With advances in technology, students now have a choice of 'learning places' that
enables them to "be connected to a community of learners anytime and anywhere without
being time, place or situation bound" (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). Our institution places
significant emphasis on learner choice, whilst demanding high impact, quality and equity
of experience, regardless of the choices made (Brown, Kregor & Williams, 2013). We
surveyed our students, across four geographically dispersed campuses, to find out why
they make the choices they do about where they learn, in an effort to understand how we
can best meet their needs without being overwhelmed by the complexity of offering and
maintaining multiple modes of delivery. This paper reports demographic factors that, for
the 124 respondents, were associated with mode usage and explores the thinking of
students around their choice of learning 'place', identifying key pedagogical and
pragmatic themes that were evident in the reasons they gave for the choices they made.
The findings provide a complex picture, but our learners readily identified the elements of
their preferred mode that 'fitted' with their learning needs at a particular time and in their
particular circumstances. We discuss the challenge to us to increase quality and equity by
ensuring that the elements students value most in each mode are maintained and
enhanced, but are also extended to those who choose to engage via other modes.


Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 5–10% of women of reproductive age. Free radicals, as a product of oxidative stress, impair cells and tissue properties related to human fertility. These free radicals, together with the oxidized molecules, may have a cytotoxic or deleterious effects on sperm and oocytes, on early embryo development or on the endometrium. Aldehyde‐modified proteins are highly immunogenic and circulating autoantibodies to new epitopes, such as malondialdehyde (MDA), may affect the reproductive system. Autoantibodies or elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) in serum are often associated with inflammatory response. The purpose of this work is to investigate whether PCOS women show increased levels of oxidized proteins (protein–MDA) and anti‐endometrial antibodies (AEA) in their sera, compared with control patients, and to determine whether AEA specificity is related to oxidized protein derivatives. Sera from 31 women [10 patients with PCOS (PCOS group) and 21 women with male factor of infertility (control group)] were chosen from patients attending for infertility. Anti‐endometrial antibodies were determined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with an endometrial cell line (RL‐95). Antibodies against MDA modified human serum albumin (HSA–MDA) were also determined by ELISA. Oxidized proteins (protein–MDA) in serum were determined by a colorimetric assay. Patients with PCOS have significantly higher levels of AEA and anti‐HSA–MDA, as well as oxidized proteins (protein–MDA) in serum than control patients. For the first time, we describe an autoimmune response in PCOS patients, in terms of AEA. The evidence of protein–MDA in the serum of these patients, together with the increased antibody reactivity to MDA‐modified proteins (HSA–MDA) in vitro, supports the conclusion that oxidative stress may be one of the important causes for abnormal endometrial environment with poor embryo receptivity in PCOS patients.


Eight groups of pregnant mice were fed various preparations of ground pine needles or aqueous extracts thereof. An additional group was fed only Purina mouse cubes. Ground pine needles were more toxic to both adult mice and embryos than were the various water extracts. Reproductive failure occurred early in the gestational period. A water soluble and heat labile toxin suggestive of a mycotoxin was demonstrated in water extracts. Pine needle fiber contained a heat stable toxin which was insoluble in water. Evidence suggested the possible presence of a third toxin lethal for adult mice. Results suggested that the heat stable toxin is the one of greatest importance as a source of reproductive failure in mice. Toxins produced by fungi were considered to be of secondary importance.


The mechanism of enhanced renal prostaglandin (PG) release in the in situ pump-perfused kidney was studied in anesthetized dogs. Pump perfusion caused a gradual decrease in mean arterial blood pressure (BP) from 163 to 128 mmHg over an 80-min period. The renal arteriovenous level of PGE and plasma renin activity (PRA) were increased by a mean of 1.36 ng/ml and 22 ng AI.ml-1.h-1, respectively. In a second group of dogs treated with captopril, pump perfusion did not alter PGE or BP, but increased PRA. When the animals were treated with indomethacin, the renal arteriovenous levels of PGE and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha were not changed but PRA increased during the 80 min of pump perfusion. In a fourth group of dogs that had undergone renal denervation and phentolamine treatment, changes in PGE and BP occurred during pump perfusion similar to the changes in the control group, and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha release by the kidney also increased. The results indicate that renal PG release during group perfusion is mainly due to the activation of the renin-angiotensin system and that the hypotension due to pump perfusion is PG mediated.


Abstract. We present a refined algorithm to calculate pseudo solar indices, which enable the reproduction of a solar flare impact on the upper Earth's atmosphere for the empirical thermosphere model Jacchia-Bowman 2008. In a first step we compare the estimates of the new algorithm with those from a previous study by analysing an extreme X17.2 flare in 2003 using TIMED/SEE EUV observations. In a second step we adapt the method to use SOHO/SEM measurements within the algorithm and compare the findings with the previous results. Furthermore, the latter procedure is validated by means of GRACE density measurements during a X2.0 solar flare in November 2004. In each of the cases also a comparison with theoretical thermosphere models is performed, which shows a good agreement and suggests that the algorithm can support theoretical evolution studies in case no in situ density measurements during extreme solar events are available.


A class of antenna arrays are introduced, which we call fractile arrays. A fractile array is defined as any array with a fractal boundary contour that tiles the plane without gaps or overlaps. It is shown that the unique geometrical features of fractiles may be exploited in order to make available a family of deterministic arrays that offer several highly desirable performance advantages over their conventional periodic planar array counterparts. Most notably, fractile arrays have no grating lobes even when the minimum spacing between elements is increased to at least one-wavelength. This has led to the development of a new design methodology for modular broadband arrays that is based on fractal tilings. Several examples of fractile arrays are considered including Peano-Gosper, terdragon, six-terdragon, and fudgeflake arrays. Efficient iterative procedures for calculating the radiation patterns of these fractile arrays to arbitrary stage of growth P are also introduced.


Eosinophils (Eos) produce large amounts of leukotriene C4 (LTC4) and platelet-activating factor (PAF) in response to calcium ionophore. However, the capacity of naturally occurring soluble agonists to promote lipid mediator formation by Eos is largely unknown. Our previous studies on neutrophils and basophils showed that certain hematopoietic growth factors are important regulators of lipid mediator formation. We examined LTC4 production by normal human Eos from healthy donors in response to soluble agonists with or without preincubation with the cytokines IL-3 and IL-5. Among three agonists (FMLP, C5a, PAF) tested over a wide concentration range, only FMLP induced some LTC4 formation by itself in normal Eos. However, after preincubation with IL-3 or IL-5, Eos produced detectable amounts of LTC4 in response to all three agonists. Eos primed by IL-3 or IL-5 generated at least 1 order of magnitude more LTC4 in response to FMLP as compared to C5a or PAF. FMLP-induced LTC4 production was enhanced by 26 to 635% (n = 16) and 67 to 611% (n = 12) after preincubation with IL-3 or IL-5, respectively. Priming for LTC4 production was concentration dependent occurring at IL-3 or IL-5 concentrations of 3 to 30 ng/ml and required an optimal preincubation period of 90 min. Thus, IL-3 and IL-5 profoundly modulate the production of lipid mediators by Eos in response to the soluble agonists FMLP, C5a, and PAF. Our data further support the importance of these cytokines in inflammatory reactions involving Eos.


Drowning has been identified as a major cause of death in children in both developed and developing countries. Non-fatal drowning is several times higher than the fatal drowning. To describe the socio-demographic and environmental attributes of non-fatal drowning in rural children this community based descriptive study was conducted on 122 children having non-fatal drowning events within one year of study period. This study was undertaken in Raigonj sub-district of Sirajgonj district in Bangladesh. Mothers of those children were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Out of all participants 56.6% children were 2-4 years of age and male-female ratio was almost equal. Of the total respondent mothers 55% were illiterate and 41.8% were below the age of 25 years. Seasonal variation was observed in non-fatal drowning. Rainy season (50.8%) appeared as the most risky period followed by summer (29.5%). Higher incidence occurred (53.3%) between 10 am to 2 pm of the day. Although most of the drowning occurred outside the home, 9% drowning occurred in water container (like drum, tub) within the home. Pond (50.5%) was found as the most common place among open water source. During the occurrence, 23% child was not accompanied by parents or any caregivers. At the time of drowning, 47.5% mothers were engaged with usual household work and were not present at the place of occurrence whereas 13% mothers were present around the place of occurance. Before drowning, 45.1% victim was either playing, bathing or swimming in the water. Only 10.7% needed resuscitation, 25% were taken to health centre and reached the health centre within an hour, about a fifth (22.6%) of them were admitted. Restriction in dangerous water activities, strengthening supervision of children might decrease the incidence of drowning while quick and effective medical response might prevent its fatal consequences. Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2015; 9(2): 37-41


Background Suicide at any age is a Public Health problem. The last 50 years, the frequency of this problem has increased worldwide, especially among adolescents. In 2005, WHO developed a list of suicide mortality rate from 101 countries, among which Mexico has the 79th position (4.0/100,000). The objective of this study was to analyse the mortality trend by suicide in Mexico from 1979 to 2012. Methods This study was conducted from national databases of 1979–2012, from which analysed only the codes E950 to E959 and X60 to X84 of the 9th and 10th International Classification of Diseases. From these codes, the variables analysed were age, sex, year of register and place of residence. In the statistical analysis, we calculated mortality rates and standardised mortality rates. The standardised mortality rate was estimated from the national census 2005 as standard population and grouping by age. Results In the period from 1979 to 2012 registered 100,420 deaths by suicide, the ratio by sex was 4.8 men by each woman, and the rest was none specified. From 1979 to 1984, the trend was descending (p = 0.19), but since 1984 to 2012 it was ascending from 1.31/100,000 in 1984 to 3.90/100,000 in 2012 (p ≤ 0.001). The mortality trend by sex, in men the mortality rate was ascending from 2.47/100,000 in 1984 to 7.37/100,000 (p ≤ 0.001) in 2012. In women, 0.43/100,000 in 1984 to 1.77/100,000 (p ≤ 0.001) in 2012. In the last 20th years, the age groups with high mortality were 10–14 (57.49%) and 15–19 (38.56%). The states with high mortality rates in 2012 were Aguascalientes, Quintana Roo and Chihuahua, while those with low rates were Guerrero, Oaxaca y Baja California. Conclusions Suicide is a Public Health problem that increased constantly the last 28 years and it requires a deep analysis of other variables such as mental health, social problems and other kind of problems that affect to individual as well family and society in their psychological well-being.


Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood, encapsulated by steel sheets. These impact limiters shall ensure that transport casks meet the IAEA safety requirements. After damage caused by the mechanical tests the package has to withstand a severe fire scenario. It is required that the mechanical tests have to produce maximum damage, taking into account the thermal test. Furthermore, any damage, which would give rise to increased radiation or loss of containment or affect the confinement system after the thermal test, should be considered. Concerning the thermal test, the IAEA safety requirements state that during and following the fire test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally. Different works from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and BAM show that additional energy supply from a pre-damaged impact limiter to the cask could occur caused by smoldering of the wood. This effect should be considered within the safety assessment of the package. A heat wave from the fire could overlap with the additional energy from the impact limiter in the sealing system. In 2015 BAM conducted small scale
fire tests with wood filled metal drums showing continuing combustion processes during the cooling down phase. As not much is known about smoldering processes in wood filled impact limiters, it is highly complex to define pre-damage of impact limiters, which are conservative, regarding the most damaging energy flow from the impact limiter to the containment system in dependence of time. More research has to be done to develop models to examine the effects of smoldering impact limiters on the containment of packages for the assessment. The process of smoldering is described with regard to the requirements in the thermal safety assessment. Parameters influencing the smoldering process are identified. BAM operates test facilities to examine the issue of mechanical damage, combustion and heat transfer of packages for transport of radioactive material. A thermal test will take place with a wood filled test specimen with a diameter of about 2.3 meters. The aim is to understand the phenomena of smoldering under the consideration of relevant regulatory boundary conditions.


Recently, reducing the radar cross sections (RCS) of various structures to achieve transparency and obtaining resonant structures aimed at increasing the electromagnetic intensities, stored or radiated power levels have been investigated. The transparency and resonance (RCS maximization) conditions investigated in are mainly attributed to pairing of "conjugate" materials: materials which have opposite signs of constitutive parameters [e.g., double-positive (DPS) and double- negative (DNG) or epsilon-negative (ENG) and mu-negative (MNG)]. In the present work, we extend the transparency and resonance conditions for cylindrical structures when the core cylinder is particularly perfect electric conductor (PEC). The appropriate constitutive parameters of such metamaterials are investigated for both TE and TM polarizations. For TE polarization it is found out that, the metamaterial coating permittivity has to be in the 0 < epsivc < epsiv0 interval to achieve transparency, and in the -epsiv0 < epsivc < 0 interval to achieve RCS maximization. As in the case of "conjugate" pairing, transparency and resonance are found to be heavily dependent on the ratio of core-coating radii, instead of the total size of the cylindrical structure. However, unlike the "conjugate" pairing cases, replacing epsiv by mu (and vice versa) does not lead to the same conclusions for TM polarization unless the PEC cylinder is replaced by a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) cylinder. Yet, RCS maximization can also be achieved in the TM polarization case when coating permeability muc < 0, whereas transparency requires large \muc\ for this polarization. Numerical results, which demonstrate the transparency and RCS maximization phenomena, are given in the form of normalized monostatic and bistatic echo widths.


ABSTRACT Oral candidiasis is often accompanied by severe inflammation, resulting in a decline in the quality of life of immunosuppressed individuals and elderly people. To develop a new oral therapeutic option for candidiasis, a nonpathogenic commensal oral probiotic microorganism, Streptococcus salivarius K12, was evaluated for its ability to modulate Candida albicans growth in vitro, and its therapeutic activity in an experimental oral candidiasis model was tested. In vitro inhibition of mycelial growth of C. albicans was determined by plate assay and fluorescence microscopy. Addition of S. salivarius K12 to modified RPMI 1640 culture medium inhibited the adherence of C. albicans to the plastic petri dish in a dose-dependent manner. Preculture of S. salivarius K12 potentiated its inhibitory activity for adherence of C. albicans. Interestingly, S. salivarius K12 was not directly fungicidal but appeared to inhibit Candida adhesion to the substratum by preferentially binding to hyphae rather than yeast. To determine the potentially anti-infective attributes of S. salivarius K12 in oral candidiasis, the probiotic was administered to mice with orally induced candidiasis. Oral treatment with S. salivarius K12 significantly protected the mice from severe candidiasis. These findings suggest that S. salivarius K12 may inhibit the process of invasion of C. albicans into mucous surfaces or its adhesion to denture acrylic resins by mechanisms not associated with the antimicrobial activity of the bacteriocin. S. salivarius K12 may be useful as a probiotic as a protective tool for oral care, especially with regard to candidiasis.


All parameters in structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) models are locally identified when the structural shocks are independent and follow non-Gaussian distributions. Unfortunately, standard inference methods that exploit such features of the data for identification fail to yield correct coverage for structural functions of the model parameters when deviations from Gaussianity are small. To this extent, we propose a robust semi-parametric approach to conduct hypothesis tests and construct confidence sets for structural functions in SVAR models. The methodology fully exploits non-Gaussianity when it is present, but yields correct size / coverage regardless of the distance to the Gaussian distribution. Empirically we revisit two macroeconomic SVAR studies where we document mixed results. For the oil price model of Kilian and Murphy (2012) we find that non-Gaussianity can robustly identify reasonable confidence sets, whereas for the labour supply-demand model of Baumeister and Hamilton (2015) this is not the case. Moreover, these exercises highlight the importance of using weak identification robust methods to assess estimation uncertainty when using non-Gaussianity for identification. JEL classification: C32, C39, C51


The spectroscopy and structure of excited states of N similar to Z nuclei in the mass 70-100 region has been investigated using two techniques. In the A similar to 70-80 region fusion evaporation reactions coupled with the recoil-beta-tagging method have been employed at Jyvaskyla to study low-lying states in odd-odd N = Z nuclei. Results from these and other data for known odd-odd nuclei above mass 60 will be discussed. In the heavier mass 90 region a fragmentation experiment has been performed using the RIS-ING/FRS setup at GSI. This experiment was primarily aimed at searching for spin gap isomers in nuclei around A similar to 96. The objectives of the latter experiment will be discussed.


In this study, cow/calf Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) data for Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico are used to analyze how total cost, production, and profitability are affected by management choices. Total cost is the financial cost associated with raising a calf through the weaning stage; profits are measured using the rate of return on assets; production is determined by pounds weaned per exposed female. Variables such as herd size, pounds of feed fed, calving percentage, death loss, length of breeding season and investment in asset groups are used in regressions. Key factors contributing to a cow/calf operation's costs, production, and profitability are identified.


The main task of this assignment is to filter out noise from a series of radar images and to carry out short term precipitation forecasts. It is important that the final routine is performed online, yielding new forecasts as radar images arrive with time. The data available is a time series arriving at a one hour ratio, from the Rissa radar located in Sor Trondelag. Gaussian radial basis functions are introduced to create the precipitation field, whose movement is solely governed by its velocity field, called advection. By performing discretization forward in time, from the basis given by the differential advection equation, prior distributions can be obtained for both basis functions and advection. Assuming normal distributed radar errors, the basis functions and advection are conditioned on associating radar images, which in turn can be taken into the prior distributions, yielding new forecasts. A modification to the model, labeling the basis functions either active or inactive, enable the process of birth and death of new rain showers. The preferred filtering technique is a joint MCMC sampler, but we make some approximations, sampling from a single MCMC sampler, to successfully implement an online routine. The model yield good results on synthetic data. In the real data situation the filtered images are satisfying, and the forecast images are approximately predicting the forthcoming precipitation. The model removes statistical noise efficiently and obtain satisfying predictions. However, due to the approximation in the MCMC algorithm used, the variance is somewhat underestimated. With some further work with the MCMC update scheme, and given a higher frequency of incoming data, it is the authors belief that the model can be a very useful tool in short term precipitation forecasting. Using gauge data to estimate the radar errors, and merging online gauge data with incoming radar images using block-Kriging, will further improve the estimates.


The Hanle depolarization signals of Sr  λ4607 Å have been used to estimate the unsigned magnetic flux and magnetic energy existing in the quiet Sun photosphere. However, the Sr  λ4607 Å Hanle signals are not sensitive to the unsigned flux and energy. They only bear information on the fraction of photosphere occupied by magnetic field strengths smaller than the Hanle saturation, which do not contribute to the unsigned flux and energy. We deduce an approximate expression for the relationship between magnetic fill factor and Hanle signal. When applied to existing Hanle depolarization measurements, it indicates that only 40% of the quiet Sun is filled by magnetic fields with a strength smaller than 60 G. The remaining 60% of the surface has field strengths above this limit. Such constraint will be needed to determine the distribution of magnetic field strengths existing in the quiet Sun.


