The authors examined whether Group Health's Access Initiative changed the utilization and costs of care among enrollees with diabetes. Using a single (one-group) interrupted time series design, repeated-measures generalized estimating equation models were used to estimate changes in utilization and costs during the Initiative rollout (2002-2003) and to compare the slopes (annual rates of change) for utilization and costs during the Pre-Initiative period (1998-2002) to the slopes during Full-Implementation (2003-2006) among 9,871 members continuously enrolled from 1997 to 2006 with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Total costs increased in Full-Implementation, but the annual change in total costs did not change. Primary care visits declined, but primary care contacts grew, largely from the Initiative's introduction of secure messaging. Specialty visits did not change; however, the Initiative may have increased emergency visits. To reduce emergency visits, future access initiatives should include proactive and comprehensive outpatient care for patients with diabetes.


The effect of puromycin on absorption balance and mucosal lipid distribution was studied during intestinal absorption of 14C oleic acid and 3H palmitic acid, using the isolated intestinal loop of male and female rats in situ. In puromycin-treated animals, mucosal lipid uptake was reduced and mucosal lipid content increased, particularly with oleic acid and in male rats. The phospholipids were significantly reduced. As revealed by mucosal accumulation of free fatty acids, esterification was particularly inhibited with oleic acid and in female rats. These results might explain why portal blood radioactivity was higher in treated rats than in the controls. Puromycin effect occurred at different stages of lipid absorption and varied with sex.


Recently, the sub-micron structured substrates of 0.74 μm track pitch and 800 Å groove depth are required for DVD-RAM, and the track pitch is expected to be narrower as the storage density for optical disk is getting higher. For the accurate replication of the land-groove structure in the stamper to the plastic substrates, it is important to control the injection-compression molding process such that the integrity of the replication for the land-groove structure is maximized. However, the determination of the processing conditions has been relied on experience or trial-and-error. In the present study, polycarbonate substrates were fabricated by injection compression molding and the land-groove structure regarded as one of the most important geometrical properties for DVD-RAM substrates was measured. The effects of the mold temperature and the compression pressure on the integrity of the replication were examined experimentally. An efficient design methodology using the response surface method (RSM) and the central composite design (CCD) technique was developed to obtain the optimum processing conditions which maximize the integrity of the replication with a limited number of experiments. The model used in this study was verified using the analysis-of-variance (ANOVA), and it was found to be adequate within the confidence limit.


Contact allergens produce three types of reactions. The commonest reaction is allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). The commonest contactants in Singapore causing ACD are, in decreasing order of importance, nickel, fragrances, neomycin, lanolin, colophony, flavine, rubber chemicals, paraphenylenediamine, clioquinol and chromates. Another type of allergic contact reaction is immunologic contact urticaria (ICU). ICU is an IgE mediated mechanisms. Contact allergens causing ICU in Singapore are proteinaceous foodstuffs and rubber latex products. Photoallergic contact dermatitis is occasionally seen in Singapore. The commonest agent is Musk Ambrette, a perfume fixature found in male colognes.


The increased risk of stalking faced by mental health professionals (MHPs) raises many important questions for practitioners. For instance, what factors place MHPs at greater risk of being stalked, and what perceptions do MHPs have about stalking? The present study investigates these and other understudied questions pertaining to stalking and stalking-related behavior perpetrated toward MHPs in the context of their work, by surveying a sample of 346 registered clinical counselors in British Columbia, Canada. Results indicated that many respondents had experienced individual stalking-related behaviors, and 7% (n = 23) had been stalked by a client. Work-related stalking and stalking-related behavior was perpetrated by clients, coworkers, and the acquaintances of clients. Respondents treating clients for forensic, substance abuse, and sexuality issues as well as for sexual abuse were at greater risk of being victimized. However, respondents treating clients out of their residence were not at greater risk. Less than half (47%) of respondents were aware of their heightened risk of being stalked, and many (50%) endorsed the view that poor clinical skill can increase stalking victimization. The majority of respondents reported that they would call police or terminate therapy in the event that they were being stalked by a client and three-quarters wanted to receive training on stalking. Findings suggest the need and desire for training that raises the awareness and abilities of MHPs to manage stalking behavior, but that also challenges unfounded and potentially harmful beliefs that some MHPs hold about their victimized colleagues.


Protein transport through the secretory pathway is an essential process for all living organisms. While studies over the last three decades have enormously increased our understanding of this event, many of the components involved in the process of protein secretion have yet to be identified, and we are still lacking mechanistic insight into many steps of the secretory pathway. The main objective of this work is to identify new components involved in the secretory pathway. This will be achieved through the establishment of a functional genomics screen in drosophila cells and successive characterization of candidate genes as well as through a pharmacological approach in mammalian cells. Chapter I will describe the functional genomics approach that led to the identification of new components of the secretory pathway. Genome wide RNA interference (RNAi) knockdown was performed on Drosophila cell line stably expressing a secreted form of horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In this cell line, the systematic depletion of the product (mRNA) of genes involved in secretion results in a defect in the release of HRP into the medium. The amount of HRP measured by chemiluminescence provides an indication of the level of secretion upon the loss of a certain gene product. This functional genomics screen approach has led to the identification of approximately 100 genes. The initial characterization of one of these genes is reported. The following chapters will describe the pharmacological approach, which relies on the use of a natural product (norrisolide), a compound able to cause Golgi complex fragmentation and to block secretion in mammalian cells (Brady et al., 2004; Guizzunti et al., 2006; Guizzunti et al., 2007). In chapter II it is introduced norrisolide, a natural product able to induce irreversible fragmentation of the Golgi complex. The Golgi apparatus, a central organelle of the secretory pathway is a dynamic structure whose organization is maintained by a balance of membrane input and output. The fragmentation of the Golgi complex by norrisolide provides a mean to identify the mechanisms by which Golgi organization is maintained and regulated. Norrisolide activity is analyzed through the use of norrisolide-derived probes. We will show how norrisolide's core is necessary and sufficient to induce Golgi fragmentation. A fluorescent analogue of norrisolide will be used to visualize the intracellular localization of norrisolide's target. Chapter III shows the design of trifunctional probes based on norrisolide's structure that can be used to identify norrisolide's target. These probes are designed to contain norrisolide's core, a crosslinking agent and a tag. Different crosslinkers and tags are discussed


BACKGROUND
 Globally, the rapid growth of technology and its use as a development solution has generated much interest in digital health. In line with global trends, Bangladesh is also integrating technology into its health system to address disparities. Strong political endorsement and uptake of digital platforms by the government has influenced the rapid proliferation of such initiatives in the country. This paper aims to examine the implications of digital health on access to health care in Bangladesh, considering who uses electronic devices to access health information and services and why.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aims to understand how access to health care and related information through electronic means (digital health) is affected by sociodemographic determinants (ie, age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, and personal and household ownership of mobile phones) in a semiurban community in Bangladesh.

 METHODS
 A cross-sectional survey of 854 households (between October 2013 and February 2014) and 20 focus group discussions (between February 2017 and March 2017) were conducted to understand (1) who owns electronic devices; (2) who, among the owners, uses these to access health information and services and why; (3) the awareness of electronic sources of health information; and (4) the role of intermediaries (family members or peers who helped to look for health information using electronic devices).

 RESULTS
 A total of 90.3% (771/854) of households (471/854, 55.2% of respondents) owned electronic devices, mostly mobile phones. Among these, 7.2% (34/471) used them to access health information or services. Middle-aged (35-54 years), female, less (or not) educated, and poorer people used these devices the least (α=.05, α is the level of significance). The lack of awareness, discomfort, differences with regular care-seeking habits, lack of understanding and skills, and proximity to a health facility were the main reasons for not using devices to access digital health.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Although influenced by sociodemographic traits, access to digital health is not merely related to device ownership and technical skill. Rather, it is a combination of general health literacy, phone ownership, material resources, and technical skill as well as social recognition of health needs and inequity. This study's findings should serve as a basis for better integrating technology within the health system and ensuring equitable access to health care.


It is widely accepted that innovation is strongly connected to the growth and competitiveness of an organization (Cormican and O'Sullivan 2004; Aiman-Smith et al. 2005), meanwhile both practitioners and academia have expressed a lack of access to a good instrument for evaluating the performance of the same (Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994; Muller et al. 2005). Within this field, a number of authors have identified auditing as being appropriate method to use (Chiesa et al. 1996; Radnor and Noke 2002; Cormican and O'Sullivan 2004), although large deficiencies and constraints are identified regarding the usefulness and the usability of the existing innovation audit tools. This study is made in collaboration with ÅF AB, a leading Swedish technical consulting firm, which has expressed an interest for a tool for evaluating the innovation performance of its high-tech product development customers aimed for usage within the sales organization. Therefore, the purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the aspects of usefulness and usability in innovation auditing by developing an audit tool that identifies unrealized innovation potential in a product company's innovation process. The tool should consider both the factor of usefulness (to make the tool situation customized) and the factor of usability (as seen from a practitioner's perspective). Briefly, a qualitative research approach was used, carried out through five in-depth interviews with companies whose principal activity is development of high-tech products (in order to investigate the usefulness), as well as representatives from the ÅF AB's sales organization (in order to investigate the usability). This research has explored the area of innovation auditing and has presented a result of an audit prototype with properties that no other innovation audit has, due to that it is based on a designed strategy dependent innovation framework. Choosing innovation strategy as contingency factor is appropriate since it has showed to have significant impact on the positive outcome of the innovation process (Clercq et al. 2009). Further, the success factor lies within following a chosen strategy, and does not depend on which particular strategy that is adopted (Jaruzelski et al. 2012). This research has taken the aspects of usability and usefulness in innovation auditing a step further by giving them extra focus in the development. An increased focus on usefulness makes the usage of this developed audit more adapted and applicable to companies using it (which leads to a more accurate analysis), and the focus on increased usability makes it more easy to use by practitioners. Key-words Innovation, Innovation audit, Innovation auditing, Innovation strategy Master of Science Thesis INDEK 2013:164 The Creation of a Strategy Dependent Innovation Audit Tool


