Many undergraduate students, studying in a second language, are exposed to discipline-specific texts and concepts that they find difficult to comprehend and discuss in class. This study, as a consequence of these concerns, used a modified version of the "Academic Reading Circles" (ARC) approach to assist students with the case-based study of cyberethical issues.  The goal is to enhance classroom discussion activities, improve reading comprehension and, ultimately, improve knowledge of complex discipline specific ethical concepts. The study was conducted in an Arab higher education institution where undergraduate students study Ethics in Information Technology in English. By using the ARC instructional strategy, in conjunction with case-based ethical dilemmas, modified with text analysis software, it was anticipated that this intervention would improve text comprehension and understanding of ethical concepts. Preliminary results indicate that when students are engaged with the learning process, there is a noticeable improvement in comprehension and the ability to discuss critical issues. Overall, the study has implications for content teachers, teaching second language students in different subject disciplines. Keywords: academic reading circles; reading; active learning; ethical decision making; information technology; cyberethics Type B: Presentation


The properties of free-standing cubic silicon carbide for optoelectronic applications are explored in this work. The main focus of the work is on boron doped cubic silicon carbide, which is proposed as a highly useful material in several optoelectronic applications. The material is grown using sublimation epitaxy and the doped material is grown homoepitaxially on nominally undoped seeds. It is characterized using the experimental setups of photoluminescence spectroscopy, Nomarski interference spectroscopy and absorption spectroscopy.I have studied seed growth of nominally undoped cubic material on hexagonal (4H) substrates, and the influence on the grown material from the different faces of the substrate. It is found that it is not possible under the explored conditions to completely cover the growth area with the cubic polytype on the carbon face, but it can be done reproducibly on the silicon face. Reasons for this are discussed. Different doping setups are also explored. The influence on the material properties from growth conditions is explored. It is shown from absorption measurements that it is possible to grow boron doped cubic silicon carbide using this growth method, whereas optical microscopy studies show that the sample quality degrades with high doping concentrations.I have explored the luminescence properties of the material. No boron related emission is found with either room temperature or low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy. Reasons for this are discussed using results from absorption measurements and optical microscopy.


While considerations of Turkish modernization become more varied through studies with a social historical perspective, the limited number of alternative readings of the relationship between religion, state,and society is remarkable. Taking this as a departure point, this study investigates the possibility of analyzing the essence and existence of the different kind of opposition practiced by the ulema and sufis during the single-party period. In mainstream literature, the ulema and sufis' lack of reactive and communal agency against the modernizing reforms has been evaluated as pacifist or conformist. This study focuses on the relationship of these figures to tradition, their different understanding of time and reality, their struggle for dignity and social prestige, and claims that they ultimately form part of an agency and an opposition that is non-modern.


This chapter reviews and critically examines issues regarding the mental health of Asians in the United States. As a distinct ethnic group in the United States, Asian Americans have experienced value conflicts between their own ethnic culture and that of mainstream Americans, as well as instances of racial prejudice and discrimination. Given these experiences, it is important to examine the mental health status of Asian Americans. Several consistent research findings have emerged. First, few Asian Americans utilize the mental health system. Second, those who do use services are highly disturbed in terms of psychiatric disorders. Third, cultural factors appear to influence this pattern of low utilization but greater severity of disturbance. Fourth, epidemiological surveys show that the rates of mental disorders among Asian Americans are not extraordinarily low. Fifth, the relatively small population of Asian Americans, their heterogeneity, and the constantly changing demographic characteristics of the population have made it difficult to ascertain rates of mental disorders. More research is needed in order to gain insights into the within-group differences among Asian Americans, the role of acculturation in psychopathology and help-seeking behaviors, and cultural expressions of psychopathology.


This paper deals with the application of short-time spectral attenuation techniques to the restoration of musical recordings degraded by background noise. Signal distortions induced by the restoration process are evaluated analytically, and their audibility is assessed on the basis of objective criteria. The results obtained highlight the influence of adjustable parameters (e.g., short-time frame duration or noise overestimation) on the quality of the restoration. >


We discuss problems posed by the quantitative study of time inhomogeneous Markov chains. The two main notions for our purpose are merging and stability. Merging (also called weak ergodicity) occurs when the chain asymptotically forgets where it started. It is a loss of memory property. Stability relates to the question of whether or not, despite temporary variations, there is a rough shape describing the long time behavior of the chain. For instance, we will discuss an example where the long time behavior is roughly described by a binomial, with temporal variations.


The paper offers an empirical analysis of the effects of sanctions decided by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on the reputation of firms in France. Using an event study, we intend to show the impact of three events on the stock prices : opening of an investigation by the AMF ; issuance of a monetary sanction ; publication of the information about sanction a newspaper. The reputational impact issue raises the broader issue of understanding of financial regulation enforcement operates in concreto. We find a strong negative impact of the announcement of sanction in press on the firms' stock prices. We observe a reputational loss of the deferred firm following the disclosure of sanction in press. We observe also a weak decrease in stock prices when the firm has been notified of the opening of investigation on its misconducts, however we find no evidence on the impact of announcement of sanction directly to the firm on the stock prices. We carry out an OLS cross-section regression to assess the impact of the amount of sanction on the reputational loss of firm. The amount of monetary sanctions are too low, compared the market size of deferred companies, to influence stock prices and contribute in reputational loss.


The clinopyroxenes of the hybrid rocks from the Hirata outcrop, Kushiro, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan are grouped into(1)diopside, (2)aegirine, and (3)zoned pyroxene. The diopside occurs as isolated crystals enclosed in feldspars. The aegirine occurs along with late hydrous minerals in pore spaces. The zoned pyroxenes occur as discrete cryatals with wide rims growing interstitially between feldspar laths and show a continuous composition-al trend from diopside through hedenbergite and aegirine-augite to aegirine or titanian aegirine. The pyroxenes enclosed in feldspars and the cores of the zoned crystals have nearly same chemical composition. The late stage pyroxenes are characterized by extreme enrichment of sodium and sometimes titanium. The titanian aegirines studied hera are characterized by the predominance of the Na(Fe2+, Mg)0.5Ti0.5Si2O6 component over other Ti-bearing pyroxene components.
 The compositional trend of clinopyroxenes from the Hirata hybrid rocks follows a typical trend of peralkalne rocks. The peralkaline neture of the Hirata samples is a result of compositional change of magma accompanied by the metasomatic skarn formation.


Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound of mushrooms in the psilocybe species. Psilocybin directly affects a number of serotonin receptors, with highest affinity for the serotonin 2A receptor (5HT-2Ar). Generally, the effects of psilocybin, and its active metabolite psilocin, are well established and include a range of cognitive, emotional, and perceptual perturbations. Despite the generality of these effects, there is a high degree of inter-individual variability in subjective psilocybin experiences that are not well understood. Others have shown brain morphology metrics derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can predict individual drug response. Due to high expression of serotonin 2A receptors (5HT-2Ar) in the cingulate cortex, and its prior associations with psilocybin, we investigate if cortical thickness of this structure predicts the psilocybin experience in healthy adults. We hypothesized that greater cingulate thickness would predict higher subjective ratings in sub-scales of the Five-Dimensional Altered State of Consciousness (5D-ASC) with high emotionality in healthy participants (n = 55) who received oral psilocybin (either low dose: 0.160 mg/kg or high dose: 0.215 mg/kg). After controlling for sex, age, and using false discovery rate (FDR) correction, we found the rostral anterior cingulate predicted all four emotional sub-scales, whereas the caudal and posterior cingulate did not. How classic psychedelic compounds induce such large inter-individual variability in subjective states has been a long-standing question in serotonergic research. These results extend the traditional set and setting hypothesis of the psychedelic experience to include brain structure metrics.


Objectives To comprehensively survey the sugar and nutrient contents of yogurt products available in UK supermarkets, in particular those marketed to children. Design A cross-sectional survey of yogurt products available in the UK's supermarkets in November 2016. Methods Data were collected from five major online UK supermarkets and a process flow strategy was used to place yogurts into eight categories: children's, dairy alternatives, dessert, drinks, fruit, flavoured, natural/Greek style and organic. A comprehensive database of product information for 921 unique products was created and analysed. Results The total sugar, fat, protein, calcium and energy contents were highly variable across categories, and the ranges were extremely broad. Although lower than the dessert category, the medians (range) of the total sugar content of children's (10.8 g/100 g (4.8–14.5)), fruit (11.9 g/100 g (4.6–21.3)), flavoured (12.0 g/100 g (0.1–18.8)) and organic (13.1 g/100 g (3.8–16.9)) yogurt products were all well above 10 g/100 g, and represented >45% of total energy. Only two out of 101 children's yogurt and fromage frais products surveyed qualified as low sugar (≤5 g/100 g). Natural/Greek yogurts had dramatically lower sugar contents (5.0 g/100 g (1.6, 9.5), largely lactose) than all other categories. While low-fat (<3 g/100 g) products had less sugar and energy than higher fat yogurts, nonetheless 55% (285 of 518 low-fat yogurts) contained between 10 and 20 g sugar/100 g. Within the children's category, fromage frais had higher protein (5.3 g/100 g (3.3, 8.6) vs 3.2 (2.8, 7.1); p<0.0001) and calcium contents (150 mg/100 g (90, 240) vs 130.5 mg/100 g (114, 258); p=0.0015) than yogurts. Conclusions While there is good evidence that yogurt can be beneficial to health, products on the market vary widely in total sugars. Fewer than 9%, and only 2% of the children's, products surveyed were low enough in sugar to earn 'green' in UK front of the pack labelling. Reformulation for the reduction of free sugars in yogurts is warranted.


