BACKGROUND
Children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to have difficulties in narrative language and especially with use of evaluative enrichment devices. However, little is known about their production of event narratives.

AIMS
To establish if children with ASD differ from typically developing peers in their production of general and specific event narratives, and, if so, how this might be affected by levels of oral language.

METHODS & PROCEDURES
Performance on general and specific event narrative tasks of 27 high-functioning children with ASD, aged 11-14 years, was compared with that of language- and age-matched groups of typically developing children. Narratives were coded for structural and evaluative language measures.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS
The general and specific event narratives of the ASD group differed from those of both comparison groups in structural language measures. They were shorter, contained fewer different word roots and had shorter mean length of utterances. In evaluative measures they differed from those of the typically developing age match group but not the younger language match group in the number of causal statements made in both event conditions, and in mental state references and evaluative devices in the specific event narrative condition.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
Children with ASD display specific difficulties with the use of grammar and vocabulary in event narratives which cannot be explained in terms of language levels. However, the use of evaluative devices was commensurate with oral language levels. Implications for intervention are discussed.


: By the method of minimization of phospholipid bilayers free energy it was shown that at a decrease of inclination angle of dipole fragments of phospholipid molecules to the bilayer surface there take place: a) an increase of bilayer density, b) a decrease of bilayer thickness caused by a decrease of dipole repulsive forces, c) an increase of the number of molecules in the bilayer due to hydrophobization of the latter. The existence of upper and lower critical angles of dipoles inclination to the bilayer surface were found: theta upcrit, theta lowcrit, if theta greater than or equal to the layers must be destroyed, and if theta less than or equal to theta lowcrit, transition of bilayers to the crystalline state must take place.


This study attempts to understand the effect and content of competition law jurisprudence engaged in the (digital) app based ride-sharing industry. The research undertakes a critical review of recent case laws law across three jurisdictions, adjudicated by competition regulatory authorities (in context to the ride sharing industrial sector).

These feature India, Singapore and the European Union, drawing a transnational contemporary perspective to how competition regulatory authorities view (competitive) disputes concerning economic agents within the digital economy landscape. As part of the review, one of the primary objectives is to understand the meaning of term "market definition" and how competition regulatory authorities have delineated the relevant market with respect to this industry as part of the larger digital economic landscape, which is rapidly evolving.

Through the study, hurdles to delineating a relevant market were analysed from interpretations of recent case laws, further discussing why a common market definition has not been framed across jurisdictions, as well as within the same jurisdiction - as seen in the recent legal cases in India.


Recent statistics show an increase in environmental disasters, a fact which is also perceivable to the public as reports of avalanches, earthquakes and landslides mount in media coverage. This paper introduces one part of the I-LOV project, endorsed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In this project partners from relief organizations, universities and industry investigate enhancements to disaster handling and victim rescue. One possible option is to take advantage of the fact, that a lot of people own a mobile phone today. To locate a person by his or her mobile phone requires to take over the phone by an own Base Transceiver Station (BTS). Jamming all other networks is one option to achieve that. This paper will introduce a new Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based jamming system which disturbs only the absolute necessary parts of the WCDMA spectrum but reliably cuts all connections between mobile stations (MS) and existing BTS. The whole system including the signal generator and the front end will be discussed. Also measurement results will be shown.


Prepared for a Strategic Education Governance learning seminar, this working paper analyses the ways in which the Dutch government tried to reach overarching goals in education, in a system characterised by a high degree of distributed autonomy of education institutions and the participation of multiple actors, and consequently a government highly dependent on the collaboration with stakeholders. The paper introduces four perspectives on governance: 'traditional public administration', 'new public management', 'network governance' and 'societal resilience'. In practice, these perspectives do not exclude each other. Based on three cases the paper shows that the Dutch government used simultaneously different perspectives in each case and across the cases, in various combinations. Each combination proved to have its pros and cons. The paper argues for a deliberate consideration and choice of governance perspectives as an important element of policy preparation.


To the Editor.— Nystatin is a polyene antibiotic, derived fromStreptomyces noursei. It is widely used for the treatment ofCandida albicansinfections, and is considered to be a safe medication, "virtually nontoxic and nonsensitizing."1 However, hypersensitivity reactions to nystatin have been rarely reported. The following case is, to the best of my knowledge, the first report of erythema multiforme major associated with nystatin treatment. Report of a Case.— A 14-month-old, previously healthy girl was treated with nystatin (Mycostatin) oral suspension for thrush. On the third day of treatment, a maculopapular eruption appeared over her trunk and limbs, and lasted for 2 days. One week later, she again received nystatin oral suspension because of reappearance of oral candidiasis. Within a few hours, maculopapular lesions appeared over her face, trunk, and limbs, including the palms and soles. The medication was discontinued and the eruption regressed. Ten days later, she was reexamined


In this proposal, I outline a generator conceived of as part of a general intelligent agent. The generator's task is to provide the overall system with the ability to use communication in language to serve its purposes, rather than to simply encode information in language. This requires that generation be viewed as a kind of goal-directed action that is planned and executed in a dynamically changing environment. In addition, the generator must not be dependent on domain or problem-specific information but rather on a general knowledge base .that it shares with the overall system. These requirements have specific consequences for the design of the generator and the representation it uses. In particular, the text planner and the low-level linguistic component must be able to interact and negotiate over decisions that involve both high-level and low-level constraints. Also, the knowledge representation must allow for the varying perspective that an intelligent agent will have on the things it talks about; the generator must be able to appropriately vary how it describes things as the system's perspective on them changes. The generator described here will demonstrate how these ideas work in practice and develop them further.


The experience of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk assessment and management in France was somewhat unique among BSE affected countries. Due to its proximity to the UK, the French meat and bone meal industry was challenged with particularly high amounts of infectivity from imported contaminated feed and infected cattle. Although France apparently had an adequate BSE control system before the epidemic, the lack of scientific knowledge about BSE transmission resulted in an underestimation of the economic and public health consequences of the disease. Consequently, preventive measures were often delayed and ineffectively implemented. As awareness of the impacts grew, more rigorous and effective measures eventually brought BSE under control. France has reported the largest number of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cases outside of the UK. However, measures have been implemented to control this disease in humans.


The isolation techniques against substrate noise coupling utilizing through silicon via (TSV) process are described. The trench shape TSV encloses the RF circuit on a SoC chip to improve the isolation between digital circuits and the RF circuits without constraints of on-chip interconnect above first metal as the TSV is connected to the grounded 1st metal from the back side of the substrate. The analysis with simplified model is proposed to show the effect of the proposed isolation techniques. Mesh circuit model is applied to simulate the noise distribution in detail. Various test patterns are fabricated on a CMOS silicon substrate with resistivity of 10 Ωcm. The measurement pattern of H-shaped TSV confirms about 30 dB and 40 dB improvement at 100 MHz and 1 GHz respectively, which is much better than conventional isolation techniques such as guard ring, Deep N-well and DTI. The combinational pattern with TSV, DTI and high resistive layer shows 60 dB improvement of the isolation. Proposed isolation techniques are useful for substrate noise coupling of future RF/mixed-signal SoCs.


The SEM and cryofracture methods were used to study neuronal architecture and some synaptic connections of human cerebellum. Samples were processed according to the technique of Humphreys et al. (1975) with minor modifications. The granule cells, arranged in groups or randomly distributed, appeared as spheroidal, rough surfaced microneurons with unbranched filiform axons and coniform dendritic processes. The mossy fibers were observed as thick axons showing the rosette expansions covered by numerous granule cell dendritic processes at the glomerular regions. The mossy glomeruli were seen as round or ovoid clews or balls of yarn separating the granule cell groups. The uncovered mossy rosettes, devoid of the postsynaptic granule cell dendritic digits, unattached by the cryofracture technique appear as solid club-like structures. the climbing fibers were characterized by their thick collaterals. Some fractographs exhibited isolated Golgi cells showing the entire ascending and horizontal dendrites and their beaded shape axonal plexus. At the Purkinje layer, the surface fracture was produced at the level of Bergmann glial cells, which are selectively removed, thus allowing us to visualize the rough surface of purkinje cell soma and the supra and infraganglionic plexuses of basket cell axons. At the molecular layer the stellate neurons were characterized with their horizontal short axons and the Bergmann fiber ends were seen attached to the surface of the folia forming the external glial limiting membrane.


In this paper, we model the characteristics of top and bottom gate configurations of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) including top gate top contact (TGTC), top gate bottom contact (TGBC), bottom gate top contact (BGTC) , bottom gate bottom contact (BGBC). The path of charge carriers changes in different geometries which possess difference in the electrical behaivour of the devices. The performances of bottom and top gate pentacene based OTFT devices have been analyzed and their performance parameters like mobility, threshold voltage, sub threshold slope, trans conductance, on off ratio have been extracted and compared.


Using personal narrative, the author describes her exploratory process as an art educator working with a large, politically divided group of non-art major students as they process their opposing views surrounding the 2016 American Presidential Election. The author reflects on her journey as a liberal educator in a conservative state, attempting to use current visual culture in order to best promote empathy for bipartisanship among students in a time of political unrest. Using visual inquiry as a vehicle for constructive civil discourse concerning insulated echo chambers, students' commonalities and differences are shared as they transpired.


