Effective supervision of financial institutions is one of the key factors in guaranteeing long-term successful functioning of the financial system. Effective supervision is a precondition of stability of the financial system, sound functioning of financial institutions stimulating the development of local financial markets, and attracting capital and foreign investment flows to the country. Consequently, issues on improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of supervision of insurance, banking and securities markets continue to remain important. Moreover, they are influenced by ongoing social changes, developments of global economy, a growing number of financial conglomerates, convergence of supervised financial markets, duplication of functions carried out by supervisory institutions, and etc. Recent changes in the regulation of activities of financial supervision institutions are mostly focused on search for suitable administrative organisational model of a supervisory institution. The predominating tendency is consolidation of activities of financial supervision institutions to create the system of supervision, which is common for all financial markets and which is run by one supervisory authority. The problematics of search for the organisational model of supervision of financial markets is also relevant for the Republic of Lithuania, because like in other countries, there are no strict boundaries between banks, securities and insurance markets, which are interrelated with each other. For example, the pension reform involves subsidiaries of commercial banks, financial brokerage firms and life assurance undertakings; insurance services are provided by both insurance undertakings and subsidiaries of commercial banks. Consolidated supervision of financial markets has many advantages and weaknesses, which might have direct implications for the insurance supervision activities. It should be noted that consolidated supervision of financial markets cannot address all problems of supervision of financial markets. There are many gaps in legal regulation of insurance supervision in the Republic of Lithuania, which must be eliminated; however, consolidated supervision of financial markets will not be the main factor, determining higher effectiveness of supervision of the insurance market. On the contrary, consolidated supervision of the financial market might cause a real threat of weaker effectiveness and efficiency of supervision over the functioning of the insurance market. The process of change of the supervisory model of financial markets should be smooth and crises should be prevented in sensitive financial markets, which have an important role to play in the economic life of the state.


This thesis puts forward an innovative model of health management service grid, and gives the overall architecture of health management grid platform system by which a health management service model can be established based on the analysis of present condition of health management in China. This paper also presents a new integrated model about the health management service resources by using the advanced internet concept of grid service. The system can on one hand promote people's enthusiasms and initiatives to get more involved in health management, and on the other hand push forward the development of health management service industry.


This article presents an alternative for traditional inference mechanisms and, most typically, the compositional rule of inference (CRI) method. The most important benefit of the new method is its higher robustness with respect to changes in the rule base and its ability to function when the latter is sparse. The proposed method is based on a fuzzy generalization of the ordinary least-square interpolation method. The authors consider the degradation caused by elimination of a rule in a fuzzy controller and show that CRI is more sensitive than their interpolation-based method.


With the advance of an aging society, people who are physically handicapped have specific needs concerning mobility assistance in relation to their respective living conditions. Moreover, operating an electric wheelchair indoors in confined spaces requires considerable skill. This paper presents an obstacle avoidance support system for an electric wheelchair, using reinforcement learning. The obstacle avoidance is semi-automatically supported by the Minimum Vector Field Histogram (MVFH) method. The MVFH modifies the user manipulation and assists the obstacle avoidance. In the proposed scheme, the modification rate is adjusted by reinforcement learning according to the environment and the user condition. The newly proposed scheme is numerically evaluated on a simulation example. Furthermore, the proposed scheme was applied to an experimental electric wheelchair, and the effectiveness of the proposed technique was verified in a real operating environment.


Natural phenomena can not be treated and understood in the context of a single discipline.
School projects in which students are engaged, developing content and working methods that do not involve strict barriers between disciplines.
In addition, there are students capable of high performance, students which have formed interdisciplinary skills and skills transfer. For these students, interdisciplinary approach to content and physics phenomena represents the usual way of working.
Interdisciplinary learning can be applied in the context of differential treatment of students and of the learning content respectively.
Differential treatment of students is a necessity in terms of diversification of skills, learning styles, educational profiles and their future professions. Students learn to enjoy those parts of the curriculum that is close to areas where they are passionate. Therefore, the teacher is able to launch this challenge to students.
Attracting students to science has multiple results, such as attending school curricula in good condition, getting school performance in this area, increasing the number of future specialists in natural sciences.
Therefore, our article presents elements of the physics discipline integrated in an interdisciplinary treatment of the contents. In this context, we intend to show that is possible to developing the projects which have the objectives to build graphic user interfaces used in physics learning process, or to control a continuous wave laser beam by a simple electronic circuit.
Also, our article presents some laboratory experimental subjects with extensive content that can be discussed in the differentiated treatment to physics discipline.
We estimate that in terms of interdisciplinary process, physics learning is a positive factor which leading to the complete and unit educational products for school curricula.


We have analyzed the effects of reducing conditions on the folding of the spike (S) protein and on the intracellular transport of the membrane (M) protein of the mouse hepatitis coronavirus. These proteins differ in their potential to form disulfide bonds in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Intrachain disulfide bonds are formed in the S protein but not in M, which was demonstrated in a pulse-chase experiment by analyzing the viral proteins under nonreducing conditions. To reduce disulfide bonds in vivo, we added dithiothreitol (DTT) to the culture medium of mouse hepatitis coronavirus-infected cells following a procedure recently described by Braakman et al. (I. Braakman, J. Helenius, and A. Helenius, EMBO J. 11:1717-1722, 1992). Short exposure to DTT resulted in the complete reduction of newly synthesized S protein and affected its conformation as judged by the change in mobility in nonreducing gels and by the loss of recognition by a conformation-specific monoclonal antibody. Using this antibody in an immunofluorescence assay, we monitored the reducing effect of DTT in situ. DTT was found to initially affect only the S protein present in the ER; also, after longer treatment, the remaining signal also gradually disappeared. In contrast, folding and transport of the M protein were not inhibited by DTT. Under reducing conditions, M was transported efficiently to the trans side of the Golgi complex, indicating that cellular processes such as ER-to-Golgi transport, O-glycosylation, and Golgi retention were unaffected. In the presence of DTT, the M protein even moved at an increased rate to the Golgi complex, which is probably because of its failure to interact with unfolded S protein. The effects of in vivo reduction were reversible. When DTT was removed from pulse-labeled cells, the S protein folded posttranslationally and aberrantly; during its oxidation, most of S now transiently aggregated into large disulfide-linked complexes from which subsequently folded S molecules dissociated.


Autonomous Crack Measurement (ACM) facilitates simultaneous measurement of crack response to environmental changes and vibrations produced by various construction activities. Dual-purpose crack displacement sensors measure crack response, while the vibration environment is defined by standard seismological transducers and the weather environment is defined as changes in temperature and humidity. This investigation involved an ACM study to examine the effects of rock blasting at the Stiles Road Quarry site in Southbury, Connecticut and vibrations produced by heavy construction equipment at the West Ann Road site in Las Vegas, Nevada. The study also allowed for the examination of blast design effects on crack displacement and a comparison of crack response from typical blasting and construction activities with that produced by weather changes. Measurements and analysis show that (i) long-term weather-induced crack displacement is 30 to 150 times greater than the crack displacement produced by the largest blasting event (≈0.35 ips) at the Connecticut site and the largest construction event (≈0.45 ips) at the Las Vegas site, (ii) ground vibration frequency and stemming length have the largest effect on crack displacement of the four blast design controls studied, (iii) appropriate triggering mechanisms and on-site observation greatly facilitate vibration monitoring, and (iv) rock blasting at distances of approximately 2500 feet produced homogenous crack response, while localized construction activity in soils at distances less than 50 feet produced time varying, localized crack response.


This virtual discussion between biomedical researchers and academics in the literary humanities took place in June–July 2013, through the medium of blog and email. The participants are Tim Spector (Genetic Epidemiology), Karen Temple (Medical Genetics), Angelique Richardson (Literary Studies), Deborah J.G. Mackay (Human Genetics) and Peter Garratt (Literary Studies). The conversation was initiated and convened by Mandy Bloomfield (Literary Studies). What develops in the course of the discussion is a sense of the ways in which biomedical researchers working on genetics are discovering new complexities with profound cultural and philosophical implications, whilst those working in the humanities are considering what those implications might be, but from a position on the edges of specialist scientific knowledge and modes of thinking. Perhaps inevitably, we sometimes find we are not speaking quite the same language. And this question of language – of metaphors, varieties of meaning, precision and indeterminacy – crops up time and again in this discussion. Perhaps it is in these frictive edges between disciplines that productive dialogue can happen, and we can learn from the differences between perspectives. For example, in this discussion the 'nurture–nature' dichotomy is interrogated in different ways, but with equivalent levels of reflective rigour, by researchers in the biomedical and humanities disciplines alike. What do we really mean by those terms? What are the historical components of this conceptual divide? Is it even possible to separate 'nurture' from 'nature'? If a consensus emerges from this discussion, it is that current research in both the sciences and the humanities is blurring the distinctions between such dichotomous constructions as 'nature vs. nurture' in ways that are changing thinking and practices across the disciplines. Whether this takes us to a revaluation of Victorian understandings of organism and environment, or into ever-more complicated relationships between medical practitioners and their patients, we are, as one participant puts it, 'in for an interesting time'.