This paper presents a Discriminative Deep Dyna-Q (D3Q) approach to improving the effectiveness and robustness of Deep Dyna-Q (DDQ), a recently proposed framework that extends the Dyna-Q algorithm to integrate planning for task-completion dialogue policy learning. To obviate DDQ's high dependency on the quality of simulated experiences, we incorporate an RNN-based discriminator in D3Q to differentiate simulated experience from real user experience in order to control the quality of training data. Experiments show that D3Q significantly outperforms DDQ by controlling the quality of simulated experience used for planning. The effectiveness and robustness of D3Q is further demonstrated in a domain extension setting, where the agent's capability of adapting to a changing environment is tested.1


Acinic Cell Carcinoma (AcCC) is a slow growing, malignant tumour of salivary glands, predominantly found in parotid gland and rarely in submandibular gland or minor salivary glands. Rarely, the tumour can arise in Heterotopic Salivary Gland Tissue (HSGT) and can present bilaterally. Synchronous contralateral tumour or tumour arising in HSGT is easily missed clinically. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is an important preoperative diagnostic investigation in cases of AcCC. Sometimes its diagnosis on cytology is very difficult and it is easily misdiagnosed as benign, affecting the long term prognosis. Here, we present two unusual cases of AcCC. One developed in HSGT and the other was synchronous bilateral. Though the histological features of AcCC appear to be characteristic but clinical suspicion and cytological features have been described as equally important for preoperative diagnosis. Present cases highlight the importance of a cytopathologist who plays an important role in its preliminary diagnosis.


BACKGROUND: The metabolic syndrome (MS) has a high prevalence in different parts of the world, with variations between different ethnic groups. OBJECTIVE: This study aims at exploring the influence of the self-reported skin color on the prevalence of MS Methods: Cross-sectional study, carried out in a population subgroup (n=1,439 adults) in Salvador, Brazil. The self-reported skin color (white, mulatto or black) was used as well as the MS criterion of ATP-III. The Chi-square test for tendency was used to analyze the prevalence gradient between the groups and logistic regression, for association analysis. RESULTS: The general prevalence of MS, adjusted for potentially confounder variables, did not differ among whites (23.3%), mulattos (23.3%) and blacks (23.4%). The analysis by sex showed, among men, a reduction in the MS prevalence of whites (26.2%, 95%CI: 20.7-31.7), in comparison to blacks (17.5%, 95%CI: 12.3-22.8) and an intermediate prevalence among mulattos, 21.9%, 95%CI: 18.6-25.1, p tend. = 0.002. Among the women, the tendency was the opposite, being higher among the blacks, 27.0%, 95%CI: 22.2-31.8, and lower among the whites, 20.5%, 95%CI: 15.6-25.4, p tend. = 0.02. The multivariate analysis of the association between skin color and MS (white = group of reference) showed that the black color of the skin was a protective factor among black men, with a prevalence ratio (PR) = 0.60 (0.36-0.97), whereas it tended to be a risk factor among black women, with a PR = 1.33 (0.94-1.78). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of MA presented an inverse variation according to the color of skin between men and women. To be black was a protective factor among men and a risk factor among women.


MOBILE networks can be operated in a gate-level pipelined fashion allowing high through-output. If MOBILE gates are directly chained, a four-phase clock scheme is required. A single phase scheme has been recently reported that alternates rising and falling edge-triggered MOBILE gates. A novel two-phase interconnection scheme resembling conventional domino pipelines is proposed and validated. It exhibits advantages in terms of speed with respect to both four-phase and single-phase interconnection schemes. In addition, the new architecture improves logic flexibility regarding the domino pipeline counterpart, since inverting and non-inverting stages can be interspersed.


Background A high maternal prepregnancy body mass index has been associated with lower offspring IQ, but it is unclear if the relationship is causal. To explore this, our objectives were to compare maternal and paternal estimates and to assess whether certain factors mediate the association. Methods We analysed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which initially recruited 14 541 women residing in Avon, UK, with an expected date of delivery in 1991–1992. Data were collected during and after pregnancy by questionnaire, medical record abstraction and clinical assessment. At approximately 8 years of age, psychologists administered an abbreviated form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. We fit multivariable logistic regression models to estimate parental prepregnancy obesity and overweight–offspring IQ associations. Counterfactually defined indirect (mediated) effects of maternal prepregnancy obesity on offspring IQ were estimated through path analysis. Results Among 4324 mother–father–child triads and using normal weight as the referent, we observed consistently stronger associations for maternal prepregnancy obesity and offspring performance IQ (eg, adjusted β (95% CI)=−3.4 (−5.7 to −1.2) vs −0.97 (−2.9 to 0.96) for paternal obesity). The indirect effects of maternal obesity on offspring IQ through pathways involving gestational weight gain and duration of breastfeeding were small but significant. Conclusion Our findings are consistent with a weak biologic effect of maternal adiposity in pregnancy on offspring performance IQ. Given the growing prevalence of obesity worldwide, more evidence is needed to resolve the correlation versus causation debate in this area.


Supplying net distribution of clean water as a means servicing necessity of clean water society in Dampit subdistrict is Very important to do it, along with increasing quantity population it reached growth numerical 0,3 % each year. Evaluation and developing of net to reach services level 70 % as far as to customer can be reach optimal. Software WaterNet user it can be take evaluation result and developing on last plan year 2018, debit must fulfill to reach services 70 % level as big as 69,39 liter second, with necessity of water persoul in a day is 100 liter / day / soul. Debit source water in using is Anyes source and Umbulrejo source with take part capacity as far as 146,7 liter /second, analysis result in plant in last year of water source in using is sufficient to fulfill water necessity of clean water in Dampit subdistrict until plan last year. Evaluation in using close net (loop) with method Hazem William. From
pothograph map include 287 node, 225 pipe. After developing of net is any addition node become 311 node, 318 pipe transmition in services are as include four villages. Concerning control pipe condition of effect water strikes still very save in comparing count result strikes of water with tension pipe license transmition although distribution. Water strikes of smallest 0,0001 kg/cm 2 and the biggest 2,615 kg/cm 2 , beside that tension license as for as 8,264 kg/cm 2 a whole of system in using drift system on a gravitation scale.


Copper has very potent antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and acaricidal properties. Recently the use of copper alloys in hospital wards has been shown to reduce bioburden and nosocomial infection rates. We hypothesized that the use of copper oxide in textiles and other products that are in close contact with the patients may significantly reduce bioburden in clinical settings and consequently reduce the risk of nosocomial infections. In order to test this hypothesis we intend to conduct a trial in which we will examine if the nosocomial infection rates in a chronic care ward will be reduced when all the textile products will include copper oxide. The risk of adverse reactions due to dermal contact with copper are considered extremely low and medical devices containing copper, such as intrauterine devices and dental amalgams, are safely used for decades. Textile products containing copper oxide are being sold worldwide for several years and not even one adverse reaction was noted. However, in spite of all the above, and in preparation to the clinical trial we intend to conduct in a chronic care ward (long-term care facility), we conducted this preliminary study in which we examined the safety of using copper oxide impregnated diapers in 16 chronic care patients that used the diapers for 6 consecutive months. Importantly, not even one adverse reaction was recorded during the whole trial, indicating the high safety of the diapers. Therefore, this study allows us to examine the efficacy of textiles containing copper oxide in reducing nosocomial infections in larger populations, including in frail chronic care patients.


The paper examines the status quo of adjunct faculty in engineering institutions today, and argues for the positive contributions adjuncts could make by bringing their practical experience into the classroom. Also, their role in setting up linkages with industry which often leads to employment opportunities for graduates, co-op activities, and potential development of collaborative research programs. Unfortunately, adjuncts are marginalized by the academic systems in place today; and their contributions to the academic process are undervalued. Next, the paper reports on the success story of an adjunct, a practitioner with good credentials, who "teamed-up" with a "full-time" faculty, in an attempt to bring the practice to 4year students in a geotechnical/ foundation engineering class. The success achieved in meeting course objectives, as a result of practitioner's role, was attributed, in large measure, to proper planning and coordination that preceded course delivery. Plus, the willingness, experience and abilities of the adjunct in addressing the practice in the locale. The positive outcome of this experience has encouraged other faculty members to search for practitionersas adjunctsto assist in bringing the practice into the classroom, in partnership with "full-time" faculty.


