The potential for using germline genome editing (GGE) in humans has garnered a lot of attention, both for its scientific possibilities as well as for the ethical, legal, and social challenges it ignites. The ethical debate has focused primarily on the suggestions of using GGE to establish a pregnancy (i.e., to offer it in a clinical setting), which is, to date, illegal in many jurisdictions. The use of GGE in research (where a pregnancy would not be established) has received much less attention, despite the fact that it raises serious ethical and social issues as well. Herein, we report on the analysis of informed consent forms for egg and sperm donation used in a widely publicized study where genome editing was used to correct a disease-causing genetic mutation in human embryos. Importantly, embryos were created using eggs and sperm obtained specifically for these experiments. The analysis indicates deficiencies in how the forms addressed various issues, including limited and potentially misleading information about the sensitive nature of the study, the lack of an explicit mention of genomic sequencing, as well as the poor readability of the forms. Furthermore, the arguably high compensation of U.S.$5,000 for egg donors raises questions about undue inducement to participate in research. Moreover, since the procurement of eggs involves serious health risks, it may be questioned whether research requiring such a procedure should be pursued. If such experiments are continued, donors should be informed about all relevant aspects in order to make informed decisions about participating.


In recent times, the treatment of actual low-medium strength domestic wastewater using aerobic granulation has been proposed as a promising alternative to replace the conventional activated sludge system. Numerous studies have been successfully carried out to validate the feasibility of aerobic granulation for the treatment of various high strength wastewater types. However, relatively little research has been reported on aerobic granulation treating actual low-medium strength domestic wastewater, due to its nature of low and complex substrate availability that does not favor the growth of aerobic granules. In this review, past experiences in treating the actual low-medium strength domestic wastewater at lab-, pilot- and full-scale levels, using aerobic granulation technology have been gathered and critically discussed, including studies using continuous flow reactors. The properties and treatment ability of aerobic granules as well as the challenges faced by previous researchers are also documented. Lastly, strategies to optimise and enhance aerobic granulation in actual low-medium strength domestic wastewater treatment are proposed, so that they can serve as a guideline for future research and real applications.


Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) with uniform wall thickness were synthesized by a solid-liquid reaction route. Calcium carbide block and carbon tetrachloride as double carbon sources were enclosed in a 100ml stainless steel autoclave at 400°C for 8 hours. The fabricated products were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Transmission electron microscope (TEM). The research results indicate that the synthesized CNTs have lengths on the order of 10μm and external diameters in the range of 120-200nm. The nanotubes are typically the uniform inner diameters of 70nm and grow in the same direction. The growth mechanism is simply discussed.


Currently in Canada, the physical punishment of children is permitted by law, yet its social undesirability continues to grow. As a result, many professionals struggle with advising parents about this practice and with drawing a distinction between physical punishment and physical abuse. The three commonly used criteria for demarcating abuse - physical injury, parental intent, and social norms - are examined. It is suggested that unambiguous messages about the risk of harm associated with the use of physical punishment should be provided by professionals to better protect children and support parents.


News diffusion prediction aims to predict a sequence of news sites which will quote a particular piece of news. Most of previous propagation models make efforts to estimate propagation probabilities along observed links and ignore the characteristics of news diffusion processes, and they fail to capture the implicit relationships between news sites. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to model the news diffusion processes in a continuous space and take the attributes of news into account. Experiments performed on a real-world news dataset show that our model can take advantage of news' attributes and predict news diffusion accurately.


As the risk of diseases diabetes and hypertension increases, machine learning algorithms are being utilized to improve early stage diagnosis. This study proposes a Hybrid Prediction Model (HPM), which can provide early prediction of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension based on input risk-factors from individuals. The proposed HPM consists of Density-based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN)-based outlier detection to remove the outlier data, Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique (SMOTE) to balance the distribution of class, and Random Forest (RF) to classify the diseases. Three benchmark datasets were utilized to predict the risk of diabetes and hypertension at the initial stage. The result showed that by integrating DBSCAN-based outlier detection, SMOTE, and RF, diabetes and hypertension could be successfully predicted. The proposed HPM provided the best performance result as compared to other models for predicting diabetes as well as hypertension. Furthermore, our study has demonstrated that the proposed HPM can be applied in real cases in the IoT-based Health-care Monitoring System, so that the input risk-factors from end-user android application can be stored and analyzed in a secure remote server. The prediction result from the proposed HPM can be accessed by users through an Android application; thus, it is expected to provide an effective way to find the risk of diabetes and hypertension at the initial stage.


In late 2020 and the first semester of 2021, in Santiago de Chile, five women researchers who work with qualitative methodologies, based on their reflections on how the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on their doctoral research or their role as thesis advisors, conducted a reflective exploration of the conditions and challenges for qualitative research amid a global crisis. In this context, they convene once per week to explore how other researchers conduct and document their research processes, based on a purposive and thorough bibliographic exploration of qualitative studies on the pandemic and remote methods published in qualitative research journals. During these meetings, they reflect on and analyze the impacts and challenges of research in today's world, identifying possibilities and challenges in the methodological and ethical domains. Thus, they organize the present paper around two axes: one on the effects of the pandemic on academic and research practices, in general terms, and another on the specific methodological challenges facing qualitative research during the pandemic. These challenges are largely caused by difficulties in accessing and recruiting participants; the conditions of participation, influenced by vulnerabilities or barriers that constitute factors of inequality; the data production strategies and methodologies used in virtual contexts; ethical considerations; and the effects of the pandemic context on quality and rigor criteria. The article concludes with reflections and questions on the meanings, underlying logic, and practices of qualitative research, which are interrogated and re-signified in light of the COVID-19 pandemic while also illuminating research in post-pandemic settings.


The modern automobile relies on numerous electronic control units communicating over the de facto standard of the controller area network (CAN) bus. This communication network was not developed with cybersecurity in mind. Many methods based on constant time intervals between messages have been proposed to address this lack of security issue with the CAN bus. However, these existing methods may struggle to handle variable time intervals between messages during transitions of vehicle driving modes. This paper proposes a simple and cost-effective method to ensure the security of the CAN bus that is based on constant message frequencies across vehicle driving modes. This proposed method does not require any modifications on the existing CAN bus and it is designed with the intent for efficient execution in platforms with very limited computational resources. Test results with the proposed method against two different vehicles and a frequency domain analysis are also presented in the paper.


To couple the energy present in the electrochemical proton gradient, established across the mitochondrial membrane by the respiratory chain, to the formation of ATP from ADP and Pi, ATP-synthase goes through a sequence of coordinated conformational changes of its major subunits (α, β). These changes are induced by the rotation of the γ subunit driven by the translocation of protons through the c subunit of the membrane portion of the enzyme. During this process, the F1-portion of the ATP-synthase adopts at least two major conformations depending on the occupancy of the β subunits: one with two nucleotides, the other with three. In the two-nucleotide structure, the empty β subunit adopts an open conformation that is highly different from the other conformations of β subunits: tight, loose and closed. The three-dimensional structures of the F1-ATPase in each of these two major conformations provide a framework for understanding the mechanism of energy coupling by the enzyme. The energetics associated with two different models of the reaction steps, analysed using molecular dynamics calculations, show that three-nucleotide intermediates do not occur in configurations with an open β subunit; instead, they are stabilized by completing a jaw-like motion that closes the β subunit around the nucleotide. Consequently, the energy driven, major conformational change takes place with the β subunits in the tight, loose and closed conformation.


Marginal land is considered promising for biomass production. However, understanding on biomass crop growth and total biofuel production from this land type is very limited. This study evaluated potential production of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus) on marginal lands in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. A soil and water assessment tool model with detailed representation of marginal lands and their suitability for growth of the 2 grasses was setup. Marginal land was defined as cropland and grassland with land capability class from 3 to 8. All marginal lands were included as new land covers in the land use map and were preserved when HRUs were defined. The soil and water assessment tool model was calibrated for flow at 13 sites within the Upper Mississippi River Basin region at monthly scale. The predicted biomass by growing switchgrass and Miscanthus on marginal lands in the study area can produce up to 37% of the 132 × 109 L biofuel goal set by the 2010 Energy Independence and Security Act in the USA. The simulated flow was lower when marginal lands were converted to grow perennial bioenergy crops. The results from this study improved our understanding on growth of perennial crops on marginal land and their contributions to biofuel development.


Despite the near universal recognition that roads negatively affect wildlife, the mechanisms that elicit animal responses to roads are often ambiguous or poorly understood. We conducted a multi-year, multi-season study to assess the relative influence of roads on elk (Cervus elaphus) in a human-dominated landscape in South Dakota. We evaluated the effects of habitat covariates including security cover, forage quality, distance to roads (primary, secondary, and tertiary), and visibility from roads at the home range scale. We radio-collared 28 elk (21 adult females and 7 adult males) and calculated seasonal (winter, spring, summer, and autumn) utilization distributions (UDs). We assigned habitat covariates to use percentiles within the UDs (1% increments; from 1 to 98 percentiles) and used spatially explicit mixed linear regression to model the relationship between use percentile and habitat covariates. For each season and sex, we evaluated 15 candidate models and used Akaike's Information Criterion weights (ωi) to identify top-ranking models. We plotted influential coefficients from these models with 95% confidence intervals to examine the magnitude of effects. Our analysis revealed fundamental differences in response to roads, by road type, between sexes, and across seasons. Male elk established home ranges near roads devoid of vehicle traffic in winter, spring, and autumn. In summer, coinciding with peak vehicle traffic levels, male elk reduced their use of habitat that was both visible from and close to primary roads. Female elk subherds similarly responded to primary roads in spring and autumn, during times of year when they were calving and mating, respectively. In spring and summer, female elk subherds selected habitat near roads that were closed to vehicle traffic. Forage quality and security cover were influential in the periphery (>50th use percentile) of elk home ranges, whereas road covariates were more influential towards the core of elk home ranges. This analysis further demonstrates the utility of visibility from road metrics and suggests that the retention of vegetation structures that screen visibility potential from roads could be important components of elk management strategies. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.