Recent data have shown that significant levels of cellular prion protein (PrPC) are found within human blood. However, although PrPC is expressed by PLTs, WBCs, and RBCs, the majority of PrPC is detected within the plasma fraction by dissociation-enhanced fluoroimmunoassay (DELFIA, Wallac, United Kingdom).1 This is particularly relevant as PrPSC can also be found within the plasma fraction in animal models of the disease.2 In their recent TRANSFUSION article, Simak and coworkers3 reported that PrPC is expressed on endothelial cells and is released during apoptosis, on membrane microparticles that are also detectable in human plasma. We have performed similar experiments with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and report comparable findings. In addition, we have also used human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1).4 Both cell types were found to express PrPC mRNA, and flow cytometric analysis of HUVECs demonstrated a similar quantity of cell surface PrPC as reported by Simak et al.3 The HMEC-1 cells were found to express double the amount of surface PrPC. Simak and colleagues3 measured the release of microparticles associated with PrPC from apoptotic endothelial cells by flow cytometry and demonstrated that endothelial-derived microparticles within both cell culture and blood plasma express PrPC, suggesting that they could contribute to the plasma pool of PrPC. To clarify the contribution of microparticles to the PrPC present in endothelial cell supernatants, we have measured PrPC by DELFIA before and after ultracentrifugation of HUVEC and HMEC-1 cell supernatants at 100,000 g for 2 hours. We then resuspended the microparticle precipitates (verified by flow cytometry with annexin V labeling) and measured the PrPC concentration by DELFIA. There was a slight decrease of signal in the ultracentrifuged supernatant, indicating that a small proportion of PrPC was associated with insoluble material (Fig. 1). There was no detectable PrPC within the resuspended microparticle precipitates. Similar results were obtained with normal human plasma before and after ultracentrifugation (Fig. 1). Ultracentrifugation removed both microparticles and a small proportion of the PrPC DELFIA signal, supporting the data of Simak et al.3 It has already been shown that blood plasma infectivity is not eliminated by high-speed centrifugation in a mouse model of CJD, indicating that the infectivity is present in the soluble plasma fraction.2 We conclude that it is likely that endothelial cell microparticles do express PrPC, but that most PrPC released by endothelial cells and within human blood plasma is in soluble form. Richard Starke, BSc Haemostasis Research Unit University College London 3rd Floor Jules Thorn Building 48 Riding House Street London W1N 8AA, UK e-mail: email@example.com Paul Harrison, BSc, PhD, MRCPath Oxford Haemophilia Center Churchill Hospital Headington Oxford, UK Olive Drummond, GIBiol Ian Macgregor, BSc, PhD Products and Components R & D Group National Science Laboratory Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service Edinburgh, UK Ian Mackie, BSc, PhD, FIBMS, FRCPath Samuel Machin, MB ChB, FRCP, FRCPath Haemostasis Research Unit University College London 3rd Floor Jules Thorn Building 48 Riding House Street London W1N 8AA, UK


Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in type 2 diabetes. Metformin reduces cardiovascular events in obese patients with type 2 diabetes, and sodium-glucose transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors decrease cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetic patients with established CVD. However, the underlying mechanisms behind the cardioprotective effects of metformin and SGLT2 inhibitors are unknown. Methods: Fifteen patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes receiving metformin monotherapy, and seven patients with type 2 diabetes receiving SGLT2 inhibitors combined with other hypoglycemic agents were studied. We investigated changes in glycemic control, plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, and body composition, 3 and 6 months after starting metformin administration, and 3 months after starting SGLT2 inhibitor administration. Results: Plasma BNP levels significantly increased after 3 months in both metformin and SGLT2 inhibitors treatment groups (7.9 ± 7.9 pg/mL to 17 ± 16.9 pg/mL, P = 0.012; 8.8 ± 7.2 pg/mL to 15.5 ± 14.3 pg/mL, P = 0.018, respectively). Fat mass significantly decreased in the first 3 months of metformin administration (25.7 ± 10.3 kg to 23.0 ± 11.4 kg, P = 0.046), while fat mass and visceral fat area decreased in three patients receiving SGLT2 inhibitors. Conclusions: Plasma BNP levels increased because of fat mass loss caused by treatment with metformin and SGLT2 inhibitors. Our results suggest that metformin and SGLT2 inhibitors could reduce the risk of CVD by exerting cardioprotective effects through elevated BNP levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. J Endocrinol Metab. 2016;6(1):12-17 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jem333w


BACKGROUND
Women with recurrent ovarian cancer have a poor prognosis and short survival. However, some women are long-term survivors and it is unclear whether they share specific common characteristics.

CASE REPORT
We present the case of a 63-year-old woman with histologically-proven recurrent ovarian cancer and a survival time of 16 years after the diagnosis of recurrence. She underwent initial debulking surgery in 1994, followed by 6 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin and paclitaxel. After recurrent disease was diagnosed by re-laparotomy in 2000, she underwent four lines of systemic chemotherapy from 2000 to 2009 (carboplatin/paclitaxel, topotecan, etoposide/treosulfan and liposomal doxorubicin) and four lines of endocrine therapy between 2002 and 2014 (tamoxifen, goserelin, tamoxifen and exemestane). In 2014, she underwent secondary debulking surgery and was tumor-free until 2015. Upon progression, she was then started on the fifth-line of endocrine therapy, fulvestrant, which was changed to the mTOR inhibitor everolimus in June 2016. In a PUBMED literature search, 360 cases of long-term survivors of recurrent ovarian cancer (LTSROC), defined as women with survival >5 years after the diagnosis of recurrence, were identified with a mean post-recurrence survival time of 7.5 years. Comparing the patient and therapy details of these women, we identified common characteristics of LTSROC, i.e. young age and optimal debulking at initial surgery, a long time span between first-line therapy and first recurrence and the combined use of optimal cytoreductive surgery and systemic chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION
LTSROC are rare, with 360 cases described in the literature. LTSROC are characterized by young age, low tumor stage, long recurrence-free interval and combined modality treatment with optimal cytoreductive surgery and systemic chemotherapy.


Introduction Low vitamin D levels have been associated with asthma severity in children. Young, urban African Americans (AAs) have high rates of hypovitaminosis D and asthma. Our objective was to determine associations between variants in vitamin D metabolism genes and asthma characteristics in a pilot study of young urban AAs. Materials and Methods Two urban AA cohorts of subjects aged 6 to 20 years (139 subjects with asthma and 74 subjects without asthma) were genotyped for 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 3 vitamin D metabolism genes: VDR (vitamin D receptor), CYP24A1 (cytochrome P450 vitamin D 24-hydroxylase), and CYP2R1 (cytochrome P450 vitamin D 25-hydroxylase). In a case-control analysis, SNPs were studied for associations with an asthma diagnosis. Within the asthmatic cohort, SNPs were analyzed for associations with quantitative asthma characteristics. All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index percentile. Results Only the CYP2R1 SNP rs10766197 homozygous minor genotype was associated with asthma (P = 0.044). CYP24A1 SNP rs2248137 was associated with lower vitamin D levels (P = 0.006). Within the asthma cohort, multiple significant associations between SNPs and asthma characteristics were identified; VDR SNP rs2228570 was associated with the higher nighttime asthma morbidity scores (P = 0.04), lower baseline spirometric measures (P < 0.05), 1 or more positive aeroallergen skin test (P = 0.003), and increased immunoglobulin E levels (P < 0.001). Discussion This pilot study demonstrates that variants in vitamin D metabolism genes are associated with quantitative asthma characteristics in young, urban AAs. The collection of these associations provides evidence for the need for a large population-based study of vitamin D-relevant SNPs in this cohort.


Background: Cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) represents a key neuroimaging marker of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) that is associated with intracranial hemorrhages and cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, the association between cSS and core cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for dementia remain unclear. Methods: One hundred and one patients with probable (79%, 80/101) or possible (21%, 21/101) CAA according to the modified Boston criteria and mild cognitive impairment according to Petersen criteria were prospectively included between 2011 and 2016. CSF analyses of ß-amyloid 42, ß-amyloid 40, total tau and phosphorylated tau were performed using sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunosorbent-assay. All patients received MRI and Mini-Mental-State Examination (MMSE). Logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for possible confounders. Results: cSS was present in 61% (62/101). Of those, 53% (33/62) had disseminated cSS and 47% (29/62) focal cSS. ß-amyloid 42 was lower in patients with cSS than in patients without cSS (OR 0.2; 95% CI 0.08–0.6; p = 0.0052) and lower in patients with disseminated cSS than in those with focal cSS (OR 0.02; 95% CI 0.003–0.2; p = 0.00057). Presence of cSS had no association with regard to ß-amyloid 40, total tau and phosphorylated tau. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the presence and extent of cSS are associated with reduced CSF ß-amyloid 42 levels. Further studies are needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of this association.


ABSTRACTAs yet, very little is known about the PCDD/F fate and distribution in the woodchip-fuelled boilers. In this study, the feeding woodchips, stack flue gases and the ashes in different units of a woodchip-fuelled boiler are sampled to investigate their PCDD/F characteristics. The PCDD/F contents in the bottom residues and fly ashes ranged from 18.9 to 66.3 ng I-TEQ/kg, which are below the Taiwanese PCDD/F regulation for reutilization of bottom residues, but still higher than PCDD/F limitations on soils for agricultural use (10 ng I-TEQ/kg), which are adopted by several countries. From the PCDD/F output/input ratios, we found that combustion of woodchips in the boiler system is more favourable for the formations of PCDFs by de novo syntheses, especially for lower chlorinated PCDF congeners. Although about half of the input PCDD/Fs mass are destroyed in the combustion, the output PCDD/Fs toxicity are 6.9 times higher than the inputs. Fly ashes exhibited the highest PCDD/F distributions among the woodchip-fuelled boiler. Still 21.4% of total PCDD/F mass and 18.0% of total PCDD/F toxicity were emitted from the stack flue gases due to the lack of control devices for gaseous phase PCDD/Fs. Decreasing de novo syntheses among the boiler systems, deploying control devices for gaseous phase PCDD/Fs, and proper management on the reutilization of fly ashes will ensure woodchip-fuelled boilers as a sustainable and renewable biomass energy.


