Purpose: Mounting evidence supports the use of cognitive and behavioral techniques as part of physical therapist practice. These methods are used within a physical therapist's multimodal treatment approach for the management of pain and to facilitate health behavior change. There is a multitude of evidence-based cognitive behavioral techniques to choose from including newer approaches based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Yet few studies have examined physical therapists' perceptions to learning and implementing ACT into clinical practice. The purpose of this manuscript is to present a clinical perspective of physical therapists learning about and incorporating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in clinical practice. Methods: An 8-week online physical therapist-led ACT for chronic pain training was completed by 65 physical therapists. A post-training evaluation was developed and then scored by 46 participants. The evaluation included 15-questions with regard to the self-reported perceptions of learning foundational ACT skills necessary to implement into physical therapy practice, a deeper understanding of psychological factors involved in musculoskeletal pain, confidence in managing musculoskeletal pain, utility in physical therapist practice, and the recognition of a new or different approach to treating musculoskeletal pain. Results: Participants' self-reported perceptions were highly positive with 73% reporting the training furthered their understanding of psychological factors in chronic musculoskeletal pain and 100% reported learning the foundational ACT skills necessary to implement it into physical therapy practice. In addition, 7 sub-themes regarding the ACT training emerged from a qualitative content analysis and included the following: 1) The training filled a knowledge gap in understanding of how to assess and treat psychological factors related to pain, 2) A mixture of prerecorded video training, reading, experiential exercises, and self-reflection via the ACTPTE were critical to reinforce learning, 3) Coaching and supervision calls were a useful part of the training and helped to translate course knowledge and implement into clinical practice, 4) Having an opportunity to practice in a group setting with like-minded peers was a critical component of confidence building, 5) Ongoing communication, networking, and mentorship via the online forum and coaching calls allowed participants to complete the course material on-time, stay connected, and share stories and experiences about implementing the material in practice, 6) The ACT stance of not changing pain or related psychological content (example: not changing thoughts, pain related beliefs, reconceptualizing pain) may run counter to other psychologically-informed approaches found in physical therapy practice and took some time for practitioners to process and integrate, 7) Some practitioners expressed that ACT helped them cope with work-related stress and burnout and to drop the struggle of fixing or curing every patient with pain. Conclusions: ACT delivered via an online training was acceptable to physical therapists and supervision calls were necessary for confidence building and implementation into practice. The ACT model was perceived as adaptable to the practice of physical therapy as well as the complex clinical and psychosocial presentation of many chronic pain conditions. Future investigations should explore brief training interventions, treatment fidelity, long-term outcomes, the development and validation of a scale to measure knowledge, concepts and skills conceptualizing psychological flexibility within physical therapist practice.


A growing hope is that Twitter and similar technologies will enhance teachers' professional growth by allowing them to collaborate and support each other online. In this conceptual paper, we evaluate the potential of such claims, theorizing about the relationships among technologies, practice, and communities of practice. Specifically, we demonstrate how the concepts of materiality and sociomateriality can be applied toward understanding and researching teachers' professional communities on Twitter. Materiality refers to the physical or digital components of a technology. Sociomateriality refers the social practices and contexts shaping one's sense of a technology.


There have been proposed protocols to achieve causal consistency with a distributed data store that does not make safety guarantees. Such protocols work with an unmodified data store if it is implemented as middleware or a shim layer while it can be implemented inside a data store. But the middleware approach has required modifications to applications. Applications have to explicitly specify data dependency to be managed. Our Letting-It-Be protocol to the contrary, handles all implicit dependency naturally resulting from data accesses even though it is implemented as middleware. Our protocol does not require any modifications to either data stores or applications. It works with them as they are. It trades performance for the merit to some extent. Throughput declines from a data store alone were 21% in the best case and 78% in the worst case without multi-level management of dependency graph, which is a performance optimization technique.


The intestinal infection caused by amoeba is one of the three diarrhea causes appears to be a public health problem with high incidence in the community. Amebiasis is caused by Entamoeba histolytica , can be differentiated from non pathogen Entamoeba hartmanni and Entamoeba coli . Morphologically of Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar are very similar. However, based on the diagnosis utilizing molecular examination technique, in fact, the main cause of amebiasis is Entamoeba dispar. Amoeba dysentry can be found arround the world, having cosmopolite characteristic with incidences varying between 3-10%. In the developed countries with relatively better hygiene and sanitation, amoebiasis incidence is between 2-11%. In Indonesia, the amoebiasis incidence is`quite high, in the range of 10-18%. Whereas the mortality caused by amoebiasis is high enough between 1.9—9.1%, second rank after malaria. Several kinds of amoeba dysentri medicines were used, but Metronidazole is proven as the effective drug of choice for Entamoeba histolytica , both the cyste and trophozoite forms with minor side effect to the patients. Good personal hygiene and environmental sanitation practices are the major factors of this disease prevention. The main principle to prevent the spreading of amoebiasis infection is to cut the link of infection sources to human beings. Personal hygiene is focused on the management of individual behaviour, meanwhile environmental sanitation prevention focus lies on the better environmental management to cut the link of disease cycle.


Introduction Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK with about 42,000 people being diagnosed in 2010 alone (Office of National Statistics, 2012). With a tendency to form invasive metastases coupled with its frequent late stage diagnosis, lung cancer attributes to the largest cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. Despite advances in treatment and care, the five-year mortality rate remains at 90%. There is a desperate need to improve patient survival, which can be achieved partly through improved screening techniques and more importantly by expanding our understanding of the molecular changes associated with lung cancer development and progression. We investigate the role of a tumour suppressor gene, first identified in lung cancer, tumour suppressor in lung cancer 1 (TSLC1) or cell adhesion molecule 1 (Cadm1) in regulating squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) growth and metastases. Methods Cadm1 expression levels were examined using q-PCR analysis on human pre-invasive airway and normal lung tissue collected as part of an on-going UCL/CRUK longitudinal-tracking study (Lung-Surveillance and Lung-SEARCH trials). Cadm1 was introduced into an established SqCC cell line (A431) and in vitro functional assays performed to investigate its effect on tumour growth, progression and invasion. Pre-clinical mice models were used to study the effect of Cadm1 expression in tumour growth and metastatic potential. Results q-PCR analyses demonstrated that loss of Cadm1 expression is a frequent early event in pre-invasive human airway compared to normal tissue (p = 0.001). Functional assays using A431, with Cadm1 reintroduced, showed Cadm1 expression levels directly associated with a significant decrease in cell proliferation (p = 0.001) over 10 days and significant reduction in invasion (p = 0.001) over 72 hours compared to control A431 cells without Cadm1. Pre-clinical xenograft tumourigenecity experiments in mice showed that Cadm1 expression significantly inhibited tumour growth (p = 0.01) together with a significant reduction in the number of metastases observed (p = 0.01) when compared with the control group. Conclusion These data suggest that restoration of Cadm1 expression in human squamous cell carcinomas play an important role in regulation of tumour growth and metastasis. Understanding the mechanism through which Cadm1 expression is able to modulate cancer progression maybe therapeutically beneficial.


Between October 1995 and December 1998 the pilot project 'Local Coordination of Health and Social Care' was conducted in 28 communities of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The project has been evaluated by two university research teams. The aim of the project was basically to establish new structures of health planning and coordination at the community level, in order to improve health reporting and health care as well as health promotion. To realize this aim round tables, working groups and project-offices were implemented in the communities. The evaluation was focused on the following question: What were the conditions (structures) and processes that influenced the project outcomes? Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied (interviews, standardised self-administered questionnaires, analyses of documents) to this end. Evaluation of structures showed that most communities succeeded in integrating relevant health policy actors into the newly created round tables and working groups. Working climate and achievements were evaluated favourably by most of the involved actors. All communities succeeded in developing and enacting recommendations for programmes, and about 40% of these programmes were implemented during the project. The probability of programme implementation was particularly high if the programme was based on reliable local data and if execution was effected only on the community level. The possibly beneficial effects on health care and welfare produced by the new programmes could not be assessed within the short project period. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of practical consequences for future health policy at community level.


The patch-clamp technique was used to investigate the effect of intracellular Mg2+ (Mgi2+) on the conductance of the large-conductance, Ca(2+)-activated K+ channel in cultured rat skeletal muscle. Measurements of single-channel current amplitudes indicated that Mgi2+ decreased the K+ currents in a concentration-dependent manner. Increasing Mgi2+ from 0 to 5, 10, 20, and 50 mM decreased channel currents by 34%, 44%, 56%, and 73%, respectively, at +50 mV. The magnitude of the Mgi2+ block increased with depolarization. For membrane potentials of -50, +50, and +90 mV, 20 mM Mgi2+ reduced the currents 22%, 56%, and 70%, respectively. Mgi2+ did not change the reversal potential, indicating that Mg2+ does not permeate the channel. The magnitude of the Mgi2+ block decreased as the concentration of K+ was increased. At a membrane potential of +50 mv, 20 mM Mgi2+ reduced the currents 71%, 56%, and 25% for Ki+ of 75, 150, and 500 mM. These effects of Mgi2+, voltage, and K+ were totally reversible. Although the Woodhull blocking model could approximate the voltage and concentration effects of the Mgi2+ block (Kd approximately 30 mM with 150 mM symmetrical K+; electrical distance approximately 0.22 from the inner surface), the Woodhull model could not account for the effects of K+. Double reciprocal plots of 1/single channel current vs. 1/[K+] in the presence and absence of Mgi2+, indicated that the Mgi2+ block is consistent with apparent competitive inhibition between Mgi2+ and Ki+. Cai2+, Nii2+, and Sri2+ were found to have concentration- and voltage- dependent blocking effects similar, but not identical, to those of Mgi2+. These observations suggest the blocking by Mgi2+ of the large- conductance, Ca(2+)-activated K+ channel is mainly nonspecific, competitive with K+, and at least partially electrostatic in nature.