1. Introduction In view of the economic and political crises which are now affecting many parts of the world there has been renewed interest in the question of how major countries and regions previously faced such challenges in order to learn as much as possible from these experiences. The end of the Cold War and the wave of democratization it entailed in many Eastern European and Third World countries has, in the absence of overriding superpower rivalry and influence, also directed attention to the internal factors which have shaped these developments in each case (see, e.g., Hadenius, 1992, Held, 1993, Huntington, 1991, Vanhanen, 1990). For these reasons, an analysis of the social and political reactions to the Great Depression during the inter-war period in Europe may not only reveal some insights which are pertinent to crisis theory (Almond et al., 1973, Dobry, 1986) and an empirical theory of democracy (see in particular Dahl, 1989) in general, but may also be relevant for contemporary political concerns. The inter-war period in Europe seems to be particularly interesting in this respect because it most closely resembles what can be called a "quasi-experimental" research design which is, for ethical or practical reasons, relatively rare in the social sciences (Mill, 1843). The cases to be considered share many socio-economic and political-cultural characteristics. Their history is relatively well-researched and documented, The time period is clearly demarcated by common events, i.e., of the two World Wars, which significantly altered the internal and external political landscape and set it apart from earlier and later developments. All cases could initially be termed parliamentary democracies, some of them having been established for a relatively long period, and others being of comparatively recent origin and more democratic in form than in substance. These countries were then affected by a common external stimulus: the world economic crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Some parliamentary regimes survived while others turned to a more authoritarian form of rule and, in particular, to fascism. This period has, of course, been discussed and analyzed from a large variety of research perspectives (for a critical review and a test of major hypotheses see Berg-Schlosser/De Meur, 1994). Our concern here is not so much with the economic aspects of the crisis and the impact of the various economic policies pursued (although these must also be assessed within our overall context) since they have been largely discussed by economic historians and economists (see, e.g., Kindleberger, 1973, Schulz, 1985, Gourevitch, 1986, Eichengreen, 1992). Rather, we are concerned with the social and political reactions to the crisis and the factors which contributed to the final regime outcome, i.e., the survival or breakdown of democratic systems. Our research differs from previous and related projects in a number of critical respects. Most importantly, we consider the inter-war European crises to have been political in nature. They certainly had their economic and social 'causes', but what links these varying inputs to the 'crisis outcomes' are essentially political decisions and political factors related to both the institutional and cultural patterns of the polities in question and to their political actors. This impact of political variables thus depends upon a complex interaction of structures, cultures and pre-conditions both at any one point in time and in terms of the development sequence that gave rise to such configurations. These general factors are all linked to specific outcomes through the actions of intermediary groups and individual actors and through the particular choices of these persons and groups, including the possibility of new alignments being formed at critical moments. By proceeding in this manner, we are attempting to steer clear of the pitfalls of a premature and over-generalizing historical materialist determinism on the one hand, and the overly personalizing ('men make history') and individualizing ('not true in my country') approach of many conventional historians on the other. …


The intellectual capital is an intangible value that should incorporate to the financial states, like part of the generation of all the workers' of an organization value. Some models that allow quantifying it exist although it is necessary to
recognize that we should deepen with more precision to object of having a bigger number of followers to this important reference.


Networks of interdependent organizations cooperate to produce goods or, nowadays, services that are of value to their markets as well as to the participating organizations. Such co-operations can be supported by corresponding business processes which are based on SOA technology. Developing and managing SOA-based business processes in such service networks necessitates a comprehensive architecture which is on the one hand grounded on solid design principles, and on the other hand capturing best-practices and experiences. Such an architecture is currently lacking. This paper outlines a first attempt to develop and validate an architecture for developing, monitoring, measuring and optimizing SOAenabled business processes in service networks. A case study from the telecommunications industry is analyzed, and different aspects of service networks are


Background: Society's lack of knowledge about organ donation and insensitivity to this issue emerge as one of the low organ transplantation reasons. The aims of this study were to determine the middle school and high school students' level of knowledge about organ, tissue and blood donation-transfusion, to provide knowledge to the students about the subject and also to evaluate the effectiveness of this informative work.
Methods: The study group consisted of 342 high school students. Created questionnaire included 40 questions of knowledge regarding organ and tissue transplantation and blood donation. Knowledge level of the students were measured by the questionnaire. After a week of this process, an informative education study that lasted about 40 minutes was performed to all students including the studying group by the researchers regarding organ and tissue transplantation and blood donation. Fifteen days after the informative education, the same students in the same classes filled in the same questionnaires previously applied.
Results: Organ and tissue transplantation and blood donation knowledge levels of those who obtained 15 and over scores as a result of the ROC Analysis were considered to be adequate.
The knowledge score mean was 17.81±7.99. The item "description of transplant" was the most correctly known knowledge question. The knowledge score average students obtained from tissue, organ and blood transfusion-donation items by before informative study was lower than after informative study.
Conclusion: Informative activities to the students were found to be effective in increasing the students' level of knowledge about the donations.


This paper describes breakthrough cyber security technology developed by 4thDTtrade security that addresses today's critical need for legacy system security, particularly SCADA networks, that rely on network communication systems. This technology transcends current security methods and guarantees absolute security for network communications and data storage. The 4thDTtrade security solution allows the Internet to function as intended - an efficient point-to-point transport medium. This hardware/firmware solution performs quantum cryptographic payload scrambling, allows OS platform independence, ease of integration, low cost of ownership, and eliminates the need for enterprise key management. This makes 4thDTtrade security an ideal solution to address the SCADA, legacy system, and network database security issues that are a critical need today. Research prototypes of 4thDTtrade security hardware are being evaluated now.


This paper provides analytical solutions to the closed-loop kinematics of two almost globally exponentially stabilizing attitude control laws on the special orthogonal group SO(n). By studying the general case we give a uniform treatment to the cases of SO(2) and SO(3), which are the most interesting dimensions for application purposes. Working directly with rotation matrices in the case of SO(3) allows us to avoid certain complications which may arise when using local and global many-to-one parameterizations. The analytical solutions provide insight into the transient behaviour of the system and are of theoretical value since they can be used to prove almost global attractiveness of the identity matrix. The practical usefulness of analytical solutions in problems of continuous time actuation subject to piece-wise unavailable or discrete time sensing are illustrated by numerical examples.


Bio-sensing is an important application in the devices of plasmonic metamaterials. However, most of such metamaterial devices were basing on the separated metallic nano-structures and limited in the absorption effects at resonance frequencies. Here we present a novel bio-sensor basing on nanoscale complementary split ring resonators with unique function of controllable narrow band-pass. The nanostructures with unit size of 100 nm and slit width of 30 nm were fabricated by e-beam lithography and ion beam etching. And the detecting measurement result indicated that the nanostructure is sensitive to the solution of bovine serum albumin (BSA). This would pave a new way to the further application of plasmonic metamaterials in chemical/biological sensing.


The rapid development of the Palestinian national struggle from a rebel guerrilla movement in the 1960s and 1970s to an organization with almost all the attributes of an organized state (although, without sustainable national space) in the 1980s and 1990s also contributed to the politicization of the Palestinian Christian church in Israel/Palestine. During this period, certain Israeli policies that included land confiscations, church and property destruction, building restrictions and a consequent mass emigration of the faithful, all contributed to a new restrictive climate of political intolerance being faced by the churches. The 1990s and 2000s saw the start and doom of the Oslo "peace process" between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as well as the fruition of many Israeli territorial and settlement policies regarding the Old City and mainly Arab-inhabited East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank of historic Palestine. Church-State relations plummeted to their lowest point in decades during this period. The results of the suspicion and distrust created by these experiences continue to dog the mutual relations of Israelis, Palestinian Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land.


In the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) process, a heterogeneous emulsion‐solid mix will form, consisting of an emulsion of liquid slag and metal droplets, in which 2nd phase particles of undissolved fluxes and solid in‐blow precipitates are suspended. When the carbon in the metal droplets reacts with iron oxide, small bubbles of CO gas are formed. If the upward movement of these bubbles is obstructed by the physical properties of the emulsion‐solid mix, foaming will occur. Certain process conditions may lead to an excessive foam growth, in the worst case forcing foam out of the vessel. This undesired process event is known as "slopping". Extensive studies during recent decades have shown that emulsion characteristics strongly connected to foaming are: viscosity, surface tension, and density. The extent of foaming is also dependent on bubble size; foaming increasing with smaller bubble size. However, investigations into the influence of the mineralogy and morphology of the emulsion‐solid mix on foaming in basic oxygen steelmaking are scarce. In this work, samples from trials in a 6‐tonne pilot plant BOS vessel are examined by XRD and with SEM for the determination of emulsion‐solid mix mineralogy and morphology at different stages of the oxygen blow. The study confirms the importance of tight process control in order to minimize the emulsion‐solid mix apparent viscosity and, hence, the foam height, but this without over‐oxidizing the liquid slag phase, which would result in increased gas generation within the slag‐metal emulsion.


Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Founded in 1940, the society now has more than 2,300 members representing professionals, students, artists, preparators, and others interested in VP. The society is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes. The object of the society is to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology and to serve the common interests and facilitate the cooperation of all persons concerned with the history, evolution, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of vertebrate animals, as well as field occurrence, collection, and study of fossil vertebrates and the stratigraphy of the beds in which they are found. The society is also concerned with the conservation and preservation of fossil sites.