Block cipher is a major part of cipher algorithm like stream cipher and other techniques. Its power comes from dealing with plaintext as parts and operating on each block independently. Blowfish is a secret-key block cipher proposed by B. Shneier. It is a Feistel network, iterating a simple encryption function 16 times. The block size is 8-bytes and the key can be any length up to 56-bytes. In this paper, a Blowfish was improved to encrypt 16-bytes using a variable key length from 8-bytes up to 144-bytes. During the design of Improved Blowfish algorithm, the pragmatic aim was to satisfy as many goals as possible while keeping the cipher simple. Only by keeping a cipher simple one can achieve a well-understood level of security, good performance, and a versatility of design that makes the cipher highly adaptable to future demands. The improved algorithm reduced the memory requirement by using a single S-box instead of four S-boxes without compromising security. The security of improved Blowfish algorithm will be increased by several techniques where the block size and key length were increased, using more complex function before the first round and after the last round and using a complex function to avoid a symmetric to the output of S-box.


A Branch-directed Data Cache Prefetching Technique for Inorder Processors. (December 2011) Reena Panda, B.Tech, NIT Rourkela, India Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Paul V. Gratz Dr. Jiang Hu The increasing gap between processor and main memory speeds has become a serious bottleneck towards further improvement in system performance. Data prefetching techniques have been proposed to hide the performance impact of such long memory latencies, but most of the currently proposed data prefetchers predict future memory accesses based on current memory misses. This limits the opportunity that can be exploited to guide prefetching. In this thesis, I propose a branch-directed data prefetcher that uses the high prediction accuracies of current-generation branch predictors to predict a future basic block trace that the program will execute, and issues prefetches for all the identified memory instructions contained therein. I also propose a novel technique to generate prefetch addresses by exploiting the correlation between the addresses generated by memory instructions and the values of the corresponding source registers at prior branch instances. I evaluate the impact of the prefetcher by using a cycle-accurate simulation of an inorder processor on the M5 simulator. The results of the evaluation show that the branch-directed prefetcher improves the performance on a set of 18 SPEC CPU2006 benchmarks by an average of 38.789% over a no-prefetching implementation and 2.148% over a system that employs a Spatial Memory Streaming prefetcher.


A new oxide of the Ruddlesden–Popper series has been isolated and structurally characterized in the Eu–Sr–Co–Mn–O system. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy show that polycrystalline Eu2SrCo1.5Mn0.5O7 constitutes the n = 2 member of a homologous series, the essential feature of which is the existence of two connected Co/Mn octahedral layers, separated by Eu atoms. Electrochemical studies show that the area-specific resistance of this compound is 0.15 Ω cm2 at 700 °C in air, a performance which is comparable to that of the best state-of-the-art materials used as cathodes in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. Below 150 K the title material presents two different magnetic phenomena. The first one corresponds to the formation of ferromagnetic nanoclusters (TC ∼ 121 K) within an ordered Co2+/Mn4+ atomic configuration, whereas at lower temperature (∼21 K) a spin glass state occurs.


The mental illness Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterised by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions. The latter can occur as repetitive activities to ensure that severe fears do not come true. A diagnosis of the disease is usually very late due to a lack of knowledge and shame of the patient. Nevertheless, early detection can significantly increase the success of therapy.With the development of new wearable sensors, it is possible to recognise human activities. Accordingly, wearables can also be used to identify recurring activities that indicate an OCD. Through this form of an automatic detection system, a diagnosis can be made earlier and thus therapy can be started sooner.Since compulsive behaviour is very individual and varies from patient to patient, this paper deals with personalised federated machine learning models. We first adapt the publicly available OPPORTUNITY dataset to simulate OCD behaviour. Secondly, we evaluate two existing personalised federated learning algorithms against baseline approaches. Finally, we propose a hybrid approach that merges the two evaluated algorithms and reaches a mean area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.954 across clients.


Objectives: To test the hypothesis that a nocturnal decrease of secretion of inflammation markers and catecholamines would be associated with mood and stress variables even after controlling for objective sleep variables. Methods: A total of 130 healthy volunteers participated in this study, spending 2 nights in the Gillin Laboratory of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of California, San Diego, General Clinical Research Center. Blood samples were obtained before sleep (10:30 PM) and after awakening (6:30 AM) on the first day, and these samples were assayed for inflammatory biomarkers and catecholamines. On the second night, polysomnographic records were scored for objective sleep variables, e.g., total sleep time and wake after sleep onset. Self-rating scales for mood, stress, depression, and daily hassles were administered the second day. Results: The nocturnal decrease in interleukin-6 was smaller in people who reported more negative mood or fatigue and greater in those who reported more uplift events (e.g., with Profile of Mood States fatigue rp = −.25 to −.30). People with high stress or high depression levels had smaller nocturnal decreases of epinephrine. That relationship was even stronger when partial correlations were used to control for morning level and sleep variables. The associations between nocturnal changes of C-reactive protein, soluble tumor necrosis factor-receptor I, and norepinephrine with psychological states were nonremarkable. Conclusions: The analyses of nocturnal change scores (difference scores) add substantial information compared with the traditional analyses of morning levels of immune variables and catecholamines alone. Subjective well-being is significantly associated with a greater nocturnal decrease of interleukin-6 and epinephrine. More research on nocturnal adaptation processes is warranted. &Dgr; = delta, difference score; AHI = Apnea-Hypopnea Index; CRP = C-reactive protein; IL = interleukin; MFSI = Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory; POMS = Profile of Mood States; PSG = polysomnography; PSQI = Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSS-10 = Perceived Stress Scale; sTNF-RI = soluble tumor necrosis factor-receptor I; TNF = tumor necrosis factor; TST = total sleep time; WASO = wake after sleep onset.


Background Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent worldwide; its effect on bone is well known and understood, but the effect of this deficiency is still not clear. Objective This study examines vitamin D status in Egyptian hospitalized elderly male patients and its relation to body composition, muscle strength, and performance. Design This was a cross-sectional study. Participants and methods Data collected from a previous cross-sectional study, in which a systematic random sampling technique was used where every third patient (skip interval) was included in the study and vitamin D was measured only to a selected number of patient who meets inclusion criteria, were selected for inclusion in the study on the basis of the exclusion criteria, which may have affected the parameters measured. Complete assessment of history and physical examination were performed. Measurements Body composition was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis (Geratherm), hand grip was measured using a Jamar handheld dynamometer, performance was measured using the timed get up and go test, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Our study included 88 elderly men 60 years of age or older; the mean age of the participants studied was 64.74 ± 4.6 years, and 86.3% were married, 22.7% were physically active, and 15.9% were nonsmokers. The mean BMI was 26.4 ± 7.2 kg/m2 and the mean vitamin D level was 12.15 ng/ml. The prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was 19.3% and that of vitamin D deficiency was 79.5%. Vitamin D deficiency was not associated with age, occupation, marital status, smoking (type, duration, and quantity), hand grip, timed get up and go test, and parameters of body composition. Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is highly prevalent among elderly Egyptian men, and its impact on body composition, muscle function, and strength is not significantly noticeable.


In the past few years a relatively new concept of information coding in the brain has been proposed. It is assumed that the information exchanged between the brain regions is transmitted as a phase coded content in synchronized oscillatory activity. In our previous work this theory has been validated to some level, since we have proved that some information about the current action in the brain can successfully be decoded using phase demodulation approach, brain rhythm filtering and principal component analysis. However, the disadvantage of this approach is its non-causality, since it applies different non-causal methods of signal processing. This work, therefore, investigates whether it is possible to modify the existent methodology to allow the processing of the electroencephalographic (EEG) data in real-time. For this reason we measured EEG signals from four subjects performing a dynamic visuo-motor task and tried to extract the information about their efficiency in real-time. The information to be decoded were the wrist movements as applied by the subjects when following a given continuous curve with a joystick. The study revealed that the EEG data can be processed in real-time with certain modifications of the proposed methodology. In this manner, the whole signal processing and information decoding system can be classified as a brain-computer interface, which decodes the information carried by EEG signals and calculates the forthcoming wrist shift. Therefore, we can conclude that the proposed methodology which already proved to be efficient when decoding off-line EEG data from various visuo-motor tasks can (with some modifications) also be used to process the data on-line in real time.