The article analyzes the norms on the prohibition of incorrect comparison in advertising, listed in Clause 1, Part 2 of Article 5 (Federal Law of Russian Federation 'On Advertising', hereinafter – the Law on Advertising) and Article 14.3 of Federal Law of the Russian Federation 'On Protection of Competition' (Federal Law of the Russian Federation 'On Protection of Competition', hereinafter – the Law on Protection of Competition), from the point of view of their application by the courts and FAS Russia when considering the relevant case category.
The authors consider the rule on prohibition of incorrect comparison as a central rule regulating legal relations in the sphere of advertising, which contains a comparison of the advertised goods with competitors' goods (comparative advertising). The problem is that none of the laws indicate which comparison is correct and which is incorrect. Such uncertainty exists in Russian legislation since 1991, after the adoption of the Federal Law of the RSFSR 'On Competition and Restriction of Monopolistic Activity in Commodity Markets' (Federal Law of the RSFSR 'On Competition and Restriction of Monopolistic Activity in Commodity Markets'). This leads to the fact that entrepreneurs rarely use this advertisement, courts and FAS Russia, when considering the appropriate category of cases, are forced to subjectively assess the situation and draw a conclusion about the correctness or incorrectness of the comparison made in advertising.
After analyzing the jurisprudence and practice of the FAS Russia, the authors managed to establish a number of criteria on which this or that comparison in advertising should be recognized as incorrect.


Data-Base Management System (DBMS) is the current standard for storing information. A DBMS organizes and maintains a structure of storage of data. Databases make it possible to store vast amounts of randomly created information and then retrieve items using associative reasoning in search routines. However, design of databases is cumbersome. If one is to use a database primarily to directly input information, each field must be predefined manually, and the fields must be organized to permit coherent data input. This static requirement is problematic and requires that database table(s) be predefined and customized at the outset, a difficult proposition since current DBMS lack a user friendly front end to allow flexible design of the input model. Furthermore, databases are primarily text based, making it difficult to process graphical data. We have developed a general and nonproprietary approach to the problem of input modeling designed to make use of the known informational architecture to map data to a database and then retrieve the original document in freely editable form. We create form templates using ordinary word processing software: Microsoft InfoPath 2007. Each field in the form is given a unique name identifier in order to be distinguished in the database. It is possible to export text based documents created initially in Microsoft Word by placing a colon at the beginning of any desired field location. InfoPath then captures the preceding string and uses it as the label for the field. Each form can be structured in a way to include any combination of both textual and graphical fields. We input data into InfoPath templates. We then submit the data through a web service to populate fields in an SQL database. By appropriate indexing, we can then recall the entire document from the SQL database for editing, with corresponding audit trail. Graphical data is handled no differently than textual data and is embedded in the database itself permitting direct query approaches. This technique makes it possible for general users to benefit from a combined text-graphical database environment with a flexible non-proprietary interface. Consequently, any template can be effortlessly transformed to a database system and easily recovered in a narrative form.


In this paper, the combination of antenna array detection method of ground penetrating radar is put forward to solve the actual engineering problem that it is difficult to monitor the length of CFG pile. The experiments of length of six CFG piles find that the relative error of the length is 5.26%. The result indicates that it is enough reliable to determine the pile length by using the GPR method and can meet the engineering needs. Furthermore, the effect of the mix proportion, moisture content on the monitoring quality is obtained.


Basic aspects of the biopsy-sectional course are listed: knowledge of the structure, tasks, juridical status of the pathology service; clinico-anatomical analysis during necropsy; principles of the pathology diagnosis and clinico-anatomical epicrisis; visual presentation of the biopsy and operation material, including urgent biopsies; participation of students in the city clinico-anatomical conferences; lectures about medical deontology and physician errors.


ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate clinical features and complications in patients with bowel endometriosis submitted to hormonal therapy. Methods: Retrospective study based on data extracted from medical records of 238 women with recto-sigmoid endometriosis treated between May 2010 and May 2016. Results: Over the course of follow-up, 143 (60.1%) women remained in medical treatment while 95 (39.9%) presented with worsening of pain symptoms or intestinal lesion growth (failure of medical treatment group), with surgical resection performed in 54 cases. Women in the Medical Treatment Group were older (40.5±5.1 years versus 37.3±5.8 years; p<0.0001) and had smaller recto sigmoid lesions (2.1±1.9 versus 3.1±2.2; p=0.008) compared to those who had failed to respond to medical treatment. Similar significant reduction in pain scores for dysmenorrhea, chronic pelvic pain, cyclic dyschezia and dysuria was observed in both groups; however greater reduction in pain scores for dyspareunia was noted in the Surgical Group. Subjective improvement in pain symptoms was also similar between groups (100% versus 98.2%; p=0.18). Major complications rates were higher in the Surgical Group (9.2% versus 0.6%; p=0.001). Conclusion: Patients with recto-sigmoid endometriosis who failed to respond to medical treatment were younger and had larger intestinal lesions. Hormonal therapy was equally efficient in improving pain symptoms other than dyspareunia compared to surgery, and was associated with lower complication rates in women with recto-sigmoid endometriosis. Medical treatment should be offered as a first-line therapy for patients with bowel endometriosis. Surgical treatment should be reserved for patients with pain symptoms unresponsive to hormonal therapy, lesion growth or suspected intestinal subocclusion.


The objective of this work was to study the changes in chlorophyll contents in green teas stored under different conditions and to suggest the most suitable way and length of green tea storage. A secondary aim was to evaluate the possibility of using the chlorophyll content as an indicator of tea freshness. Samples for analysis were obtained from a range of tea-growing regions. Chlorophyll contents were measured using UV-vis spectrophotometry. Chlorophyll absorbance was measured at 642.5 and 660 nm. Prior to storage, chlorophyll concentration in teas ranged from 1.12 to 1.89 mg per 1 g of tea, which corresponded to data given by other authors. Storage was found to lead to a decline in chlorophyll concentration. From the 6 th month of storage onwards, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) was observed in all samples, irrespective of storage conditions. Based on the findings of this study, original and metal packaging can be considered the most chlorophyll-friendly. On the other hand, glass and paper packaging stored in direct daylight were found to have the strongest impact on chlorophyll concentration. Overall, it can be concluded that the storage time can have a strong influence on oolong green tea colour as an important qualitative variable. Thus, the shelf-life of tea should be shorter than the 12 months claimed by most manufacturers. Once the relationship between changes in chlorophyll concentration and length of the storage period had been established, the chlorophyll content was suggested as an indicator of the storage time (freshness) of a tea substance.


SUMMARY Objective: To determine the association between cognitive performance and long-term survival in an elderly Mexican population sample. Methods: In this retrospective, retrolective and observational study elderly subjects were assessed in the Geriatrics Clinic of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion "Salvador Zubiran" between January 1994 and August 1999 using a comprehensive geriatric assessment. All 2544 subjects for whom vitality status was known up to September 2002 were included in the analysis. Socio-demographic and health-related information was gathered during the clinical interview, and their emotional and functional status was determined using the Katz, Lawton and GDS scales. Cognition was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), grouping the subjects according to their performance into four groups: normalhigh performance, normal-low performance, mild-to-moderate impairment and moderate-to-severe impairment. Vitality status was determined by searching the hospital's clinical records or by telephonic contact with the patient or primary caregiver when needed. Results: Long-term mortality rates increased in a linear fashion as MMSE scores decreased (p < 0.001), even for MMSE scores over 24. This association persisted even after adjustment for comorbidity, depression, functional status and socio-demographic factors. Conclusion: Patients showed a progressive decline in long-term survival according to their cognitive performances. MMSE scores between 24 and 27 were also associated with an increased mortality and should not be considered as normal, even if they are not sensitive enough to detect impairment.


Learning from expository science texts is challenging. These studies explore whether difficulties can be attributed to poor memory or poor reasoning. To eliminate the need for memory during testing, some students took the tests with the texts available. To test for the effects of reasoning on performance, some students were prompted to engage in explanation activities during or after reading. The effects of these manipulations were tested on text-based and inference questions. Allowing the reader access to the texts during testing improved performance for text-based questions. In contrast, engaging in explanation activities during reading improved performance on inference questions. These results suggest that achieving a better understanding from expository texts depends on engaging in constructive reasoning processes, and not simply improving memory for the texts.


January 31, 2017 I Abstract Today, it is a known fact that Big Data (BD) lead to a competitive advantage for organisations. While several methodologies have been introduced to gain insights using BD, there is a lack in research regarding the adoption and usage of this knowledge within organizations for effective decision-making. By analysing a case of a South African oil and gas company, results of current research of innovation adoption have been adapted in order to find the reasons for the problem and fill this gap in current research. To collect data for this thesis, eight managers have been interviewed. The findings have then been analysed and assigned to a set of categories. The result of this research are three major criteria. Depending on the fulfilment or lack of the criteria, they act as enabler or barriers. The first criterion is the quality of the system, most important being data quality, next to performance and up-to-date data. Second is support and training, most important to find the right people for the right position and train them how to access the BD analytics and what is available. The right people have a passion for analysing data and bring with them creativity and innovativeness. The third influencer is (missing) features. It describes the possibilities to access information gained by BD. In the case of the oil and gas company, it was missing mobile reporting, predictive analytics and unstructured data. These three categories create a perceived value, which influences the adoption of BD analytics. The perceived value also effects the management, which themselves have been found as an influencer for the adoption.