The yield strength anisotropy of aluminum-lithium sheet is known to be strongly dependent on crystallographic texture and grain morphology. In this study, the microstructure and texture of unrecrystallized and recrystallized variants of 2090 were examined in an SEM, using a combination of backscattered electron imaging and Kikuchi patterns. Local orientation measurements both through the sheet thickness and parallel to the rolling direction were used to determine the degree of misorientation between nearest-neighbor grains. Yield strength predictions based on the spatially resolved texture measurements show that the course, recrystallized grains have reduced in-plane and through-thickness anisotropy compared to the unrecrystallized structure.


Abstract Awareness of the mechanisms underlying training and development (T&D) programmes is crucial in creating sustainable learning conditions in organisations. The organisational and psychosocial aspects of the work environment in Swedish elderly care is the focus of this longitudinal study, and the relation between process and results of a T&D programme is investigated. A mixed-methods design enabled exploration of the content of the quality improvement efforts, followed by an examination of how aspects of the work environment are influenced. The perceived learning climate, workload and resource adequacy are shown to be influenced differently by different contents. Insights into the complexity surrounding T&D programmes are then offered. It is concluded that even if a seemingly sound method of quality improvement is implemented, this is not enough to guarantee success. Also, it is apparent that changes may sometimes be at the expense of employees' work environment, which may hamper continuous learning.


An essential step in fielding a timely and effective response to events of global importance is the ability to rapidly identify and integrate a crisis action team. This group should consist of exactly those individuals best qualified to manage the situation. Often, the organization of such a team follows identifiable patterns. Thus, it is important to rapidly identify the type of team, or pattern, required, and to identify the individuals that meet the requirements specified by this pattern. This is a challenging task, as information about people is often distributed across multiple locations, inconsistent or out-of-date, and phrased in the language of different domains. We present a framework that facilitates the rapid integration of teams by identifying scenario-based patterns, and using agent-based search across enterprise boundaries to identify people and assist in their assignment. George Abitante, Michael Cramer, Steve Forsythe, Timothy Frey, Anil John, and Kim Richeson contributed to the concepts and technical discussions presented in this paper. The authors appreciate their inputs and valuable insights.


A histomorphometric study was done on healing defects in the ribs of Beagles. A transverse fracture was made in the left 9th and 10th ribs. Beagles were given either ethanol vehicle (n = 6) or prostaglandin (PG) E2 orally (n = 5) for the 30-day period after surgical manipulation to time of necropsy. Double fluorescent labels to measure bone matrix mineralization were given with each of 2 fluorochrome markers--calcein before dogs were surgically manipulated and oxytetracycline hydrochloride before they were euthanatized. The objectives were to determine the effects of fracture on regional remodeling in the periosteum, the effects of PGE2 on the regional remodeling changes in the periosteum induced by the fracture, and the systemic effect of PGE2 on remodeling changes of the contralateral matching sites. The fracture in the nontreated dogs (ethanol only) stimulated remodeling activity in the periosteum with increased resorption (P less than 0.01). However, after surgical manipulation (necropsy) was done, the extent of mineralization on the bone surface was decreased and was decreased more on the nonfractured ribs (right side) than on the fractured (healing) ribs (left side) (P less than 0.05). In the treated dogs, the administration of PGE2 increased the extent of mineralization on the bone surface on the healing ribs. However, as in the nontreated dogs, the administration of PGE2 did not alter the decreasing pattern of mineralization when comparing the bone surfaces at necropsy with the bone surfaces before surgical manipulation was done.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Effective representation and characterization of biosynthetic pathways of glycosylation can be facilitated by mathematical modeling. This paper describes the expansion of a previously developed detailed model for N-linked glycosylation with the further application of the model to analyze MALDI-TOF mass spectra of human N-glycans in terms of underlying cellular enzyme activities. The glycosylation reaction network is automatically generated by the model, based on the reaction specificities of the glycosylation enzymes. The use of a molecular mass cutoff and a network pruning method typically limits the model size to about 10,000 glycan structures. This allows prediction of the complete glycan profile and its abundances for any set of assumed enzyme concentrations and reaction rate parameters. A synthetic mass spectrum from model-calculated glycan profiles is obtained and enzyme concentrations are adjusted to bring the theoretically calculated mass spectrum into agreement with experiment. The result of this process is a complete characterization of a measured glycan mass spectrum containing hundreds of masses in terms of the activities of 19 enzymes. In addition, a complete annotation of the mass spectrum in terms of glycan structure is produced, including the proportions of isomers within each peak. The method was applied to mass spectrometric data of normal human monocytes and monocytic leukemia (THP1) cells to derive glycosyltransferase activity changes underlying the differences in glycan structure between the normal and diseased cells. Model predictions could lead to a better understanding of the changes associated with disease states, identification of disease-associated biomarkers, and bioengineered glycan modifications.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of resin-based and glass ionomer-based fissure sealants compared with no intervention for children.

METHODS
We developed a Markov-based decision analytic model that simulated Turkish children from aged 6 to 15 years. Two types of costs were explored from the payers' perspective and the health care system perspectives. A cost-effectiveness analysis of resin-based and glass ionomer-based fissure sealants was conducted to quantify their effectiveness using the number of caries prevented and the quality-adjusted tooth years (QATYs). Costs and effectiveness measures were discounted at 3% per year.

RESULTS
The most cost-effective intervention was resin-based fissure sealant, with an additional $5.34 per caries prevented and $1.86 per QATY gained compared with no treatment.

CONCLUSION
Fissure sealants particularly resin-based sealants are cost-effective for children in Turkey due to their low cost and highly preventive characteristics.


Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been recognised as critical to economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. Shipping businesses represent significant portion of SMEs and have dominated the private sector investments in developed nations. Existing studies have identified funding as a major constraint to SMEs in developing countries. The banking institution statutorily positioned to assist in SMEs funding in these countries are constrained by a host of factors. This paper investigates the factors affecting banks financing and development of SMEs in the maritime shipping sector of Nigeria. Data for this study were obtained from Likert scaled questionnaires which were administered to a randomly selected sample of commercial banks with shipping portfolios. Evidence from data analysis using ordered logit regression model indicates that; risk perception attitude of banks, information constraints on SMEs, lack of skills in SMEs financing and unfavourable regulatory environment are significant factors affecting banks investments in SMEs in Nigeria's shipping sector. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.


Given the controversies surrounding the critical period hypothesis on second-language (L2) learning outcomes, this study focuses on the phonological aspect of language acquisition—the strength of the foreign accent in L2. Drawing on data from a large-scale representative data set on immigrant adolescents in Germany—CILS4EU-DE—we first demonstrate that there is a critical period (CP) up to the age of around 10, after which obtaining oral language skills without a foreign accent becomes less likely. Second, we provide evidence that native-like language skills can be achieved after the CP if certain preconditions related to learning efficiency and language exposure are met. Our analyses indicate that higher cognitive abilities and exposure to a language environment with intensive and manifold contacts with native speakers can compensate for disadvantages caused by a late start in L2 acquisition. The results are discussed in the context of the linguistic and sociological scholarship of language acquisition and immigrant assimilation.


In this paper, we consider the problem of blood glucose control for type 1 diabetic patients. In particular, we focus on developing control algorithms for an Artificial Pancreas which is a portable or implantable automated insulin delivery system composed of a continuous glucose monitor, an insulin pump, and a control law that links the measured blood glucose concentration and insulin delivery. We have designed Receding Horizon Control (RHC) (which is also known as the Model Predictive Control) for two specific patients, respectively, based on a data-driven linear time-varying state-space model developed in for each patient using clinical data. The control parameters are tuned specifically for each patient. For patient 1, the RHC algorithm performs well with no information (e.g., amount and time) of meal intake, which results in the so-called feedback alone control. For patient 2, information of meal intake is necessary for the RHC algorithm to reach acceptable closed-loop performance, which results in the so-called feedback plus feedforward control. For both patients, we evaluate the performance of the RHC designs via simulation and compare the simulation results with clinical data. We also test the robustness of the RHC design with respect to estimation errors in the amount of carbohydrate content (CHO) of the meal.


Abstract The Coronavirus (COVID−19) pandemic has increased anxiety and stress among childcare workers in many communities. This has given rise to the question of whether childcare workers have the capabilities to execute their operational responsibilities effectively during this period in ensuring that the children are well taken care of. The theory of crisis was used in the study to explore the resilience of childcare workers in managing the well-being of vulnerable orphans during this period. A qualitative approach was applied, using focus group interviews involving 10 childcare workers from the Lefika la Botshabelo Orphaned and Vulnerable care centre who have been beneficiaries of the programme too, to establish the role the care workers played in ensuring that the orphaned and vulnerable children were well-taken care of during lockdown. The responses showed the importance of training, personal and professional development as well as the importance of adapting to the recent COVID−19 regulations in optimally caring for orphans. These results suggested that Lefika childcare workers are in dire need of new, innovative ways to perform their duties.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to assess immigrant women`s needs for pregnancy and postpartum adaptation and to test the reliability and validity of the scale. Methods: To construct scale items, critical issues and difficulties associated with pregnancy and postpartum adaptation of immigrant women were identified and categorized through a literature review. Fifty-two scale items were constructed, and data for validity and reliability testing was collected with a questionnaire survey from 367 immigrant women. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and reliability coefficients. Results: The final measurement scale to assess immigrant women`s pregnancy and postpartum adaptation consisted of 48 items and 7 factors (adaptation to daily activity during pregnancy, cross-cultural understanding and personal respect, understanding of the process of pregnancy and delivery,baby rearing and family support, physical and emotional adaptation after childbirth, nutrition during pregnancy,and sexual life adaptation). The seven factors accounted for 64.26% of the variance, and Cronbach`s α was .96. Conclusion: The scale developed by this study is a reliable and valid instrument and can be used to assess needs of pregnancy and postpartum adaptation and can be utilized in providing nursing interventions for immigrant women.