Background: In animal studies, iron deficiency during pregnancy has been linked to increased offspring cardiovascular risk. No previous population studies have measured arterial stiffness early in life to examine its association with maternal iron status. Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between maternal iron status in early pregnancy with infant brachio-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV). Methods: The Baby VIP (Baby's Vascular Health and Iron in Pregnancy) study is a UK-based birth cohort which recruited 362 women after delivery from the Leeds Teaching Hospitals postnatal wards. Ferritin and transferrin receptor levels were measured in maternal serum samples previously obtained in the first trimester. Infant brachio-femoral PWV was measured during a home visit at 2-6 weeks. Results: Iron depletion (ferritin <15 μg/l) was detected in 79 (23%) women in early pregnancy. Infant PWV (mean = 6.7 m/s, SD = 1.3, n = 284) was neither associated with maternal ferritin (adjusted change per 10 μg/l = 0.02, 95% CI: -0.01, 0.1), nor with iron depletion (adjusted change = -0.2, 95% CI: -0.6, 0.2). No evidence of association was observed between maternal serum transferrin receptor level and its ratio to ferritin with infant PWV. Maternal anaemia (<11 g/dl) at ≤20 weeks' gestation was associated with a 1.0-m/s increase in infant PWV (adjusted 95% CI: 0.1, 1.9). Conclusion: This is the largest study to date which has assessed peripheral PWV as a measure of arterial stiffness in infants. There was no evidence of an association between markers of maternal iron status early in pregnancy and infant PWV.


Coumarins are the enormous type of 1-benzopyran derivatives, which have vast biological importance like antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-HIV, anti-oxidant, Anti-coagulant, Anti-tubercular, anti-psychotic and anti-malarial activities. Thiazoles are most intensively investigated classes of aromatic five-membered heterocycles with bacteriostatic, antibiotic, CNS regulants, high ceiling diuretics, anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertension and anti-HIV activities. Present work describes in-silico pharmacological evaluation of some new hybrid molecules of styrylcoumarin derived aminothiazoles. Since the coumarin and thiazole derivatives were proved with anticancer activity studies, an attempt was made to dock the hybrid molecular libraries of these compounds through in-silico docking techniques using the crystal structure of Protein tyrosine kinase (PDB ID: 2src) to recognize the hypothetical binding mode of the ligands with the receptor for their possible anticancer activity. The title compounds were docked by using Schrodinger Maestro 9.8 Glide 5.8 XP. Thiazole nucleus showed good interaction with Methionine 341 amino acid and forms strong hydrogen bond interaction with OH of molecules. Tyrosine 340 has good interaction with benzene in acetophenone portion. Among all the compounds, SCT 2, SCT 6 and SCT 10 showed good binding interactions with the target site.


The purpose of a resource allocation sub-model, within the IIASA National Health Care System (HCS) model, is to represent the interaction between the demand for and the supply of health care resources. The overall model can then be used to examine the consequences of alternative health care policies, particularly policies concerned with the production of new resources. The HCS resource allocation models in the literature can be classified into three types: macro-econometric, behavior simulation, and system optimization. For each type some examples are described and the strengths and weaknesses of the approach are assessed. The macro-econometric approach has many advantages; it is well-tried and has standard methods, terminology, and computer programs. But it has the important limitation that its results are only strictly valid over the ranges of the variables that exist in the data from which the econometric equations are estimated. Thus the domain of its valid application is normally limited to small variations around the status quo. By contrast, the behavior simulation approach lacks many of the advantages of the macro-econometric approach but is, in principle, capable of exploring a wider range of situations; provided that the behavioral hypotheses are sound, such a model can be used to explore situations which are radically different from the status quo and in which variables may lie outside the ranges observed to date. In theory the optimization approach produces the ideal solution but in practice, if applied to the HCS, the approach is likely to founder on the difficulty of defining an objective function that both expresses reasonable objectives for the HCS as a whole and, at the same time, takes adequate account of the practice of the actors in the HCS. Accordingly the behavior simulation approach is recommended for the IIASA Task.


The application of strain gauges as recommended by the ASTM standards provides accurate strain measurements in isotropic materials. However, their use in composite materials becomes more challenging due to their anisotropic nature. In this study, we hypothesized that the use of the distributed sensing system and the three-dimensional digital image correlation, which can average strain along a line and surface, respectively, may account for strain variability in composite materials. This study shows an investigation on the mechanical properties of unidirectional, cross-ply, and angle-ply carbon-epoxy specimens using strain gauges, distributed sensing system, and digital image correlation. The Bhattacharyya distance method was used to provide a preliminary evaluation of the closeness of the three different measurement techniques while the B-basis statistical method was used to analyze the experimental data in order to obtain a more conservative and reliable material parameter compared to the conventional averaged value, recommended by ASTM standards. Finally, a finite element model was created in Ansys Workbench™ as a means of evaluating the implication of a single point strain gauges measurement, versus a line or a surface strain measurement. The finite element analysis investigation was performed at a laminae level using the measured experimental elastic modulus and at a lamina–lamina level in which the elastic modulus of the unidirectional case was used as input in all the laminate configurations. The former analysis showed good agreement between the finite element analysis and all the strain measurement systems with an averaged percentage difference below 5%. The latter analysis showed a higher discrepancy in the measured percentage difference. A comparison between the finite element analysis and the strain gauges measurements showed an overall percentage difference between the range of 10% and 26%. Distributed sensing system and three-dimensional digital image correlation measurements provided an overall percentage difference below 10% for all the specimen configurations with a maximum percentage difference recorded for the longitudinal angle-ply case of approximately 9%.


Abstract This study tests the weak form of the efficient capital markets theorem in five transition economies in Southeast Europe between 2005 and 2016. A panel pooled mean group estimator is used to examine the relationship between macroeconomic indicators and the performance of stock market indexes. This is a suitable estimator for these young frontier markets, given that they have yet to develop the breadth and depth of an advanced market—such as ample liquidity and traders—to aggregate cross-country data and use level series prime data instead of differentials of the same. These frontier capital markets are found to be weak form inefficient, meaning that stock prices do not reflect available current public information. In other words, when a market is transparent and investor behavior is rational, the macroeconomic data should be included in the value of the stock indexes. The five countries may benefit from bringing their capital markets legislation in line with those of developed countries and by improving corporate governance and transparency. This would boost investor trust and liquidity. The coverage of this research can be extended to find more standardized data values and develop additional factors not captured by this model.


We report on a case of apparent germline mosaicism in a family of two sisters carrying a novel 19p13.13 deletion. The 11‐year‐old proposita was referred for evaluation of macrocephaly, moderate intellectual disability (ID), and episodic ataxia. Array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) detected a 399 kb microdeletion with breakpoints within genes NFIX and CACNA1A. A similar deletion was also seen in the elder sibling who presented with macrocephaly, ID, and strabismus. The deletions were confirmed to be de novo after the parental aCGH analysis suggesting that this is an example of germinal mosaicism. This study contributes additional information for the newly identified 19p13 deletion syndrome and clarifies the clinical roles of genes in the involved region. This case of apparent germline mosaicism represents the only known family in the cohort of 1,800 patients analyzed by our group. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The performance of supply chains used to be mainly the concern of academics and professionals who studied the potential efficiencies and risks associated with this aspect of globalisation. In 2021, major disruptions in this critical sector of our economies are making headlines and attracting the attention of policy makers around the world. Supply chain bottlenecks create shortages, fuel inflation, and undermine economic recovery. This report provides a transversal and multidisciplinary analysis of the challenges and opportunities regarding data interoperability and data sharing as they relate to the 'Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway Trade Corridor' (GLSLTC)'s intermodal transportation and trade data strategy. The size and scope of this trade corridor are only matched by the complexity of its multimodal freight transportation systems and growing urbanization on both sides of the Canada-US border. This complexity is exacerbated by the lack of data interoperability and effective collaborations between the different stakeholders within the various jurisdictions and amongst them. Our analytical work relies on : 1) A review of the relevant documentation on the latest challenges to supply chains (SC), intermodal freight transport and international trade, identifying any databases that are to be used.; 2) A comparative review of selected relevant initiatives to give insights into the best practices in digital supply chains implemented in Canada, the United States, and the European Union.; 3) Interviews and discussions with experts from Transport Canada, Statistics Canada, the Canadian Centre on Transportation Data (CCTD) and Global Affairs Canada, as well as with CIRANO's research community and four partner institutions to identify databases and data that they use in their research related to transportation and trade relevant data availabilities and methodologies as well as joint research opportunities. Its main findings can be summarized as follow: GLSLTC is characterized by its critical scale, complexity, and strategic impact as North America's most vital trade corridor in the foreseeable further intensification of continental trade. 4% of Canadian GDP is attributed to the Transportation and Logistics sector (2018): $1 trillion of goods moved every year: Goods and services imports are equivalent to 33% of Canada's GDP and goods and services exports equivalent to 32%. The transportation sector is a key contributor to the achievement of net-zero emissions commitment by 2050. All sectors of the Canadian economy are affected by global supply chain disruptions. Uncertainty and threats extend well beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic. "De-globalization" and increasing supply chains regionalization pressures are mounting. Innovation and thus economic performance—increasingly hinges on the quantity and quality of data. Data is transforming Canada's economy/society and is now at the center of global trade "Transport data is becoming less available: Canada needs to make data a priority for a national transportation strategy." * "How the Government of Canada collects, manages, and governs data—and how it accesses and shares data with other governments, sectors, and Canadians—must change."


The 60 000 described species of Cyclorrhapha are characterized by an unusual diversity in larval life‐history traits, which range from saprophagy over phytophagy to parasitism and predation. However, the direction of evolutionary change between the different modes remains unclear. Here, we use the Scathophagidae (Diptera) for reconstructing the direction of change in this relatively small family (≈ 250 spp.) whose larval habits mirror the diversity in natural history found in Cyclorrhapha. We subjected a molecular data set for 63 species (22 genera) and DNA sequences from seven genes (12S, 16S, Cytb, COI, 28S, Ef1‐alfa, Pol II) to an extensive sensitivity analysis and compare the performance of three different alignment strategies (manual, Clustal, POY). We find that the default Clustal alignment performs worst as judged by character incongruence, topological congruence and branch support. For this alignment, scoring indels as a fifth character state worsens character incongruence and topological congruence. However, manual alignment and direct optimization perform similarly well and yield near‐identical trees, although branch support is lower for the direct‐optimization trees. All three alignment techniques favor the upweighting of transversion. We furthermore confirm the independence of the concepts "node support" and "node stability" by documenting several cases of poorly supported nodes being very stable and cases of well supported nodes being unstable. We confirm the monophyly of the Scathophagidae, its two constituent subfamilies, and most genera. We demonstrate that phytophagy in the form of leaf mining is the ancestral larval feeding habit for Scathophagidae. From phytophagy, two shifts to saprophagy and one shift to predation has occurred while a second origin of predation is from a saprophagous ancestor.