The opportunity for first-year health sciences student to interact with patients is usually limited. The challenge for health sciences academics teaching first year foundation courses is to demonstrate to students the relevance and links to professional practice of these courses. In the sciences and health sciences practical classes provide students with a social environment, opportunities for collaborative learning and student faculty interaction. Novel strategies which may be used in lecture and practical class formats to motivate students include structuring an activity using familiar materials or processes in order to explain the unfamiliar. Selection of familiar materials to explain new or difficult concepts can introduce an element of fun into the learning experience. These types of activities represent a form of "experiential learning" where knowledge acquisition results from peer interaction and feedback in an entertaining and low risk environment. The focus of this paper is to examine a number of practical class learning opportunities where the activity was structured using familiar materials or processes in order to explain the unfamiliar. These learning opportunities demonstrated obvious links to professional practice. These classes also provided an environment that facilitated active learning within a social context. These examples were collaboratively evaluated against models for motivation strategies. A summary of key points for each of the learning opportunities and a comparative table for the individual learning opportunities, using the framework of instructional questions associated with ARCS motivational categories (attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction) is presented. These novel practical classes can be used to demonstrate the professional relevance of foundational health sciences courses and fulfil criteria to be motivating, and therefore potentially engaging for students in a social environment. More importantly, as each of these examples indicates, the practical class can provide a scaffold for students to be able to meet learning objectives. Our observations align with those of others who have observed that learning opportunities such as those described in this paper make abstract ideas more tangible.


The authors introduce a notion of dynamic bifurcation for nonlinear evolution equations, which can be called attractor bifurcation. It is proved that as the control parameter crosses certain critical value, the system bifurcates from a trivial steady state solution to an attractor with dimension between m and m + 1, where m + 1 is the number of eigenvalues crossing the imaginary axis. The attractor bifurcation theory presented in this article generalizes the existing steady state bifurcations and the Hopf bifurcations. It provides a unified point of view on dynamic bifurcation and can be applied to many problems in physics and mechanics.


Immunocytochemical methods were used to identify neurons in the ventral posterior nucleus of the cat and Galago senegalensis that contain glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the synthetic enzyme for the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. In both species GAD-immunoreactive neurons make up about 30% of the total neurons in the ventral posterior nucleus and form a distinct class of small cells. After cortical injections of horseradish peroxidase (HRP), GAD-immunoreactive cells are not labeled with HRP and may, therefore, be GABAergic local circuit neurons. Comparison of the dendritic morphology of GAD-immunoreactive neurons with that of HRP-filled projection neurons reveals that the morphology of the GAD-containing neurons is distinct and, in particular, that the GAD-immunoreactive neurons display fewer primary dendrites. The relay neurons, in turn, can be divided into classes based on dendritic morphology and cell body size.


Present methods for designing half-band filters use iterative approaches such as the well-known Parks-McClellan algorithm or some variant of linear programming. Here we give a direct method using Chebyshev polynomials, which provides a reduction in design time over previous methods by about a factor of ten. For all practical purposes the response of the resulting filter is equal-ripple in both passband and stopband. A listing of a Fortran program for carrying out the design is included.


Mg0.2Zn0.8O:Al ceramics with high density using nano scale ZnO, MgO and Al2O3 powders as raw materials were obtained by pressureless sintering. The influence of presintering powder and sintering temperature on microstructure of Mg0.2Zn0.8O:Al ceramics were studied. The experiment indicated that presintering powder might decrease produce of the second phase nucleation. The grain size became gradually larger and density of ceramic became obviously higher from 1100°C to 1300°C, but the rising-trend became slower after 1300°C. The Mg0.2Zn0.8O:Al ceramics with high density and homogeneous structure can be made at 1300°C for


Rural school psychologists face unique challenges because of inherent rural attributes including sparse populations, geographic and climatic barriers, and traditional value systems. Mental health resources are typically inadequate in rural America, and the comprehensive roles of well trained school psychologists are frequently misunderstood in rural schools. This article discusses the rural education context and contrasts the settings of rural and nonrural practitioners. Rural factors that inhibit comprehensive service delivery are discussed as are the difficulties involved in recruiting and retaining qualified school psychologists. An overview of the historical and current use. of school psychologists in rural areas is presented. Emerging rural service delivery models are discussed as are variables to be used in designing an appropriate model. It is recommended that preservice training attend to the unique skills and knowledge required of the rural practitioner and that positive inherent rural attributes be fully utilized. It is also recommended that the growing interest of the profession of psychology in rural service delivery include an interdisciplinary focus.


With the rapid development of the knowledge economy, there is an increasing demand for financial management professionals. Only by continuously learning and knowing the most cutting-edge financial knowledge and professional skills can they keep up with the development of the times. From the perspective of professional ability, the research in this paper knows the requirements for the experience, skills and level of financial management professionals and the actual situation and drawbacks of the development of this professional course in adult higher education at this stage with the aid of the survey research method. Under the support of basic theories, such as the development of education theory and core professional competence theory, this paper analyzes the causes of the drawbacks in the curriculum and proposes effective reform strategies, thus achieving the purpose of improvement of this course and ensuring that the curriculum setting is more focused and practical. Finally, this paper is of great value to the improvement of the professional level of financial management professionals.


Abstract How can student-teachers learn efficient ways to encourage sustainability thinking in their pupils and fulfil the competence aims on sustainability outlined in national subject curriculums as a response to UNESCO's programme on Education for Sustainable Development, ESD? The core hypothesis of this project was that tailored literature circles, focused on the ecocritical aspects of literary texts, would make student-teachers aware of how they can use literature as a process to reflect on sustainability. This would enable them to incorporate sustainability thinking into their own teaching practices. The project's tailoring of the standard literature circle roles (Daniels 1994, 2002, 2006) involved the design of reading roles that highlighted ecocritical and generic aspects of the studied texts and the application of an analytical matrix developed by literary scholars researching the representation of nature in children's and young adult literature. This article presents the results of a small-scale study testing the ecocritical literature circles approach and its impact on student-teachers' conception of their own ability to meet the competence aims on sustainability in their teaching. The intervention included lectures on ecocriticism and on the posthuman debate prior to the literature circles and student feedback through pre- and post-circle questionnaires. It was implemented in the teacher-training classroom, working with dystopian science fiction texts for young adults. These texts present the reader with visions of the future. The study showed that the ecocritical literature circles, and in particular the ecocritical reading roles, were considered useful by the participating student-teachers. The participants also reported a significant increase in confidence relative to their own ability to discuss sustainability issues with their pupils.


I trace the development of a new course in modern data analysis involving a wide spectrum of statistical techniques. Because the course is based entirely on case studies, real-data settings, and student projects and is computer-intensive, a series of challenges facing many instructors are addressed. In a single semester, students explore data using tools from EDA, multiple regression, analysis of variance, time series analysis, and categorical data analysis. The focus is on understanding and forecasting in a variety of data settings, learning how to summarize relationships and measure how well these relationships fit data, and how to make meaningful statistical inferences when the usual assumptions do not hold. The course emphasizes what the statistical process is all about: how to conduct studies, what the results mean, and what can be inferred about the whole from pieces of evidence.


A special elasto-plastic dynamic finite element code named RingForm has been developed to analyze cold ring rolling process. Central difference method was introduced to solve the dynamic explicit finite element equations. Strain state was estimated by the value of yield function of the last and the present time step. To reduce the accumulative error caused by elasto-plastic constitutive relations, the radial return algorithm was employed. In comparison with the experimental results, the cold ring rolling process of a ring with rectangular section has been simulated to verify the accuracy and stability of the system solver.


We consider an investor's choice of conservative reporting, bonus payments, and investment decisions in the presence of the hidden-information agency problem of a manager's productivity and the hidden-action agency problem of a manager's diversion of resources. It is important to consider the hidden-action and hidden-information agency problems in isolation and their interaction, to gain insights into the drivers of demand for conservatism. We show that the conservative (non-conservative) regime is optimal for the high-productivity (low-productivity) manager when both agency problems exist; even though the non-conservative regime is optimal for both the high- and low-productivity managers when only the hidden-action or the hidden-information problem exists. Essentially, the low-productivity manager can misrepresent as the high-productivity manager to obtain high investment levels and divert resources only in the presence of both agency problems. This added layer of agency problem creates the demand for conservatism and highlights the importance of the interaction between the hidden-action and hidden-information agency problems. Furthermore, we show that as the conservatism level increases: (a) the optimal investment level conditional on a good report for the high-productivity manager increases and approaches the first-best level, i.e., ex-post investment efficiency increases; (b) the expected optimal investment level for the high-productivity manager decreases and diverges from the expected first-best level, i.e., ex-ante investment efficiency decreases; and (c) the expected bonus payment to the high- and low-productivity managers decreases. These findings provide insights into how the demand for conservatism arises in the presence of both hidden-information and hidden-action agency problems and provide empirical guidance relating conservatism to investment efficiency.