A comparison of twenty-six paralytic dislocations of the hip with seventy-five severely paralyzed hips which did not dislocate reveals the fact that no definite type of paralysis was responsible for the dislocation, but that dislocation was most frequent in hips with strong flexors, adductors, and internal rotators and weak extensors, abductors, and external rotators. Of the above muscle groups the abductors appeared to be the most important in maintaining the stability of the hip as we had no cases in which dislocation occurred in the presence of good abductors.

A study of the x-rays of these cases revealed the fact that in paralytic hips which had dislocated the acetabulum was poor and severe coxa valga was usually present. However, it is to be emphasized that these deformities were probably the result of the paralysis and dislocation rather than the cause, as we do not believe that there were any congenital abnormalities in these cases.

We were impressed by the fact that nearly all of the hips which dislocated presented a definite deformity. As any severely paralyzed hip is liable to dislocate, we believe that the prevention of deformities is especially important in these cases. We were further impressed by the fact that the deformities were not always the direct result of muscle imbalance, but in many cases seemed to have been the result of habitual posture. Consequently, we believe that patients with severely paralyzed hips should spend much of their time with the hips in a position of extension and abduction and external rotation.

Operative treatment should be considered in those cases in which conservative treatment has failed or in which there is no reasonable hope that conservative treatment (that is, correction of deformities and maintenance of abduction) will lead to a cure. Contra-indications to operation are such poor general condition that the operation would be unusually dangerous, and such extensive paralysis that even with a stable hip it would not be possible for the patient to walk on crutches and braces. The operation recommended is the shelf operation and we believe that an accurate placing of the shelf is more important than its size, as we have found small shelves just as efficient as large ones.


As an effective alternative to simple binary oxide chemiresistors, polynary oxides with excellent tunability of the composition and hetero-interfaces are considered as promising material platforms for designing highly selective and sensitive gas sensors. In this study, ternary spinel CoCr2O4 hollow spheres and CoCr2O4–Cr2O3 mixed oxide hollow spheres were prepared via one-pot ultrasonic spray pyrolysis using solutions with different cation compositions (i.e., [Cr]/[Co] = 2, 3, and 4), and their gas-sensing characteristics were investigated. The pure CoCr2O4 hollow spheres exhibited an unusually high response to 5 parts per million (ppm) of p-xylene (ratio of resistance to gas and air = 61.4), with negligible cross-responses to 5 ppm of ethanol, toluene, benzene, trimethylamine, ammonia, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide. When CoCr2O4–Cr2O3 hollow spheres with discrete Cr2O3 nanoclusters were formed using a spray solution with a [Cr]/[Co] ratio of 3, the xylene response was enhanced to 144.1, which allows the sensitive and selective detection of sub-ppm level p-xylene. The unprecedentedly high xylene selectivity and response in the present study are explained by the gas-accessible hollow morphology, the unique catalytic activity of the ternary and mixed oxides, and the enhanced chemiresistivity due to the formation of a heterojunction between CoCr2O4 and Cr2O3. The novel ternary oxide-based gas sensors with excellent xylene-sensing performance can be used in indoor air-monitoring applications.


Tropical beef cattle production involving animals grazing in a shaded and biologically diverse environment, surrounded by high-quality edible biomass, is achievable through silvopastoral systems (SPSs). However, it is necessary to assess the effects of the presence of trees on forage and animal performance over time. In the Brazilian Cerrado, we evaluated the effects of 2 densities of eucalyptus trees in 2 SPSs (8 years of age SPS22: 227 trees/ha; SPS14: 357 trees/ha) on forage morphology, production and nutritive value of Urochloa brizantha cv. BRS Piatã grass plus performance of Nellore heifers, compared with a grass-only pasture, over a year from 2015 to 2016. On the one hand, SPSs improved (P<0.001) forage nutritive value as reflected in higher crude protein and digestibility and lower neutral and acid detergent fiber concentrations compared with a grass-only pasture. On the other hand, the grass-only pasture had higher (P<0.001) herbage mass and accumulation rate than the SPSs. Forage growth and animal production decreased with higher tree density. Increasing competition from trees with age could be a serious issue limiting pasture and animal production and should be monitored. The suitability of eucalyptus trees for planting in SPSs may be questionable after the 8th year of establishment and further studies are warranted.


OBJECTIVES
This study aims to identify the differences in the use of HPV vaccination between female medical students in the Czech and Slovak Republics and their possible causes.

METHODS
We performed a cross-sectional survey among female students of general medicine in all faculties of medicine in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

RESULTS
We obtained 630 questionnaires from the Czech Republic and 776 questionnaires from the Slovak Republic. In the Czech Republic, 65.4% of female medical students underwent HPV vaccination, while in the Slovak Republic, the figure was 21.1%. In the Czech Republic, residency and religion of students did not influence their rate of vaccination. However, in the Slovak Republic, village residency with less than 5,000 inhabitants lowered the probability of vaccination with OR = 0.56 (95% CI: 0.38-0.84), and the Catholic religion lowered the probability of vaccination with OR = 0.40 (95% CI: 0.28-0.57). Czech students were informed about the possibility of vaccination by a paediatrician in 55.7% of cases, while the figure for Slovak students was 26.8%. In the Czech Republic, 75.7% of students participated in regular cervical oncologic screening, while in the Slovak Republic, the figure was 57.7%. Vaccination of relatives would be recommended by 86.5% and 80.5% of Czech and Slovak students, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The adoption of an oncologic prevention programme and the more extensive propagation by paediatricians are probably the medical reasons for the higher HPV vaccination among Czech students. Demographic factors - village residency and religion - are also important.


This dissertation presents the synthesis and modeling of multicomponent nanosystems templated by self-assembled virus capsids. The design principles, synthesis, analysis, and future directions for these capsid-based materials are presented.Chapter 1 gives an overview of the literature on the application of virus capsids in constructing nanomaterials. The uses of capsids in three main areas are considered: 1) as templates for inorganic materials or nanoparticles; 2) as vehicles for biological applications like medical imaging and treatment; and 3) as scaffolds for catalytic materials. In light of this introduction, an overview of the material in this dissertation is described.Chapters 2-4 all describe integrated nanosystems templated by bacteriophage MS2, a spherical icosahedral virus capsid. MS2 possesses an interior and exterior surface that can be modified orthogonally using bioconjugation chemistry to create multivalent, multicomponent constructs with precise localization of components attached to the capsid proteins.Chapter 2 describes the use of MS2 to synthesize a photocatalytic construct by modifying the internal surface with sensitizing chromophores and the external surface with a photocatalytic porphyrin. The chromophores absorbed energy that the porphyrin could not, and transferred it to the porphyrin via FRET through the protein shell. The porphyrin was then able to utilize the energy to carry out photocatalysis at new wavelengths.In Chapter 3, porphyrins were installed on the interior surface of MS2 and DNA aptamers specific for Jurkat leukemia T cells on the exterior surface. The dual-modified capsids were able to bind to Jurkat cells, and upon illumination the porphyrins generated singlet oxygen to kill them selectively over non-targeted cells.Chapter 4 explores integrating MS2 with DNA origami in order to arrange the capsids at larger length scales. Capsids modified with fluorescent dyes inside and single-stranded DNA outside were able to bind to origami tiles bearing complementary DNA probes. The tiles could then be used to arrange the capsids in a one-dimensional array with dimensions far exceeding those of individual MS2 particles.In Chapter 5, the use of a different capsid, that of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is described. The defect tolerance of light harvesting systems built using TMV as a scaffold was investigated using a kinetic Monte Carlo model to simulate the energy transfer processes. The results of the simulation were used to understand and explain experimental results obtained from the system.


Twenty monoclonal antibodies (MCAs) prepared against the velogenic GB-Texas strain of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and the type 1 pigeon paramyxovirus (PPMV-1) were characterized and examined as potential immunodiagnostic reagents. All MCAs generated were found to bind specifically, but with varying reactivity, to various NDV strains in direct binding assays. In addition, MCA 15C4 neutralized and inhibited hemagglutination (HA) of all lentogenic, mesogenic, and velogenic NDV strains tested but not the PPMV-1 strain. Antibody 10D11 also inhibited HA activity, but inhibition was more selective and limited to the mesogenic and domestic or indigenous velogenic strains of NDV. MCA 79 reacted in all serologic assays with an antigenic site common to all serotype 1 avian paramyxoviruses. Passive immunization studies involving three different neutralizing MCAs (35, 79, and 15C4) showed that enhanced, but not complete, protection against virulent NDV challenge was provided when the three MCAs were administered in combination.