BACKGROUND
Quantifying total running distance is valuable, as it comprises some aspects of the mechanical/neuromuscular, cardiovascular, and perceptual/psychological loads that contribute to training stress and is partially predictive of distance running success. However, running distance is only one aspect contributing to training stress.

CLINICAL QUESTIONS
The purpose of this commentary is to highlight: 1) problems with only using running distance to quantify running training and training stress; 2) the importance of alternative approaches to quantify and monitor training stress; 3) moderating factors (effect-measure modifiers) of training loads; and 4) the challenges of monitoring training stress to assess injury risks.

KEY RESULTS
Training stress is influenced by external (i.e., application of mechanical load) and internal (i.e., physiological/psychological effort) training load factors. In running, some commonly used external load factors include volume and pace, while physiological internal load factors include session ratings of perceived exertion, heart rate, or blood lactate level. Running distance alone might vastly obscure the cumulative training stress on different training days and, ultimately, misrepresent overall training stress. With emerging and novel wearable technology that quantify external load metrics beyond volume or pace, the future of training monitoring should have an ever-increasing emphasis on biomechanical external load metrics coupled with internal (i.e., physiological/psychological) load metrics.

CLINICAL APPLICATION
It may be difficult to change the running culture's obsession with weekly distance, but advanced and emerging methods to quantify running training discussed in this commentary will, with research confirmation, improve training monitoring and injury risk stratification. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, Epub 1 Aug 2020. doi:10.2519/jospt.2020.9533.


DEFINITION An evaluation metric is used to evaluate the effectiveness of information retrieval systems and to justify theoretical and/or pragmatical developments of these systems. It consists of a set of measures that follow a common underlying evaluation methodology. There are many metrics that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of semi-structured text retrieval systems. These metrics are based on different evaluation assumptions, incorporate different hypotheses of the expected user behaviour, and implement their own evaluation methodologies to handle the level of overlap among the units of retrieval.


Qualitative reasoning has attracted much interest from the artificial intelligence research community in the last decade. The emphasis in qualitative reasoning on making inferences about the behavior of physical systems where there is incomplete information makes the technology relevant to many real-world industrial problems. Many applications of qualitative reasoning technology have emerged for such tasks as diagnosis, design, tutoring, real-time monitoring and hazard identification. This article showcases some of these recent applications.


Sixty-seven metal-frame-supported autologous fascia lata mitral valves were placed in 67 patients. There was an operative mortality of 25% and an overall mortality of 40% within 20 months. Most of the late deaths were due to valve malfunction which occurred in 50% of survivors. Female patients demonstrated a much higher rate of valve dysfunction than did men. This mal-function of the fascial valves in the mitral position, which has not been observed in the aortic position, may be due to inappropriate design for the mitral position. The fascia is not exposed to the continued and reproducible mechanical stimulation in the atrioventricular position that it has when used as an aortic valve substitute. The mechanical properties of fascia may make it suitable for human valve substitutes but it is clear that an inverted three-cusped semilunar fascial valve will not be adequate for mitral or tricuspid valve replacements because of the haemodynamic characteristics of the atrioventricular position.


—New features are frequently proposed in many software libraries. These features include new methods, classes, packages, etc. These features are utilized in many open source and commercial software systems. Some of these features are adopted very quickly, while others take a long time to be adopted. Each feature takes much resource to develop, test, and document. Library developers and managers need to decide what feature to prioritize and what to develop next. As a first step to aid these stakeholders, we perform an exploratory study on the diffusion or rate of adoption of features in Java Development Kit (JDK) library. Our empirical study proposes such questions as how many new features are adopted by client applications; how long it takes for a new feature to spread to various software products; what features are diffused quickly; and what features are diffused widely. We perform an exploratory study with new features in Java Development Kit (JDK, from version 1.3 to 1.6) and provide empirical findings to answer the above research questions.


We study two methods to reduce cogging torque, both based on the analysis of the rotational symmetry in a brushless permanent-magnet motor. The first one seeks to lower the symmetry in the flux of a conventional motor with asymmetrical magnet distribution. The second one uses auxiliary slots to increase the frequency of the cogging. Analytical calculations have been made to predict the harmonic spectra of the models. Numerical calculations by the finite-element method were carried out. The results support the analytical conclusions. The frequency of the torque pulsation was increased, as predicted. We obtain a peak-to-peak cogging torque reduction of about 85% for each of the two methods. Dynamical calculations show no changes in the mean torque produced. The asymmetrical motor could introduce some ripple due to the EMF shifting.


The purpose of this study is to describe the psychology of Black males attending private, not-for-profit, colleges and universities in urban areas. Surveys were administered over three semesters to 886 Black male college students attending 28 national colleges/universities in various urban settings across the United States. The psychological domains examined in this study included academic and racial attitudes, expressive behaviors, mental and physical health, values/priorities, rap music listening habits, leadership, masculinity, and spirituality. Overall, the results reveal that Black males in these settings are mentally healthy, possess predominantly positive attitudes, and tend to engage in constructive and/or productive behaviors.


This article aims to illustrate the function of the Spleen in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the context of modern medicine. TCM has been practiced since ancient times in China for the prevention and/or treatment of diseases. Yet, the complete understanding of its theoretical basis in relation to clinical practice from the modern medicine perspective is still lacking. According to TCM theory, the Spleen, as one of the five Zang (i.e., visceral organs), plays an important role in various physiological functions, including digestion and absorption of nutrients, regulation of water retention and excretion, facilitation of blood perfusion to skeletal muscle and on the optimal functioning of the immune system. Clinical applications of herbal formulations for the treatment of Spleen dysfunction (i.e., Spleen deficiency—a decline in Spleen function) and their pharmacological activities are described. The view point of TCM on how emotions (or Qing Zhi) can influence the body function is introduced. The relationship between anxiety and Spleen function has been analyzed by reviewing relevant research studies in modern medicine. These findings suggest that the cause/consequence relationship between anxiety and Spleen function may be bi-directional.


In the classic algorithm, palmprint recognition requires extraction of palmprint features before classification and recognition, which will affect the recognition rate. To solve this problem, this paper uses the convolutional neural network (CNN) structure Alexnet to realize palmprint recognition. First, according to the characteristics of the geometric shape of palmprint, the ROI area of palmprint was cut out. Then the ROI area after processing is taken as input of convolutional neural network. Next the PRelu activation function is used to train the network to select the best learning rate and super parameters. Finally, the palmprint was classified and identified. The method was applied to PolyU Multi-Spectral Palmprint Image Database and PolyU 2D+3D Palmprint Database, and the recognition rate of a single spectrum was up to 99.99%.


We look at gender differences in competitiveness, risk preferences and altruism in a large sample of children and adolescents aged 7–16 in Armenia. Post-Soviet Armenia has few formal barriers to gender equality but is also characterized by a patrilineal kinship system and traditional gender roles. In contrast to research conducted in Western countries, we find that girls increase their performance more than boys in response to competition in a running task. We find no gender differences in the other three tasks we explore: skipping rope, a mathematical task, and a verbal task. We also find no difference in the willingness to compete in either the mathematical or the verbal task. In line with previous research, we find that boys are less altruistic and more risk taking than girls, and that the latter gap appears around the age of puberty.


Algae are abundant sources of bioactive components with extensive therapeutic properties, receiving much interest in recent years. The research on marine brown algae, namely one of its polysaccharide-fucoidan, has increased exponentially. Fucoidan is a sulfated cell-wall polysaccharide with several reported biological properties including anticancer, antivirus, anticoagulant, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, fucoidan was functionalized by grafting methacrylic groups in the chain backbone, photo-cross-linkable under visible light to obtain biodegradable structures for tissue engineering. The functionalization reaction was carried out by concentrations (8 and 12%) of methacrylic anhydride (MA). The modified fucoidan (MFu) was characterized by FTIR and 1HNMR spectroscopy to confirm the functionalization. Further, modified fucoidan was photo-cross-linked under visible light and using superhydrophobic surfaces, to obtain spherical particles with controlled geometries benefiting from the high repellence of the surfaces. When using higher concentrations of MA, the particles were observed to exhibit a smaller average diameter. Moreover, the behavior of L929 mouse fibroblast-like cells was evaluated when cultured in contact with photo-cross-linked particles was investigated, being observed up to 14 days in culture. The photo-cross-linking of MFu under visible light enables thus the formation of particles here suggested as potentially relevant in a wide range of biomedical applications.


Phosphorylated and ubiquitinated TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) pathology is the neurodegenerative hallmark of the vast majority of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and approximately half of all frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) cases. An RNA/DNA-binding protein with diverse roles in the nucleus, TDP-43 accumulates in the cytoplasm of affected neurons and glia in disease, indicating that both a loss of normal nuclear function and additional gain of toxicity due to increased cytoplasmic presence likely occur in these TDP-43 proteinopathies. Abundance and splicing of hundreds of transcripts are affected by dysfunction of TDP-43, making identification of the key pathways involved in disease pathogenesis a difficult task. However, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activation of the unfolded protein response have been described in sporadic ALS patient tissues as well as in cell and animals models of widely-studied superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) mutation-linked ALS. These responses to misfolded proteins have more recently been demonstrated in models of TDP-43linked disease, and modulation of ER stress, which is intimately associated with oxidative stress and formation of stress granules in cells, could therefore represent one avenue for potential amelioration of ALS and FTLD. This review summarizes recent findings describing the involvement of ER stress in TDP-43 proteinopathies.