From 2017, the government of Kenya aimed at attaining 100 percent transition rate of pupils from primary to secondary schools. In Laikipia West Sub-County whose primary schools are focused by the study, transition from primary to secondary schools averaged at 54.9% from 2008 to 2015. Cultural factors are highlighted in literature as to undermine transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which cultural factors influence pupils' transition from primary to secondary schools in Laikipia West Sub-county in Kenya. Using ex-post facto research design, data was collected using self-delivered questionnaire from a target population of 1064 respondents. The study was carried out on a randomly sampled population of 411 respondents, composed of 280 teachers and 131 PTA chairpersons in public primary schools in the area of study. Data was analyzed using simple regression at .05 alpha level. Findings from the study revealed that cultural factors were significantly influencing transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools (β= - .790) at 0.5 significance level. The study recommended that local leaders should organize for civic education in order to address the identified transition challenges so as to attain a 100% rate of progression to secondary schools.


Lithography based IC fabrication is rapidly approaching its limit in terms of feature size. The current alternative is nanotechnology based fabrication, which relies on self-assembly of nanotubes or nanowires. Such a process is subject to a high defect rate, which can be tolerated using carefully crafted defect tolerance techniques. This paper presents an algorithm for reconfiguration-based defect tolerance in nanotechnology switches. The algorithm offers an average switch density improvement of 50% to 100% to most recently published techniques


Batteryless energy-harvesting devices enable computing in inaccessible environments, at a cost to programmability and correctness. These devices operate intermittently as energy is available, using a recovery system to save and restore state. Some program tasks must execute atomically w.r.t. power failures, re-executing if power fails before completion. Any re-execution should typically be idempotent—its behavior should match the behavior of a single execution. Thus, a key aspect of correct intermittent execution is identifying and recovering state causing undesired non-idempotence. Unfortunately, past intermittent systems take an ad-hoc approach, using unsound dataflow analyses or conservatively recovering all written state. Moreover, no prior work allows the programmer to directly specify idempotence requirements (including allowable non-idempotence). We present curricle, the first type system approach to safe intermittence, for Rust. Type level reasoning allows programmers to express requirements and retains alias information crucial for sound analyses. Curricle uses information flow and type qualifiers to reject programs causing undesired non-idempotence. We implement Curricle's type system on top of Rust's compiler, evaluating the prototype on benchmarks from prior work. We find that Curricle benefits application programmers by allowing them to express idempotence requirements that are checked to be satisfied, and that targeting programs checked with Curricle allows intermittent system designers to write simpler recovery systems that perform better.


The test and evaluation of modern radars using hardware in the loop simulators requires the use of wideband high-fidelity, digital radio frequency memories (DRFM) in order to generate realistic target returns. Important aspects of wideband DRFM design on a printed circuit board are highighted and the architecture of the DRFM that was implemented using commercial-off-the-shelf components is presented. The spurious free dynamic range of the DRFM was characterised as -47 dBc worst case over an instantaneous bandwidth of 800-MHz. An experimental pulse-Doppler radar was used to compare the fidelity of the returns from the DRFM and an optical delay line.


Abstract Everyday experience suggests that faces can be recognized despite large changes of viewpoint. In this study we used the Inter-Extra-Ortho paradigm from Buelthoff and Edelman (1992) in order to investigate the underlying mechanisms of face recognition. We found systematic effects of viewpoint, which were consistent with computational approaches using interpolation of 2D views. Our results extend the findings from Buelthoff and Edelman on unfamiliar objects to the highly familiar class of faces thus confirming image-based recognition processes independent of class familiarity. In addition, we found that human recognition performance was qualitatively similar to the performance of an extended version of the computational recognition scheme proposed by Wallraven and Buelthoff (2001) using the same faces as in the psychophysical experiments. This algorithm entails processing view-based features and their spatial relations in a dynamic context and is consistent with evidence from psychophysics suggesting separate representations for featural and configural information in face recognition (Schwaninger, Lobmaier, Collishaw, 2002).


Electroluminescence (EL) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements were conducted on Si-implanted SiO2 layers as a function of process and measurement parameters. Measurable light emission was observed from the metal oxide semiconductor light emitting diode (MOS-LED) when holes are injected from the substrate. It was shown that major PL and EL emissions have the same origin. However, two important differences were observed between EL and PL spectra. The first one is the light emission from the Si substrate due to the recombination of electrons supplied by the front contact and holes that were accumulated in the inversion region at the substrate/SiO2 interface. This might be a factor reducing the contribution of Si nanocrystals to the EL emission of the MOS-LED structure as a result of decrease in the number of holes in the inversion layer. The second difference is that EL emission peaks stay at a slightly higher energy than PL peaks. It was observed that the EL peak shifts towards the PL peak with increasing bias voltage. This behaviour is explained by considering the size distribution of nanocrystals formed by ion implantation.


A business to business (B2B) e-marketplace is an Internet-based inter-organizational system that facilitates online businesses. It provides two basic functions: search and transaction. Accordingly, organizational usage of B2B e-marketplaces varies across these two functions. The previous research mainly applies the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory to predict the usage of B2B e-marketplaces, but this theory is insufficient in explaining the unbalanced usage of search versus transaction. This research attempts to fill this gap. We identify a cognitive limitation associated with each usage, i.e., insufficient knowledge of B2B e-marketplaces corresponds to the usage of search and incapability of foreseeing all consequences corresponds to the usage of transaction. Then, we incorporate perceived institutional norm and organizational trust as two remedies into the DOI theory, and argue that the former will affect the use of B2B e-marketplaces for search while the latter will affect the usage of transaction. A field survey is conducted to collect the data, and structural equation modeling is employed to test the research model. The results confirm the hypotheses. Besides, relative advantage and perceived compatibility from the DOI theory also affect both types of usage. This research implies that the usage of Internet-based inter-organizational systems may encounter cognitive limitations, and highlights how the DOI theory can be extended to account for the usage of information systems that provide multiple uses at different adoption stages.


This study compares selected characteristics of community hospital governing boards with those of high technology industries acknowledged for successful transitions in a rapidly changing competitive environment. Sponsored by the Estes Park Institute, the purpose of this investigation was to identify emerging governance issues and to propose a normative model for nonprofit community health care systems. Results suggest that for health care systems to succeed in a rapidly changing competitive environment, strategic alterations in top-level governance structures will be necessary to focus on market-driven policy issues, with accompanying changes toward smaller boards composed of expert directors. Trends and implications for board terms, committee structures, and relationships between the board and chief executive officers are also discussed.


Cyclins are cell cycle regulators whose proteins oscillate dramatically during the cell cycle. Cyclin steady-state mRNA levels also fluctuate, and there are indications that both their rate of transcription and mRNA stability are under cell cycle control. Here, we demonstrate the transcriptional regulation of higher eukaryote cyclins throughout the whole cell cycle with a high temporal resolution. The promoters of two Arabidopsis cyclins, cyc3aAt and cyc1At, mediated transcriptional oscillation of the beta-glucuronidase (gus) reporter gene in stably transformed tobacco BY-2 cell lines. The rate of transcription driven by the cyc3aAt promoter was very low during G1, slowly increased during the S phase, peaked at the G2 phase and G2-to-M transition, and was down-regulated before early metaphase. In contrast, the rate of the cyc1At-related transcription increased upon exit of the S phase, peaked at the G2-to-M transition and during mitosis, and decreased upon exit from the M phase. This study indicates that transcription mechanisms that seem to be conserved among species play a significant role in regulating the mRNA abundance of the plant cyclins. Furthermore, the transcription patterns of cyc3aAt and cyc1At were coherent with their slightly higher sequence similarity to the A and B groups of animal cyclins, respectively, suggesting that they may fulfill comparable roles during the cell cycle.


• The circuit board has been extended so that now 2 watt as well as 1 watt DC-DC converters can be used. This enables driving larger MOSFETs or driving of smaller MOSFETs at higher frequency. • The creep/strike clearance has been significantly increased. • A separate regulator has been added for the opto-isolator. This allows simpler bypassing of the DC-DC converters when non-isolated operation is desired. • The output resistor network has been modified with an additional diode to allow separate optimization of turn-on and turn-off transitions.


In 1926, de Saint-Exupery began flying for the pioneering airline Latecoere - later known as Aeropostale - opening up the first mail routes across the Sahara and the Andes. "Wind, Sand and Stars" is drawn from this experience. Interweaving encounters with nomadic Arabs and other adventures into a richly textured autobiographical narrative which includes the extraordinary story of his crash in the Libyan Desert in 1936, and his miraculous survival. 'Self-discovery comes when a man measures himself against an obstacle', writes Saint-Exupery. In this book, he explores the transcendent perceptions that arise when life is tested to its limits. Both a gripping tale of adventure and a poetic meditation.