The paper could as well have been entitled 'The equilibrium statistics of a polymerization process in the sol phase', because it will discuss a process in which particles aggregate into structured clusters, just as organic units aggregate into polymers, and for most of the paper the polymer terminology will be employed for concreteness. However, the title is intended to indicate that these processes, and our interest in them, is not confined to models of organic polymers. In §§1 and 2 reference is made to a previous paper (Whittle 1964, referred to as 'W.') in which it was shown that the complete statistics of a polymerization process could be determined from the expected numbers of the different types of polymer. We therefore work in terms of the generating function of these expected values, defined in equation (18), and denoted by M(x). In W. the function M(x) was determined by combinatorial considerations for the case of one type of unit. In the present paper we consider the case of several types of unit, and avoid combinatorial considerations altogether by using a different method, based upon the detailed balance relation. Under the assumption that the binding energy of a unit in a polymer depends only upon the numbers and types of unit with which it has direct bonds, it is shown in lemma 1 that a function C(y) immediately related to M(x) obeys the non-linear first-order partial difference equations (31). From this the determination (24) of M(x) given in theorem 1 is obtained. Theorem 1 also contains a number of immediate corollaries of this result: the partition (27), (28) of M(x) into 'unit-number' and 'bond-number' generating functions determination of the numbers of bonds of various types, and a criterion for change of phase. These results are illustrated numerically for some simple cases. These results are extended in § 5 to the case when two given units can form a common bond in more than one way. All this work is on the assumption of acyclic polymers, so that each polymer has the form of a tree. If this condition is removed entirely so that unrestricted intramolecular association is allowed, then equations (31) change to second-order linear equations (88), and the solution corresponding to (24) has the integral form (92). It is found that if branching is possible (as distinct from the building of simple chains and loops) then the generating functions diverge under all circumstance, indicating formation of high polymers, which may in some cases correspond to irreversible condensation.


A photorefractive volume hologram was recorded and probed using light diffracted from a tapered optical fiber as a reference beam. A single-mode fiber (SMF) was chemically etched and tapered to give a complicated beam pattern, and it is shown that the tapered optical fiber can be utilized to increase the storage density of the volume hologram. Spatial selectivity of the volume hologram with this method was increased by two times compared to the normal SMF referencing, which is due to the fact that the complicated beam pattern has little correlation with its shifted version.


The first-order kinetic models were used in the article to study the effect of the addition of gum acacia (A1), the ratio of core material and wall material, the ratio of maltodextrin and starch, and the gel types on the release properties of pellets in distilled water. The results showed that the sucrose release rate (K values) of slow-release pellets slowed down gradually with the increase of A1 amount, larger ratio of wall material resulted in smaller K values, the ratio of starch increased from 2:1 to 1:1, K values at different water temperatures increased significantly, additional starch might result in the blocking of elution tube by pellets and smaller K values of the pellets, K values of the pellets prepared with gum acacia (A2) was the maximum and that with A1 was the minimum, and the compound of A1 and A2 could control the release rate of the pellets. The release process of the pellets in the static distilled water system showed that the pellet diameter (D1) expanded rapidly in the early period, then the pellet wall surface eroded, pellet size expansion slowed down until insoluble starch circle was left. The pellet core diameter (D2) changed a little in the early period and decreased faster after a period of time until it was completely dissolved. The release process of pellets in the static distilled water supposed that there were two stages of sucrose release from the pellets, and the model fitting results showed: the K values in the first stage was significantly higher than those of the second stage.


Abstract The concept of transition is often used in health and lifecourse research to understand a significant movement from one state or place to another. While people with dementia experience more major transitions than their peers, they are often excluded from transitional care research. This study set out to develop meaningful transitional supports for people with dementia and complex support needs who were undertaking a significant planned geographical transition from their current residential aged care facility to a new purpose-built facility. Using the language of complex support needs acknowledges that participants in this study have a breadth and depth of need, including cognitive, physical, psycho-social and communication impairments and social and cultural disadvantage associated with ageing, institutionalisation and social isolation. To support their move, Participatory Action Research was used to support the co-creation of transitional objects (personalised scarves and blankets) with 15 people with dementia, their families and care staff. Whilst these objects were useful in supporting transition, it was not in the way we imagined. Whilst our initial focus had been on supporting a significant geographical transition, rather it was four types of micro transitions in which the transitional objects were used: small physical transitions (from one place to another); social transitions (entering or exiting personal interactions); activity transitions (moving between activities); and time travel (moving between different times). Reimagining transitions from the perspective of people with dementia and complex support needs involves the recognition of the need for supports for micro as well as macro transitions. Personalised objects to support these everyday micro transitions have the potential to make the lives of people with dementia and complex support needs more manageable, meaningful and comprehensible. Reimagining transitions in dementia in this way helps us reimagine dementia itself, as a constantly fluid, dynamic and responsive series of moments which also has implications for the re-imagination of dementia care.


Armed conflicts have an impact on freshwater resources and often damage water installations, which could be targeted or incidentally damaged, affecting water quality and quantity and limiting access for the civilian population. Thus, in situations of armed conflict, protecting freshwater resources and related installations becomes essential. International humanitarian law (IHL) and international environmental law (IEL) provide for relevant rules that limit the impact of armed conflicts on freshwater and water infrastructure. IHL protects civilian objects, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, works and installations containing dangerous forces and the natural environment. It also prohibits employing poison or poisonous weapons and environmental modification techniques. IEL regulates the sustainable and environmentally sound use, development and management of water resources. Progress in the realm of the human right to water and the rise of environmental consciousness further necessitate an eco-friendly approach that recognizes comprehensive protection. Therefore, this article examines the interplay between IEL and IHL, explaining how IEL can contribute to the interpretation of IHL rules and exploring areas where IEL could complement IHL rules relevant to the protection of freshwater resources and related installations during warfare.


Dopamine is known to play a role in the modulation of aldosterone and catecholamine secretion from the adrenal gland, where dopamine receptors (DR), in particular the DR type 2 (D(2)), have been found to be expressed. DR expression has also been demonstrated in some types of benign adrenal tumors. The aims of the current study were to evaluate DR expression and D(2) localization in the normal adrenal gland and in different types of benign and malignant adrenal tumors, as well as to evaluate the in vitro effects of the dopamine agonists bromocriptine and cabergoline on hormone secretion in nontumoral adrenal cells. Adrenal tissues from 25 patients, subjected to adrenal surgery for different diseases, were studied. These included three normal adrenals; five adrenal hyperplasias; four aldosterone-secreting, two cortisol-secreting, and two clinically nonfunctioning adrenal adenomas; two aldosterone-secreting, two cortisol-secreting, and two androgen-secreting adrenal carcinomas; and three pheochromocytomas. In all tissues, DR and D(2) isoform (D(2long) and D(2short)) expression was evaluated by RT-PCR. D(2) localization was also evaluated by immunohistochemistry using a specific polyclonal antibody, whereas D(2)-like receptor expression was evaluated by receptor-ligand binding study, using the radiolabeled D(2) analog (125)I-epidepride. The effects of bromocriptine and cabergoline on baseline and ACTH and/or angiotensin II-stimulated aldosterone, cortisol, and androstenedione secretion were evaluated in cell cultures derived from five different adrenal hyperplasia. At RT-PCR, both D(1)-like and D(2)-like receptors were expressed in all normal and hyperplastic adrenals. D(2) and D(4) were expressed in aldosterone- and cortisol-secreting adenomas, cortisol-secreting carcinomas, and clinically nonfunctioning adenomas, whereas no DR was expressed in aldosterone- and androgen-secreting carcinomas. D(2), D(4), and D(5) were expressed in pheochromocytomas. In all D(2)-positive tissues, both D(2) isoforms were expressed, with the exception of one case of aldosterone-secreting adenoma and the cortisol-secreting carcinomas, in which only the D(2long) isoform was expressed. D(2)-like receptor expression was confirmed at receptor-ligand binding study. At immunohistochemistry, D(2) was mainly localized in the zona glomerulosa and reticularis of the adrenal cortex and, to a lesser extent, in the zona fasciculata and medulla of normal and hyperplastic adrenal tissue. In the positive tumors, D(2) was localized in the tumoral cells. At the in vitro study, a significant inhibition of both baseline and ACTH-stimulated aldosterone secretion was found after high-dose cabergoline, but not bromocriptine, administration; and a significant inhibition of angiotensin-II-stimulated aldosterone secretion was found after both bromocriptine and cabergoline administration in the adrenal hyperplasias. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that both D(1)-like and D(2)-like receptors are expressed in the normal adrenal gland and in a percentage of adrenal adenomas or carcinomas. Bromocriptine and cabergoline induce only a minor inhibition of the secretion of adrenal hormones in the nontumoral adrenal gland in vitro, not excluding, however, the possible effective use of dopamine agonists in vivo in the treatment of adrenal tumors.


Neuroimaging studies consistently report activity in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in conditions of high cognitive demand, leading to the view that ACC plays a crucial role in the control of cognitive processes. According to one prominent theory, the sensitivity of ACC to task difficulty reflects its role in monitoring for the occurrence of competition, or "conflict," between responses to signal the need for increased cognitive control. However, a contrasting theory proposes that ACC is the recipient rather than source of monitoring signals, and that ACC activity observed in relation to task demand reflects the role of this region in learning about the likelihood of errors. Response conflict and error likelihood are typically confounded, making the theories difficult to distinguish empirically. The present research therefore used detailed computational simulations to derive contrasting predictions regarding ACC activity and error rate as a function of response speed. The simulations demonstrated a clear dissociation between conflict and error likelihood: fast response trials are associated with low conflict but high error likelihood, whereas slow response trials show the opposite pattern. Using the N2 component as an index of ACC activity, an EEG study demonstrated that when conflict and error likelihood are dissociated in this way, ACC activity tracks conflict and is negatively correlated with error likelihood. These findings support the conflict-monitoring theory and suggest that, in speeded decision tasks, ACC activity reflects current task demands rather than the retrospective coding of past performance.