The Standing Liturgical Commission of the Anglican Church in the United States has identified persons whom they consider Holy men or Holy women, and who are celebrated in Lesser Feast and Fast day services. In 2009, the triennial General Convention of the Anglican Church, USA, ratified the recommendation of the Commission that Dr. William W. Mayo and Dr. Charles Menninger and their sons, as pioneers in medicine, were worthy of such a designation. The author was approached to deliver the following homily at a service at the Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, March 6, 2013.


Roger Needham was born in Sheffield on 9 February 1935. He was the only son of Leonard William Needham and Phyllis Mary Needham (née Baker). Leonard and Phyllis had met in the first year chemical laboratory at Birmingham University and had duly graduated in that subject. At the time of Roger's birth, Leonard was a lecturer in the Mining Department at Birmingham, having become in effect a chemical engineer. When Roger was two years old the family moved to Sheffield, where Leonard took up an appointment with a company that made mineral separation plants, in which particles of coal were separated from lighter particles of incombustible material by flotation in a dense medium of suspended barytes.


We have developed a method to recognize communities in networks which lack of some information. It has been conceived to be applied to the problem of getting information about people who were disappeared in the Argentine Province of Tucuman during the period 1975–1983.


Research indicates that the majority of the noncoding genome is actively transcribed, generating thousands of small and long regulatory noncoding RNAs that play important roles in numerous cell types. Now investigators have provided a specific example of how 1 such regulatory noncoding RNA might be harnessed to improve cardiovascular health. In a Science Translational Medicine article, a team led by scientists at the University of Lausanne Medical School in Switzerland report that a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) called Wisper is highly abundant in cardiac fibroblasts, the culprits behind fibrotic scar formation, and that depleting the molecule can protect heart function and decrease scarring after myocardial infarction in mice. Experiments in both culture and mouse models of heart injury revealed that Wisper controls various molecules involved in proscarring pathways in cardiac fibroblasts. When the investigators analyzed human tissue, they found a 57% identical lncRNA within the human genome, which they dubbed WISPER. Furthermore, in heart biopsy samples from human patients with aortic stenosis, WISPER levels correlated with fibrosis severity. Also, the lncRNA's effects on scarring were specific to cardiac cells and not fibroblasts from other tissue types. For example, both the heart and kidney develop severe fibrosis, but Wisper is only induced in the heart. "For the first time, we have identified a therapeutic target that is highly specific to both the heart and fibroblasts within the heart, allowing the direct modulation of cardiac fibrosis with unprecedented specificity," said coauthor Samir Ounzain, PhD. Additional studies are needed to determine whether cardiac fibroblast-specific lncRNAs such as WISPER may be promising therapeutic targets for cardiac fibrosis and heart failure. Also, because it is possible to detect lncRNAs in human plasma, measuring circulating concentrations of molecules such as WISPER might provide a noninvasive means to monitor certain aspects of cardiovascular health. "Cardiac fibrosis is now emerging as a critical process to tackle therapeutically, and sadly no current therapies exist. Our therapeutic target offers an unprecedented opportunity to tackle this issue in a highly specific manner," said Dr. Ounzain.


Introduction & Overview. Creating the Culture. Benchmarking and the 21st Century Organization. In Search of Best Practices. Conducting and Managing the Benchmarking Project. The Benchmarking Process Described: 9-Step Process. Determining What to Benchmark in Your Company: Where Do I Think I Need the Most Improvement? Where am I the Farthest From Total Customer Satisfaction? What Process Improvements Offer High Potential Rewards but Require Relatively Low Resource Investments? Where Lie Obvious Improvement Opportunities? What Aspect of My Organization Produces the Highest Per Unit Defects? Where Does Waiting Occur? Where Do Bottlenecks Exist That Back Up Work in Process? Where Do Hidden Factories Exist That Create Redundancy or Rework? Where Could Redesigning the Process Improve Speed, Accuracy, Reliability, etc. ? Where is No Value Added to the End Product or Service? Avoid Industrial Tourism: Understand Your Own Process First. Determining Who You Should Benchmark Against. Collecting Data & What to Do with It: Information Gathering Hierarchy--Different Levels of Information Gathering and Resource Intensity. Short Discussion of Each Step of the 9-Step Process, Selecting, Motivating and Managing the Benchmarking Team. Communicating Effectively. Selling the Benchmarking Project Within Your Organization. Posititioning Benchmarking in the Organization. Gold in the Ground: Developing Internal Best Practices. Benchmarking in Other Countries. Summing Up.


A novel time domain simulation approach for analyzing real three-dimensional (3-D) passive microwave structures is presented. The electromagnetic fields of the structure under investigation are expanded into a hierarchical system of wavelets and scaling functions for all three dimensions leading to a stable, multiscale algorithm. By neglecting small wavelet coefficients and thereby reducing the computational effort, this method is equivalent to a finite difference in time domain scheme with a time dynamic space adaptive grid. An overview of the main ideas and advantages of this new method as well as the results of two numerical examples are given.


The important prognostic factors were evaluated for T‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients in a prospective study using the CEOP‐B protocol [a modified cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (CHOP)‐like regimen that uses epirubicin instead of doxorubicin with the addition of bleomycin]. Fifty‐two patients were enrolled in the study. The overall response rate was 63·5%. The median progression‐free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) was 18·0 and 39·5 months respectively. The most common toxicity was neutropenia. The factors related to poor outcome were a high International Prognostic Index (IPI) and a high 'B' score (bone marrow involvement, B symptoms, bulky disease). We developed a new prognostic model, namely the Prognostic Group for T cell NHL (PGT) that included four groups: PGT1 (low IPI/low B score), PGT2 (low IPI/high B score), PGT3 (high IPI/Low B score) and PGT4 (high IPI/Low B score). OS and PFS (not reached, 48 months) in the PGT1 group were significantly longer than those (11·5 and 4·8 months) in PGT2. The same result was observed in the PGT3 and PGT4 groups. The CEOP‐B regimen was moderately active and tolerable for T‐cell NHL patients, and the PGT system might be useful for the prediction of long‐term survival of T‐cell NHL patients.


Electrospinning produces continuous fibres with diameters from single nanometres to microns by jetting polymer solutions in high electric fields. Electrospun non-woven filamentary materials attract rapidly growing interest for broad range of applications. Properties of these materials depend on their nano- and microstructure that is determined in turn by the electric field and nanofibre collector. Despite critical importance, deposition of electrospun fibres on substrates has not yet been extensively studied theoretically and new methods of nanofibre collection continue to be developed mostly empirically. The objective of this Letter was to develop and demonstrate numerical simulation of electrospun nanofibre deposition on moving collectors. A dynamic model of nanofibre deposition onto a fast rotating drum was developed and used to simulate partial nanofibre alignment on this collector. The results were compared with the filamentary deposits in two classical stationary collection methods. Good agreement with experimental observations demonstrated predictive ability of simulations. The developed models can be used for the analysis of mechanisms of fibre deposition and alignment on substrates in various electric fields. Better understanding of dynamic nanofibre interaction with the electric field and collectors can lead to improved collector devices enabling one-step integrated nanomanufacturing of the designer nanofilamentary assemblies and architectures.


Radio links in wireless body area networks (WBANs) commonly experience highly time-varying attenuation due to the dynamic network topology and frequent occlusions caused by body movements, making it challenging to design a reliable, energy-efficient, and real-time communication protocol for WBANs. In this article, we present Chimp, a learning-based power-aware communication protocol in which each sending node can self-learn the channel quality and choose the best transmission power level to reduce energy consumption and interference range while still guaranteeing high communication reliability. Chimp is designed based on learning automata that uses only the acknowledgment packets and motion data from a local gyroscope sensor to infer the real-time channel status. We design a new cost function that takes into account the energy consumption, communication reliability and interference and develop a new learning function that can guarantee to select the optimal transmission power level to minimize the cost function for any given channel quality. For highly dynamic postures such as walking and running, we exploit the correlation between channel quality and motion data generated by a gyroscope sensor to fastly estimate channel quality, eliminating the need to use expensive channel sampling procedures. We evaluate the performance of Chimp through experiments using TelosB motes equipped with the MPU-9250 motion sensor chip and compare it with the state-of-the-art protocols in different body postures. Experimental results demonstrate that Chimp outperforms existing schemes and works efficiently in most common body postures. In high-date-rate scenarios, it achieves almost the same performance as the optimal power assignment scheme in which the optimal power level for each transmission is calculated based on the collected channel measurements in an off-line manner.


The factors affecting the accuracy of structural refinements from image-plate neutron Laue diffractometers are analysed. From this analysis, an improved data-processing method is developed which optimizes the intensity corrections for exposure scaling, wavelength distribution, absorption and extinction corrections, and the wavelength/spatial/time dependence of the image-plate detector efficiencies. Of equal importance is an analysis of the sources of uncertainty in the final corrected intensities, without which bias of the merged intensities occurs, due to the dominance of measurements with small statistical errors though potentially large systematic errors. A new aspect of the impact of detector crosstalk on the counting statistics of area detectors is reported and shown to be significant for the case of neutron Laue diffraction. These methods have been implemented in software which processes data from the KOALA instrument at ANSTO and the now decommissioned VIVALDI instrument at ILL (Grenoble, France). A comparison with earlier data-analysis methods shows a significant improvement in accuracy of the refined structures.


