An implicit association test (IAT) was used to investigate how habit strength, implicit attitudes and fruit consumption interrelate. Fifty-two participants completed a computerized IAT and provided measures of fruit consumption and related habit strength. Implicit attitudes moderated the habit strength—fruit consumption relationship; stronger relationships were observed when implicit attitudes were more positive. Amongst those with strong fruit habits, more positive associations with fruit were found for those who had recently consumed sufficient fruits compared to those who had not. Findings demonstrate the relevance of implicit positive associations in understanding the relationship between fruit consumption habits and subsequent fruit consumption.


Quintessentially American institutions, symbols of community spirit and the American faith in education, public libraries are ubiquitous in the United States. Close to a billion library visits are made each year, and more children join summer reading programs than little league baseball. Public libraries are local institutions, as different as the communities they serve. Yet their basic services, techniques, and professional credo are essentially similar; and they offer, through technology and cooperative agreements, myriad materials and information far beyond their own walls. In Civic Space/Cyberspace, Redmond Kathleen Molz and Phyllis Dain assess the current condition and direction of the American public library. They consider the challenges and opportunities presented by new electronic technologies, changing public policy, fiscal realities, and cultural trends. They draw on site visits and interviews conducted across the country; extensive reading of reports, surveys, and other documents; and their long-standing interest in the library's place in the social and civic structure. The book uniquely combines a scholarly, humanistic, and historical approach to public libraries with a clear-eyed look at their problems and prospects, including their role in the emerging national information infrastructure.


Although quality education is central to both international and national education debates and practices in most countries, there is a reluctance and lack of urgency in providing it for all. There are disparities in the policies, equity and provisioning strategies of basic education for all learners. Most South American and South Pacific countries are battling to realize the Millennium Goals regarding this matter. Some African countries are not progressing in this regard too. Those that are better off have not begun to monitor and evaluate the quality of their basic education except ensuring that teachers teach and learners attend classes. The only quality control and measurement is through examinations. This paper looks at quality in basic education for all as the controls that are within an institution of learning, the teaching and learning processes, and which entail amongst others, education for sustainability and indigenous knowledge systems. Hence, the argument that quality basic education for all should move beyond the rhetoric of educational policies to quality basic education practice. Lwati: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 4 () 2007: pp.24-35


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the degree of postoperative pain in dogs undergoing elective castration or ovariohysterectomy (OHE); determine whether an association exists between surgeon experience, incision length, or surgery duration and degree of postoperative pain; and determine whether analgesic treatment decreases expression of postoperative pain behaviors.

DESIGN
Randomized controlled clinical trial.

ANIMALS
426 client-owned dogs undergoing OHE or castration.

PROCEDURES
Dogs underwent OHE or castration performed by an experienced veterinarian or a fourth-year veterinary student. Dogs were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups: no perioperative analgesic treatment (n = 44), preoperative administration of morphine (144), preoperative administration of nalbuphine (119), and postoperative administration of ketoprofen (119). Dogs were evaluated while in the hospital before anesthesia and for 4 hours after surgery and once a day at home for 3 days after surgery.

RESULTS
Dogs in all 4 groups had significant increases in overall pain scores after surgery, compared with baseline scores. There were significant differences among groups, with control dogs having significantly higher increases in overall pain scores than dogs in the other groups. Factors that did not influence the frequency or severity of pain-related behaviors included breed, individual hospital, anesthetic induction protocol, surgeon experience, and duration of surgery.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that dogs expressed behaviors suggestive of pain following OHE and castration, that analgesic treatment mitigated the expression of pain-related behaviors, and that surgeon experience and surgery duration did not have any effect on expression of pain-related behaviors.


Respiration inhibitors, in particular KCN and NaN(3), inhibited slightly the dark-induced (scotonasty) as well as the light-induced (photonasty) leaflet movements of Cassia fasciculata: they act only at concentrations higher than 1 millimolar and 0.1 millimolar, respectively. Amytal induced a stronger inhibitory effect on scotonasty. Salicylhydroxamic acid, which inhibits the cyanide-insensitive respiration pathway, was also poorly effective when applied alone. KCN and salicylhydroxamic acid applied together increased the inhibition. Uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation were very effective: 2,4-dinitrophenol and carbonylcyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone inhibited the scotonastic movements at concentrations higher than 10 mum and 1 mum, respectively. Although uncouplers reduced the photonastic movements at higher concentrations, they promoted leaflet opening at other concentrations in an unexpected way.


In female rats various parameters and rhythmical structure of forced swimming underwent unsignificant fluctuations during estrus cycle. Ovariectomy changed the swimming time course and increased the rhythmical index of depression without other serious disturbances of the behavioural "despair" test. After chronic estradiol these shifts were partially eliminated. It is suggested that considerable disturbances of gonadal function may be cause of desynchronousness which facilitated the development of depression.


Software-defined networking (SDN) is evolving to be one of the most important technologies for managing networks efficiently with minimum complexity. SDN achieves flexible routing by decoupling control and data planes. The control-plane populates forwarding devices with flow tables which contain actions to forward packets. OpenFlow is a standard protocol which enables the communication between the control-plane and the data-plane. Communications between a controller and a switch in Software-defined Wireless Networks are prone to failure. In this regard, a distributed control plane can be worth considering. In addition, since a controller possesses limited packet processing capabilities, we need to have an efficient solution for switch handover. In this work, we have studied the issues associated with OpenFlow wireless networks and have proposed a cross-layer handover solution for efficient switch handover. Our Cross-Layer OpenFlow Switch handover utilizes the RSSI of wireless links and the traffic load of Controllers for effective handover decision-making. We have further enhanced our cross-layer switch handover with a soft handover capability in order to avoid the packet drops due to hard handover. We have developed a test-bed for OpenFlow Wireless networks for evaluating the performance of our handover strategies. On an average, the packet drops observed were 10 and 8 during high traffic load and moderate traffic load, respectively, in Cross-Layer OpenFlow Switch handovers. Additionally, the soft handover extension eliminated the packet drops during switch handovers. The time taken for the switch handover is measured to be around 4.92 ms.


Excerpt: Potter (2013) argues that even though many college teachers have adopted constructivist practices and perspectives, the "foundations" of Western higher education remain objectivist through and through. In the title metaphor of his essay, "objectivism" is the dead god. Constructivism killed it conceptually. But materially and ideologically speaking, its shadow still hangs over everything we do. While we work to deeply engage learners in their own learning, the structures and infrastructures of our institutions assume a superficial understanding of learning and thereby undermine our efforts.


for the CALET Collaboration In August 2015, the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) docked with the International Space Station (ISS). CALET will measure the cosmic ray electron spectrum over the energy range of 1 GeV to 20 TeV with a very high resolution of 2% above 100 GeV, based on a dedicated instrument incorporating an exceptionally thick 30 radiation-length calorimeter with both total absorption and imaging units (TASC and IMC). Each TASC readout channel must be carefully calibrated to obtain the degree of precision necessary to achieve the high energy resolution. This report describes the specific calibration methods, focusing on the calibration of the energy deposit of each channel to obtain an ADC unit to energy conversion factor using Minimum Ionizing Particles (MIP), known as "the MIP calibration." To fully calibrate each lead tungstate (PWO) log of the TASC, it is first necessary to correct the position dependent effects so as to equalize the response along its length. In addition, because both the PWO light yield and the APD gain will vary with temperature, it is also required to correct for this temperature dependence. Following these corrections for the position and temperature dependence, and also using events extracted using event selection based on likelihood analysis, it was possible to find the energy conversion factor. With the excellent agreement between the conversion factors obtained from proton and helium MIP data, the validity of the absolute calibration of the energy conversion factor was confirmed. In the end, this report describes the analysis of the long term stability of the MIP calibration, from which it was concluded that the time dependence of the MIP peak value was successfully removed.


In order to realize the integration and sharing for multi-source marine data, the paper took the visualization application of the multi-source marine environment data as an example to discuss the realization way of the data's integration and sharing. By encapsulating the marine environment data and its application model to web services, we constructed a multi-source marine environment data applying platform system framework through internet. The system can shield the data isomerism and the application environment isomerism, and realize the integration and sharing for the multi-source marine environment data. At the same time the distributed structure of the system can raise its flexibility and expansibility. So the establishment of the system proves the feasibility of web service in multi-source ocean environment data's integration and sharing.


Abstract Omission of clitics is often considered a critical marker of language development in children. For this reason, clitic omission in language development has been studied crosslinguistically. Results on clitic production reveal that languages differ with respect to the rates at which clitics are omitted by children, as well as on the duration of the clitic omission stages. This paper compares clitic omission by monolingual and bilingual children acquiring European Portuguese – a language with both clitics and null objects – and Capeverdean Creole – a language with clitics in which null objects are ruled out. We show that omission is only found in monolingual Portuguese, and in bilingual Capeverdean. These results confirm earlier findings on the precocious sensitivity to the availability of null objects, and signal object drop as a critical distinguishing factor for differentiating bilinguals and monolinguals.