EBV infection in humans induces CD8+ T cell memory to viral epitopes derived from both lytic and latent cycle Ags. We have analyzed the relationship between the phenotype and function of the memory pool of T cells specific for these Ags. Lytic epitope-specific populations were heterogeneous in terms of CD45RO/RA and CD28 expression, whereas latent epitope-specific populations were uniformly CD45RO+ and CD28+, consistent with the higher antigenic challenge from lytic epitopes driving some memory cells toward a CD45RA+, CD28− phenotype. However, both types of memory population showed immediate epitope-specific cytotoxicity and type 1 cytokine production in ex vivo assays. Cytotoxic function was not associated with preactivated T cells, as EBV-specific populations were negative for activation markers such as CD69 or CD38, nor could cytotoxic function be ascribed to CD27− or CD56+ subsets, as such cells were not detected in EBV-specific memory. Furthermore, cytotoxicity was not limited to CD45RA+ and/or CD28− fractions, but also was observed in CD45RO+, CD28+ populations in lytic and latent epitope-specific memory. Cytokine (IFN-γ, TNF-α) responses, measured by intracytoplasmic staining after peptide stimulation, also were detectable in CD45RO+ and RA+ subsets as well as CD28+ and CD28− subsets. Of other markers that were heterogeneous in both lytic and latent epitope populations, CCR7 gave the best discrimination of functionality; thus, CCR7+ cells consistently failed to give an IFN-γ or TNF-α response, whereas many CCR7− cells were responsive. Our data are consistent with effector functions having a broad distribution among phenotypically distinct subsets of "effector memory" cells that have lost the CCR7 marker.


Cohesive damage of PVD-coated cemented carbide cutting tools is ascribed to the residual stress state of the substrate subsurface. The present paper shows the formation of the substrate residual stress in the process chain as well as the stability of the single process steps referred to the scattering of the residual stress values. Depth resolved residual stress measurements across coating and substrate subsurface show a layer in the substrate, where possibly tensile stress occurs, from where cohesive damage may be initialized during tool use. Results of experiments are presented, where the influence of parameter variations in pre coating processes on the residual stress state is investigated. The characteristics of compressive residual substrate stress during the final PVD-process is presented as well as a correlation between coating and substrate stress.


In this paper, we consider a distributed detection scenario where a number of remote sensors is linked to a decision fusion center by a fading multiaccess channel. The communication is assumed to be noncoherent meaning that channel gains are unknown at both sensors and the fusion center. Each sensor makes a binary local decision and communicates it to the fusion center simultaneously. We investigate the detection performance of the system in terms of error probability and error exponent under both Rayleigh and Rician fading scenarios. We reveal that on-off keying is the most energy efficient modulation scheme when the channel is subject to Rayleigh fading and that optimizing the modulation scheme can lead to a gain in error exponent under Rician fading scenario. Under both fading scenarios, optimal decision fusion rules can be reduced to simple threshold tests.


This paper discusses fast yet simple method of treating effluents of textile industry by simple chemicals. Textiles industry produces substantial toxic, often loaded with color (from residues of reactive dyes and chemicals), acidic and alkaline contaminants having high pH, high concentration of organic materials etc, which requires proper treatment before being released into the environment. Removal of such toxic materials from waste water is more important because the presence of small amounts of dyes in effluent disposed into the land and river water reduces the depth of penetration of sunlight into the water environment, which in turn decreases photosynthetic activity and dissolved oxygen (DO). The adverse effects can spell disaster for aquatic life, soil, and detrimentally affects the water quality. In this research work different coagulants like Alum, Lime, Ferrous Sulphate, Ferric Chloride, and poly-electrolytes for flocculation were employed to select the most suitable composition which has optimal removal efficiency. Settling characteristics of the flocs formed in the coagulation process were studied at laboratory scale. Parameters such as colour, COD, Hardness, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), and Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and settled sludge volume have been studied. The optimal coagulant dose volume and pH were determined by comparing the effectiveness of these coagulants [Amirtharajah, A. M., et. al]. Results showed that coagulant like lime eliminated colour and COD effectively. However ferrous sulphate was chosen as effective coagulant for colour removal as it required lowest coagulant dose, minimum settled sludge volume and maximum decolourization. It was also observed that higher percentage of suspended solids was removed by using a combination of iron salts with lime at pH 10 to 11 as compared to alum in a very short time period.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different irrigants (EDTA,MTAD, CHX) on the sealing ability of new Bioceramic root canal sealer. Materialand methods: A total of sixty extracted human single-rooted premolar teeth wereused. After instrumentation, teeth were randomly divided into three main groups(n=20) according to the type of final irrigants used. In group (A) 17% EDTA wasused. Group (B) irrigants was MTAD. In group (C) irrigant was 2% CHX. Each maingroup further subdivided into two subgroup (n=10) according to the type of sealerused. Subgroup (1) canals obturated with Bioceramic sealer. In subgroup (2) canalsobturated with AH plus sealer. After incubation period for one week the roots wereplaced in 2% methylene blue dye and kept in incubator for 48 hours then the rootswere cleared, dye penetration measured by stereomicroscopic. Results: statisticalsignificant difference was found between groups (p<0.001). In subgroup (1) BC sealer& CHX showed the lowest mean of leakage in comparing to other type of irrigantswith highly significance difference with BC sealer & EDTA. In subgroup (2) AH Plus& EDTA showed the lowest mean of apical leakage. A highly significance differenceswas found between subgroup (1) and subgroup (2) for all type of irrigants.(p<0.001).Conclusion: when Bioceramic sealer is used in obturation of root canalsystem, it is better to use it in combination with CHX irrigant to improve the apicalseal.


Probability analysis on the durable life of concrete structure under chloride environment is little known. Using the probability method based on the second Fick's law, research work was carried out to investigate the distribution factors that may influence the durable life of concrete structures. Due to the deficiency of decisive method to predict durable life, A method——based on the regulated reliability index is proposed. The relationship between durable reliability index and the corrosion time is established. The paper takes the time when the durable reliability index falls below the stipulated index as the end of durable life. The proposed method of durable life about concrete structure under chloride erosion environment is improved.


Summary 1. Recent changes in agricultural practice have been hypothesized to affect the abundance and reproductive success of farmland birds. The influence of dairy farming on barn swallows Hirundo rustica was investigated by comparison of their abundance, phenotype and reproduction on the same farms before and immediately after dairy farming ceased, while a control sample of farms without change in farming practice in the same years was used to check for temporal changes unrelated to farming practice. 2. The abundance of barn swallows decreased significantly when dairy farming ceased, with an average reduction of 48%, while there was no significant difference in the sample of control farms. This was mainly due to a decrease in the abundance of yearling immigrants. The abundance of insect food measured with sweep nets decreased significantly in the absence of cattle, while there was no significant change in the sample of control farms. 3. The mean phenotypes of adult barn swallows breeding on the same farms with and without dairy farming did not differ significantly for any of the 16 variables measured (11 morphological variables, body mass, parasite load, haematocrit, leucocyte counts, and arrival date), nor were there any significant differences recorded in the sample of control farms. 4. The mean phenotypes of barn swallow nestlings on the same farms with and without dairy farming differed for tarsus length, body mass, haematocrit, leucocyte concentration and T-cell mediated immune response, with nestlings being of poorer quality in the absence of cattle. There was no significant differences recorded in the sample of control farms. 5. Start of reproduction was not delayed in the absence of cattle, but size of first clutches was reduced by the absence of cattle. The frequency of second clutches decreased in the absence of cattle, and laying of second clutches was also delayed. Hatching, fledging and breeding success did not differ between the two types of farming practice. This led to an overall reduction in annual reproductive success in the absence of cattle. None of these significant differences was recorded in the sample of control farms. 6. These observations suggest that termination of dairy farming reduces local popula tion size, reproductive success and the quality of offspring produced. There is little evidence of the distribution of phenotypes of adult barn swallows being affected by the presence of cattle.


The term 'fissured workplace' has been coined by David Weil to describe fundamental changes in the organisation of work arising from firms' competitive strategies in the 21st century. As Weil put it, fissurisation refers to 'both a form of employment (for example, temporary agency employment; independent contracting) and a relationship between different business enterprises (subcontracting, franchising)'. In a fissured workplace that may have multiple legal entities intertwined in a range of complex contractual relationships, the notion of the 'employer' and thus the question of who should bear the legal responsibilities of an employer become extremely problematic. This paper examines the evolving phenonmenon of the fissured workplace in China and the regulatory dynamics of Chinese labour law in addressing the challenges of fissurisation over the past three decades. In the current phase of China's economic downturn, accelerating trends of fissurisation have brought to the forefront some major challenges for policymakers arising from the broader social consequences of fissured workplaces. The paper focuses on the notion of the 'employer' in Chinese labour law, particularly how policymakers in recent years have sought to regulate the use of labour dispatch as a prevalent manifestation of fissurisation in China.


