-School) with a school-based e-learning project. The design of the assignment coding guide was drawn from a lesson observation guide (Tam, Chan, Li, & Pow, 2014) that was developed for this e-learning project with reference to the Research Coding Guide for Student Work (2011). The research team developed the coding guide in recognition that it is important to examine not only 21 century skills, but also how teachers make use of ICT in their assignment design to enhance teaching and learning, as well as how the assignments provide opportunities for students to practice their ICT skills. The coding guide that was developed contains 14 items that measure ICT integration into assignments. These items relate to the following broad categories: (a) Student Learning Outcomes, (b) Learning and Teaching through Assignment, (c) ICT Use, and (d) ICT Enhanced Learning and Teaching. Rating was based on sample scripts of all written assignments (both paper-based and digital) in one learning unit assessed with different levels of academic performance (high, middle and low). Thirty-six sets of assignments from three major academic subjects of Chinese, English, and Mathematics between Primary Two (P2) and Primary Five (P5) were collected in the same primary school from September 2012 to December 2014. In this period, which spanned four continuous semesters, researchers discovered that the assignments developed from paper-based dominant assignments to paper-and-ICT-balanced assignments as students were required to post their assignments through the online platform (Microsoft SharePoint). Moreover, teachers provided more chances to allow students to implement their ICT skills and creativity, such as through student assignments, which transformed from simply attaching a student's drawing to attaching a relevant picture from the Internet.


Combining scientific principles with movement and imagery exercises that are both effective and fun, this book demonstrates how to create a stronger body by toning the pelvic floor. Focusing on the biomechanics of the pelvic floor, which acts as a support for the inner organs and contains a passage for the urethra, the sex organs, and the rectum, this guide shows how the pelvic floor plays an important role in almost all movements, balance, and body posture. The exercises train the muscles and joints and improve the tone of the organs, thereby increasing energy flow, eliminating incontinence, and keeping sexual organs healthy. The mind-body techniques are used to increase awareness of this part of the body and to improve sexual stamina.