AIM
The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of sonic wave vibration (SWV) on mood, the autonomic-nervous system, brain function and cognitive function in elderly people.

METHODS
We randomly assigned 24 late-stage elderly people (M 88.0±5.0 yrs) into a SWV group and a control group. The SWV group conducted 10 minutes of SWV per day, 5 days a week for 8 consecutive weeks. For evaluation purposes, we analyzed the moods with TDMS, heart rate variability (HRV), resting energy expenditure (REE), and brain activation during the Stroop test using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).

RESULTS
The stability level and pleasure level of mood increased significantly immediately after SWV. Simultaneously, the levels of the parasympathetic nervous system index of HRV significantly increased while the levels of the sympathetic nervous system index significantly decreased. REE also significantly increased. These results suggest that SWV has a relaxation effect as well as increasing the energy expenditure for elderly people. After intervention, Stroop B's execution time significantly decreased suggesting an improvement in the processing speed. The NIRS revealed that SWV may therefore activate the frontal lobe function.

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that SWV may have a positive effect on mood, the autonomic nervous system, cognitive function and brain functions, and thus such treatment may be useful for elderly people.


Mehdi Yousefi Tabari, Dr. Ali Vahidian Kamyad Abstract— An intelligent optimization method for designing Fractional Order PID (FOPID) controller's base Genetic Algorithm (GA) ear presented in this paper. Fractional calculus can provide novel and higher performance extension for FOPID controllers. However, the difficulties of designing FOPID controllers increase, because FOPID controllers append derivative order and integral order in comparison with traditional PID controllers. To design the parameters of FOPID controllers. Experimental results show the proposed design method can design effectively the parameters of FOPID controllers.


ABSTRACT In this study, we explore the issues and challenges involved in supporting students' learning to discern relevant and critical aspects of determining oxidation states of atoms in complex molecules. We present a detailed case of an interaction between three students and a tutor during a problem-solving class, using the analytical tool of practical epistemology analysis (PEA). The results show that the ability to make relevant distinctions between the different parts of a molecule for solving the problem, even with the guidance of the tutor, seemed to be challenging for students. These shifts were connected to both purposes that were specific for solving the problem at hand, and additional purposes for general learning of the subject matter, in this case how to assign oxidation states in molecules. The students sometimes could not follow the additional purposes introduced by the tutor, which made the related distinctions more confusing. Our results indicate that in order to provide adequate support and guidance for students the tutor needs to consider how to sequence, move between, and productively connect the different purposes introduced in a tutor-student interaction. One way of doing that is by first pursuing the purposes for solving the problem and then successively introduce additional, more general purposes for developing students' learning of the subject matter studied. Further recommendations drawn from this study are discussed as well.


This article develops the notion of plant writing or phytographia, the roots of which go back to the early modern concept of signatura rerum, as well as, more recently, to Walter Benjamin's idea of a "language of things" and to Jacques Derrida's arche-writing. Phytographia designates the encounter between the plants' inscription in the world and the traces of that imprint left in literary works, mediated by the artistic perspective of the author. The final section of the essay turns to the so-called "jungle novel," set in the Amazonian rainforest, as an instantiation of phytographia.


A 2-D Finite element simulation method was developed based on the kinetic law and the energy evolution during the whole process of deformation, which is used to investigate the creep size effects in polycrystalline thin metal film on substrates. Three diffusion paths (e.g. surface, grain boundary and lattice diffusion) are considered in the present model. The diffusion rate for these three processes was compared under different loading conditions with corresponding microstructure. It's found that grain boundary diffusion is coupled with another diffusion channel. Creep size effects result from mass transferring in thin film. The model gave the quantitative results of the influences of the film thickness, grain size, and the constraints of the substrate on polycrystalline metal film diffusion. The simulated results present the evolution of the point defects in grain interior, the strain and stress field. The distribution of the crack-like stress in the grain boundary could explain the stress concentration mechanisms clearly and this also agrees with the literature results.


The HT4 cell line was derived from infection of a mouse neuroblastoma cell line with a retrovirus that encoded the temperature‐sensitive (ts) mutant of SV40 large T antigen. At nonpermissive temperature, HT4 cells differentiated with neuronal morphology, expressed neuronal antigens, synthesized nerve growth factor (NGF) mRNA, and secreted biologically active NGF in vitro. We sought to establish whether transplanted HT4 ceils expressed class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens, a partial requirement for recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), and thus be susceptible to xenograft rejection. Differentiated HT4 cells expressed marginally detectable levels of class I MHC antigens, but demonstrated higher levels of class I MHC expression after treatment with interferon‐γ. However, HT4 cells were resistant to direct lysis by perforin the pore‐forming protein of CTLs, and thus may have potential use in xenograft experiments. To address whether HT4 cells secrete NGF in vivo, HT4 cells were transplanted into adults rats with unilateral fimbria‐fornix transections. A ts cell line derived from P4 cerebellum, BTl, that does not differentjate with neuronal phenotype or synthesize NGF in vitro, was transplanted as a control. Six weeks posttransplant. HT4 cells had integrated into host CNS without forming tumors. In BT1 transplants, the number of medial septal acetylcholinesterase (AChE)‐positive cells was reduced to 26‐39% of the contralateral control side, depending on the rostrocaudal level. In HT4 transplants, the number of cholinergic septal neurons was 58‐78% of the contralateral side. This percentage was significantly (P < 0.005) greater than that seen with BT1 transplants, indicating that transplanted HT4 cells secrete NGF in vivo and rescue cholinergic septal neurons following fimbria‐fornix transection.


This study explored the experiences of parents attempting to re-attain housing after a shelter stay. Eighty parents participated in semistructured face-to-face interviews approximately six months after being recruited from shelters in four states across the U.S. Qualitative analyses identified common challenges of service use, strategies of service recipients, and characteristics of positive and negative service experiences. Challenges of service use included "catch-22s" resulting from incongruity between service policies/procedures and participants' contexts and/or requirements of other services, confusion and uncertainty resulting from absent or insufficient communication about services, and long waitlists. Participants demonstrated persistence and determination, networked with service providers, and activated formal resources. Positive service experiences were tailored to families' needs and marked by clear and consistent communication between providers and with service recipients. Findings suggest effective health communication tactics should be applied to housing services. Providers should collaborate to ensure service attainment does not impede other pathways to stability.


Based on the difference between the Fermi distributions at zero temperature and at the finite temperature, we introduce the temperature-dependent three-body force (TBF) into the microscopic finite-temperature Brueckner–Hartree–Fock theory (FTBHF). In terms of the meson-exchange current approach, i.e. the one boson exchange (OBE) approximation, the exchange of four important mesons π, ρ, σ and ω are considered. Using the FTBHF theory including TBF, we describe the critical temperature of the liquid–gas phase transition for symmetric nuclear matter and discuss its change trend with the increasing asymmetry parameter. Compared to the result excluding TBF, the value of the critical temperature turns out to be smaller.


A sensor failure detection and identification scheme for a closed loop nonlinear system is described. Detection and identification tasks are performed by estimating parameters directly related to potential failures. An extended Kalman filter is used to estimate the fault-related parameters, while a decision algorithm based on threshold logic processes the parameter estimates to detect possible failures. For a realistic evaluation of its performance, the detection scheme has been implemented on an inverted pendulum controlled by real-time control software. The failure detection and identification scheme is tested by applying different types of failures on the sensors of the inverted pendulum. Experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the approach.


 Abstract —The research aims to develop an analysis of the cognitive load produced by the use of subtitles in multimedia educational material and its relationship with learning. The methodology used for the development of the research presents a qualitative approach of experimental type, the population selected for experimentation is made up of 100 students of the fifth year of secondary school of Regular Basic Education, of which a sample of 45 students was selected through a simple random sampling, which have been divided into 3 groups of 15 students each, four learning sessions are developed using subtitled multimedia videos and without subtitle and a pre test and post test are applied in order to analyze the cognitive load involved in the use of subtitled videos in the learning sessions, the scale standardized by Pass and Van Merrienboer is used. The results show that the application of subtitles in the videos mean a potential proposal in the teaching-learning processes, due to the improvement in learning since 30% of students improve their performance in relation to the initial Pretest, in addition to promoting inclusion through support for people with hearing disabilities, they also represent a constant support material. In conclusion, the application of subtitles in multimedia material is evaluated by the student and the developer, because not all videos are productive to apply them if there are videos where subtitles of an intralinguistic, bilingual and other nature are required; except for situations where the learning condition warrants


This dissertation consists of three essays on the effects of fiscal policy on different aspects of the economy. These papers share and empirical nature and exploit both macro and microdata to provide an answer to questions related to the effect of government spending and taxation in the postwar US. The second chapter analyses the impact of government spending shocks on economic activity during periods of high and low uncertainty and during periods of boom and recession. I identify exogenous government spending shocks using both a structural vector autoregression with exclusion restrictions and narrative methods based on news about future defence spending. I find that government spending shocks have larger impacts on output in booms than in recessions and larger impacts during tranquil times than during uncertain times. The third chapter investigates how taxes affect relative mobility in the income distribution in the US. I employ household panel data drawn from the PSID between 1967 and 1996 to analyse the relationship between marginal tax rates and the probability of staying in the same income decile. I identify exogenous variation in marginal tax rates by using counterfactual rates based on legislated changes in the tax schedule. I find that higher marginal tax rates reduce income mobility. The fourth chapter explores the recent trends in intergenerational mobility in the US and how fiscal policy has affected them. I consider the relationship between the level of income of fathers and sons using household data from the PSID. I then investigate how changes in taxation resulting from recent fiscal reforms may have affected such relationship. I find evidence that suggest that sons whose fathers have benefited from fiscal reforms that reduced taxes, are less likely to inherit the income status of their fathers.