Isolated rural areas often lack for any terrestrial telecommunication networks, specially in developing countries, which supposes an important obstacle for many professional and comunitary activities requiring PSTN and Internet access. On the other hand, low density and low concentration of population, lack of electricity in many points and accessibility problems make difficult to propose realistic solutions based on conventional technologies. This poster presents the development of an autonomous solar-powered wireless node for low-cost static mesh networks. The network is QoS-aware at the IP level providing reliable VoIP services. Nodes contain a software PBX so that any two nodes in the network can establish a multihop VoIP communication. This project has been proposed by EHAS Group in collaboration with Rafael Escola Foundation.


OBJECTIVESignificant numbers of patients experience intractable pain after brachial plexus root avulsions. Medications and surgical procedures such as amputation of the limb are often not successful in pain treatment. METHODSForty-seven patients with intractable pain after traumatic cervical root avulsions were treated with dorsal root entry zone coagulation between 1980 and 1998. The dorsal root entry zone coagulation procedure was performed 4 months to 12 years after the trauma, and patients were monitored for up to 18 years (average follow-up period, 14 yr). RESULTSImmediately after surgery, 75% of patients experienced significant pain reduction; this value was reduced to 63% during long-term follow-up monitoring. Nine patients experienced major complications, including subdural hematomas (n = 2) and motor weakness of the lower limb (n = 7). Improved coagulation electrodes with thermistors that could produce smaller and more-accurate lesion sizes, which were introduced in 1989, significantly reduced the number of complications. CONCLUSIONCentral deafferentation pain that persists and becomes intractable among patients with traumatic cervical root avulsions has been difficult to treat in the past. Long-term follow-up monitoring of patients who underwent the dorsal root entry zone coagulation procedure in the cervical cord indicated that long-lasting satisfactory relief is possible for the majority of individuals, with acceptable morbidity rates.


The idea of a multiverse – an ensemble of universes or universe domains – has received increasing attention in cosmology, both as the outcome of the originating process that generated our own universe, and as an explanation for why our universe appears to be fine-tuned for life and consciousness. Here we review how multiverses should be defined, stressing the distinction between the collection of all possible universes and ensembles of really existing universes, which distinction is essential for anthropic arguments. We show that such realised multiverses are by no means unique, and in general require the existence of a well-defined and physically motivated distribution function on the space of all possible universes. Furthermore, a proper measure on these spaces is also needed, so that probabilities can be calculated. We then discuss several other physical and philosophical problems arising in the context of ensembles of universes, including realized infinities and the issue of fine-tuning – whether very special or generic primordial conditions are more fundamental in cosmology. Then we briefly summarise scenarios like chaotic inflation, which suggest how ensembles of universe domains may be generated, and point out that the regularities underlying any systematic description of truly disjoint multiverses must imply some kind of common generating mechanism, whose testability is problematic. Finally, we discuss the issue of testability, which underlies the question of whether multiverse proposals are really scientific propositions rather than metaphysical proposals.


This paper describes a collaboration between researchers at the University of Alberta, staff at the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre, and communities within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) of Canada's Northwest Territories to develop a culturally appropriate and relevant metadata framework for a digital library of cultural resources. To develop the first draft metadata framework, the Digital Library North (DLN) project team carried out an extensive critical examination of relevant literature, conducted surveys and interviews with community members, and completed an information audit of a core collection for the digital library. Analysis of the information audit, survey responses, and interview transcripts indicated that the metadata should include resource type, language(s) and dialect(s), topic(s), variant forms of names of people and places, individuals or organizations and their roles, audience, and access and reuse conditions, and should allow for community addition of metadata in the form of keywords, tags or stories. A digital library prototype including several key collections and incorporating many of the metadata desirables has been developed and will be tested with the community in May 2016. As broad a range of community members as possible will interact with the digital library and will be asked to provide feedback on the look and feel and ease of use of the prototype, and to respond to specific questions about the metadata elements (including their names and content). The feedback gained from the community will inform the next iteration of the metadata framework and the digital library interface.


The dynamic and unpredictable characteristics of wireless channels in harsh environments have resulted in a poor performance of localization systems. Conventional implementations rely on unrealistic assumptions driven by tractability requirements, such as linear models or Gaussian errors. In this paper, we present a framework for data fusion in localization systems based on determining likelihood functions that represent the relationship between measurements and distances. In this framework, such likelihoods are dynamically adapted to the propagation conditions. The subsequent usage of a particle filter (PF) leads to an adaptive likelihood particle (ALPA) filter that addresses the nonlinear and non-Gaussian behavior of measurements over time. The ALPA filter's performance is quantified by using received-signal-strength (RSS) and time-of-arrival (TOA) measurements collected with wireless local area network (WLAN) devices. We compare the accuracy obtained to the accuracy of conventional implementations and to the posterior Cramér-Rao lower bound (PCRLB). Both empirical and simulation results show that the proposed ALPA filter significantly improves the accuracy of conventional approaches, obtaining an error close to the PCRLB.


Ice storms are a recurring landscape-scale disturbance in the eastern U.S. where they may cause varying levels of damage to upland hardwood forests. High-resolution Ikonos imagery and semiautomated detection of ice storm damage may be an alternative to manually interpreted aerial photography. We evaluated Ikonos multispectral, winter and summer imagery as a tool for detecting forest canopy damage to oak dominated forests resulting from an ice storm that occurred in the Daniel Boone National Forest in February 2003. The objectives of this exploratory study were to determine if classification accuracy was affected by: (1) spectral band, (2) size of training window, and (3) season of imagery. Within a 100 km study area, field sites representing three land cover types (forested with none to light canopy damage, forested with moderate to heavy canopy damage, and non-forested) were established or identified to provide image training signatures. Classification accuracies averaged between 65 and 70 percent overall for the three cover types and was highest (>80 percent) for the non-forest type. Results of this pilot study suggest that Ikonos imagery is useful for detecting ice storm damage to upland hardwood forests based on multispectral analysis. Additional study is needed, however, to determine if classification results from the small training areas can be expanded to produce a landscape-scale map of estimated forest damage with accuracy adequate for resource management purposes.


A fast blackening process of titanium dioxide nanoparticles by exposing to atomic hydrogen was studied by estimating the color of the nanoparticles. The whiteness of TiO2 decreased exponentially with time, which suggests a first-order reaction between atomic H and surface oxygen, whose rate constant is proportional to the ambient pressure of H2. The rate constant increases as the temperature of nanoparticles at exposing to atomic hydrogen. The structure and size of nanoparticles were estimated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), which shows that a part of anatase transferred to rutile and the crystal sizes of both anatase and rutile increased by hydrogenation above 600 K. The blackening of TiO2 halfway stopped under the condition of the similar partial pressure of water with hydrogen. This suggests the presence of reverse reaction between H2O and oxygen vacancy, whose reaction rate constant is proportional to the partial pressure of H2O.


Many businesses today are striving to improve their environmental sustainability for a variety of reasons, ranging from consumer demand for "greener" products to potential cost-savings. For many business decision-makers who lack formal environmental training, the process of identifying facets of their organization that can be improved is unclear and challenging. Inspired by the fields of biomimicry, industrial ecology and organizational ecology, this paper draws on the inherent capacity to endure (CTE) of the natural world and recognizes that ecosystem function can be used as a technical advisor to guide business sustainability. We identified major attributes of ecosystems that both contribute to their CTE and can be easily translated into applications for the business world. Each of these attributes (fitness, functional redundancy, keystone species, waste and efficiency) and their applications are discussed at length. While further work is needed to evaluate their effectiveness and appropriateness for individual firms, we hope they can serve as a starting point for businesses seeking to improve their environmental sustainability.


Against the backdrop of South Africa's immense cultural diversity and famously liberal Constitution, the country's statutes, common law and standing legal practice are continuously being challenged and reshaped. One such instance pertains to the issue of illegal contracts of employment and the legal position of those employed in terms of them. The infamous South African Kylie and Discovery Health court cases have opened the door to much speculation, confusion and debate in this regard, as they haveallowed for the possibility that persons employed under an illegal employment contract may claim labor law protection and recognition. This is largely subject to such persons being labeled 'vulnerable' in their employment relationship, with the possibility of their human rights being adversely affected. However, as no formal guidelines have yet been established as to what constitutes 'vulnerability', a lacuna has been created in the South African legal system. This article examines how South African labor law has changed over time in respect of vulnerable employment relationships, highlights important precedents set along the way, while brief reference is also made to employment vulnerability in other jurisdictions to enable comparison.It is eventually concluded that the current lacuna may be resolved in three possible ways. Firstly, to enable greater uniformity in decidingdisputes relating to illegal contracts of employment and vulnerable illegal employment relationships, these matters maybe diverted from the country's Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to a to-be-established, separate forum, which can take the form of a tribunal or a specialized court. Secondly, to provide greater legal certainty, the legislature may wish to lay down certain guidelines and rules upon which such specialized tribunal or court should adjudicate these matters. Finally, it is proposed that the statutory definitions of who qualifies as an employee in terms of the country's Labor Relations and Basic Conditions of Employment acts be expanded or altered.