Current account imbalances and their sustainability are among the most debated international policy issues. Through the recently designed External Balance Assessment methodology (EBA), the IMF estimates the impact of several countries' fundamentals and policies on their current account balance, calculates misalignments in their current account position and indicates policy recommendations which, if implemented, should contribute to reducing these imbalances. In this paper, we explore some extensions to the EBA, following two courses. First, we distinguish in current account regressions between countries that are considered safe investment destinations and non-safe economies. Since this distinction is likely to acquire special relevance in periods of global turmoil, we also distinguish between periods of global stress and tranquil times. Second, we embed in EBA regressions variables that drive countries' external competitiveness. Results show that current account dynamics may be affected by competitiveness factors and differ significantly between safe and non-safe economies, with such differences becoming particularly relevant in turbulent times. These fi ndings suggest that EBA regressions may be overlooking the influence of countries' safety and competitiveness on external balances. Our alternative misalignment estimations show larger imbalances than those calculated with the EBA for some Asian economies and smaller imbalances for some high-surplus EU countries.


The townships of Barabhas are on the west coast of
the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides between
the blanket bog of Barabhas Moor to the east, and
machair and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The
Barabhas Machair (centre NB 351 513) has been
eroding for at least a century, and of archaeological
interest for nearly as long. Survey and excavations over
the last 40 years have revealed settlements from the
Early Bronze Age to the present day, in a landscape
that has been used and reused. This paper is the first
of a series presenting the results of this fieldwork, reporting on the results of the surveys and on the
results of initial documentary research, and has been
produced as part of a wider post-excavation project
supported by Historic Environment Scotland.


The resident animals of polluted areas possess possibly novel antimicrobials towards off infections. Selected species of sea invertebrates Perna viridis (Bivalve), Nerita albicilla (Gastropoda) and Ozius rugulosus (Crustacean) were tested for antibacterial activity against human pathogens Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli K1. The best results were obtained by methanol extracts of selected sea animals against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The overall aim of this study is to gather preliminary information about the antimicrobial activity of invertebrates from Manora channel for potential use in the development of new antibiotics.


Paul's portrayal of the parousia of Christ in 1 Thess 4,13-18 is induced by a concrete problem of the recently founded community in Thessalonica. So to understand the text means to reconstruct the situation out of which it has been written. A closer look at the argument of 4,13-18 reveals the fact that the event of the parousia is the centre of the problem. After a brief sketch of the recent scholarly discussion, the article gives an overview of ancient conceptions of the hereafter (or their lack, respectively) as the cultural background of the potential reception of the idea of the parousia in Thessalonica. Then the identity building force of this idea as part of the missionary preaching becomes discernible: a Christian identity constituted by a separate hope of life after death and a critical distance to the socio-political reality. In this light the deaths of some community members can be understood as an attack on the identity of the community, which Paul's eschatological rearrangement tries to strengthen again.


In this paper, we study joint adaptive M-QAM modulation and power adaptation for a downlink two-user non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network. Without sacrificing bit error rate (BER), joint adaptive transmission can fully utilize the time-varying nature of wireless channels, by allowing both power and rate to adapt to channel fading. Two adaptive power allocation strategies, namely, Scheme 1 and Scheme 2, each of which guarantees the minimum target rate for one user while supporting the highest possible rate for the other, are first proposed. Then, based on the two power schemes, the performance of joint adaptive transmission in terms of average spectral efficiency (SE) is studied for continuous-rate and discrete-rate modulation, while guaranteeing the minimum required rate and BER requirements. With the focus on practical discrete-rate M-QAM modulation, it is proved that for the strong user in Scheme 1 and the weak user in Scheme 2, their average SEs converge to the minimum target rates. In order to further increase the total transmission rate, we then propose a dynamic rate and power adaptation (DRPA) algorithm, aiming to increase the rate of one user without sacrificing the rate of the other. It is shown that at high SNRs, the DRPA algorithm allows the strong user in Scheme 1 and the weak user in Scheme 2 to continue to increase their transmission rates until reaching the highest modulation order that the system can support. Hence, the total transmission rate can be greatly increased at high SNRs due to the adoption of DRPA, by allowing both users in each scheme to reach the highest transmission rate in the system.


In this study the influence of the solvent, temperature, and extraction time on the extractability of total polyphenols from milled soybeans variety "Ika" was investigated. The study was performed in order to select the most suitable solvent (water ; 50, 60, 70, and 80% aqueous ethanol) for achieving the highest yield of total polyphenols. The most effective solvent (50% aqueous ethanol solution) was used for monitoring the kinetics and modelling of solid-liquid extraction of total polyphenols from soybeans, average particle size 0.459 mm, at solid-liquid ratio of 20 ml/g (ratio of the solvent volume per g of raw material). The total polyphenols content in the soybean extract was determined spectrophotometrically using Folin-Ciocalteu micro-methods at 765 nm. The applicability of different mathematical models (Peleg, Page, and Logarithmic models) to describe the kinetics of the solid-liquid extraction process of total polyphenols from soybeans was studied as well. The results exhibited a significant influence of the solvent and temperature on the kinetics and extraction yield of total polyphenols from soybeans. The best extraction yield of total polyphenols was obtained using 50% aqueous ethanol solution at 80 °C after 120 minutes (4.322 mg GAE/gdb). The extraction yield of total polyphenols in soybean extracts increased by increasing the extraction temperature and extending the duration of the extraction process. The mathematical models applied showed a good agreement with the experimental results, which allows their application in modelling and optimisation of solid-liquid extraction process for the extraction of total polyphenols from soybeans.


This study is concerned with the synchronised tracking control for multiple agents with high-order dynamics, whereas the desired trajectory is only available for a portion of the team members. Using the weighted average of the neighbours' states as the reference signal, adaptive neural network (NN) control is designed for each agent in both full-state and output feedback cases. It is proved that the adaptive NN control law guarantees that the tracking error of each agent converges to an adjustable neighbourhood of the origin for both cases although some of them do not access the desired trajectory directly. Two simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approaches.


For over four decades, the scientific community has struggled to characterise and understand the nature of the disease, or group of diseases, known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). A cursory look at the change in nomenclature over time ("acquired subaortic stenosis, in-stent stenosis, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy", etc) suggests a constant development in the understanding of the disorder, as each generation of researchers isolates a novel feature that contradicts previously held dogma. Clarification of the underlying genetic background and the prognostic implications of the disease have been advanced by intense study of referral centre populations, but features of the pathophysiology of HCM can still surprise us, and novel findings, based on meticulous clinical observation, are still to be made. Two recent papers substantially alter our understanding of an important characteristic of HCM—namely, the prevalence of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO), and raise further questions as to the prognostic importance of such obstruction.

LVOTO was initially thought to be a fixed entity, defined by geometric abnormalities created by the asymmetric growth in the interventricular septum.1 Gradually, the refinement of two-dimensional echocardiography clarified the role of systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve into the …


Individual recognition is a taxonomically widespread ability that underlies a diverse suite of behaviors including the identification of individual nest‐mates, agonistic opponents, and mating partners. However, as yet relatively little is known about the circumstances under which the requisite signal diversity can evolve. Here, we develop a model describing a novel mechanism of individual identity evolution via sexual selection. Females choose among a subset of males, but can select the most attractive male only when he bears a unique identity signal. This mimics a species in which mate assessment and choice are temporally separate, such as when females observe males in direct conflict and must subsequently locate the winner. When females in our model are choosy at least 10% of the time, diversity at individuality signaling loci evolves as a by‐product of selection on male attractiveness more rapidly than does diversity at equivalent loci evolving only under neutral processes. Even at lower discrimination rates, drifting signal diversity gives the female choice mechanism sufficient traction to drive up average male attractiveness. The mechanism we describe here can significantly increase signal diversity at even low rates of discrimination by females.


An adult Dorper ewe was presented to the Large Animal Clinic with dystocia. Reddish masses were seen hanging from the vulva of the ewe. Vaginal examination revealed a deformed fetus in the pelvic cavity that left insufficient room for fetal manipulation. A tentative diagnosis of dystocia due to fetal deformity was made. The dystocia was relieved by cesarean section and a case of true schistosomus reflexus in a lamb was confirmed from physical examination of the defective fetus.


Function computation over Gaussian networks with orthogonal components is studied for arbitrarily correlated discrete memoryless sources. Two classes of functions are considered: 1) the arithmetic sum function and 2) the type function. The arithmetic sum function in this paper is defined as a set of multiple weighted arithmetic sums, which includes averaging of the sources and estimating each of the sources as special cases. The type or frequency histogram function counts the number of occurrences of each argument, which yields various fundamental statistics, such as mean, variance, maximum, minimum, median, and so on. The proposed computation coding first abstracts Gaussian networks into the corresponding modulo sum multiple-access channels via nested lattice codes and linear network coding and then computes the desired function using linear Slepian-Wolf source coding. For orthogonal Gaussian networks (with no broadcast and multiple-access components), the computation capacity is characterized for a class of networks. For Gaussian networks with multiple-access components (but no broadcast), an approximate computation capacity is characterized for a class of networks.