On the premise of ensuring safety and reliability in electricity market environment, the goal of State Grid Corporation is that purchase AGC ancillary service charges of reducing cost. This paper first takes total expense from many AGC units as an objective function, , which synthetically considers total regulation MW amount and total regulation speed constraints. A novel hybrid particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is applied to solve the problem. Numerical simulation results show that the improved PSO algorithm has advantages both in the calculation accuracy and the convergence speed. Therefore, it is concluded that the algorithm is supposed to be an effective way to deal with the optimized issue in the power market.


Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) refers to infectious inflammation of the lung parenchyma developing outside of a hospital. CAP has quite a high mortality and morbidity rate worldwide, and especially among elderly patients. The increasing burden of CAP is due to antibiotic resistance, the growth of the elderly population, and underlying comorbidities. Streptococcus pneumoniae remains the most common bacterial pathogen causing CAP, but multi-drug resistance bacteria and potential pathogens have increased the difficulty and challenges of managing CAP. Although preventive measures, diagnostic techniques, and treatment strategies are constantly advancing and improving, the susceptibility of multi-drug resistant pathogens, such as including Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, has not improved significantly in recent decades, thus highlighting the importance and necessity of developing new antibiotics for the treatment of CAP. New antimicrobials have been approved over the past few years that will expand treatment options for CAP, and especially for patients with potential comorbidities. This situation also offers the chance to reduce the abuse of antibiotics, their toxicities, and their adverse reactions and to provide effective personalized antibiotic treatment.


This article is part of the section "Political events in the Middle East and their impact on energy" in Issue 84 of Oxford Energy Forum


The cyber criminals who infect machines with bots are not the same as the spammers who rent botnets to distribute their messages. The activities of these spammers account for the majority of spam emails traffic on the internet. Once their botnets and campaigns are identified, it is not enough to keep on filtering the spam emails, it is necessary to deploy techniques that will carry the fight to their end. It is observed that spammers also take into account server feedback (for example to detect and remove non-existent recipients from email address lists). We can take advantage of this observation by returning fake information, thereby poisoning the server feedback on which the spammers rely. The results of this paper show that by sending misleading information to a spammer, it is possible to prevent recipients from receiving subsequent spam emails from that same spammer.


Forest biomass study takes great sense in estimation of carbon release which is an important in increasement of carbon dioxide. There are many models to estimate forest biomass by the volume data, among them allometric equations iswidely studied and highly recommended. The paper proposed a new model B i€½ cV d (B stands for aboveground biomass, V for forest volume, c and d for parameters of the new models) to estimate the aboveground biomass (AGB) by the allometric equations and the Squrr Equation, followed the assumption of the new model, a set of new equations to estimate forest biomass in a sample plot can be drew. In order to prove the newmodel is superior to traditional ones in converting volume to biomass, the experiments were carried out in Dangchuang forest farm, Gan Su province in China, 32 trees ofQuercus aliena Var. cuteserata were fell,measured the volume andAGB, fitted by two tranditionalmodels and the new one then did a comparison. The results showed that new model was better and the relationship between the AGB and tree volume is exponential not linearity. In practical, the volume can be estimated by Squrr Equation, also by theYamamoto formula andHerschel formula.And the volume estimated by these theoretical equationswhich includes Squrr Equation,Yamamoto formula and Herschel formula can be used to estimate AGB.


About 1/3rd of all women diagnosed with subfertility have a tubo-peritoneal factor contri‐ buting to their condition. Most of these alterations in tubo-ovarian function come from post-inflammatory damage inflicted after a pelvic or sexually transmitted infection. Sal‐ pingitis occurs in an estimated 15% of reproductive-age women, and 2.5% of all women become infertile as a result of salpingitis by age 35. Predominant organisms today include those from the Chamydia species and the infection causes minimal to no symptoms – leading to chronic infection and consequently more damage. Again, a large proportion of patients suffering from pelvic infection contributing to their subfertility are undiagnosed to be having an infection. Chronic inflammation of the cervix and endometrium, altera‐ tions in reproductive tract secretions, induction of immune mediators that interfere with gamete or embryo physiology, and structural disorders such as intrauterine synechiae all contribute to female infertility. Infection is also a major factor in male subfertility, second only to abnormal semen parameters. Epididymal or ductal obstruction, testicular damage from orchitis, development of anti-sperm antibodies, etc are all possible mechanisms by which infection can affect male fertility.


Background : AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) related cholangiopathy results from the inflammation of biliary tree and gall bladder. It is an uncommon manifestation of advanced HIV/AIDS that was associated with poor prognosis prior to the anti-retroviral therapy era. It commonly presents with biliary tree pain. Jaundice is uncommon and other symptoms include fever and vague abdominal pains. Patients have low CD4+ cell counts of between 50-200 cells/il. It is rarely fatal but presents with marked epigastric pain, which affects the quality of life. Management is mainly conservative or surgical in selected cases. Objective : To describe AIDS-related cholangiopathy and the associated ultrasound features, immunological and biochemical markers in a cohort of HIV positive patients. Design : Longitudinal, consecutive entry, prospective study. Setting : Kisumu District Hospital medical and surgical wards, Mater and Nairobi west hospitals between January 2001 and May 2007. Subjects : Seventy nine patients with cholangiopathy/ cholecystitis were included in the study. Intervention : Antibiotics, analgesics, intravenous fluids/or surgery was offered to the patients. Main outcome measures : Clinical, biochemical and ultrasound features, management (surgical or conservative), CD4+ cell counts. Results : One hundred and two (42 males and 60 females) patients were screened. Twenty three (ten males and 13 females) patients were excluded. Seventy nine (32 males and 47 females) patients were included in the study. Their mean age was 38.8 ± 11.5 (17-70) years. The mean CD4+ cell count and white cell count were 122.4 ± 85.8 cells/il (3.0- 380) and 12.8 ± 4.5 X103/il respectively. Mean ALT, AST and alkaline phosphatase were 413.4 ± 126.4 IU/L (range 160-800), 340.5 ± 113.3 IU/L (range 92-562) and 678.8 ± 535.9 IU/L (range 55-2790). Ultrasound showed varied features: Isolated dilated intrahepatic bile ducts in eight patients, enlarged gall bladder with thickened wall (cholecystitis) in thirty one patients, thickened common bile duct wall and cholecytitis and dilated intrahepatic and common bile duct, ten each, eleven had cholecystitis and gallstones and nine had normal ultrasound scan. The co-morbidities include; PTB in four patients, six had pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, two had cryptococcus meningitis, three had cryptosporidium/ microsporidium, ten had oral candidiasis, four had Kaposi's Sarcoma, seven had herpes zoster virus, one had broncho-pneumonia, ten had diarrhoea and thirty two had no infections. Seven patients had cholecystectomy done successfully and 72 patients were managed conservatively. Conclusion : AIDS- related cholangiopathy has diffuse biliary tree  abnormalities. The patients had very low mean CD4+ cell counts signifying severe immunosuppression. The co-morbidities were observed to occur at very low CD4+ cell counts. Management is both conservative and surgical.


The pharmaceutical industry has been one of the strongest performing sectors of the Celtic Tiger era. During the past two decades, employment growth in the sector has been strong and continuous, even when, in recent years, employment in other manufacturing sectors has been contracting. Although positive in itself, from a dynamic regional development perspective it is important to explore the qualitative changes in the types of activities that are conducted in Ireland. Adopting a global production network approach, the paper examines Ireland's changing role in global production networks within the pharmaceutical industry, focussing on the different components of manufacturing and R&D. The analysis shows that Ireland's involvement in manufacturing has shifted in the direction of relatively higher value generating activities. Within R&D, although the level of value creation has increased substantially, Ireland's involvement remains concentrated in the (relatively) lower value generating activities of the global R&D network. In addition, the sector remains strongly dominated by foreign direct investment so that a large share of the created value is not captured within Ireland.


The agriculture and horticulture sector in the Netherlands is one of the most productive in the world. Although the sector is one of the most advanced and intense agricultural production systems worldwide, it faces challenges, such as climate change and environmental and social unsustainability of industrial production. To overcome these challenges, alternative food production initiatives have emerged, especially in large cities such as Amsterdam. Some initiatives involve producing food in the urban environment, supported by new technologies and practices, so-called high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA). These initiatives make cultivation of plants inside and on top of buildings possible and increase green spaces in urban areas. The emerging agricultural technologies are creating new business environments that are shape d by technology developers (e.g., suppliers of horticultural light emitting diodes (LED) and control environment systems) and developers of alternative food production practices (e.g., HTUA start-ups). However, research shows that the uptake of these technological innovations in urban planning processes is problematic. Therefore, this research analyzes the barriers that local government planners and HTUA developers are facing in the embedding of HTUA in urban planning processes, using the city of Amsterdam as a case study. This study draws on actor-network theory (ANT) to analyze the interactions between planners, technologies, technology developers and developers of alternative food production practices. Several concepts of ANT are integrated into a multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP) to create a new theoretical framework that can explain how interactions between technologies and planning actors transform the incumbent social–technical regime. The configuration of interactions between social and material entities in technology development and adoption processes in Amsterdam is analyzed through the lens of this theoretical framework. The data in this study were gathered by tracing actors and their connections by using ethnographic research methods. In the course of the integration of new technologies into urban planning practices, gaps between technologies, technology developers, and planning actors have been identified. The results of this study show a lacking connection between planning actors and technology developers, although planning actors do interact with developers of alternative food production practices. These interactions are influenced by agency of artefacts such as visualizations of the future projects. The paper concludes that for the utilization of emerging technologies for sustainability transition of cities, the existing gap between technology developers and planning actors needs to be bridged through the integration of technology development visions in urban agendas and planning processes.