Assists in finding good resources on an inclusive organizational culture, on a diverse workplace, on the management of diversity in organizations, and on other topics related to the MGMT 339 Course.


Abstract Using web sites to supplement teaching-learning in higher education has been common since the emergence of the Internet. However, most of the sites are static information sites, which do not provide opportunities for active collaborative self-directed learning. The author suggests a knowledge management approach to educational web use, i.e., establishing web-based tertiary communities of practice (TCPs) to engage the learners in active collaborative self-directed learning, and develop the ability of learning how to learn. This article is therefore to pinpoint such a web-based teaching-learning TCP platform or system, and introduce a generic foundational architectural conceptual design. Introduction Using web sites to supplement teaching-learning has been common since the emergence of the Internet. However, most of these sites are static information sites, providing basic information like the syllabi, lecture notes, teaching schedules, etc. Some educational sites do supplement teaching by offering explanations and aids about the subject taught (e.g. Li 1999). Nevertheless, these sites do not provide much interactivity, ordinarily presenting information one-way. On the other hand, learning how to learn has been identified as one of the key capabilities for effective functioning in the 21st century and promoting the development of such capabilities a main goal in many national strategic plans in education. (Law, 1999) The didactic teacher-centered approach of teaching with the teacher controlling the learning material and the pace of learning appears to be inadequate in achieving such a goal, because it does not provide the learners the necessary opportunities for active collaborative self-directed learning. Purpose and Scope The purpose of this article is therefore to introduce a web platform that provides ample opportunities for the learners to engage themselves in active self-directed learning. It is to identify a web-based teaching-learning system whereby the learners are more likely to develop the ability of learning how to learn. This approach of using the web originates from the literature of knowledge management (KM) and "communities of practice" (CPs) available in. recent years. Precisely, the system is a web site designed and used as a "tertiary community of practice" (TCP) connecting students, faculty, administrators and relevant members in the community. Within the limit of this article, discussion is confined to the TCP's foundational architectural design; it is not concerned with issues about its social infrastructure. (Note 1) However, it should provide insights on the topic being discussed. Clarification of the Concepts of CP and TCP "Community" implies the gathering of groups of people at the local, national, or international level. They come together for a common purpose, as in this case, learning a particular domain or sub-domain of knolwedge. As for "practice," a meaning can be found from Manville's definition of CPs: Groups of professionals informally bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems, common pursuit of solutions, and thereby themselves embodying a store of knowledge. (Note 2) To Manville, "practice" is seen as practitioners engaging in occupational activities. For this article, we're using Manville's definition. However, "practice" is often referred to something of value, a purpose that a group of people would like to believe. For example, the Yahoo Com-Pra Egroup is a community of practice established to study aspects of the subject "communities of practice." Communities of practice therefore are not teams, as teams are mutually accountable for the organizational outputs, nor are they work groups, which normally refers to people within organizational boundaries. Participants in CPs are accountable to each other around a common set of knolwedge or competence, and often cut across organizational boundaries. …


In this paper, we use empirical analysis to analyze company characteristics associated with the adoption and maintenance of broad-based stock option plans. First, a cross-sectional analysis evaluates what company characteristics are now associated with these plans. Second, a longitudinal analysis examines the company characteristics that predict the adoption of such plans. Overall, our results provide support to the claim that higher monitoring costs prompt firms to adopt and maintain employee stock option plans. Firms with higher levels of business risk are less likely to shift some of that risk to employees through stock-based compensation, whereas firm with higher variability in total shareholder returns are more likely to adopt broad-based employee stock options. Nonunion firms are more likely to adopt and maintain such plans, and financial constraints do not appear to be driving the adoption decision.


Numerous interpretations of the competitiveness of regional agri-food system in the scientific literature are predominantly fragmentary depending in specific goals of research. This creates problems for universalizing approaches, identifying areas of their complementarity, and integrating new definitions. To systematize existing interpretations of the competitiveness of regional agri-food systems and identify new areas of research, we carried out a structured review of the scientific publication from peer-reviewed academic journals indexed in international and Russian databases. We applied the method of content analysis to identify the definitions of the "competitiveness", "sustainable competitiveness", "regional agri-food systems". Moreover, we calculated the average percentage of journal articles mentioning these categories per year. Cluster analysis of journal articles allowed identifying general concepts of the competitiveness of regional agri-food. As a result we systematized the definitions of the concept of «competitiveness of regional agri-food systems» depending on research area, actors and the level of sustainability of competitiveness. The systematization and classificatio n o f researc h investigatin g th e competitivenes s o f regiona l agri-food systems enabled determining new areas of future research. Firstly, a more detailed analysis of the factors of the sustainable competitiveness of regional agri-food systems, particularly in pandemic and post-pandemic periods is of critical importance. Secondly, searching for a comprehensive toolkit for ensuring sustainable competitiveness of regional agri-food systems, as well as cooperation and competition among the agri-food companies in the Internet can be a focus for future research.


One of the new concepts that appear in the learning revolution with emerging technological advances is seamless learning. This type of learning involves the continuity of learning experiences by means of technology regardless of environment and time, and without any interruption. A necessary and useful technology in realizing seamless learning is "Internet of Things". IoT technology is an infrastructure on which things can communicate with one another or with human beings by connecting to the Internet, and which has the capability of simultaneously storing and exchanging the collected data on cloud computing systems. With its potential in a wide area of applications in the future, this technology is expected to be used in education as well. Furthermore, it has a huge potential to contribute to seamless learning experiences. Development and expansion of this technology will make future educational institutions feel the necessity to accept and adapt this technology. In this regard, this study aimed to introduce IoT technology and to explore educational potential of seamless learning.


Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) may be subdivided into two forms, classical and limited. The latter specifically excludes renal disease and carries a better prognosis. Both forms have sight-threatening complications, but the relative incidence of ocular manifestations in each is not well documented. Patients with limited (n = 15) and classical (n = 16) WG were ophthalmologically examined. Ocular abnormalities found included orbital and nasolacrimal disease, corneo-scleral inflammation, dry eyes and retinal vein occlusion. In four patients (two from each group), no ocular disease was detected. The limited group included four potentially sight-threatening complications, compared to eight in the classical group. Overall, there was no statistically significant difference in any of the ocular manifestations between the two groups. Although treatment with corticosteroid and immunosuppressive agents has dramatically improved the prognosis of the disease, ocular morbidity is still well recognized. A combined medical and ophthalmological approach with prompt therapeutic intervention is recommended in these patients.


Validation of Android apps via testing is difficult owing to the presence of flaky tests. Due to non-deterministic execution environments, a sequence of events (a test) may lead to success or failure in unpredictable ways. In this work, we present an approach and tool FlakeScanner for detecting flaky tests through exploration of event orders. Our key observation is that for a test in a mobile app, there is a testing framework thread which creates the test events, a main User-Interface (UI) thread processing these events, and there may be several other background threads running asynchronously. For any event e whose execution involves potential non-determinism, we localize the earliest (latest) event after (before) which e must happen. We then efficiently explore the schedules between the upper/lower bound events while grouping events within a single statement, to find whether the test outcome is flaky. We also create a suite of subject programs called FlakyAppRepo (containing 33 widely-used Android projects) to study flaky tests in Android apps. Our experiments on the subject-suite FlakyAppRepo show FlakeScanner detected 45 out of 52 known flaky tests as well as 245 previously unknown flaky tests among 1444 tests.


A multiple-lactation random regression model was applied to test-day somatic cell score (SCS) records from the first three lactations of Czech Holstein and Fleckvieh cows. For Holstein, the data included 26 314 cows, with 244 953, 76 188 and 26 153 test-day records in the first, second and third lactation, respec - tively. For Fleckvieh, the data included 24 061 cows, with 223 421, 93 358 and 31 305 test-day records in the first, second and third lactation, respectively. The linear model for SCS included the following factors (for the given parity): fixed herd-test date effect, fixed regressions on days in milk within the age-season class, random regressions for the animal genetic and random regressions for the permanent environmental effect of the cow. Third-degree Legendre polynomials were used for all regressions. Gibbs sampling was used to generate samples from the marginal posterior distributions of the model parameters. The resulting daily heritability ranged from 0.08 to 0.11 in the middle part of lactation and it increased only slightly with parity. Extremely high values (0.25, 0.21) observed especially at the beginning and end of the third lacta - tion for Holstein might be caused by the "end-of-range" problem. The average daily heritabilities computed for the part of lactation between 45 and 255 days in milk (DIM) were in the range from 0.10 to 0.14. Daily permanent environmental variances were higher than the genetic variances and daily residual variances decreased with DIM. The residual variances in early lactation increased with lactation number. For both breeds, the highest genetic correlations computed for the part of lactation between DIM 45 and DIM 255 were obtained between the second and third lactation (0.95). The lowest daily genetic correlations of SCS in the same DIM between different lactations occurred at the beginning of lactation, especially between the first and third lactation. The permanent environmental correlations for selected DIM were lower than the respective genetic correlations.