The mainstay of treatment of chronic hepatitis C is pegylated interferon combined with ribavirin and more than 50% of naïve patients will have viral cure with either 6 months (genotypes 2 and 3) or 12 months (genotypes 1,4, and 6) with the initial treatment. However, populations have been defined that respond less well to routine treatment including African Americans, immune suppressed populations, obese patients and cirrhotic patients. These types of patients are enriched in groups of patients who are non-responders to treatment. This article discusses viral kinetics that may impact treatment response, strategies to maximize treatment effectiveness in these populations and the treatment of non-responders in general. Early viral kinetics can be used to define response or non-response and these results can be used to modify subsequent treatment length and dose.


SIRS Issues Researcher provides authoritative insight into the most-studied social issues by delivering the pros and cons from relevant, credible documents and graphics selected by trained editors and curated from over 2,000 global sources.


Most refugees and other migrants have limited opportunities to participate in politics to inform and influence the policies that affect them daily; they have limited voting rights and generally lack effective alternative forms of representation such as consultative bodies (Solano & Huddleston, 2020a, p. 33). Political participation is 'absent (or almost absent) from integration strategies' in Eastern European countries, while refugees and other migrants in Western Europe do enjoy significant local voting rights, stronger consultative bodies, more funding for immigrant organisations and greater support from mainstream organisations (Solano & Huddleston, 2020a, p. 33).This rapid review seeks to find out what lessons have been learned about political inclusion of refugees, particularly in European countries.In general, there appears to be limited evidence about the effectiveness of attempts to support the political participation of migrants/refugees. 'The engagement of refugees and asylum-seekers in the political activities of their host countries is highly understudied' (Jacobi, 2021, p. 3) and 'the effects that integration policies have on immigrants' representation remains an under-explored field' (Petrarca, 2015, p. 9). The evidence that is available often comes from sources that cover the entire population or ethnic minorities without specifically targeting refugees or migrants, are biased towards samples of immigrants who are long-established in the host country and may not be representative of immigrant populations, or focus only on voting behaviour and neglect other forms of political participation (Bilodeau, 2016, pp. 30–31). Statistical data on refugees and integration policy areas and indicators is often weak or absent (Hopkins, 2013, pp. 9, 28–32, 60). Data may not distinguish clearly among refugees and other types of migrants by immigration status, origin country, or length of stay in the host country; may not allow correlating data collected during different time periods with policies in place during those periods and preceding periods; and may fail to collect a range of relevant migrant-specific social and demographic characteristics (Bilgili et al., 2015, pp. 22–23; Hopkins, 2013, p. 28).


ABSTRACT Cellular stress triggers reprogramming of transcription, which is required for the maintenance of homeostasis under adverse growth conditions. Stress-induced changes in transcription include induction of cyto-protective genes and repression of genes related to the regulation of the cell cycle, transcription and metabolism. Induction of transcription is mediated through the activation of stress-responsive transcription factors that facilitate the release of stalled RNA polymerase II and so allow for transcriptional elongation. Repression of transcription, in turn, involves components that retain RNA polymerase II in a paused state on gene promoters. Moreover, transcription during stress is regulated by a massive activation of enhancers and complex changes in chromatin organization. In this Review, we highlight the latest research regarding the molecular mechanisms of transcriptional reprogramming upon stress in the context of specific proteotoxic stress responses, including the heat-shock response, unfolded protein response, oxidative stress response and hypoxia response. Summary: A Review of recent developments in understanding the major cell-autonomous stress-responsive transcriptional regulatory pathways, including the activation of enhancers and complex changes in chromatin organization.


The need for informal carers has significantly grown, and continues to grow, with young people under the age of 25 years taking on the carer role for people (usually family members) with chronic illnesses. On average young carers can provide up to 20 hours of various physically and emotionally demanding duties per week. This provision of care is often associated with psychological distress and an increased risk of having a chronic illness themselves. This reduces their capacity to manage their own needs and provide quality care to a chronically ill person. Young carers who are not adequately supported with appropriate psychosocial intervention represent an especially vulnerable population with developmental concerns particularly faced by adolescents. This systematic review identified and evaluated quantitative research, focusing on the outcome of psychosocial interventions on young carers of people with chronic illnesses. CINAHL via EBSCO, EMBASE via OVID, Medline via OVID, PsychINFO via OVID, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were the selected and searched databases. Unpublished/grey literature was noted in Scopus and the World Health Organisation database. The systematic search revealed that only 4 studies met the inclusion criteria to be included in this review. Assessment of scientific rigour and risk of bias revealed methodological limitations of the included studies and results indicate minimal intervention efficacy. This review emphasises the need for gaining further quantitative evidence on the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for young carers. Furthermore, there is a need to develop standardised protocols for age-appropriate interventions designed to promote psychosocial adjustment among young carers and assist in the development of governmental policies to better support these vulnerable individuals take better care of people with chronic illness.


In radiotherapy, tumors are irradiated with a high dose, while surrounding healthy tissues are spared. To quantify the probability that a tumor is effectively treated with a given dose, statistical models were built and employed in clinical research. These are called tumor control probability (TCP) models. Recently, TCP models started incorporating additional information from imaging modalities. In this way, patient‐specific properties of tumor tissues are included, improving the radiobiological accuracy of models. Yet, the employed imaging modalities are subject to uncertainties with significant impact on the modeling outcome, while the models are sensitive to a number of parameter assumptions. Currently, uncertainty and parameter sensitivity are not incorporated in the analysis, due to time and resource constraints. To this end, we propose a visual tool that enables clinical researchers working on TCP modeling, to explore the information provided by their models, to discover new knowledge and to confirm or generate hypotheses within their data. Our approach incorporates the following four main components: (1) It supports the exploration of uncertainty and its effect on TCP models; (2) It facilitates parameter sensitivity analysis to common assumptions; (3) It enables the identification of inter‐patient response variability; (4) It allows starting the analysis from the desired treatment outcome, to identify treatment strategies that achieve it. We conducted an evaluation with nine clinical researchers. All participants agreed that the proposed visual tool provides better understanding and new opportunities for the exploration and analysis of TCP modeling.


Poly(3-hydroxy alkanoate) containing unsaturated side chains was produced by feeding Pseudomonas oleovorans with soybean-soil acid (PHA-soybean). The composition of PHA-soyebean were found to be 10 mol-% of unsaturated side chains with the saturated hexanoate, octanoate and decanoate units. Methyl methacrylate (MMA) was thremally grafted on PHA-soybean in the presence of benzoyl peroxide. Fractional precipitation was used to isolate the grapht copolymer from related homopolymers. PHA content in copolymer samples was between 15 to 30 mol-%. Graft copolymer samples were kept in hydroquinone to prevent post polymerization leading to crosslinking in a day under laboratory atmospheric conditions. Copolymer characterization was performed using GPC and NMR techniques. Thermal analysis of the graft copolymer indicated the decomposition and glass transition temperatures of the PHA and PMMA segments of the graft copolymers. They also showed elongation at break in the range 10 to 21 related to the plasticizer effect of the biopolyester segments.


Mid to late 20th century expansion of Dracophyllum scrub into tussock grassland on subantarctic Campbell Island has been attributed to the collective effects of global warming, cessation of farming in 1931, and continued grazing by feral sheep. To determine the importance of these, we dated the timing of scrub expansion by aging 241 Dracophyllum plants in 17 plots chosen to sample the range of environments this shrub/ small tree occupies on Campbell Island. Three plots, in lowland, well-drained, locations were dominated by large, old Dracophyllum that had established between 1846 and 1940. Virtually all shrubs in the remaining plots had established after 1940, with peaks in 1970 and 1985. The pattern of establishment does not coincide with any marked change in the temperature regime, although a prolonged period of relatively dry winters (c. 1970-1990) coincides with a late surge of regeneration on very wet sites. The removal of feral sheep from different parts of the island at different times is also unrelated to the pattern of establishment. In contrast, Dracophyllum spread follows farm abandonment in 1931 when regular burning ceased, suggesting that Dracophyllum is invading sites from which it was excluded by fire. However, the earliest reports from the mid 19th century indicate that tussock grassland was previously the dominant vegetation cover on the island, with limited Dracophyllum scrub. It is possible that the reduction of the dense tussock grasslands by fire and grazing in late 19th-early 20th century opened a regeneration window for Dracophyllum scrub to spread once burning ceased.


Traditional resource scheduling algorithm, in grid environment, exist some defects, for example it can not well meet the quality requirements and can not get the optimal solution. This article gives a new resource scheduling method based on improved genetic algorithm. It achieves grid resource scheduling by using real number encoding and activities point crossover. Experiments show that genetic algorithm can reduce executing time and task completion time, and further improve the scalability of resource scheduling model. This algorithm has stability and high efficiency in grid environment.


This paper proposes and investigates a simple selfadaptive contention window adjustment algorithm for 802.11 WLAN. We present simulation and analytical results showing that the new algorithm outperforms the standard 802.11 window adjustment algorithm. Compared with the standard and previously proposed enhancement algorithms, a salient feature of our algorithm is that it performs well both when the number of active stations is large and small – that is, in both heavy and light contention cases. Furthermore, the adaptive window adjustment algorithm is simpler than previously proposed enhancement schemes in that no live measurement of the WLAN traffic activity is needed.