In this paper a new power controlled contention-based MAC protocol is introduced for wireless sensor networks where sensor nodes can adjust their transmission power level on a per-frame basis. The main contribution of our work is to enable power controlled transmission of RTS, CTS, DATA and ACK frames while preserving the collision and overhearing avoidance properties of a MAC protocol where these frames are transmitted at the maximum power. Experimental results show that the power controlled sensor MAC protocol reduces the energy consumption by 30-99% comparing to the conventional sensor MAC protocol.


Aims. We study the classical problem of the transition of a pressure-anisotropic plasma over a hydrodynamical shock using a purely Boltzmann-kinetical treatment. Methods. We derive the Boltzmann equation for a plasma crossing a shock at a random orientation and evaluate the velocity space integral of the distribution function over the shock analytically. We then try to reproduce the classical MHD behavior and to evaluate the pressures parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field by integrating the resulting Boltzmann equation over velocity space. Results. We obtain, for the first time, a completely analytical result for the downstream pressure anisotropy in the case of a perpendicular shock, closing the set of MHD jump conditions. For the parallel shock, it turns out that a single-fluid description without relaxation terms is not sufficient to describe the shock, no matter how much we fine-tune our external parameters. All these results are completely independent of the fine structure of the shock and the upstream distribution function.


In order to study the influence of the structural and operating parameters on device performance of the self-excited pulsed jet in low-press and Amount-flux, a great deal of experiments on structural and operating parameters of the self-excited pulsed jet was carried out by independently developed testing system. Under the certain upper nozzle diameter and cavity diameter, the changes of the lower nozzle diameter and cavity length and working pressure have an effect on the hitting power of the pulsing jet and pulsing effect. Experimental results showed that for the different lower nozzle diameter and under each working pressure the influence of the cavity length changes on the hitting power is different, there is the optimal range of cavity length and working pressure while the lower diameter is fixed, and with the increase of the lower nozzle diameter, the range of the optimal cavity length and working pressure also has a gradually increasing trend.


Background: Quercetin, a flavonol contained in various vegetables and fruits, has various biological activities including anticancer, antiviral, anti-diabetic, and anti-oxidative. However, it has low oral bioavailability due to insolubility in water. Thus, the bioavailability of quercetin administered to human beings in a capsule form, was reported to be less than 1%, with only a small percentage of ingested quercetin getting absorbed in the blood. This leads to certain difficulties in creating highly effective medicines Methods: Quercetin-rubusoside and quercetin-rebaudioside were prepared. The antioxidant activities of quercetin and Q-rubusoside were evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging method. Inhibition activities of quercetin and Quercetin-rubusoside were determined by measuring the remaining activity of 3CL pro with 200 μM inhibitor. The inhibition activity of quercetin, rubusoside and quercetin-rubusoside were determined by measuring the activity of human maltase which remains at 100 μM rubusoside or quercetin-rubusoside. The mushroom tyrosinase inhibition was assayed with the reaction mixture contained 3.3 mM L-DOPA in 50 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 6.8), and 10 U mushroom tyrosinase/ml with or without quercetin or quercetin-rubusoside. Results: With 10% rubusoside treatment, quercetin showed solubility of 7.7 mg/ml in water, and its solubility increased as the concentration of rubusoside increased; the quercetin solubility in water increased to 0.83 mg/mlas rubusoside concentration increased to 1 mg/ml. Quercetin solubilized in rubusoside solution showed DPPH radical-scavenging activity and mushroom tyrosinase inhibition activity, similar to that of quercetin solubilized in dimethyl-sulfoxide. Quercetin-rubusoside also showed 1.2 and 1.9 folds higher inhibition activity against 3CL pro of SARS and human intestinal maltase, respectively, than those of quercetin in DMSO. Conclusions: Quercetin can be solubilized in water with rebaudioside or rubusoside treatment. As Ru concentration increases, the solubility of quercetin in water increases. The solubilization of quercetin in Ru solution did not reduce its biological functions such as the DPPH radical-scavenging and mushroom tyrosinase activity; also, quercetin-rubusoside increased the inhibition activity against the 3CL pro of SARS and human intestinal maltase, when compared with the activity of quercetin in DMSO. Thus, rubusoside and rebaudioside are promising compounds which enhance the solubility of poorly water soluble compounds. Keywords:  rubusoside, rebaudioside, flavonol, quercetin, human maltase, 3CL pro


This study presents a review of the literature published between 1979 and 2010 on health and working conditions in tobacco cultivation, with particular emphasis on the Brazilian context. A review of computerized databases (PubMed, Scopus, WilsonWeb and Bireme/PAHO Virtual Health Library - Public Health) was carried out using the following search terms: tobacco, agricultural worker health, agricultural worker disease, working conditions, unsafe working conditions, occupational risk, occupational disease, and labor force. Articles published in English, Spanish and Portuguese were analyzed. Thirty-seven articles were selected from 214 references that were initially identified. Thirty-four additional publications (reports, etc.) were also analyzed. Among the many effects described in the literature, especially noteworthy are "green tobacco sickness," respiratory disorders, musculoskeletal injuries, mental disorders, and a negative environmental impact. Very few studies have been carried out in Brazil.


Dataset of forecasted freezing level height from the numerical weather prediction model HARMONIE-AROME cycle 38, as of 3 April 2018 cycle 40. HARMONIE-AROME is a non-hydrostatic regional numerical weather prediction model used operationally at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and various other European weather centers. At KNMI, the HARMONIE-AROME model operates at 2.5 times 2.5 km horizontal resolution and 65 vertical levels, and 48-hour long forecasts are initiated every three hours. A subset of the full output was archived on model-levels for a 300 times 300 cell domain covering part of the full 800 times 800 cell simulation domain. For each cell and simulation output time-step, the freezing level height was determined by scanning from the top of the atmosphere downwards to the first level for which the temperature reached 273.15K. The subset covers the Netherlands and surroundings, coinciding with the coverage of the two KNMI ground-based weather radars. This dataset has been employed for a study on rainfall-induced attenuation correction for two dual-pol C-band radars in the Netherlands, for which a paper is in preparation. For this, HARMONIE data which would have been available in real-time for coupling with real-time 5-min radar data were obtained, resulting in the selection of the forecasts with +2, +3, +4 or +5 h lead time, being available every 3 h (32 files per day). The HARMONIE data allow for distinguishing between rain and other types of precipitation. This dataset may also be useful for other (radar) applications.


Abstract We present evidence for melting at the base of the ice that overlies Lake Concordia, an 800 km2 subglacial lake near Dome Concordia, East Antarctica, via a combination of glaciohydraulic melting (associated with the tilted ice ceiling and its influence on lake circulation/melting temperature) and melting by extreme strain heating (where the ice sheet is grounded). An influx of water is necessary to provide nutrients, material and biota to support subglacial lake ecosystems but has not been detected previously. Freezing is the dominant observed basal process at over 60% of the surface area above the lake. The total volume of accreted ice above the lake surface is estimated as 50-60 km3, roughly 25-30% of the 200 ± 40 km3 estimated lake volume. Estimated rates of melting and freezing are very similar, ±2-6 mm a-1. The apparent net freezing may reflect the present-day response of Lake Concordia to cooling associated with the Last Glacial Maximum, or a large influx of water either via a subglacial hydrological system or from additional melting of the ice sheet. Lake Concordia is an excellent candidate for subglacial exploration given active basal processes, proximity to the Dome Concordia ice core and traverse resupply route.


Results of treatment of 500 patients with blood vessel trauma are analyzed depending on trauma nature, shock severity, regional ischemia, technique of restorative surgery. Biochemical and ultrastructural changes in muscles are described in experimental conditions in ischemia of different degrees of severity to prognosis the reversibility of disorders. Restoration of blood circulation has been achieved in 82% of patients (5.1% mortality). Beside open and closed vessel trauma, it is expedient to distinguish between penetrating and non-penetrating injuries. Results of treatment of blood vessel trauma should be differentiated depending on the degree of regional ischemia, severity of traumatic shock and blood loss, combination of trauma and injury localization. Mechanical suture improves anastomosis quality, simplifies technique and reduces time of intervention. Introduction of microsurgery principles widens possibilities of vessel restorative surgery. The authors suggest classification of iatrogenic injuries of vessels, which promotes accurate diagnosis and choice of optimal surgical technique.