Critical thinking skill has been a crucial issue in the context of higher education as the benchmark of qualified graduates. It is integrated in all aspects and involved in all of the courses as elaborated in the syllabus. Assessing the critical thinking becomes prominent to make sure that its quality is maintained. The real reflection of critical thinking can be traced through students' ability to express their thought in the form of arguments. Good arguments must be supported not only by convincing claims and careful choice of supporting details but also on the rhetorical pattern which is free from fallacious statements. Identifying the fallacious statement which include recognizing the fallacy varieties assures the quality of their critical thinking. This study investigates the fallacious statements in the argumentative writing of the students of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang who argue on global issues. The faulty reasoning is found in terms of the the discussion on the topics, the flawed relations with the audience, and the relations with the characters involved in the arguments.


Although the research of English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a relatively recent development, it has nevertheless rapidly become an acknowledged field of study that also causes considerable debate among linguists and English language teaching professionals. Over the past decade or so, ELF scholars have compiled several spoken corpora to explore the features of ELF and have described them from the perspective of pronunciation (Jenkins 2000, Walker 2010), pragmatics (Kaur 2011, Seidlhofer 2011, Walkinshaw & Kirkpatrick 2014) and lexicogrammar (Seidlhofer 2004, Dewey 2007b, Breiteneder 2009, Önen 2014). Jenkins (2007) and Seidlhofer (2011) have both elaborated on the topic of attitudes towards ELF and identity regarding ELF. The sociolinguistic aspects of ELF have also been explored in the Estonian context (Soler-Carbonell 2014, 2015), but the lexicogrammatical aspects have not. To fill that gap, a mini-corpus of spoken ELF was compiled for this thesis to see whether any of the lexicogrammatical features identified by previous ELF research occur with Estonian ELF speakers as well. Another aim of the thesis was to discuss the possible pedagogical implications of these findings. The Introduction of the thesis presents a brief overview of previous research into ELF, its relation to pedagogy, the aims of the thesis and why the thesis is of relevance. The first chapter provides a more detailed account of the development and relevance of ELF research along with how spoken corpora have been and are compiled and used to describe ELF. In addition to that, the points of contact between ELF and English language teaching and the need for reconciliation between the two paradigms are discussed together with a short summary of the criticism that has been directed at the concept of ELF. The second chapter provides a description of the compilation process of the spoken ELF mini-corpus, the participants involved and the transcription and annotation of the interviews that were recorded to compile the corpus. The corpus is analysed from the perspective of innovations in the use of articles, prepositions and collocations with verbs of high semantic generality. Comparisons are drawn with similar studies by other scholars. The thesis ends with a discussion on the underlying motives for the innovations found in the corpus and their pedagogical implications. The limitations and possibilities for further research are also outlined together with a summary of the findings of the study in light of the theoretical framework presented in the thesis.


Abstract. Electrical conductivity (salinity), temperature and fluorescence-based measurements of pH were employed to examine diel fluctuations in seawater carbonate chemistry of surface waters in Sydney Harbour over two multiple-day periods. The fluorescence-based technique provided a useful time-series for pH. Alkalinity with pH and temperature were used to calculate the degree of aragonite and calcite saturation (Ω Ca and Ω Ar respectively). Alkalinity was determined from an alkalinity-salinity relationship. Variation in pH over minute- to hour-long periods was distinguishable from background variability. Diel variability in pH, Ω ara and Ω cal showed a clear pattern that appeared to correlate with both salinity and temperature. Drift due to photodegradation of the fluorophore was minimised by reducing exposure to ambient light. Ω Ca and Ω Ar fluctuated approximately on a daily cycle. The net result of changes in pH, salinity and temperature combined to influence seawater carbonate chemistry. The fluorescence-based pH monitoring technique is simple, provides good resolution and is unaffected by moving parts or leaching of solutions over time. The use of optics is pressure insensitive, making this approach to ocean acidification monitoring well suited to deepwater applications.


We have studied bronchopulmonary lesions that developed in 3 allogeneic bone marrow recipients between days 120 and 250 post-transplant. Two cases had extensive chronic GVHD at the time of onset. All patients complained of low-grade fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath. The bronchopulmonary lesions were characterized by hypoxemia with increased AaDO2 and bilateral multiple noncircumscribed interstitial shadows on chest CT scan. Broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) showed elevated numbers of lymphocytes in BAL fluid in all cases. BAL fluid was negative for CMV, pneumocystis carinii cysts, bacteria and fungi in all cases. The results of transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) showed interstitial infiltration of lymphocytes in all 3 cases. The bronchopulmonary lesions were improved by either starting or increasing the dose of immunosuppressants. These findings and clinical courses suggest that the bronchopulmonary lesions in these patients were related to chronic GVHD.


Current systematic reviews are important for health care providers in supporting their evidence-based practice decisions. Equally important is the ability to determine when a new systematic review is needed in view of the rapid publication output. The current best evidence from a 2013 systematic review suggests that certain treatments may accelerate orthodontic tooth movement. Our aim was to determine if an updated systematic review is needed on this topic by applying the modified Ottawa method. A systematic search of Pubmed, Embase, CENTRAL, and Web of Science databases, identical to the previous systematic review, was executed. Two authors performed screening for inclusion/exclusion of studies and selected full-text articles were reviewed. Qualitative and quantitative criteria were applied to assess studies describing the following types of interventions to accelerate tooth movement: electrical, photobiomodulation, micro-osteoperforations, vibration, corticotomy, and low-level laser therapy. The Ottawa method showed that studies produced since 2011 have (1) potentially invalidating evidence and description of new methods and (2) combined new data that would enhance the precision of the existing evidence on low-level laser therapy. These collectively indicate the need for a new systematic review on adjunct procedures to accelerate orthodontic tooth movement, which may offer new evidence and techniques not previously mentioned.


Compliant mechanisms have been studied extensively as an alternative to traditional rigid body design with advantages like part number reduction, compliance, and multistable configurations. Most of the past research on compliant mechanisms has been restricted to the case where they are subject to holonomic constraints. In this paper, we develop a model of a planar compliant mechanism with nonholonomic constraints as a mobile robot that can move on the ground. The only actuation that is assumed is a torque on the system. It is shown that the dynamics of this system is similar to that of a well-known nonholonomic system, called the Chaplygin sleigh, but with an added degree-of-freedom and an additional quartic potential. The interaction of compliance and the nonholonomic constraint lead to multiple stable limit cycle oscillations in a reduced velocity space that correspond to oscillations about different stable physical configurations. These limit cycle oscillations produce motion of the compliant mechanism in the plane with differing characteristics. The modeling framework in this paper can form the basis for the design of underacted mobile compliant nonholonomic robots or mobile robots that incorporate compliant mechanisms as mechanical switches.


Abstract Data from a large-scale math intervention program were used to evaluate the degree to which implementation fidelity (IF) and interventionist content knowledge were associated with student outcomes. Data were available for 33 interventionists serving 658 students in Grades 4–6 across one school year. A series of multilevel models were fit to the data to evaluate the impact of procedural IF and interventionists' math content knowledge on students' postintervention achievement, controlling for preintervention achievement and intervention dosage. Higher student posttest scores were observed for interventionists with an average fidelity rating of 95% or greater (β = .15); however, no effects on students' math achievement scores were observed for interventionist content knowledge. Adding IF and a measure of interventionist content knowledge to the model explained a statistically significant amount of variance in growth estimates attributable to interventionists (15%). Results highlight the potential importance of ongoing evaluation and remediation of IF in the context of standardized supplemental intervention in math, while also providing some evidence that higher levels of content knowledge may not translate into greater impact in a standard-protocol intervention setting. Results suggest a need for more research examining characteristics of interventionists and aspects of implementation that may account for variance in student outcomes.


We present a method for learning capture points for humanoid push recovery. A capture point is a point on the ground to which the biped can step and stop without requiring another step. Being able to predict the location of such points is very useful for recovery from significant disturbances, such as after being pushed. While dynamic models can be used to compute capture points, model assumptions and modeling errors can lead to stepping in the wrong place, which can result in large velocity errors after stepping.We present a method for computing capture points by learning offsets to the capture points predicted by the linear inverted pendulum model, which assumes a point mass biped with constant center of Mass height. We validate our method on a three dimensional humanoid robot simulation with 12 actuated lower body degrees of freedom, distributed mass, and articulated limbs. Using our learning approach, robustness to pushes is significantly improved as compared to using the linear inverted pendulum model without learning.


Management of residual or recurrent disease following thermal ablation of renal cortical tumors includes surveillance, repeat ablation, or surgical extirpation. We present a multicenter experience with regard to the management of this clinical scenario. Prospectively maintained databases were reviewed to identify 1265 patients who underwent cryoablation (CA) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for enhancing renal masses. Disease persistence or recurrence was classified into one of the three categories: (i) residual disease in ablation zone; (ii) recurrence in the ipsilateral renal unit; and (iii) metastatic/extra-renal disease. Seventy seven patients (6.1%) had radiographic evidence of disease persistence or recurrence at a median interval of 13.7 months (range, 1–65 months) post-ablation. Distribution of disease included 47 patients with residual disease in ablation zone, 29 with ipsilateral renal unit recurrences (all in ablation zone), and one with metastatic disease. Fourteen patients (18%) elected for surveillance, and the remaining underwent salvage ablation (n = 50), partial nephrectomy (n = 5), or radical nephrectomy (n = 8). Salvage ablation was successful in 38/50 (76%) patients, with 12 failures managed by observation (3), tertiary ablation (6), and radical nephrectomy (3). At a median follow-up of 28 months, the actuarial cancer-specific survival and overall survival in this select cohort of patients was 94.8 and 89.6%, respectively.