Although pyronaridine has been used to successfully treat malaria for many years, its antimalarial activity in humans has not been completely characterized. This volunteer infection study aimed to determine the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) relationship of pyronaridine in healthy malaria naive adults. Volunteers were inoculated with Plasmodium falciparum 3D7-infected erythrocytes on day 0 and different single oral doses of pyronaridine were administered on day 8. Parasitemia, and concentrations of pyronaridine in whole blood were measured and standard safety assessments performed. Curative artemether-lumefantrine therapy was administered if parasite regrowth occurred, or on day 47+/-2. Outcomes were parasite clearance kinetics, PK and PK/PD parameters from modelling. Ten participants were inoculated and administered 360 mg (n=4), 540 mg (n=4), or 720 mg (n=1) pyronaridine. One participant was withdrawn without receiving pyronaridine. Time to maximum pyronaridine concentration after dosing was 1-2 hours and the elimination half-life was 8-9 days. A parasite clearance half-life of approximately 5 hours was calculated for all dose levels. Parasite regrowth occurred after dosing with 360 mg (4/4 participants) and 540 mg (2/4 participants). Key efficacy parameters of pyronaridine including the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC: 5.5 ng/mL) and minimum parasiticidal concentration that leads to 90% of maximum effect (MPC90: 8 ng/mL) were derived from the final PK/PD model. Adverse events considered related to pyronaridine were predominantly mild to moderate gastrointestinal symptoms. There were no serious adverse events. Data obtained in this study will support the use of pyronaridine in new antimalarial combination therapies by informing partner drug selection and dosing considerations.


Abstract. Modelling atmospheric dispersal of volcanic ash and aerosols is becoming increasingly valuable for assessing the potential impacts of explosive volcanic eruptions on buildings, air quality, and aviation. Management of volcanic risk and reduction of aviation impacts can strongly benefit from quantitative forecasting of volcanic ash. However, an accurate prediction of volcanic aerosol concentrations using numerical modelling relies on proper estimations of multiple model parameters which are prone to errors. Uncertainties in key parameters such as eruption column height and physical properties of particles or meteorological fields represent a major source of error affecting the forecast quality.
The availability of near-real-time geostationary satellite observations with high spatial and temporal resolutions provides the opportunity to improve forecasts in an operational context by incorporating observations into numerical models. Specifically, ensemble-based filters aim at converting a prior ensemble of system states into an analysis ensemble by assimilating a set of noisy observations. Previous studies dealing with volcanic ash transport have demonstrated that a significant improvement of forecast skill can be achieved by this approach.
In this work, we present a new implementation of an ensemble-based data assimilation (DA) method coupling the FALL3D dispersal model and the Parallel Data Assimilation Framework (PDAF). The FALL3D+PDAF system runs in parallel, supports online-coupled DA, and can be efficiently integrated into operational workflows by exploiting high-performance computing (HPC) resources.
Two numerical experiments are considered: (i) a twin experiment using an incomplete dataset of synthetic observations of volcanic ash and (ii) an experiment based on the 2019 Raikoke eruption using real observations of SO2 mass loading.
An ensemble-based Kalman filtering technique based on the local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) is used to assimilate satellite-retrieved data of column mass loading. We show that this procedure may lead to nonphysical solutions and, consequently, conclude that LETKF is not the best approach for the assimilation of volcanic aerosols. However, we find that a truncated state constructed from the LETKF solution approaches the real solution after a few assimilation cycles, yielding a dramatic improvement of forecast quality when compared to simulations without assimilation.


KM3NeT/ARCA is a European deep-sea research infrastructure that will host a neutrino telescope with a volume of several cubic kilometers at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The telescope will search for galactic and extragalactic neutrinos from astrophysical sources like gamma ray bursts, super-novae or colliding stars. The analyses performed in large water Cherenkov detectors rely upon the reconstruction of the muon direction and energy, and consequently, those of the neutrino. The estimation of the muon energy is also critical for the differentiation of muons from neutrinos originating from astrophysical sources from muons and neutrinos that have been generated in the atmosphere and constitute the detector background. The energy is derived from the detection of the Cherenkov light produced by the muons that are created during the charged current interactions of neutrinos in or in the vicinity of the detector. We describe a method to determine the muon and neutrino energy employing a Neural Network. An energy resolution of about 0.29 has been achieved for muons at the TeV range.


The Barents Sea area is located in the Arctic region, categorized as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. The average of water depth is between 230 meters to 1500 meters, bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian – Greenland Sea in the West, the Svalbard and the Franz Josef Archipelago in the North, the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago in the East, and Eurasia Continent in the South. Oil and gas activities in the Barents Sea area have been started at 1970's. Several discoveries already found at that era. In the 1984, Statoil (Norwegian Multinational Oil and Gas Company) made some discovery in the South Barents Sea area, called Snohvit. In the 2011, Statoil made some significant discovery again in the Barents Sea area, called Skrugard (recently became Johan Castberg). Those significant discoveries are made the exploration activity in the Barents Sea area become more attractive. Geologically, the Barents Sea Area that extends from the Norwegian Greenland Sea to the Novaya Zemlya ridge is covering two major geological provinces (Western Barents Sea and Eastern Barents Sea). Several complex tectonic episodes have been start from Pre-cambrian until Cenozoic time. This tectonic event made a lot of influence in the basin configuration. This thesis will concentrates on the Western Barents Sea area with studying about sedimentological aspect of the reservoir as an objective. Area of interest of the study is located in the Southern Barents Sea (Masoy fault complex). This area (Nucula prospect) is part of two license, production license 393 in the north and exploration license 393B in the south. Nucula prospect has been discovered by 7125/4-1 well in the 2007. Statoil as an operator want to develop the Nucula prospect become commercial. Sedimentology study of the reservoir is needed in order to understand physical behavior of the reservoir. This study will concentrate in the Late Triassic Fruholmen and Snadd formation (Gas & Oil Reservoir). Seismic slicing is the main method in this study. Zone slicing has performed significant result in the seismic interpretation. Fluvial meandering channel has been carried out from the Snadd interval (Wells & Seismic). Fluvial meandering channel on the Snadd interval can divide into two types: Low sinuosity meandering channel and high sinuosity meandering channel.


OBJECTIVE--To develop a model to assess the cost-efficacy of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator to prevent sudden death. The model must be sufficiently flexible to allow the use of cost and survival figures derived from different sources. SETTING--The study was conducted in a teaching hospital department of cardiology with experience of 40 implantable cardioverter defibrillator implants and a large database of over 500 survivors of myocardial infarction. PROCEDURE--The basic costs of screening tests, stay in hospital, and purchase of implantable cardioverter defibrillators were derived from St George's Hospital during 1991. To assess the cost-efficacy of various strategies for the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators, survival data taken from published studies or from our own database. Implications of the national cost of the various strategies were calculated by estimating the number of patients a year requiring implantation of a defibrillator if the strategy was adopted. RESULTS--Use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators in survivors of cardiac arrest costs between 22,400 pounds and 57,000 pounds for each year of life saved. Most of the strategies proposed by the current generation of implantable cardioverter defibrillator trials have cost efficacies in the same range, and adoption of any one of these strategies in the United Kingdom could cost between 2 million pounds and 100 million pounds a year. Future technical and medical developments mean that cost-efficacy may be improved by up to 80%. Due to the limitations of screening tests currently available restriction on the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators to those groups where it seems highly cost-effective will result in a small impact on overall mortality from sudden cardiac death. CONCLUSION--Present and possible future applications of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator seem expensive when compared with currently accepted treatments. Technical and medical developments are, however, likely to result in a dramatic improvement in cost efficacy over the next few years.


Abstract A hemorrhagic stroke and aphasia suddenly changed the life of Charles William (Bill) Dyke, Army Lt. General (Retired), Ranger strong with 2 silver stars and 3 bronze stars among his many decorations and founder and CEO of a Washington, DC, consulting firm. Gen. Dyke and his wife Ann provide their personal perspectives on the path to his remarkable recovery and return to full-time work. They found that the most effective therapy linked to who he was and is. Standard therapy tools and impersonal approaches frequently created barriers. Instead, when health professionals related the therapy objectives to his interests and involved him in the process of setting objectives to meet the challenges, they gained his trust, cooperation, participation, and focus on learning.


A time stepping finite element model for analyzing the performance of brushless DC motors is presented. The control loop is coupled into the system equations. The eddy-currents in the permanent magnets (PM) are also taken into account in the proposed circuit-field coupled method. By representing the PM as a "squirrel cage" then the eddy-current loss in the PM can be estimated. The model can directly take care of the nonsinusoidal quantities of the supplied voltages, the phase currents and the magnetic fields.