During the decade '80s economic policies began to be pursued that were in line with New Classical and particularly Monetarist theory both in the USA and Europe by conservative governments that had come to power. It was based on the assumption that the economy would automatically come to full-employment equilibrium, or using the concept first introduced by Friedman, at the point of natural rate of unemployment (nru). To achieve price stability along with automatic natural-rate-of-unemployment equilibrium, therefore, Keynesian policies of raising aggregate demand, including monetary expansion had to be discarded, and Monetarist tight money policy implemented instead. But the proposition of automatic natural-rate-of-unemployment equilibrium claimed by both New Classicals and Monetarists did not materialize; unemployment persisted and even increased during the '80s. The failure of New Classical and Monetarist policies made Keynesianism mainstream once again in the academic circles and this movement was called "Counter Counter-Revolution" (Blinder 1988, Mankiw, 1990). The New Keynesians, who accepted the Keynesian unemployment (un-N) proposition and also accepted the criticism of the New Classicals that Keynesian macroeconomics lacked microeconomic foundations, tried to lay down the micro foundations for Keynes, but not by accepting perfect competition and Walrasian equilibrium but by pointing out to diverse reasons of "imperfect competition", "inflexibility of wages and prices" and "lack of coordination between markets". The pioneers of the New Keynesian Economics which emerged in the USA in the beginning of '80s are Alan S. Blinder, N. Gregory Mankiw, John Taylor, and David Romer.


Statistics reporting litigated cases of fraud on an exchange-by-exchange basis are not readily available to investors. This paper introduces data from three countries with multiple exchanges with different listing standards, – Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States – to show litigated cases of fraud significantly vary by country, and the different exchanges within the country. Comparisons are also made to Brazil, China and Germany to assess out-of-sample inferences. The data examined suggest listing standards have a strong influence over the nature of observed fraud by securities commissions within the United States; by contrast, outside the United States there appears to be a comparative lack of enforcement. The data also suggest policy implications for the ways in which fraud ought to be reported to improve investor knowledge, market transparency and market quality.


The Island Mountain deposit, an anomalous massive sulfide in the Central belt of the Franciscan subduction complex, northern California Coast Ranges, formed during hydrothermal activity in a sediment-dominated paleo-sea-floor environment. Although the base of the massive sulfide is juxtaposed against a 500-m-wide melange band, its gradational upper contact within a coherent sequence of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone indicates that hydrothermal activity was concurrent with turbidite deposition. Accumulations of sulfide breccia and clastic sulfide were produced by mass wasting of the sulfide mound prior to burial by turbidites. The bulk composition of sulfide samples (pyrrhotite rich; high Cu, As, and Au contents; radiogenic Pb isotope ratios) is consistent with a hydrothermal system dominated by fluid-sediment interaction. On the basis of a comparison with possible contemporary tectonic analogues at the southern Gorda Ridge and the Chile margin triple junction, we propose that massive sulfide mineralization in the Central belt of the Franciscan complex resulted from hydrothermal activity at a late Mesozoic sediment-covered ridge axis prior to collision with the North American plate.


The largest effort yet to replicate psychology studies has yielded both good and bad news. On the down side, of the 100 prominent papers analyzed, only 39% could be replicated unambiguously, as a group of 270 researchers describes on page 943. On the up side, despite the sobering results, the effort seems to have drawn little of the animosity that greeted a similar replication effort last year. This time around, even some of the original authors see the replications as a useful addition to their own research. "This is how science works," says Joshua Correll, a psychologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and one of the authors whose results could not be replicated. "How else will we converge on the truth? Really, the surprising thing is that this kind of systematic attempt at replication is not more common." That9s encouraging news to Brian Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville who led the mass replication effort, which began in 2011 with the goal of putting psychological science on more rigorous experimental footing.


The available circumstantial evidence gained from epidemiological and microbiological investigations suggests that the use of untreated wastewater causes an excess of Salmonella infection among children living in El Azzouzia (the wastewater‐spreading area of Marrakesh city, Morocco) compared with those from a control area that does not practice sewage irrigation (Sidi Moussa). The prevalence in the exposed group (32·56%) was significantly (P < 0·001) higher than for the control group (1·14%). Serogroups B and C were the most commonly isolated. Boys were at greater risk (37·61%) of contracting Salmonella infection than girls (26·66%). Age‐specified rates showed that children of less than 10 years old were infected at a higher rate than older children in the area (exposed group), with 40·32% and 19·72% rates of infection, respectively. Crop irrigation with untreated wastewater caused a significantly higher rate of infection with Salmonella in the children of agricultural workers (39·33%) than in the children of non‐agriculturists (24·58%).


Four categories of data representations are used to help interpret structures and similarities of nucleic acid and protein sequences. Statistical significance of the observed relationships revealed by these representations are assessed by a hierarchy of permutation procedures and by comparisons with theoretical random models. Applications are presented for various DNA sequences including papovaviruses, Epstein-Barr virus, mitochondrial genomes, and several globin and immunoglobulin genes.


Experiments generally only offer access to certain output parameters or spectra. When performing device simulations, we often assume that agreement of theoretical and experimental output means that the model describes the device well. However, this conclusion is by no means mandatory. Here, we show an example of a Bi quantum film where measurements show equidistant energy levels. Though this suggests a harmonic oscillator potential, a variety of alternative potentials with equidistant spectra may also describe the structure, especially considering the finite measurement accuracy and range.


This paper describes a simple mathematical technique that uses a genetic algorithm and least squares optimization to obtain a functional approximation (or computer program) for a given data set. Such an optimal functional form is derived from a pre-defined general functional formulation by selecting optimal coefficients, decision variable functions, and mathematical operators. In the past, functional approximations have routinely been obtained through the use of linear and nonlinear regression analysis. More recent methods include the use of genetic algorithms and genetic programming. An example application based on a data set extracted from the commonly used Moody diagram has been used to demonstrate the utility of the proposed method. The purpose of the application was to determine an explicit expression for friction factor and to compare its performance to other available techniques. The example application results in the development of closed form expressions that can be used for evaluating the friction factor for turbulent pipe flow. These expressions compete well in accuracy with other known methods, validating the promise of the proposed method in identifying useful functions for physical processes in a very effective manner. The proposed method is simple to implement and has the ability to generate simple and compact explicit expressions for a given response function.


This study seeks to investigate the role of Social Media Advertising, E-Marketing, and Product Quality on Consumers' Decision to Purchase Nature Cosmetics in North Sumatra-Indonesia partially and simultaneously. The data were analyzed using multiple Linear Regression model and coefficient of Determination. This research leads to the results that variables of Social Media Advertising, EMarketing, and Product Quality simultaneously have a positive and meaningful impact on consumers' decision in making purchases of Nature Cosmetics in North Sumatra-Indonesia and partially this variable of product quality is more dominant in consumers' decision in purchasing Environmentfriendly Cosmetics in North Sumatra-Indonesia. The coefficient of determination (R Square) shows that the variable of Social Media Advertising, E-Marketing, Product Quality is 0,593 or 59.3% while the remaining 40,7% is affected by other factors beyond the scope of this study. © 2019 Bussecon International Academy. Hosting by SSBFNET. All rights reserved. Peer review under responsibility of Bussecon International Academy & SSBFNET.


Antifreeze protein (AFP) types, I, II and III were tested for their ability to protect red blood cells from lysis during warming, after cryopreservation in hydroxyethyl starch. All three types reduced hemolysis to 25% of control values at similar micromolar concentrations but enhanced lysis as the AFP concentration approached millimolar levels. Site-directed mutants of type III AFP with different thermal hysteresis activities were tested for their ability to protect the cryopreserved cells from lysis. Their relative efficacy in protecting the cells correlated closely with their thermal hysteresis activity. Cryomicroscopy indicated that the protection of red cells by type III AFP and the mutant forms was due to inhibition of ice recrystallization.


The pathogenesis of autoimmune vasculitis is poorly understood. Understanding the immunologic mechanisms governing this disease requires precise identification of the cells which comprise the lesion. In this report, we have evaluated tissue sections from MRL/lpr mice from 16 to 45 weeks of age, representing all stages of clinical vasculitis. We demonstrate that basophil myelocytes participate in the evolution of the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response which initiates and perpetuates autoimmune vasculitis in these mice. These findings raise questions regarding the immunologic mechanisms by which basophils develop in this lesion and the interaction of basophils. VSMCs and lymphocytes in vasculitic angiodestruction.


This article is discussing on how the rise and tide of Minangkabau traditional trading occur in Kuala Lumpur. The research focused on four areas in Kuala Lumpur, Chow Kit, Kampung Baru, Kampung Dato' Keramat and Mesjid India area, reveals that there are some small stalls of Minangkabau  traditional trading are now owned by another Indonesian ethnicity such as Acehenese and Boyanese tribe. Meanwhile, some of the businesses are still possessed by Minangkabau tribe such as Nasi Padang and textile trading. The phenomenon is affected by the lack of business innovation, capital, local competitor and the fact that they are unable to follow the trend in business. Even though,  there are some of well-developed traditional business run by Minangkabau people in Kuala Lumpur due to the existence of marketing creativity, innovative items, and the conducive partnership with another Minangkabau entrepreneurs in the textile merchant  in form of kiosk or  arcade in Mesjid India area that has connection with another counterpart of the  nationwide  including Sabah and Sarawak.


Recent language models have shown impressive multilingual performance, even when not explicitly trained for it. Despite this, there are concerns about the quality of their outputs across different languages. In this paper, we show how disparity in the treatment of different languages arises at the tokenization stage, well before a model is even invoked. The same text translated into different languages can have drastically different tokenization lengths, with differences up to 15 times in some cases. These disparities persist even for tokenizers that are intentionally trained for multilingual support. Character-level and byte-level models also exhibit over 4 times the difference in the encoding length for some language pairs. This induces unfair treatment for some language communities in regard to the cost of accessing commercial language services, the processing time and latency, as well as the amount of content that can be provided as context to the models. Therefore, we make the case that we should train future language models using multilingually fair subword tokenizers.