Introduction: No exact consensus exists on the timing of the placement of an intraaortic balloon pump (IABP), yet still, it is the most common mechanical support device used in patients requiring open heart surgery. The purpose of this study was to investigate the results of the implantation of IABP in three different periods as preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative and to compare the results obtained in these periods. Patients and Methods: This study included 193 patients undergoing open-heart surgery with IABP support between January 2014 and December 2016. The patients were divided into three groups as preoperative period, intraoperative period and postoperative period, based on the beginning of IABP support. The patients were compared in terms of preoperative characteristics, surgical data and postoperative results. Results: Of the 193 patients, 32 (16.5%) received preoperative, 64 (33.1%) intraoperative, and 97 (50.2%) postoperative IABP support. The length of ICU stay (20.15 ± 23 days) was longer for the postoperative group compared with the preoperative (7.63 ± 9.8 days) and intraoperative (12.98 ± 25 days) groups (p1: 0.005; p2: 0.007 respectively, p< 0.05). The new dialysis incidence rate in the pre-, intra-, and postoperative periods was 9.4%, 23.4%, and 33.0%, respectively. The veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation implantation rate in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative groups was 3.1%, 23.4%, and 22.7%, respectively. The incidence of hospital mortality was 25.0% in the preoperative group, which was significantly lower compared to the intraoperative (54.7%) and the postoperative groups (70.1%) (p1: 0.011; p2: 0.000 respectively, p< 0.05). Conclusion: Any delay in insertion of IABP may cause progressive hemodinamic deteoriation. Determining the indication of implantation may even be difficult in some clinical scenarios. IABP support should be started without delay in the intraoperative period when a second inotropic support is needed and the patient has difficulty in weaning from CPB.


The author found that DSM-III criteria were generally applicable to the diagnoses of a series of new and repeat outpatients studied under field conditions in Botswana, a developing African country. Some problems were encountered, however, with axis II, which was not commonly used. Other clinical aspects of the patients are commented on, including the rarity of acute psychoses and culture-bound syndromes.


We describe the development and application of an integrated data and modelling system for estimating soil carbon (C) fluxes from mineral soils caused by changes in climate, land use and land management at 1‐km resolution in the UK (RothCUK). The system was developed with the aim of improving methods for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol accounting and integrates national scale data sets of soil properties, land use and climate with the Rothamsted carbon model (RothC). A preliminary estimate of soil C fluxes because of land use change (LUC) over the period 1990–2000 is presented as an example application of the system. RothCUK shows LUC to be a net source of CO2 from 1990 to 2000 although the RothC estimate was smaller (6488 kt C) than the estimate from the single exponential model (SEM) method currently used to calculate C fluxes due to LUC for the UK National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (mean: 9412 kt C). Based on previous studies, an uncertainty range in our estimates of ±50–100% seems plausible. In agreement with the SEM, RothCUK suggests that the largest single contributor to soil C fluxes from LUC was conversion of grassland to arable land. Differences between the results may be attributed to differences in the two models and the assumptions and underlying data used in making the calculations. The RothCUK system provides a powerful method for estimating changes in soil C stocks, enabling areas and management systems with particularly large changes in soil C stocks to be located at fine resolution.


Deligöz A., Bayar E., Genç M., Karatepe Y., Kırdar E., Cankara F.G. (2018): Seasonal and needle age-related variations in the biochemical characteristics of Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe. J. For. Sci., 64: 379–386. Variations in the photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrate contents of needles of different age classes (currentyear, 1-year-old, 2-year-old and 3-year-old) of Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana (Lambert) Holmboe trees in a young natural stand were investigated during the growing season. In current-year needles, total carbohydrate content was lower during June and July when the needle growth continued than in older age classes, but it was similar to other age classes in the months of August to October. Seasonal patterns of variations in total carbohydrate content were almost similar in 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old needles. Chlorophyll and carotenoid contents increased from May to June, remained relatively constant or declined slightly during summer and autumn in 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old needles. In October, the pigment content was highest in 1-year-old needles, and lowest in 3-year-old needles. Our study indicated that total carbohydrate and pigment contents were affected by needle age classes and seasons.


Commentators on the four trends in contemporary African philosophy as enunciated by H. Odera Oruka frequently focus on the merits and demerits of each trend. However, many of them are obblivious to the way in which sagacity emancipates African philosophy by putting reason in its rightful pivotal position. This article argues that while the professional philosophers accused ethno-philosophers of doing disservice to African philosophy, they too stand accused of the same. This is due to the fact that both ethno-philosophy and professional philosophy function within the Western grid and therefore in the interest and service of the Western world. Philosophic sagacity, the article argues, discards the undesirable elements of ethno-philosophy and professional philosophy, while retaining desirable ones, namely, the Africanness in ethno-philosophy and the objectivity in professional philosophy. Because philosophic sagacity is African and objective, it is a desired tool of change in Africa. It can, for example, be used to address negative aspects of ethnicity that bedevil Africa. There lies the most important contribution by H. Odera Oruka to philosophy in general and African philosophy in particular. Ke y Words Odera Oruka, philosophic sagacity, ethno-philosophy, professional philosophy, reason


A spinal cord ischemic injury defined by acute transient paraplegia, following lumbar disk surgery was not reported in the literature. A lumbar MRI was performed to a 60 years old obese and short female patient due to low back and leg pain. An acute disk extrusion was found at the L4-5 absolute spinal stenosis background. The patient had lumbar disc surgery at the prone position. The patient woke up with paralysis in both extremities under T10 level postoperatively. The MRI showed air bubbles in the spinal canal, originating from the giant venous dural lacs. After 6-8 hours with medical treatment, the patient completely regained the sensory first, then the motor function. Since the fast recovery in the early period and the air seen on MRI, the other reasons such as fibro cartilaginous embolism at the spinal cord level were excluded, and the etiology was thought to be the venous air embolism. This is the first case in the literature with paraplegia due to acute spinal ischemia, which is thought to happen due to venous air embolism during the lumbar decompression surgery.


Background: Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is a high- density lipoprotein (HDL)-associated enzyme, displaying esterase and lactonase activity. The PON1 is involved in a variety of inflammatory diseases, metabolizing toxic oxidized lipids and detoxifying of organophosphorus insecticide compounds and nerve agents. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of methanolic date seed extract (DSE) on paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in hypercholesterolemic rats. Materials and Methods: Experiments were conducted in two groups of normal and hypercholesterolemic rats and continued for four weeks. Two weeks after receiving the normal and hypercholesterolemic diet, different dosages of DSE were administered during the last two weeks of the treatment. Blood samples were taken from animals before administration of DSE (at day 14) and at the end of the experimental period (at day 28). Paraoxonase and arylesterase activities of PON1 enzyme were assayed by kit using paraoxone and phenylacetate as the substrates. Relative changes in serum paraoxonase and arylesterase activities and total antioxidant capacity (TAOC) were compared between the two groups during this interval. Results: Administration of DSE significantly increased serum paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in treated hypercholesterolemic groups compared to untreated ones. There was a significant difference in the TAOC of serum between the normal diet and hypercholesterolemic groups. However, DSE did not change the TAOC in hypercholesterolemic groups significantly. Conclusions: DSE increases serum paraoxonase and arylesterase activities. These beneficial effects may be subjected to the presence of natural antioxidants such as phenolic compounds in the date seed. Despite this, DSE did not increase TAOC in treated hypercholesterolemic groups compared to the untreated ones based on ABTS (2,2'-azino-di-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic acid) radical reduction assay. This indicates that the hypercholesterolemic diet, apart from DSE and atorvastatin effects, may be responsible for the serum TAOC reduction. However, it is concluded that DSE may be useful in decreasing the symptoms of diseases resulting from the low activity of paraoxonase.


Plasmaspheric plumes have been routinely observed by CLUSTER and IMAGE. The CLUSTER mission provides high time resolution four-point measurements of the plasmasphere near perigee. Total electron density profiles have been derived from the electron plasma frequency identified by the WHISPER sounder supplemented, in-between soundings, by relative variations of the spacecraft potential measured by the electric field instrument EFW; ion velocity is also measured onboard these satellites. The EUV imager onboard the IMAGE spacecraft provides global images of the plasmasphere with a spatial resolution of 0.1 RE every 10 min; such images acquired near apogee from high above the pole show the geometry of plasmaspheric plumes, their evolution and motion. We present coordinated observations of three plume events and compare CLUSTER in-situ data with global images of the plasmasphere obtained by IMAGE. In particular, we study the geometry and the orientation of plasmaspheric plumes by using four-point analysis methods. We compare several aspects of plume motion as determined by different methods: (i) inner and outer plume boundary velocity calculated from time delays of this boundary as observed by the wave experiment WHISPER on the four spacecraft, (ii) drift velocity measured by the electron drift instrument EDI onboard CLUSTER and (iii) global velocity determined from successive EUV images. These different techniques consistently indicate that plasmaspheric plumes rotate around the Earth, with their foot fully co-rotating, but with their tip rotating slower and moving farther out.