We investigated psyllium fiber supplementation as a means of enhancing the cholesterol-lowering effect of the phase I American Heart Association diet. Fifty-nine subjects with total serum cholesterol (TC) levels ranging from 5.56 to 10.24 mmol/L (215 to 396 mg/dL) were given a 2-month dietary lead-in followed by 3 months of diet only (29 subjects) or diet supplemented with 20.4 g of psyllium daily (30 subjects). Unlike women, men had a significant decrease in levels of both TC ( -8.0%) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) ( - 10.1%) during the dietary lead-in. Psyllium supplementation resulted in an additional 5.5% reduction in the TC level as compared to diet alone. Psyllium supplementation combined with dietary lead-in resulted in an overall 17.3% decrease in the TC and a 20.0% decrease in LDL-C for men, with decreases of 7.7% and 11.6%, respectively, for women. Psyllium effectively enhances the cholesterol-lowering effect of the phase I diet


The share of health insurance premiums that self-employed workers can deduct when computing federal income taxes rose from 30 percent in 1996 to 100 percent in 2003. Data from the 1996–2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey are used to show that the increased tax subsidy was associated with substantial increases in private coverage among self-employed workers and their spouses. Estimated effects on public coverage and the coverage of children were smaller in magnitude and less precisely estimated. Simulation results show that much of the post-1996 subsidy increase represented an inframarginal transfer to persons who would have had held private insurance anyway. Nevertheless, increased subsidization expanded private coverage by 1.1 to 1.7 million persons, at a cost per newly insured person less than $2,300 in all simulations—a cost below that found in simulations of more broadly based subsidies.


While chronic early stress increases child susceptibility to psychopathology, risk and resilience trajectories are shaped by maternal social influences whose role requires much further research in longitudinal studies. We examined the social transmission of risk by assessing paths leading from war-exposure to child symptoms as mediated by 3 sources of maternal social influence; stress physiology, synchronous parenting, and psychiatric disorder. Mothers and children living in a zone of continuous war were assessed in early childhood (1.5–5 years) and the current study revisited families in late (9–11years) childhood (N = 177; N = 101 war-exposed; N = 76 controls). At both time-points, maternal and child's salivary cortisol (SC), social behavior, and externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed. In late childhood, hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) were also measured and mother and child underwent psychiatric diagnosis. The social transmission model was tested against 2 alternative models; 1 proposing direct impact of war on children without maternal mediation, the other predicting late-childhood symptoms from early childhood variables, not change trajectories. Path analysis controlling for early childhood variables supported our conceptual model. Whereas maternal psychopathology was directly linked with child symptoms, defining direct mediation, the impact of maternal stress hormones was indirect and passed through stress contagion mechanisms involving coupling between maternal and child's HCC and SC. Similarly, maternal synchrony linked with child social engagement as the pathway to reduced symptomatology. Findings underscore the critical role of maternal stress physiology, attuned behavior, and well-being in shaping child psychopathology amid adversity and specify direct and indirect paths by which mothers stand between war and the child.


1. The 24 h urinary excretions of Porter—Silber (P—S) chromogens, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids (17-OHCS) and free cortisol, and day-night variation of plasma P—S chromogens, were studied in normal and obese women and patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Cushing9s syndrome. 2. The mean absolute values of P—S chromogens, 17-OHCS and free cortisol were similar for the normal and obese subjects and elevated in Cushing9s syndrome. With the exception of the 17-OHCS there was some overlapping of the individual values within the three groups. All the subjects with Cushing9s syndrome and several of the obese subjects had values of 17-OHCS which were outside the normal range. 3. The 24 h urinary 17-OHCS and free cortisol excretion expressed per kg body weight were significantly lower for the obese than for the control subjects and subjects with Cushing9s syndrome. The values were significantly higher for the subjects with Cushing9s syndrome than for the obese and normal subjects. There was some overlapping of the individual values. 4. Two normal and two obese subjects failed to show significant day-night variation, whereas only four of the patients with Cushing9s syndrome had significant day-night variation of plasma P—S chromogens. 5. The urinary 17-OHCS for four of the obese subjects with some symptoms of adrenocortical hyperactivity were suppressed normally on a low dose of dexamethasone whereas those with Cushing9s syndrome failed to do so.


Traveling wave tubes (TWTs) and backward wave oscillators (BWOs) are the only solution for high power amplification and RF generation at millimetre waves and THz frequencies. With advances in microfabrication technology, it is now possible to realise these devices with dimensions to support those frequency regimes. Promising applications of millimetre wave TWTs are as high-power amplifiers for wireless communications systems, imaging and satellite communications. BWOs would enable new plasma diagnostic in nuclear fusion capabilities and high-resolution imaging. TWTs are usually constructed using a helical waveguide as slow wave structure (SWS) by which wave energy can propagate. However, fabrication of a helix small enough to support mm-wave is not feasible. Novel SWSs are required suitable to be fabricated with the available processes. The challenge of the simulation of TWTs or BWOs utilising a new SWS is the lack of fast code and the need to rely on powerful, yet slow, 3D electromagnetic software, which are computationally intensive. Both helices and the coupled cavity TWT can be simulated by fast simulation codes using Lagrangian methods. One of the aims of this thesis is to create a fast code for simulating arbitrary three-dimensional SWS, in particular the double corrugated waveguide. The code was validated by comparison with data of a Ka-band TWT available in literature. The second aim is the design of circuits based on double corrugated waveguide SWSs for TWTs and BWO at different frequency to enable different applications. New topologies of couplers were investigated. Extensive 3-dimensional simulations were performed to define dimensions and performance at different frequency bands.


The concepts (or "domains") of motion and emotion are closely related in both language and experience. This is shown by the presence of many metaphorical expressions (e.g. 'my heart dropped') across languages denoting affective processes on the basis of expressions originally denoting physical motion. We address the question why this is the case, and distinguish between three kinds of theoretical proposals: (a) (embodied) conceptual universalism, (b) (strong) language/culture dependence and (c) consciousness-language interactionism. After an "eidetic" analysis of motion informed by phenomenology, and to a more limited extent emotion(s), we describe an empirical study in which 115 motion-emotion metaphors in English, Swedish, Bulgarian and Thai were systematically analyzed and compared. The findings show considerable differences, especially between the Thai metaphors and those in three other languages, but also significant similarities. The results are interpreted as supporting a dialectical, interactionist relationship between language and consciousness, on the one hand, and between motion and emotion, on the other.


The development of both effective and robust catalysts is crucial for the commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells since the reactivity and durability of the catalysts determine its ultimate lifetime and activity. Herein, we developed a facile approach for the synthesis of porous and hierarchical mono- or bi-metallic titanium nitride nanotubes (NTs), and this robust non-carbon material was used as the Pt support. The optimized catalyst (Pt/Ti0.9Ni0.1N NTs) demonstrated a mass activity of 0.78 A mgPt−1 and a specific activity of 1.3 mA cm−2 at 0.9 V (vs. RHE), which is roughly 3.6 times that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. In particular, the catalyst exhibited excellent stability, such that the mass activity remained 3.2 times greater than that of pristine commercial Pt/C even after 15 000 continuous cycles at up to 1.2 V; in addition, the structure of the catalyst was perfectly maintained. The experimental data demonstrates that the hollow and porous structures, the strong metal-support interaction, and the synergistic effects derived from the nickel doping contribute to the improved performance and durability of the catalyst. This study paves the way for the rational synthesis of robust non-carbon catalysts that can be applied in a wide range of energy conversion processes.


A problem with the current conceptualization of youth sexual violence is its exclusion of chronic, "low-severity" forms of violence known as gender microaggressions. A review of the sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender microaggression literatures is undertaken to identify the unique and overlapping characteristics of each construct. A theoretically grounded conceptualization of youth sexual violence is presented with gender microaggressions, sexual harassment, and sexual assault existing along a continuum from chronic, low-severity to infrequent, "high-severity" offenses. In this reconceptualization, gender microaggressions exist as a unique form of youth sexual violence and function as a potential "gateway mechanism" to legally actionable offenses.


A series of cationic polymers (P1-P5) were designed and synthesized using a ring-opening polymerization strategy based on low molecular weight polyethyleneimine (PEI) and using diglycidyl ethers as the bridging moiety. Although these polymers have reduced amino group density relative to 25 kDa PEI, their pH buffering capacity and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) binding ability were seldom affected. They were able to condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) well to form nanoparticles of suitable sizes (150-300 nm) and positive zeta potentials (+25-40 mV). Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assays revealed that polyplexes formed from these polymers have lower cytotoxicity than those derived from PEI. Luciferase reporter gene delivery experiments indicated that these polymers have much better transfection efficiency than 25 kDa PEI, especially P2 and P5. Unlike PEI, serum has little negative effect on the transfection by these materials, and their transfection efficiencies were seldom reduced even with high concentrations of serum. Under optimized conditions, up to 400 times higher transfection efficiency than with PEI could be achieved. Several assays including gel electrophoresis, dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy also confirmed the good serum tolerance of these polyplexes. The evenly distributed hydroxyl groups formed by the ring-opening polymerization are considered to contribute much to their high serum tolerance, and such polymerization might be a promising strategy for the design of efficient non-viral gene delivery vectors.