3D object detection from point clouds is crucial in safety-critical autonomous driving. Although many works have made great efforts and achieved significant progress on this task, most of them suffer from expensive annotation cost and poor transferability to unknown data due to the domain gap. Recently, few works attempt to tackle the domain gap in objects, but still fail to adapt to the gap of varying beam-densities between two domains, which is critical to mitigate the characteristic differences of the LiDAR collectors. To this end, we make the attempt to propose a density-insensitive domain adaption framework to address the density-induced domain gap. In particular, we first introduce Random Beam Re-Sampling (RBRS) to enhance the robustness of 3D detectors trained on the source domain to the varying beam-density. Then, we take this pre-trained detector as the backbone model, and feed the unlabeled target domain data into our newly designed task-specific teacher-student framework for predicting its high-quality pseudo labels. To further adapt the property of density-insensitivity into the target domain, we feed the teacher and student branches with the same sample of different densities, and propose an Object Graph Alignment (OGA) module to construct two object-graphs between the two branches for enforcing the consistency in both the attribute and relation of cross-density objects. Experimental results on three widely adopted 3D object detection datasets demonstrate that our proposed domain adaption method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, especially over varying-density data. Code is available at https://github.com/WoodwindHu/DTS.


The paper presents the application of liquid crystal thermography for temperature determination and visualisation of two phase flow images on the studied surface. Properties and applications of thermochromic liquid crystals are discussed. Liquid crystals were applied for two -dimensional detection of the temperature of the heating foil forming one of the surfaces of the minichannel along which the cooling liquid flowed. The heat flux supplied to the heating surface was altered in the investigati on and it was accompanied by a change in the colo r distribution on the surface. The ac curacy of temperature measurements on the surface with liquid crystal thermography is estimated. The method of visualisation of two -phase flow structures is described. The analysis of m onochrome images of flow structures was employed to calculate the void fraction for some cross-sections. The flow structure photos were processed using Corel graphics software and binarized. The analysis of phase volumes employed Techsystem Globe software. The measurement error of void fraction is estimated .


This paper argues that future EMU reforms will require a higher level of differentiation between Euro and non-Euro countries. However, the creation of a closed core Europe involving merely the "willing and able," which would establish a two-tier Europe with different institutionalized classes of membership, is neither likely nor desirable. It should not be the Leitbild (guiding concept) steering the way towards a more differentiated Europe. The EU and its members should rather adhere to the notion of functionalpragmatic differentiation by applying instruments of differentiated integration foreseen by the EU Treaties. However, given the experience since 2010, member states are likely to continue to revert to intergovernmental avenues of differentiation outside the EU's framework. In this case, it would be advisable to make sure that future agreements/arrangements follow the logic and principles of an intergovernmental avant-garde to avoid some of the risks linked to a higher level of cooperation outside the Union's legal framework..


This study investigated psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of narrative health communication on behavioral intention. Specifically, the study examined how exemplification in news about successful smoking cessation affects recipients' narrative engagement, thereby changing their intention to quit smoking. Nationally representative samples of U.S. adult smokers participated in 2 experiments. The results from the 2 experiments consistently showed that smokers reading a news article with an exemplar experienced greater narrative engagement compared to those reading an article without an exemplar. Those who reported more engagement were in turn more likely to report greater smoking cessation intentions.


Kienböck's disease is always a challenge, especially when the lunate is already fragmented. Despite the numerous methods to treat this wrist problem, results have often not been satisfactory. Swanson's silastic lunate prosthesis has not been a helpful solution for most patients over the long-term, and problems with artificial material have also become apparent. A proposal to create an autogenous microvascular total lunate bone reconstruction is presented. The second metatarsophalangeal joint was used in a new fashion to create a biologic substitute for the lunate bone. This is called a "neolunate." The lunate bones and neolunates created from the second metatarsophalangeal joints of fresh cadavers were compared. The possibilities of microvascular access to create a neolunate and its use in wrist reconstruction were studied in ten cadaveric wrists. The lunates and neolunates were compared. After a neolunate reconstruction, the specimen was inserted into the original cadaveric wrist and the ligamentous structures were repaired. The necessary architecture for ligament stability to prevent subluxation and DISI or VISI deformity was established. Radiological measurements confirmed the neolunate as a suitable model. The result was close to normal wrist configuration. So far, only one clinical trial using the proposed technique has been done. The proposed microsurgical neolunate transfer needs further clinical testing to prove its potential value. A disadvantage is that the method is technically demanding.


To further this pedagogy, I have documented what happens when students are introduced to computing ideas through shape grammars as a scaffold approach towards learning to code. This research gives insight into how students studying design acquire computing concepts and adopt them into their creative process. For educators, this sheds new light on how we can build algorithmic and analytical problem solving approaches into foundational art and design studies.


It used to be the case that the Psychology of Personal Constructs was better known for its methods (or at least one of them: the repertory grid) than its theory. But now, in the UK at least, no personal construct methods are taught to undergraduates and few become familiar with PCP as a theoretical approach. Although we are focusing here on the UK as an example, we expect that the situation is similar in other countries. Some writers have previously tried to raise the profile of PCP by showing its compatibility with newer theoretical approaches. For example, given the obvious points of agreement between constructivism and social constructionism, some writers (e.g. Botella, 1995) have tried to bring these together in a synthesis. In this plenary we too will discuss the potential for raising the academic profile of Personal Construct Psychology but we will suggest that this can best be done by focussing once again on its methods. We argue that PCP is best 'advertised' to researchers using a variety of theoretical approaches by showing how its methods are sympathetic to these.


Abstract Three predator exclusion devices were designed and deployed with the goal of denying raccoons access to simulated turtle nests (n = 116) for 48 hrs. A novel design, a roughly conical cage constructed using wooden dowels for bars, protected nests through 3 trials at rates of 100% (n = 4), 100% (n = 8), and 70% (n = 84). This new cage design offers a portable, inexpensive, and reusable alternative for protecting nests of diamondback terrapins and potentially other emydid species.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of complications in unsafe chronic suppurative otitis media.
MATERIAL AND METHODS This prospective study was conducted in the department Otorhinolaryngology MMIMSR over the time duration of one year from March 2011 to April 2012. Fifty consecutive patients were selected whose clinical diagnosis was CSOM Attico-antral type.
 Conclusion: The rate of complications, especially more serious intracranial complications ,observed in developing countries is significantly more than those observed in studies from the developed countries. (12). In our study the frequency of extracranial complications excluding ossicular erosion is 22% and the frequency of intracranial complications is 4%. It was observed by Memon et al (13) in 2008 that in a series of 390 patients of chronic discharging ears that the rate of extracranial complications was 4.10% and rate of intracranial complications was 2.3%of the unsafe variety . The high frequency in our study may be explained by the fact that we are sitting in a rural background with very poor socio-economic background patients. Osama U et al (14) from Turkey reveals the rate of 1.35% of extracranial complications and 1.97% of intracranial complications in his study.


Rationale Exacerbations of COPD are defined clinically by worsening of chronic respiratory symptoms. Chronic respiratory symptoms are common in the general population. There are no data on the frequency of exacerbation-like events in individuals without spirometric evidence of COPD. Aims To determine the occurrence of 'exacerbation-like' events in individuals without airflow limitation, their associated risk factors, healthcare utilisation and social impacts. Method We analysed the cross-sectional data from 5176 people aged 40 years and older who participated in a multisite, population-based study on lung health. The study cohort was stratified into spirometrically defined COPD (post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC < 0.7) and non-COPD (post bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ≥ 0.7 and without self-reported doctor diagnosis of airway diseases) subgroups and then into those with and without respiratory 'exacerbation-like' events in the past year. Results Individuals without COPD had half the frequency of 'exacerbation-like' events compared with those with COPD. In the non-COPD group, the independent associations with 'exacerbations' included female gender, presence of wheezing, the use of respiratory medications and self-perceived poor health. In the non-COPD group, those with exacerbations were more likely than those without exacerbations to have poorer health-related quality of life (12-item Short-Form Health Survey), miss social activities (58.5% vs 18.8%), miss work for income (41.5% vs 17.3%) and miss housework (55.6% vs 16.5%), p<0.01 to <0.0001. Conclusions Events similar to exacerbations of COPD can occur in individuals without COPD or asthma and are associated with significant health and socioeconomic outcomes. They increase the respiratory burden in the community and may contribute to the false-positive diagnosis of asthma or COPD.