AIM To investigate clinical and morphological features of amyloidogenesis in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is thought to be associated with proteinopathy, namely beta-amyloidopathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 111 eyes with morphological signs of AMD as well as brain samples from 56 cadavers (aged at death 60 and over) were assessed with selective methods of amyloid detection. RESULTS Amyloid deposits were present in 39% of eyes with dry AMD and 80% of eyes with wet AMD. Combined accumulation of amyloid (that is both in eyes and the brain) was found in 50.6% of cases. CONCLUSION The results allow to suggest that common etiopathogenetic and morphological features of AMD and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are due to the same metabolic pathway of the transmembrane amyloid precursor protein (APP) responsible for aggregation of beta-amyloid (Aβ), an abnormal fibrillar protein, and the development of beta-amyloidopathy in eyes and brains. It has been demonstrated that beta-amyloidopathy is the keynote of both AMD and AD pathogenesis leading to cytotoxicity, neurodegeneration and pathological apoptosis. Such views on the problem may promote the development of neuroprotective and ophthalmic geriatric medications effective at all stages of pathogenesis, including beta-amyloid formation and aggregation.


We study the frequent problem of approximating a target matrix with a matrix of lower rank. We provide a simple and efficient (EM) algorithm for solving weightedlow rank approximation problems, which, unlike simple matrix factorization problems, do not admit a closed form solution in general. We analyze, in addition, the nature of locally optimal solutions that arise in this context, demonstrate the utility of accommodating the weights in reconstructing the underlying low rank representation, and extend the formulation to non-Gaussian noise models such as classification (collaborative filtering).


Construction companies in Sweden have for many years been moving work from site to factories, especially in the timber housing industry. These factories are also installing more and more automated production lines calling for better integration between design and production. So far, design tools in the construction industry have often been developed without possibility of parameterization, design automation or connections to Computer Numeric Control (CNC). Much of recent research has also been focused on improving the information flow in the traditional building process due to the lack of integration with other tools used by different disciplines. Also, constraints imposed by developed building systems cannot not be easily transferred 'upstream' the design process. This paper aims to investigate the management of information flow between architects, engineering and production in the design of industrialized building systems. Furthermore, the possibilities of parameterization and design automation is investigated for the implementation of rules and constraints imposed by the building system in design tools used by architects and engineers with the purpose of reducing non-compatible design solutions and to integrate the information flow with the engineering and production process. First, building systems are classified according to customer order decoupling point in the product specification process. Building systems classified as configure-to-order or select-variant are suitable candidates for implementing configuration systems. Then, the information flow is demonstrated in the configuration of a timber floor slab. It is concluded that the engineering design can be automated to a large extent using configuration tools if the architectural design obey the rules imposed by the building system. Also, the amount of data transferred between architect and engineer is reduced since much of the information and knowledge is transferred into formal computer interpretable knowledge.


Between 1993 and 1996, we carried out a serological screening for differentially identifying HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections among the high risk group persons admitted in the various wards of BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai, using the ImmunoComb kit. This study indicates that although HIV-1 is the predominant virus prevalent in Mumbai, dual HIV-1-2 and HIV-2 infections are gradually increasing.


Non-stationary online learning has drawn much attention in recent years. In particular, dynamic regret and adaptive regret are proposed as two principled performance measures for online convex optimization in non-stationary environments. To optimize them, a two-layer online ensemble is usually deployed due to the inherent uncertainty of the non-stationarity, in which a group of base-learners are maintained and a meta-algorithm is employed to track the best one on the fly. However, the two-layer structure raises the concern about the computational complexity -- those methods typically maintain $\mathcal{O}(\log T)$ base-learners simultaneously for a $T$-round online game and thus perform multiple projections onto the feasible domain per round, which becomes the computational bottleneck when the domain is complicated. In this paper, we present efficient methods for optimizing dynamic regret and adaptive regret, which reduce the number of projections per round from $\mathcal{O}(\log T)$ to $1$. Moreover, our obtained algorithms require only one gradient query and one function evaluation at each round. Our technique hinges on the reduction mechanism developed in parameter-free online learning and requires non-trivial twists on non-stationary online methods. Empirical studies verify our theoretical findings.


Impedance spectroscopy has been shown as a promising method to characterize thermoelectric (TE) materials and devices. In particular, the possibility to determine the thermal conductivity λ, electrical conductivity σ, and the dimensionless figure of merit ZT of a TE element, if the Seebeck coefficient S is known, has been reported, although so far for a high-performance TE material (Bi2Te3) at room temperature. Here, we demonstrate the capability of this approach at temperatures up to 250 °C and for a material with modest TE properties. Moreover, we compare the results obtained with values from commercial equipment and quantify the precision and accuracy of the method. This is achieved by measuring the impedance response of a skutterudite material contacted by Cu contacts. The method shows excellent precision (random errors < 4.5% for all properties) and very good agreement with the results from commercial equipment (<4% for λ, between 4% and 6% for σ, and <8% for ZT), which proves its suitability to accurately characterize bulk TE materials. Especially, the capability to provide λ with good accuracy represents a useful alternative to the laser flash method, which typically exhibits higher errors and requires the measurement of additional properties (density and specific heat), which are not necessarily needed to obtain the ZT.


Secondary closure of incisions by tape is a simple, safe procedure. In a retrospective series of 179 contaminated surgical wounds (incisions for colon operations) delayed wound closure resulted in a lower incidence of wound infection (5.8%) than did primary closure of similar wounds (11.8%). Although wounds left open do become infected, the acute swelling and systemic signs typical of an infection in a closed wound never develop. Delayed closure facilitated wound healing in hospital: only 3.8% of patients thus treated left hospital with open wounds, but 9.5% of patients whose wounds were closed primarily left hospital with wounds that were partially or completely open.


Spoofing identities using photographs is one of the most common techniques to attack 2-D face recognition systems. There seems to exist no comparative studies of different techniques using the same protocols and data. The motivation behind this competition is to compare the performance of different state-of-the-art algorithms on the same database using a unique evaluation method. Six different teams from universities around the world have participated in the contest. Use of one or multiple techniques from motion, texture analysis and liveness detection appears to be the common trend in this competition. Most of the algorithms are able to clearly separate spoof attempts from real accesses. The results suggest the investigation of more complex attacks.


Background Errors occur frequently during the medication process, from prescription to administration. They can lead to severe damage for patient health, particularly with injectable (IV) drugs. Purpose To evaluate the impact of a self-made e-learning lesson, focused on the safety of IV drug preparation and administration, on the ability of nurses and pharmacy students to detect errors voluntarily placed in a simulated patient's room ('room of errors'). Material and methods Selection of 11 errors related to IV drug preparation and administration based on reported incidents. Study design:number of errors detected in 15 min in the 'room of errors' by nurses and pharmacy students before and after an e-learning lesson (30 min). Evaluation of the impact of the e-learning on the mean number and type of detected errors (±SD), globally and in both populations. Satisfaction evaluation (standardised questionnaire). Results 28 participants (16 nurses/12 pharmacy students) were enrolled. The mean number of detected errors increased significantly after completion of the e-learning (4.6 ± 2.3 vs 2.6 ± 1.8; p < 0.0001). The e-learning had a greater impact on the detection of administration errors compared with preparation errors (OR 2.8 (95% CI 1.4 to 5.5); p = 0.001). Nurses: after e-learning, the mean number of detected errors increased (5.5 ± 2.5 vs 3.3 ± 2.0; p < 0.0001). The probability of detecting a preparation error (that was not detected before e-learning) was lower (21.6%; 95% CI 12.1 to 35.8) compared with administration errors (34.7%; 95% CI 20.5 to 52.4). Pharmacy students: after e-learning, the mean number of detected errors increased (3.3 ± 1.1 vs 1.8 ± 1.1; p = 0.0001). The probability of detecting a preparation error (that was not detected before e-learning) was very low (3.8%; 95% CI 1.0 to 14.1) but higher for administration errors (27.3%; 95% CI 17.2 to 40.4). Satisfaction evaluation: most of the participants (100% of nurses, 83% of pharmacy students) appreciated this concept of learning but it was judged more suitable for nurses' practice. Conclusion The e-learning lesson significantly improved the number of detected errors, particularly of administration errors. Long term impact and usefulness of this innovative pedagogic approach for continuing education should be evaluated in the future. No conflict of interest.


The large-scale wind industry arrived in Texas in the early years of the twenty-first century with the intensity of a spring tornado. It was a welcome relief to farmers and ranchers beset by years of no rain and falling prices, and they lined up in droves to hear about and sign new wind leases. It was a new dawn for energy lawyers too. Gone were the days of one-on-one representation in the leasing of land. The new era required landowner attorneys to represent dozens or perhaps hundreds of people at a time. This is the story of the issues and challenges brought by the concurrent rise of wind development and multi-party wind lease negotiations in Texas.


Noncalibrated respiratory inductance plethysmography has been used to measure respiratory function by calculation of the phase angle and, more recently, by determination of the ratio of each time to reach peak tidal expiratory flow to total expiratory time (TPEF/TE). Since TPEF/TE is known to be decreased in airway obstruction when derived from flow signals obtained by a pneumotachograph, we wanted to develop an alternative method to measure rib cage and abdominal respiratory movements. For this purpose, we used two pressure sensors attached to the skin above the umbilicus and in the right medioclavicular line at the fourth intercostal space: "pressure sensor plethysmography". We tested the ability of this method to assess thoracoabdominal asynchrony and TPEF/TE by comparison with respiratory inductance plethysmographic and pneumotachographic measurements in 30 children, aged 1-12 yrs, with airway obstruction. The mean difference (95% confidence interval (95% CI)) between phase angles obtained by respiratory inductance plethysmography and pressure sensor plethysmography was only -5.8 degrees (range -18.0 to +6.4 degrees). Similarly, all methods used to measure TPEF/TE agreed well: mean differences (95% CI) between pneumotachographic and respiratory inductance plethysmographic, pneumotachographic and pressure sensor plethysmographic, and respiratory inductance plethysmographic and pressure sensor plethysmographic measurements of TPEF/TE were +0.01 (range -0.05 to +0.06), -0.03 (-0.09 to +0.03) and -0.03 (-0.10 to +0.04), respectively. We conclude that pressure sensor plethysmography is a simple and noninvasive method, and suitable to measure thoracoabdominal asynchrony and TPEF/TE ratios as well as respiratory inductance plethysmography and pneumotachography.