Abstract Background: CD93 is a membrane-associated glycoprotein, which can be released in a soluble form (sCD93) into the serum. CD93 has received renewed attention as a candidate biomarker of inflammation in various inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases, including asthma. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effects of airway inflammation on CD93 levels in murine models. Methods: We established an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced acute asthma murine model (OVA model) and a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced airway inflammation murine model (LPS model). Dexamethasone was administered by gavage to attenuate the airway inflammation. Results: The OVA model demonstrated typical allergic asthma features with increased airway hyper-responsiveness, inflammatory cell infiltration, increased Th2 cytokine levels, compared to the control group. CD93 levels were decreased in lung homogenates and, respiratory epithelial cells, whereas serum sCD93 levels were increased in the OVA model, as compared to the control group. Dexamethasone reversed these effects of OVA. In contrast, in the LPS model, CD93 levels were not affected in neither respiratory epithelial cells nor serum. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the potential of using sCD93 as a biomarker for allergic asthma.


Abstract. Growing populations and intensification of land-use in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) are prompting a need for viable alternatives to fallow and cereal mono-cropping systems common in dry areas of this region. The sustainability and economic viability of such rotations can only be assessed accurately by using long-term trials. A two-course rotation experiment was established in 1986 in north-eastern Syria, comparing yields and profitability of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) when grown after wheat, fallow, a grazed mixture of medic species (Medicago spp.) and common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) cut for hay, over 10 growing seasons. Lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.) were introduced into the experiment in 1990. On average over the course of the experiment, the highest wheat grain yields were obtained following fallow (2.57 t ha–1), the lowest in continuous wheat (1.14 t ha–1), and intermediate following medic and vetch (1.90–2.01 t ha–1). Compared with wheat grown after fallow, wheat grain yields declined following vetch, medic and lentils in only three of the 10 seasons, which were drier than average. Yields of wheat after lentils were generally lower (2.22 t ha–1) than after vetch (mean 2.56 t ha–1) and after medic (2.40 t ha–1). Inclusion of grain legumes in the rotations boosted profits considerably because of their high grain prices and valuable straw. Replacing fallow with vetch for hay production increased the average gross margin by US$126 ha–1 year–1, and growing vetch for hay in rotation with wheat produced greater profit than continuous wheat, by $254 ha–1 year–1. The wheat–vetch-for-grain and wheat–lentil rotations were especially profitable, at least twice as profitable as wheat–fallow and three times continuous wheat. This experiment adds to the growing body of field data in Syria and in Australia showing that forage and grain legumes are excellent alternatives to wheat–fallow rotation and continuous wheat production in areas that experience a Mediterranean-type climate, and help support more efficient and sustainable cropping systems.


The main objective of this study is to forecast COVID-19 case in Ethiopiausing the best-fitted model. The time series data of COVID-19 case in Ethiopia from March 14, 2020 to June 05, 2020 were used.To this end, exponential growth, single exponential smoothing method, and doubleexponential smoothing methodwere used. To evaluate the forecasting performance of the model, root mean sum of square error was used. The study showed that double exponential smoothing methods was appropriate in forecasting the future number ofCOVID-19 cases in Ethiopia as dictated by lowest value of root mean sum of square error. The forecasting model shows that the number of coronavirus cases in Ethiopia grows exponentially. The finding of the results would help the concerned stakeholders to make the right decisions based on the information given on forecasts.


Abstract In this paper, an investigation is conducted in order to understand impacts of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) parameters on the convergence and the quality of the inverse kinematics solutions provided by the IK-PSO (inverse kinematics solver using PSO) – a heuristic inverse kinematics solver algorithm. Over a large panel of parameters investigations, a statistical proof of convergence is provided for 5 links to 60 links articulated system. A recommended set of parameters intervals are presented for this class of IK problems. Investigations are based on the standard inertia weight PSO, and concerned the impact of the inertia weight, the swarm size and the maximum iteration number. For a given set of parameters, the existence of a solution with a given position error is also proved. All tests were conducted over 100 times. The density of probability function, PDF, is used to approximate and analyze the fineness functions, which are the square of the position error. Results showed IK-PSO is an interesting IK solver when a set of good parameters are used. For these parameters, the algorithm showed a statistical proof of convergence with a high resolution, by mean of error position. The algorithm also showed time-effectiveness compared to CCD method, which is assumed to be a real-time IK heuristic solver used in gaming.


Sweet potato is by far the most important staple food in Papua New Guinea. While much is consumed as a subsistence crop, it is also an important income earner for many small holder farmers in the Highlands of PNG. Of the Highlands sweet potato sold, about 90 percent is traded informally on open markets, locally or in coastal urban markets. Data from a consumer survey, from an informant interview of highlands suppliers and from consumer and supplier observations at the Lae market (the largest coastal urban market for sweet potato) was used to explore the extent to which Highland sweet potato in the coastal urban market of Lae, may be considered a differentiated product. As a staple food being sold on informal markets one may think it is best represented as an undifferentiated commodity. On the other hand, there are many different varieties as well as different offerings (e.g. heap sizes, washed/unwashed and Highland/Lowland) which suggest some product differentiation characteristics. Results suggest that consumer preferences in the Lae market are sophisticated and preferences are highly differentiated. It was also found that Highland suppliers do have some appreciation of the consumer preferences in the Lae market. However, it is also apparent that suppliers do not know how to differentiate their product to effectively meet demand and hence they are not very customer-responsive. The implications are that there is considerable potential to improve marketing strategy and management to take advantage of sophisticated consumer preferences.


Online communities such as question and answer (QA) systems are growing rapidly and we increasingly rely on them for valuable information and entertainment. However, finding meaningful rewards to motivate participation from the most qualified users, or experts, presents researchers with two main challenges: identifying these users and (2) rewarding their participation. Using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, we illustrate possibilities for identifying and motivating the most valuable contributors to online communities. We suggest that access to peer-generated content can directly motivate people to apply their own expertise, thereby generating more content. Survey data from 380 participants suggests that users strongly prefer a novel class of incentives—reciprocal systemic rewards—to traditional achievement-based rewards. Overall, this research presents important considerations for many different types of online communities, including social networking and news aggregation sites. Systemic Reciprocal Rewards: Motivating Expert Participation in Online Communities with a Novel Class of Incentives


A Thesis Presented to the School of Graduate Studies of the Addis Ababa University in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the MSc in General Biology


Taking into account the underdeveloped situation of Hungarian fruit and vegetable producer organisations (POs) as a starting point, present paper examines the role and impact of two (affective and cognitive) dimensions of trust in two POs based on empirical data collection supplied by members of two the organisations. Evaluation of databases was done by the help of descriptive statistics and we used variance analysis (ANOVA) as well as multivariate regression models. According to our findings we can state that trust has key role in POs and it has - statistically proved - influence on group cohesion, satisfaction and activity of members.


BACKGROUND
 Patient waiting time at outpatient departments is directly related to patient satisfaction and quality of care, particularly in patients visiting the general internal medicine outpatient departments for the first time. Moreover, reducing wait time from arrival in the clinic to the initiation of an examination is key to reducing patients' anxiety. The use of automated medical history–taking systems in general internal medicine outpatient departments is a promising strategy to reduce waiting times. Recently, Ubie Inc in Japan developed AI Monshin, an artificial intelligence–based, automated medical history–taking system for general internal medicine outpatient departments.

 OBJECTIVE
 We hypothesized that replacing the use of handwritten self-administered questionnaires with the use of AI Monshin would reduce waiting times in general internal medicine outpatient departments. Therefore, we conducted this study to examine whether the use of AI Monshin reduced patient waiting times.

 METHODS
 We retrospectively analyzed the waiting times of patients visiting the general internal medicine outpatient department at a Japanese community hospital without an appointment from April 2017 to April 2020. AI Monshin was implemented in April 2019. We compared the median waiting time before and after implementation by conducting an interrupted time-series analysis of the median waiting time per month. We also conducted supplementary analyses to explain the main results.

 RESULTS
 We analyzed 21,615 visits. The median waiting time after AI Monshin implementation (74.4 minutes, IQR 57.1) was not significantly different from that before AI Monshin implementation (74.3 minutes, IQR 63.7) (P=.12). In the interrupted time-series analysis, the underlying linear time trend (–0.4 minutes per month; P=.06; 95% CI –0.9 to 0.02), level change (40.6 minutes; P=.09; 95% CI –5.8 to 87.0), and slope change (–1.1 minutes per month; P=.16; 95% CI –2.7 to 0.4) were not statistically significant. In a supplemental analysis of data from 9054 of 21,615 visits (41.9%), the median examination time after AI Monshin implementation (6.0 minutes, IQR 5.2) was slightly but significantly longer than that before AI Monshin implementation (5.7 minutes, IQR 5.0) (P=.003).

 CONCLUSIONS
 The implementation of an artificial intelligence–based, automated medical history–taking system did not reduce waiting time for patients visiting the general internal medicine outpatient department without an appointment, and there was a slight increase in the examination time after implementation; however, the system may have enhanced the quality of care by supporting the optimization of staff assignments.