Transfusion-dependent patients such as those suffering from β-thalassaemia develop a fatal secondary haemosiderosis and consequently a selective iron chelator must be used to relieve such iron overload. 3- Hydroxypyridin-4-ones are selective for iron(III) under most biological conditions, but unlike desferrioxamine, are efficiently absorbed when administered orally. In this study, the synthesis and determination of partition coefficients (Kpart) of a range of 1-substituted-2-ethyl-3-hydroxypyridin-4-ones, as orally active iron chelators, are described. All of the 1-substituted-2-ethyl-3-hydroxypyridin-4-ones were synthesized via a three step synthetic pathway. The commercially available 2-ethyl-3-hydroxypyran-4-one (ethyl maltol) was benzylated in aqueous methanol. The reaction product of the benzylated ethyl maltol with an excess of the suitable primary aryl amines was heated in a thick-walled sealed glass tube at 150-160 oC to give 1-aryl-2-ethyl-3-benzyloxypyridin-4-one derivatives which were isolated as the free-bases. Removal of the benzyl group under acidic conditions was performed by catalytic hydrogenation to yield the bidentate chelators as HCl salt in good yield. In this work, final following compounds of 1-phenyl-2-ethyl-3- hydroxypyridin-4-one, 1-(4-methylphenyl)-2-ethyl-3-hydroxypyridin-4-one, 1-(4-methoxylphenyl)-2-ethyl- 3-hydroxypyridin-4-one, and 1-(4-nitrophenyl)-2-ethyl-3-hydroxypyridin-4-one were synthesized. Identifcation and structural elucidation of ligands were achieved by 1HNMR, IR, elemental analysis, mass spectra and through physical experiments. The Kpart values of the compounds were also determined in an aqueous/octanol system using an automated continuous flow method (a filter probe method).


Using household survey data for Guatemala, this paper investigates the role of water and sanitation infrastructure on diarrhea incidence in children. Hierarchical logit models of diarrhea incidence are estimated to account for potential regional heterogeneity of water and sanitation effects. Results indicate that the incidence probability of diarrhea is on average 20% lower in homes connected to a sewerage system. The effect of in-home access to tap water is weaker at 11% and subject to regional heterogeneity. Findings also indicate that consumption of bottled water reduces the incidence probability of diarrhea by 20–22%. In-home water treatments have no effect on incidence of diarrhea. Policy implications are discussed.


This article proposes the secondary voltage control of microgrid on the basis of cooperative control of multi agent system. The distributed cooperative control utilizes disturbance observer technique to synchronize the DC bus voltage. The proposed controller achieves balanced power sharing among the battery energy storage units (BESUs) in the presence of external disturbances in heterogeneous microgrid (MG) network. The dynamics of heterogeneous nodes affected by constant disturbance such as error measurements, sudden load variations and communication link failure between distributed generator units make the network highly heterogeneous. Firstly, a disturbance observer is established to estimate the disturbance generated from the MG system. Secondly, distributed consensus control law is designed to suppress the disturbances acting on the multi‐agent system. Furthermore, communication delays are explicitly considered in the analysis. The presented control strategy is compared with the existing mainstream algorithms to check the feasibility of the designed control method. The effectiveness of the proposed control law for isolated DC MG system has been validated by MATLAB/Simulink platform using simulation case studies.


ABSTRACT Mathematics is often taught by explaining an idea, then giving students practice in applying it. Tutoring systems can increase the effectiveness of this method by monitoring the students' practice and giving feedback. However, math can also be taught by having students work collaboratively on problems that lead them to discover the idea. Here, teachers spend the bulk of their time orchestrating collaborations and supporting students in building productively on each other's contributions. Our research question is: Can tutoring technology somehow make teaching-by-eliciting more effective? Using tutoring technology, we developed an intelligent orchestration system named FACT. While students solve problems in small groups, it makes recommendations to the teacher about which groups to visit and what to say. Data from over 50 iterative development trials (study 1) suggest that FACT increased neither the collaboration nor productivity of the students' struggle compared to paper-based classes. However, the data also suggest that when there is just one teacher in the classroom, then only a few of the groups that need a visit can get one. We modified FACT to directly send students the provocative questions that it formerly sent only to teachers. A pilot test (study 2) suggests that this version may increase productive struggle, but increasing collaboration remains an unsolved problem.


From biological perspectives, biopolymer - hydroxyapatite nanocomposites for tissue replacement interact with the surrounding in vivo environment chemically, mechanically and morphologically. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a natural ceramic operable as a biocomposite coating to improve the biocompatibility of implant substrates. To fulfill this requierements hydroxyapatite added biodegradable scaffold were prepared by electrospinning method to enhance biological functionality. In this work, firstly a novel synthesis of the hydroxyapatite nanocrystals prepared from eggshell are presented. Polymer based composites were prepared by electrospinning hydroxyapatite with a biocompatible polymer for the development of a structurally stable casing for prosthetic devices.


The main aim of the paper was to investigate the use of renewable energy sources (RES) in Latvia, for which – as well as for other European states – this is the issue of high importance. The renewable energy resources: wind, sun, hydro, biomass, biogas, etc., are additional sources of energy the energy that could be produced independently of the import. Increasing demand for energy, limited reserves of fossil fuel, as well as environmental pollution and global climate changes observed in the world in the last years have given rise to an intense interest in renewable energy resources. Support to the use of RES has become a significant part of the European Union's policy. In the paper only those renewable energy resources have been investigated from which a real contribution to the energy balance under Latvian conditions could be expected – i.e. biomass, hydro-energy, biogas, wind and solar energy. It is established that the renewable energy resources give the greatest yield in combined schemes in which fossil fuels are also involved. Such combinations allow for considerable decrease in emissions into the atmosphere; these are more environment-friendly, which means a higher environment protection level.


The Arabidopsis BAP1 gene encodes a small protein with a C2-like domain. Here we show that the BAP1 protein is capable of binding to phospholipids in a calcium-dependent manner and is associated with membranes in vivo. We identify multiple roles of BAP1 in negatively regulating defense responses and cell death in Arabidopsis thaliana. The loss of BAP1 function confers an enhanced disease resistance to virulent bacterial and oomycete pathogens. The enhanced resistance is mediated by salicylic acid, PAD4 and a disease resistance gene SNC1. BAP1 is also involved in the control of cell death, which is suggested by an altered hypersensitive response to an avirulent bacterial pathogen in the bap1 loss-of-function mutant. BAP1 overexpression leads to an enhanced susceptibility to a virulent oomycete, suggesting a role for BAP1 in basal defense response. Furthermore, the BAP1 protein probably functions together with an evolutionarily conserved C2 domain protein BON1/CPN1 to negatively regulate defense responses in plants.


The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core and has provoked an overnight exodus of developers who normally worked in an office setting to working from home. The magnitude of this shift and the factors that have accompanied this new unplanned work setting go beyond what the software engineering community has previously understood to be remote work. To find out how developers and their productivity were affected, we distributed two surveys (with a combined total of 3,634 responses that answered all required questions) weeks apart to understand the presence and prevalence of the benefits, challenges, and opportunities to improve this special circumstance of remote work. From our thematic qualitative analysis and statistical quantitative analysis, we find that there is a dichotomy of developer experiences influenced by many different factors (that for some are a benefit, while for others a challenge). For example, a benefit for some was being close to family members but for others having family members share their working space and interrupting their focus, was a challenge. Our surveys led to powerful narratives from respondents and revealed the scale at which these experiences exist to provide insights as to how the future of (pandemic) remote work can evolve.


Polypropylene films obtained during the biaxial orientation process were characterized by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy. Inorganic particles with Al, Si, Na, Mg, Ti, K.O elements were present in biaxially oriented films. Polypropylene had molecules with both isotactic configuration and it was crystallized only in isotactic a phase. The films drawn in one and two directions had unit cells with b axis parallel to surface of the films. The antioxidants present in the films were consumed during processing, preventing polypropylene oxidation in air at high processing temperatures. One surface of the films contained less polypropylene and had functional groups rich in oxygen such as C=O and COO - .


Thank you very much for reading knowledge of actions. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search hundreds times for their favorite readings like this knowledge of actions, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some malicious bugs inside their desktop computer. knowledge of actions is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our books collection hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the knowledge of actions is universally compatible with any devices to read.


Research initiatives throughout history have shown how a designer typically makes associations and references to a vast amount of knowledge based on experiences to make decisions. With the increasing usage of information systems in our everyday lives, one might imagine an information system that provides designers access to the 'architectural memories' of other architectural designers during the design process, in addition to their own physical architectural memory. In this paper, we discuss how the increased adoption of semantic web technologies might advance this idea. We briefly discuss how such a semantic web of building information can be set up, and how this can be linked to a wealth of information freely available in the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud.


In this article a methodology based upon micromechanical analysis of multiple damage events is developed to predict stress-strain response and failure behavior of fiber-reinforced polymers composites under tensile loading, by considering the effect of variations in fiber strength and local shear failure of the matrix. A simulation scheme coupled with Monte-Carlo method including these failure mechanisms is proposed to investigate failure process and determine ultimate strength of the composites. It is shown that the size dependence of composite ultimate strength is dominated by fiber strength statistics and stress distribution due to progressive microdamage.