The detection of tumor markers plays an important role in clinical diagnosis and evaluation of therapeutic effect. Early detection of tumor markers, which are usually proteins, can greatly facilitate effective treatment with different modalities and even increase cure rate of patients. Currently, nanoparticle-based methods for cancer diagnostics are becoming an increasingly relevant alternative to traditional techniques. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are one of the most extensively studied nanomaterials due to their remarkable physical and chemical properties. With the recent advances in nanotechnology, AuNPs have offered new ways to detect tumor markers at low concentrations and to target cancer cells in very deep sites. The use of AuNPs may increase the sensitivity of a biosensor and generate higher accuracy and precision of the assays. So, AuNPs have greatly facilitated the development of nanomaterials-based technology for clinic diagnostics and therapy. In this review paper, we have summarized different kinds of AuNPs-based biosensors for the detection of tumor marker proteins with a particular focus on optical and electrochemical techniques, which may provide valuable perspective for the colleagues in the related communities. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press.


Abstract In 2010, Qatar Shell Upstream International B.V. (QSUI) re-entered Exploration in Qatar focusing on the relatively deep conventional Pre-Khuff gas plays with a view to discover additional hydrocarbons in the State of Qatar. In order to support Qatar Shell with the execution of onshore and offshore seismic programs, satellite imagery was used extensively to derive added value products in terms of shallow water bathymetry, seabed classification and onshore digital elevation models (DEM). For the offshore bathymetry and seabed classification products, 2m resolution multispectral WorldView-2 satellite scenes were processed following a data processing chain including the correction of atmospheric adjacency (increased radiance over water due to reflection of photons by the nearby land and their further scattering in the atmosphere), water surface and water column effects. The resulting offshore products had a spatial resolution of 4m and covered an area of ~700 km2. For the onshore elevation product, a 50cm WorldView-1 stereo image pair was processed using a photogrammetric stereo vision algorithm to generate a 1m spatial resolution DEM over an area of ∼450 km2. The accuracy and quality of these satellite image derived products depend largely on the optical conditions of the satellite scene, the sensitivity of the satellite sensor and the accuracy of the calibration. Three types of independent control datasets were used to assess the quality and accuracy of the bathymetry and DEM; airborne LiDAR sounding transects, multibeam echo sounding swaths (offshore) and seismic survey lines (onshore and offshore). After correction for any systematic bias, the correlation of both products with the control data was found to be very good with <1m vertical error in general. Satellite image products are recognized within QSUI as a key technology to aid the planning and preparation of seismic operations and site evaluation by improving hazard identification and reducing field risk exposure early on in the project life cycle. In addition, cost savings were realized compared to more costly traditional acquisition methods. The seismic field conditions were assessed relatively quickly compared to the time frame required for traditional methods. This allowed the data to be included in commercial tendering which in turn resulted in sharper bids. In conclusion, satellite imagery in combination with the right processing techniques has the potential to provide an integrated wide area bathymetry and DEM coverage at relatively high resolution and low cost.


Topoisomerase 2α (Topo2α) is an essential protein with DNA decatenating enzymatic properties, indispensable for chromosome decatenation and segregation. It is a target for a plethora of antitumour drugs and Topo2α protein levels have been associated with the success of treatment, but also drug resistance and secondary malignancies. Although unique in its ability to resolve catenated chromosomes, the role of Topo2α in other steps of DNA metabolism, such as DNA replication elongation and termination have been elusive. A thorough understanding of the role of Topo2α in the cell will not only allow for increased insight into the mechanisms it is involved in, but it will also shed light on proteins and pathways that can act as back-up in its absence, and therefore hopefully expand the basis on which to improve treatment options. Through a synthetic lethal interaction (SLI) screen with an siRNA library targeting 200 DNA repair and signalling genes, Topo2α emerged as being synthetic lethal to Werner protein (WRN), a RecQ helicase involved in maintaining genome integrity mainly in S phase, and the loss of which leads to Werner Syndrome (WS), a segmental progeroid syndrome. The screen was performed in WRN deficient cells, with the initial aim to find proteins that act to buffer against loss of viability, which is the central idea in the concept of synthetic lethality in the absence of WRN. The screen revealed an SLI between WRN and Topo2α and although we were unable to fully validate this, it spurred the question of Topo2α's role in DNA replication. The findings in this thesis suggest that Topo2α is not required for DNA elongation and timely completion of S phase, and that simultaneous loss of the closely related isoform Topo2β does not affect replication, suggesting that these proteins do not act in parallel back-up pathways during replication. Interestingly, cells accumulate in the polyploid fraction after both depletion and inhibition of Topo2α, albeit with different kinetics. The mechanistic basis of this phenotype remains to be understood through further research, but it is highly interesting as aneuplidity and polyploidy are implicated in the initial stages of tumour development.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim was to investigate the prevalence of urinary incontinence during pregnancy and the related risk factors as well as to assess its influence on the quality of life.

BACKGROUND
Although urinary incontinence is common during pregnancy and can have a substantial impact on quality of life, women rarely seek help for this symptom.

DESIGN
This study was designed as a cross-sectional and descriptive survey.

METHODS
A total of 393 pregnant women participated in the study between March and June 2007. The data was collected using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Short Form and Wagner's quality of life scale. Potential risk factors were investigated through logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS
The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 27% (106/393). Factors significantly associated with urinary incontinence included age group, parity, previous urinary incontinence, constipation, urinary incontinence in mother and sister, previous urinary incontinence during pregnancy and postpartum.

CONCLUSION
According to the results of our study, urinary incontinence is common in women during pregnancy. The quality of life of pregnant women was found to be either unaffected or affected very little by urinary incontinence.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
This study reveals that the prevalence of urinary incontinence during pregnancy is very high. The findings will help increase the awareness of health care workers involved in the care of pregnant women about urinary incontinence and aid the design of more intensive education programmes directed towards the prevention of urinary incontinence during pregnancy.


Paraduodenal hernias, or so called "congenital intraperitoneal hernias"are rare cause intestinal obstruction. These hernias are caused by variations in intestinal rotation and the patients present with symptoms ranging from intermittent abdominal pain to acute obstruction. We report two cases of obstructive paraduodenal hernias which are at left and right each and review of its clinical features and surgical management.


BackgroundBroad spectrum tumors can arise in salivary glands, giving diagnostic difficulties in some subtypes due to morphological similarities. Immunohistochemistry studies done to differentiate between benign and malignant neoplasms of salivary glands are very few, including Cdk6 and Ki-67. Cdk6's role in tumorigenesis is halting cellular proliferation and differentiation. Ki-67 is actively expressed in proliferating cells, particularly neoplasms. The objectives are to analyze differences of Cdk6 and Ki-67 expression in benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms and to analyze the correlation between those two proteins.MethodsThis is an analitic observational study with cross sectional design. Samples were taken proportionally, each 15 samples of benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms, derived from pathological archives during 1 January 2011-30 June 2013 period. Immunohistochemical staining with Cdk6 and Ki-67 monoclonal antibody were performed. Differences in Cdk6 and Ki-67 expression of both groups were analyzed using Mann Whitney. The correlation between the Ki-67 and Cdk6 expression were analyzed using Spearman.ResultsThere were significant differences in the Cdk6 and Ki-67 expression between benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms.The expressions of Ki-67 have a cut-off point of 6.50%. There was a significant correlation between Cdk6 and Ki-67 expression in the salivary gland neoplasms.ConclusionExpression of Cdk6 and Ki-67 were low at benign salivary gland neoplasms and high at malignant salivary glands neoplasms. There was significant correlation between Cdk6 expression and Ki-67 expression at benign and malignant salivary gland neoplasms. Although both could differentiate the behavior of neoplasms, Ki-67 was more reliable and applicable.


The major objective of this paper is to provide a succinct and critical review of Iran's Third Five-Year Development Plan (2000/01-2004/05, fiscal year ending March 20). After highlighting the salient features of the Iranian economy and a brief explanation of the previous two development plans, this paper discusses the extent to which the specified macroeconomic objectives of the third plan are achievable. It is argued that there are a number of practical inconsistencies and structural problems in this plan like its predecessors that stifle the long-run economic development. More specifically the constitution, which is beyond the government control, should be appropriately amended to allow the badly needed structural reforms in the Iranian economy prior to launching any development plan.