Background: The ancient mind and body healing methods of yoga recently sparked fervor in the scientific community as an alternative and complementary means of therapy. Since the World Health Organization officially began promoting yoga in developing countries in 1978, yoga has been cited for its therapeutic potential and has been widely recognized in Western culture. However, as an increasing number of people practice yoga for remedial purposes, researchers raise two important questions: 1) Is yoga a valid complementary management and rehabilitation treatment modality? 2) What conditions show promise of treatment with this intervention?. Objective: This review article uses comprehensive scientific, evidence-based studies to analyze the efficacy of various basic and applied aspects of yoga in disease prevention and health promotion. It specifically intends to expose the effects of yoga in neurological disorders, particularly epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, peripheral nervous system disease, and fibromyalgia. Materials and Methods: Information was gathered from various resources including PubMed, Ovid, MD-Consult, USC, and U.C.L.A. libraries. Studies were selected and reviewed on the basis of sample size, control, randomization, double-blinding, and statistical analysis of results. Results: The pratice of yoga and meditation demonstrates statistically encouraging physiological and psychological improvements in the aforementioned neurological disorders. However, there were certain flaws and inadequacies in the study designs employed to evaluate the same. A critical analysis of these studies is presented. Conclusions: With the aim to focus attention on this widespread yet largely unexamined treatment modality, this paper seeks to provide direction and support for further research necessary to validate yoga as an integrative, alternative, and complementary therapy.


The role of executive functions in everyday life can hardly be overstated. Its influence ranges from pathological behaviour on the negative side, to quality of life on the positive side of human functioning. Assessment of executive functions includes both objective and subjective measures, which include self-report measures. Most self-report measures, however, were developed for use in clinical populations. The Executive Functioning Inventory (EFI) is a brief self-report measure developed for use in healthy populations. Psychometrically, the measure appears to function reasonably well in American and European populations; however, its internal structure is yet to be examined in South Africa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the internal consistency reliability, item functioning and factor structure of the EFI in this context. The data ( n = 1904) were collected amongst students at a large urban university of the Gauteng province of South Africa. McDonald's omega reliability estimates were mostly satisfactory with some exceptions, ranging between 0.59 and 0.76. A five-factor model consistent with a multidimensional view of executive functioning found modest support in this data. With the exception of two items, item response theory analysis further found the items of the EFI to function well on their respective subscales. Overall, the results were largely consistent with previous findings, providing initial support for its use in South Africa, especially, for research studies seeking a brief index of executive functioning or as part of a comprehensive assessment of executive functioning, if required.


I examined the effects of historical division and secondary contact between eastern and western varieties of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws Pinaceae) on extant patterns of genetic variation. Fossil and biogeographic evidence both indicate that the current point of contact between these two varieties represents secondary contact following historical separation during the Wisconsin glaciation. Current gene flow was assessed by observing the degree of introgression of paternally inherited cpDNA and maternally inherited mtDNA polymorphisms. Both seeds and pollen are wind dispersed in ponderosa pine. Introgression was primarily from west to east, the direction of the prevailing wind, for both organelles, but introgression of cpDNA far exceeded that of mtDNA. Thus pollen is the main agent of contemporary gene flow between the two varieties. Neither seeds nor pollen showed enough introgression since secondary contact to have homogenized the two gene pools. However, allozyme differentiation was minimal. This calls into question assumptions of selective neutrality for at least some of the markers. Theory predicts that nuclear markers will show a high locus‐to‐locus variance of FST following historical separation. This prediction is confirmed by the allozyme data for ponderosa pine, and may provide a useful means of identifying historical separations from allele frequency data.


Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) suffer from a prohibitively high decoding complexity unless the low-complexity decodability property is taken into consideration in the STBC design. For this purpose, several families of STBCs that involve a reduced decoding complexity have been proposed, notably the multi-group decodable and the fast decodable (FD) codes. Recently, a new family of codes that combines both of these families namely the fast group decodable (FGD) codes was proposed. In this paper, we propose a new construction scheme for rate-1 FGD codes for 2a transmit antennas. The proposed scheme is then applied to the case of four transmit antennas and we show that the new rate-1 FGD code has the lowest worst-case decoding complexity among existing comparable STBCs. The coding gain of the new rate-1 code is optimized through constellation stretching and proved to be constant irrespective of the underlying QAM constellation prior to normalization. Next, we propose a new rate-2 FD STBC by multiplexing two of our rate-1 codes by the means of a unitary matrix. Also a compromise between rate and complexity is obtained through puncturing our rate-2 FD code giving rise to a new rate-3/2 FD code. The proposed codes are compared to existing codes in the literature and simulation results show that our rate-3/2 code has a lower average decoding complexity while our rate-2 code maintains its lower average decoding complexity in the low SNR region. If a it time-out sphere decoder is employed, our proposed codes outperform existing codes at high SNR region thanks to their lower worst-case decoding complexity.


The cell growth-modulating activity of an endocrine disruptor, p-nonylphenol (NP), was estimated using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a simple model of eukaryotic cells. NP caused a dose-dependent suppressive effect on cell growth of S. cerevisiae at 10, 25 and 50 WM. The NP-induced cell growth inhibition was restored when concomitantly lipophilic antioxidants such as K-tocopherol and Lcarotene were supplied, but not the hydrophilic antioxidants ascorbic acid or (3)epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). The cellular oxygen consumption of S. cerevisiae was also inhibited in a dose-dependent fashion by the extracellular addition of NP, and pretreatment with Ktocopherol and L-carotene suppressed NP-induced inhibition of cellular oxygen consumption, but ascorbic acid and EGCG were not effective. Furthermore, NP caused a marked generation of radical oxygen species (ROS) in S. cerevisiae, which was suppressed by treatment with K-tocopherol and L-carotene, but not with ascorbic acid and EGCG. However, NP did not show a significant inhibitory effect on cell growth and survival of mitochondria-deficient petite mutant cells and they showed a relatively weak ROS-generating activity compared with parent yeast cells. These results suggest that NP-induced inhibition of cell growth and oxygen consumption in S. cerevisiae might be possibly associated with ROS generation in yeast mitochondria. The significance of this finding is discussed from the viewpoint of NP-induced oxidative stress against eukaryotic cells. ß 2000 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


An efficient technique based on one dimensional beam finite element analysis for vibration of thin-walled laminated composite beams having open and closed sections is proposed in this paper. The developed technique is quite generic which can accommodate any stacking sequence of individual walls and considers all possible couplings between different modes of deformation. The formulation has accommodated the effect of transverse shear deformation of walls as well as out of plane warping of the beam section where the warping can be restrained or released. The inclusion of shear deformation has imposed a problem in the finite element formulation of the beam which is solved successfully utilising a concept developed by one of the authors. A number of numerical examples of open section (I and C sections) beams and closed section box beams are solved by the proposed technique and the results predicted by the proposed model are compared with those obtained from literature as well as detailed finite element analysis using a commercial code. The results show a very good performance of the proposed modelling technique. 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


This article discusses arguments and research evidence concerning multiple ergonomic approaches to problems of transportation safety. Transportation accidents ( and their consequences) are the result of multifactor processes. Therefore, the probability of an- accident ( and of an injury, given an accident) can be influenced by interventions directed at any of the factors. Furthermore, the most effective accident countermeasures are not necessarily those directed at the ' cause' of accidents. As examples, multiple ergonomic countermeasures are noted for road accidents involving alcohol-intoxicated drivers and elderly drivers, as well as for minimizing injuries resulting from road accidents


ABSTRACT
 This study explored the possibility of a common health-related stigma reduction intervention among people living with HIV, leprosy, schizophrenia and diabetes in Indonesia by assessing their perspectives towards others with the same (within group) and different health conditions (across groups), and willingness to participate in such a program. This mixed-methods study was conducted in West Java, Indonesia between March and June 2018. Eighty participants completed a survey with social distance scale (SDS), while 12 focus group discussion were conducted. Participants with HIV, leprosy and diabetes reported lower within-group SDS scores (4.14 ± 3.65; 4.25 ± 3.95; 7.23 ± 5.31, respectively) while those with schizophrenia reported the highest within-group SDS score (7.76 ± 4.63). Participants with diabetes reported a twofold higher across-group SDS score towards people with the other three health conditions (p < 0.05). The qualitative findings showed that the perception of participants towards one another was shaped by knowledge, understanding and relatedness to the experience of living with health-related stigma. Overall, participants supported the idea of a common stigma reduction intervention for different health conditions, but recommended step-wise implementation of such interventions. Accordingly, this study recommends piloting a common stigma reduction intervention with special focus on fostering understanding, awareness and empathy between people living with different health conditions.


Evidence is presented to show that guinea pig complement fixed on sensitized sheep red cells acts as a specific agglutinogen. Agglutinating antibodies that react with cell-fixed complement can be produced by immunizing rabbits with a complex of stromata-amboceptor-complement or with guinea pig serum globulin. These agglutinins can be removed by precipitation with guinea pig serum. They are, therefore, distinct from immunoconglutinins.


This paper explores the perceptions and lived experiences of Nepalese educators and stakeholders in
relation to the school curriculum and its influence upon student learning in a culturally and ethnically
diverse classroom context. The study adopted a qualitative research design using face-to-face semistructured interviews and focus group discussions to gather the perceptions of students, teachers,
school principals and curriculum experts from three different schools representing distinct and
diverse Nepalese settings. The findings identified that there are six main factors that affect curriculum
delivery in Nepal: a centralised education system; social, economic and cultural diversity; political
instability; curriculum content; the involvement of curriculum development stakeholders; and
teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge and related attributes. These six factors all contribute
to a significant influence on student learning.