Assessments that aim to evaluate student understanding of chemical reactions and reaction mechanisms should ask students to construct written or oral explanations of mechanistic representations; students can reproduce pictorial mechanism representations with minimal understanding of the meaning of the representations. Grading such assessments is time-consuming, which is a limitation for use in large-enrollment courses and for timely feedback for students. Lexical analysis and logistic regression techniques can be used to evaluate student written responses in STEM courses. In this study, we use lexical analysis and logistic regression techniques to score a constructed-response item which aims to evaluate student explanations about what is happening in a unimolecular nucleophilic substitution (i.e., SN1) reaction and why. We identify three levels of student explanation sophistication (i.e., descriptive only, surface level why, and deeper why), and qualitatively describe student reasoning about four main aspects of the reaction: leaving group, carbocation, nucleophile and electrophile, and acid–base proton transfer. Responses scored as Level 1 (N = 113, 11%) include only a description of what is happening in the reaction and do not address the why for any of the four aspects. Level 2 responses (N = 549, 53%) describe why the reaction is occurring at a surface level (i.e., using solely explicit features or mentioning implicit features without deeper explanation) for at least one aspect of the reaction. Level 3 responses (N = 379, 36%) explain the why at a deeper level by inferring implicit features from explicit features explained using electronic effects for at least one reaction aspect. We evaluate the predictive accuracy of two binomial logistic regression models for scoring the responses with these levels, achieving 86.9% accuracy (with the testing data set) when compared to human coding. The lexical analysis methodology and emergent scoring framework could be used as a foundation from which to develop scoring models for a broader array of reaction mechanisms.


The Cyprus Convention : Article I of the Convention of Defensive Alliance - better known as the "Cyprus Convention" - signed between the Ottoman and British Governments on 4th June, 1878, was as follows: "If Batum, Ardahan, Kars, or any of them shall be retained by Russia, and if any attempt shall be made at any future time by Russia to take possession of further territories of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan in Asia as fixed by the Definitive Treaty of Peace, England engages to join His Imperial Majesty the Sultan in defending them by force of arms. In return, His Imperial Majesty the Sultan promises to England to introduce the necessary reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two Powers, into the Government and for the protection of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in those territories. And in order to enable England to make the necessary provision for executing her engagements, His Imperial Majesty the Sultan further consents to assign the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England". The above Convention contained provisions of the highest political importance, for by it the British Government had entered into a formal engagement to maintain the integrity of the Turkish dominions in Asia against Russia. The general guarantee of integrity of Turkey incorporated in the Treaty of Paris of 1856 having broken down, Great Britain then acted alone. It was, according to J. W. Headlam- Morley and W. J. Childs of the British Foreign Office', a far reaching military commitment of a kind to which the British Government and Parliament had in those years been very averse.


This paper deals with the longevity risk assessment within the Solvency II framework. We propose a methodology allowing obtaining longevity shocks specified by gender, age and maturity. These shocks, which are calibrated on experience mortality data relative to a French insurance company, are proved to be far away from that assumed in the standard formula and the resulting solvency capital requirement (SCR) leads to significant capital savings as compared to the standard approach.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the accuracy of 2 commercially available point-of-care devices relative to plasma international normalized ratio (INR) values.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Point-of-care INR testing was performed with the CoaguChek and ProTime 3 devices in consecutive patients attending an anticoagulation clinic between June 18, 2003, and August 6, 2003. Results were compared with plasma INRs using a sensitive thromboplastin (International Sensitivity Index, 1.0).

RESULTS
Ninety-four patients agreed to participate in the study. Relative to the plasma INR, values were in agreement +/-0.4 INR unit 82% and 39% of the time for the CoaguChek and ProTime 3 devices, respectively. The mean +/- SD CoaguChek INRs were 0.2+/-0.31 unit lower, whereas ProTime 3 INRs were 0.8+/-0.68 unit higher than plasma INR values. Treatment decisions based on these data would have resulted in inappropriate dose adjustments 10% and 22% of the time for these 2 respective devices. Correlation with plasma was greater for the CoaguChek (r2=0.90) compared with the ProTime 3 device (r2=0.73).

CONCLUSIONS
Optimal warfarin treatment requires accurate measurement of the INR. The choice of a point-of-care device for INR management depends on the reliability of INR data generated by the device.


This paper examines the legal status of the Selous Game Reserve (SGR) as one of the properties with Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) status in the World Heritage List (WHL) in relation to ongoing economic activities within it. The article articulates existing national and international legal framework for management of the Selous Game Reserve. It demonstrates that Tanzania has obligations under international law to ensure sustainable management of wildlife resources. The ongoing activities in the Selous Game Reserve put Tanzania into a dilemma due to the fact that national legislation somehow permits developmental activities while international law is against such activities in SGR. It is recommended that Tanzania should adhere to its international obligations under the World Heritage Convention is order to ensure sustainable management of the Selous Game Reserve and promote tourism in the Southern corridor.


Hieh-resolution 27Al, 29Si, and 139La NMR spectra have been obtained from crystalline phases of the La-Si-Al-O-N system. These results have further defined the 29Si chemical shift ranges in mixed coordination tetrahedra (i.e., SiOxN4-x, 0 ≤ x ≤ 4) and enabled the cation's influence on the chemical shift in such units to be investigated for the first time. The ability to distinguish distinct local environments, despite overlap of the 29Si chemical shift ranges from different units, has allowed structural refinement of certain phases (e.g., La4Si2O7N2). The 27Al NMR spectrum of LaAlO3 shows appreciable intensity from transitions other than the 1/2↔−1/2, emphasing the difficulties of quantitatively interpreting NMR spectra of quadrupole nuclei. For the first time MAS is applied to 139La NMR and is shown to have some limited applicability to the study of ceramics. High-resolution multinuclear NMR is shown to be a powerful monitor of phase development and probe of compositional detail in complex ceramic phase mixtures. © 1989, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.


Abstract Risk assessment is an important tool in deciding how to allocate resources to controlling risks. In most cases it is based on hazard data derived from animal experiments and on exposure data from an assessment of the likely or actual exposure of the population of interest. Recent advances have improved the understanding of the use of the no adverse effect level (NOAEL) and safety factor for risk assessment by providing a scientific justification of the 100-fold safety factor. Concern about the risks of exposure by various routes simultaneously (aggregate exposure) and the risks of exposure to mixtures (cumulative risk assessment) have lead to new approaches to these issues. For many years, risk assessment of genotoxic carcinogens has relied on low-dose extrapolation using mathematical models. Recently, these methods are being reconsidered and, in some cases, replaced with the NOAEL/safety factor approach combined with all information on the mechanism of action and the magnitude of the response. It is vitally important to ensure that risk assessment provides accurate and unbiased estimates of risk of exposure so that appropriate measures can be taken to control the risks.


This paper examines the connections among gender, employment, and poverty in Ghana using data from the fourth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. The relationships are explored through a series of tabulations that shed light on how labor force segmentation, different forms of employment, and gender dynamics influence poverty rates and earnings of individuals and households. The estimates suggest that substantial labor force segmentation is evident in Ghana. Women are disproportionately represented in more precarious forms of employment. In addition, poverty and earnings differ markedly from one employment status category to the next. These results have important implications for "pro-poor" employment policies in Ghana.


In many developing countries there are disputes related to the small contribution of Protected areas and other categories of attractions in sustaining livelihoods of the local communities living adjacent to the protected areas compared to other land use practices. This study was done in seven villages located adjacent to Mikumi National Park in order to examine impacts of Mikumi National Park on people's livelihoods, particularly regarding on the livelihoods of local communities where the economic, social, cultural and environment services provided by MINAPA, therefore, a way out of poverty. Questionnaires, focus groups discussions, field observations and secondary data from different sources were used to collect information. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS and simple descriptive statistics. The results revealed that, local communities have a negative attitude towards protected areas where 54.5% of the respondents said that, there is a little benefits, 27.3% of respondents said that they benefits, 16.9% of the respondents said that, they do not benefit from MINAPA because always there is a lot of conflicts and cases among the park and local communities and even killed by park rangers. 1.3% of the respondent said that, government is the one who benefit because they collect revenues, taxes and other fees which sent direct to TANAPA. Based on the findings in this study, a number of recommendations were made, such as to carry out thorough seminars, workshops and educations with local communities, discussing on how they can alleviate poverty through protected areas and how to solve problems, effective participation of local community in policy planning, management of protected areas.


Abstract Phanerozoic trends in shell and life habit traits linked to postmortem durability were evaluated for the most common fossil brachiopod, gastropod, and bivalve genera in order to test for changes in taphonomic bias. Using the Paleobiology Database, we tabulated occurrence frequencies of genera for 48 intervals of ∼11 Myr duration. The most frequently occurring genera, cumulatively representing 40% of occurrences in each time bin, were scored for intrinsic durability on the basis of shell size, reinforcement (ribs, folds, and spines), life habit, and mineralogy. Shell durability is positively correlated with the number of genera in a time bin, but durability traits exhibit different temporal patterns across higher taxa, with notable offsets in the timing of changes in these traits. We find no evidence for temporal decreases in durability that would indicate taphonomic bias at the Phanerozoic scale among commonly occurring genera. Also, all three groups show a remarkable stability in mean shell size through the Phanerozoic, an unlikely pattern if strong size-filtering taphonomic megabiases were affecting the fossil record of shelly faunas. Moreover, small shell sizes are attained in the early Paleozoic in brachiopods and in the latest Paleozoic in gastropods but are steady in bivalves; unreinforced shells are common to all groups across the entire Phanerozoic; organophosphatic and aragonitic shells dominate only the oldest and youngest time bins; and microstructures having high organic content are most common in the oldest time bins. In most cases, the timing of changes in durability-related traits is inconsistent with a late Mesozoic Marine Revolution. The post-Paleozoic increase in mean gastropod reinforcement occurs in the early Triassic, suggesting either an earlier appearance and expansion of durophagous predators or other drivers. Increases in shell durability hypothesized to be the result of increased predation in the late Mesozoic are not evident in the common genera examined here. Infaunal life habit does increase in the late Mesozoic, but it does not become more common than levels already attained during the Paleozoic, and only among bivalves does the elevated late Mesozoic level persist through the Holocene. These temporal patterns suggest control on the occurrence of durability-related traits by individual evolutionary histories rather than taphonomic megabiases. Our findings do not mean taphonomic biases are absent from the fossil record, but rather that their effects apparently have had little net effect on the relative occurrence of shell traits generally thought to confer higher preservation potential over long time scales.