By its very nature, delivering information as a service upon the demands of the business, service-based business processes offer additional features and benefits that can complement traditional BI implementations in providing enterprises of all sizes a new approach to meet their data integration and analysis needs at all levels in the enterprise. To be successful, BI solutions have required new ways of approaching the business process interoperability, providing an efficient support for the whole process of service-based BI deployment. In this context, the focus of this paper is on the state of the art towards business process interoperability in the service-based business environments. Specifically, this paper also aims to highlight significant potentials of business rules that can enable business processes to meet the adaptability and interoperability requirements of service-based business processes. Some of the challenges current rule-based approaches face and potential research opportunities will be also highlighted. Keywords-business process, service oriented architecture, business rule, process interoperability


This article describes the use of mixed methods in the context of e-business enabled organisational transformation in a strategic business unit of a multinational corporation. It includes a theoretical reasoning as to why mixed methods were used and a description of the role of qualitative research in this research agenda. The article begins by examining the research paradigm, leading to the use of mixed methods and the design process of the actual mixed methods. In giving a roadmap in a contextual setting, the article addresses the need for including studies from the initial conceptual development to its application.


The success of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's (HKSARG) e-government initiatives is dependent on the government employees' acceptance and use of the underpinning information, internet and communication technologies (IT). Unfortunately, only a few empirical researches have been conducted to investigate the drivers of IT usage in government workplaces.To predict IT usage, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been tested and demonstrated its predictive power in various contexts. But it does not provide guidance to managers because Davis grouped the antecedents to the TAM constructs as "external factors" so as to focus on the main part of the model and to keep it robust. Hence, these
factors are the ultimate drivers that determine the users' behaviors.This research aims to improve the explanatory power of TAM by identifying and including resistance to change (RTC) as a relevant external factor with the assistance
from Max Weber's Theory of Bureaucracy (TB). To test the augmented TAM, an email questionnaire survey to 700 randomly selected HKSARG IT users was conducted.
Additional information was gathered from senior management to validate the survey results. The results show that the IT users in HKSARG are not valuing usefulness and ease of
use of IT in the same manner as employees in most other contexts. In addition, the results confirm that RTC is a relevant and strong external variable to TAM. In line with
theories, HKSARG employees, as a whole, tend to have above average level of resistance to change. But statistical test results also revealed that there are heterogeneous behavioural groups within HKSARG. Specifically, younger or more educated users are more willing to change. The existence of these groups has both practical and managerial implications for implementing change.In particular, it is argued that the government should not be viewed and understood monolithically. A better strategy for management to implement change is to target the younger or more educated users first for piloting and to build up sufficient user mass and exert peer pressure to older or less educated users for a more successful implementation of IT across all staff.
Because of the weaknesses of the established policies, the HKSARG has an undesirable structural composition (high percentage of older and less educated employees) in the
face of change. To tackle the high level of resistance to change, it is suggested that continuous training is a must. Moreover, the training packages should be tailor-made for
various groups in the civil service to suit their specific needs and to enhance their capabilities. In the long term, it is recommended that the human resources management
policies should be reviewed and modified with an aim to adjust the structural composition of the civil service toward a more change ready workforce. In addition, more research on the characteristics of the public sector is required for a
better understanding of the real nature of these large bureaucratic organizations.


Several recent novels in English by Indian and South African authors explore the theme of violent political resistance to the entrenched injustices of the hierarchical Indian social order and South Africa's institutionalised system of racial and economic domination, respectively. This article will investigate and compare the ways in which this theme is treated in four novels: Jhumpa Lahiri's Lowland (2013), Neel Mukherjee's Lives of Others (2015), Mandla Langa's The Texture of Shadows (2014) and Nkosinathi Sithole's Hunger Eats a Man (2015). The first two chart the consequences for their protagonists of their participation in the Naxalite insurrection in the late 1960s. While Langa's The Texture of Shadows does not question the decision to engage in armed struggle against the apartheid regime, it refuses to evade the bitter consequences of this decision both for individuals and for the country more generally. Nkosinathi Sithole's Hunger Eats a Man situates the theme of resistance in relation to the extreme poverty and inequality of the contemporary South African countryside. The comparative approach followed in this article reveals continuities in the representation of resistant violence in the Indian and South African texts in terms of its consequences both for individuals and for post-revolutionary society. At the same time, the comparison exposes significant disjunctions relating to national and generational histories, political ideologies and the ways in which race, class, caste and gender intersect with political resistance in the two countries, as these concerns are imagined in fiction.


We present AMOS Patches, a large set of image cut-outs, intended primarily for the robustification of trainable local feature descriptors to illumination and appearance changes. Images contributing to AMOS Patches originate from the AMOS dataset of recordings from a large set of outdoor webcams.
The semiautomatic method used to generate AMOS Patches is described. It includes camera selection, viewpoint clustering and patch selection. For training, we provide both the registered full source images as well as the patches.
A new descriptor, trained on the AMOS Patches and 6Brown datasets, is introduced. It achieves state-of-the-art in matching under illumination changes on standard benchmarks.


In this work, we have observed 60% reduction in total interfacial resistance by adding an intermediate metal layer nickel between gold and aluminum oxide. Two temperature model is applied to explain the change of interfacial resistance, including both lattice mismatch with diffuse mismatch model and electronphonon coupling effect. Simulation result agrees reasonably well with experimental data. Even though interfacial resistance due to electron-phonon coupling effect for Au-aluminum oxide is much larger than that of Ni-aluminum oxide interface, lattice mismatch is still the dominant factor for interfacial resistance.


DNA offers excellent programming properties for the generation of nanometer-scaled polyhedral structures with a broad variety of potential applications. Translation to biomedical applications requires improving stability in biological fluids, efficient and selective cell binding, and/or internalization of the assembled DNA nanostructures. Here, we report an investigation on the selective mechanism of cellular uptake of pristine DNA nanocages in cells expressing the receptor "oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1" (LOX-1), a scavenger receptor associated with cardiovascular diseases and, more recently, identified as a tumor marker. For this purpose a truncated octahedral DNA nanocage functionalized with a single biotin molecule, which allows DNA cage detection through the biotin-streptavidin assays, was constructed. The results indicate that DNA nanocages are stable in biological fluids, including human serum, and are selectively bound and very efficiently internalized in vesicles only in LOX-1-expressing cells. The amount of internalized cages is 30 times higher in LOX-1-expressing cells than in normal fibroblasts, indicating that the receptor-mediated uptake of pristine DNA nanocages can be pursued for a selective cellular internalization. These results open the route for a therapeutic use of pristine DNA cages targeting LOX-1-overexpressing tumor cells.


Anxiety sensitivity, defined as the fear of anxiety-related sensations and their consequences (Reiss & McNally, 1985), has been consistently shown to be associated with risk for anxiety psychopathology as well as other mental health problems. The primary objective of the present secondary prevention trial sought to examine strategies to reduce anxiety sensitivity among persons with elevated anxiety sensitivity by testing the singular and combined efficacy of two commonly used strategies in multicomponent interventions for reducing anxiety sensitivity: (a) anxiety psychoeducation emphasizing the benign nature of stress and (b) interoceptive exposure (i.e. repeated inhalations of 35% CO2 gas mixture). To provide a stringent control for non-specific effects associated with anxiety psychoeducation and interoceptive exposure with CO2, two control strategies were included in the study design: general health and nutrition education and repeated inhalations of regular room air. Utilizing a 2X2 design, participants were randomly assigned to receive an education component and intervention sessions consisting of one of two gas mixtures. vi The current study did not support the relative efficacy of hypothesized active intervention strategies. Rather, all conditions led to significant reductions in anxiety sensitivity. In addition, within-condition effect sizes for conditions in the present study were comparable to effect sizes of active interventions that were efficacious in previous research. Findings from the present study support that anxiety sensitivity is malleable following brief, cost-efficient interventions and these reductions are maintained over a one-month follow-up period. Data from the present study suggest that in the presence of stringent control conditions, hypothesized active intervention strategies provided little additional benefit. The present study has implications for methodological considerations for future secondary prevention trials for the reduction of anxiety sensitivity. The absence of stringent control groups might lead to premature conclusions that reductions in anxiety sensitivity are due to the specific effects of active interventions. Further research is needed to elucidate specific effects of intervention strategies for the reduction of anxiety sensitivity in at risk populations in order to refine secondary prevention interventions aimed to reduce risk for psychopathology.


The x-ray crystallographic structures of 12 zinc enzymes have been chosen as standards of reference to identify the ligands to the catalytic and structural zinc atoms of other members of their respective enzyme families. Universally, H2O is a ligand and critical component of the catalytically active zinc sites. In addition, three protein side chains bind to the catalytic zinc atom, whereas four protein ligands bind to the structural zinc atom. The geometry and coordination number of zinc can vary greatly to accommodate particular ligands. Zinc forms complexes with nitrogen and oxygen just as readily as with sulfur, and this is reflected in catalytic zinc sites having a binding frequency of His much greater than Glu greater than Asp = Cys, three of which bind to the metal atom. The systematic spacing between the ligands is striking. For all catalytic zinc sites except the coenzyme-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase, the first two ligands are separated by a "short-spacer" consisting of 1 to 3 amino acids. These ligands are separated from the third ligand by a "long spacer" of approximately 20 to approximately 120 amino acids. The spacer enables formation of a primary bidentate zinc complex, whereas the long spacer contributes flexibility to the coordination sphere, which can poise the zinc for catalysis as well as bring other catalytic and substrate binding groups into apposition with the active site. The H2O is activated by ionization, polarization, or poised for displacement. Collectively, the data imply that the preferred mechanistic pathway for activating the water--e.g., zinc hydroxide or Lewis acid catalysis--will be determined by the identity of the other three ligands and their spacing.