Perhaps the greatest surprise in cosmology since Edwin Hubble's original discovery of the expansion of the universe in the 1930s has been the compelling evidence that the rate of cosmic expansion has been accelerating rather than slowing down in the past few billion years. Before 1998, models of an accelerating universe were very unfashionable; following General Relativity, cosmic acceleration appeared to require the cosmos to be dominated by energy with negative pressure or by Einstein's admitted "greatest blunder"– the cosmological constant, Λ. However, the magnitude of the cosmological constant required just to accelerate the cosmos today is 120 orders of magnitude smaller than the natural quantum gravity scale set by the Planck mass, which would make it the single worst theoretically estimated quantity in the history of science! But in 1998, contrary evidence turned cosmology on its head. Two independent teams showed that distant supernovae were fainter and hence more distant than could be explained in a decelerating universe, thereby forcing cosmologists to confront the possibility of acceleration. Since then, evidence for acceleration has steadily mounted and improved, yet our knowledge of the underlying physics of the process has gone almost nowhere. We still do not know whether Einstein's theory of gravity is wrong, whether the acceleration is caused by the cosmological constant or by a completely new form of matter such as the scalar fields often invoked (but as yet undetected) as sources of acceleration during the first few fractions of a second after the Big Bang. Deciding between these three possible sources of acceleration is one of the major goals of cosmology in the next decade, with scores of dedicated surveys and experiments planned or in progress attempting to address the nature of "dark energy", as the mysterious source of acceleration is called. There are several major new supernovae searches (ESSENCE, SNLS, SDSS-II) that, by 2008, will enhance our understanding of dark energy by measuring the distances to several hundred new Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) (Matheson et al. 2005; Mullivan 2005; Sako 2005). SNIa measurements are, however, fundamentally limited by the fact that we do not physically understand the mechanisms of supernova explosion. Also there are many possible astrophysical uncertainties, such as progenitor bias, absorption of emitted photons by intervening dust and possible redshift evolution of SNIa. In addition, SNIa distance measurements are not ideal dark energy discriminators because, given a dark energy model, one must perform two integrals over redshift to derive the corresponding predicted distance (to compare with the observed distance provided by the SNIa). This double integral smears out any interesting or distinctive fingerprints of the underlying physics, implying that one needs a very large number of SNIa to be able to differentiate between different dark energy models. This is exactly the plan with future SNIa surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP), a satellite mission that would fly after 2014 and would detect nearly 2000 SNIa in the redshift range 0 < z < 1.7. An alternative and highly profitable approach is to measure the Hubble expansion rate, as a function of redshift, i.e. H(z). This would be advantageous since H(z) is linked to the dark energy models through a single redshift integral only, making model discrimination easier. Measuring H(z) is ambitious, however. It has taken decades of heated debate to reach a consensus for the local (i.e. z= 0) value, H0, of this rate. How can we therefore hope to track the evolution of H with time? We will show that new methods will not only detect H(z), but measure it to an accuracy of less than 3% at certain redshifts, significantly better than we know its value at z= 0, i.e. today


Background Neuroticism is a risk factor for selected mental and physical illnesses and is inversely associated with intelligence. Intelligence appears to interact with neuroticism and mitigate its detrimental effects on physical health and mortality. However, the inter-ralationships of neuroticism and intelligence for major depressive disorder (MDD) and psychological distress has not been well examined. Methods Associations and interactions between neuroticism and general intelligence (g) on MDD and psychological distress were examined in two population-based cohorts: Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS, N=19,200) and UK Biobank (N=90,529). The Eysenck Personality Scale Short Form-Revised measured neuroticism and g was extracted from multiple cognitive ability tests in each cohort. Family structure was adjusted for in GS:SFHS. Results Neuroticism was associated with MDD and psychological distress in both samples. A significant interaction between neuroticism and g in predicting MDD status was found in UK Biobank (OR = 0.96, p < .01), suggesting that higher g ameliorated the adverse effects of neuroticism on the likelihood of having MDD. This interaction was not found in GS:SFHS. In both samples, higher neuroticism and lower intelligence were associated with increased psychological distress. A significant interaction was also found in both cohorts (GS:SFHS: ß = -0.05, p < .01; UK Biobank: ß = -0.02, p < .01), such that intelligence protected against the deleterious effect of neuroticism on psychological distress. Conclusions From two large cohort studies, our findings suggest intelligence acts a protective factor in mitigating the effects of neuroticism on risk for depressive illness and psychological distress.


Cleavage at the 2/3 site of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is thought to be mediated by a virus-encoded protease composed of the region of the polyprotein encoding NS2 and the N-terminal one-third of NS3. This protease is distinct from the NS3 serine protease, which is responsible for downstream cleavages in the nonstructural region. Site-directed mutagenesis of residues surrounding the 2/3 cleavage site showed that cleavage is remarkably resistant to single-amino-acid substitutions from P5 to P3' (GWRLL decreases API). The only mutations which dramatically inhibited cleavage were the ones most likely to alter the conformation of the region, such as Pro substitutions at the P1 or P1' position, deletion of both amino acids at P1 and P1', or simultaneous substitution of multiple Ala residues. Cotransfection experiments were done to provide additional information on the polypeptide requirements for bimolecular cleavage. Polypeptides used in these experiments contained amino acid substitutions and/or deletions in NS2 and/or the N-terminal one-third of NS3. Polypeptides with defects in either NS2 or the N-terminal portion of NS3 but not both were cleaved when cotransfected with constructs expressing intact versions of the defective region. Cotransfection experiments also showed that certain defective NS2-3 constructs partially inhibited cleavage of wild-type polypeptides. Although these results show that inefficient cleavage can occur in a bimolecular reaction, they suggest that both molecules must contribute a functional subunit to allow formation of a protease which is capable of cleavage at the 2/3 site. This reaction may resemble the cis cleavage thought to occur at the 2/3 site during processing of the wild-type HCV polyprotein.


Solid fuel use is an important contributor to air pollution and disease burden in India. We present survey evidence documenting LPG ownership and cooking fuel use in rural north India. LPG ownership has increased rapidly, substantially driven by the Ujjwala Yojana. Three-quarters of rural households in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh now have LPG. Almost all of these households also have a stove that uses solid fuels, and among those owning both, almost three-quarters used solid fuels the day before the survey. Household economic status, relative costs of cooking fuels, gender inequality, and beliefs regarding the ease, food taste, and health impacts of cooking with solid fuels versus LPG are important contributors to high solid fuel use despite LPG ownership. Households that continue to use solid fuels continue to expose themselves and their neighbours to harmful air pollution. To realize the full health benefits of Ujjwala's expansion in LPG ownership, attention must now be turned towards discouraging the use of solid fuels and promoting exclusive use of LPG. This is an urgent priority for research, policy, and action.


Information Technology (IT) can support or even cause changes in the structure of industries and the relationships between firms. Yet, at present, we lack the vocabulary and theory to explain or predict these changes. Drawing on recent work in the resource-based theory of the firm, we propose that shifts in resource values are central to economic restructuring. We show how IT can operate to shift resource values through the basic economic drivers of network externalities and economies of scale, scope, and specialization. We use this theory to investigate the situations that will lead to each of the basic structural responses: changes in market consolidation, in diversification, and in vertical integration. We also can make some specific statements about what forms can be employed in the structural responses: ownership, outsourcing, or cooperation.


The plague of SARS is over in China, and the economy is recovering quickly. While the impacts of SARS on Chinese economy were temporary, a part of economic sectors experienced severe attacks - including the migrant workers from the rural areas, whose income has been reduced significantly. Indeed, the negative influence on the society is great and profound. This crisis especially challenges today's public risk management, citizens' behavior and moral, and social civilization and progress. To protect the interests of the migrant farmers in their tens of millions as a special social community must be paid more attention


In optical coherence tomography (OCT), unbiased and low variance Doppler frequency estimators are desirable for blood velocity estimation. Hardware improvements in OCT mean that ever higher acquisition rates are possible. However, it is known that the Kasai autocorrelation estimator, unexpectedly, performs worse as acquisition rates increase. Here we suggest that maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) that utilize prior knowledge of noise statistics can perform better. We show that the additive white Gaussian noise maximum likelihood estimator (AWGN MLE) has a superior performance to the Kasai autocorrelation estimate under additive shot noise conditions. It can achieve the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) for moderate data lengths and signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). However, being a parametric estimator, it has the disadvantages of sensitivity to outliers, signal contamination and deviations from noise model assumptions. We show that under multiplicative decorrelation noise conditions, the AWGN MLE performance deteriorates, while the Kasai estimator still gives reasonable estimates. Hence, we further develop a multiplicative noise MLE for use under multiplicative noise dominant conditions. According to simulations, this estimator is superior to both the AWGN MLE and the Kasai estimator under these conditions, but requires knowledge of the decorrelation statistics. It also requires more computation. For actual data, the decorrelation MLE appears to perform adequately without parameter optimization. Hence we conclude that it is preferable to use a maximum likelihood approach in OCT Doppler frequency estimation when noise statistics are known or can be accurately estimated.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in tears of patients with and without ocular symptoms in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Methods: The prospective observational study conducted on 60 consecutive SARS-CoV-2 positive patients with ocular complaints was compared with 60 controls who had no ocular manifestations. The tear samples were taken within 48 h of admission from both the eyes of the enrolled patients for evaluating the presence SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results: Eleven cases (18.33%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in tears on RT-PCR from cojunctival swab compared to 10 (16.66%) controls. The difference was not statistical significant. The difference between mean age of patients who tested positive or negative was also without statistical significance (P = 0.652), but the difference between patients who tested positive or negative by conjunctival swab for SARS-CoV-2 was statistically significant in terms of severity of COVID-19 disease (P = 0.0011), presence of comorbidity (P = 0.0015), mean TLC (P = 0.00498), and mean d dimer (P = 0.00465). Conclusion: Though the percentage of patients with positive RT PCR from conjunctival secretions is significantly less than nasopharyngeal swabs, potential risk of transmission of SARS-Co-2 through tears cannot be ruled out. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 can be present in tears irrespective of ocular involvement.