Soluble DNA circulates in the peripheral blood of healthy subjects, and, at increased concentrations, of pregnant women and patients affected by tumors and vasculitis. Since the discovery of intracellular DNA sensors, inducing inflammatory responses after binding to DNA, DNA has been included among danger signals. However, this view does not explain the presence of abundant circulating DNA in conditions characterized by tolerance (pregnancy) or immunodeficiency (tumor). In order to verify whether DNA mediates also an immunoregulating activity, a 20 base-pair long oligonucleotide (poly-CG) was synthesized and tested for its capacity to: 1) bind MHC class II molecules; 2) exert immunoregulatory activity. The oligo binding to PMJ2-PC macrophages was inhibited by anti-MHC monoclonal antibodies (mAb). The specific binding of DNA to MHC class II molecules was confirmed by western blot analysis. Proliferation of OVA-specific splenocytes was inhibited by incubation with the oligo as well as by circulating DNA from cancer patients; moreover, fluorescent oligo, injected intravenously to NZB/W F1 mice, bound only on MHC class II positive cells (macrophages and B lymphocytes). Finally, nephritic NZB/W F1 mice, administered weekly with the oligo, showed delayed onset of protenuria and improved survival with respect to untreated animals, a phenomenon associated with increased frequencies of Treg. Interestingly, in vitro incubation of PMJ2-PC macrophages with the oligo induced increased CCL22 secretion. These data demonstrate for the first time that free DNA may mediate immunoregulatory activities. Citation Format: Gilberto Filaci, Francesca Ferrera, Samuele Tardito, Tiziana Altosole, Cinzia Bernardi, Alessia Parodi, Daniela Fenoglio. Free DNA and tolerance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B127.


A detailed understanding of correlations of drug levels with drug action is an important aspect of the pre-clinical, clinical development and routine use of anti-cancer drugs.
In furtherance of this important aim, the research in this thesis sought to develop and apply novel, highly sensitive, analytical methods to examine and understand correlations of drug levels with drug resistance mechanisms, therapeutic efficacy and side effects.
LC-MS/MS is a state of the art analytical technique used to characterise and quantify both bio-molecules and pharmaceutical agents. Based on LC-MS/MS techniques, novel sensitive analytical methods were developed for the quantification of 1) tyrosine kinase inhibitor anti-cancer drugs to examine the interaction of these agents with drug resistance mechanisms, and 2) the multiple myeloma drug thalidomide as a pilot study to identify potential correlations between serum drug levels and toxicity/efficacy.
Acquired resistance to chemotherapeutics through the over-expression of ABC transport proteins has presented a significant clinical challenge. The up-regulation of ABC transporters such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp), Breast Cancer Resistant Protein (BCRP) and Multidrug Resistance-associated Protein (MRP-1) is an important cellular mechanism of resistance in vivo and in vitro. Using cell-line models and the developed LC-MS/MS quantification method it was established that dasatinib, an agent used in treatment of chronic myelogenous leukaemia, is a substrate of ABC transporters P-gp and BCRP but not of MRP-1, and that dasatinib does not inhibit these transporters at clinically relevant concentrations. Another Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI) being used in breast cancer, Lapatinib, was shown to be an inhibitor of P-gp but not a substrate of this resistance mechanism. Levels of other TKIs were also found to vary in their uptake in primary models of brain cancer.
Using LC-MS/MS, the circulating serum levels of thalidomide in multiple myeloma patients were studied. A clear correlation between dosing regime and serum level was seen; however, the research also unearthed evidence of a significant incidence of non-compliance which could have far reaching consequences for patient treatment.
Overall, LC-MS/MS methods for the quantification of chemotherapeutic agents in complex biological matrices produced sensitive and accurate data which we successfully exploited to characterise resistance to new drugs and examine correlations between serum levels and treatment variables.


This paper presents a session engine for synchronous collaborative environments and settings. Communication is a key aspect in both traditional and computer supported group meetings. Our layered engine approach provides the flexibility needed to provide user-friendly connection procedures, session establishment tasks, user access control to sessions and message distribution mechanisms in sessions. We applied the engine in a real-world scenario and testing indicates this approach can find broader applications in other domains.


This article takes the Oder region as an example to demonstrate the way in which memories of the Second World War and the postwar years are cultivated by residents of the region, and furthermore, how the place of remembrance of the Oder–Neisse line was encoded by Germans and Poles respectively. The Oder region saw an almost complete population exchange, which was a result of several migration processes. On both sides of the Oder–Neisse line, the memories of these events were manipulated politically and influenced the collective memory of the respective groups. The following text is based on the results of an Oral History project (www.pyrzany-kozaki.eu) carried out under my direction in 2011, as well as on the analysis of memoirs written by Polish new settlers in the 1950s and on reports by German refugees and expellees. These sources were the main focus of my research on the topic of '"Poland's Wild West" – forced migration and cultural appropriation of the Oder region 1945–1948'.


Strontium-based medications, such as strontium ranelate, have been shown to have therapeutic effects in the treatment of osteoporosis, other strontium salts are assumed to have similar effects on bone health. The objective of this study was to compare the distribution of strontium in animal bones following administration of strontium ranelate and strontium citrate. Humerus bones were collected from female Sprague-Dawley rats that were dosed daily over ten weeks with strontium ranelate and strontium citrate, and no strontium (control). Bones were imaged using 2D micro-XRF and 3D dual energy KES X-ray imaging. The 2D imaging revealed differences in strontium and calcium levels between samples from treated and non-treated animals (푝 < 0.001). 3D images obtained showed that strontium was observed to be largely present in the trabecular regions under the epiphyseal plate with concentrations of approximately 5 to 15 mg/cm3 in the bones of both strontium treated groups. The thickness of the strontium layers below the growth plate in both the strontium ranelate and strontium citrate sample were not significantly different (푝 = 0.9201). Both imaging studies performed in this work showed that strontium from both salts is heterogeneously distributed in newly formed bone during treatment.


ABSTRACT Although research has quantitatively evaluated the impacts of stigma upon working women with disabilities (WWD), nuanced, qualitative accounts voiced by these women are rare. To address this literature gap, we conducted seven focus groups with 42 WWD. We asked: "What are women's experiences of disability disclosure and accommodation in the workplace?" Findings reveal that WWD face intentional and unintentional structural discrimination and must weigh the pros and cons of disclosure and navigate devaluation threats in pursuing workplace accommodations. "Going the extra mile" emerged as a stigma management technique which was prevalent among women of higher social capital.


A method of providing bounded solutions to a wide range of magnetostatic field problems is outlined. The method extends complementary and dual energy variational principles to encompass the T-Ω formulation of electromagnetic field problems and shows how this leads to efficient finite element implementation of the technique. Examples are given that show clearly the bounded nature of the procedure, and indicate how it may be used to reduce the computational requirements necessary for a specific accuracy of solution.


When giant planets form, they grow by accreting gas and dust. HD 142527 is a young star that offers a scaled-up view of this process. It has a broad, asymmetric ring of gas and dust beyond ∼100 AU and a wide inner gap. Within the gap, a low-mass stellar companion orbits the primary star at just ∼12 AU, and both the primary and secondary are accreting gas. In an attempt to directly detect the dusty counterpart to this accreted gas, we have observed HD 142527 with the Gemini Planet Imager in polarized light at Y band (0.95–1.14 μm). We clearly detect the companion in total intensity and show that its position and photometry are generally consistent with the expected values. We also detect a point source in polarized light that may be spatially separated by ∼ a few AU from the location of the companion in total intensity. This suggests that dust is likely falling onto or orbiting the companion. Given the possible contribution of scattered light from this dust to previously reported photometry of the companion, the current mass limits should be viewed as upper limits only. If the dust near the companion is eventually confirmed to be spatially separated, this system would resemble a scaled-up version of the young planetary system inside the gap of the transition disk around LkCa 15.