This paper reports on measurements of the resistive transition in polycrystalline (formule) samples (x=0.000. 0.025 and 0.050). The samples were produced by a standard solid state reaction method and in two different thermal routes. The microstructure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The samples were considered homogeneous since no extra peaks due to impurity phase were observed. To identify power-law divergences in conductivity, the results were analyzed in terms of the temperature derivative of the resistivity and the logarithmic temperature derivative of the conductivity (formule). From the results, the occurrence of a two-stage transition besides the pairing transition splitting for sample with x=0.050 was observed. Such splitting was associated with Ce doping and related with the occurrence of a phase separation. In the normal phase, Gaussian and critical fluctuations conductivity regimes were identifies. On approaching the zero resistance state, our results showed a power-law behavior that corresponds to a phase transition from a paracoherent to a coherent state of the granular array.


The main goal of this study was to investigate the genetic basis of yield and grain quality traits in winter wheat genotypes using association mapping approach, and identify linked molecular markers for marker assisted selection. A total of 120 elite facultative/winter wheat genotypes were evaluated for yield, quality and other agronomic traits under rain-fed and irrigated conditions for two years (2011–2012) at the Tel Hadya station of ICARDA, Syria. The same genotypes were genotyped using 3,051 Diversity Array Technologies (DArT) markers, of which 1,586 were of known chromosome positions. The grain yield performance of the genotypes was highly significant both in rain-fed and irrigated sites. Average yield of the genotypes ranged from 2295 to 4038 kg/ha and 4268 to 7102 kg/ha under rain-fed and irrigated conditions, respectively. Protein content and alveograph strength (W) ranged from 13.6–16.1% and 217.6–375 Jx10-4, respectively. DArT markers wPt731910 (3B), wPt4680 (4A), wPt3509 (5A), wPt8183 (6B), and wPt0298 (2D) were significantly associated with yield under rain-fed conditions. Under irrigated condition, tPt4125 on chromosome 2B was significantly associated with yield explaining about 13% of the variation. Markers wPt2607 and wPt1482 on 5B were highly associated with protein content and alveograph strength explaining 16 and 14% of the variations, respectively. The elite genotypes have been distributed to many countries using ICARDA's International system for potential direct release and/or use as parents after local adaptation trials by the NARSs of respective countries. The QTLs identified in this study are recommended to be used for marker assisted selection after through validation using bi-parental populations.


Fractional order systems, which involve integration and differentiation of non integer order, are increasingly being used in the fields of control systems, robotics, signal processing and circuit theory. Traditionally, the analysis of fractional order systems has been performed using paper-and-pencil based proofs or computer algebra systems. These analysis techniques compromise the accuracy of their results and thus are not recommended to be used for safety-critical fractional order systems. To overcome this limitation, we propose to leverage upon the high expressiveness of higher-order logic to formalize the theory of fractional calculus, which is the foremost mathematical concept in analyzing fractional order systems. This paper provides a higher-order-logic formalization of fractional calculus based on the Riemann-Liouville approach using the HOL theorem prover. To demonstrate the usefulness of the reported formalization, we utilize it to formally analyze some fractional order systems, namely, a fractional electrical component Resistoductance, a fractional integrator and a fractional differentiator circuit.


In this paper, temperature data collected by thermocouples embedded into concrete over a period of 10 years are analyzed for a concrete slab and beam located outdoors near Kingston, Ontario. Temperatures measured in the concrete are compared with temperatures encountered in ASTM C 666 Resistance of Concrete to Rapid Freezing and Thawing and ASTM C 1293 Standard Test Method for Concrete Aggregates by Determination of Length Change of Concrete Due to Alkali-Silica Reaction. The average number of freezing and thawing cycles at the site was counted using different freezing and thawing temperature criteria as presented in the literature by various authors. Results are compared with data from a second site. The rates of freezing and thawing occurring at the outdoor exposure site were found to be significantly less than specified in the ASTM C 666 laboratory test. Average daily maximum temperatures in July were at approximately 33°C at depths of 50 mm in the concrete.


Mutations in NMNAT1 can lead to a very severe type of retinal dystrophy, Leber congenital amaurosis, in human patients, characterized by infantile-onset or congenital retinal dystrophy and childhood blindness. The loss-of-function mouse models of Nmnat1 have not been well-established, since the complete knock-out (KO) of Nmnat1 in mice results in embryonic lethality. Here, we generated retina-specific KO by using the Crxpromotor-driving Cre combined with the flox allele. By a panel of histological and functional analyses, we found that Nmnat1 conditional KO (cKO) mice have early severe retinal dystrophy. Specifically, the photoreceptors of Nmnat1 cKO mice are almost diminished and the retinal functions also become completely abolished. Our results established a loss-of-function model for Nmnat1 in mice, which will be useful for studying the detailed functions of NMNAT1 in the retina.


Global competition indicated by the emerging of much competitors operate in the world market and the emerging of the competitors in other countries caused business environment becomes dynamic and tightly competition. Pursuing competitive advantage becomes the key factor on winning the competition on such environment through managing the activities of human resources based on strategic perspective. Based on this perspective, the strategy of human resource must relevance with the business strategy. Typology of human resource management strategy is an alternative approach for formulation that strategy. Identifing the needed role behavior of competitive strategy becoming the important factor on effectiveness of competitive strategy implementation. Key words: Global Competition, Typology of Strategy Of HRM, Competitive Strategy


Until the past few years, language characteristics of students receiving services for mild/moderate behavior disorders (BD) have been neglected for research on the language of the more severely disturbed population. However, recent investigations of the language characteristics of mild/moderately BD students have produced sufficient evidence to warrant further study. The purpose of the present study was to examine the language skills (i.e., morphology, syntax, and semantics) of a group of 30 mild/moderately BD students served in public school, resource classrooms. Overall results from the Test of Language Development-Intermediate (TOLD-I) (Hammill & Newcomer, 1982), the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language-Revised (TACL-R) (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1985), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) (Dunn & Dunn, 1982), and the Expressive One Word Vocabulary Test (EOWVT) (Gardner, 1979) revealed that the BD students fell a minimum of one standard deviation below the normative mean on all but one (i.e., Word Classes and Relations subtest of the TACL-R) of the measures. Further within subject analyses indicated the students were having difficulty with both receptive and expressive language. These findings substantiate the fact that mild/moderate BD students should be considered at risk for language disorders.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the inability to initiate, execute and control movement. Neuropathologically, there is a striking loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, accompanied by depletion of dopamine in the striatum. Most forms of PD are sporadic, though in some cases familial inheritance is observed. In the late 1990s, two mutations in the alpha-synuclein gene were linked to rare, autosomal dominant forms of PD. Previously cloned from cholinergic vesicles of the Torpedo electric ray, alpha-synuclein is highly enriched in presynaptic nerve terminals and appears to be involved in synapse maintenance and plasticity. It is expressed ubiquitously in the brain, raising the important question of why dopaminergic neurons are primarily targeted in persons carrying mutations in alpha-synuclein. In this article, we review the current literature on alpha-synuclein and suggest a possible role for this protein in vesicle recycling via its regulation of phospholipase D2, its fatty acid-binding properties, or both. Exogenous application of dopamine, as well as redistribution of vesicular dopamine to the cytoplasm, can be toxic to dopaminergic neurons. Thus, impaired neurotransmitter storage arising from mutations in alpha-synuclein could lead to cytoplasmic accumulation of dopamine. The breakdown of this labile neurotransmitter in the cytoplasm could, in turn, promote oxidative stress and metabolic dysfunction, both of which have been observed in nigral tissue from PD patients.


Recent advances in large-scale pre-training such as GPT-3 allow seemingly high quality text to be generated from a given prompt. However, such generation systems often suffer from problems of hallucinated facts, and are not inherently designed to incorporate useful external information. Grounded generation models appear to offer remedies, but their training typically relies on rarely-available parallel data where information-relevant documents are provided for context. We propose a framework that alleviates this data constraint by jointly training a grounded generator and document retriever on the language model signal. The model learns to reward retrieval of the documents with the highest utility in generation, and attentively combines them using a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) ensemble to generate follow-on text. We demonstrate that both generator and retriever can take advantage of this joint training and work synergistically to produce more informative and relevant text in both prose and dialogue generation.


ABSTRACT. The effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on the morbidity and mortality of the child up to the age of five was studied in 12068 births. The children of the smokers were compared with those of controls of similar age, parity, marital status and place of residence. Perinatal mortality was no higher among the smokers, but postneonatal mortality from 28 days to 5 years was almost significantly (p<0.05) higher. The children of the smokers were highly significantly (p<0.001) more often hospitalized in pediatric departments, the difference being clearest below the age of one. The average duration of hospital admissions was longer among the children of the smokers, and similarly the numbers of visits to the doctor and hospital admissions to any hospital under the age of one were more frequent among the children of the smokers. Respiratory diseases caused highly significantly more hospitalizations among these children.