The research based on the phenomena of Indonesian Idol reality show programmed in RCTI from 2004 to 2008. Indonesian Idol was pioneered by Simon Fuller, Amelia Natasha, Irgi Achmad Fahrezi at 2004 and at 2008 continued by Daniel Manata, Indra Lesmana, Titi DJ, Meuthia Kasim, Indri Barends, Dimas Djayadiningrat, Anang Hermansyah, Jamie Aditya. Indonesian Idol itself had executive producer Aurora Maris. Indonesian Idol came from talent searching adopted by Pop Idol (American Idol from England) with Fremantle Media cooperated with RCTI in Indonesian Idol program. Indonesian Idol uniqueness compared with another program like AFI, KDI, Mamamia Show, etc which focused entertainment and undirected into quality and competent vocal dimension inside. To be ?the next Indonesian Idol?/ the title of Indonesian Idol winner, participants should run selection phases monitored by Jurors who owed big name in vocal and entertainment. The problem in this research were how the student perception to the Indonesian Idol program at RCTI. Why programs with similar format like AFI, KDI, Mamamia show etc only good in the first year, while Indonesian Idol came from the first and the next years, and how the students perception to watch since they really want to enjoy voice/vocal from the participants, or entertainment given. So that the research aimed to find out the perception of audio visual communication science G class 2007 students perception University of Muhammadiyah Malang to the Indonesian Idol program at RCTI. The research used qualitative descriptive research, described a phenomena to be researched, first by using questionnaire to find out a population existed used purposive sampling method to take informers as criteria stated. Data collection technique with questionnaire given to the students of audio visual communication science class G 2007 UMM. After the questionnaire spread, the researcher could get the information needed. After the researcher get expected information, the researcher would do interview documentation data in written shape from the interview between the researcher with informer. In informer consideration, the researcher took informer criteria like frequency in watching Indonesian Idol minimum 3-4 times and really understand the show. Theory used was uses and gratification theory. The theory was chosen since the audiences had rights to choose the show they like or they choose the show because of their needs and the audiences had difference perspective each other since the stimulation came from vision and hearing after watching Indonesian Idol show and making perception of them. The audience could give individual perception. The research showed that there were two answers, in positive and negative. In positive side, the show was really entertained for students and as information at singing world and entertainment, and the entertainment they chose like Indonesian Idol really good whether in participant, presenter and skilful jurors in their dimension and different format which has similar format and spectacular and colorfur stage made the audience like it. The show presented information in singing show. Information given came from skilful Juror in vocals. In its negative side, the show could be stated as media usage, where the participants who followed Indonesian Idol were only look for popularity and became famous, known by all people. So that there could be concluded that Audio Visual Communication students Class G 2007 University of Muhammadiyah Malang had positive perception to the Indonesian Idol. It could be seen from the support of Indonesian Idol whether in format, presenter, juror, participants, stage coreography (sound, lamp, color, accesories). Negative side of informer to the Indonesian Idol could be said nothing. Informer saw from participants perspective which used television media and Indonesian Idol to search popularity. Keyword : Persepsi Mahasiswa dan Indonesian Idol Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/336/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-saputratri-16790-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


Indian horticulture sector is constrained by low productivity, high cost of production, huge post-harvest losses, inefficient supply chain and poor market intelligence. The present paper has brought forward two case studies of SAFAL Market and Namdhari Fresh which have been successful in over-coming the constraints that horticulture sector is facing in India for fresh fruits and vegetables. Some new marketing initiatives along with the existing supply chain inefficiencies have been highlighted to help formulate strategy and policy to achieve the much-desired second green revolution through horticulture growth.


[1] An unexpected feature revealed by the measurements of the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite is the presence of broad plasma depletions in the midnight–dawn sector during deep solar minimum. It has not been well understood what causes the broad plasma depletions and how equatorial plasma bubbles are related to the broad depletions. In this paper we present the C/NOFS measurements of equatorial plasma bubbles and broad depletions in a few cases. The ion density perturbations and enhanced ion vertical velocity are first identified in the topside F region at ∼2200 LT, suggesting that the plasma bubbles start to form earlier at lower altitudes. The observations show that the plasma bubbles observed in the midnight–dawn sector may originate in the evening sector. The plasma bubbles continue growing for more than 3.3 h, and the decay time of the bubbles is also longer than 3.3 h. The continuous growth of the plasma bubbles in the evening sector and the slow decay after midnight determine that most plasma bubbles become fully developed and are easily detected in the midnight–dawn sector. The plasma flow inside the bubbles remains strongly upward throughout the entire nighttime. We propose the following mechanism for the generation of wide plasma bubbles and broad depletions. A series of plasma bubbles is generated through the Rayleigh-Taylor instability process over a large longitudinal range. These plasma bubbles grow and merge to form a wide bubble (width of ∼700 km as observed), and multiple regular and/or wide bubbles can further merge to form broad plasma depletions (thousands of kilometers in longitude). The ion vertical drift inside each plasma bubble is driven by the polarization electric field and remains large after the bubbles have merged. This mechanism provides a reasonable interpretation of the large upward ion drift velocity inside the broad depletion region.


Abstract. Sea spray aerosol particles are a recognised type of ice-nucleating particles under mixed-phase cloud conditions. Entities that are responsible for the heterogeneous ice nucleation ability include intact or fragmented cells of marine microorganisms as well as organic matter released by cell exudation. Only a small fraction of sea salt aerosol is transported to the upper troposphere, but there are indications from mass-spectrometric analyses of the residuals of sublimated cirrus particles that sea salt could also contribute to heterogeneous ice nucleation under cirrus conditions. Experimental studies on the heterogeneous ice nucleation ability of sea spray aerosol particles and their proxies at temperatures below 235 K are still scarce. In our article, we summarise previous measurements and present a new set of ice nucleation experiments at cirrus temperatures with particles generated from sea surface microlayer and surface seawater samples collected in three different regions of the Arctic and from a laboratory-grown diatom culture (Skeletonema marinoi). The particles were suspended in a large cloud chamber and ice formation was induced by expansion cooling. We confirmed that under cirrus conditions, apart from the ice-nucleating entities mentioned above, also crystalline inorganic salt constituents can contribute to heterogeneous ice formation. This takes place at temperatures below 220 K, where we observed in all experiments a strong immersion freezing mode due to the only partially deliquesced inorganic salts. The inferred ice nucleation active surface site densities for this nucleation mode reached a maximum of about 5·1010 m−2 at an ice saturation ratio of 1.3. Much smaller densities in the range of 108–109 m−2 were observed at temperatures between 220 and 235 K, where the inorganic salts fully deliquesced and only the organic matter and/or algal cells and cell debris could contribute to heterogeneous ice formation. These values are two orders of magnitude smaller than those previously reported for particles generated from microlayer suspensions collected in temperate and subtropical zones. While this difference might simply underline the strong variability of the amount of ice-nucleating entities in the sea surface microlayer across different geographical regions, we also discuss how far instrumental parameters like the aerosolisation method and the ice-nucleation measurement technique might affect the comparability of the results amongst different studies.


We propose that there exists a generic class of glass-forming systems that have competing states (of crystalline order or not) which are locally close in energy to the ground state (which is typically unique). Upon cooling, such systems exhibit patches (or clusters) of these competing states which become locally stable in the sense of having a relatively high local shear modulus. It is in between these clusters where aging, relaxation, and plasticity under strain can take place. We demonstrate explicitly that relaxation events that lead to aging occur where the local shear modulus is low (even negative) and result in an increase in the size of local patches of relative order. We examine the aging events closely from two points of view. On the one hand we show that they are very localized in real space, taking place outside the patches of relative order, and from the other point of view we show that they represent transitions from one local minimum in the potential surface to another. This picture offers a direct relation between structure and dynamics, ascribing the slowing down in glass-forming systems to the reduction in relative volume of the amorphous material which is liquidlike. While we agree with the well-known Adam-Gibbs proposition that the slowing down is due to an entropic squeeze (a dramatic decrease in the number of available configurations), we do not agree with the Adam-Gibbs (or the Volger-Fulcher) formulas that predict an infinite relaxation time at a finite temperature. Rather, we propose that generically there should be no singular crisis at any finite temperature: the relaxation time and the associated correlation length (average cluster size) increase at most superexponentially when the temperature is lowered.


There has been a growing interest for multi-camera systems and many interesting works have tried to tackle computer vision problems in this particular configuration. The general objective is to propose new multi-view oriented methods instead of applying limited monocular approaches independently for each viewpoint. The work in this thesis is an attempt to have a better understanding of the multi-view object segmentation problem and to propose an alternative approach making maximum use of the available information from different viewpoints.

Multiple view segmentation consists in segmenting objects simultaneously in several views. Classic monocular segmentation approaches reason on a single image and do not benefit from the presence of several viewpoints. A key issue in that respect is to ensure propagation of segmentation information between views while minimizing complexity and computational cost. In this work, we first investigate the idea that examining measurements at the projections of a sparse set of 3D points is sufficient to achieve this goal. The proposed algorithm softly assigns each of these 3D samples to the scene background if it projects on the background region in at least one view, or to the foreground if it projects on foreground region in all views. A complete probabilistic framework is proposed to estimate foreground/background color models and the method is tested on various datasets from state of the art.