The paper takes into consideration the evolution of the concept of popularization and of its main techniques of realization in the last few decades. At first, the use of definitions in popularization discourse is investigated and compared to the practices followed in argumentative and pedagogical texts. Special attention is then devoted to the strategies of reformulation and of recontextualization that are often adopted in this process, and exemplifications are provided to highlight the main functions fulfilled by the use of these rhetorical tools. The social importance of popularization is subsequently highlighted together with a discussion of the possible manipulative risks that may be encountered, particularly for argumentative or promotional purposes. The analysis carried out shows the great complexity of the popularization system, which implies therefore the adoption of an integrated approach in order to clearly identify and carefully describe the various aspects involved in this process.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background. C4d staining in peritubular capillaries is a well-established feature of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). The relevance of C4d staining outside peritubular capillaries is not well understood. We investigated the significance of arteriolar C4d staining in chronic-active AMR (c-aAMR). Methods. All for-cause renal allograft biopsies performed in 2007–2014 at the Erasmus MC and meeting the criteria for suspicious/diagnostic c-aAMR using the Banff Classification 2015 were included. For comparison, renal allograft biopsies from a matched control group and native renal biopsies were analyzed. Arteriolar C4d staining was semiquantitatively scored as negative (0), small deposits in 1 arteriole (1+), small/large deposits in >1 arterioles (2+), or at least extensive deposits in most arterioles (3+). Results. Thirty-four of 40 (85%) patients with c-aAMR showed arteriolar C4d staining. A significant difference in arteriolar C4d score was observed between cases and matched controls (P = 0.01) and a trend toward significance difference between cases and native renal biopsies (P = 0.05). In the cases, arteriolar C4d staining was significantly associated with severity of arteriolar hyalinosis (P = 0.004) and ≥2 arteriolar C4d staining was independently associated with better graft outcome in a multivariate Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio, 0.260; 95% CI, 0.104-0.650; P = 0.004). Conclusions. This pilot study shows that arteriolar C4d staining is more common in biopsies with c-aAMR compared with those without and that it is associated with arteriolar hyalinosis and ≥2 arteriolar C4d staining is associated with superior graft outcome. However, larger studies are needed to examine these findings in more detail to asses if arteriolar C4d staining is truly related to antibody-mediated injury.


OBJECTIVE
Both venlafaxine and olanzapine have been previously found to have anxiolytic properties, however no study examined the effect of their combination on anxiety in anxious MDD. The aim of this study was to reveal if and when venlafaxine/olanzapine combination (VOC) can reduce the anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with severe MDD at the level of patients with moderate-severe depression treated with venlafaxine monotherapy.

METHODS
Fifty seven patients were included into the study. Symptoms of depression were objectively assessed by Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale and subjectively scored by BECK Depression scale, symptoms of anxiety were objectively assessed by Hamilton Anxiety scale and subjectively evluated by ZUNG Self-Rating Anxiety scale before treatment and after each following week untill the fourth week of treatment.

RESULTS
VOC eliminated the pre-treatment score differences in all the scales within the first week of treatment. At the third week, VOC group had significantly lower level of anxiety symptoms and the effect maintained through the fourth week of medication.

CONCLUSION
Our results indicate that VOC could replace another anxiolytic medication in managing the symptoms of anxiety in patients with severe anxious MDD already within the first week of treatment.


Blind image deblurring is a particularly challenging inverse problem where the blur kernel is unknown and must be estimated en route to recover the deblurred image. The problem is of strong practical relevance since many imaging devices, such as cellphone cameras, must rely on deblurring algorithms to yield satisfactory image quality. Despite significant research effort, handling large motions remains an open problem. In this letter, we develop a new method called blind image deblurring using row–column sparsity (BD-RCS) to address this issue. Specifically, we model the outer product of kernel and image coefficients in certain transformation domains as a rank-one matrix, and recover it by solving a rank minimization problem. Our central contribution then includes solving two new optimization problems involving RCS to automatically determine blur kernel and image support sequentially. The kernel and image can then be recovered through a singular value decomposition. Experimental results on linear motion deblurring demonstrate that BD-RCS can yield better results than state of the art, particularly when the blur is caused by large motion. This is confirmed both visually and through quantitative measures.


Cancer is a disease of evolution. Mutations within a cell lead to the acquisition of cancerous phenotypes. Tumour evolution depends on heritable differences between cells. The extent of heritable variation has not been measured for any trait in cancer cellpopulations. In this thesis techniques have been developed to estimate the broad-sense heritability (H2) of cancer cell traits in vitroand usedto estimate the H2of cell motility. Cell motility is a trait related to the cancer hallmark of metastasis. Results showthat motility is strongly heritable with H2values ranging from 0.77-0.36 across multiple cell generations. H2estimates appeared to decrease slightly between more distantly related cells, a trend that could occur due to a decrease in the genetic contribution to motility or an increase in environmental variation. This was tested by treating cells with epigenetic inhibitors and obtaining H2 estimates.Results showed H2estimates were not significantly affected by the application of epigenetic inhibitorswith values ranging from 0.95-0.18.Quantification of the amount of environmental variation in in vitrocell culture media was attempted using image analysis of fluorescent particles. Variation in particle distribution was found at a range of concentrations, nM –mM. Direct quantitative measures of evolvability in cell traits could have valuable applications to cancer research and tumour treatment.To understand tumour progression, evolutionary theory can be applied to cancer cells in vitroto elucidate the selective pressures driving the evolution of cancer cell traits. In this project experimental evolution techniques have been adapted from microbiology and applied to cancer cell linesin vitro. Adaptation of cell lines to lownutrient environments over 12 weeks showed dispersal theory may play a role in the selection of the cancer cell trait motility. Understanding the selective pressures driving the acquisition of cancer phenotypes will have valuable applications clinically inunderstandingtumour progression.


With the surge of large-scale pre-trained models (PTMs), fine-tuning these models to numerous downstream tasks becomes a crucial problem. Consequently, parameter efficient transfer learning (PETL) of large models has grasped huge attention. While recent PETL methods showcase impressive performance, they rely on optimistic assumptions: 1) the entire parameter set of a PTM is available, and 2) a sufficiently large memory capacity for the fine-tuning is equipped. However, in most real-world applications, PTMs are served as a black-box API or proprietary software without explicit parameter accessibility. Besides, it is hard to meet a large memory requirement for modern PTMs. In this work, we propose black-box visual prompting (Black-VIP), which efficiently adapts the PTMs without knowledge about model architectures and parameters. Black-VIP has two components; 1) Coordinator and 2) simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation with gradient correction (SPSA-GC). The Coordinator designs inputdependent image-shaped visual prompts, which improves few-shot adaptation and robustness on distribution/location shift. SPSA-GC efficiently estimates the gradient of a target model to update Coordinator. Extensive experiments on 16 datasets demonstrate that BlackVIP enables robust adaptation to diverse domains without accessing PTMs' parameters, with minimal memory requirements. Code: https://github.com/changdaeoh/BlackVIP


This chapter discusses the civil and commercial justice systems. It considers the purpose of the civil justice system and also covers the use of alternative dispute resolution and the incentives to keep disputes out of the court. It looks at the court structure, the county court, the High Court, the newly created Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, and other courts and offices. It considers possible changes that may follow the courts and tribunals transformation project. It also considers routes of appeal and the work of the appeal courts.


Two methods, High-Frequency Induction-Heated Sintering (HFIHS) and Pulsed Current Activated Sintering (PCAS), were utilized to consolidate WC-8wt.%Ni hard materials. The demonstrated advantages of these processes are rapid densification to near theoretical density in a relatively short time and with insignificant change in grain size. The hardness, fracture toughness, and the relative density of the dense WC–8Ni composites produced by HFIHS and PCAS were investigated. And the effect of variation in particle size of WC powder on the sintering behavior and mechanical properties were investigated.


In this paper, the whole temperature programmed decomposition (TPD) spectrum of titanium hydride was acquired by the special designed set-up. After separating and simulating the TPD spectrum by using Spectrum Superposition Method (SSM), Consulting Table Method (CTM) and differential spectrum technique, the kinetics parameters of titanium hydride and corresponding equations were obtained. Using these kinetics equations, the fabrication parameters of Al alloy foam can be determined and foaming process of Al alloy melt can be predicted.


Although shadowed by the institutionalization of contemporary schooling, out-of-school time and space encompass a variety of learning possibilities and are socially organized to enable and maintain educational privileges for some students but not for others. Out-of-school time (OST) curricular instructions have been expanding globally and more visible in East Asia. Relying on multilevel ordered logistic regression and generalized propensity score analysis; this study investigated the participation patterns and effectiveness of OST mathematics education in Shanghai, China. Family socioeconomic background and opportunity-to-learn indices of mainstream schooling were found to strongly link to participation in OST mathematics education. Higher socioeconomic status and more household resources were associated with higher likelihood of participating in OST mathematics education. Negative school-level opportunity-to-learn indices, such as problematic classroom disciplinary climate and insufficient mathematics instructional time, correlated with greater odds of OST mathematics participation. In addition, this study found a significant relationship between OST mathematics learning and mathematics study behaviors, with higher intensity of OST mathematics instruction triggering more positive study ethics and habits. Yet, no significant association between OST mathematics education and PISA mathematics achievement was identified. These findings profoundly illuminated the multi-layered interconnections between formal schooling and OST education and contributed to the discussions about structures of educational equality during out-of-school time.


'Traditional knowledge' gained political space in international environmental policy up until the early 1990s as a result of three areas of growing concern: environmental sustainability, indigenous peoples' rights and the commercial potential of traditional knowledge. Prominent at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), traditional knowledge was a key term in the emerging discourse alliance on sustainable development. This article traces the convergence and divergence of discourses on traditional knowledge in international environment and development policy before and since UNCED, particularly in the UN forest policy process, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It demonstrates how shifting discourses are affected by shifts in power relations and priorities among the actors concerned, and examines how different institutional contexts affect the outcome of this process. Finally, it explores how a new focus in international policy on climate change offers an opportunity for the re-insertion of the interests of indigenous peoples and biodiversity conservationists into mainstream development, based on a storyline in which traditional knowledge is once again likely to act as a key term.