The impact of opiate addiction on public health has been severe with its links to disease, death, economics, and mental health problems. Many opiate addicts inject drugs several times each day which has been associated with many infectious diseases, including: Hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS (National Institutes on Drug Abuse, 2000). This study investigated the relationships of psychological dysfunction, drug treatment engagement, HIV risk reduction attitudes, and HIV risk behaviors among methadone maintained clients. It was guided by the AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM), a heuristic device that helps to explain/predict behavior change of individuals in relationship to sexual and injection drug use transmission of HIV/AIDS. A quantitative cross-sectional research design was utilized to examine the relationship between psychological dysfunction and HIV risk behavior among methadone maintained clients and how drug treatment engagement and HIV risk reduction attitudes affect this relationship. A total of 200 participants who were at least 18 years old and were enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment were included in this investigation. This study found that 60% of the participants had experienced moderate to high levels of psychological dysfunction. Psychological dysfunction was categorized into past depression, anxiety, and hostility symptoms. Multiple regression analyses showed that overall psychological dysfunction and drug treatment engagement predicts HIV risk behavior among methadone maintained individuals (F=13.06; p<.000). However, when the standardized regression coefficients of the individual independent variables were examined, only drug treatment engagement was found to significantly contribute to the prediction of HIV risk behavior ($=-.22; p< .01), indicating that those who reported higher levels of treatment engagement had lower levels of HIV risk behavior. The mediating role of drug treatment engagement on the relationship between psychological dysfunction and HIV risk behavior was supported. Although, it was not supported for HIV risk reduction attitudes, analysis showed that HIV risk reduction attitudes were moderately and significantly correlated with HIV risk behavior. The findings of this study provide social work and public health practitioners who work in the field of drug and alcohol treatment and HIV prevention with vital information This study underscores the need for early identification and modification of psychological problems among methadone maintained individuals. Drug treatment provides a vital opportunity to address psychological problems and HIV risk behavior, there is an irrefutable need for the social work and public health professionals to further research and develop/refine interventions to prevent the spread of HIV disease among this population. Early screening and treatment of psychological problems may help increase drug treatment engagement rates which may reduce HIV risk behavior and ultimately save lives among methadone maintained clients.


We consider a decentralized two-sided matching market in which agents arrive and depart asynchronously. As a result, it is possible that an agent on one side of the market (a "buyer") identifies an agent on the other side of the market (a "seller") who is a suitable match, only to find that the seller is already matched. We find using a mean field approach that lack of knowledge about availability can create large welfare losses to both buyers and sellers. We consider a simple intervention available to the platform: limiting visibility of sellers. We find that this intervention can significantly improve the welfare of agents on both sides of the market; sellers pay lower application costs, while buyers are less likely to find that the sellers they screen have already matched. Somewhat counterintuitively, the benefits of showing fewer sellers to each buyer are greatest in markets in which there is a shortage of sellers.


Abstract. The increasingly fierce competition is inevitable in the business world, but it is a challenge that
must be faced. A wide variety of ways in which to dominate the market, one of them by creating a quality
product in order to attract consumers in making purchasing decisions. This study aims to determine how
much influence consumer behavior towards Honda Revo Product Purchasing Decisions in District Jailolo.
To answer the purpose of this study used statistical parametric analysis tools such as correlation and
regression. The results showed consumer behavior has a significant influence on purchasing decisions.
Thus, it is expected CV Lion must pay attention to consumer behavior Products Honda Revo order to give
effect to the purchase decision.
Keywords:Consumer Behavior, Purchasing Decisions


Neuropsychological deficits, including difficulties with attention, are well described in children with sickle cell disease (SCD). Very little is known about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children with SCD. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of ADHD in children with SCD referred for neuropsychological evaluation. This prospective, cross-sectional study included patients (age, 4 to 18 y) with SCD and completion of a neuropsychological evaluation between December 2013 and March 2016. Patients were referred for neuropsychological evaluation because of concern regarding school performance, development, and/or behavior. The diagnosis of ADHD was made by a neuropsychologist on the basis of the diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual—Fourth or Fifth Editions. ADHD medication usage rate was obtained by medical record review. Of the 89 patients with SCD referred for neuropsychological evaluation, 25% (95% confidence interval, 16%-35%) met diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Only 21% of the patients with SCD and ADHD were prescribed an ADHD medication. Our study supports routine ADHD screening in children with SCD who have poor school performance or behavioral concerns. Despite the benefits of pharmacologic treatment, the majority of patients with SCD and ADHD did not receive a medication for management of their ADHD.


: The purpose of this study is to explore the satisfaction of clients with the home visiting services provided by public health nurses. In addition, the related factors that influence this satisfaction are to be explored. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. This study comprises 247 subjects who were chosen via distributive sampling, 222 questionnaires were completed for use. The completed percentage achieved 90%. Factors analysis was used to discern the satisfaction components. The contents of the client's satisfaction can be broken down into 5 major areas: (1) the assistance provided by home health services; (2) the professional capacities of the home-visiting nurses; (3) the disturbance caused by the home health services; (4) the home visiting nurses' capacity for instruction and reaction; (5) the autonomy of home health services. The results of this study indicate that the clients' satisfaction ratio achieves 89%. A stepwise multiple regression was used to analyze the related factors that influence the clients' satisfaction. We found that the most important variables were "the assistance provided by home-visiting services", "the necessity of home-visiting services", and "the variation in client diagnosis". The predictable variance of these three variables reaches 34.8%.


Background The axillary brachial plexus block is a popular nerve block for forearm, wrist, and hand surgery. The use of local anesthetic peripheral nerve blocks for surgical anesthesia and postoperative pain management has increased significantly with the advent of ultrasound-guided techniques. The discovery of peripheral opioid receptors led to the clinical application of adding opioids to local anesthetics for peripheral nerve blocks. This study is done to evaluate effect of morphine on onset, duration, and quality of analgesia when added to local anesthetics in axillary brachial plexus block and to detect any complications that occurred with this technique. Patients and methods In this prospective controlled clinical trial, 60 adult patients aged 18–60 years scheduled for orthopedic surgery of the forearm and hand with axillary brachial plexus block were selected and randomly allocated to two groups. Placebo group received 24 ml bupivacaine 0.5%, and morphine group received 24 ml bupivacaine 0.5%+5 mg morphine. The onset and duration of sensory and motor blocks, duration of analgesia, and adverse events (such as nausea and pruritus) during perioperative period were recorded. Results Onset of touch and pain block was faster in morphine group, with P values of 0.016 and 0.025, respectively. Onset of motor block was similar in the two groups. Duration of touch block was longer in morphine group, with P value of 0.022. Duration of motor block showed no change between the two groups. Duration of analgesia was longer in the morphine group, with P value of 0.001, with lower consumption of analgesia. No complications were recorded perioperatively. Conclusion We concluded that morphine provide better postoperative analgesia when injected with local anesthetics in ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus block without an increase in the frequency of complications.


The authors examine the national experience in the development of the system of entrepreneurs state support in the Republic of Belarus in a historical perspective (1992–2010), tracing the evolution of its forms and methods, leading to the reduction of government interference in the operation of market economic laws and, consequently, to the observance of the principles and rules of granting industrial subsidies, established by the World Trade Organization. The paper presents the results of the analysis of the scope, structure and dynamics of the state support to the Belarusian economy.


The survival of the "high risk" newborns has improved considerably in last few decades, with the setting-up of a number of well-equipped neonatal units. But mere survival is not enough, it is the quality of survival that is important. In a young infant, who is in a in a state of rapid growth, the dynamic process of rapid development is such that, any static parameter should and must alert the pediatrician- be it slowness or stagnation of acquisition of new skills. Following the infant's development closely at regular intervals provides the best key to judge the neurodevelopmental outcome. There are very few Indian studies available on this subject. Therefore this observational cross- sectional retrospective study was undertaken in a referral centre.


Envy was first published in German in 1966, then in an English translation in 1970. This classic study is one of the few books to explore extensively the many facets of envy -- "a drive which lies at the core of man's life as a social being." Ranging widely over literature, philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences, Professor Schoeck -- a distinguished sociologist and anthropologist -- elucidates both the constructive and destructive consequences of envy in social life. Perhaps most importantly he demonstrates that not only the impetus toward a totalitarian regime but also the egalitarian impulse in democratic societies are alike in being rooted in envy.


The first meeting of the International Cereal Cyst Nematode Initiative, held in October 2009 in Turkey, involved over 60 scientists from wheat-growing regions in Asia, Australia, Europe, north Africa and North America. Cereal cyst nematodes (CCN) are damaging root parasites of barley, oat, wheat and related plants; the most important species being Heterodera avenae, H. filipjevi and H. latipons. Forty three papers in this volume cover: the history and status of CCN both globally and regionally; research on CCN morphological, genetic and ecology diversity; development and deployment of host resistance as the principal means of control, including advancements provided by molecular technology; and investigations into other types of control and opportunities for integrated management. The papers provide valuable insight into the impact of CCN and endeavours to provide sustainable management options for farmers. CCN's impact ranges from severe in resourcelimited cropping systems with high pathotype diversity through to the now easily managed situation in Australia, with one pathotype and many resistant cultivars released. In many countries, unacceptable economic losses continue and international collaboration is needed to ensure that appropriate genetic resources and technology are developed, disseminated and applied where the need is greatest. ISBN: 978-975-407-285-3 AGROVOC descriptors: Cereals; Wheat; Plant protection; Plant pests; Plant disease; Nematode; Cereal cyst nematode; Heterodera AGRIS category codes: A50 Agricultural research; H10 Pests of plants; H20 Plant diseases Dewey decimal classification: 632.3 Cover illustration: Irrigated winter wheat infested with Heterodera avenae with an intolerant cultivar (front), showing patches of stunted plants, and intolerant cultivar (back) growing in adjacent farmer's fields in Xuchang, Henan, China. Photograph: Ian T. Riley. Word clouds: created by http://www.wordle.net/ © 2009 Jonathan Feinberg. Images created are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Typesetting: iWork Pages'09 (Apple Inc.).