Two different extensions of the sparse 3D sampling segmentation framework are proposed in two scenarios. In the first, we show the flexibility of the sparse sampling framework, by using variational inference to integrate Gaussian mixture models as appearance models. In the second scenario, we propose a study of how to incorporate depth measurements in multi-view segmentation. We present a quantitative evaluation, showing that typical color-based segmentation robustness issues due to color-space ambiguity between foreground and background, can be at least partially mitigated by using depth, and that multi-view color depth segmentation also improves over monocular color depth segmentation strategies.

The various tests also showed the limitations of the proposed 3D sparse sampling approach which was the motivation to propose a new method based on a richer description of image regions using superpixels. This model, that expresses more subtle relationships of the problem trough a graph construction linking superpixels and 3D samples, is one of the contributions of this work. In this new framework, time related information is also integrated. With static views, results compete with state of the art methods but they are achieved with significantly fewer viewpoints. Results on videos demonstrate the benefit of segmentation propagation through geometric and temporal cues.

Finally, the last part of the thesis explores the possibilities of tracking in uncalibrated multi-view scenarios. A summary of existing methods in this field is presented, in both mono-camera and multi-camera scenarios. We investigate the potential of using self-similarity matrices to describe and compare motion in the context of multi-view tracking.


This article deals with internal and external coping strategies necessary if students with learning disabilities, including attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are to succeed in college. The authors review the current situation faced by these students and then outline various coping strategies that have proved successful for students during their college years. Introduction The foundation for this article was a presentation by a college student with learning disabilities to a Delta Kappa Gamma chapter* The student came to understand what was necessary to cope and succeed in college, namely that the most important accommodations were ones she had to make within herself. For example, she learned it is actually more important to take the time needed to prepare for a test than to depend on teachers giving more time to take tests. This article summarizes her thoughts after she succeeded in college as an individual with disabilities. Her aunt, a university professor with 20-plus years working with college students with learning disabilities and other specialized educational needs, helped the student - now a graduate - polish this written version of her experience to help ease the way for other college students, their families, and their professors. Many observations in this article are based on the combined personal experiences of the graduate and her mentor-aunt. Both have talked and worked extensively with students and others who have learning disabilities - individuals who were invaluable sources of information on personal coping methods that work. The Current Situation Today many freshmen entering college have learning disabilities, but they can still reasonably expect to have success in their academic endeavors even though it may not be an easy task. These students may have to work twice as hard as students without disabilities to maintain the grade point average needed to remain in school. Nevertheless, the success of many of these students clearly demonstrates that academic success is possible in spite of learning disabilities. Most professors now understand the challenges students with learning disabilities may encounter and are willing to work with them to overcome these difficulties. Of course, knowledge of problems by the students and their professors does not make these challenges disappear, and students with learning disabilities too often find the transition from the more structured high school environment to a college setting (which can be difficult even for students with no learning problems) particularly daunting. Students new to college are in a strange setting, without the support of family and friends, and find themselves in the position, many for the very first time, of needing to advocate for themselves. Their professors must be made aware of their difficulties before any necessary accommodations can be given. These students time and again require personal and institutional adjustments if they are to remain and - even more importantly - succeed in college. Furthermore, it is the students who must take the initiative and learn to advocate for themselves - requesting modifications in learning environments, adopting new personal strategies and work habits, and, if necessary, seeking medical help to cope with college work. A combination of external and internal coping methods is usually the most effective way for these students to adapt to the new environment, and implementing these strategies should begin before the first class. Once students have class schedules, they should meet with their professors to explain in detail their needs and any physical accommodations necessary in the classroom. Discussing learning disabilities with professors is of paramount importance, At this time, they can also present a letter verifying their disability from student support services, now part of the academic structure at most colleges and universities. …


ABSTRACT The study objective was to assess the profile of aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the aquatic environment of Lake Manzala and to determine the potential sources and effects of these hydrocarbons. To reach these objectives 24 surface sediment and 24 tilapia fish were collected and analyzed using GC-FID and GC-MS. The highest concentrations for n-alkanes (∑n-C15–35) (19,625 ng g−1) and PAHs (∑45PAHs) (5,153 ng g−1) were found in sediments collected from Bahr Al-Baqar drain while Al-Temsah and Al-Hamra sites contained the lowest concentrations. Different diagnostic molecular ratios for hydrocarbons were used to evaluate sources of the hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons were found to have differing proportions of petrogenic, pyrogenic, and biogenic sources. Comparison to sediment quality guidelines indicated PAHs were below the effect range low (ERL) with the exception of acenaphthene, fluorine, and ∑45PAHs in Bahr Al-Baqar drain sediments. Tissue samples had moderate PAH concentrations for ∑45PAHs ranging from 302.5 ng g−1 West of Bashteer (S3) to 596 ng g−1 in Legam (S5). Since fish metabolize PAH quickly, their detection suggest continual or very recent exposure. The PAH in sediment and fish from Lake Manzala are at a low or below level of environmental concern.


Using data from field surveys of maize farmers in Lao People's Democratic Republic , herders in Mongolia, and fruit farmers in Uzbekistan, this paper presents new evidence concerning the relationship between cooperative membership and producer sales prices. Controlling for covariates previously considered in the literature, and using a range of estimation methods to control for alternative sources of endogeneity bias, the analysis finds three key empirical results that are robust to country, product and estimation methods for farmers in Lao People's Democratic Republic and Uzbekistan. First, it documents positive relationships between land size under cultivation and farmer sales prices, highlighting the differential marketing challenges faced by smallholder farmers. Second, the results indicate that cooperative membership approximately offsets the relative price disadvantages associated with small farm size. Third, evidence is reported that failing to control for self-selection produces estimates that exhibit a significant downward bias for the effects of cooperatives on farmer sales prices. In contrast to the above results, no statistically significant relationships were found between average sales prices reported by Mongolian herders and either herd size or membership of producer cooperatives.


We examined family and neighborhood sources of socioeconomic inequality in children's reading and mathematics achievement using data from the 2000–2001 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey. To describe inequality in achievement scores, we used Gini coefficients and concentration indices and multilevel regression models. We found no inequality in children's achievement by family income when other variables in the model were held constant. Mother's reading scores and average neighborhood levels of income accounted for the largest proportion of inequality in children's achievement. Neighborhood economic status appears to be strongly associated with children's skills acquisition.


This paper discusses the design of 77-106 GHz Colpitts VCOs fabricated in two generations of SiGe BiCMOS technology, with MOS and HBT varactors, and with integrated inductors. Based on a study of the optimal biasing conditions for minimum phase noise, it is shown that VCOs can be used to monitor the mm-wave noise performance of SiGe HBTs. Measurements show a 106 GHz VCO operating from 2.5 V with phase noise of -101.3 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, which delivers +2.5 dBm of differential output power at 25degC, with operation verified up to 125degC. A BiCMOS VCO with a differential MOS-HBT cascode output buffer using 130 nm MOSFETs delivers +10.5 dBm of output power at 87 GHz.


The development of digital joints of chick embryo paralyzed with dacamethonium bromide and of joints in chick embryo limb buds cultured on chorioallantoic membranes was studied. The digital joints of 45 paralyzed and 40 control embryos and the joints of 37 grafts and 30 control legs were examined histologically. Six preselected grafts were studied by electron microscope. Our results demonstrate that paralysis does not completely inhibit the early stages of joint clefting. In many paralysis does not completely inhibit the early stages of joint clefting. In many paralyzed embryos, small clefts appeared in the periphery and occasionally in the central part of the interzone. Unlike in normal embryos, they rapidly disappeared, inducing fusions across the joints. Early, 2-day paralysis during a period of normal clefting inhibited irreversibly the development of the articular cavity that failed to appear after a cessation of the drug. Paralysis initiated in older embryos caused rapid regression and partial fibrous ankylosis of previously fully differentiated joints. Grafts from 4- to 6-day-old embryos usually failed to develop a full range of skeletal segments. Normal development of skeletal segments occurred in grafts from older donors. The articular cavity failed to develop in almost all grafts. Early cavitation accompanied by characteristic cell changes was found in a few joints. These cellular changes are suggestive of an intrinsic mechanism of early cavitation, but joint motion is required for the full differentiation and maintenance of the joint cavity.


This paper discusses aspects of harmonisation of regulatory structures (occupational, product approval etc) between jurisdictions. The primary focus is on trans-national arrangements, but many of the issues also apply to relations between central and regional/local government, and between regional/local governments. The paper addresses a taxonomy of harmonisation approaches, who to harmonise with, how far and in what areas, and a range of implementation issues, before reviewing some relevant EU examples, outlining existing trans-Tasman regulatory relationships and current trans-Tasman harmonisation proposals, and noting some issues relevant to local government. It does not address wider economic integration issues or currency or political union.