Musicians often equate the composers Bach (1685-1750) and Schoenberg (1874-1951) with a nearly obsessive relationship to numbers and mathematics. We think often of Schoenberg as a father of the numerical music organization systems of atonality and dodecaphony while there is an oft cited encoding within Bach's works the numerical and musical representation of his sumame. Analysts often limit these composers' creativity to numerical surface details in the case of Bach or the tabulations of 12-tone row forms in the case of Schoenberg; this paper illuminates elegant architectural structw"es so prevalent behind such musical edifices. It comprises an architectural, geometrical, and statistical walking tour of two beautiful constructions, namely Schoenberg's Op. 19 No.2 for piano and the Courante from Bach's Suite for Solo Cello No.2. Through graphic measurements taken through modeling each piece of music onto a pitch-time two-dimensional complex plane (after Cogan and Escot), the paper analyzes internal architectural and geometric proportions of these works illuminating a consistent use of arithmetic, geometric, harmonic, and golden mean proportions amid these composers' works. It also provides graphical illumination of various pitch and time bilaterally symmetrical . structw"es within the Schoenberg. Statistical contour correlations and oppositions are also found between ordered pitch data sets obtained from equal-length sections of the Bach using Spearman, Pearson, and Kendall data correlation methods. Finally, the paper compares the statistical distribution of pitch classes within the Schoenberg underlining his use of statistically lowest total duration pitches as contextually unique information at architecturally significant moments.


Abstract Brown trout Salmo trutta is endemic to Europe, western Asia and north‐western Africa; it is a prominent member of freshwater and coastal marine fish faunas. The species shows two resident (river‐resident, lake‐resident) and three main facultative migratory life histories (downstream–upstream within a river system, fluvial–adfluvial potamodromous; to and from a lake, lacustrine–adfluvial (inlet) or allacustrine (outlet) potamodromous; to and from the sea, anadromous). River‐residency v. migration is a balance between enhanced feeding and thus growth advantages of migration to a particular habitat v. the costs of potentially greater mortality and energy expenditure. Fluvial–adfluvial migration usually has less feeding improvement, but less mortality risk, than lacustrine–adfluvial or allacustrine and anadromous, but the latter vary among catchments as to which is favoured. Indirect evidence suggests that around 50% of the variability in S. trutta migration v. residency, among individuals within a population, is due to genetic variance. This dichotomous decision can best be explained by the threshold‐trait model of quantitative genetics. Thus, an individual's physiological condition (e.g., energy status) as regulated by environmental factors, genes and non‐genetic parental effects, acts as the cue. The magnitude of this cue relative to a genetically predetermined individual threshold, governs whether it will migrate or sexually mature as a river‐resident. This decision threshold occurs early in life and, if the choice is to migrate, a second threshold probably follows determining the age and timing of migration. Migration destination (mainstem river, lake, or sea) also appears to be genetically programmed. Decisions to migrate and ultimate destination result in a number of subsequent consequential changes such as parr–smolt transformation, sexual maturity and return migration. Strong associations with one or a few genes have been found for most aspects of the migratory syndrome and indirect evidence supports genetic involvement in all parts. Thus, migratory and resident life histories potentially evolve as a result of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes, which alter relative survival and reproduction. Knowledge of genetic determinants of the various components of migration in S. trutta lags substantially behind that of Oncorhynchus mykiss and other salmonines. Identification of genetic markers linked to migration components and especially to the migration–residency decision, is a prerequisite for facilitating detailed empirical studies. In order to predict effectively, through modelling, the effects of environmental changes, quantification of the relative fitness of different migratory traits and of their heritabilities, across a range of environmental conditions, is also urgently required in the face of the increasing pace of such changes.


Introduction Ni-Mn-Ga films were grown on (110) MgO substrates by r.f. sputtering and pulsed laser deposition techniques. Texture analyses, in combination with electron microscopy measurements, reveal that the films from the two deposition techniques both have a cubic L21 structure, but differ in terms of their texture and grain morphology. The sputtered films grow along the <110> direction with completely random in-plane orientation. The PLD films, on the other hand, grow in the <422> direction such that there exists two distinct grain-types, where both types share an epitaxial relationship with the substrate. In general, the overall quality of the PLD films is better than the sputtered films. The growth conditions that influence film morphology and texture are discussed.


Murray Edelman (1988) argued that media accounts evoke a spectacle that is a construction — an interpretation reflecting the social situations of the agents that produced it. Events take on meanings that perpetuate political roles, statuses and ideologies. Examining this perspective, this study compares the accounts of the "Crisis in the Gulf" constructed by a leading American newspaper, The New York Times, and a leading Indonesian newspaper, Kompas. The research bears on two related questions. First, is the account of this political event offered by each of these newspapers better understood as a symbolic representation of political reality or as a symbolic construct reflecting and serving political, economic and ideological interests? Second, do the accounts offered by the two newspapers differ in this regard? The New York Times operates within the context of a "free press" system while Kompas operates as a "developmental press." Comparison suggests whether formal media system norms affect media news co...


We recorded spontaneous and evoked synaptic currents in pyramidal neurons of layer V in chronically injured, epileptogenic neocortex to assess changes in the efficacy of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission that might promote cortical hyperexcitability. Partial sensory-motor neocortical isolations with intact blood supply ("undercuts") were made in 20 rats on postnatal day 21-25 and examined 2-6 wk later in standard brain slice preparations using whole cell patch-clamp techniques. Age-matched, uninjured naive rats (n = 20) were used as controls. Spontaneous and miniature excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents (s- and mEPSCs; s- and mIPSCs) were recorded using patch-clamp techniques. The average frequency of s- and mEPSCs was significantly higher, while that of s- and mIPSCs was significantly lower in neurons of undercuts versus controls. The increased frequency of excitatory events was due to an increase in both s- and mEPSC frequency, suggesting an increased number of excitatory contacts and/or increased release probability at excitatory terminals. No significant difference was observed in 10-90% rise time of these events. The input-output slopes of fast, short-latency, alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid/kainate (AMPA/KA) receptor-mediated components of evoked EPSCs were steeper in undercuts than in controls. The peak amplitude of the AMPA/KA component of EPSCs evoked by supra-threshold stimuli was significantly greater in the partially isolated neocortex. In contrast, the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated component of evoked EPSCs was not significantly different in neurons of injured versus control cortex, suggesting that the increased AMPA/KA component was due to postsynaptic alterations. Results support the conclusion that layer V pyramidal neurons receive increased AMPA/KA receptor-mediated excitatory synaptic drive and decreased GABA(A) receptor-mediated inhibition in this chronically injured, epileptogenic cortex. This shift in the balance of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activation of layer V pyramidal cells toward excitation might be maladaptive and play a critical role in epileptogenesis.


The use of film in nursing and medical education has been supported as an effective instructional method. The purpose of this article is to identify and synthesize the available studies on teaching-learning strategies to be used with film for prelicensure students. Electronic databases were searched to identify studies published in the English language between January 1990 and March 2012. Twenty-seven articles met the selection criteria for this review and were analyzed. After in-depth discussion about and investigation of the relevant literature, we narrowed down three teaching-learning strategies: reflective activities, practical activities, and evaluative activities. The synthesis of the identified teaching-learning strategies provides a data point for the development of more effective evidence-based learning activities for prelicensure students. Future studies should focus on the examination of teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes, as well as the evaluation of using film, to achieve nursing competencies appropriate to role preparation.


Tamoxifen is a mainstay in the treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)–positive breast cancer patients. Although the efficacy of tamoxifen has been attributed to induction of tumor cell growth arrest and apoptosis by inhibition of ER signaling, recent evidence indicates that tamoxifen possesses ER-independent antitumor activities. Here, we use OSU-03012, a small-molecule inhibitor of phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK-1) to address the hypothesis that PDK-1/Akt signaling represents a therapeutically relevant target to sensitize ER-negative breast cancer to tamoxifen. OSU-03012 sensitized both ER-positive MCF-7 and ER-negative MDA-MB-231 cells to the antiproliferative effects of tamoxifen in an ER-independent manner. Flow cytometric analysis of phosphatidylserine externalization revealed that this augmented suppression of cell viability was attributable to a marked enhancement of tamoxifen-induced apoptosis by OSU-03012. Mechanistically, this OSU-03012-mediated sensitization was associated with suppression of a transient tamoxifen-induced elevation of Akt phosphorylation and enhanced modulation of the functional status of multiple Akt downstream effectors, including FOXO3a, GSK3α/β, and p27. The growth of established MDA-MB-231 tumor xenografts was suppressed by 50% after oral treatment with the combination of tamoxifen (60 mg/kg) and OSU-03012 (100 mg/kg), whereas OSU-03012 and tamoxifen alone suppressed growth by 30% and 0%, respectively. These findings indicate that the inhibition of PDK-1/Akt signaling to sensitize ER-negative breast cancer cells to the ER-independent antitumor activities of tamoxifen represents a feasible approach to extending the use of tamoxifen to a broader population of breast cancer patients. Considering the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies for ER-negative breast cancer patients, this combinatorial approach is worthy of continued investigation. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(4):800–8]


Background Cadmium (Cd) is a potent nephrotoxicant that impairs the reabsorptive and secretory functions of the renal proximal tubule, leading to albuminuria. Objectives To gain insights into the mechanisms of Cd-induced albuminuria, we investigated effects of Cd on the expression of megalin and chloride channel 5 (ClC5), two key players in albumin- receptor–mediated endocytosis. Methods We used quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, the albumin endocytosis assay, and confocal microscopy to evaluate effects of Cd on the expression and regulation of megalin and ClC5 in cultured LLC-PK1 cells, a pig proximal tubular cell model. Results Ten micromolar cadmium chloride (CdCl2) caused a significant time- and dose-dependent decrease in both mRNA and protein levels of megalin and ClC5, whereas no changes resulted from exposure to other divalent metals (zinc chloride, manganese chloride, magnesium chloride, and nickel chloride). After inhibiting protein synthesis using cycloheximide (CHX), we found that levels of both megalin and ClC5 were lower in Cd-challenged cells than in cells treated with Cd or CHX only, which is consistent with reduced translation and/or posttranslational down-regulation. Moreover, Cd-induced degradation of megalin and ClC5 was abolished by the lysosomal pathway inhibitor bafilomycin A-1 but not by the proteasome system blocker MG-132, suggesting that the enhanced proteolysis was occurring via lysosomes. Using confocal microscopy, we observed a remarkable reduction of fluoroisothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled albumin uptake after Cd exposure. Conclusions We found that Cd reduced the transcriptional expression of megalin and ClC5 and, at the same time, increased the degradation of megalin and ClC5 proteins via the lysosomal pathway in an in vitro model of renal proximal tubular cells. Overall, these results provide valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms by which Cd impairs luminal protein reabsorption by renal proximal tubules.