Acute postoperative infectious endophthalmitis remains one of the most dreaded complications of ophthalmic surgery. One of the keys to success in treating this complication is to make an early clinical diagnosis and, if possible, an etiologic diagnosis that can guide treatment with antibiotic therapy. Different antibiotic therapy modalities have emerged over the years that have made it possible to treat even resistant strains of various microorganisms that cause endophthalmitis. Another relevant advance made in the etiological diagnosis of endophthalmitis is the advent of molecular biology techniques, such as the real-time polymerase chain reaction, which can detect minimal amounts of the genetic material of the causative microorganism present in the vitreous in a short period of time, thus improving treatment outcomes with better-guided therapy with intravitreal antibiotics. Aside from advances in postoperative diagnosis methods, the surgical treatment of endophthalmitis has had significant improvements in vitrectomy techniques, and in many cases, it has been proposed as the first-line treatment concomitantly with intravitreal antibiotic therapy. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that prophylaxis with intracameral antibiotic therapy further decreases postoperative endophthalmitis incidence.


ABSTRACT
Burning of wood fuel degrades forests, causes indoor household air pollution and releases greenhouse gases contributing to deforestation and climate change. Livestock manure decomposes anaerobically producing greenhouse gases. Comparative study of wood fuel usage and Methane emissions from wood stove user households and biogas cook-stove user households was conducted in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study aimed at determining the wood fuel and biogas usage in households of Nakuru County and estimating reduced wood fuel usage and Methane emissions amounts from use of biogas as a way of mitigating climate change. The study also, examined how biogas use contributes to the improvement of household livelihoods. One hundred and twenty one dairy cattle farmer households (HHs) were clustered into 5 regions and purposively sampled into wood stove user households and biogas cook-stove user households. The study used survey research design where data was collected using questionnaire and key informant interview. Results indicated that mean annual wood fuel usage for wood stove user HHs and biogas cook-stove user HHs was equivalent to 14 and 7 mature trees respectively. The mean biogas usage for biogas cook-stove user households was 481.6 m3 per year. Maximum values of Methane emissions from wood stove user households and biogas cook-stove user households were 2048 and 956 KgCO2e/HH/year respectively. It was estimated that about 50-53% of Methane emissions from wood fuel usage can be reduced by using biogas cook-stoves. Reduced wood fuel usage of 3899.4 Kg/HH/year due to biogas use translated to conserving 8 mature trees per household per year. The conserved trees can absorb additional 6433.99 -7018.90 Kg of Carbon dioxide per year. Biogas utilization could therefore be a good option for reducing deforestation and Methane emissions in the context of climate change.


The patina represents a superficial natural alteration of the constituting matter of the work of art. It emerges from the natural and usual stabilization process that the materials of the surface undergo because of the interaction with outdoor agents characterizing the surrounding environment. Besides, it is not linked to an obvious phenomenon of degradation that can be noticed through the change in the original colour of the matter.
This is what we intend when we talk about biological patina usually generated by macro and/or micro-organic colonization (fungi, bacteria, alga) which contributes to surface bio-deterioration and thus lead to the formation of orange, red or even brown and dark pigmented areas. The presence of chromatic alterations (rose-coloured areas), as a consequence of bacterial colonization, was most particularly pointed out in different sites, such as in the marble slabs on the facades of both the Cathedral of Siena (Duomo di Siena) and the Certosa of Pavia. The present study shows an example of chromatic alteration of the surface of marble works due to bacterial colonization.


Within this paper, we will describe a grid concept to realize a universal remote lab infrastructure as well as different operation modes based on this concept. This new infrastructure consists of three parts: an internal serial remote lab bus, a bus protection unit to interface the remote lab bus and to protect it from misuse and damage as well as a protection unit, which protects the physical systems (the electro-mechanical models in our remote lab) against deliberate damage or accidentally wrong control commands and which offers different access and control mechanisms. The interconnection between the Web-control units and the selected physical system during a remote lab work session (experiment) as well as the user management is done by the lab server, which also handles the webcams. The implemented remote lab infrastructure is based on the iLab architecture of the MIT, which allows to interconnect remote labs and to exchange remote lab experiments among different universities worldwide.


In many regions of the world the abundance and distribution of jellyfish is increasing. These changes have important consequences for marine ecosystems and the services that they provide to humans. It is a fundamental goal of marine ecologists to develop understanding of how jellyfish populations respond to environmental change. Two key processes are involved in the regulation of jellyfish populations: local demographics (i.e. production and mortality) and dispersal (i.e. immigration and emigration). A failure to discriminate between the contributions of these two fundamental processes can obscure the specific environmental factors that drive changes in jellyfish populations, impeding understanding. This thesis aims (1) to assess recent changes in the abundance and distribution of Muggiaea atlantica in the coastal waters of the United Kingdom; and to (2) investigate the influence of environmental variability on both the biological (i.e. demography) and physical (i.e. dispersal) processes that drive these changes. This study utilised data collected from a network of coastal monitoring stations, together with data on a range of local and regional hydroclimatic environmental factors. I show that since the late 1960s, there has been a progressive northward extension of this species' distribution from its centre of population in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast region. These changes involved the establishment of a resident population in the Western English Channel (WEC) and the subsequent development of transient seasonal populations on the east and west coasts of Scotland. In the WEC the M. atlantica population was capable of overwintering, sustaining a resident population irrespective of immigration. This population was modulated primarily by the availability of suitable local environmental conditions that influenced demography (temperature and food availability) and secondarily by changes to water circulation patterns that influenced its dispersal. In contrast, in Scotland M. atlantica was incapable of overwintering and its population was primarily modulated by immigration and secondarily by the availability of suitable local environmental conditions. On the west coast of Scotland, the European Slope Current (ESC) was identified as the source of immigration, whereas on the east coast the mechanism of immigration was not identified. Despite the importance of the ESC as a transport mechanism from the WEC region, a direct source-sink relationship between the WEC and Scottish coastal waters was not clearly demonstrated, suggesting the importance of a network of sources. Key environmental requirements for local M. atlantica production were consistent between the localities, these were: a critical limit of 10 °C for reproduction, with an optimum of 13–15°C, together with the availability of small copepod prey. Changes in the timing of this critical temperate modulated trophic phasing with copepod prey, influencing the phenology of the blooms of M. atlantica. This thesis provides the basis for developing a mechanistic understanding of the factors that modulate distribution in a species of jellyfish. The principles and methods used could be applied to better understand changes in the abundance and distribution of M. atlantica in other areas, and also for different species of jellyfish.


: The biological activity of opioid agents reflects their interaction with specific membrane sites. The fact that the drug interaction resulting in physiological responses shows distinguishing characteristics with regard to rank order of agonist potency, affinity of the antagonist for the site acted upon by the agent to produce the effect, tolerance and cross-tolerance, may be interpreted as indicating that different opioids produce their effects by an action on distinctive receptors. Examination of the literature provides support for the hypothesis proposed by different investigators that the physiological effects of the several opioid ligands may be parsimoniously explained in terms of several possibly overlapping receptor classes including mu, delta, kappa, sigma and epsilon. Binding studies examining the affinity of the ligand for a tissue site have in general provided confirming support for these receptor profiles. It is stressed that the majority of the documentation for receptor classes derives from in vitro work. However, a growing number of quantitative studies of the receptors in brain which regulate central nervous system processing are also showing evidence of definable differences in drug action which are comparable to those reported for in vitro bioassays and binding studies. Examination of the pharmacology of the analgesic effects of opioids indicates that the differences in the activity of opioid drugs (such as between mu and kappa agonists) probably reflect the role of different pain processing systems. Though not reviewed, it is likely that a similar complexity underlies the interaction of opioids with neural substrates mediating other functions. Thus different opioid receptors may modulate the same physiological phenomenon because they are on different systems which have a similar output (e.g. spinal reflex inhibition) or they may co-exist on the same neurone. In short, it appears likely that there are discriminable populations of opioid receptors and that no single receptor can be said to modulate a given physiological effect.


Thousands of piles are built every year in the world and their construction has become an integral part of a building"s design and construction. Although so many piles are being built, contractors still find piles that are damaged or their as-built condition is significantly different than the initial design. Pile damage or any compromise in the strength, stiffness or geometry may be detrimental for the structural stability and safety of the superstructure. It is therefore crucial to implement procedures for inspecting and qualitycontrolling foundation piles, so that their "true" capacity can be reliably estimated. Part of this quality control should be a comprehensive set of reliable detailed instrumentation that can reveal the state of constructed foundation piles. Distributed fibre-optic strain sensing using BOTDR or BOTDA is a novel instrumentation technique that offers a spatially-continuous data. An optical fibre cable is installed along the depth of the pile which serves as a sensor itself, as it provides distributed strain data every 510cm along the cable length. This is superior to more conventional discrete point-based sensors which provided limited monitoring information at pre-specified location points. The availability of a distributed strain regime offers a number of advantages when it comes to studying soil-structure interaction problems such as foundation piles. This paper describes the use of distributed fibre-optic sensing in monitoring foundation piles and presents two recent case studies in London were abnormalities in the piles were observed. It is shown that spatially-distributed fibre-optics were able to identify the abnormalities, whereas the point vibrating-wire strain-gauge sensors could not. The monitoring data is also complemented by relevant load-transfer finite-element analysis which was able to confirm that a compromised pile cross-sectional area existed in the pile at several locations.