Abstract : The Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (ROA) was founded in 1758 to increase the knowledge of the Spanish Navy's midshipmen in astronomy matters. Since then, the Observatory has been the astronomical center of the Spanish Navy and it is the oldest Spanish observatory. Jorge Juan, the Spanish Navy Officer, who founded the Observatory, participated in the expedition to Peru to measure the length of one degree of arc of a meridian circle organized by the Royal Academie des Sciences & Paris. Its activities have been historically related to astrometry, ephemerides, geophysics, and the time and frequency fields. The Astronomy Department was charged with maintaining the astronomical and civil time scales. It was also responsible for synchronizing the master clocks of the Spanish warships before they left port. In 1972, an independent department was founded to maintain the time scales using physical standards. A few years later this Time Department (Seccion de Hora) received its first atomic clocks. Seccion & Hora has been contributing to BIPM for TAI since these former days. In this paper we will discuss the activities of Seccion de Hora in the time and frequency fields, and as depository of the Spanish time and frequency standards. These activities include time scale algorithm studies and time transfer using single-channel and multichannel GPS receivers, geodetic GPS receivers, and TWSTT. ROA is an active and permanent participant in international cooperation in time and frequency activities. In this paper, an overview of the activities on time and frequency fields at ROA will be given, as well as some of the investigations in fields of our interest.


The article presents results of treatment of bleeding gastroduodenal ulcers in 1010 patients for 23 years. The active temporizing policy during the first 8 years resulted in 8.1% lethality while the active methods gave 8.24% lethality in six times greater number of patients. In the active policy urgent and emergency operations were performed on 43.6% of the patients with postoperative lethality 12.9%. Lethality among non-operated patients was 4.6%. Using the active surgical methods allowed lethality to be substantially decreased in the group of non-operated patients. The postoperative lethality was stabilized due to a less amount of recurrent bleedings and of "operations of despair". Recommendations are given to restrict the indications for Billroth-2 gastric resections because of a great risk of incompetent stump of the duodenum. Wider using the organ-saving operations is recommended, especially in elderly patients and against the background of haemorrhagic shock. The growing amount of patients with ulcerous gastroduodenal bleedings (which has become 2.4 times greater for the recent 15 years) makes further investigations in this direction very actual.


We introduce data structures called responsibility set and kernel. We present an algorithm FCRK, which is a modification of FC that maintains these structures and uses them for pruning of the search space. According to our experimental evaluation, FC-RK outperforms FC-CBJ on constraint networks encoding graph k-coloring instances and on non-dense random binary constraint networks.


Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant disease in women, with most patients dying from metastasis to distant organs, making discovery of novel metastasis biomarkers and therapeutic targets imperative. Extracellular matrix (ECM)-related adhesion proteins as well as tumor matrix stiffness are important determinants for metastasis. As traditional two-dimensional culture does not take into account ECM stiffness, we employed 3-dimensional collagen I gels of increasing concentration and stiffness to embed BC cells of different invasiveness (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-231-LM2) or tumor spheroids. We tested the expression of cell-ECM adhesion proteins and found that Ras Suppressor-1 (RSU-1) is significantly upregulated in increased stiffness conditions. Interestingly, RSU-1 siRNA-mediated silencing inhibited Urokinase Plasminogen Activator, and metalloproteinase-13, whereas tumor spheroids formed from RSU-1-depleted cells lost their invasive capacity in all cell lines and stiffness conditions. Kaplan-Meier survival plot analysis corroborated our findings showing that high RSU-1 expression is associated with poor prognosis for distant metastasis-free and remission-free survival in BC patients. Taken together, our results indicate the important role of RSU-1 in BC metastasis and set the foundations for its validation as potential BC metastasis marker.


This paper investigates an area of political discourse that has hitherto existed in an analytic 'black box': the constituency office. We focus on the interactions between ordinary British people as they engage directly in 'political' discussions with their Member of Parliament. While the majority of surgery talk surrounds complaints about services, we focus on sequences of talk in which either citizens or the MP make 'political' topics relevant. Eighty consultations were video-recorded, anonymized and transcribed, and the data analysed using conversation analysis. We found that MP-initiated political comments portray the government as aligned with constituents' needs, whereas constituents use political comments largely to criticize the government. Constituents privilege the interactional contingencies over other issues. Overall, the paper contributes to our understanding of how constituents navigate interactional and political contingencies in interactions with their representative.


Acoustic fluid inclusion decrepitometry was applied to five Archean and 14 Palaeoproterozoic gold deposits in order to evaluate the applicability of the method in gold (Au) exploration. The sample material consists mostly of Au–sulphide-bearing and barren quartz veins. The deposits are characterized by decrepigrams and fluid inclusion geochemistry. The decrepigrams exhibit different regional characteristics for the different domains but within these domains or single ore provinces they are usually very uniform and coherent. The decrepigrams of mineralized and barren quartz veins show recognizable differences in their discrimination in areas where this can rarely be discerned by mere visual observation. Furthermore, the highest concentration of Au usually correlates with the peak frequency of gaseous (CO2 and CH4) fluid inclusions which decrepitate at temperatures below 350°C, and with the highest amount of other fluid inclusion types (H2O–CO2±CH4 and H2O), which decrepitate over a wide range at temperatures above 350°C. These results show that careful collection and assessment of decrepitation data may play a small but constructive role in Au exploration.


Most computer-aided software engineering (CASE) products provide visualization utility to view software artefacts developed. Nevertheless, existing methods or approaches in such tools are limited to generating the views or component dependencies that is focusing on 'what' the output of reverse engineering process. The online help provided by the tools only indicate 'how' to use the tools to generate the views. Since existing tools mostly target for experienced software engineers, they tend to overlook the need of explaining 'why' the output is recommended or not with regard to software engineering principles. Hence we propose tutor-based software visualization (TubVis) approach in SoVis tool that analyses software artefacts pertaining to software engineering best practices inputted by the experts and generate a set of recommendations regarding the design and coding for a novices. We anticipate TubVis can improve the quality of software design and program comprehension by combining practical and theoretical aspects of software engineering education in a software visualization tool.


Introduction/background The prevalence of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) in the Irish people aged 15–35 years is estimated at 2.68 per 100,000/yr. Over 1/3 of SCD deaths are attributed to cardiomyopathies which are frequently inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, meaning 1st degree relatives have a 50% chance of being affected. Population screening for these conditions is challenging due to low prevalence, genetic heterogeneity and variable penetrance, along with insensitive diagnostic tools. Conventional echocardiography is an accepted tool in screening, however sensitivity varies considerably. Gadolinium contrast cardiac MRI (gCMR) in this population has not previously been evaluated. Hypotheses The addition of gCMR as standard evaluation of 1st degree relatives of SCD victims will aid in identification of affected relatives at an earlier stage and improve our ability to prevent further deaths. Methods This is a single center observational study of first degree relatives of SCD victims due to Cardiomyopathy. Assessment compromised a history, family pedigree, electrocardiogram (ECG), ambulatory ECG monitoring (Holter), exercise testing (EST), 2-Dimensional Echocardiogram (ECHO), signal average ECG (SAECG), and gCMR. All results interpreted by experienced physicians, and where necessary expert opinion from relevant specialities was sought. Patients were excluded from the study if they were aged below 16 years, pregnant or breastfeeding, or had renal impairment GFR Results 102 individuals were included. 41 had abnormal gCMR (A-gCMR). Of these 54% had only structural abnormalities and almost 1/3 had structural abnormality with fibrosis as demonstrated by late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). 6 individuals had fibrosis only – ie no other structural findings. CMR and ECHO agreed on 68% of results. gCMR changed the diagnosis completely in 30 individuals. gCMR identified a new diagnosis in 14% of individuals whose ECHO was reported as being normal. 38% of these new diagnoses were based on the identification of LGE. gCMR was normal in 17% whose ECHO was reported to be abnormal (false positive ECHO) with most common issue being over-diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction. A-gCMR positively correlated with abnormalities on the other non-imaging investigations compared with A-ECHO (an additional 14% had abnormal ECG and 7% had abnormalities on all 3 of ECG, EST and Holter). Conclusion Addition of contrast enhanced CMR improves diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity compared to ECHO used in conventional screening in the 1st degree relatives of SCD due to Cardiomyopathy. Acknowledgment The Research was funded by Meath foundation The Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Tallaght Dublin 24.


Introduction: Potent anti-inflammatory seed bioactives through dual inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and lipoxygenase (LOX)-3 were evaluated by a computational approach, routinely used to reduce cost and time in drug discovery. Methods: The strategy employed in this study could be split into the two categories of screening and docking. Results: The analysis resulted in seven Lipinski compliant hits (epicatechin, 3, 4-Dihydroxy phenyl acetic acid, gallic acid, 3, 4-Dihydroxy benzoate, procyanidin, ascorbic acid, oxacyclohexadecan-2-one, 16 ethyl). They were docked to the crystal structure of COX-2; 1PXX and LOX-3; 1JNQ and scored to identify structurally novel ligands that make similar interaction to the known ligands (diclofenac) and many have different interactions with other parts of the binding sites on crystal structure. These ligands were prepared by following the appropriate procedures and in silico molecular docking analysis were performed to by a FleX X tool. 3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl acetic acid and epicatechin had the highest binding energy with hydrogen bonding to crucial SER530 and TYR385 amino acid residues of COX-2. Gallic acid and epicatechin are promising lead compounds for LOX-3 inhibition with a binding pose depicting hydrogen bonding to ASP766, GLN716 and GLN514 were encouraging. In vivo enzyme inhibition studies recorded microgram/mL for 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl acetic acid and epicatechin for inhibiting COX-2 were 28 and 35.25 microgram/mL respectively in comparison to diclofenac with 1.3 microgram/ mL (p ≤ 0.05). Gallic acid and epicatechin inhibited LOX-3 with IC50 of 25 and 42 microgram/mL respectively in comparison to diclofenac with 1.5 microgram/mL (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: The current data supports the presence of potent bioactives naturally and conclusive proof could be provided by further clinical studies.


foreign investment regime. Existing policies of government regulation of foreign investment would have to be altered completely and in their place would have to be introduced policies for the protection of foreign investors. By truncating the powers of nation-states, the proposed foreign investment regime raises several important issues. One critical question relates to the implications of lifting of controls over the movement of all forms of capital. Another fundamental issue is the future of the post-war multilateral framework built essentially around sovereign states having inviolable rights over their economic domains.