Neuroblastoma is one of the most common solid cancers among children. Prognosis of advanced neuroblastoma is still poor despite the recent advances in chemo/radiotherapies. In view of improving the clinical outcome of advanced neuroblastoma, it is important to identify the key molecules responsible for the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma and to develop effective drugs that target these molecules. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a receptor tyrosine kinase, initially identified through the analysis of a specific translocation associated with a rare subtype of non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma. Recently it was demonstrated that ALK is frequently mutated in sporadic cases with advanced neuroblastoma. Moreover, germline mutations of ALK were shown to be responsible for the majority of hereditary neuroblastoma. ALK mutants found in neuroblastoma show constitutive active kinase activity and oncogenic potentials. Inhibition of ALK in neuroblastoma cell lines carrying amplified or mutated ALK alleles results in compromised downstream signaling and cell growth, indicating potential roles of small molecule ALK inhibitors in the therapeutics of neuroblastoma carrying mutated ALK kinases. (Cancer Sci 2011; 102: 302–308)


We examined the hypothesis that filamin A binding to the cytoplasmic tail of platelet glycoprotein Ib (GpIb ) is regulated by pathologic shear stress and modulates von Willebrand factor (VWF)–induced platelet activation. To begin, we examined filamin binding to GpIb in Chinese hamster ovary cells coexpressing mutant human GpIb-IX and wild-type human filamin A. We observed that many different deletions and truncations Nterminal to GpIb 's cytoplasmic domain residue 594 disrupted filamin A binding, but that binding was unaffected by 14 different point mutations in hydrophilic residues between amino acids 557 and 593. To try to narrow GpIb 's filamin A–binding domain, we next measured the effect of several cytoplasmic domain peptides on human filamin A binding to a GST-GpIb cytoplasmic domain fusion protein. One peptide (residues 557-575; designated "A4 peptide") inhibited filamin A binding to the GST-GpIb cytoplasmic domain fusion protein and competed with GpIb for binding to filamin A. When the A4 peptide was delivered to intact human platelets using a carrier peptide, we observed the dose-dependent inhibition of VWF-induced platelet aggregation in response to both ristocetin and shear stress. The effect of the A4 peptide on shear-induced platelet aggregation was accompanied by the attenuation of shear-induced filamin A binding to GpIb and diminished shear-dependent protein tyrosine phosphorylation. These results suggest that shear-dependent VWF-induced platelet activation affects filamin A binding to GpIb-IX-V, and that filamin A binding to the cytoplasmic tail of GpIb regulates proaggregatory tyrosine kinase signaling. (Blood. 2003; 102:2122-2129)


The more we know about the resource usage patterns of workloads, the better we can allocate resources. Here we present a methodology to discover resource usage behaviors of containers training Deep Learning (DL) models. From monitoring, we can observe repeating patterns and similitude of resource usage among containers training different DL models. The repeating patterns observed can be leveraged by the scheduler or the resource autoscaler to reduce resource fragmentation and overall resource utilization in a dedicated DL cluster. Specifically, our approach combines Conditional Restricted Boltzmann Machines (CRBMs) and clustering techniques to discover common sequences of behaviors (phases) of containers running the DL training workloads in clusters providing IBM Deep Learning Services. By studying the resource usage pattern at each phase and the typical sequences of phases among different containers, we discover a reduced set of prototypical executions representing the majority of executions. We use statistical information from each phase to refine resource provisioning by dynamically tuning the amount of resource each container requires at each phase. Evaluation of our method shows that by leveraging typical resource usage patterns, we can auto-scale containers to reduce CPU and Memory allocation by 30% compared to statistics based reactive policies, which is close to having a-priori knowledge of resource usage while fulfilling resource demand over 95% of the time.


Steam injection has been employed in gas turbines for over twenty years. Initially the emphasis was on injection for small amounts of power augmentation and NOx reduction in the turbine exhaust gas. More recently it has been used for massive power increases (more than 50% on some gas turbines) and efficiency improvements (more than 20%). Equipment selection, operation and economics are essential ingredients in producing the high-purity steam required in a steam-injected gas turbine cycle.The most common means of producing steam for the steam-injection cycle is by means of a waste heat boiler operating in the turbine exhaust gas stream. Steam generated in this boiler may then be injected into the compressor discharge, combustor or turbine sections of the gas turbine to improve performance.Manufacturers require extremely high purity steam for injection into their gas turbines; less than 30 parts per billion (PPB) of some contaminants is not an unusual requirement. If this steam quality is not obtained, serious damage can occur, particularly in the turbine hot section. To meet these stringent steam quality requirements without excessive amounts of boiler blowdown, it is necessary to provide highly demineralized makeup water to the boiler, i.e. less than 1 PPM TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). Low silica concentrations are particularly important since silica can vaporize at higher boiler pressures, pass through the moisture separators and deposit on turbine components. The selection of equipment required to produce high quality makeup water from various grades of raw water is critical to the successful operation of the steam injection plant. Because the steam cannot be recovered effectively, it is necessary to install a large water treatment system to provide the quantities of makeup required for steam injection. Equally critical to the cycle is the type of drum moisture separation used in achieving manufacturers' recommended steam quality.Just as the steam injection cycle has a dramatic impact on the economics of a gas turbine power plant, so too do the operation and selection of steam purification equipment influence the overall economics of the steam injection cycle.© 1990 ASME


Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (ApHCM), also known as Yamaguchi syndrome represents an uncommon morphologic variant of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in which the myocardial hypertrophy predominantly involves the apex of the left ventricle (LV). It is exemplified by "giant" negative precordial T-waves on electrocardiography and a peculiar "spade-like" configuration of LV cavity on ventriculography historically, and more recently, on echocardiography with use of image enhancing agents. The disease entity was first described in 1976. Available literature reveals that it is prevalent largely among the East-Asian population but is rare among non-Asians. Here, we report a case of a 66-year-old Hispanic male with multiple cardiac histories including persistent atrial fibrillation, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), and ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest with multiple inconclusive evaluations, who later in life was found to have ApHCM. This case highlights the rare incidence of the disease among the Hispanic population and underlines the challenging diagnosis that requires a high index of suspicion in patients with cardiac symptoms, as ApHCM can masquerade as ischemic coronary heart disease. Our case also describes an unusual clinical course for ApHCM presenting with extreme clinical features, including ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac arrest, unlike the usual benign natural history of this disease.


A new statistical method for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL), called multiple interval mapping (MIM), is presented. It uses multiple marker intervals simultaneously to fit multiple putative QTL directly in the model for mapping QTL. The MIM model is based on Cockerham's model for interpreting genetic parameters and the method of maximum likelihood for estimating genetic parameters. With the MIM approach, the precision and power of QTL mapping could be improved. Also, epistasis between QTL, genotypic values of individuals, and heritabilities of quantitative traits can be readily estimated and analyzed. Using the MIM model, a stepwise selection procedure with likelihood ratio test statistic as a criterion is proposed to identify QTL. This MIM method was applied to a mapping data set of radiata pine on three traits: brown cone number, tree diameter, and branch quality scores. Based on the MIM result, seven, six, and five QTL were detected for the three traits, respectively. The detected QTL individually contributed from approximately 1 to 27% of the total genetic variation. Significant epistasis between four pairs of QTL in two traits was detected, and the four pairs of QTL contributed approximately 10.38 and 14.14% of the total genetic variation. The asymptotic variances of QTL positions and effects were also provided to construct the confidence intervals. The estimated heritabilities were 0.5606, 0.5226, and 0. 3630 for the three traits, respectively. With the estimated QTL effects and positions, the best strategy of marker-assisted selection for trait improvement for a specific purpose and requirement can be explored. The MIM FORTRAN program is available on the worldwide web (http://www.stat.sinica.edu.tw/chkao/).


This article introduces a comprehensive Christian formation model, drawing from the Genesis narrative of being created in the imago Dei (image of God) through godly love. Applicable in the Christian academy, church, and ministry contexts, this approach incorporates seven dimensions (i.e., spirit, emotions, relationships, intellect, vocation, physical health, and resource stewardship, referring to how believers handle the earth, money, and possessions). Ethical living stands as an outcome of integrated growth across these dimensions and as the vehicle to love and serve God and others. Christian educators are encouraged to apply this approach in their various contexts to foster holistic transformation.


Many rural communities in Alaska rely on large constructed lagoons to treat their wastewater. The quality of effluent released from these lagoons and the ability of the receiving bodies to dilute the effluent varies as the thawed season progresses. The receiving bodies tend to have capacity before the effluent has reached levels acceptable for discharge and algae growth degrades effluent quality as capacity in receiving bodies is decreasing, leaving only a short window to discharge effluent with minimal impact. The expansion of an existing facultative lagoon and the addition of a constructed wetland in Galena, Alaska is estimated to increase BOD and TSS removal to levels that will consistently exceed permit levels. The lagoon will be drawn down by discharging to the constructed wetland over a 120 day discharge period. The addition of the constructed wetland will keep TSS within permit levels even when algae drives TSS values over permit levels in the facultative lagoon. While the constructed wetland is expected to reduce fecal coliform concentration in the wastewater treatment facility effluent it may not bring fecal coliform levels down to below permit levels. Additional dilution or disinfection may be required. Unlike BOD, TSS, and fecal coliform, which are expected to improve through the addition of the constructed wetland, dissolved oxygen levels are expected to decrease as a result of treating the wastewater in the constructed wetland. While the dissolved oxygen concentration of the constructed wetland effluent will be low, the decreased BOD concentration will result in an effluent that is more readily able to reaerate over an effluent with a higher BOD concentration. Overall the results of this project suggest that adding constructed wetlands treatment to facultative lagoons prior to discharge to receiving bodies has the potential to create effluent of consistent quality that will meet or exceed ADEC permit requirements.