In this article, we present a first approach in the conception of a vision system dedicated to the detection of vehicles in reduced visibility conditions. It is based on a self-adaptive stereo vision extractor of 3D edges or obstacle and a color detection of vehicle lights. The detection of vehicle lights uses the L*a*b* color space. The vision system detects three kinds of vehicle lights: rear lights and rear-brake-lights; flashing and warning lights; reverse lights and headlights.


School violence has not been studied widely across schools and communities. This article examines hegemonic masculinity and its relationship to violence through the peer disciplining (hazing, teasing, bullying) that occurs among students who attend an elite suburban boys'school. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the analysis suggests that violence is embedded in the social fabric of the school and implicated in power relations between both peers and their institution. Emotionally ambiguous, "you're either in or you're out" distinctions made by peer disciplining can produce shame, fear, and hurt alongside friendship, intimacy, and bonding. The normalcy with which hegemonic values are practiced makes it difficult, though not impossible, to contest. If we are to find viable alternatives to dominant masculinities, which are restrictive for most, it will be important to ask which boys and under what conditions are they able to resist its mandates.


The crested black macaque Macaca nigra ,e n- demic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, is categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and its population in the Tangkoko Nature Reserve is probably the only viable one within its native range. Earlier studies suggested that this population suffered a decline of 75% during 1978- 1994. To evaluate its current status we conducted a line transect survey in the Reserve and assessed effects of ecological and anthropogenic variables on macaque abundance and distribution. We estimated a density of 44.9 individuals km -2 (95% confidence interval, CI, 25.6- 78.8) and a total population of 1,951 individuals (CI 1,113- 3,421). This estimate of density is 35% lower than that of 68.7 individuals km -2 in 1994. There were moderate to strong correlations between macaque abundance and vegetation structure (basal area and canopy tree density). We observed illegal logging in the area and therefore habitat quality for macaques may be indirectly affected by illegal human activities. If our population estimate is projected linearly M. nigra could become extinct in Tangkoko within 46 years, highlighting the urgent need to improve management of illegal hunting and logging in the Reserve.


Abstract There are important reasons for states to recognize and enforce the judgments of other states' courts. There are also reasons that may militate against recognition or enforcement of certain foreign judgments, making it appropriate to calibrate or "fine tune" the presumption favoring recognition and enforcement so it is not applied too broadly. Most calibration principles, such as the principle that a judgment from a court lacking jurisdiction should not be recognized, are case-specific. However, one calibration principle that is, to our knowledge, unique to the law of the United States stands out: the principle of systemic calibration, according to which U.S. courts must not recognize or enforce foreign judgments "rendered under a system which does not provide impartial tribunals or procedures compatible with the requirements of due process of law." In this Article, we aim to shed empirical light on how U.S.-style systemic calibration operates in practice. We find that state-of-origin indicator scores related to systemic adequacy are on average higher when U.S. courts recognize or enforce foreign judgments than when they refuse to do so. Moreover, the probability of recognition and enforcement increases as these indicator scores increase. However, in only six of the 587 opinions in our dataset did a court refuse recognition or enforcement based explicitly on the systemic inadequacy ground. Thus, while the level of systemic calibration in U.S. courts is high, it is mostly achieved implicitly. Finally, even judgments from states with low systemic adequacy scores are sometimes recognized or enforced by U.S. courts.


Education is the key to people's minds, because it directs their inclinations and preferences, to the extent that the one who controls education can actually control people.
This study is associated with this spectrum as it will investigate the relationship between education and politics and identify the double role of education as a politicising and a politicised factor in the two consecutive eras of the Fatimids and the Ayyūbids in Egypt. The researcher selected the Fatimid and Ayyūbid periods in Egypt as a focus for his investigation because these two periods constituted the most important episodes in Islamic history, where education and politics influenced each other. The impact of that influence was clear through the course and the sequence of the historical events in those two stages. This research is an attempt to open a small window on the great legacy of Islamic educational thought in the Middle-ages, which could contribute to the efforts of reviving the Islamic educational heritage. The research tried to lay foundations for a solid intellectual platform that aims to create a modern Islamic system of education that it is comprehensive, responsive to our current needs. To serve the purpose of this research, a causal assessment method has been utilized in order to analyze the educational and political experience of the Fatimid and Ayyūbid states on one hand, and to avoid the simplistic description which does not add any substantial information on the other hand. The study also tried to address all aspects which reflect the relationship of education with politics, through the analysis of the historical and religious circumstances that led to the establishment of the Fatimid then Ayyūbid states, with special focus on the analysis of the educational practices prevailing at the time. The study highlights the special attention that the rulers in both periods accorded to learning and learners, and it tries to reveal the political and religious motives of that patronage. In the end, the study concludes that despite the existing political and religious affiliations of each regime, formal and informal institutions of education in both periods were arenas in which power and politics received fundamental expression. This does not necessarily mean that the politicization of education during those two phases have restricted the thought and prevented it from flourishing. On the contrary, learning was accessible for all and absolutely free in both periods. Students received stipends provided by abundant income from a chain of a deeply embedded institution in the thoughts and practices of medieval Islamic societies called waqf. The religious motive was fundamental in the functioning of Islamic medieval educational process and the ultimate role of education in both, Fatimid and Ayyūbid periods was the preservation of the Islamic faith and sharī'ah. This is the spirit that should be motivating any contemporary Islamic educational project.


System On Chip designs commonly use high per- formance data processing engines able to execute hardwired algorithms. While the performance of these engines heavily relies on the bandwidth of accesses to external memories, traditional cache architectures and algorithms suffer a lack of effectiveness for highly structured data like in 2D or 3D image processing. In a previous work, Mancini and Eveno proposed the nD-AP Cache (n-Dimensional Adaptive and Predictive Cache) in order to target multidimensional data processing. It has been shown that this cache is efficient for applications where data fetches are performed based on the history of data values. Although, the performance depends strongly on the way that the nD-AP Cache running parameters are tuned, no predefined methodology to set these parameters has been proposed before. In this paper, we study the parameters tuning aspect. Then, we compare the efficiency of the nD-AP Cache to three associative caches. Numerical results indicate that 100% improvement in run time performance can be achieved while keeping relatively low hardware cost.


The purpose of this study was to determine Georgia middle school principal's perceptions of agricultural education. According to the 10 x 15 Long Range Goal for Agricultural Education, "By 2015 there will be in operation 10,000 quality agricultural education programs serving students through an integrated model of classroom/laboratory instruction, experiential learning, and leadership and personal skill development" (National FFA Organization, a, 2009). Installing middle school agricultural education programs is one avenue to potentially meet this goal (Rayfield & Croom, 2007). The likelihood of having a quality agricultural education program is increased when administrative support is present (Kalme & Dyer, 2000). This quantitative study examines seventy-four Georgia middle school principals that have agricultural education programs at their school to determine their perception of agricultural education. Conclusions include principals have a perceived knowledge of agricultural education, principals perceive that agricultural education has a positive impact on student grades and test scores in math and science, and principals perceive that agricultural education has a positive impact on student leadership. The researcher recommends that the study should be duplicated individually in other states and collectively across the nation; research should be conducted to compare how principals without agricultural education programs perceive agricultural education; principals should be educated on the duties of a FFA advisor and the parts of agricultural education; principals should be educated on the benefits of agricultural education; and research should be conducted to compare principals perception of agricultural education's impact on student leadership to other student leadership organization's impact on students leadership.


Energy constitutes a significant element which is needed by human beings. However, energy need can be threatened when its conservation is not implemented correctly. Energy conservation will provide certainty of sustainability and energy harmony as something which later on can be used by the present and future generations. Law is one of the instruments appointed to regulate conservation policy. At present, it is known energy conservation policy is governed in various legislative regulations. However, fundamental law which governs energy conservation is subject to the regime of Act Number 30 of 2007 on Energy (Energy Act). In the Act arrangement of energy conservation can be found in Article 25. The article is then regulated by Government Regulation Number 70 of 2009 on Energy Conservation (PP of Energy Conservation). However, energy conservation policy in PP of Energy Conservation legally cannot be executed because of many problems in it. This research wishes to assess how conservation energy in Indonesia at present and why the current policy needs a change. To answer the said issues, we perform doctrinal research type of research, the data used are secondary ones in the forms of legal documents, and the law approach study. The nature of this research is prescriptive, and the data analysis technique is deductive. The result of research shows that at present in Indonesia has various provisions of legislative regulations which regulates energy conservation. However, precisely the legal instrument is regulated in government regulation on PP Energy Conservation, which has problems concerning its implementation.