Paper-based analytical devices (PADs) can provide a quick, inexpensive and simple detection method for medical diagnostics. The aim of this research is to better understand the antibody-antigen interactions of non-ABO and non-RhD phenotypes in order to develop a robust test which can uniformly detect all blood types using paper diagnostics. However, methods quantifying these antibody-antigen interactions are limited. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) can quantify interactions between biomolecules. In this thesis a fully regenerable, multi-functional platform for quantitative blood group phenotyping via SPR detection was achieved for the first time by covalently immobilizing an antibody, anti-human IgG, to the chip surface.


Fluorescent-SiC (f-SiC), which contains donor and acceptor impurities with optimum concentrations, has high conversion efficiency from NUV to visible light caused by donor-acceptor-pair (DAP) recombination. This material can be used as a substrate for a near UV light-emitting diode (LED) stack, and leads to monolithic white LED device with suitable spectral property for general lighting applications. In this paper, we describe basic technologies of the white LED, such as optical properties of f-SiC substrate, and epitaxial growth of NUV stack on the f-SiC substrate.


1. Strawberry Creek (37°52′ N; 122°15′ W) is the major focus of open space on the University of California, Berkeley (Alameda County, California, USA) campus; it provides visual amenity and variety, riparian and wildlife habitat, and educational and recreational opportunities.

2. Since the beginning of this century, urbanization of the catchment, channel alteration and water quality degradation combined to cause deterioration of the creek's habitat and overall environmental quality; this was manifested by a marked absence of flora and fauna, obvious water pollution and severe erosion.

3. In 1987 a restoration project was undertaken that focused on water-pollution and erosion-control measures. In 1989, native three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) were successfully reintroduced. Family Biotic Index scores for the macroinvertebrate community indicated a change from the 'poor' water quality conditions in 1986 to 'good' water quality in 1991.

4. Environmental education programmes now involve over 1500 students who use the creek each year in laboratory exercises; a popular natural history and conservation walking-tour guidebook has also been prepared.

5. On-going restoration efforts include additional reintroductions of other native species, further environmental education efforts and monitoring.

6. Obstacles and key factors that led to the successful implementation of this project are presented to assist in implementing similar ecological restoration projects of urban streams.


This thesis is based on a case study of Tanzanian youths' political participation in urban Mwanza. The purpose of this study is to examine how urban youths understand their participation in various political activities in an emerging democracy like Tanzania. The research question guiding the study is how youths understand and value voting in elections in comparison to other forms of political participation. The study focuses on three different political activities; to vote, to contact a politician and to participate in a demonstration. The three political activities are combined with Verba et al.'s (1995) theory of the attributes of political activities into a theoretical analysis model. The thesis uses a qualitative methodology based on 19 semi-structured interviews with Tanzanian youths living in urban Mwanza. The results indicated that the youths in Mwanza understood voting as their prime opportunity to communicate their political voices to politicians. However, the youths expressed that political activities beyond voting facilitate them with opportunities to communicate more specific political messages to politicians multiple times.


Despite the prevalence and psychological toll of social phobia, it has only recently been systematically studied. Although major advances in pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapies have added to treatment options available for these patients, social phobia still goes unrecognized and untreated. The author examines how particular countertransference reactions to patients may interfere with the recognition and subsequent treatment of social phobia. She notes that the psychodynamic literature has also neglected this topic, although aspects of social phobia are imbedded in previously described neurotic or characterologically disturbed patients. Two case examples are presented that explore psychodynamic issues related to shame, aggression, trauma, and unresolved grief in the etiology of social phobia. The author believes that treatments that more fully integrate psychodynamic principles with pharmacological treatment and cognitive-behavioral methods will be efficacious in treating this diverse group of patients.


Magnetic RAM (MRAM) is a new memory technology with access and cost characteristics comparable to those of conventional dynamic RAM (DRAM) and the non-volatility of magnetic media such as disk. Simply replacing DRAM with MRAM will make main memory non-volatile, but it will not improve file system performance. However, effective use of MRAM in a file system has the potential to significantly improve performance over existing file systems. The HeRMES file system will use MRAM to dramatically improve file system performance by using it as a permanent store for both file system data and metadata. In particular, metadata operations, which make up over 50% of all file system requests [14], are nearly free in HeRMES because they do not require any disk accesses. Data requests will also be faster, both because of increased metadata request speed and because using MRAM as a non-volatile cache will allow HeRMES to better optimize data placement on disk. Though MRAM capacity is too small to replace disk entirely, HeRMES will use MRAM to provide high-speed access to relatively small units of data and metadata, leaving most file data stored on disk.


This article is a rejoinder to a recent paper in this journal by van der Plicht et al. (2009) who use radiocarbon determinations from several sites in Israel, Italy, Spain, and Tunisia to advocate a High Chronology system for the entire Mediterranean Basin. We contend that they reached mistaken conclusions due to problematic selection of sites and data. We argue that a reliable way to provide absolute dates for the Iron Age in the central and western Mediterranean is by employing a combination of well-identified Greek pottery found in well-stratified sites and radiometric results from short-lived samples. For the time being, this combination exists only in the Levant, and provides an anchor for Greek chronology, which supports the Conventional Chronology for the Aegean Basin, which corresponds to the Low Chronology in the Levant.


Directional solidification techniques have been applied to produce Ni based intermetallic alloys with preferentially oriented columnar crystals extended along the complete length and parallel to the solidification direction. Enhanced ductility is expected from such alloys. In this paper we present the research results concerning the application of this technique to some complex Ni3Al- Fe-B alloys obtained from compacted mixtures of elemental powders. The corresponding master alloys have been obtained in a vacuum induction furnace by the known Exo-Melt process [1]. The directional solidification of these alloys was subsequently performed on cylindrical samples, at two solidification rates, 30 and 15 mm/h. The influence of the rate and composition used on the dimensional variations, densities, microstructure, constituent phases and lattice parameters, as well as on the surface chemical composition have been documented and are presented in the paper.


Recent research on status and group productivity has highlighted that status hierarchies encourage contributions to group efforts by rewarding contributors with enhanced status. However, that and other work has typically assumed that status hierarchies are widely agreed-upon among group members. Here we challenge this assumption, proposing that groups vary in their level of hierarchical consensus and that when groups fail to achieve high agreement, the status rewards motivating contributions are attenuated, undermining group performance. Results of two studies of task groups support our claims. We observed that status disagreements were quite common, particularly those in which two group members both viewed themselves as higher in status than the other, and that more dominant individuals were most likely to engage in these types of disagreements. Further, we found that such status disagreements led to diminished group performance and that this effect was driven by reduced contributions from the group members involved. These findings suggest that status consensus can vary substantially across groups, and that groups that are able to successfully coalesce around agreed-upon status hierarchies benefit from increased contributions and performance.


Chirality is important to chemistry, biology and optoelectronic materials. The study on chirality has lasted for more than 170 years since its discovery. Recently, chiral materials with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) have attracted increasing interest because of their fascinating photophysical properties. In this review, we discussed the recent development of chiral materials with AIE properties, including their molecular structures, self-assembly and functions. Generally, the most effective strategy to design a chiral AIE luminogen (AIEgen) is to attach a chiral scaffold to an AIE-active fluorophore through covalent bonds. Moreover, some propeller-like or shell-like AIEgens without chiral units exhibit latent chirality upon mirror image symmetry breaking. The chirality of achiral AIEgens can also be induced by some optically active molecules through non-covalent interactions. The introduction of an AIE unit into chiral materials can enhance the efficiency of their circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) in the solid state and the dissymmetric factors of their helical architectures formed through self-assembly. Thus, highly efficient circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CPOLEDs) with AIE characteristics are developed and show great potential in 3D displays. Chiral AIEgens are also widely utilized as "turn on" sensors for rapid enantioselective determination of chiral reagents. It is anticipated that the present review can entice readers to realize the importance of chirality and attract much more chemists to contribute their efforts to chirality and AIE study.


Elaioconiosis is a work-related acneiform dermatosis which affects the exposed skin of individuals working with oils or greases. Its incidence has decreased with the introduction of personal protective equipment, personal hygiene measures and the cleaning of work clothes. Although not a rare disease, elaioconiosis is seldom reported in the literature, particularly in Brazil. Sufferers need to take time off work to proceed with the prolonged treatment to resolve the lesions caused by this condition