The existing studies on language uses and practices in Arab digital media mainly focus on few Mashreq countries and, as far as the Maghreb is concerned, mostly on Morocco and Algeria, while very limited attention has been devoted to other countries of the Arab West such as Tunisia. This paper will analyse some passages of news broadcasting taken from four Tunisian social media radio broadcasters, uploaded as videos on the Facebook pages of the selected radio stations, based in the Tunisian Sahel, i.e. Mahdia, Msaken, and Sousse. The data presented and analysed are taken from different information programmes. The aim is to try to describe and analyse the linguistic choices of the speakers, influenced by personal and contextual elements, such as the editorial line of a radio, in order to verify whether there is a general tendency among the radio stations or if some peculiarities can be identified. In particular, the role of Tunisian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic will be highlighted, as well as that of any possible mixed varieties occurring in the examples offered.


Employers' responsibility towards employees' families follows from their responsibility for the employed person. It is not responsibility of a direct character. It is indirect responsibility that is, in fact, a consequence of moral and ethical principles. It should be assumed that not all relations between the employer and employee are governed by legal provisions. Some of them should be based on mutual trust, on a will for dialogue and respect. Undoubtedly, the relations between employers and employees in small, often family-type companies, where management is of paternalistic character, are often different from relations in a big company, where the owner, for objective reasons, has no opportunity to meet all workers personally. Nevertheless, in any company, regardless of size, in my opinion, the employer should take responsibility not only for the employed person, but also for his/her family. Following the above remarks, the way employers understand the concept of responsibility for employees' families is presented in the first part of the paper. The description was based exclusively on opinions expressed by employers in the public media. Only well-known employers were selected, so-called "icons of entrepreneurship". The second part of the paper, based on the author's empirical research conducted among workers employed in the private and public sectors, describes the same problem but from the point of view of employees. The main research question comes down to specifying ways in which an employer's responsibility for an employee's families is best executed, apart from remuneration paid regularly for the performed job. As pointed out by many employees, an employed person would expect the employer to understand the correlation defined by many respondents as "employer awareness" i.e. understanding that family-related problems affect productivity at work. The research proved that employers' awareness of taking responsibility for their employees' families is gradually increasing


Objectives This study explored courses offered by social work PhD programs, the variation in these courses by type of university, and how the courses compare to the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE) Quality Guidelines. Study Methods Course curriculums of 84 GADE-affiliated social work PhD programs were double-blind coded. PhD directors verified codes and answered a brief survey. Findings A total of 1146 courses were coded into 28 categories. An average of six research and statistics courses were offered per program. Few programs offered courses in measurement, intervention research, meta-analysis, program evaluation, or grant writing. Most programs indicated that diversity, equity, and inclusion was infused in the curriculum. Less than half (41%) of PhD program directors indicated that GADE Quality Guidelines were influential. Conclusions PhD programs are offering more research and statistics courses than in the past, but GADE Quality Guidelines are not consistently followed.


Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is palm oil obtained from the extraction or compression process of oil palm fruit flesh and has not been purified. Palm oil is usually used for food, cosmetic industry, chemical industry, and animal feed industry. Increasingly open insight and increasing consumer awareness of the importance of food safety and quality assurance supported by technological developments and laboratory analysis methods, new types of contaminants in food products are also found. Currently, the Indonesian government is facing challenges regarding the issue of 3-monochloro-1,2-propanediol ester (3-MCPD Ester) and glycidyl ester (GE) in palm oil which can hamper Indonesia's palm oil trade in the future. The practice in the field affects the quality of CPO and the retrieval of low-quality CPO is mixed with high-quality CPO. And the length of time the process of pumping CPO from reclaimed tanks to VCT affects the quality of CPO. So this study aims to modify the pumping time and storage time of CPO from Reclaimed tanks to VCT by mixing samples from VCT (fresh CPO) and samples from Reclaimed tanks (lower quality CPO).


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the intermediate-term outcomes of hand-assisted laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (HALRN) for clinically organ-confined renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed patients who had HALRN for clinically organ-confined RCC at the University of Wisconsin from 1996 to 2003. All patients with pathologically confirmed RCC and with >or=3 years of follow-up were included in a retrospective chart review of variables before, during and after HALRN, as well as the clinical outcomes.

RESULTS
In all, 75 patients had HALRN in the study period; their mean age was 59 years, body mass index 29 kg/m(2), operative duration 227 min, estimated blood loss 130 mL, and none required conversion to open nephrectomy. The median time to first oral intake was 2.5 days and the median hospital stay 4 days. On pathological examination the mean tumour size was 5.8 cm; 70% were pT1, 26% pT2 and 4% pT3; 82% were clear cell, 9% papillary, 8% chromophobe and 1% collecting duct carcinoma. Of the 65 patients who had a follow-up of >or=36 months (mean 46, range 36-117), the 3- and 5-year disease-free survival rate was 93.4% and 90.2%, respectively; the 3- and 5-year cancer-specific survival rate was 96.5% and 94.4%, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Our study suggests that HALRN is a safe and minimally invasive treatment for managing clinically organ-confined RCC, with good intermediate-term oncological outcomes.


Does the global recession impact on all small firms in the same way? Are small firms vulnerable with regard to a downturn in the economy because of the their limited resources, customers and product range across which to spread their risk or are they resilient because of their flexibility to quickly adjust resource input, prices, processes and products? Recession conditions vary significantly, across industries, regions and even businesses. These differences are partly responsible for producing a range of SME experiences in relation to the economic conditions and subsequently, a variety of business responses to it. To understand the impact of the recession on small firms it is important to consider the particular environment firms operate in, the business owners' responses to such events, and the different levels of performance their firms achieve. Against this background, this report investigates how New Zealand small firms have experienced the recession and how they adapted to the changing conditions. The questions on which this study is based formed part of BusinesSMEasure, a yearly longitudinal study of SMEs in New Zealand, targeted specifically to survey micro and small sized firms. The number of firms that completed the survey was 1539. Fifty-eight percent of these firms were micro (0 - 5 FTEs) 40 percent were small (6 - 49 FTEs) and two percent were medium (50 - 99 FTEs). About two thirds of the firms operated in the services sector while the remainder were from the manufacturing and primary sectors. Overall, results showed that firm performance was constantly deteriorating from 2007 to 2009 as a result of the global economic downturn. Not all firms were affected to the same extent, however. Some firms actually reported increased performance during the last 12 months: roughly one quarter of firms reported increased turnover (25 percent) and increased profitability (21 percent) and 13 percent of firms reported an increased number of employees. The majority of firms (52 percent) first felt the recession in 2009, yet about one out of four firms did not feel the recession at all. The firms who indicated that they did not feel the recession were significantly more likely to be rural based, to employ between 50 to 99 staff, to be a service provider and to have reported increased turnover and profitability within the last 12 months. The majority of firms (52 percent) first felt the recession in 2009, yet about one out of four firms did not feel the recession at all. The firms who indicated that they did not feel the recession were significantly more likely to be rural based, to employ between 50 to 99 staff, to be a service provider and to have reported increased turnover and profitability within the last 12 months. The most common ways that firms reported to cope with the recession were through introducing new or improved products, personally working longer hours and increasing sales effort. Firms who reported growth in turnover and profitability, however, were more likely to report investment related strategies compared to non-growth firms who were more likely to cut costs across a range of operations. More than one third of firms reported that they have not needed external finance since at least the start of 2008. These firms were more likely to be at the micro in size and to have not felt the effects of the recession. Firms who did use external finance were more likely to increase the use of existing sources of finance i.e. bank overdrafts, personal savings and bank loans.


A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable application-to-application interactions over the Internet. Web services are based on a set of XML standards, such as Web Services Description Language (WSDL), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). Recently, there has been a growing interest in Web service composition, and some languages (e.g., WSBPEL, BPML) for modeling the composition have been proposed. In this paper, we focus on security constraints of Web service composition, which have not been deeply investigated so far. We propose a method for modeling security constraints and a brokered architecture to build composite Web services according to the specified security constraints


A method for continuous box-girder bridge structure finite element (FE) model updating based on static-load testing is proposed. The procedure includes field static-load testing, FE modeling, FE model (parameter) updating, etc. Based on this procedure, the structure FE model updating for an expressway 5-span pre-stressed concrete continuous box-girder bridge is conducted. And the bridge structure static FE model, which is consistent with the static-load testing actual measure response, is gained. The updated FE model (parameter) is foundation of structural performance evaluation for the bridge.


1. The physical conditions experienced by reptile embryos inside natural nests can influence the size, shape and behaviour of the resultant hatchlings. Although most reptiles are tropical, the effects of incubation temperatures on offspring phenotypes have received little attention in tropical species. 2. The consequences of differences in thermal variance during incubation on offspring were studied in a tropical natricine snake (the Keelback Tropidonophis mairii), which lays eggs in soil cracks of varying depths. Some 253 eggs from 19 clutches were incubated under two thermal regimes with identical mean temperatures (25.6 degreesC), but temperatures in the 'variable' treatment fluctuated more (21.8-29.6 degreesC) than those in the 'constant' temperature treatment (25.2-26.5 degreesC). These thermal regimes were similar to those of shallow (20 cm deep) and deep (40 cm deep) soil cracks, respectively, and represent thermal conditions inside natural nests and potential nest sites. 3. Incubation temperatures affected body size, shape and antipredator behaviour of hatchling snakes. Snakes from constant temperature incubation were longer and thinner than snakes from high variance incubation. Clutch effects influenced all offspring traits, with significant interactions between clutch of origin and incubation treatment for body size, but not swimming speed or behaviour. 4. There was a significant interaction between incubation treatment and offspring sex on neonate swimming speed. Incubation under cycling thermal regimes significantly increased swimming speeds of females, but had little effect on males. Such sex differences in phenotypic responses of hatchling snakes support a major assumption of the Charnov-Bull hypothesis for the evolution of temperature-dependent sex determination.