In three-person envy games, an allocator, a responder, and a dummy player interact. Since agreement payoffs of responder and dummy are exogenously given, there is no tradeoff between allocator payoff and the payoffs of responder and dummy. Rather, the allocator chooses the size of the pie and thus - being the residual claimant - defines his own payoff. While in the dictator variant of the envy game, responder and dummy can only refuse their own shares, in the ultimatum variant, the responder can accept or reject the allocator's choice with rejection leading to zero payoffs for all three players. Comparing symmetric and asymmetric agreement payoffs for responder and dummy shows that equality concerns are significantly context-dependent: allocators are willing to leave more money on the table when universal equality can be achieved than when only partial equality is at stake. Similarly, equality seeking of responders is most prominent when universal equality is possible.


One of the key aims of housing policy has been to extend homeownership. This paper examines the role that mortgage market deregulation has played in extending access to homeownership. It also examines its social and economic impacts. Deregulation is characterised as an unfolding process, rather than an explicit policy with identifiable objectives. It is identified as involving the ending of direct controls over building society lending, the opening up of the mortgage market to competition as a consequence of the abolition of exchange controls and the 'corset', the creation of a level playing field between banks and building societies, and a shift towards regulatory convergence between banks and building societies. Institutional, social and economic consequences of deregulation are identified. Deregulation led to a much more competitive mortgage market, facilitated the shift of the bulk of mortgages from the mutual to banking sectors and contributed towards the polarisation of the industry between specialist providers of savings and mortgage products and diversified financial institutions. Deregulation widened access to homeownership by widening access to housing finance, but also introduced more risk into the system. However, the risk-choice trade-off has been tilted in the direction of risk by the inefficiency of the supply-side. This has caused many of the benefits of deregulation to be lost in higher house prices. Deregulation also altered the relationship between the housing sector and the economy by making housing wealth more liquid, and this has had important implications for economic management. The pricing out of many people from owner occupation and the importance attached to spreading housing wealth are driving the design of current policies designed to increase homeownership further still.


Transfusion‐related immunomodulation (TRIM) in the intensive care unit (ICU) is difficult to define and likely represents a complicated set of physiologic responses to transfusion, including both proinflammatory and immunosuppressive effects. Similarly, the immunologic response to critical illness in both adults and children is highly complex and is characterized by both acute inflammation and acquired immune suppression. How transfusion may contribute to or perpetuate these phenotypes in the ICU is poorly understood, despite the fact that transfusion is common in critically ill patients. Both hyperinflammation and severe immune suppression are associated with poor outcomes from critical illness, underscoring the need to understand potential immunologic consequences of blood product transfusion. In this review we outline the dynamic immunologic response to critical illness, provide clinical evidence in support of immunomodulatory effects of blood product transfusion, review preclinical and translational studies to date of TRIM, and provide insight into future research directions.


&NA; Periprosthetic osteolysis is most often diagnosed by plain radiographs. Because these radiographs routinely underestimate the extent of the lesion, three‐dimensional imaging should be used early in the evaluation process to confirm the presenting extent of disease. If the osteolytic process is asymptomatic, scheduled regular follow‐up should be instituted until the lesion can be confirmed to be stable or until the decision is made to proceed with surgery. Nonsurgical management with pharmacologic agents has not proved to be effective. If surgery is contemplated, a threedimensional evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging or helical computed tomography can assist in preoperative planning. Surgical intervention requires complete débridement of the lesional membrane and removal of the wear‐generator—with or without component removal and with or without bone grafting, depending on the individual circumstances. A standardized follow‐up evaluation mechanism for all patients should be a part of total joint arthroplasty management.


Numerous study commissions have contended that departmental territoriality and lack of coordinated planning are stagnating contemporary medical education. As a cure, these commissions have recommended the creation of centralized academic management units empowered to oversee revitalization of the curriculum through a series of reforms, including better definition of graduation competencies, community-based training, interdisciplinary courses, problem-based learning, and modernization of evaluation strategies. To determine the extent to which these recommendations were being adopted, in 1990 the authors sent a questionnaire on curriculum committee functions, current innovation efforts, and future priorities to academic administrators and members of medical school curriculum committees at 143 North American medical schools. Responses were received from administrators (primarily associate deans for academic affairs) at 118 schools and committee members (primarily faculty) at 111 schools. Recommendations for enhancing curriculum committee effectiveness were also elicited. The authors conclude that centralization of curricular management has occurred at very few institutions, and that the commonly mentioned reforms are being adopted at a modest pace. The results are analyzed in light of theories of the institutional change process and strategies for introducing educational innovations into established institutions.


Habitat loss and fragmentation is generally considered to be the greatest threat worldwide to the survival of species. Habitat fragmentation is a process generally regarded as comprising three major components: reduction in total area, increase in isolation, and reduction in average size of patches of remnant natural vegetation. Today's land use practices and road network's expansion strongly promote habitat fragmentation reducing the habitat availability and its connectivity, which is assumed to strongly influence species occurrence and population survival in fragmented landscapes. Although several studies demonstrated the negative impact of habitat fragmentation, few focused in carnivore species, and particularly in Mediterranean environments. Carnivores' position in the top of the food webs and their vulnerability to different human activities make this group especially significant in conservation and management actions. Our goal in this study was to assess the influence of human-related variables on the carnivore's probability of occurrence, according to habitat patch size and isolation, and road network characteristics. Stone marten Martes foina was selected as the model species to investigate the response to cork oak woodland fragmentation, considering that forest dependent species would show a stronger response. Marten species are known to be sensitive to forest fragmentation, although there is some evidence that their response is mainly determined by the level of forest fragmentation and the matrix quality, due to their preference for structurally complex forests to avoid competition and increase den availability. We compared the stone marten response to scent stations located in four large and continuous forest patches (mean 36000 ha, 19 sampling sites) and in 25 smaller and isolated forest patches (mean 2.67 ha, one sampling site). For each sampling site a variable number of scent stations was used (average=11, min=7, max=17) depending on the patch size. Using the software PRESENCE we developed models that best fit stone marten probability of presence. This method parallels a closed-population mark–recapture model with an additional parameter (Phi) that represents the probability of species presence. Also, it enables the introduction of covariate information using a logistic model for Phi. Nine human and road related variables were used to develop models that best fit stone marten probability of occurrence in the smaller and isolated patches. The best models were selected using the Aikaike Information Criteria. Each variable importance was assessed by summing the AIC model weights (w) in which it was included. A data set of eighty stone marten road-kill locations and of eighty points randomly distributed along the sampled roads was used to evaluate if there were significant differences (one factor ANOVA), regarding the models' most important variables on the road casualties locations. Results suggest that the probability of presence of stone marten in larger and continuous patches was 90%, while for the smaller and isolated patches it decreases to 60%. Nine significant models were retained. Models evidenced that the probability of presence of stone marten in isolated patches is related to cork oak density (+) (w=0.73), distance to nearest patch (-) (w=0.67), distance to nearest large patch (-) (w=0.56), distance to roads with medium/higher traffic volume (+) (w=0.37), and distance to riparian galleries (-) (w=0.12). Moreover, we detected that road kills were also significantly related to higher forest area surrounding the road (F=7.37, d.f.=1, P<0.01) and also to the proximity of nearest forest patch (F=8.80, d.f.=1, P<0.01). According to these findings, stone marten seems to be negatively affected by habitat fragmentation being essential to promote good land management practices to guarantee a minimum area availability and well connected habitat patches through the establishment of suitable corridors for species movements. Furthermore, in road stretches close to cork oak patches, mitigation measures as wildlife passages ought to be considered in order to diminish the mortality rates. One should be aware that other forest dependent carnivores as genets Genetta genetta and wild cats Felis silvestris, the later of higher conservation concern and with decreasing density in the Iberian Peninsula, may respond stronger to habitat fragmentation than stone marten. This means that smaller and isolated habitat patches may become unoccupied, leading to species disappearance, being therefore highlighted the need to incorporate these findings in conservation action plans.


Many studies that highlight tensions between Software Engineers and Graphic Designers in Multimedia Systems Development advocate interventions based upon differences, not commonalities. Yet continuing problems with methods acceptance suggest that it may be timely to focus on what unites the two design communities as well as what divides them. In this paper we report the results of an empirical study of sixteen multimedia designers. We find that although clear and persistent differences do exist, there is evidence that the two communities are moving closer together, often in surprising ways. Our results suggest that methods need to be based upon a good understanding of commonalities (as a minimum requirement or common core) and differences (as a set of features particularly important to one or other of the communities) rather than being based upon commonalities or differences only. Our results have implications for researchers seeking to understand further the behaviour of multimedia systems designers, for method developers who need to accommodate this behaviour in a single method or methods, and for managers who must select and implement such methods.