The genetic diversity of Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) was studied by comparing sequences of complete coat protein (CP) genes of 63 isolates. Phylogenetic analysis of CPs showed that isolates fell into eight distinct groups with an overall nucleotide diversity of 19%. The largest and most genetically diverse group was from natural infections in both wild and domesticated host plant species in both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plant families, indicating a generalized host strategy. The other seven groups had a narrower genetic base and in each case, isolates were from a single or limited number of domesticated species, indicating a specialized host strategy. We propose that the generalized group represents the ancestral type from which specialist groups evolved within domesticated plants after the advent of agriculture, since approximately ten millennia BP. The centre of origin of the ancestral group is unclear from its present distribution, but the specialized groups probably originated where their principal hosts were first domesticated, in most cases Eurasia. Specialist groups have adapted to domesticated hosts by often becoming seed-borne, facilitating their world-wide spread. Inter- and intra-specific recombination is a strategy used to increase genetic diversity in BYMV. Recombination was found in CPs and complete genomes and occurred between the generalized group and a specialized group, and between different specialized groups. Phylogenetic analysis of all genes within six complete BYMV genomes and 14VPg gene sequences showed that branch topologies were sometimes incongruous. This indicates that its different genes evolved independently.


OBJECTIVES
Accounts of numerous military campaigns throughout history have shown that casualties from medical illness usually greatly outnumber combat injuries. We aimed to see whether this remained the case in a modern campaign where predominantly surgical facilities were deployed.

METHODS
We examined 1511 hospital records of inpatients in the Oman theatre during the last three months of Exercise Saif Sareea II and the initial period of Operation Veritas.

RESULTS
Of the 1399 records included, 1033 (74%) required care from a physician, whereas 366 (26%) were treated by surgeons. However, of patients returning to duty in theatre (total 985), 884 (90%) had been treated by physicians and 101 had been treated by surgeons. Notably, only 23 (2%) of these had undergone a surgical procedure.

CONCLUSIONS
Experience in Oman suggests that the lessons of history in respect of casualties in times of conflict are both unlearned and being repeated. The role of the medical specialities in military secondary care should be recognised and deployed facilities should not be defined by surgical capability alone.


Protecting biodiversity, either for its own sake or for its value to humanity, is a principal goal of conservation efforts worldwide. For this reason, many studies on the social science of resource management and governance seek to quantify biodiversity outcomes. Here, we focus on the International Forestry Resources and Institutions program to demonstrate some of the challenges of quantitative biodiversity assessment and suggest ways to overcome them. One of this program's research goals is to understand the causes of biodiversity loss, which is explicitly assessed using plot-based forest sampling. Plot-based methods to capture biodiversity changes require huge amounts of data. Even if sampling is sufficient, existing protocols can only capture changes in the types of species actually sampled, typically trees. Other elements of biodiversity are not censused, including animals, herbs, shrubs, fungi, and epiphytes that may provide medicine, food, wildlife habitat, trade items, or cultural goods. Using case studies of two sites in Uganda, we demonstrate that more spatially extensive surveys targeting multiple types of data can give a broader picture of forest status and changes than can plot-based sampling alone; many relevant variables can be observed while traveling among plot points with little additional effort. Reviewing the ecological literature, we identify correlates of forest status that can supplement plot-based sampling. These include large trees, epiphyte-laden trees, culturally or commercially valuable species, large stumps, and evidence of hunting and trapping. Further, data elicited from local resource users can play an important role in biodiversity monitoring. These findings suggest that effective biodiversity monitoring may be within easier reach than previously thought, although robust comparisons among sites remains a challenge, especially when climate, soils, or site history differ greatly.


We propose three novel methods to evaluate a distance function for robotic motion planning based on semiinfinite programming (SIP) framework; these methods include golden section search (GSS), conservative advancement (CA) and a hybrid of GSS and CA. The distance function can have a positive and a negative value, each of which corresponds to the Euclidean distance and penetration depth, respectively. In our approach, each robot's link is approximated and bounded by a capsule shape, and the distance between some selected link pairs is continuously evaluated along the joint's trajectory, provided by the SIP solver, and the global minimum distance is found. This distance is fed into the SIP solver, which subsequently suggests a new trajectory. This process is iterated until no negative distance is found anywhere in the links of the robot.We have implemented the three distance evaluation methods, and experimentally validated that the proposed methods effectively and accurately find the global minimum distances to generate a self-collision-free motion for the HRP-2 humanoid robot. Moreover, we demonstrate that the hybrid method outperforms other two methods in terms of computational speed and reliability.


Background: Despite increasing awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco, the use of tobacco in various forms continues to be significant health risk factors amongst children and youth.  Objective: 1. To assess the prevalence of tobacco usage among school children of rural area. 2. To study the patterns & various determinants of tobacco use in school children.  Methods: Out of 11 schools, 5 were selected randomly from the field practice area of Rural Health Training Centre. A Cross-sectional study was conducted among 409 school children from class VI to class X using a pre-designed & Pre-tested questionnaire to study the factors associated with tobacco use. In the end a health education session was conducted to make all the students aware of health hazards of tobacco.  Results: Prevalence of tobacco use among school children was found to be 13.89%.  Among the tobacco users smoking was found in 23 (40.3%) and tobacco chewing in the form of gutkha, pan, naaksa, khaini was found in 29 (51%) and mixed use was seen in 5(8.7%).Peer pressure (47%) and Curiosity about products (30%) were cited as the most common reasons for initiation of tobacco use.65.2% children had observed the warning on the gutkha pouch.  Conclusion: Prevalence of tobacco use among school children was found to be 13.89%.Mandatory health education sessions against tobacco should be held regularly for all school children. Keywords: Tobacco Use, School Students, Rural, Smoking


Human beings have been using plants with medicinal properties since so many years in traditional and folk medicine due to the therapeutic potential they possess. Exploration of the plants with medicinal properties has unearthed numerous novel drugs that are used to treat varied human and animal diseases. Bridelia montana (Roxb.) Willd is one of the important ethnomedicinal plants used across the southern part of India. Qualitative analysis of phytochemicals revealed the presence of phenols, glycosides, flavonoids, tannins and carbohydrates. Fourier Transform InfraRed analysis results showed 5 major peaks and the Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry study revealed the presence of 8 phytocompounds from the stem extract of Bridelia montana . The phytocompounds that were present were identified by the comparison of their peak area percentage and the retention time with the help of library sources and by the mass spectra interpretation. Many of these compounds were used in the pharmaceutical industries for their antimicrobial, antitumor and antioxidant properties.


Social media became highly popular over the last fifteen years since the introduction of Web 2.0 and is now used as a successful marketing and communication tool by many companies. The benefits include the cheap, easy and instantaneous posting of messages and the incomparable coverage of various platforms as well as smart features, like the promotion of events on Facebook. Hence, the embedding of social media into the overall business strategy is a great chance to achieve a better performance in terms of stakeholder management. This is especially promising for small- and medium-sized non-profit organizations (NPOs), who do not have the resources to invest in more expensive forms of marketing or stakeholder management. Nevertheless, companies often struggle with the implementation of social media strategies, especially due to the spread of diverse platforms and the lack of resources to maintain the accounts. This paper asks how small- and medium-sized NPOs can use social media to achieve stakeholder commitment. A study using a mixed-method approach was conducted in cooperation with a voluntary organization of the Catholic Church sector in Germany, called KjG Diozesanverband Essen. The study captured information on KjG's stakeholders' use and preferences of popular social media platforms. Interviews were conducted with the organization's key stakeholders to examine the existing social media and stakeholder strategy. The results of 139 questionnaires and five interviews revealed important stakeholders' usage patterns of social media platforms and the top-ranked ones for receiving information, which makes them highly interesting for stakeholder communication. A framework was designed to support NPOs with the strategic use of social media for stakeholder management.


The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the relation between mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics performance among school-aged students, and to identify potential moderators and underlying mechanisms of such relation, including grade level, temporal relations, difficulty of mathematical tasks, dimensions of MA measures, effects on student grades, and working memory. A meta-analysis of 131 studies with 478 effect sizes was conducted. The results indicated that a significant negative correlation exist between MA and mathematics performance, r = −.34. Moderation analyses indicated that dimensions of MA, difficulty of mathematical tasks, and effects on student grades differentially affected the relation between MA and mathematics performance. MA assessed with both cognitive and affective dimensions showed a stronger negative correlation with mathematics performance compared to MA assessed with either an affective dimension only or mixed/unspecified dimensions. Advanced mathematical tasks that require multistep processes showed a stronger negative correlation to MA compared to foundational mathematical tasks. Mathematics measures that affected/reflected student grades (e.g., final exam, students' course grade, GPA) had a stronger negative correlation to MA than did other measures of mathematics performance that did not affect student grades (e.g., mathematics measures administered as part of research). Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.


To realize the industrial application of online reconstruction technique of steel slag, a pilot-scale reconstruction research of steel slag (SS) with electric arc furnace slag (EAFS) and coal cinder (CC) and its mechanism were investigated. The results show that after reconstruction, the free-CaO content of reconstructed steel slag (RSS) is reduced. XRD analysis indicates that the reconstruction reaction can promote to create more active cementitious minerals (C2S, C3S, C6AF2 and C6A2F) in RSS. Composition adjusting materials formula composing of EAFS and CC at the ratio of 70:30 is optimum, which can meet the standard of the first grade steel slag powder according to Chinese National Standards GB/T 20491-2006.