For many years, the medical treatment of breast cancer was reliant solely on cytotoxic chemotherapy. However, over the past twenty years, treatment has evolved to a more target-directed approach. We now employ tailored therapy based on the presence or absence of receptors for estrogen, progesterone, and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2). We expect this trend to continue, as agents that use novel approaches to target HER2, as well as targeting different portions of the HER signaling pathway, are in various stages of development. Notably, pertuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to a different domain of the extracellular portion of the HER2 receptor than trastuzumab, was recently approved for use, as was lapatinib, a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Patients with triple negative breast cancer, particularly those with the BRCA mutation, have more limited treatment options and carry a worse prognosis than those who are hormone receptor positive. However, recent data has shown that PARP inhibitors may have significant anti-tumor effect in those with this subtype of breast cancer. Novel agents that inhibit mTOR, PI3K, the insulin-like growth factor, heat shock protein 90, and histone deacetylase have shown promise in phase I-III trials and offer exciting new possibilities for the treatment of this often fatal disease. As we are presented with an ever increasing number of treatment options, the timing and combinations of therapeutic agents used becomes ever more complex in the age of personalized care, but we are hopeful that ultimately this will lead to improved patient outcomes.


This article proposes an approach to learning steering and road following behaviour from a human driver using holistic visual features. We use a random forest (RF) to regress a mapping between these features and the driver's actions, and propose an alternative to classical random forest regression based on the Medoid (RF-Medoid), that reduces the underestimation of extreme control values. We compare prediction performance using different holistic visual descriptors: GIST, Channel-GIST (C-GIST) and Pyramidal-HOG (P-HOG). The proposed methods are evaluated on two different datasets: predicting human behaviour on countryside roads and also for autonomous control of a robot on an indoor track. We show that 1) C-GIST leads to the best predictions on both sequences, and 2) RF-Medoid leads to a better estimation of extreme values, where a classical RF tends to under-steer. We use around 10% of the data for training and show excellent generalization over a dataset of thousands of images. Importantly, we do not engineer the solution but instead use machine learning to automatically identify the relationship between visual features and behaviour, providing an efficient, generic solution to autonomous control.


Firsthand accounts and spectacular photographs combine to form a fascinating portrait of the endangered Tibetan people, their plateau, and their cultural landscape. Known as the "water tower of Asia," the Tibetan Plateau is heating up twice as fast as the global average. These rapidly melting glaciers-along with recent unprecedented development on the plateau-are quickly changing the lives of the deeply devotional nomads, monks, and farmers who have lived in this area for centuries.Photographer Phil Borges uses individual stories and portraits to illustrate how dramatic development, climate change, and the deep devotion of the Tibetan people are interacting to transform Tibetan culture. The portraits of the land and the people bring a powerful visual component as the reader meets and learns about Tibet firsthand through these storytellers.


Heavy metals are among the pollutants that should be monitored in order to obtain a coherent and comprehensive overview of quality status for a certain soil system. Some contaminants are conserved as they pass from organism to organism in a food chain, possibly resulting in progressively higher concentrations at high content levels. In soil systems, plants take the heavy metal mainly by their root system, as a natural requirement for their growth. If the sediment is contaminated then the amount of metals available for the plants will be high. The metallurgical complex of Elbasan is the largest and most important one in the country but at the same time represents a source of significant heavy metal contamination in the wider watershed Shkumbini River. Numerous efforts have been made to establish protocols and standards for the determination of the heavy and toxic elements in plant and soils to study their distribution, and establish pollution levels as well as their derived risks for the ecosystem and environmental stability. The number of measurements is restricted by the number of samples which were collected from the study area and this number is primarily limited by the funding of the analysis. Moreover, the samples were typically taken from vertical sections, which is in general a soil profile or a catena of soil profiles. The objectives of this study were to: (i) determine the degree of soil contamination by Cu, Zn, and Cd, with respect to distance from the metallurgical complex of Elbasan, Albania, and (ii) determine various metal fractions for selected soil samples. The data gathered from this study will allow the evaluation of soil-management techniques to limit mobility and plant availability of heavy metals and to ultimately minimize their transfer into the food chain.


Background Hypocretin peptides participate in the regulation of sleep-wake cycle while deficiency in hypocretin signaling and loss of hypocretin neurons are causative for narcolepsy-cataplexy. However, the mechanism responsible for alteration of the hypocretin system in narcolepsy-cataplexy and its relevance to other central hypersomnias remain unknown. Here we studied whether central hypersomnias can be associated with autoantibodies reacting with hypocretin-1 peptide present as immune complexes. Methodology Serum levels of free and dissociated (total) autoantibodies reacting with hypocretin-1 peptide were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and analyzed with regard to clinical parameters in 82 subjects with narcolepsy-cataplexy, narcolepsy without cataplexy or idiopathic hypersomnia and were compared to 25 healthy controls. Principal Findings Serum levels of total but not free IgG autoantibodies against hypocretin-1 were increased in narcolepsy-cataplexy. Increased levels of complexed IgG autoantibodies against hypocretin-1 were found in all patients groups with a further increase in narcolepsy-cataplexy. Levels of total IgM hypocretin-1 autoantibodies were also elevated in all groups of patients. Increased levels of anti-idiotypic IgM autoantibodies reacting with hypocretin-1 IgG autoantibodies affinity purified from sera of subjects with narcolepsy-cataplexy were found in all three groups of patients. Disease duration correlated negatively with serum levels of hypocretin-1 IgG and IgM autoantibodies and with anti-idiotypic IgM autoantibodies. Conclusion Central hypersomnias and particularly narcolepsy-cataplexy are characterized by higher serum levels of autoantibodies directed against hypocretin-1 which are present as immune complexes most likely with anti-idiotypic autoantibodies suggesting their relevance to the mechanism of sleep-wake cycle regulation.


There are uncountable research activities and technology development efforts have been carried out in Indonesia; however, very limited economically and/or socially beneficial technologies have been created. Very few indigenous technologies have been used in producing goods and providing services, including in agricultural sector. This problem is rooted on facts that most of the technologies developed are not relevant to real needs and/or problems of domestic farmers. Even if the technologies are substantially relevant; in many cases, they are not finacially affordable by domestic farmers, do not significantly increase profit if used, and/or less competitive compared to similar available technologies in the market. Limited availability of resources, at present and even more scarse in the future, elevates expectation on technology to contribute in establishing inclusive, productive, and sustainable agricultural development. To assure that developed technology will be relevant to the needs and contribute to agricultural development, farmers ought to be play significant active roles during priority setting, planning, and developing the technology. The real issues at present are increase in food demand as consequence of population growth and conversion of arable lands for uses in other sectors. These trends have led to intensifying agricultural activities on suboptimal lands. Efforts to increase agricultural productivity in suboptimal lands should not jeopardize sustainable function of the ecosystem and participation of local farmers. Sustainability and inclusivity should be maintained while increasing productivity. Traditional knowledge and local wisdom have to be treated as reference for developing technology for establishing productive agriculture on suboptimal lands.


This study investigates factors that influence disputants' venue selection strategies and preferences in South Sudan where the role of informal dispute resolution systems has been recently supplemented with legal mechanisms in modernizing polities. The study is a contribution to the conflict resolution literature in understating factors that motivate venue selection. Using non-probability convenience sampling method, 288 surveys were conducted in three locations. The overall findings indicate that traditional courts are more preferable than modern courts for resolving debt cases, land grabbing, theft, child custody and fight. However, legal venues are preferred to resolve cases such as murder, road accidents, rape and defilement. Interestingly, both legal and traditional courts are used to resolve theft, adultery and elopement cases in different contexts. The findings also indicate that the accessibility, affordability, nature and speed of resolution (practicality) are the over-riding motivating factors for both modern and traditional courts preference followed by norms and values and lastly, venue characteristics.


ABSTRACT Assistive technologies, such as robots, have proven to be useful in a social context and to improve the quality of life for people with dementia (PwD). This study aims to show how the engagement between two social robots and PwD in Australian residential care facilities can improve care quality. An observational method is adopted in the research methodology to discover behavioural patterns during interactions between the robots and PwD. This observational study has undertaken to explore the improvement arising from: (1) approaching social baby-face robots (AR), (2) experiencing pleasure engaging with the robots (P), (3) interacting with the robots (IR), and (4) interacting with others (IO). The findings show that social robots can improve diversion therapy service value to PwD through sensory enrichment, positive social engagement, and entertainment. More than 11,635 behavioral reactions, such as facial expressions and gestures, from 139 PwD over 5 years were coded, in order to identify the engagement effectiveness between PwD and two social robots named Sophie and Jack. The results suggest that these innovative social robots can improve the quality of care for people suffering from dementia.