Background and aims Despite international standards for the assessment and management of paediatric pain, pain remains poorly treated. This study aimed to determine pain prevalence and pain management practices in surgical and non-surgical paediatric and neonatal patients. Methods Following ethics approval, pain prevalence data were collected retrospectively in six paediatric and one neonatal unit of a tertiary referral hospital in Western Switzerland in the previous 24 h (J-1). Patients had to be hospitalised for at least 24 h to be included. Medical and nursing notes were reviewed to describe pain management practices. A Pain Management Index (PMI) was calculated. A PMI of 0 reflects optimal pain management, ≥ 0 can reveal overtreatment, and < 0 under treatment. Results 73 patients had documented pain scores, 43(58.9%) were aged ≥3 years and 28(38.4%) had surgery. Pain prevalence at J-1 wasn't significantly higher (28.6%) in surgical patients, compared to non-surgical (26.7%) (p = 0.859). There was no significant differences between pain prevalence in children >3 years of age (32.6%) and younger patients (20.0%), (p = 0.292). Better treatment for pain (PMI=0) was given to non-surgical patients (65, 8%), compared to surgical (33.3%, p = 0.019) and patients aged three and less (71.4%) compared to older patients (38.7%, p = 0.028). Conclusions Although no significant, pain prevalence remains high in surgical patients and children > 3 years of age, which is reflected by less adequate pain treatment, when compared to non-surgical and younger patients. This may be explained by the difficulties in assessing and managing postoperative pain in early verbal children. Acknowledgements/disclosures We sincerely thank the Nursing Director of the Paediatric Department, Mr Rui Terra, for his precious support throughout the project and Ms Diane Morin for her assistance in data entry. No disclosure to declare.


Scholars have taken a considerable interest in how global immigration to Europe generates public concern, but we still know little about the role that migration from within the European region has in fueling apprehensions. To better understand this, I examine how public attitudes towards immigration have responded to migration following the European Union's most extensive enlargement along its eastern border in 2004. Using recent advances in multilevel modeling, this article analyzes the longitudinal, cross-sectional relationship between east–west internal European migration on public attitudes towards the economic and cultural aspects of immigration in Western Europe using individual-level data from the European Social Survey (2004–2014). The results demonstrate that growing populations of Central and Eastern European foreigners have contributed to Western Europeans' perception of immigration as an economic threat, even when taking into account simultaneous immigration from outside Europe. Moreover, the relationship between east–west immigration and an individual's perception of immigration as a threat is conditional upon their socio-economic status. These findings underscore how within-European immigration in Western Europe has become consequential to the public's attitudes about immigration more generally.


The aim of this work is to analyse the equivalence of two classes of radiation therapy. One class of therapy is characteristic of Gamma Knife type irradiations and is defined by pencil beam concentric irradiation converging on multiple centres throughout the patient's body. The other class of treatment is characteristic of accelerator based, beam intensity modulated type irradiation defined by a rotation of wide beams around a single centre. We focus our attention on deriving formulae that relate treatments in these two classes and characterize conditions under which they are valid.


South African rooibos tea is a commodity of contrasts. Renowned for its healing properties, the rooibos plant grows in a region defined by the violence of poverty, dispossession, and racism. And while rooibos is hailed as an ecologically indigenous commodity, it is farmed by people who struggle to express "authentic" belonging to the land: Afrikaners, who espouse a "white" African indigeneity, and "coloureds," who are characterized either as the mixed-race progeny of "extinct" Bushmen or as possessing a false identity, indigenous to nowhere. In Steeped in Heritage  Sarah Ives explores how these groups advance alternate claims of indigeneity based on the cultural ownership of an indigenous plant. This heritage-based struggle over rooibos shows how communities negotiate landscapes marked by racial dispossession within an ecosystem imperiled by climate change and precarious social relations in the postapartheid era.


In the curved surface molding of automobiles' covering components, large amounts of data should first be sampled, and be fitted to curves with the conventional data-fitting method. Then the curves are connected to face and given corresponding molding processing, and the required effect of the curves is being smooth and accurate. The conventional data-fitting method is improved in this paper considering practical application, and the accuracy is increased with the same amount of sampling data. In practical application, this method can lessen labor intensity by decreasing measured data amount, which increases work efficiency and doesn't affect the curve fitting accuracy. So it has good engineering application value.


SUMMARY Spheroidal structures composed typically of radial-fibrous dolomite or calcite are described from the St Bees Sandstone and Calder Sandstone formations of the Triassic of the Sellafield area, Cumbria. Etching of the spheroids in some sandstones, probably by present-day groundwaters, has revealed intricate internal structures composed of ferruginous clay, forming near-concentric bands and radial spokes. The spheroids are interpreted as early diagenetic groundwater precipitates. They typically occur in non-compacted fabrics where cementation prior to burial compaction has preserved a generally uncompacted grain fabric. It is unclear whether they are inorganic nodules or biologically mediated precipitates.


Anthropogenic landscape transformations have promoted the provision of ecosystem services (ES) at the expense of other ES, biodiversity, and human well-being. We analysed the transformation portfolios of ES provisions, the costs of transformation, and the rivalry between ES categories and biodiversity conservation during the pre-communist and communist eras. We also examined EU influences in Romania's Danube River lowlands. The environmental history of social-ecological systems was used to: (1) map transformations of natural environments; (2) analyse the outputs of human modes of production, including crops, fish, timber, and livestock, using economic valuation methods and by appropriating the primary means of production; and (3) describe ideologies and values as drivers of ES transformations. During the communist era, the surface area of the agricultural land increased at the expense of natural ecosystems. This resulted in increased provisions being made for crops and timber at the expense of the fish supply; it also caused a reduction in livestock. The costs of land reclamation, hydrotechnical works, and the use of fertilizers and pesticides, resulted in a net annual loss of EUR 36 million for the entire case study area, disregarding the losses of other ES. Achieving a balanced portfolio of ES requires a discussion about the need for nature restoration, transdisciplinary social-ecological research, and the identification of key leverage points.


To understand the consequences of higher adiposity uncoupled from its adverse metabolic effects, we selected 37 diseases associated with obesity and genetic variants associated with different aspects of excess weight including metabolically "favourable adiposity" (FA) and "unfavourable adiposity" (UFA). Mendelian randomisation (MR) identified two sets of diseases. First, 12 conditions where the metabolic effect of higher adiposity is the likely primary cause of the disease. Here MR with the FA and UFA genetics showed opposing effects on the risk of disease, including colorectal and ovarian cancer, and gout. Second, 7 conditions where the non-metabolic effects of excess weight (e.g. mechanical effect) is likely a cause. Here MR with the FA genetics, despite leading to lower metabolic risk, and MR with the UFA genetics, were both associated with higher disease risk, including osteoarthritis and venous thromboembolism. Individuals with high BMI are at higher risk of some diseases despite being relatively metabolically healthy.


Indonesian bureaucracy is facing problems and challenges that are very serious in the midst of a very fast and unpredictable flow of change. The emergence of the era of disruption has broad implications for the order of life in the community, the private world and the government bureaucracy. Efforts to accelerate bureaucratic reform will face obstacles, if the behavior and culture of the bureaucratic apparatus do not change for the better; feeling safe and comfortable in a stable position. What is needed now is the ability to see developments far ahead, to respond to it quickly, to dare to act for a breakthrough (innovation), and to take risks to dismantle the paradigm of the past to be faster, more efficient, smarter, more accurate and more useful in service.
KEY WORDS
Bureaucratic reform, public policy, innovation, disruption.


What are the relationships between wealth and children's health in India's states that are as populous as many other countries? Presenting a state-level analysis of the association between state net domestic product per capita and three children's health indicators, this paper describes how these relationships differ in the last two rounds of the National Family Health Survey. It finds evidence that the cross-sectional relationships between aggregate wealth and children's health indicators are positive, yet the association was less steep in the mid-2000s than in the late 1990s. It also finds a negative relationship between growth in SNDP per capita and improvement in state-level children's health indicators. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the kinds of investments which improve health may lead to economic growth, rather than vice versa.


According to the Food Program, adopted at the May (1982) plenum of the CPSU CC, the problem of the level approaching the medical aid rendered to the rural and urban population assumes ever greater actuality. The difficulties in providing the rural population with endocrinological aid and the routes for their overcoming were analyzed by the author on the basis of 20-year experience of endocrinological work in the Chelyabinsk region.


Context. Mismanaged fire is one of the main processes threatening biodiversity in northern Australian savannas. While the suite of species adversely affected by fire has been quite well documented, empirical studies that seek to identify the ecological mechanisms that underpin these declines are rare. This dearth of mechanistic knowledge is hindering the refinement and development of conservation management practices and policy, such as early dry-season prescribed burning programmes. Aims. Our aim was to describe why red-backed fairy-wrens (RBWs; Malurus melanocephalus) decline after fire, as shown by previous studies. Methods. We examined the effects of early and late dry-season fire (and an unburnt control) on the mortality, dispersal, physiology and breeding of colour-marked RBWs. We also tested whether the early fire area became an important refuge after the late fire. Key results. Neither fire treatment caused a detectable increase in mortality. Individuals relocated short distances to unburnt habitat following both fires. Some individuals used the early fire area after the late fire, but only if they were already living nearby and most also relied on adjacent unburnt habitat. Blood-parasite infection and pectoral-muscle attrition were unaffected by the treatments. The early fire caused loss of body mass at a time when the control population gained mass after breeding, whereas the late fire had no effect on mass. Blood haemoglobin concentrations in birds affected by the late fire deviated from the levels observed in the control population, presumably because of disruption of behaviours associated with the onset of the breeding season. Mayfield estimations of daily egg-survival probability showed no difference among the treatments, whereas the daily probability of nestling survival was significantly lower in the late fire area. Pairs affected by the late fire also had a shorter breeding season and none attempted multiple broods after earlier successes. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the reproductive output of RBWs is low following late dry-season fire, and that this is the main mechanism that explains their decline. Implications. This study provides support for the value of using early dry-season prescribed burning to limit the effects of late dry-season wildfire. However, there are important caveats to this, such as the retention of near-by unburnt habitat, and the consideration of variable regeneration rates for different vegetation types.