Background Benboubker et al. recently reported the results of lenalidomide + dexamethasone (Ld) in transplant-ineligible patients with melanoma versus the standard treatment, with a difference between medians of 4.3 months in progression-free survival (PFS). Nevertheless, as seen in the shape of the curves, difference in median survival (DMS) may not provide a good estimate of the survival benefit. Purpose To reanalyse the survival benefit of lenalidomide from the PFS curves using an area-under-the curve (AUC)-based method. Material and methods Kaplan-Meier PFS and OS curves were extracted from Benboubker et al.'s article. Graphical AUC methods were applied to continuous Ld vs. standard treatment curves and compared to DMS. The AUC was calculated according to a previously published method.1 Vertical cutting lines at the tail ends of the graphs were made based on the number of patients at risk. It was agreed that this cut-off point was defined as placing at least 10 at-risk patients in each group or 30 in total. The AUC method quantified the difference between areas, and the results were expressed in time units. Photoshop-CS6 was used for graphical AUC calculation. Results AUC-based reanalysis of PFS curves included 67.5% patients with 47 months of follow-up, at least 30 patients remaining at risk. PFS was 17.0 vs. 14.3 months, a benefit of 2.7 months in favour of continuous Ld. For OS, with 43.5% patients analysed and 50 months of follow-up, the AUC method showed a benefit of 5.3 months (25.5 vs. 20.2).Abstract CP-148 Figure 1 Conclusion AUC-based analysis showed a shorter survival benefit than the difference in median survival. This is probably related to the shape of the curves, which diverged at the medium zone of the graph. OS reanalysis is very limited because the observation time is insufficient to provide mature data. References and/or Acknowledgements Alegre-DelRey EJ, et al. Area-based measures for assessing survival benefit in Kaplan-Meier's curves. ESMO Congress, Amsterdam 2013. URL: http://eccamsterdam2013.ecco-org.eu/scientific-programme/searchable-programme.aspx#anchorScpr (accessed 08/10/2014) No conflict of interest.


Introduction: Treatment of adrenal insufficiency (AI) requires correct lifelong use of glucocorticoids (GCs) with early dose adjustments to cover the increased demand in stress to avoid life-threatening emergencies. Objectives: We determine the current specific knowledge of physicians in a convenience sample on the pathophysiological and clinical aspects of AI in the two regions of North Africa and the Middle East. Materials and Methods: Participants (n = 96) were invited to complete an electronic questionnaire with various possible answers on the subject of multiple-choice questions covering physiology, pharmacology, and clinical management and define respondents' professional profiles. Results: The present study suggests that in the investigated settings, physicians' knowledge of physiology and pharmacology GCs, medical replacement strategies in AI, and prevention of adrenal crisis may be insufficient. Great knowledge gaps were demonstrated. Conclusions: There is a need for continuous structured education and training on AI in both general medical and endocrine forums.


Malfunction or breakdown of certain mission critical systems (MCSs) may cause losses of life, damage the environments, and/or lead to high costs. Therefore, recognition of emerging failures and preventive maintenance are essential for reliable operation of MCSs. There is a practical approach for identifying and forecasting failures based on the indicators obtained from real life processes. We aim to develop means for performing active failure diagnosis and forecasting based on monitoring statistical changes of generic signal features in the specific operation modes of the system. In this paper, we present a new approach for identifying emerging failures based on their manifestations in system signals. Our approach benefits from the dynamic management of the system operation modes and from simultaneous processing and characterization of multiple heterogeneous signal sources. It improves the reliability of failure diagnosis and forecasting by investigating system performance in various operation modes, includes reasoning about failures and forming of failures using a failure indicator matrix which is composed of statistical deviation of signal characteristics between normal and failed operations, and implements a failure indicator concept that can be used as a plug and play failure diagnosis and failure forecasting feature of cyber-physical systems. We demonstrate that our method can automate failure diagnosis in the MCSs and lend the MCSs to the development of decision support systems for preventive maintenance.


This paper describes some major trends in cartelization of markets worldwide with a special emphasis on the economic injuries being generated by illegal collusion. Known affected commerce by international cartels discovered during 1990-2014 exceeds a nominal $13.6 trillion worldwide. Projections to adjust for unknown affected commerce raise the total to the $64 to $189 trillion range. Overcharges cause price-fixing injuries in the $12 to $37 trillion range. Global antitrust fines announced for discovered international cartels were less than 1% of the economic injuries sustained.


OBJECTIVES
To determine whether improving physicians' judgments of the probability of streptococcal pharyngitis for patients with sore throats would affect their use of antibiotics and affect the variation in such use.

DESIGN
Post-hoc retrospective analysis of data previously collected as part of a controlled trial.

SETTINGS
University student health services in Pennsylvania and Nebraska.

PATIENTS
Sequential patients with pharyngitis seen before and after the time clinicians received either an experimental educational intervention designed to improve probabilistic diagnostic judgments (at the Pennsylvania site) or a control intervention, a standard lecture (at the Nebraska site). The clinician-subjects were the primary case physicians practicing at either site.

MEASUREMENTS
Clinical variables prospectively recorded by the clinicians, probability assessments, and treatment decisions.

RESULTS
At the experimental site, despite marked decreases in clinicians' overestimations of disease probability after the intervention, the proportion of patients prescribed antibiotics showed a trend toward increasing: 100/290 (34.5%) pre-intervention, 90/225 (40%) post-intervention. The intervention did not decrease practice variation between individual doctors. Univariable and multivariable analyses showed no major change in the relationships between clinical variables and treatment decisions after the intervention. At the control site there was no major change in probability judgments or treatment decisions after the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS
Teaching physicians to make better judgments of disease probability may not alter their treatment decisions.


The plant components inducing zoosporogenesis in the rumen phycomycetes Neocallimastix frontalis, Sphaeromonas communis and Piromonas communis were widely distributed in the plant kingdom with no apparent taxonomic relationship. In Lolium perenne L. (perennial rye-grass) and Hordeum distichon (barley), the components were principally present in the leaves and aerial tissues. Sufficient inducer was present in the normal diet of the host animal to trigger the differentiation and release of the zoospores from all the sporangia of each phycomycete species present in the rumen fluid tested. The inducers were unstable to oxygen, especially at elevated temperatures, and were destroyed by rumen micro-organisms. They may be similar compounds for each species.


This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation into the technical feasibility of implementing near‐field acoustic holography (NAH) at large scale. Results are presented using both numerically generated hologram plane pressures for ka<4.0, as well as measured hologram plane pressures for a small scale ribbed cylindrical model (ka<20). The focus of the investigation is to determine whether or not large scale implementation of NAH is feasible given the magnitude of background noise levels and sensor placement inaccuracies likely to be encountered. Background noise for various lake and ocean environments are considered. The effect of both random and systematic axial, circumferential and radial sensor placement errors is assessed and compared. The majority of the results are presented as wave number comparisons of contaminated and uncontaminated surface pressure reconstructions. In general, the effects of data contamination are evident in these comparisons as high wave number noise. It is shown f...


Increasing attention is being given to the legal and governance issues relating to the removal of directors in Australian public companies. This has been due mainly to the difficulties experienced by the board of National Australia Bank in attempting to remove one of its fellow directors, and the subsequent development of public companies entering into so-called 'prenuptial agreements' with new directors, requiring that the director 'resign ' if the board pass a vote of no-confidence in the director. In this article, the author revisits the area of director removal in Australian public companies for two reasons. The first reason, which covers the majority of the article, is to engage in a detailed analysis of whether the pre-nuptial agreements which some public companies have indicated that they support using to remove directors, are in fact enforceable under Australia's Corporations Act The second reason is to outline a law reform proposal to enable public companies to remove directors without requiring the vote of shareholders at a general meeting. The proposal involves providing Australia's corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) with the power to grant relief from the statutory removal provisions to public companies, but in a way which balances the competing objectives of commercial efficiency and shareholder participation and, very importantly, encourages good corporate governance practices by companies in relation to the performance assessment of directors.


Human Activity Recognition (HAR) systems using sensor data have widespread use in many real-life applications, making it an important emerging area of research. As inertial sensors are readily available in many handheld devices, HAR systems are generally designed based on the data obtained from them. In this paper, the Logistic Model Trees (LMT) machine learning method for predicting the human motion from smartphone-based inertial sensors is considered. This study aims to demonstrate the capabilities of LMT in obtaining higher prediction rates even with short time segment of data (1 sec), in comparison with longer time segments (2.5 sec) used in the literature. The performance of HAR system designed with LMT is compared with those designed with Random Forest (RF) and Logistic Regression Tree (LR) for a set of dynamic and static activities. The system is trained and tested on two publically available datasets, namely WISDM and UCI HAR. The proposed LMT method outperforms RF and LR by achieving recognition accuracies 90.86% and 94.02% on WISDM and UCI HAR respectively, and achieves between 89.82% - 88.73% overall accuracy during cross-dataset evaluation.