Background & Aims : Although vision loss is a very common and serious complication in cerebral stroke patients, there appears to be a mismatch in the number of studies establishing the potential of noninvasive brain stimulation modalities for post stroke vision loss compared to other complications of cerebrovascular accidents. This review aims to describe the current literature on noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques in post cerebral stroke vision loss and suggests future considerations in this field. Methods : Three independent reviewers conducted a systematic search in PUBMED database. We included all publications covering vision-loss after cerebral stroke (case reports, RCT, pilot studies). This search yielded six relevant papers that met our criteria. Results : We found two case reports (1 tDCS, 1 TMS), one comparative case study (tDCS), and three randomized, controlled clinical pilot studies (all tDCS). No study applying tACS on stroke related vision loss fit our criteria. Our review shows that very few studies so far investigated non-invasive brain stimulation techniques as a treatment option in cerebral stroke related vision loss. The case reports as well as the small pilot studies;however, suggest a beneficial effect of applying tDCS over the primary visual cortex in addition to vision restoration training (VRT) in regaining parts of the visual field and accelerating the recovery time. These results are comparable and consistent with findings on stroke related motor and speech rehabilitation with the application of different NIBS protocols. A case report on repetitive TMS (1Hz) showed its potential use in down-regulation of visual cortical areas to cease visual hallucinations as a concomitant in visual field loss, also known as Charles-Bonnet-Syndrome. Conclusion : Although studies are scarce and data are limited, we have found some evidence that NIBS-techniques have positive effects on the rehabilitation of visual field loss post cerebral stroke. More studies are needed to investigate mechanisms of action and proof of efficacy.


The reduction of tetrazolium XTT with the Maillard reaction system containing various sugars or aldehydes and glycine was monitored and compared with the conventional indices of the Maillard reaction such as nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) and dichlorophenolindophenol (DPI) reducibility, free hydroxymethylfurfural and browning. The change in XTT reducibility against the monosaccharide-glycine system showed a similar behavior as that of NBT and DPI reducibility, indicating that the Alnadori product and reductones formed in the Maillard reaction may be involved in the reduction of XTT. In contrast, the XTT reducibility against the disaccharide-gl•ycine system consisting of lactose, Iactulose or cellobiose showed a different behavior from those indices. In the system, the reduction of XTT was caused by the substances which have a low reducibility of NBT. Such a property was recognized in some model systems, including the condensation reaction of D-glucosamine, that can form nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds such as pyrazinium and pyridinium. The condensation product of D-glucosamine rapidly lost the XTT reducibility with the addition of Cu2+. The phenomenon was also observed in the UHT-treated milk, and the decrease in the XTT reducibility during the storage was suggested to be due to the presence of Cu2+ in milk.


Cybersecurity threats have surged in the past decades. Experts agree that conventional security measures will soon not be enough to stop the propagation of more sophisticated and harmful cyberattacks. Recently, there has been a growing interest in mastering the complexity of cybersecurity by adopting methods borrowed from Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to support automation. In this paper, we provide a brief survey and some hints about Bayesian Network applications to intelligent cybersecurity in order to enable quantitative threat assessment for superior risk analysis and situation awareness.


Introduction: The purpose of this study is to examine self-awareness of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) regarding forgetfulness and physical status, with the goal of further psychological understanding of these patients. Methods: The 255 subjects included 33 healthy volunteers and 48 patients with mild cognitive impairment who were elderly community residents selected from the 2017 Wakuya Project and 174 consecutive outpatients with AD at the Tajiri Clinic. Test data were selected from a pooled database. Results from the Mini-Mental State Examination, Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Short Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES), and Everyday Memory Checklist (EMC) were used in the study. FES and EMC data were also obtained from family members for comparison. Results: EMC scores in the AD groups (mild to moderate and moderate to severe) were significantly higher (more complaining memory impairment) than those in the CDR 0 (healthy) group and significantly lower (less self-awareness for memory impairment) than the corresponding EMC scores of families of the subjects. In contrast, FES scores of the AD groups did not differ significantly from those of the CDR 0 group, and these scores were higher (more fear of falling) than those of family members. Additionally, family-FES scores of the AD groups were higher than those of the CDR 0 and 0.5 groups. Conclusion: The results showed an evidence of the heterogeneity of awareness, an emotional response (concern or fear, FES), and a cognitive appraisal of function (EMC). These may be explained whereby awareness of/fear of falling increases with AD due to a preserved emotional awareness, whereas awareness of cognitive impairment is impaired due to memory deficits.


ABSTRACT Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian Revolution's two most important leaders, have long been considered each others' foils. Whereas Dessalines has been subjected to vicious, racist caricature, Toussaint has tended to elicit more sympathetic portrayals. This paper examines a rare, recently rediscovered exception to this dichotomy. Stephen Farley and Avery Williams, two Dartmouth College seniors, co-wrote and performed a short play in August 1804 that offers a nuanced understanding of Dessalines. Farley and Williams's play-script thus affords insight into the impact of Haitian independence on representational forms in the United States in the early nineteenth century.


1Faculty of Physical Education, Japan Women's College of Physical Education, Tokyo, Japan; 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Tokyo Ariake University of Medical and Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan Introduction: The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to investigate the prevalence and burden of "any physical complaint" in college female basketball athletes using a daily questionnaire. Methods: Fifty-four female college basketball players were recruited and followed up for 135 days using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre questionnaire. Results: The questionnaire response rate was 96.4% (95% confidence interval: 95.7–97.1). The average daily prevalence of any problem was 44.4%, whereas that of substantial problems was 16.0%. The anatomical areas found to be most frequently affected by physical problems were the ankle (average daily prevalence: 14.5%, 95% confidence interval: 13.4–15.7), lower back (14.4%, 95% confidence interval: 13.7–15.2), and knee (9.6%, 95% confidence interval: 9.0–10.2). The cumulative severity score, calculated by summing severity scores and dividing by number of respondents, showed that ankle, knee, and lower back problems exhibited greater relative burden. Discussion: Injuries common in basketball athletes, such as ankle sprain, anterior cruciate ligament injury, overuse knee pain, and low-back pain, are reflected in the present data.


Previous Richtmyer–Meshkov instability experiments carried out in shock tubes have been hampered by the need to separate the two gases with a thin plastic membrane. As a result, many of these experiments have had poor agreement with the linear stability theory of Richtmyer [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 23, 297 (1960)]. This limitation has been removed in the present investigation by the use of a novel technique in which the interface is formed by flowing light (N2) and heavy (SF6) gases from opposite ends of a vertical shock tube. Both gases exit the shock tube through slots in the test section walls leaving behind a flat motionless interface which is then given a sinusoidal initial shape by gently oscillating the shock tube at a prescribed frequency in the horizontal direction. A weak shock wave (Ms=1.10), generated in the shock tube, impacts the interface and produces the instability. Photographs of the interface, which is visualized by seeding the heavy gas with a water droplet fog and illuminating it with...


Positively addressing and resolving staff grievances within a school is imperative for effective schooling and leadership. Often overlooked in Grievance Procedures is a behaviour that is creating significant concerns, but when recognised it is often associated with and mistaken for bullying. This concept, and associated behaviours (e.g. patterns of multiple unrelated negative interactions with others) belongs to the ogre. Ogre behaviours are not well understood because the focus in recent years has been on bullying research that is overt in its nature, rather than ogre research that is systematically covert, and may include deeper psychopathological underpinnings. This leaves a significant research gap that fails to address the relationship between the desire for power/authority in the workplace, ogre behaviours, and data on the extent to which negative interactions by ogres may be influenced by personality. Furthermore, a gap also exists that clarifies how individual perceptions may contribute to ogre behaviours, and explain how Grievance Procedures may contribute to the reinforcement of ogre behaviours.
Content and Leximancer Analysis are two useful methodological tools which, when used in tandem, can specifically assist in addressing these gaps by increasing our understanding of the process/es undertaken to positively resolve ogre initiated grievance in terms of procedures, roles of individuals and outcomes in line with policy. Content and Leximancer Analysis were used to review formal procedures and archival files between the periods of 1973 until 1987 from a secondary school secure repository in Tasmania. Content Analysis was used to capture broad themes (i.e., concern relating to industrial/wage entitlements, behaviour/action of an individual, and negative interactions between 2 or more people), essences, and concepts common in archived formal grievance files; this led to identifying incidents in terms of their nature and severity. Leximancer Analysis was used to look at key ideas, concepts, and common words mandated by organisational human resource policy; this assisted in assessing whether appropriate procedures and processes were followed leading up to positive resolution of ogre initiated grievances.
Content Analysis revealed that disputes regarding behaviours (e.g., harassment) appeared to have been resolved within five working days and, required no further action from school leadership. However, Leximancer Analysis identified that the Grievance Procedure in this school had a focus on producing measurable outcomes (e.g., reducing the harassment) rather than solutions (e.g., restoring an effective working relationship after harassment has ceased). Content Analysis allowed for a multi-layered consideration as it assisted in unpacking the grievance in terms of behaviour, and Leximancer Analysis provided a clear link in identifying how outcomes were achieved in line with policy and whether they resulted in positively resolving the grievance. Content Analysis in this research is guided by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), and consequentially strengthened by enhancing the validity and reliability of the analysis.
Even though this research did not unanimously indicate that there is an ability to identify ogres in the workplace within retrospective archival research, it did outline the importance of considering each concern on its merit and type, rather than expecting that the same reaction to concerns will provide solutions. Consequently, a risk framework has been developed to support the early identification of ogres in the workplace with two further recommendations from this research presented in the final chapter. The first of these recommendation is to develop a global definition of ogre behaviour, and secondly, to use solution focussed policy and procedure mechanisms in the form of a risk management tool.