Tobacco cultivation and industrialization are characterized by the production of trillions of pre-harvest and post-harvest waste biomasses each year with the resulting negative effects on the environment. The leaves of blunt, pre-harvest waste, could be further used to obtain bioactive metabolites, i.e., polyphenols and alkaloids, for its potential cosmetic use. This study was conducted to obtain bio-compounds from pre-harvest tobacco leaf waste (var. Virginia) by applying conventional and green solvents (NaDES). Leaves and ground leaf waste were characterized based on their microscopic features. Conventional solvents, such as water, acetone, ethanol, and non-conventional solvents, such as Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NaDES), i.e., sucrose:lactic acid (LAS), frutose:glucose:sucrose (FGS), lactic acid:sucrose:water (SALA), choline chloride:urea (CU), and citric acid: propylene glycol (CAP) were used for bioactive extraction from tobacco waste powder. CU, FGS, and acetone/ethanol had similar behavior for the best extraction of alkaloids (6.37–11.23 mg ACE/g tobacco powder). LAS, FGS, SALA, and CU were more effective in phenolic compound extraction than conventional solvents (18.13–21.98 mg AGE/g tobacco powder). Because of this, LAS and SALA could be used to obtain phenolic-enriched extracts with lower alkaloid content rather than CU and FGS. Extracts of the powder obtained with conventional solvent or CU showed a high level of sugars (47 mg/g tobacco powder) The ABTS antioxidant capacity of tobacco leaf powder was higher in the extracts obtained with CU, FGS, and acetone (SC50 1.6–5 µg GAE/mL) while H2O2 scavenging activity was better in the extracts obtained with LAS, CAP and SALA (SC50 3.8–8.7 µg GAE/mL). Due to the biocompatibility of the NaDES with the components of tobacco leaf waste, the opportunity to apply these extracts directly in antioxidant formulations, such as cosmetics, phytotherapic, and other formulations of topic use seems promising. Furthermore, NaDES constituents, i.e., urea and organic acid can also have beneficial effects on the skin.


The goal of this study was to determine whether aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA), an endonuclease inhibitor known to inhibit apoptosis, could ameliorate cell damage in a gerbil model of transient ischemia. Transient ischemia. Transien ischemia was induced in gerbils by bilateral carotid artery occlusion for a period of 5 minutes. Four micrograms of ATA was administered intraventricularly I hour before ischemia, and the brains were assessed histologically 1 week later to quantitate cell loss in the vulnerable CA‐1 subsector of the hippocampus. In a separate set of experiments, 4 μg of ATA was administered intraventricularly 1 hour before ischemia and the brains were assessed for evidence of DNA fragmentation by the TUNEL method. There was only a 16% cell loss compared with nonischemic controls in animals pretreated with ATA that was significantly less (p < 0.05) than the 48% cell loss in animals pretreated with saline alone. TUNEL‐positive cells were first evident at 3 days and were still present at 7 days subsequent to ischemia. Maximal staining occurred at 4 days. Pretreatment with ATA virtually eliminated TUNEL staining at 4 days. These results support the hypothesis that the delayed cell death secondary to transient ischemia is, in part, apoptotic. Furthermore, ATA afforded significant neuronal protection and prevented DNA fragmentation.


A superbase-derived protic ionic liquid (IL, [DBUH][OAc]) catalyst was used to directly synthesize carbamate from an amine, CO2, and a silicate ester. This IL catalyst was easily prepared using its precursors, DBU, and acetic acid. Using 10 mol% of the catalyst under a CO2 pressure of 5 MPa in acetonitrile at 150 °C, carbamate was isolated in up to 96% yield. Specifically, aliphatic and aromatic amines were activated even though aromatic amines exhibited low activities because of their low pKa values. Other functional groups in amines were barely activated, affording exclusive chemoselectivity for amine activation. Isotope labeling experiments indicated that the proton in the counter cation is crucial in the catalytic cycle to produce water. In addition, a chemical shift corresponding to a mixture of aniline and [DBUH][OAc] was observed in the 1H NMR spectrum, related to the formation of hydrogen bonds between aniline and basic acetate anions. The experimental results indicated that the designed IL catalysts require a protonated cation and a basic anion.


Generating explanatory hypotheses about the development of a client's problems is a vital part of the psychodiagnostic process (Eells, 2007). However, it is only rarely performed in practice and its quality has proved to be rather low (e.g. Groenier, Pieters, Hulshof, Wilhelm & Witteman, 2008; Kuyken, Fothergill, Musa & Chadwick, 2005). Case complexity or problem structure has shown to be an importance influence on hypotheses generation in practice (Hillerbrand & Claiborn, 1990; Vermande, 1995). This study examines the effect of case complexity on content and quality of explanatory diagnosis and on some aspects of treatment planning. Fifty psychotherapists generated explanatory hypotheses for two vignettes – one of them describing a complex client problems, the other one simple ones. These hypotheses were then coded by means of a specifically for this study developed Manual for Content and Quality Coding of Psychotherapeutic Hypotheses. The results show an effect of case complexity, particularly on the number and quality of the generated explanations. The hypotheses generated for the simple case have more specifications of explanatory relations, are more relevant and more often obtain modifiable explanatory factors. Besides, the overall quality of the hypotheses generated for the simple case is significantly better. Also, the complex case elicited more hypotheses. The results concerning quality and total number of hypotheses confirm the assumptions of Hillerbrand and Claiborn (1990) and Groenier et al. (2008): For the simple case existing diagnostic causal representations (of high quality) are easily available, explicit reasoning is not necessary. For the complex case "the one" standard diagnostic explanation is not that easily retrievable and consequently more explanations of lower quality are offered


This report covers the terminal evaluation of a UNEP-GEF project implemented between 2011 and 2019. The project's overall development goal was to support communities and policy makers in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to effectively implement and upscale sustainable land management (SLM) in the Molopo-Nossob basin area and thereby contribute to improved livelihoods and the maintenance of the integrity and ecological functioning of the entire Kalahari-Namib ecosystem. The evaluation sought to assess project performance (in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency), and determine outcomes and impacts (actual and potential) stemming from the project, including their sustainability. The evaluation has two primary purposes:
i) to provide evidence of results to meet accountability requirements, and
ii) to promote learning, feedback, and knowledge sharing through results and lessons learned among UNEP and IUCN ESARO, the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife & Tourism (Botswana), Ministry of Environment and Tourism (Namibia), Department of Environmental Affairs and Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (South Africa).
Therefore, the evaluation identifies lessons of operational relevance for future project formulation and implementation.


Mechanochemical syntheses of rotaxanes have attracted considerable attention of late because of the superior reaction rates and higher yields associated with their production compared with analogous reactions carried out in solution. Previous investigators, however, have focused on the demonstration of the mechanochemical syntheses of rotaxanes per se, rather than on studying the solid-phase host-guest molecular interplay related to their rapid formation and high yields. In this investigation, we attribute the lower yields of rotaxanes prepared in solution to the limited concentration and a desolvation energy penalty that must be compensated for by host-guest interactions during complexation that precedes the templation leading to rotaxane formation. It follows that, if the desolvation energy can be removed and higher concentrations can be attained, even weak host-guest interactions can drive the complexation of host and guest molecules efficiently. In order to test this hypothesis, we chose two host-guest pairs of permethylated pillar[5]arene/1,6-diaminohexane and permethylated pillar[5]arene/2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) for the simple reason that they exhibit extremely low binding constants (2.7 ± 0.4 M-1 when 1,6-diaminohexane is the guest and <0.1 M-1 when 2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) is the guest in CDCl3; i.e., ostensibly no pseudorotaxane formation is observed). We argue that the amount of pseudorotaxanes formed in the solid state is responsive to mechanical treatments or otherwise and changes in temperature during stoppering reactions. Compared to the amount of pseudorotaxanes that can be obtained in solution, large quantities of pseudorotaxanes are formed in the solid state because of concentration and desolvation effects. This mechanochemical enhancement of pseudorotaxane formation is referred to as a self-correction in the current investigation. Rotaxanes based on permethylated pillar[5]arene/1,6-diaminohexane and permethylated pillar[5]arene/2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) have been synthesized in much higher yields compared to those obtained in solution, aided and abetted by self-correction effects during mechanical treatments and heating at a mild temperature of 50 °C.


There are many universities and colleges open the Business English courses for English Majors. These courses are orientated at improving practical business skills of the students for meeting the demands of the rapid development of society. Choosing the right textbooks for these courses plays a vital role in cultivating the interdisciplinary English majors. After the empirical investigations and theoretical studies conducted for this paper, it is suggested the proportion and difficulty level of business knowledge and English language should be adjusted according to the real situation of universities as well as the needs of English major students. Moreover, the use of authentic material from the professional portfolio and task-based activities are also highly recommended to be included in the textbooks.